In the present study, the optimal design of feeding system in steel sand-mold castings is considered. The first part of this research includes fundamental studies on the physics of shrinkage defect formation during the casting process. The results of these studies lead to new findings on the mechanism of shrinkage defect formation, effect of melt quality on the distribution of defects within the castings and the connection between shrinkage and gases defects. The theoretical analysis of thermal criterion functions for the prediction of shrinkage defects in castings and introducing new criterion function with fewer shortcomings can be accounted as the other finding of this part. A new model was introduced in the second part of this research for the purpose of optimal design of feeding system in the shape casting processes. In this model the optimal design problem is formulated as a point-wise constrained topology optimization problem. Unlike alternative methods, the presented method does not require any predesigned feeding system as an initial guess. Using the functional analysis on the infinite-dimensional function spaces, a numerically efficient method was introduced to solve the optimal design problem in this study. By using extensive numerical experiments, capabilities and limitations of the presented method were studied in the last part of this research.

Copy-number variation (CNV) has been implicated in many complex diseases. It is of great interest to detect and locate such regions through genetic association testings. However, the association testings are complicated by the fact that CNVs usually span multiple markers and thus such markers are correlated to each other. To overcome the difficulty, it is desirable to pool information across the markers. In this thesis, we propose a kernel-based method for aggregation of marker-level tests, in which first we obtain a bunch of p-values through association tests for every marker and then the association test involving CNV is based on the statistic of p-values combinations. In addition, we explore several aspects of its implementation. Since p-values among markers are correlated, it is complicated to obtain the null distribution of test statistics for kernel-base aggregation of marker-level tests. To solve the problem, we develop two proper methods that are both demonstrated to preserve the family-wise error rate of the test procedure. They are permutation based and correlation base approaches. Many implementation aspects of kernel-based method are compared through the empirical power studies in a number of simulations constructed from real data involving a pharmacogenomic study of gemcitabine. In addition, more performance comparisons are shown between permutation-based and correlation-based approach. We also apply those two approaches to the real data. The main contribution of the dissertation is the development of marker-level association testing, a comparable and powerful approach to detect phenotype-associated CNVs. Furthermore, the approach is extended to high dimension setting with high efficiency.

The field of the social economy and of the work integration social enterprises (WISE) in particular, is for many a more or less unknown area. Unlike ordinary enterprises the WISE's are different due to their aim of integrating disadvantaged people through work. In comparison with other small enterprises earlier research has shown that the WISE's are dealing with challenges regarding recruitment, participation, leadership, sustainable business ideas but above all, the access to funding. The purpose of this essay has therefore been to examine and analyze the financial situation of eight WISE's located in the Stockholm County. The results indicate that half of the enterprises perceive their economic situation as very unstable and as an obstacle to their further development. This perception seems to be more common among the younger enterprises which have not differentiated their businesses activities enough, which results in a greater reliance of the purchases of the public sector. The studied WISE's express a desire to reduce their dependence on the revenues from the public sector by increasing the revenues from other business activities, but this is something that has been proven to be both difficult and time consuming. In line with e.g. age, business maturation, expanded areas of business activities and increased knowledge, more funding opportunities seems to occur. A vast majority of the enterprises have a negative attitude towards external funding in terms of external equity capital, due to its presumable intrusion on the determination of the company. The field which WISE's are operating in is undoubtedly an important socioeconomic area since they react to one of the society’s most prominent problems; people in exclusion and all the problems the exclusion causes. The analysis of the examined enterprise's funding opportunities and its consequences are the main contributions of this essay as well as the further suggestions on how the WISE's financial situation can be improved.

Volume measurements of timber loads is done in conjunction with timber trade. When dealing with goods of major economic values such as these, it is important to achieve an impartial and fair assessment when determining price-based volumes. With the help of Saab’s missile targeting technology, CIND AB develops products for digital volume measurement of timber loads. Currently there is a system in operation that automatically reconstructs timber trucks in motion to create measurable images of them. Future iterations of the system is expected to fully automate the scaling by generating a volumetric representation of the timber and calculate its external gross volume. The first challenge towards this development is to separate the timber load from the truck. This thesis aims to evaluate and implement appropriate method for semantic pixel-wise segmentation of timber loads in real time. Image segmentation is a classic but difficult problem in computer vision. To achieve greater robustness, it is therefore important to carefully study and make use of the conditions given by the existing system. Variations in timber type, truck type and packing together create unique combinations that the system must be able to handle. The system must work around the clock in different weather conditions while maintaining high precision and performance.

Cette thèse, co-dirigée par Jean-Marc Boucher et Ronan Fablet (IMT Atlantique) et co-encadrée par Didier Charlot (iXBlue), Gilles Le Chenadec et Michel Legris (ENSTA Bretagne), a été réalisée dans le cadre d'une convention CIFRE au sein de la société iXBlue. iXblue développe et commercialise un sondeur multifaisceaux (MBES) SEAPIX principalement dédié au marché de la pêche. Ce système a été développé pour offrir le meilleur compromis entre performances de détection et son coût de revient. Outre les caractéristiques classiques d'un MBES, il propose la particularité unique de pouvoir insonifier des fauchées différentes sous le navire par dépointage électronique du faisceau d'émission de bâbord à tribord et d'avant en arrière. Le travail de thèse a pour objectif d'étudier l'apport de ces nouvelles capacités multi-fauchées dans l'analyse et la classification des fonds marins. La première partie du travail a consisté à réaliser une analyse détaillée de la chaîne de mesure. Cette étude a permis d'évaluer la consistance des niveaux de rétrodiffusion entre les différents modes d'insonification. La deuxième partie s'est intéressée à la recherche des caractéristiques discriminantes du signal rétrodiffusé en tenant compte de la géométrie d'acquisition de chaque mode d'insonification. La dernière étape du travail a porté sur des méthodes de fusion des données acquises. Cette étude s'est réalisée en deux approches; la première considère des données venant du même mode d'insonification (intra-mode) et la seconde venant de modes différents (inter-mode), pour la cartographie des fonds marins. Les résultats expérimentaux obtenus mettent en évidence l'intérêt de la chaîne de traitement proposée et d'une architecture multi-mode sur les jeux de données réelles traitées. / This thesis, co-directed by Jean-Marc Boucher and Ronan Fablet (IMT Atlantique) and co-supervised by Didier Charlot (iXBlue), Gilles Le Chenadec and Michel Legris (ENSTA Bretagne), was realized in the context of a convention CIFRE with the company iXBlue.iXblue develops and commercializes a multibeam echosounder (MBES) SEAPIX primarily dedicated to the fishery market. The system is optimized to offer the best compromise between performances capabilities and cost. In addition to the classical characteristics of an MBES, it offers the unique feature of scanning the seafloor (and the water column volume) by electronical beamform multiple the emission swaths from port to starboard, as well as from forward to backward. The objective of the thesis is to study the contribution of these new multi-swath capacities in the analysis and classification of the seafloor.The first part of the work consisted in carrying out a detailed analysis of the measurement chain. This study evaluated the consistency in acquiring the backscattering strength from different insonification modes. The second part investigated the discriminant characteristics of the backscattered signal while taking into account the acquisition geometry of each insonification mode. The last stage of the work involved to methods of fusing the acquired data. This study was carried out in two approaches; the first considers data from the same insonification mode (intra-mode) and the second from different modes (inter-mode), for the seafloor classification. The obtained experimental results highlight the interest of the proposed processing chain and a multi-mode architecture on the real datasets.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:20:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LucianaCC_TESE.pdf: 4454358 bytes, checksum: acd9ca889a0f174c8d5f49b94bbd79be (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-04-01 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / This research looks at the collective imagination in which it keeps alive the issue of heroin wise. Two wise women appear in the narratives of popular history and the History of Donzela Theodora and History Imperatriz Porcina, collated by Lu?s da C?mara Cascudo in his Five Books of the People. The universality, mobility and circularity of these narratives are discussed by authors such as Bakhtin and Guinzburg. The research is developed from three key categories: Knowledge Magic as the knowledge of tradition (Almeida), sensitive knowledge (Levi-Strauss), thought mythical / magical / symbolic (Morin); Wise Women as carriers of this knowledge, which merge and overlap with the imagery of witches and healers; and Mythical Elements which corresponds to the archetypal images (Jung and Silveira), symbols and other images that relate to the magic universe, the magical beliefs and practices considered, ie belonging to the imaginary magic (Bethencourt). Porcina and Theodora are understood as bearers of knowledge of M?tis (Detienne and Vernant), or the cunning intelligence, the manipulation of ph?rmakon (Derrida), the healing potion, which may be the word or ointment of the herb. The route takes us to meet the great archetype of the Wise Woman as psychic power of the feminine, the anima. Narratives are medicinal balms (Estes) and is the clash between the anima and its embodiments by wise women, and animus, his opponents, which gives the transmutation of the psyche, a work comparable to that of alchemyThe Knowledge Magic, operating through the female, myth and nature can recover from its essential value to the emerging paradigm that suggests a more complete human science and a more plural / A presente pesquisa se volta para o imagin?rio coletivo no qual se mant?m viva a tem?tica da hero?na s?bia. Duas mulheres s?bias aparecem nas narrativas populares Hist?ria da Donzela Teodora e a Hist?ria da Imperatriz Porcina, cotejadas por Lu?s C?mara Cascudo em sua obra Cinco Livros do Povo. A universalidade, a mobilidade e a circularidade dessas narrativas s?o discutidas a partir de autores como Bakhtin e Guinzburg. A pesquisa se desenvolve a partir de tr?s categorias chaves: o Saber M?gico como saberes da tradi??o (Almeida), saberes sens?veis (L?vi-Strauss), pensamento m?tico/m?gico/simb?lico (Morin); Mulheres S?bias como as operadoras desse saber, que se confundem e se imbricam com o imagin?rio das bruxas e curandeiras; e Elementos M?ticos que corresponde ?s imagens arquet?picas (Jung e Silveira), s?mbolos e demais imagens que remetam ao universo m?gico, ?s cren?as e pr?ticas consideradas m?gicas, ou seja, pertencentes ao imagin?rio da magia (Bethencourt). Teodora e Porcina s?o compreendidas como portadoras do saber da m?tis (Detienne e Vernant), ou seja, da intelig?ncia astuta, da manipula??o do ph?rmakon (Derrida), a po??o de cura, que pode ser a palavra ou o ung?ento de erva. O percurso nos leva ao encontro do grande arqu?tipo da Mulher S?bia enquanto pot?ncia ps?quica do feminino, a anima. As narrativas s?o b?lsamos medicinais (Est?s) e ? no embate entre a anima e suas personifica??es atrav?s de mulheres s?bias, e o animus, seus oponentes, que se d? a transmuta??o da psique, um trabalho compar?vel ao da alquimia. O Saber M?gico, operando atrav?s do feminino, do mito e da natureza pode recuperar seu valor indispens?vel junto ao paradigma emergente que aponta um humano mais completo e uma ci?ncia mais plural

Juḥā é personagem cômica e chamada por muitos nomes distintos, que ficou mais amplamente conhecida nos países do Oriente Médio. Esta dissertação visa à análise da composição dos deslizamentos arquetípicos nas anedotas dessa personagem e o papel desses deslizamentos na produção do cômico. Com esse fim, uma amostra das anedotas contidas na complicação \"Giha, Hoja e Nasredin\" - feita por Mussa Kuraiem - teve suas funções narrativas e mecanismos de continuidade narrativa evidenciados, de acordo com os modelos propostos na obra \"Análise Estrutural da Narrativa\". A fim de demonstrar a quebra lógica e a dissolução da narrativa como sua consequência, estudos a respeito do cômico permeiam este trabalho. Como base para o levantamento e demarcação dos arquétipos que emergem das anedotas, utilizou-se, dentre outras, a pesquisa de Hasan El-Shamy e Jane Garry acerca de arquétipos e motivos folclórico-literários. Por fim, este trabalho demonstra a sobreposição dos arquétipos do tolo e do sábio, e indica que a produção de efeito cômico é simultânea ao momento de sobreposição arquetípica e ao de quebra lógica. Concluiu-se que o cômico, nas anedotas analisadas, não está apenas vinculado ao deslizamento arquetípico, mas também ao tipo de quebra cômica (disjuntor) e à adequação da narrativa ao gênero anedótico. Constatou-se também a existência de ciclos temáticos nas anedotas do Juḥā além da ocorrência de nuances arquetípicas subjacentes ao par arquetípico tolo-sábio. / Juḥā is a comic character, called by many different names and most widely known in the Middle Eastern countries. This master\'s thesis has analyzed the structure of archetype displacements in the anecdotes of the abovementioned character, as well as the role of those displacements in the production of the comic effect. To this end, this study identified narrative functions and mechanisms of narrative continuity in a sample of the anecdotes featured in the compilation named \"Giha, Hoja e Nasredin\", organized by Mussa Kuraiem. This research relied upon works on humor in order to describe the resolution of the narrative as an eventual result of its logical rupture. Additionally, studies on archetypes and folk motifs, such as El-Shamy and Garry\'s, helped identify and outline the archetypes which emerge from the anecdotes. The results of this research show two archetypes overlapping in the anecdotes. They also indicate that humor, the logical rupture and the archetype overlap all tend to rise simultaneously from the text. This paper concludes that, particularly for the selected anecdotes, humor is not solely linked to the archetype displacement, once it also depends on the type of logical rupture (known as switch) and on how suitable the narrative is to the anecdotic literary genre. Apart from all that, this research points out to the existence of thematic cycles in the anecdotes of Juḥā, as well as complementary archetypes underlying the wise-fool archetypal pair.

The topic of this diploma thesis is the commercialization of civic organizations, which we understand as the process in which they take over some procedures, methods and strategies of the commercial sector in order to generate some profit. As the highest level of commercialization, this work considers the transformation of civil organization into a so called social enterprise.At the next potential level, this civic organization would become a pure market enterprise acting as socially responsible. Thus, a social enterprise is defined as a civic organization, for which profiting is just as important as an increase in public benefit by fulfilling of its own altruistic mission. However, it is said that this social mission may be threatened by the economic one. Whereas the social enterprise combines those two opposing attributes in the form of a social and economic mission, it is considered to be controversial. That's why the aim of this diploma thesis is to determine the importance of a transformation of civic organization into the social enterprise for its life and how this transformation affects its functioning and its essence. The diploma theses is based primarily on the theory of civil society, the civil sector, the social economy and the theory of social enterprise. It is a case study, which...

La présente thèse propose des méthodes pour l'estimation du mouvement des organes d'un patient autravers de l'imagerie tomographique. Le but est la correction du mouvement spatio-temporel sur les imagesmédicales tomographiques. En tant que paradigme expérimental, nous considérons le problème de l'estimation dumouvement dans l'imagerie IRM de diffusion, une modalité d'imagerie sensible à la diffusion des molécules d'eaudans le corps. Le but de ces travaux de thèse est l'évaluation des patients atteints de lymphome, car l'eau diffusedifféremment dans les tissus biologiques sains et dans les lésions. L'effet de la diffusion de l'eau peut être mieuxreprésenté par une image paramétrique, grâce au coefficient de diffusion apparente (image à ADC), créé sur la based'une série d'images DWI du même patient (séquence d'images 3D), acquises au moment de la numérisation. Unetelle image paramétrique a la possibilité de devenir un biomarqueur d'imagerie d’IRM et de fournir aux médecinsdes informations complémentaires concernantl'image de FDG-PET qui est la méthode d'imagerie de base pour lelymphome et qui montre la quantité de glucose métabolisée.Nos principales contributions sont au nombre de trois. Tout d'abord, nous proposons une méthode de recalaged'image déformable en groupe spécialement conçue pour la correction de mouvement dans l’IRM de diffusion, carelle est guidée par un modèle physiologique décrivant le processus de diffusion qui se déroule lors de l'acquisitionde l'image. Notre méthode détermine une image à ADC de plus grande précision en termes de représentation dugradient de la diffusion des molécules d'eau par rapport à l` image correspondante obtenue par pratique couranteou par d'autres méthodes de recalage d'image non basé sur un modèle. Deuxièmement, nous montrons qu'enimposant des contraintes spatiales sur le calcul de l'image à ADC, les tumeurs de l'image peuvent être encore mieuxcaractérisées en les classant dans les différentes catégories liées à la maladie. Troisièmement, nous montronsqu'une corrélation entre DWI et FDG-PET doit exister en examinant la corrélation entre les caractéristiquesstatistiques extraites par l'image à ADC lisse découlant de notre méthode du recalage d’image déformable et lesscores de recommandation sur la malignité des lésions, donnés par des experts basés sur une évaluation des imagesFDG-PET correspondantes du patient. / This doctoral thesis develops methods to estimate patient's motion, voluntary and involuntary (organs'motion), in order to correct for motion in spatiotemporal tomographic medical images. As an experimentalparadigm we consider the problem of motion estimation in Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DWI),an imaging modality sensitive to the diffusion of water molecules in the body. DWI is used for the evaluation oflymphoma patients, since water diffuses differently in healthy tissues and in lesions. The effect of water diffusioncan be better depicted through a parametric map, the so-called apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC map), createdbased on a series of DW images of the same patient (3D image sequence), acquired in time during scanning. Such aparametric map has the potentiality to become an imaging biomarker in DWI and provide physicians withcomplementary information to current state-of-the-art FDG-PET imaging reflecting quantitatively glycosemetaboslism.Our contributions are three fold. First, we propose a group-wise deformable image registration methodespecially designed for motion correction in DWI, as it is guided by a physiological model describing the diffusionprocess taking place during image acquisition. Our method derives an ADC map of higher accuracy in terms ofdepicting the gradient of the water molecules' diffusion in comparison to the corresponding map derived bycommon practice or by other model-free group-wise image registration methods. Second, we show that by imposingspatial constraints on the computation of the ADC map, the tumours in the image can be even better characterized interms of classifying them into the different types of the disease. Third, we show that a correlation between DWI andFDG-PET should exist by examining the correlation between statistical features extracted by the smooth ADC mapderived by our deformable registration method, and recommendation scores on the malignancy of the lesions, givenby experts based on an evaluation of the corresponding FDG-PET images of the patient.

The thesis deals with processing of epoch-wise GNSS measurements from local geodynamic network Sněžník. Its aim is to evaluate the geodynamics in the area of Králický Sněžník Massif and to assess the capabilities of epoch-wise GNSS measurements to detect the geodynamic movements. Within the thesis the comprehensive processing of all the GNSS measurements observed between years 1997 and 2011 is realized using the reprocessed products of first IGS reprocessing Repro1. Bernese GPS software version 5.0 is used for all the processing.