Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Tese de Doutoramento. Engenharia Informática. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2011

Typical material used by the Tennessee Department of Transportation for highway bases was evaluated for application to the new Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide. Two types of granular Tennessee highway base material were mixed with different stabilizers and tested in the lab according to AASHTO T-307 99 (2003). Unconfined Compressive Strength and California Bearing Ratio tests were also done in an effort to correlate these results with resilient modulus. Three different combinations of base and stabilizer were tested and modeling coefficients were produced. Base structural layer coefficients were generated and compared to coefficients currently in use by TDOT.

I dagsläget saknar Thor Ahlgren AB underlag för att på ett enkelt sätt kunna kalkylera och uppskatta priset för ett pressverktyg. När företaget får en förfrågan från kund angående huruvida de kan producera en detalj måste de återkomma med en offert till kunden där ett pris för verktygskostnaden är inkluderad. Innan ett pris kan offereras till kund måste Thor Ahlgren AB kontakta en verktygsmakare för prisförslag på verktyget och denna process kan variera i tid. Syftet med arbetet är att förkorta eller eliminera denna process och på så vis kunna offerera pris för konstruktion av ett pressverktyg snabbare. För att möjliggöra detta har författarna av rapporten identifierat de väsentliga parametrarna vid tillverkning av pressverktyg. För att möjliggöra identifiering av parametrarna har gruppen tagit hjälp av företagets produktionstekniker Björn Johansson och intervjuer med verktygsmakare. Gruppen utförde tre intervjuer med erfarna verktygsmakare från olika delar av landet. Genom intervju och diskussion med Thor Ahlgrens produktionstekniker Björn Johansson kunde flera verktygsparametrar identifieras som väsentliga, dvs. de konstaterades som kostnadsdrivande vid konstruktion av pressverktyg. Parametrarna var material och tjocklek på detalj som ska produceras i verktyget, antal steg i verktyg samt storlek på verktyg. Insamlandet av verktygsdata såsom pris hämtades från Thor Ahlgrens affärssystem Monitor medan data för antal steg och verktygsdimensioner hämtades genom undersökning av verktygen i företagets produktion. Informationen sammanställdes i Microsoft Excel för att användas som en databas. I framtiden kan Thor Ahlgren AB fortsätta fylla listan med fler verktyg och parametrar. Sedan kan listan med fördel användas som en databas i en beräkningsmodell eller i ett speciellt konstruerat datorprogram för prisuppskattning av pressverktyg. Ett datorprogram har utvecklats av gruppens handledare Joel Johansson för ändamålet. Easy CBR är ett lättanvänt verktyg som ska fungera som en plattform för automatisering av enklare konstruktionsprocesser. Programmet har en koppling till Excel så att tabeller, som den aktuella verktygslistan, kan föras in och analyseras i systemet. Funktionen möjliggör att sökningar kan utföras så att ny verktygsdata jämförs med data för äldre verktyg. Detta utgör teorin för Case-based Reasoning som bygger på att jämföra nya problem med äldre, redan lösta problem. Teorin appliceras på verktygslistan med hjälp av programmet Easy CBR. Programmet kan finna liknande verktyg vilket kan ge uppskattning om vad inköpspriset på det nya verktyget kan komma att vara. Författarna av rapporten anser att det finns potential inom området och att projektet samt datorverktyget har goda utvecklingsmöjligheter om arbetet fortskrids. / The current situation is that Thor Ahlgren AB lacks in the basis of a simple tool to calculate and estimate the price for tools used for sheet metal forming. The company receives an inquiry from a customer regarding if they can produce a product. Further on they must present a price for the customer where the tooling cost is included. Before a price can be presented to the customer Thor AhlgrenAB needs to contact several toolmakers for the price of the tool and this process can vary in time. The goal of this work is to reduce or eliminate the time for this process and then be able to offer a price for the tool to the customer faster. To do this the authors of the report had to identify the essential parameters in the manufacturing of pressing tools. In order to identify the essential parameters the group had help from the production technician Björn Johansson at Thor Ahlgren AB and several interviews with toolmakers. The group conducted three interviews with experienced toolmakers from different parts of the country. The interviews were spread out over the project time to make it possible to discuss ideas and theories that arose during the collection of tool data and literature review. From discussion with Björn Johansson at Thor Ahlgren AB the group was able to identify several tool parameters as essential, i.e. they were founded as cost drivers for the design in manufacturing of pressing tools. These parameters were identified as the material and thickness of the product that will be produced by the tool, the number of steps in the tool and the size of the tool. Tool prices was found in Thor Ahlgren’s Enterprise resource planning system called Monitor while data concerning the number of steps and tool dimensions that were retrieved from examination of the tools in the company’s production site. This information was assembled in the program Microsoft Excel as a database. In the future the company will be able to continue to fill the list with more tools and parameters. The list will be used as a database in a calculation model or specially designed computer software for estimating price for manufacture of tools. A computer software has been developed by the group instructor Joel Johansson to be used in this purpose. Easy CBR is an easy tool to use that will serve as a platform for the automation of simple construction processes. The software has a link to Microsoft Excel to make it possible to retrieve data from the database and analyze it using the tool. New tool data will be compared with the old data of the tools and the best match will be presented. This follows the theory of Case-based Reasoning that’s based on comparing new cases with old, already solved cases or problems. This theory is applied to the database with help of Easy CBR. In this way similar tools can give the engineer an estimated price for the new tool. The authors of this report believes that there is potential in this area of work and if the work continues it is possible to develop a software that will be useful for Thor Ahlgren AB.

Even today, with modern medicine and technology, post-operative pain still exists as anmajor issue in modern treatment. A lot of research efforts have been made, in order toimprove pain outcome for patients that has undergone surgery[18][15].Even though physician's and doctors are well educated, the success rate is aboutapproximately 70 %, still there are patients that experience severe pain, after they haveundergone surgery. There could be several reasons to this, for example, lack of methods orsupport should be amongst other things, factors to consider[18].The problem has been to initiate a case-library and eventually create a tool, that could aidphycisians or doctors in their decision making, which hopefully would help in improvingpain outcome. The chosen method to do this, is a modified version of the CBR-algorithm,which is an artificial intelligence algorithm. The CBR-algorithm makes use of features,solution and outcome, and is implemented with a simple prototype, as a similarity function.The are several reasons for why this method was chosen, but using this method makes itpossible to easily create a web-based tool, so it can easily be accessed from anywhere, butstill be effective and work as a support tool.The algorithm works as a self learning mechanism, and is easy to implement, and theinterface has been constructed, allowing the phycisian or doctor to retrieve informationabout patients and run CBR. The desired results are as expected, it's possible to run theCBR, retrieve and compare cases, and get suggestion of solution or action that should beperformed.The conclusion that can be made, is that, although this is a very basic working medicalapplication, still an overall improvement is needed in order to be used as a medicalapplication. It's anyhow a start. For more details and information, check the appendicesplease. / The PainOut Project

Typical material used by the Tennessee Department of Transportation for highway bases was evaluated for application to the new Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide. Two types of granular Tennessee highway base material were mixed with different stabilizers and tested in the lab according to AASHTO T-307 99 (2003). Unconfined Compressive Strength and California Bearing Ratio tests were also done in an effort to correlate these results with resilient modulus. Three different combinations of base and stabilizer were tested and modeling coefficients were produced. Base structural layer coefficients were generated and compared to coefficients currently in use by TDOT.

ABSRACTThis thesis focuses on the monitoring, fault detection and diagnosis of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP), which are important fields of research for a wide range of engineering disciplines. The main objective is to evaluate and apply a novel artificial intelligent methodology based on situation assessment for monitoring and diagnosis of Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) operation. To this end, Multivariate Statistical Process Control (MSPC) in combination with Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) methodology was developed, which was evaluated on three different SBR (pilot and lab-scales) plants and validated on BSM1 plant layout. / ENEsta tesis se enfoca en la monitorización, detección de defectos y diagnosis de Plantas de Tratamiento de Aguas Residuales (Wastewater Treatment Plants - WWTP), el cual son importantes campos de investigación par un amplio rango de disciplinas en Ingeniería.El objetivo principal es evaluar y aplicar una metodología novel de inteligencia artificial basada en evaluación, monitorización y diagnosis de la operación de Reactores de secuencia por lotes (Sequencing Batch Reactor -SBR). Para lograr este fin, se desarrolla una metodología que combina Control de Procesos Multivariable (Multivariate Statistical Process Control -MSPC) con Razonamiento Basado en Casos (Case-Based Reasoning -CBR)., el cual se evalúa en tres diferentes plantas SBR y se valida en una planta BSM1.

Submitted by Maurílio Figueiredo (maurilioafigueiredo@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-02-21T20:52:54Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO_DimensionamentoPavimentoAsfáltico.pdf: 4166068 bytes, checksum: bb5e66350d14cd80a40381b89229a5c1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Neide Nativa (neide@sisbin.ufop.br) on 2013-02-22T14:08:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO_DimensionamentoPavimentoAsfáltico.pdf: 4166068 bytes, checksum: bb5e66350d14cd80a40381b89229a5c1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-02-22T14:08:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO_DimensionamentoPavimentoAsfáltico.pdf: 4166068 bytes, checksum: bb5e66350d14cd80a40381b89229a5c1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / ABSTRACT: This dissertation aims to develop an comparative and analytical study between the methodology of the National Department of Highways – Departamento Nacional de Estradas de Rodagem (DNER), with a mechanistic-empirical methodology. For this study took a more detailed understanding of the construction of these theoretical and practical methodologies. It also developed a case study on highway Minas Gerais State, in which the usual tests were carried out of the constituent materials of the pavement to both approaches. For pavement design methodology DNER were used abacus and the design by mechanistic-empirical method was used SisPav program (Franco, 2007) and the AEMC program is a subroutine of the previous program. It was concluded that although the methodology of the DNER is the most used in Brazil, the mechanistic- empirical approach has a greater ability todescribe the functional and structural performance of a pavement. / Esta dissertação tem como objetivo desenvolver um estudo comparativo e analítico entre o método do Departamento Nacional de Estradas de Rodagem (DNER) com uma metodologia Mecanística-Empírica. Para a realização deste estudo foi necessária uma compreensão mais detalhada do processo de construção teórico e prático destas metodologias. Foi também desenvolvido um estudo de caso em uma rodovia do Estado de Minas Gerais, em que foram realizados ensaios usuais dos materiais constituintes do pavimento para ambas as metodologias. Para o dimensionamento do pavimento na metodologia DNER foram utilizados os ábacos que lhes são característicos. Já para o dimensionamento pela metodologia mecanística-empírica foi utilizado o programa SisPav (Franco, 2007) e o programa AEMC que é uma sub-rotina do programa anterior. Concluiu-se que, apesar da metodologia do DNER ser a mais utilizada no Brasil, a metodologia mecanística-empírica apresenta uma maior capacidade de descrever o desempenho funcional e estrutural de um pavimento. ________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dagens sjukvård kan förbättras med metoder från datavetenskap. Enligt ortopeder och kliniker finns det i de longitudinella data, patienter som följts många år som är viktig temporal information som skulle kunna identifieras och utnyttja vid beslut om en operation. De frågade om man kan utveckla ett program som kan identifiera de temporala aspekterna med hjälp av domänkunskap och information från ett svenskt kvalitetsregister CPUP, för patienter med cerebral pares. Efter inläsning på området och diskussioner med ortopederna runt domänkunskap föreslogs en lösning med fallbaserat resonemang där programmet räknar ut en förändringsgrad per månad för alla patienter. Under arbetet bidrog två kliniska experter, Hägglund och Rodby Bousquet med information om hur de resonerar inför en behandling. Även en visuell representation av fall som har identifierats av programmet skapades för att ortopeder får se hur liknande patienter utvecklas med eller utan operation. Ett program utvecklades vars huvudsakliga funktion var att identifiera, skapa fall från de tidsmässiga aspekterna och visa dem i form av värden som enskilda fall samt medianvärdet och motsvarande standardavvikelse. De kliniska experterna var positivt inställda om vad programmet visade och bekräftade att information om temporala aspekterna är mycket intressant inför beslutet att behandla en patient med cerebral pares. / Today's healthcare can be improved with methods from computer science. According to orthopedists and clinicians there exist longitudinal data, patients who have been followed up for many years which is important temporal information which could be identified and used in decision making on operation. They asked if it is possible to develop a system that can identify the temporal aspects using domain knowledge and information from a Swedish quality register CPUP containing patient records for patients with cerebral palsy. After studying the application field and discussions with the orthopedics around domain knowledge, a solution based on case-based reasoning was suggested, where the program estimates a monthly change for all patients. During the work, two clinical experts, Gunnar and Elisabet provided information on how they are considering treatment. Also a visual representation of cases identified by the program as similar to the current patient was made so that orthopedists see how similar patients develop with or without surgery. A program was developed with the main function to identify, create cases from the temporal aspects and show them in terms of values as individual cases as well as median and corresponding standard deviations. The clinical experts were positive about what the program showed and confirmed that information about temporal aspects is very interesting in the decision to treat a patient with cerebral palsy.

Concrete design rules can facilitate the designer to depict capable design and reliable products. However, it is difficult to deduce systematic design rules from previous experience and to modify the rules in a rule-based system. In the last decade, Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) has become an important methodology to solve the problem. The objective of this paper is to determine the appropriate case representation used in assembly part design for developing a CBR system. The designer can obtain real-time Early experimental results indicate that the case representation can appropriately represent the expertise and experience of assembly part design based on CBR methodology.