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The main aim of this research is to develop an on-line tool wear condition monitoring intelligent system for single-point turning operations. This is to provide accurate and reliable information on the different states of tool wear. Calibrated acoustic emission and vibration techniques were implemented to monitor the progress of wear on carbide tool tips. Previous research has shown that acoustic emission (AE) is sensitive to tool wear. However, AE, as a monitoring technique, is still not widely adopted by industry. This is because it is as yet impossible to achieve repeatable measurements of AE. The variability is due to inconsistent coupling of the sensor with structures and the fact that the tool structure may have different geometry and material property. Calibration is therefore required so that the extent of variability becomes quantifiable, and hence accounted for or removed altogether. Proper calibration needs a well-defined and repeatable AE source. In this research, various artificial sources were reviewed in order to assess their suitability as an AE calibration source for the single-point machining process. Two artificial sources were selected for studying in detail. These are an air jet and a pulsed laser; the former produces continuous-type AE and the latter burst type AE. Since the air jet source has a power spectrum resembling closely the AE produced from single-point machining and since it is readily available in a machine shop, not to mention its relative safety compared to laser, an air-jet source is a more appealing choice. The calibration procedure involves setting up an air jet at a fixed stand-off distance from the top rake of the tool tip, applying in sequence a set of increasing pressures and measuring the corresponding AE. It was found that the root-mean-square value of the AE obtained is linearly proportional to the pressure applied. Thus, irrespective of the layout of the sensor and AE source in a tool structure, AE can be expressed in terms of the common currency of 'pressure' using the calibration curve produced for that particular layout. Tool wear stages can then be defined in terms of the 'pressure' levels. In order to improve the robustness of the monitoring system, in addition to AE, vibration information is also used. In this case, the acceleration at the tool tip in the tangential and feed directions is measured. The coherence function between these two signals is then computed. The coherence is a function of the vibration frequency and has a value ranging from 0 to 1, corresponding to no correlation and full correlation respectively between the two acceleration signals. The coherence function method is an attempt to provide a solution, which is relatively insensitive to the dynamics and the process variables except tool wear. Three features were identified to be sensitive to tool wear and they are; AErms, and the coherence function of the acceleration at natural frequency (2.5-5.5 kHz) of the tool holder and at high frequency end (18-25kHz) respectively. A belief network, based on Bayes' rule, was created providing fusion of data from AE and vibration for tool wear classification. The conditional probabilities required for the belief network to operate were established from examples. These examples were presented to the belief network as a file of cases. The file contains the three features mentioned earlier, together with cutting conditions and the tool wear states. Half of the data in this file was used for training while the other half was used for testing the network. The performance of the network gave an overall classification error rate of 1.6 % with the WD acoustic emission sensor and an error rate of 4.9 % with the R30 acoustic emission sensor.

A determinação das coordenadas de um ponto através do sistema GPS pode ser feita utilizando-se os métodos de posicionamento por ponto simples ou de posicionamento diferencial. No caso do posicionamento diferencial, devido à escassez de marcos geodésicos no território nacional, as linhas de base são em sua maioria extensas. Nessas duas situações os usuários de receptores de simples freqüência ficam sujeitos à utilização de modelos ionosféricos para estimativa da influência da ionosfera nos sinais e conseqüentemente na precisão da posição de pontos. Sendo assim, a escolha adequada de tal modelo vem a ser um importante fator a ser considerado durante o processamento dos dados. Neste trabalho foi feita a comparação de resultados de processamento de dados GPS obtidos com a utilização de diferentes modelos ionosféricos a partir de posicionamento por ponto simples, verificando a eficácia de cada um deles em função da latitude do ponto, da atividade solar e do horário do dia, a fim de determinar qual modelo é mais eficiente em cada situação. Para isto foi desenvolvido um programa para posicionamento por ponto simples em linguagem Visual Basic versão 5.0. / The determination of point coordinates, through GPS system, could be made by methods of single point positioning or relative positioning. In this last case, due to geodetic landmarks scarcity in national territory, the baselines are, in its majority, extensive. In these two situations, the users of single frequency receivers are submitted to the use of ionospheric models to estimate the influence of the ionosphere in the signs. Being thus, the adequate choice of such model comes to be an important factor to be considered during the data processing. In this paper was made a matching of results of GPS data processing with the use of different ionospheric models through single point positioning, verifying the efficiency of each model to point latitude, solar activity and time, to determine each model is efficientier at each situation. To this it was developed a single point positioning program in Visual Basic version 5.0.

A determinação das coordenadas de um ponto através do sistema GPS pode ser feita utilizando-se os métodos de posicionamento por ponto simples ou de posicionamento diferencial. No caso do posicionamento diferencial, devido à escassez de marcos geodésicos no território nacional, as linhas de base são em sua maioria extensas. Nessas duas situações os usuários de receptores de simples freqüência ficam sujeitos à utilização de modelos ionosféricos para estimativa da influência da ionosfera nos sinais e conseqüentemente na precisão da posição de pontos. Sendo assim, a escolha adequada de tal modelo vem a ser um importante fator a ser considerado durante o processamento dos dados. Neste trabalho foi feita a comparação de resultados de processamento de dados GPS obtidos com a utilização de diferentes modelos ionosféricos a partir de posicionamento por ponto simples, verificando a eficácia de cada um deles em função da latitude do ponto, da atividade solar e do horário do dia, a fim de determinar qual modelo é mais eficiente em cada situação. Para isto foi desenvolvido um programa para posicionamento por ponto simples em linguagem Visual Basic versão 5.0. / The determination of point coordinates, through GPS system, could be made by methods of single point positioning or relative positioning. In this last case, due to geodetic landmarks scarcity in national territory, the baselines are, in its majority, extensive. In these two situations, the users of single frequency receivers are submitted to the use of ionospheric models to estimate the influence of the ionosphere in the signs. Being thus, the adequate choice of such model comes to be an important factor to be considered during the data processing. In this paper was made a matching of results of GPS data processing with the use of different ionospheric models through single point positioning, verifying the efficiency of each model to point latitude, solar activity and time, to determine each model is efficientier at each situation. To this it was developed a single point positioning program in Visual Basic version 5.0.

Master of Science / Department of Chemistry / Christopher T. Culbertson / Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have become a key component in the identification and treatment of cancer. Once dislodged from the main tumor, CTCs travel through the bloodstream and cause metastasis. Early detection and identification of these cells can help in the evaluation and prognosis of various types of cancer, as well as assisting in patient treatments by determining the spread of the disease. Here, a high-throughput microfluidic analysis technique is described that can efficiently detect and identify cells, with the specific identification of CTCs as a future application through fluorescent labeling in mind. As proof of principle, the device has been shown to detect and characterize individual human Jurkat (T-lymphocyte) cells at a rate of 100 cells/minute. The device employs micro-scale flow focusing to isolate individual cells. The cells are detected using both light scattering and laser-induced fluorescence to evaluate cell size and surface functionality.

Grinding is a critical manufacturing process and is often the only alternative when producing precision components or when machining brittle materials such as ceramics. Characterizing and modeling the surface finish in the grinding process is a difficult task due to the stochastic nature of the size, shape and spatial distribution of abrasive grains that make up the surface of grinding wheels. Since the surface finish obtained in grinding is a direct function of the wheel surface topography, which is conditioned by a single point dressing process, understanding the effects of dressing parameters on the wheel topography is essential. Therefore, the main objectives of this thesis are: 1) to experimentally characterize the three-dimensional surface topography of a conventional grinding wheel including attributes such as the abrasive grain height distribution, grain geometry and spacing parameters and their respective statistical distributions, 2) to determine the effects of single point dressing conditions on the three-dimensional wheel surface topography parameters and their distributions, 3) to model and simulate the three-dimensional wheel surface topography, and 4) to experimentally validate the wheel topography model. In this research, new and existing characterization methods are used to characterize the wheel surface and the individual abrasive grains. The new techniques include the use of X-ray micro-tomography (μCT) to obtain a better understanding of the grinding wheel's internal micro-structure, and a focus variation based optical measurement method and scanning electron microscopy to characterize previously ignored attributes such as the number of sides and aspect ratio of individual grains. A seeded gel (SG) vitrified bond conventional grinding wheel is used in the study. A full factorial design of single point wheel dressing experiments is performed to investigate the effects infeed and lead dressing parameters on the grinding wheel surface topography. A custom wheel indexing apparatus is built to facilitate precision relocation of the grinding wheel surface to enable optical comparison of the pre- and post-dressing wheel surface topography to observe wheel surface generation mechanisms such as macro-fracture and grain dislodgement. Quantitative descriptions of how each dressing parameter affects the wheel surface characteristics are given in terms of the wheel surface roughness amplitude parameters (Sp, Ssk, Sku) and areal and volume parameters (Spk, Sk, Vmp, Vmp, Vvc, Smr1) derived from the bearing area curve. A three-dimensional wheel topography simulation model that takes as input the abrasive grain height distribution and the statistical distributions for the various abrasive grain geometry parameters is developed and experimentally validated. The results of wheel characterization studies show that the actual abrasive grain height distribution in the SG wheel follows a beta distribution. The μCT work shows that the abrasives are polyhedral in shape, as opposed to the spherical or conical shapes commonly assumed in grinding literature. Grain spacing is found to follow a beta distribution while the number of sides of the grain and the grain aspect ratio are found to follow the gamma and the Weibull distribution, respectively. The results of the dressing study show that the lead dressing parameter has the strongest effect on wheel topography. Using statistical distributions for the key parameters (e.g. grain height, number of sides, grain spacing), a stochastic three-dimensional model is developed to simulate the wheel surface topography under different dressing conditions. The resulting model is shown to yield realistic results compared to existing models mainly due the fact that additional abrasive grain geometry parameters and more realistic assumptions of the different grain attributes are used in the model. It is shown that the model follows the overall wheel surface topography trends during dressing but has difficulty in accurately simulating some of the wheel characteristics under specific dressing conditions. The thesis then concludes with a summary of the main findings and possible future research avenues including extending the model to rotary dressing and simulation of wheel-workpiece interaction.

As the theme of my Master's Thesis I choose the topic of health and safety risk analysis. The reason is that in every company are risks that threated the safety and health of workers. The aim of Master's Thesis is to analyze the risks OSH management system in selected company. The Master's Thesis is divided into two parts, theoretical an practical one. In the theoretical part I at first briefly outline the issuer of safety and health at work and then I proceed to a summary and characteristics of the most important current legal of the Czech Republic in the field of occupational safety and health at work. Another important part of the theoretical part is devoted to the management of occupational health and safety risks and methods designed to identify and assess risks. The practical part will be devoted to identifying and assessing risks and then determine measures to ensure the safety and health of works at Valeo Výměníky tepla k.s..

4 Abstract Purinergic P2X receptors are membrane ion channels activated by extracellular ATP. There are seven isoforms of mammalian P2X receptors designated as P2X1-7, which according to their structure represent a specific family of ligand gated ionic channels, with extraordinary structural/functional properties. The P2X receptor consists of three subunits and each subunit has two transmembrane domains. Crystalographic data demonstrate that ionic channel pore is situated between the second transmembrane domains. Crystal structure of P2X4 receptor from the zebrafish (Danio rerio) is available in both open and closed state of the channel and the exact structure of ATP binding site is solved. The aim of this thesis was to study the structure-function relationships in a model of recombinant P2X4 receptor of the rat. By employing the point mutagenesis and electrophysiological recording, the functional importance of conserved cysteine residues in the ectodomain and amino acid residues which form the extracellular vestibule was investigated. All ten cysteins were substituted one by one with alanine or threonine and ATP-induced currents were measured from HEK293T cells expressing wild type (WT) and mutated P2X4 receptors. The results indicate that C116A, C126A, C149A and C165A mutations disrupt two disulfide bonds...

O torneamento com ferramenta de diamante é um processo de fabricação usado para a produção de componentes ópticos com alta precisão de forma e qualidade óptica final. O crescente uso de materiais poliméricos na industria, particularmente em equipamentos de precisão eletrônica e óptica tem exigido o estudo e entendimento de suas características e propriedades específicas. Esse trabalho avalia a integridade superficial do polimetilmetacrilato torneado com ferramenta de diamante, com relação à transmitância. Os parâmetros de usinagem objetivaram a obtenção de superfície gerada no modo dúctil. As rotações usadas foram 550 e 1000 rpm, a faixa do avanço variou de 5 a 20 µm/rev e a profundidade de usinagem de 4 e 10 µm. Duas ferramentas com geometrias diferentes foram usadas nos testes, com ângulos de saída de -5° e +5°, com raios de ponta de 1,143mm e 1,524 mm. A superfície final e morfologia dos cavacos foram avaliadas por microscopia eletrônica de varredura e a transmitância medida por espectofotometria. A integridade superficial foi claramente influenciada pelo ângulo de saída da ferramenta como observado na literatura. Devido a formação de cavacos no regime dúctil, a superfície final apresentou microtrincas em função do fluxo viscoelástico. A menor rugosidade obtida foi de 33,2 nm para a condição de corte de 10 µm/rev e 10 µm de profundidade de usinagem. Quando os resultados foram comparados as lentes injetadas, observou-se que o valor da transmitância são muito similares. / Single point diamond turning is a manufacturing process used to fabricate optical and precision components with high form accuracy and optical quality surface finish. The increase in the use of polymer materials in industry, particularly in electronic and optic precision devices, has demanded the study and understanding of its specific characteristics and properties. This work is addressed to the evaluation of the surface integrity of diamond turned polymethylmethacrilate regarding the trade off surface integrity versus transmitance. The cutting conditions were selected in order to work within the ductile mode material removal range. The spindle speed were 550 and 1000 rpm, feed rate ranging from 5 up to 20 micrometer/rev and the depth of cut ranging from 4 up to 10 micrometer. Two different tool geometries were used in the tests, a -5 \'DEGREES\' and +5 \'DEGREES\' rake angles with round nose radius tools of 1,143 mm and 1,524 mm. Surface finish and morphology of the chips was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy and transmitance measured by spectophometry technique. The surface integrity was clearly influenced by the cutting tool rake angle as observed in literature. Despite the formation of ductile chips the surface finished presented microcracks likely due the instability of the viscoelastic flow. The lower surface roughness obtained was 33,2 nm Ra for the cutting condition of 10 micrometer/rev and 10 micrometer depth of cut. When the results were compared with injected lenses, it was observed that the value of transmittance was very similar.

O presente trabalho propõe um novo modelo hidrodinâmico para avaliação das forças oriundas da ação de correnteza marítima uniforme sobre o casco de navios petroleiros amarrados. A modelagem é válida para qualquer ângulo de incidência de correnteza e sua aplicação é voltada, especialmente, ao estudo dinâmico de sistemas FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading systems), muito embora seu campo de aplicação possa facilmente ser estendido a problemas correlatos em engenharia naval. O modelo ora apresentado depende basicamente das dimensões principais do casco, necessitando de um conjunto bastante pequeno de parâmetros a serem determinados experimentalmente. Essa natureza quase-explícita da modelagem constitui sua principal vantagem face aos demais modelos usualmente empregados, e a mesma advém exatamente do contexto mais restrito para o qual foi formulado. O modelo heurístico estendido foi elaborado com base em um modelo estático previamente desenvolvido por Leite et al. (1998). Foram incorporados os efeitos provenientes do movimento de rotação do casco, tornando o modelo aplicável ao caso geral de movimentos do navio no plano horizontal. A determinação destes efeitos foi fundamentada em uma abordagem heurística, combinando-se estimativas semi-empíricas para as forças decorrentes de diferentes padrões de escoamento fluido no entorno do casco, padrões estes associados a faixas de ângulos de incidência distintas. As estimativas de força e momento em movimento combinado de translação e rotação do casco foram validadas a partir de resultados experimentais obtidos em ensaios de yaw-rotating, conduzidos com modelos de diferentes navios petroleiros, em duas condições de carregamento distintas. ) Posteriormente, a verificação experimental foi ampliada, analisando-se a adequação do modelo hidrodinâmico ao estudo de instabilidade dinâmica de navios atracados por intermédio de um cabo de amarração (hawser), fenômeno conhecido em engenharia naval como fishtailing. Em paralelo ao desenvolvimento do modelo hidrodinâmico e sua validação experimental, objetivos primeiros deste trabalho, procede-se a uma revisão crítica das diferentes abordagens teóricas comumente empregadas, baseada nos principais aspectos hidrodinâmicos envolvidos em aplicações práticas de navios amarrados em sistemas offshore. Assim, face à complexidade do problema em questão e dada a profusão de modelos teóricos existentes na literatura, mais do que a defesa de um ou outro método de análise, procura-se fornecer um orientação consistente para que o projetista de sistemas oceânicos possa escolher, com maior confiança, a abordagem mais apropriada para a aplicação em questão, ciente de suas vantagens e eventuais limitações. / A new hydrodynamic model for the analysis of current forces acting on moored tanker ships is proposed. The theoretical model is valid for any angle of attack of the current and is intended, primarily, for the analysis of FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) systems, although its application may be easily extended to other correlated problems in ocean engineering. The model depends basically on the ship main dimensions and requires few external parameters to be derived. This quasi-explicit nature certainly constitutes the model main advantage and it was only possible due to the more restricted context it was derived for. The extended heuristic model, as it is called, was based on a previous static version presented by Leite et al. (1998). The hydrodynamic effects arising from the ship yaw motion were now incorporated, making the model able to cope with the problem of combined drift-yaw motions. Yaw velocity influence was determined by means of a heuristic combination of semi-empirical formulations of force and moment components, resultant from distinct fluid flow patterns, each one related to a different range of angles of attack. Force predictions were validated through confrontation with yaw-rotating experimental results, obtained for different tanker models in distinct loading conditions. It was also verified experimentally that the model is capable of predicting the hydrodynamic forces involved in the unstable dynamic behavior of asingle-point moored tanker, when subjected to a steady ocean current, known as fisthailing phenomenon. A critical revision of the different theoretical models at hand represents a supplementary purpose of this work. This revision was performed based on the main hydrodynamic aspects involved in common offshore applications of moored tanker ships. ) Therefore, instead of a passionate defense of any particular theoretical procedure, the work aims to provide a consistent orientation in order to help the offshore system designer to choose, between the various hydrodynamic models, the one that is more suitable for the analysis of a specific project, confident on its advantages and aware of its eventual limitations.