The tropical forests of Indochina harbor a suite of globally threatened tropical mammal species. These species are difficult to detect, and subsequently understudied. Noninvasive camera trapping was used to survey terrestrial mammals from a protected area in southeastern Lao PDR (Xe Sap National Protected Area). The presence-absence of four mammals (mainland serow Capricornis milneedwardsii, muntjac Muntiacus spp., macaque Macaca spp., and wild pig Sus scrofa) was modeled in an occupancy framework thereby accounting for detection probabilities. Our goals were to establish baseline occupancy data to assist with biological monitoring and to better understand the factors influencing the distribution of the target species. Naïve occupancy, or the proportion of sites at which the target species was detected, was 0.58 for muntjac, 0.55 for macaque, 0.38 for wild pig, and 0.30 for serow. True occupancy estimates (Ψ ± SE) from top-ranked models was 0.79 ± 0.21 for macaque, 0.74 ± 0.13 for muntjac, 0.51 ± 0.13 for wild pig, and 0.48 ± 0.18 for serow. The results underscore the importance of accounting for imperfect detection rates when studying rare or elusive species. I included two site covariates (forest type and distance to nearest village) in the occupancy models. Estimating occupancy as a function of site covariates improved model performance and provided insight into landscape-level factors that affect species occurrence. In the top-ranked models, serow occupancy was higher in hill evergreen forest (HEGF) than semi-evergreen forest (SEGF). Muntjac occupancy was higher in areas further from villages. Macaque occupancy was higher in areas closer to villages. Wild pig occupancy was higher in areas further from villages and in HEGF. I recommend using an occupancy framework to analyze occurrence data for difficult-to-study tropical mammal species. The results highlight the importance of Xe Sap NPA for large mammal conservation in the region. / text

English composer Gerald Finzi's (1901-1956) early life was plagued by the deaths of close friends and family, and the beginning of the first world war. Before his eighteenth birthday, Finzi lost his three brothers, his father and his beloved composition teacher. To mourn these deaths and perhaps as a reaction to the first world war, Finzi began to compose his Requiem da Camera (op. 3b, 1924). Finzi completed three movements of this four-movement work during his lifetime, and left sketches for the completion of the unfinished third movement. Beginning in 1984, Philip Thomas, with the blessing of the Finzi family and the Finzi Trust, began examining the extant sketches in an attempt to complete the unfinished third movement. Thomas completed and published his edition of the Requiem da Camera in 1992. After a careful examination of this completion, a number of editorial questions were raised. This document was created to address these questions. It sets out historical parameters to provide context for Finzi's original composition, goes on to describe the development of liturgical and non-liturgical requiem composition, and discusses the development of British non-liturgical requiem (and requiem-like) compositions in the twentieth century. Thomas's completed third movement is compared to Finzi's source material. Four major areas of discrepancy are presented and examined to bring the movement closer to Finzi's original compositional intent. The document concludes with a new completion of the third movement. It combines the work of Finzi and Thomas, along with information gleaned in the process of creating this document, the remainder of the original Finzi composition, and other of Finzi's compositions with similar qualities from this era.

Use of a smartphone as an optical detector for paper microfluidic devices has recently gained substantial attention due to its simplicity, ease of use, and handheld capability. Utilization of a UV light source enhances the optical signal intensities, especially for the particle immunoagglutination assay that has typically used visible or ambient light. Such enhancement is essential for true assimilation of assays to field deployable and point-of-care applications by greatly reducing the effects by independent environmental factors. This work is the first demonstration of using a UV LED (UVA) to enhance the Mie scatter signals from the particle immunoagglutination assay on the paper microfluidic devices and subsequent smartphone detection. Smartphone's CMOS camera can recognize the UVA scatter from the paper microfluidic channels efficiently in its green channel. For an Escherichia coli assay, the normalized signal intensities increased up to 50% from the negative signal with UV LED, compared with the 4% to 7% with ambient light. Detection limit was 10 colony-forming units/mL. Similar results were obtained in the presence of 10% human whole blood.

The thesis implements a vision-based leader-follower tracking algorithm on a ground robot system. One camera is the only sensor installed the leader-follower system and is mounted on the follower. One sphere is the only feature installed on the leader. The camera identifies the sphere in the openCV Library and calculates the relative position between the follower and leader using the area and position of the sphere in the camera frame. A P controller for the follower and a P controller for the camera heading are built. The vision-based leader-follower tracking algorithm is verified according to the simulation and implementation.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Through an accidental discovery of an interest in the film making process, I decided to explore the opportunities that would come through self-education in the field. Along the way, I found that the process of working behind the camera can, in fact, help the actor’s career in front of the camera and provide a chance to train in a nontraditional way. After directing two projects (one simple and one more complicated), I decided to propose a class in which students would be required to self- produce their own video projects online. The class was vastly popular, and the students’ responses to the class work lined up with my learning objectives perfectly. The actor must take control of his/her career by constantly working on the craft, and that can easily be done through going out and shooting one’s own work. Even if it doesn’t result in being ‘discovered,’ the pursuit allows the actor’s creativity and perspective to be ever widening.

Le contrôle de caméra virtuelle est aujourd'hui un composant essentiel dans beaucoup d'applications d'infographie. Malgré cette importance, les approches actuelles restent limitées en terme d'expressivité, d'interactivité et de performances. Typiquement, les éléments de style ou de genre cinématographique sont difficiles à modéliser et à simuler dû à l'incapacité des systèmes actuels de calculer simultanément des points de vues, des trajectoires et d'effectuer le montage. Deuxièmement, elles n'explorent pas assez le potentiel créatif offert par le couplage potentiel d'un humain et d'un système intelligent pour assister les utilisateurs dans une tâche complexe de construction de séquences cinématographiques. Enfin, la plupart des approches existantes se basent sur des techniques d'optimisation dans un espace de recherche 6D, qui s'avèrent coûteuses et donc inadaptées à un contexte interactif. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons tout d'abord un cadre unique intégrant les quatre aspects clés de la cinématographie (le calcul de point de vue, la planification de trajectoires, le montage et la visibilité). Ce cadre expressif permet de simuler certaines dimensions de style cinématographique. Nous proposons ensuite une méthodologie permettant de combiner les capacités d'un système automatique avec une interaction utilisateur. Enfin, nous présentons un modèle de contrôle de caméra efficace qui réduit l'espace de recherche de 6D à 3D. Ce modèle a le potentiel pour remplacer un certain nombre de formulations existantes. / Virtual camera control is nowadays an essential component in many computer graphics applications. Despite its importance, current approaches remain limited in their expressiveness, interactive nature and performances. Typically, elements of directorial style and genre cannot be easily modeled nor simulated due to the lack of simultaneous control in viewpoint computation, camera path planning and editing. Second, there is a lack in exploring the creative potential behind the coupling of a human with an intelligent system to assist users in the complex task of designing cinematographic sequences. Finally, most techniques are based on computationally expensive optimization techniques performed in a 6D search space, which prevents their application to real-time contexts. In this thesis, we first propose a unifying approach which handles four key aspects of cinematography (viewpoint computation, camera path planning, editing and visibility computation) in an expressive model which accounts for some elements of directorial style. We then propose a workflow allowing to combine automated intelligence with user interaction. We finally present a novel and efficient approach to virtual camera control which reduces the search space from 6D to 3D and has the potential to replace a number of existing formulations.

Les travaux proposés dans cette thèse s’inscrivent dans le cadre des projets ANR-Cam-Relief et du CPER-CREATIS soutenus par l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche, la région Champagne-Ardenne et le FEDER. Ces études s'inscrivent également dans le cadre d’une collaboration avec la société 3DTV-Solutions et deux groupes du CReSTIC (AUTO et SIC). L’objectif de ce projet est ,entre autre, de concevoir par analogie aux systèmes 2D grands publics actuels, des systèmes de prise de vue 3D permettant de restituer sur écrans reliefs (auto-stéréoscopiques) visibles sans lunettes, des images 3D de qualité. Notre intérêt s’est porté particulièrement sur les systèmes de prise de vue à configuration parallèle et décentrée. Les travaux de recherche menés dans cette thèse sont motivés par l’incapacité des configurations statiques de ces systèmes de prise de vue de capturer correctement des scènes dynamiques réelles pour une restitution autostéréoscopique correcte. Pour surmonter cet obstacle, un schéma d’adaptation de laconfiguration géométrique du système de prise de vue est proposé. Afin de déterminer les paramètres devant être concernés par cette adaptation, une étude de l’effet de la constance de chaque paramètre sur la qualité du rendu relief est menée. Les répercussions des contraintes dynamiques et mécaniques sur le relief restitué sont ensuite examinées. La précision de positionnement des paramètres structurels est abordée à travers la proposition de deux méthodes d’évaluation de la qualité du rendu relief, pour déterminer les seuils d’erreur de positionnement des paramètres structurels du système de prise de vue. Enfin, le problème de la calibration est abordée, où l’on propose une méthode basée sur la méthode de transformation linéaire directe DLT, et des perspectives sont envisagées pour l’asservissement de ces systèmes de prise de vue par asservissement classique ou par asservissement visuel. / The works proposed in this thesis are part of the projects ANR-Cam-Relief and CPER-CREATIS supported by the National Agency of Research, the Champagne-Ardenne region and the FEDER.These studies also join within the framework of a collaboration with the 3DTV-Solutions society and two groups of the CReSTIC (AUTO and SIC).The objective of this project is, among others, to design by analogy to the current 2D popularized systems, 3D shooting systems allowing to display on 3D screens (auto-stereoscopic) visible without glasses, 3D quality images. Our interest has focused particularly on shooting systems with parallel and decentred configuration. There search works led in this thesis are motivated by the inability of the static configurations of these shooting systems to capture correctly real dynamic scenes for a correct auto-stereoscopic endering. To overcome this drawback, an adaptation scheme of the geometrical configuration of the shooting system is proposed. To determine the parameters to be affected by this adaptation,the effect of the constancy of each parameter on the rendering quality is studied. The repercussions of the dynamic and mechanical constraints on the 3D rendering are then examined. Positioning accuracy of the structural parameters is approached through two methods proposed for the rendering quality assessment, to determine the thresholds of positioning error of the structural parameters of the shooting system. Finally, the problem of calibration is discussed where we propose an approach based on the DLT method, and perspectives are envisaged to automatic control of these shooting systems by classical approaches or by visual servoing.

Woodrats (Neotoma spp.) are imperiled in the north-central and north eastern United States. In Illinois, eastern woodrats (N. floridana) experienced range reductions and population bottlenecks over the past century. Hypothesized reasons for the decline of many woodrat populations that inhabit rock outcrops in the eastern United States include parasitism by raccoon roundworms (Baylisascaris procyonis), hard mast shortages, owl predation, and reductions in crevice availability for nest construction. During 2004-2005, the isolated remnant populations along the Mississippi bluffs in southwestern Illinois were genetically augmented with 47 eastern woodrats from Arkansas and Missouri resulting in 40% admixture within the largest population. In 2009, a strong windstorm created canopy gaps and woody debris throughout this area, potentially improving habitat for eastern woodrats. During 2003–2009, 422 eastern woodrats were reintroduced to 5 sites in the southeastern Illinois, and 172 eastern woodrats to 2 southern Illinois state parks during 2013–2014. These reintroductions are the only woodrat reintroductions to date with >50 individuals released per site. Most previous woodrat reintroduction attempts have released small numbers of individuals (10–15 per site and 10–54 total) and either failed to establish populations or required frequent management for populations to persist. My objectives were to (1) investigate the status of augmented eastern woodrat populations in southwestern Illinois, (2) evaluate the success of the southern Illinois reintroductions, (3) investigate whether eastern woodrats demographics within a reintroduced metapopulation could be predicted by factors underlying hypothesized reasons for woodrat declines, and (4) develop and evaluate noninvasive alternatives to live-trapping and sign surveys for monitoring woodrat populations.

Match moving är ett av de steg inom en vfx produktion som avgör och skapar intergrerandet mellan filmat material och filmiska effekter gjorda i 3D.  Redan under en inspelning förekommer förberedande arbete och dokumentation för att i ett senare stadie underlätta för match moving. Detta för att utesluta specifika problem som kan uppstå under match moving processen då det är väsentligt att skapandet av en virtuell kamera är korrekt i förhållande till det filmade materialet. Detta för att vfx ska kunna adderas senare. Detta arbete tar upp den problematik som kan uppstå när förberedelser och dokumentation saknas för det filmade materialet. Arbetet fokuserar på tester av olika arbetsmetoder för match moving samt analyser av det filmade materialet. Detta för att klargöra hur en vfx artist ska gå tillväga för att göra valet av arbetsmetod beroende på hur det filmade materialet ser ut. De arbetsmetoderna som tas upp i detta arbete är automatic tracking, tracking med enbart 2D feature points samt planar tracking och dess förberedande steg. Resultaten visar även på att olika arbetsmetoder ska behandlas på olika sätt av vfx artisten samt att de kan ha olika resultat beroende på hur det filmade materialet ser ut. Klargörandet av dessa arbetsmetoder och det filmade materialet med hjälp av tester gör valet av arbetsmetod simplare när det kommer till match moving. / Match moving is one of the steps within a vfx production pipeline that decides how filmed material and 3D effects will intergrate with each other. Already on set preparations and documentations are made to make the match moving process less problematic later in the pipeline. It is essential that the filmed material match the virtual created camera from the match moving process to make the intergration happen. This report discusses the problems that can arise when needed preparations on set are missing and how they can be solved by studying different methods for match moving. The report focuses on these methods compared to the filmed material and how a vfx artist can choose a method to work with depending on that material. The methods that are discussed in this report are automatic tracking, tracking with feature points only and planar tracking. The results also show that different methods should be treated differently from each other by the vfx artist and that the result can differ depending on how the filmed material looks. Clarifying these methods and filmed material with tests will make it easier to choose a method to work with while match moving.