In many systems of interest, both physical and biological, disorder inhibits the organization and cooperative properties of the system. Disorder can originate from a variety of system defects and the degree of disorder also varies. Geometric frustration introduces disorder into a system in which all the preferred interactions between the elements of the system cannot be satisfied due to the topology of an underlying lattice that describes the position of these elements. Recently, geometric frustration has been recognized as an important organizing principle in a diverse range of systems from superconducting networks to neural computation. The correlation behavior of such systems is often complicated and poorly understood. The myosin lattice of higher vertebrate muscle is a geometrically frustrated system, and the presence of this kind of disorder has prevented a rigorous interpretation of X-ray diffraction patterns from muscle fibres for the purposes of studying muscle molecular structure. This thesis investigates the correlation behavior of two geometrically frustrated systems, the triangular Ising antiferromagnet (TIA) and the fully frustrated square Ising model (FFS), and its use to interpret X-ray fibre diffraction patterns. A combination of numerical evaluation of exact expressions and Monte Carlo simulation is used to study a number of aspects of the two-point correlation function of the TIA and FFS. In the case of the TIA, a simple functional expression is developed that allows accurate calculation of the correlation function. Theory is developed for calculating diffraction by polycrystalline fibres of helical molecules, in which the constituent crystallites contain correlated substitution disorder. The theory was used to study the characteristics of diffraction by fibres with TIA-type substitution disorder statistics. A quantitative model of the disorder in the myosin filament array is developed and the above theory is used to calculate X-ray fibre diffraction from low resolution models of the myosin filament array in higher vertebrate muscle. The calculated diffraction is compared to measured diffraction data, showing good agreement.

Rail and bridge infrastructure assets are critical elements of Canada’s transportation network and their continued efficient and safe operation is necessary to ensure the nation’s economic livelihood. Monitoring technologies that can detect changes in performance as well as precursors to failure are an important element of ensuring this efficient and safe operation. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is a monitoring technology that has the potential to provide critical data for infrastructure assessment and to replace various conventional sensors with one integrated monitoring solution. In this research, the accuracy of DIC is evaluated using numerical, laboratory and field-based experiments. The sources of error of particular relevance to dynamic measurement using DIC are identified as (i) bias error in the sub-pixel interpolation scheme, (ii) the ratio of sample rate to the frequency of the signal being monitoring and (iii) the signal to noise ratio. It is also shown that the chosen sub-pixel interpolation scheme can greatly affect the accuracy of dynamic measurements. The use of DIC was investigated for field monitoring of both horizontal and vertical railway displacements at sites with good and poor subgrade conditions under dynamic train loading. It is shown that there is a significant benefit to using an absolute displacement measurement system rather than a relative displacement measurement system as the former can capture irrecoverable rail displacements in both the vertical and horizontal directions. Finally, DIC was also used for field monitoring of a very stiff reinforced concrete bridge during static and dynamic load tests. It is shown that when using DIC for deflection monitoring, corrections may have to be made to compensate for errors such as camera jitter and drift to acquire the most accurate results. Two potential correction methods were the use of a fixed reference point and generating composite images using average pixel intensity values from multiple images. It was found that using a fixed reference point was the optimal choice in this bridge test. It is concluded that DIC can be used as an effective displacement measurement tool for bridge assessment because it shows excellent correlation with linear potentiometer results and it can allow measurements to be taken without having to close the bridge. / Thesis (Master, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-26 15:40:16.744

Finite element models are used frequently in both engineering and scientific research. While they can provide useful information as to the performance of materials, as length scales are decreased more sophisticated model descriptions are required. It is also important to develop methods by which existing models may be verified against experimental findings. The present study evaluates the ability of various finite element models to predict materials behaviour at length scales ranging from several microns to tens of nanometers. Considering this motivation, this thesis is provided in manuscript form with the bulk of material coming from two case studies. Following an overview of relevant literature in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 considers the nucleation of delta-zirconium hydrides in a Zircaloy-2 matrix. Zirconium hydrides are an important topic in the nuclear industry as they form a brittle phase which leads to delayed hydride cracking during reactor start-up and shut-down. Several FE models are used to compare present results with literature findings and illustrate the weaknesses of standard FE approaches. It is shown that standard continuum techniques do not sufficiently capture the interfacial effects of an inclusion-matrix system. By using nano-scale material descriptions, nucleation lattice strains are obtained which are in good agreement with previous experimental studies. The motivation for Chapter 4 stems from a recognized need to develop a method for modeling corrosion behaviour of materials. Corrosion is also an issue for reactor design and an ability to predict failure points is needed. Finite element models could be used for this purpose, provided model accuracy is verified first. In Chapter 4 a technique is developed which facilitates the extraction of sub-micron resolution strain data from correlation images obtained during in-situ tensile deformation. By comparing image correlation results with a crystal plasticity finite element code it is found that good agreement between the two exists. The method outlined is material independent and could be applied to most metallurgical studies. Chapter 5 reviews the findings of each case study and makes suggestions as to the direction of future research. / Thesis (Master, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-30 16:05:52.934

An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is one of the major techniques for securing information systems and keeping pace with current and potential threats and vulnerabilities in computing systems. It is an indisputable fact that the art of detecting intrusions is still far from perfect, and IDSs tend to generate a large number of false IDS alarms. Hence human has to inevitably validate those alarms before any action can be taken. As IT infrastructure become larger and more complicated, the number of alarms that need to be reviewed can escalate rapidly, making this task very difficult to manage. The need for an automated correlation and reduction system is therefore very much evident. In addition, alarm correlation is valuable in providing the operators with a more condensed view of potential security issues within the network infrastructure. The thesis embraces a comprehensive evaluation of the problem of false alarms and a proposal for an automated alarm correlation system. A critical analysis of existing alarm correlation systems is presented along with a description of the need for an enhanced correlation system. The study concludes that whilst a large number of works had been carried out in improving correlation techniques, none of them were perfect. They either required an extensive level of domain knowledge from the human experts to effectively run the system or were unable to provide high level information of the false alerts for future tuning. The overall objective of the research has therefore been to establish an alarm correlation framework and system which enables the administrator to effectively group alerts from the same attack instance and subsequently reduce the volume of false alarms without the need of domain knowledge. The achievement of this aim has comprised the proposal of an attribute-based approach, which is used as a foundation to systematically develop an unsupervised-based two-stage correlation technique. From this formation, a novel SOM K-Means Alarm Reduction Tool (SMART) architecture has been modelled as the framework from which time and attribute-based aggregation technique is offered. The thesis describes the design and features of the proposed architecture, focusing upon the key components forming the underlying architecture, the alert attributes and the way they are processed and applied to correlate alerts. The architecture is strengthened by the development of a statistical tool, which offers a mean to perform results or alert analysis and comparison. The main concepts of the novel architecture are validated through the implementation of a prototype system. A series of experiments were conducted to assess the effectiveness of SMART in reducing false alarms. This aimed to prove the viability of implementing the system in a practical environment and that the study has provided appropriate contribution to knowledge in this field.

This study focuses on the ten most valued groups on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange and their reported results for the period of 2009-2015. The purpose of the study was to investigate correlation between reported results on different levels and the progress of the share prices. Using Pearson’s correlation coefficient I was able to compare operating profit, net result and other comprehensive income to one another. I found that operating profit and net result came very close to each other, whilst other comprehensive income fell behind.  As it seems, share prices are affected by a numerous of variables, not only by reported results and earnings.

Children are constantly exposed to many chemicals via the products they come in contactwith in their everyday life. One chemical group is phthalates, the most commonly usedplasticisers in the world. Phthalates are used mainly in PVC plastic products like floors, toys,food containers and wallpaper but they are also used in rubber, glue, paint, cables etc. Sincethese chemicals are weakly chemically bound to the PVC they can leak and migrate to the air,food, water and skin. Children are exposed to phthalates mainly through food, but because ofthe hand to mouth behaviour they are also exposed via dust inhalation and dust ingestion.About ten years ago regulations of the most toxic phthalates in toys and child care productswere implemented in the EU and from February 2015 it is a general prohibition for the use ofDEHP (diethylhexyl phthalate), DnBP (di-n-butyl phthalate), DiBP (diisobutyl phthalate) andBBzP (butyl benzyl phthalate). DiNP (diisononyl phthalate) is a relatively new phthalate andit has replaced DEHP to some extent in floors and toys. In phthalate free products DINCH(1,2-cyclohexane dicarboxylic acid diisononyl ester) is one of the plasticizer replacingphthalates. The banned phthalates have been shown to cause adverse effects on reproductionand recent research also investigates links between phthalate exposure and asthma and allergysymptoms in children. More experimental animal studies are needed to further investigate theasthma and allergy correlation. In the present project dust samples were collected from 30 preschool indoor environments inthe Stockholm city area to evaluate the levels of the six substances mentioned and thephthalate DEP (diethyl phthalate). The main aim of this thesis project was to search forrelations and links between the phthalate concentrations in dust and parameters from theindoor environment in preschools. Studied parameters are e.g. construction year, floor type,cleaning routines and quantity of toys and furniture made of plastic or foam. The project wascommissioned by the Swedish EPA and performed at the Institute of Environmental Medicine(IMM) at Karolinska Institutet. A negative relation was found between dust phthalate (DEHP and DnBP) concentrationand construction year. Also rooms with old PVC floors had higher concentrations of DEHPand DnBP in dust than rooms with new PVC floors. There was also a trend that dust frompreschools with PVC floors had higher DiNP concentration than dust from preschools withother floor types. The preschools that used foam mattresses for resting had higher DiNPconcentrations than those with no foam mattresses. Most preschools had new foammattresses, which could indicate a more common use of DiNP in new mattresses or mattress2covers compared to old mattresses that contains more DEHP. The four Waldorf preschoolsthat participated had lower DiNP dust concentrations than the other preschools, which wasexpected since Waldorf orientation includes using as little plastic material as possible. Norelation was found between the phthalate dust concentrations and the quantity of toys made ofsoft plastic in the sampled area. Many preschools had made a plastic inventory where they removed old and soft plastic toysand material. Also many preschools recently replaced old foam mattresses used for resting.This could be due to the big chemical focus in the media and authorities and the brochuresthat have been sent out the last couple of years about what preschool can do to decrease thechemical exposure of children. This interest and awareness seen in the preschools waspositive and hopefully the trend spreads to more preschools. Since children spend a big part oftheir time at preschools it is an important mission for society and the government to decreasethe exposure to hazardous chemicals there. Hopefully what has been done so far is just thebeginning.

There are around 10,426 bird species around the world. Recognizing the bird species for an untrained person is almost impossible either by watching or listening them. In order to identify the bird species from their sounds, there is a need for an application that can detect the bird species from its sound. Time-frequency domain analysis techniques are used to implement the application. We implemented two time-frequency domain feature extraction methods. In feature extraction, a signature matrix which consist of extracted features is created for bird sound signals. A database of signature matrix is created with bird chirps extracted features. We implemented two feature classification methods. They are auto-correlation feature classification method and reference difference feature classification method. An unknown bird chirp is compared with the database to detect the species name. The main aim of the research is to implement the time-frequency domain feature extraction method, create a signature matrix database, implement two feature classification methods and compare them. At last, bird species were identified in the research and the auto-correlation classification method detects the bird species better than the reference difference classification method.

Nowdays, coupled cluster method belongs to one of the most used quantum chemical methods. However, the single-reference coupled cluster methods are not able to describe systems where the static correlation have an important role. Multireference coupled cluster methods developed in our group can describe both static and dy- namic correlation and can be used for problematic systems. Together with explicitly correlated wavefunction, which can properly describe the electronic cusp and speed up the convergence to the complete ba- sis set limit, they are able to calculate computationally demanding diradicals. Multireference CC calculations of tetramethylenethane have been perforemd and the performance of explicitly correlated version is discussed. Calculations of the isomerization of bicyclobu- tane using the multireference approach are presented as well. 1

We investigate the interdependence among three CEE stock markets and be- tween CEEs vis-à-vis euro area, using daily data from 2001-2011. Initially, we estimate bivariate ADCC models. Then, OLS regressions are employed to understand the evolution of correlations in time and during the recent financial crises. Finally, we examine the relationship between correlations and volatilities using the simple OLS model and the rolling stepwise regression methodology. Our results indicate that 3 out of 4 series exhibit asymmetries in conditional variances, while only 1 pair out of 6 exhibit asymmetries in correlations. We found that correlations are increased over time and during the recent financial crises for both pairs (CEEs-CEEs and CEEs-eurozone). However, the highest increase is observed for CEEs-eurozone. Mainly, we found a positive rela- tionship between correlations and volatilities, even though this relationship is niether constant in time nor strictly positive or negative during all the sample period, but rather time-varying with periods of being higher or lower than zero.

Master's thesis "Segmental evaluation of standing posture using accelerometers" is focused on assessment of relationships between body segments during quiet standing with varied sensory afferentation according to CTSIB test. Theoretical part reviews prevailing theoretical work regarding posture, stability, equilibrium and balance and discusses the possibilities of posture assessment with accent on accelerometry and jerk based metrics. The objective of experimental part is to discover influence of sensory afferentation on following aspects: acceleration and jerk of body segments (head, thorax, sacrum and shins); linear correlation of acceleration between body segments; linear correlation of jerk between body segments; jerk magnitude ratio of individual segments. The results demonstrate increasing jerk of sacrum and shins with more demanding postural condition. Jerk linear correlations vary from 0,05 to 0,3 which contradicts the simple inverted pendulum hypothesis of body movement during quiet standing. Higher correlations are registered in the standing on the foam surface compared to firm surface. This relation is accentuated while standing with closed eyes. Higher correlations suggest increasing tendency to the single segment strategy. All above mentioned data are statistically significant. Jerk of...