Subject of this masters thesis is the constructional project of the wooden lamelas manipulator. Thesis comprises design of the two possible solution for two main parts of the device, calculational part and constructional solution of the components. Part of the thesis is design documentation and the model of the manipulator.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / A chemically reactive turbulent traversing hot-jet issued from a pre-chamber to a relatively long combustion chamber is experimentally investigated. The long combustion chamber represents a single channel of a wave rotor constant-volume combustor. The issued jet ignites the fuel-air mixture in the combustion chamber. Fuel-air mixtures are prepared with different hydrocarbon fuels of different reactivity, namely, methane, propane, methane-hydrogen blend, methane-propane blend and methane-argon blend. The jet acts as a rapid, distributed and moving source of ignition, traversing across one end of the long combustion chamber entrance, induces complex flow structures such as a train of counter rotating vortices that enhance turbulent mixing. In general, a stationary hot-jet ignition process lack these structures due to absence of the traversing motion. The ignition delay of the fuels and fuel blends are measured in order to obtain insights about constant-volume pressure-gain combustion process initiated by a moving source of ignition and also to glean useful data about design and operation of a wave rotor combustor. Reactive hot-jets are useful to ignite fuel-air mixtures in internal combustion engines and novel wave rotor combustors. A reactive hot-jet or puff of gas issued from a suitably designed pre-chamber can act as rapid, distributed and less polluting ignition source in internal combustion engines. Each cylinder of the engine is provided with its own pre-chamber. A wave rotor combustor has an array of circumferentially arranged channels on a rotating drum. Each channel acts as a constant-volume combustor and produces high pressure combustion products. Implementation of hot-jet igniter in a wave rotor combustor offers utilization of available high temperature and high pressure reactive combustion products residing in each of the wave rotor channels as a distributed source of ignition for other channels, thus requiring no special pre-chamber in ultimate implementation. Such reactive products or partially combusted and radical-laden gases can be issued from one or more channels to ignite the fuel-air mixture residing in another channel. Due to the rotation of the rotor channels, the issued hot-jet would have relative motion with respect to one end of the channels and traverse across it. This thesis aims to investigate the effects of jet traverse time experimentally on ignition delay along with other important factors that affect the hot-jet ignition process such as fuel reactivity, fuel-air mixture preparation quality and stratification and equivalence ratio. In this study, the traversing motion of the hot-jet at one end of the main combustion chamber is implemented by keeping the main combustion chamber stationary and rotating a pre-chamber at speeds of 400 RPM, 800 RPM and 1200 RPM. The rotational speeds correspond to jet traverse times of 16.9 ms, 8.4 ms and 5.6 ms respectively. The fuel-air mixture inside the channel is at room temperature and pressure initially and its equivalence ratio is varied from 0.4 to 1.3. The cylindrical pre-chamber is initially filled with a 50%-50% methane-hydrogen blend fuel and air mixture at room pressure and temperature and at an equivalence ratio of 1.1. These conditions were chosen based on prior evidence of ignition rapidity with the jet properties. The hot-jet is issued by rupturing a thin diaphragm isolating the chambers. Using high frequency dynamic pressure transducer pressure histories, the diaphragm rupture moment and onset of ignition is measured. Pressure traces from two transducers are employed to measure the initial rupture shock speed and ignition delay. Schlieren images recorded by a high speed camera are used to identify ignition moment and validate the measured ignition delay times. Ignition delay is defined as time interval from the rupture moment to onset of ignition of fuel-air mixture in the main combustion chamber. The ignition system is designed to produce diaphragm rupture at almost exactly the moment when jet traverse begins. Ignition delay times are measured for methane, propane, methane-hydrogen blends, methane-propane blend and methane-argon blend. The equivalence ratio of the fuel-air mixtures varied from 0.4 to 1.3 in steps of 0.1 for stationary-hot jet ignition experiments and in steps of 0.3 for traversing hot-jet ignition experiments. Hot-jet ignition delay of fuel-air mixtures, for both stationary hot-jet ignition process and traversing hot-jet ignition process, generally increased with increasing equivalence ratio. For stationary hot-jet ignition delay, the minimum ignition delay occurs between Ф = 0.4 to Ф = 0.6 for the tested fuel-air mixtures. Both stationary and traversing hot-jet ignition delay depended on fuel reactivity. In particular, the shortest ignition delay times were observed for a fuel blend containing hydrogen. Among pure fuels propane exhibited slightly shorter ignition delay times, on average, compared to pure methane fuel. The addition of argon to pure methane, intended to control fuel density and buoyancy, increased the ignition delay. The traversing hot-jet ignition delay generally increased with increasing jet traverse times. To explain the variations in the measured hot-jet ignition delay and investigate qualitatively the effect of buoyancy on flame propagation and mixture stratification, the fuel-air mixture inside the main combustion chamber was ignited using a spark plug to generate a propagating laminar flame. The laminar flame propagated within the flammable regions of the channel in ways that sensitively reveal variations in local fuel-air mixture equivalence ratio. Flame luminosity images from a high speed camera and schlieren images revealed the fuel-air mixture being highly stratified depending on the density difference between the fuel and air and provided mixing time (0 s, 10s ,30s for most fuels). The lack of buoyancy-driven spreading caused the fuel to remain in the vicinity of the fuel injector resulting in significant longitudinal stratification of the fuel-air mixture. Lighter fuels stratified to the top of the chambers and heavier fuel stratified to the bottom of the chamber. Increasing the mixing time, which is defined as the time interval from end of fuel injection into the chamber to the triggering of the spark plug, improved the buoyancy-driven spreading and extended the flammable region as evidenced by the schlieren and flame luminosity images. The maximum pressure developed in the combustor for the three ignition processes, namely, stationary hot-jet ignition, traversing hot-jet ignition and spark ignition process in laminar flame propagation experiments were compared. Stationary hot-jet ignition process generally exhibited the highest pressure being developed in the chamber. Variations in heat loss, fuel-air mixture leakage and mass addition mechanisms reduced the maximum pressure for spark ignition and traversing hot-jet ignition process.

The use of multiobjective optimization in identifying systems that account for changes in customer needs, operating environments, system design concepts, and analysis models over time is generally not explored. Providing solutions that anticipate, account for, and allow for these changes over time is a significant challenge to manufacturers and design engineers. Products that adapt to these changes through the addition and/or subtraction of modules can reduce production costs through product commonality, and cater to customization and adaptation. In terms of identifying sets of non-dominated designs, these changes result in the concept of dynamic Pareto frontiers, or dynamic s-Pareto frontiers when sets of system concepts are simultaneously evaluated over time. In this dissertation, a five-step optimization-based design method identifying a set of optimal adaptive product designs that satisfy the predicted changes by moving from one location on the dynamic s-Pareto frontier to another through the addition of a module and/or through reconfiguration is developed. Development of this five-step method was separated into four phases. The first two phases of developments respectively focus on Pareto and s-Pareto cases, where changes in concepts, models, and environments that would effect the Pareto/s-Pareto frontier are ignored due to limitations in traditional optimization problem formulations. To overcome these limitations, and allow for these changes, the third phase of developments presents a generic optimization formulation capable of identifying a dynamic s-Pareto frontier, while the fourth phase adapts the phase three method to incorporate this new dynamic optimization formulation. Example implementations of the four phases of developments were respectively provided through the design of a modular UAV, a hurricane and flood resistant modular residential structure, a simple aircraft design example inspired by the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, and a modular truss system. Noting that modular products only represent one approach for dealing with changes in preferences, environments, models, and concepts, the final research contribution connects the presented method with parallel research developments in collaborative product design and design principles identification, followed by two case study implementations of this unifying design approach in the development of a modular irrigation pump and a modular plywood cart for developing countries.

Fifty-one subjects each performed two trials which consisted of traversing a horizontal ladder. Film records were made of each trial using a high-speed camera. Absolute and relative temporal and kinematic parameters were obtained from the film records. The conclusions were that there was no age related interaction or differences in preferred rung spacing or contact/airborne times. A Chi-Square analysis did show a preference for a specific gait pattern for the six year old age group.

Cieľom práce je navrhnúť a vytvoriť hlasom ovládaného asistenta(voicebota), ktorý bude ľahko nasaditeľný na webovú stránku. Používateľom tak bude poskytnutý moderný spôsob, ako prirodzene komunikovať cez internetový prehliadač. Hlavný dôraz je kladený na synchronizáciu medzi hlasovým asistentom a obsahom na webovej stránke. Synchronizácia je dosiahnutá obojsmerným prenosom hlasu a textových príkazov medzi klientom a serverom. Na to je použitá technológia WebRTC v kombinácií so signalizačným protokolom SIP. Práca sa zaoberá oblasťami ako VoIP telefonovanie, počítačové siete a strojové učenie(proprietárne rečové technológie od Phonexie). Benefitom nasadenia hlasového asistenta je zníženie nákladov na odchádzajúce hovory pre klientov, odľahčenie agentov na call centrách pri odpovedaní na často kladené otázky a zvýšenie záujmu zákazníkov vďaka použitiu nových technológií.

I Sverige finns cirka 2000 vattenkraftverk men endast 10 procent har någon form av omlöp eller annan lösning (Risinger, 2012). Nya, strängare regler håller nu på att införas. Sedan 2014 finns en gemensam strategi från Energimyndigheten och Havs- och vattenmyndigheten för åtgärder i svensk vattenkraft (Risinger, 2014). En godkänd fiskväg är ett av kraven.Särskilt den småskaliga vattenkraften (energitillförsel under 10 MWh enligt Risinger (2012)) drabbas. Deras intäkter står många gånger i proportion till energiproduktionen och därmed saknas ofta de ekonomiska förutsättningarna för en fiskväg. Vidare kommer en del av vattnet, och därmed potentiella inkomster, att gå förlorade. Den här undersökningen syftar till att utröna vad ett omlöp får för konsekvenser i form av effektförluster. Det är naturligtvis omöjligt att komma fram till ett universellt svar. Istället mäts förlusterna hos ett specifikt mindre verk som redan har ett omlöp: Åby vattenkraftverk som ägs och drivs av Växjö kommun. Metoden som används är traversering i kombination med hydroskopisk flygel. Sedan tidigare finns beräknade värden från kommunen för flödet i omlöpet. Dessa jämförs med undersökningens uppmätta värden. Undersökningen visar att vid normalt vattenstånd (165,13 MÖH) flödar 167 ± 10 l/s vatten genom omlöpet. Detta är ett 70 l/s större flöde i jämförelse med kommunens beräknade värde. Förklaringar till den skillnaden ges av mätfel då djupet mättes och att inloppet hade byggts om mellan kommunens beräkningar och utförda mätningar. Även den formel som användes då de beräknade värdena togs fram föreslås som en tänkbar felkälla. 167 ± 10 l/s innebär ett bortfall om 4,2 ± 0,3 kW potentiell effekt. / There are around 2000 hydropower plants in Sweden, but only 10 percent of them has a bio channel, fishway or equivalent solution (Risinger 2012). New, more strict rules are now about to be introduced. Since 2014 there is a mutual strategy from the two Swedish authorities ”Energimyndigheten” and ”Havs- och vattenmyndigheten”, which demands multiple actions from Swedish hydropower. (Risinger, 2014). An approved fishway is one of these.The small-scale hydropower plants (plants who produce less than 10 MWh according to Risinger (2012)) are especially affected from this. Their income is proportional to their production and therefore they’ll usually lack the economical ability to build a fishway. Furthermore, a part of the streaming water (which otherwise would equal income) will get lost. This study aims to decide the loss of effect a fishway causes. Of course, it is impossible to derive a universal answer. Instead the losses are measured at a specific smaller plant that already has a fishway: Åby hydropower plant that is owned and operated by Växjö municipality. Method being used is traversing in combination with a turbine flow meter. There are already calculated flows made by the municipality. These values will be compared with the measured values. The study shows that at a normal water level (165,13 m.a.sl) 167 ± 10 l/s of water is streaming through the fishway. This is a 70 l/s bigger flow in comparison with the municipality’s calculations. An explanation to this difference is given by measurement errors when the depth was measured, that the intake had been modified between when the calculations was being made and when the study’s measurements took place. Also, the formula being used for the calculated values is proposed as a possible source of error. 167 ± 10 l/s will result in a loss of 4,2 ± 0,3 kW potential effect.

Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse a été dépouillée de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal / La présente thèse étudie l’hypersexualisation des jeunes filles en tant que phénomène culturel contemporain. En mettant à profit une approche conceptuelle psychanalytique et féministe, la thèse tente de comprendre le rôle joué par le regard, le désir et le fantasme dans ce phénomène. S’éloignant volontairement des discours critiques existant sur le sujet, l’objectif est de voir comment le cinéma peut mener son spectateur à confronter les dimensions plus radicales (incestueuse, pédophile et œdipienne) de l’image d’une jeune fille hypersexualisée. Le parcours argumentaire se divise en trois parties. La première partie effectue un inventaire sommaire des études portant sur l’hypersexualisation des jeunes filles. Tout en constatant l’actuelle pornographisation du paysage médiatique contemporain, le lecteur est amené à prendre connaissance de la nature alarmiste et foncièrement iconophobe de ces discours critiques, qui accordent peu d’attention à la dimension fantasmatique du phénomène. Une rétrospective des réflexions féministes sur le regard et le désir vient ensuite orienter le parcours vers les enjeux liés à la représentation médiatique de la féminité, ainsi que son lien avec le regard et le désir cinématographiques. La deuxième partie s’attarde aux discours féministes portant sur la représentation de la Femme en tant que signe. Constatant les limites de la traditionnelle dichotomie ange/putain, un modèle permettant de penser la féminité médiatique en termes archétypaux est proposé. Après avoir démontré l’opérativité analytique de ce modèle à travers la lecture du film 3 Women (Altman 1977), une analyse approfondie du film The Virgin Suicides (Coppola 1999) permet d’isoler une mise en image des envers problématiques de la féminité fantasmée. La troisième partie de la thèse introduit le paradigme lacanien contemporain propre aux études cinématographiques, afin de mener le lecteur à considérer sous un autre jour les questions du regard, du désir et du fantasme. La jeune fille hypersexualisée est alors abordée comme une version contemporaine et inversée du fantasme originaire œdipien. Par les analyses des films American Beauty (Mendes 1999) et Exotica (Egoyan 1994), le cinéma se révèle comme un discours culturel possédant la capacité de mener son spectateur vers une traversée du fantasme de la jeune fille hypersexualisée. / This thesis studies the sexualization of young girls as a contemporary cultural phenomenon. Through a feminist and psychoanalytical approach, the thesis attempts to isolate the functioning of the gaze, desire and fantasy within this phenomenon. Through a voluntary dissociation from existing critical discourses dealing with this topic, the main objective is to understand how cinema can bring its spectator to confront the radical dimensions (incestuous, pedophiliac and Œdipal) associated with the image of a sexualized girlhood. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part one begins with a brief inventory of existing literature on the sexualization of girlhood. While ascertaining the pornographication of contemporary mediascapes, the reader is brought to grasp the alarmist and iconophobic nature of existing critical discourses dealing with this phenomenon. Indeed, it is shown how they pay very little attention to the fantasmatic nature of the sexualized young girl. A feminist retrospective on the topics of desire and the gaze then orients the discussion towards issues related to media representations of femininity. Part two begins by focusing on feminist studies of Woman as sign. Following the highlighting of the conceptual limits associated with the typical angel/whore dichotomy, an archetypal model aimed at rethinking media representations of femininity is proposed. After demonstrating the analytical operability of this model through the study of Robert Altman’s 3 Women (1977), an extensive analysis of Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides (1999) allows the exploration of cinema’s ability to represent the problematical undersides of the fantasy of femininity. Part three focuses on contemporary Lacanian film studies in order to bring the reader to consider a more radical approach to questions pertaining to the gaze, desire and fantasy. The sexualized young girl is then studied as a contemporary, inverted version of the primal Œdipal fantasy. Through the analyses of Sam Mendes’ American Beauty (1999) and Atom Egoyan’s Exotica (1994), the cinema is revealed as a cultural discourse that holds the ability to bring its viewer to traverse the fantasy of sexualized girlhood.

La présente thèse étudie l’hypersexualisation des jeunes filles en tant que phénomène culturel contemporain. En mettant à profit une approche conceptuelle psychanalytique et féministe, la thèse tente de comprendre le rôle joué par le regard, le désir et le fantasme dans ce phénomène. S’éloignant volontairement des discours critiques existant sur le sujet, l’objectif est de voir comment le cinéma peut mener son spectateur à confronter les dimensions plus radicales (incestueuse, pédophile et œdipienne) de l’image d’une jeune fille hypersexualisée. Le parcours argumentaire se divise en trois parties. La première partie effectue un inventaire sommaire des études portant sur l’hypersexualisation des jeunes filles. Tout en constatant l’actuelle pornographisation du paysage médiatique contemporain, le lecteur est amené à prendre connaissance de la nature alarmiste et foncièrement iconophobe de ces discours critiques, qui accordent peu d’attention à la dimension fantasmatique du phénomène. Une rétrospective des réflexions féministes sur le regard et le désir vient ensuite orienter le parcours vers les enjeux liés à la représentation médiatique de la féminité, ainsi que son lien avec le regard et le désir cinématographiques. La deuxième partie s’attarde aux discours féministes portant sur la représentation de la Femme en tant que signe. Constatant les limites de la traditionnelle dichotomie ange/putain, un modèle permettant de penser la féminité médiatique en termes archétypaux est proposé. Après avoir démontré l’opérativité analytique de ce modèle à travers la lecture du film 3 Women (Altman 1977), une analyse approfondie du film The Virgin Suicides (Coppola 1999) permet d’isoler une mise en image des envers problématiques de la féminité fantasmée. La troisième partie de la thèse introduit le paradigme lacanien contemporain propre aux études cinématographiques, afin de mener le lecteur à considérer sous un autre jour les questions du regard, du désir et du fantasme. La jeune fille hypersexualisée est alors abordée comme une version contemporaine et inversée du fantasme originaire œdipien. Par les analyses des films American Beauty (Mendes 1999) et Exotica (Egoyan 1994), le cinéma se révèle comme un discours culturel possédant la capacité de mener son spectateur vers une traversée du fantasme de la jeune fille hypersexualisée. / This thesis studies the sexualization of young girls as a contemporary cultural phenomenon. Through a feminist and psychoanalytical approach, the thesis attempts to isolate the functioning of the gaze, desire and fantasy within this phenomenon. Through a voluntary dissociation from existing critical discourses dealing with this topic, the main objective is to understand how cinema can bring its spectator to confront the radical dimensions (incestuous, pedophiliac and Œdipal) associated with the image of a sexualized girlhood. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part one begins with a brief inventory of existing literature on the sexualization of girlhood. While ascertaining the pornographication of contemporary mediascapes, the reader is brought to grasp the alarmist and iconophobic nature of existing critical discourses dealing with this phenomenon. Indeed, it is shown how they pay very little attention to the fantasmatic nature of the sexualized young girl. A feminist retrospective on the topics of desire and the gaze then orients the discussion towards issues related to media representations of femininity. Part two begins by focusing on feminist studies of Woman as sign. Following the highlighting of the conceptual limits associated with the typical angel/whore dichotomy, an archetypal model aimed at rethinking media representations of femininity is proposed. After demonstrating the analytical operability of this model through the study of Robert Altman’s 3 Women (1977), an extensive analysis of Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides (1999) allows the exploration of cinema’s ability to represent the problematical undersides of the fantasy of femininity. Part three focuses on contemporary Lacanian film studies in order to bring the reader to consider a more radical approach to questions pertaining to the gaze, desire and fantasy. The sexualized young girl is then studied as a contemporary, inverted version of the primal Œdipal fantasy. Through the analyses of Sam Mendes’ American Beauty (1999) and Atom Egoyan’s Exotica (1994), the cinema is revealed as a cultural discourse that holds the ability to bring its viewer to traverse the fantasy of sexualized girlhood. / Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse a été dépouillée de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

This thesis deals with ray tracing methods and their acceleration. It gives partial study and review of algorithms from classical ray shooting algorithm to recursive approach up to distributed ray tracing algorithm. Significant part of this thesis is devoted to BSP tree structure and its subclass of k-D tree, it shows simple algorithm for its construction and traversal. The rest of thesis is dealing with k-D tree construction techniques, which are based on the right choice of the splitting plane inside the every cell of k-D tree. The techniques upon the thesis is based on are space median, object median and relatively new cost model technique named SAH, otherwise as surface area heuristic. All three techniques are put into testing and performance comparison. In the conclusion the results of tests are reviewed, from where SAH is coming out as a winner.