Abstract The general aim of the present study is to gain insight into physical mechanisms of some auroral forms on the basis of multi-instrumental measurements (satellites, rockets and ground-based magnetic and riometer instruments) in the vicinity of the auroras observed by ground-based all-sky cameras. One part of this work is related to the Auroral Turbulence II sounding rocket experiment. It was launched on February 11th, 1997, at 08:36 UT from Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska, into a moderately active auroral region after a substorm onset. This unique three-payload rocket experiment contained both electric and magnetic in the evening sector (21 MLT), auroral forms at the substorm recovery were investigated, providing details of the quiet and disturbed auroral densities and DC electric patches propagating along them like a luminosity wave. Those evening auroral patches and associated electric fields formed a 200-km spatially-periodic structure along the arc, which propagated westward at a velocity of 3 km s-1. The other part of this study describes ground signatures of dynamic substorm features observed by the IRIS imaging riometer, magnetometers and all-sky camera during late evening hours. The magnetometer data were consistent with the motion of upward data are used to estimate the intensity of FAC associated with these local current-carrying the excitation of the low-frequency turbulence in the upper ionosphere. As a result, a quasi-oscillating regime of anomalous resistivity on the auroral field lines can give rise to the burst-like electron acceleration responsible for simultaneously observed auroral forms and bursts of Pi1B pulsations.

The high rise in the population suffering from depression depicts the need for improved and highly effective treatment options for this condition. Efforts to develop existing drugs into user-friendly dosage forms with a number of advantages in major depressive states, including but not limited to: sustained drug release, reduced drug dosing frequency, improved tolerance and adherence, suitability for use in diverse populations and different treatment scenarios, as well as less central nervous system side effects are required. One such non-invasive drug delivery route that could provide the aforementioned benefits in the treatment of depression is the transdermal route. A number of conventional and emerging transdermal delivery strategies have been investigated for some potent antidepressants and results depict the potential of this route as a viable means for systemic delivery of therapeutically relevant doses of the tested agents, with Emsam®, the commercially available patch of selegiline, being an evidence for the same. The investigated approaches include the formulation of transdermal patches, use of vesicular drug carriers, pro-drug approach, microemulsification, chemical as well as physical enhancement technologies. This review provides a comprehensive account of the rationale, developments made till date, scope and future prospects of delivering antidepressants via the transdermal1 route of administration.

No description available.

No description available.

Women's contributions to fisheries have often been made invisible. Their leadership in general and in fisheries has also not always been recognised, especially if it is informal or more "behind-the-scenes". The aim of this study is to contribute to the gap in the women and fisheries literature on what leadership roles women play in the South African fisheries value chain. While it is more widely known that women play diverse roles within the fisheries value chain, the leadership roles they play (at various scales) are currently less well-known. This research involved finding women to interview from the various "patches" in the value chain. Without the generation of new relationships/leads occurring in the background, it would not have been possible to find particular patches. When the research was pivoted to digital research due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the "patches" seemed more adrift, and possibly more "siloed", than ever. However, three common threads emerged that showed how these patches are not so isolated after all. The threads were: Networks and relationships; lineage, blood and sustainability; and acts of pioneering, innovating and self-empowerment. Interviews were semi-formal, with most in-person, one done via the messaging service WhatsApp, and one done via email. Digital research consisted of collecting Instagram posts, finding relevant news articles, looking at newsletters, and industry body-related media. Women in fisheries are situated within various networks and "patches" of knowledge. This dissertation has drawn on the notion of "patches" as a central concept. Underlying this were the sub-themes of gender and market access (in this case, markets for marine resources). It is clear that while different women in different patches may not necessarily know each other or interact with each other, the patches themselves still have an effect on each other. This is especially true in the case of how the Covid-19 pandemic affected small-scale fisheries. Effects higher up the value chain meant that small-scale fishers were negatively affected. Thus, fishing industry patches do not seem to exist in silos. Specifically, women in the fisheries value chain are not in silos either. Both print and online media can still allow women to find out where women are working in the value chain, and for which companies or organisations. Such media can also allow women in fisheries to develop knowledge about each other. Firstly, technology, including digital newsletters, allows for women to extend themselves and enrich themselves with relationships with or knowledges of, other people. With the proliferation of both online media and cell phone access in South Africa, parasocial relationships may be formed. These parasocial relationships may help women in fishing to know "who's who" and also for consumers desiring a more transparent buying experience to form a type of relationship with each other, through learning about people's stories. Fishers encountered both in real life and online tended to come from a long history of working in fisheries themselves, as well as coming from multi-generational fishing families. While not all of the women interviewed are leaders in formal positions and/or formal organisations, their knowledge of species, fish processing and other areas was something that seemed to be valued within fisheries-related spaces. This is one factor that indicates the importance of keeping the fishing lineage going into the future for fishers. Fishers were also concerned about the effects on them which were caused by changes at the commercial level, such as a decline in market access due to Covid-19. Keeping a fishing livelihood going, both for this generation and the next, is something very important to the fishers encountered throughout this research. The diversity of jobs women held, both those personally interviewed and those interviewed in digital publications, was significant throughout this research. Some women are in supportive spaces that allow them to pioneer new paths for women in the fishing engineer, such as being a boat skipper or engineer. Women are gradually making their way up through middle management and to executive management levels. However, it is also important to consider the intersections of women's identities, e.g. socioeconomic status, geographic location, and education obtained. Different approaches to empower different groups of women can help the process of women's empowerment in fisheries to be inclusive.

Yes / The effective disposal of medication and more specifically accidental exposure to fentanyl via transdermal patches has recently been highlighted in two key documents [1, 2]. Whilst the volume of unused medicines cost the NHS over £300 million every year [1], the volume of transdermal patch waste is unknown. There is a need for greater pharmacy intervention in the effective disposal of medicines to resolve issues such as hospital (re)-admissions, stockpiling leading to patient self–prescribing/dosing, and land and water pollution. The aim of this study was to examine transdermal patch disposal systems and practice amongst private sector care providers in the UK. This was part of a larger study focusing on transdermal patch application. / The full text will be available on permission from the publisher.

L'efficacité des services de compression vidéo est de nos jours un enjeu essentiel, et est appelé à le devenir d'autant plus dans le futur, comme l'indique la croissance constante du trafic vidéo et la production de nouveaux formats tels que la vidéo à haute résolution, à gamme de couleur ou dynamique étendues, ou encore à fréquence d'images augmentée. Le standard MPEG HEVC est aujourd'hui un des schémas de compression les plus efficaces, toutefois, il devient nécessaire de proposer de nouvelles méthodes originales pour faire face aux nouveaux besoins de compression. En effet, les principes de bases des codecs modernes ont été conçu il y a plus de 30 ans : la réduction des redondances spatiales et temporelles du signal en utilisant des outils de prédiction, l'utilisation d'une transformée afin de diminuer d'avantage les corrélations du signal, une quantification afin de réduire l'information non perceptible, et enfin un codage entropique pour prendre en compte les redondances statistiques du signal. Dans cette thèse, nous explorons de nouvelles méthodes ayant pour but d'exploiter d'avantage les redondances du signal vidéo, notamment à travers des techniques multi-patchs. Dans un premier temps, nous présentons des méthodes multi-patchs basées LLE pour améliorer la prédiction Inter, qui sont ensuite combinées pour la prédiction Intra et Inter. Nous montrons leur efficacité comparé à H.264. La seconde contribution de cette thèse est un schéma d'amélioration en dehors de la boucle de codage, basé sur des méthodes de débruitage avec épitome. Des épitomes de bonne qualité sont transmis au décodeur en plus de la vidéo encodée, et nous pouvons alors utiliser coté décodeur des méthodes de débruitage multi-patchs qui s'appuient sur les patchs de bonne qualité contenu dans les épitomes, afin d'améliorer la qualité de la vidéo décodée. Nous montrons que le schéma est efficace en comparaison de SHVC. Enfin, nous proposons un autre schéma d'amélioration en dehors de la boucle de codage, qui s'appuie sur un partitionnement des patchs symétrique à l'encodeur et au décodeur. Coté encodeur, on peut alors apprendre des projections linéaires pour chaque partition entre les patchs codés/décodés et les patchs sources. Les projections linéaires sont alors envoyés au décodeur et appliquées aux patchs décodés afin d'en améliorer la qualité. Le schéma proposé est efficace comparé à HEVC, et prometteur pour des schémas scalables comme SHVC. / Efficient video compression is nowadays a critical issue, and is expected to be more and more crucial in the future, with the ever increasing video traffic and the production of new digital video formats with high resolution, wide color gamut, high dynamic range, or high frame rate. The MPEG standard HEVC is currently one of the most efficient video compression scheme, however, addressing the future needs calls for novel and disruptive methods. In fact, the main principles of modern video compression standards rely on concepts designed more than 30 years ago: the reduction of spatial and temporal redundancies, through prediction tools, the use of a transform to further reduce the inner correlations of the signal, followed by quantization to remove non-perceptive information, and entropy coding to remove the remaining statistical redundancies. In this thesis, we explore novel methods which aims at further exploiting the natural redundancies occurring in video signals, notably through the use of multi-patches techniques. First, we introduce LLE-based multi-patches methods in order to improve Inter prediction, which are then combined for both Intra and Inter predictions, and are proven efficient over H.264. We then propose epitome-based de-noising methods to improve the performances of existing codecs in a out-of-the-loop scheme. High quality epitomes are transmitted to the decoder in addition to the coded sequence, and we can then use at the decoder side multi-patches de-noising methods relying on the high quality patches from the epitomes, in order to improve the quality of the decoded sequence. This scheme is shown efficient compared to SHVC. Finally, we proposed another out-of-the-loop scheme relying on a symmetric clustering of the patches performed at both encoder and decoder sides. At the encoder side, linear mappings are learned for each cluster between the coded/decoded patches and the corresponding source patches. The linear mappings are then sent to the decoder and applied to the decoded patches in order to improve the quality of the decoded sequence. The proposed scheme improves the performances of HEVC, and is shown promising for scalable schemes such as SHVC.

Au cours de ces dernières années, le domaine de la compression vidéo a connu un essor considérable avec le standard H.264/AVC et l'arrivée de son successeur HEVC. La prédiction spatiale de ces standards repose sur la propagation unidirectionnelle de pixels voisins. Bien que très efficace pour étendre des motifs répondants aux mêmes caractéristiques, cette prédiction présente des performances limitées lorsqu'il s'agit de propager des textures complexes. Cette thèse vise à explorer de nouveaux schémas de prédiction spatiale afin d'améliorer les techniques actuelles de prédiction intra, en étendant ces schémas locaux et monodimensionnels à des schémas globaux, multidimensionnels et multi-patches. Une première méthode de prédiction hybride intégrant correspondance de bloc et correspondance de gabarit (template) a été investiguée. Cette approche hybride a ensuite été étendue en prédiction multi-patches de type "neighbor embedding" (NE). L'autre partie de la thèse est dédiée à l'étude des épitomes dans un contexte de compression d'images. L'idée est d'exploiter la redondance spatiale de l'image d'origine afin d'extraire une image résumé contenant les patches de texture les plus représentatifs de l'image, puis ensuite utiliser cette représentation compacte pour reconstruire l'image de départ. Ce concept d'épitome a été intégré dans deux schémas de compression, l'un de ces algorithmes s'avère vraiment en rupture avec les techniques traditionnelles dans la mesure où les blocs de l'image sont traités, à l'encodeur et au décodeur, dans un ordre spatial qui dépend du contenu et cela dans un souci de propagation des structures de l'image. Dans ce dernier algorithme de compression, des modes de prédiction directionnelle intra H.264 étendus et des méthodes avancées de prédiction multi-patches y ont été également introduits. Ces différentes solutions ont été intégrées dans un encodeur de type H.264/AVC afin d'évaluer leurs performances de codage par rapport aux modes intra H.264 et à l'état de l'art relatif à ces différentes techniques. / In recent years, video compression field has increased significantly since the apparition of H.264/AVC standard and of its successor HEVC. Spatial prediction in these standards are based on the unidirectional propagation of neighboring pixels. Although very effective to extend pattern with the same characteristics, this prediction has limited performances to extrapolate complex textures. This thesis aims at exploring new spatial prediction schemes to improve the current intra prediction techniques, by extending these local schemes to global, multidimensional and multi-patches schemes. A hybrid prediction method based on template and block matching is first investigated. This hybrid approach is then extended to multi-patches prediction of type "Neighbor Embedding" (NE). The other part of this thesis is dedicated to the study of epitome image within the scope of image compression. The idea is to exploit spatial redundancies within the original image in order to first extract a summary image containing the texture patches the most representative of the image, and then use this compacted representation to rebuild the original image. The concept of epitome has been incorporated in two compression schemes, one of these algorithms is in rupture with the traditional techniques since the image blocks are processed, both at encoder and decoder sides, in a spatial order that depends on the image content and this in the interest of propagating image structures. In this last compression algorithm, extended H.264 Intra directional prediction modes and advanced multi-patches prediction methods have been also included. These different solutions have been integrated in an H.264/AVC encoder in order to assess their coding performances with respect to H.264 intra modes and the state of the art relative to these different techniques.

La variété des structures colloïdales auto assemblées est principalement due à la présence d'interactions anisotropes. Nous présentons ici une méthode numérique pour étudier l'agrégation irréversible par patches de particules sphériques. Il s'agit d'une amélioration de la dynamique d’amas browniens prenant en compte les interactions par patches et les mouvements de rotation. Nous limitons notre étude aux particules à deux patches opposés de taille variable. Une interaction isotrope, faible, est également ajoutée pour modéliser une polymérisation par étape dans diverses conditions de solvant. Cet algorithme a été testé sur des chaînes isolées et nous avons retrouvé les propriétés statiques et dynamiques attendues. En jouant sur la balance entre la qualité du solvant et la taille des patches diverses morphologies hors-équilibres sont obtenues. Même dans la limite diluée, les collisions corrélées jouent un rôle important et une description de type Smoluchowski échoue. / The versatility of self assembling structures is mostly due to the presence of anisotropic interactions. We present a new simulation method to study irreversible patchy aggregation of spherical particles. It is a variation of the Brownian Cluster Dynamics method taking into account patchy interactions and rotational motions. We limit our case to particles with two oppositely located patches. The size of patches can vary and an isotropic interaction is superimposed around the particle to mimic step-polymerization with various solvent qualities. This new algorithm was successfully tested on single polymer chains and expected static and dynamic properties were recovered. Depending on the balance between solvent quality and patch size various out of equilibrium morphologies could be obtained. Even in the limit dilute solutions, correlated collisions play a key role and the Smoluchowski approach fails. We propose new directions for a better understanding of anisotropy effects on kinetics.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:55:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RobsonHCM.pdf: 3964230 bytes, checksum: b66d62a3ab0ff3d24888963581fbde31 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-12 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / This work presents a theoretical and numerical analysis for the cascading of frequency selective surfaces, which uses rectangular patches and triangular Koch fractals as elements. Two cascading techniques are used to determine the transmission and reflection characteristics. Frequency selective surfaces includes a large area of Telecommunications and have been widely used due to its low cost, low weight and ability to integrate with others microwaves circuits. They re especially important in several applications, such as airplane, antennas systems, radomes, rockets, missiles, etc.. FSS applications in high frequency ranges have been investigated, as well as applications of cascading structures or multi-layer, and active FSS. Furthermore, the analyses uses the microwave circuit theory, with the Floquet harmonics, it allows to obtain the expressions of the scattering parameters of each structure and also of the composed structure of two or more FSS. In this work, numeric results are presented for the transmission characteristics. Comparisons are made with experimental results and simulated results using the commercial software Ansoft Designer? v3. Finally, some suggestions are presented for future works on this subject / Este trabalho apresenta uma an?lise te?rica e num?rica do cascateamento de superf?cies seletivas de frequ?ncia, que usa patches retangulares e fractais de Koch triangular como elementos. Para isto, s?o utilizadas duas t?cnicas de cascateamento, visando ? determina??o das caracter?sticas de transmiss?o e de reflex?o. Superf?cies seletivas de frequ?ncia abrangem uma grande ?rea das Telecomunica??es e t?m sido largamente utilizadas devido a seu baixo custo, peso reduzido e possibilidade de se integrar com outros circuitos de microondas. Elas s?o especialmente importantes em diversas aplica??es, como avi?es, sistemas de antenas, radomes, foguetes, m?sseis, etc. Aplica??es de FSS em faixas de freq??ncia elevadas t?m sido investigadas, assim como aplica??es destas estruturas em cascata ou multicamadas, e FSS ativas. Especificamente, as an?lises usam a teoria de circuitos de microondas, em conjunto com os harm?nicos de Floquet, permite a obten??o das express?es dos par?metros de espalhamento de cada estrutura e tamb?m da estrutura composta por duas ou mais FSS. Nesse trabalho, s?o apresentados resultados num?ricos para as caracter?sticas de transmiss?o. S?o feitas compara??es com resultados experimentais e tamb?m com resultados simulados utilizando o software comercial Ansoft Designer? v3. S?o apresentadas, ainda, sugest?es de continuidade do trabalho