The demand for flat glass is high and increasing significantly in the building industry as a direct result of architectural requirements for lightness, transparency and natural light. Current architectural trends require glass in curvilinear forms for smooth free-form façades. Two principal challenges arise from this: to cost-effectively produce the desired curvature and; to ensure its safe performance after exposure to ageing. The recent availability of high strength glass provides an opportunity to address the first challenge by developing cold bent glass. Cold bending involves the straining of relatively thin glass components, at ambient temperatures, and is a low energy and cost effective manner of creating curvilinear forms. However, cold bending is not yet widely established as a reliable method. The aim of this thesis is to develop the understanding of cold bent glass during the bending process and to evaluate its post-ageing performance. This thesis, firstly, investigates the mechanical response of monolithic glass plates during the cold bending process. The stability of cold bent glass is investigated experimentally by bending it in double curved anticlastic shapes. A parametric numerical analysis involves different boundary conditions, geometrical plate characteristics and bending parameters. The principal outcome is that a local instability, now termed cold bending distortion, occurs when certain displacement limits are exceeded and could degrade the optical quality of the glass. An evaluation procedure is also formulated to set limits and aid designers/manufacturers to predict the mechanical response and the optical quality of the glass. Cold bent glass is subjected to permanent bending stresses throughout its service life and therefore, its strength degradation after ageing needs to be quantified. Analytical, experimental and numerical investigations are undertaken in this thesis to identify the most effective method for estimating glass strength (evaluation of destructive tests, required number of specimens, statistical analysis methods and sub-critical crack growth). The limited availability of naturally aged toughened glass and the absence of a reliable ageing standard impede the evaluation of its aged performance. Therefore, a parametric experimental investigation of artificial ageing methods on glass is undertaken in this thesis. A procedure for the evaluation of the strength of aged glass is finally, formulated to allow the selection of artificial ageing parameters that correspond to a target level of erosion. The knowledge on artificial ageing and strength prediction acquired above is finally implemented on different types of glass to determine their strength after ageing and assess their safe use in cold bending / load bearing applications. The investigation showed that fully toughened glass has a superior performance to chemically toughened or annealed glass. Overall, the research presented in this thesis demonstrates that high quality cold bent toughened glass can be created when certain applied displacement limits are respected. These can be used as a safe, cost-effective and energy efficient replacement to the more conventional hot bent glass. However, cold bending / load bearing applications in which the stressed glass surface is exposed to ageing, require glass with a relatively high case depth such as fully toughened or bi-tempered glass.

This study investigated whether girls achieve better results in Physical Science in single sex environments or in co-educational classes. Thirteen independent South African schools where children were of similar socio-economic background were considered. Grade 12 Matriculation Physical Science examination results for 1999 to 2003 were analysed using Bonferroni (Dunn) t-Tests and Scheffe's Tests. Questionnaires were completed by a small number of students in order to compare their attitudes towards Physical Science and examined qualitatively. There were significant differences found by the administration of the Bonferroni (Dunn) t-Tests and Scheffe's Tests in 2000, 2001 and 2002 to indicate that girls in single sex schools achieved better results in Science than the co-educational schools. However, in 1999 and 2003 there was no significant difference in the results achieved, and so there may be other factors that are more important predictors of achievement than whether the schools are mixed or single sex. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Natural Science Teaching)

L’industrie microélectronique est un domaine compétitif, confronté de manière permanente à plusieurs défis. Pour évaluer les étapes de fabrication, des tests de qualité sont appliqués. Ces tests étant discontinus, une défaillance des équipements peut causer une dégradation de la qualité du produit. Des alarmes peuvent être déclenchées pour indiquer des problèmes. D’autre part, on dispose d’une grande quantité de données des équipements obtenues à partir de capteurs. Une gestion des alarmes, une interpolation de mesures de qualité et une réduction de données équipements sont nécessaires. Il s’agit dans notre travail à développer des méthodes génériques d’analyse multi-variée permettant d’agréger toutes les informations disponibles sur les équipements pour prédire la qualité de produit en prenant en compte la qualité des différentes étapes de fabrication. En se basant sur le principe de reconnaissance de formes, nous avons proposé une approche pour prédire le nombre de produits restant à produire avant les pertes de performance liée aux spécifications clients en fonction des indices de santé des équipement. Notre approche permet aussi d'isoler les équipements responsables de dégradation. En plus, une méthodologie à base de régression régularisée est développée pour prédire la qualité du produit tout en prenant en compte les relations de corrélations et de dépendance existantes dans le processus. Un modèle pour la gestion des alarmes est construit où des indices de criticité et de similarité sont proposés. Les données alarmes sont ensuite utilisées pour prédire le rejet de produits. Une application sur des données industrielles provenant de STMicroelectronics est fournie. / The microelectronics industry is a highly competitive field, constantly confronted with several challenges. To evaluate the manufacturing steps, quality tests are applied during and at the end of production. As these tests are discontinuous, a defect or failure of the equipment can cause a deterioration in the product quality and a loss in the manufacturing Yield. Alarms are setting off to indicate problems, but periodic alarms can be triggered resulting in alarm flows. On the other hand, a large quantity of data of the equipment obtained from sensors is available. Alarm management, interpolation of quality measurements and reduction of correlated equipment data are required. We aim in our work to develop generic methods of multi-variate analysis allowing to aggregate all the available information (equipment health indicators, alarms) to predict the product quality taking into account the quality of the various manufacturing steps. Based on the pattern recognition principle, data of the degradation trajectory are compared with health indices for failing equipment. The objective is to predict the remaining number of products before loss of the performance related to customer specifications, and the isolation of equipment responsible for degradation. In addition, regression- ased methods are used to predict the product quality while taking into account the existing correlation and the dependency relationships in the process. A model for the alarm management is constructed where criticality and similarity indices are proposed. Then, alarm data are used to predict the product scrap. An application to industrial data from STMicroelectronics is provided.

A lesão do plexo braquial é considerada a alteração neural mais grave das extremidades. A principal causa é o trauma de alta energia, especialmente acidentes envolvendo veículos a motor. Por este motivo, as lesões traumáticas do plexo braquial são cada vez mais frequentes. O presente estudo avaliou a acurácia da ressonância magnética (RM) no diagnóstico das lesões traumáticas do plexo braquial no adulto, utilizando o achado intraoperatório como padrão-ouro. Também foi avaliada a acurácia da neurografia pesada em difusão (neurografia DW) em relação à RM convencional e a capacidade de diferenciação dos três tipos de lesão: avulsão, ruptura e lesão em continuidade. Trinta e três pacientes com história e diagnóstico clínico de lesão traumática do plexo braquial foram prospectivamente estudados por RM. Os achados obtidos pela RM sem e com o uso da neurografia DW, e os achados de exame clínico foram comparados com os achados intraoperatórios. A análise estatística foi feita com associação de significância de 5%. Observou-se alta correlação entre a RM com neurografia DW e a cirurgia (rs=0,79), e baixa correlação entre a RM convencional e a cirurgia (rs=0,41). A correlação interobservador foi maior para a RM com neurografia DW (rs = 0,94) do que para a RM sem neurografia DW (rs = 0,75). Os resultados de sensibilidade, acurácia e valor preditivo positivo foram acima de 95% para as RM com e sem neurografia DW no estudo de todo o plexo. As especificidades foram, em geral, maiores para a neurografia DW (p < 0,05). Em relação à diferenciação dos tipos de lesão, a RM com neurografia DW apresentou altas acurácias e sensibilidades no diagnóstico da avulsão/rotura, e alta especificidade no diagnóstico da lesão em continuidade. A acurácia da RM (93,9%) foi significativamente maior que a do exame clínico (76,5%) no diagnóstico das lesões de todo o plexo braquial (p < 0,05). / Brachial plexus injury is considered the most severe neural disorder in the extremities and in general resulting from high-energy trauma in young patients, usually involving motor vehicles. For this reason, traumatic brachial plexus injuries are becoming more frequent. This study evaluated the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis of traumatic brachial plexus injuries in adults, using surgical findings as the gold standard method. We also evaluated the accuracy of diffusion weighted image neurography (DW neurography) compared to conventional MRI and the ability to differentiate the three types of injuries by MRI: avulsion, rupture and lesion-in-continuity. Thirty-three patients with clinical history and diagnosis of traumatic brachial plexus injury were prospectively studied by MRI. MRI findings (obtained with and without use of DW neurography) and clinical examination were compared with intraoperative findings. The statistical analysis was performed with 5% significance association. There was high correlation between MRI with DW neurography and surgery (rs = 0.79) and low correlation between conventional MRI and surgery (rs = 0.41). The interobserver correlation was higher for MRI with DW neurography (rs = 0.94) than for regular MRI (rs = 0.75). The sensitivities, accuracies and positive predictive values were above 95% for MRI (with and without DW neurography) in the evaluation of the entire plexus. The specificities were generally higher for DW neurography (p < 0.05). Regarding the differentiation between types of lesions, MRI with DW neurography demonstrated high accuracies and sensitivities in the diagnosis of avulsion / rupture and high specificity in the diagnosis of lesion-in-continuity. MRI accuracy (93.9%) was significantly higher than clinical examination (76.5%) in diagnosis of brachial plexus traumatic lesions (p < 0.05).

L'IRMd est un moyen non invasif permettant d'étudier in vivo la structure des fibres nerveuses du cerveau. Dans cette thèse, nous modélisons des données IRMd à l'aide de tenseurs d'ordre 4 (T4). Les problèmes de comparaison de groupes ou d'individu avec un groupe normal sont abordés, et résolus à l'aide d'analyses statistiques sur les T4s. Les approches utilisent des réductions non linéaires de dimension, et bénéficient des métriques non euclidiennes pour les T4s. Les statistiques sont calculées dans l'espace réduit, et permettent de quantifier la dissimilarité entre le groupe (ou l'individu) d'intérêt et le groupe de référence. Les approches proposées sont appliquées à la neuromyélite optique et aux patients atteints de locked in syndrome. Les conclusions tirées sont cohérentes avec les connaissances médicales actuelles. / DW-MRI is a non-invasive way to study in vivo the structure of nerve fibers in the brain. In this thesis, fourth order tensors (T4) were used to model DW-MRI data. In addition, the problems of group comparison or individual against a normal group were discussed and solved using statistical analysis on T4s. The approaches use nonlinear dimensional reductions, assisted by non-Euclidean metrics for T4s. The statistics are calculated in the reduced space and allow us to quantify the dissimilarity between the group (or the individual) of interest and the reference group. The proposed approaches are applied to neuromyelitis optica and patients with locked in syndrome. The derived conclusions are consistent with the current medical knowledge.

本論文的研究目的在於提出以臺灣學習者的需求分析為根基之韓語會話教材分析之方法論，進而提出為了開發臺灣韓語系學生專用會話教材而需要之基礎資料。本論文的章節構造如下： 第一章提出本研究之必要性與目的，再來探討與本研究有關之先行研究。本論文把有關先行研究分為‘韓語教材分析基準有關研究’、‘韓語學習者需求分析有關研究’、‘同時牽涉到教材分析與學習者需求分析之研究’，進而探討各研究之有意之處以及有限之處。接著提出研究對象及研究方法。 在第二章，首先提出本論文所設定的‘韓語會話教材分析標準’。 本論文以分析出‘教材的各部分多麼符合學習者的需求’為重點來設定了‘韓語會話教材分析標準’。此點為本論文所提出之‘韓語會話教材分析標準’與先行研究所提出之教材分析標準不同之處。而本研究的‘韓語會話教材分析標準’略分為‘外在構成分析標準’及‘內在構成分析標準’，而內在構成分析是由‘學習目標與構成分析’、‘學習資料分析’、‘學習內容分析’以及‘學習活動分析’來構成的。接著提出本研究所使用的‘學習者需求分析問卷’之問題組成。‘學習者需求分析問卷’是由本研究的‘韓語會話教材分析標準’當中需要查出學習者需求之項目為中心來構成的。 在第三章，先分析出使用‘學習者需求分析問卷’來進行的問卷調查結果，進而以此分析結果及在第二章所提出的‘韓語會話教材分析標準’為主要根基來進行‘學習者別教材分析’。藉此得知本研究的問卷對象，也就是國立政治大學韓國語文學系學生以及某一私立韓語補習班學生針對現用的會話教材具有什麼樣的想法並且想要什麼樣的會話教材。加上，也可得知國立政治大學韓國語文學系學生以及某一私立韓語補習班學生共同在使用的『재미있는 한국어』1～6冊多麼符合兩個具有不同特性的學習者集團之需求。 透過教材分析結果而得知外在構成上的‘學習情境’及‘原文翻譯’方面都符合兩個學習者集團的需求，但是‘文法索引’方面皆不符合兩個學習者集團的需求。還有‘說明語言’及‘教材相關附屬物’方面大致上比較符合補習班學生的需求。而藉內在構成分析而得知 ‘會話功能’方面皆符合兩個學習集團的需求。還有‘主題’、‘學習活動方式’以及‘練習題類型’方面相對傾向於符合韓語系學生集團的需求。而‘發音’、‘文法’、‘詞彙’及‘文化’方面比較傾向於符合補習班學生集團之需求。 在第四章，為開發符合臺灣韓語系學生的需求之臺灣韓語系學生專用會話教材，以第三章的分析結果為根據而提出建議。建議略分為‘提升外在構成之建議’及‘提升內在構成之建議’其中‘提升外在構成之建議’包含‘說明語言方面、索引方面、教材相關附屬物方面、教材的學習狀況前提方面以及翻譯文方面’之建議。而‘提升內在構成之建議’涵蓋‘主題方面、會話功能方面、發音方面、文法方面、詞彙方面、文化方面以及學習活動方面’之建議。 第五章整理研究內容，進而提出本研究之意義和限制。本研究提出了以學習者需求分析為根基的韓語會話教材分析之方法論，這是與以往個別進行學習者需求分析及教材分析之既有研究不同之處，也就是本研究之意義所在。加上本論文是第一篇分析出針對韓語會話教材的臺灣學習者之需求，以此為根基來進行教材分析，而提出了為開發臺灣韓語學習者專用教材所需要之基礎資料。而到目前為止幾乎尚未有臺灣韓語學習者需求分析研究或周密分析臺灣韓語教材之研究，在此情況下本研究更具有意義。 不過本研究之有限之處在於問卷對象被侷限於國立政治大學韓國語文學系學生以及某一私立補習班學生。還有本論文以所分析的教材為基準，僅提出韓語系學生專用會話教材之開發方向，具體的開發方案或單元構成模型，有待後續研究。 / The aim of this study is to propose a methodology for textbook analysis based on Taiwanese learners’ needs analysis and to present the basic data for developing conversation textbooks for Korean language major students in Taiwan. The structure of this paper is as follows: Chapter 1 states the need and purpose of this study and provides a review of related literature. Existing literature can be classified into 3 topics: ‘the standards for Korean textbooks analysis related studies’, ‘Korean learners’ needs analysis related studies’ and ‘studies that covers both Korean textbooks analysis and Korean learners’ needs analysis’. In addition, subjects and methodology of this study are also presented in chapter 1. Chapter 2 presents ‘the standards for analyzing Korean conversation textbook’ and the construction of the questionnaire applied in this study. This study has set the standards for Korean conversation textbook analysis focusing on analyzing to what extent a textbook meets the needs of the learners. This is what distinguishes ‘the standards for analyzing Korean conversation textbook’ set by this study from the other standards for Korean textbook analysis presented by existing studies. We classify ‘the standards for Korean conversation textbook analysis’ into ‘the standards for the analysis of external structures’ and ‘the standards for the analysis of internal structures’. Internal structures analysis consists of ‘lesson goals and unit structure analysis’, ‘learning materials analysis’, ‘learning contents analysis’ and ‘learning activities analysis’. ‘The questionnaire for learners’ needs analysis’ applied in this study is mainly composed of chosen questions among ‘the standards for Korean conversation textbook analysis’ that needs to acquire learners’ needs for analyzing. Chapter 3 analyzes the result of ‘the questionnaire for learners’ needs analysis’ and conducts ‘textbook analysis by different learners’ based on both ‘the standards for Korean conversation textbook analysis’ mentioned in chapter 2 and the result of the questionnaire. Through this analysis, we show the general opinions of the students in Korean language and culture department at National Cheng-Chi University and the students of one anonymous private institute. We document their opinions on the current conversation textbooks as well as the desired features of conversation textbooks from their perspective. Furthermore, we demonstrate how『재미있는 한국어』volume 1~6, which are used by both the students in Korean language and culture department at National Cheng-Chi University and the students of the anonymous private institute, meet the needs of these two groups of learners with different characteristics. Our result shows that in the external structures, needs in both ‘learning situation premise’ and ‘translation’ aspects are met in both groups. Needs in the ‘grammar index’ aspect, on the other hand, are not met in either group. In the ‘explanation language’ and ‘textbook appurtenances’ aspects, the textbooks coincide more with the needs of learners from the private institute in general. Looking at the internal structures, ‘communicative functions’ presented in the textbooks tends to meet the needs of both groups. Besides, ‘themes’, ‘way of activities’ and ‘type of activities’ presented in the textbooks tend to coincide more with the needs of Korean language majors in general, while in ‘pronunciation’, ‘grammar’, ‘vocabulary’ and ‘culture’ aspects, the textbooks tend to coincide more with the needs of learners from the private institute on the whole. Chapter 4 offers suggestions on developing conversation textbooks for Korean language major students in Taiwan based on the analyses of chapter 3. The suggestions are divided into two parts. First, ‘suggestions for the external structures’ improvement’ consist of ‘explanation language’, ‘index’, ‘textbook appurtenances’, ‘learning situation premise’ and ‘translation’ aspects. The composition of ‘suggestions for the internal structures’ improvement’, on the other hand, is ‘theme’, ‘communicative function’, ‘pronunciation’, ‘grammar’, ‘vocabulary’, ‘culture’ and ‘activity’ aspects. Chapter 5 summarizes the content of this study and states the significance and the limitation of this study. The significance of this study is that it has proposed the methodology of Korean conversation textbook analysis based on learners’ needs analysis, which is different from existing studies that have conducted learners’ needs analysis and textbook analysis separately. Furthermore, this is the first study that has not only analyzed Taiwanese learners’ needs about Korean conversation textbook but also analyzed textbooks based on those needs analysis, which provides basic data for developing textbooks for Taiwanese learners. Moreover, no study to our knowledge investigates Taiwanese learners’ needs or thoroughly analyzes Korean textbooks used in Taiwan, which is why this study bears big significance. The limitation of this study, on the other hand, is that the target of the questionnaire has been limited to the students in Korean language and culture department at National Cheng-Chi University and the students of one anonymous private institute. Another limitation of this study is that it has only suggested certain directions on the development of conversation textbooks for Korean language major students in Taiwan. Detailed development plan or specific models of unit structure rely on future research.

<p>Тема докторске дисертације је анализа квалитета воде Великог бачког канала, могућности санације и одрживо коришћење његових развојних потенцијала на каналској мрежи и њеном непосредном приобаљу. На основу расположивих података за десетогодишњи период (2000-2009) указало се на проблеме изазване одређеним загађивачима на целој дужини тока и анализиран је утицај најзначајнијих загађивача у насељима која се налазе у непосредној близини канала. Подаци који указују на квалитативну анализу воде помогли су да се направи корелација између квалитета каналске воде и ставова локалног становништва у погледу коришћења Великог бачког канала у привредне сврхе. Циљ дисертације је да дефинише квалитет каналске воде коришћењем хидролошких и статистичких метода који се тренутно широко примењују у многим истраживањима, као и да укаже који од метода дају најбоље резултате. У циљу добијања неопходних резултата, коришћено је више метода, као што су: Serbian Water Quality Index (SWQI), применa hi-квадрат теста, дескриптивна статистичка анализа, t-тест за независне узорке, једнофакторска анализа варијансе АNOVA и израчунавања коефицијента корелације. На основу статистичке обраде података видимо да на читавом току Великог бачког канала, који је дуг свега 123 km постоје деонице (профили I, II и III) које су чисте и у потпуности погодне за експлоатацију и одрживо коришћење свих његових функција, и деоница (профил IV) која је у потпуности деградирана и неупотребљива. На каналу је карактеристично органско загађење. Најзначајнији индустријски објекти лоцирани су у централном делу Великог бачког канала, где је и евидентирано највеће загађење, у општини Врбас. Фарма свиња &bdquo;Farmakoop&ldquo;, фабрика уља &bdquo;Витал&ldquo;, и кланица &bdquo;Carnex&ldquo;, су вруће тачке које су углавном одговорне за лошу еколошку ситуацију у каналу. На простору око Великог бачког канала мали је број фабрика које примењују еколошке стандарде, а само неке од њих имају примарна или секундарна постројења за претходну обраду отпадних вода пре испуштања у реципијент. Резултати SWQI анализе показали су да су деонице на профилима I, II, III и V у потпуности погодне за привредни развој (SWQI&gt;70) а да је деоница на профилу IV (SWQI&lt;37) у потпуности деградирана. Као идеално решење за смањење загађења Великог бачког канала наводи се изградња и употреба централног постројења за прераду отпадних вода, као и коришћење отпадних индустријских и комуналних вода у пољопривреди. На основу резултата анкетног истраживања видимо да локално становништво сматра да Велики бачки канал може да поврати већи део својих ранијих функција (наводњавање, одводњавање, пловидба, узгој рибе...). Да би се то и десило неопходно је контролисати места улива отпадних вода у Канал, а саме отпадне воде третирати и довести у стање у ком неће угрозити његов квалитет воде. Одговори испитаника се разликују у зависности од њиховог места становања, где се посебно истичу становници Врбаса са изузетно негативним ставовима, што је и за очекивати с обзиром на резултате квалитета воде на овом делу Канала.[</p> / <p>Tema doktorske disertacije je analiza kvaliteta vode Velikog bačkog kanala, mogućnosti sanacije i održivo korišćenje njegovih razvojnih potencijala na kanalskoj mreži i njenom neposrednom priobalju. Na osnovu raspoloživih podataka za desetogodišnji period (2000-2009) ukazalo se na probleme izazvane određenim zagađivačima na celoj dužini toka i analiziran je uticaj najznačajnijih zagađivača u naseljima koja se nalaze u neposrednoj blizini kanala. Podaci koji ukazuju na kvalitativnu analizu vode pomogli su da se napravi korelacija između kvaliteta kanalske vode i stavova lokalnog stanovništva u pogledu korišćenja Velikog bačkog kanala u privredne svrhe. Cilj disertacije je da definiše kvalitet kanalske vode korišćenjem hidroloških i statističkih metoda koji se trenutno široko primenjuju u mnogim istraživanjima, kao i da ukaže koji od metoda daju najbolje rezultate. U cilju dobijanja neophodnih rezultata, korišćeno je više metoda, kao što su: Serbian Water Quality Index (SWQI), primena hi-kvadrat testa, deskriptivna statistička analiza, t-test za nezavisne uzorke, jednofaktorska analiza varijanse ANOVA i izračunavanja koeficijenta korelacije. Na osnovu statističke obrade podataka vidimo da na čitavom toku Velikog bačkog kanala, koji je dug svega 123 km postoje deonice (profili I, II i III) koje su čiste i u potpunosti pogodne za eksploataciju i održivo korišćenje svih njegovih funkcija, i deonica (profil IV) koja je u potpunosti degradirana i neupotrebljiva. Na kanalu je karakteristično organsko zagađenje. Najznačajniji industrijski objekti locirani su u centralnom delu Velikog bačkog kanala, gde je i evidentirano najveće zagađenje, u opštini Vrbas. Farma svinja &bdquo;Farmakoop&ldquo;, fabrika ulja &bdquo;Vital&ldquo;, i klanica &bdquo;Carnex&ldquo;, su vruće tačke koje su uglavnom odgovorne za lošu ekološku situaciju u kanalu. Na prostoru oko Velikog bačkog kanala mali je broj fabrika koje primenjuju ekološke standarde, a samo neke od njih imaju primarna ili sekundarna postrojenja za prethodnu obradu otpadnih voda pre ispuštanja u recipijent. Rezultati SWQI analize pokazali su da su deonice na profilima I, II, III i V u potpunosti pogodne za privredni razvoj (SWQI&gt;70) a da je deonica na profilu IV (SWQI&lt;37) u potpunosti degradirana. Kao idealno rešenje za smanjenje zagađenja Velikog bačkog kanala navodi se izgradnja i upotreba centralnog postrojenja za preradu otpadnih voda, kao i korišćenje otpadnih industrijskih i komunalnih voda u poljoprivredi. Na osnovu rezultata anketnog istraživanja vidimo da lokalno stanovništvo smatra da Veliki bački kanal može da povrati veći deo svojih ranijih funkcija (navodnjavanje, odvodnjavanje, plovidba, uzgoj ribe...). Da bi se to i desilo neophodno je kontrolisati mesta uliva otpadnih voda u Kanal, a same otpadne vode tretirati i dovesti u stanje u kom neće ugroziti njegov kvalitet vode. Odgovori ispitanika se razlikuju u zavisnosti od njihovog mesta stanovanja, gde se posebno ističu stanovnici Vrbasa sa izuzetno negativnim stavovima, što je i za očekivati s obzirom na rezultate kvaliteta vode na ovom delu Kanala.[</p> / <p>The topic of this PhD thesis is the quality analysis of the Veliki Backi Canal water, possible recovery and sustainable use of its development potential over the canal network and its immediate banks area. Based on the relevant data for a ten-year period (2000-2009) certain problems surfaced caused by various polluters throughout the entire canal and the impact of the most significant polluters on populated areas in the vicinity of the canal has been analysed. Data gathered with qualitative analyses of water helped in establishing the correlation between the quality of canal water and local population attitude towards the use of the Veliki Backi Canal for commercial purposes. The purpose of this thesis is to define the quality of canal water using hydrologic and statistic methods, currently widely used in numerous researches, as well as to pinpoint which method provides the best results. In order to obtain the necessary data various methods were used: Serbian Water Quality Index (SWQI), application of hi-square test, descriptive statistic analysis, t-test for independent samples, one-factor analyses of variance АNOVA and the correlation coefficient measurement. Based on statistical data it can be observed that there are different sections of the entire Veliki Backi Canal, only 123 km in length. There are sections (profiles I, II and III) which are clean and fully appropriate for exploitation and sustainable use of all its functions. However, there is also a section (profile IV) which is completely degraded and unusable. Another characteristic of the Canal is organic pollution. The biggest industrial facilities are based in the central part of the Veliki Backi Canal with highest pollution in the municiplaity Vrbas. There are hot spots, such as a pig farm &bdquo;Farmakoop&ldquo;,oil factory &ldquo;Vital&rdquo; and slaughterhouse &bdquo;Carnex&ldquo;, mainly responsible for poor ecological state of the Canal. An insignificant number of factories in the area of the Veliki Backi Canal apply ecology standards and only few have primary or secondary facilities for pre-treatment of waste water before discharge into the recipient. SWQI analyses results show that the Canal sections with profiles I, II, III and V are entirely appropriate for economic development (SWQI&gt;70) whereas the section with profile IV (SWQI&lt;37) is completely degraded. In order to decrease pollution of the Veliki Backi Canal, as the ideal solution is suggested to construct the central facility for pre-treatment of wastewater as well as to use industrial and utility wastewater in agriculture. According to the survey results the locals believe that the Veliki Backi Canal could recover most of its previous functions (irrigation, drainage, sailing, fish farming....). In order to ensure something like that it would be necessary to control wastewater flow spots and to treat the wastewater so that it does not endanger the water quality of the Canal. The survey responses differ according to the area of living with particularly negative attitudes of people from Vrbas and that was to be expected if we bear in mind the worst water quality results in this part of the Canal.</p>

The effect of shale gas activities on ground-level ozone pollution in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is studied in detail here. Ozone is a highly reactive species with harmful effects on human and environment. Shale gas development, or fracking, involves activities such as hydraulic fracturing, drilling, fluid mixing, and trucks idling that are sources of nitrogen oxides (NOX) and volatile organic compounds (VOC), two of the most important precursors of ozone. In this study two independent approaches have been applied in evaluating the influences on ozone concentrations. In the first approach, the influence of meteorology were removed from ozone time series through the application of Kolmogorov-Zurbenko low-pass filter, logarithmic transformation, and subsequent multi-linear regression. Ozone measurement data were acquired from Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) monitoring stations for 14 years. The comparison between ozone trends in non-shale gas region and shale gas region shows increasing ozone trends at the monitoring stations in close proximity to the Barnett Shale activities. In the second approach, the CAMx photochemical model was used to assess the sensitivity of ozone to the NOX and VOC sources associated with shale oil and gas activities. Brute force method was applied on Barnett Shale and Haynesville Shale emission sources to generate four hypothetical scenarios. Ozone sensitivity analysis was performed for a future year of 2018 and it was based on the photochemical simulation that TCEQ had developed for demonstrating ozone attainment under the State Implementation Plan (SIP). Results showed various level of ozone impact at different locations within the DFW region attributed to area and point sources of emissions in the shale region. Maximum ozone impact due to shale gas activities is expected to be in the order of several parts per billion, while lower impacts on design values were predicted. The results from the photochemical modeling can be used for health impact assessment and air quality management purposes. Both studies in this research show that the impact of shale gas development on local and regional level of ozone is significant, and therefore, it should be considered in the implementation of effective air quality strategies.

The number of public markets in the United States increased from more than 300 in the 1970s to more than 8,600 by 2016. This increase in markets is related to changes in food production, localism and the local food systems movement, socioeconomic changes, cultural changes, and perceptions of embeddedness. Research on the underlying conditions for the success of public markets is scant in the United States, and especially in the USDA Southwest Region. This study provides analysis of public market locations as compared with non-market locations by drive-time trade areas during a 20-year period, 1996 and 2016, to gain further insights into factors leading to their success. The results from logit regression analyses and simulations of socioeconomic, college-town status, and climate-grid classifications find an increased likelihood of public markets with population, education, college town status, and some climate-grid locations. Median income, surprisingly, has an inverse relationship with public market success. Qualitative data and a literature review point to three types of embeddedness that motivate customers to attend public markets. This study concludes that "local nontradable consumer goods" tied to place are offered at these "nontradable consumption amenities." These amenities are "third places" that promote social interaction and become important places of community, farmer support, and commerce across the Southwest Region.

Test 3F is used to diagnose the extent of motor speech disorder – dysarthria for czech speakers. The evaluation of dysarthric speech is distorted by subjective assessment. The motivation behind this thesis is that there are not many automatic and objective analysis tools that can be used to evaluate phonation, articulation, prosody and respiration of speech disorder. The aim of this diploma thesis is to identify, implement and test acoustic features of speech that could be used to objectify and automate the evaluation. These features should be easily interpretable by the clinician. It is assumed that the evaluation could be more precise because of the detailed analysis that acoustic features provide. The performance of these features was tested on database of 151 czech speakers that consists of 51 healthy speakers and 100 patients. Statistical analysis and methods of machine learning were used to identify the correlation between features and subjective assesment. 27 of total 30 speech tasks of Test 3F were identified as suitable for automatic evaluation. Within the scope of this thesis only 10 tasks of Test 3F were tested because only a limited part of the database could be preprocessed. The result of statistical analysis is 14 features that were most useful for the test evaluation. The most significant features are: MET (respiration), relF0SD (intonation), relSEOVR (voice intensity – prosody). The lowest prediction error of the machine learning regression models was 7.14 %. The conclusion is that the evaluation of most of the tasks of Test 3F can be automated. The results of analysis of 10 tasks shows that the most significant factor in dysarthria evaluation is limited expiration, monotone voice and low variabilty of speech intensity.