Dans cette thèse, on étudie des problèmes liés à la vérification de systèmes (logiciels). On s’intéresseplus particulièrement à la conception sûre de procédures de décision utilisées en vérification. De plus, onconsidère également un problème de modularité pour un langage de modélisation utilisé dans la plateformede vérification Why.De nombreux problèmes de vérification peuvent se réduire à un problème de satisfaisabilité modulodes théories (SMT). Pour construire des procédures de satisfaisabilité, Armando et al. ont proposé en2001 une approche basée sur la réécriture. Cette approche utilise un calcul général pour le raisonnementéquationnel appelé paramodulation. En général, une application équitable et exhaustive des règles ducalcul de paramodulation (PC) conduit à une procédure de semi-décision qui termine sur les entréesinsatisfaisables (la clause vide est alors engendrée), mais qui peut diverger sur les entrées satisfaisables.Mais ce calcul peut aussi terminer pour des théories intéressantes en vérification, et devient ainsi uneprocédure de décision. Pour raisonner sur ce calcul, un calcul de paramodulation schématique (SPC)a été étudié, en particulier pour prouver automatiquement la décidabilité de théories particulières etde leurs combinaisons. L’avantage de ce calcul SPC est que s’il termine sur une seule entrée abstraite,alors PC termine pour toutes les entrées concrètes correspondantes. Plus généralement, SPC est unoutil automatique pour vérifier des propriétés de PC telles que la terminaison, la stable infinité et lacomplétude de déduction.Une contribution majeure de cette thèse est un environnement de prototypage pour la conception etla vérification de procédures de décision. Cet environnement, basé sur des fondements théoriques, estla première implantation du calcul de paramodulation schématique. Il a été complètement implanté surla base solide fournie par le système Maude mettant en oeuvre la logique de réécriture. Nous montronsque ce prototype est très utile pour dériver la décidabilité et la combinabilité de théories intéressantes enpratique pour la vérification.Cet environnement est appliqué à la conception d’un calcul de paramodulation schématique dédié àune arithmétique de comptage. Cette contribution est la première extension de la notion de paramodulationschématique à une théorie prédéfinie. Cette étude a conduit à de nouvelles techniques de preuveautomatique qui sont différentes de celles utilisées manuellement dans la littérature. Les hypothèses permettantd’appliquer nos techniques de preuves sont faciles à satisfaire pour les théories équationnellesavec opérateurs de comptage. Nous illustrons notre contribution théorique sur des théories représentantdes extensions de structures de données classiques comme les listes ou les enregistrements.Nous avons également contribué au problème de la spécification modulaire pour les classes et méthodesJava génériques. Nous proposons des extensions du language de modélisation Krakatoa, faisant partiede la plateforme Why qui permet de prouver qu’un programme C ou Java est correct par rapport à saspécification. Les caractéristiques essentielles de notre apport sont l’introduction de la paramétricité à lafois pour les types et les théories, ainsi qu’une relation d’instantiation entre les théories. Les extensionsproposées sont illustrées sur deux exemples significatifs: tri de tableaux et fonctions de hachage.Les deux problèmes traités dans cette thèse ont pour point commun les solveurs SMT. Les procéduresde décision sont les moteurs des solveurs SMT, et la plateforme Why engendre des conditions devérification dérivées d’un programme source annoté, qu’elle transmet aux solveurs SMT (ou assistants depreuve) pour vérifier la correction du programme.Mots-clés: / In this thesis we address problems related to the verification of software-based systems. We aremostly interested in the (safe) design of decision procedures used in verification. In addition, we alsoconsider a modularity problem for a modeling language used in the Why verification platform.Many verification problems can be reduced to a satisfiability problem modulo theories (SMT). In orderto build satisfiability procedures Armando et al. have proposed in 2001 an approach based on rewriting.This approach uses a general calculus for equational reasoning named paramodulation. In general, afair and exhaustive application of the rules of paramodulation calculus (PC) leads to a semi-decisionprocedure that halts on unsatisfiable inputs (the empty clause is then generated) but may diverge onsatisfiable ones. Fortunately, it may also terminate for some theories of interest in verification, and thusit becomes a decision procedure. To reason on the paramodulation calculus, a schematic paramodulationcalculus (SPC) has been studied, notably to automatically prove decidability of single theories and oftheir combinations. The advantage of SPC is that if it halts for one given abstract input, then PC haltsfor all the corresponding concrete inputs. More generally, SPC is an automated tool to check propertiesof PC like termination, stable infiniteness and deduction completeness.A major contribution of this thesis is a prototyping environment for designing and verifying decisionprocedures. This environment, based on the theoretical studies, is the first implementation of theschematic paramodulation calculus. It has been implemented from scratch on the firm basis provided bythe Maude system based on rewriting logic. We show that this prototype is very useful to derive decidabilityand combinability of theories of practical interest in verification. It helps testing new saturationstrategies and experimenting new extensions of the original (schematic) paramodulation calculus.This environment has been applied for the design of a schematic paramodulation calculus dedicated tothe theory of Integer Offsets. This contribution is the first extension of the notion of schematic paramodulationto a built-in theory. This study has led to new automatic proof techniques that are different fromthose performed manually in the literature. The assumptions to apply our proof techniques are easyto satisfy for equational theories with counting operators. We illustrate our theoretical contribution ontheories representing extensions of classical data structures such as lists and records.We have also addressed the problem of modular specification of generic Java classes and methods.We propose extensions to the Krakatoa Modeling Language, a part of the Why platform for provingthat a Java or C program is a correct implementation of some specification. The key features arethe introduction of parametricity both for types and for theories and an instantiation relation betweentheories. The proposed extensions are illustrated on two significant examples: the specification of thegeneric method for sorting arrays and for generic hash map.Both problems considered in this thesis are related to SMT solvers. Firstly, decision procedures areat the core of SMT solvers. Secondly, the Why platform extracts verification conditions from a sourceprogram annotated by specifications, and then transmits them to SMT solvers or proof assistants to checkthe program correctness.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2005-08-15Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:48:56Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 rodrigues_lo_me_arafcf.pdf: 364674 bytes, checksum: 25ad80987f7d2eb4d8bf537154a09922 (MD5) / Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) / A produção de beta-lactamase de espectro estendido (ESBL) em membros da família Enterobacteriaceae pode conferir resistência a cefalosporinas de amploespectro, aztreonam e penicilinas. Devido a esse fenômeno, a detecção exata dos produtores de ESBL é essencial para a seleção apropriada da antibioticoterapia. Para detectar a produção de beta-lactamase de espectro estendido (ESBL) em bacilos Gram-negativos, foi usado um teste de triagem com os discos de aztreonam (ATM), ceftazidima (CAZ), cefotaxima (CTX) e ceftriaxona (CRO) sobre 300 cepas, das quais trinta e cinco eram suspeitas da presença de ESBL. A produção de ESBL foi demonstrada por três métodos fenotípicos confirmatórios de fácil utilização. Os três testes fenotípicos para confirmar a produção de ESBL incluíram o teste do sinergismo (double disk), E-test? ESBL e disco combinado. Os discos utilizados no teste do sinergismo e do disco combinado foram: aztreonam (30?g-ATM), cefotaxima (30?g-CTX), ceftazidima (30?g-CAZ), cefpodoxima (10?g-CPD) ceftriaxone (30?g-CRO) e amoxicilina+ácido clavulânico(30?g-AMC), cefotaxima+ácido clavulânico (30?g-10?g), ceftazidima+ácido clavulânico (30?g- 10?g), cefpodoxima+ácido clavulânico (10?g-1? g). Para E-test foram utilizadas fitas contendo as cefalosporinas: ceftazidima versus ceftazidima/ácido clavulânico; cefotaxima versus cefotaxima/ácido clavulânico. Os testes fenotípicos confirmaram a presença de ESBL em cinco cepas de enterobactérias (1,66%). Todos os métodos são de fácil execução, contudo o método do Etest requer experiência para interpretar os resultados. Os três testes oferecem uma solução viável para confirmar a produção de ESBL no laboratório clínico. / The production of extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) in the members of the family Enterobacteriaceae can check resistance to cephalosporins of extended-spectrum, aztreonam and penicilins. Due to this phenomenon, the exact detection of the producers of ESBL are essential for the appropriate selection of antimicrobial therapy. To detect the production of extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) in Gram-negative bacilli, a test of screening was used with the discs of aztreonam (ATM), ceftazidime (CAZ), cefotaxime (CTX) e ceftriaxone (CRO) in 300 strains, of which thirty-five were suspicious of the presence of ESBL. The production of ESBL was demonstrated by three phenotypic methods confirmed of easy utilization. The three phenotypic tests to confirm the production of ESBL included the test of sinergy (double disk), E-test? ESBL and combination disk. The disks used on the test sinergy and the combination disk were: aztreonam (30?g-ATM), cefotaxime (30?g-CTX), ceftazidime (30?g-CAZ), cefpodoxime (10?g-CPD) ceftriaxone (30?g- CRO) e amoxicillin+clavulanic acid (30?g-AMC), cefotaxime+clavulanic acid (30?g- 10? g), ceftazidime+clavulanic acid (30?g-10? g), cefpodoxime+clavulanic acid (10?g- 1? g). For E-test, were utilized strips containing the cephalosporins: ceftazidime and ceftazidime/clavulanic acid; cefotaxime and cefotaxime/clavulanic acid. The phenotypic tests confirmed the presence of ESBL in five strains Enterobacteriaceae (1,66%). All of the methods are of easy execution; however, the method of Etest requires experiment to interpret the results. The three tests offer a viable solution to confirm the production of ESBL on a clinic laboratory.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-05-07T17:06:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Leandro Moosher.pdf: 3103618 bytes, checksum: f239d2771f04dbfaee064ee603b2bc29 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-07T17:06:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Leandro Moosher.pdf: 3103618 bytes, checksum: f239d2771f04dbfaee064ee603b2bc29 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-15 / CNPQ – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Milton Valente / NUCMAT - Núcleo de Caracterização de Materiais / A geração de resíduos sólidos nos centros urbanos está relacionada principalmente com o aumento da população e com a intensificação dos processos de industrialização. O gerenciamento desde sua origem, produção, processamento, destino final e reciclagem desses resíduos é atualmente um dos maiores desafios de empresas geradoras, de instituições de pesquisa, órgãos governamentais e empresas afins que buscam uma solução para minimizar ou até eliminar a geração de resíduos ou a sua reciclagem e posterior uso em diversas áreas da indústria, ou até transformando-os em produtos de interesse comercial. Neste sentido, os resíduos de fundição gerados durante a produção de ligas fundidas vêm sendo estudado para seu uso como co-produto em diferentes segmentos industriais, tais como a própria fundição e o da construção civil. Este trabalho objetiva avaliar a viabilidade de aplicação de dois diferentes resíduos, as areias fenólica e verde usadas de fundição, como matéria-prima com valor agregado, esta sendo usada na fabricação de blocos de concreto para pavimentação, avaliando sua transformação para co-produto. Alguns estudos já demonstraram o potencial de aplicação desses resíduos de diversas formas e em diferentes setores da indústria. A aplicabilidade específica desses resíduos dependerá das suas caracterizações, seja ambiental, química, física ou de fases, sendo essa uma etapa fundamental para avaliar a viabilidade de reciclagem e econômica. Desta forma a caracterização destes resíduos configurou-se na etapa essencial do trabalho para depois destiná-los a uma melhor aplicação tecnológica. Foram produzidos blocos com 0%, 25% e 50% de substituição parcial da areia natural pelo co-produto. Esses blocos foram ensaiados quanto a resistência mecânica à compressão aos 7 e 28 dias de cura, absorção de água, resistência ao desgaste por abrasão, índice de porosidade, MEV, avaliação ambiental e viabilidade financeira dos blocos gerados com o uso dos resíduos de fundição. O traço com ter de substituição de 25% da combinação dos resíduos foi o que apresentou os melhores resultados, tanto na resistência à compressão quanto a resistência ao desgaste à abrasão. Os blocos com uso da combinação dos dois resíduos foram classificados ambientalmente como Classe II A – Não Inerte e apresentaram menor custo na produção de blocos de concreto para pavimentação. / The generation of solid waste in urban centers is related mainly to the increase in population and the intensification of the processes of industrialization. The management since its origin, production, processing, recycling and final destination of such waste is currently one of the biggest challenges of generating companies, research institutions, government agencies and companies alike who seek a solution to minimize or even eliminate the generation of waste or recycling and subsequent use in various fields of industry, or even turning them into products of commercial interest. In this sense, the foundry waste generated during the production of cast alloys have been studied for use as a by-product in different industries, such as own foundry and construction. This study evaluates the feasibility of applying two different residues of foundry, spent phenolic sand and spent green sand as raw material with value added, this being used in the manufacture of concrete block paving, evaluating its transformation to co-product. Some studies have demonstrated the potential application of the wastes in various forms and in different industry sectors. The specific applicability of these residues depend on their characterizations, whether environmental, chemical, physical or phases, this being a fundamental step to assess the feasibility of recycling and economic. Thus the characterization of this waste was configured in the key step of the work and then consign them to a better technological application. Blocks were made with 0%, 25% and 50% replacement of natural sand per by-product. These blocks were analysed for compressive strength at 7 and 28 days of curing, water absorption, abrasion strength, porosity index, SEM, environmental assessment and financial feasibility of the blocks generated with the use of the by-product. The mark with having to replace 25% of combination of two foundry waste showed the best results in both compression strength as the abrasion strength. Blocks using the combination of foundry waste were environmental ly classified as Class II A - Not Inert and had lower costs in producing concrete block paving.

Introduction Treating localized prostate cancer with combination radiotherapy consisting ofexternal beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and high-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) has beenproven to result in better disease outcome than EBRT only. There is, however, a decreasingtrend in utilization of combination therapy, partially due to concerns for elevated toxicityrisks. Aim To determine which parameters correlate to acute and late (≤ 6 months) urinary toxicity(AUT and LUT) and acute and late rectal toxicity (ART and LRT), and thereafter createpredictive models for rectal toxicity. Methods Data on toxicity rates and 32 patient, tumor and treatment parameters were collectedfrom 359 patients treated between 2008 and 2018 with EBRT (42 Gy in 14 fractions) andHDR-BT (14.5 Gy in 1 fraction) for localized prostate cancer at Örebro University Hospital.Bivariate analyses were conducted on all parameters and the outcome variables AUT, LUT,ART and LRT grade ≥ 1, graded according to the RTOG-criteria. Parameters correlating toART and LRT in this and previous studies were included in multivariate logistic regressionanalyses for creation of predictive models. Results Most toxicities, 86%, were of grade 0 or 1, only 9% of patients had grade 2 – 3toxicity. Only 2 – 4 parameters correlated to the respective toxicities in bivariate analyses.Logistic regressions generated no significant predictors of ART or LRT. Therefore, nopredictive models were obtained. Conclusion None of the included parameters have enough discriminative abilities regardingrectal toxicity. Predictive models can most probably be obtained by including otherparameters and more patients.

Spread spectrum techniques have a number of different applications, including range finding, synchronisation, anti-jamming systems and multiple access communication systems. In each of these applications the properties of the resulting systems depend heavily on the family of spreading sequences employed. As such, the design of spreading sequences is an important area of research. Two areas of spreading sequence design are of particular interest in this work, combination techniques and Interference Free Window (IFW) sequences. Combination techniques allow a new sequence family to be constructed by combining two or more existing families. Such an approach allows some of the desirable properties of the components to be maintained, whilst mitigating the components' disadvantages. In addition, it can facilitate the construction of large families at a greatly reduced computational cost. Combination families are considered through the construction of two new classes of sequences, modified Unified Complex Hadamard Transform (UCHT) sequences, and combination Oppermann sequences, respectively based on UCHT sequences and periodic Oppermann sequences. Numerical optimisation techniques are employed to demonstrate the favourable performance of sequences from these classes compared to conventional families. Second, IFW sequences are considered. In systems where approximate, but not perfect, synchronisation between different users can be maintained, IFW sequences can be employed to greatly reduce both interference between users and interference resulting from multipath spread of each user's signal. Large Area Synchronous (LAS) sequences are a class of sequences which both result from combination techniques and exhibit an IFW. LAS sequences are produced by combining Large Area (LA) sequences and LS sequences. They have been demonstrated to be applicable to multiple access communication systems, particularly through their use in LAS2000, which was proposed for third generation mobile telephony. Work to date has been restricted to only a very small range of examples of these families. In order to examine a wider range of LAS sequences, the construction and resulting properties of LA and LS families are considered. The conditions an LA family must satisfy are codified here, and algorithms which can be used to construct LA families with given parameters are presented. The construction of LS sequences is considered, and relationship between each of the parameters used in this construction and the properties of the final family is examined. Using this expanded understanding of both these sequence families, a far wider range of LAS families, potentially applicable to a wider range of applications, can be considered. Initially, the merits of proposed sequences are considered primarily through their correlation properties. Both maximum and mean squared correlation values are considered, depending on the context. In order to demonstrate their practical applicability, combination Oppermann, modified UCHT and LAS sequences are employed in a simulated communications system, and the resulting bit error rates are examined.

[Abstract]: The disposal of animal waste has become a problem in many parts of the world due to the rapid growth in the number and the size of intensive animal industries. Safe waste disposal sites are rarely available and the relocation and/or treatment of animal waste is seldom economically viable. The reuse of animal waste for energy recovery and re-feeding is also not popular. Animal waste is a valuable source of plant nutrients and a very good soil conditioner, and has been commonly applied as fertiliser to agricultural fields. However, due to the increasing oversupply of animal waste in recent years, it has often been applied in excess to the agricultural fields. Excessive application of animal waste, without due consideration of its implications, is a serious concern. The run-off and leaching losses of nutrients from the fields fertilised with animal waste have contributed significantly to the eutrophication and toxic blue-green algae blooms in surface water systems and nitrification of ground water systems. It has also led to nutrient imbalances in the soils and odour pollution to the surrounding communities. The animal waste, which is a valuable source of plant nutrients, has thus become both an economic and environmental burden, and there is a need to develop a strategy for its sensible use as a fertiliser in agricultural fields. Sensible use of animal waste involves the consideration of all the agricultural, environmental, social, and economical limitations. A rational method of achieving this is to restrict the use of animal waste to sites suitable for such uses, identify areas where it can be relocated and applied economically, limit the application rates to a safe level, and observe appropriate manure management practices. This study addressed each of these components by developing a comprehensive manure application plan (MAP) for the site-specific use of animal waste as fertiliser in agricultural fields. Various geographic information systems (GIS) based techniques, including a weighted linear combination model and map algebra based cartographic modelling, were employed to achieve the goal. The appropriateness of the existing techniques and procedures were evaluated and modified to meet the current input requirements. New methods of analysis were devised as necessary. The Westbrook sub-catchment of the Condamine River catchment in south-east Queensland was selected as the study area. The sub-catchment covers 24,903 hectares and contains 39 intensive animal industries. The catchment is also a part of the Murray-Darling Basin, which has been suffering from toxic blue green algae blooms recurrently since 1991. This study identified that only about one-fifth of the sub-catchment area is suitable for animal waste application. Depending on the method of site suitability analysis and the number of input factors used the suitable area ranged between 16 and 22 percent. This comparatively small area is mainly due to the presence of a large proportion of non-agricultural areas in the sub-catchment. The suitable areas were also found to have various degrees of suitability for waste application. However, the degree of site suitability was affected by the number of input factors used in the analysis, the weighting of the factors, and the method of factor attribute standardisation. Conventional methods of weighting input factors were found to be cumbersome and not particularly suitable. Hence, this study developed a new ‘objective oriented comparison’ method of factor weighting. Standardisation of input factors using a continuous, rather than discrete, classification (ie fuzzy set) method was found to be more consistent in degree of suitability determination. The discrete classification of factor attributes into classes of different numbers and sizes, and the weighting of classes to a sum of one, were identified as a limitation in using this standardisation method. A new ‘weight adjustment’ method was devised and demonstrated to reduce factor-weighting biases. The suitable sites, degree of site suitability, and other relevant spatial and non-spatial information were processed within a GIS framework to develop a comprehensive manure application plan. The inherently high presence of available phosphorus in the soils of the study area was recognised and the P2O5 content in the manure was used as the basis for determining manure application rates. A complimentary nitrogen supply map was also generated. Manure management practices applicable to the areas with a lower degree of suitability were also suggested.

<p>This paper aims to examine how employee motivation is affected during the operational combination stage of a merger between two relatively small Swedish professional service firms. This is done through a quantitative study conducted by examining the relationship between employee motivation and three approaches; social identity, role conflict and acculturation. Those approaches were first by themselves tested in order to examine the relationship between their respective indicators that represent respective approach. The main result of this study is that the three approaches have a positive significant impact on employee motivation. Therefore, it is important for the professional service firm to take those variables into consideration when formulating future strategies and when trying to improve the organizational climate.</p>

This paper aims to examine how employee motivation is affected during the operational combination stage of a merger between two relatively small Swedish professional service firms. This is done through a quantitative study conducted by examining the relationship between employee motivation and three approaches; social identity, role conflict and acculturation. Those approaches were first by themselves tested in order to examine the relationship between their respective indicators that represent respective approach. The main result of this study is that the three approaches have a positive significant impact on employee motivation. Therefore, it is important for the professional service firm to take those variables into consideration when formulating future strategies and when trying to improve the organizational climate.

This thesis aims to produce short-term forecasts for the economic activity in Turkey. As a proxy for the economic activity, industrial production index is used. Univariate autoregressive distributed lag (ADL) models, vector autoregressive (VAR) models and combination forecasts method are utilized in a pseudo out-of-sample forecasting framework to obtain one-month ahead forecasts. To evaluate the models&rsquo / forecasting performances, the relative root mean square forecast error (RRMSFE) is calculated. Overall, results indicate that combining the VAR models with four endogenous variables yields the most substantial improvement in forecasting performance, relative to benchmark autoregressive (AR) model.

Recognizing handwritten mathematical content is a challenging problem, and more so when such content appears in classroom videos. However, given the fact that in such videos the handwritten text and the accompanying audio refer to the same content, a combination of video and audio based recognizer has the potential to significantly improve the content recognition accuracy. This dissertation, using a combination of video and audio based recognizers, focuses on improving the recognition accuracy associated with handwritten mathematical content in such videos. Our approach makes use of a video recognizer as the primary recognizer and a multi-stage assembly, developed as part of this research, is used to facilitate effective combination with an audio recognizer. Specifically, we address the following challenges related to audio-video based handwritten mathematical content recognition: (1) Video Preprocessing - generates a timestamped sequence of segmented characters from the classroom video in the face of occlusions and shadows caused by the instructor, (2) Ambiguity Detection - determines the subset of input characters that may have been incorrectly recognized by the video based recognizer and forwards this subset for disambiguation, (3) A/V Synchronization - establishes correspondence between the handwritten character and the spoken content, (4) A/V Combination - combines the synchronized outputs from the video and audio based recognizers and generates the final recognized character, and (5) Grammar Assisted A/V Based Mathematical Content Recognition - utilizes a base mathematical speech grammar for both character and structure disambiguation. Experiments conducted using videos recorded in a classroom-like environment demonstrate the significant improvements in recognition accuracy that can be achieved using our techniques.