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Submitted by Geandra Rodrigues (geandrar@gmail.com) on 2018-04-10T15:11:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 gracilianomarciosantoslouredo.pdf: 1813142 bytes, checksum: b79d02006212c4f63d6836c9a417d4bc (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2018-04-11T15:25:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 gracilianomarciosantoslouredo.pdf: 1813142 bytes, checksum: b79d02006212c4f63d6836c9a417d4bc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-11T15:25:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 gracilianomarciosantoslouredo.pdf: 1813142 bytes, checksum: b79d02006212c4f63d6836c9a417d4bc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-26 / FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais / O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar algumas contribuições para a melhoria do processo de estimação por máxima verossimilhança via algoritmo EM em modelos misturas assimétricas com regressão, além de realizar neles a análise de influência local e global. Essas contribuições, em geral de natureza computacional, visam à resolução de problemas comuns na modelagem estatística de maneira mais eficiente. Dentre elas está a substituição de métodos utilizados nas versões dos algoritmos GEM por outras que reduzem o problema aproximadamente a um algoritmo EM clássico nos principais exemplos das distribuições misturas de escala assimétricas de normais. Após a execução do processo de estimação, discutiremos ainda as principais técnicas existentes para o diagnóstico de pontos influentes com as adaptações necessárias aos modelos em foco. Desejamos com tal abordagem acrescentar ao tratamento dessa classe de modelos estatísticos a análise de regressão nas distribuições mais recentes na literatura. Também esperamos abrir caminho para o uso de técnicas similares em outras classes de modelos. / The objective of this work is to present some contributions to improvement the process of maximum likelihood estimation via the EM algorithm in skew mixtures models with regression, as well as to execute in them the global and local influence analysis. These contributions, usually with computational nature, aim to solving common problems in statistical modeling more efficiently. Among them is the replacement of used methods in the versions of the GEM algorithm by other techniques that reduce the problem approximately to a classic EM algorithm in the main examples of skew scale mixtures of normals distributions. After performing the estimation process, we will also discuss the main existing techniques for the diagnosis of influential points with the necessaries adaptations to the models in focus. We wish with this approach to add for the treatment of this statistical model class the regression analysis in the most recent distributions in the literature. We too hope to paving the way for use of similar techniques in other models classes.

[pt] O presente trabalho visa investigar a interação entre a flambagem lateral com torção e a flambagem local do tê comprimido em vigas casteladas. O método dos elementos finitos (MEF) é usado para realizar análises paramétricas de vigas Litzkas sujeitas a flexão pura e considerando combinações da razão entre espessura e comprimento das mesas e alma, além do comprimento destravado. Para considerar a possibilidade de aço com diferentes resistências ao escoamento, esbeltezes adimensionais são utilizadas para prever o comportamento da estrutura de maneira compreensiva. As respostas de vigas com diferentes combinações de esbeltezes são comparadas e a resistência relativa de cada uma delas é discutida. A influência das imperfeições iniciais na capacidade de resistência é avaliada. Os momentos últimos calculados a partir do MEF são comparados com aqueles calculados de acordo com as normas de dimensionamento para vigas casteladas, mostrando que esses podem superestimar ou subestimar as capacidades de resistência. Finalmente, uma abordagem com o método da resistência direta é testada para prever a resistência nominal à flexão. Através das análises feitas, conclui-se que o Design Guide subestima a resistência das geometrias analisadas, o método da resistência direta as superestima e as imperfeições iniciais têm influência no comportamento das vigas analisadas. / [en] The present work aims to investigate the interaction between lateral torsional buckling and compression tee local buckling in castellated beams. The finite element method (FEM) is used to perform a parametric study for Litzka-beams subject to pure bending moment considering combinations of flange-to-web width and thickness ratios and unbraced lengths. To account for the possibility of different yield strengths, non-dimensional local and global slenderness are used to assess the behavior in a comprehensive manner. The responses for beams having different combinations of slendernesses are compared and the relative strengths are discussed. The influence of the initial imperfections on the strength capacity is evaluated. The FEM ultimate bending moments are compared to those calculated according to the current design recommendations for castellated beams, showing that these may either over or underpredict actual capacities. Finally, a direct strength method approach is tested for the prediction of the nominal bending strength. Through the performed analyses it was concluded that the Design Guide underestimate the relative strengths of the analyzed geometries, while the direct strength method overestimated them and the initial imperfections influence the structural behavior of the analyzed beams.

When simulating mechanical systems the flexibility of the components often has to be taken into account. This is particularly important for simulations when high detailed information is demanded, e.g. to calculate stresses. To this end the Finite Element Method (FEM) is often used. However the models can become very large, containing millions of degrees of freedom. Solving large linear systems are computationally demanding. Therefore ways of reducing the problem is often sought. These reduction does, however, remove much of the details that was to be investigated. In this thesis this problem is addressed by creating a reduction scheme, using Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD), that significantly reduces a problem but still captures much of the details. A novel method for enriching regular POD-based model reduction methods with hierarchically determined enrichment POD-modes is developed. The method is proposed and validated in a FEM application towards dynamical simulation. The enriched method is compared against a regular POD reduction technique. An numerical study is made of a model example of linear elasticity in a gearwheel. The numerical study suggests that the error of displacements is around ten times smaller, on average, when using the enriched basis compared to a reference basis of equal dimensionality consisting of only regular POD modes. Also it is shown that local quantities as the von Mises stress in a gearwheel tooth is preserved much better using the enriched basis. An a posteriori error estimate is proposed and proved for the static case, showing that the error is bound. / När man simulerar mekaniska system så måste man ofta ta hänsyn till de ingående komponenternas flexibilitet. Detta är särskilt viktigt då man gör simuleringar med krav på hög detaljkännedom, såsom mätningar av spänningar i kugghjul etc. Till detta ändamål används ofta en Finit Element Metod (FEM). Dock kan modellerna ofta bli väldigt stora, med över en miljon frihetsgrader. Att lösa linjära system av den storleken är beräkningsmässigt krävande. Därför är det naturligt att försöka reducera problemen. Reduktion innebär dock att information försvinner, i synnerhet de detaljer som skulle beräknas. I detta examensarbete så behandlas problemet genom att skapa en ny metod för reducering av stora finita element modeller. Metoden bygger på tidigare kunskap om Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) som ett sätt att reducera modeller. Den nya metoden reducerar finita ellement modeller samtidigt som den bibehåller hög detalj. En ny metod utvecklas för att berika en vanlig POD-baserad modellreduktion med hjälp av hieraktiskt bestämda berikningsmoder. Metoden beskrivs och testas i en dynamisk FEM-applikation av elasticitet i ett kugghjul i 2 dimensioner. Metoden för berikning jämförs numeriskt med en metod som använder vanlig POD-reduktion. Körningar visar att felet i den berikade metoden är omkring 10 gånger mindre, i genomsnitt, jämfört med en vanlig metod. Det visas också att spänningar bevaras på ett mycket bra sätt med den nya berikningsmetoden. Dessutom så formuleras och bevisas ett a posteriori estimat för statiska lastfall, vilket innebär att felet i metoden är bundet.

The effects of globalization has created a new global consumer segment known as Cosmopolitanism. It is a globally substantial segment that captures “open-minded individuals whose consumption orientation transcends particular cultures, localities or communities and who appreciates diversity including trying products and services from a variety of countries”. In the same sense have global brands grown to take a central place on both developing and developed countries, and their competition with local brands has substantially increased. The Cosmopolitan consumer segment hold major strategic importance for global brands, but the understanding of this new segment has been markedly limited, especially on consumption related behavioral outcomes such as brand loyalty. Taking on a cross-national, comparative approach, the purpose of this study was; to understand the association between Cosmopolitanism and global brand loyalty in developing and developed countries.  Collecting data through online questionnaires in Sweden and Syria, 341 respondents were included within the study, and with regression analyses were three proposed hypotheses tested. The results showed a significant, but arguably weak, association between Cosmopolitanism and global brand loyalty. On the other hand, upon introducing economic development status as a moderating variable, it was seen that the association differed between the sampled countries, with a considerably stronger association in Syria. Managerial implications are presented based on these findings, and the paper is finalized with some essential limitations and avenues for suture research.

Ces travaux ont pour but d'explorer le traitement musical chez les personnes présentant un trouble du spectre autistique (TSA). Cette question a été abordée sous l'angle des traitements global et local dans le cadre des deux théories cognitives dominantes de l'autisme : i) la faiblesse de cohérence centrale et ii) la théorie du surfonctionnement perceptif. Ces deux théories postulent la présence d'un biais de traitement envers l'information locale dans l'autisme provenant, soit i) d'un déficit du traitement global, soit ii) d'une capacité perceptive supérieure. A travers une dizaine d'études, nous avons confronté ces deux théories manipulant les traitements global et local dans la musique. Nous avons aussi questionné la perception auditive chez ces personnes ainsi que son impact sur des traitements de plus haut niveau. Dans l'ensemble, nos travaux mettent en évidence une plus grande implication des processus perceptifs dans le traitement musical chez ces personnes, allant dans le sens de la théorie du surfonctionnement perceptif. Par ailleurs, certains de nos résultats pointent un mécanisme cognitif central chez les personnes autistes : le mécanisme de cartographie véridique.

A análise das estruturas de aço sujeitas a ações verticais e horizontais, em termos de esforços solicitantes, deslocamentos e rotações, muitas vezes requer a consideração dos efeitos da não linearidade geométrica. Em outras palavras, a interação entre os deslocamentos e os esforços externos pode provocar uma alteração na intensidade dos esforços internos que solicitam a estrutura que, caso não seja adequadamente avaliada, pode conduzir a uma redução significativa dos níveis de segurança. Nesse contexto, destacam-se duas metodologias de avaliação desses efeitos: aquelas baseadas em análises aproximadas e aquelas baseadas em análises geometricamente exatas. As análises aproximadas podem ser caracterizadas em sua grande maioria por desenvolver um estudo baseado no equilíbrio da estrutura na configuração inicial ou indeformada (análise sob linearidade geométrica) e, em seguida, estimar os esforços solicitantes atuantes na configuração final ou deformada por meio de coeficientes majoradores. Por outro lado, a característica principal da análise geometricamente exata é verificar as condições de equilíbrio estrutural na configuração deformada e sem fazer nenhuma restrição quanto à magnitude dos deslocamentos e rotações ou, em outras palavras, observar o comportamento geometricamente exato (não linear) de maneira direta na configuração final de equilíbrio. Este trabalho propõe realizar um estudo comparativo entre um dos métodos de análise aproximada aquele baseado nos coeficientes B1 e B2, que é recomendado pela norma brasileira ABNT NBR 8800:2008 e um método baseado em análise geometricamente exata, de maneira a verificar as semelhanças e as diferenças entre os resultados. O aço é admitido como elástico. As ferramentas computacionais utilizadas são os programas FTOOL e PEFSYS, formulados segundo teorias de barras lineares e não lineares, respectivamente. / The analysis of steel structures subjected to vertical and horizontal loads, regarding internal forces, displacements and rotations, often requires the consideration of geometrically nonlinear effects. In other words, the interaction between displacements and external loads may cause a changing in the intensity of internal forces acting on the structure which, if not correctly evaluated, lead to significant reducing of structural safety. In this context, there exist two main methodologies to evaluate these effects: one based on approximated analysis and another based on geometrically exact analysis. The approximated analysis can be usually characterized by a study based on the equilibrium of the structure at its initial or undeformed configuration (geometrically linear analysis) and, further, by estimating the internal forces acting at the final or deformed configuration by means of amplifier coefficients. On the other hand, the main characteristic of the geometrically exact analysis is to verify the equilibrium conditions directly at the deformed configuration, without any restrictions regarding the magnitude of displacements and rotations or, in other words, observe the geometrically exact (nonlinear) behaviour directly at the final equilibrium configuration. This work purposes to develop a comparative study between one of the approximated methods the one based on the so called B1 and B2 coefficients, recommended by the Brazilian code ABNT NBR 8800:2008 and a method based on geometrically exact analysis, to verify the similarities and differences of results. The computational tools employed are the softwares FTOOL and PEFSYS, based on linear and nonlinear rod theories, respectively.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-26T13:28:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 2957688 bytes, checksum: ef8183fb03ec7b7417a321bf7d2a225e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-31 / The purpose of this study is the quality assessment of Digital Surface Models (DSMs) generated from stereo pairs of PRISM/ALOS images, considering aspects regarding different approaches of geometric correction, image matching strategies, grid distance and positional accuracy. The standard of accuracy expected for the products evaluated considers the Technical Standards of the National Cartography, defined by the Cartographic Accuracy Standard of the brazilian systematic mapping for 1:25,000 scale, class A. In the geometric correction step are considered the approaches of rigorous sensor model and generalized model using Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPCs). The ground control points used in geometric correction and in global assessment of the positional accuracy of orthoimages and DSMs, were determined by GPS relative static positioning. The local assessments, aiming the analysis of DSMs as to different morphologies, are performed from control points determined by relative kinematic GPS positioning in low-slope surfaces and on inclined surfaces. The global results achieved indicate that the geometric modeling, the number of control points considered, as well as the strategies for image matching and grid distance influence the vertical accuracy of the DSM, in relation to the expected accuracy standard. The experiments performed to orthorectify the nadir images using the DSMs previously selected, show that variations as to these factors, beyond different vertical accuracies, not affect the expected horizontal accuracy of the orthoimage, portraying, therefore, the same horizontal quality standard for the MDSs used in the orthorectification. The statistical tests for trend and precision detection, confirm the relative consistency on all orthoimages and MDSs generated. However, most of these products presents trend, except for some isolated cases. As to the local assessment, the results indicate that different morphologies influence the accuracy of the DSM, in relation to global assessment. In general, the results in low-slope areas present greater accuracy. The local analyses also indicate that the slope, associated with factors such as failure image matching and interpolation procedures, provides degradation of DSM vertical accuracy. / O objetivo deste trabalho é a análise da qualidade de Modelos Digitais de Superfície (MDSs) gerados a partir de pares estereoscópicos de imagens do sensor PRISM/ALOS, considerando-se aspectos quanto a diferentes abordagens de correção geométrica, estratégias de correlação de imagens, espaçamento da grade e acurácia posicional. O padrão de acurácia esperado para os produtos avaliados considera as Normas Técnicas da Cartografia Nacional, através do Padrão de Exatidão Cartográfica (PEC) para a escala 1:25.000, classe A, do mapeamento sistemático brasileiro. Na etapa de correção geométrica são consideradas as abordagens do modelo rigoroso do sensor e do modelo generalizado com uso de Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPCs). Os pontos de controle usados na correção geométrica, bem como para avaliação global da acurácia posicional de ortoimagens e MDSs, foram determinados por posicionamento GPS relativo estático. As avaliações locais, visando análise do comportamento dos MDSs segundo diferentes morfologias, são realizadas a partir de pontos de controle determinados por posicionamento GPS relativo cinemático, em superfícies de baixa declividade e em encostas de anfiteatros. Os resultados alcançados em nível global sinalizam que a modelagem geométrica utilizada, o número de pontos de controle considerados, assim como estratégias de correlação e espaçamento da grade influenciam a acurácia altimétrica dos MDSs, relativamente ao padrão de acurácia esperado. Os experimentos realizados para ortorretificar as imagens nadir com emprego de MDSs previamente selecionados, demonstram que variações quanto a esses fatores, além de acurácias altimétricas diferentes, não influenciam a qualidade planimétrica esperada para as ortoimagens, retratando, portanto, o mesmo padrão de qualidade planimétrica para os MDSs empregados na ortorretificação. Os testes estatísticos quanto à tendência e precisão confirmam a consistência relativa das ortoimagens e MDSs gerados, porém, a maioria desses produtos apresenta tendência, com exceção de alguns casos isolados. Quanto à avaliação local, os resultados indicam que diferentes morfologias influenciam a acurácia dos MDSs relativamente à análise global. De forma geral, áreas com menor declividade apresentam resultados com maior acurácia. As análises locais indicam ainda que a variável declividade, associada a fatores como a falha na correlação e procedimentos de interpolação, proporciona degradação da acurácia altimétrica dos MDSs.

A análise das estruturas de aço sujeitas a ações verticais e horizontais, em termos de esforços solicitantes, deslocamentos e rotações, muitas vezes requer a consideração dos efeitos da não linearidade geométrica. Em outras palavras, a interação entre os deslocamentos e os esforços externos pode provocar uma alteração na intensidade dos esforços internos que solicitam a estrutura que, caso não seja adequadamente avaliada, pode conduzir a uma redução significativa dos níveis de segurança. Nesse contexto, destacam-se duas metodologias de avaliação desses efeitos: aquelas baseadas em análises aproximadas e aquelas baseadas em análises geometricamente exatas. As análises aproximadas podem ser caracterizadas em sua grande maioria por desenvolver um estudo baseado no equilíbrio da estrutura na configuração inicial ou indeformada (análise sob linearidade geométrica) e, em seguida, estimar os esforços solicitantes atuantes na configuração final ou deformada por meio de coeficientes majoradores. Por outro lado, a característica principal da análise geometricamente exata é verificar as condições de equilíbrio estrutural na configuração deformada e sem fazer nenhuma restrição quanto à magnitude dos deslocamentos e rotações ou, em outras palavras, observar o comportamento geometricamente exato (não linear) de maneira direta na configuração final de equilíbrio. Este trabalho propõe realizar um estudo comparativo entre um dos métodos de análise aproximada aquele baseado nos coeficientes B1 e B2, que é recomendado pela norma brasileira ABNT NBR 8800:2008 e um método baseado em análise geometricamente exata, de maneira a verificar as semelhanças e as diferenças entre os resultados. O aço é admitido como elástico. As ferramentas computacionais utilizadas são os programas FTOOL e PEFSYS, formulados segundo teorias de barras lineares e não lineares, respectivamente. / The analysis of steel structures subjected to vertical and horizontal loads, regarding internal forces, displacements and rotations, often requires the consideration of geometrically nonlinear effects. In other words, the interaction between displacements and external loads may cause a changing in the intensity of internal forces acting on the structure which, if not correctly evaluated, lead to significant reducing of structural safety. In this context, there exist two main methodologies to evaluate these effects: one based on approximated analysis and another based on geometrically exact analysis. The approximated analysis can be usually characterized by a study based on the equilibrium of the structure at its initial or undeformed configuration (geometrically linear analysis) and, further, by estimating the internal forces acting at the final or deformed configuration by means of amplifier coefficients. On the other hand, the main characteristic of the geometrically exact analysis is to verify the equilibrium conditions directly at the deformed configuration, without any restrictions regarding the magnitude of displacements and rotations or, in other words, observe the geometrically exact (nonlinear) behaviour directly at the final equilibrium configuration. This work purposes to develop a comparative study between one of the approximated methods the one based on the so called B1 and B2 coefficients, recommended by the Brazilian code ABNT NBR 8800:2008 and a method based on geometrically exact analysis, to verify the similarities and differences of results. The computational tools employed are the softwares FTOOL and PEFSYS, based on linear and nonlinear rod theories, respectively.

Parmi les diverses modalités biométriques qui permettent l'identification des personnes, l'iris est considéré comme très fiable, avec un taux d'erreur remarquablement faible. Toutefois, ce niveau élevé de performances est obtenu en contrôlant la qualité des images acquises et en imposant de fortes contraintes à la personne (être statique et à proximité de la caméra). Cependant, dans de nombreuses applications de sécurité comme les contrôles d'accès, ces contraintes ne sont plus adaptées. Les images résultantes souffrent alors de diverses dégradations (manque de résolution, artefacts...) qui affectent négativement les taux de reconnaissance. Pour contourner ce problème, il est possible d’exploiter la redondance de l’information découlant de la disponibilité de plusieurs images du même œil dans la séquence enregistrée. Cette thèse se concentre sur la façon de fusionner ces informations, afin d'améliorer les performances. Dans la littérature, diverses méthodes de fusion ont été proposées. Cependant, elles s’accordent sur le fait que la qualité des images utilisées dans la fusion est un facteur crucial pour sa réussite. Plusieurs facteurs de qualité doivent être pris en considération et différentes méthodes ont été proposées pour les quantifier. Ces mesures de qualité sont généralement combinées pour obtenir une valeur unique et globale. Cependant, il n'existe pas de méthode de combinaison universelle et des connaissances a priori doivent être utilisées, ce qui rend le problème non trivial. Pour faire face à ces limites, nous proposons une nouvelle manière de mesurer et d'intégrer des mesures de qualité dans un schéma de fusion d'images, basé sur une approche de super-résolution. Cette stratégie permet de remédier à deux problèmes courants en reconnaissance par l'iris: le manque de résolution et la présence d’artefacts dans les images d'iris. La première partie de la thèse consiste en l’élaboration d’une mesure de qualité pertinente pour quantifier la qualité d’image d’iris. Elle repose sur une mesure statistique locale de la texture de l’iris grâce à un modèle de mélange de Gaussienne. L'intérêt de notre mesure est 1) sa simplicité, 2) son calcul ne nécessite pas d'identifier a priori les types de dégradations, 3) son unicité, évitant ainsi l’estimation de plusieurs facteurs de qualité et un schéma de combinaison associé et 4) sa capacité à prendre en compte la qualité intrinsèque des images mais aussi, et surtout, les défauts liés à une mauvaise segmentation de la zone d’iris. Dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, nous proposons de nouvelles approches de fusion basées sur des mesures de qualité. Tout d’abord, notre métrique est utilisée comme une mesure de qualité globale de deux façons différentes: 1) comme outil de sélection pour détecter les meilleures images de la séquence et 2) comme facteur de pondération au niveau pixel dans le schéma de super-résolution pour donner plus d'importance aux images de bonnes qualités. Puis, profitant du caractère local de notre mesure de qualité, nous proposons un schéma de fusion original basé sur une pondération locale au niveau pixel, permettant ainsi de prendre en compte le fait que les dégradations peuvent varier d’une sous partie à une autre. Ainsi, les zones de bonne qualité contribueront davantage à la reconstruction de l'image fusionnée que les zones présentant des artéfacts. Par conséquent, l'image résultante sera de meilleure qualité et pourra donc permettre d'assurer de meilleures performances en reconnaissance. L'efficacité des approches proposées est démontrée sur plusieurs bases de données couramment utilisées: MBGC, Casia-Iris-Thousand et QFIRE à trois distances différentes. Nous étudions séparément l'amélioration apportée par la super-résolution, la qualité globale, puis locale dans le processus de fusion. Les résultats montrent une amélioration importante apportée par l'utilisation de la qualité globale, amélioration qui est encore augmentée en utilisant la qualité locale / Among the large number of biometric modalities, iris is considered as a very reliable biometrics with a remarkably low error rate. The excellent performance of iris recognition systems are obtained by controlling the quality of the captured images and by imposing certain constraints on users, such as standing at a close fixed distance from the camera. However, in many real-world applications such as control access and airport boarding these constraints are no longer suitable. In such non ideal conditions, the resulting iris images suffer from diverse degradations which have a negative impact on the recognition rate. One way to try to circumvent this bad situation is to use some redundancy arising from the availability of several images of the same eye in the recorded sequence. Therefore, this thesis focuses on how to fuse the information available in the sequence in order to improve the performance. In the literature, diverse schemes of fusion have been proposed. However, they agree on the fact that the quality of the used images in the fusion process is an important factor for its success in increasing the recognition rate. Therefore, researchers concentrated their efforts in the estimation of image quality to weight each image in the fusion process according to its quality. There are various iris quality factors to be considered and diverse methods have been proposed for quantifying these criteria. These quality measures are generally combined to one unique value: a global quality. However, there is no universal combination scheme to do so and some a priori knowledge has to be inserted, which is not a trivial task. To deal with these drawbacks, in this thesis we propose of a novel way of measuring and integrating quality measures in a super-resolution approach, aiming at improving the performance. This strategy can handle two types of issues for iris recognition: the lack of resolution and the presence of various artifacts in the captured iris images. The first part of the doctoral work consists in elaborating a relevant quality metric able to quantify locally the quality of the iris images. Our measure relies on a Gaussian Mixture Model estimation of clean iris texture distribution. The interest of our quality measure is 1) its simplicity, 2) its computation does not require identifying in advance the type of degradations that can occur in the iris image, 3) its uniqueness, avoiding thus the computation of several quality metrics and associated combination rule and 4) its ability to measure the intrinsic quality and to specially detect segmentation errors. In the second part of the thesis, we propose two novel quality-based fusion schemes. Firstly, we suggest using our quality metric as a global measure in the fusion process in two ways: as a selection tool for detecting the best images and as a weighting factor at the pixel-level in the super-resolution scheme. In the last case, the contribution of each image of the sequence in final fused image will only depend on its overall quality. Secondly, taking advantage of the localness of our quality measure, we propose an original fusion scheme based on a local weighting at the pixel-level, allowing us to take into account the fact that degradations can be different in diverse parts of the iris image. This means that regions free from occlusions will contribute more in the image reconstruction than regions with artefacts. Thus, the quality of the fused image will be optimized in order to improve the performance. The effectiveness of the proposed approaches is shown on several databases commonly used: MBGC, Casia-Iris-Thousand and QFIRE at three different distances: 5, 7 and 11 feet. We separately investigate the improvement brought by the super-resolution, the global quality and the local quality in the fusion process. In particular, the results show the important improvement brought by the use of the global quality, improvement that is even increased using the local quality