Este projeto de pesquisa propõe-se a analisar a presença da mídia na obra Partes Humanas, da israelense Orly Castel-Bloom. A escritora traz à luz Israel com um cenário apocalíptico, em que cada ser humano só tem olhos para si e vive, em meio a uma atmosfera de caos, a luta por sua sobrevivência. O pânico diário e a insatisfação crônica são as marcas registradas dos diferentes seres humanos que, por extensão, moldam e são moldados pelo cenário fragmentado, nebuloso e trágico em que vivem no país. Nessa obra pós-sionista, os meios de comunicação assumem um papel primordial, pois não se restringem a ser um reflexo dessa sociedade, mas procuram influenciá-la com o que transmitem. Pobreza, violência, guerra e sofrimento estão presentes nas pautas dos meios de comunicação de forma quase cinematográfica. Assim, a mídia contribui para espetacularizar a vida humana. / This research project aims to examine the role of the media in the book Human Parts, of the Israeli Orly Castel-Bloom. The writer describes Israel in an apocalyptic scenary, in which each person thinks only of themselves. The people live in a chaotic atmosphere, fighting for their survival. The existential panic and the chronic dissatisfaction are present in different characters who, by extension, influence and are influenced by the fragmented, murky and tragic context, in which they live. In this post-Zionist book, the media has a primordial role, not only is it a mirror of the society, but it is also influenced by what is heard and seen in it. Poverty, violence, war, suffering: everything is present in their lives and in the media as if it were in a movie. In this way, the media contributes to sensationalize human life.

Les performances d’un système de reconnaissance de formes dépendent en bonne partie de la qualité de l’image segmentée. Malgré les progrès effectués, une segmentation complète (c’est-à-dire avec des contours entiers) ne peut pas être toujours atteinte. Dans un premier temps, nous nous plaçons dans le cas où seulement certaines parties de la forme entière sont disponibles. D’abord, afin d’assurer l’invariance des parties de formes aux transformations géométriques, nous développons une méthode d’optimisation de l’analyse procustéenne qui consiste à retrouver les points extrémités optimaux qui minimisent la distance de Procutse. Ensuite, nous proposons une approche de reconnaissance de parties de formes et une approche de reconnaissance de formes partielles. Ces deux approches, basées-contour, sont fondées sur un recalage robuste entre les parties de formes. La méthode de recalage proposée consiste à optimiser une mesure de similarité basée sur les géodésiques dans l’espace de formes. Ainsi, nous exploitons le résidu du recalage pour définir une nouvelle métrique pour la reconnaissance de parties de formes. Puis, nous décrivons une stratégie de combinaison avec cette même métrique pour la reconnaissance de formes partielles. Par la suite, nous proposons d’utiliser la distance géodésique proposée pour la reconnaissance des parties de formes dans la définition d’une métrique globale pour la reconnaissance de formes entières. Les tests de reconnaissance (classification et recherche) sont effectués sur des parties requêtes et des formes entières de la base d’images MPEG-7, puis sur des images réelles segmentées. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent la supériorité de nos méthodes par rapport aux autres méthodes de l’état de l’art. / The quality of the segmentation process directly affects the performance of the shape recognition. Despite the progress that has been made, it is often unreachable to segment the entire object (i.e. closed contour). In fact, only some parts/fragments of objects can be detected. We first develop a new alignment method based on Procrustes analysis in order to ensure invariance of shape parts to geometric transformations (translation, rotation and scale factor). The proposed method consists in finding optimal extremities which minimize the Procrustes distance. Then, we propose a shape part recognition approach and a partial shape recognition approach. These two contour-based approaches are based on matching between shape parts to compare. This matching process consists in establishing a robust registration between shape parts based on geodesics in the shape space. Thus, we exploit the registration residual to define a novel distance for shape part recognition. Later, for partial shape recognition, we describe a geodesics-based combining strategy with the same distance. As well, we propose to use the geodesics distance proposed for shape part recognition to define a global distance for entire shape recognition. Experiments are carried out on parts of shapes and entire shapes of theMPEG-7 database, then on parts issued from segmented real images. The obtained results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed recognition schemes. The proposed approaches are shown to significantly outperform previous works for classification and retrieval applications.

[pt] Esta dissertação trata da análise e projeto de um sistema de planejamento e controle da produção para uma linha de fabricação de raios e niples para motocicletas, visando garantir um nível de atendimento desejado, melhor utilização das instalações, com baixo investimento em estoques. Utilizou-se uma metodologia investigativa para se conhecer os seis principais elementos que influenciam o projeto de um sistema de planejamento e controle da produção: o produto; o processo e as instalações; a demanda; o mercado; a estratégia competitiva e o desempenho do sistema atual. Identificou- se nesta análise que dois problemas principais causam o baixo desempenho do sistema atual de planejamento e controle da produção, são eles: (a) o dimensionamento dos lotes de fabricação e (b) a sincronia entre as etapas produtivas. Para resolver o primeiro problema, a dificuldade para determinar o custo de preparação foi contornada determinando-se tamanhos de lotes tais que, estando nas proporções ótimas, resultem num investimento total em estoque de ciclo igual a uma meta determinada por considerações gerenciais. Para o problema de sincronia entre as etapas produtivas propôs-se a utilização dos conceitos do MRP II e um planejamento agregado que garanta a viabilidade do plano de materiais e serviços necessários para a produção. Foi também sugerido um controle JIT para os produtos de demanda mais substancial e estável. / [en] This thesis addresses the analysis and design of a production planning and scheduling system for motorcycle-spokes and nipples production lines, with the objective of ensuring a desired customer service level, coupled with high utilization of the facilities and low investment in stocks. The investigative methodology used took into account the six key elements that influence the project of a production planning and scheduling system, namely: the product, the manufacturing facilities, the sales, the market, the competitive strategy and the actual system performance. The analysis identified two main problems that caused the low performance of the current production planning and scheduling system, they are: (a) the production lot size and (b) the synchronism among the manufacturing stages. In solving the first problem, the difficult determination of setup cost was circumvented by setting lot sizes such that they are in optimal proportions and the resulting total investment in cycle stock equals a goal set through managerial considerations. For the synchronization among manufacturing stages, it was suggested to use MRP II concepts, and an aggregate production planning to assure the materials and services required for production. It was also suggested the use of JIT for controlling products with more substantial and stable demand.

This thesis examines an automated method to detect surface deformations on automotive panels for the purpose of quality control along a manufacturing assembly line. Automation in the automotive manufacturing industry is becoming more prominent, but quality control is still largely performed by human workers. Quality control is important in the context of automotive body panels as deformations can occur along the assembly line such as inadequate handling of parts or tools around a vehicle during assembly, rack storage, and shipping from subcontractors. These defects are currently identified and marked, before panels are either rectified or discarded. This work attempts to develop an automated system to detect deformations to alleviate the dependence on human workers in quality control and improve performance by increasing speed and accuracy. Some techniques make use of an ideal CAD model behaving as a master work, and panels scanned on the assembly line are compared to this model to determine the location of deformations. This thesis presents a solution for detecting deformations of various scales without a master work. It also focuses on automated analysis requiring minimal intuitive operator-set parameters and provides the ability to classify the deformations as dings, which are deformations that protrude from the surface, or dents, which are depressions into the surface. A complete automated deformation detection system is proposed, comprised of a feature extraction module, segmentation module, and classification module, which outputs the locations of deformations when provided with the 3D mesh of an automotive panel. Two feature extraction techniques are proposed. The first is a general feature extraction technique for 3D meshes using octrees for multi-resolution analysis and evaluates the amount of surface variation to locate deformations. The second is specifically designed for the purpose of deformation detection, and analyzes multi-resolution cross-sections of a 3D mesh to locate deformations based on their estimated size. The performance of the proposed automated deformation detection system, and all of its sub-modules, is tested on a set of meshes which represent differing characteristics of deformations in surface panels, including deformations of different scales. Noisy, low resolution meshes are captured from a 3D acquisition, while artificial meshes are generated to simulate ideal acquisition conditions. The proposed system shows accurate results in both ideal situations as well as non-ideal situations under the condition of noise and complex surface curvature by extracting only the deformations of interest and accurately classifying them as dings or dents.

This thesis examines an automated method to detect surface deformations on automotive panels for the purpose of quality control along a manufacturing assembly line. Automation in the automotive manufacturing industry is becoming more prominent, but quality control is still largely performed by human workers. Quality control is important in the context of automotive body panels as deformations can occur along the assembly line such as inadequate handling of parts or tools around a vehicle during assembly, rack storage, and shipping from subcontractors. These defects are currently identified and marked, before panels are either rectified or discarded. This work attempts to develop an automated system to detect deformations to alleviate the dependence on human workers in quality control and improve performance by increasing speed and accuracy. Some techniques make use of an ideal CAD model behaving as a master work, and panels scanned on the assembly line are compared to this model to determine the location of deformations. This thesis presents a solution for detecting deformations of various scales without a master work. It also focuses on automated analysis requiring minimal intuitive operator-set parameters and provides the ability to classify the deformations as dings, which are deformations that protrude from the surface, or dents, which are depressions into the surface. A complete automated deformation detection system is proposed, comprised of a feature extraction module, segmentation module, and classification module, which outputs the locations of deformations when provided with the 3D mesh of an automotive panel. Two feature extraction techniques are proposed. The first is a general feature extraction technique for 3D meshes using octrees for multi-resolution analysis and evaluates the amount of surface variation to locate deformations. The second is specifically designed for the purpose of deformation detection, and analyzes multi-resolution cross-sections of a 3D mesh to locate deformations based on their estimated size. The performance of the proposed automated deformation detection system, and all of its sub-modules, is tested on a set of meshes which represent differing characteristics of deformations in surface panels, including deformations of different scales. Noisy, low resolution meshes are captured from a 3D acquisition, while artificial meshes are generated to simulate ideal acquisition conditions. The proposed system shows accurate results in both ideal situations as well as non-ideal situations under the condition of noise and complex surface curvature by extracting only the deformations of interest and accurately classifying them as dings or dents.

Les solucions proposades en els articles científics sobre els intercanvis electrònics entre dues parts sovint involucren terceres parts (TTPs) per resoldre i simplificar el problema, però els usuaris hi han de dipositar una certa confiança. Ara bé, la confiança no és garantia ferma del compliment dels requisits de seguretat. Per això, molts usuaris són reticents a dipositar confiança en entitats remotes, fet que en dificulta l'ús. Aquí mostram com, a partir d'un determinat protocol de seguretat, podem aconseguir que la TTP involucrada sigui verificable. Construïm un entorn de confiança dins del protocol per mitjà del subministrament d'evidències sobre cada una de les operacions de la TTP (definim i introduïm la verificabilitat on-line de la TTP). Aconseguim això gràcies a la detecció, l'anàlisi i la classificació de cada una de les accions de la TTP. Aportam unes orientacions de disseny que faciliten la introducció de TTPs verificables dins dels protocols.

Current representation schemes for automatic text classification treat documents as syntactically unstructured collections of words (Bag-of-Words) or `concepts' (Bag-of-Concepts). Past attempts to encode syntactic structure have treated part-of-speech information as another word-like feature, but have been shown to be less effective than non-structural approaches. We propose a new representation scheme using Holographic Reduced Representations (HRRs) as a technique to encode both semantic and syntactic structure, though in very different ways. This method is unique in the literature in that it encodes the structure across all features of the document vector while preserving text semantics. Our method does not increase the dimensionality of the document vectors, allowing for efficient computation and storage. We present the results of various Support Vector Machine classification experiments that demonstrate the superiority of this method over Bag-of-Concepts representations and improvement over Bag-of-Words in certain classification contexts.

We consider a single-part, two-echelon supply chain problem for spare parts. The network consists of a single manufacturing plant, a set of service centers (SCs) and a set of customers. Both echelons keep spare parts using the base-stock replenishment policy. The plant behaves as an M/M/1 queueing system and has limited production and storage capacity. Demand faced by each SC follows an independent Poisson process. The problem is to determine optimal location-allocation and optimal base-stock levels at both echelons while satisfying the target service levels and customer preferences of SCs. We develop a mixed integer non-linear programming model and use cutting-plane method to optimize the inventory-location decisions. We present an exact solution procedure for the inventory stocking problem and demonstrate the limitations of using traditional inventory models like METRIC-like and Approximate in case of high utilization rates. We show the effectiveness of our proposed cutting-plane algorithm and provide important managerial insights for spare parts management.

The linear elastodynamic two-dimensional anti-plane stress problem, where deformations occur in only one direction is considered for one sided non-planar faults. Fault dynamics are modeled using purely velocity dependent friction laws, and applied on boundaries with complex geometry. Summation-by-parts operators and energy estimates are used to couple a high-order finite difference method with an unstructured finite volume method. The unstructured finite volume method is used near the fault and the high-order finite difference method further away from the fault where no complex geometry is present. Boundary conditions are imposed weakly on characteristic form using the simultaneous approximation term technique, allowing explicit time integration to be used. Numerical computations are performed to verify the accuracy and time stability, of the method.

Current representation schemes for automatic text classification treat documents as syntactically unstructured collections of words (Bag-of-Words) or `concepts' (Bag-of-Concepts). Past attempts to encode syntactic structure have treated part-of-speech information as another word-like feature, but have been shown to be less effective than non-structural approaches. We propose a new representation scheme using Holographic Reduced Representations (HRRs) as a technique to encode both semantic and syntactic structure, though in very different ways. This method is unique in the literature in that it encodes the structure across all features of the document vector while preserving text semantics. Our method does not increase the dimensionality of the document vectors, allowing for efficient computation and storage. We present the results of various Support Vector Machine classification experiments that demonstrate the superiority of this method over Bag-of-Concepts representations and improvement over Bag-of-Words in certain classification contexts.