A análise da concentração de metabólitos no sangue pode refletir o comportamento metabólico durante o exercício físico. O presente estudo teve por objetivo analisar o comportamento eletroquímico e do distúrbio ácido-básico de praticantes de Parkour, durante a realização de um percurso que utilizou movimentos fundamentais desta modalidade. Foram avaliados 23 praticantes de Parkour do sexo masculino, com idade média de 21,4±2,7 anos, com no mínimo dois anos de experiência na modalidade. Foram realizadas cinco coletas de sangue capilar da polpa digital dos dedos da mão, em diferentes momentos: (1) repouso, (2) após aquecimento, (3) logo após o esforço, (4) após cinco minutos e (5) após dez minutos. Foi realizado um percurso usando movimentos fundamentais da modalidade para caracterizar o esforço. A amostra foi analisada utilizando o aparelho de gasometria GEM Premier 3000, utilizando os parâmetros pH, Na+, K+, pH, lactato e HCO3−. Os valores de pH, lactato e HCO3− apresentaram diferença significativa (p<0,05) na maioria dos momentos analisados. Os valores de Ca2+, Na+, K+ apresentaram diferença significativa após o esforço, e uma rápida recuperação após cinco e dez minutos, quando comparados com os valores de referência. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram uma adaptação fisiológica dos eletrólitos, com rápida recuperação aos valores de referência. As alterações dos valores do pH, lactato e HCO3− identificam a utilização de vias anaeróbias para a produção de energia, assim como uma evidente acidose metabólica após o esforço. Os valores obtidos são similares a atletas de alto rendimento, principalmente de modalidades de força e velocidade. O presente estudo contribuiu para o entendimento do comportamento eletroquímico e do equilíbrio ácido-básico da modalidade Parkour, preenchendo assim uma lacuna na literatura. / The analysis of the blood metabolites can show the metabolic behavior during physical exercises. This study aimed to analyze the electrochemical and acid base disorders behavior in Parkour athlets, during an exercise routine that used basic movements of this particular sport. Twenty three male athletes (average of 21,4±2,7 years old) with a minimum of two years of experience in Parkour were evaluated. The capillary blood was collected through the fingers in five diferent moments: (1) rest, (2) after warm-up, (3) after exercise, (4) five minutes later and (5) ten minutes later. A course using basic Parkour movements was used as reference. The samples were analyzed by the gasometric equipment GEM Premier 3000. The variables pH, sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), calcium (Ca2+), lactate and bicarbonate (HCO3−) were used. The pH, lactate and HCO3− showed significant variation (p<0,05) in most of the analyzed moments. Ca2+, Na+ and K+ values showed significant difference right after the exercise and a fast recovery after five and ten minutes when compared to the reference values. Results showed a physiological adaptation of electrolytes with a fast recovery back to the reference values. The values of pH, lactate e HCO3− present an anaerobic system usage, as well as a clear metabolic acidosis post exercise. The values obtained in this study are similar to high performance athletes values, mostly in strength and speed modalities. This study contributes to the understanding of the eletrochemical and acid-basic disorders behavior of Parkour athletes, filling a gap in the literature.

Context. Both smartphones and PC games are increasingly commonplace nowadays. There are more and more people who own smartphones and – at the same time – like playing video games. Since the smartphones are becoming widely affordable and offer more and more advanced features (such as multi-touch screens, a variety of sensors, vibration feedback, and others), it is justifiable to study their potential in new application areas. The aim of this thesis is to adapt the smartphone for the use as a game controller in PC racing games and evaluate this solution taking into account such aspects as race results and user experience. Objectives. To this end, two applications were developed - a game controller application for Android‑based smartphones (i.e. the client application) and a PC server application. The applications support a selected open-source PC racing game called SuperTuxKart. The evaluation of the smartphone encompasses both race results (whether the smartphone enables players to achieve comparable results to the keyboard – a standard game controller) and user experience (whether this game controller may be satisfying to players). Methods. An experiment was conducted where 20 participants controlled the SuperTuxKart game using first the smartphone, and then the keyboard or vice versa. The experiment was followed by a questionnaire-based survey of the user experience. Results. The experiment results indicate that the smartphone may achieve results which are comparable to those achieved by the keyboard. The race times corresponding to the smartphone were somewhat longer than those obtained with the keyboard, but the average relative difference was below 18%. The questionnaire results show that more than half of the participants enjoyed the smartphone more than the keyboard, despite the fact that the smartphone turned out to be a more challenging game controller for many players and did not provide so good control of the racing game as the keyboard. Conclusions. Overall, this study shows that the smartphone has a potential to be a suitable, satisfying and enjoyable controller for PC racing games.

The Car Racing competition platform is used for evaluating different car control solutions under competitive conditions [1]. These competitions are organized as part of the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC) and Computational Intelligence and Games Sym-posium (CIG). The goal is to learn and develop a controller for a car in the TORCS open source racing game [2]. Oussama Khatib [3] (1986) introduced Artificial potential fields (APFs) for the first time while looking for new ways to avoid obstacles for manipulators and mobile robots in real time. In car racing games a novel combination of artificial potential fields as the major control paradigm for car controls in a multi-agent system is being used to coordinate control interests in different scenarios [1]. Here we extend the work of Uusitalo and Stefan J. Johansson by introducing effective collision detection, overtaking maneuvers, run time evaluation and detailed analysis of the track using the concept of multi-agent artificial potential fields MAPFs. The results of our extended car controller in terms of lap time, number of damages and position in the race is improved. / We have concluded by implementing a controller that make use of multi agent based artificial potential field approach to achieve the tricky and complex task of collision detection and overtaking while driving in a car racing game with different other controllers as opponents. We exploited the advantages of APFs to the best of our knowledge using laws of physics and discrete mathematics in order to achieve successful overtaking behavior and overcome its drawbacks as being very complex to implement and high memory requirements for time critical applications e.g. car racing games (Section 3.1, RQ1). Dynamic objects in a fast changing environment like a car racing game are likely to collide more often with each other, thus resulting in higher number of damages. Using APFs instead of traditionally used collision avoidance techniques resulted in less number of damages during the race, thus minimizing the lap’s time which in turn contribute to better position in the race as shown in experiment 3 (Section 3.1, RQ2 and Section 6.6). Overtaking maneuvers are complex and tricky and is the major cause of collision among cars both in real life as well as in car racing games, thus the criteria to measure the performance regarding overtaking behavior of different controllers in the race is based on number of damages taken during the race. The comparison between the participating controllers in terms of damages taken during various rounds of the race is analyzed in experiment 3 (Section 3.1, RQ3 and Section 6.6). The results of the quick race along with opponents shows good results on three tracks while having bad performance on the remaining other track. Our controller got 1st position on the CG track 2 while kept 2nd position on CS Speed way 1 and Alpine 1. It had worse performance on wheel 2 which needs to be optimized in the future for better results on this track and other similar complex and tricky tracks. / +46723266771

<p>A metaheuristic is a generic algorithmic template that, once properly instantiated, can be used for finding high quality solutions of combinatorial optimization problems.<p>For obtaining a fully functioning algorithm, a metaheuristic needs to be configured: typically some modules need to be instantiated and some parameters need to be tuned. For the sake of precision, we use the expression <em>parametric tuning</em> for referring to the tuning of numerical parameters, either continuous or discrete but in any case ordinal. <p>On the other hand, we use the expression <em>structural tuning</em> for referring to the problem of defining which modules should be included and, in general, to the problem of tuning parameters that are either boolean or categorical. Finally, with <em>tuning</em> we refer to the composite <em>structural and parametric tuning</em>.</p><p><p><p>Tuning metaheuristics is a very sensitive issue both in practical applications and in academic studies. Nevertheless, a precise definition of the tuning problem is missing in the literature. In this thesis, we argue that the problem of tuning a metaheuristic can be profitably described and solved as a machine learning problem.</p><p><p><p>Indeed, looking at the problem of tuning metaheuristics from a machine learning perspective, we are in the position of giving a formal statement of the tuning problem and to propose an algorithm, called F-Race, for tackling the problem itself. Moreover, always from this standpoint, we are able to highlight and discuss some catches and faults in the current research methodology in the metaheuristics field, and to propose some guidelines.</p><p><p><p>The thesis contains experimental results on the use of F-Race and some examples of practical applications. Among others, we present a feasibility study carried out by the German-based software company <em>SAP</em>, that concerned the possible use of F-Race for tuning a commercial computer program for vehicle routing and scheduling problems. Moreover, we discuss the successful use of F-Race for tuning the best performing algorithm submitted to the <em>International Timetabling Competition</em> organized in 2003 by the <em>Metaheuristics Network</em> and sponsored by <em>PATAT</em>, the international series of conferences on the <em>Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling</em>.</p> / Doctorat en sciences appliquées / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The significance of horse in the life and culture of the nomadic societies is a well-known fact. A large part of Mongolian oral traditions and folklore is related to horses. But the horse plays an important role in the oral tradition of sedentary peoples of Europe as well. The diploma thesis is based on field research, written sources and existing sources of folklore of Mongolia and Eastern Slovakia, where the traditional horse breeding still continues to exist. The aim of the thesis is to outline Mongolian perception of the world and the bond between the Mongol and nature through the description of the relationship between man and horse, which is compared with non-nomadic, sedentary culture of the Eastern Slovakia.

La concepción de este trabajo tuvo como premisa la siguiente frase: “Los autos son los juguetes de los hombres”. Pensamos que sería interesante que los modelos a escala de la oficina de Kike Pérez (conductor y fundador del programa) cobraran vida y le dieran una atmósfera lúdica a la presentación. Por eso optamos por trabajarla en stop motion, pues de ese modo podríamos darle a los autos un “soplo de vida” y recrear la imaginería propia de nuestra niñez. / Trabajo de suficiencia profesional

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2016-07-21T18:09:47Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Luiz Silva dos Santos.pdf: 1818866 bytes, checksum: 5ebb03d38952f88ab9db4ffc34d88a3f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-21T18:09:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luiz Silva dos Santos.pdf: 1818866 bytes, checksum: 5ebb03d38952f88ab9db4ffc34d88a3f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-31 / The main objective of this work is to determine which of the two main constructs available in the marketing literature on the involvement of consumers (PII Personal Involvement Inventory - Zaichkowsky - 1994) and (NIP New involment Profile - Jain and Srinivasan - 1990), has the greatest power prediction as to word of mouth and repurchase intention to participate in street racing events in the city of São Paulo. The street race has shown an exponential increase in the number of practitioners every year in the same proportion also increases the number of events related to this sport practice, showing its importance as a promoter in the act of consumption, health and well-being of the population . Moreover, it is a popular sport low cost, low risk, high efficiency and great practicality. With this growth, the market has simultaneously attracting more competition between companies that organize these events in São Paulo, generating new challenges so that we can provide participants with a greater range of products and services to be offered to such customers and street runners, who are increasingly involved with this sport. Data were collected through a field survey with a sample of 320 respondents. To analyze the data we used structural equation modeling technique where it was found that construct NIP New involment Profile, it showed the best predictive results in relation to the mouth of variables mouth and repurchase intention. With the results obtained in this study is expected to increase knowledge of consumer involvement with sports and can be used by researchers and professionals of marketing and sport management. / O principal objetivo desta dissertação é determinar qual dos dois principais construtos disponíveis na literatura de marketing sobre o envolvimento dos consumidores (PII Personal Involvement Inventory de Zaichkowsky - 1994) e (NIP New Involment Profile de Jain e Srinivasan - 1990), tem o maior poder de predição quanto ao boca a boca e a intenção de recompra de participação em eventos de corrida de rua na Cidade de São Paulo. A corrida de rua tem mostrado um aumento exponencial no número de praticantes a cada ano, na mesma proporção aumenta também o número de eventos relacionados a essa prática esportiva, mostrando a sua importância como promotora no ato de consumo, saúde e bem-estar da população. Além disso, é um esporte popular de baixo custo, baixo risco, alta eficiência e grande praticidade. Com esse crescimento, o mercado vem atraindo simultaneamente uma maior concorrência entre as empresas que organizam esses eventos na cidade de São Paulo, gerando novos desafios a fim de que se possa proporcionar aos participantes uma gama maior de produtos e serviços a serem oferecidos a esses consumidores e praticantes de corrida de rua, que estão cada vez mais envolvidos com essa prática esportiva. Os dados foram coletados através de uma pesquisa de campo com uma amostra de 320 respondentes. Para analisar os dados foi utilizada a técnica de Modelagem de Equações Estruturais, onde constatou-se que construto NIP New Involment Profile, foi o que apresentou os melhores resultados preditivos em relação as variáveis de boca a boca e a intenção de recompra. Com os resultados obtidos nesta pesquisa espera-se ampliar o conhecimento sobre o envolvimento dos consumidores com esportes e que possam ser utilizados por pesquisadores e profissionais de marketing e gestão do esporte.

The aim of this master thesis is the construction of a steering system for Formula Student monopost. The main part of the thesis is the design and analysis of steering column using universal joints. The thesis also contains design and analysis of steering rack together with experimental measurement of steering column torsional stiffness. An important part of the thesis is also a calculation of steering forces.

This Diploma thesis deals with the design of facilities for measuring wheel alignment and set-up of race car chassis. Two versions of measuring system have been elaborated, each measurement procedure is described. Stress analysis of main parts follow. The last part consists of factors affecting accuracy of measurement.

This thesis describes the design of four-stroke single-cylinder liquid-cooled engine with a displacement of 250 cm3 designed for Moto3 road racing motorcycle. The first chapter describes designs of existing modern engines and requirements to these engines. The next section describes the design of crank mechanism and its components. The following part describes balance shaft, timing mechanism, cylinder, cylinder head, crankcase, cooling system, lubrication system.