The telemedicine’s capabilities are rapidly expanding due to technological advances in a smarphone development. The goal of this thesis was to suggest the architecture and prepare the design providing acquisition, processing and synchronization of voice para- meters recorded by patients with Parkinson’s disease and to implement such system. The architecture was completed successfully, it consists of the mobile application able to record patient’s calls, the server application introducing an interface to store and synchronize the data and to provide them to the web application, where doctors can see the data and analyze it. Implementation of the server application was finished according to the design and to the requirements for robustness and security as well as the web application. By an extension of the existing mobile application for recording voice calls there was developed a huge system for the analysis of this disease.

This master’s thesis deals with use of central spring unit at Formula Student car. Thanks to CFD simulations, aerodynamics properties of the car was found out according to different position of suspended mass. Within kinematic design of both axles a parameters of spring unit of both axles were defined as well. Whole design was made to increase overall performance of the car thanks to the aerodynamic forces.

The master’s thesis deals with analysis of sealing elements of Wankel engines and their design. The necessary steps for creation of the model of dynamics of apex seal are provided, whereby the resulting force loads are then obtained. Furthermore, the design of the apex seal spring, the choice of the material and the production jigs for the production of the spring itself are presented. The finished components are tested in the engine testing laboratory and the results evaluated.

Dough strengtheners are the most common and largest group of chemicals used in bread formulations. This study evaluated the capability of hard red spring (HRS) wheat flour to replace commercial dough strengtheners in bread production. Doughs were prepared by blending different percentages (10%, 20%, 30% and 40%) of four different HRS wheat flours with hard red winter (HRW) wheat flour. In addition, doughs were prepared by adding ten commercially available additives with HRW wheat flour to compare the dough strengthening ability of HRS wheat flour. All the HRS wheat flour blends had significantly (p<0.05) strong dough rheological characteristics than most of the additives. The 40% blends of HRS wheat cultivar Glenn and Linkert had better bread making quality than other blends and all the additives. The SE-HPLC unextractable protein fractions of these two cultivars also showed a better correlation with bread making properties than all the additives.

Grain protein content is an essential component to producing a profitable Hard Red Spring Wheat (HRSW) (Triticum aestivum L.) crop in the northern Great Plains. Growers can increase grain protein content through in-season N fertilization; however, the cost of these applications may outweigh the benefits. Predicting the grain protein content of early-season HRSW would give growers crucial information as they decide whether to apply in-season fertilizer to boost grain protein content. This research encompasses three studies; two of which aim to predict grain protein content with hand-held and aerial sensors respectively, and a third, which investigates the optimal rate, timing, and source of N fertilizer to boost grain protein content. Results of these experiments seemed to be greatly influenced by environmental factors. Findings of this research suggest that an in-season N application should be used for ameliorative purposes and not as a regular practice. / Minnesota Research and Promotion Council / Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers

Without an adequate understanding of complex interactions between native and non-native species, management of invasive species can result in unforeseen detrimental impacts. I used both field and laboratory experiments to study reciprocal species interactions between the endangered Mohave tui chub (Siphateles bicolor mohavensis) and invasive western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis). I also examined the impacts of both fish species on the aquatic invertebrate communities in desert springs. I demonstrate a case of intraguild predation (IGP) as a mechanism facilitating co-persistence of the endangered Mohave tui chub with invasive mosquitofish using field mesocosm experiments. In this case of IGP, adult tui chub prey on adult and juvenile mosquitofish, while adult mosquitofish prey on tui chub eggs and/or larvae. I conducted laboratory predation trials to assess if IGP was size-structured due to predator gape-limitation. I explored sex specific differences in gape-size limitation in mosquitofish, because mosquitofish are sexually dimorphic. Larval tui chubs had lower survival in the presence of female mosquitofish than in the presence of males. Reciprocally, male mosquitofish had lower survival than the females in the presence of Mohave tui chub. These results combined with vulnerability modeling supported that IGP in this system is size structured based on gape-size limitation. These results collectively suggest size-structured IGP may facilitate the co-persistence of these two fish species. My findings also suggest that mosquitofish may not be a limiting factor for the persistence of the endangered Mohave tui chub. Further, habitats currently harboring mosquitofish were considered as future refuge habitats for Mohave tui chub, a management option previously un-available. In addition to such reciprocal interactions between fish species, recently established fish populations may impact unique invertebrate communities. Mesocosm experiments with sympatric and allopatric populations of tui chub and mosquitofish showed negative impacts of both fish species on changes of invertebrate community structure. Specifically, fish caused population declines and, in some cases, extirpations of various invertebrate taxa. These results suggest important conservation implications of invasive fish as well as protected fish transplants into fishless desert springs. Overall my research emphasizes the complexity of ecological interactions between native and non-native fish species in desert aquatic systems.

While the Arab Spring has resulted in numerous different political outcomes across the Arab world, conventional theories of democratization are lacking in explaining these divergent outcomes. Developing a theory of democratization, strategic importance and external intervention, I examine the relationship between national strategic importance and democratization. I argue that strategically important states will be targeted by external actors in attempts to stifle or thwart democracy because democracy may upset the status quo that foreign actors benefit from. I do not find support for the hypothesis that strategic importance and democratization share a general negative relationship, however, I find moderate support that strategic importance is related to the timing of regime breakdown, democratic breakdown and democratic transition. Furthermore, in examining the cases of Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, I highlight key moments of external intervention and influence that impacted the democratization attempts of each case.

The theme of this study will be the Arab Spring and democratization. The impact of the Arab Spring has, in one form or another, extended to almost all countries of the Arab region in the MENA. However, this paper will be limited to compare two countries, in particular, Tunisia and Egypt by analyzing their democratization and examining how two similar states achieved widely differing outcomes in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Tunisia and Egypt are both predominantly Muslim-majority, Arabic-speaking countries, and both of them were subject to authoritarian regimes (Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt) before the outbreak of the Arab Spring. After the first wave of uprisings, Tunisia made remarkable progress in the transition to democracy, but in Egypt, the situation altered when the army overthrew a democratically elected president, and then the country underwent a counter-revolution, bringing it back to square one (i.e. the yoke of tyranny). The four variables that this research will revolve around as an explanation and possible analysis of the secret of this difference in outcomes between these two countries are the role of the international and regional community, the position of the military and armed forces in the state, the role of religious political parties, and the effectiveness of civil society organizations across the country. After reviewing all four variables, the final result of the paper suggests that the military, religious, international, and civil society variables are the strongest indicators of the reason for the great difference in the democratic progress in both countries. This paper facilitates an understanding of democratization by identifying the critical factors in determining whether a nation's transition from dictatorship to democracy will be successful or not. Key Words: the Middle East and North Africa, Arab Spring, Democratization, Egypt, Tunisia.

The aim of my thesis is to analyze, propose and implement the application of IPTV Manager.The analysis probes the requirements for the application and its results are displayed in UML diagrams. The proposal is mainly focused on application's architecture and on the choice of modern technologies that faciliate its realisation.The security of the application is highly emphasized in the proposal and in the implementation itself.

The aim of this work is to design and create an application that will allow monitoring of wireless sensor networks. The basis of the project is to design a database that is capable of storing data acquired from wireless sensor networks. The main requirement for the design is versatility, which flows from the requirement to use the database for broad range of applications implementing wireless sensor networks. The application itself is designed to be the most versatile and modular, which means that modules provide specific monitoring services. The application is able to monitor the real wireless sensor network through designed and implemented connector. For implementation J2EE (server side) and Adobe Flex/Air (client side) technologies are used.