We present ALMA observations of the Orion Nebula that cover the OMC1 outflow region. Our focus in this paper is on compact emission from protoplanetary disks. We mosaicked a field containing similar to 600 near-IR-identified young stars, around which we can search for sub-millimeter emission tracing dusty disks. Approximately 100 sources are known proplyds identified with the Hubble Space Telescope. We detect continuum emission at 1 mm wavelengths toward similar to 20% of the proplyd sample, and similar to 8% of the larger sample of near-IR objects. The noise in our maps allows 4 sigma detection of objects brighter than similar to 1.5 mJy, corresponding to protoplanetary disk masses larger than 1.5 M-J (using standard assumptions about dust opacities and gas-to-dust ratios). None of these disks are detected in contemporaneous CO(2-1) or (CO)-O-18(2-1) observations, suggesting that the gas-to-dust ratios may be substantially smaller than the canonical value of 100. Furthermore, since dust grains may already be sequestered in large bodies in Orion Nebula cluster (ONC) disks, the inferred masses of disk solids may be underestimated. Our results suggest that the distribution of disk masses in this region is compatible with the detection rate of massive planets around M dwarfs, which are the dominant stellar constituent in the ONC.

The thesis describes and assesses the current state of the transport network situation in the capital of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava. The core topic is a description of the problem areas, assessing the current status and evolution over time, for the urban public transport system.

This study has been prompted by the recent introduction of the JSE Alternative Exchange in South Africa, an alternative listing platform for smaller companies compared to the more established JSE Main Board Exchange. This new era has led to information asymmetry among current and prospective investors regarding the risk-return profile of the companies listed on the relatively new JSE Alternative Exchange and how this profile relates to the profile of firms listed on the long established JSE Main Board Exchange. In an attempt to fill the above information gap, this study sheds light on the short, medium and long-term performances of initial public offerings of companies listed on the JSE Alternative Exchange vis-a-vis that of JSE Main Board Exchange. This information is relevant for investment and financing decision making, principally for investors, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. The findings of this research appear to be contrary to expectations and to corporate finance theory. The results indicate that on average, initial public offerings by larger JSE Main Board companies outperform the smaller JSE Alternative Exchange companies on a nominal and risk-adjusted bases in the short-medium and long-term. It must be noted however that the differences in performance are not statistically significant. On the other hand, in line with documented evidence in the literature, it was found that the risk of returns on the smaller capitalisation JSE Alternative Exchange companies was indeed higher than that of the JSE Main Board companies. A similarity identified between the average performances of the two listing platforms is that, the returns for companies decreased overtime between the short and long-term. This may be partly due to the impact of the 2007 economic recession.

La thématique de la thèse est très vaste. Sont présentées les grandeurs cinématiques locales ou régionales qui agissent sur le corps humain. La deuxième partie de la thèse décrit les méthodes optiques, par lesquelles on peut mesurer les vibrations produites par les machines-outils sur le système humain main-bras au cours de l'activité au travail. Dans la troisième partie sont donnés les effets négatifs des vibrations qui se produisent sur le système humain main-bras pendant l'exposition aux vibrations. La quatrième partie de cette thèse contient la base théorique des techniques optiques utilisées pour mesurer les vibrations. Le chapitre cinq présente la méthodologie d'expérimentation pour mesurer les vibrations. Les résultats des mesures sont indiqués dans le sixième chapitre de la thèse. Dans le chapitre sept on présente la modélisation mécanique et mathématique du système humain main-bras avec trois degrés de liberté et le dernier chapitre contient les conclusions finales. / In the first part of the doctoral thesis are presented the local and global kinematics sizes which are acting on the human body. This is followsed with the optical methods by which we can measure the vibrations produced by the machine-tools and them action on the human hand-arm system during the work activity. In the third part are given the effects of vibrations that occur on the hand-arm system during the exposure of vibrations. The fourth part of this thesis contains the theorical basis of optical techniques used for vibrations measurement. Chapter five presents the experimental methodology of vibrations measurement in comparition betsween the two methods: classical and optical. The results of measurement are given in chapter six of the thesis. In chapter seven is given the mechanical and mathematical modeling of human hand-arm system with three degrees of freedom and the eighth chapter contains the final conclusions, the personal contributions and the future research directions.

Les gestes de la main représentent un moyen naturel et intuitif de communication chez l'homme lui permettant d'interagir avec son environnement dans la vie de tous les jours. Ils permettent notamment de ponctuer et de renforcer l'expression orale d'un dialogue entre personnes. Outre la communication entre individus, les gestes de la main permettent de manipuler des objets ou encore d'interagir avec des machines. Avec le développement de la vision par ordinateur, on assiste à un véritable engouement pour de nouveaux types d'interactions qui exploitent le mouvement de la main et qui passent par une étape d'analyse et de reconnaissance du mouvement afin d'aboutir à l'interprétation des gestes de la main. La réalisation d'un tel objectif ouvre un large champ d'applications. C'est dans ce cadre que se positionne le travail réalisé au cours de cette thèse. Les objectifs visés étaient de proposer des méthodes pour: 1) permettre le transfert d'animation depuis une séquence réelle vers un modèle 3D représentant la main. Dans une telle perspective, le suivi permet d'estimer les différents paramètres correspondant aux degrés de liberté de la main. 2) identifier les gestes de la main en utilisant une base de gestes prédéfinie dans le but de proposer des modes d'interactions basés sur la vision par ordinateur. Sur le plan technique, nous nous sommes intéressés à deux types d’approches : le premier utilise un modèle 3D de la main et le deuxième fait appel à une base de gestes / Hand gestures take a fundamental role in inter-human daily communication. Their use has become an important part of human-computer interaction in the two last decades. Building a fast and effective vision-based hand motion tracker is challenging. This is due to the high dimensionality of the pose space, the ambiguities due to occlusion, the lack of visible surface texture and the significant appearance variations due to shading. In this thesis we are interested in two approaches for monocular hand tracking. In the first one, a parametric hand model is used. The hand motion tracking is first formulated as an optimization task, where a dissimilarity function between the projection of the hand model under articulated motion and the observed image features, is to be minimized. A two-step iterative algorithm is then proposed to minimize this dissimilarity function. We propose two dissimilarity functions to be minimized. We propose also in this thesis a data-driven method to track hand gestures and animate 3D hand model. To achieve the tracking, the presented method exploits a database of hand gestures represented as 3D point clouds. In order to track a large number of hand poses with a database as small as possible we classify the hand gestures using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Applied to each point cloud, the PCA produces a new representation of the hand pose independent of the position and orientation in the 3D space. To explore the database in a fast and efficient way, we use a comparison function based on 3D distance transform. Experimental results on synthetic and real data demonstrate the potentials of ours methods

O aumento da demanda por água potável em função do crescimento populacional, vem sendo objeto de estudo de diversos pesquisadores que buscam meios de otimizar o uso desse recurso. Desse modo, ao longo dos anos os equipamentos sanitários foram sendo aperfeiçoados para tornarem-se mais eficientes. Uma preocupação é o impacto nos ramais e coletores de sistemas prediais de esgotos sanitários, uma vez que os componentes economizadores ao demandarem menos água em sua operação, retornam vazões menores para a rede predial de esgoto sanitário e, consequentemente, geram ondas menores que impactam negativamente na autolimpeza dos condutos horizontais. Nesse sentido, o objetivo da pesquisa foi investigar, em laboratório, as vazões e profundidades da lâmina d´água do escoamento em ramais e coletores do sistema de esgotos sanitários de edifícios residenciais unifamiliares, tendo em vista a redução de diâmetros de 100 mm para 75 mm. A pesquisa foi realizada em laboratório vertical, onde foi montada uma configuração típica de um banheiro residencial, localizada no pavimento superior. Foram utilizadas bacias sanitárias com volume nominal de descarga de 6 L e 4,8 L, um chuveiro com vazão constante de 0,20 L/s e um lavatório com vazão constante de 0,15 L/s. As bacias sanitárias foram ensaiadas para calibração, segundo a NBR 15097 (ABNT, 2011) e ambas obtiveram resultados satisfatórios em todos os requisitos dessa norma. Foram variados os diâmetros dos ramais e coletores prediais de 100 mm para 75 mm, com e sem a contribuição da vazão em regime permanente de 0,35 L/s proveniente de um chuveiro e um lavatório e as declividades variadas em 0%, 1% e 2% nos ramais e 1%, 2% e 3% nos coletores de esgoto. Avaliou-se a influência dos parâmetros declividade, volume de descarga, presença ou não de vazão em regime permanente e diâmetro da tubulação, sobre a velocidade de escoamento da água. Concluiu-se que a redução dos diâmetros dos ramais e coletores de esgoto e a redução do volume de descarga de 6 L para 4,8 L contribuíram para o aumento da velocidade da onda sob as condições de estudo em todo o trecho ensaiado, ou seja, no trecho compreendido entre a bacia sanitária e o tubo de queda e ao longo de todo comprimento de 3 m do coletor de esgoto predial. Não foi estudada a influência da variação dos parâmetros sobre a velocidade de onda em trechos além do coletor de esgoto predial. Sob as condições de estudo, observou-se que a declividade não influencia, de maneira geral, no desempenho do sistema nos trechos ensaiados. A presença de uma vazão em regime permanente contribui para amortizar a energia da onda de descarga da bacia sanitária no ramal de descarga e consequentemente, reduz a velocidade de escoamento da água, o que pode contribuir para a piora do requisito de autolimpeza neste trecho da tubulação. No coletor de esgoto, não foi possível concluir que a presença de vazão em regime permanente tem impacto sobre a velocidade de escoamento da água. Por fim, conclui-se ser possível a redução dos diâmetros dos ramais e coletores do sistema predial de esgoto sanitário. / The increase in the demand for drinking water due to the population growth has been the object of study of several researchers who seek ways to optimize the use of this resource. In this way, over the years sanitary equipment has been improved to become more efficient. One concern is the impact on drains and main drains of building drainage system, since the economizing components, while using less water in their operation, return smaller flows to the sanitary sewage network and consequently lead to the formation of smaller waves that contribute to the self-cleaning of pipes. In this sense, the objective of the research was to investigate, in the laboratory, the flows and the depths of the flow in drains and main drains of residential building drainage system, in order to reduce diameters from 100 mm to 75 mm. The research was carried out in a vertical laboratory, where a typical configuration of a residential bathroom located on the second floor of a two story building was set up. A toilet with a nominal discharge volume of 6 L and 4,8L, a shower with a constant flow rate of 0.20 L/s and a lavatory with a constant flow rate of 0.15 L/s were used. The toilets were tested according to NBR15097 (ABNT, 2011) for calibration and both obtained satisfactory results in all the requirements of this standard. The diameters of the drains and main drains were varied from 100 mm to 75 mm with and without the contribution of the continuous flow rate of 0.35 L/s from a shower and lavatory and the slopes varying in 0%, 1% and 2% in the drains and 1%, 2% and 3% in the main drain. The influence of the parameters like slope, discharge volume, presence or not of continuous flow rate and pipe diameter, on the water flow velocity were evaluated. It was concluded that the reduction of the diameters of the drains and main drains and the reduction of the volume of discharge from 6 L to 4.8 L contribute to the increase of the velocity of the wave in the whole parts of the drain and main drain. It was not studied the influence of the variation of the parameters on the wave velocity on parts beyond the main drain. It was observed that the slope variation does not influence in general performance of the system. The presence of a continuous flow rate contributes to amortize the discharge wave energy from the toilet at the drains and consequently reduces the flow velocity of the water, which may contribute on deterioration of the self-cleaning requirements in this section of the pipeline. In the main drain, it was not possible to conclude that the presence of permanent flow has an impact on the flow velocity of the water.

Os condutores horizontais dos sistemas de coleta de esgotos sanitários, no Brasil e em quase todos os países do mundo, tem sido dimensionados considerando-se o escoamento em regime permanente, o que na realidade não ocorre. Sabendo-se que o escoamento no interior destes condutores acontece em regime não permanente, caracterizado pelo movimento de ondas, devido a aleatoriedade de uso dos aparelhos. Neste trabalho, apresentamos o estudo do escoamento não permanente, verificado, nos ramais e coletores dos sistemas de coleta de esgotos sanitários de edifícios residenciais. As equações diferenciais da continuidade e da quantidade de movimento, que regem este escoamento, são resolvidas pelo método das características. Apresentamos, também, os resultados e análise de várias simulações do programa de computador desenvolvido com base no método das características pelo professor Swaffield, da Universidade Heriot-Watt, Escócia. Os dados de entrada para estas simulações foram obtidos a partir de ensaios laboratoriais de algumas configurações de ambientes sanitários brasileiros, também apresentados neste trabalho. Os resultados destas simulações mostram que a consideração do escoamento em regime não permanente, possibilita a redução dos diâmetros dos ramais e coletores, e consequentemente, a redução dos custos destes sistemas. / Usually horizontal waste pipes of Building Drainage Systems, in Brazil and almost all of countries in the world, are dimensioned considering a steady flow, that does not exist. The random use of the sanitary appliances connected to the Drainage Systems of the building is the responsible for the unsteady flow. We present a study of unsteady partially filled pipeflow for drains and sewers. The differential equations of continuity and motion are solved via the method of characteristics. We present, also, the results and analysis of several simulations using a computational program developed by Prof. Swaffield-Heriot - Watt University, Scotland. The data entry were obtained through laboratorial tests which considered brazilian bathroom configurations, presented in this work. The results show us that the consideration of unsteady flow conduct to the reductions of horizontal waste pipes diameters, consequently to the reduction of the Building Drainage Systems costs.

Only within the last decade has supramolecular chemistry begun to adopt the Group 15 elements into its field of research. This dissertation presents a supramolecular approach to the self-assembly and reactivity of Group 15 metalloids, specifically arsenic and antimony, with organothiolate ligands. Investigating the self-assembly of pnictogen-based coordination complexes allows for in-depth characterization of the chemical behavior of arsenic, antimony and other Group 15 elements. Currently, the infiltration of arsenic into global groundwater systems has developed into a worldwide health concern. There are no chelating agents available for public use in the treatment of arsenic poisoning which are capable of binding arsenic (III) in its preferred coordination geometry thereby hindering the selectivity for rapid chelation. Chapter I is a review covering two important characteristics observed in the Group 15 elements: 1) a stabilizing, non-covalent cation-π interaction aiding in the formation of pnictogen-aryl thiolates, and 2) an observed lack of selectivity in environments containing multiple pnictogen ions which enables transmetalation of the complexes to occur or the generation of heterometallic assemblies. Based on the discovery of this new transmetalation reactivity, the remainder of the dissertation explores the effects of external additives during self-assembly in order to understand how they may affect the reactivity of these self-assembled complexes and provide insight into formation mechanisms. Chapter II identifies a catalyst for the acceleration of a slow self-assembly reaction between AsCl3 and a dithiolate ligand to give an As2L3 cryptand. Chapter III examines the oxidation of the arsenic cryptand using iodine, which leads to the self-assembly of a series of differently sized, discrete disulfide-bridged macrocycles. In Chapter IV, the self-assembly of the first trinuclear arsenic- and antimony-based coordination complexes was studied, revealing interesting solvent dependent conformational isomerism in solution. Chapter V applies the pnictogen-enhanced iodine oxidation to the synthesis of known and new cyclophanes using supramolecular chemistry, including the self-assembly and covalent capture of an unprecedented tetrahedral thiacyclophane. Additionally, an unusual trithioorthoformate capped tricyclophane cage was also synthesized and isolated by pnictogen-activated oxidation. Chapter VI includes the conclusion and future directions for the project. This dissertation includes co-authored material and previously published results. / 10000-01-01

Neste trabalho são apresentados diversos métodos de localização de vazamentos, desde as técnicas e equipamentos mais elementares, como a inspeção visual e o geofone mecânico, até o uso dos sofisticados armazenadores de ruídos e de modelação computacional. Algumas dessas técnicas são amplamente difundidas e largamente utilizadas pelas empresas de saneamento, outras porém, constituem-se em ótimas promessas para o aperfeiçoamento do controle das perdas físicas nos sistemas de abastecimento. É dada ênfase na utilização do diagrama de resposta em freqüência para localizar e quantificar vazamentos, com especial aplicação às adutoras de água tratada. A técnica de utilização da resposta em freqüência desenvolvida por Lee et al. (2005) é esmiuçada, inclusive acerca do impacto que um vazamento impõe ao diagrama de resposta em freqüência. São abordadas as formas de obtenção do referido diagrama, tanto do ponto de vista do modelo matemático e computacional, quanto dos ensaios de campo necessários. / This work presents some methods for leak location, from de most elementary techniques and equipments, as visual inspection and mechanical geophone, until using sophisticated noise data-logger and computational modeling. Some of these techniques are very well issued and largely used by water companies, but others play excellent promises for the improvement of leak control in systems of water supply. The pattern of the frequency response diagram is used for leak location and quantification, with special application in drinking water pipelines. The frequency response technique developed by Lee et al. (2005) is studied in details, including the impact produced by the leak on the frequency response diagram. The ways to obtain the frequency response diagram, by using mathematical and computational models or necessary field data survey, are also discussed.

As estrelas Herbig Ae/Be (HAeBe) representam os objetos de massa intermediária (2-10 Msol) na pré-sequência principal. Algumas de suas propriedades físicas são pouco compreendidas até o momento. Somente o estudo conjunto das informações fornecidas em diversos comprimentos de onda pode revelar as características do material circunstelar destes objetos. O objetivo deste trabalho de doutorado é analisar sob vários aspectos a estrutura, a composição e a evolução destes ambientes circunstelares. Para realização deste estudo, adotamos a amostra de candidatas a estrelas HAeBe detectadas pelo Pico dos Dias Survey (Vieira et al. 2003). Evitamos as possíveis contaminações desta amostra por estrelas em estágios mais avançados utilizando diagramas de cores, estimativas de extinção e características espectrais. A química da poeira circunstelar foi analisada a partir das propriedades dos espectros ISO disponíveis para nossos objetos. O perfil espectral do silicato em torno de 10 microns revelou características evolutivas do material circunstelar. O status evolutivo dos objetos mais embebidos foi determinado por meio de estimativas da massa de seus envoltórios circunstelares. Este estudo indicou que a maior parte desta sub-amostra se encontra no estágio intermediário entre a Classe 0 (Menv>>M*) e a Classe I (Menv<M*) de estrelas jovens. Detalhes da morfologia do disco de PDS340 foram analisados por imagens no infravermelho-médio, obtidas em bancos de dados. Estas observações impuseram vínculos à extensão e orientação espacial do disco nesta faixa espectral. As observações disponíveis em vários comprimentos de onda revelaram características da estrutura e evolução do material circunstelar associado a estrelas HAeBe. A perspectiva do desenvolvimento de um modelo completo que abranja todas estas informações é descrita na conclusão do trabalho. / Herbig Ae/Be (HAeBe) objects are intermediate mass (2 -10 Msun) stars in the pre-main sequence. Some of their properties remain not well understood to date. Only a full multi-wavelength study is able to reveal a reasonable scenario for their circumstellar material. The purpose of the present work is to study the structure, composition and evolution of these circumstellar environments. To address this issues, the sample of HAeBe candidates detected by the Pico dos Dias Survey (Vieira et al., 2003) was adopted. To avoid the contamination by more evolved stars, we developed an analysis based on two-color diagrams, extinction values and spectral features. The chemistry of the circumstellar dust was studied based on Infrared Space Observatory spectra available to our sample. The silicate feature around 10 micron revealed evolutionary information of the circumstellar material. The evolutionary stage of the more embedded sources was determined by estimates of their envelope masses. This study indicates almost all of this sub-sample to be in the intermediate phase between Class 0 (Menv>>Msun) and Class I (Menv<Msun). Mid-infrared images, retrieved from archive data, introduced morphological constraints to the orientation and extension of the disk associated to PDS340. The available observations for several wavelengths revealed some characteristics of the structure and evolution of the circumstellar material associated to HAeBe stars. The perspective of the development of a complete model, which encompasses all the available data, is described in the conclusion of this work.