Road expansion and increased traffic likely exacerbates barriers to amphibian migration and dispersal. Within British Columbia’s south Okanagan valley there is particular concern that the COSEWIC-listed blotched tiger salamander (Ambystoma mavortium melanostictum) and Great Basin spadefoot (Spea intermontana) are vulnerable to road effects in their annual movements from upland overwintering habitat to lowland breeding areas. My study utilizes a before after control impact approach to assess amphibian movement and population threats across this highway-bisected landscape. Throughout the spring and summer of 2010-2012, fifty two kilometers of roadways (31 km of highway, 21 km of paved backroad) were repeatedly surveyed from the Canada-USA border to north of Oliver, BC; surveys were carried out utilising vehicles and on foot. Along Highway 97, a three kilometer four-lane highway expansion project was constructed through 2010 and open to traffic use in 2011. Adjacent to a floodplain, survey effort was focused throughout this transect for informed roadkill mitigation structure placement and ongoing ecopassage effectiveness monitoring. Automated camera trap monitoring of culverts within highly concentrated amphibian road hotspots during spring and summer 2011 (three culverts) and 2012 (two culverts) resulted in over eight hundred amphibian culvert events observed. Two sample Wilcoxon tests revealed differences between years in amphibian occurrence between 2010 and 2012 (W = 4679.5, p= 0.02), and mortalities among transect areas, with the largest differences between years within the Osoyoos passing lanes transect. Amphibian mortalities within the passing lanes transect were significantly reduced with the implementation of mitigation structures (x̅2010= 13.2 ± 32.5, x̅2011= 4.7 ± 12.8, x̅2012= 2.3 ± 7.3; 2010 vs. 2012: W= 1535.5, p< 0.001). Roadkill mitigation structures proved effective in observed amphibian occurrence of the entire passing lanes stretch as well as at distances 100 m and 200 m from observed culverts. Double fenced areas resulted in a 94% reduction in amphibian road occurrence. Five species of amphibians were observed over the three survey years (4051 road incidences over 657 survey hours): Pacific chorus frog (Pseudacris regilla), Western toad (Anaxyrus boreas), long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum) plus blotched tiger salamander and Great Basin spadefoot. This study aims to provide a better understanding of amphibian hotspots on roadways and ecopassage use within the south Okanagan. It may act as a catalyst to further wildlife-vehicle interaction studies with improved mitigation solutions for amphibian roadway fatalities.

La mise en oeuvre des véhicules électriques dans le secteur du transport de fret présente une solution durable qui répond aux objectifs environnementaux et économiques. Cette thèse s'oriente dans cette direction, elle porte sur l'étude des problèmes de transport électrique selon deux niveaux décisionnels à savoir le niveau stratégique et opérationnel.Au niveau stratégique, nous traitons le problème d'allocation des segments de recharge d'un véhicule électrique par des ondes électromagnétiques. Pour cela, nous proposons une modélisation du problème sous forme de programme mathématique mixte en nombre entier qui tient compte de la particularité du réseau routier et du véhicule. L'objectif est de déterminer; dans un réseau qui se compose de plusieurs chemins; une allocation stratégique qui constitue un compromis entre le coût d'achat du matériel de recharge et le coût de la batterie en satisfaisant un ensemble de contraintes liées au fonctionnement du système lors de l'exploitation et qui garantissent l'arrivée du véhicule à sa destination sans rupture de charge. Ainsi, nous montrons l'utilité de nos travaux dans un contexte industriel à travers le projet 'Green Truck'. Ce projet consiste à remplacer les camions à combustion par les camions électriques; adapté à la technologie d'alimentation par induction; dans la zone industrialo-portuaire du Havre. Dans cette optique et dans un premier temps, nous traitons le problème d'installation des segments de recharge dynamique. Dans un deuxième temps, nous intégrons le mode de rechargement statique dans la stratégie d'allocation. Nous adoptons la version multi-objective de l'algorithme d'optimisation par essaim de particules pour résoudre le problème. En effet, l'algorithme a montré sa robustesse et son efficacité vis-à-vis de problèmes d'optimisation non-linéaires. Après la linéarisation de notre modèle, nous comparons les résultats obtenus avec ceux issus à partir du solveur CPLEX. Nous montrons la validité des résultats obtenus à travers leur analyse et leur discussion.Au niveau opérationnel, nous étudions le problème de tournées de véhicules dans le cas d'une flott( mixte composée de véhicules électriques et à combustion, ce qui est un véritable réseau industrie rencontré dans la pratique. La particularité de notre travail réside dans la considération du cas où le émissions sont limitées par un système de plafonnement d'émissions pour les véhicule conventionnels. Afin de résoudre le modèle mathématique que nous avons élaboré, nous avons indu trois heuristiques dans l'algorithme SPEA-II qui répondent aux contraintes engendrées par la batterie limitée des véhicules électriques. Après l'analyse des performances de l'algorithme résultant, nou, concluons que l'approche de résolution permet d'achever des résultats compétitifs. / The implementation of electric vehicles in the freight transport sector presents a sustainable solution that meets environmental and economic objectives. This thesis is oriented in this direction, it deals with the study of the problems of electric transportation according to two decisional levels namely the strategic and operational levels.At the strategic level, we study the problem of the location of the wireless charging infrastructure in a transport network composed of multiple routes between the origin and the destination. To find a strategic solution to this problem, we first and foremost propose a nonlinear integer programming solution to reach a compromise between the cost of the battery, which is related to its capacity, and the cost of installing the power transmitters, while maintaining the quality of the vehicle's routing. Thus, we show the utility of our work in an industrial context through the 'Green Truck' project. This project consists of replacing diesel trucks by inductive trucks in the industrial-port area of Le Havre. Initially, we are dealing with the problem of allocation of dynamic charging segments. In a second step, we integrate the static reload mode in the allocation strategy. We adapt the multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MPSO) approach to our problem, as the particles were robust in solving nonlinear optimization problems. Since we have a multi-objective problem with two binary variables, we combine the binary and discrete versions of the particle swarm optimization approach with the multi-objective one. To assess the quality of solutions generated by the PSO algorithm, the problem is transformed into an equivalent linear programming problem and solved with CPLEX optimizer. The results are analyzed and discussed in order to point out the efficiency of our resolution method.At the operational level, we study a new version of the vehicle routing problem with a mix fleet of electric and combustion vehicles, which is a real industrial network encountered in practice. The particularity of our work lies in the consideration of the case where emissions are limited by an emission cap system for conventional vehicles. In order to solve the mathematical model that we have developed, we have included three heuristics in the SPEA-II algorithm that respond to the constraints generated by the limited battery of electric vehicles. After analyzing the performance of the resulting algorithm, we conclude that the resolution approach achieves competitive results.

<p>Toxic products, such as endotoxin from the gram-negative and exotoxin from the gram-positive bacteria, are the most important initiators of the inflammatory host response in sepsis. In addition to antibacterial treatment, numerous attempts have been made to interfere with the exaggerated proinflammatory cascade initiated by the toxins. As most antitoxic and anti-inflammatory agents have shown no clear efficacy, an attractive alternative has been to prevent or minimise their release. Therefore, it was of interest to further study the antibiotic-induced release of toxins after exposure to antibiotics used for the treatment of the most severe infections, especially if protein synthesis inhibitors could reduce the release induced by PBP 3-specific β-lactam antibiotics.</p><p>There were significant reductions in endotoxin release from gram-negative bacteria when the combination of the PBP 3-specific β-lactam antibiotic, cefuroxime, and the protein synthesis inhibitor, tobramycin, was compared with cefuroxime alone. Increasing doses of tobramycin reduced endotoxin release and increased the killing rate. In a kinetic <i>in vitro</i> model the endotoxin release from <i>E.coli</i> was higher after the second dose of cefuroxime. Nevertheless, it was reduced after addition of tobramycin.</p><p>No binding of tobramycin to endotoxin was observed, either <i>in vivo</i> or <i>in vitro</i>. In a porcine sepsis model, a possible anti-inflammatory effect of ceftazidime and tobramycin, expressed as late cytokine inhibition, was seen.</p><p>The protein synthesis inhibitor, clindamycin, released less streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin A (SpeA) from a group A streptococcus strain than penicillin, and addition of clindamycin to penicillin resulted in less toxin production than penicillin alone. The SpeA production was dependent on the bacterial number at the start of treatment. Higher doses of penicillin also led to less SpeA. </p><p>The choice of antibiotic class and dose may be important in the severely ill septic patient in whom an additional toxin release could be deleterious. A combination of a β-lactam antibiotic and a protein synthesis inhibitor seems beneficial but further investigations are needed.</p>

Toxic products, such as endotoxin from the gram-negative and exotoxin from the gram-positive bacteria, are the most important initiators of the inflammatory host response in sepsis. In addition to antibacterial treatment, numerous attempts have been made to interfere with the exaggerated proinflammatory cascade initiated by the toxins. As most antitoxic and anti-inflammatory agents have shown no clear efficacy, an attractive alternative has been to prevent or minimise their release. Therefore, it was of interest to further study the antibiotic-induced release of toxins after exposure to antibiotics used for the treatment of the most severe infections, especially if protein synthesis inhibitors could reduce the release induced by PBP 3-specific β-lactam antibiotics. There were significant reductions in endotoxin release from gram-negative bacteria when the combination of the PBP 3-specific β-lactam antibiotic, cefuroxime, and the protein synthesis inhibitor, tobramycin, was compared with cefuroxime alone. Increasing doses of tobramycin reduced endotoxin release and increased the killing rate. In a kinetic in vitro model the endotoxin release from E.coli was higher after the second dose of cefuroxime. Nevertheless, it was reduced after addition of tobramycin. No binding of tobramycin to endotoxin was observed, either in vivo or in vitro. In a porcine sepsis model, a possible anti-inflammatory effect of ceftazidime and tobramycin, expressed as late cytokine inhibition, was seen. The protein synthesis inhibitor, clindamycin, released less streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin A (SpeA) from a group A streptococcus strain than penicillin, and addition of clindamycin to penicillin resulted in less toxin production than penicillin alone. The SpeA production was dependent on the bacterial number at the start of treatment. Higher doses of penicillin also led to less SpeA. The choice of antibiotic class and dose may be important in the severely ill septic patient in whom an additional toxin release could be deleterious. A combination of a β-lactam antibiotic and a protein synthesis inhibitor seems beneficial but further investigations are needed.

This thesis is focused on working up evolutionals and genetics algorithms issues Especially for multiobjective algorithms VEGA, SPEA and NSGA – II. Thereinafter one of FrameWork working with genetics algorithms namely WWW NIMBUS. From this mentioned algorithms was selected VEGA algorithm for implementation in JAVA to preselected problem. Thereby problem is choice thick columns of profile according to predetermined criteria. Selected algorithm works on division of population into several groups and each group evaluates the resulting fitness function. Here is a sample implementation of this algorithm. Furthermore there is a example of working with FrameWork. In the next section are compared the results of generated progam with results that were obtained by FrameWork WWW NIMBUS. As for VEGA, and the Nimbus there are shown different results. The VEGA is presented also the development of individual fitness functions. Also, there are shown graphs, that can be obtained from NIMBUS. At the end of work is introduced the comparation of the results ane propose possible improvements.

In this thesis, design, integration and validation of Serial and Parallel Elastic Cable Actuator (SPECA) is presented with an aim to enhance human-device interaction in cable-driven systems of wearable robots and to optimize actuator force and power delivery to the user. Adding springs in series and in parallel to the cables acted on the mechanical joint for motion or force control have been shown individually to reduce mechanical power consumption and therefore electrical power consumption. SPECA combines both serial elastic (SE) and parallel elastic (PE) components to explore the compounded effects on a dual cable driven system controlled by a single actuator. A bi-articulating winch attached to the actuator allows control of two cables to achieve a bidirectional control of a revolute joint. Expanding the control of the single actuator, the dual cables route to a mechanical clutch that can engage up to two external winches, or four cables, simultaneously. SPECA is built as an isolated system with only the two winches of the clutch leading to end effectors creating a design capable of being integrated into many cable driven systems. A Simulink model is developed of a simple two degree of freedom (DOF) system to confirm that SE and PE elements not only increase the effective range of a system but lower the mechanical power. SPECA undergoes static and dynamic experiments to explore SE and PE in an applied system confirming the conclusions of the model along with recommendations based on observed characteristics from the experiments. SPECA serves as an exploratory and modular proof of concept for the integration of SE and PE components into many cable driven systems.

This work deals with part of the encryption algorithm, called S-box and its development. For its development is used evolutionary computing, such as classical genetic algorithm, Estimation of Distribution Algorithm, Cartesian genetic programming and multi-criteria VEGA and SPEA algorithms. This thesis aims to test the properties of substitution boxes to its evolutionary development. Firstly, the work deals with cryptography and issues of s-boxes. There are explained basic concepts and describes the selected criteria of safety. Next chapter explains evolutionary algorithms   and multi-criteria optimization. This knowledge is used to design and program implementation, which are described below. Finally discusses the application of the criteria studied. Discussed here is searching S-boxes in both single-criteria, and especially in multi-criteria genetic search.