abstract: This report analyzed the dynamic response of a long, linear elastic concrete bridge subject to spatially varying ground displacements as well as consistent ground displacements. Specifically, the study investigated the bridge’s response to consistent ground displacements at all supports (U-NW), ground displacements with wave passage effects and no soil profile variability (U-WP), and ground displacements with both wave passage effects and soil profile variability (V-WP). Time-history ground displacements were taken from recordings of the Loma Prieta, Duzce, and Chuetsu earthquakes. The two horizontal components of each earthquake time-history displacement record were applied to the bridge supports in the transverse and longitudinal directions. It was found that considering wave passage effects without soil profile variability, as compared with consistent ground displacements, significantly reduced the peak total energy of the system, as well as decreasing the maximum relative longitudinal displacements. The maximum relative transverse displacements were not significantly changed in the same case. It was also found that including both wave passage effects and soil profile variability (V-WP) generally resulted in larger maximum transverse relative displacements, across all earthquake time-histories tested. Similarly, it was found that using consistent ground displacements (U-NW) generally resulted in larger maximum longitudinal relative displacements, as well as larger peak total energy values. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2019

This study examines adolescents' perceptions of parents behavior. The purpose is to reveal the adolescents' perceptions of parents behavior at the point of autonomy, control, hostility, positive interest, incoherence. 508 adolescents from 7th and 9th classes of schools in Siauliai were polled using CRPBI modified questionnaire. The rezults showed, that autonomy, positive interest are more expressed in teenagers' perceptions then control and hostility. Bigger control determines less incoherence in the interaction, which is more characteristic for mothers. perceptions of autonomy in parents' behavior by younger girls are the most expressed. Such factors like positive interest, autonomy, hostility and control are more expressed at the point of mothers then fathers.

Embora firewall seja um assunto bastante discutido na área de segurança da informação, existem lacunas em termos de verificação de firewalls. Verificações de firewalls têm o intuito de garantir a correta implementação dos mecanismos de filtragem e podem ser realizadas em diferentes níveis: sintaxe das regras; conformidade com a política; e relacionamento entre as regras. Os aspectos referentes a erros de sintaxe das regras são geralmente tratados pela ferramenta de filtragem em uso. O segundo nível, no entanto, depende da existência de uma política formal e documentada, algo não encontrado na maioria das organizações, e de uma metodologia eficaz que, através da entrada da política de segurança e do conjunto de regras de firewall implementado, possa comparálas e apontar as discrepâncias lógicas entre a especificação (política) e a implementação (regras). O último, verificação dos relacionamentos entre regras, não requer qualquer documentação, uma vez que somente o conjunto de regras do firewall é necessário para a identificação de incoerências entre elas.Baseado nessas considerações, este trabalho objetivou o estudo e a definição de uma metodologia para a análise de relacionamentos entre regras, apontando erros e possíveis falhas de configuração. Três metodologias já existentes foram estudadas, analisadas e utilizadas como base inicial para uma nova metodologia que atingisse os requisitos descritos neste trabalho. Para garantir a efetividade da nova metodologia, uma ferramenta protótipo foi implementada e aplicada a três estudos de caso. / Although firewalls are a well discussed issue in the information security field, there are gaps in terms of firewall verification. Firewall verification is aimed at enforce the correct filtering mecanisms implementation and can be executed in three distinct levels: rules syntax, policy compliance and rules relationship. The aspects related to rule syntax errors are usually addressed by the filtering tool in use. However, the second level depends on the existance of a formalized and documented policy, something not usual in most organizations, and on an efficient metodology that, receiving the security policy and the firewall rules set as inputs, could compare them and point logical discrepancies between the specification (policy) and the implementation (rules set). The last level, rules relationship verification, doesn't require any previous documentation, indeed only the firewall rule set is required to conduct a process of rules incoherencies identification. Based on those considerations, this work aimed at studying and defining a methodology for analysis of rules relationships, pointing errors and possible misconfigurations. Three already existent methodologies were studied, analyzed and used as a initial foundation to a new methodology that achieve the requirements described in this work. To assure the effectivity of the new methodology, a prototype tool were implemented and applied to three case studies.

Embora firewall seja um assunto bastante discutido na área de segurança da informação, existem lacunas em termos de verificação de firewalls. Verificações de firewalls têm o intuito de garantir a correta implementação dos mecanismos de filtragem e podem ser realizadas em diferentes níveis: sintaxe das regras; conformidade com a política; e relacionamento entre as regras. Os aspectos referentes a erros de sintaxe das regras são geralmente tratados pela ferramenta de filtragem em uso. O segundo nível, no entanto, depende da existência de uma política formal e documentada, algo não encontrado na maioria das organizações, e de uma metodologia eficaz que, através da entrada da política de segurança e do conjunto de regras de firewall implementado, possa comparálas e apontar as discrepâncias lógicas entre a especificação (política) e a implementação (regras). O último, verificação dos relacionamentos entre regras, não requer qualquer documentação, uma vez que somente o conjunto de regras do firewall é necessário para a identificação de incoerências entre elas.Baseado nessas considerações, este trabalho objetivou o estudo e a definição de uma metodologia para a análise de relacionamentos entre regras, apontando erros e possíveis falhas de configuração. Três metodologias já existentes foram estudadas, analisadas e utilizadas como base inicial para uma nova metodologia que atingisse os requisitos descritos neste trabalho. Para garantir a efetividade da nova metodologia, uma ferramenta protótipo foi implementada e aplicada a três estudos de caso. / Although firewalls are a well discussed issue in the information security field, there are gaps in terms of firewall verification. Firewall verification is aimed at enforce the correct filtering mecanisms implementation and can be executed in three distinct levels: rules syntax, policy compliance and rules relationship. The aspects related to rule syntax errors are usually addressed by the filtering tool in use. However, the second level depends on the existance of a formalized and documented policy, something not usual in most organizations, and on an efficient metodology that, receiving the security policy and the firewall rules set as inputs, could compare them and point logical discrepancies between the specification (policy) and the implementation (rules set). The last level, rules relationship verification, doesn't require any previous documentation, indeed only the firewall rule set is required to conduct a process of rules incoherencies identification. Based on those considerations, this work aimed at studying and defining a methodology for analysis of rules relationships, pointing errors and possible misconfigurations. Three already existent methodologies were studied, analyzed and used as a initial foundation to a new methodology that achieve the requirements described in this work. To assure the effectivity of the new methodology, a prototype tool were implemented and applied to three case studies.

Embora firewall seja um assunto bastante discutido na área de segurança da informação, existem lacunas em termos de verificação de firewalls. Verificações de firewalls têm o intuito de garantir a correta implementação dos mecanismos de filtragem e podem ser realizadas em diferentes níveis: sintaxe das regras; conformidade com a política; e relacionamento entre as regras. Os aspectos referentes a erros de sintaxe das regras são geralmente tratados pela ferramenta de filtragem em uso. O segundo nível, no entanto, depende da existência de uma política formal e documentada, algo não encontrado na maioria das organizações, e de uma metodologia eficaz que, através da entrada da política de segurança e do conjunto de regras de firewall implementado, possa comparálas e apontar as discrepâncias lógicas entre a especificação (política) e a implementação (regras). O último, verificação dos relacionamentos entre regras, não requer qualquer documentação, uma vez que somente o conjunto de regras do firewall é necessário para a identificação de incoerências entre elas.Baseado nessas considerações, este trabalho objetivou o estudo e a definição de uma metodologia para a análise de relacionamentos entre regras, apontando erros e possíveis falhas de configuração. Três metodologias já existentes foram estudadas, analisadas e utilizadas como base inicial para uma nova metodologia que atingisse os requisitos descritos neste trabalho. Para garantir a efetividade da nova metodologia, uma ferramenta protótipo foi implementada e aplicada a três estudos de caso. / Although firewalls are a well discussed issue in the information security field, there are gaps in terms of firewall verification. Firewall verification is aimed at enforce the correct filtering mecanisms implementation and can be executed in three distinct levels: rules syntax, policy compliance and rules relationship. The aspects related to rule syntax errors are usually addressed by the filtering tool in use. However, the second level depends on the existance of a formalized and documented policy, something not usual in most organizations, and on an efficient metodology that, receiving the security policy and the firewall rules set as inputs, could compare them and point logical discrepancies between the specification (policy) and the implementation (rules set). The last level, rules relationship verification, doesn't require any previous documentation, indeed only the firewall rule set is required to conduct a process of rules incoherencies identification. Based on those considerations, this work aimed at studying and defining a methodology for analysis of rules relationships, pointing errors and possible misconfigurations. Three already existent methodologies were studied, analyzed and used as a initial foundation to a new methodology that achieve the requirements described in this work. To assure the effectivity of the new methodology, a prototype tool were implemented and applied to three case studies.

Sweden has one of the highest biogas potentials in the world and has been a leader in reducing fossil fuels in the transportation industry. With a goal of achieving a 70% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in domestic transport by 2030 compared to 2010 levels and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, despite the potential advantages of biogas implementation, its adoption in the Swedish transport sector has been limited. Sweden's transportation sector is a significant source of carbon dioxide emissions, accounting for approximately 31% of the country's total emissions. Making it an important sector to address the efforts of Sweden in reducing its carbon footprint. The slow progress of biogas uptake in the sector has been attributed to several factors, but policy incoherence appears to be a key issue. By using qualitative methods, this study investigates the identified problem and involves four interviews. The results indicate that the challenges associated with the problem are tax exemption, limited support for exported biogas, unequal competition between biogas and other renewable alternatives, lack of knowledge regarding biogas benefits and a lack of political will. The solutions to these issues on the other hand involve increasing awareness, supporting imported and exported biogas, promoting collaboration between different actors, and ensuring equal competition between biogas and other renewable alternatives.

La représentation des connaissances et le raisonnement sur le Web sémantique se sont récemment concentrés, pour des raisons pratiques, sur le sous-ensemble de la logique du premier ordre appelé règles existentielles. Dans cette thèse, nous étudions le raisonnement avec des règles existentielles en présence d'informations contradictoires et introduisons un raisonnement existentiel défaisible. Nous proposons trois résultats principaux: Premièrement, nous montrons que les techniques de raisonnement défaisibles classiques doivent être revisitées pour les règles existentielles et étudions leurs défis théoriques et de mise en œuvre. Deuxièmement, nous fournissons une nouvelle structure combinatoire qui permet de capturer diverses variantes du raisonnement défaisable et étudions son expressivité et sa polyvalence. Troisièmement, nous évaluons notre travail par rapport à l'état de l'art dans le traitement des incohérences et des inconsistances dans les règles existentielles et étudions l'intérêt humain de telles techniques de raisonnement. / Knowledge representation and reasoning on the Semantic Web has recently focused, due to practical rationale, on the subset of first order logic called existential rules. In this thesis we investigate reasoning with existential rules in presence of conflicting information and introduce defeasible existential rule reasoning. We provide three main salient results as follows. First we show that classical defeasible reasoning techniques need to be revisited for existential rules and study their theoretical and implementation related challenges. Second, we provide a new combinatorial structure that allows for diverse variants of defeasible reasoning to be captured together and study its expressivity and versatility. Third we evaluate our work with respect to the state of the art in inconsistency handling in existential rules and investigate the human appeal of such reasoning techniques.

The two-noise source model for predicting jet noise claims that the radiated jet noise is composed of two distinct sources one associated with the small-scale turbulence and another associated with the large-scale turbulence. The former source is claimed to radiate noise predominantly at larger angles with respect to the downstream jet axis, whereas the large-scale turbulence radiates predominantly at the shallower angles. A key objective of this effort is to experimentally validate this model using correlation and coherence measurements. Upon the successful validation of the two-noise source model for jets exhausting from multiple nozzle geometries driven at Mach numbers ranging from subsonic to supersonic, a three-microphone signal enhancement technique is employed to separate the contribution of the small-scale turbulence from that of the large-scale turbulence in the far-field. This is the first-ever quantitative separation of the contributions of the turbulence scales in far-field jet noise measurements. Furthermore, by suitable selection of far-field microphone positions, the separation of the contribution of any internal or core noise from that of the jet-mixing noise is achieved. Using coherence-based techniques to separate the contributions of the small-scale turbulence, large-scale turbulence, and any internal or core noise from far-field exhaust noise measurements forms the backbone of this effort. In the application of coherence-based multiple-microphone signal processing techniques to separate the contributions of the small-scale turbulence, large-scale turbulence, and any internal or core noise in the far-field, research efforts focus on three techniques (1) the coherent output power spectrum using two microphones, (2) an ordinary coherence method using the three-microphone technique, and (3) the partial-coherence method using five microphones. The assumption of jet noise incoherence between correlating microphone is included in each of these methods. In light of the noise radiation mechanisms described within the framework of the two-noise source model and their spatial characteristics as experimentally determined in the far-field, the assumption of jet noise incoherence is evaluated through a series of experiments designed to study jet noise coherence across a variety of nozzle geometries and jet Mach numbers ranging from subsonic to supersonic. Guidelines for the suitable selection of far-field microphone locations are established.

La thèse concerne le problème de la curiosité naturelle. La première partie clarifie la notion biologique d’instinct et abstrait dix-sept propriétés observables définissant l’instinct et permettant l’étude empirique de systèmes instinctifs en laboratoire. La seconde partie clarifie le problème de la curiosité naturelle, expose celui de l’intelligence humaine et détaille l’évolution du comportement exploratoire au cours de la phylogénie. La notion d’instinct est appliquée à la description de l’acquisition de connaissances chez l’homme. Les conséquences théoriques de cette application sont détaillées. La logique de la curiosité est examinée aux niveaux philosophique, historique, psychologique, biologique et mathématique. Un modèle formel de l’acquisition de connaissances est proposé. La relation entre apprentissage et conflit cognitif est soulignée. Le paradoxe de l’intelligence est décrit formellement. Des pistes théoriques sont proposées pour faciliter l’étude de la relation entre sens et connaissance. La troisième partie clarifie le problème de la satisfaction de la curiosité naturelle et déploie les conséquences théoriques d’une série d’expériences menée en Europe sur le problème des émotions esthétiques. L’hypothèse selon laquelle les émotions esthétiques correspondraient à une satisfaction de la curiosité naturelle est examinée aux niveaux biologique et psychologique. Le cas particulier de la relation entre température et cognition observable dans le cas des frissons non-thermorégulateurs est discuté et une série d’hypothèses physiques et biologiques sont proposées. Un modèle formel de la fluence de traitement est introduit pour faciliter son étude empirique. Une description mathématique du frisson psychogénique est proposée. Une description mathématique de la tension narrative est proposée. En annexe sont détaillés les résultats d’une série de cinq études psychophysiologiques concernant les frissons psychogéniques. Ces cinq études ont été répliquées avec succès trois fois sur deux populations européennes distinctes. Les résultats démontrent notamment que l’incohérence inhibe les frissons psychogéniques positifs. / The thesis concerns the problem of natural curiosity. The first part deals with the biological notion of the instinct and abstracts seventeen observable properties allowing the empirical study of instinctual systems in the laboratory. The second part clarifies the problem of natural curiosity, exposes that of human intelligence and details the evolution of exploratory behavior in the course of phylogeny. The notion of the instinct is applied to the description of knowledge-acquisition in humans. The theoretical consequences of this application are detailed. The logic of curiosity is examined at the philosophical, historical, psychological, biological and mathematical levels. A formal model of knowledge-acquisition is proposed. The relation between learning and conflict is underlined. The paradox of intelligence is described formally. Several theoretical leads are proposed to facilitate the study of the relation between knowledge and meaning. The third part deals with the problem of curiosity’s satiation and deploys the theoretical consequences of a series of experiments conducted in Europe regarding the problem of aesthetic emotions. The hypothesis that aesthetic emotions might correspond to a satiation of natural curiosity is examined at the biological and psychological levels. The particular case of the relation between temperature and cognition as observed in the case of non-thermoregulatory shivering is discussed and a series of physical and biological hypotheses are proposed. A formal model of processing fluency is introduced to facilitate its empirical study. A mathematical description of psychogenic shivering is proposed. A mathematical description of narrative tension is proposed. In the appendix, the results of a series of five psychophysiological studies concerning psychogenic shivers are detailed. These fives studies have been successfully replicated three times in two distinct European populations. Among others, the results demonstrate that incoherence inhibits positive psychogenic shivering.

The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate the effects of coherence in the corporate branding process. Specifically, this thesis defines and develops the concept of corporate brand coherency (CBC) using four antecedents and four dimensions, and investigates the effects of incongruence based on the advertising antecedent by manipulating ad-brand congruence. Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), the research tests whether two-sided messages aid the resolution of incongruence following central route processing and whether greater number of arguments could act as a peripheral cue. Accordingly, a conceptual model was developed to test the effects of ad-brand congruence, message sidedness and argument quantity on corporate credibility, attention and elaboration, attitude towards the ad and attitude towards the corporate brand. To empirically test this model an online experiment (using a 3x2x2 between-subjects factorial design) was conducted, where subjects were exposed to a modified print advertisement for a grocery store. A total of 528 responses were collected from New Zealand Internet users. Two- and three-way ANCOVAs as well as path analysis was used to analyse the hypothesised relationships. The results indicate support for CBC, as it was found that congruence led to positive evaluations and higher corporate credibility. Two-sided messages were not found to be effective in reducing the negative effect of incongruence. Instead, two-sided messages led to less favourable evaluations of incongruence. Regardless of the incongruence, the results show that two-sided messages did not lead to positive evaluations, while an increased number of arguments did lead to more favourable attitudes. Overall, the findings show the ELM is not applicable to explain consumers’ responses to incongruence, as incongruence was not found to affect message processing. Additionally, there was no support that message sidedness and argument quantity, respectively, acted as central and peripheral cues. Furthermore, findings indicate that incongruity in advertising can lead to positive evaluations when consumers have a negative prior brand attitude. The theoretical and managerial implications as well as directions for future research based on these findings are discussed.