In this thesis, a system called Video Looping is developed to analyze human cyclic motions. Video Looping allows users to extract human cyclic motion from a given video sequence. This system analyzes similarities from a large amount of live footage to find the point of smooth transition. The final cyclic loop is created using only a few output images. Video Looping is useful not only to learn and understand human movements, but also to apply the cyclic loop to various artistic applications. To provide practical animation references, the output images are presented as photo plate sequences to visualize human cyclic motion similar to Eadweard Muybridge's image sequences. The final output images can be used to create experimental projects such as composited multiple video loops or small size of web animations. Furthermore, they can be imported into animation packages, and animators can create keyframe animations by tracing them in 3D software.

Global climate change is one of the most challenging problems that human beings are facing. The large anthropogenic emission of CO2 in the atmosphere is one of the major causes for the climate change. Coal-fired power plants are the single-largest anthropogenic emission sources globally, accounting for approximately one third of the total CO2 emissions. It is therefore necessary to reduce CO2 emission from coal-fired power plants. Current technologies for the post-combustion CO2 capture from flue gas streams can be broadly classified into the three categories: absorption, adsorption, and membrane processes. Despite challenges, CO2 capture by adsorption using solid sorbents and membranes offers opportunities for energy-efficient capture and storage of CO2. Nanoporous materials have attracted tremendous interest in research and development due to their potential in conventional applications such as catalysis, ion-exchange, and gas separation as well as in advanced applications such as sensors, delivery, and micro-devices. In the first part of this dissertation, we will study the synthesis of membranes using an emerging class of nanoporous materials, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for carbon dioxide (CO2) separations. Due to the unique chemistry of MOFs which is very different from that of zeolites, the techniques developed for the synthesis of zeolite membranes cannot be used directly. In order to overcome this challenge, a couple of novel techniques were developed: 1) "thermal seeding" for the secondary growth and 2) "surface modification" for the in situ growth. Membranes of HKUST-1 and ZIF-8, two of the most important MOFs, were prepared on porous α-alumina supports using thermal seeding and the surface modification techniques, respectively. The second part of this dissertation demonstrates a simple and commercially viable application of nanoporous materials (zeolite 5A and amine-functionalized mesoporus silica), storing CO2 as a micro-fire extinguishers in polymers. Materialist is observed that by dispersing these highly CO2-philic nanoporous materials in polymer matrices, the propagation of flame was greatly retarded and extinguished. This flame retarding behavior is attributed to the fact that CO2 released from the sorbents (zeolite 5A and mesoporous silica), blocks the flow of oxygen, therefore causing the fire to be effectively extinguished. Our results suggest that the binding strength of CO2 on sorbents play an important role. If the binding strength of CO2 is too low, CO2 releases too early, thereby ineffective in retarding the flame.

This paper presents methods for photo-realistic rendering using strongly spatially variant illumination captured from real scenes. The illumination is captured along arbitrary paths in space using a high dynamic range, HDR, video camera system with position tracking. Light samples are rearranged into 4-D incident light fields (ILF) suitable for direct use as illumination in renderings. Analysis of the captured data allows for estimation of the shape, position and spatial and angular properties of light sources in the scene. The estimated light sources can be extracted from the large 4D data set and handled separately to render scenes more efficiently and with higher quality. The ILF lighting can also be edited for detailed artistic control.

We study the capture of a particle into resonance at a potential hole with dissipative perturbation and periodic outside force. The measure of resonance solutions is evaluated. We also derive an asymptotic formula for the parameter range of those solutions which are captured into resonance.

Dans le cadre de ce travail, nous étudions le financement bancaire des PME en France. Ces dernières ont tendance à s'adresser à plus d'une banque pour leurs financements d'investissements et ce, depuis la fin des années quatre-vingt. Cette multibancarité accrue des PME nous amène à formuler deux interrogations :i) Quels sont les déterminants du choix du nombre de banques des PME? ii) Comment les conditions financières et non financières des contrats de crédits accordés aux PME sont-elles affectées par le choix du nombre de banques ? Pour répondre aux hypothèses théoriques formulées sur ces questions, nous réalisons des tests économétriques portant sur un échantillon de 144 entreprises françaises. Les données utilisées concernent l'année 2009 et proviennent d'une enquête. Ces données sont uniques, récentes, ne sont disponibles dans aucune base de données et sont complétées par des données comptables. Les résultats de l'étude économétrique montrent que le nombre de banques est d'autant plus élevé que le degré d'opacité informationnelle de l'entreprise est faible. Les tests économétriques montrent également qu'il existe un lien positif et significatif entre le nombre de banques et le risque d'exposition au rationnement bancaire. La qualité de l'entreprise semble être un déterminant important du choix du nombre de banques et des conditions de contrat de dettes mais son effet reste ambigu

Near-fall detection is important for medical research since it can help doctors diagnose fall-related diseases and also help alert both doctors and patients of possible falls. However, in people’s daily life, there are lots of similarities between near-falls and other Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), which makes near-falls particularly difficult to detect. In order to find the subtle difference between ADLs and near-fall and accurately identify the latter, the movement of whole human body needs to be captured and displayed by a computer generated avatar. In this thesis, a wireless inertial motion capture system consisting of a central control host and ten sensor nodes is used to capture human body movements. Each of the ten sensor nodes in the system has a tri-axis accelerometer and a tri-axis gyroscope. They are attached to separate locations of a human body to record both angular and acceleration data with which body movements can be captured by applying Euler angle based algorithms, specifically, single rotation order algorithm and the optimal rotation order algorithm. According to the experiment results of capturing ten ADLs, both the single rotation order algorithm and the optimal rotation order algorithm can track normal human body movements without significantly distortion and the latter shows higher accuracy and lower data shifting. Compared to previous inertial systems with magnetometers, this system reduces hardware complexity and software computation while ensures a reasonable accuracy in capturing human body movements.

This thesis identifies and analyzes successful movement strategies for the completion of a complex dynamic task. In the past it has been shown that movement strategies correlate well to performance for simple tasks. Therefore, in this thesis I was motivated to find out if motion based metrics correlated well to performance for more complicated motor tasks. First, the Nintendo Wiimote was verified as a suitable gaming interface enabling gross human motion capture through experimental comparisons with other gaming interfaces and precision sensors. Then, a complex motor task was rendered in an open-source gaming environment. This environment enabled the design of a rhythmic task that could be controlled with the Wiimote while data were simultaneously recorded for later analysis. For the task, success and failure could be explained by high correlation between two motion based performance metrics, mean absolute jerk (MAJ) and average frequency (AVF) per trial. A logistic regression analysis revealed that each subject had a range of MAJ and AVF values for being successful, outside of which they were unsuccessful. Therefore, this thesis identifies motion based performance metrics for a novel motor control task that is significantly difficult to master and the techniques used to identify successful movement strategies can be used for predicting success for other such complex dynamic tasks.

Natural gas combined cycles with oxy-fuel combustion is expected tobe an important component of the future carbon constrained energyscenario. An oxy-combustion power cycle enables the fuel to burn in anitrogen free environment and thereby helps separate the CO2 streamfor storage. Depending on the oxygen source and purity, the CO2stream may need further purification via a purification unit (CPU)before compressing it to a high pressure for storage. The major energy penalty in this type of power cycle is the production of oxygenand the downstream purification to remove volatiles. It is this energypenalty which results in the cost of avoiding the CO2 emissions to theatmosphere.Cryogenic Air Separation Units (ASU) for oxygen production con-tribute to approximately 20% of the total energy penalty of such powerplants. Oxygen Transport Membranes (OTM) for oxygen production offers a potential solution to reduce the energy penalty of oxy-combustion natural gas cycles. The energy penalties associated withOTMs are that membranes operate at high temperatures and requirea sweep gas to establish an oxygen partial pressure difference betweenthe feed and permeate streams. Further, while the Cryogenic ASUhas minimum integration with the power process, oxy-combustion cycles with OTMs are tightly integrated with the power plant. Thusthe contributions to efficiency penalty in an OTM-based cycles aredistributed and not easily identified.The objective of the thesis is to answer the question: "Where doesthe plant efficiency loss originate in oxy-combustion CO2 capture process using Oxygen Transport Membrane as compared to one withcryogenic ASU?" The contribution of the work will be to highlight thelosses at the sub-process and at the equipment level.This work studies three different cases of oxy-combustion naturalgas combined cycles (NGCC) with CO2 capture. The baseline scenario, modified/improved scenario and the advanced scenario. Thebaseline scenario is a simple oxy-combustion NGCC power plant withASU as the oxygen source. Various losses associated with this systemare studied in detail. The modified/improved scenario involves analysis of possible modifications to the baseline case and applying theresults in-order to improve the baseline case. The modified scenario isexpected to have a better overall plant performance. The advancedscenario involves usage of OTM for oxygen production.The power plants are simulated in Aspen HYSYS and plant massand heat balances are calculated. Using the stream enthalpy, entropyand composition, we can calculate the stream exergy values. Controlvolumes help us analyze the component and sub-system exergy lossesand arrive at the overall power plant exergetic efficiency. The base-line power plant scheme is found to have an exergetic efficiency of 47percentage points with a thermal efficiency of 49.6 percentage, withcapture.The modified power plant scheme is obtained by increasing the gasturbine pressure ratio and this has a significant impact on the over-all system design and hence the performance. The modified systemhas exergetic and thermal efficiency of 49 and 51 percentage pointsrespectively. The advanced power plant with OTM, also called as theAdvanced Zero Emissions Powerplant (AZEP) has an exergetic efficiency of 51 and a thermal efficiency of 53.4 percentage. In all the cases, the combustor where most of the fuel is burnt is responsible formajority of the exergy destruction.There is potential for improving the ASU and thereby achieving alesser specific oxygen production power and also due to system integration and other improvements, the overall oxy-combustion NGCCpower plant is expected to play an important role in 5 - 10 years. Alsoas the working fluid is different from that of a normal air based powerplant, significant work needs to be done in the gas turbine and compressor part. Also detailed cost estimations, reliability and flexibilitystudies, operability and safety related studies need to be carried outin-order to boost the confidence in oxy-fuel NGCC power plants andtake it to the next phase.

A dynamic MEA absorption process model has been developed to study the operability of this process in a dynamic fashion and to develop a control strategy to maintain the operation of the MEA scrubbing CO2 capture process in the presence of the external perturbations that may arise from the transient operation of the power plant. The novelty in this work is that a mechanistic model based on the conservation laws of mass and energy have been developed for the complete MEA absorption process. The model developed in this work was implemented in gPROMS. The process response of the key output variables to changes in the key input process variables, i.e., the flue gas flow rate and the reboiler heat duty, are presented and discussed in this study. In order to represent the actual operation of a power plant, the dynamic response of the MEA absorption process to a sinusoidal change in the flue gas flow rate was also considered in the present analysis. The mechanistic dynamic model was applied to develop a basic feedback control strategy. The implementation of a control strategy was tested by changing the operating conditions for the flue gas flow rate. The controlled variables, i.e., the percentage of CO2 absorbed in the absorber column and the reboiler temperature, were maintained around their nominal set point values by manipulating the valve stem positions, which determine the lean solvent feed flow rate at the top of the absorber column, and the reboiler heat duty, respectively. For the sinusoidal test, the amplitude of the oscillations observed for the controlled variables was smaller than those observed for the open-loop tests. This is because the variability of the controlled variables was transferred to the manipulated variable in the closed loop. The mechanistic dynamic model developed in this process can be potentially used as a practical tool that can provide insight regarding the dynamic operation of MEA absorption process. The model developed in this work can also be used as a basis to develop other studies related to the operability, controllability and dynamic flexibility of this process.

This study extends the methodology for the delineation of capture zones to base flow contribution areas for stream reaches under the assumption of constant average annual base flow in the stream. The methodology is applied to the Alder Creek watershed in southwestern Ontario, using three different numerical models. The three numerical models chosen for this research were Visual Modflow, Watflow and HydroGeoSphere. Capture zones were delineated for three different stream segments with reverse particle tracking and reverse transport. The modelling results showed that capture zones delineated for streams are sensitive to the discretization scheme and the different processes considered (i.e. unsaturated zone, surface flow). It is impossible to predict the size, shape and direction of the capture zones delineated based on the model selected. Also, capture zones for different stream segments will reach steady-state at different times. In addition, capture zones are highly sensitive to differences in hydraulic conductivity due to calibration. It was found that finite element based integrated groundwater - surface water models such as HydroGeoSphere are advantageous for the delineation of capture zones for streams. Capture zones created for streams are subject to greater uncertainty than capture zones created for extraction wells. This is because the hydraulic gradients for natural features are very small compared to those for wells. Therefore, numerical and calibration errors can be the same order of magnitude as the gradients that are being modelled. Because of this greater uncertainty, it is recommended that particle tracking and reverse transport always be used together when delineating capture zones for stream reaches. It is uncertain which probability contour to choose when the capture zone is delineated by reverse transport alone. The reverse particle tracks help choose the appropriate probability contour to represent the stream capture zone.