Sticky prey capture threads are produced by many members of the spider Infraorder Araneomorphae. Cribellar threads are plesiomorphic for this clade, and adhesive threads are apomorphic. The surface of cribellar thread is formed of thousands of fine fibrils. Basal araneomorphs produce cylindrical fibrils, whereas more derived members produce fibrils with nodes. Cribellar fibrils snag and hold rough surfaces, but other forces are required to explain their adherence to smooth surfaces. Threads of Hypochilus pococki (Hypochilidae) that are formed of non-noded fibrils hold to a smooth acetate surface with the same force under low and high humidities. In contrast, threads of Hyptiotes cavatus and Uloborus glomosus (Uloboridae) that are formed of noded fibrils hold with greater forces to the same surface at intermediate and high humidities. Threads spun by eight species representing seven genera and four families with noded fibrils absorb water, while that of two families, represented by one species each with smooth fibrils, repel water, indicating increase hygroscopisity associated with the presence of nodes. Additionally, equations describing van der Waals and hygroscopic forces can predict the observed stickiness of these threads. This model supports the hypothesis that van der Waals forces allow non-noded cribellar fibrils to adhere to smooth surfaces, whereas noded fibrils employ van der Waals forces at low humidities and add hygroscopic forces at higher humidities. Thus, there appear to have been two major events in the evolution of spider prey capture thread: the addition of hydrophilic nodes to the fibrils of cribellar threads and the replacement of cribellar fibrils by glycoprotein glue. / Master of Science

Today most computers have powerful multi core processors that can perform many calculations simultaneously. However writing programs that take full advan- tage of the processors in modern day computers can be a challenge. This is due to the challenge of managing shared resources between parallel processing threads. This report documents the development of the Majo language that aims to solve these problems by using abstractions to make parallel programming easier. The model for the abstractions is dividing the program in to what is called nodes. One node represents one thread of execution and nodes are connected to each other by thread safe communication channels. All communication channels are frst in frst out queues. The nodes communicate by pushing and popping values form these queues. The performance of the language was measured and compared to other languages such as Python, Ruby and JavaScript. The tests were based on timing how long it took to generate the Mandelbrot set as well as sorting a list of inte- gers. The language scalability was also tested by seeing how much the execution time decreased by adding more parallel threads. The results from these tests showed that the developed prototype of the language had some unforeseen bugs that slowed down the execution more then expected in some tests. However the scalability test gave encouraging results. For future development the language exe- cution time should be improved by fxing relevant bugs and a more generalized model for concurrency should be developed.

This thesis summarizes my project in setting up a Thread network. The idea of this project was presented by the company ÅF in Karlstad, Sweden. ÅF wishes to upgrade their current demonstrator for IoT. The current demonstrator includes Azure Cloud component, Raspberry Pi, Bluetooth and Arduino components. The upgrade includes implementing Thread technology together with Thread verified hardware from Nordic semiconductor and the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Thread is an IoT mesh networking protocol that was released year 2014. Compared to Bluetooth it offers IP communication (including IPv6) combined with higher reliability, performance and security. The process of installing, compiling and configuring the Thread network is explained. The result is an operational thread network that has sensor devices sending data to an HTTP web server, where the data is stored and monitored. Though, there are many improvements and functions that can be implemented to make this demonstrator more appealing.

Wound treatment is a significant field in healthcare, but one with huge potential and need for advancement. Infection monitoring, in its current state, is a largely primitive affair, relying on visual and olfactory inspection to detect bacteria. As a result, early detection is impossible, and doctors and patients are forced to remove dressings to investigate the wound in a laborious, painful, and unsanitary process. When an infection is detected, the treatment is typically systemic administration of antibiotics. Systemic administration reduces the concentration of antibiotics that can be brought to bear on the infection because it interacts with the entire body and is dissipated by the time it reaches the wound and increases the risk of side effects or antibiotic resistance. Within this thesis, a smart, thread-based wound dressing is presented that addresses these issues by providing a pH-based early detection system accompanied by a topical, on-demand drug delivery system. The device has been tested in vitro and in vivo, on bacterial culture and on an animal model, and demonstrated effectiveness at detecting and eliminating bacteria, and at promoting wound healing. This smart wound dressing has the potential to improve treatment and outcomes for a wide variety of injuries, varying from burns to chronic wounds. / Graduate / 2020-10-10

I believe creativity can be a direct link to the soul, a space to have a conversation with the divine and I seek to explore this idea in my art. I also want to invite the observer to move through my work and explore the space contained within their own emotions and sensibilities, beyond boundaries, allowing the work to linger and sink in. Translating these ideas into the form of my works, following my intuition intelligently, involves an intensive process of many layers of paint and textures combined with thread. My work involves the intersections of spirituality and art making through the experience of meditation. Engaging in traditional painting methods with abstract formations and intertwining thread to symbolize body and mind. Exploring the invisible, which is something you cannot obtain like meditation and making it visible through human experience. Inspired by Maurice Merleau-Ponty theoretical thinking on placing consciousness as the source of knowledge. Painting is my meditation, it is a tool to connect, dissolve, and release. Thread is the link to my ancestral consciousness and femininity. My work creates a wild boundless space, welcoming all emotions and thoughts to manifest into gestural and abstract landscapes. There is no right or wrong way to experience the work, what matters most is the totality of presence and observation of the spaces in-between.

If we are to understand how we can build machines capable of broad purpose learning and reasoning, we must first aim to build systems that can represent, acquire, and reason about the kinds of commonsense knowledge that we humans have about the world. This endeavor suggests steps such as identifying the kinds of knowledge people commonly have about the world, constructing suitable knowledge representations, and exploring the mechanisms that people use to make judgments about the everyday world. In this work, I contribute to these goals by proposing an architecture for a system that can learn commonsense knowledge about the properties and behavior of objects in the world. The architecture described here augments previous machine learning systems in four ways: (1) it relies on a seven dimensional notion of context, built from information recently given to the system, to learn and reason about objects' properties; (2) it has multiple methods that it can use to reason about objects, so that when one method fails, it can fall back on others; (3) it illustrates the usefulness of reasoning about objects by thinking about their similarity to other, better known objects, and by inferring properties of objects from the categories that they belong to; and (4) it represents an attempt to build an autonomous learner and reasoner, that sets its own goals for learning about the world and deduces new facts by reflecting on its acquired knowledge. This thesis describes this architecture, as well as a first implementation, that can learn from sentences such as ``A blue bird flew to the tree'' and ``The small bird flew to the cage'' that birds can fly. One of the main contributions of this work lies in suggesting a further set of salient ideas about how we can build broader purpose commonsense artificial learners and reasoners.

This study investigated effects of the process parameters on the forging load and metal flow pattern during forging and thread-rolling these two process of LZ91 magnesium alloy small size screw by the finite element analysis. At first, Compression tests were carried out under various forming temperatures to study the flow stress. Then, FEM software DEFORM-2D is adopted to simulate forging and thread-rolling processes of small screw to analyze the formability and parameters. In one of this study, there are two stages in forging process, and found out that up-die velocity, temperatures and friction factors will affect the product quality and appearance; on the other part, it investigated the effect of friction factor and temperature under thread-rolling process, and found out that effective stress, effective strain, metal flow and height of thread will be affected. In addition, conduct forging and thread-rolling experiments by using universal testing machine with the mold self-designed, and MoS2 of lubricant, and comparing the analytical results to verify the suitability and accuracy of FEM for forging process. Finally, according to the analysis result of this study, engineers can take it as reference.

This project within the textile design field explores the textile technique embroidery. By using design methods based on words and actions the technique was used in another angle approach that allowed the stitches to be used in a more functional context. This approach differs from how embroidery is traditionally looked upon, an added decorative surface to an already functional object. Embroidery has been explored in a way to see if the technique could be used as something more than just an added surface and if that added surface could be manipulated so that the stitch has both decorative and functional aspects. Stitches has been developed, discovered and realised that they can add density, stability, assembly and form to a material. This has resulted in an alternative way of using embroidery that puts the stitch in the position of being vital to both the expression and function of the object.

If we are to understand how we can build machines capable of broadpurpose learning and reasoning, we must first aim to build systemsthat can represent, acquire, and reason about the kinds of commonsenseknowledge that we humans have about the world. This endeavor suggestssteps such as identifying the kinds of knowledge people commonly haveabout the world, constructing suitable knowledge representations, andexploring the mechanisms that people use to make judgments about theeveryday world. In this work, I contribute to these goals by proposingan architecture for a system that can learn commonsense knowledgeabout the properties and behavior of objects in the world. Thearchitecture described here augments previous machine learning systemsin four ways: (1) it relies on a seven dimensional notion of context,built from information recently given to the system, to learn andreason about objects' properties; (2) it has multiple methods that itcan use to reason about objects, so that when one method fails, it canfall back on others; (3) it illustrates the usefulness of reasoningabout objects by thinking about their similarity to other, betterknown objects, and by inferring properties of objects from thecategories that they belong to; and (4) it represents an attempt tobuild an autonomous learner and reasoner, that sets its own goals forlearning about the world and deduces new facts by reflecting on itsacquired knowledge. This thesis describes this architecture, as wellas a first implementation, that can learn from sentences such as ``Ablue bird flew to the tree'' and ``The small bird flew to the cage''that birds can fly. One of the main contributions of thiswork lies in suggesting a further set of salient ideas about how wecan build broader purpose commonsense artificial learners andreasoners.

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