Dans un contexte réglementaire incitant fortement les industriels à la réduction de la pollution à la source, l'application de stratégies telles que des bonnes pratiques environnementales et un meilleur contrôle des procédés constituent une réponse aux enjeux environnementaux. Le traitement de surface par voie aqueuse est une activité grande consommatrice d'eau et de produits chimiques et donc génératrice de rejets aqueux pollués. L'objectif de ce travail est de proposer à ce secteur d'activité une méthodologie simple de limitation des flux de pollution ainsi que de la consommation en eau. Cette méthodologie se base notamment sur le postulat que l'entraînement est le principal vecteur de pollution au sein d'une chaîne de traitement de surface.Des études expérimentales ont permis, d'une part de créer une méthode rapide de calcul de l'entraînement et, d'autre part, de montrer et de quantifier l'influence de la forme et de la rugosité des pièces traitées, du temps d'égouttage, de la tension superficielle des solutions de traitement ou encore du type et de la durée du rinçage des pièces sur l'entraînement.L'ensemble de ces éléments, intégrés à la méthodologie de minimisation de la pollution, permet d'une part de réaliser un diagnostic de la chaîne mais aussi d'estimer l'impact d'une modification de cette chaîne sur la consommation spécifique en eau, le bilan de pollution ainsi que sur la qualité des rinçages. Cette méthodologie aide ainsi à limiter les consommations d'eau et de réactifs non seulement sur la chaîne mais également en station de détoxication, diminuant ainsi les impacts environnementaux et les coûts de fonctionnement.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l'étude de la quantification optimale et ses applications. Nous y abordons des aspects théoriques, algorithmiques et numériques. Elle comporte cinq chapitres. Dans la première partie, nous étudions liens entre la réduction de variance par stratification et la quantification optimale. Dans le cas ou la variable aléatoire considérée est un processus Gaussien, un schéma de simulation de complexité linéaire est développé pour la loi conditionnelle à une strate du processus en question. Le second chapitre est consacré à l'évaluation numérique de la base de Karhunen-Loève d'un processus Gaussien par la méthode de Nyström. Dans la troisième partie, nous proposons une nouvelle approche de la quantification de solutions d'EDS, dont nous étudions la convergence. Ces résultats conduisent à un nouveau schéma de cubature pour les solutions d'équations différentielles stochastiques, qui est développé dans le quatrième chapitre, et que nous éprouvons sur des problèmes de valorisation d'options. Dans le cinquième chapitre, nous présentons un nouvel algorithme de recherche rapide de plus proche voisin par arbre, basé sur la quantification de la loi empirique du nuage de points considéré.

Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse visent à proposer des méthodes de calcul d'itinéraires adaptés aux cyclistes à l'échelle d'une agglomération. Plusieurs critères sont considérés, comme la distance, la sécurité et l'effort. La difficulté est de calculer des chemins de compromis sous une contrainte de temps de quelques secondes pour pouvoir intégrer ce calculateur à un site web. Deux approches ont été abordées pour résoudre ce problème. L'approche a posteriori dans laquelle l'ensemble des solutions de compromis est calculé et l'approche a priori dans laquelle les préférences de l'utilisateur sont prises en compte et permettent d'orienter la recherche pour privilégier les chemins les plus prometteurs. Enfin, nous proposons de modéliser le réseau routier sous la forme d'un graphe adjoint pour pouvoir prendre en compte de nouveaux critères nécessitant, par exemple, des coûts sur les enchaînements d'arcs. L'ensemble de ce travail a permis de développer le service Géovélo qui est un calculateur d'itinéraires multiobjectif adaptés au vélo. Le service est disponible sous la forme d'un site web et d'applications mobiles.

The modern concept of "biorefinery" is dominantly based on chemical pulp mills to create more value than cellulose pulp fibres, and energy from the dissolved lignins and hemicelluloses. This concept is characterized by the conversion of biomass into various biobased products. It includes thermochemical processes such as gasification and fast pyrolysis. In mechanical pulp mills, the feedstock available to the gasification-based biorefinery is significant, including logging residues, bark, fibre material rejects, biosludges and other available fuels such as peat, recycled wood, and paper products. This work is to study co-production of bio-automotive fuels, biopower, and steam via gasification in the context of the mechanical pulp industry.   Biomass gasification with steam in a dual-fluidized bed gasifier (DFBG) was simulated with ASPEN Plus. From the model, the yield and composition of the syngas and the contents of tar and char can be calculated. The model has been evaluated against the experimental results measured on a 150 KWth Mid Sweden University (MIUN) DFBG. The model predicts that the content of char transferred from the gasifier to the combustor decreases from 22.5 wt.% of the dry and ash-free biomass at gasification temperature 750 ℃ to 11.5 wt.% at 950 ℃, but is insensitive to the mass ratio of steam to biomass (S/B). The H2 concentration is higher than that of CO under normal DFBG operating conditions, but they will change positions when the gasification temperature is too high above about 950 ℃, or the S/B ratio is too far below about 0.15. The biomass moisture content is a key parameter for a DFBG to be operated and maintained at a high gasification temperature. The model suggests that it is difficult to keep the gasification temperature above 850 ℃ when the biomass moisture content is higher than 15.0 wt.%. Thus, a certain amount of biomass needs to be added in the combustor to provide sufficient heat for biomass devolatilization and steam reforming. Tar content in the syngas can also be predicted from the model, which shows a decreasing trend of the tar with the gasification temperature and the S/B ratio. The tar content in the syngas decreases significantly with gasification residence time which is a key parameter.   Mechanical pulping processes, as Thermomechanical pulp (TMP), Groundwood (SGW and PGW), and Chemithermomechanical pulp (CTMP) processes have very high wood-to-pulp yields. Producing pulp products by means of these processes is a prerequisite for the production of printing paper and paperboard products due especially to their important functional properties such as printability and stiffness. However, mechanical pulping processes consume a great amount of electricity, which may account for up to 40% of the total pulp production cost. In mechanical pulping mills, wood (biomass) residues are commonly utilized for electricity production through an associated combined heat and power (CHP) plant. This techno-economic evaluation deals with the possibility of utilizing a biomass integrated gasification combined cycle (BIGCC) plant in place of the CHP plant. Integration of a BIGCC plant into a mechanical pulp production line might greatly improve the overall energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness, especially when the flow of biomass (such as branches and tree tops) from the forest is increased. When the fibre material that negatively affects pulp properties is utilized as a bioenergy resource, the overall efficiency of the system is further improved. A TMP+BIGCC mathematic model is developed based on ASPEN Plus. By means of this model, three cases are studied:   1) adding more forest biomass logging residues in the gasifier, 2) adding a reject fraction of low quality pulp fibers to the gasifier, and 3) decreasing the TMP-specific electricity consumption (SEC) by up to 50%.   For the TMP+BIGCC mill, the energy supply and consumption are analyzed in comparison with a TMP+CHP mill. The production profit and the internal rate of return (IRR) are calculated. The results quantify the economic benefit from the TMP+BIGCC mill.   Bio-ethanol has received considerable attention as a basic chemical and fuel additive. It is currently produced from sugar/starch materials, but can also be produced from lignocellulosic biomass via a hydrolysis--fermentation or thermo-chemical route. In terms of the thermo-chemical route, a few pilot plants ranging from 0.3 to 67 MW have been built and operated for alcohols synthesis. However, commercial success has not been achieved. In order to realize cost-competitive commercial ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass through a thermo-chemical pathway, a techno-economic analysis needs to be done.   In this work, a thermo-chemical process is designed, simulated, and optimized mainly with ASPEN Plus. The techno-economic assessment is made in terms of ethanol yield, synthesis selectivity, carbon and CO conversion efficiencies, and ethanol production cost.   Calculated results show that major contributions to the production cost are from biomass feedstock and syngas cleaning. A biomass-to-ethanol plant should be built at around 200 MW. Cost-competitive ethanol production can be realized with efficient equipments, optimized operation, cost-effective syngas cleaning technology, inexpensive raw material with low pretreatment cost, high-performance catalysts, off-gas and methanol recycling, optimal systematic configuration and heat integration, and a high-value byproduct.

Depth-Image-Based Rendering (DIBR) of virtual views is a fundamental method in three dimensional 3-D video applications to produce dierent perspectives from texture and depth information, in particular the multi-viewplus-depth (MVD) format. Artifacts are still present in virtual views as a consequence of imperfect rendering using existing DIBR methods. In this paper, we propose an alternative DIBR method for MVD. In the proposed method we introduce an edge pixel and interpolate pixel values in the virtual view using the actual projected coordinates from two adjacent views, by which cracks and disocclusions are automatically lled. In particular, we propose a method to merge pixel information from two adjacent views in the virtual view before the interpolation; we apply a weighted averaging of projected pixels within the range of one pixel in the virtual view. We compared virtual view images rendered by the proposed method to the corresponding view images rendered by state-of-theart methods. Objective metrics demonstrated an advantage of the proposed method for most investigated media contents. Subjective test results showed preference to dierent methods depending on media content, and the test could not demonstrate a signicant dierence between the proposed method and state-of-the-art methods.

Thermochemical processes for hydrogen production driven by nuclear energy are promising alternatives to existing technologies for large-scale commercial production of hydrogen, without dependence on fossil fuels. In the Copper-Chlorine (Cu-Cl) cycle, water is decomposed in a sequence of intermediate processes with a net input of water and heat, while hydrogen and oxygen gases are generated as the products. The Super Critical Water-cooled Reactor (SCWR) has been identified as a promising source of heat for these processes. In this thesis, the process analysis and simulation models are developed using the Aspen PlusTM chemical process simulation package, based on experimental work conducted at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). A successful simulation is performed with an Electrolyte Non Random Two Liquid (ElecNRTL) model of Aspen Plus. The efficiency of the cycle based on three and four step process routes is examined in this thesis. The thermal efficiency of the four step thermochemical process is calculated as 45%, while the three step hybrid thermochemical cycle is 42%, based on the lower heating value (LHV) of hydrogen. Sensitivity analyses are performed to study the effects of various operating parameters on the efficiency, yield, and thermodynamic properties. Possible efficiency improvements are discussed. The results will assist the development of a lab-scale cycle which is currently being conducted at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), in collaboration with its partners. / UOIT

The anterior claustrum (CLA) has been implicated in epileptogenesis and epileptiform activity due to its abundant and widespread bilateral connections to some of the structures believed to play an important role in seizure generalization: the motor cortex, entorhinal cortex, limbic structures, and brainstem sites. Kindling in the CLA has been characterized as comprising two distinct phases: an early phase and a late phase. Early phase seizures progress quickly into generalized seizures, are short in duration, and resemble cortical seizures. Late phase seizures are characterized as being more severe in intensity, having longer durations, and resembling limbic-type seizures.<p>It is unknown whether kindling in the CLA will lead to changes in behaviour as seen after kindling of limbic sites. Thus, I measured the behavioural effects of kindling in the anterior CLA to investigate potential changes in learning, memory, and anxiety-related behaviours. I hypothesized that changes in behaviour would occur after kindling of late phase seizures, because of their close resemblance to limbic-type seizures, but not after kindling of early phase seizures. Anxiety-like behaviour was assessed in the elevated plus maze and open field. Object memory was assessed in an object recognition test, and spatial learning and memory were assessed in the water maze.<p>I found no significant changes in behaviour in the late phase group in comparison to the early phase and control groups. Thus, contrary to my hypothesis, late phase kindling of the CLA does not produce changes in learning and memory or alterations in anxiety-related behaviours.

The purpose of this study was to assess the performance, ratings of perceived exertion, metabolic responses, and energy expenditure as individuals participated in interactive video game play. There were 14 participants that participated in the study, whose age was 20.1 ± 1.64 years of age. Participants completed a maximal aerobic test to exhaustion (VO2max test), and then 30 minute testing session on both the Kinect Adventures (K) and Wii Fit Plus game. Data were analyzed using a dependent t-test and one-way ANOVA. Significance was accepted at P ≤ 0.05. Energy expenditure and RPE were significant in both exergames interactive game play P=0.044 and P < 0.05, respectively. In addition, heart rate (P=0.001) and performance during exergame play P=0.00015 were of significance in the Xbox Kinect and Wii Fit Plus. In conclusion, we found that individuals participating on the exergame Xbox Kinect expends more calories and work at a higher intensity than the Wii Fit Plus, thus justifying an alternative way to participate in physical activity via exergames. As an alternative way to exercise, individuals can meet the daily requirements of energy expenditure of moderate intensity, which is 150-400 kcals.

Ce travail de thèse propose quelques applications du formalisme des plus courts chemins à la segmentation de structures anatomiques dans des images médicales issues de modalités diverses.

Carbon dioxide is considered to be the major source of GHG responsible for global warming; man-made CO₂ contributes approximately 63. 5% to all greenhouse gases. The cement industry is responsible for approximately 5% of global anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions emitting nearly 900 kg of CO₂ for every 1000 kg of cement produced! Amine absorption processes in particular the monoethanolamine (MEA) based process, is considered to be a viable technology for capturing CO₂ from low-pressure flue gas streams because of its fast reaction rate with CO₂ and low cost of raw materials compared to other amines. However, MEA absorption process is associated with high capital and operating costs because a significant amount of energy is required for solvent regeneration and severe operating problems such as corrosion, solvent loss and solvent degradation. This research was motivated by the need to design size and cost analysis of CO₂ capture process from cement industry. MEA based absorption process was used as a potential technique to model CO₂ capture from cement plants. In this research four cases were considered all to reach a CO₂ purity of 98% i) the plant operates at the highest capacity ii) the plant operates at average load iii) the plant operates at minimum operating capacity and iv) switching to a lower carbon content fuel at average plant load. A comparison among four cases were performed to determine the best operating conditions for capturing CO₂ from cement plants. A sensitivity analysis of the economics to the lean loading and percent recovery were carried out as well as the different absorber and striper tray combinations.