Evidenční list Souhlasím se zapůjčením své diplomové práce ke studijním účelům. Uživatel svým podpisem stvrzuje, že tuto diplomovou práci použil ke studiu a prohlašuje, že ji uvede mezi použitými prameny. Jméno a příjmení: Fakulta / katedra: Datum vypůjčení: Podpis: ______________________________________________________________________ ABSTRAKT Název: Zhodnocení vlivu sportovního lezení na pohybový aparát se zaměřením na bederní páteř Cíle práce: Cílem práce je zhodnotit vliv sportovního lezení na pohybový aparát člověka s užším zaměřením na oblast bederní páteře pomocí předem stanovených testů a vyšetření orientujících se na bederní část axiálního systému u skupiny lezců a nelezců. Dílčím cílem je teoretické zpracování problematiky sportovního lezení, bederní páteře a shrnutí vlivu sportovního lezení na pohybový aparát. Metoda řešení: Nejprve byla provedena rešerše literatury týkající se problematiky sportovního lezení a bederní páteře. Poté byla na skupině dvaceti lezců a kontrolní skupině dvaceti nelezců provedena komparativní studie, během které bylo provedeno funkční vyšetření bederní páteře pomocí PBU ("pressure biofeedback unit") dle konceptu Spinální segmentální stabilizace a vyšetření pohybových stereotypů a zkrácených svalů dle Jandy. Výsledky byly statisticky zhodnoceny pomocí programu Microsoft...

The diploma thesis is focused on the concept of the psychomotor development in context of remaining primary reflexes in children. The author draws on the knowledge of developmental psychology and neurophysiology that some of developmentally earlier stages must under optimal circumstances and maturation of a child disappear and be replaced by ontogenetically newer forms. Research confirms continuity of persistent primary reflexes, psychomotor development and learning and behavioral problems. The thesis aims to investigate whether inhibition of primary reflexes using Neuro-developmental therapy improves the condition of children with delayed psychomotor development, including their school grades. The author in the introductory chapters focusses on normal psychomotor development of children, in particular gross motor skills, fine motor skills, sensory skills, including proprioception and kinesthesia and their importance for learning ability in school age. The next part of the thesis is focused on particular primary reflexes and their impact on psychomotor development. The author pays special attention to the climbing stage in infancy which she considers as an important milestone in the optimal psychomotor development. Case studies shows, that skipping any developmental stage can be considered as a...

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi propor um método capaz de estabelecer a sequência de implantação de um conjunto de faixas adicionais que maximize os benefícios do investimento nos aclives das rodovias de pista simples. O método proposto consiste em: (i) definir os aclives mais longos que o comprimento crítico; (ii) definir os aclives que satisfazem os critérios técnico-econômicos para implantação das faixas adicionais no horizonte de projeto; (iii) determinar as faixas adicionais que devem ser implantadas a cada ano do projeto, em função do crescimento do tráfego; e (iv) determinar a sequência ótima para implantação das faixas, em função do benefício global e do valor disponível para investimento a cada ano. Dentre os critérios técnicos que indicam a necessidade de faixa adicional, optou-se por utilizar a adaptação das diretrizes da AASHTO para as condições das rodovias brasileiras proposta por Melo e Setti (2003). Para quantificar os benefícios proporcionados pelas reduções dos custos operacionais e dos tempos de viagem, optou-se por utilizar modelos desenvolvidos por pesquisas nacionais; para quantificar os benefícios da redução dos acidentes, foi utilizado o modelo do HDM-4. Custos típicos de construção por quilômetro de faixa adicional (serviços de terraplenagem, pavimentação, drenagem e sinalização) foram obtidos da tabela do DER-SP. Um estudo de caso demonstrou que a sequência de implantação estabelecida pelo método proposto é mais eficiente, pelos pontos de vista econômico e social, do que a sequência determinada usando-se os critérios atuais. / The objective of this research was to propose a methodology able to establish the sequence of deployment that would maximize the benefits from climbing lanes on two-lane highways. The proposed method consists of: (i) find the set of grades that are longer than the critical length; (ii) choose, among these grades, those that satisfy the technical and economic criteria to warrant the construction of climbing lanes within the project service life; (iii) find which climbing lanes should be built in each year, given the traffic growth forecast; and (iv) find the best construction sequence, considering the global benefits from the climbing lanes and the annual budget. The criteria to justify climbing lanes adopted are the adaptation to Brazil of the AASHTO criteria proposed by Melo and Setti (2003). The quantification of benefits from the reduction of vehicle operating costs and travel time uses several models proposed in the literature in Portuguese; HDM-4 models were used to quantify the benefits from the reduction in accident number and severity. Typical construction costs for climbing lanes (including earth-moving, paving, drainage and signage) were derived from data published by DER-SP. A case study demonstrated that the application of the proposed method results in a more efficient use of the available resources (both from the economic and social viewpoints) than the results obtained by the use of the current criteria.

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi propor um método capaz de estabelecer a sequência de implantação de um conjunto de faixas adicionais que maximize os benefícios do investimento nos aclives das rodovias de pista simples. O método proposto consiste em: (i) definir os aclives mais longos que o comprimento crítico; (ii) definir os aclives que satisfazem os critérios técnico-econômicos para implantação das faixas adicionais no horizonte de projeto; (iii) determinar as faixas adicionais que devem ser implantadas a cada ano do projeto, em função do crescimento do tráfego; e (iv) determinar a sequência ótima para implantação das faixas, em função do benefício global e do valor disponível para investimento a cada ano. Dentre os critérios técnicos que indicam a necessidade de faixa adicional, optou-se por utilizar a adaptação das diretrizes da AASHTO para as condições das rodovias brasileiras proposta por Melo e Setti (2003). Para quantificar os benefícios proporcionados pelas reduções dos custos operacionais e dos tempos de viagem, optou-se por utilizar modelos desenvolvidos por pesquisas nacionais; para quantificar os benefícios da redução dos acidentes, foi utilizado o modelo do HDM-4. Custos típicos de construção por quilômetro de faixa adicional (serviços de terraplenagem, pavimentação, drenagem e sinalização) foram obtidos da tabela do DER-SP. Um estudo de caso demonstrou que a sequência de implantação estabelecida pelo método proposto é mais eficiente, pelos pontos de vista econômico e social, do que a sequência determinada usando-se os critérios atuais. / The objective of this research was to propose a methodology able to establish the sequence of deployment that would maximize the benefits from climbing lanes on two-lane highways. The proposed method consists of: (i) find the set of grades that are longer than the critical length; (ii) choose, among these grades, those that satisfy the technical and economic criteria to warrant the construction of climbing lanes within the project service life; (iii) find which climbing lanes should be built in each year, given the traffic growth forecast; and (iv) find the best construction sequence, considering the global benefits from the climbing lanes and the annual budget. The criteria to justify climbing lanes adopted are the adaptation to Brazil of the AASHTO criteria proposed by Melo and Setti (2003). The quantification of benefits from the reduction of vehicle operating costs and travel time uses several models proposed in the literature in Portuguese; HDM-4 models were used to quantify the benefits from the reduction in accident number and severity. Typical construction costs for climbing lanes (including earth-moving, paving, drainage and signage) were derived from data published by DER-SP. A case study demonstrated that the application of the proposed method results in a more efficient use of the available resources (both from the economic and social viewpoints) than the results obtained by the use of the current criteria.

Este trabalho trata do planejamento de trajetórias que minimizam as perdas elétricas no KA\'I yxo, um robô escalador de árvores que tem por finalidade realizar monitoramento ambiental em florestas através da coleta de diferentes tipos de dados. Como essa aplicação requer que o robô permaneça em ambientes remotos, o estudo de técnicas que reduzam as perdas de energia a fim de que se aumente o tempo em operação do robô se mostra relevante, sendo a minimização das perdas elétricas uma contribuição importante nesse sentido. Estruturalmente, o KA\'I yxo consiste em um robô bípede com duas garras e quatro ligamentos interconectados por três juntas rotacionais. Além disso, seu mecanismo de andadura foi biologicamente inspirado na forma de locomoção observada em lagartas mede-palmos, o que permitiu tratar o robô como um manipulador industrial, cuja base é o ligamento associado à garra engastada e cujo efetuador é o ligamento associado à garra livre. Com isso, quando conveniente, o robô foi tratado em dois casos, conforme a garra que se encontra engastada. Inicialmente, realizou-se a modelagem matemática do robô, obtendo-se as equações cinemáticas direta e inversa, e dinâmicas, bem como o modelo das juntas segundo a abordagem do controle independente por junta. Posteriormente, formulou-se um problema de controle ótimo, solucionado através de um método numérico que o transformou em um problema de programação quadrática, que por sua vez foi resolvido iterativamente. Por fim, as trajetórias ótimas planejadas foram implementadas no robô real e, como forma de validação, as novas perdas elétricas foram comparadas com as das trajetórias anteriormente executadas pelo robô, determinando-se a correspondente economia de energia. / This work deals with the minimum-energy trajectory planning, related to the electrical losses, in KA\'I yxo, a tree-climbing robot that aims to perform environmental monitoring in forests through the collection of different types of data. As this application requires that the robot remains in remote environments, the study of techniques that reduce energy losses in order to increase the operation time of the robot is shown to be relevant, and the minimization of the electrical losses is an important contribution in this sense. Structurally, KA\'I yxo consists of a biped robot with two claws and four links interconnected by three revolute joints. In addition, its gait mechanism was biologically inspired in the form of locomotion observed in caterpillars, allowing to treat the robot as an industrial manipulator, which base is the link associated with the fixed claw and which end-effector is the link associated with the free claw. In consequence, when convenient, the robot was treated in two cases, according to the claw that is fixed. Initially, the mathematical model of the robot was developed, being obtained the forward and inverse kinematic and dynamic equations, as well as the model of the joints according to the independent joint control approach. Subsequently, an optimal control problem was formulated, which was solved through a numerical method that turned it into a quadratic programming problem, which in turn was solved iteratively. Finally, the planned optimal trajectories were implemented in the real robot and, as a form of validation, the new electrical losses were compared with those of the trajectories previously executed by the robot, being determined the corresponding energy saving.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T14:17:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 simas.pdf: 1840643 bytes, checksum: 95c5a43ded5855449c86bf6bf87f3e58 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-12 / The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of the physical exercise of climbing stairs in bone and cartilage histomorphometric parameters in rats submitted to a model of osteoporosis and immobilization. 36 Wistar rats were separated into six groups were used: G1, G2 and G3 groups were subjected to pseudo-oophorectomy; and G4, G5 and G6 to oophorectomy. After surgery, all groups remained 60-day rest and the rats G2, G3, G5 and G6 had the right hind limb (MPD) immobilized during 15 days, followed by remobilization same period, being free in the box to G2 and G5, and climb stairs in G3 and G6. At the end of the experiment, the rats were euthanized, their tibias removed bilaterally and submitted to histological routine. Morphometric analysis showed that there was a statistically significant decrease in area (p = 0.0178) and cortical thickness (p = 0.0024), thickness of articular cartilage (p = 0.0138) and epiphyseal plate were made (p = 0.0187), and the number of osteocytes (p <0.0001) and chondrocytes (p = 0.0006) as well as significant increase in the medullary canal (p = 0.0384) in immobilized limbs of ovariectomized rats. However, the stair climbing exercise was able to reverse the loss of bone cortex (area (F (5; 29) = 6.24, p = 0.0007) and thickness (F (5; 29) = 4.11 p = 0.0062)), cartilage (articular cartilage thickness (F (5; 29) = 13.88, p <0.0001) and epiphyseal plate (F (5; 29) = 14.72, p <0.0001)) and cellular (osteocytes (F (5; 29) = 14.55, p <0.0001) and chondrocytes (F (5; 29) = 10.16, p <0.0001)) resulting of oophorectomy associated with immobilization. It was also observed a significant decrease in trabecular thickness and area in the members subjected to immobilization, however, both as the free remobilization and climb stairs were able to recover from this loss. Morphological analysis of tibia articular cartilage, no changes in cell structure or organization of the rats not subjected to immobilization (G1 and G4) were verified by observing only considerable decrease in the thickness and number of chondrocytes in G4 (oophorectomized group) . In female rats that were free remobilization (G2 and G5), it was observed degeneration regions of articular cartilage with subchondral bone exposure, loss of cellular organization, discontinuity of tidemark, the presence of fissures and flocculation, as well as decreased number of chondrocytes. On the other hand, G2 female rats (pseudo-oophorectomized group, immobilized and free remobilization) showed some regions of granulation tissue (pannus). In rats subjected to exercise climb stairs (G3 and G6), there were repair signs of cartilaginous structures, the presence of clones and pannus. In G6 (oophorectomized group, remobilization and immobilized ladder), although it was observed subcortical invasion of blood vessels in the calcified zone, and increasing the amount of isogenous groups and the thickness of the calcified zone. From the results obtained in this study, it can be concluded that climbing stairs exercise was effective in the recovery process of bone and cartilage tissue damaged by immobilization on osteoporosis model by ovariectomy in rats. / O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar os efeitos do exercício físico de subida em escada sobre parâmetros histomorfométricos ósseos e cartilaginosos de ratas submetidas à um modelo de osteoporose e imobilização. Foram utilizadas 36 ratas Wistar separadas em seis grupos: G1, G2 e G3 submetidas à pseudo-ooforectomia; e G4, G5 e G6 à ooforectomia. Após a cirurgia, permaneceram 60 dias em repouso e as ratas de G2, G3, G5 e G6 tiveram o membro posterior direito (MPD) imobilizado por 15 dias, seguido pelo mesmo período em remobilização, sendo livres na caixa para G2 e G5, e de subida em escada para G3 e G6. Ao final do experimento, as ratas foram eutanasiadas, suas tíbias retiradas bilateralmente e submetidas à rotina histológica. Foram realizadas análises morfométricas, nas quais observou-se que houve diminuição estatisticamente significativa de área (p= 0,0178) e espessura cortical (p= 0,0024), espessura da cartilagem articular (p= 0,0138) e da placa epifisária (p= 0,0187), e do número de osteócitos (p < 0,0001) e condrócitos (p= 0,0006), como também aumento significativo do canal medular (p= 0,0384), em membros imobilizados de ratas ooforectomizadas. No entanto, o exercício de subida em escada foi capaz de reverter a perda óssea cortical (área (F (5;29) = 6,24; p= 0,0007) e espessura (F(5;29)=4,11; p= 0,0062)), cartilaginosa (espessura da cartilagem articular (F(5;29)=13,88; p<0,0001) e da placa epifisária (F(5;29)=14,72; p<0,0001)) e celular (osteócitos (F(5;29)=14,55; p<0,0001) e condrócitos (F(5;29)=10,16; p<0,0001)) decorrente da ooforectomia associada à imobilização. Observou-se também diminuição significativa de área e espessura trabecular nos membros submetidos à imobilização, contudo, tanto a remobilização livre como em escada foram capazes de recuperar essa perda. Nas análises morfológicas da cartilagem articular da tíbia, não foram verificadas mudanças de estrutura nem de organização celular das ratas não submetidas à imobilização (G1 e G4), observando-se apenas considerável diminuição na espessura e no número de condrócitos em G4 (grupo ooforectomizado). Nas ratas que ficaram em remobilização livre (G2 e G5), visualizou-se regiões de degeneração da cartilagem articular com exposição de osso subcondral, perda da organização celular, descontinuidade da tidemark, presença de fissuras e floculações, como também diminuição do número de condrócitos. No entanto em G2 (grupo pseudo-ooforectomizado, imobilizado e remobilização livre) algumas regiões apresentavam tecido de granulação (pannus). Nas ratas submetidas ao exercício de subida em escada (G3 e G6), havia sinais de reparação das estruturas cartilaginosas, com presença de clones e pannus. Em G6 (grupo ooforectomizado, imobilizado e remobilização em escada), observou-se ainda invasão de vasos sanguíneos subcorticais na zona calcificada, além de aumento da quantidade de grupos isógenos e da espessura da zona calcificada. A partir dos resultados obtidos neste estudo, pode-se concluir que o exercício de subida em escada mostrou-se efetivo no processo de recuperação dos tecidos ósseo e cartilaginoso danificados pela imobilização, em modelo de osteoporose por ooforectomia em ratas.

As possibilidades de colocação dos pronomes pessoais átonos em sequências de verbos do espanhol e do português brasileiro não são simétricas: enquanto neste último se verificam menos oportunidades para a chamada subida do clítico, naquele ela é claramente mais frequente. Para descrever tal situação, esta dissertação analisa a configuração de composições verbais, perifrásticas ou não, dos dois sistemas linguísticos, de modo a classificá-las de acordo com seus diferentes níveis de gramaticalização e, a partir daí, com base em determinadas características sintáticas e semânticas relevantes para a problemática do posicionamento dos clíticos nessas estruturas. A seguir, se constata, mediante o exame de alguns exemplos representativos, que a coincidência nos parâmetros anteriores não implica um mesmo padrão quanto aos lugares ocupados pelas formas pronominais átonas junto a cadeias de verbos da língua espanhola e do português do Brasil. Com o objetivo de incluir outros fatores e de encontrar respostas mais completas, se pesquisam, então, novas explicações sobre o fenômeno e essas, por fim, também são debatidas, já que se identifica que nem sempre são suficientes ou totalmente precisas. / The possibilities of positioning atonic pronouns in verbal sequences in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese are not symmetrical: while in the latter less opportunities for clitic climbing are noted, in the former it is clearly more frequent. To describe this situation, this dissertation analyses the configuration of periphrastical or not periphrastical verbal compositions of the two linguistic systems, in order to classify them according to their different levels of grammaticalization and, from there, based on certain syntactical and semantic characteristics relevant to the question of clitic positioning in those structures. Subsequently, it is evidenced, through the exam of a few representative examples, that the coincidence in previous parameters does not imply the same standard regarding the positions of atonic pronominal forms in verbal chains in the Spanish language and Brazilian Portuguese spoken in Brazil. With the objective of including other factors and finding more complete answers, we research new explanations for that phenomenon, which are finally also debated, since it is identified that not always they are sufficient or totally precise.

There are many combinatorial optimization problems such as traveling salesman problem, quadratic-assignment problem, flow shop scheduling, that are computationally intractable. Tabu search based simulated annealing is a stochastic search algorithm that is widely used to solve combinatorial optimization problems. Due to excessive run time, there is a strong demand for a parallel version that can be applied to any problem with minimal modifications. Existing advanced and/or parallel versions of tabu search algorithms are specific to the problem at hand. This leads to a drawback of optimization only for that particular problem. In this work, we propose a parallel version of tabu search based SA on the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) platform. We propose two variants of the algorithm based on where the tabu list is stored (global vs. local). In the first version, the list is stored in the global shared memory such that all threads can access this list. Multiple random walks in solution space are carried out. Each walk avoids the moves made in rest of the walks due to their access to global tabu list at the expense of more time. In the second version, the list is stored at the block level and is shared by only the block threads. Groups of random walks are performed in parallel and a walk in a group avoids the moves made by the rest of the walks within that group due to their access to shared local tabu list. This version is better than the first version in terms of execution time. On the other hand, the first version finds the global optima more often. We present experimental results for six difficult optimization functions with known global optima. Compared to the CPU implementation with similar workload, the proposed GPU versions are faster by approximately three orders of magnitude and often find the global optima.

The physicality of sports and outdoor life offers great opportunities for intensive experiences – participants ”feel” the happening in their bodies. As well as looking upon physical activity mainly as something instrumental, as for example in competitive sports and exercise culture, other aspects can also be central, for instance the pure joy of movement. The existential or expressive side of physical activity is examined in this doctoral thesis. In order to study such experiential quality more thoroughly, the author’s attention turns to adventure sports participants, as they appear to have a capacity for becoming highly involved and seeking very intense experiences. Who is involved in adventure sports? Why are they engaged in a sport that demands such great hardships and risk-taking? What do they get out of it? The overall objective of the thesis is to shed light on adventure sports as a practice and to discuss the educational significance of flow and other experiential qualities in adventure sports and in schools. The analyses are based on three empirical sub-studies. The first began with a questionnaire that 161 adventure sports participants responded to. This was followed by an interview study of eleven men and three women, all of whom had extensive experience in adventure sports. The categories of sport were evenly divided between climbing, off-piste skiing and hang gliding. In the second sub-study a detailed investigation of climbing was carried out. A notable sportification has brought about a very clear and interesting change in parts of this activity. Six traditional/adventure climbers and six sport climbers were interviewed, of which half were men and half women. All the climbers were experienced and very much involved in their sport. The aim of the third sub-study was to seek an answer as to whether pupils have experiences in their daily school life that are similar to those of adventure sports participants. An ESM (Experience Sampling Method) investigation was carried out with 60 pupils in compulsory school year nine (corresponding to UK schools’ year eleven) from four different schools. The pupils’ parents answered a special parent questionnaire including questions about academic and professional backgrounds, living conditions, habits, interests, attitudes and leisure time activities. The results were analysed taking into consideration the phenomenological perspective and structuralistic or more correctly expressed the cultural sociological perspective. Mihály Csikszentmihályi’s theoretical argument on optimal experiences, which in turn is based on the flow concept, constitutes the phenomenological foundation. Pierre Bourdieu’s concept apparatus and theories were used to closely examine the participants’ backgrounds, life histories and current living situations. The study shows that a preference for adventure sports is clearly linked to the participants’ backgrounds and earlier life experiences. A behavioural pattern is incorporated and developed into an embodied capacity to master a practice, a result of a long learning process. Participants were clearly concordant in these respects. Participants emphasise the abundant opportunities for intensive experiences that arise from adventure sports. It is a matter of something multidimentional: the active body, outdoor life in natural surroundings, exacting and clear goals, total focus, and about exercising control. This approach presents a model for identification of content qualities, which together create the dynamics that form the meaningful rewards that result from participation in adventure sports. The dimensions include flow experiences, but also go beyond them. The deep sense of presence, the physical involvement, the fact that they can choose the path and increase the degree of difficulty themselves – and simultaneously counter this new challenge with increased capacity so that they are engaged at the ”right level” – also provide favourable conditions for a stimulating and successful learning experience. The observation was made that it was primarily in the practical and aesthetic subjects that school pupils had the same deep feeling of presence together with a meaningful and pleasurable holistic experience as the adventure sports participants had. Here they were actively involved with their hands or with their whole bodies, and they could make their own choices and be in control of the activity, which for most pupils led to a strong feeling of satisfaction.

Fundamental to the electronic security of information and communication systems, is the correct use and application of appropriate ciphers. The strength of these ciphers, particularly in their ability to resist cryptanalytic attacks, directly in uences the overall strength of the entire system. The strength of the underlying cipher is reliant upon a robust structure and the carefully designed interaction between components in its architecture. Most importantly, however, cipher strength is critically dependent on the strength of the individual components of which it is comprised. Boolean functions and substitution boxes (s-boxes) are among the most common and essential components of ciphers. This is because they are able to provide a cipher with strengthening properties to resist known and potential cryptanalytic attacks. Thus, it is not surprising that significant research effort has been made in trying to develop ways of obtaining boolean functions and substitution boxes with optimal achievable measures of desirable cryptographic properties. Three of the main cryptographic properties required by strong boolean functions and s-boxes are nonlinearity, correlation immunity and propagation criteria, with different cryptographic applications requiring different acceptable measures of these and other properties. As combinations of cryptographic properties exhibited by functions can be conicting, finding cryptographically strong functions often means that a trade-off needs to be made when optimizing property values. Throughout this thesis, the term "optimization" specifically refers to seeking to obtain the best achievable combination of target property values which may be exhibited by boolean functions and s-boxes, regardless of whether the relevant properties are conflicting or complementary. This thesis focusses on a particular class of techniques for obtaining strong functions for cryptographic applications, referred to as heuristic methods or, simply, heuristics. Three new heuristic methods, each aimed at generating boolean functions optimizing one or more of the main cryptographic properties mentioned above, in addition to other desirable properties, are presented. The first of the new heuristic methods developed for this thesis focusses on generating boolean functions which are balanced and exhibit very high nonlinearities. Highly nonlinear balanced functions are critical to many cryptographic applications, as they provide good resistance to linear cryptanalytic attacks. This first method is based on the recursive modification of a starting bent function and is shown to be highly successful and efficient at generating numerous such functions, which also exhibit low autocorrelation values, in a very short computational time. The generation of balanced, correlation immune boolean functions that also exhibit the confl icting property of high nonlinearity is the focus of the second new heuristic method developed for this thesis. By concatenating selected pairs of lower-dimensional boolean functions together in the Walsh Hadamard transform domain, direct optimization for both resilience and nonlinearity was able to take place at each level towards and for the final function. This second method was able to generate examples of boolean functions with almost all of the best known optimal combinations of target property values. Experiments have shown the success of this method in consistently generating highly nonlinear resilient boolean functions, for a range of orders of resilience, with such functions possessing optimal algebraic degree. A third new heuristic method, which searches for balanced boolean functions which satisfy a non-zero degree of propagation criteria and exhibit high nonlinearity, is presented. Intelligent bit manipulations in the truth table of starting functions, based on fundamental relationships between boolean function transforms and measures, provide the design rationale for this method. Two new function generation schemes have been proposed for this method, to efficiently satisfy the requirements placed on the starting functions utilized in the computational process. An optional process attempts to increase the algebraic degree of the resulting functions, without sacrificing the optimalities that are achievable. The validity of this method is demonstrated through the success of various experimental trials. Switching the focus from single output boolean functions to multiple output boolean functions (s-boxes), the effectiveness of existing heuristic techniques (namely Genetic Algorithm, Hill Climbing Method and combined Genetic Algorithm/Hill Climbing) in primarily being applied to improve the nonlinearity of s-boxes of various dimensions, is investigated. The prior success of these heuristic techniques for improving the nonlinearity of boolean functions has been previously demonstrated, as has the success of hill climbing in isolation when applied to bijective s-boxes. An extension to the bijective s-box optimization work is presented in this thesis. In this new research, a Genetic Algorithm, Hill Climbing Method and the two in combination are applied to the nonlinearity and autocorrelation optimization of regular NxM s-boxes (N > M) to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of each of these heuristics. A new breeding scheme, utilized in the Genetic Algorithm and combined Genetic Algorithm/Hill Climbing trials, is also presented. The success of experimental results compared to random regular s-box generation is demonstrated. New research in applying the Hill Climbing Method to construct NxM sboxes (N > M) required to meet specific property criteria is presented. The consideration of the characteristics desired by the constructed s-boxes largely dictated the generation process. A discussion on the generation process of the component functions is included. Part of the results produced by experimental trials were incorporated into a commonly used family of stream ciphers, thus further supporting the use of heuristic techniques as a useful means of obtaining strong functions suitable for incorporation into practical ciphers. An analysis of the cryptographic properties of the s-box used in the MARS block cipher, the method of generation and the computational time taken to obtain this s-box, led to the new research reported in this thesis on the generation of MARS-like s-boxes. It is shown that the application of the Hill Climbing Method, with suitable requirements placed on the component boolean functions, was able to generate multiple MARS-like s-boxes which satisfied the MARS sbox requirements and provided additional properties. This new work represented an alternative approach to the generation of s-boxes satisfying the MARS sbox property requirements but which are cryptographically superior and can be obtained in a fraction of the time than that which was taken to produce the MARS s-box. An example MARS-like s-box is presented in this thesis. The overall value of heuristic methods in generating strong boolean functions and substitution boxes is clearly demonstrated in this thesis. This thesis has made several significant contributions to the field, both in the development of new, specialized heuristic methods capable of generating strong boolean functions, and in the analysis and optimization of substitution boxes, the latter achieved through applying existing heuristic techniques.