Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-04-06T13:27:55Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) versao_biblioteca.pdf: 3051240 bytes, checksum: ac1a91e08d64c78a372cb0e151bcb7c7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-06T13:27:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) versao_biblioteca.pdf: 3051240 bytes, checksum: ac1a91e08d64c78a372cb0e151bcb7c7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-24 / CAPEs / Empowering application programmers to make energy-aware decisions is a critical dimension in improving energy efficiency of computer systems. Despite the growing interest in designing software development processes, frameworks, and programming models to facilitate application-level energy management, little is known on how to design application-level energy-efficient solutions for concurrent software running on parallel architectures. This is unfortunate for at least two reasons: (1) thanks to the proliferation of multicore CPUs, concurrent programming is a standard practice in modern software engineering; (2) a CPU with more cores (say 32) often consumes more power than one with fewer cores (say 1 or 2). However, application developers still do not understand how their code modifications impact energy consumption in a parallel system. Analyzing STACKOVERFLOW showed evidence that this is a real problem; Even though the interest in energy consumption issues is increasing over the years, developers still hold misconceptions and assumptions that are not always true. This lack of knowledge is primarily due to a lack of appropriate tools to measure/identify/refactor energy consumption hotspots. This thesis begins to bridge the chasm of the first problem — the lack of knowledge — by presenting an extensive experimental space exploration over two concurrent programming building blocks: (1) thread-safe collections and (2) thread management constructs. Through a list of findings that are not always obvious, we illuminate the relationship between the choices and settings of design decisions and energy consumption of parallel systems. This thesis then starts to bridge the gap of the second problem — the lack of tools. Lessons learned in our previous studies showed that ForkJoin tasks often operate on an indexable data structure, with subtasks operating only on part of this data structure. One naïve solution is to copy part of the data structure and use it in the next computation. In a recursive framework such as ForkJoin, given an array-based representation, each recursive call will create n new arrays, where n is the width of forking. To address this, we derive a refactoring that, instead of copy part of the data structure, it shares it, allowing subtasks to operate on contiguous partitions of the data structure. We manually applied this refactoring into 15 open source projects. Our refactoring succeed in saving energy for each one of them (12% average saving). We sent the refactored versions to the project owner and, during a timeframe of 40 days, 7 out of 9 projects that replied to our patches have already accepted and merged them. Discussions during the merge process revealed that developers were not aware of this optimization. We then implemented this refactoring as an Eclipse plug-in so that other developers can (1) detect uses of copy where it would be beneficial to use sharing and (2) refactor the code in an automated way. / Fornecer meios para que desenvolvedores de software tomem decisões energeticamente eficientes é uma dimensão crítica para se melhorar o consumo de energia de sistemas computacionais. Apesar do crescente interesse em processos de desenvolvimento de software, arcabouços, e modelos de programação de forma a facilitar o gerenciamento de energia no nível da aplicação, pouco se sabe sobre como arquitetar sistemas concorrentes energéticamente eficientes que rodem em arquiteturas paralelas. Isso é inoportuno por pelo menos duas razões: (1) graças a proliferação de CPUs multicore, programação concorrente se tornou uma prática padrão na engenharia de software moderna; (2) uma CPU com várias unidades de processamento (por exemplo, 32) geralmente dissipa mais potência do que uma com um número menor (por exemplo, 1 ou 2). No entanto, desenvolvedores ainda não entendem como suas modificações de código impactam no consumo de energia de uma aplicação paralela. Uma análise do StackOverflow mostrou evidências que esse é um problema real; mesmo embora exista um crescente interesse em questões relacionadas ao consumo de energia, desenvolvedores ainda cometem equívocos e mantêm suposições que não são sempre verdadeiras. Essa falta de conhecimento é primariamente devido a falta de ferramentas apropriadas para medir/identificar/refatorar hotspots de consumo de energia. Essa tese então começa a pavimentar o abismo do primeiro problema — a falta de conhecimento — através de uma extensa exploração experimental de dois dos pilares fundamentais da programação concorrente: (1) coleções thread-safe e (2) construções para o gerenciamento de threads. Através de uma lista de achados que não são sempre óbvios, esta tese ilumina o relacionamento entre escolhas de design de código paralelo com seu consumo de energia. Esta tese começa então a pavimentar a lacuna do segundo problema — a falta de ferramentas. Lições aprendidas em um dos estudos anteriores mostraram que várias tarefas do arcabouço ForkJoin operam em estrutura de dados indexáveis, com sub-tarefas operando somente em parte dessa estrutura de dados. Uma solução ingênua é de copiar parta da estrutura de dados e utiliza-la na computação sub-sequente. Em um arcabouço recursivo como o ForkJoin, dado uma representação baseada em arrays, cada chamada recursiva criará n novos arrays, onde n é a profundidade do fork. Como solução, esta tese apresenta uma refatoração que, ao invés de copiar parte da estrutura de dados, ela compartilha-a, possibilitando que sub-tarefas operem em partições contíguas da estrutura de dados. Essa refatoração foi avaliada em 15 projetos de código aberto, a qual foi capaz de economizar energia em todos os casos (média de 12% de economia). A versão refatorada foi enviada aos mantenedores do projeto original e, durante um período de 40 dias, 7 dos 9 mantenedores que responderam aos patches enviados já haviam aceitado-os e integrado-os. Discussões durante o processo de integração revelaram que desenvolvedores não estão cientes desta otimização. Esta tese então implementou essa refatoração como um plug-in da IDE Eclipse de forma que outros desenvolvedores possam (1) detectar usos de cópia em cenários o quais seriam beneficiais o uso do modelo de compartilhamento and (2) refatorar o código de forma automática.

O envelhecimento é um processo inexorável, porém a redução gradativa da capacidade do organismo está bastante ligada com os hábitos do estilo de vida e a fatores genéticos. Polimorfismos nos genes que codificam a enzima conversora de angiotensina (ECA) e a proteína alfa-actinina 3 (ACTN3) podem resultar em mudanças na aptidão física. Já o treinamento físico tem sido utilizado como uma ferramenta não farmacológica na prevenção primária em saúde. Por fim, a periodização deste treinamento busca ser um meio sistemático de planejar e organizar o treinamento de modo a torná-lo mais eficiente. Não há na literatura estudos com a periodização ou com os genótipos da ECA e ACT3 associados ao treinamento combinado. Nesse contexto, o objetivo desse estudo foi avaliar diferentes modelos de periodização do treinamento no exercício físico combinado em variáveis de saúde e comparar a magnitude da resposta em indivíduos com diferentes características genéticas em relação aos genes ECA e ACTN3. Após três semanas de adaptação, 54 mulheres com idade entre 50-75 anos foram randomicamente divididas nos modelos de treinamento a) não periodizado (NP), b) periodização não linear (NL) ou c) periodização não linear flexível (NLF). Para os valores pré e pós 12 semanas de treinamento, aptidão aeróbia (consumo máximo de oxigênio [VO2 pico] e teste de caminhada de seis minutos) e força muscular (1 RM no supino e leg press) foram medidas. A genotipagem da ECA foi feita por PCR convencional e a ACTN3 por PCR em tempo real. Os resultados mostraram que a força máxima foi aumentada estatisticamente no supino (effect size [ES] de 1,18 em PNL e 1,22 em PNLF] e leg press (ES de 0,92 em PNL e 0,98 em PNLF) nos grupos PNL e PNLF. No teste de caminhada de seis minutos, a magnitude da aptidão aeróbica melhorou em todos os grupos (ES de 1,02 em NP, 1,33 em PNL e 0,54 em PNLF). Para o gene da ECA, houve uma diferença estatística entre os grupos do pré para o pós no supino (ID/DD: 18,6%; II: 8,3%). Para o gene da ACTN3, houve diferença estatística do pré para o pós dentro do grupo no supino (CC/CT: 17,4%; TT: 6,9%) e leg press (CC/CT: 12,3%; TT: 7,5%) apenas no grupo CC/CT. Em conclusão, o presente estudo mostrou que os modelos periodizados foram capazes de induzir melhorias significativas na força muscular em mulheres pós menopausa fisicamente ativas. Além disso, os genótipos ID/DD do gene da ECA e CC/CT do gene da ACTN3 melhor efeito na força muscular no treinamento combinado. / The aging is an inexorable process, but the gradual reduction of the capacity in the organism is related with lifestyle habits and genetic factors. Polymorphisms in genes encoding both angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) and alpha-actinin 3 protein (ACTN3) may result in changes in physical fitness. Physical training has been used as a non-pharmacological tool in primary health prevention. Finally, the periodization training is a systematic means of planning and organizing training to do it more efficient. There are no studies in the literature with periodization or with ACT and ACT3 genotypes associated to combined training. In this context, the objective of this study was to evaluate different models of periodization training in combined exercise training in health variables and to compare the magnitude of the response in individuals with different genetic characteristics in relation to the ACE and ACTN3 genes. After three weeks of adaptation, 54 women aged 50-75 years were randomly assigned to a) nonperiodization (NP), b) non-linear periodization (NLP) or c) flexible non-linear periodization (FNLP). At baseline and after 12 weeks, aerobic fitness (peak oxygen uptake [VO2peak] and six-minute walk test) and maximal muscle strength (1 RM bench press and leg press) were measured. The ACE genotyping was performed trough conventional PCR and ACTN3 by real-time PCR. The results showed that the magnitude of the maximal strength statistically increased in the bench press [effect size (ES) of 1.18 in NLP and 1.22 in FNLP] and leg press (ES of 0.92 in NLP and 0.98 in FNLP) only in the periodized groups. In six-minute walk test, the magnitude of the aerobic fitness improved in all groups (ES of 1.02 in NP, 1.33 in UP and 0.54 in FNLP). In conclusion, the present study showed that periodized models could induce significant improvements on muscle strength in active postmenopausal women. In the ACE gene, there was a statistical difference between the groups from pre to post supine (ID / DD: 18.6%, II: 8.3%). For the ACTN3 gene, there was a statistical difference between the pre and post within the group in the bench press (CC/CT: 17,4%; TT: 6,9%) and leg press (CC/CT: 12,3%; TT: 7,5%) only in the CC/CT group. In conclusion, the present study showed that periodized models could induce significant improvements on muscle strength in active postmenopausal women. In addition, the genotypes ID / DD of the ECA and CC / CT gene of ACTN3 gene had a better effect to muscle strength.

M.Phil. / Product development is very important to the survival of an engineering organisation. It therefore needs to be carefully managed and completed within planned time and allocated resources. The main focus in this dissertation is therefore investigating how time could be reduced in the product development process. • Customers are not always patient enough to wait for the "best" products that are still being developed; they want products immediately and would therefore choose the "next best" products available. Some customers are willing to pay high prices to get exactly what they need as soon as possible. This study looks at how to accelerate the product development process without sacrificing quality and product performance. The study also investigates the case of development of a Boeing 777 commercial aircraft and contrasts the Boeing product development process against the product development theory. Boeing 777 is a globally well known commercial aircraft that was designed in the record time. Investigating the Boeing 777 product development process will provide good indicators of approaches that are currently most applicable in the real world.

The use of concurrent Information Feedback (IF) through counting seconds verbally as the subject ran a 75 yard dash was tested. Forty-six ten and eleven year old boys and girls (boys = 20, girls = 26) were given two trials under four IF conditions: No IF; Terminal/Concurrent IF; Terminal IF; IF Removal. The counting occurred under Condition 2 and was combined with a final time given at the end of the dash. Significant main effects were found for sex and for conditions, with interaction effects between sex and conditions, and between conditions and trials, p4 .05. Results supported the combined IF condition with counting as maintaining subjects' level of performance, probably through motivation. Males performed well under Conditions 1, 2, and 3, while girls performed best under Conditions 1 and 2. Trial scores under Conditions 2 and 3 for all subjects were much more similar than under Conditions 1 and 4, indicating more consistent performance when IF was provided,

This thesis presents a novel approach to introducing programmers into parallel and distributed computing. The main objective of this work is to develop an online coding environment which contains tutorials in form of simple parallel programming tasks. The online application simulates and visualizes multiple agents which cooperate on a task in virtual environment. These agents are programmed in a custom procedural language similar to JavaScript. A significant part of this thesis focuses on the design of this language. The client-side compiler is built using tools similar to Bison and Flex. The parallel simulator supports different scheduling algorithms including lock- step mode simulating computation on a GPU. An important aspect of the platform is extensibility; therefore, the tutorials and the packages for the programming language can be added as plug-ins. The final part of this thesis is dedicated to the implementation of sample packages and tutorials which demonstrate that the key goals of this thesis have been accomplished.

The construction industry in the United Kingdom is a multi-billion pound business that contributes, on average 10% of the UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, it is seen by many to be underachieving in terms of service delivery and investment opportunities. Projects are frequently late and over budget much to the disappointment of those involved in the industry and especially clients. Many investigations have been commissioned and resulting reports have suggested improvements in the way the industry is organised. Procurement of construction projects in the main are undertaken using methods that support fragmentation and adversarial relationships. However, with the introduction of partnering and prime contracting some improvements have been made. Procurement of a construction project begins with the strategies developed during briefing and is only complete when the facility is handed over to the client, some contract strategies allow for the facility to be completed once it is in operation, has been maintained and eventually is demolished. Costings and programmes are then related to life-cycle issues and aspects such as maintenance have to be taken into account during the facility development stages. The adoption of Concurrent Engineering (CE) is seen to offer the construction industry a way forward. Having been adopted extensively by manufacturing in its product development stages a similar adoption by the construction industry would go some way to achieving the 30% improvement in real terms suggested by Latham [1994] and Egan [1998]. The research described in the thesis aims to develop a new procurement method for the delivery of construction projects. The approach adopted was to identify current methods of procurement and the problems associated with each method. Then using Concurrent Engineering as a basis, a new procurement model was developed that offered potential improvements in the construction process between the stages of Clients Briefing and Detailed Design. The resulting model was evaluated through the application of CE principles into the process and by the presentation and discussion of the method with a number of industry participants, followed by the completion and assessment of a questionnaire. The model was shown to fulfil the principles of CE and could be adopted into construction. It offers a new approach to procurement which in turn would save costs and time and potentially improve the quality of the final construction product.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis was to examine risks in Saab Training & Simulations project model and the way they execute projects to present an improvement proposal. The study was executed through quantitative and qualitative data gathering in form of interviews and collecting of project reports. The result showed differences between the project model and the execution. The risks were mainly connected to the execution and could be summarized in to three problem areas, manager dependent project management that creates confusion and uncertainty in the line organization and project groups, communication faults during the execution resulting in unnecessary purchases and that the projects show a tendency of needing more resources at the end of the project due to postponed milestones. Based on the findings an extensive literature review treating general project management, project model and methods as concurrent engineering and agile methods were made. After further analysis, an improvement proposal could be formed, however since Saabs project model were found adequate with several parallel and time effective element the improvements are focused towards the way of working in four hands-on suggestions. • Clear assignation of responsibility - A clearer assignation of responsibility reduces the risks associated with ambiguity and misunderstandings, as a result of person dependent project management.  • Project pulse - Adoption of pulse meetings in the project groups. • Increase customer contact - By increasing the contact and integration with the customer could it be assured that their demands are meet even though it is not known during the sale. • Design for manufacturing and assembly - Clearer guidelines and a way of working and cooperating internally during the product realization could decrease the risk of unnecessary purchases. / Syftet med examensarbetet var att undersöka Saab Training and Simulations projektmodell och arbetssätt för att sedan formulera ett förbättringsförslag. Studien genomfördes genom en kvantitativ och en kvalitativ datainsamling i form av intervjuer och insamling av projektrapporter. Resultatet av datainsamlingen visade att det fanns skillnader mellan den projektmodellen och det arbetssättet som tillämpades på företaget. Riskerna som fanns i utförandet var relaterade främst till arbetssättet och inte projektmodellen. Riskerna kan sammanfattas i tre problemområden. De problemområdena är individberoende projektledning som orsakar missförstånd och osäkerhet i linjeorganisationen och projektgrupperna, kommunikationsbrister under projektgenomförandet som kan resultera i onödiga inköp samt att projekten tenderar att behöva sätta in extra resurser i slutet av projekten som en följd av uppskjutning av milstenar. Vidare genomfördes en litteratursökning som behandlade generell projektledning och olika relevanta projektledningsmodeller eller metoder såsom agila metoder och concurrent engineering, baserat på de risker som upptäcktes under datainsamlingen. Utifrån detta formulerades ett förbättringsförslag. Eftersom projektmodellen innefattar flera parallella inslag anses den vara duglig och det kommer därför inte att presenteras ett förbättringsförslag för modellen. Däremot presenteras ett förbättringsförslag som berör arbetssättet som består av fyra åtgärder.  • Tydligare fördelning av ansvar i projekten  - En tydligare ansvarsfördelning i projekten minskar riskerna för otydligheter och missförstånd vid individberoende projektledning. • Projektpuls  - Projektpuls är ett tillvägagångssätt att öka kommunikationen i projektgruppen under projektgenomförandet  • Ökad kundkontakt - Genom en ökad kundkontakt under projektgenomförandet kan kundens önskningar tillgodoses lättare även i de fall där försäljningsunderlaget från marknad är bristfälligt. • Design for manufacturing and assembly  - Tydligare riktlinjer och ett arbetssätt för det interna samarbetet under produktframtagningen minskar riskerna för exempelvis onödigt inköp.

Individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may be taught novel skills using various prompting strategies. Some studies have compared effective prompting procedures for these learners. Results have shown that no single procedure has been effective for all learners. Instead, efficiency of each response prompt type varied across participants. Some research suggests that identifying an individual’s preference may help identify an effective treatment. However, it is unknown if response prompt preference corresponds with effectiveness. Thus, the purpose of the present study is to evaluate whether preference corresponds with the most effective response prompt in children with ASD.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of the Utah State University concurrent enrollment program to the achievement (GPA), recruitment, and retention of program participants after joining Utah State University. Three administrative approaches to the management of concurrent enrollment programs were identified for the purpose of this study: Level One, Level Two, and Level Three. Level One involved high school teachers who taught and graded the concurrent enrollment program courses. In Level Two, high school teachers taught the courses, but University professors prepared exams and graded the papers. In Level Three, teaching, exam preparation, and paper grading were all executed by university faculty. To determine the effects of the three different administrative approaches on concurrent enrollment programs, four research questions were formulated: (1) For the three different administrative approaches to the management of the concurrent enrollment program practiced by Utah State University, are there different GPAs for comparable selected major courses for program participants? (2) For the three different administrative approaches, are there differences in the proportion of high school students recruited to Utah State University? (3) For the three different administrative approaches, are there different rates of retention for participating students one year after joining Utah State University? (4) For the three different administrative approaches, are there greater GP As and retention rates when compared with Utah State University's regular freshmen population? A sample from the target population of concurrent enrollment program participants from 1988 to 1991 was used. The data were collected from existing Utah State University records. The dependent variables were GPA, recruitment, and retention, while administrative approaches were the three levels of the independent variable. The means for the Level One approach were statistically and educationally significant as compared to the remaining two levels. One year after joining Utah State University, the recruited concurrent enrollment program participants tended to remain with Utah State University. Therefore, it was recommended that the program be supported with the emphasis on encouraging more high school teachers to teach concurrent enrollment courses in the future.

The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of allowing concurrent enrollment in the College of Agriculture to selected high schools in the state of Utah. "Introduction to Agricultural Plant Science" (Plant Science 100 ) was the course being tested. A purposive sampling technique was used to identify four vocational agriculture programs to participate. There were 86 high school students in the study and 38 college students who took the course on campus at Utah State University. In this study, 47.7% of the high school students passed the course with a 70% average or above. Comparisons between high school and college student performance showed a marked difference in percentage points accumulated on exams and the final, with the college students performing more consistently.