Este trabalho apresenta uma nova solução para conversão de campos de vídeo entrelaçado em quadros progressivos, processo conhecido como desentrelaçamento. Os algoritmos de desentrelaçamento \"estado da arte\", na tentativa de evitar a geração de artefatos de vídeo do tipo \"efeito feathering\", tendem a gerar borramento e degradar a qualidade da imagem. O objetivo é melhorar a qualidade dos quadros produzidos pelo processo de desentrelaçamento pela combinação de dois processos já existentes, sendo um deles do tipo intracampo e outro do tipo intercampos. A estratégia proposta se baseia na identificação de artefatos gerados por um processo de desentrelaçamento intercampos, com suporte de um detector de artefatos do tipo \"efeito feathering\" e da análise dos dados gerados por este detector utilizando um \"índice de aglomeração de artefatos\", que neste trabalho foi denominado Spot Index. As regiões afetadas pelo efeito feathering são identificadas e substituídas pelas regiões equivalentes extraídas de um quadro gerado por um método intracampo, normalmente pouco afetado por feathering. Os testes demonstraram que a estratégia proposta é capaz de produzir quadros desentrelaçados com maior qualidade visual do que a obtida com um único tipo de método aplicado de modo global, pois é capaz de explorar, extrair e combinar as qualidades de cada método. Uma avaliação estatística de hipóteses demonstrou que a estratégia proposta traz vantagens consideráveis em relação às técnicas aplicadas de modo global. / This work presents a new solution for converting interlaced video fields into progressive frames, a process known as video deinterlacing. Current state-of-the-art de-interlacing algorithms, in an attempt to avoid the generation of feathering effect video artifacts, tend to generate blurring and degrade image quality. The objective is to improve the quality of the frames produced by the de-interlacing process by combining two existing processes, one of them being intra-field and the other an inter-field type. The proposed strategy is based on the identification of artifacts generated by an inter-field deinterlacing process, supported by a \"feathering effect\" artifact detector and the analysis of the data generated by this detector using an \"agglomeration index of artifacts\", which in this work was called \"Spot Index\". The regions affected by the feathering effect are identified and replaced by the equivalent regions extracted from a frame produced by an intra-field process known as \"Edge-based Line Averaging\" (ELA). Tests have demonstrated that the proposed strategy is able to produce deinterlaced frames with higher quality than the one obtained with a single type of method applied in a global way, because it is able to explore, extract and combine the qualities of each method. A statistical evaluation of hypotheses has shown that the proposed strategy brings considerable advantages over globally applied deinterlacing techniques.

O filo Ctenophora tem sido negligenciado em estudos faunísticos e ecológicos no Brasil. São escassos os registros de espécies e pouco se sabe sobre a distribuição e abundância destes animais em águas brasileiras. Muito dessa falta de informações sobre o grupo se deve às dificuldades em se coletar e preservar espécimes. O presente estudo consistiu em um esforço no sentido de se conhecer um pouco mais sobre os ctenóforos, nos âmbitos faunístico, taxonômico e ecológico. A tese foi dividida em seis capítulos: o primeiro faz uma introdução ao estudo dos Ctenophora; o segundo traz descrições das sete espécies que ocorrem no Canal de São Sebastião; o terceiro traz uma chave de identificação para as treze espécies registradas para a costa brasileira, incluindo um glossário de termos específicos; o quarto aborda o problema taxonômico relativo ao ctenóforo Mnemiopsis leidyi, apresentando uma solução para tal; o quinto contempla a biologia populacional de M. leidyi na costa brasileira, a questão do impacto predatório da espécie em diversas regiões do mundo e sua recente introdução nos mares do Norte e Báltico; o último apresenta considerações gerais sobre os resultados dos capítulos anteriores. Desta forma, procurei abordar diversos aspectos da taxonomia e biologia dos ctenóforos presentes na costa brasileira e espero, assim, ter conseguido efetuar algum avanço no conhecimento deste grupo, ainda muito carente de estudos no Brasil e no mundo. / The phylum Ctenophora is pour studied in Brazil. Species records for the Brazilian coast are scarce in the literature. The distribution patterns and abundance of ctenophores in the region are almost unknown. The scarcity of data aims mostly to the difficulties in collecting and preserving specimens. This study consisted in an effort to increase knowledge on the faunistics, taxonomy and ecology of the ctenophores from Brazilian waters. Dissertation was divided in six chapters. The first on introduces the Ctenophora study. The second presents description of the seven species found in the São Sebastião Channel. The third chapter is an identification key to the species reported for the Brazilian coast, with a glossary on specific terms. The fourth regards the taxonomical problem of Mnemiopsis leidyi and suggests a solution for it. The fifth presents the population biology of M. leidyi from the Brazilian coast, the predatory impact of the species in several areas of the world and its recent introduction in the North and Baltic seas. The last chapter summarizes the final conclusions of the previous chapters. Thus, in hope of fulfilling a gap on these animals knowledge, I tried to contemplate several aspects of taxonomy and biology of the ctenophore species from the Brazilian coast.

Les interféromètres de type Mirau sont largement utilisés dans les profilomètres et vibromètres optiques 3D plein champ et d’autres applications dans les domaines de la biologie et de la médecine ont été démontrées. Quand elle a été débutée, cette thèse était la première tentative de réalisation d’interféromètres Mirau entièrement intégrés et accordables en technologie microsystèmes électromécaniques (MEMS) silicium. La conception proposée est fondée sur l’intégration hybride 3D d’un wafer de scanners hors plan de micromiroirs de référence et d’un wafer de séparatrices de faisceaux optiques. La nouveauté majeure de la conception du scanner de miroir est l’utilisation de microactionneurs à peignes électrostatiques verticaux autoalignés réalisés à partir de wafers double Silicium sur Isolant (DSOI). Les modélisations semi-Analytiques et les simulations électromécaniques par éléments finis ont démontré que la combinaison de cet actionnement électrostatique avec des ressorts en serpentins optimisés permet d’obtenir une translation de grande course, bidirectionnelle et symétrique (+/-20µm) du miroir de référence. Un procédé de fabrication original de ce scanner de miroir, reposant largement sur la gravure ionique profonde (DRIE) et des techniques innovantes de délimitation de motifs avec des films secs photosensibles, a été étudié, et les principales étapes critiques de fabrication ont été démontrées avec succès avec des substrats de Si, SOI et DSOI commetciaux. La séparatrice semi-Réfléchissante large bande a été conçue pour être réalisée par une technologie de fabrication de membranes diélectriques multicouches SiO2/SiNx développée précédemment à l’IEF. L’assemblage des wafers de scanners de miroir et de séparatrices sera étudiée dans l’avenir pour obtenir des matrices d’interféromètres Mirau accordables permettant des mesures parallélisées d’interférométrie à décalage de phase ou d’interférométrie faiblement cohérente à balayage dans différentes gammes de longueurs d’onde. / Mirau-Type interferometers are widely used in full field optical 3D profilometers and vibrometers and other applications in biology and medicine fields have been demonstrated. When it was started, this thesis was the first attempt towards the realization of a fully integrated and tunable Mirau interferometer in silicon MEMS technology. The proposed design is based on 3D hybrid integration of an out-Of plane reference micro-Mirror scanner wafer and a optical beam splitter wafer. The major novelty of the micro-Mirror scanner design is the use of self-Aligned vertical electrostatic combs micro-Actuators made from double SOI (DSOI) wafers. Electromechanical modeling by semi-Analytical modeling and finite element simulations demonstrated that the combination of this electrostatic actuation with optimized serpentine suspension springs allows a large range, bidirectional and symmetrical vertical translation (+/-20µm) of the reference mirror. An original fabrication process of this mirror scanner, largely relying on Deep Reactive Ion Etching and on innovative patterning techniques with dry photosensitive films, was investigated, and the main critical fabrication steps were successfully demonstrated with commercial Si, SOI and DSOI substrates. The semi-Reflective broadband beam splitter was designed to be realized by a dielectric SiO2/SiNx multilayer membrane technology previously developed at IEF. Assembly of the mirror scanner and the beam splitter wafers will be investigated in the future to obtain integrated tunable Mirau interferometer arrays allowing parallelized phase shifting interferometry and low coherence scanning interferometry measurements in various wavelength ranges.

The first polysulfenamides were synthesized with S-N and N-S-N bonds along the backbone. We demonstrated that sulfenamides were stable in polar protic and aprotic solvents, but degraded rapidly when exposed to acidic conditions. Microparticles were fabricated from polysulfenamides with S-N bonds, their surfaces were readily functionalized, and they were internalized by cells allowing for intracellular delivery of their cargo. These microparticles were also stable at physiological pH, degraded under acidic conditions, and possessed minimal toxicity towards cells. This work demonstrated that polysulfenamides form the basis for a new set of polymers for drug delivery that greatly differ from prior work in this field. New biodegradable polymers with N-S-N bonds along the backbone were synthesized. These were the first polymers with these bonds and possessed many of the same characteristics as polymers synthesized with S-N bonds. The synthesis and characterization of comb block copolymers with arms composed of poly(lactic acid), poly(butyl acrylate), and poly(styrene-b-vinylpyridine) were described. The self-assembled morphologies in the solid state of comb tri- and tetrablock copolymers with poly(styrene) were also described. These assemblies demonstrated that well-ordered and complex morphologies were assembled from these polymers. The steric effect of substitutions on oxanorbornenes in ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) was investigated. Oxanorbornenes substituted with methyls at the bridgehead positions showed limited reactivity with the Grubbs first and second generation catalysts and the Grubbs first generation methylidene catalyst.

Recently short word-length (normally 1 bit or bits) processing has become a promising technique. However, there are unresolved issues in sigma-delta modulation, which is the basis for 1b/2b systems. These issues hindered the full adoption of single-bit techniues in industry. Among these problems is the stability of high-order modulators and the limit cycle behaviour. More importantly, there is no adaptive LMS structure of any kind in 1b/2b domain. The challenge in this problem is the harsh quantization that prevents straightforward LMS application. In this thesis, the focus has been made on three axes: designing new single-bit DSP applications, proposing novel approaches for stability analysis, and tacking the unresolved problems of 1b/2b adaptive filtering. Two structures for 1b digital comb filtering are proposed. A ternary DC blocker structure is also presented and performance is tested. We also proposed a single-bit multiplierless DC-blocking structure. The s tability of a single-bit high-order signma-delta modulator is studied under dc inputs. A new approach for stability analysis is proposed based on analogy with PLL analysis. Finally we succeeded in designing 1b/2b Wiener-like filtering and introduced (for the first time) three 1b/2b adaptive schemes.

Sexual selection was defined by Darwin in 1871 as selection acting solely on reproduction success. It is known to act on males resulting in extravagant ornamentations or other attributes, but in recent years more studies have shown that sexual selection also act on females. There is empirical evidence in several taxa that the secondary sexual ornament also acts as a measurement on the females’ reproductive quality, it is an honest trait. In Gallus gallus the comb has been found to be an honest ornament. Quantitative Trait Loci have been found on chromosome 1 and 3 for comb- and egg size. The honesty of the comb is hypothesized to be caused by either a pleiotropic effect gene linkage. In this study an 8th generation Advanced Interline Cross was used to guarantee maximum recombination of alleles to observe phenotypic effects. 177 females were detained during 4 weeks to measure fecundity. Egg number, mean egg weight and total egg size were correlated to comb size: length, area and weight. Correlation between comb size and total egg weight were found to be negative, suggesting the comb to be a dishonest signal. The phenotypic measurements observed in this study suggest that the genes for egg production and comb size are linked, and this linkage has been broken in the F8 analysed in this study.

This research is directed towards developing a more sensitive and rapid electrochemical sensor for enzyme labeled immunoassays by coupling redox cycling at interdigitated electrode arrays (IDA) with the enzyme label b-galactosidase. Coplanar and comb IDA electrodes with a 2.4 mm gap were fabricated and their redox cycling currents were measured. ANSYS was used to model steady state currents for electrodes with different geometries. Comb IDA electrodes enhanced the signal about 3 times more than the coplanar IDAs, which agreed with the results of the simulation. Magnetic microbead-based enzyme assay, as a typical example of biochemical detection, was done using the comb and coplanar IDAs. The enzymes could be placed close to the sensing electrodes (~10 mm for the comb IDAs) and detection took less than 1 min with a limit of detection of 70 amole of b-galactosidase. We conclude that faster and more sensitive assays can be achieved with the comb IDA. A paramagnetic bead assay has also been demonstrated for detection of bacteriophage MS2, used as a simulant for biothreat viruses, such as small pox. The immunoassay was carried out in a microfluidic format with the IDA, reference and counter electrodes integrated on the same chip. Detection of 90 ng/mL MS2 or 1.5x1010 MS2 particles/mL was demonstrated.

Phase locking of external-cavity diodes laser¡]ECDL¡^ to the stabilized optical frequency combs of a femtosecond mode-locked laser. Optical frequency combs of a femtosecond mode-locked laser can be the reference standard of dual-wavelength external-cavity diode lasers (ECDLs). Frequency stabilization of two external-cavity diode laser is also demonstrated simultaneously.Suppression of the frequency fluctuation of two ECDLs from hundreds MHz to 200 Hz is demonstrated and characterized. Meanwhile, frequency tunable continuous-wave Tera-Hertz (cw THz) wave is generated and observed by photomixing of the output of two frequency stabilized ECDLS with tunable relative frequency difference on a photoconductive antennas. In our experiment, cw THz wave is demonstrated and with tuning range from 0.200 to 1.240THz and could be attribute as frequency standard of THz.

Thermal behavior and molecular packing of alkylated poly(ethylene- alt- maleic anhydride) and poly(styrene-alt-maleic anhydride) were studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetry, polarizing optical microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Effects of the length and graft density of alkyl side chains and backbone rigidity on the thermal behavior and on the structure of the mesophases are discussed.

Solid-state complexes between diblock copolymer and amphiphilic surfactant (surf) results in polymers characterized by two length scales with one macroscopic ¡§block copolymer length¡¨ and one mesomorphic ordered ¡§nanoscale¡¨. In this study, the desired polymer was prepared by complexing the surf molecules, i.e., 4-dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (DBSA), with polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinyl pyridine) (PS-b-P4VP) and a comb-coil A-block-(B-graft-C) type copolymer can be generated through a supramolecular assembly route. On the block copolymer scale, the PS blocks are phase-separation from the P4VP(DBSA)x block, which x denotes the molar ratio between DBSA and pyridine groups. Bonding interaction between PS-b-P4VP and DBSA was conformed by FTIR. PLM was used to detect the mesomorphic structure within P4VP(DBSA)x block. In all cases, we found that birefringent can be only found in copolymer with their comb content exceeding 63 wt%. In the thermal analysis, shows us that the glasses transition temperature(Tgs) of the P4VP(DBSA)x block increases with the increasing DBSA content, a result related to the stiffening of the P4VP main chain due to dense packing. On the mesomorphic nanoscale, wide-angle X-ray diffraction study suggests an ordered supramolecular layer structure was formed in most of the complexation cases, in which the thicknesses of the polymer and surf layers were determined from the one-dimensional correlation function. The result indicates that both layers thickness increase with increasing DBSA amounts due to the stretching of the long alkyl tail in DBSA. Finally, macroscopic morphology varied with the DBSA content according to TEM results.