Localization is a classic and complex problem in the field of mobile robotics. It becomes particularly challenging in an aqueous environment because currents within the water can move the robot. A novel localization module and corresponding localization algorithm for experimental autonomous underwater vehicles is presented. Unlike other available positioning systems which require fixed hardware beacons, this custom built module relies only on information available from sensors on-board the vehicle and knowledge of its bounded domain. This allows the user to save valuable time which would otherwise be devoted to the setup and calibration of a beacon or sensor network. The module uses three orthogonal ultrasonic transducers to measure distances to the tank boundaries. Using the measured tri-axial orientation of the vehicle, the algorithm analytically determines the robot's position within the domain in absolute coordinates. Certain vehicle states do not allow the position to be completely resolved by the algorithm alone. In this case, state estimation is used to estimate the robot position until its state is no longer indeterminate. The modular design of this system makes it ideal for application on underwater vehicles which operate in a bounded environment for research purposes. An experimental version of the module was constructed and tested in the WPI swimming pool and showed successful localization under normal conditions.

Orientador: Abílio Garcia dos Santos Filho / Banca: João Candido Fernandes / Banca: Célia Aparecida Stellutti Pachioni / Resumo: Essa pesquisa teve como objetivo fazer um estudo dos problemas ergonômicos da posição sentada em um departamento de apoio às agências em bancários, na cidade de Bauru. Devido à evolução do sistema bancário, à centralização do processo administrativo e à utilização da informática, foi constatado que esta população de trabalhadores permanece a maior parte do tempo na posição sentada. A revisão bibliográfica deu definições do sistema bancário e fez uma síntese da história dos bancos e do trabalho bancário no Brasil. Foi feita uma investigação dos problemas ergonômicos, o mobiliário, as recomendações das normas técnicas e o que há de moderno em termos de mobiliário e equipamentos para se trabalhar diante de um computador. A análise da postura sentada foi realizada de forma a relacioná-las aos riscos que os funcionários estão correndo a permanecer nesta postura por longos períodos e de forma inadequada. A metodologia constou da aplicação de um questionário, para obter informações sobre o mobiliário, equipamentos de adaptação, postura adotada na posição sentada e dores (apontadas por meio do diagrama de Corllet e Manenica, 1980). Foram utilizados também registros fotográficos dos postos de trabalho e dos funcionários em suas respectivas atividades laborais na tentativa de identificar inadequações posturais e layout do ambiente. Foi feita uma pesquisa descritiva, pela qual se realizou um estudo de caso em departamento bancário onde foram pesquisados todos os funcionários do local. O estudo de caso permitiu identificar as condições do posto de trabalho, analisar o mobiliário, averiguar a postura adotada e mapear as dores corporais apontadas pelos sujeitos. Os principais resultados mostraram que 81,63% dos entrevistados disseram que o monitor estava na mesma altura dos olhos... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research had as its objective to assumed by the ergonomic problems caused by the ergonomic problems caused by the sitting position in an agencies support department bank employees, in the city of Bauru - SP. Due to the evolution of the banking system, to the centralization of the administrative process and the use of computer science, it was verified that this population of workers remains stays most of the time sitting. The bibliographical review gave definitions of the banking system and offered made a synthesis of the history of banks and theirs workers in Brazil. It was make an investigation of the ergonomic problems, the furniture, and the recommendations of the technical norms and of update furniture terms and equipments to work before a computer. The analysis of the sitting posture was accomplished to relate them to the risks that the employees are running by staying in this position for long periods and in an inadequate way. The methodology consisted of an application of a questionnaire, to obtain information on the furniture, adaptation equipments, position adopted in the sitting position and pains (pointed through the diagram of Corllet and Manenica, 1980). And there were used photographic registrations of the workstations and of the employees in their respective working activities in the attempt to identify inadequate position and layout of the environment. It was make a descriptive research, it in which a case study in a banking department was performed where all the employees of the place were researched. The case study made it possible to identify the conditions of the workstation, to analyze the furniture, to discover the adopted position and to map the pointed corporal pains for the subjects. The main results showed that 81,63% of the interviewees said that the monitor was at the same height of their eyes... (Complete abstract click electronic address below) / Mestre

Améliorer la sécurité routière passe par une meilleure compréhension des causes d'accidents. Il est donc nécessaire de développer des observatoires discrets pour étudier la manière de conduire de tous les automobilistes. Une partie de cette analyse implique l'utilisation de capteurs mesurant les trajectoires des véhicules sur une portion de route. Deux capteurs innovants ont été crées pour pallier au manque de capteurs suffisamment précis pour ces travaux de recherche : le premier est un capteur à fibres optiques présentant une succession de réseaux de Bragg et le second, protégé par un brevet, est fondé sur une technologie résistive. Le premier repère la déformation locale de fibres optiques noyées à moins d'un centimètre sous la surface de la chaussée. Il utilise la variation de longueurs d'onde engendré par l'extension de la fibre à la zone de contact roue - sol. En utilisant un algorithme adéquat, il est insensible à la température. Le second est constitué de deux conducteurs dont un est résistif. Le poids du véhicule engendre un contact électrique entre les deux conducteurs, transformant la résistance électrique de l'ensemble. Les modèles développés, électrique ainsi que de variation thermique, permettent sa meilleure utilisation. Ils ont été soumis à une expérimentation sur une route départementale. Le capteur optique s'avère plus performant mais coûteux. Le deuxième n'est pas assez robuste mais présente des perspectives intéressantes. / This action stake is not technology for itself. It is a great help the development of new safety functions, e.g. the estimation of driver’s behaviour based uponthe vehicle’s trajectory. This trajectory is determined via two sensors we developed. This system must not disturb the driver and should therefore remain invisible to him. The first one is a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor. It detects local strain due to the vehicle weight. The fiber is embedded in the road thanks to resin used in other traffic sensors. The vehicle location is spotted according to the variations of Bragg wavelengths. The fiber extension located under the ground - wheel contact zone changes the step of the Bragg grating. The second one is based upon two conductors. One of them has a grater electrical resistance. The vehicle’s weight creates a link between the two conductors. The resulting electrical resistance provides a lateral position estimation of the vehicle. Electrical and thermic models and simulation even increase the sensor reliability. A caveat is lodged. Both of them were tested on a secondary road. To put in a nutshell, the FBG sensor gives better results but is very expensive (sensors and interrogator too). The resistance sensor is not much raw nevertheless it has interesting perspectives.

A study on the strategic position of a brand and it's position in a competitive environment was carried out based on Apogeo an advisory group and valuation institute. The target of my work was to evaluate the impact of communication in building APOGEO's strategic position in the market place, in addition to outlining measurement techniques and the importance of brand definition.

Le chapitre 1 sert d’introduction à la thèse, pose les problématiques et les méthodes, remet en perspective les enjeux et annonce le plan suivi. Le chapitre 2 définit les principaux types de disfluences (cliniques et naturelles), résume les études principales conduites sur les disfluences, et présente les différents points de vue sur leur rôle dans le discours. Le chapitre 3 dresse l’état de la question sur le statut des deux pauses pleines (fillers) um et uh et montre comment plusieurs études récentes accréditent l’idée d’une différence pragmatique, voire fonctionnelle, entre ces deux "fillers", qu’il convient donc d’envisager comme des marqueurs. Le chapitre 4 revient sommairement sur le concept de "stance" (prise de position, évaluation), établit sa définition dans cette thèse et dans le corpus ATAROS, puis présente l’état de la question quant à la détection automatique de "stance" dans les corpus oraux. Le chapitre 5 caractérise les deux corpus étudiés, ATAROS et Switchboard (SWB), et établit leurs contributions. Ce chapitre présente les méthodologies d’annotation des corpus, les deux versions de SWB, ainsi que la méthode suivie pour construire une interopérabilité de ces deux corpus pour l’analyse de um et uh. Le chapitre 6 analyse la distribution et la durée des deux marqueurs dans SWB et ATAROS en fonction du genre des interlocuteurs, de l’authenticité de la conversation, et du nombre de conversations auxquelles les sujets participent. Ce chapitre montre que um et uh ont des durées et des distributions différentes et indique que les marqueurs ne sont pas utilisés au hasard. Le chapitre 7 se penche sur la production de um et uh dans SWB, et sur la perception des deux marqueurs en comparant les deux versions des transcriptions du corpus. Les principaux résultats montrent que um et uh sont plus souvent oublis que d’autres mots fréquents tels que les mots fonctionnels, et que les transcripteurs de SWB font plus d’erreurs sur uh que sur um, suggérant que um joue un rôle discursif plus important que uh. Le chapitre 8 interroge la relation entre la prise de position ("stance") d’une unité de parole et la présence et la position des marqueurs dans une phrase, et révèle que ces deux dimensions sont dépendantes. Le chapitre 9 évalue la relation entre la prise de position d’une unité de parole et la réalisation acoustique de la voyelle des marqueurs, comparé à la même voyelle dans d’autres mots monosyllabiques. Les résultats indiquent que les valeurs de "stance" affectent avec différents degrés la réalisation acoustique des marqueurs. Le chapitre 10 incorpore les résultats des expériences précédentes dans plusieurs taches de classification qui testent les traits les plus importants pour prédire automatiquement les valeurs de "stance" en fonction des paramètres correspondants à um et uh (traits lexicaux, positionnels et acoustiques). Ces expériences montrent que les traits pertinents aux marqueurs affectent la performance du système et que les meilleurs résultats de la classification sont obtenus lorsque les traits lexicaux um et uh sont présents, et lorsque leur position est prise en compte. Les résultats aussi indiquent que différentes propriétés acoustiques améliorent les scores de prédictions. Le chapitre 11 conclut la thèse en résumant les résultats des chapitres 6 à 10, en soulignant les impacts de cette recherche, et en indiquant les futures pistes de recherche. / Chapter 1 introduces the dissertation, establishes the research questions and the methodology, questions the stakes of studying the markers um and uh, and lays out the study organization. Chapter 2 defines the main types of disfluencies, clinical and naturally occurring, summarizes the state of the art on the topic, and presents the different positions on their discourse role. Chapter 3 establishes the challenges regarding the fillers um and uh and summarizes studies that support the idea of different pragmatic and functional roles, suggesting that they are markers rather than just fillers. Chapter 4 introduces the concept of ÔstanceÕ (i.e., evaluation, opinion), establishes the definition used in this study and in the ATAROS corpus, and briefly summarizes the state of the art on automatic stance recognition in spoken speech. Chapter 5 introduces the two corpora used in this dissertation, ATAROS and Switchboard (SWB), and establishes their contribution. This chapter presents the methodologies for the annotations, the two versions of SWB, as well as the methodology adopted to construct an interoperability between the corpora to analyze um and uh. Chapter 6 analyzes the distribution and the duration of the two markers in SWB and ATAROS depending on speaker and dyad gender, on the conversationÕs naturalness, and on speaker participation. This chapter shows that um and uh are different from each other, that they have different distribution and duration cues depending on the variables, and therefore indicates that they are not used randomly. Chapter 7 focuses on the production of um and uh in SWB, and on the perception of the two markers by comparing two transcription versions of the corpus. The results of this chapter show that um and uh are more often missed than other frequent words such as function words, and that SWB transcribers make more transcription errors on uh than on um, suggesting that um plays a more important role in discourse than uh. Chapter 8 investigates the relationship between stance and the presence and the position of um and uh in an utterance, and reveals that the presence and the position of the two markers is dependent with stance. Chapter 9 looks at the relationship between stance and the acoustic realization of the vowel of the markers, compared to the vowel of other monosyllabic words. The results indicate that the stance values affect the vowel realization to different extents. Chapter 10 consists of a classification experiment that incorporates the findings from previous experiments to find out which features pertinent to um and uh (lexical, position, and acoustics) improve the systemÕs performance. The experiments show that the features associated to the two markers impact the systemÕs performance and that the best results are obtained when the word unigrams um and uh are not filtered, and when their position is included. The results also indicate that different acoustic features improve the scores. Chapter 11 concludes the dissertation by summarizing the results from chapters 6 through 10, underlying the impact of this study, and addressing the future directions of this project.

A closed, orientable, splitting surface in an oriented 3-manifold is a topologically minimal surface of index n if its associated disk complex is (n-2)-connected but not (n-1)-connected. A critical surface is a topologically minimal surface of index 2. In this thesis, we use an equivalent combinatorial definition of critical surfaces to construct the first known critical bridge spheres for nontrivial links.

During the last two decades, Utah's market milk industry has changed from one of local processing and distribution by small-scale plants to one of state-wide distribution by large-scale dairies. At presnt, four large producer cooperatives control most of the state's market milk and six large processing plants accounts for more than 80 percent of the state's fluid milk sales. Along with centralized processing and distribution has also come some centralization of production. Statistics recently published by Utah State University show that in 1957, 56 percent of the market milk produced in the state came from the five counties of Cache, Utah, Weber, Salt Lake, and Summit (13, p. 8)*. These same five counties accounted for over 50 percent of the increase in total production of market milk between 1948 and 1957 (13, p.9).

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Two manifestations of gene regulation-- dosage compensation and ontogenic regulation--were examined in normally positioned and relocated v+ genotypes in Drosophila melanogaster to determine the role of gene position in these control functions. Enzyme assays, used as criteria of gene activity, were performed on various genotypes containing different doses of v+ in normal and relocated positions in male and female flies. The results indicate that although differently positioned v+ genes may specify different tryptophan pyrrolase activities, they still show dosage compensation. In each case, the enzyme activity associated with each gene, either on the X, Y, or third chromosome, is twice as much in males as it is in females. This indicates that dosage compensation is not confined to the gene when located on the X chromosome. In order to determine if the pattern of activity of the gene during ontogeny is altered by relocation, T(l; 3)rasv genotypes and wild type controls were assayed at the same stages of development. The experimental design allowed a comparison of the ontogenic expression of three different genes--v+, Zw, and Pgd--through the activities of their associated enzymes. The results indicate that changing the gene's position may alter its ontogenic expression. Animals with v+ on the third chromosome have a unique peak of tryptophan pyrrolase activity in larvae which is not present in wild type. The activity in this peak is at l east 10 times higher than that observed in 72-hour wild type larvae, in fact, higher than that observed in any normal genotype at any time during development. With the exception of this peak, the developmental curves of enzyme activity are similar, although the relocated genes specify consistently lower enzyme activities than do normally positioned genes. The unique peak is not the result of a general physiological effect since the patterns of Zw and Pgd activity appear to be the same in wild type and translocated v+ genotypes. The relevance of the data to earlier studies and to models for gene regulation is discussed.

If a plant is positioned horizontally, the elongating region responds by bending upward within 10 to 12 h until it is vertical, forming a goo bend with the stem below. If a Xan thiv~ strumarium L. (cocklebur) plant is placed horizontally, but restricted to that position for 48 h and then released, the bend to the vertical usually takes place within 10 s, suggesting that bending energy is stored in restricted stems . Some plants that do not bend completely to 90 within 10 s do so within 5 min, and other plants can overshoot the 90 mark by as much as sao. Microscopic measurements show that cells on the bottom of stems that have been restricted and then released are longer and narrower than cells on the bottom of restricted stems; cells on the top of restricted-and-released stems are shorter and thicker than those on the top of restricted stems . Thus, stems bend upward rapidly after release in response to changes in cell dimensions, but apparently with conservation of cell volume (i.e., little or no movement of water in or out of cells during the rapid bending ). The increased diameter of the cells on the bottom of restricted plants indicates that the cells are taking up water before they are released {apparently accompanied by an increase in cell wall area), while they are not allowed to increase much in length. Any increase in length was accompanied by stretching of cells on top. Thus, energy for bending was stored in stretched upper cells and compressed lower cells that have taken up water. It was al so shown that graviperception takes place in the very tissue that bends, and this perception is not a perception of the tension and compression caused by the weight of a horizontal stem. Also, amyloplasts were found in a sheath also in the region of bending and were found to settle in the direction of gravity. The location of the sheath between the vascular tissue and the cortex lead to a proposed model of graviperception for green vegetative dicot shoots.