Les cancers du foie sont la seconde cause de mort par cancer avec plus de 745,000 morts en 2012. Si l'on inclut les cas de cirrhose du foie, le nombre total de morts par an dans le monde atteint presque 2 million. Le meilleur traitement actuel pour ces patients est l'ablation chirurgicale de ces tumeurs. Pour les localiser et planifier l'opération, les chirurgiens se basent sur des images médicales pré-opératoires (obtenues par tomodensitométrie ou imagerie à résonance magnétique). Cependant, durant l'intervention, ces tumeurs, ainsi que le réseau vasculaire du foie, sont difficiles à localiser pour le chirurgien. Cela peut conduire à une résection incomplète des tumeurs où à la lésion accidentelle de vaisseaux sanguins. Le but de ce travail de thèse est de proposer aux chirurgiens une vue du foie et de ses structures interne en réalité augmentée durant l'opération pour les aider à réséquer les tumeurs de manière optimale en limitant les risques pour le patient. Pour cela, une méthode de recalage élastique des données pré-opératoires sur la vue intra-opératoire a été développée. Cette méthode, qui utilise un modèle biomécanique et certains repères anatomiques présents sur le foie, a été conçue pour limiter son impact sur la routine clinique et permet d'atteindre une erreur de recalage inférieure aux marges chirurgicales même en cas de déformation importante du foie entre son état pré-opératoire et intra-opératoire. Cet algorithme de recalage a été intégré à un logiciel, sofaOR, pour permettre les premiers essais cliniques. / Liver cancer is the 2nd most common cause of cancer death worldwide, with more than 745,000 deaths from liver cancer in 2012. When including deaths from liver cirrhosis, the toll reaches nearly 2 million people worldwide. Today, surgical tumors ablation remains the best treatment for liver cancer. To localize the hepatic tumors and to define the resection planes, clinicians rely on pre-operative medical images (obtained with computed tomography scanner or magnetic resonance imaging). However, the liver lesions and vascular system are difficult to localize during surgery. This may lead to incomplete tumor resection or haemorrhage. The purpose of this thesis work is to provide surgeons with an augmented view of the liver and its internal structures during surgery to help them to optimally resect the tumors while limiting the risk of vascular lesion. Therefore, an elastic registration method to align the pre-operative and intra-operative data has been developed. This method, which uses a biomechanical model and anatomical landmarks, was designed to limit its impact on the clinical workflow and reaches a registration accuracy below the resection margin even when the liver is strongly deformed between its pre-operative and intra-operative state. This registration algorithm has been integrated into a software, sofaOR, to conduct the first clinical tests.

Les recherches sur le vieillissement ont montré que la variabilité intra-individuelle (VII) du fonctionnement cognitif (dispersion et inconsistance) augmente avec l’âge. La VII pourrait jouer un rôle central dans la compréhension des changements cognitifs observés chez la personne âgée. Le but de cette recherche a été d’évaluer l’apport de la VII pour expliquer les différences d’efficience cognitive entre personnes âgées. Les relations entre deux formes de VII, dispersion (VII des scores entre plusieurs tests cognitifs) et inconsistance (VII des temps de réponse (TR) entre les essais à une tâche de contrôle cognitif), et l’efficience cognitive, ont été évaluées auprès d’un groupe d’adultes âgés de 61 ans et plus. La tâche de contrôle AX-cpt utilisée dans cette étude permet l’évaluation de processus de contrôle cognitif distincts (contrôle réactif et contrôle proactif). L’augmentation de la dispersion était associée à une diminution de la vitesse de traitement, de la capacité de la mémoire épisodique et de l’état cognitif plus général. L’augmentation de l’inconsistance semble traduire une difficulté supérieure associée à des capacités de maintien de l’information contextuelle et de résistance à l’interférence moins préservées. Toutefois, l’inconsistance pourrait exprimer une évolution positive de la cognition. Les fluctuations intra-individuelles du comportement paraissent être les caractéristiques d’un fonctionnement normal. L’irrégularité de l’instabilité temporelle des TR aux essais successifs d’une même tâche semble être un indicateur pertinent dans l’étude de la VII pour rendre compte d’une diminution de l’efficience cognitive. L’étude de la VII de la performance semble donc être une approche fructueuse pour expliquer la variabilité interindividuelle chez la personne âgée et prédire d’éventuels changements cognitifs / Aging research shows an age-related increase in intraindividual variability in cognitive functioning (dispersion and inconsistency). Intraindividual variability would play a central role in understanding cognitive changes in older adults. The purpose of the present research was to examine the contribution of the intraindividual variability study, in order to explain differences in cognitive efficiency between older adults. The relationship between two forms of intraindividual variability, dispersion (variability in scores across several cognitive tests) and inconsistency (variability in response time (RT) across trials in a cognitive control task), and the cognitive efficiency, was estimated in a sample of adults aged from 61 years and older. The control task AX-cpt used in this study allows the evaluation of distinct cognitive control process (proactive and reactive control). The increase in dispersion was associated with a decrease in processing speed, episodic memory ability and the more general cognitive state. The increase in inconsistency seems related to a difficulty of a cognitive system whose capacities of context information maintenance, and resistance to interference, are less preserved. However, the inconsistency could also reveal a positive evolution of cognition. Intraindividual fluctuations in behavior appear to be the characteristics of normal functioning. The irregularity of temporal instability of successive trials response times, seems to be a valid cue of the decrease in cognitive efficiency. The study of intraindividual variability in performance seems to be a fruitful approach to explain the variability between individuals observed in the elderly, and to predict possible cognitive changes.

<p>Weed control is nowadays a hi-tech discipline. Inter-row weed control is very sophisticated </p><p>whereas the intra-row weed control lacks a lot. The aim of this pro ject is to implement </p><p>an embedded system of an autonomous vision based intra-row weeding robot. Weed and </p><p>crops can be distinguished due to several attributes like colour, shape and context fea- </p><p>tures. Using an emebedded system has several advantages. The embedded system is </p><p>specialized on video processing and is designed to withstand the needs of outdoor use. </p><p>This embedded system is already able to distinguish between weed and crops. The per- </p><p>formance of the hardware is very good whereas the software still needs some optimizations.</p>

Syftet med denna studie har varit att lyfta fram utklädningskläder som pedagogiskt material i förskolan. Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär och består av fallstudier från tre förskolor med olika pedagogisk inriktning. Genom intervjuer med förskollärare och barn samt observationer av barns lek har vi undersökt vilken funktion olika utklädningskläder kan ha för barn i förskolan. Vi har även undersökt på vilket sätt placering och utbud av utklädningskläder kan påverka barns användande av dem. Med hjälp av ett posthumanistiskt perspektiv och begreppen agens och intra-aktivitet har vi sett hur utklädningskläder fått liv och gjort saker med barnen. Resultatet visar att utklädningskläder kan fungera som en inspirerande och medbestämmande deltagare i barns lek. Vi har även sett hur materialet blivit ett redskap i barns tillblivelseprocesser när de gått in i roller och utforskat olika identiteter. Ett bra utbud av utklädningskläder kännetecknas enligt denna studie av en mångfald av föränderliga kläder i gott skick och rätt storlek. Utöver detta bör materialet förvaras tillgängligt för barnen för att locka, utmana och inspirera till lek.

El objetivo de esta investigación es la medición y estimación de los determinantes de los Índices de Comercio Intra-Industrial (CII) bilateral para la industria manufacturera no maquiladora de México en el contexto del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte (TLCAN) que corresponde al periodo 1994-2006. En este trabajo se sostiene la pertinencia de aislar el contenido del componente maquilador de los flujos de comercio exterior ya que éstas corresponden a un intercambio de bienes en diferentes etapas de producción, mientras que el CII ha sido analizado y cuantificado como el comercio de bienes que pertenecen a una misma etapa productiva. En ese entendido se ofrece una medición ajustada de los índices considerando además su diferenciación respecto de su naturaleza horizontal y vertical. Se comprueba que los índices calculados teniendo en cuenta los flujos maquiladores sobre-estiman el desempeño de este tipo de comercio, en particular con Estados Unidos con el que se tiene un significativo comercio, mientras que con Canadá existe una sobre-estimación aunque no de la misma magnitud. Asimismo, se evidencia que el comercio bilateral mexicano ha sido principalmente de naturaleza vertical y se ha concentrado en un reducido número de sectores industriales. Asimismo, se plantea un conjunto de variables explicativas con el objetivo de analizar los determinantes de este CII. Para ello se utiliza una función econométrica de Mínimos Cuadrados No Lineales (MCNL) y un Modelo Lineal Generalizado (MLG) que confirman cómo las diferencias en el desarrollo económico así como la presencia del capital extranjero y la diferenciación horizontal y vertical del producto han sido los principales determinantes del CII para el periodo estudiado. Todo lo cual nos permite corroborar el carácter Norte-Sur de la relación comercial de México con sus socios comerciales así como de la pertinencia de las teorías Neo-H-O y de las recientes aportaciones sobre la heterogeneidad de la empresa en el comercio internacional para explicar este comercio. / The objective of this research is a measurement and an econometric estimation of the bilateral Intra-Industry Trade (IIT) indices for the Mexican non-maquiladora manufacturing industry in the framework of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and for the period 1994-2006. In this work we propose the relevance of isolating the maquiladora component from the Mexican trade flows, since the maquiladora trade belongs to an exchange of goods in different stages of production while the IIT has been analyzed and quantified as the trade of goods that belong to the same stage of production. In that sense, we offer adjusted measurements of the indices taking into account their differentiation regarding their horizontal and vertical nature. We verified that an index's measurement which includes the maquiladora leads to an overestimation of the bilateral performance of this type of trade, particularly with the United States. With Canada, however, an overestimation is registered but not in the same magnitude. We demonstrated that the Mexican bilateral IIT has been mainly of a vertical nature and it was concentrated in a few industrial sectors. In addition, we postulate a set of independent variables to test the determinants for the non-maquiladora IIT indices. We applied an econometric function using Non-Linear Less Squares (NLMS) and a Generalized Linear Model (GLM). It is confirmed that differences in economic development, foreign capital and product's horizontal and vertical differentiation have been the main determinants of the IIT for the non-maquiladora manufacturing for the 1994-2006 period. All of the above led us to confirm the North-South character of the trade relation between Mexico and its partners as well as the significance of Neo-Heckscher-Ohlin theories and recently the contributions of enterprise's heterogeneity in the international trade models to explain this trade.

Due to the rapid changing environment many organizations are striving to achieve agility and flexibility in internal and external environments. In order for an enterprise to be able to respond to this changing environment, it must integrate the business functions into a distinct system that is capable of exploiting information technology competently. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) mainly focused on integrating internal business functions and implementing an ERP system requires a significant amount of time and financial resources. Moreover, ERP systems are complex, non-flexible and are not capable of collaborating with autonomous application leading to difficulty in integration and customization [3]. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is an alternate technology to ERP where the integration process is automated without much effort. This research work mainly focuses on designing an order processing system using the concepts of EAI for Intra Organization in any small and medium enterprises (SME’s). As a result of this research work, a five layered architecture has been designed which can be integrated in any enterprise without affecting the existing business workflow. This architecture is categorized into Data Layer, Middleware Layer, Event Generation Layer, Translation Layer and Interface layer. Further to actually test the extent and reliability of this architecture a prototype system implementation is built at Hyundai Mobis Parts- Sweden, using the concepts of EAI. In addition the evaluation of the prototype system is performed to check the above defined layers of the architecture.

Weed control is nowadays a hi-tech discipline. Inter-row weed control is very sophisticated whereas the intra-row weed control lacks a lot. The aim of this pro ject is to implement an embedded system of an autonomous vision based intra-row weeding robot. Weed and crops can be distinguished due to several attributes like colour, shape and context fea- tures. Using an emebedded system has several advantages. The embedded system is specialized on video processing and is designed to withstand the needs of outdoor use. This embedded system is already able to distinguish between weed and crops. The per- formance of the hardware is very good whereas the software still needs some optimizations.

The main purpose of this essay is to investigate if Latvia´s pattern of trade has become more similar to the mature market economies, after Latvia´s independence 1991. Today, the intra-industry trade (IIT) dominates the trade of mature market economies. One of the pioneers of intra-industrial trade is Paul Krugman, who was the first to emphasize the importance "of scale and consumers' desire for variety" in explaining the basis for modern commerce. Customers get more variety and usually cheaper goods when the market gets bigger. I mainly use the modern trade theories to explain the trade pattern in Latvia. To measure how Latvia has developed its intra-industry trade, and thereby is approaching the mature market economies´ trade pattern, I use the Grubel-Lloyd index (GL-index). I can by my calculation of a weighted average of the GL-index, note that the share of IIT both has decreased and increased during the investigated years 1993 to 2004. The reduction took place during the 90s and the increase took place during the 2000s. I also use Balassa Index (BI) to calculate the “comparative advantage” for a number of Latvia's major export products. My calculations show that Latvia's main comparative advantage lies in semi-precious and basic metals. A comparison of the export flows from Latvia to Russia and to the EU15 from 1993 to 2004 shows two distinct trading changes. First, the trade has shifted primarily from Russia to EU countries. Second, many important export goods to Russia, (such as vehicles, machinery, electrical equipment and chemical products) have reduced its share of the total export. Instead we see a concentration to fewer export goods. Wood-, textile industry is the major export to the EU15. I note in the analysis, that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is large in these areas. It seems to be a connection between the FDI to Latvia and the concentration of trade. In the conclusion of the essay I note that there are a trend that shows that Latvia is coming nearer the western modern economies’.

In this Thesis, we propose a Cluster-based TDMA (CBT) scheme for Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANET). In the CBT, the collision problems can be solved when packets are transmitted at the same time. In the Intra-cluster communications, the VANET Coordinator (VC) is determined by randomly choosing a number of zero or one. Other VANET Nodes (VNs) then randomly select different time slots to transmit their Bandwidth Requests (BRs). If more than two VNs choose the same slots for BRs, collision will occur. The failed VNs will continue to issue BRs in the next TDMA frames. After the time slots are scheduled by VC, all VNs can use the designated time slots to send data. In the Inter-cluster communications, when two clusters are approaching to each other, two VCs must exchange Slot Allocation MAP (SAM) using the random zero-or-one scheme. The VCs successfully receive SAM must reschedule the time slots. For the purpose of performance evaluation, we calculate the average time slots of selecting VC and the average time slots required for successful BRs. We also compute the average time slots required for successfully transmitting SAM and the average time slots required for broadcasting SAM to all VNs. Finally, we calculate the average time slots required for waiting before data transmission. To validate the mathematical results, we perform a simulation written in C++. When comparing the mathematical results to the simulation results, we observe that in the average time slots required for BR, the former is larger than the latter. This is because in the mathematical equations it is difficult to specify which time slots are used by VNs to transmit BRs. However, the rest of performance comparisons, the two results are very close.

This paper proposes new approaches to improve the coding performance of intra block coding in H.264/AVC via finite state machine and residual prediction. Grounding on high correlation between neighboring blocks, finite state machine is employed both at encoder and decoder to reduce the number of bits required for encoding to enhance coding performance. Two extra intra prediction modes are created in our proposed method. Through these two modes, the number of bits required to denote the current block is greatly reduced and low bit rate can be achieved. According to spatial correlation, intra-coded residual prediction reduces residual block by neighboring residual block. In this paper, we combine finite state machine with intra-coded residual prediction to achieve better coding performance. Experimental results show that the proposed method can greatly improve coding efficiency of intra macroblock coding in H.264/AVC.