The purpose of this thesis is to study the relationship between prevalence of swing voters and the occurrence of political protest. Taking a Rational Choice approach, I hypothesize that fewer swing voters will lead to more protests, because it would incentivize polarizing behavior by political candidates. The hypothesis is tested using protest data from US congressional districts during six months of 2020 as the dependent variable, and the concept of voter elasticity as the main independent variable in a multiple regression analysis, along with various control variables. The results tentatively indicate that the hypothesis is correct, but exhibit high levels of uncertainty, highlighting potential for future research.

The diploma thesis deals with putting the pendulum into upright position and its stabilization on a real system. The opening chapter describes the limiting various implementation inverse pendulums, the use of major laboratory tasks in industry, and the selection of appropriate methods for stabilization. The real system was properly identified and parameterized. The mathematical model of the inverse pendulum was derived using the Lagrange method of the second type, the nonlinear system was converted into a status description and linearized for the needs of the state controller design. The system was simulated in the Matlab Simulink environment. The LQR controller was chosen as the regulator stabilizing in upright cases. A Kalman controller in discrete form was prepared for the filter signal and estimation of residual states. The energy method was chosen for the upright pendulums. The proposed methods were tested and implemented in simulation and on a real system.

This diploma thesis deals with the topic of rendering HTML/CSS documents using the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) language. The goal of this thesis is to design and implement an extension for the CSSBox library, which will be able to generate a vector output. First, we provide a description of the SVG language and some Java libraries that can be used for creating SVG documents. After that, there is description of the CSSBox library. Then, we perform an analysys of selected CSS3 features. The main part of this thesis is the design of a solution for rendering various CSS3 attributes such as rounded corners, gradients or transformations using SVG. After the design, there is a description of the implementation and evaluation of the achieved results using various tests. The conclusion offers some possibilities of extending this thesis.

Title: Muscle tightness and range of motion analysis of selected upper body segments an its connection to selected parametres of experienced junior golf players swing. Objectives: The aim of this work is to assess muscle tightness, range of motion and golf swing kinematics of experienced junior golf players and to evaluate possible connections between muscle tightness, range of movement and golf swing kinematics Methods: Golf swing kinematics was observed by kinematic analyzer CODA Motion System. Selected parametres of golf swing were: shoulder rotation; pelvis rotation; X - factor; angle between shoulders and left arm. Parametres were measured in key moments of a goflf swing: end of backswing; impakt. Muscle tightness was measured by clinical test of muscle tightness according to Janda for selected muscles: m. triceps surae; m. iliopsoas; m. rectus femoris; m. tensor fascies latae; knee flexors; hip adductors; m. piriformis; m. quadratus lumborum; paravertebral muscles; m. pectoralis major; m. trapezius - upper part; m. levator scapulae and m. sternocleidomastoideus. Clinical test of range of motion according to Janda and standart two - arm goniometer was used for range of motion evaluation of selected body segments: hip joint - internal and external rotatio, flexion, extension; shoulder joint -...

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze a golfer’s movement and provide the feedback related to the golfer’s skill with the simple and novel ways. A golfer can easily measure golf swings and get feedback based on his performance using an Android smart phone without expensive or complicated devices. In this thesis, we designed and implemented an Android application using an accelerometer sensor to analyze swing data for identifying critical points and to give various kinds of feedback based on the data. The feedback helps golfers to understand their swing patterns, timing and speed so it makes them improve their skills.

The overall objective of this thesis is to evaluate the fundamentals of current low concentration CO2 separation technologies and to provide an alternate method using adsorption technology with existing as well as new adsorbents. Two different applications for the adsorption of CO2 are explored; Direct Air Capture (DAC) and excimer gas purification. The investigation of aerogels as possible adsorbent for these applications was also explored. The first application, DAC of CO2 using adsorbents, addresses climate change by reducing the amount of atmospheric CO2 levels that are directly correlated to global warming. Because of DAC being carbon negative, this field has gained significant attention in the literature. DAC as a CO2 reduction strategy was approached in two ways: 1. Chapter 2 investigates capturing and concentrating CO2 from 0.04% in the air to 95% to be able to sequester it into the ground. This research began by doing an adsorbent selection using pure gas gravimetric measurements on seven different commercially available type X zeolites that were determined to have potential for this separation. Breakthrough experiments were then carried out with the most promising zeolite by perturbing the bed with compressed ambient air. In the process studied, a basic four step temperature vacuum swing adsorption (TVSA) cycle was investigated comprising the following steps: pressurization, adsorption, blowdown, and desorption. Four different regeneration temperatures were tested along with four different gas space velocities. With this cycle configuration, CO2 was concentrated to 95% from 0.04% with total capture fractions as high as 81%. This study highlighted methods to reduce the energy consumption per ton of CO2 captured in the system as well as the potential of using low Si/Al ratio faujasite structured zeolites in DAC of CO2 for greenhouse gas reduction. 2. Chapter 3 expands on the research of Chapter 2 by capturing CO2 from 0.04% in the air and concentrating it to high purity CO2 levels where the cost for operating the process will be reimbursed through the value of the produced CO2. The goal of this research was to increase the CO2 to as high as possible because the purer the CO2, the more valuable it is. This research started by conducting an in-depth investigation into the pure gas adsorption of CO2, N2, O2, and Ar on the most promising zeolite from Chapter 2. The data was then fitted to the TD-Toth model which allowed for the evaluation of the TVSA cycle and showed the potential of reducing the pressure and/or elevating the temperature during the blowdown step in order to produce high purity CO2. To confirm this, the TVSA cycle was run on a fixed bed breakthrough experiment where high purity CO2 was produced between a concentration of 99.5% and 99.96% by lowering the blowdown pressure. By controlling the blowdown temperature, the concentration of the product was increased from 99.8% to 99.95%, however with a significant loss of CO2. This effect of N2, O2, and Ar desorbing during the blowdown step with CO2 desorbing during the evacuation step is shown graphically by measuring the concentration and flow rate of the exiting gas species. The results from this study show the potential for producing a valuable product of high purity CO2 from atmospheric concentrations. The second application in this thesis that is explored in Chapter 4 is the purification of trace impurities of CO2, CF4, COF2, and O2 from F2, Kr, and Ne for applications in excimer lasers. Due to the incompatibility of many adsorbents to F2 and HF, aluminas and polymeric adsorbents were selected as potentially compatible materials. To increase the compatibility of these adsorbents, the use of a cryo-cooler was determined to be feasible to precool the feed stream before separation, which increases the adsorption capacity and compatibility of the material to F2 and HF. To determine the adsorption potential in the low concentration of these adsorbents, the concentration pulse chromatographic technique was chosen to determine the Henry’s Law constants of CO2, CF4, and O2. This data was then plotted on the van’t Hoff plot and extrapolated to colder temperatures to determine the benefit of using a cryo-cooler. From this study, it was determined that HayeSep Q was the best polymeric adsorbent with significant adsorption of CO2 at temperatures below -50˚C while being the best performing CF4 adsorbent. AA-300 was the best performing alumina in this study while having significant adsorption of CF4 at temperatures below -135˚C. However, from a compatibility standpoint, both of these materials need to be tested to determine their robustness in the presence of F2 and HF at room and reduced temperatures. Chapters 5 & 6 in this thesis explore the fundamentals of adsorption on aerogels as a prelude to using aerogels as possible adsorbents for DAC of CO2. This investigation into aerogels looks at silica aerogels and carbon aerogels, which are both industrially produced and explores their adsorption with relation to like materials such as silica gel and activated carbons. Both of these Chapters utilize experimentally determined adsorption isotherms of CO2, N2, O2, and Ar as well as characterization to determine adsorption trends in the materials. Some major conclusions for silica aerogels were that common surface modifications to make the material more resilient against water adsorption impacts the adsorption of CO2 significantly with roughly 4 fold difference in adsorption capacity. For carbon aerogels some major conclusions were that the adsorption was increasingly dominated by the heterogeneous nature of the surface at lower pressures and increasingly dominated by the pore size at the higher pressures. Both chapters discuss the adsorption of air along with ideas such as the influence of gas thermal conductivity in the pores with respects to adsorption. L'objectif général de cette thèse est d'évaluer les principes fondamentaux des technologies actuelles de séparation du CO2 à faible concentration et de fournir une méthode alternative utilisant la technologie d’adsorption avec des adsorbants actuels ainsi que d'en découvrir de nouveaux. Deux applications différentes pour l'adsorption du CO2 ont été explorées; la capture directe dans l’air ambient (CAD) et la purification des gaz excimères, ainsi que la recherche d'aérogels comme adsorbant possible pour ces applications. La première application, le CAD du CO2 utilisant des adsorbants, pourrait répondre aux changements climatiques puisque les niveaux de CO2 atmosphérique sont directement corrélés au réchauffement climatique. Dernièrement, le CAD a fait l'objet d'une attention particulière en tant que stratégie de réduction du CO2, par conséquent, deux voies différentes ont été explorées dans cette thèse: 1. Le chapitre 2 étudie la capture et la concentration du CO2 de 0,04% dans l'air à 95% afin de pouvoir l’enfermer dans la terre. Pour ce faire, une sélection d'adsorbant a été effectué en utilisant des mesures gravimétriques à gaz pur sur sept zéolithes de type X disponibles dans le commerce qui ont été déterminés comme ayant un potentiel pour cette séparation. Des expériences révolutionnaires ont ensuite été réalisées avec la zéolite la plus prometteuse en perturbant le lit avec de l'air ambiant comprimé. Dans le processus étudié, un cycle basique à quatre étapes d’adsorption modulée en température et pression (AMTP) a été étudié, comprenant les étapes suivantes: pressurisation, adsorption, purge et désorption. Quatre températures de régénération différentes ont été testées ainsi que quatre vitesses spatiales de gaz différents. Avec cette configuration de cycle, le CO2 était concentré à 95% de 0,04% avec des fractions de capture totales aussi élevées que 81%. Cette étude a mis en évidence des méthodes pour réduire la consommation d'énergie par tonne de CO2 captée dans le système ainsi que le potentiel d'utilisation de zéolithes structurées à base de faujasite à faible rapport Si/Al dans le CAD du CO2 pour la réduction des gaz à effet de serre. 2. Le chapitre 3 approfondit les recherches du chapitre 2 en capturant le CO2 de 0,04% dans l'air et en le concentrant à des niveaux de très haute pureté où le processus sera remboursé par la valeur du CO2 produit. L'objectif de cette partie était d'augmenter la pureté du CO2 le plus possible car plus le CO2 est pur, plus il est précieux. Une enquête approfondie sur l'adsorption de gaz pur de CO2, N2, O2 et Ar sur la zéolite la plus prometteuse du chapitre 2. Les données ont ensuite été ajustées au modèle TD-Toth qui a permis d'évaluer le cycle AMTP et a montré le potentiel de réduire la pression et/ou d'élever la température pendant l'étape de purge afin de produire du CO2 de haute pureté. Pour confirmer cela, le cycle AMTP a été fait par le biais d’une expérience dans un lit fixe où du CO2 de haute pureté a été produit entre une concentration de 99,5% et 99,96% en abaissant la pression de purge. En contrôlant la température de purge, la concentration du produit est passée de 99,8% à 99,95%, mais avec une perte importante de CO2. Cet effet de la désorption de N2, O2 et Ar pendant l'étape de purge avec la désorption du CO2 pendant l'étape d'évacuation est illustré graphiquement en mesurant la concentration et le débit des espèces de gaz sortant. Les résultats de cette étude montrent le potentiel de production d'un produit précieux de CO2 de haute pureté à partir des concentrations atmosphériques. La deuxième application de cette thèse qui est explorée au Chapitre 4 est la purification des traces d'impuretés de CO2, CF4, COF2 et O2 de F2, Kr et Ne pour des applications dans les lasers à excimère. En raison de l'incompatibilité de nombreux adsorbants avec le F2 et le HF, les alumines et les adsorbants polymères ont été sélectionnés comme matériaux potentiellement compatibles. Pour augmenter la compatibilité de ces adsorbants, l'utilisation d'un cryoréfrigérant a été jugée possible pour pré-refroidir le flux d'alimentation avant la séparation, ce qui augmente la capacité d'adsorption et la compatibilité du matériau en F2 et HF. Pour déterminer le potentiel d'adsorption dans la faible concentration de ces adsorbants, la technique de chromatographie pulsée de concentration a été choisie pour déterminer les constantes de la loi de Henry de CO2, CF4 et O2. Ces données ont ensuite été tracées sur le graphique van’t Hoff et extrapolées à des températures plus froides pour déterminer les avantages de l’utilisation d’un cryoréfrigérant. À partir de cette étude, il a été déterminé que HayeSep Q était le meilleur adsorbant polymère avec une adsorption significative de CO2 à des températures inférieures à -50 ° C tout en étant l'adsorbant CF4 le plus performant. L'AA-300 était l'alumine la plus performante de cette étude tout en ayant une adsorption significative de CF4 à des températures inférieures à -135 °C. Cependant, du point de vue de la compatibilité, ces deux matériaux doivent être testés pour déterminer leur robustesse en présence de F2 et de HF à température ambiante et réduite. Les chapitres 5 et 6 explorent les principes fondamentaux de l'adsorption sur les aérogels en prélude à l'utilisation d'aérogels comme adsorbants possibles pour le CAD du CO2. Cette enquête sur les aérogels examine les aérogels de silice et les aérogels de carbone, qui sont tous les deux fabriqués industriellement et explore leur adsorption par rapport à des matériaux similaires tels que le gel de silice et les charbons actifs. Ces deux chapitres utilisent des isothermes d'adsorption déterminés expérimentalement de CO2, N2, O2 et Ar ainsi que la caractérisation pour déterminer les tendances d'adsorption dans les matériaux. Certaines conclusions majeures pour les aérogels de silice étaient que les modifications de surface courantes pour rendre le matériau plus résistant à l'adsorption d'eau ont un impact significatif sur l'adsorption de CO2 avec une différence d'environ 4 fois dans la capacité d'adsorption. Pour les aérogels de carbone, certaines conclusions majeures étaient que l'adsorption était de plus en plus dominée par la nature hétérogène de la surface à des pressions plus faibles et de plus en plus dominée par la taille des pores aux pressions plus élevées. Les deux chapitres discutent de l'adsorption d'air ainsi que des idées telles que l'influence de la conductivité thermique du gaz dans les pores en ce qui concerne l'adsorption.

The wastewater industry is critical for both current and future human life. At the same time, competitive conditions of market spaces lead to technology evolution reaching continuously new frontiers. While many wastewater treatment plants are designed identically in different global loci, wastewater characteristics are unique and therefore decisions related to wastewater treatment technologies are very critical. Wastewater characteristics vary due to cultural and climate factors, among other things and thus, each wastewater treatment technology must be studied independently. Hence, decision analysis and decision making are an integral part of the industry. A multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been applied in this thesis, including a fictional decision-making problem. Furthermore, this thesis describes an analytic approach to a complex decision-making problem in wastewater treatment by using multi attribute utility theory (MAUT). This thesis assigns utility values, applies Swing Weighting (SW) which is not commonly used in the wastewater industry and assesses weight coefficients for the utility functions for each criterion. The goal is to illustrate how proportional scoring can be used to assign utility values in different aspects related to wastewater treatment, how SW can be performed to assess weight coefficients that are related to wastewater treatment and finally how the additive utility can be applied to deliver the total utility. For this reason, a hypothetical decision problem was developed, in which, the decision maker can select amongst three different wastewater treatment technologies using sustainability criteria. This is a multi-dimensional problem that requires the use of a structured approach to analyze the options accordingly. More, six criteria are used to rank three different wastewater treatment technologies with respect to sustainability. Finally, the MCDA results from this hypothetical decision problem show how proportional scoring, SW, and the additive utility could be used in the selection of a wastewater treatment technology however it should be tested with real life decision problems.

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There are millions of fall-related injuries worldwide requiring medical attention on a yearly basis. These falls place a financial burden on the healthcare system. These falls can occur in the event of disruption in the postural control system and/or a loss of balance while walking. Previously, most gait studies have focused on the assessment of the lower extremities while neglecting the contribution of arm swing as it was believed to be a passive motion. However, it has been shown that there is an active component to arm swing. Moreover, these arm movements have been shown to affect the motion of the center of mass when walking. Therefore, arm swing could mitigate the destabilizing effects of perturbations caused by challenging surfaces. Additionally, no studies have examined the effect of arm swing when walking on a rocky surface. This type of surface causes perturbations in the anteroposterior and mediolateral directions simultaneously, leading to uneven center of mass displacement and spatiotemporal modifications. Hence, the present study assessed the effect of normal arm swing, held arm swing and active arm swing on postural control and dynamic stability when walking on regular and rocky surface. We hypothesized that active arm swing will have a negative impact on postural control and gait dynamics on a regular surface, while rocky surface walking will decrease stability and increase spatiotemporal variability. Additionally, we expect active arm swing to attenuate the negative effects of the rocky surface. Fifteen healthy young adults from the University of Ottawa community (mean age 23.4 ± 2.8 years) were recruited to participate in this study. They were asked to walk using three different arm conditions (normal, held and active arm swing) on the dual-belt CAREN-Extended System (Motek Medical, Amsterdam, NL) on simulated regular and rocky surface. This last is generated using the “Rumble” module (maximum range of ±2 cm at 0.6 Hz vertically, ±1° at 1 Hz pitch, and ±1° at 1.2 Hz roll). Mean, standard deviation and maximal values of trunk linear and angular velocity were calculated in all three planes. Moreover, step length, time and width mean and coefficient of variation as well as margin of stability mean and standard deviation were calculated. A mixed linear model was performed to compare the effects of the arm swing motions and surface types. The arm and surface conditions were set as fixed effects, while the walking speed was set as a covariate. Active arm swing increased trunk linear and angular velocity variability and peak values compared to normal and held arm conditions. Active arm swing also increased participants’ step length and step time, as well as the variability of margin of stability. Similarly, rocky surface walking increased trunk kinematics variability and peak values compared to regular surface walking. Furthermore, rocky surface increased the average step width while reducing the average step time. The spatiotemporal adaptations show the use of “cautious” gait to mitigate the destabilizing effects of both the active arm swing and rocky surface walking and, ultimately, maintain stability.

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans le cadre de l'analyse automatique de la musique.La finalité de ce champ de recherche est d'extraire des informations de la musique, ou autrement dit, de faire comprendre ce qu'est la musique à un ordinateur.Les applications sont nombreuses: fabriquer des systèmes de recommandation musicale, transcrire une partition à partir du signal ou générer automatiquement de la musique.Nous nous intéressons dans ce manuscrit à l'analyse automatique du rythme.Notre objectif est de proposer de nouvelles descriptions du rythme qui s'inspirent d'études perceptives et neurologiques.La représentation du rythme d’un signal musical audio est un problème complexe.Il ne s’agit pas simplement de détecter la position des attaques et la durée des notes comme sur une partition mais plus généralement de modéliser l’interaction temporelle entre les différents instruments présents et collaborant à l’établissement d’un rythme de manière compacte, discriminante et invariante.Nous cherchons à obtenir des représentations invariantes à certains paramètres (tels la position dans le temps, les variations faibles de tempo ou d’instrumentation) mais à l’inverse sensibles à d’autres (comme le motif rythmique, les paramètres fins d’interprétation ou le swing). Nous étudions les trois aspects fondamentaux pour la description du rythme: le tempo les déviations et les motifs rythmiques. / This thesis is within the scope of Music Information Retrieval. The goal of this research field is to extract meaningful informations from music. There are numerous applications: music recommendation systems, music transcription to a score or automatic generation of music. In this manuscript, oOur objective is to propose new rhythm descriptions inspired from perceptual and neurological studies.Rhythm representation of a musical signal is a complex problem. Detecting attack positions and note durations is not sufficient: we have the model the temporal interaction between the different instruments collaborating together to create rhythm. We try to obtain representations that are invariant to some parameters (like the position over time, the small tempo or instrumentation variations) but sensitive to other parameters (like the rhythm pattern or the swing factor). We study the three key aspect of rhythm description: tempo, deviations and rhythm pattern.