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Den konventionella maten har stor påverkan på miljön, vilket har medfört att allt fler konsumenter väljer ekologisk mat. Detta är ett noggrant undersökt fält. Kunskap saknas dock om pensionärer väljer ekologiska matvaror. Föreliggande studies syfte har varit att undersöka svenska pensionärers konsumtion av ekologiska matvaror, något som undersökts genom metodtriangulering av enkäter och semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer. Resultatet tyder på att pensionärer konsumerar ekologisk mat av samma anledningar och hindras av samma orsaker som yngre konsumenter. Enda skillnaderna som uppvisats jämtemot yngre konsumenter är att pensionärers ekologiska konsumtion sker oberoende av könstillhörighet och familjestruktur. / Conventional food has a major environmental impact, which has caused more and more consumers to choose organic food. This is a thoroughly researched field. However, there is insufficient knowledge regarding whether senior citizens choose to buy organic food or not. The aim of the present study has been to examine the consumption of organic food among senior Swedish citizens. The study was conducted through surveys and semi-structured qualitative interviews. The results suggest that senior consumers have the same motives as younger consumers. They are also hindered by the same reasons as their younger counterparts. The only difference between the two groups is that senior citizen´s gender and family structure influence their organic food consumption less.

Given an elliptic curve E over Fp and an integer e ≥ 1, we define a new object, called “elliptic loop”, as the set of plane projective points over Z/p^e Z lying over E, endowed with an operation inherited by the curve addition. This object is proved to be a power-associative abelian algebraic loop. Its substructures are investigated by means of other algebraic cubics defined over the same ring, which we named “shadow curve” and “layers”. When E has trace 1, a distinctive behavior is detected and employed for producing an isomorphism attack to the discrete logarithm on this family of curves. Stronger properties are derived for small values of e, which lead to an explicit description of the infinity part and to characterizing the geometry of rational |E|-torsion points. / Data una curva ellittica E su Fp ed un intero e ≥ 1, definiamo un nuovo oggetto, chiamato "loop ellittico", come l'insieme dei punti nel piano proiettivo su Z/p^e Z che stanno sopra ad E, dotato di una operazione ereditata dalla somma di punti sulla curva. Questo oggetto si prova essere un loop algebrico con associatività delle potenze. Le sue sotto-strutture sono investigate utilizzando altre cubiche definite sullo stesso anello, che abbiamo chiamato "curva ombra" e "strati". Quando E ha traccia 1, un comportamento speciale viene notato e sfruttato per produrre un attacco di isomorfismo al problema del logaritmo discreto su questa famiglia di curve. Migliori proprietà vengono trovate per bassi valori di e, che portano ad una descrizione esplicita della parte all'infinito e alla caratterizzazione della geometria dei punti razionali di |E|-torsione.

We present results that span three interconnected domains. Initially, our analysis is centred on Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (BSDEs) featuring time-delayed generators. Subsequently, we direct our interest towards Mean Field Games (MFGs) incorporating absorption aspects, with a focus on the corresponding Master Equation within a confined domain under the imposition of Dirichlet boundary conditions. The investigation culminates in exploring pertinent Machine Learning methodologies applied to financial and economic decision-making processes.

The first aim of this PhD Thesis is devoted to the study of geodesic distances defined on a subdomain of a Carnot group, which are bounded both from above and from below by fixed multiples of the Carnot–Carathéodory distance. Then one shows that the uniform convergence, on compact sets, of these distances can be equivalently characterized in terms of Gamma-convergence of several kinds of variational problems. Moreover, it investigates the relation between the class of intrinsic distances, their metric derivatives and the sub-Finsler convex metrics defined on the horizontal bundle. The second purpose is to obtain the integral representation of some classes of local functionals, depending on a family of vector fields, that satisfy a weak structure assumption. These functionals are defined on degenerate Sobolev spaces and they are assumed to be not translations-invariant. Then one proves some Gamma-compactness results with respect to both the strong topology of L^p and the strong topology of degenerate Sobolev spaces.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal. / Une épreuve ELISA indirecte a été développée pour la détection d'anticorps antileptospires dans des sérums d'origine canine. Une préparation antigénique spécifique de genre, stable à la chaleur et produite à partir de Leptospira interrogans sérovar Pomona a été utilisée dans cette technique immuno-enzymatique. D'autre part, une détermination de la prévalence des séroréacteurs envers différents sérovars de leptospires a été effectuée chez l'espèce canine au Québec, à raide du test ELISA et du test d'agglutination microscopique (MAT). La préparation antigénique, élaborée à partir du sérovar Pomona, a réagi avec les sérums de lapin contre les sérovars Bratislava, Pomona, Autumnalis, Grippotyphosa et Icterohaemorrhagiae. Cette technique ELISA a démontré une spécificité relative de 95.6% avec 158 sérums d'origine canine, lesquels étaient négatifs à une dilution de 1:100, par le MAT, envers les sérovars Pomona, Bratislava, Icterohaemorrhagiae, Autumnalis, Grippotyphosa et Hardjo. La sensibilité relative de l'épreuve a été de 100% avec 21 sérums d'origine canine, lesquels démontraient des titres supérieurs ou égaux à 1:100 envers un ou plusieurs sérovars. Parmi les chiens qui présentaient des titres d'anticorps anti-leptospires, le titre prédominant était dirigé contre le sérovar Pomona dans 66.7% des cas (14/21). Des titres prédominants contre le sérovar Bratislava ont été trouvés chez deux chiens, alors qu'un titre prédominant contre Grippotyphosa a été trouvé chez un seul animal. Quatre chiens ont uniquement présenté une réaction 1:100 contre le sérovar Icterohaemorrhagiae. Cette épreuve ELISA s'est avérée facile à standardiser et techniquement plus avantageuse que le MAT, par le fait qu'elle utilise une préparation antigénique qui peut être préparée de routine et en grandes quantités. En conclusion, il apparaît que cette épreuve est sensible et elle serait utilisable comme épreuve de tamisage pour la recherche d'anticorps anti-leptospires chez l'espèce canine, avec une confirmation subséquente des résultats positifs par le MAT.

In this Thesis we explore, both theoretically and numerically, splitting strategies for a hyperbolic system of one-dimensional (1D) blood flow equations with a passive scalar transport equation. Our analysis involves a two-step framework that includes splitting at the level of partial differential equations (PDEs) and numerical methods for discretizing the ensuing problems. This study is inspired by the original flux splitting approach of Toro and Vázquez-Cendón (2012) originally developed for the conservative Euler equations of compressible gas dynamics. In this approach the flux vector in the conservative case, and the system matrix in the non-conservative one, are split into advection and pressure terms: in this way, two systems of partial differential equations are obtained, the advection system and the pressure system. From the mathematical as well as numerical point of view, a basic problem to be solved is the special Cauchy problem called the Riemann problem. This latter provides an analytical solution to evaluate the performance of the numerical methods and, in our approach, it is of primary importance to build the presented numerical schemes. In the first part of the Thesis a detailed theoretical analysis is presented, involving the exact solution of the Riemann problem for the 1D blood flow equations, depicted for a general constant momentum correction coefficient and a tube law that allows to describe both arteries and veins with continuous or discontinuous mechanical and geometrical properties and an advection equation for a passive scalar transport. In literature, this topic has been already studied only for a momentum correction coefficient equal to one, that is related to the prescribed velocity profile and in this case corresponds to a flat one, i.e. an inviscid fluid. In the case of discontinuous properties, only the subsonic regime is considered. In addition we propose a procedure to compute the obtained exact solution and finally we validate it numerically, by comparing exact solutions to those obtained with well-known, numerical schemes on a carefully designed set of test problems. Furthermore, an analogous theoretical analysis and resolution algorithm are presented for the advection system and the pressure system arising from the splitting at the level of PDEs of the complete system of 1D blood flow equations. It is worth noting that the pressure system, in case of veins, presents a loss of genuine non-linearity resulting in the formation of rarefactions, shocks and compound waves, these latter being a composition of rarefactions and shocks. In the second part of the Thesis we present novel finite volume-type, flux splitting-based, numerical schemes for the conservative 1D blood flow equations and splitting-based numerical schemes for the non-conservative 1D blood flow equations that incorporate an advection equation for a passive scalar transport, considering tube laws that allow to model blood flow in arteries and veins and take into account a general constant momentum correction coefficient. A detailed efficiency analysis is performed in order to showcase the advantages of the proposed methodologies in comparison to standard approaches.

The aim of this thesis is to propose a systematic exposition of some analytic and geometric problems arising from the study of sub-Riemannian geometry, Carnot-Carathéodory spaces and, more broadly, anisotropic metric and differential structures. We deal with four main topics. 1 Calculus of variations for local functionals depending on vector fields 2 PDEs over Carnot-Carathéodory structures. 3 Regularity theory for almost perimeter minimizers in Carnot groups. 4 Geometry of hypersurfaces in Heisenberg groups.