Diffusion Tensor MRI can be used to depict the anisotropy of tissue. Translation of this technique to moving objects such as the beating heart has recently become feasible, but remains a challenging task, often leading to high noise levels and limited accuracy. Ultimately, knowledge of the 3D fibre architecture of the myocardium invivo should allow for a better understanding of the cardiac function both in healthy and pathological situations. The main goal of the work presented in this thesis is to overcome the difficulties that such technology presents, by introducing a combination of image processing and analysis approaches. In particular, the characteristic ellipsoidal shape of the left ventricular chamber is used to introduce a shape-based prolate spheroidal coordinate frame that allows for comprehensive, robust and dedicated analysis of diffusion tensor data within the myocardial wall. It is shown that the description of this information is more compact in this coordinate frame. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the acquisition limitations can be overcome by introducing an approximation scheme based on this coordinate frame. These techniques are tested on ex-vivo datasets to assess their fidelity and sensitivity. Finally, these techniques are applied in-vivo on a group of healthy volunteers, where 2D DTI slices of the LV were acquired at end diastole and end systole, using cardiac dedicated diffusion MR acquisition. Results demonstrate the advantages of using curvilinear coordinates both for the analysis and the approximation of cardiac DTI information. Resulting in-vivo fibre architectures were found to agree with previously reported studies on ex-vivo specimens. The outcome of this work can open the door for clinical applications and cardiac electrophysiology modelling, and improve the understanding of the left ventricular structure and dynamics.

One of the common research goals in disciplines such as computer graphics and robotics is to understand the subtleties of human motion and develop tools for recreating natural and meaningful motion. Physical simulation of virtual human characters is a promising approach since it provides a testbed for developing and testing control strategies required to execute various human behaviors. Designing generic control algorithms for simulating a wide range of human activities, which can robustly adapt to varying physical environments, has remained a primary challenge. This dissertation introduces methods for generic and robust control of virtual characters in an interactive physical environment. Our approach is to use the information of the physical contacts between the character and her environment in the control design. We leverage high-level knowledge of the kinematics goals and the interaction with the surroundings to develop active control strategies that robustly adapt to variations in the physical scene. For synthesizing intentional motion requiring long-term planning, we exploit properties of the physical model for creating efficient and robust controllers in an interactive framework. The control design leverages the reference motion capture data and the contact information with the environment for interactive long-term planning. Finally, we propose a compact soft contact model for handling contacts for rigid body virtual characters. This model aims at improving the robustness of existing control methods without adding any complexity to the control design and opens up possibilities for new control algorithms to synthesize agile human motion.

An electrochromic (EC) material is able to change colour under the influence of an electric potential. The development of energy efficient smart windows for architectural applications is at present the subject of intense research for both economic and environmental reasons. Thus there is now a considerable research effort to develop smart windows with natural colour switching properties, i.e. shades of grey. In this regard, a promising metal oxide with a brown-black anodic colouring state is NiO or hydrated nickel oxide (also called nickel hydroxide , Ni(OH)2). The present work outlines the preparation and optimisation of EC nickel oxide-based ceramic precursor films onto various conducting substrates towards smart window applications. The literature review chapter outlines the different methods used for generating ceramic materials, a review of electrochromism and history of nickel oxide-based EC materials are also provided. Thins films have been deposited by an electrochemical cathodic deposition and by aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) technique. For hydrated NiO films prepared by electrochemical cathodic deposition, various deposition factors at small-scale area (30 x 7 mm) have been investigated in order to optimise the films properties towards EC applications. With deposition on fluorine-doped tin oxide (SnO2:F, FTO) on glass, use of nickel nitrate (0.01 mol dm-3) solution at an applied current of -0.2 mA (-0.1 mA cm-2) for 800 s was optimal for preparing uniform deposits with a porous interconnecting flake-like structure, which is generally regarded as favourable for the intercalation/deintercalation of hydroxide ions during redox cycling. The as-deposited hydrated NiO films showed excellent transmittance modulation (Δ%T = 83.2 at 432 nm), with average colouration efficiency (CE) of 29.6 cm2 C-1 and low response times. However, after 50 voltammetric cycles, the cycle life was found to fade by 17.2% from charge measurements, and 28.8 % from in-situ transmittance spectra measurements. In an attempt to prepare films with improved durability, AACVD has been used for the first time in the preparation of thin-film EC nickel(II) oxide (NiO). The as-deposited films were confirmed to be cubic NiO from analysis of powder X-ray diffraction data, with an optical band gap that decreased from 3.61 to 3.48 eV with an increase in film thickness (in the range 330 820 nm). The EC properties of the films were investigated as a function of film thickness, following 50, 100 and 500 conditioning oxidative voltammetric cycles in aqueous KOH (0.1 mol dm-3). Light modulation of the films increased with the number of conditioning cycles. EC response times were < 10 s and generally longer for the colouration than the bleaching process. The films showed excellent stability when tested for up to 10000 colour/bleach cycles. Using a calculation method based on the integration of experimental spectral power distributions derived from in-situ visible region spectra over the CIE 1931 colour-matching functions, the colour stimuli of the NiO-based films, and the changes that take place on reversibly switching between the bleached and coloured forms have been calculated. Films prepared by both deposition techniques gave positive a* and b* values to produce orange. However, in combination with low L* values, the films were perceived as brown-grey. Hydrated NiO prepared via electrochemical cathodic deposition suffers from two well-known limitations; firstly, it shows catalytic properties towards the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which is a process very close to the Ni(II)/Ni(III) redox process. Secondly, hydrated NiO shows poor cycling durability in alkaline solution. The co-deposition of single or bimetallic additives is an effective way to overcome these problems. Electrochemical studies revealed that the combination of cobalt (10%) with lanthanum (5%) was found to be the optimal composition for preparing hydrated NiO films with improved film durability. Finally, the emphasis of this work was on scale-up of deposition. Therefore, optimised deposition conditions from small scale (3.0 x 0.7 cm) have been used to successfully deposit films on two different sized large-area (10 x 7.5 and 30 x 30 cm) conducting substrates.

In the present PhD work, three sophisticated models based on the "Engineering" modeling approach have been utilized to conveniently describe and thoroughly analyze details of Lightning events at the CN Tower. Both the CN Tower and the Lightning Channel are represented by a number of connected in series Transmission Line sections in order to account for the variations in the shape of the tower and for plasma processes that take place within the Lightning Channel. A sum of two Heidler functions is used to describe the "uncontaminated" Return Stroke current, which is injected at the attachment point between the CN Tower and the Lightning Channel. Reflections and refractions at all points of mismatched impedances are considered until their contribution becomes less than 1% of the originally injected current wave. In the proposed models, the problem with the current discontinuity at the Lightning Channel front, commonly taken care of by introducing a "turn-on" term when computing radiation fields, is uniquely treated by introducing reflected and transmitted components. For the first time, variable speed of propagation of the Return Stroke current front has been considered and its influence upon the predicted current distributions along the whole Lightning Channel path and upon the radiated distant fields analyzed. Furthermore, as another novelty, computation of the electromagnetic field is accomplished in Cartesian Coordinates. This fact permits to relax the requirement on the verticality of the Lightning Channel, normally imposed in Cylindrical Coordinates. Therefore, it becomes possible to study without difficulty the influence of a slanted Lightning Channel upon the surrounding electromagnetic field. Since the proposed sophisticated Five-Section Model has the capability to represent very closely the structure of the CN Tower and to emulate faithfully the shape of, as well as physical processes within the Lightning Channel, it is believed to have the potential of truthfully reproducing observed fields. The developed modeling approach can be easily adapted to study the anticipated radiated fields at tall structures even before construction.

In this thesis, three parts, each with several chapters, are respectively devoted to hydrostatic, viscous and inertial fluids theories and applications. In the hydrostatics part, the classical Maclaurin spheroids theory is generalized, for the first time, to a more realistic multi-layer model, which enables the studies of some gravity problems and direct numerical simulations of flows in fast rotating spheroidal cavities. As an application of the figure theory, the zonal flow in the deep atmosphere of Jupiter is investigated for a better understanding of the Jovian gravity field. High viscosity flows, for example Stokes flows, occur in a lot of processes involving low-speed motions in fluids. Microorganism swimming is such typical a case. A fully three dimensional analytic solution of incompressible Stokes equation is derived in the exterior domain of an arbitrarily translating and rotating prolate spheroid, which models a large family of microorganisms such as cocci bacteria. The solution is then applied to the magnetotactic bacteria swimming problem and good consistency has been found between theoretical predictions and laboratory observations of the moving patterns of such bacteria under magnetic fields. In the analysis of dynamics of planetary fluid systems, which are featured by fast rotation and very small viscosity effects, three dimensional fully nonlinear numerical simulations of Navier-Stokes equations play important roles. A precession driven flow in a rotating channel is studied by the combination of asymptotic analyses and fully numerical simulations. Various results of laminar and turbulent flows are thereby presented. Computational fluid dynamics requires massive computing capability. To make full use of the power of modern high performance computing facilities, a C++ finite-element analysis code is under development based on PETSc platform. The code and data structures will be elaborated, along with the presentations of some preliminary results.

Compositional data consist of known vectors such as compositions whose components are positive and defined in the interval (0,1) representing proportions or fractions of a whole, where the sum of these components must be equal to one. Compositional data is present in different areas, such as in geology, ecology, economy, medicine, among many others. Thus, there is great interest in new modeling approaches for compositional data, mainly when there is an influence of covariates in this type of data. In this context, the main objective of this thesis is to address the new approach of regression models applied in compositional data. The main idea consists of developing a marked method by penalized regression, in particular the Lasso (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator), elastic net and Spike-and-Slab Lasso (SSL) for the estimation of parameters of the models. In particular, we envision developing this modeling for compositional data, when the number of explanatory variables exceeds the number of observations in the presence of large databases, and when there are constraints on the dependent variables and covariates. / Dados composicionais consistem em vetores conhecidos como composições cujos componentes são positivos e definidos no intervalo (0,1) representando proporções ou frações de um todo, sendo que a soma desses componentes totalizam um. Tais dados estão presentes em diferentes áreas, como na geologia, ecologia, economia, medicina entre outras. Desta forma, há um grande interesse em ampliar os conhecimentos acerca da modelagem de dados composicionais, principalmente quando há a influência de covariáveis nesse tipo de dado. Nesse contexto, a presente tese tem por objetivo propor uma nova abordagem de modelos de regressão aplicada em dados composicionais. A ideia central consiste no desenvolvimento de um método balizado por regressão penalizada, em particular Lasso, do inglês least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, elastic net e Spike-e-Slab Lasso (SSL) para a estimação dos parâmetros do modelo. Em particular, visionamos o desenvolvimento dessa modelagem para dados composicionais, com o número de variáveis explicativas excedendo o número de observações e na presença de grandes bases de dados, e além disso, quando há restrição na variável resposta e nas covariáveis.

As condições climáticas de determinada região são de importância estratégica para o planejamento agrícola. No entanto, é comum localidades distantes de alguma estação meteorológica. O presente mestrado teve o intuito de propor um modelo para estimar valores de temperatura média diária e precipitação diária em localidades sem informação meteorológica. Os dados climáticos foram obtidos do Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia Agrícola (INMET) e da Agência Nacional de Águas (ANA). Estimaram-se equações para dados diários através da regressão linear múltiplas entre as variáveis temperatura média (Tm) versus altitude, latitude e longitude, desvio padrão da temperatura (T) versus altitude, latitude e longitude, precipitação média (Pm) versus altitude, latitude e longitude, Precipitação mínima (Pmin) versus altitude, latitude e longitude, precipitação máxima (Pmáx) versus altitude, latitude e longitude, desvio padrão da chuva (P) versus altitude, latitude e longitude, probabilidade de não chover (P) versus altitude, latitude e longitude, correlação da temperatura T) e precipitação P) com o dia anterior versus altitude, latitude e longitude para cada dia do ano e verificou-se a significância a 5% de probabilidade. Dessa forma, qualquer localidade passou a ter os parâmetros necessários para a gerar séries sintéticas, assumindo o processo multivariado contínuo. Para a criação da série sintética de temperatura usou-se Tm, T, T, os parâmetros usados na criação da série de precipitação foram Pmin, Pmáx, Pm, P e P. Foram geradas séries de 100 anos em 507 localidades para Temperatura média diária e mensal, além de Precipitação média diária e mensal. A capacidade de armazenamento de água (CAD) foi estimada em todas as localidades através de modelos de pedotransferência. Os teores de argila, silte, areia e matéria orgânica do solo usados na pedotransferência foram obtidos do levantamento de solo RADAM e interpolados através da geoestatística. Em todas as localidades foi feito o balanço hídrico pelo método de Tornthwaite com os respectivos valores estimados de temperatura e precipitação, além da CAD específica da localidade. A validação do modelo gerador de séries sintéticas foi feita utilizando índices de correlação entre valores observados e estimados. Usou-se a ERP (erro relativo padrão), o coeficiente de correlação linear (r2), o índice de concordância (d) e o produto entre o coeficiente de correlação e o índice de concordância, chamado de índice de confiança (c). Obteve-se índices de confiança baixos para a estimativa de temperatura média diária e muito baixos para a precipitação média diária. No entanto, o modelo teve bom desempenho para dados mensais, obtendo índices boa correlação linear e concordância para temperatura e precipitação. / The climatic conditions of any region could be of the extreme importance to the strategic analysis of agricultural planning. However, it\'s common fields that are far away from any meteorological station. This mastership proposes a model to estimate values of daily temperature and rainfall. The climatic data was collected from National Meteorological Agriculture Institute (INMET) and from National Water Agency (ANA). The equation made with linear multiple regression for daily data among the parameters average of temperature (Tm) versus altitude, latitude and longitude, standard deviation of temperature (T) versus altitude, latitude and longitude, average of rainfall (Pm) versus altitude, latitude and longitude, minimal rainfall (Pmin) versus altitude, latitude and longitude, maximum rainfall (Pmáx) versus altitude, latitude and longitude, standard deviation of rain (P) versus altitude, latitude and longitude, probability of not rain (P) versus altitude, latitude and longitude, correlation of temperature (T) and precipitation (P) between two consecutive days versus altitude, latitude and longitude. The analysis of significance was done with 5% of probability. Any location could obtain the parameters to generate synthetic series, using a multivariated continuous process. It was used Tm, T, T to create the synthetic series of temperature, the parameters used to create de synthetic series of rainfall were Pmin, Pmáx, Pm, P e P. 100 synthetic series were created in 507 locations for daily and monthly temperature and rainfall. The soil water capacity was estimated for all locations using a pedotransfer model. The percentage of clay, silt, sand and organic matter were obtained on the Soil Survey RADAM and interpolated by geoestatiscal analysis. All locations had the water balance done by Thornthwaite method with its respective estimated value of temperature and rainfall, using the specific soil water capacity of the location. The model validation of synthetic series generator was done using correlations index between observed and estimated values. Was used the relative pattern error (ERP), linear correlation (r2), concordance index (d) and the product of the last both index called reliable index (c). The reliable index obtained for daily temperature and rainfall was very low. However, the model had a good efficiency for monthly temperature and rainfall.

Este trabalho apresenta os resultados da síntese e caracterização de nanoestruturas de óxido de tungstênio (WO3) obtidos por via ultrassônica em meio não aquoso. Esta técnica tem como vantagens o uso de pouco material e o tempo empregado. A caracterização das nanoestruturas foi realizada por Microscopia Eletrônica de Transmissão (TEM), Microscopia Eletrônica de varredura (MEV), espectroscopia Raman e no infravermelho, termogravimetria e difração de raios-X. A imobilização das nanoestruturas foi realizada em substratos condutores transparentes (ITO) por automontagem camadas por camadas (LbL) e deposição eletroforética (EPD). Foram efetuadas caracterizações eletroquímicas e espectroeletroquímicas com medidas in situ usando UV-Vis. Os resultados eletrocrômicos demostraram a estrutura nanométrica dos filmes obtidos, com parâmetros eletrocrômicos como contraste óptico, tempo de resposta e eficiência eletrocrômica típicos de sistemas nanoestruturados. Alguns aspectos relacionados com o uso de um líquido iônico prótico (PIL) foram mostrados, conferindo melhora na durabilidade dos filmes em relação ao eletrólito H2SO4 1,0 mol L-1. Com o objetivo de modular e incrementar a coloração dos filmes de WO3, foi preparado um viológeno para imobilização superficial através de um grupo ancorador. Os filmes modificados foram investigados por espectroeletroquímica e coordenadas de cor. As coordenadas de cromaticidade foram obtidas por um colorímetro virtual baseado na convenção CIE 1931, dados de cromaticidade para as reações eletrocrômicas dos filmes de WO3 modificado são mostrados em espaços de cor. / The present work describes the synthesis and characterization of WO3 nanoplates in a non-aqueous solvent using ultrasonic irradiation process. This method presents some advantages such as the small amount of reactants and time consumed. WO3 nanoplates have been characterized by TEM and SEM microscopies, Raman and Infrared spectroscopies, thermogravimetric analysis and X-ray diffraction. The nanostructured nanoplates were immobilized by electrostatic layer by layer and Electrophoretic Deposition (EPD) processes onto ITO substrates. Spectroelectrochemical experiments were carried out showing electrochromic performance of the WO3 films such as optical density, response time and chromatic efficiency in a typical way for nanostructured films of WO3. The results using a protic ionic liquid (PIL) as electrolyte, instead of H2SO4, showed improvement in cyclic durability. Cyclic voltammograms were combined with transmittance measurements for all films that undergo typical reversible electrochromic reaction. In order to modulate and improve the colorimetric changes, viologen molecules were prepared with an anchoring group for modifying the surface by the chemisorption of a monolayer. WO3 films with viologen monolayer were investigated using Spectroelectrochemical and color coordinates analysis. A virtual colorimeter was applied for the accurate calculation of CIE 1931 xy color coordinates investigation during the electrochromic reaction of modified films.

Este trabalho apresenta os resultados da síntese e caracterização de nanoestruturas de óxido de tungstênio (WO3) obtidos por via ultrassônica em meio não aquoso. Esta técnica tem como vantagens o uso de pouco material e o tempo empregado. A caracterização das nanoestruturas foi realizada por Microscopia Eletrônica de Transmissão (TEM), Microscopia Eletrônica de varredura (MEV), espectroscopia Raman e no infravermelho, termogravimetria e difração de raios-X. A imobilização das nanoestruturas foi realizada em substratos condutores transparentes (ITO) por automontagem camadas por camadas (LbL) e deposição eletroforética (EPD). Foram efetuadas caracterizações eletroquímicas e espectroeletroquímicas com medidas in situ usando UV-Vis. Os resultados eletrocrômicos demostraram a estrutura nanométrica dos filmes obtidos, com parâmetros eletrocrômicos como contraste óptico, tempo de resposta e eficiência eletrocrômica típicos de sistemas nanoestruturados. Alguns aspectos relacionados com o uso de um líquido iônico prótico (PIL) foram mostrados, conferindo melhora na durabilidade dos filmes em relação ao eletrólito H2SO4 1,0 mol L-1. Com o objetivo de modular e incrementar a coloração dos filmes de WO3, foi preparado um viológeno para imobilização superficial através de um grupo ancorador. Os filmes modificados foram investigados por espectroeletroquímica e coordenadas de cor. As coordenadas de cromaticidade foram obtidas por um colorímetro virtual baseado na convenção CIE 1931, dados de cromaticidade para as reações eletrocrômicas dos filmes de WO3 modificado são mostrados em espaços de cor. / The present work describes the synthesis and characterization of WO3 nanoplates in a non-aqueous solvent using ultrasonic irradiation process. This method presents some advantages such as the small amount of reactants and time consumed. WO3 nanoplates have been characterized by TEM and SEM microscopies, Raman and Infrared spectroscopies, thermogravimetric analysis and X-ray diffraction. The nanostructured nanoplates were immobilized by electrostatic layer by layer and Electrophoretic Deposition (EPD) processes onto ITO substrates. Spectroelectrochemical experiments were carried out showing electrochromic performance of the WO3 films such as optical density, response time and chromatic efficiency in a typical way for nanostructured films of WO3. The results using a protic ionic liquid (PIL) as electrolyte, instead of H2SO4, showed improvement in cyclic durability. Cyclic voltammograms were combined with transmittance measurements for all films that undergo typical reversible electrochromic reaction. In order to modulate and improve the colorimetric changes, viologen molecules were prepared with an anchoring group for modifying the surface by the chemisorption of a monolayer. WO3 films with viologen monolayer were investigated using Spectroelectrochemical and color coordinates analysis. A virtual colorimeter was applied for the accurate calculation of CIE 1931 xy color coordinates investigation during the electrochromic reaction of modified films.

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2017-06-27T13:53:26Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Glauber Cini_.pdf: 2121004 bytes, checksum: c1f55ddc527cdaeb7ae3c224baea727a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-27T13:53:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Glauber Cini_.pdf: 2121004 bytes, checksum: c1f55ddc527cdaeb7ae3c224baea727a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-29 / Nenhuma / O Visual Analytics consiste na combinação de métodos inteligentes e automáticos com a capacidade de percepção visual do ser humano visando a extração do conhecimento de conjuntos de dados. Esta capacidade visual é apoiada por interfaces interativas como, sendo a de maior importância para este trabalho, a visualização por Coordenadas Paralelas. Todavia, ferramentas que disponham de ambos os métodos automáticos (KDD) e visuais (Coordenadas Paralelas) de forma genérica e integrada mostra-se primordial. Deste modo, este trabalho apresenta um modelo integrado entre o processo de KDD e o de Visualização de Informação utilizando as Coordenadas Paralelas com ênfase no make sense of data, ao ampliar a possibilidade de exploração dos dados ainda na etapa de pré-processamento. Para demonstrar o funcionamento deste modelo, um plugin foi desenvolvido sobre a ferramenta WEKA. Este módulo é responsável por ampliar as possibilidades de utilização da ferramenta escolhida ao expandir suas funcionalidades a ponto de conceitua-la como uma ferramenta Visual Analytics. Junto a visualização de Coordenadas Paralelas disponibilizada, também se viabiliza a interação por permutação das dimensões (eixos), interação por seleção de amostras (brushing) e possibilidade de detalhamento das mesmas na própria visualização. / Visual Analytics is the combination of intelligent and automatic methods with the ability of human visual perception aiming to extract knowledge from data sets. This visual capability is supported by interactive interfaces, considering the most important for this work, the Parallel Coordinates visualization. However, tools that have both automatic methods (KDD) and visual (Parallel Coordinates) in a generic and integrated way is inherent. Thus, this work presents an integrated model between the KDD process and the Information Visualization using the Parallel Coordinates with emphasis on the make sense of data, by increasing the possibility of data exploration in the preprocessing stage. To demonstrate the operation of this model, a plugin was developed on the WEKA tool. This module is responsible for expanding the possibilities of chosen tool by expanding its functionality to the point of conceptualizing it as a Visual Analytics tool. In addition to the delivered visualization of Parallel Coordinate, it is also possible to interact by permutation of the dimensions (axes), interaction by selection of samples (brushing) and possibility of detailing them in the visualization itself.