La méthode de la parallaxe de pulsation, appliquée à des observations VINCI du VLTI, a permis la détermination de distance de sept Céphéides Galactiques. Pour l Car, la plus résolue d'entre elles, la précision obtenue est de 5%. Le point-zéro de la relation P-L a également été déterminée avec une précision de 0.08 magnitude. Les mesures interférométriques fournissent la variation du diamètre angulaire de l'étoile sur tout le cycle de pulsation, tandis que la variation du diamètre linéaire est déterminée par une intégration temporelle de la vitesse pulsante photosphérique Vpuls de l'étoile. Or la détermination de cette dernière, à partir du décalage Doppler de la raie spectrale Vrad est extrêmement délicate. Le facteur de projection, défini par p=Vpuls/Vrad est en effet très sensible aux paramètres physiques et à la dynamique atmosphérique de l'étoile. En particulier, les gradients de vitesse dans l'atmosphère des Céphéides, pose la question de la définition de la vitesse pulsante. Premièrement, un modèle hydrodynamique a permis d'étudier les gradients de vitesse dans l'atmosphère de d Cep. La différence de vitesse obtenue entre la vitesse photosphérique et la vitesse associée à la zone de formation de la raie, affecte le facteur de projection et donc la distance à un niveau de 6%. Deuxièmement, en comparant le modèle géométrique simple à des observations à haute résolution spectrale HARPS de neuf Céphéides, l'impact de la dynamique atmosphérique des étoiles sur l'asymétrie des raies spectrales a été mis en évidence. Troisièmement, le modèle hydrodynamique a permis de faire le lien entre les gradients de vitesse dans l'étoile, le facteur de projection, et les observables spectro-interférométriques. Ceci pourrait constituer un moyen supplémentaire pour contraindre observationnellement le facteur de projection. La connaissance du facteur de projection dans le cadre du futur survey AMBER est crucial. Nous envisageons de déterminer la distance d'une trentaine de Céphéides à mieux que 5%, afin de calibrer le point zéro de la relation P-L avec une précision de 0.01 magnitude.

Parmi les 400 exoplanètes découvertes, seulement une petite fraction sont en orbites autour d'étoiles plus massives que les étoiles de type solaire. Afin de contraindre les scénarios de formation et d'évolution des systèmes planétaires dans leur globalité il est cependant nécessaire de s'intéresser à la détection de planètes autour de telles étoiles. Dans le cadre de cette thèse je me suis focalisé sur les étoiles A et F de la séquence principale. La mesure de vitesses radiales (VR) précises est délicate pour ces étoiles (peu de raies, rotation élevée), de plus la présence de pulsations ou d'activité magnétique perturbent les mesures et peuvent faire croire à la présence de planètes. D'une part, des relevés systématiques ont permis la détection de plusieurs candidats et la détermination des premières statistiques sur la présence de planètes autour des étoiles A-F. D'autre part, des simulations numériques nous ont permis de simuler l'effet des taches, plages et pulsations sur les variations de VR, photométrie et astrométrie. Grâce à cela, nous avons effectué une étude quantitative complète de l'effet d'une tache à la surface d'étoiles de types spectraux variés et pour différentes configurations (position, taille, vsini). Nous avons aussi simulé l'effet des taches et plages (extraites des observations) sur les VR du Soleil telles qu'elles auraient pu être mesurées sur plus d'un cycle d'activité. A l'aide de ces simulations, nous avons étudié la détectabilité de planètes de masse terrestre dans la zone habitable d'étoiles de type solaire.

This thesis is performed to evaluate the design consideration and performance characteristics of a surge tank for a diaphragm pump operation and to evaluate the proper volume and inlet area of surge tank in order to reduce the pulsations of the discharge pressure. An experimental set up is constructed for a three diaphragm positive displacement pump and the experiments are conducted afterwards. The surge tanks having different volumes and the surge tank inlet area configurations are tested in order to achieve the minimum peak to peak pulsations. Experiments showed that among the different sizes of the surge tanks, the minimum peak to peak pulsations are achieved with the largest volume which is the original surge tank of the test pump used by the pump manufacturer. This result is supported by the literature which states that with greater surge tank size the magnitude of pulsations can be diminished more. Regarding the surge tank inlet area design / among the eight different adaptors a proper inlet area value is concluded having the minimum peak to peak pulsations also smaller than the original configuration.

We present the modes identified for frequencies found in spectroscopic observations of the Doradus stars HD 189631, QW Puppis, and IR Draconis. A cross-correlation tech- nique was used to create mean line profiles for HD 189631. Four frequencies and modes were identified for this star: 1.6774±0.0002 d⁻¹, 1.4174±0.0002 d⁻¹, 0.0714±0.0002 d⁻¹, and 1.8228 ± 0.0002 d⁻¹ which were identified with the modes (l,m) = (1, +1), (1, +1), (2,−2), and (1, +1) respectively. A least-squares deconvolution method was implemented for line profile generation in the study of QW Puppis and IR Draconis. Three frequen- cies were identified for QW Puppis: 0.055972 ± 0.000004 d⁻¹, 0.064846 ± 0.000004, and 5.219398±0.000002 d⁻¹. These frequencies were identified with the modes (l,m) = (1,−1), (4,−1), (4, +1). Two frequencies were identified in spectra of the rapidly rotating star IR Draconis: 0.00515 ± 0.00003 d⁻¹ and 2.35538 ± 0.00004 d⁻¹; which were identified with (l,m) = (1,−1), and (1, +1) modes respectively. These mode identifications will assist in modelling the structure and interior conditions of these main sequence, non-radially pulsating stars.

Ce travail s’attache à étudier l’interaction en direct entre musiciens de jazz, en se focalisant sur un des éléments les plus fondamentaux dans la performance improvisée, l’acte de jouer dans le temps avec un autre. Que se cache-t-il derrière cette qualité engageante de la musique quand des musiciens collaborent et se coordonnent entre eux pour qu’ils aient le sentiment de jouer ensemble dans le temps (selon leur propre expression)? Afin d’étudier les fondements musicaux et psychologiques de cette expérience, nous créons des liens entre la recherche ethnographique existante sur les pratiques de jazz et les études psychologiques sur le temps et sur le timing. Cette thèse comprend trois études empiriques. La première étude a cherché à décrire l’émergence de cette expérience du temps partagé dans des performances d’improvisation libre entre deux musiciens de jazz professionnels. La deuxième étude est une analyse quantitative de la performance d’une section rythmique (batteur et contrebassiste), qui a pour base une micro-analyse acoustique de la pulsation dans quatre versions d’une chanson. Dans la troisième étude on s’est intéressé à la façon dont des auditeurs dits ‘naïfs’ entendent une musique qui est ‘dans le temps’ ou ‘en dehors du temps’. Pour cela nous avons effectué deux études expérimentales sur la perception du timing inter-musicien par des sujets sans éducation musicale formelle, en leur présentant des extraits musicaux manipulés.Dans leur ensemble ces études fournissent des preuves quantitatives qu’il existe une négociation temporelle dynamique entre les musiciens – un partage de temps – au niveau de la pulsation. De plus, ces résultats ont démontré la place centrale du développement narratif dans la performance musicale. L’influence de la construction est manifestée tant par l’organisation spontanée des improvisations musicales en épisodes structurés que par la mise en place collaborative de trajectoires expressive au niveau du développement du tempo local. Ces trajectoires constituent d’ailleurs une interprétation de l’œuvre musicale. Ainsi, ces résultats montrent que les musiciens maîtrisent ensemble les trajectoires expressives de leurs performances, et ce à la fois au niveau de la pulsation et au niveau de la narrativité. Il découle de ce travail l’idée qu’une performance ‘réussie’ (caractérisée par un temps partagé) implique beaucoup plus de flexibilité temporelle que ce que les recherches antérieures proposent. Ces observations nous amènent à définir un forme nouvelle de timing entre musiciens, que nous appelons le timing participatif, et qui est fondé sur l’interaction interpersonnelle motivée et incarnée plutôt que sur les processus individuels de timing expressif. / This dissertation investigates live interaction between jazz musicians with a focus on one of the most fundamental elements in improvisational performance, the seemingly simple act of being in time together. What is behind that powerful, engaging quality of music that comes about when musicians collaborate and coordinate so that they feel that are sharing what they themselves call good time? To investigate the musical and psychological underpinnings of good time, links were highlighted between both existing ethnographic work on jazz practices and psychological studies of time and timing. The thesis presents three empirical studies. The first study consists in a largely descriptive analysis of freely improvised jazz duet performances, and it aims to describe the emergence of good time between musicians playing together. The second study is a quantitative analysis of jazz rhythm section performance (drums and double-bass) based on an acoustic microanalysis of pulse in 4 versions of a song. The third study comprises 2 experiments on the perception of inter-musician timing by ‘naïve’ listeners, exploring how musically-untrained subjects experience the sound of being ‘in’ and ‘out of’ time in manipulated musical samples. Together, these studies provide quantitative evidence for temporal negotiation or turn-taking at the pulse level. Additionally they show the fundamental role of narrative development in musical performance evidenced by the spontaneous organisation of musicians’ improvisations into well framed episodes that have internal structure. It is also evidenced by the mutual establishment of an expressive trajectory of local tempo development that reflects or interprets the musical piece. Thus, these findings demonstrate that musicians together control their expressive performances at both an immediate pulse level and at an overarching level of narrative. An important outcome of this research is that ‘successful’ performance (one with good time) involves far greater temporal flexibility than previously established. These observations lead us to define an additional form of timing between musicians which we have called participatory timing and which is based on motivated and embodied interpersonal interaction rather than on expressive timing at the level of the individual.

Submitted by Geandra Rodrigues (geandrar@gmail.com) on 2018-08-02T11:47:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 nariaassisribeiro.pdf: 10094285 bytes, checksum: 0aa36747f2e32a0358afd66ce9582bd2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2018-08-02T12:01:23Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 nariaassisribeiro.pdf: 10094285 bytes, checksum: 0aa36747f2e32a0358afd66ce9582bd2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-02T12:01:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 nariaassisribeiro.pdf: 10094285 bytes, checksum: 0aa36747f2e32a0358afd66ce9582bd2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-07-14 / PROQUALI (UFJF) / Os conceitos de métrica incomum com pulso obscuro de Allen Winold e o ritmo não-métrico com acentuações livres e ausência de beat perceptível de Howard Smither são tentativas de caracterizar e refletir sobre as novas formas de estruturar as durações, que surgem com a intensa experimentação musical no século XX. Esta pesquisa visa a aprofundar o conhecimento sobre a ausência de sensação de pulsação em música, ou o ritmo não-pulsante; a explorar quais decisões na interpretação de uma obra musical evidenciam ou não a sensação de pulsação para o ouvinte; e a identificar se a tentativa de construir o ritmo não-pulsante em algumas obras do século XX está ligada a algum movimento estético específico. A primeira etapa da pesquisa consistiu em revisar as definições de termos fundamentais para abordar a pulsação: pulso, beat, acento, métrica e ritmo; utilizando como base teórica os trabalhos de Cooper e Meyer, Simha Arom, Joel Lester, Lerdahl e Jackendoff. Na segunda etapa buscou-se ampliar a discussão que Winold e Smither fizeram sobre o ritmo não-pulsante, selecionando pesquisadores da teoria da música, como Bryan Simms e Leon Dallin; e compositores que pensaram em novas concepções de ritmo e sentido métrico na música do século XX, como John Cage e Pierre Boulez. Na terceira etapa foram realizadas duas análises musicais com foco na interação entre o conceito de ritmo não-pulsante, a escuta e a interpretação a partir da notação musical. / Allen Winold's and Howard Smither’s concepts of unusual metric structure with obscured pulse and nonmetrical rhythm with free accentuation and absence of perceptible beat are attempts to characterize and reflect on new methods of structuring durations that emerge from intense musical experimentation in the twentieth-century. This research aims to improve knowledge of the absence of pulse sensation in music, or nonpulsed rhythm; as well as to explore which performers’ decisions enunciate or not pulse sensation for the listener; and finally to identify whether the attempt to build the nonpulsed rhythm in some twentiethcentury works is linked to a specific aesthetic movement. The first stage of the research consisted of revising the definitions of fundamental terms to approach pulse: pulse, beat, accent, metric and rhythm; using as theoretical basis the theories of Cooper and Meyer, Simha Arom, Joel Lester, Lerdahl and Jackendoff. In the second stage we tried to expand the discussion that Winold and Smither did about nonpulsed rhythm, selecting music theory researchers such as Bryan Simms and Leon Dallin; and composers who thought of new conceptions of rhythm and metric structure in twentieth-century music, such as John Cage and Pierre Boulez. In the third stage, two musical analysis were performed focusing on the interaction between the concept of nonpulsed rhythm, musical listening and performance of notated music.

Abstract This thesis describes the development of pressure sensor arrays and a range of methods suitable for the long-term measurement of heart rate and blood pressure determination using a cuff and a pressure sensor array on the radial artery. This study also reviews the historical background of noninvasive blood pressure measurement methods, summarizes the accuracies achieved and explains the requirements for common national and international standards of accuracy. Two prototype series of pressure transducer arrays based on electro-mechanical film (EMFi) were designed and tested. By offering high (∼TΩ) resistance, EMFi is an excellent material for low-current long-term measurement applications. About 50 transducer arrays were built using different configurations and electrode materials to sense low-frequency pressure pulsations on the radial artery in the wrist. In addition to uniform quality, essential requirements included an adequate linear response in the desired temperature range. Transducer sensitivity was tested as a function of temperature in the range of 25–45 °C at varying static and alternating pressures. The average sensitivity of the EMFi used in the transducers proved adequate (∼2.2 mV/mmHg and ∼7 mV/mmHg for normal and high sensitive films) for the intended purpose. The thesis also evaluates blood pressure measurements by the electronic palpation method (EP) and compares the achieved accuracy to that of the oscillometric method (OSC) using average intra-arterial (IA) blood pressure as a reference. All of these three measurements were made simultaneously for each person. In one test group, measurements were conducted on healthy volunteers in sitting and supine position during increasing and decreasing cuff pressure. Another group, comprising elderly cardiac patients, was measured only in the supine position during cuff inflation. The results showed that the EP method was approximately as accurate as the OSC method with the healthy subjects and slightly more accurate with the cardiac patient group. The advantage of the EP method is that also the wave shape and velocity of arterial pressure pulses is available for further analysis, including the assessment of arterial stiffness.

Heart failure (HF) is a widely prevalent state in developing countries, especially among people over 65, with percentages up to 10% of the population in the US. In all developed countries the expenditure related to congestive heart failure consists of a high percentage of the total health care expenditure, reaching 60% in the UK (1991 1). One of the main strategies for dealing with HF is the use of cardiac assist devices. Among these the most widely used device is the Intra-Aortic balloon pump (IABP). The IABP has as the main aims to increase coronary flow during inflation, and decrease end diastolic pressure and ventricular afterload during deflation. The device was introduced for the first time into clinical practice over 40 years ago, but open issues still remain with the performance of the device. In fact, both inflation and deflation effectiveness are compromised when the balloon operates at an angle to the horizontal, which is often the operating position of the device in intensive care units. The main aim of the work described in this thesis is to investigate the IABP in order to improve the efficacy of this therapy, in terms of IAB design and IABP timing effectiveness. For this purpose the balloon was first filmed in an experimental set-up to visualize its wall-motion with a high speed camera. The results of this investigation were the input for the development of different designs of balloon, tested at horizontal and angled positions. Both, inflation and deflation effectiveness were augmented using different shaped balloons in an experimental set-up characterized by static pressure as well as in one characterized by physiological pressure waveform. The improved performance was associated to an improved clinical outcome on a PV diagram. In addition different pumps and pump settings were studied in an experimental set-up, characterized by physiological aortic pressure waveform, in order to estimate the influence of different pump manufacturers and triggers on the performance of the device. In this case one of the pumps (Teleflex), with the new technology for pressure measurement via a fibre optic sensor, showed to best trigger the IAB after inflation onset, while the highest number of assisted beats was obtained when this pump was set on electrocardiogram (ECG) triggering. Nonetheless a first development of multi-dimensional computational model of the IAB counterpulsation was realized with the aim of establishing the effect of this therapy on relevant areas, such as aortic root, and in order to have an insight on the 3-D flow field in the surrounding of IAB: these information can be crucial for the optimisation of the balloon’s shape. In conclusion, the key finding was that a change in balloon shape influences both, inflation and deflation mechanics at horizontal and semi-recumbent positions, and this strategy can be used for maximising the IABP clinical benefits. With the aid of the computational model it will be possible to further develop the already tested balloon different shapes. Not less important, IABP therapy was demonstrated to be crucially influenced by the pump setting and mode (triggering inflation and deflation onsets), hence the clinical operator is addressed to change the pump mode of operation according to the patient’s condition to maximise the potential benefit of this therapy.

Glaucoma is the third most common cause of blindness in the world. There are several types of glaucomma, which makes early diagnosis of this illness harder. One posibble way for early diagnosis could be analysis of a retinal vessel pulsation. Data in this work were captured by experimental device called video ophtalmoscope. Several methods for optic disc segmentation were designed. From segmented parts, pulsation curve was recorded. Analysis of the pulsation curve was provided in two ways: Analysis of the whole pulsation curve and Averaged pulse analysis. Both methods were tested with diferent reference signals.

The content of this work is the analysis of retinal vessels pulsation of video sequences acquired by experimental fundus camera based on measuring the brightness profile of the vessel. The first level of analysis in this work is the segmentation of blood vessels and diameter measurement of blood vessels during the sequence. The work contains research methods dealing with the diameter measurement and evaluation of pulsation and analysis segmentation methods using for analysing the vasculature of the retina. From these methods, a vessel tracking method was selected. In segmented video sequences is on the ground of intensity profiles analysed vessel pulsation. Analysis is also made on original dataset and results are discussed considering the frequency characteristic.