Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-145).

No description available.

The performance and speed of the interframe motion estimation method for sequencial frame sequence compression are the important issues especially in networking application such as video conference and video on demand. In this paper, we proposed a new fast search algorithm for motion estimation on block matching technique called the cocktail search algorithm (CTS). This new algorithm takes advantages of prior search algorithms proposed in the literature and improves at our observations. The experiment results show that the proposed CTS algorithm can provide the better performance and require less computational costs than others. In other words, the CTS can obtain the accurate motion vector efficiently and fast. The fruitful results is achieved by not only holding the original benefit but also constructively improving the existing drawbacks.

<p>The human auditory system is remarkable in its ability to function in busy acoustic environments. It is able to selectively focus attention on and extract a single source of interest in the midst of competing acoustic sources, reverberation and motion. Yet this problem, which is so elementary for most human listeners has proven to be a very difficult one to solve computationally. Even more difficult has been the search for practical solutions to problems to which digital signal processing can be applied. Many applications that would benefit from a solution such as hearing aid systems, industrial noise control, or audio surveillance require that any such solution be able to operate in real time and consume only a minimal amount of computational resources.</p> <p>In this thesis, a novel solution to the cocktail party problem is proposed. This solution is rooted in the field of Computational Auditory Scene Analysis, and makes use of insights regarding the processing carried out by the early human auditory system in order to effectively suppress interference. These neurobiological insights have been thus adapted in such a way as to produce a solution to the cocktail party problem that is practical from an engineering point of view. The proposed solution has been found to be robust under a wide range of realistic environmental conditions, including spatially distributed interference, as well as reverberation.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Le glyphosate, l’atrazine, et leurs principaux produits de dégradation (la déséthyl-atrazine ou DEA, et l’amino methyl phosphoric acid ou AMPA) sont parmi les pesticides les plus utilisés dans le monde et en France. Ils sont retrouvés en grande quantité dans plusieurs matrices environnementales dans les denrées alimentaires et les eaux de boisson.L’objectif de notre travail a été d’évaluer le potentiel génotoxique et mutagène in vitro et in vivo de ces quatre pesticides seuls et en mélanges, puis d’étudier les effets protecteurs d’un mélange d’extrait de plantes anti-mutagènes (Berberis vulgaris, Arctium lappa et Taraxacum officinalis) (DIG) sur la génotoxicité du mélange des quatre pesticides.Les résultats de notre étude in vitro ont montré que le potentiel génotoxique des pesticides dépend de leur environnement physico-chimique, et que les mélanges de pesticides peuvent révéler des propriétés génotoxiques bien plus importantes que celles prévisibles lors de l’exposition aux molécules individuelles avec survenue d’un effet cocktail. Les résultats de notre étude in vivo ont établi la puissante activité génotoxique et mutagène du mélange composé de quatre pesticides. Ils ont mis en évidence les effets cocktails qui peuvent se produire dans les mélanges de pesticides soulignant les limites des stratégies toxicologiques habituelles. Nous avons montré que les cellules cérébrales sont la principale cible des pesticides, probablement en rapport avec une importante sensibilité au stress oxydatif. Dans une troisième partie, nous avons démontré les effets protecteurs de DIG sur la génotoxicité/mutagénicité du mélange des quatre pesticides. / Glyphosate, atrazine, and their main degradation products (desethyl-atrazine or DEA, and the amino methyl phosphoric acid or AMPA) are among the most widely used pesticides in the world and in France. They are found in large quantities in several environmental matrices but also in food and drinking water.The aim of our work was to evaluate the genotoxicity and mutagenicity in vitro and in vivo of these four pesticides, alone and in mixtures, and to study the protective effects of a mixture composed with extracts of anti-mutagenic plants (Berberis vulgaris, Arctium lappa and Taraxacum officinalis) (DIG) on the genotoxicity of the mixture of four pesticides.The results of our in vitro study showed that the genotoxic potential of pesticides depends on their physico-chemical environment, and that mixtures of pesticides can reveal genotoxic properties more important than those predictable during the exposure to individual molecules, with occurrence of a cocktail effect. The results of our in vivo study clearly established the powerful genotoxic and mutagenic activity of the mixture of four pesticides. They highlighted the cocktail effects that may occur in mixtures of pesticides, underlining the limits of conventional toxicological strategies based on an individual assessment of the molecules. We have shown that brain cells are the main target of pesticides, probably related to a significant sensitivity to oxidative stress. In the third part, we demonstrated the protective effects of DIG on the genotoxicity and mutagenicity of the mixture of four pesticides.

De manière à respecter les normes européennes en matière d’émission de gaz polluants, les constructeurs automobiles pratiquent le downsizing. Cette pratique consiste en une réduction de la cylindrée des moteurs tout en maintenant un bon niveau de performance. Il s’en suit des puissances spécifiques moteur importantes, l’objectif cible étant de l’ordre de 100 kW/l. Pour de telles puissances, les températures atteintes au niveau des pistons sont élevées, ce qui pose alors le problème de leur tenue thermomécanique. Le refroidissement du piston devient donc un acteur important de la fiabilité du moteur. Le procédé le plus répandu actuellement est le refroidissement par jet d’huile. Le piston est alors refroidi par un écoulement turbulent diphasique incompressible (Air/Huile) dans un environnement mobile. Il s’agit de phénomènes physiques complexes qui sont pour l’instant mal connus. L’optimisation du refroidissement nécessitant une bonne compréhension des phénomènes physiques concernés, nous nous proposons dans ce mémoire de le modéliser au moyen du modèle 1-Fluide diphasique couplé à l’équation de l’énergie. / The present work aims at studying the cooling system used in cars engine to ensure piston thermo mechanical resistance by numerical simulation. Most of actual engines use an oil jet cooling system coupled with 'cocktail shaking' to extract heat from piston. This cooling method brings into play a two-phase incompressible turbulent flow in a mobile environment, due to motion of pistons in the cylinder. The need today for more effective cooling of pistons involves an accurate understanding of the physical mechanisms which are concerned. Modeling could be a good way to achieve it. The idea is to support the engine design process to account for advanced technologies to improve turbine or engine performances, less fuel burn and green house gases. In the present work, a numerical model dedicated to the simulation at small scale of oil/air two-phase flows and related heat transfers is proposed to characterize the cooling of engine elements under fragmented jet impact.

No description available.

No description available.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-17T14:52:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Edil James de Jesus Nascimento.PDF: 2709948 bytes, checksum: c8bf5634508e47328bd033c4d323f9c0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004-04-02 / The human hearing system is capable to accomplish different tasks that would be useful in engineering applications. One of them is the ability to separate sound sources, allowing the listener to "focus" a single sound source in a noisy environment. Great investments have been made in the development of technologies applied to the voice recognition by machines in real environment. For that, different techniques of processing computational have been proposed, for reduction of the ambient noise and improvement of the signal desired in complex acoustic environment (cocktail party). The model of the human hearing system motivates those techniques in their different phases. In this work, we developed an algorithm to improve the processing speech signal based on the binaural hearing model. After receiving the mixed signals, for two microphones, the algorithm increases the intelligibility of the signal of larger energy of one of the receivers. Using two speakers and considering that each one is closer of one of the microphones, we made use of the concepts of lateral inhibition and binaural masking, to recover the signal of speech of larger energy of one of the receivers. The algorithm was developed in platform matlab and it was compared with another without use the lateral inhibition in the recovery of the desired signal. The results, appraised through the calculation of the relative error and of the scale MOS, showed that the use of the lateral inhibition in the recovery of the signal, improves the relative error between the desired signal and the recovered signal and consequently the quality of the recovered signal. / O sistema auditivo humano é capaz de realizar diferentes tarefas que seriam úteis em aplicações de engenharia. Uma delas é a habilidade de separar fontes sonoras, permitindo a um ouvinte focar uma única fonte sonora em um ambiente ruidoso. Grandes investimentos têm sido feitos no desenvolvimento de tecnologias aplicadas ao reconhecimento de voz, por meio de máquinas, em ambientes reais. Para isso, diferentes técnicas de processamento computacional têm sido propostas para a redução do ruído ambiente e melhoramento do sinal desejado em ambiente acústico complexo (cocktail party). Essas técnicas são motivadas pelo modelo do sistema auditivo humano em suas diferentes fases. Neste trabalho, desenvolvemos um algoritmo para melhorar o processamento de um sinal de fala baseado no modelo auditivo binaural. Após receber os sinais misturados, por dois microfones, o algoritmo aumenta a inteligibilidade do sinal de maior energia de um dos receptores. Utilizando dois oradores e considerando que cada um está mais próximo de um dos receptores, fizemos uso dos conceitos de inibição lateral e mascaramento binaural, para recuperar o sinal de fala de maior energia de um dos receptores. O algoritmo foi desenvolvido sob a plataforma matlab e comparado com um outro sem a utilização da inibição lateral na recuperação do sinal desejado. Os resultados, avaliados através do cálculo do erro relativo e da escala MOS, mostraram que a utilização da inibição lateral na recuperação do sinal, melhora o erro relativo entre o sinal desejado e o sinal recuperado e conseqüentemente a qualidade do sinal recuperado.

Le but de ce travail de recherche est d'étudier l'effet de fibres de polypropylène et de fibres métalliques sur le comportement du béton soumis à une température élevée. D'une part, les fibres de polypropylène ont été ajoutées au béton pour améliorer sa stabilité thermique, et d'autre part les fibres métalliques ont été ajoutées au béton pour améliorer ses propriétés mécaniques résiduelles. De nouvelles formulations de béton ont ensuite été définies, en utilisant un cocktail de fibres de polypropylène et métalliques, afin d'améliorer à la fois la stabilité thermique et les propriétés mécaniques résiduelles du béton. Quatre familles de bétons ont été étudiées : - bétons témoins sans fibres, - bétons contenant des fibres de polypropylène, - bétons contenant des fibres métalliques, et – bétons contenant un cocktail de fibres de polypropylène et métalliques. Trois rapports eau/ciment sont utilisés : 0.30, 0.45 et 0.61. Les éprouvettes de béton, issues de ces compositions, ont été soumises à des cycles de chauffage – refroidissement de la température ambiante à une température de consigne de 150°C, 300°C, 450°C et 600 °C. La vitesse de chauffage a été fixée à 1 °C.min-1. Les teneurs en fibres étaient de 0.11, 0.17 ou 0.22 % en proportion volumique pour les fibres de polypropylène et de 0.25, 0.38 ou 0.51 % pour les fibres métalliques. Les proportions volumiques de cocktail de fibres étaient de 0.49, 0.60, 0.62 et 0.73%. La stabilité thermique, les propriétés mécaniques (résistance en compression, résistance en traction, module d'élasticité), la porosité initiale et résiduelle des bétons formulés ont été analysées. La perte de masse des éprouvettes lors des différents chauffages a été aussi mesurée.Cette étude expérimentale aboutit à la formulation de bétons dont à la fois la stabilité à haute température et le comportement mécanique après refroidissement sont améliorés. / The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of polypropylene and steel fibres on the behaviour of concrete subjected to high temperature. Polypropylene fibres were added to the studied concrete mixes in order to improve the concrete thermal stability. Steel fibres were added to the studied concrete mixes in order to improve the concrete residual mechanical properties. News concretes mixes were then designed by adding a cocktail of polypropylene fibres and steel fibres in order to improve both the thermal stability and the residual mechanical properties of the studied concrete. Four groups of concrete mixes were studied: - concretes without fibres, - concretes with polypropylene fibres, - concretes with steel fibres, and - concretes with a cocktail of polypropylene and steel fibres. Three water/cement ratios were used: 0.30, 0.45 and 0.61. The concrete specimens were subjected to various heating – cooling cycles from the room temperature to 150°C, 300°C, 450°C and 600 °C. The heating rate was fixed at 1 °C.min-1. The amounts of fibres in the concrete were 0.11%, 0.17% or 0.22% in volume for polypropylene fibres and 0.25%, 0.38% or 0.51% in volume for steel fibres. The amounts of fibres in concrete with a cocktail of polypropylene and steel fibres were 0.49, 0.60, 0.62 and 0.73%, in volume. The thermal stability, the initial and residual mechanical properties (compressive strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity), the porosity and the mass loss of the studied concrete mixes were investigated.This experimental study shows a way to design a concrete mix in order to improve both the thermal stability and the residual mechanical properties.