Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1993. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Orientador: Mauro Pedro Peres / Banca: Tamotsu Hirata / Banca: Silvio Silvério da Silva / Resumo: Abrir e fechar a boca é um dos movimentos biomecânicos mais importantes do ser humano, sendo um dos primeiros a ser realizado antes mesmo do nascimento. Ela é responsável pela deglutição, mastigação, respiração e a fala. Este movimento é realizado por um conjunto articular-músculo-esquelético, chamado sistema estomatognático, no qual destaca a mais complexa articulação do corpo humano, denominada de articulação temporomandibular (ATM). Sua disfunção acarreta uma série de problemas sempre acompanhada de dores, no qual grande parte da população mundial apresenta distúrbios neste sistema, necessitando a busca de tratamento. Apesar de estudos já realizados, torna-se ainda imprescindível uma abordagem específica do tema, no qual a ausência de parâmetros existentes, e mundialmente aceitos, para avaliações e diagnósticos, comprometem os objetivos do tratamento, que atualmente depende mais da experiência do terapeuta do que de evidências científicas. Desta forma este trabalho contribui para obtenções de conhecimentos, esclarecimentos e cuidados com pacientes que sofrem de Disfunção Temporo Mandibular (DTM), com o seu principal objetivo, a construção de um equipamento capaz de mensurar e diagnosticar anormalidades durante o movimento biomecânico da abertura e fechamento da boca, através de um sistema de captação de imagens. Utiliza-se de equipamentos de baixo custo e de fácil manuseio, comparado a sistemas disponíveis hoje no mercado. As imagens obtidas são processadas por um software específico para este fim, onde os dados são tratados e modelados, fornecendo o movimento no plano frontal e lateral da mandíbula, analisando sua respectiva trajetória no movimento de lateralidade, protrusão e amplitude máxima da abertura e fechamento da boca, fornecendo dados milimetricamente mensurados ...(Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo). / Abstract: To open and to close the mouth are one of the more important biomechanics movements of the human being, being one of first to be carried through before the same one of the birth. It is responsible for the deglutition, chew, breath and he says it. This movement is carried through by a joint articulate-muscle-bone, call masticate system, in which detaches the most complex joint of the called human body of Joint Temporo Mandible (JTM). Its disturb causes a series of problems always followed of pains, needing the treatment search. Although some carried through studies already, a specific boarding of the subject still becomes essential, in which the absence of existing parameters, and world-wide accepted, and diagnostic, compromises the objectives of the treatment, that currently depends more on the experience of the therapist on whom of scientific evidences. Of this form this work search the attainment of knowledge, clarifications and cares with the patients who suffer DTM, having as objective to construct an equipment capable to measure and to diagnosis abnormalities during the biomechanics movement of the opening of the mouth, through a system of capitation of images. One today used of equipment of low cost, compared the available systems in the market, generating images that will be processed for a software, developed specifically for this work, for the treatment and modeling of the data of the movement in the front plain of the jaw, analyzed its respective trajectory, in the movement of lateral, supplying given measure ...(Complete abstract, click electronic address below). / Mestre

Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka faktorer som kan få fastighetsbolag att avvika från sina fastställda investeringsstrategier och hur de resonerar vid inträde på ett nytt geografiskt område eller nytt fastighetssegment.Det är vanligt förekommande att fastighetsbolag har en fastställd och uttalad investeringsstrategi vid förvärv och avyttring av fastigheter. Tidigare forskning visar att det förekommer avvikelser från dessa och att det i vissa fall endast är vissa delar av strategin som verkligen verkställs. Det saknas dock förklaringar till vad som kan få bolagen att göra dessa avvikelser. Studiens bidrag är därför att ge exempel på dessa faktorer samt ge ökad förståelse för deras resonemang vid inträde på nytt geografiskt område eller nytt fastighetssegment.Den använda metoden för insamling av empirin är genom kvalitativa intervjuer av respondenter med kännedom om bolagens investeringsstrategier. Av de fem respondenterna i studien är två av bolagen börsnoterade, ett är kommunalt och två är privata. Gemensamt för alla bolagen är att de äger sina fastigheter och är verksamma endast i tillväxtorter. Tre givna frågor har följts upp av eventuella relevanta följdfrågor. Intervjumaterialet har spelats in och därefter transkriberats för att kunna analyseras utifrån den aktuella frågeställningen och studiens syfte samt för att göra kopplingar till för studien relevant teori.Resultatet av analysen har mynnat ut i att följande faktorer kan få fastighetsbolag att avvika från sina investeringsstrategier: lönsamhet, individuell kunskap hos anställda, politiska beslut, för höga byggpriser, hållbarhet och miljö samt goodwill. Endast ett av de studerade fastighetsbolagen har de facto avvikit från sin investeringsstrategi till följd av politiskt beslut från det kommunala bostadsbolagets styrelse tillika ägare. / The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors could cause real estate companies to deviate from its original real estate investment strategy and find out how they reason when entering a new geographic area or real estate segment.Real estate companies usually have an investment strategy on real estate purchase and divestiture. Previous research shows that deviations occur from these and in some cases only parts of the strategy is realized. However, there is no explanation on what cause these deviations. This study contributes therefore by exemplifying these factors to enhance understanding their reasoning when entering a new geographic area or a new segment.The method applied to gather empirical data is by using qualitative interview technique on respondents with knowledge about the companies’ investment strategies using semi-structured interviews. Out of the five respondents two are listed on the Swedish stock market, one is owned by a municipality and two are privately owned. They all have in common to be owners of their properties and act in areas of growth. Three given questions were added by follow-up questions. The collected data was recorded and thereafter transcribed to be able to analyze and look for connections in line with the purpose of the study and relevant theories set in mind.The results of the analysis emanated into the following factors that could cause real estate companies to deviate from their investment strategy: profitability, individual knowledge of the employees, political decisions, too high construction prices, sustainability, environment and goodwill. Only one of the real estate companies did in fact deviate from its investment strategy due to a political decision from the members of the board, moreover its owner.

Title: Development of tennis technique Objectives: The main object of this thesis is to analyse the fundamental factors that affect the development of tennis technique. Furthermore, this thesis presents the most common deviations from the optimal tennis technique, including their possible causes, and consequently suggests possible corrections that would help optimise the technique. Methods: Based on the analysis of documents, are present the fundamental factors that influence tennis technique. Specific selected deviations are develop from the optimal tennis technique on the parts of the basic strokes, in which the specific deviations, its description and the causes are stated. Furthermore, methods of correction to eliminate the mentioned technical deviations are proposed. This methods are based on the analysis of documents and observations from our own past experience. Results: The result is a detailed analysis of factors that affect the development of tennis technique. Furthermore, a list of deviations from the optimal technique with possible causes and proposed methods of their possible correction. The theoretical basis of the work deals with tennis technique as a fundamental factor influencing sports performance in tennis. Keywords: Biomechanics, exercises, correction, deviation, stroke

A plot that includes multiple location and spread statistics can provide useful information about the shape of a distribution, not only with respect to location and variability but also with respect to skewness and kurtosis. We propose a plot containing the interquartile range, mean absolute deviation, standard deviation, and range of a dataset. The comparison of the spread statistics gives information about kurtosis and the comparison of the location statistics gives information about skewness. After the distribution has been divided into two parts by the median, the interquartile range can be thought of as the distance between the medians in each half of the distribution. We explain how the mean absolute deviation with respect to the median can similarly be visualized as half the distance between the means in each half of the distribution. An R function to produce the polyplot is available as an online supplement.

A new confidence interval for the coefficient of dispersion (mean absolute deviation from the median divided by median) is proposed and is shown to perform better than the BCa bootstrap confidence interval.

Recently, an increasing number of researchers have attempted to overcome the constraints of size and scope in individual medical studies by estimating the overall treatment effects based on a combination of studies. A commonly used method is meta-analysis which combines results from multiple studies. The population standard deviation in primary studies is an essential quantitative value which is absent sometimes, especially when the outcome has a skewed distribution. Instead, the sample size and the sample range of the whole dataset is reported. There are several methods to estimate the standard deviation of the data based on the sample range if we assume the data are normally distributed. For example: Tippett Method2, Ramirez and Cox Method3, Hozo et al Method4, Rychtar and Taylor Method5, Mantel Method6, Sokal and Rohlf Method7 as well as Chen and Tyler Method8. Only a few papers provide a solution for estimating the population standard deviation of non-normally distributed data. In this thesis, some other distributions, which are commonly used in clinical studies, will be simulated to estimate the population standard deviation by using the methods mentioned above. The performance and the robustness of those methods for different sample sizes and different distribution parameters will be presented. Also, these methods will be evaluated on real-world datasets. This article will provide guidelines describing which methods perform best with non-normally distributed data. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

No / Human observers can simultaneously track up to five targets in motion (Z. W. Pylyshyn & R. W. Storm, 1988). We examined the precision for detecting deviations in linear trajectories by measuring deviation thresholds as a function of the number of trajectories (T ). When all trajectories in the stimulus undergo the same deviation, thresholds are uninfluenced by T for T <= 10. When only one of the trajectories undergoes a deviation, thresholds rise steeply as T is increased [e.g., 3.3º (T = 1), 12.3º (T = 2), 32.9º (T = 4) for one observer]; observers are unable to simultaneously process more than one trajectory in our threshold-measuring paradigm. When the deviating trajectory is cued (e.g., using a different color), varying T has little influence on deviation threshold. The use of a different color for each trajectory does not facilitate deviation detection. Our current data suggest that for deviations that have low discriminability (i.e., close to threshold) the number of trajectories that can be monitored effectively is close to one. In contrast, when the stimuli containing highly discriminable (i.e., substantially suprathreshold) deviations are used, as many as three or four trajectories can be simultaneously monitored (S. P. Tripathy, 2003). Our results highlight a severe loss of positional information when attempting to track multiple objects, particularly in a threshold paradigm.

No / Amblyopia results in a severe loss of positional information and in the ability to accurately enumerate objects (V. Sharma, D. M. Levi, & S. A. Klein, 2000). In this study, we asked whether amblyopia also disrupts the ability to track a near-threshold change in the trajectory of a single target amongst multiple similar potential targets. In the first experiment, we examined the precision for detecting a deviation in the linear motion trajectory of a dot by measuring deviation thresholds as a function of the number of moving trajectories (T). As in normal observers, we found that in both eyes of amblyopes, threshold increases steeply as T increases from 1 to 4. Surprisingly, for T = 1-4, thresholds were essentially identical in both eyes of the amblyopes and were similar to those of normal observers. In a second experiment, we measured the precision for detecting a deviation in the orientation of a static, bilinear "trajectory" by again measuring deviation thresholds (i.e., angle discrimination) as a function of the number of oriented line "trajectories" (T). Relative to the nonamblyopic eye, amblyopes show a marked threshold elevation for a static target when T = 1. However, thresholds increased with T with approximately the same slope as in their preferred eye and in the eyes of the normal controls. We conclude that while amblyopia disrupts static angle discrimination, amblyopic dynamic deviation detection thresholds are normal or very nearly so.

In recent years there has been large increase in the amount of digital mapping data of landscapes and urban environments available through satellite imaging. This digital information can be used to develop wind flow simulators over large cities or regions for various purposes such as pollutant transport control, weather forecasts, cartography and other topographical analysis. It can also be used by architects for city planning or by game programmers for virtual reality and similar applications. But this data is massive and contains a lot of redundant information such as trees, cars, bushes, etc. For many applications, it is beneficial to reduce these huge amounts of data through elimination of unwanted information and provide a good approximate model of the original dataset. The resultant dataset can then be utilized to generate surface grids suitable for CFD purposes or can be used directly for real-time rendering or other graphics applications. Digital Elevation Model, DEM, is the most basic data type in which this digital data is available. It consists of a sampled array of elevations for ground positions that are regularly spaced in a Cartesian coordinate system. The purpose of this research is to construct and test a simple and economical prototype which caters to image procesing and data reduction of DEM images through noise elimination and compact representations of complex objects in the dataset. The model is aimed at providing a synergy between resultant image quality and its size through the generation of various levels of detail. An alternate approach using the concepts of standard deviation helps in achieving the desired goal and the results obtained by testing the model on Salt Lake City dataset verify the claims. Thus, this thesis is aimed at DEM image processing to provide a simple and compact representation of complex objects encountered in large scale urban environment datasets and reduce the size of the dataset to accommodate efficient storage, computation, fast transmission across networks and interactive visualization.