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Insect growth regulator insecticides mimic the action of hormones on the growth and development of insect pests. However, they can affect the development of non-target arthropods. In the present study, we tested the effects of the growth regulator insecticide fenoxycarb on several endpoints in the freshwater crustacean Gammarus fossarum (Amphipoda). Females carrying embryos in their open brood pouch were exposed to 50 µg L-1 fenoxycarb throughout the entire oogenesis (i.e. 21 days). After exposure, newborn individuals from exposed embryos were removed from the maternal open brood pouch for lipidomic analysis, while males were added to assess the reproductive success. After fertilization, the lipid profile, energy reserve content (lipids, proteins and glycogen), and activity of phenoloxidase.

The aim of this thesis is to answer the question whether the U.S. policy on targeted killings with combat drones is compatible with the legal doctrine of just war theory, applicable international law, and human rights law. Moreover, this paper intends to examine the legal issues arising from the U.S. practice of international law in relation to the justification of targeted killings. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether the practice of targeted killings can be considered lawful and, if not, to provide knowledge about how the method violates applicable international law and the ethics of war. The focus is placed on relevant treaties and customary international law, and just war theory is used as a theoretical complement to explain the meaning and purpose of selected laws in order to determine their applicability to the research problem. Furthermore, this procedure has been conducted by using a legal method to identify the legal problem and interpret relevant sources of law in order to determine their applicability to the research problem. The thesis has determined that the U.S. policy on targeted killings with combat drones is not consistent with applicable international law and fundamental human rights law. In particular, the practice of targeted killings violates the principle of distinction.

Donald Trump, wellknown businessman, tv-host and nowadays the 45th president of The United States. How did a man without earlier political position convince a whole country that he had what it takes to rule it? This study will find out what rhetorical concepts Trump has used during his election and what effect it has given. With a qualitative study and a rhetorical analysis the speech made by Donald Trump during the Republican National Convention 2016 was examined. The rhetorical theory is used through different forms such as ethos, pathos, logos, word figures and thought figures as well as tropes. An analysis of his use if rhetoric and communication theories has been made to get an as clear picture as possible of how Trump affected his voters. By using both video format and a transcript of the chosen speech it can be concluded that Trump indeed was a skilled speaker during the chosen speech, which led to many people standing on his side. He acts like a politician should and is clear on what he wants to change and what will happen once he becomes president. Rhetoric is an important part of politics and should be used properly to reach out to as many supporters as possible. Trump has learned from earlier politicians how important rhetoric is and now he can be seen using it himself to win the presidental election, despite his lack of previous political activity and experience that his opponent possesses. Trump had through this analysis proven to be a great speaker and knowledgeble within the rhetorical field. He barely speaks a single sentence without any rhetorical concept and early on, the rhetorical impact on his voters can be understood. He follows different presidential structures and uses the communication theories which are presented. Trump wants to be a man for the people and succeeds to convince with arguments filled with ethos, pathos, logos as well as a comfortable usage of figures and tropes. His performance is as a presidents should be. Donald Trump, välkänd affärsman, programledare och numera USA:s 45:e president. Hur lyckades egentligen en man som inte varit i en politisk position tidigare övertyga ett helt land att han har vad som krävs för att styra det? Studien skall ta reda på vilka retoriska begrepp Trump använt sig av under sin valperiod och vilken effekt de har gett. Med en kvalitativ studie och retorisk analys undersöks Donald Trumps tal under the Republican National Convention, 2016. Den retoriska teorin anväands med hjälp av olika former såsom ethos, pathos, logos, ordfigurer och tankefigurer samt troper. En analys av hans användning av retorik och kommunikationsteorier görs för att få en så konkret bild som möjligt av hur Trump talade för att påverka sina väljare. Med hjälp av både videoformat och ett transkript av det valda talet dras slutsatsen att Trump varit en skicklig talare under det valda talet, då han fått med sig många människor till att stå på hans sida. Han för sig som en politiker bör och är tydlig med vad han vill förändra och vad som kommer ske när han blir president. Retoriken är en viktig del inom politiken och det gäller att använda den rätt för att nå ut till så många anhängare som möjligt. Trump har lärt sig av tidigare politiker hur viktigt retoriken är och nu ses han själv använda sig av den för att kunna vinna presidentvalet, trots att hans bakgrund saknar samma politiska erfarenhet som hans motståandare besitter. Trump har genom denna analys bevisats vara en duktig talare och kunnig inom det retoriska fältet. Han talar knappt en enda mening utan ett retoriskt begrepp och tidigt kan retorikens påverkan på hans röstare förstås. Han följer olika presidentiella strukturer och använder sig av de kommunikationsteorierna som presenteras. Trump vill vara en man för folket och lyckas övertyga med argument fyllda med ethos, pathos, logos samt ett bekvämt användande av figurer och troper. Hans framträdande är som en president bör vara.

The purpose of this study is to see the factors that shape and create the desirable child in the teachers' speech regarding conflict and conflict management. We have chosen to use discourse analysis based on social constructionism and poststructuralistic language theory to see the discourses that had an active part in the teachers' approach. We have chosen to use Foucault's power theory to investigate what power structures and power relationships are shown in the pedagogues' speech about conflicts. We have also chosen to use Eva Johansson's study (2013) on children's perspective to investigate whose perspective is expressed in conflict management situations. To collect the empirical data, we have chosen to use qualitative interviews that we analyzed from a discourse analysis perspective. What we have found in the study is that the desirable child is created in conflicts through interconnected discourses that reacts and interacts. These discourses are based on the educators' views on conflicts, rules and the environment, and form the corners of our model which can be seen in the discussion where we highlighted this. The pursuit of the desirable and democratic child as an ideal is conveyed by the curriculum and followed by the educators. The study's results show that the educators assume a traditional view of conflicts and their management, despite attempting to approach an alternative view.

Ce mémoire est centré sur les caractéristiques fantastiques dans le Spectre large de Gérard Prévot (1975) et par la suite, sur une comparaison avec les caractéristiques d’un autre recueil de Prévot, la Nuit du Nord (1974), étudié par Ricci en 1993. Notre analyse est basée sur la théorie du fantastique de Tzvetan Todorov qui met en avant l’hésitation à savoir si le phénomène énigmatique provient de l’étrange ou du merveilleux. L’étude de l’œuvre littéraire de Prévot est intéressante car, comparé aux autres fantastiqueurs belges comme Jean Ray ou Thomas Owen, Gérard Prévot reste relativement inconnu et peu étudié. Pour ce qui est du résultat, nous trouvons que les contes du recueil ont des qualités variées relativement à la théorie fantastique. Les principales caractéristiques fantastiques du Spectre large naissent surtout grâce à une narration à point de vue limité et au narrateur obscur, parfois inconnu. Le fantastique naît aussi grâce à l’intrigue qui fait venir la force perturbatrice, souvent à la toute dernière page. En comparant nos résultats avec l’étude de Ricci (1993), nous trouvons plusieurs points en commun mais aussi de divergence. Prévot a écrit les deux livres en utilisant un lexique similaire et les contes se déroulent souvent dans des lieux similaires, dans le Nord — un lieu ayant des connotations mystiques. Un fantastique dit « social » se trouve aussi dans les deux recueils. La principale différence entre les deux livres est la narration. Tandis que le narrateur de la Nuit du Nord possède un savoir absolu qui lui donne le statut omniscient, il est clairement limité dans son point de vue et parfois anonyme dans le Spectre large. This thesis is centred on the fantastic features in Le Spectre Large by Gérard Prévot (1975) and subsequently on a comparison with the features from another collection by Prévot, La Nuit du Nord (1974), studied by Ricci in 1993. The analysis is based on Tzvetan Todorov’s theory of the fantastic, which puts its emphasis on the hesitation whether the enigmatic phenomena has its origins in the natural (uncanny) or the supernatural (marvellous) world. The research of Prévot’s literary work is interesting given that, compared to other Belgian fantastic writers such as Jean Ray or Thomas Owen, Gérard Prévot is still rather unknown and not much studied. With regard to the results, it is found that the stories have a mixed qualities in relation to fantastic theory. In the better tales, the fantastic is born out of a narration with a limited point of view and a vague and sometimes unknown narrator. It is also born out of the plot which introduces the disruptive elements at the very last page. When comparing the corpus with Ricci’s study (1993), several common features are found, but also a few differences. Prévot has written the two books using a similar vocabulary and the stories often take place in related environments – the North, a place with mysterious connotations. A fantastic which Ricci calls “social” can also be found in both collections. The main point of difference between the books is the narration. While the narrator in La Nuit du Nord has an omniscient status, the one in Le Spectre Large is clearly limited and anonymous.

Images are often corrupted by noise which reduces their visual quality and interferes with analysis. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have become a popular method for denoising images, but their training typically relies on access to thousands of pairs of noisy and clean versions of the same underlying picture. Unsupervised methods lack this requirement and can instead be trained purely using noisy images. This thesis evaluated two different unsupervised denoising algorithms: Noise2Self (N2S) and Parametric Probabilistic Noise2Void (PPN2V), both of which train an internal CNN to denoise images. Four different CNNs were tested in order to investigate how the performance of these algorithms would be affected by different network architectures. The testing used two different datasets: one containing clean images corrupted by synthetic noise, and one containing images damaged by real noise originating from the camera used to capture them. Two of the networks, UNet and a CBAM-augmented UNet resulted in high performance competitive with the strong classical denoisers BM3D and NLM. The other two networks - GRDN and MultiResUNet - on the other hand generally caused poor performance.

Particulate matters are a central point in the assessment of water bodies. A wide range of techniques is available for sampling of particulate matters (TSS / Sediment) in aquatic systems. The relevance of each technique is determined by the flows and dynamics of the particulate matters, the data requirements (limit of quantification, accuracy, uncertainty, representativity ...) and available resources. These factors determine the sampling strategy and method to be adopted and how the sample should be handled (transported and stored) after collection. It is therefore essential to pay particular attention to the following question: Which sampling approach (s) will provide the most representative sample? Sediment traps are collectors, boxes, or baskets, placed in the water column and which capture the particulate matters continuously by decantation. Once deployed, the water passes through the system in which a decrease in the velocity of the flow occurs, causing the particulate matters to decant in the tool. The objective of this action is to evaluate the potential of sediment traps in the monitoring of chemical contamination of aquatic environments. The main observations show that sediment traps can be integrated into strategies for the chemical monitoring of aquatic environments' contamination, in particular to: - Integrate the variability of contaminant concentrations in particulate matter; - Track chemical contamination of water bodies; - Improve the representativeness of the assessment of chemical contamination of aquatic environments by an integrated measure, in addition to integrative samplers; - Meet chemical monitoring requirements for EQS and whole water; in addition to passive integrative samplers; - Estimate flows of particulate contaminants. / La prise en compte des particules est un point central de l'évaluation des masses d'eaux. Un large éventail de techniques est disponible pour l'échantillonnage des particules (MES/Sédiments) dans les systèmes aquatiques. La pertinence de chaque technique est déterminée par les flux et dynamiques des particules, les exigences sur les données (limite de quantification, exactitude, incertitude, représentativité, ...) et les ressources disponibles. Ces facteurs déterminent la méthode d'échantillonnage à adopter et la manière dont l'échantillon devra être manipulé (transporté et stocké) après la collecte. Il est donc indispensable de porter une attention particulière à la question suivante : quelle(s) approche(s) d'échantillonnage fournira (ont) 'échantillon le plus représentatif ? Les pièges à particules sont des collecteurs, boîtes, ou paniers, placés dans la colonne d'eau et qui capturent les particules en continu par décantation. Une fois déployé, l'eau passe au travers du système au sein duquel une diminution de la vitesse du débit s'opère, provoquant la décantation des particules dans l'outil. L'objectif de cette action est d'évaluer le potentiel des pièges à particules dans le cadre de la surveillance de la contamination chimique des milieux aquatiques. Les principales observations démontrent que les pièges à particules peuvent être intégrés dans des stratégies de surveillance de la contamination chimique des milieux aquatiques, notamment pour : - Intégrer la variabilité des concentrations en contaminants dans les particules; - Suivre en tendance la contamination chimique des masses d'eau ; - Améliorer la représentativité de l'évaluation de la contamination chimique des milieux aquatiques par une mesure intégrée, en complément d'échantillonneurs intégratifs ; - Répondre aux exigences de surveillance de l'état chimique NQE et fraction eau totale ; en complément d'échantillonneurs intégratifs passifs ; - Estimer des flux de contaminants particulaires

Background: Three clusters of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) linked to a tour group from China, a company conference, and a church were identified in Singapore in February, 2020. Methods: We gathered epidemiological and clinical data from individuals with confirmed COVID-19, via interviews and inpatient medical records, and we did field investigations to assess interactions and possible modes of transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Open source reports were obtained for overseas cases. We reported the median (IQR) incubation period of SARS-CoV-2. Findings: As of Feb 15, 2020, 36 cases of COVID-19 were linked epidemiologically to the first three clusters of circum- scribed local transmission in Singapore. 425 close contacts were quarantined. Direct or prolonged close contact was reported among affected individuals, although indirect transmission (eg, via fomites and shared food) could not be excluded. The median incubation period of SARS-CoV-2 was 4 days (IQR 3–6). The serial interval between transmission pairs ranged between 3 days and 8 days. Interpretation: SARS-CoV-2 is transmissible in community settings, and local clusters of COVID-19 are expected in countries with high travel volume from China before the lockdown of Wuhan and institution of travel restrictions. Enhanced surveillance and contact tracing is essential to minimise the risk of widespread transmission in the community.

Los problemas de formación de piedras de riñón son una afección cuyo ratio de incidencia aumenta cada vez más. Uno de los peores problemas que presenta esta condición es que es común que los pacientes recaigan. Sin embargo, esto puede detenerse de manera eficiente identificando el tipo de piedra y, por lo tanto, las causas. Actualmente esta tarea es realizada por pequeños grupos de expertos capacitados y, por tanto, los urólogos no pueden brindar un diagnóstico adecuado. Se propuso una solución mediante el uso de un clasificador, utilizando técnicas de Machine learning, pero la precisión máxima global del 63% fue insuficiente. En el siguiente artículo, se propone un nuevo enfoque para un clasificador, como una continuación del intento mencionado, utilizando técnicas de Metric learning como las Siamese y Triplet networks. Esto dará como resultado una mejora general, respecto a las técnicas actuales de Machine learning, con una prueba que alcanzará una precisión excepcional del 74%. Finalmente, se concluye que la mejora del conjunto de datos será necesaria para mejorar los resultados globales. Els problemes de formació de pedres del ronyó són una condició la incidència de la qual augmenta cada vegada més. Un dels pitjors problemes que comporta aquesta condició és que és habitual que els pacients recaiguin. No obstant això, es pot evitar eficientment identificant el tipus de pedra i, per tant, les causes. Actualment aquesta tasca és realitzada per petits grups d'experts capacitats i, per tant, l'uròleg no pot donar un diagnòstic adequat. Es va proposar una solució mitjançant l'ús d'un classificador mitjançant tècniques de Machine learning, però la precisió màxima del 63% va ser insuficient. En el següent article es proposa un nou enfocament per a un classificador, com a continuació de l'intent esmentat, utilitzant tècniques de Metric learning com ara Siamese i Triplet networks. Això generarà una millora general, respecte a les tècniques de Machine learning actuals amb una prova que aconsegueix una precisió excepcional del 74%. Finalment, es conclou que la millora del conjunt de dades serà necessària per millorar els resultats globals. Kidney stone formation problems is a condition whose incidence is increasing overtime. One of the worst problems that come with this condition is that it is common for patients to relapse. However, this can be efficiently stopped by identifying the type of stone and therefore, the causes. Currently this task is performed by small groups of trained experts and therefore, urologist can not give an adequate diagnosis. A solution was proposed by using a classifier using Machine learning techniques but the overall maximum accuracy of 63% was insufficient. In the following article a new approach is proposed for a classifier, as a continuation of the mentioned attempt, using Metric learning techniques like Siamese and Triplet networks. This will result in an overall improvement, from the current Machine learning techniques with a test reaching an outstanding accuracy of 74%. Finally, it is concluded that improving the dataset will be necessary for improving the overall results.