As alternativas de reciclagem se apresentam com elevado potencial para acrescentar ganho à capacidade estrutural de um pavimento, simultaneamente, aproveitando os materiais compostos do pavimento existente, acarretando benefícios econômicos e ambientais, quando comparadas às soluções de reconstrução tradicionais. Diversos métodos de reciclagem de pavimentos têm sido aplicados no Brasil, particularmente, a reciclagem com adição de cimento, entretanto, não há um método consolidado para o dimensionamento estrutural dessa solução, o que gera dificuldades e muitas vezes desconfiança no seu emprego. Para se desenvolver um procedimento de dimensionamento que contemple esse tipo de solução, foram estudados métodos presentes na bibliografia internacional. Uma abordagem detalhada sobre cada método é apresentada, denotando seus principais aspectos, resultando em uma proposta de procedimento para o dimensionamento estrutural de pavimentos com camadas recicladas com cimento, de forma a atender a metodologia do Manual de Pavimentação do Departamento Nacional de Infraestrutura de Transportes (DNIT) aplicando conceitos de análise mecanicista. A fim de corroborar os assuntos abordados, foi realizado um estudo paramétrico com o desenvolvimento de equações para correlação entre as deformações críticas esperadas na estrutura reciclada, resultando em modelos de dimensionamento para a camada reciclada com cimento e, por fim, o estudo de caso com o dimensionamento estrutural pelos métodos abordados em segmentos da rodovia SP 270. / Recycling alternatives are presented with a high potential to add gain to the structural capacity of a pavement, making use of the existing pavement composite materials while bringing economic and environmental benefits when compared to traditional reconstruction techniques. Several methods of pavement recycling have been applied in Brazil, particularly the recycling with cement addition; however, there is no consolidated method for the structural design of this solution, which generates difficulties and often distrust regarding its employment. In order to develop a design procedure taking into account this sort of solution, methods described in international bibliography have been examined. A detailed approach to each method denoting its main aspects is presented, resulting in a proposed procedure for the structural design of pavements with cement recycled layers so as to comply with the methodology contained in the Paving Manual of National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT) by applying concepts of mechanistic analysis. In order to corroborate the issues discussed, a parametric study has been carried out with the development of equations to correlate the critical deformations expected in the recycled structure, resulting in design models for the cement recycled layer and finally, the case study of a structural design on segments of Highway SP 270 using the methods discussed.

Este trabalho apresenta uma análise numérica e experimental sobre o comportamento estrutural de ligações parafusadas viga-pilar com chapa de topo estendida. Discute-se, em particular, o comportamento da chapa de topo e dos parafusos na determinação da capacidade resistente dessas ligações. A análise de resultados numéricos é utilizada como base para as discussões neste trabalho e a modelagem numérica, realizada em elementos finitos com o software ANSYS, incluiu modelos tridimensionais de ligações com chapa de topo estendida e de ligações duplo “T". Com os resultados numéricos e experimentais, os mecanismos de transferência dos esforços entre viga e pilar e os mecanismos de plastificação da chapa de topo e dos parafusos são observados, avaliando-se as linhas de plastificação na chapa de topo em confronto com a metodologia proposta pelo Eurocode 3 na determinação dos perfis “T" equivalentes. Para esses fatores, observou-se que os modos de falha indicados pelo Eurocode 3 não representam satisfatoriamente o comportamento das ligações analisadas. A modelagem numérica, por sua vez, mostrou-se generalista e representativa como ferramenta para análises paramétricas e como complemento de análises experimentais / This work presents a numerical and experimental analysis on the structural behavior of bolted beam-column extended end plate connections. The behavior of the end plate and bolts used in the calculations of the end plate strength is specially discussed. Numerical results are used as basis to the discussions presented in this work and the modeling methodology, with FE models built with the ANSYS code, included 3D models of extended end plate and T-stub connections. The beam-to-column load transfer mechanisms and the yielding mechanisms at end plates and bolts are observed using numerical and experimental results. The yielding lines at the end plate are evaluated against the methodology proposed by Eurocode 3 for the calculations on the equivalent T-stub. Regarding the aforementioned factors, it is shown that the collapse modes indicated by Eurocode 3 do not represent satisfactorily the behavior of the analyzed connections. The numerical modeling was found to be general in application and reliable as a tool for parametric analyses and as a complement to experiments

Este trabalho tem por objetivo estudar todas as parcelas de custos que envolvem os pavimentos flexíveis e rígidos durante sua vida em serviço, abordando os custos de construção, de manutenção e reabilitação e os custos de operação dos veículos. Inicialmente, tem-se a análise dos métodos utilizados para o dimensionamento dos pavimentos flexíveis e rígidos, bem como dos custos associados a diferentes procedimentos construtivos utilizados no Brasil, visando o estabelecimento dos custos de construção. Os custos de manutenção e reabilitação são determinados a partir da identificação das principais formas de deterioração dos pavimentos. Os custos de operação dos veículos, que incidem diretamente sobre os usuários e dependem, principalmente, da condição da superfície de rolamento, são calculados com base em modelos de desempenho de programas de gerência de pavimentos utilizados por organismos rodoviários brasileiros. Para uma maior abrangência da análise comparativa de pavimentos flexíveis e rígidos foi elaborada uma programação fatorial de simulações. A comparação dos custos dos pavimentos flexíveis e rígidos é proveniente da análise dos custos totais obtidos para todas as combinações de fatores intervenientes (células da matriz fatorial). Os fatores utilizados são: tipo de subleito, materiais e espessuras das camadas (métodos de dimensionamento), solicitações e volume de tráfego e estratégia de manutenção e reabilitação dos pavimentos. / This research work aims to determine and compare the total cost for both, rigid and flexible pavements. Thus, it analyzes all components of costs related to flexible and rigid pavements during their service lives, i.e., construction cost, maintenance and rehabilitation cost and users cost. For the determination of the construction cost it is considered the most used pavement design methods, as well construction procedures used in Brazil. The maintenance and rehabilitation cost is calculated based on the identification of the main distress types for both flexible and rigid pavements that occur in Brazil. The users cost, function of the pavement surface condition, is calculated from performance models used by Brazilian highway agencies. For a broader comparison of rigid and flexible pavements it is performed a factorial analysis. The main factors to be considered are: subgrade type, pavement layer material and thickness, traffic load and volume, maintenance and rehabilitation strategy. The simulations for the determination of total cost will be done for each cell of the factorial matrix, i.e., for each combination of factors.

Este trabalho apresenta considerações sobre os custos de pavimentos rígidos, abordando os custos de construção, os custos de manutenção e reabilitação e os custos de operação dos veículos. Apresenta, inicialmente, uma revisão dos fatores intervenientes no dimensionamento de pavimentos rígidos, particularmente os métodos adotados pela Associação Brasileira de Cimento Portland (ABCP) e pela American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), e os procedimentos construtivos mais utilizados no Brasil. As atividades de manutenção e reabilitação são associadas às principais formas de deterioração dos pavimentos rígidos, tomando-se como referência, neste trabalho, o Manual de Identificação de Defeitos do Programa SHRP. Quanto aos custos que incidem sobre os usuários e que dependem, principalmente, da condição da superfície de rolamento, são analisadas a influência da curva de desempenho e a estimativa elos custos ele operação dos veículos a partir ela irregularidade longitudinal dos pavimentos. Desenvolve-se uma programação fatorial de simulações que tem como fatores o método ele dimensionamento, o módulo de reação do subleito e o volume de tráfego. Analisam-se, ao final, a importância relativa desses fatores sobre cada urna das parcelas que compõem o custo total de um pavimento rígido. / This work analyses the costs of rigid pavements, that are compound by construction, maintenance and rehabilitation, and user costs. It is presented the basic concepts of rigid pavement design, mainiy the Brazilian Association of Portland Cement (ABCP) and the American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) methods, and the construction procedures most used in Brazil. The maintenance and rehabilitation activities are related to rigid pavement distresses, and in this work the reference is the Distress Identification Manual developed by the SHRP Program. In terms of user costs, which are due to pavement rolling condition, it is analyzed the importance of performance trends and the estimation of user costs from pavement roughness. It is developed a factorial simulation program considering the following factors: rigid pavement design method, modulus of subgrade reaction, and traffic volume. It is analyzed the relative effects of each factor on the rigid pavements total cost.

abstract: Locomotion is of prime importance in enabling human beings to effectively respond in space and time to meet different needs. Approximately 2 million Americans live with an amputation with most of those amputations being of the lower limbs. To advance current state-of-the-art lower limb prosthetic devices, it is necessary to adapt performance at a level of intelligence seen in human walking. As such, this thesis focuses on the mechanisms involved during human walking, while transitioning from rigid to compliant surfaces such as from pavement to sand, grass or granular media. Utilizing a unique tool, the Variable Stiffness Treadmill (VST), as the platform for human walking, rigid to compliant surface transitions are simulated. The analysis of muscular activation during the transition from rigid to different compliant surfaces reveals specific anticipatory muscle activation that precedes stepping on a compliant surface. There is also an indication of varying responses for different surface stiffness levels. This response is observed across subjects. Results obtained are novel and useful in establishing a framework for implementing control algorithm parameters to improve powered ankle prosthesis. With this, it is possible for the prosthesis to adapt to a new surface and therefore resulting in a more robust smart powered lower limb prosthesis. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Biomedical Engineering 2019

Current two dimensional face recognition methods rely on visible photometric or geometric attributes that are present in the intensity image. In many of these approaches a technique called Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is extensively used. PCA extracts the maximum intensity variations from the set of input images in the form of "eigen" faces which are used as a feature vector. In these approaches the intensity images used were mostly that of the subject's frontal face, which yielded promising results after doing PCA. These approaches however fail in the presence of facial expression, unstable lighting conditions and artifacts such as make-up, glasses etc. Thus, it is desirable to establish a new biometric source that will be least affected bythe afore mentioned factors. This study describes a face recognition method that is designed based on the consideration of anatomical and biomechanical characteristics of facial tissues. During facial expressions such as smile, frown, anger etc, various muscles get activated in tandem. A strain pattern inferred from a face expression can reveal an individual's signature associated with the underlying anatomical structure, and thus has the potential for face recognition. In this study, the strain is computed by measuring the displacement of a point on the face that results from a facial expression such as opening the mouth. The information provided by the change in the depth value for the face across the open and close mouth frames does not provide any information required for computing the strain maps, because the strain map depends on the relative displacements of two points on the face, which remains same with rigid motions of the face such as rotation and translation. Hence the information in the 2D spaceis sufficient to compute strain since the depth is assumed constant. The approach used to calculate strain computes the strain distribution directly using the mathematical definition of strain as the derivative of displacement in 2D space (XY plane). The strain values obtained are converted to gray scale intensity images, which are used as inputs for the intensity based PCA analysis. Experiments were conducted using 62 subjects. The data set comprised of two pairs of images for a subject: closed mouth and open mouth under bright and low light. Analysis of CMC and ROC curves indicate that the proposed strain map biometric is a promising new biometric that has the potential to improve the performance of current face recognition method. In summary, the contribution of this thesis is twofold: 1. Facial strain map proves to be promising new biometric. 2. Strain map helps increase the identification rate when used in conjunction with intensity based biometric as a multi-classifier.

This thesis is a report on the design, synthesis and molecular structure of a set of chiral Co(III) metal complexes, in the solution and solid state. The complexes that have been synthesised will potentially intercalate between the base pairs of DNA. The structure of the bound tetradentate ligand, S,S-picchxnMe2 in the solid state was investigated to determine the flexibility of this seemingly rigid ligand. The bidentate ligands, R- and S-glu, were also bound to the Co complex and the differences in the tetradentate ligand were observed. The differences observed in the bonded tetradentate ligands were due to the chirality of the bonded amino acid. The aromatic amino acids, R- and S-phe, were used as bidentate ligands because of their ability to intercalate with DNA. Several scientific experiments were conducted and the results analysed in great depth / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The purpose of this report is to cover the procedure of creating and explaining how to use a tool kit that allows the haptic Application Programming Interface (API) H3D from SenseGraphics to be used in conjunction with an advanced physics simulator from Meqon. Both haptic applications and physics engines have developed rapidly the last couple of years but they are rarely used together. If such a connection would be created it would be possible to interact with complex environments in a new way and a variety of haptic applications can be produced.</p><p>The physics engine from Meqon has gained recognition for its abilities to produce realistic results due to efficient implementation of collision detection system, friction models and collision handling, among other things. H3D is a completely open source API that is based on standards such as OpenGL and X3D. H3D consists of a data base containing nodes, an XML parser to extract a scene graph from the data base and functionality to produce a graphic and haptic interface.</p><p>The tool kit produced in this thesis is an extension to H3D. A fundamental function of the tool kit is to communicate with the Meqon system and still be a part of the H3D structure. The Meqon system has a modular structure where each module has its own abilities. Only the rigid body module is utilised by the tool kit, which however is the most important module. It is possible to define global settings of the engine and rigid body module, add rigid bodies with several elements and insert constraints on the motion of the rigid bodies into the engine. All of these operations are done from the X3D file format that H3D uses, thus letting all functionality of the H3D system available.</p>

This dissertation describes the development and results of a physiological rigid body forward solution mathematical model that can be used to predict normal knee and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) kinematics and kinetics. The simulated activities include active extension and weight-bearing deep knee bend. The model includes both the patellofemoral and tibiofemoral joints. Geometry of the normal or implanted knee is represented by multivariate polynomials and modeled by constraining the velocity of lateral and medial tibiofemoral and patellofemoral contact points in a direction normal to the geometry surface. Center of mass, ligament and muscle attachment points and normal knee geometry were found using computer aided design (CAD) models built from computer tomography (CT) scans of a single subject. Quadriceps forces were the input for this model and were adjusted using a unique controller to control the rate of flexion, embedded with a controller which stabilizes the patellofemoral joint. The model was developed first using normal knee parameters. Once the normal knee model was validated, different total knee arthroplasty (TKA) designs were virtually implanted. The model was validated using in vivo data obtained through fluoroscopic analysis. In vivo data of the extension and deep knee bend activities from five non-implanted knees were used to validate the normal model kinematics. In vivo kinematic and kinetic data from a telemetric TKA with a tibia component instrumented with strain gauges was used to validate the kinematic and kinetic results of the model implanted with the TKA geometry. The tibiofemoral contact movement matched the trend seen in the in vivo data from the one patient available with this implant. The maximum axial tibiofemoral force calculated with the model was in 3.1% error with the maximum force seen in the in vivo data, and the trend of the contact forces matched well. Several other TKA designs were virtually implanted and analyzed to determine kinematics and bearing surface kinetics. The comparison between the model results and those previously assessed under in vivo conditions validates the effectiveness of the model and proves that it can be used to predict the in vivo kinematic and kinetic behavior of a TKA.

This research presents a procedure for interactive segmentation and automatic tracking of moving objects in a video sequence. The user outlines the region of interest (ROI) in the initial frame; the procedure builds a refined mask of the dominant object within the ROI. The refined mask is used to model a spline template of the object to be tracked. The tracking algorithm then employs a motion model to track the template through a sequence of frames and gathers the 3D affine motion parameters of the object from each frame. The extracted template is compared with a previously stored library of 3D shapes to determine the closest 3D object. If the extracted template is completely new, it is used to model a new 3D object which is added to the library. To recreate the motion, the motion parameters are applied to the 3D object in a virtual environment. The procedure described here can be applied to industrial problems such as traffic management and material flow congestion analysis.