Crude oil causes both lethal and sublethal effects on marine organisms, but the impact upon sensory function remains unexplored. Elasmobranchs rely upon the effective functioning of their sensory systems for use in feeding, mating, and predator avoidance. The objective of this study was to test the effect of crude oil upon the olfactory and electroreceptive sensitivity of the Atlantic stingray, Dasyatis sabina. The magnitudes of the electro-olfactogram (EOG) responses were significantly depressed by 26% (Glutamic Acid) to 157% (Cysteine) for all amino acids when stingrays were exposed to crude oil. The shapes of the EOG responses when exposed to oil were also significantly different, exhibiting a more protracted response compared to un-exposed stingrays. Oil exposed stingrays exhibited a significant decrease in orientation distance to prey-simulating electric fields. This study is the first to quantify the effects of crude oil on olfactory and electrosensory sensitivity of marine predators. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Diante das perspectivas cada vez maiores de extrair da natureza matéria prima necessária ao desenvolvimento das localidades, têm se verificado que as reservas florestais, assim como tantos outros ecossistemas, têm sofrido constantes interferências, provocando a sua degradação. Diante desse fato, esse estudo procurou diagnosticar os motivos e as formas que levam as populações localizadas no entorno de matas nativas a utilizarem inadequadamente os recursos produzidos por elas, especificamente aquelas do Bairro Engenho de Serra, localizado às margens da mata do campus da Escola Agrotécnica Federal de São Evangelista-MG. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo central à análise dos impactos sociais das populações em relação à interferência do homem no entorno da mata nativa, visando abordar o papel da Educação Ambiental na conservação da natureza. Para tanto, procurou-se construir uma discussão sobre a temática ambiental dentro das Ciências Sociais em relação sociedade/natureza sob a ótica dos fenômenos socioculturais. Dessa forma, considerou-se a necessidade de se efetivar um processo de sensibilização, envolvimento e conscientização dos atores sociais, optando pela utilização do método PROPACC, um método de capacitação de recursos humanos para a Educação Ambiental fundamentado numa concepção construtivista da aprendizagem, que considera o conhecimento prévio dos atores e suas experiências. Esse método proporcionou a construção do perfil desta população, mostrando uma estrutura com características próprias e autônomas. Após a aplicação do método, constatou-se que no caso específico do Bairro Engenho de Serra na cidade de São João Evangelista, MG, a população expressa uma carência no que se refere aos aspectos socioeconômicos não sendo a falta de formação educacional, a causa da retirada de recursos naturais da mata, como se imaginava no início desse estudo, visto que os moradores apresentaram um nível de escolaridade acima do esperado. Em relação à falta de informação sobre os impactos da não conservação do ambiente, pôde-se perceber que após orientações sobre a importância de se preservar a mata nativa e o ambiente ao seu entorno, houve um despertar dessas pessoas em relação aos seus deveres diante dos problemas ambientais do bairro e do município, reforçando a necessidade de se fazer da Educação Ambiental um instrumento de promoção da cidadania para a preservação dos recursos naturais e do desenvolvimento econômico com sustentabilidade no município. Sob essa perspectiva aferiu-se que o caminho está na educação das novas gerações tendo como princípio básico o que mais se compatibiliza com a realidade da localidade, instituição ou município.

Detta arbete handlar om vad ett väletablerat företag skulle kunna göra med sitt restmaterial. Vi vet att det idag finns en mängd företag som jobbar för att minska sitt restmaterial och här presenteras förslag på vad man kan göra med det som ändå uppkommer. I arbetet presenterar vi först hur vi gått till väga för att samla in vår information, alltså hur vår forskning gjorts. Då arbetets syfte utgår ifrån Kasthall Mattor & Golv AB, har vi valt att presentera fakta kring företaget och hur deras syn ser ut på miljöarbete idag. För att förstå hur ett ökat miljöarbete påverkar ett företag har vi valt att fördjupa oss i CSR, Cradle to cradle, materialfakta och avfallshantering. Med hjälp av detta vill vi att läsaren lättare skall kunna följa vara tankar då förslagen presenteras samt diskuteras. I diskussionen analyseras detta sedan vidare med våra egna funderingar. Det tas också upp vad vi tycker om de olika förslagen och vilka fördelar respektive nackdelar vi ser att de har. I slutsatsen knyter vi samman arbetet med våra slutgiltiga tankar.This paper is about what a well-established company could do with their waste materials. We are aware of that today there are many companies working to reduce its waste materials and this paper presents suggestions for what to do with it. Firstly we present how we proceeded to gather our information. The purpose is based on Kasthall Mattor & Golv AB ́s waste problem and we have chosen to present the facts about the company and how they work with environmental questions today. To understand how an increased environmental work impacts a company we have chosen to immerse ourselves in CSR, Cradle to cradle, material facts, and waste management. Using this, we want to help the reader follow our thoughts when the proposals are presented and discussed. In the discussion we further analyze this with our own thoughts. It also looks at what we think about the various proposals and what advantages and disadvantages we find. In the conclusion we summarize the paper with our thoughts. / Program: Textil produktutveckling med entreprenörs- och affärsinriktning

nÃo hà / O mapeamento da poluiÃÃo de Ãleo no mar utilizando imagens de Radar de Abertura SintÃtica (SAR, do inglÃs Synthetic Aperture Radar) à uma importante Ãrea de interesse na Ãrea da vigilÃncia ambiental. Pode-se utilizar imagens SAR para extrair caracterÃsticas atravÃs de diferentes mÃtodos com o objetivo de predizer atravÃs de Redes Neurais Artificiais (RNAs) se uma regiÃo especÃfica contÃm ou nÃo uma mancha de Ãleo. O principal problema dessa abordagem à a ocorrÃncia de excessivos alarmes falsos decorrentes de erros de classificaÃÃo. Manchas de Ãleo sÃo eventos raros e a pequena disponibilidade de imagens contendo manchas à um fator limitante do desempenho dos classificadores. Este trabalho propÃe a utilizaÃÃo de mÃltiplos conjuntos de caracterÃsticas e mÃtodos de combinaÃÃo de classificadores para minimizar o nÃmero de alarmes falsos a fim de possibilitar a reduÃÃo de custos operacionais de sistemas automÃticos de deteÃÃo de manchas de Ãleo. As imagens SAR utilizadas neste trabalho nÃo estÃo limitadas a um Ãnico sistema de imageamento e diferentes conjuntos de caracterÃsticas baseados na geometria e textura das manchas foram testados. Os desempenhos de generalizaÃÃo de mÃtodos de combinaÃÃo de classificadores, como boosting e bagging, foram comparados com aqueles obtidos com classificadores individuais, como Perceptron Multi-Camadas (MLP, do inglÃs Multi-Layer Perceptron) e MÃquina de Vetor de Suporte (SVM, do inglÃs Support Vector Machine). Os resultados experimentais sugerem que a caracterizaÃÃo das manchas de Ãleo pode ser significativamente melhorada atravÃs do uso do boosting,mesmo quando poucas imagens amostrais estÃo disponÃveis. / Mapping ocean oil pollution by using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images is an important area of interest for environmental surveillance. One can make use of the SAR images to extract features by using different methods in order to predict if a specific region contains an oil spill or not using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). A major problem in this approach is the number of false alarms due to misclassification. Oil spills are rare events and the number of available images containing spills is atistically small which is a limitation for the classifier performance. This work proposes the use of multiple feature sets and classifier combining methods to minimize the number of false alarms and thus, reduce the operational costs of automatic oil spill detection systems. The SAR images used in this work are not limited to a specific imaging system and different feature sets based on geometry and texture of the spills were tested. The generalization performances of classifier combination methods as boosting and bagging were compared with those resulting from single classifiers as Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Support Vector Machines (SVM). The experimental results suggest that oil spill characterization can be significantly improved using boosting even when few image samples are available and the feature sets have high dimensionality.

<p>This dissertation examines efforts to integrate a “new” policy sector – forest and forestry – into the European Union (EU). There is currently no legal foundation for a common forest policy and some member states (not least Sweden), as well as parts of the forestry sector, have been strongly opposed to one. At the same time, administrative units and structures within the EU have been created and they and some member states have promoted a common policy. This raises the question how can we understand and explain this?</p><p>The purpose of this dissertation is to problematise, map and analyse mainly Swedish actors’ attitudes to efforts to create a common forest policy within the EU. The study is based on neofunctionalism, which is a classic theory of integration, but it uses newer theorising (from intergovernmentalism and modern versions of neofunctionalism) to address some of the weaknesses of the approach.</p><p>I investigate the role, preferences and strategies of the main actors. This includes EU institutions and member states. I also map European industry interests and other associations, interest groups and active networks and study their role in the process. In these multi-national settings, I pay particular (although not exclusive) attention to their Swedish members. Within Sweden, I examine how governmental and non-governmental forest actors behave vis-à-vis the EU.</p><p>The empirical investigation shows that some of Swedish actors, for example the private forest owners’ organisation and forest industries associations, have change their preferences and strate gies over time. They have come to believe that whether they like it or not, other policy areas affect forest and forestry both directly and indirectly. Because of this, they now take the position that it is better to promote a limited European forest policy rather than remaining aloof and risk the creation of a much more comprehensive and centralised policy. At the same time (and for now at least), the Swedish government and most party politicians remain opposed to any attempt to formalise a forest policy within the EU.</p><p>This study contributes new knowledge about how new policy areas become integrated within EU, including knowledge about the roles that different actors can have in such processes. The results are of interest to researchers, decision makers and the interested public. They can also influence thinking about Sweden’s influence in, and relation to, EU forest policy.</p><p>Based on the empirical results, my theoretical conclusion is that organised interests have an important role in the integration process. The integration process of forest and forestry is not driven by one actor, but by many different actors, who operate on different levels and who have different interests.</p><p>This study shows that forest and forestry-related questions have come to the EU, and they will remain there. The important question for the future is not if there will be some kind of European level policy on forest and forestry, but rather what form European policy will take.</p>

<p>In this thesis we address the problem of integrated software pipelining for clustered VLIW architectures. The phases that are integrated and solved as one combined problem are: cluster assignment, instruction selection, scheduling, register allocation and spilling.</p><p>As a first step we describe two methods for integrated code generation of basic blocks. The first method is optimal and based on integer linear programming. The second method is a heuristic based on genetic algorithms.</p><p>We then extend the integer linear programming model to modulo scheduling. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time anybody has optimally solved the modulo scheduling problem for clustered architectures with instruction selection and cluster assignment integrated.</p><p>We also show that optimal spilling is closely related to optimal register allocation when the register files are clustered. In fact, optimal spilling is as simple as adding an additional virtual register file representing the memory and have transfer instructions to and from this register file corresponding to stores and loads.</p><p>Our algorithm for modulo scheduling iteratively considers schedules with increasing number of schedule slots. A problem with such an iterative method is that if the initiation interval is not equal to the lower bound there is no way to determine whether the found solution is optimal or not. We have proven that for a class of architectures that we call transfer free, we can set an upper bound on the schedule length. I.e., we can prove when a found modulo schedule with initiation interval larger than the lower bound is optimal.</p><p>Experiments have been conducted to show the usefulness and limitations of our optimal methods. For the basic block case we compare the optimal method to the heuristic based on genetic algorithms.<em></em></p><p><em>This work has been supported by The Swedish national graduate school in computer science (CUGS) and Vetenskapsrådet (VR).</em></p>

Sunken oil is difficult to locate because remote sensing techniques cannot as yet provide views of sunken oil over large areas. Moreover, the oil may re-suspend and sink with changes in salinity, sediment load, and temperature, making deterministic fate models difficult to deploy and calibrate when even the presence of sunken oil is difficult to assess. For these reasons, together with the expense of field data collection, there is a need for a statistical technique integrating limited data collection with stochastic transport modeling. Predictive Bayesian modeling techniques have been developed and demonstrated for exploiting limited information for decision support in many other applications. These techniques brought to a multi-modal Lagrangian modeling framework, representing a near-real time approach to locating and tracking sunken oil driven by intrinsic physical properties of field data collected following a spill after oil has begun collecting on a relatively flat bay bottom. Methods include (1) development of the conceptual predictive Bayesian model and multi-modal Gaussian computational approach based on theory and literature review; (2) development of an object-oriented programming and combinatorial structure capable of managing data, integration and computation over an uncertain and highly dimensional parameter space; (3) creating a new bi-dimensional approach of the method of images to account for curved shoreline boundaries; (4) confirmation of model capability for locating sunken oil patches using available (partial) real field data and capability for temporal projections near curved boundaries using simulated field data; and (5) development of a stand-alone open-source computer application with graphical user interface capable of calibrating instantaneous oil spill scenarios, obtaining sets maps of relative probability profiles at different prediction times and user-selected geographic areas and resolution, and capable of performing post-processing tasks proper of a basic GIS-like software. The result is a predictive Bayesian multi-modal Gaussian model, SOSim (Sunken Oil Simulator) Version 1.0rc1, operational for use with limited, randomly-sampled, available subjective and numeric data on sunken oil concentrations and locations in relatively flat-bottomed bays. The SOSim model represents a new approach, coupling a Lagrangian modeling technique with predictive Bayesian capability for computing unconditional probabilities of mass as a function of space and time. The approach addresses the current need to rapidly deploy modeling capability without readily accessible information on ocean bottom currents. Contributions include (1) the development of the apparently first pollutant transport model for computing unconditional relative probabilities of pollutant location as a function of time based on limited available field data alone; (2) development of a numerical method of computing concentration profiles subject to curved, continuous or discontinuous boundary conditions; (3) development combinatorial algorithms to compute unconditional multimodal Gaussian probabilities not amenable to analytical or Markov-Chain Monte Carlo integration due to high dimensionality; and (4) the development of software modules, including a core module containing the developed Bayesian functions, a wrapping graphical user interface, a processing and operating interface, and the necessary programming components that lead to an open-source, stand-alone, executable computer application (SOSim - Sunken Oil Simulator). Extensions and refinements are recommended, including the addition of capability for accepting available information on bathymetry and maybe bottom currents as Bayesian prior information, the creation of capability of modeling continuous oil releases, and the extension to tracking of suspended oil (3-D).

This dissertation examines efforts to integrate a “new” policy sector – forest and forestry – into the European Union (EU). There is currently no legal foundation for a common forest policy and some member states (not least Sweden), as well as parts of the forestry sector, have been strongly opposed to one. At the same time, administrative units and structures within the EU have been created and they and some member states have promoted a common policy. This raises the question how can we understand and explain this? The purpose of this dissertation is to problematise, map and analyse mainly Swedish actors’ attitudes to efforts to create a common forest policy within the EU. The study is based on neofunctionalism, which is a classic theory of integration, but it uses newer theorising (from intergovernmentalism and modern versions of neofunctionalism) to address some of the weaknesses of the approach. I investigate the role, preferences and strategies of the main actors. This includes EU institutions and member states. I also map European industry interests and other associations, interest groups and active networks and study their role in the process. In these multi-national settings, I pay particular (although not exclusive) attention to their Swedish members. Within Sweden, I examine how governmental and non-governmental forest actors behave vis-à-vis the EU. The empirical investigation shows that some of Swedish actors, for example the private forest owners’ organisation and forest industries associations, have change their preferences and strate gies over time. They have come to believe that whether they like it or not, other policy areas affect forest and forestry both directly and indirectly. Because of this, they now take the position that it is better to promote a limited European forest policy rather than remaining aloof and risk the creation of a much more comprehensive and centralised policy. At the same time (and for now at least), the Swedish government and most party politicians remain opposed to any attempt to formalise a forest policy within the EU. This study contributes new knowledge about how new policy areas become integrated within EU, including knowledge about the roles that different actors can have in such processes. The results are of interest to researchers, decision makers and the interested public. They can also influence thinking about Sweden’s influence in, and relation to, EU forest policy. Based on the empirical results, my theoretical conclusion is that organised interests have an important role in the integration process. The integration process of forest and forestry is not driven by one actor, but by many different actors, who operate on different levels and who have different interests. This study shows that forest and forestry-related questions have come to the EU, and they will remain there. The important question for the future is not if there will be some kind of European level policy on forest and forestry, but rather what form European policy will take.

A series of numerical modeling studies were conducted to characterize the mass flow rates in balcony spill plumes (BSP), a type of buoyant fire plume occurring in atria. The variation of BSP mass flow rate as a function of elevation, fire size and fire compartment geometry was examined both numerically and experimentally. A new method for estimation of BSP mass flow rates, appropriate for design of smoke management systems in high-elevation atria, was developed based on simulations of BSP mass flow rate. An experimental program conducted in a 12 m high atrium measured BSP mass flow rates as well as temperatures in the fire compartment and atrium. This data was used to evaluate CFD models of the fire compartment and atrium in the experimental facility. These were implemented using the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) software. The models were extended to investigate BSP behaviour at elevations up to 50 m. The removal of atrium walls in the model to allow free development of the BSP is a unique approach among published numerical modeling studies of BSP behaviour. The high-elevation CFD model was used to perform a parametric study of BSP mass flow rate as a function of elevation, fire size and fire compartment geometry. Predictions of BSP mass flow rate from this study extend to 50 m above the atrium floor, extending the range of elevations represented in the published experimental data (<= 9 m). Data from the parametric study was used to develop a new method for estimation of BSP mass flow rates at high elevations. BSP mass flow rates estimated using the new method are shown to be bounded by values estimated using existing methods based on low-elevation experimental data.

A series of numerical modeling studies were conducted to characterize the mass flow rates in balcony spill plumes (BSP), a type of buoyant fire plume occurring in atria. The variation of BSP mass flow rate as a function of elevation, fire size and fire compartment geometry was examined both numerically and experimentally. A new method for estimation of BSP mass flow rates, appropriate for design of smoke management systems in high-elevation atria, was developed based on simulations of BSP mass flow rate. An experimental program conducted in a 12 m high atrium measured BSP mass flow rates as well as temperatures in the fire compartment and atrium. This data was used to evaluate CFD models of the fire compartment and atrium in the experimental facility. These were implemented using the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) software. The models were extended to investigate BSP behaviour at elevations up to 50 m. The removal of atrium walls in the model to allow free development of the BSP is a unique approach among published numerical modeling studies of BSP behaviour. The high-elevation CFD model was used to perform a parametric study of BSP mass flow rate as a function of elevation, fire size and fire compartment geometry. Predictions of BSP mass flow rate from this study extend to 50 m above the atrium floor, extending the range of elevations represented in the published experimental data (<= 9 m). Data from the parametric study was used to develop a new method for estimation of BSP mass flow rates at high elevations. BSP mass flow rates estimated using the new method are shown to be bounded by values estimated using existing methods based on low-elevation experimental data.