Design, production and development of individual mini/micro robots and then formation of their cooperative colony are the main topics of this thesis. The produced mini/micro robots are as small and light as possible. In addition, they are multifunctional (programmable), flexible and intelligent while maintaining a very low production cost. Mini/micro robots, called MinT-DB series are able to communicate with each other to work cooperatively. Moreover, these robots can be the basis for the future studies considering the application of artificial intelligence and modeling of live colonies in the nature. Traditional design, production and assembly techniques have been used widely up to now. However, none of them were related with the mini/micro scale. Therefore, this thesis can help people in understanding the difficulties of the design, production, and assembly of the mini/micro systems under the light of the reported science. In this thesis, instead of examining a specific application field of mini/micro robotic systems, a technology demonstrative work is carried out. Therefore, this thesis contributes to the mini/micro robotic technology, which is also very new and popular in today&amp / #8217 / s world, with the robots having the dimensions of 7.5x6x6 cm.

Radio base stations contain equipment which enables the use of cell phones all around the world. ERICSSON is developing these stations and everything connected to the area, such as electronics, software and hardware. In a new project ERICSSON plans to make their hardware modular, to satisfy all their customers around the world even if their preferences differ. The task that was given to us was to develop a modular locking system to the radio base station cabinets.The concept was developed in an integrated working process that focused on a user centered final product. The process included the definition of the problem, preliminary studies of areas which are connected to the problem and a summary of the demands that the customers mediated in a list of requirements. The idea generation generated lots of ideas that later on were developed into different concepts. The concepts were evaluated before the final decision was made together with ERICSSON.The final product is a lifting handle connected to a rod and latch system, which already existed. A new mechanical function was created to make the new handle function with the old system. The locking system is modular and it is possible to choose which way to lock the handle, with a cylinder lock or a padlock. Only one module, the cylinder in the middle, needs to be switched to get the other solution. The other parts are the same; this makes the product modular. The lift handle is an entire new design, developed in the project.

Establishing group structure in complex networks is potentially very useful since nodes belonging to the same module can often be related by commonalities in their biological function. However, module detection in complex networks poses a challenging problem and has sparked a great deal of interest in various disciplines in recent years [5]. In real networks, which can be quite complex, we have no idea about the true number of modules that exist. Furthermore, the structure of the modules may be hierarchical meaning they may be further divided into sub-modules and so forth. Many attempts have been made to deal with these problems and because the involved methods vary considerably they have been difficult to compare [5]. The objectives of this thesis are (i) to create and implement a new algorithm that will identify modules in complex networks and reconstruct the network in such a way so as to maximize modularity, (ii) to evaluate the performance of a new method, and compare it to a popular method based on a simulated annealing algorithm, and (iii) to apply the new method, and a comparator method, to analyze the metabolic network of the bacterial genus Listeria, an important pathogen in both agricultural and human clinical settings.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007. / Additional advisors: Jeff Gray, Marjan Mernik, Alan Sprague, Murat Tanik. Description based on contents viewed June 25, 2007; title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-138).

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:48:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LarissaAS_DISSERT.pdf: 2513975 bytes, checksum: c4af91c9ccb8a615b65c89426c2338d2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-05 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / When crosscutting concerns identification is performed from the beginning of development, on the activities involved in requirements engineering, there are many gains in terms of quality, cost and efficiency throughout the lifecycle of software development. This early identification supports the evolution of requirements, detects possible flaws in the requirements specification, improves traceability among requirements, provides better software modularity and prevents possible rework. However, despite these several advantages, the crosscutting concerns identification over requirements engineering faces several difficulties such as the lack of systematization and tools that support it. Furthermore, it is difficult to justify why some concerns are identified as crosscutting or not, since this identification is, most often, made without any methodology that systematizes and bases it. In this context, this paper proposes an approach based on Grounded Theory, called GT4CCI, for systematizing and basing the process of identifying crosscutting concerns in the initial stages of the software development process in the requirements document. Grounded Theory is a renowned methodology for qualitative analysis of data. Through the use of GT4CCI it is possible to better understand, track and document concerns, adding gains in terms of quality, reliability and modularity of the entire lifecycle of software / Quando a identifica??o de interesses transversais ? feita desde o princ?pio do processo de desenvolvimento de software, ainda nas atividades relacionadas ? Engenharia de Requisitos, muitos s?o os ganhos em termos de qualidade, custo e efici?ncia ao longo do ciclo de vida do software. Esta identifica??o precoce d? suporte ? evolu??o de requisitos, detecta poss?veis falhas na especifica??o de requisitos, melhora a rastreabilidade entre os requisitos, proporciona uma melhor modulariza??o de software e previne poss?veis retrabalhos. Entretanto, apesar de todas estas vantagens, a identifica??o de interesses enfrenta diversas dificuldades, tais como a falta de sistematiza??o e de ferramentas que a ofere?am um bom suporte. Al?m disto, ? dif?cil, muitas vezes, justificar as raz?es pelas quais alguns interesses s?o ou n?o considerados transversais, uma vez que esta identifica??o ?, na maioria das vezes, feita sem qualquer metodologia que a sistematize e a embase. Neste contexto, este trabalho prop?e uma abordagem baseada nos princ?pios da Grounded Theory, chamada GT4CCI, que sistematiza e embasa o processo de identifica??o de interesses transversais nas etapas mais iniciais do processo de desenvolvimento de software, utilizando o documento de requisitos como artefato para a identifica??o. Grounded Theory ? uma renomada metodologia para a an?lise qualitativa de dados. Atrav?s do uso da abordagem GT4CCI ? poss?vel melhor compreender, rastrear e documentar interesses, adicionando assim ganhos em termos de qualidade, confiabilidade e modulariza??o ? todo o ciclo de vida do software

No description available.

[pt] Muitos problemas de modularidade de design de software estão relacionados à modularização inadequada de interesses importantes e que têm impacto sistêmico no design, tais como tratamento de exceção, distribuição e persistência. No entanto, a maioria das abordagens atuais de avaliação quantitativas não levam em conta os interesses que guiam o design, o que acaba fazendo com que o processo de avaliação de modularidade se torne deficiente. Portanto, existe a necessidade de abordagens de medição que promovam uma identificação mais efetiva dos problemas de modularidade relacionados a interesses transversais. Além disso, essa necessidade se torna ainda mais evidente à medida que surgem novas formas de decomposição de design, tais como desenvolvimento de software orientado a aspectos. Nesse contexto, essa tese tem o objetivo de definir e investigar uma nova abordagem de avaliação quantitativa de modularidade de design de software que promove o conceito de interesse a uma abstração de medição. Esse trabalho define uma abordagem de medição dirigida por interesse que inclui um conjunto de mecanismos para avaliação de modularidade de software desde o design arquitetural até o design detalhado. A abordagem sensível a interesse proposta é composta por: (i) um conjunto de métricas arquiteturais, (ii) um conjunto de métricas de design detalhado, (iii) um conjunto de regras heurísticas de design que dão apoio a interpretação das métricas, e (iv) uma ferramenta, chamada de COMET, que dá apoio tanto à notação quanto à medição dirigida por interesses de design arquitetural. A utilidade da técnica de medição dirigida por interesses proposta foi avaliada em uma série de estudos empíricos, onde a modularidade de designs convencionais e orientados a aspectos foram comparados. / [en] Several modularity problems in software designs are related to the inadequate modularization of key broadly-scoped concerns, such as exception handling, distribution, and persistence. However, most of the current quantitative assessment aproaches are not sensitive to concerns that drive the design, thereby leading to a number of shortcomings in the modularity evaluation process. Therefore, there is a need for measurement approaches that support a more effective identification of modularity anomalies related to crosscutting concerns. Also, this necessity becomes more apparent in an age that a number of different fomrs of design decompositions, such as aspect-oriented software development, are emerging. In this context, this thesis aims at investigating a novel approach for quantittative modularity assessment of software design by promoting the concept of concern as a measurement abstraction. Our concern-driven measurement approach encompasses a set of mechanisms for assessing software modularity from architectural to detailed design. The prposed concern-sensitive approach includes:(i) a suite of architectural metrics, (ii) a suite of detailed design metrics, (iii) a suite of design heuristic rules for supporting the interpretation of metrics in meaningful ways, and (iv) a tool, called COMET, that supports bots concern-drive notation and measurement of architectual designs. We evaluated the usefulness of our concern-oriented measurement techinique in a series of emprical studies, comparing the modularity of conventional and aspect-oriented software design.

Modularity Density Maximization is a graph clustering problem which avoids the resolution limit degeneracy of the Modularity Maximization problem. This thesis aims at solving larger instances than current Modularity Density heuristics do, and show how close the obtained solutions are to the expected clustering. Three main contributions arise from this objective. The first one is about the theoretical contributions about properties of Modularity Density based prioritizers. The second one is the development of eight Modularity Density Maximization heuristics. Our heuristics are compared with optimal results from the literature, and with GAOD, iMeme-Net, HAIN, BMD- heuristics. Our results are also compared with CNM and Louvain which are heuristics for Modularity Maximization that solve instances with thousands of nodes. The tests were carried out by using graphs from the “Stanford Large Network Dataset Collection”. The experiments have shown that our eight heuristics found solutions for graphs with hundreds of thousands of nodes. Our results have also shown that five of our heuristics surpassed the current state-of-the-art Modularity Density Maximization heuristic solvers for large graphs. A third contribution is the proposal of six column generation methods. These methods use exact and heuristic auxiliary solvers and an initial variable generator. Comparisons among our proposed column generations and state-of-the-art algorithms were also carried out. The results showed that: (i) two of our methods surpassed the state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of time, and (ii) our methods proved the optimal value for larger instances than current approaches can tackle. Our results suggest clear improvements to the state-of-the-art results for the Modularity Density Maximization problem.

Modularity Density Maximization is a graph clustering problem which avoids the resolution limit degeneracy of the Modularity Maximization problem. This thesis aims at solving larger instances than current Modularity Density heuristics do, and show how close the obtained solutions are to the expected clustering. Three main contributions arise from this objective. The first one is about the theoretical contributions about properties of Modularity Density based prioritizers. The second one is the development of eight Modularity Density Maximization heuristics. Our heuristics are compared with optimal results from the literature, and with GAOD, iMeme-Net, HAIN, BMD- heuristics. Our results are also compared with CNM and Louvain which are heuristics for Modularity Maximization that solve instances with thousands of nodes. The tests were carried out by using graphs from the “Stanford Large Network Dataset Collection”. The experiments have shown that our eight heuristics found solutions for graphs with hundreds of thousands of nodes. Our results have also shown that five of our heuristics surpassed the current state-of-the-art Modularity Density Maximization heuristic solvers for large graphs. A third contribution is the proposal of six column generation methods. These methods use exact and heuristic auxiliary solvers and an initial variable generator. Comparisons among our proposed column generations and state-of-the-art algorithms were also carried out. The results showed that: (i) two of our methods surpassed the state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of time, and (ii) our methods proved the optimal value for larger instances than current approaches can tackle. Our results suggest clear improvements to the state-of-the-art results for the Modularity Density Maximization problem.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2017-04-06T15:48:25Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Tese_Joel A Queiroz_PPGBV_2016.pdf: 1398066 bytes, checksum: 45a58588c174d510e8c470f8b7b11c79 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-06T15:48:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Tese_Joel A Queiroz_PPGBV_2016.pdf: 1398066 bytes, checksum: 45a58588c174d510e8c470f8b7b11c79 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-21 / CNPQ / As espécies de plantas com flores de antese noturna e seus polinizadores, principalmente, morcegos e mariposas Sphingidae (mariposas de aparelho bucal longo e de hábito predominantemente noturno) foram estudadas no presente trabalho através de abordagens de teoria de redes complexas e de biologia floral (para três espécies de plantas: Encholirium spectabile (Bromeliaceae); e duas espécies de Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae). Entre janeiro/2011 e dezembro/2012 foram realizadas expedições mensais a um remanescente de Caatinga hiperxerófila situada no Nordeste do Brasil, para coleta de esfingofauna (com auxílio de armadilha luminosa) e de morcegos (com redes de neblina). A carga polínica presente no corpo desses polinizadores foi coletada e os tipos polínicos identificados e quantificados, sendo tais dados usados para construir matrizes qualitativas (presença/ausência) e quantitativas (frequência de individuos com pólen de determinada espécie de planta) para análise interanual de modularidade e robustez da rede de interações. Para as espécies E. spectabile, Ipomoea marcellia e I. aff. marcellia foram coletados dados de morfometria floral (comprimento e largura de corola), antese (início, término e duração total), atributos de néctar (volume, concentração, mg de açúcares, padrão de produção e efeito de remoção) e frequência de visitantes florais diurnos e noturnos. Para as espécies de Ipomoea a eficiência de morcegos e beija-flores foi estimada através de experimentos de exposição seletiva de flores. A rede de interações entre plantas e polinizadores noturnos foi formada por 24 espécies de plantas, 4 morcegos e 15 esfingídeos, sendo registradas 766 conexões totais. A rede apresentou estrutura modular de 0.36, sendo observados três módulos distintos: dois exclusivos de esfingídeos e um misto (morcegos + esfingídeos). No entanto, foi observada intensa frequência de conexões inter-módulos o que pode indicar uma fronteira não tão bem delimitada da guilda de plantas quiropterófilas. A rede apresentou robustez à extinção de espécies variável entre os dois anos de coleta, o que pode ser o resultado do menor tamanho (Rede2011: 42 espécies; Rede2012: 29 espécies) e menor quantidade de conexões (Rede2011: 573; Rede2012: 193) resgistrados no ano mais seco. As espécies E. spectabile, I. marcellia e I. aff. marcellia, de modo geral, apresentaram atributos de morfometria floral mais relacionados à quiropterofilia (polinização por morcegos). No entanto, a morfologia floral e períodos de antese e de disponibilidade de néctar prolongados para além da noite, possibilitaram a beija-flores acessarem néctar e transferirem, com certo grau de sucesso, pólen para o estigma, garantindo um serviço de polinização complementar. Esse sistema de polinização, denominado polinização mista, parece ser uma estratégia recorrente para algumas espécies de Caatinga primariamente relacionadas à polinização por morcegos, podendo garantir maior sucesso reprodutivo para tais plantas. / Plant species with nocturnal flowers and their pollinators, especially bats and hawmoths were studied in this work through complex networks theory approaches and floral biology (for three species of plants: Encholirium spectabile (Bromeliaceae), and two Ipomoea taxa (Convolvulaceae). Between January/2011 and December/2012 were carried out monthly mailings to a remnant of Caatinga hyperxerophilic located in northeastern Brazil, to moth collect (with aid of light trap) and bats (with mist nets). the pollen load present in the body of these pollinators were collected, identified, and quantified pollen types, and such data used to construct qualitative (presence / absence) and quantitative matrices (frequency of individuals with pollen) to analysis of modularity and robustness of network. To E. spectabile, Ipomoea marcellia and I. aff. marcellia were collected floral morphometry (length and width corolla), anthesis (start, end and total duration), nectar attributes (volume, concentration, sugars, pattern of production and removal effect) and frequency flower visitors day and night. To Ipomoea, bats and hummingbirds efficiency was estimated by experiments of selective exposure flowers. The mutualistc network plants and pollinators was formed by 24 plant species, 15 hawkmoths and 4 bats. It was recorded 766 connections. That network presented modular structure, 0.36, with three distinct modules: two exclusive hawkmoths and a mixed hawkmoths and bats). However, there was intense frequency of inter-module connections, which may indicate a boundary not as well defined Guild chiropterophilous plants. The network showed variable robustness between years (2011: Rplant = 0.96; Ranimal = 0.92; 2012: Rplant = 0:33; Ranimal = 0:33), which may be the result of the smaller size (2011: 42 species; 2012: 29 species) and fewer connections. E. spectabile, I. marcellia and I. aff. marcellia showed more attributes related to chiropterophily (pollinated by bats). However, the floral morphology and anthesis periods and prolonged nectar availability in addition to the night, made it possible to access hummingbirds nectar and transfer, with some degree of success, pollen to the stigma, ensuring a supplementary pollination service. This pollination system called mixed pollination, seems to be a recurring strategy for some species of Caatinga primarily related to pollination by bats and can ensure greater reproductive success for such plants.