No / The aim of this paper is to introduce the Systems State Flow Diagram as a structured approach to high level solution-independent function based decomposition of a complex multi-disciplinary system. The approach is discussed in the context of existing function modelling frameworks and in relation to current practice in industry. A generic case study is used to introduce the approach and to highlight the salient features, followed by an illustration on its application to the analysis of an electric vehicle powertrain. Experience with the practical application of the approach with engineering teams is discussed.

Disorders of consciousness (DoC) are a group of disorders that can occur after severe brain injury. DOC have been subdivided based on behavioural observations into: Coma, lacking any signs of wakefulness or awareness; the vegetative state, showing signs of wakefulness but lacking any signs of awareness; and the minimally conscious state, showing signs of wakefulness and infrequent and irregular signs of awareness. The so-called locked-in syndrome, a state where both wakefulness and awareness are intact, but no communication is possible due to a lack of muscle function, does not belong to the disorders of consciousness. However, it is difficult to distinguish the locked-in syndrome from DoC diagnostically, because consciousness can only be shown through consistent responses to a command and current methods for assessing consciousness rely on behavioural responses. Patients with locked-in syndrome might not be able to move voluntarily at all in the most severe cases. Behavioural assessment would then classify them as unaware. While this is an extreme and rare case, it illustrates the problem behavioural assessment poses. Such assessments are unable to distinguish the effects of impaired muscular control from impaired awareness, when either has reached an extreme level of severity. Brain damage that does not affect consciousness itself can nevertheless affect the results of the behavioural assessment of consciousness. It is then hardly surprising that the diagnosis of DoC is associated with a high level of uncertainty. The advantage of brain imaging methods is that they do not rely on the patients ability to produce a consistent behavioural response. There have therefore been efforts to use the brain imaging methods electroencephalography, positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to aid diagnosis of disorder of consciousness. PET and fMRI have successfully been used to identify regions of difference in some patients in a DoC. Task-based fMRI has been used to identify intact consciousness, using tasks that require explicit understanding of instructions and wilful modulation of brain activity, but no motor control. One of these tasks consists of periods where the participant imagines playing tennis alternated with periods of rest. The ability to follow this paradigm is evidence of consciousness, and a few patients with a diagnosis of DoC have been shown to be able to do this task. However, the tennis task requires high order processing of the tasks requirements and the majority of patients does not respond to this task. fMRI tasks that test sensory modalities instead of consciousness have been used to show retained brain function even in DoC patients that do not respond to the tennis task. In this work the tennis task and a battery of other tasks including tactile, visual and auditory stimulation, were studied on a group of DoC patients. It was found that none of the patients responded to the task of imagining playing tennis, but retained sensory function could be identified in three out of seven patients. This highlights a strength of fMRI, namely that it can identify retained brain function below the level that is necessary for consciousness. However, the results also show that more than half of the patients studied here, did not show retained brain activation during the fMRI scan. For any of the patients that did not show a response, this can be due to an actual lack of retained brain function, but it can also be due to limitations of the task-based fMRI analysis. The fMRI tasks only test one sensory function at a time, for a short time. Thus a visual fMRI task for example, can only provide information about areas of the brain, that are involved in visual processing. And when vigilance is fluctuating, retained brain function can remain undetected, if vigilance is low during the scan. Functional connectivity analysis is a method to study internal connections between brain areas that is not dependent on an external task. It models the brain as a network of interconnected regions and studies the characteristics of this network. Graph theory is a mathematical field that has found application on many other fields using network analysis, like social sciences, metabolic network modelling or gene network modelling. In fMRI analysis, graph theory has been used to study different phenomena and pathologies and global network properties have been shown reproducibly. The work presented here aims to develop new methods based in graph theory aiding the identification of residual brain integrity. To allow an assessment of the brain network topology and its use in the assessment of residual brain integrity, a novel method was designed based on a graph theoretical measure. The method, termed Cortical Hubs And Related network Topology (CHART) is a two stage procedure. The rst stage identifies statistically significant differences in functional connectivity between two groups, using a measure of the average connectivity of each voxel, the weighted global connectivity. The second stage highlights the topology of the networks associated with those differences. Two fMRI datasets, with different underlying tasks and pathologies were used to test the CHART method. The first dataset was acquired from a group of patients with severe depression. It contrasted the state of the brain before and after successful treatment with electroconvulsive therapy. In this patient group the CHART method was able to identify an area of hyperconnectivity in the depressed state, compared to the treated state. This area of hyperconnectivity was connected to areas that had priorly been shown to be overly connected in the depressed state. The second dataset consisted of DoC patients, that had been extensively assessed behaviourally. Half of the patients were diagnosed to be in a vegetative state, the other half was diagnosed to be in a minimally conscious state. The first stage of CHART identified several areas of difference based on the weighted global connectivity. The second stage highlighted that the observed global differences were due to an overall lack of extended functional connectivity in the vegetative state patients. The addition of a healthy control group in stage two allowed comparison not only between the two DoC groups, but also with the healthy group. In summary it was observed that the spatial extent of the connectivity seen in the minimally conscious group resembles the spatial extent of the connectivity seen in the healthy control group, while the spatial extent of connectivity observed in the vegetative state group was minimal, compared to both healthy and minimally conscious group. Thus the spatial extent of connectivity is a distinguishing property for the vegetative state group studied here. However the first stage of the CHART method is a group based method. In disorders of consciousness, where the underlying pathology is different from case to case, this concept is problematic. Finding a meaningful group of interest is difficult or impossible, because lesions differ in location and extent. Individual differences in connectivity can be expected to be large, and a generalisation of the CHART result might not lead to improved diagnosis for every patient. For diagnosis, the patients individual characteristics must be taken into account. An additional objective of this work was therefore to develop a method to compare a single patient to a group of controls. An approach based on regression modelling was tested but failed to provide the necessary statistical sensitivity to detect impaired connectivity. In conclusion the CHART method developed in this work provides insights into the functional connectivity of a group of DoC patients. To assist diagnosis, further development of a method to compare a single subject to a group of controls will be important.

A novel concept of multiple deterministic analyses is proposed to design safer and more damage-tolerant structures, particularly when excited by dynamic including seismic loading in time domain. Since the presence of numerous sources of uncertainty cannot be avoided or overlooked, the underlying risk is estimated to compare design alternatives. To generate the implicit performance functions explicitly, the basic response surface method is significantly improved. Then, several surrogate models are proposed. The advanced factorial design and Kriging method are used as the major building blocks. Using these basic schemes, seven alternatives are proposed. Accuracies of these schemes are verified using basic Monte Carlo simulations. After verifying all seven alternatives, the capabilities of the three most desirable schemes are compared using a case study. They correctly identified and correlated damaged states of structural elements in terms of probability of failure using only few hundreds of deterministic analyses. The modified Kriging method appears to be the best technique considering both efficiency and accuracy. Estimating the probability of failure, the post-Northridge seismic design criteria are found to be appropriate. After verifying the proposed method, a Site-Specific seismic safety assessment method for nonlinear structural systems is proposed to generate a suite of ground excitation time histories. The information of risk is used to design a structure more damage-tolerant. The proposed procedure is verified and showcased by estimating risks associated with three buildings designed by professional experts in the Los Angeles area satisfying the post-Northridge design criteria for the overall lateral deflection and inter-story drift. The accuracy of the estimated risk is again verified using the Monte Carlo simulation technique. In all cases, the probabilities of collapse are found to be less than 10% when excited by the risk-targeted maximum considered earthquake ground motion satisfying the intent of the code. The spread in the reliability indexes for each building for both limit states cannot be overlooked, indicating the significance of the frequency contents. The inter story drift is found to be more critical than the overall lateral displacement. The reliability indexes for both limit states are similar only for few cases. The author believes that the proposed methodology is an alternative to the classical random vibration and simulation approaches. The proposed site-specific seismic safety assessment procedure can be used by practicing engineers for routine applications. The proposed reliability methodology is not problem-specific. It is capable of handling systems with different levels of complexity and scalability, and it is robust enough for multi-disciplinary routine applications. In order to show the multi-disciplinary application of the proposed methodology, the probability of failure of lead-free solders in Ball Grid Array 225 surface-mount packaging for a given loading cycle is estimated. The accuracy of the proposed methodology is verified with the help of Monte Carlo simulation. After the verification, probability of failure versus loading cycles profile is calculated. Such a comprehensive study of its lifetime behavior and the corresponding reliability analyses can be useful for sensitive applications.

A expedição de medidas cautelares pelos Tribunais de Contas é assunto pouco abordado pela doutrina brasileira, apesar de contar com reconhecimento pacífico na jurisprudência pátria a respeito de sua possibilidade. Analisando o tema, averiguouse que as bases teóricas que fundamentam o provimento cautelar no processo de contas servem para sustentar, em verdade, a utilização da técnica antecipatória no âmbito das Cortes de Contas. Tal constatação permitiu a aproximação com os conceitos do processo civil a respeito do assunto, sobretudo quanto à tutela provisória. Assim, o presente trabalho buscou sistematizar cientificamente o emprego dos provimentos provisórios no processo de contas, analisando todas as competências constitucionais atribuídas aos Tribunais de Contais e relacionando-as às hipóteses e os limites da expedição desses provimentos. / The utilization of precautionary measures for the Accounts Tribunals is a topic rarely adressed by the brazilian doctrine, despite trust in the peaceful recognition in the country's jurisprudence about it's ability. Analysing the theme,it was ascertained that the theorical bases that ground the precautionary provision in the Accounts Tribunal. Such finding allowed the aproximation with the concepts of civil procedure about the theme, especially as the provisional protection. Therefor the present project had as objective systematizscientificaly the employ of the temporary provisionses in the procces of accounts analysing all the constitutionals skills assign to the Court of Auditors and relating it to the hypothesis and the limits of the dispatch of those provisionses.

A expedição de medidas cautelares pelos Tribunais de Contas é assunto pouco abordado pela doutrina brasileira, apesar de contar com reconhecimento pacífico na jurisprudência pátria a respeito de sua possibilidade. Analisando o tema, averiguouse que as bases teóricas que fundamentam o provimento cautelar no processo de contas servem para sustentar, em verdade, a utilização da técnica antecipatória no âmbito das Cortes de Contas. Tal constatação permitiu a aproximação com os conceitos do processo civil a respeito do assunto, sobretudo quanto à tutela provisória. Assim, o presente trabalho buscou sistematizar cientificamente o emprego dos provimentos provisórios no processo de contas, analisando todas as competências constitucionais atribuídas aos Tribunais de Contais e relacionando-as às hipóteses e os limites da expedição desses provimentos. / The utilization of precautionary measures for the Accounts Tribunals is a topic rarely adressed by the brazilian doctrine, despite trust in the peaceful recognition in the country's jurisprudence about it's ability. Analysing the theme,it was ascertained that the theorical bases that ground the precautionary provision in the Accounts Tribunal. Such finding allowed the aproximation with the concepts of civil procedure about the theme, especially as the provisional protection. Therefor the present project had as objective systematizscientificaly the employ of the temporary provisionses in the procces of accounts analysing all the constitutionals skills assign to the Court of Auditors and relating it to the hypothesis and the limits of the dispatch of those provisionses.

A expedição de medidas cautelares pelos Tribunais de Contas é assunto pouco abordado pela doutrina brasileira, apesar de contar com reconhecimento pacífico na jurisprudência pátria a respeito de sua possibilidade. Analisando o tema, averiguouse que as bases teóricas que fundamentam o provimento cautelar no processo de contas servem para sustentar, em verdade, a utilização da técnica antecipatória no âmbito das Cortes de Contas. Tal constatação permitiu a aproximação com os conceitos do processo civil a respeito do assunto, sobretudo quanto à tutela provisória. Assim, o presente trabalho buscou sistematizar cientificamente o emprego dos provimentos provisórios no processo de contas, analisando todas as competências constitucionais atribuídas aos Tribunais de Contais e relacionando-as às hipóteses e os limites da expedição desses provimentos. / The utilization of precautionary measures for the Accounts Tribunals is a topic rarely adressed by the brazilian doctrine, despite trust in the peaceful recognition in the country's jurisprudence about it's ability. Analysing the theme,it was ascertained that the theorical bases that ground the precautionary provision in the Accounts Tribunal. Such finding allowed the aproximation with the concepts of civil procedure about the theme, especially as the provisional protection. Therefor the present project had as objective systematizscientificaly the employ of the temporary provisionses in the procces of accounts analysing all the constitutionals skills assign to the Court of Auditors and relating it to the hypothesis and the limits of the dispatch of those provisionses.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:24:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulo Sergio Ribeiro.pdf: 2061636 bytes, checksum: e6b30dae77c44d9a17033c17885bb253 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-24 / This dissertation has as main objective the study of social housing as a fundamental right essential to the realization of human dignity, the foundation of the Federative Republic of Brazil, and this right delivery mechanisms in the world of being. The 1988 Federal Constitution adopts a humanistic capitalist conception, the ultimate scope is the promotion of fundamental rights, made possible through the reversal of the benefits of economic development for the consolidation of these rights. The State emerges and develops in order to serve men in order to promote the essential conditions for the interdependence that is realized in providing public service. Ensure all the essential goods to the full development existential minimum is the state's task, the supply of housing for lowincome population is part of the essential core of state duty / A presente dissertação tem como objetivo primordial o estudo sobre a moradia como direito fundamental social imprescindível para a materialização da dignidade da pessoa humana, fundamento da República Federativa do Brasil, e os mecanismos de concretização desse direito no mundo do ser. A Constituição Federal de 1988 adota uma concepção capitalista humanista, cujo escopo último é a promoção dos direitos fundamentais, viabilizada por meio da reversão das benesses do desenvolvimento econômico para a consolidação desses direitos. O Estado surge e desenvolvese visando a servir os homens de modo a promover as condições essenciais para a interdependência que se concretiza no fornecimento de serviço público. Assegurar a todos os bens essenciais ao pleno desenvolvimento mínimo existencial é tarefa do Estado, cujo fornecimento de moradia à população de baixa renda integra o núcleo essencial desse dever estatal