Magister Educationis - MEd / Heterogeneous school communities are becoming more apparent under local and global conditions. A school community is more diverse and similar, not only racially but also in respect of economic, cultural, national and ethnic identities. Schools would require leaders who are mindful of the need for conflict sensitivity and social reconciliation within a globalising classroom.Through the lens of critical constructivism, I investigated the extent to which a higher education institution achieved the aims of the ACE in School Leadership, a continuing professional development programme. I relied upon a qualitative research approach to gather rich descriptive data from interviews conducted with nine school leaders who had graduated from the ACE School Leadership programme. The Literature Review is based on readings regarding critical constructivism, globalisation, conflict‐sensitivity and reconciliation.I found that the programme expanded the school leaders’ basic knowledge about conflict sensitivity and social reconciliation, but not sufficiently in terms of developing a critical consciousness to deal with conflict effectively. I concluded that conflict‐sensitive schools required school leaders that produced knowledge critically through a rigorous process of engagement and reflection. The ACE School Leadership programme had limitations in the extent to which it could prepare and equip school leaders in this regard. / South Africa

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The high rate of grid computing adoption, both in academe and industry, has posed challenges regarding efficient access control, interoperability and scalability. Although several methods have been proposed to address these grid computing challenges, none has proven to be completely efficient and dependable. To tackle these challenges, a novel access control architecture framework, a triple-domain grid-based environment, modelled on role based access control, was developed. The architecture’s framework assumes three domains, each domain with an independent Local Security Monitoring Unit and a Central Security Monitoring Unit that monitors security for the entire grid.The architecture was evaluated and implemented using the G3S, grid security services simulator, meta-query language as “cross-domain” queries and Java Runtime Environment 1.7.0.5 for implementing the workflows that define the model’s task. The simulation results show that the developed architecture is reliable and efficient if measured against the observed parameters and entities. This proposed framework for access control also proved to be interoperable and scalable within the parameters tested.

Les micros ou nanostructures diffractantes sont utilisées depuis de nombreuses années pour sécuriser les documents sensibles, comme les cartes d'identité, les documents de voyage tels que passeports, visas, ou encore les documents fiduciaires. Cependant, le développement des techniques de reprographie et l'implication croissante des organisations criminelles rendent la contrefaçon des documents imprimés de plus en plus accessible. Jusqu'ici, les techniques de fabrication et surtout de réplication des structures diffractantes utilisées pour la protection anti-fraude imposaient une limitation sur l'épaisseur des structures qui typiquement ne pouvaient pas dépasser quelques centaines de nanomètres. Mes travaux de thèse s'inscrivent dans la recherche puis le développement des techniques, très avant-garde, de réalisation et de réplication de structures comportant un relief vertical pouvant atteindre plusieurs microns. La disponibilité de ce type de structures épaisses ouvre de nombreuses possibilités de nouvelles fonctions optiques et donc une nouvelle barrière importante contre la falsification des documents de sécurité. / Diffractive micro/nano structures are used for many years to secure sensitive documents such as identity cards, travel documents (passports, visas...). However, the development of reprographic techniques and the increasing involvement of criminal organizations make counterfeiting of printed documents more accessible. Until now, the manufacturing techniques and especially replication of diffractive structures used for anti-fraud protection imposed a limitation on the thickness of the structures that typically could not exceed a few hundred nanometers. My PhD work is part of the research and the development of very advanced mastering and replication techniques which can, thereafter, realize structures with a vertical relief of up to several microns. The availability of this type of thick structure opens many possibilities for new optical functions and thus a new major barrier against counterfeiting.

L'espèce canine (Canis lupus familiaris) rassemble plus de 350 races issues d'une sélection artificielle drastique menée par l'Homme au cours des derniers siècles. De ce fait, chaque race peut être considérée comme un isolat génétique développant chacune des affections génétiques de manière spontanée avec parfois de fortes fréquences. Ainsi, l'espèce canine constitue un modèle puissant pour identifier les gènes et allèles responsables de ces affections homologues à certaines maladies génétiques humaines. Mon premier projet a porté sur la recherche des causes génétiques de deux kératodermies plantaires chez le terrier irlandais et le dogue de Bordeaux. En combinant plusieurs analyses d'association (GWAS : « Genome Wide Association Study ») et des techniques de séquençage NGS (Next Generation Sequencing), un nouveau gène muté a été identifié pour le terrier irlandais. Concernant les dogues de Bordeaux, nous avons génotypé plus de 170 000 SNPs sur plus de 200 dogues. Une analyse de liaison génétique a permis d'identifier un locus de 20 Mb sur le chromosome 9 contenant un cluster de kératines. En combinant les données cliniques et génétiques, la kératine 16 s'avérait le meilleur gène candidat. Son séquençage complet a permis d'identifier une mutation complexe générant une protéine tronquée. Des analyses de PCR quantitatives ont révélé que ce gène muté était sous exprimé chez les individus atteints. Ce travail nous permet donc de proposer cette race de chien comme le premier modèle animal spontané de kératodermie focale non-épidermolytique (FNEPPK). En parallèle de ce projet, j'ai mené des recherches sur les bases moléculaires d'un syndrome d'automutilation acrale décrit dans plusieurs races. Cette neuropathie est homologue aux neuropathies héréditaires sensitives et autonomes (HSANs) chez l'Homme et se caractérise par une perte de sensibilité à la douleur au niveau des membres. A partir d'un GWAS, j'ai pu identifier un locus de 1,5 Mb chez le chien, dont l'orthologue humain n'est pas encore décrit chez des patients HSANs. Le séquençage complet de ce locus a mené à l'identification d'un variant situé dans une région cis-enhancer en amont d'un gène candidat. La mise en évidence d'une sous-expression du gène candidat indique que ce variant régulateur semblerait modifier l'activité de l'enhancer nous permettant de le proposer comme la mutation causale chez le chien. Cette découverte offre donc de nouvelles perspectives de recherche pour des patients humains atteints de neuropathies héréditaires sensitives. En combinant des approches génétiques complémentaires sur des modèles spontanés de maladies bien caractérisées chez le chien, j'ai pu participer à l'identification de trois nouveaux gènes, dont deux excellents candidats pour ces maladies homologues humaines. Le troisième représente un vrai modèle spontané de kératodermie K16, ouvrant ainsi des perspectives thérapeutiques qui bénéficieront à l'Homme et au chien. / The dog species (Canis lupus familiaris) contains more than 350 distinct breeds resulting from human drastic selection during the last centuries. Each breed can then be considered as a genetic isolate, developing specific spontaneous genetic diseases with high frequencies. Thus, dogs constitute a powerful model to identify new genes and alleles involved in disorders homologous to human diseases. For my thesis, I worked on two main topics. The first one focused on the search of the genetic causes of two footpad keratodermas in the Irish terrier and the dogue de Bordeaux breeds. Concerning the Irish terrier, the work was conduced by Tosso Leeb’s team in the University of Berne, in collaboration with the Antagene Company. Using a Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), the mutation in a new gene has been identified in footpad hyperkeratosis in this breed. For the dogue de Bordeaux project, we genotyped more than 170 000 SNPs on over 200 dogs. We then performed a genetic linkage study with a subset of 68 dogs, including 14 affected dogs. We identified a significant locus of 20 Mb on the canine chromosome 9 containing one keratin cluster. Comparing clinical, histopathological and immunochemistry data, keratin 16 appeared as an excellent candidate. The sequencing of the gene revealed a complex mutation leading to a non-functional truncated K16 protein. Quantitative RT-PCR analyses showed a strong decrease of the level of KRT16 expression in affected footpads. These results led to propose the dogue de Bordeaux footpad hyperkeratosis as the first spontaneous model of focal non-epidermolytic palmoplantar keratoderma (FNEPPK). In parallel, I studied an acral mutilation syndrome described in several hunting dog breeds. This neuropathy corresponds to human hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathies (HSANs) and is characterized by an insensitivity to pain only in the limb. With a classical GWAS strategy, using 24 affected and 30 unaffected dogs, we identified a 1.5 Mb locus in dogs, the human orthologous locus being still unknown in human patients. Targeted sequencing of this locus revealed one single variant localized in a cis-enhancer region closed to a strong candidate gene. A lower level of expression of the candidate gene in affected dogs seems to show a functional effect of the mutation in the enhancer activity. These results led to propose this variant as the causative mutation for this canine neuropathy, and so this canine model as an opportunity to identify a new human HSAN gene. Combining complementary genetic approaches on spontaneous models of well characterized canine diseases, I did participated to the identification of three new genes, two of which being novel excellent candidates for the homologous human diseases. The third represents a true homologous model of KRT16 human keratoderma, opening the field to the development of new treatments benefiting to both humans and dogs.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2015-12-11T17:39:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 carmemlucianunesdepaulacalheiros.pdf: 4711050 bytes, checksum: 1a0ba63ecb85bf2cb778b282de0ecd35 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2015-12-14T15:48:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 carmemlucianunesdepaulacalheiros.pdf: 4711050 bytes, checksum: 1a0ba63ecb85bf2cb778b282de0ecd35 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-14T15:48:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 carmemlucianunesdepaulacalheiros.pdf: 4711050 bytes, checksum: 1a0ba63ecb85bf2cb778b282de0ecd35 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-31 / Esta dissertação objetiva analisar as causas e efeitos do emprego da afetividade na comunicação, sobretudo, na comunicação organizacional. Para a avaliação do objeto de estudo, utilizamos como procedimentos metodológicos uma ampla pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas qualitativas em profundidade e grupo focal, a fim de medir os efeitos da campanha de marketing interno da MRS Logística sobre os maquinistas – o maior contingente de empregados da empresa. Foram analisadas também as peças da campanha interna de sensibilização para as questões relativas à prevenção de acidentes do trabalho. Partindo das questões identitárias, notadamente da identidade brasileira, o estudo utiliza-se de elementos constituintes da identidade nacional – como a figura do Homem Cordial - para mostrar a importância que as mensagens que suscitam a emoção despertam no imaginário da recepção. O estudo sobre a história da ferrovia também nos permite considerar aspectos simbólicos e traços de identidade que reforçam a mensagem de fundo mais emotivo para esse público. Também a neurociência, os estudos do comportamento humano nas empresas e o apelo ao sensível nos ajudam a compor a pesquisa. / This assay aims to analyze the causes and effects of the use of affective communication, especially in organizational communication. For the assessment of the subject matter, we use as instruments a wide bibliographical research, qualitative in-depth interviews and focus groups in order to measure the effects of internal marketing campaign MRS Logística about drivers - the largest contingent of company employees. It also evaluates the parts of the internal campaign to raise awareness of the issues concerning the prevention of occupational accidents. Building on identity issues, notably the Brazilian identity, the study makes use of the components of national identity - as the figure of the man Cordial - to show the importance of the messages that arouse emotion awaken at the reception imaginary. The study on the history of the railroad also allows us to consider symbolic aspects and identity traits that reinforce the more emotional background message to that audience. Also neuroscience, the study of human behavior in business and appeal to sensitive help us compose the research.

Com a grande variedade de produtos e serviços disponíveis na Web, os usuários possuem, em geral, muita liberdade de escolha, o que poderia ser considerado uma vantagem se não fosse pela dificuldade encontrada em escolher o produto ou serviço que mais atenda a suas necessidades dentro do vasto conjunto de opções disponíveis. Sistemas de recomendação são sistemas que têm como objetivo auxiliar esses usuários a identificarem itens de interesse em um conjunto de opções. A maioria das abordagens de sistemas de recomendação foca em recomendar itens mais relevantes para usuários individuais, não levando em consideração o contexto dos usuários. Porém, em muitas aplicações é importante também considerar informações contextuais para fazer as recomendações. Por exemplo, um usuário pode desejar assistir um filme com a sua namorada no sábado à noite ou com os seus amigos durante um dia de semana, e uma locadora de filmes na Web pode recomendar diferentes tipos de filmes para este usuário dependendo do contexto no qual este se encontra. Um grande desafio para o uso de sistemas de recomendação sensíveis ao contexto é a falta de métodos para aquisição automática de informação contextual para estes sistemas. Diante desse cenário, neste trabalho é proposto um método para extrair informações contextuais do conteúdo de páginas Web que consiste em construir hierarquias de tópicos do conteúdo textual das páginas considerando, além da bag-of-words tradicional (informação técnica), também informações mais valiosas dos textos como entidades nomeadas e termos do domínio (informação privilegiada). Os tópicos extraídos das hierarquias das páginas Web são utilizados como informações de contexto em sistemas de recomendação sensíveis ao contexto. Neste trabalho foram realizados experimentos para avaliação do contexto extraído pelo método proposto em que foram considerados dois baselines: um sistema de recomendação que não considera informação de contexto e um método da literatura de extração de contexto implementado e adaptado para este mestrado. Além disso, foram utilizadas duas bases de dados. Os resultados obtidos foram, de forma geral, muito bons apresentando ganhos significativos sobre o baseline sem contexto. Com relação ao baseline que extrai informação contextual, o método proposto se mostrou equivalente ou melhor que o mesmo. / With the wide variety of products and services available on the web, it is difficult for users to choose the option that most meets their needs. In order to reduce or even eliminate this difficulty, recommender systems have emerged. A recommender system is used in various fields to recommend items of interest to users. Most recommender approaches focus only on users and items to make the recommendations. However, in many applications it is also important to incorporate contextual information into the recommendation process. For example, a user may want to watch a movie with his girlfriend on Saturday night or with his friends during a weekday, and a video store on the Web can recommend different types of movies for this user depending on his context. Although the use of contextual information by recommendation systems has received great focus in recent years, there is a lack of automatic methods to obtain such information for context-aware recommender systems. For this reason, the acquisition of contextual information is a research area that needs to be better explored. In this scenario, this work proposes a method to extract contextual information of Web page content. This method builds topic hierarchies of the pages textual content considering, besides the traditional bag-of-words, valuable information of texts as named entities and domain terms (privileged information). The topics extracted from the hierarchies are used as contextual information in context-aware recommender systems. By using two databases, experiments were conducted to evaluate the contextual information extracted by the proposed method. Two baselines were considered: a recommendation system that does not use contextual information (IBCF) and a method proposed in literature to extract contextual information (\\methodological\" baseline), adapted for this research. The results are, in general, very good and show significant gains over the baseline without context. Regarding the \"methodological\" baseline, the proposed method is equivalent to or better than this baseline.

The Target Positioning Sensor (TPS) is used by cranes to locate containers in ports and on cargo ships. The reliability of the communication network between the TPS and the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is important to optimise the productivity of the container terminal. Lost data messages between the network devices will lead to delays and production loss for the terminal. The main goal of this thesis project is to make the Ethernet-based network between the TPS and the PLC more reliable. The current sensor network protocol uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and the project aims to replace that with the Transport Control Protocol (TCP). This includes designing a new message handling application and performing case studies on how to best handle compatibility issues between the TPS and the PLC, to improve the longevity of the application. The case studies led to considering an adaptable behaviour toward future software updates in different parts of the network. An application which used TCP to communicate between a PC and a PLC was developed, intended to be used as a reference during future integration into the actual sensor network. The TCP application works but needs to be improved before being implemented in a real system. In addition, the project also looked into Time-Sensitive Networking, which is a method of increasing link capacity and reliability in time-sensitive network implementations. This was done through a literature study on the IEEE Time-Sensitive Networking Standard, which showed that the application of the standard could be beneficial if more sensors are added to the network of if the sampling frequency of the TPS is increased.

La négritude répond à la fois à une recherche identitaire en réaction à la colonisation et une esthétique littéraire qui emprunte son langage et son rythme au pays natal de chaque auteur et au pays colonisateur. Elle est ainsi en lien avec la politique. Le rythme des poèmes d'Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor et José Craveirinha a une résonance dans la typographie. La typographie est également associée à la musique par l'espace que les mots occupent sur la page. Les bonds rythmiques du tam-tam sont par exemple des bonds typographiques chez Léopold Sédar Senghor. Ce rythme nommé la musicalité en poésie fait entrer différents langages au sein de la poésie. Le questionnement est donc porté sur la poésie et les instruments de musique. En d'autres termes, peut-on y voir un de ces éléments qui entraîne la naissance de l'autre ou bien existe-t-il une co-existence de ceux-ci ? De plus, la typographie offre aussi presque quasi systématiquement des allers-retours entre les deux sens que sont la vue et l'ouïe. Ces allers-retours permis par le peu de ponctuation voire son absence laissent le soin au lecteur de donner un rythme. Les couleurs et la lumière mentionnées dans les poèmes sont autant l'occasion de faire appel à la vue. Les poèmes deviennent picturaux. Le rythme comme le rapprochement des poèmes de l'écriture calligramme confèrent à ceux-ci un aspect physique. Celui-ci se retrouve dans le thème du corps qui est, le plus souvent, le corps de la femme. Le corps féminin est certes empreint de sensualité, mais il est aussi celui de la mère qui traduit la terre natale. De cette manière le lien entre le poète est la terre natale est sensible. C'est aussi ce qui peut expliquer une certaine animalité lorsque les poètes évoquent le rythme du tam-tam et la fabrication de cet instrument de musique en peau. Cela est notamment le cas chez José Craveirinha où le poète prononce le désir de se transformer en « tambor » (en tambour) ou encore dans le rythme effréné de la transe chez Aimé Césaire lorsque la musicalité créée par l'anaphore imite le rythme du tam-tam. Ainsi, le rythme et la musicalité sont proches. Le corps féminin s'étend au corps du poète et aux corps des lecteurs puisque le sensible est mis à l'honneur dans les poèmes des trois auteurs à l'étude. Elle est la marque d'un espace à l'autre que Gilles Deleuze évoquée déjà. La frontière est ce qui est fait pour être transgressée selon le philosophe. L'expérience sensible est cruciale pour les poètes ainsi que la résonance de la parole poétique qui permet de dire des souffrances dans les poèmes de José Craveirinha par exemple. C'est cette pensée, cette spiritualité poétique qui est à l'origine de la particularité de la poésie de la négritude. / The negritude deals with the quest for identity which is the result of the colonization and with literary aesthetics, borrowing its language and rhythm from both of the countries : the one where the author was born and the colonizing one. Therefore, it is linked to politics. In poetry, it creates a particular rhythm which reveals sometimes a tension between the cultures. Moreover, the rhythm in Aimé Césaire's, Léopold Sédar Senghor's and José Craveirinha's poems has a resonance in the typography. Typography is also related to music thanks to the space occupied by the words on the page. The rythmic tam-tam bounds are, for instance, typographical bounds in Léopold Sédar Senghor's works. This rhythm, which is called musicality in poetry, lets differents languages in poetry. The question deals with poetry and musical instruments. In other words, is there an element giving birth to the other one or is there a coexistence of them ? Moreover, nearly systematically typography also gives roundtrips between eyesight and hearing. These roundtrips, allowed by the lack of ponctuation or its absence, let the reader give rhythm to the reading. The colors and the light mentioned in the poems highlight eyesight.The poems become paintings. Both the rhythm and the parallel between the poems and the calligrams give them a physical aspect. This one is revealed in the topic of body which is, frequently, a woman body. On one hand, the feminine body is full of sensuality, but on the other one it also is the mother's one, showing the native land. Through this, the link between the poet and his native land is underlined. That can also explain a sort of animality when the poets evoke the rhythm of tam-tam and the making of this musical instrument with a piece of skin. José Craveirinha is strongly concerned, because the poet pronounces his desire to become a « tambor » (drum), and Aimé Césaire's trance and its frenetic rhythm when the musicality created by the anaphor imitates the rhythm of tam-tam. Thus, rhythm and musicality are close to each other. The feminine body extends to the poet's and the reader's bodies because the perceptible is in the place of honour in the poems of the three authors studied. That's why the notion of border appears. It reveals the delimitation between a portion of space and the other that Gilles Deleuze already mentioned. The border is made to be broken, as the philosopher says. This way, the three authors' poetry is a poetry focused on the passing from a place to the other. The experience of senses is crucial for the poets, and also the resonance of poetic speech which can express sufferings, in José Craveirinha's poems for instance.

La capacité et les performances des systèmes à fibres optiques et photoniques dépendent fortement du bruit et des non-linéarités des amplificateurs optiques. Dans ce contexte, les amplificateurs paramétriques à fibre optique (PS-FOPA), reposant sur le mélange à quatre ondes dans les fibres optiques, surpassent les amplificateurs conventionnels insensibles à la phase. En effet, leur sensibilité à la phase peut être exploitée pour l'amplification sans bruit et al compensation de la distortion non-linéaire. En conjonction avec leur large spectre de gain et d'autres fonctionnalités telles que la conversion de longueur d'onde, ils sont considérés comme des candidats prometteurs pour la prochaine génération d'amplificateurs optiques pour les communications et le traitement de signal tout optiques.Le PS-FOPA est classiquement décrit par les équations d'ondes couplées, dérivées de l'équation de Schrödinger non-linéaire qui ne contiennent que trois ou quatre ondes en interaction. Cependant, dans un cas plus général, l'apparition de fréquences supplementaires d’ordre plus élevé affectera inévitablement la sensibilité en phase.L’objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier de manière approfondie les propriétés non-linéaires, en termes de gain et de sensibilité en phase d'un PS-FOPA dégénéré à double pompe pour différentes configurations. Une analyse numérique plus précise est obtenue en utilisant le modèle à 7 ondes qui incorpore les ondes supplémentaires issues de processus de mélange à quatre ondes d’ordre élevé. Ce modèle permet de donner une interprétation physique plus précise des interactions multi-ondes en fonction des conditions d'accord de phase, révélant les relations sous-jacentes entre la dispersion et la sensibilité de phase. De plus, la capacité de régénération simultanée de phase et d'amplitude d'un PS-FOPA basique est évaluée pour l'optimisation globale. Il permet d'exploiter pleinement la capacité potentielle d'un PS-FOPA de base agissant comme un bloc de construction fondamental des futures fonctionnalités tout optiques. L’approche basée sur ce modèle permet une optimisation orientée vers l’application et revêt une importance particulière pour la conception et l'optimisation de tels PS-FOPAs dans divers scénarios. / The capability and performance of the widely deployed fiber-optic and photonic systems strongly depend on the noise and nonlinearities of the optical amplifiers. In this context, phase-sensitive fiber-optic parametric amplifiers (PS-FOPAs), relying on four-wave mixing in optical fibers, outperforms conventional phase-insensitive amplifier thanks to the unique phase-sensitivity that can be exploited for noiseless amplification and mitigation of the nonlinear impairment. In conjunction with the vast gain spectrum and other functionality such as wavelength conversion, they have been regarded as a promising candidate for the next generation optical amplifiers towards all-optical communication and processing.The PS-FOPA is conventionally described by the fundamental coupled wave equations derived from the nonlinear Schrödinger equation that contains only three or four interacting waves. However, for a more general case, the emergence of high-order waves will inevitably affect the phase-sensitivity. The objective of this thesis aims at the thorough investigation of the nonlinear properties in terms of the gain properties and the phase sensitivities with respect to different configurations of a dual-pump signal-idler degenerate PS-FOPA. The more accurate numerical analysis is obtained by using the 7-wave model that incorporates the first order high-order waves stemming from the high-order four-wave mixing processing. This model permits to assess a more precise physical interpretation of the multi-wave interactions based on phase matching conditions, revealing the underlying relations between the dispersion and the phase-sensitivity. Moreover, the simultaneous phase and amplitude regenerative capability of a basic PS-FOPA is evaluated for the overall optimization. It allows fully exploiting the potential ability of a basic PS-FOPA acting as a fundamental building block of the future all-optical functionalities. The analysis approach based on this model permits application-oriented optimization and is of particular guiding significance for design and optimization of PS-FOPA in various scenarios.

Skateboards have been around since at least the 1950’s, and skateboarding is most commonly knownas an extreme sport. However, skateboards can be very useful when commuting as they have continued to evolve since the 1950’s, not quite in to the hover board that Marty McFly rides on in Back to the Future, but in to skateboards equipped with electric motors that propels them forward. Electric skateboards, as they are called, are one of the vehicle types that are changing the way humans move around cities. Vehicles that are needed in order to fulfill present and future commuting needs. However, electric skateboards have not yet reached their full potential, especially regarding how their speed is controlled. Current speed control systems gives a riding experience that feels unnatural compared to riding a regular skateboard, and improving upon them can potentially make electric skateboards even safer to ride. In this thesis, an active style of riding, like skateboarding, is compared to the reactive style of riding that is provided by the speed control systems existent in electric skateboards today. The thesis presents a speed control system that utilizes an active style of riding, and the concept is tested by the development of a pedobarography system that can read the interaction between the riders feet and the skateboard deck.