It is proven that locations of internal body joints are sufficient visual cues to characterize human motion. In this dissertation I propose that locations of human extremities including heads, hands and feet provide powerful approximation to internal body motion. I propose detection of precise extremities from contours obtained from image segmentation or contour tracking. Junctions of medial axis of contours are selected as stars. Contour points with a local maximum distance to various stars are chosen as candidate extremities. All the candidates are filtered by cues including proximity to other candidates, visibility to stars and robustness to noise smoothing parameters. I present my applications of using precise extremities for fast human action detection and recognition. Environment specific features are built from precise extremities and feed into a block based Hidden Markov Model to decode the fence climbing action from continuous videos. Precise extremities are grouped into stable contacts if the same extremity does not move for a certain duration. Such stable contacts are utilized to decompose a long continuous video into shorter pieces. Each piece is associated with certain motion features to form primitive motion units. In this way the sequence is abstracted into more meaningful segments and a searching strategy is used to detect the fence climbing action. Moreover, I propose the histogram of extremities as a general posture descriptor. It is tested in a Hidden Markov Model based framework for action recognition. I further propose detection of probable extremities from raw images without any segmentation. Modeling the extremity as an image patch instead of a single point on the contour helps overcome the segmentation difficulty and increase the detection robustness. I represent the extremity patches with Histograms of Oriented Gradients. The detection is achieved by window based image scanning. In order to reduce computation load, I adopt the integral histograms technique without sacrificing accuracy. The result is a probability map where each pixel denotes probability of the patch forming the specific class of extremities. With a probable extremity map, I propose the histogram of probable extremities as another general posture descriptor. It is tested on several data sets and the results are compared with that of precise extremities to show the superiority of probable extremities. / text

L’objectif du présent travail est l’analyse du fonctionnement des aménagements antiérosifs les plus répandus en Tunisie, les banquettes et les lacs collinaires. L’évaluation des banquettes a été basée sur leur caractérisation, le diagnostic de leur état, leur incidence sur le développement et la croissance de la culture de l’orge et leur impact sur certains paramètres physico-chimiques du sol. La reconstitution des apports hydriques, l’estimation des prélèvements pour l’irrigation et la détermination des apports solides moyens et exceptionnels ont été utilisés comme indicateurs pour l’évaluation des lacs collinaires. L’analyse diachronique a mis en évidence l’importance des cultures annuelles du périmètre aménagé en banquettes et la régression des espaces réservés aux terrains de parcours au cours du temps. Les résultats montrent que certaines banquettes ont été surdimensionnées tel que pour les écartements, les superficies des inter-ouvrages et leur longueur. Le diagnostic de l’état des ouvrages montre qu’une forte proportion des banquettes a été affectée par diverses formes de dégradation qui semblent être en rapport avec l’événement pluvieux exceptionnel de l’hiver 2003. L’évaluation des effets de l’aménagement en banquettes sur la production des céréales montre que la croissance, le développement végétatif et la production de matière sèche de la culture d’orge ont été significativement améliorés pour la zone située à proximité de l’ouvrage en comparaison avec la zone non aménagée. Après plus de trois décennies de la réalisation de l’aménagement, l’accroissement du rendement attribué à la mise en œuvre des banquettes a été évalué à 33% à proximité du bourrelet et à près de 10% en intégrant la superficie de l’ensemble de l’inter-banquette. Par ailleurs, l’aménagement en banquettes permet d’accroître la profondeur du sol, la teneur en matière organique, la capacité de rétention de l’eau, la fraction fine du sol et de réduire le taux de cailloux dans la zone limitrophe des ouvrages. Le taux de carbonates, le pH et la conductivité électrique semblent être non affectés par la mise en œuvre des banquettes. L’évaluation des prélèvements annuels, pour les besoins en eau d’irrigation, en moyenne durant la période de suivi, au niveau des lacs collinaires sur l’oued Fathiza I, l’oued Ras Rmal et l’oued Sned sont plus faibles que les apports effectifs indiquant une sous-utilisation de l’eau. Les apports moyens effectifs représentent entre 36% et 195% des apports estimés selon les ouvrages. Les apports solides moyens initialement estimés pour chacun des trois ouvrages ont été sous évalués se traduisant ainsi par une sédimentation prématurée. Les taux élevés de sédimentation risquent de compromettre la durée de vie des réservoirs. Les pertes de capacité, à la suite des précipitations exceptionnelles de l’hiver 2003, varient de 3,5% à 7,3% de la capacité initiale. Ces taux de sédimentation montrent l’impact des évènements paroxysmiques sur l’érosion au niveau des bassins versants de ces lacs collinaires. La spatialisation de la sédimentation à travers les cuvettes montre que l'essentiel du dépôt solide a lieu à l'amont des cuvettes.

The purpose of this study was to explore the efficacy of two existing pulse contour analysis (PCA) models for estimating cardiac stroke volume from the arterial pressure waveform during kicking ergometer exercise and head-up tilt manoeuvres. Secondly, one of the existing models was modified in an attempt to enhance its performance. In part I, seven healthy young adults repeated two submaximal exercise sessions on a kicking ergometer, each with three different sets of steady-state cardiac output comparisons (pulsed Doppler vs. pulse contour). Across all exercise trials regression results were found to be PCA = 1. 23 x Doppler-1. 38 with an r2 = 0. 51. In part II, eight young and eight older male healthy subjects participated in a head-up tilt experiment. Cardiac output comparisons were again performed during the supine and tilt conditions using pulsed Doppler and pulse contour cardiac output. Regression results revealed that PCA performed best during supine conditions and preferentially on the older subjects. In all instances, impedance-calibrated pulse contour analysis will provide reasonable beat-by-beat cardiac output within very narrow confines and will result in a progressively more significant bias as cardiovascular dynamics change. In addition, it appears that heart rate variability negatively influences beat-by-beat pulse contour cardiac output results, further limiting application of existing models.

<p>Entering the era of big data, human beings are faced with an unprecedented amount of geometric data today. Many computational challenges arise in processing the new deluge of geometric data. A critical one is data uncertainty: the data is inherently noisy and inaccuracy, and often lacks of completeness. The past few decades have witnessed the influence of geometric algorithms in various fields including GIS, spatial databases, and computer vision, etc. Yet most of the existing geometric algorithms are built on the assumption of the data being precise and are incapable of properly handling data in the presence of uncertainty. This thesis explores a few algorithmic challenges in what we call geometric computing over uncertain data.</p><p>We study the nearest-neighbor searching problem, which returns the nearest neighbor of a query point in a set of points, in a probabilistic framework. This thesis investigates two different nearest-neighbor formulations: expected nearest neighbor (ENN), where we consider the expected distance between each input point and a query point, and probabilistic nearest neighbor (PNN), where we estimate the probability of each input point being the nearest neighbor of a query point.</p><p>For the ENN problem, we consider a probabilistic framework in which the location of each input point and/or query point is specified as a probability density function and the goal is to return the point that minimizes the expected distance. We present methods for computing an exact ENN or an \\eps-approximate ENN, for a given error parameter 0 < \\eps < 1, under different distance functions. These methods build an index of near-linear size and answer ENN queries in polylogarithmic or sublinear time, depending on the underlying function. As far as we know, these are the first nontrivial methods for answering exact or \\eps-approximate ENN queries with provable performance guarantees. Moreover, we extend our results to answer exact or \\eps-approximate k-ENN queries. Notably, when only the query points are uncertain, we obtain state-of-the-art results for top-k aggregate (group) nearest-neighbor queries in the L1 metric using the weighted SUM operator.</p><p>For the PNN problem, we consider a probabilistic framework in which the location of each input point is specified as a probability distribution function. We present efficient algorithms for (i) computing all points that are nearest neighbors of a query point with nonzero probability; (ii) estimating, within a specified additive error, the probability of a point being the nearest neighbor of a query point; (iii) using it to return the point that maximizes the probability being the nearest neighbor, or all the points with probabilities greater than some threshold to be the nearest neighbor. We also present some experimental results to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.</p><p>We study the convex-hull problem, which asks for the smallest convex set that contains a given point set, in a probabilistic setting. In our framework, the uncertainty of each input point is described by a probability distribution over a finite number of possible locations including a null location to account for non-existence of the point. Our results include both exact and approximation algorithms for computing the probability of a query point lying inside the convex hull of the input, time-space tradeoffs for the membership queries, a connection between Tukey depth and membership queries, as well as a new notion of \\beta-hull that may be a useful representation of uncertain hulls.</p><p>We study contour trees of terrains, which encode the topological changes of the level set of the height value \\ell as we raise \\ell from -\\infty to +\\infty on the terrains, in a probabilistic setting. We consider a terrain that is defined by linearly interpolating each triangle of a triangulation. In our framework, the uncertainty lies in the height of each vertex in the triangulation, and we assume that it is described by a probability distribution. We first show that the probability of a vertex being a critical point, and the expected number of nodes (resp. edges) of the contour tree, can be computed exactly efficiently. Then we present efficient sampling-based methods for estimating, with high probability, (i) the probability that two points lie on an edge of the contour tree, within additive error; (ii) the expected distance of two points p, q and the probability that the distance of p, q is at least \\ell on the contour tree, within additive error and/or relative error, where the distance of p, q on a contour tree is defined to be the difference between the maximum height and the minimum height on the unique path from p to q on the contour tree.</p> / Dissertation

The following thesis is a qualitative comparative case study which investigated the values, practices, perspectives, and strategies of Indian and American community organizers (practitioners and volunteers of non-profits and non-governmental organizations) who use microfinance, including savings schemes, as an instrument within the social intermediation process of developing disadvantaged women's capacities for self-sufficiency/empowerment. The focused inquiry was conducted through similarly structured in-depth interviews of directors, staff members and volunteers/community-based organizers of a women's business center in Northern Virginia, a large U.S. metropolitan area, and a women's federation in the rural Himalayas of Uttarakhand, India. Interview questions focused on savings, social intermediation, and financial sustainability/subsidization, which are three significant facets of microfinance. Katz's framework for constructing analytical topographies, contour lines, and countertopographies was used to structure of the various levels of analysis. Contour lines were drawn from the similarities between the two organizations. Differences were explained by situating each organization in Mayoux's theoretical paradigms of "Women's Empowerment through Microfinance." Analyses concluded with the construction of countertopographies on practices and strategies aimed towards collectively empowering women in disparate places around the world.

Automation of "contour method" for cliff drawing Abstract This thesis deals with the design of automated creation of cartographic representation of rocks - specifically contour methods. Based on the study of the rules of this method and its use on analog maps, rules for its processing in digital cartography were designed and an algorithm for automated creation of this representation was designed and implemented. The algorithm is based on the design of the contour method described in the study Topographic mapping of rock formations with the use of airborne laser scanning data by J. Lysák (2016) and the output data of the study Sandstone landscapes in GIS by M. Tomková (2015). The algorithm was implemented in the form of Python scripts using the arcpy library. The thesis also includes testing the algorithm on data from sandstone areas in the Czech Republic. key words: rocks formations, visualization of hypsography , digital cartography, contour method

Desde 2004, o grupo de estudos do Laboratório de Hidráulica Computacional (LHC) estuda as taxas de recargas hidráulicas do Aquifero Guarani, na Bacia do Ribeirão da Onça. Entretanto, não havia se estudado a quantificação do escoamento superficial. Para sanar esta deficiência, este trabalho visou analisar as metodologias de estimativa de vazão com qualidade para a Bacia do Ribeirão da Onça. Para a realização do trabalho, foi adquirido o equipamento Flo-Tote3, capaz de medir velocidade e nível d\'água. A princípio, o equipamento foi verificado e comparado em laboratório, medindo velocidades 3% inferiores que o molinete e estimando vazões de 0,5 a 7,2% de diferença que o vertedor triangular. No Ribeirão da Onça, foi escolhida e construída uma seção de controle de vazão e instalado o Flo-Tote. O equipamento mediu velocidades 5% inferiores que o molinete, com variações de 0,3 a 8,7%. Além disso, um vertedor circular foi instalado em 6 ocasiões, resultando em vazões de 3 a 15% inferiores as vazões estimadas pelo molinete, em virtude do vazamento que ocorreu entre o vertedor e a parede de concreto. A partir de dezembro de 2007, foram iniciadas medições de níveis d\'água com a construção do linígrafo e estimadas as vazões de modo contínuo com o auxílio de equações teóricas. Como a jusante da seção de controle de vazão existe um sistema de bombeamento, as equações para determinar a vazão sofrem interferencias. Entretanto, foi aplicado o método das isotáquias, que utiliza valores de velocidades e níveis d\'água para o cálculo da vazão e que não sofre interferências com o represamento e instalações de vertedores. Apesar de ocorrer problemas de falta de energia e de manutenção, o escoamento superficial foi quantificado com qualidade para futuros estudos da área afim. / Since 2004, the group of studies of the Computational Hydraulic Laboratory (LHC) studied the rates of water recharge in the Guarani Aquifer recharges water in the Ribeirão da Onça basin. However, it had not studied the quantification of runoff. To remedy this deficiency, this study aimed to analyze the methodologies for estimation of flow quality for the Ribeirão da Onça basin. To carry out the work, it was acquired a Flo-Tote3, capable of measuring velocities and water levels. First, this equipment was checked and compared in the laboratory, measuring velocities 3% below, those obtained using flowmeters and 0.5 to 7.2% differences when compared with results using triangular weir. In Ribeirão da Onça, was chosen and built a section of control flow and installed the Flo-Tote. The equipment measured velocities 5% below the current meters, with variations from 0.3 to 8.7%. In addition, a circular weir was installed on 6 occasions, resulting in flow rates from 3 to 15% lower than those estimated by current meters because of the flow that occurred between the bridge and weir. Since December 2007, started the measurements of water levels and the estimated flow on a continuous basis with the aid of theoretical equations. As the downstream section of the control flow is a pumping system, the equations to determine the flow are interfered. However, it was applied the method of the lines of the same velocities, which uses values of velocities and water levels to calculate the flow without interference with the impoundment and installation of weirs. Despite the problems of lack of energy and maintenance, the runoff was quantified with quality for future studies of the area.

O Sexteto - Seis prelúdios e um enigma de Francisco Mignone foi selecionado como tema por ser uma obra pouco conhecida e que merece ser resgatada. Uma edição digitalizada foi realizada com o intuito de facilitar sua difusão. A obra está em linguagem atonal, mas faz uso também do cromatismo e de algumas incursões modais. As novas linguagens surgidas desde o começo do século XX requerem outras premissas do intérprete. O contorno de superfície será investigado utilizando a Teoria do Contorno de Michael Friedmann, com o intuito de produzir inteligibilidade na linha, bem como a possibilidade de inter-relacionar o material estudado, algo fundamental na estruturação de uma performance. O intérprete deve usar seu conhecimento e técnicas analíticas adequadas que permitam buscar elementos potencialmente significativos, com a finalidade de construir uma performance, assim como os aspectos inerentes da análise tradicional que contribuem para edificar uma performance expressiva e alicerçada nos elementos estruturais da obra. Os diálogos entre análise e performance contribuíram sobremaneira para o entendimento do processo. A adoção de uma nova ferramenta, como a Teoria do Contorno, ajudou-me como intérprete a identificar na estrutura eventos que pareciam desconexos. Alguns parâmetros não são identificáveis sem a teoria, com isso ela passa a representar uma ferramenta prática para o intérprete. A análise criteriosa e seletiva voltada para a performance e a investigação da biografia e das influências de escrita proporcionaram um entendimento abrangente da obra. / The Sextet - Seis prelúdios e um enigma [six preludes and a enigma] by Francisco Mignone was selected as theme because it is a work that is not well known and deserves to be rescued. A digitalized version was realized in order to diffuse it. The work is in atonal language, but also uses chromaticism, and sometimes modal language. The new vocabulary that emerged since the beginning of the 20th century requires specific premises of the interpreter. The surface contour will be investigated using Michael Friedmann\'s Contour Theory in order to produce melodic intelligibility as well as the ability to interrelate the studied material, which is fundamental in structuring a performance. Interpreters must use their knowledge and appropriate analytical techniques that allow for searching potentially significant elements for the purpose of constructing a performance, as well as aspects of traditional analysis which contribute to building a meaningful and grounded performance in respect to the structural elements of the work. The dialogues between analysis and performance contributed greatly to the understanding of the process. The adoption of a new tool such as Contour Theory helped me as an interpreter to identify events that seemed unrelated in the structure. Some parameters are not identifiable without the theory; theory represents a practical tool for the interpreter. A careful and selective analysis focused on performance and the research of biography and writing influences provided a comprehensive understanding of the work

L'indexation de documents numérisés manuscrits pose le problème de la segmentation en lignes qui, si elle échoue, handicape les étapes suivantes d'extraction et de reconnaissance de mots. Dans les documents arabes anciens, s'ajoute à ce problème, la présence dans les marges, d'annotations souvent composées de lignes obliques. La détection de ces lignes est nécessaire et constitue un défi important pour l'indexation de ces documents. Ainsi, la segmentation visée dans ce travail de thèse concerne l'extraction de lignes multi-orientées. Pour ce problème, la bibliographie ne présente que des techniques rudimentaires basées essentiellement sur une projection directe de l'image du document suivant une seule direction et donc non applicable à du texte multi-orienté. Devant ce manque, nous avons proposé une approche adaptative permettant de localiser d'abord les zones d'orientation différentes, puis de s'appuyer sur chaque orientation locale pour extraire les lignes. Pendant ma thèse, j'ai développé les points suivants : - Application d'un maillage automatique en utilisant le modèle de contour actif (snake). - Préparation du signal de profil de projection en supprimant tous les pixels qui ne sont pas nécessaires dans le calcul de l'orientation. Ensuite, application de toutes les distributions d'énergie de la classe de Cohen sur le profil de projection pour trouver la meilleure distribution qui donne l'orientation. - Application de quelques règles d'extension pour trouver les zones. - Extraction des lignes en se basant sur un algorithme de suivi des composantes connexes. - Séparation de lignes se chevauchant et se connectant en utilisant la morphologie des lettres terminales arabes. / The indexing of handwritten scanned documents poses the problem of lines segmentation, if it fails, disabling the following steps of words extraction and recognition. In addition, the ancient Arabic documents contain annotations in the margins, often composed of lines obliquely oriented. The detection of these lines is important as the rest and is a major challenge for the indexing of these documents. Thus, the segmentation described in this thesis involves the extraction of multi-oriented lines. For this problem, the bibliography has only rudimentary techniques based essentially on the projection of the document image along one direction, which be failed in the case of multi-oriented documents. Given this lack, we have proposed an adaptive approach that first locates the different orientation zones, then based on each local orientation to extract the lines. During my thesis, i particularly invested on the following points : - Applying an automatic paving using the active contour model (snake). - Preparation the signal of the projection profile by removing all pixels that are not needed in the orientation estimation. Then, implementation of all energy distributions of Cohen's class on the projection profile to find the best distribution that gives the orientation. - Applying some extension rules to find the oriented zones. - Extraction of lines by using an connected components follow-up algorithm. - Separation of overlapped and touched lines using the morphology of Arabic terminal letters.

Pedreiras que sofreram uma extração precária ou sem planejamento no passado, apresentam, atualmente, áreas de riscos operacionais ligadas, sobretudo, à geotecnia dos taludes. Desmontes esculturais são aplicados na indústria mineral visando a melhorias nas questões ambientais e geotécnicas. O objetivo deste trabalho foi aplicar técnicas de desmontes esculturais para solucionar problemas na segurança operacional, os quais são relacionados diretamente com a instabilidade das bancadas. Além disso, identificar a relação da qualidade do maciço rochoso no resultado do desmonte e a viabilidade desse projeto nas questões técnicas e econômicas. Os desmontes experimentais foram aplicados em uma mina de calcário da Região Metropolitana da cidade de São Paulo, modificando a geometria do plano de fogo e o carregamento dos furos. O desempenho dos experimentos foi medido a partir de indicadores de performance, os quais serão relacionados com um mapa de distribuição do RQD da parede da bancada, construído a partir de um mapeamento geomecânico. A viabilidade do projeto foi dimensionada a partir de parâmetros operacionais, de segurança e econômico. As análises mostraram que as regiões que apresentaram o maior valor de RDQ tiveram o melhor resultado no desmonte, comprovando, assim, a influência da qualidade do maciço na qualidade do desmonte. Apesar de o desmonte escultural aumentar o custo anual do empreendimento, os impactos positivos gerados na segurança e na operação são significativos: redução no volume de matacos e na geração de blocos soltos na parede da bancada, menor tempo de carregamento dos caminhões e queda do efeito backbreak. Os resultados dos experimentos também mostram que a aplicação do desmonte escultural pode ser uma solução aos problemas nas áreas de riscos do empreendimento. Com isso, há um aumento na vida útil da cava e o incremento no custo torna-se um investimento no negócio, tornando o projeto viável. / Precarious material extraction or unplanned exploitation of quarries in the past resulted today in many operational problems of entire zones of those sites, mainly because of slopes instability. Contour blasting is applied in mining industry to respond to environmental and geotechnical-related issues. The objective of this work is thus to apply contour blasting techniques to solve problems related to operational safety, which are directly related to slopes instability. The strong impact of rock mass quality on the results of blasting as well as on technical and economic sustainability of the project is also stressed out in this study. Blasting experiments were performed in a calcareous mine in the metropolitan region of São Paulo (Brazil). Parameters such as blasting pattern and hole loading have been modified. The efficiency of those tests was then measured with key performance indicators and compared to the distribution of RQD values at the surface of the slope, which was mapped thanks to a preliminary geomechanical study. The assessment of project sustainability was based on operational, safety and economic parameters. The analysis of the results showed that regions with a higher RQD presented a better blasting efficiency, which proved the importance of the rock mass quality on the blasting quality. In spite of representing a higher annual cost than regular blasting techniques, contour blasting has a significant positive impact on safety and operations: reduction in volume of over rock blocks, decreasing number of loose blocks at the surface of the slope, decreasing duration of truck loading and less backbreak effect. The experimental results thus showed that the application of contour blasting can be a solution in risk-exposed areas of a quarry as it enables to increase the operating life of the site, which turns the higher cost of contour blasting into a durable investment and improves the sustainability of the project.