The ability to grip on petal surfaces is of crucial importance for the interactions between bees and flowers. In this thesis, I explore the biomechanics of attachment and morphological diversity of bee attachment devices, linking this to the behavioural ecology of bee interactions with flowers. Attachment devices come in two main kinds: claws or spines, and adhesive pads. Claw functioning is poorly described, particularly in terms of how their performance depends on body size, claw geometry, and surface roughness. Claw attachment performance was investigated using several insect species, each covering a large range of body masses. Weight-specific attachment forces decreased with body size, with claw sharpness seemingly playing a role. In bees there is considerable interspecific variation in tarsal claw morphology. This variation, and arolia presence/absence, was categorised for the large bee family Apidae. Cleft/bifid claws were shown to be present in the majority of the Apidae, often with differences between sexes and clades. Using Bombus terrestris, there was no evidence that cleft claws are important for pollen collection; however, I found that the inner tooth of cleft claws can act as a backup if the main tooth breaks. Although this may be one function of cleft claws, there are clearly other unresolved functions well worth further exploration. Investigations were undertaken to explore how petal surface roughness affects bee foraging behaviour. Lab-based foraging trials on B. terrestris visiting artificial flowers varying in slope, surface texture and sugar reward revealed a trade-off between the biomechanical difficulty of visiting and handling the ‘flowers’ and the quality of the reward offered. Flowers that were difficult to grip were often avoided even if they offered a higher reward. To further investigate reward preferences of bees, the effect of sucrose concentration on honey stomach offloading times was also explored. Although the majority of petals do have a rough surface, some have slippery petals. In the field, bumblebees avoided landing on slippery hollyhock petals in favour of the easy-to-grip staminal column. In contrast, honey bees, which are smaller and have larger adhesive pads, landed on both the staminal column and the petals. Slippery petals may be an adaptation to increase contact with plant reproductive structures. Grip is also important to allow the honey bee parasite Varroa destructor to climb on to their host. Attachment forces experiments found that V. destructor could support > 300 times their body mass on honey bees, giving them strong attachment even when bees attempt to remove them through grooming. A grooming-based device for treating V. destructor was tested in an apiary trial. The device was ineffective, providing valuable information for beekeepers considering using this product. In summary, this thesis improves our understanding of the biomechanics of attachment as well as identifying several important aspects of grip in bee-plant interactions.

Avec l’accroissement des exigences des avionneurs, les problématiques thermique interviennent de plus en plus tôt dans les phases de conception d’un équipement roue et frein. La première phase de conception, appelée pré-étude, doit permettre de définir les grands choix technologiques pour répondre aux spécifications. Cette phase se déroulant sur une période de l’ordre du mois, la prévision du comportement thermique induit par les différentes solutions doit être de l’ordre de quelques jours. Aussi, les outils de simulation (de type CFD) ne peuvent pas être utilisé, car le temps d’implémentation (maillage) et de calcul ne sont pas adaptés. En outre, compte tenu de la faible maturité du design, aucune CAO n’est disponible. En revanche, le degré de précision et de résolution exigé sur les résultats est plus faible. Dans cette thèse nous proposons un outil de modélisation simplifiée adapté aux contraintes de cette phase de conception, à savoir, un temps d’implémentation et de calcul de l’ordre de quelques heures, et, un très fort niveau de paramétrisation. Pour cela, nous avons tout d’abord établi une représentation géométrique simplifié de l’équipement dans une grille en coordonnées R,T,Z. La simplification géométrique se traduit par une adaptation de la forme des pièces à la grille. L’obtention de cette représentation devient alors automatisable pour réduire le temps d’implémentation. Le modèle thermique utilisé est basé sur l’association d’une approche nodale par l’utilisation de formulation RC et un maillage spatiale adaptable sur chaque pièce qui se rapproche du principe d’une méthode de type volume finis. La complexité du problème thermique (liée à la géométrie, aux transferts multi-modes instationnaires, aux hautes températures et aux non-linéarités) va nous imposer, à des fins d’analyses, la mise au point d’un outil de représentation spatiale et temporelle des grandeurs thermiques. Une décomposition géométrique, associée à une décomposition temporelle du refroidissement par rapport à des temps caractéristiques, a permis d’établir une représentation intelligible des informations sous formes de cartographies. Dans une première étape, des cartographies de températures ont été établies à partir de données d’essais. Ces cartographies ont permis d’énoncer quelques hypothèses sur le sens et l’intensité des transferts, en particulier, conductifs. Dans une seconde étape, les résultats d’un modèle thermo-aéraulique complet de l’équipement, recalés sur les températures d’essais, ont offert la possibilité d’obtenir des cartographies énergétiques par l’intermédiaire des flux et des décompositions spatiale et temporelle. Ces dernières mettent en évidence les lieux et l’intensité des transferts énergétiques, ainsi que, les pièces stockant la chaleur. Cet outil de représentation a pu être utilisé sur d’autres équipements roue et frein, et sur plusieurs énergies de freinage (16 à 64MJ). / For several years, expectations of aircraft manufacturers and airlines have risen as far as reduction of aircraft weight and turn-around time are concerned. Mass reduced wheel and brake equipments tend to reach higher maximal temperature and need to be cooled down more efficiently. Therefore, equipments need to be better designed in terms of heat transfer, especially from the early design phases (i.e. right from the request for proposal). Brake cooling is insured by transient and multi-modal heat transfer, involving particularly, surface-to-surface thermal radiation, natural convection and heat conduction. Furthermore, because of the geometric complexity of the system, three-dimensional heat transfer should be considered. The first aim of this work is to develop a simplified representation of the heat transfer, inside the equipment and with the outdoor, leading to a better acknowledgment of its thermal comportment. This would eventually provide to the engineers some guidelines to a way to help the decision forecast and improve the thermal design of wheel and brake equipments. Secondly, a simplified thermal model should be developed, in order to fill the lack of dedicated tools ,in the preliminary design stage, to predict the thermal comportment. To predict thermal fields, in such a complex system, modelisation approaches, such as finite volume or finite-element methods (the use of CFD in the case of coupled convection/conduction problems) are commonly used in industry. Despite their ability to provide suitable and accurate results, that kind of numerical methods don't fit with the preliminary design stage requirements, especially in term of implementation and calculation time. On the opposite, model based on RC thermal network seems to meet the requirements of fast calculation time and implementation time thanks to fully adapted parameterization.

Les machines électriques synchrones à aimants permanents sont susceptibles de rencontrer un disfonctionnement suite à un échauffement non maîtrisé. L’objectif de cette étude est de développer un modèle thermique générique et prédictif pouvant simuler diverses situations d’intérêts: régime permanent, régime transitoire, mode dégradé, entrefer immergé, haute vitesse. Pour cela, la méthode nodale est utilisée pour développer le modèle thermique générique. En parallèle, un banc d’essai et un prototype sont conçus pour valider le modèle. L’étude de sensibilité des résultats du modèle à certains paramètres montrent que certains coefficients de convection, certaines conductances de contact et la conductivité thermique radiale du bobinage ont une influence considérable sur les résultats du modèle. Cependant ces paramètres sont mal connus, car ils sont issus des formules empiriques ou des abaques. Grâce au prototype et au modèle développé, ces paramètres sont identifiés. Trois méthodes d’identification sont testées pour aboutir à une stratégie d’identification: les algorithmes génétiques, la méthode de Gauss-Newton et la méthode de Levenberg-Marquardt. Plusieurs essais sont effectués sur le prototype instrumenté. La mesure des températures à des lieux précis du prototype permet d’identifier les paramètres mal connus et de valider le modèle. / Permanent magnet synchronous machines are likely to break down due to poorly controlled heating. The goal of this study was to develop a generic and predictive thermal model to calculate the temperature of machines during the design phase simulating temperatures at various states. These states include: steady state, transient state, fault mode, axial circulating of a cooling fluid in the air-gap and high speed. The lumped parameter method was used to develop this generic thermal model. Meanwhile, a test bench and a prototype instrumented with thermocouples were manufactured to validate the model at the same time. Sensitivity studies of the results of the model to some parameters demonstrated that some convective coefficients, contact conductances and the thermal conductivity of the winding in the radial direction influenced the model. However, these parameters are poorly known, because empirical formulas or abacus are used to calculate them. Using, the prototype and the developed model, these parameters were identified. Three methods of identification were tested in order to find a strategy for the identification: the genetic algorithms method, the Gauss-Newton method and the Levenberg-Marquardt method. Many tests were done on the prototype. The measure of the temperatures on the specific place allows to identify these parameters and to validate the model.

L’exploitation des énergies renouvelables est une voie nécessaire afin de lutter contre le réchauffement climatique, et afin d’anticiper la raréfaction des matières premières. Le mur capteur/stockeur solaire appliqué aux bâtiments à très basses consommations d’énergie s’inscrit dans cette volonté d’une transition vers les énergies renouvelables. Dans le cadre de ces travaux de thèse, l’énergie solaire est stockée dans des matériaux à changement de phase qui permettent un stockage de chaleur latente plus dense que le stockage sensible des matériaux de construction traditionnels. Cette énergie est restituée à l’ambiance intérieure par la circulation d’air neuf à travers l’élément de stockage. Un mur capteur/stockeur solaire a été développé en s’appuyant sur une revue bibliographique préalable des différents travaux scientifiques menés pour des problématiques similaires. Le dispositif a été expérimenté en environnement réel dans un premier temps, intégré à l’enveloppe d’un petit bâtiment en bois fortement isolé. La quantité de chaleur captée par le mur peut atteindre 2 kWh.m-2.jour-1, pour une quantité de chaleur restituée à l’air de 1,5 kWh.jour-1. Le dispositif a été testé en conditions maîtrisées de laboratoire. Une attention particulière a été portée à la mesure de température au sein même du MCP, afin d’analyser le comportement thermique de ce dernier. Deux phénomènes ont été observés : le recouvrement de la phase liquide sur la phase solide et l’homogénéisation des températures en phase liquide. Le comportement thermique du MCP dépend des interactions entre trois flux : le flux de charge (apport solaire), le flux de décharge (énergie restituée à l’air) et un flux vertical induit par le recouvrement de la phase liquide sur la phase solide. Par ailleurs, un modèle numérique dynamique du mur capteur a été développé en volumes finis. Ce modèle permet de simuler l’effet de serre du mur capteur, le stockage de chaleur et les phases de solidification et de fusion du MCP, et la restitution de chaleur à l’air entrant dans le bâtiment. Les résultats numériques alors obtenus ont été confrontés aux données expérimentales. Le modèle a été validé pour la température d’air soufflée (en sortie du mur capteur). L’écart entre valeurs expérimentales, sur des périodes journalières, est en moyenne de 0,6°C pour la température d’air soufflé et est inférieur à 10 % pour l’énergie fournie à l’air préchauffé. Ces différences sont inférieures aux incertitudes de mesures et à l’incertitude du calcul énergétique. Le modèle ainsi validé peut être couplé au code de simulation thermique dynamique du bâtiment TRNSYS. / Use of renewable energy is a necessary way to fight global warming and to anticipate scarcity of raw materials. The solar/storage wall used in buildings with lower energy consumption meets this evolution to renewable energy sources. In this thesis, solar energy is stored in a phase charge material (PCM), which provides latent storage. The latent storage is higher than sensible storage in usual building materials. This energy is restored to indoor air, by circulation and heating of inlet air through the wall storage element. In this thesis work, the solar storage wall was developed, based on previous published works dealing with similar systems. An experiment has been carried out with the solar storage integrated in a small wood building with a high insulation. The solar energy recovered by the wall reaches 2 kWh.m-2.day-1 and 1,5 kWh.day-1 was restored to air. In a second experiment, a prototype was developed to be used in controlled laboratory conditions. Special attention was given to PCM temperature measures to analyze the PCM thermal behavior. Two phenomena were observed: (i) liquid phase recovering solid phase, (ii) temperature homogenization in liquid phase. The PCM thermal behavior depends on interactions between three energetic flows: the charge flow (solar energy recovered), the restored flow (energy restored to the inlet air) and a vertical flow created by the liquid phase recovering. Furthermore, a numerical dynamic model for the solar storage wall was developed. It is based on a finite volume approach. This model simulates: (i) the ground effect in a solar wall, (ii) the thermal energy storage and phase changes, and (iii) heat recovery energy to air inlet. Numerical results were compared to experimental values. The model was validated for air temperature for daily cycle defined with a charge period (during sunning) and a continue air heating. The difference between numerical values and experimental values are lower than 0.6°C in mean temperature, and 10% in energy. This difference is lower than measurement uncertainties and energy calculation error margins. So the model is valeted and can be coupled with the dynamic thermal simulation code: TRNSYS.

In this thesis, I demonstrate the dynamic way in which musical processes can be described as metaphors. Using Steve Larson’s three main metaphors (gravity, inertia, and magnetism) as a starting point, I propose additional metaphors (friction, repulsion, momentum, wave, orbit, and oscillation) to analyze the first movements of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K 466 and Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 54. These metaphors provide a means to discuss points of convergence and divergence between the Classical style and the early-Romantic style. Additionally, most theorists of the energeticist tradition only discuss motion through prose; I introduce a way to represent these metaphors as musical examples. By focusing on the listener’s experience through musical motion, the model proposed in this thesis is useful, not only for the theorist, but for all who wish to communicate ideas about music in a dynamic way.

The current understanding of lactate metabolism in fish is based almost entirely on interpretation of concentration measurements that cannot be used to infer changes in flux. Moreover, the transporters regulating these fluxes have never been characterized in rainbow trout. My goals were: (1) to quantify lactate fluxes in rainbow trout under normoxic resting conditions, during acute hypoxia, and exercise by continuous infusion of [U-14C] lactate; (2) to determine lactate uptake capacity of trout tissues by infusing exogenous lactate in fish rest and during graded exercise, and (3) to clone monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs) and determine the effects of exhausting exercise on their expression. Such information could prove important to understand the mechanisms underlying the classic “lactate retention” seen in trout white muscle after intense exercise. In normoxic resting fish, the rates of appearance (Ra) and disappearance (Rd) of lactate were always matched (~18 to 13 µmol kg-1 min-1), thereby maintaining a low baseline blood lactate concentration (~0.8 mM). In hypoxic fish, Ra lactate increased from baseline to 36.5 µmol kg-1 min-1, and was accompanied by an unexpected 52% increase in Rd reaching 30.3 µmol kg-1 min-1, accounting for a rise in blood lactate to 8.9 mM. In exercising fish, lactate flux was stimulated > 2.4 body lengths per second (BL s-1). As the fish reached critical swimming speed (Ucrit), Ra lactate was more stimulated (+67% to 40.4 μmol kg-1 min-1) than Rd (+41% to 34.7 μmol kg-1 min-1), causing an increase in blood lactate to 5.1mM. Fish infused with exogenous lactate stimulated Rd lactate by 300% (14 to 56 μmol kg-1 min-1) during graded exercise, whereas the Rd in resting fish increased by only 90% (21 to 40 µmol kg-1 min-1). Four MCT isoforms were partially cloned and characterized in rainbow trout: MCT1b was the most abundant in heart, and red muscle, but poorly expressed in gill and brain where MCT1a and MCT2 were prevalent. MCT4 was more expressed in the heart. Transcript levels of MCT2 (+260%; brain), MCT1a (+90%; heart) and MCT1b (+50%; heart) were stimulated by exhausting exercise. This study shows that: (i) the increase in Rd lactate plays a strategic role in reducing the lactate load imposed on the circulation. Without this response, blood lactate accumulation would double; (ii) a high capacity for lactate disposal in rainbow trout tissues is elicited by the increased blood-to-tissue lactate gradient when extra lactate is administered; and (iii) rainbow trout may be unable to release large lactate loads rapidly from white muscle after exhausting exercise (lactate retention) because they poorly express MCT4 in white muscle and fail to upregulate its expression during exercise.

This master’s thesis deals with design of an access system as a part of physical security solution for an energy company in the Czech Republic. The access system is designed to meet all legal requirements and conform to ISO 27001 certification. Implementation of the proposed access system is demonstrated on the selected company object, a representative example of connecting the critical infrastructure element and the company's common facility.

<div>The work discussed in this document seeks to integrate conductive additives with energetic material systems to offer an alternative source of ignition for the energetic material. By utilizing the conductive properties of the additives, ohmic heating may serve as a method for preheating and igniting an energetic material. This would allow for controlled ignition of the energetic material without the use of a traditional ignition source, and could also result in easier system fabrication.</div><div>For ohmic heating to be a viable method of preheating or igniting these conductive energetic materials, there cannot be significant impact on the energetic properties of the energetic materials. Various mass solids loadings of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) were mixed with a reactive mixture of aluminum (Al)/polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to test if ohmic heating ignition was feasible and to inspect the impact that these loadings had on the energetic properties of the Al/PVDF. Results showed that while ohmic heating was a plausible method for igniting the conductive energetic samples, the addition of GNPs degraded the energetic properties of the Al/PVDF. The severity of this degradation was minimized at lower solids loadings of GNPs, but this consequently resulted in larger voltage input requirements to ignite the conductive energetic material. This was attributable to the decreased conductivities of the samples at lower solids loading of GNPs.</div><div>In hopes of conserving the energetic properties of the Al/PVDF while integrating the conductive additives, additive manufacturing techniques, more specifically fused filament fabrication, was used to print two distinct materials, Al/PVDF and a conductive composite, into singular parts. A CraftBot 3 was used to selectively deposit Conductive Graphene PLA (Black Magic) filament with a reactive filament comprised of a PVDF binder with 20% mass solids loadings of aluminum. Various amounts of voltage were applied to these conductive energetic samples to quantify the time to ignition of the Al/PVDF as the applied voltage increased. A negative correlation was discovered between the applied voltage and time to ignition. This result was imperative for demonstrating that the reaction rate could be influenced with the application of higher applied voltages.</div><div>Fused filament fabrication was also used to demonstrate the scalability of the dual printed conductive energetic materials. A flexural test specimen made of the Al/PVDF was printed with an embedded strain gauge made of the Black Magic filament. This printed strain gauge was tested for dual purposes: as an igniter and as a strain sensor, demonstrating the multi-functional use of integrating conductive additives with energetic materials.</div><div>In all, the experiments in this document lay a foundation for utilizing conductive additives with energetic materials to offer an alternative form of ignition. Going forward, ohmic heating ignition may serve as a replacement to current, outdated methods of ignition for heat sensitive energetic materials.</div>

<p dir="ltr">Insights from research into the natural photosynthetic processes are applied to inform the rational design of inorganic catalysts. The study of these synthetic systems – artificial photosynthesis – will lead towards the development of a device able to absorb light, convert and store the energy in the form of chemical bonds. The water-splitting reaction, a bottleneck of the photosynthetic process, is a key barrier to overcome in this endeavor. Thus, the focused study of water-oxidation catalysts able to facilitate this difficult reaction is performed, in order to develop a green-energy solution in the form of an artificial photosynthesis system.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Energetic materials contain microstructural defects like cracks, voids, grain boundaries, and interfaces which act as nucleation sites for ignition and detonation when shocked. Finite element (FE) models are currently unable to capture explicit microstructure with voids, cracks, and randomly oriented grains with representative mechanics, thermal conduction, and reactivity that exhibit the full shock to detonation transition (SDT). Modern computational efforts seek to accurately model material response while also balancing efficiency and speed. Work presented in this thesis will highlight all of these microstructural features, investigate mechanical and thermal response of each microstructure, connect these results to what is observed in other experimental and computational work, and bring computational modeling even closer to an efficient model that contains all processes necessary to replicate SDT.</p><p dir="ltr">In energetic materials (EM), voids are irregular in shape, but most computational work has focused on circular void collapse behavior. However, geometries that contain irregularities or corners are more likely to act as initiation sites due to stress concentrations. Validation and calibration of void simulations with experimental lengthscales and loading conditions is still limited. Plus, pore collapse modeling efforts at low impact velocities do not model fracture, and it is known that cracks cause more extreme temperatures than pores.</p><p dir="ltr">Other microstructure characteristics like cracks and grains have sub-micrometer length scale, and influence the mechanical and thermal response of materials under extreme conditions. However, approximations and coarse-graining must be applied to continuum FE simulations to fit length and timescales required to capture phenomena such as detonations that occur at a millimeter scale. With the use of machine learning (ML), numerical models can be trained on results of small-scale microstructure simulations and applied to larger length and time-scale simulations. The ML model follows Microstructure-Informed Shock-induced Temperature net (MISTnet) model and is trained upon stress, strain, temperature, pressure, and slip data and includes crystal plasticity, fracture, friction, an equation of state, and heat conduction. The ML model is able to predict temperature fields behind the shock, concentrations at grain boundaries, and the influence of grain orientation.</p><p dir="ltr">Accurate temperature values are extremely important to modeling EM because thermal hot spots (HS) are the main cause of ignition. Critical HS cause the chemical reactions which transition the shock front into a detonation, but many continuum models do not include chemistry in their framework. A 1-step Arrhenius reaction model is added to FE mechanics model to investigate the relationship HS have on the run to detonation (RTD).</p>