The transformation of the architects’ vision to architectural form is a lengthy process. From initial sketch to day-to-day life, a design is transformed through the reality of occupation. No matter how much effort is put into a design its final effectiveness is determined by the end user. The access to ample daylight balanced with an adequate sense of visual privacy within ones one home is not often accounted for within the planning process. With current legislation making access to daylight a right within many developed countries, guaranteeing that access within the dense urban environment can mean putting resident’s privacy into question when planning to meet these daylight requirements. Failing to consider the privacy needs of all residents, especially immigrant groups, can lead to privacy driven modifications counterproductive to the overall goal of increasing access to daylight. Resident modifications can, in turn, lead to reductions of daylight levels within the home. There is a need for a system of analysis when it comes to the balance of access to daylight and adequate visual privacy, connecting the critical impacts of these factors on the human physiology and psychology. This proposal puts forward a system to analyze the relationship between the effective light transmission and the perceived visual privacy provided by a given visual privacy solution. The study is based off the analysis of current research regarding the effect of daylight on the human body, the importance of privacy within the home, the impact of cultural background on perception of privacy, and the impact of changing urban density on how people live. The research proposes a system of measurement taking into consideration both the quantitative effective daylight transmittance and a systematic qualitative analysis of perceived visual privacy through participant survey. The data collected would eventually be combined in a way that could be easily communicated to architects, designers, manufacturers and most importantly the end user. This system would be used to ensure that residents are able to effectively balance the level of privacy they require while mitigating the loss of daylight within their homes helping to insure the most benefits for the resident regardless of what home they find themselves in.

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The time required for the identification of pathogens is an important determinant of infection-related mortality rates and disease spread for species of relevance in agriculture. Conventional identification methods require a processing time of at least one to twenty days. Therefore, inaccurate empirical treatments are often provided while awaiting further identification, such that most cases progress with further aggravation of symptoms, contamination of other animals or plants, generating economic loss from decreased yield, and increased mitigation costs. Thus, there is a need for innovative, non-destructive, and rapid analytical techniques that provide reagent-free, portable, reliable, and holistic approaches to detect diseases in real-time. Vibrational spectroscopy techniques have shown the capacity to provide relevant information for disease detection. In near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), the absorbance from a sample is measured across several hundred wavelengths in the near infrared band (750-2500 nm) and is directly influenced by the number and type of chemical bonds present. In order to make NIRS an effective tool for field-based studies, a simplified procedure is needed such that NIRS can be used in minimally processed samples found in situ. Here, experiments involving the agricultural important bovine herpesvirus-1 (BoHV-1), bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV), Mannheimia haemolytica (MH), Xanthomonas citri pv. malvacearum (Xcm) and Rhizoctonia solani (Rs) were carried out to determine if biological spectral signatures can be differentiated between samples from two classes (i.e., healthy vs. sick, control sample vs. test sample). The specific objectives were to (1) create a spectral library for each evaluated pathogen and disease, (2) identify and establish the characteristic NIR spectral signatures and trends by aquaphotomics and chemometrics-based MVA methods, (3) generate and evaluate models for discriminating representative spectra, (4) provide new biochemical information by the correlation of the results with pathogen development and disease states in living systems, and (5) support the groundwork for a portable, fast, non-destructive, and accurate diagnostic tool capable of reducing the existing time necessary for pathogen and disease detection.

Transparent conducting oxide (TCOs) thin films, including non-stoichiometric tin doped indium oxide (ITO) and aluminium doped zinc oxide (AZO), have found considerable applications in various displays, solar cells, and electrochromic devices, due to their unique combination of high electrical conductivity and optical transparency. TCO thin films are normally fabricated by sputtering, thermal vapour deposition and sol-gel method. Among them, sol-gel processing, which was employed in this project, is no doubt the simplest and cheapest processing method, The main objectives of this project were to produce indium tin oxides (ITO) and zinc aluminium oxides (AZO) nanoparticles with controlled particle size and morphology and to fabricate TCO thin films with high optical transmittance and electrical conductivity. In this research, hydrothermal method was used to synthesise ITO and AZO nanoparticles. Tin oxides, zinc oxides, ITO and AZO particles with the particle size ranging from 10 nm to several micrometers and different morphologies were synthesised through controlling the starting salts, alkaline solvents and hydrothermal treatment conditions. ITO and AZO thin films were fabricated via sol-gel technique through dip coating method. The effects of the starting salts, alkaline solvents, surfactant additives and coating and calcination conditions on the formation of thin films were investigated. XRD, TEM, FEG-SEM, DSC-TGA, UV-Vis spectrometer and four-point probe resistance meter were used to characterise the crystallinity, particle size, morphology, optical transmittance and sheet resistance of the particles and thin films. Crack-free thin films with high optical transmittance (>80% at 550 nm) and low sheet resistances (2.11 kΩ for ITO and 26.4 kΩ for AZO) were obtained in optimised processing conditions.

L’océan Arctique est marqué par une forte saisonnalité qui se manifeste par la présence d’une banquise permanente dont l’extension varie entre 6 et 15 millions de kilomètres carré. Interface plus ou moins perméable, la banquise limite les échanges atmosphère - océan et affecte le budget énergétique global en réfléchissant une part importante du rayonnement incident. Le manteau neigeux qui se forme à sa surface est un élément essentiel notamment parce qu’il contribue fortement aux propriétés optiques de la banquise. D’une part par son albédo, proche de l’unité dans le visible, qui retarde sensiblement la fonte estivale de la glace. Et d’autre part, il est majoritairement responsable de l’extinction verticale de l’éclairement dans la banquise. Or, la faible intensité lumineuse transmise à la colonne d’eau constitue un facteur limitant important à l’accumulation de biomasse des producteurs primaires souvent des micro-algues, à la base des réseaux trophiques. Le manteau neigeux en surface, par ces propriétés physiques et leurs évolutions temporelles, joue donc un rôle essentiel en impactant directement l’initiation et l’amplitude de la floraison phytoplanctonique printanière. Dans le cadre du réchauffement climatique actuel, les mutations que subit la banquise : amincissement, réduction de son extension estivale et variations des épaisseurs du manteau neigeux bouleversent d’ores et déjà la production primaire arctique à l’échelle globale et régionale.Cette thèse vise à mieux comprendre la contribution du manteau neigeux au transfert radiatif global de la banquise, afin de mieux estimer son impact sur la production primaire arctique. Elle s’appuie sur un jeu de données collecté lors de deux campagnes de mesures sur la banquise en période de fonte. Les propriétés physiques de la neige, SSA et densité, permettent une modélisation précise du transfert radiatif de la neige qui est validée, ensuite, par les propriétés optiques comprenant : albédo, profils verticaux d’éclairement dans le manteau neigeux et transmittance à travers la banquise.Au printemps, la neige marine, marquée par une importante hétérogénéité spatiale, évolue suivant quatre phases distinctes. La fonte, d’abord surfacique puis étendue à toute l’épaisseur du manteau, se caractérise par une baisse de la SSA de 25-60 m2kg-1 à moins de 3 m2kg-1 provoquant une diminution de l’albédo dans le proche infrarouge puis à toute longueur d’onde ainsi qu'une augmentation de l’éclairement transmis à la colonne d’eau. Cette période est chaotique, et marquée par une forte variabilité temporelle des propriétés optiques causées par la succession d’épisodes de fonte et de chutes de neige. Les propriétés physiques de la neige sont utilisées par un modèle de transfert radiatif afin de simuler les profils verticaux d'éclairement, l’albédo et la transmittance de la banquise. La comparaison entre ces simulations et les profils d’éclairement mesurés met en évidence la présence d’impuretés dans la neige dont leurs natures et leurs concentrations sont estimées. En moyenne, la neige échantillonnée contenait 600 ngg-1 de poussières minérales et 10 nng-1 de suies qui réduisaient par deux l’éclairement transmis à la colonne d’eau. Enfin, la modélisation de l’éclairement à toute profondeur de la banquise, représentée de manière innovante par des isolumes, est mise en relation avec l’évolution temporelle de la biomasse dans la glace. Il apparaît que la croissance des algues de glace est systématiquement corrélée avec une augmentation de l’éclairement, et ce, jusqu’à des niveaux d’intensité de l’ordre de 0.4 uEm-2s-2. Ces variations d’éclairement sont causées par le métamorphisme et la fonte de la neige en surface. / The Arctic ocean shows a very strong seasonality trough the permanent presence of sea ice whose extent varies from 6 to 15 millions km2. As an interface, sea ice limits ocean - atmosphere interactions and impacts the global energy budget by reflecting most of the short-wave incoming radiations. The snow cover, at the surface, is a key element contributing to the optical properties of sea ice. Snow enhances further the surface albedo and thus delays the onset of the ice melt. In addition, snow is the main responsible for the vertical light extinction in sea ice. However, after the polar night, this low light transmitted to the water column is a limiting factor for primary production at the base of the oceanic food web. The snow cover, through the temporal evolution of its physical properties, plays a key role controlling the magnitude and the timing of the phytoplanktonic bloom. In the actual global warming context, sea ice undergoes radical changes including summer extent reduction, thinning and shifts in snow thickness, all of which already alter Arctic primary production on a regional and global scale.This PhD thesis aims to better constrain the snow cover contributions to the radiative transfer of sea ice and its impact on Arctic primary production. It is based on a dataset collected during two sampling campaigns on landfast sea ice. Physical properties of snow such as snow specific surface area (SSA) and density allow a precise modeling of the radiative transfer which is then validated by optical measurements including albedo, transmittance through sea ice and vertical profiles of irradiance in the snow.During the melt season, marine snow which shows strong spatial heterogeneity evolves fol- lowing four distinctive phases. The melting, which first appears at the surface and gradually propagates to the entire snowpack, is characterized by a decrease in SSA from 25-60 m2kg-1 to less than 3 m2kg-1 resulting in a decrease in albedo and an increase in sea ice transmittance. This is a chaotic period, where optical properties show a very strong temporal variability induced by alternative episodes of surface melting and snowfalls. The physical properties of snow are used in a radiative transfer model in order to calculate albedo, transmittance through sea ice and vertical profiles of irradiance at all depths. The comparison between these simulations and measured vertical profiles of irradiance in snow highlights the presence of snow absorbing impurities which were subsequently qualitatively and quantitatively studied. In average, impurities were composed of 660 ngg-1 of mineral dust and 10 ngg-1 of black carbon. They were responsible for a two-fold reduction in light transmitted through sea ice. The light extinction, calculated at all depths in sea ice, and represented by isolums, was compared to the temporal evolution of ice algae biomass. The results show that every significant growth in ice algae population is related to an increase of light in the ice. These growths were observed even at very low light intensities of 0.4 uEm-2s-2. Light variations in the ice were linked by snow metamorphism and snow melting at the surface.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-18T18:19:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao de Antonio Luiz Martins Junior.pdf: 2188938 bytes, checksum: 2158404e55575579b79bcf24267df24b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / In recent years, researchers and scientists has been devoted more to the study of inorganic materials, in particular the oxides known as perovskites, because its technological use. The analysis of their properties have been made by various techniques, among these we can mention the Raman spectroscopy and infrared, which show very sensitive to changes in the structure of these oxides. Thus, this work presents the study of phonons at room temperature the double perovskites Ca₃Mn₂WO₉ (CMWO) and Ca₃Mn₂NbO₉ (CMNO) by means of Raman scattering techniques and transmittance Infrared. Both compounds crystallize in a monoclinic system space group P2₁/n, with Z = 2. The Raman and infrared spectra are interpreted by the group factor analysis in terms of the space group P2₁/n. Also the vibrational modes of stretching and folding B were reported "- O. The observed spectra are very similar to the cubic perovskite structure prototype dual Fm3m indicating that the phases of the study result of minor distortions cubic cell. It is also observed an unexpected band in the Raman spectra of both materials. We suggest that this additional bandwidth would result from occupational disorder of the sites of the cation B, which is evidenced in both phases. / Nos últimos anos, pesquisadores e cientistas tem se dedicado mais ao estudo de materiais inorgânicos, em particular aos óxidos denominados perovskitas, devido o seu aproveitamento tecnológico. A análise de suas propriedades tem sido feita por diversas técnicas, entre estas podemos citar as espectroscopias Raman e de Infravermelho, que se mostram muito sensíveis às mudanças na estrutura desses óxidos. Sendo assim, este trabalho apresenta o estudo de fônons à temperatura ambiente das perovskitas duplas Ca₃Mn₂WO₉ (CMWO) e Ca₃Mn₂NbO₉ (CMNO), por meio das técnicas de espalhamento Raman e transmitância de Infravermelho. Ambos os compostos cristalizam em um sistema monoclínico com grupo espacial P2₁/n, com Z = 2. Os espectros Raman e infravermelho são interpretados por meio da análise do grupo fator em termos do grupo espacial P2₁/n. Também foram reportados os modos vibracionais de estiramento e dobramento do B - O. Os espectros observados são muito semelhantes ao do protótipo cúbico de estrutura perovskitas dupla Fm m indicando que as fases em estudo resultam de pequenas distorções da célula cúbica. Observa-se também uma banda inesperada nos espectros Raman de ambos materiais. Nós sugerimos que essa banda adicional seria resultado da desordem ocupacional dos sítios do cátion B, que é evidenciada nas duas fases.

Thermal bridging can be defined as the phenomenon where a structural element spanning the building envelope acts like a thermal pathway which collects and moves energy (heat) from the interior to the exterior of the structure. CFS construction, due to the high thermal conductivity of steel with respect to its surrounding structural components and repetitive nature of framing, is highly prone to thermal bridging. Thermal bridging significantly alters the thermal performance of wall assemblies. Hence, the objective of this research project was to quantify the magnitude of energy loss through cold-formed steel (CFS) stud wall assemblies at a component level to lay the groundwork for future works that promote sustainable, energy-efficient, and improved building design recommendations. Therefore, a parametric evaluation was performed using ISO 10211:2007, Annex A, conforming heat transfer software Blocon Heat3 version 8 to generate the data required for analysis. 80 unique wall assemblies and the impact of selected parameters on the overall thermal transmittance of the wall assembly were studied as part of the parametric evaluation. The key variables of the study are steel thickness, stud depth, stud spacing, cavity insulation R-value, external insulation thickness (R-value), and fastener diameter and length. Based on the results of the analysis, effects of increasing stud and track thickness, depth, and stud spacing have been discussed in the form of trends in overall heat flow and linear thermal transmittance coefficient values. Additionaly, effects of increasing external insulation have been discussed by addressing changes in heat flow.