Orientador: Carlos Antonio Gamero / Banca: Silvio José Bicudo / Banca: Dirceu Maximino Fernandes / Banca: Antonio Renan Berchol da Silva / Banca: Carlos Eduardo Amgeli Furlani / Resumo: Cada sistema de manejo do solo é trabalhado de maneira própria, alterando de forma diferenciada as propriedades químicas, físicas e biológicas do solo, podendo requerer modificações nas recomendações e no manejo da adubação. Com o objetivo de avaliar o efeito da antecipação da adubação de semeadura, de dois sistemas de manejo do solo e dois espaçamentos entrelinhas no desempenho da cultura do milho, foi realizado este estudo. O experimento foi instalado e conduzido na Fazenda Experimental Lageado, pertencente à Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas (FCA) da Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Campus de Botucatu, nos anos agrícolas de 2005/2006 e 2006/2007, em Nitossolo Vermelho Distroférrico. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi de blocos ao acaso com parcelas subsubdivididas e quatro repetições. As parcelas foram constituídas pelos sistemas de manejo do solo (plantio direto e preparo reduzido, caracterizado pela escarificação do solo por meio de equipamento provido de disco de corte da palhada e rolo nivelador/destorroador, trabalhando na profundidade entre 25 e 30 cm), as subparcelas pelas formas de adubação (adubação de pré-semeadura realizada na superfície do solo em área total antes da semeadura do milho e adubação convencional) e as subsubparcelas pelos espaçamentos entrelinhas (90 e 45 cm), totalizando 8 tratamentos. Os resultados obtidos foram submetidos ao teste de Tukey a 5% de probabilidade para comparar as médias entre os sistemas de manejo do solo, as formas de adubação, os espaçamentos entrelinhas e os desdobramentos das interações entre esses três fatores. As análises estatísticas demonstraram que o sistema plantio direto apresentou maior densidade do solo e resistência mecânica do solo à penetração, quando comparado ao preparo reduzido. Na operação de adubação de pré-semeadura os sistemas de manejo do solo... (resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Each soil tillage system is worked in proper way, modifying of differentiated form the chemical, physical and biological soil properties, and may require adaptations of fertilization recommendations and management. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of sowing fertilization anticipation, two soil tillage systems and two row spacing on performance of the corn crop. The experiment was carried out at the "Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas" (FCA), "Universidade Estadual Paulista" (UNESP), Botucatu-SP campus, from October 2005 to May 2007, in a Dystric Nitosol (FAO, 1974). The experimental design was in randomized blocks with split-split-plots and four repetitions. The main plots consisted of two soil tillage systems (no-tillage and reduced tillage with chisel plow with cut disk and planning roll, working at 25 to 30 cm deep), the split-plots of fertilizer application methods (surface fertilizer application before corn sowing and fertilizer application conventional) and split-split-plots of row spacings (0.90 m and 0.45 m), totalizing 8 treatments. Obtained results were analyzed by Tukey test at 5% of probability for comparing averages. Statistical analysis showed that no-tillage system had higher density as well as mechanical soil resistance to penetration, when compared to reduced tillage. For fertilizer application before corn sowing the soil tillage systems did not influence the traction force, bar power demanded, effective field capacity, demanded time, energy specific consumption and hourly fuel consumption; the reduced tillage showed higher area fuel consumption. For corn sowing it was observed that no-tillage system showed lower traction force, bar power demanded, energy specific consumption, hourly and area consumption of fuel. The 0.45 m row spacing showed higher traction force, bar power demanded, energy specific consumption... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Les simulations numériques représentent un élément central du processus de conception d’un avion complétant les tests physiques et essais en vol. Elles peuvent notamment bénéficier de méthodes innovantes, telle que l’intelligence artificielle qui se diffuse largement dans l’aviation. Simuler une mission de vol complète pour plusieurs disciplines pose d’importants problèmes à cause des coûts de calcul et des conditions d’opérations changeantes. De plus, des phénomènes complexes peuvent se produire. Par exemple, des chocs peuvent apparaître sur l’aile pour l’aérodynamique alors que le mélange entre les écoulements du moteur et de l’air extérieur impacte fortement l’aérothermie autour de la nacelle et du mât. Des modèles de substitution peuvent être utilisés pour remplacer les simulations haute-fidélité par des approximations mathématiques afin de réduire le coût de calcul et de fournir une méthode construite autour des données de simulations. Deux développements sont proposés dans cette thèse : des modèles de substitution utilisant l’apprentissage automatique pour approximer des calculs aérodynamiques et l’intégration de modèles de substitution classiques dans un processus aérothermique industriel. La première approche sépare les solutions en sous-ensembles selon leurs formes grâce à de l’apprentissage automatique. En outre, une méthode de reéchantillonnage complète la base d’entrainement en ajoutant de l’information dans des sous-ensembles spécifiques. Le deuxième développement se concentre sur le dimensionnement du mât moteur en remplaçant les simulations aérothermiques par des modèles de substitution. Ces deux développements sont appliqués sur des configurations avions afin de combler l’écart entre méthode académique et industrielle. On peut noter que des améliorations significatives en termes de coût et de précision ont été atteintes. / Numerical simulations provide a key element in aircraft design process, complementing physical tests and flight tests. They could take advantage of innovative methods, such as artificial intelligence technologies spreading in aviation. Simulating the full flight mission for various disciplines pose important problems due to significant computational cost coupled to varying operating conditions. Moreover, complex physical phenomena can occur. For instance, the aerodynamic field on the wing takes different shapes and can encounter shocks, while aerothermal simulations around nacelle and pylon are sensitive to the interaction between engine flows and external flows. Surrogate models can be used to substitute expensive high-fidelitysimulations by mathematical and statistical approximations in order to reduce overall computation cost and to provide a data-driven approach. In this thesis, we propose two developments: (i) machine learning-based surrogate models capable of approximating aerodynamic experiments and (ii) integrating more classical surrogate models into industrial aerothermal process. The first approach mitigates aerodynamic issues by separating solutions with very different shapes into several subsets using machine learning algorithms. Moreover, a resampling technique takes advantage of the subdomain decomposition by adding extra information in relevant regions. The second development focuses on pylon sizing by building surrogate models substitutingaerothermal simulations. The two approaches are applied to aircraft configurations in order to bridge the gap between academic methods and real-world applications. Significant improvements are highlighted in terms of accuracy and cost gains

Dans le procédé de production d’engrais à base de superphosphate, l’attaque de la roche phosphatée par l’acide sulfurique génère des sous-produits gazeux odorants. Bien que leurs émissions se situent dans les limites réglementaires, les usines d’engrais à base de superphosphate sont susceptibles de causer des nuisances olfactives pour les riverains. Cette thèse propose d’étudier la faisabilité d’un procédé de traitement des odeurs par l’ozonation en phase gazeuse homogène. Une première étape de priorisation des composés chimiques ayant le potentiel odorant le plus important a été réalisée. Ce classement a été effectué à partir d’un rapport technique fourni par notre partenaire industriel basé sur une campagne de mesure olfactométrique et de caractérisation chimique des gaz émis par la cheminée d’une usine de production des engrais superphosphate. À partir du calcul de la valeur d’activité odorante (OAV), deux familles de composés ont été ciblées : les composés soufrés – représentés par le sulfure d’hydrogène (H2S), le sulfure d’éthylméthyle (MES) et le disulfure de diméthyle (DMDS) – et les aldéhydes (représentés par le propanal et le butanal). Deux techniques analytiques (GC/FID et SIFT/MS) ont été mises en œuvre afin d’évaluer les performances d’élimination de ces composés, la difficulté d'analyser une matrice gazeuse contenant de l'ozone ayant été mise en évidence. Ainsi, une interférence de l'ozone sur l'analyse des aldéhydes par GC/FID a été identifiée. La technique SIFT/MS a, quant à elle, nécessité un développement important. L’ozonation d’effluents gazeux modèles a été réalisée en suivant l’élimination des composés cibles dans différentes conditions de fonctionnement (temps de résidence, température du réacteur, concentration en ozone et taux d’humidité) dans un domaine expérimental compatible avec les contraintes industrielles. Les composés soufrés ont présenté des taux d’élimination élevés, particulièrement dans le cas de H2S, dont les conversions ont atteint environ 80%. Les monosulfures (MES) et disulfures organiques (DMDS) se sont montrés moins réactifs à l’ozone, puisque les conversions sont restées assez faibles (de l’ordre de 30% pour un ratio O3/soufrés similaire). Dans la gamme de conditions opératoires utilisées, ni l'humidité, ni le temps de résidence dans le réacteur n’ont montré d'influence considérable. La concentration d'ozone s’avère être le paramètre du procédé le plus influant, ayant un effet positif sur les taux de conversion des trois composés soufrés étudiés. Parallèlement, pour le DMDS, une augmentation de la température du réacteur a aussi amélioré la conversion. De manière globale, les taux de conversion les plus importants ont été obtenus pour les ratio O3/soufrés et la température du réacteur les plus élevés. A l’inverse, même lorsque les conditions de réaction les plus favorables ont été appliquées (température et concentration d’ozone les plus élevées), les aldéhydes se sont montrés non réactifs vis-à-vis de l’ozone. Malgré les faibles conversions obtenues, l’utilisation du SIFT/MS a permis d’identifier les principaux sousproduits de la réaction ozone-composés soufrés en phase gazeuse comme étant le méthyléthylsulfoxyde (MESO), le méthyléthylsulfone (MESO2), le diméthyl thiosulfinate (DMSOS), les isomères de diméthyl thiosulfonate (DMSO2S), le diméthyldisulfoxyde (DM(SO)2) et également le dioxyde (SO2) et le trioxyde de soufre (SO3). Le procédé de traitement des odeurs par ozonation directe des gaz en sortie de cheminée industrielle apparaît donc difficilement envisageable en raison de la faible efficacité d’élimination des composés malodorants démontrée dans nos essais. En revanche, cette technique couplée avec une absorption chimique pourrait s’avérer intéressante pour éliminer les nuisances olfactives avec une bonne efficacité / In the superphosphate-based fertilizers production process, the attack of phosphate rock by sulfuric acid generates odorous gaseous by-products. Although their emissions are within regulatory limits, superphosphate fertilizer plants are likely to cause odor nuisance to residents. This thesis proposes to study the feasibility of a process of odor treatment by ozonation in homogeneous gas phase. A first step of prioritization of the chemical compounds with the most important odorous potential has been realized. This ranking was established from a technical report provided by our industrial partner based on a campaign of olfactometric measurement and chemical characterization of the gases emitted by the chimney of a superphosphate fertilizer production plant. From the calculation of the odor activity value (OAV), two families of compounds were targeted: sulfur compounds - represented by hydrogen sulphide (H2S), ethylmethyl sulphide (MES) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) - and aldehydes (represented by propanal and butanal). Two analytical techniques (GC/FID and SIFT/MS) were applied in order to evaluate the elimination performance of these compounds, the difficulty of analyzing a gaseous matrix containing ozone having been demonstrated. Thus, ozone interference on GC/FID analysis of aldehydes has been identified. The SIFT/MS technique, in turn, required significant development. The ozonation of model gaseous effluents was carried out following the elimination of the target compounds under different operating conditions (residence time, reactor temperature, ozone concentration and moisture) in an experimental field compatible with the industrial constraints. The sulfur compounds exhibited high removal rates, particularly in the case of H2S, whose conversions reached about 80%. Organic monosulfides (MES) and disulfides (DMDS) were less reactive to ozone, as conversions remained quite low (around 30% for the same level of O3/sulfur ratio). In the range of operating conditions used, neither the moisture nor the residence time in the reactor showed considerable influence. The ozone concentration is the most influential process parameter, having a positive effect on the conversion rates of the three sulfur compounds studied. Meanwhile, for DMDS, an increase in reactor temperature also improved the conversion. Overall, the highest conversion rates were obtained for the highest O3/sulfur ratios and reactor temperature. Conversely, even when the most favorable reaction conditions have been applied (highest temperature and ozone concentration), the aldehydes have been inert to ozone. Despite the low conversions obtained, the use of SIFT/MS has identified the main by-products of the ozone-sulfur compounds gas phase reaction as methylethylsulfoxide (MESO), methylethylsulfone (MESO2), dimethyl thiosulfinate (DMSOS), isomers of dimethyl thiosulfonate (DMSO2S), dimethyldisulfoxide (DM(SO)2) and also sulfur dioxide (SO2) and trioxide (SO3). The odors treatment process by direct ozonation of the gases at the outlet of industrial chimney thus appears difficult to envisage because of the low efficiency of malodorous compounds elimination demonstrated in our tests. On the other hand, this technique coupled with chemical absorption could be interesting to eliminate the olfactory nuisances with a good efficiency

This paper describes LAPACK-based Fortran 77 subroutines for the reduction of a Hamiltonian matrix to square-reduced form and the approximation of all its eigenvalues using the implicit version of Van Loan's method. The transformation of the Hamilto- nian matrix to a square-reduced Hamiltonian uses only orthogonal symplectic similarity transformations. The eigenvalues can then be determined by applying the Hessenberg QR iteration to a matrix of half the order of the Hamiltonian matrix and taking the square roots of the computed values. Using scaling strategies similar to those suggested for algebraic Riccati equations can in some cases improve the accuracy of the computed eigenvalues. We demonstrate the performance of the subroutines for several examples and show how they can be used to solve some control-theoretic problems.

In this thesis the path integral formalism is applied to the calculation of the dynamics of dissipative quantum systems. The time evolution of a system of bilinearly coupled bosonic modes is treated using the real-time path integral technique in coherent-state representation. This method is applied to a damped harmonic oscillator within the Caldeira-Leggett model. In order to get the stationary trajectories the corresponding Lagrangian function is diagonalized and then the path integrals are evaluated by means of the stationary-phase method. The time evolution of the reduced density matrix in the basis of coherent states is given in simple analytic form for weak system-bath coupling, i.e. the so-called rotating-wave terms can be evaluated exactly but the non-rotating-wave terms only in a perturbative manner. The validity range of the rotating-wave approximation is discussed from the viewpoint of spectral equations. In addition, it is shown that systems without initial system-bath correlations can exhibit initial jumps in the population dynamics even for rather weak dissipation. Only with initial correlations the classical trajectories for the system coordinate can be recovered. The path integral formalism in a combined phase-space and coherent-state representation is applied to the problem of curve-crossing dynamics. The system of interest is described by two coupled one-dimensional harmonic potential energy surfaces interacting with a heat bath. The mapping approach is used to rewrite the Lagrangian function of the electronic part of the system. Using the Feynman-Vernon influence-functional method the bath is eliminated whereas the non-Gaussian part of the path integral is treated using the perturbation theory in the small coordinate shift between potential energy surfaces. The vibrational and the population dynamics is considered in a lowest order of the perturbation. The dynamics of a Gaussian wave packet is analyzed along a one-dimensional reaction coordinate. Also the damping rate of coherence in the electronic part of the relevant system is evaluated within the ordinary and variational perturbation theory. The analytic expressions for the rate functions are obtained in the low and high temperature regimes.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird eine Prozedur zur Ordnungsreduktion von Finite Elemente Modellen mikromechanischer Struktur mit elektrostatischem Wirkprinzip entwickelt und analysiert. Hintergrund der Ordnungsreduktion ist eine Koordinatentransformation von lokalen Finite Elemente Koordinaten in globale Koordinaten. Die globalen Koordinaten des reduzierten Modells werden durch einige wenige Formfunktionen beschrieben. Damit wird das Makromodell nicht mehr durch lokale Knotenverschiebungen beschrieben, sondern durch globale Formfunktionen, welche die gesamte Deformation der Struktur beeinflussen. Es wird gezeigt, dass Eigenvektoren der linearisierten mechanischen Struktur einfache und effiziente Formfunktionen darstellen. Weiterhin kann diese Methode für bestimmte Nichtlinearitäten und für verschiedene in Mikrosystemen auftretende Lasten angewendet werden. Das Ergebnis sind Makromodelle, die über Klemmen in Systemsimulatoren eingebunden werden können, die Genauigkeiten einer Finite Elemente Analyse erreichen und für Systemsimulationen typische Laufzeitverhalten besitzen.

The electron transport through a molecular wire under the influence of an external laser field is studied using a reduced density matrix formalism. The full system is partitioned into the relevant part, i.e. the wire, electron reservoirs and a phonon bath. An earlier second-order perturbation theory approach of Meier and Tannor for bosonic environments which employs a numerical decomposition of the spectral density is used to describe the coupling to the phonon bath and is extended to deal with the electron transfer between the reservoirs and the molecular wire. Furthermore, from the resulting time-nonlocal (TNL) scheme a time-local (TL) approach can be determined. Both are employed to propagate the reduced density operator in time for an arbitrary time-dependent system Hamiltonian which incorporates the laser field non-perturbatively. Within the TL formulation, one can extract a current operator for the open quantum system. This enables a more general formulation of the problem which is necessary to employ an optimal control algorithm for open quantum systems in order to compute optimal control fields for time-distributed target states, e.g. current patterns. Thus, we take a fundamental step towards optimal control in molecular electronics. Numerical examples of the population dynamics, laser controlled current, TNL vs. TL and optimal control fields are presented to demonstrate the diverse applicability of the derived formalism.

Für die elastische Mehrkörpersimulation bzw. die FEM-MKS-Kopplung sind reduzierte FE-Modelle von großer Bedeutung. Die Erstellung reduzierter Modelle mit hoher Abbildungsgüte im Rahmen einer Modellordnungsreduktion erfordert einerseits ein geeignetes Reduktions-verfahren und andererseits zuverlässige Korrelationsmethoden. Beides wird durch die Soft-ware MORPACK bereitgestellt. Die Korrelation reduzierter FE-Modelle basiert in MORPACK derzeit ausschließlich auf modalen Eigenschaften. Ausgehend von der Annahme, dass sich die Abbildungsgüte eines reduzierten FE-Modells erst im Rahmen einer Zeitbereichssimula-tion vollständig beurteilen lässt, ist eine dahingehende Erweiterung von MORPACK geplant. Für einfache Topologien muss die Möglichkeit bestehen, das dynamische Verhalten, redu-zierter Modelle, direkt in MORPACK zu simulieren. Mit Hilfe der resultierenden Zeitsignale werden die reduzierten Modelle bewertet. Für die Umsetzung dieser Idee muss in MORPACK zunächst ein eigenständiges EMKS-Programm implementiert werden. Die Implementierung des EMKS-Programms in MORPACK (bzw. MATLAB) stellt den Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit dar. Es werden zunächst die Anforderungen an das EMKS-Programm formuliert. Nach der Behandlung aller erforderlichen theoretischen Grundlagen werden die Systemgleichungen hergeleitet. Anschließend wird ein Formalismus bereitgestellt, der den Aufbau der Systemgleichungen, auf Basis der Nutzereingaben ermöglicht. Nach der Implementierung des Formalismus wird das EMKS-Programm verifiziert und erprobt.:1 Einleitung 1 1.1 Motivation 1 1.2 Zielsetzung 2 1.3 Lösungsweg 3 2 Verifikation und Optimierung durch Zeitbereichssimulationen 5 2.1 Erweiterung von MORPACK 5 2.2 Anforderungen an das EMKS-Programm 10 2.3 Korrelation von Zeitsignalen 12 3 Grundlagen der elastischen Mehrkörpersimulation 16 3.1 Berücksichtigung elastischer Deformationen in Mehrkörpersystemen 16 3.2 Kinematik freier Einzelkörper 19 3.2.1 Räumliche Drehungen von Bezugssystemen 19 3.2.2 Methode des bewegten Bezugssystems 23 3.2.3 Diskretisierung und Variablen für die Zustandsbeschreibung 25 3.2.4 Kinematik der Schnittstellenknoten 28 3.3 Kinetik freier Einzelkörper 31 3.4 Wahl des Körperbezugssystems 40 3.4.1 Kinematische Zwangsbedingungen 40 3.4.2 Kinetische Zwangsbedingungen 42 3.5 Gebundene Mehrkörpersysteme 44 3.6 Daten von elastischen Körpern 48 4 Bewegungsgleichungen und EMKS Formalismus für zwei beliebig gekoppelte Körper 52 4.1 Modellbildung 52 4.2 Bewegungsgleichungen in einem Satz natürlicher Koordinaten 54 4.3 Transformation auf Minimalkoordinaten 62 4.3.1 Formalismus 63 4.3.2 Herleitung der notwendigen Vektoren und Matrizen 65 5 Erweiterung des EMKS-Algorithmus für die festgelegte Topologie 76 6 Implementierung in MORPACK 84 6.1 Struktur der Eingabe- und Definitionsdaten 84 6.2 Grafische Benutzeroberfläche und Einbindung in MORPACK 90 6.3 Implementierung des EMKS-Formalismus 92 7 Verifikation und Erprobung 98 7.1 Verifikation mit SIMPACK 98 7.2 Erprobung der Prozesskette 101 7.2.1 Erprobungsmodell 101 7.2.2 Ergebnisse der Zeitbereichssimulation im Vergleich zu modalen Korrelationskriterien 103 7.2.3 Optimierung durch Zeitbereichssimulation 108 8 Zusammenfassung und Ausblick 112 / Reduced FE-Models are very important for elastic multibody simulation and FEM-MKS-coupling. The generation of reduced FE-models with high approximation quality in a model order reduction requires on the one hand a suitable reduction method and on the other hand reliable correlation methods. Both are provided by the MORPACK software. In MORPACK the correlation of reduced FE models based currently only on modal properties. An extension of the MORPACK software is planned on the assumption, that the approximation quality of a reduced FE-model can be completely assessed only in a time domain simulation. For simple topologies, it must be possible to simulate the dynamic behavior of reduced models directly into MORPACK. With the correlation of resulting time signals, the reduced models are as-sessed. To realize this idea, an independent EMKS program must be implemented in MORPACK. The implementation of the EMKS program in MORPACK (respectively MATLAB) represents the focus of this thesis. The first part is to formulate the necessary requirements for the EMKS program. After handling of all the necessary theoretical foundations, the system equa-tions are derived. Subsequently, formalism is provided that allows a construction of the sys-tem equations based on the user input. After the implementation of the formalism, the EMKS program will verify and tested.:1 Einleitung 1 1.1 Motivation 1 1.2 Zielsetzung 2 1.3 Lösungsweg 3 2 Verifikation und Optimierung durch Zeitbereichssimulationen 5 2.1 Erweiterung von MORPACK 5 2.2 Anforderungen an das EMKS-Programm 10 2.3 Korrelation von Zeitsignalen 12 3 Grundlagen der elastischen Mehrkörpersimulation 16 3.1 Berücksichtigung elastischer Deformationen in Mehrkörpersystemen 16 3.2 Kinematik freier Einzelkörper 19 3.2.1 Räumliche Drehungen von Bezugssystemen 19 3.2.2 Methode des bewegten Bezugssystems 23 3.2.3 Diskretisierung und Variablen für die Zustandsbeschreibung 25 3.2.4 Kinematik der Schnittstellenknoten 28 3.3 Kinetik freier Einzelkörper 31 3.4 Wahl des Körperbezugssystems 40 3.4.1 Kinematische Zwangsbedingungen 40 3.4.2 Kinetische Zwangsbedingungen 42 3.5 Gebundene Mehrkörpersysteme 44 3.6 Daten von elastischen Körpern 48 4 Bewegungsgleichungen und EMKS Formalismus für zwei beliebig gekoppelte Körper 52 4.1 Modellbildung 52 4.2 Bewegungsgleichungen in einem Satz natürlicher Koordinaten 54 4.3 Transformation auf Minimalkoordinaten 62 4.3.1 Formalismus 63 4.3.2 Herleitung der notwendigen Vektoren und Matrizen 65 5 Erweiterung des EMKS-Algorithmus für die festgelegte Topologie 76 6 Implementierung in MORPACK 84 6.1 Struktur der Eingabe- und Definitionsdaten 84 6.2 Grafische Benutzeroberfläche und Einbindung in MORPACK 90 6.3 Implementierung des EMKS-Formalismus 92 7 Verifikation und Erprobung 98 7.1 Verifikation mit SIMPACK 98 7.2 Erprobung der Prozesskette 101 7.2.1 Erprobungsmodell 101 7.2.2 Ergebnisse der Zeitbereichssimulation im Vergleich zu modalen Korrelationskriterien 103 7.2.3 Optimierung durch Zeitbereichssimulation 108 8 Zusammenfassung und Ausblick 112

<div>Excessive deformation and stress of skin following reconstructive surgery plays a crucial role in wound healing, often leading to complications. Yet, despite of this concern, surgeries are still planned and executed based on each surgeon's training and experience rather than quantitative engineering tools. The limitations of current treatment planning and execution stem in part from the difficulty in predicting the mechanical behavior of skin, challenges in directly measuring stress in the operating room, and inability to predict the long term adaptation of skin following reconstructive surgery. Computational modeling of soft tissue mechanics has emerged as an ideal candidate to determine stress contours over sizable skin regions in realistic situations. Virtual surgeries with computational mechanics tools will help surgeons explore different surgeries preoperatively, make prediction of stress contours, and eventually aid the surgeon in planning for optimal wound healing. While there has been significant progress on computational modeling of both reconstructive surgery and skin mechanical and mechanobiological behavior, there remain major gaps preventing computational mechanics to be widely used in the clinical setting. At the preoperative stage, better calibration of skin mechanical properties for individual patients based on minimally invasive mechanical tests is still needed. One of the key challenges in this task is that skin is not stress-free in vivo. In many applications requiring large skin flaps, skin is further grown with the tissue expansion technique. Thus, better understanding of skin growth and the resulting stress-free state is required. The other most significant challenge is dealing with the inherent variability of mechanical properties and biological response of biological systems. Skin properties and adaptation to mechanical cues changes with patient demographic, anatomical location, and from one individual to another. Thus, the precise model parameters can never be known exactly, even if some measurements are available. Therefore, rather than expecting to know the exact model describing a patient, a probabilistic approach is needed. To bridge the gaps, this dissertation aims to advance skin biomechanics and computational mechanics tools in order to make virtual surgery for clinical use a reality in the near future. In this spirit, the dissertation constitutes three parts: skin growth and its incompatibility, acquisition of patient-specific geometry and skin mechanical properties, and uncertainty analysis of virtual surgery scenarios.</div><div>Skin growth induced by tissue expansion has been widely used to gain extra skin before reconstructive surgery. Within continuum mechanics, growth can be described with the split of the deformation gradient akin to plasticity. We propose a probabilistic framework to do uncertainty analysis of growth and remodeling of skin in tissue expansion. Our approach relies on surrogate modeling through multi-fidelity Gaussian process regression. This work is being used calibrate the computational model against animal model data. Details of the animal model and the type of data obtained are also covered in the thesis. One important aspect of the growth and remodeling process is that it leads to residual stress. It is understood that this stress arises due to the nonhomogeneous growth deformation. In this dissertation we characterize the geometry of incompatibility of the growth field borrowing concepts originally developed in the study of crystal plasticity. We show that growth produces unique incompatibility fields that increase our understanding of the development of residual stress and the stress-free configuration of tissues. We pay particular attention to the case of skin growth in tissue expansion.</div><div>Patient-specific geometry and material properties are the focus on the second part of the thesis. Minimally invasive mechanical tests based on suction have been developed which can be used in vivo, but these tests offer only limited characterization of an individual's skin mechanics. Current methods have the following limitations: only isotropic behavior can be measured, the calibration problem is done with inverse finite element methods or simple analytical calculations which are inaccurate, the calibration yields a single deterministic set of parameters, and the process ignores any previous information about the mechanical properties that can be expected for a patient. To overcome these limitations, we recast the calibration problem in a Bayesian framework. To sample from the posterior distribution of the parameters for a patient given a suction test, the method relies on an inexpensive Gaussian process surrogate. For the patient-specific geometry, techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging or computer tomography scans can be used. Such approaches, however, require specialized equipment and set up and are not affordable in many scenarios. We propose to use multi-view stereo (MVS) to capture patient-specific geometry.</div><div>The last part of the dissertation focuses on uncertainty analysis of the reconstructive procedure itself. To achieve uncertainty analysis in the clinical setting we propose to create surrogate and reduced order models, especially principal component analysis and Gaussian process regression. We first show the characterization of stress profiles under uncertainty for the three most common flap designs. For these examples we deal with idealized geometries. The probabilistic surrogates enable not only tasks such as fast prediction and uncertainty quantification, but also optimization. Based on a global sensitivity analysis we show that the direction of anisotropy of skin with respect to the flap geometry is the most important parameter controlled by the surgeon, and we show hot to optimize the flap in this idealized setting. We conclude with the application of the probabilistic surrogates to perform uncertainty analysis in patient-specific geometries. In summary, this dissertation focuses on some of the fundamental challenges that needed to be addressed to make virtual surgery models ready for clinical use. We anticipate that our results will continue to shape the way computational models continue to be incorporated in reconstructive surgery plans.</div>

Våren 2011 var det stora debattämnet i media, bland konsumenter och hos fastighetsmäklare lockpriser . Med lockpris avses att en bostad annonseras till ett väsentligt lägre pris än det bedömda marknadsvärdet på bostaden. Motivet var att locka till sig fler spekulanter till en eventuell budgivning. Innebörden av väsentligt är inte helt fastställt i lagen, vilket gör begreppet svårtolkat. I och med att utgångspriserna var satta så lågt jämfört med vad slutpriset blev så fick fastighetsmäklarna utstå mycket kritik. Mäklarbranschens anseende försämrades, och för att motverka detta bildades en arbetsgrupp av fastighetsmäklare från olika mäklarföretag i Stockholms innerstad. Detta mynnade ut i att istället för att använda sig av ett utgångspris så infördes begreppet accepterat pris. Ett accepterat pris innebär att det pris som annonseras ska vara på en sådan nivå att säljaren kan tänka sig att sälja bostaden till det priset. Dock med den kvarstående fria prövningsrätten som säljaren oavsett har, som innebär att tvång till försäljning inte råder, trots inkommit bud på annonserat pris. Som säljare har du rätt att sälja när du vill, till vem du vill och till vilket pris du vill. Syftet med uppsatsen är att redogöra för överenskommelsen av accepterat pris, vilka de bakomliggande faktorerna var vid införandet och vad målet var. Vidare vill vi klargöra om lockpriser är på väg tillbaka och utreda vilka andra bakomliggande faktorer som kan bidra till att ett pris uppfattas som lockpris. Resultatet av uppsatsen visar att en av tankarna bakom införandet av accepterat pris var att stärka mäklarbranschens anseende och öka transparensen till spekulanterna då dem skulle få en bättre uppfattning om bostadens slutpris redan vid annonseringen av objektet. Enligt de gjorda intervjuerna med mäklare så märks en viss tendens till att lockpriserna anses vara på väg tillbaka. Även den inhämtade statistiken visar att så skulle kunna vara fallet då skillnaden mellan accepterat pris/utgångspris och slutpris på senare tid har ökat. För att kunna dra någon mer definitiv slutsats är detta något man bör ta ställning till när mer data har insamlats över ett större tidsperspektiv framåt i tiden. / The great debate topic in media and among real estate agents in spring 2011 was specially reduced prices . Specially reduced prices means that a property is advertised at a considerably lower price than the evaluated current market value of the property. This is to attract more bidders in a potential bidding. It is in this case not completely established by law what is meant by considerably lower price, why this concept is difficult to interpret. Real estate agents got lot of criticism due to the output prices which were too low compared to the final prices. The real estate agents industry’s reputation became worse and to counter this, there was formed a taskforce of real estate agents in Stockholm. This resulted in that instead of making use of a starting price the concept of accepted price was introduced. The accepted price meant that the price that was advertised was going to be at such a level that the seller was willing to sell the property for that. With the free trial right the seller would not be compelled to sell anyhow. This study is about accounting for the emergence of accepted price and the factors behind the introduction and the concept. It also aims to clarify what the goal of accepted price was and to discuss if specially reduced prices are coming back. Finally to investigate if there can be some underlying factors that can contribute to that our perception increases as specially reduced prices. The results of the paper show that one of the ideas behind the introduction of the accepted price was to strengthen the real estate agent industry's reputation and increase transparency to bidders so they would get a further idea of the final price of the property already at the announcement. According to the interviews made with the real estate agents, it is noticed a certain tendency that specially reduced prices are considered to be on the way back. Although the collected statistics shows that such could be the case when the difference between starting- and final price has recently increased. To be able to make a more definite conclusion, this is something that could be considered when more data have been collected over a wider time frame in the future.