Gas hydrate investigations are converging on a suite of common techniques for hydrate observation and quantification. Samples retrieved and analyzed at full in situ pressures are the ”gold standard” with which the physical and chemical analysis of conventional cores, as well as the interpretation of geophysical data, are calibrated and groundtruthed. Methane mass balance calculations from depressurization of pressure cores provide the benchmark for gas hydrate concentration assessment. Nondestructive measurements of pressure cores have removed errors in the estimation of pore volume, making this methane mass balance technique accurate and robust. Data from methane mass balance used to confirm chlorinity baselines makes porewater freshening analysis more accurate. High-resolution nondestructive analysis of gas-hydratebearing cores at in situ pressures and temperatures also provides detailed information on the in situ nature and morphology of gas hydrate in sediments, allowing better interpretation of conventional core thermal images as well as downhole electrical resistivity logs. The detailed profiles of density and Vp, together with spot measurements of Vs, electrical resistivity, and hardness, provide background data essential for modeling the behavior of the formation on a larger scale. X-ray images show the detailed hydrate morphology, which provides clues to the mechanism of deposit formation and data for modeling the kinetics of deposit dissociation. Gashydrate- bearing pressure cores subjected to X-ray tomographic reconstruction provide evidence that gas hydrate morphology in many natural sedimentary environments is particularly complex and impossible to replicate in the laboratory. Even when only a small percentage of the sediment column is sampled with pressure cores, these detailed measurements greatly enhance the understanding and interpretation of the more continuous data sets collected by conventional coring and downhole logging. Pressure core analysis has become the keystone that links these data sets together and is an essential component of modern gas hydrate investigations.

The aim of the dissertation was to present technical possibilities of scanning and measuring the body temperature and provide a method for a non-contact measurement of body surface temperatureof animals including data transfer to higher-level software. Partial results can be part of an automated herd management system to ensure better animal welfare monitoring. One method of contactless measuring the surface temperature was taking the surface temperature by using an infrared camera. This tool was used to scan surface temperatures in the area of the body core, the udder region and the eye area. Thermograms, sometimes referred to as thermal imaging, were obtained from the individual regions. In total, there were 34 measurements in 2013 and 17 measurements in 2014.Cows from Petrovice centre were included in the experiment. Three different groups of dairy cows were evaluated in two different stables. In the first group there were cows which gave birth 2 days to 2 months before. The second group consisted of dairy cows which calved 4 to 5 months before. The third group included dairy cows which gave birth 7 to 8 months before. Based on the results of measurements of selected surface temperatures, it was found that the surface core temperature and the udder surface temperature correlated most. However, when measuring surface temperatures, the degree of pollution, coating, and oscillation of the animal play an important role. Moreover, technological parameters of the device are also important, specially its setting and the emissivity of the surface. This experiment ran from August to September 2016 in a purpose-built schoolhouse facility in an experimental stable accredited for experimental purposes. The experiment included two clinically healthy cows of the Holstein breed, which had been implanted with the identification chip and tested for its functionality. This chip was implanted to both animals in the tail root region and was fitted with a biological function sensor that followed the body temperature of the animal. The device was adapted to send animal identification information and animal body temperature information by means of a wireless connection to the chip reader. Based on the findings, one or more systems, preferably non-contact body temperature scanning, could be designed and tested. Regarding the use of other surface temperature scanning possibilities, this is still in the process of development and implementation. The disadvantage of the above described device is that it fails to recognize the cause of the elevated temperature and requires intervention by the attendant without the intervention being necessary. The attending keeper may not recognize acute cases and may cause permanent damage to the health or even death of the animal. The task of the device is to find a method of unattended animal temperature measurement connected with its electronic identification that would recognize sick or infected animals from overheated ones. This device would categorize the animals and take precautions to preserve their health. The invention should be applicable to a wide variety of animals.

This thesis deals with optical devices and methods image processing for recognizing hand gestures. The types of gestures, possible applications, contact based devices and vision based devices are described in thesis. Next, a review of hand detection, features extraction and gesture classification is provided. Proposed gesture recognition system consists of infrared camera FLIR A655sc, infrared FLIR Lepton module, webcam Logitech S7500, method for hand gesture analysis and a database of gestures for classification. For each of the devices, gesture recognition is evaluated in terms of speed and accuracy in different environments. The proposed method was implemented in MATLAB.

L’étude de phénomènes thermiques à l’échelle microscopique peut s’avérer compliquée à mettre en place, principalement à cause de l’absence de technique de mesure de température fiable. Dans ce contexte, une technique de mesure de température appelée TIQSI a été développée au sein de l’Institut Fresnel. Dans l’objectif d’étudier des phénomènes thermo-induit à l’échelle microscopique, j’ai monté un microscope capable de contrôler et de quantifier une élévation de température à l'aide de TIQSI et de nanoparticules d’or. Différents phénomènes ont ainsi pu être étudiés.La synthèse hydrothermale regroupe les réactions chimiques utilisant de l’eau liquide à des températures plus élevées que la température d’ébullition. L’utilisation de nanoparticules permet d’avoir de l’eau liquide à des températures supérieures à 100°C (état métastable). J’ai pu ainsi effectuer des réactions de synthèse hydrothermale sans autoclave ce qui constitue un nouveau concept en chimie de synthèse.Une cellule vivante peut-être endommagée par un stress de chaleur ce qui peut détériorer ses protéines. En réponse à ce stress, la synthèse de HSP permet la réparation des protéines endommagées. J’ai pu étudier la dynamique de réponse des HSP ce qui a permis d’illustrer l’intérêt d’une chauffe locale et de TIQSI pour ce genre d’expérience.Une autre application mêlant le surchauffage de l’eau liquide et la biologie a été abordée. Les organismes hyperthermophiles vivent à de très hautes températures (80-110◦C). J’ai pu durant mes expériences observer le déplacement d’hyperthermophiles. Cette avancée constitue les prémices d’expériences plus ambitieuses comme l’étude de l’interaction entre hyperthermophiles. / Nowadays, thermal experiments at the microscopic scale remain challenging to conduct due to the lack of reliable temperature measurment techniques. To solve these problems, a label-free temperature measurement technique called TIQSI has been developed in the Institut Fresnel.With the objective to study new thermal-induced effects on the microscale using TIQSI, I built a microscope aimed to control heat diffusion on the microscale using nanoparticle. Thus, I could study different phenomena in chemistry and biology.Hydrothermal methods in chemical synthesis rely on the use of superheated liquid water as a solvent. It has been shown that gold nanoparticles can be used superheated water in a metastable state. I managed to conduct hydrothermal chemistry experiments using thermoplasmonics without autoclave which represents a new paradigm in chemistry.A living cell can be damaged by a heat stress which can misfold its proteins. To response to this stress, the HSP synthesis enables the reparation of misfolded proteins. I could study the heat stress response of HSP at short time scale which allowed me to illustrate the interest of using TIQSI and a local heat.As an application mixing superheating water and biology, I studied organisms that are able to live at high temperature (80-110°C) namely hyperthermophiles. Motion of these organisms has been studied without autoclave which paves the way to more sophisticated experiments such as the interaction between hyperthermophiles.

Title: Experiments supporting the teaching of thermodynamics at high school level Author: Petr Kácovský Department: Department of Physics Education Supervisor: doc. RNDr. Zdeněk Drozd, Ph.D., Department of Physics Education Abstract: This doctoral thesis is aimed at chosen aspects of teaching of thermodynamics on high school. The thesis can be divided into two main parts: The research part deals with investigation of typical students' conceptual difficulties in the field of thermal phenomena and its primary goal is to identify the most distinctive misconceptions of observed population. More than 500 students were questioned using a conceptual test both as pretest and posttest; approximately half of them also participated in the retention test which took part two years after pretest. The results of the conceptual test are connected with data obtained on the basis of the simultaneously conducted research of students' attitudes. The developmental part of the thesis - partly inspired by previous misconception research - deals with arranging, documentation and testing of experiments relevant to teaching of thermodynamics. In total, 46 experiments were arranged, students-tested and published in the electronic Collection of Physics Experiments. These experiments are primarily intended for teachers as inspiration...

Equipment and machines can be exposed to very high temperatures in the steel mill industry. One particularly critical part is the ladles used to hold and pour molten iron into mouldings. A refractory lining is used as an insulation layer between the outer steel shell and the molten iron to protect the ladle from the hot iron. Over time, or if the lining is not completely cured, the lining wears out or can potentially fail. Such a scenario can lead to a breakout of molten iron, which can cause damage to equipment and, in the worst case, workers. Previous work analyses how critical areas can be identified in a proactive matter. Using thermal imaging, the failing spots on the lining could show as high-temperature areas on the outside steel shell. The idea is that the outside temperature corresponds to the thickness of the insulating lining. The detection of these spots is identified when temperatures over a given threshold are registered within the thermal camera's field of view. The images must then be manually analyzed over time, to follow the progression of a detected spot. The existing solution is also prone to the background noise of other hot objects.  This thesis proposes an initial step to automate monitoring the health of refractory lining in steel ladles. The report will investigate the usage of Instance Segmentation to isolate the ladle from its background. Thus, reducing false alarms and background noise in an autonomous monitoring setup. The model training is based on Mask R-CNN on our own thermal images, with pre-trained weights from visual images. Detection is done on two classes: open or closed ladle. The model proved reasonably successful on a small dataset of 1000 thermal images. Different models were trained with and without augmentation, pre-trained weights as well multi-phase fine-tuning. The highest mAP of 87.5\% was achieved on a pre-trained model with image augmentation without fine-tuning. Though it was not tested in production, temperature readings could lastly be extracted on the segmented ladle, decreasing the risk of false alarms from background noise.

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Detta självständiga arbete undersöker stridstekniska obemannade luftfarkostsystem (SUAV) och potentiella tekniska system som är motverkande mot obemannade luftfarkoster (CUAS). Nyttjandet av stridstekniska obemannade luftfarkostsystem har ökat kraftigt och har observerats i både Syrien och Ukraina. I den ryska armén har de sett framgångsrik användning i samverkan med befintliga artillerisystem. Syftet med detta självständiga arbete är att analysera och förstå de effekter som tekniken har på militära operationer. I detta arbete används det militärtekniska konceptet ’militär nytta’ Andersson m.fl. (2015) i kombination med Johnsonkriteriet som används för att beräkna räckvidden på infraröda sensorer. Tillsammans med användningen av systemanalys och scenariobaserade metoder, har stridstekniska obemannade luftfarkostsystem och tekniska system som är motverkande mot obemannade luftfarkoster värderats med konceptet militär nytta. Slutsatserna från detta arbete visar att stridstekniska obemannade luftfarkostsystem har en god militär nytta då de används mot en motoriserad skyttebataljon (militär aktör), i förberedelsefasen av en fördröjningsstrid (kontext). Vid värderingen av de två tekniska systemalternativen som motverkar obemannade luftfarkoster; eldvapensystem och robotsystem, har bärbara luftvärnsrobotsystem bedömts ha en bättre militär nytta än automatkanonsystem på grund av dess möjliga användning i avsuttna operationer. / This independent project studies Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and potential Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems. The usage of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems has grown rapidly and has seen use in warfare in both Syria and Ukraine. In the Russian armed forces, they have seen successful use when used in combination with legacy artillery systems. The purpose of this independent project is to analyse and understand the effects that technology has on military operations. In this project, a military-technology concept called ‘military utility’ Andersson et al. (2015) is used in combination with the Johnson criteria which is used to calculate infrared sensor range. Together with the use of systems analysis and scenario-based methods, Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and two identified Counter Unmanned Aerial System alternatives have been assessed with the military utility concept. The conclusions of this independent project show that Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have a good degree of military utility when used against a motorized infantry battalion (military actor), in the preparatory phase of a delay operation (context). When assessing the two Counter Unmanned Aerial System alternatives; gun-based systems and missile air defence systems, man-portable air-defence systems have, because of their possible use in dismounted operations, been considered to have a greater military utility in comparison to autocannon systems.

The hand has the highest surface area-to-volume ratio of any body part. This property offers the potential for the hand to serve an important function in thermoregulation through radiative heat loss. Theoretically, the capacity for heat loss may be influenced by hand and digit proportions, but the extent to which these proportions influence the hand's radiative properties remains under-investigated. Although hand morphology is highly constrained by both integration and functional dexterity, phenotypic variation in hand and digit proportions across human populations shows broad ecogeographic patterns. These patterns have been associated with climate adaptation. However, the theory linking climate adaptation to such ecogeographic patterns is based on underlying assumptions relating to thermodynamic principles, which have not been tested in vivo. This study sought to determine the influence of hand and digit proportions on heat loss from the hands directly, the additional anthropometric factors that may affect this relationship, and the impact of variation in hand proportions on dexterity in the cold. The relationship between hand proportions and thermoregulation was tested through both laboratory-based investigation and a field study. The laboratory investigation assessed the relationship between hand proportions and heat loss, the influence of body size and composition on this relationship, and the effect of morphological variation on manual dexterity. Participants (N=114; 18-50 years of age), underwent a 3-minute ice-water hand-immersion. Thermal imaging analysis was used to quantify heat loss. Hand and digit proportions were quantified using 2D and 3D scanning techniques; body size and composition were measured using established anthropometric methods and bio-impedance analysis. After accounting for body size, hand width, digit-to-palm length ratio, and skeletal muscle mass were significant predictors of heat loss from the hand, whilsthand length and fat mass were not. A separate set of participants (N=40) performed a Purdue pegboard dexterity test before and after the immersion test, which demonstrated that digit width alone negatively correlated with dexterity. The field study tested whether phenotypic variation in upper limb proportions could be attributed to cold adaptation or selection for dexterity in living populations exposed to significant energetic stress. Upper limb segment lengths were obtained from participants (N=254; 18-59 years of age), from highland and lowland regions of the Nepalese Himalayas using established anthropometric methods, and relative hand proportions were assessed in relation to severe energetic stress associated with life at high altitude. Relative to height, hand length and hand width were not reduced with altitude stress, whilst ulna length was. This indicates that cold adaptation is not shaping hand proportions in this case, although phenotypic variation in other limb segments may be attributed to cold adaptation or a thrifty phenotype mechanism. The current study provides empirical evidence to support the link between surface area-to-volume ratio, thermodynamic principles and ecogeographical patterns in human hand morphology. However, this research also demonstrates the complexity of the hand's role in thermoregulation; not only do other factors such as muscularity affect heat loss from the hand, but hand morphology is also highly constrained by integration and dexterity.

Abstract Groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) are aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems that rely directly or indirectly on groundwater (GW). Recent European and Finnish legislation requires better consideration of these systems in GW management. The main aim of this thesis was to develop new methods for GDE classification and management, by testing environmental tracer methods in different environments. New information about GW-surface water interactions was obtained and novel methods for GDE classification and management were developed for lakes, peatlands, streams, and springs. Stable water isotopes proved to be an efficient tool for determining the GW dependence of lakes. An iterative isotope mass balance method was applied for 67 lakes situated in the Rokua esker aquifer area. Stable water isotopes also showed potential in determining the GW dependence of a peatland surface horizon. A study conducted in peatlands adjacent to Viinivaara esker aquifer indicated that the GW dependence of peatlands can vary significantly and that GW-dependent areas can extend outside current GW protection areas. Thermal images proved useful in pinpointing clear GW seepage locations in peatlands. For streams, a novel stream tracer index method was developed to evaluate GW dependence based on GW volume in streams, thermal properties of streams, and stream water quality. The method was tested in three streams discharging from Viinivaara and Rokua aquifers and was found to efficiently capture spatial variations in GW dependence. In Oulanka region, hydrological and chemical characterization and statistical methods were used to classify springs into different types. Spring altitude and δ2H value were identified as useful proxies for spring water chemistry. The methods developed in this thesis can be helpful when classifying and studying GDEs and applying environmental tracer methods in various environments. Knowing the GW dependence of an ecosystem, the impacts of possible GW table decline caused by e.g., GW abstraction, drainage, and/or climate change can be evaluated. For large-scale applications, GDE classification methods have to be practical, effective, and low-cost. Combined use of stable water isotopes and other tracers can be especially effective for characterizing ecosystem hydrology on different temporal and spatial scales. / Tiivistelmä Pohjavedestä riippuvat ekosysteemit (GDE) ovat vesi- tai maaekosysteemejä, jotka ovat suoraan tai epäsuorasti riippuvaisia pohjavedestä. Euroopan Unionin ja Suomen lainsäädännön mukaan pohjavesien hallinnassa tulisi ottaa paremmin huomioon GDEt. Tämän työn tavoitteena oli kehittää uusia menetelmiä näiden ekosysteemien luokitteluun ja hallintaan. Luonnollisia merkkiainemenetelmiä soveltaen saatiin uutta tietoa pohjavesi-pintavesi vuorovaikutuksesta ja kehitettiin uusia menetelmiä GDE-luokitteluun järville, soille, puroille ja lähteille. Veden stabiilit isotoopit osoittautuivat tehokkaaksi työkaluksi järvien pohjavesiriippuvuuden määrittämisessä. Iteratiivista isotooppimassatase-menetelmää käytettiin 67 Rokuan järven pohjavesiriippuvuuden selvittämiseen. Veden stabiileilla isotoopeilla pystyttiin myös määrittämään suon pinnan pohjavesiriippuvuus. Viinivaaran harjun viereisen suoalueen tutkimus näytti, että suon pohjavesiriippuvuus voi vaihdella merkittävästi ja pohjavedestä riippuvia alueita löytyy myös nykyisten pohjavesirajojen ulkopuolelta. Lisäksi soilla havaittiin selkeitä pohjavedenpurkupaikkoja lämpökamerakuvauksen avulla. Puroille kehitettiin uusi menetelmä, jolla niiden pohjavesiriippuvuutta voidaan arvioida perustuen pohjaveden määrään puroissa, puroveden lämpötilaominaisuuksiin ja puroveden laatuun. Menetelmää testattiin Viinivaaran ja Rokuan harjuista purkautuville puroille ja sillä havaittiin pohjavesiriippuvuuden vaihtelevan purojen eri osissa. Oulangan lähteitä luokiteltiin eri tyyppeihin hydrologisen ja kemiallisen karakterisoinnin ja tilastollisten menetelmien avulla. Lähteiden altitudin ja δ2H-arvon havaittiin ennustavan lähdeveden kemiallista koostumusta. Tässä tutkimuksessa kehitetyt menetelmät voivat olla hyödyllisiä GDE-luokittelussa, eri ekosysteemien tutkimisessa ja luonnollisten merkkiainemenetelmien soveltamisessa eri ympäristöissä. Kun ekosysteemin pohjavesiriippuvuus tiedetään, voidaan arvioida pohjavedenotosta, ojituksesta ja/tai ilmaston muutoksesta mahdollisesti aiheutuvan pohjavedenpinnan laskun vaikutuksia. Suuressa mittakaavassa, GDE-luokittelumenetelmien tulee olla käytännöllisiä, tehokkaita ja halpoja. Veden stabiilien isotooppien ja muiden merkkiaineiden yhdistetty käyttö vaikuttaa olevan tähän erityisen tehokas työkalu, jolla voidaan ymmärtää ekosysteemien hydrologiaa eri temporaalisissa ja spatiaalisissa mittakaavoissa.