This study tested the precision and accuracy of a triethanolamine (TEA) absorbent in the OgawaTM Passive Sampling Device (PSD) for detection of ambient hydrogen fluoride (HF). The project was initiated to develop a method to verify compliance with emissions regulations for Coronet. Field and laboratory trials were conducted. Mixed cellulose ester filters were saturated with 70% TEA and placed in the PSDs. Aermod ISCT3 modeled ambient HF concentrations at Coronet to guide deployment of PSDs at 28 sampling stations, 3 PSDs per station, 500 to 3500 meters from Coronet. After 30 days of sampling, ambient HF concentrations were calculated from ion chromatographic (IC) analysis (NIOSH Method 7906/AS14 column) results to be in the low parts per billion (ppb) range. Concentration increased with proximity to Coronet as predicted by Aermod ISCT3. Average precision for collocated PSDs was less than 5%. Laboratory validation of the method used a HF permeation tube in a Teflon and high density polyethylene (HDPE) sampling train with silica-dried ultra zero air and crushed sodium hydroxide (NaOH) reference samplers. PSD accuracy was a constant 23% average and average precision was 32%, dropping 50% with minor procedural improvements. Validated field results verified compliance with HF emissions regulations for Coronet.

Over the past several decades, the use of groundwater modelling has been increasing in order to better evaluate the complexities inherent in hydrogeological calculations. Information required for groundwater modelling is for example elevation of soil and bedrock layers, which often is collected by drilling. This is both time consuming and expensive, making it impossible to collect an unlimited number of data points. It is not uncommon that smaller hydrogeological investigations are based on only three or four sample points. To approximate values of unknown points in the study area, the known values of the measured data is interpolated. The interpolation can be done with different methods, and the estimations of the elevation of geological layers at the unknown points might vary with different methods. How the uncertainty of the interpolations then affects the modelling results is generally unknown when simulating groundwater flow. The aim of the thesis work is to investigate how hydrogeological results from groundwater models are affected by choice of interpolation method and by sample size of which the interpolation is based on. The hydrogeological models were simulated within the framework of a Swedish railway project where an unusually large number of probing data was available. The study focuses on two-dimensional, steady-state groundwater flow modelled in the software SEEP/W. Consequently, the objective of the modelling work was to simulate groundwater flow where the difference between the models was how the geometry of the geological layers was defined. The definition of the geometry was done with interpolations of the probing data with different interpolation methods and with interpolation based on different sample sizes. Twelve different interpolation methods in the software Surfer was used to interpolate the total of 357 data points. The interpolations that were estimated to be reliable were then used in the groundwater modelling. Groundwater models were also simulated based on a reduced amount of data in order to investigate the importance of sample size. The total amount of data points was reduced to 50%, 25%, 5% and 1% of the initial sample size before it was interpolated and then used to define the geometry in the groundwater models. The study showed that although the choice of interpolation method and sample size affected the results of the modelled groundwater flow rate, none of the deviations between the model results were larger than what would be considered as acceptable in a hydrogeological context. The models based on at least 90 data points showed good precision while the precision of modelled groundwater flow decreased when sample size decreased. Thus, when interpolating data for groundwater modelling, the sample size should be determined by the required precision of the study. For the modelling of the 1% data, only one of the six models was possible to simulate. This since at least three data points are required for each geological layer in order to perform interpolations, and this was only obtained in one of six randomly selected data sets. The study indicates that around 10-20 sample points is a minimum for a study area with similar conditions as the reference project in order to have a high probability of obtaining enough data of all geological layers of interest. Finally, the study indicates that there are other parameters in groundwater modelling, for example hydraulic conductivity and boundary conditions, that might have an equal of higher impact on the model results. These parameters should therefore also be determined with a high precision in order to gain accurate modelling results. / Under de senaste årtiondena har användandet av grundvattenmodeller ökat för att bättre kunna hantera komplexitet inom hydrogeologiska beräkningar. För att kunna skapa en grundvattenmodell krävs exempelvis data över hur lager av jord och berg är beläget. Dessa geologiska data samlas vanligen i borrpunkter, vilket är både tidskrävande och dyrt. Detta gör det omöjligt att erhålla ett obegränsat antal mätpunkter och det är vanligt att mindre hydrogeologiska undersökningar endast utgår ifrån tre till fyra mätpunkter. Utifrån det begränsade antalet mätpunkter interpoleras kända nivåer av jord- och berglager för att approximera nivåer i okända punkter. Interpolering görs med hjälp av olika matematiska metoder och resultatet av dessa kan variera mellan olika metoder. Hur osäkerheter i interpolering sedan påverkar resultat från grundvattenmodellering är vanligtvis okänt. Syftet med examensarbetet är att undersöka hur hydrogeologiska resultat från grundvattenmodeller påverkas av val av interpolerings metod samt av antal mätpunkter som interpoleringen är baserad på. Grundvattenmodellerna skapades inom ramen av ett svenskt järnvägsprojekt där ovanligt stora mängder sonderingsdata fanns tillgängligt. Undersökningen fokuserar på steady-state grundvattenflöden i två dimensioner, modellerat i programmet SEEP/W. Undersökningen utgick därmed från sonderingsdata i referensprojektet för att skapa ett antal grundvattenmodeller, där skillnaden mellan dessa var hur nivån av de geologiska lagren definierades. Detta gjordes med hjälp av olika interpoleringsmetoder och med interpolering baserad på olika mängder data punkter. Tolv olika interpoleringsmetoder i programmet Surfer användes för att interpolera de totalt 357 data punkterna. De interpoleringar som kunde antas vara rimliga användes sedan för att definiera geometrin i olika grundvattenmodeller. Grundvattenmodeller skapades även utifrån en reducerad mängd data för att undersöka betydelsen av antal mätpunkter vid interpolering. Antal mätpunkter reducerades till 50%, 25%, 5% och 1% och interpolering av dessa användes sedan för att definiera geometrin i olika grundvattenmodeller. Studien visade att även om modeller baserade på olika interpoleringsmetoder och interpolering av olika antal mätpunkter genererade något olika resultat med avseende på modellerat grundvattenflöde, så var inget av resultaten mer avvikande än vad som i ett hydrogeologiskt sammanhang skulle klassas som acceptabelt. Vidare visade resultaten att modeller baserade på 90 data punkter eller mer hade en bra precision av modellerat grundvattenflöde samt att minskat antal mätpunkter ledde till minskad precision. Antal mätpunkter i en undersökning bör därmed väljas utifrån hur bra precision som bör uppnås. Dock kan ett lägre antal mätpunkter försvaras om erhållen precision vägs mot hur resurskrävande insamling av data är. Modelleringen av 1% data visade att endast en av de sex modellerna gick att skapa. Detta var på grund av att minst tre datapunkter för varje geologiskt lager krävdes för att interpolera data och detta uppnåddes alltså bara i en av de slumpade data seten. För att ha en hög sannolikhet att erhålla tillräckligt med data för varje jord- eller berglager av intresse indikerar denna studien på att 10 till 20 mätpunkter är tillräckligt i en undersökning med liknande förutsättningar som i referensprojektet. Slutligen så indikerar studien på att det finns andra parametrar, exempelvis hydraulisk konduktivitet och randvillkor, som kan ha liknande eller större inverkan på modellerat grundvattenflöde och för att få noggranna resultat bör även dessa parametrar bestämmas med hög precision.

This thesis is focused on temporal information processing, which is a task framed in the field of natural language processing. The aim of this task is to obtain the temporal location and ordering of the events expressed in text or discourse, which requires the automatic interpretation of temporal expressions, events, and the temporal relations between them. The majority of current approaches are based on morphosyntactic knowledge. However, temporal entities are often ambiguous at that language analysis level. Our hypothesis is that the linguistic expression of time is a semantic phenomenon and therefore, to achieve a better extraction performance, temporal information must be processed using semantics. To prove this hypothesis, we present a semantic approach to temporal information processing: TIPSem. This is an automated system that includes features based on lexical semantics, semantic roles, and temporal semantics, in addition to morphosyntactic features. TIPSem has been empirically evaluated through the participation in the TempEval-2 international evaluation exercise and subsequent experiments based on this test. The results obtained firmly support the presented hypothesis and their analysis demonstrates that semantic features aid in handling morphosyntactic ambiguity and favour generalization capabilities. These conclusions have been reached for different languages (i.e., English, Spanish, Italian, and Chinese), which supports the defended hypothesis at a multilingual level. Finally, as compared with the state of the art, TIPSem obtains a very competitive performance level and introduces a remarkable improvement in event processing. TIPSem has been applied to the problem of graphical representation of temporal information. We have developed a dynamic interface which brings users time-based access to information: Time-Surfer. The results obtained through a user-oriented evaluation of this interface demonstrate that TIPSem’s performance is also satisfactory from an extrinsic standpoint. / This PhD thesis has been supported by the Spanish Government, in projects: TIN-2006-15265-C06-01, TIN-2009-13391-C04-01 and PROMETEO/2009/119, where Hector Llorens is funded under a FPI grant (BES-2007-16256).

In July 2001 in the region of Kastri Platanistou in Evia, Greece a wind power park of 5 MWinstalled capacity, began its commercial power production under the supervision of the companyMELTEMI-KASTRI.During these 6 years of its operation significantly reduced incomes were recorded compared to theinitial study financial analysis. Apparently loss of income occurred due to technical failures;nevertheless more costly might have been a suboptimal primary energy analysis.Herein, the collected data from the nacelle of the wind turbines and a net installed in the site wereanalyzed in order to estimate the site’s wind energy potential and gain knowledge of the parametersthat so far affected the overall production. The analysis was performed through Windrose andWAsP software.Aiming to maximize the exploitation of the site’s wind energy potential, several wind turbinemodels in different installation points were examined. Further analysis of the exported resultsindicated the optimum scenario, finally suggested to the owners of the wind farm.

Innerhalb der letzten Jahre nahm der Anteil aktiver Internetnutzer über 50 Jahre rapide zu. Auch die damit verbundene Präsenz derer in sozialen Online-Medien erfuhr einen Zuwachs. Die Risiken und Potenziale der Aktivitäten auf diesen Plattformen wurden bisher nahezu ausschließlich altersunabhängig oder nur in Bezug auf eine recht junge Altersgruppe untersucht. Um auf den daraus ergehenden Forschungsbedarf zu reagieren, wurde auf Basis umfassender Literaturrecherche ein entsprechendes Messinstrument in Form eines Online-Fragebogens entwickelt. Hauptelemente sind dabei die Art und Weise der Social-Media-Nutzung, die durch den Grad der Depression repräsentierte psychische Gesundheit, sowie diese beeinflussende Faktoren. Zu Erfassung der depressiven Ausprägung wurde das verkürzte Beck-Depressions-Inventar implementiert und für einen Korrekturversuch des vermuteten Gender Bias angepasst. Der Feldzugang wurde durch das Respondent Driven Sampling in Kombination mit der Vorgehensweise des viralen Marketings geschaffen. Der Fragebogen sowie dessen geplante Verbreitung wurde mit Hilfe eines Pretest auf seine Güte und etwaige Probleme geprüft. Um die ermittelten Effekte der Zielgruppe (N=25) verlässlich zuschreiben zu können, wurde in gleichem Maß eine Refrenzgruppe (N=26) befragt. Die ermittelten Ergebnisse konnten einen Optimierungsbedarf am Erhebungsinstrument und der Umsetzung der gewählten Verbreitungsmethode aufzeigen. Zudem wurden erste Erfolge für den Ausgleichsversuch des Gender Bias verzeichnet. Die Zusammenhänge von Art und Weise der Social-Media-Nutzung und dem Grad der Depressionen wurden in Anlehnung an bestehende theoretische Ansätze untersucht. Neben der persönlichen Relevanz einzelner Grundfunktionen konnten bei den Silver Surfern vor allem die Motive sozialer Interaktion innerhalb sozialer Online-Medien die Ausprägung von Depressionen erklären.

During discussions in collocated work it is necessary to vote for results or to rate them to reach an agreement and continue working. To ensure impartiality and to avoid social embarrassment, the assessment should then be performed anonymously in so far as other groups members should not see directly how a person votes or rates. With a growing number of digital devices in collaboration, this requirement also concerns such kinds of equipment. Our approach of ensuring anonymity of individual votes and ratings submitted on personal mobile phones is to avoid shoulder surfing activities. For this purpose, we designed four device-based interactions that aim at being easy to use and eyes-free to perform to stay in touch with the environment and potential shoulder surfers. We conducted a user study to investigate these interaction techniques and observed seven groups with four participants each while testing the interactions. Participants evaluated usability and User Experience (UX) aspects as well as unobtrusiveness of the four device-based interactions. Furthermore, participants gave valuable user feedback and stated that our proposed interactions help to avoid shoulder surfing.

Innerhalb der letzten Jahre nahm der Anteil aktiver Internetnutzer über 50 Jahre rapide zu. Auch die damit verbundene Präsenz derer in sozialen Online-Medien erfuhr einen Zuwachs. Die Risiken und Potenziale der Aktivitäten auf diesen Plattformen wurden bisher nahezu ausschließlich altersunabhängig oder nur in Bezug auf eine recht junge Altersgruppe untersucht. Um auf den daraus ergehenden Forschungsbedarf zu reagieren, wurde auf Basis umfassender Literaturrecherche ein entsprechendes Messinstrument in Form eines Online-Fragebogens entwickelt. Hauptelemente sind dabei die Art und Weise der Social-Media-Nutzung, die durch den Grad der Depression repräsentierte psychische Gesundheit, sowie diese beeinflussende Faktoren. Zu Erfassung der depressiven Ausprägung wurde das verkürzte Beck-Depressions-Inventar implementiert und für einen Korrekturversuch des vermuteten Gender Bias angepasst. Der Feldzugang wurde durch das Respondent Driven Sampling in Kombination mit der Vorgehensweise des viralen Marketings geschaffen. Der Fragebogen sowie dessen geplante Verbreitung wurde mit Hilfe eines Pretest auf seine Güte und etwaige Probleme geprüft. Um die ermittelten Effekte der Zielgruppe (N=25) verlässlich zuschreiben zu können, wurde in gleichem Maß eine Refrenzgruppe (N=26) befragt. Die ermittelten Ergebnisse konnten einen Optimierungsbedarf am Erhebungsinstrument und der Umsetzung der gewählten Verbreitungsmethode aufzeigen. Zudem wurden erste Erfolge für den Ausgleichsversuch des Gender Bias verzeichnet. Die Zusammenhänge von Art und Weise der Social-Media-Nutzung und dem Grad der Depressionen wurden in Anlehnung an bestehende theoretische Ansätze untersucht. Neben der persönlichen Relevanz einzelner Grundfunktionen konnten bei den Silver Surfern vor allem die Motive sozialer Interaktion innerhalb sozialer Online-Medien die Ausprägung von Depressionen erklären.

Prehistoric cultures are often studied by intrasite artifact variation and quantity without much consideration of how prehistoric populations interacted locally and regionally. Archaeologists can identify and study patterns associated with activities within a specified radius in order to gain an understanding of cultural operations. Identifying a social framework for a prehistoric society allows the investigation of group organization such as status differentiation, shared rituals, and the construction and maintenance of earthworks and living areas. That facilities were constructed for specialized use within a community is evidenced by the presence of earthworks and mounds at many sites (Lewis et al. 1998:16-17). Less well understood is how community patterns reflect social organization. The purpose of this thesis is to better document the number and distribution of structures at Lyon’s Bluff, a Mississippian to Protohistoric-period mound site in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi. The focus will be on the last part of the occupation at the site, i.e., on materials recovered from the plowzone. A method employing molluscan remains and sedimentological evidence is used that allows for the delineation of structure locales using plowzone samples. Additional evidence is provided by artifact distributions and geophysical (magnetic gradiometer) data.

Although the physical characteristics of surfing breaks are well described in the literature, there is little specific research on surfing and coastal management. Such research is required because coastal engineering has had significant impacts to surfing breaks, both positive and negative. Strategic planning and environmental impact assessment methods, a central tenet of integrated coastal zone management (ICZM), are recommended by this thesis to maximise surfing amenities. The research reported here identifies key oceanographic considerations required for ICZM around surfing breaks including: surfing wave parameters; surfing break components; relationship between surfer skill, surfing manoeuvre type and wave parameters; wind effects on waves; currents; geomorphic surfing break categorisation; beach-state and morphology; and offshore wave transformations. Key coastal activities that can have impacts to surfing breaks are identified. Environmental data types to consider during coastal studies around surfing breaks are presented and geographic information systems (GIS) are used to manage and interpret such information. To monitor surfing breaks, a shallow water multibeam echo sounding system was utilised and a RTK GPS water level correction and hydrographic GIS methodology developed. Including surfing in coastal management requires coastal engineering solutions that incorporate surfing. As an example, the efficacy of the artificial surfing reef (ASR) at Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, was evaluated. GIS, multibeam echo soundings, oceanographic measurements, photography, and wave modelling were all applied to monitor sea floor morphology around the reef. Results showed that the beach-state has more cellular circulation since the reef was installed, and a groin effect on the offshore bar was caused by the structure within the monitoring period, trapping sediment updrift and eroding sediment downdrift. No identifiable shoreline salient was observed. Landward of the reef, a scour hole ~3 times the surface area of the reef has formed. The current literature on ASRs has primarily focused on reef shape and its role in creating surfing waves. However, this study suggests that impacts to the offshore bar, beach-state, scour hole and surf zone hydrodynamics should all be included in future surfing reef designs. More real world reef studies, including ongoing monitoring of existing surfing reefs are required to validate theoretical concepts in the published literature.