Robotic bin picking is the problem of emptying a bin of randomly distributedobjects through a robotic interface. This thesis examines an SVM approach to ex-tract grasping points for a vacuum-type gripper. The SVM is trained on syntheticdata and used to classify the points of a non-synthetic 3D-scanned point cloud aseither graspable or non-graspable. The classified points are then clustered intograspable regions from which the grasping points are extracted. The SVM models and the algorithm as a whole are trained and evaluated againstcubic and cylindrical objects. Separate SVM models are trained for each type ofobject in addition to one model being trained on a dataset containing both typesof objects. It is shown that the performance of the SVM in terms accuracy isdependent on the objects and their geometrical properties. Further, it is shownthat the algorithm is reasonably robust in terms of successfully picking objects,regardless of the scale of the objects.

Esta tese propõe um recurso léxico de verbos com anotação de papéis semânticos, denominado VerbLexPor, baseado em recursos como VerbNet, PropBank e FrameNet. As bases teóricas da proposta são interdisciplinares e retiradas da Linguística de Corpus e do Processamento de Linguagem Natural (PLN), visando-se a contribuir para a Linguística e para a Computação. As hipóteses de pesquisa são: a) um mesmo conjunto de papéis semânticos pode ser aplicado a diferentes gêneros textuais; e b) as diferenças entre esses gêneros se destacam no ranqueamento dos papéis semânticos. O desenvolvimento do VerbLexPor se apoia em dois corpora: um especializado, com mais de 1,6 milhão de palavras, composto por artigos científicos de Cardiologia de três periódicos brasileiros; e um não especializado, com mais de 1 milhão de palavras composto por artigos do jornal popular Diário Gaúcho. Os corpora foram anotados com o parser PALAVRAS, e as informações de sentenças, verbos e argumentos foram extraídas e armazenadas em um banco de dados. O VerbLexPor tem 192 verbos e mais de 15 mil argumentos anotados distribuídos em mais de 6 mil sentenças. Observou-se que o corpus do Diário Gaúcho privilegia uma sintaxe direta e pouco uso de voz passiva e adjuntos, enquanto o corpus de Cardiologia apresenta mais voz passiva e um maior uso de INSTRUMENTOS na posição de sujeito, além de uma menor incidência de AGENTES. Foram realizados também alguns experimentos paralelos, como a anotação de papéis semânticos por vários anotadores e o agrupamento automático de verbos. Na tarefa de múltiplos anotadores, cada um anotou exatamente as mesmas 25 orações. Os anotadores receberam um manual de anotação e um treinamento básico (explicação sobre a tarefa e dois exemplos de anotação). Usou-se o cálculo de multi-π para avaliar a concordância entre os anotadores, e o resultado foi de π = 0,25. Os motivos para essa concordância baixa podem estar na falta de um treinamento mais completo. A tarefa de agrupamento de verbos mostrou que a sintaxe e a semântica são igualmente importantes para o agrupamento. Este estudo contribui para a área de Linguística, com um léxico de verbos anotados semanticamente, e também para a Computação, com dados que podem ser consultados e processados para diversas aplicações do PLN, principalmente por estarem disponíveis nos formatos XML e SQL. / This dissertation aims at developing a lexical resource of verbs annotated with semantic roles, called VerbLexPor, and based on other resources, such as VerbNet, PropBank, and FrameNet. The theoretical bases of this study lies in Corpus Linguistics and Natural Language Processing (NLP), so that it aims at contributing to both Linguistics and Computer Science. The hypotheses are: a) one set of semantic roles can be applied to different genres; and b) the differences among genres are shown by the ranking of semantic roles. The development of VerbLexPor has two corpora at the basis: a specialized one, with more than 1.6 million words, composed by scientific papers in the field of Cardiology from three Brazilian journals; and a non-specialized one, with more than 1 million words, composed by newspaper articles from Diário Gaúcho. The corpora were analyzed with the parser PALAVRAS, and sentence, verb and argument information was extracted and stored in a database. VerbLexPor has 192 verbs and more than 15 thousand arguments annotated with semantic roles, distributed among more than 6 thousand sentences. We observed that Diário Gaúcho has a more direct syntax, with less passive voice and adjuncts, while Cardiology has more passive voice and more INSTRUMENTS for subjects, and fewer AGENTS. We also conducted some parallel experiments, such as semantic role labeling with multiple annotators and automatic verbal clustering. In the multiple annotators task, each of them annotated exactly the same 25 sentences. They received an annotation manual and basic training (explanation on the task and two annotation examples). We used multi-π to evaluate agreement among annotators, and results were π = 0,25. Reasons for this low agreement may be a lack of a thoroughly developed training. The verbal clustering task showed that syntax and semantics are equally important for verbal clustering. This study contributes to Linguistics, with a verbal lexicon annotated with semantic roles, and also to Computer Science, with data that can be assessed and processed for various NLP applications, especially because the data are available in both XML and SQL formats.

xix, 187 p. : ill. (some col.) / In Chapter II I analyze eco-labeling in the tourism industry, specifically the impact of the Blue Flag label for marinas and beaches on prices of marina slip rentals, weekly sailboat charter prices and hotel accommodation prices. The principal findings include that Blue Flag certified marinas appear to enjoy an average premium between 6.6% and 22% for their daily slip rental prices, between 40% and 49% for their monthly slip rental prices, and 23% for their yearly slip rental prices. Within the sailboat charter sector, vessels whose home marina is awarded the Blue Flag on average carry a price premium between 14% and 20% on a weekly sailboat rental. When it comes to hotel accommodation, hotels managing a Blue Flag certified beach enjoy a price premium between 45% and 270%. In Chapter III I employ a dataset on the global frequency of climate-change-related natural disasters to explain the probability of the start and occurrence, in a given year, of civil war and civil war durations during the last half of the 20th century. Extreme cold events are found to have a measurable positive effect on the probability of civil war starting in the affected countries, previous years' extreme heat events have a positive effect on the probability of a civil war occurring in a given year, and droughts have a positive effect on civil war duration. These findings can be used by policymakers as they contemplate climate change mitigation policies. In Chapter IV I investigate the determinants of ratification delay of a major oil pollution international environmental agreement, MARPOL. Importantly, I analyze the impact of oil spills, as well as various country characteristics, on the time a country takes to ratify MARPOL. The major contribution lies in the examination of impacts of environmental pollution events on international political decision making. I find that the amount of oil spilled decreases the time to ratify MARPOL. This is the first study that seeks to address this issue in a quantitative fashion. The results should inform policymakers by giving them insight into relevant determinants of legislative delay in ratifying treaties. / Committee in charge: Dr. Trudy Ann Cameron, Chairperson; Dr. Wesley W. Wilson, Member; Dr. Benjamin Hansen, Member; Dr. Ronald Mitchell, Outside Member

No description available.

Master of Science / Department of Food Science / Delores H. Chambers / Background: The US Food and Drug Administration proposed various updates to the nutrition fact panel, which included change to font, type size, addition of nutrients, and declaring absolute values. The rational was the new panel will provide consumers with more accurate and clear information, which may result in better food choices. Objective: This study examines whether participants perception of nutrient information and/or sensory properties will change based on proposed nutrition panel display format. Design: An online questionnaire was developed, and participants were randomized and selected to view the current nutrition label or the proposed nutrition label. The questionnaire was divided into three parts; (1) demographic information, (2) questions related to specific items of interest on the nutrition panel, (3) responses to questions after viewing each of five different food labels. Subjects/Setting: US food shoppers over 18 years of age who read food labels (n=1221) completed the online questionnaire. Statistical Analysis: Descriptive statistics were used for the analysis of participants demographic information. A Chi-square test were applied to test for significant differences between the current and proposed nutrition panels. Results: The study reveals that the top items of interest and importance viewed on both the proposed and current nutrition panel were similar. More than 30 percent of participants selected added sugar, sugar, and sodium, may affect sensory characteristic. The nutrition panels showed distinct differences in descriptive attributes across the five food categories, and significant differences between the current and proposed labels included “too sweet,” “nutritious,” “healthy,” “nutrient dense,” “balanced nutrition” and “artificial”. Conclusion: Consumers’ perceptions are impacted with the proposed nutrition panel. This study emphasized that consumers may be unclear about the labeling of added sugar. Government agencies, industry and those who impact health care will need to provide additional education to make sure consumers are clear about the labeling of added sugar.

Le travail méthodologique mis en place durant cette thèse a consisté en l'optimisation des acquisitions et des traitements de données pour l'imagerie quantitative de la perfusion cérébrale et de la vasoréactivité en ASL. Dans un premier temps, une méthode originale pour mesurer la largeur du bolus des spins marqués appelée BoTuS (Bolus Turbo Sampling) a été mise en place et validée afin d'améliorer la quantification de la perfusion cérébrale basale en ASL. Les acquisitions en ASL pulsé ont été comparé aux mesures de perfusion en premier passage gadolinium et en premier passage de produit de contraste iodé en scanner X sur des patients atteints de tumeurs cérébrales. Dans un second temps, afin d'améliorer la qualité des cartes de vasoréactivité en ASL, des analyses des variations physiologiques des sujets ont été implémenté afin d'être utilisé comme modèle dans l'analyse statistique des données. Enfin, ces méthodes optimisées au niveau de l'acquisition et de la chaîne traitement ont été appliquées sur des populations de sujets sains et de patients afin de les valider. Les applications cliniques ont été menées sur des patients porteurs de la maladie d'Alzheimer où l'on a montré une baisse de la vasoréactivité par rapport aux témoins âgés. La perfusion cérébrale et la vasoréactivité de sujets atteints de sténoses a été étudié. Enfin, une étude avant et après acclimatation à l'altitude a montré qu'un séjour de 7 jours à 4365 m augmente le débit sanguin cérébral et diminue la vasoréactivité cérébrale. / The methodological aspects implemented during this Ph.D. thesis consisted of the optimization of the acquisitions and data processing of ASL imaging for quantitative assessment of cerebral perfusion and vasoreactivity. First of all, an original technique called BoTuS (Bolus Turbo Sampling) was implemented and validated,with the aim to render the quantification of the pulsed ASL signal more robust. Cerebral blood flow measurements obtained using pulsed ASL were compared to gold standard techniques such as the first passage of gadolinium MRI and CT-scan perfusion in a population of patients with treated brain tumors. Secondly, a new processing technique was tested, taking into account the physiological state of the subject during the exam to model the ASL signal during the vasoreactivity paradigm, and thus to provide more reliable maps at the subject level. Finally, these methods were applied in various studies on healthy subjects and patients. A decrease in vasoreactivity was found in Alzheimer disease patients compared to elderly subjects. Studies on patients with severe stenosis were conducted to test our methods at the subject level. An increase in CBF and a decrease in vasoreactivity in subjects exposed to high altitude at 4365 m during 7 days was demonstrated and correlated to transcranial Doppler results.

Introdução: O consumidor tem o direito a informações sobre a composição nutricional dos alimentos industrializados, possibilitando escolhas saudáveis. Para isto, a Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária torna obrigatória a rotulagem nutricional dos alimentos comercializados. Objetivo: Avaliar a conformidade dos dados nutricionais presentes em rótulos de alguns alimentos embalados, comumente consumidos pelo público infantil, com o seu valor experimental, obtido através de análises por métodos oficiais e, desta forma, inferir a qualidade da informação disponível ao consumidor. Métodos: Foi feita a comparação dos dados declarados em rótulos de alimentos com os obtidos no laboratório. Foram selecionados alguns alimentos embalados consumidos pelo publico infantil, como salgadinhos de milho e de trigo de sabores e formas variadas, alguns tipos de batata frita, amendoim, biscoitos recheados, wafers, chocolates recheados ao leite e bombons de chocolate ao leite recheados. Foram avaliados os teores de proteínas, gorduras totais, gorduras saturadas, fibra alimentar e sódio, utilizando os métodos descritos nas "Normas Analíticas do Instituto Adolfo Lutz". O valor de carboidratos foi calculado pela diferença entre 100 e a soma da umidade, cinzas, protídios, gorduras totais e fibra alimentar, conforme a Resolução no 360/2003 da ANVISA. O valor calórico foi calculado utilizando-se os fatores de Atwater. Os dados foram tratados estatisticamente pela distribuição de freqüência percentual e foi calculado um Intervalo de Condenação a partir destes resultados. Resultados: O Intervalo de Condenação para o teor de proteína declarado na rotulagem nutricional variou de 0 a 50% sendo o maior índice para batata frita. Para o teor de carboidratos variou de 0 a 40%, sendo maiores para o amendoim e o salgadinho de milho. Quanto às gorduras saturadas, observou-se um Intervalo de Condenação entre 12 a 41%, sendo maior para a batata frita, amendoim e salgadinho de milho. Para o teor de fibra alimentar, variou de 8 a 69%. O Intervalo de Condenação para o teor de gorduras totais variou de 0 a 85% sendo que o maior índice observado foi para o salgadinho de milho. Quanto ao teor de sódio variou entre 4 e 72%. Para os produtos doces o Intervalo de Condenação do teor de gorduras totais variou entre 0 e 75%, sendo maior para o bombom recheado. O teor de gorduras saturadas a variação foi entre 0 e 52% sendo maior para o biscoito recheado, enquanto que, para o teor de fibra alimentar, foi entre 0 e 36% sendo a maior taxa para o biscoito recheado. O Intervalo de Condenação do teor de proteína variou entre 10 e 40%, sendo maior para o bombom recheado. Conclusão: Dentre os produtos analisados a batata frita, o salgadinho de milho e o amendoim tiveram a maior contribuição de condenações para parâmetros de teor de proteínas, carboidratos, fibra alimentar e ácidos graxos saturados, destacando-se como índices mais altos os teores de ácidos graxos saturados e de fibra alimentar. Quanto aos produtos doces o bombom recheado, o biscoito recheado e o wafer foram os que apresentaram maior Intervalo de Condenação para gordura total, gordura saturada e fibra alimentar. Os resultados permitem inferir que as informações na rotulagem nutricional nos produtos destinados ao público infantil e adolescentes não estão adequadas / The consumers have the right to informations about both the characteristics and the nutritional composition of the foods they buy, allowing them for healthy choices. Therefore, the Sanitary Inspection National Agency (ANVISA) makes nutritional labeling of the commercialized foods obligatory. Must be informed, among the nutritional informations, the following nutrients rates: carbohydrates, proteins, total fats, saturated fats, trans fats, sodium, alimentary fibers, and caloric value. Objective: The purpose of this work was to evaluate the conformity of nutritional data present in the labels of some packed foods, normally consumed by children, its experimental value being obtained by means of analyses by official methods, leading to an evaluation of the quality of the information available to the consumer. Methods: The data declared in foods labels were compared with those obtained in the laboratory. Some packed foods consumed by children were choose, like corn and wheat products of different flavors and forms, some types of potato chips, peanuts, filled biscuits, wafer biscuts, and filled milk chocolate, both in bars and in bonbons. The rates of proteins, total fats, saturated fats, alimentary fibers and sodium were evaluated utilizing the methods described in the "Normas Analíticas do Instituto Adolfo Lutz". The value for carbohydrates was calculated by the difference between 100 and total amount of humidity, ash, proteins, total fats and alimentary fibers, according to the Resolution 360 of ANVISA. The caloric value was calculated utilizing the Atwater factors. The data were treated statistically by the distribution of percent frequency. Results: The non-compliance of the protein rates declared on the nutritional labeling oscillated between 0 to 50%, with the highest index in the potato chips, that of carbohydrates varied between 0 and 40%, with the highest indexes found in peanuts and wheat snacks, that of saturated fat, 12 to 41%, the highest indexes being found in potato chips, peanuts and corn snacks, whilst fiber presented non-compliance going from 8 to 69%, whereby all products did not comply, total fats, 0 to 85%, the highest index found in the corn snacks. About the sodium, the disapproval interval oscillated between 12 and 72%. With regard to the sweet products, the condemnation interval for total fats oscillated from 0 to 75%, the highest percent rate being found in the chocolate bonbons. Saturated fats presented a disapproval interval between 0 to 52%, the widest one found in the filled biscuits. As for fibers, the disapproval interval went from 0 to 36%, the highest percent rate being found in the chocolate bonbons. The protein disapproval interval oscillated from 10 to 40%, the highest being in the filled milk chocolate bars and in the bonbons. Conclusion: Among the analyzed products, potato chips, corn snacks, and peanuts presented the highest disapproval rates by the parameters of proteins, carbohydrates, fiber, and saturated fat, where the rates of saturated fat acids and fiber stood out. Among the sweet products, chocolate bonbons, filled biscuits and wafer biscuits were the most condemned according to the parameters of total fats, saturated fats and fiber, leading to a preoccupation about the daily ingestion of these products by children and adolescents

The labeling of buildings specified by technical regulations of energy efficiency quality level s presents the technical requirements and the methods for the classification of commercial buildings, services and publics regarding energy efficiency. The work consisted in the application of this regulation in the design phase of the public building the will house the convenience center for elderly in town of Doutor Maurício Cardoso RS. Starting from the experience of application of regulation, was evaluated the applicability of it, from the viewpoint of the evaluator and, from the analysis of the influence of variables that determine the building s classification, was analyzed the application of regulations from the point of view of architectural practice. The prescriptive method, which is contained in regulations, was used for general and partial classification of efficiency levels of building. The three main requirements were considered, established by legislation: Envelopment, lighting and air conditioning system. In order to draw conclusions about the real influences of the variables that determine the efficiency level of the building were created hypothetical scenarios. The work presents itself as a major issue, since the application of the methodology of the regulations, can be used as a design tool, encouraging the use of energy efficient solutions from design architectural, contributing to the performance of increasingly efficient buildings vigorously. It was possible to observe, with the obtained results, regarding the applicability of the regulations, and some difficulties regarding the presentation the data necessary for such, the classification of naturally ventilated environments is prejudiced due to the numerical equivalent of ventilation that can only be obtained through simulation. Regarding the variables that determine the efficiency, stands out the negative ways behave in some variations of the angles of shadowing. In artificially conditioned buildings, the efficiency of the envelopment along with the conditioning system interfere with the classification, whereas the remaining transitional environments are not conditioned, aspect that also contributes to the efficiency. / A Etiquetagem de edifícios especificada pelos Requisitos Técnicos da Qualidade do Nível de Eficiência Energética - RTQ apresenta os métodos para a classificação de edifícios comerciais, de serviços e públicos quanto à eficiência energética. O trabalho consistiu na aplicação do RTQ na fase de projeto da edificação pública que abrigará o Centro de Convivência do Idoso no município de Doutor Maurício Cardoso-RS. Partindo da experiência de aplicação do RTQ, foi avaliada a aplicabilidade do mesmo sob a ótica do avaliador e, a partir da análise da influência das variáveis que determinam a classificação do edifício, foi analisada a aplicação sob o ponto de vista da prática arquitetônica. O método prescritivo, que consta no RTQ, foi utilizado para classificação geral e parcial do nível de eficiência da edificação. O fato de o edifício ser naturalmente condicionado obriga a utilização da simulação na classificação geral, entretanto neste trabalho, este método não foi utilizado e o equivalente numérico da ventilação EqNumV adotado foi o mínimo. Foram considerados os três requisitos principais estabelecidos pela normativa: Envoltória, Sistema de Iluminação e Condicionamento de ar. No intuito de obter conclusões sobre as reais influências das variáveis que determinam o nível de eficiência energética do edifício, foram criados cenários hipotéticos. O trabalho apresenta-se como um tema relevante, já que a aplicação da metodologia do regulamento técnico pode ser utilizada como uma ferramenta de projeto, incentivando o uso de soluções energeticamente eficientes desde a concepção arquitetônica, contribuindo para execução de edificações cada vez mais eficientes energeticamente. Com os resultados obtidos foi observado que no que se refere à aplicabilidade do RTQ, além de algumas dificuldades em relação à apresentação dos dados necessários para tal, a classificação dos ambientes naturalmente ventilados é prejudicada em função do equivalente numérico da ventilação somente poder ser obtido através de simulação. Quanto às variáveis que determinam a eficiência, destaca-se o comportamento negativo em algumas variações dos ângulos de sombreamento. E, no que se refere à prática arquitetônica, em edifícios condicionados artificialmente, a eficiência da envoltória juntamente com o sistema de condicionamento interferem consideravelmente na classificação final, considerando que os ambientes de permanência transitória não são condicionados, aspecto que também contribui para eficiência.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:27:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:05:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Labeling of mental ill people The mentally disturbed people are still nowadays afraid of theire illness. By then they don´t either concede, that they need help from psychiatrists. They become so anxiuos, that they could be legitimately, stigmatized by the rest of the people, which means, that could be labelled as irresponsible, dull, incalculate and dangerous. In Czech Republic it still happens, that as a result of labeling people find hard to get and mantain theire jobs, housing and overvaluation of illnes by doctors. In Czech Republic there is still not a specific law, which could safeguard the rights of mentally ill people hence make it easier for intergrating them. The aim of this thesis, which was dividen into three partial aims, was to map problems of mentally ill people. In my opinion, this aim of work was fulfilled To it´s fulfillment it was composed with two questionnaires. The first inquiry survey was done on the students from University of Southern Bohemia, by which was tested the knowledge of probles of mentally ill people and their attitude towards these people. The second group of surveyed inquiry have been comprised of psychiatristic clients in České Budějovice and Písek, by which was established their personal point of view about the extent of labeling that is reverberating in their qualiy life. The achievement of the aims was based on three the hypothesis. The first one was about the personal view of clients on experienced stigmatization, which is beeing noticed by the stages of discrimination in their quality way of life. The second one was engaged in insufficient knowledge of students based on law statues of mentally ill people and the third one on integration of mentally ill people into other population. Only the first hypothesis was validated.