Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T20:31:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eliezer Felix.pdf: 1059745 bytes, checksum: 819a53f6d17c8a923e2feb3976d5a820 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-16 / This dissertation analyzes the response to the country’s debate on education in the Diário dos Campos newspaper, acknowledging the participation of Ponta Grossa intellectuals (Jacob Holzmann, Hugo Mendes de Borja Reis and José Cadilhe) in publicizing educational ideas. This analysis goes from 1907 to 1928, basing itself on fragments which were published in this newspaper in addition to the concept of the intellectual as an organizer of culture as discussed by Antonio Gramsci and in the interpretation of discourse in Bakhtin’s circle. This article discusses the role of intellectuals in the process of organizing and spreading a view of the world marked by the symbols of modern times and public education. Founded on documentation, it is possible to show that this group, in the newspaper, established a means of communication within the educational discussions promoted in the major cities of Brazil and reasserted education’s salvationist discourse to fight illiteracy and the social problems existing in the city of Ponta Grossa. / Esta dissertação analisa a recepção do debate educativo nacional no jornal Diário dos Campos, privilegiando compreender a participação dos intelectuais pontagrossenses (Jacob Holzmann, Hugo Mendes de Borja Reis e José Cadilhe), na divulgação das ideias educativas. Este percurso analítico está circunscrito ao período de 1907 a 1928, apoiando-se nos fragmentos publicados neste periódico e no conceito de intelectual como organizador da cultura, discutido por Antônio Gramsci, e na acepção de discurso do círculo de Bakhtin. Discorre ainda sobre o papel dos intelectuais no processo de organização e de disseminação de uma visão de mundo marcada pelos símbolos da modernidade e da educação popular. Com base na documentação acessada é possível indicar que o grupo do jornal estabeleceu uma interlocução com as discussões educativas promovidas nas principais cidades brasileiras, e reafirmou o discurso salvacionista da educação para combater o analfabetismo e os problemas sociais que se apresentavam na cidade de Ponta Grossa.

Este trabalho aborda o problema de programação da produção em um flexible flow line com tempos de setup. De acordo com a literatura, este ambiente pode ser considerado como um caso especial do Flow Shop com múltiplas máquinas, onde as tarefas podem saltar estágios. Neste estudo, foram analisados dois problemas: o primeiro, com tempos de setup independentes da sequência, e o segundo, com setup dependente da sequência de tarefas. Além disso, o setup das máquinas para as tarefas pode ser antecipado ou não. No primeiro caso, as máquinas de um estágio podem ser preparadas para o processamento de uma tarefa antes do seu término no estágio anterior. Se o setup não pode ser antecipado, a tarefa deve esperar o seu término no estágio de produção anterior. Este ambiente produtivo pode ser encontrado em um vasto número de indústrias tais como química, eletrônica, automotiva e têxtil. A medida de desempenho dos problemas é a duração total da programação (makespan). Este é um critério apropriado para sistemas de produção com grandes cargas de trabalho e em que a utilização dos recursos produtivos em longo prazo deve ser otimizada. O exame da literatura mostrou que há poucos estudos abordando a programação em flexible flow line. Considerando este aspecto, este trabalho apresenta heurísticas construtivas originais para a obtenção de programações apropriadas ao problema mencionado. Uma extensiva experimentação computacional foi executada para avaliar o desempenho relativo das heurísticas. Os resultados experimentais foram analisados e discutidos. / This work addresses the job scheduling on a flexible flow line with separate setup times. According to the literature, this scheduling problem can be considered as a special case of the Flow Shop with multiple machines, where the jobs may skip stages. Two modeled problems have been studied. In the first scheduling problem the setup times are sequence independent, and in the second one these times are sequence dependent. Moreover, the machine setup task can be either anticipatory or non-anticipatory. In the first case, a k-stage machine may be prepared for a job processing before its completion on the k-1 production stage. Otherwise, the setup task must wait for the job completion on the former production stage. This production environment can be found in a number of industries such as chemicals, electronics, automotive, and textiles. The performance measure of the production schedules is the makespan, that is, the total time to complete the schedule. This is an appropriate performance criterion for production systems with large workloads, and where the utilization of productive resources in the long term should be optimized. The literature examination has shown that there is a small number of studies dealing with flexible flow line scheduling. Having this in mind, this work introduces original constructive heuristics in order to obtain suitable schedules for the aforementioned scheduling problem. An extensive computational experience has been carried out in order to evaluate the relative performance of the heuristics. Experimental results are discussed.

Seja X um alfabeto finito ou infinito enumerável, e considere como X^n o conjunto de todas as sequências de tamanho n. No presente trabalho, nós consideramos a função Tn, definida em X^n e tomando valores entre 1 e infinito. Tn será o primeiro tempo que demora sequência de tamanho n, digamos w, em aparecer de novo sobre uma sequência infinita do processo que começa com w. Este tempo é conhecido como o tempo de retorno. Seja Sn(w) = n - Tn(w) o nosso objeto de estudo, definido também em X^n e tomando valores entre menos infinito e n-1. A função Sn foi colocada em evidência, entre outros casos, na análise estatística da Recorrência de Poincaré, e possui relação explícita com a entropia do processo. Abadi e Lambert, provaram a convergência da distribuição de Sn, quando a sequência é escolhida de acordo com a medida produto de n variáveis aleatórias independentes e identicamente distribuídas no alfabeto e como consequência, mostraram a convergência da esperança de Sn. Nosso trabalho consiste em generalizar o trabalho feito por Abadi e Lambert para processos com uma condição de dependência \\beta-mixing. / We consider the set of finite sequences of length n over a finite or countable alphabet X . We consider the function defined over X^n, Sn = n-\"the first return\". Abadi and Lambert, computed the exact distribution and the limiting distribution of the Sn when the sequence is generated by independent and identically distributed random variables. Our work consists in a generalization of the work done by Abadi and Lambert to processes that verify the \\beta-mixing condition and \\{Xn\\}_{n\\inN} takes values over finite or countable alphabet.

On considère le problème de contrôle optimal de temps minimal pour des systèmes affine et mono-entrée en dimension finie, avec conditions initiales et finales fixées, où le contrôle scalaire prend ses valeurs dans un intervalle fermé. Lors de l'application d'une méthode de tir pour résoudre ce problème, on peut rencontrer des obstacles numériques car la fonction de tir n'est pas lisse lorsque le contrôle est bang-bang. Pour ces systèmes, dans le cas bang-bang, un concept théorique de temps conjugué a été défini, toutefois les algorithmes de calcul direct sont difficiles à appliquer. En outre, les questions théoriques et pratiques de la théorie du temps conjugué sont bien connues dans le cas lisse, et des outils efficaces de mise en oeuvre sont disponibles. On propose une procédure de régularisation pour laquelle les solutions du problème de temps minimal dépendent d'un paramètre réel positif suffisamment petit et sont définis par des fonctions lisses en temps, ce qui facilite l'application de la méthode de tir simple. Sous des hypothèses convenables, nous prouvons un résultat de convergence forte des solutions du problème régularisé vers la solution du problème initial, lorsque le paramètre réel tend vers zéro. Le calcul des temps conjugués pour les trajectoires localement optimales du problème régularisé est standard. Nous prouvons, sous des hypothèses appropriées, la convergence du premier temps conjugué du problème régularisé vers le premier temps conjugué du problème de contrôle bang-bang initial, quand le paramètre réel tend vers zéro. Ainsi, on obtient une procédure algorithmique efficace pour calculer les temps conjugués dans le cas bang-bang. / In this thesis we consider a minimal time control problem for single-input control-affine systems in finite dimension with fixed initial and final conditions, where the scalar control take values on a closed interva1. When applying a shooting method for solving this problem, one may encounter numerical obstacles due to the fact that the shooting function is non smooth whenever the control is bang-bang. For these systems a theoretical concept of conjugate time has been defined in the bang-bang case, however direct algorithms of computation are difficult to apply. Besides, theoretical and practical issues for conjugate time theory are well known in the smooth case, and efficient implementation tools are available. We propose a regularization procedure for which the solutions of the minimal time problem depend on a small enough real positive parameter and are defined by smooth functions with respect to the time variable, facilitating the application of a single shooting method. Under appropriate assumptions, we prove a strong convergence result of the solutions of the regularized problem towards the solution of the initial problem, when the real parameter tends to zero. The conjugate times computation of the locally optimal trajectories for the regularized problem falls into the standard theory. We prove, under appropriate assumptions, the convergence of the first conjugate time of the regularized problem towards the first conjugate time of the initial bang-bang control problem, when the real parameter tends to zero. As a byproduct, we obtain an efficient algorithmic way to compute conjugate times in the bang-bang case.

Esta pesquisa se propõe a realizar uma análise das representações da natureza encontradas nas obras de alguns cronistas e viajantes do Brasil colonial e averiguar seus fundamentos teóricos. / The purpose of this research is to analyse the representations of nature found in the works of some cronists and voyagers during Brazil colonial period and to verify their theoretical bases.

Emergency response times have been shown to be directly correlated with mortality rates of out-of-hospital patients. Studies have been conducted to show the relationship between time and mortality rates until patients receive the proper treatment. With more cardiac arrests and other life threatening illnesses occurring in the United States, more emergency calls will be required as well. As of today, technological advancements have been made to reduce response times, but human factors still require certain procedures, causing delays in the run time and increasing the rate of mortality. Here we show the results of emergency response times with the market penetration of connected and autonomous vehicles. With connected and autonomous vehicles, the average time emergency vehicles spend on the roadways can be significantly decreased. Safety procedures with human drivers can be eliminated, giving the emergency vehicle a proper right-of-way through virtual emergency lanes and removing the need to slow down and avoid vehicles at intersections or during periods of heavy congestion. Our results show a three minute decrease in response time under full market penetration of the technology, reducing the mortality rate and increasing the potential to save lives.

Pilots are subject to varying levels of stress, workload, and fatigue during long flights. During different phases of a commercial flight, pilots are engaged in multiple tasks which include going through checklists, checking conditions at their destination, communicating with Air Traffic Control and dealing with other flight related tasks. The amount of work varies from the earlier stages until the end of the flight. It is not well understood how changes in the amount of workload can affect a pilot's ability to engage with important tasks that relate to safety of flight. The work shown in this thesis focused on the level of engagement displayed by flight crew as a function of level of workload. The principal hypothesis was that very low levels of workload may lead to crew disengagement and sub-optimal levels of performance. The degree to which pilots remain alert and are fatigued during a commercial flight is also not established in a concrete way.

Due to the steady increased in public transportation demand, there is a need to provide more desirable and user-friendly transit systems. Typically, the public transportation timetables are modeled as an assignment problem, which often has objectives such as reducing the cost of operation, minimizing waiting time between transfer points or improving the quality of performance. This research considers the problem of developing synchronized timetables for bus transit systems with fixed routes when a waiting time limit exist at each transfer stops, for the passengers making connections. The objective of this research is to have maximum number of simultaneous arrivals. Different to previous studies, a simultaneous arrival' has been defined as an arrival of buses of different routes at a transfer point such that the time between these arrivals do not exceed the passenger waiting time range associated with the transfer stop. In other words, at each node, an upper bound and a lower bound are set for the arrivals of two buses and these buses are run within this allowable window. The heuristic developed has been modeled as a mixed integer linear programming problem and applied to some real life problems to evaluate the outcomes. The total number of synchronizations obtained by the model was compared to the maximum possible simultaneous arrivals at each node. Results show that a larger number of simultaneous arrivals are obtained when the waiting time ranges are relaxed. Finally some important applications of the proposed model compared to the existing models are presented.

PROBLEM INVESTIGATED: Methodological issues and policy implications arising from the application of interrupted time series (ITS) analyses to assess the impact of Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) subsidisation policies on drug utilisation in Australia. PROCEDURES FOLLOWED: A critical review of methodological issues relating to the application and analysis of ITS designs was undertaken. This included an examination of drug utilisation data sources in Australia. The PBS policies examined were: (i) the introduction of copayments in 1990; (ii) the introduction of re-supply limits in 1994 and (iii) the introduction of a form of reference pricing in 1998. Monthly aggregate drug utilisation data was obtained from the Australian Department of Health and Ageing. Segmented regression analyses incorporating autocorrelated errors were implemented and statistical diagnostics applied to ensure correct ITS model specification. Alternative seasonal modelling approaches were compared. RESULTS OBTAINED: The copayment ITS evaluation found that while these copayments produced a reduction in the utilisation of essential and discretionary medications, this effect was stronger for discretionary drugs. An unintended policy effect was a large anticipatory increase in drug utilisation during the month prior to the copayments. Repatriation PBS data was also utilised due to the limited number of pre-intervention data points in the Community series. The re-supply limit ITS evaluation found that the 20-day rule markedly reduced the size of the seasonal increase during the month of December. However, logistic regression analyses showed that the size of this reduction attenuated over time, highlighting the need to consider alternative analysis strategies when applying a ITS approach. The reference pricing ITS evaluation found that this policy had achieved its drug utilisation objectives for H2RAs and ACE Inhibitors. However with regard to CCBs, no increase in the utilisation of benchmark priced drug was apparent, which probably reflected clinical concerns at the time about the safety of these drugs. MAJOR CONCLUSIONS: Well implemented ITS analyses provide a valuable tool for evaluating the impact of PBS subsidisation policy change on drug utilisation in Australia. As with any methodology, however, different design and data integrity issues will affect the quality of information provided.

[No abstract supplied with this thesis - The first page (of three) of the Introduction follows] ¶ This thesis is largely concerned with the changing representations of 'boundary' or 'ideal' points of a pseudo-Riemannian manifold -- and our primary interest is in the space-times of general relativity. In particular, we are interested in the following question: What assumptions about the 'nature' of 'portions' of a certain 'ideal boundary' construction (essentially the 'abstract boundary' of Scott and Szekeres (1994)) allow us to define precisely the topological type of these 'portions', i.e., to show that different representations of this ideal boundary, corresponding to different embeddings of the manifold into others, have corresponding 'portions' that are homeomorphic? ¶ Certain topological properties of these 'portions' are preserved, even allowing for quite unpleasant properties of the metric (Fama and Scott 1995). These results are given in Appendix D, since they are not used elsewhere and, as well as representing the main portion of work undertaken under the supervision of Scott, which deserves recognition, may serve as an interesting example of the relative ease with which certain simple results about the abstract boundary can be obtained. ¶ An answer to a more precisely formulated version of this question appears very diffcult in general. However, we can give a rather complete answer in certain cases, where we dictate certain 'generalised regularity' requirements for our embeddings, but make no demands on the precise functional form of our metrics apart from these. For example, we get a complete answer to our question for abstract boundary sets which do not 'wiggle about' too much -- i.e., they satisfy a certain Lipschitz condition -- and through which the metric can be extended in a manner which is not required to be differentiable (C[superscript1]), but is continuous and non--degenerate. We allow similar freedoms on the interior of the manifold, thereby bringing gravitational wave space-times within our sphere of discussion. In fact, in the course of developing these results in progressively greater generality, we get, almost 'free', certain abilities to begin looking at geodesic structure on quite general pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. ¶ It is possible to delineate most of this work cleanly into two major parts. Firstly, there are results which use classical geometric constructs and can be given for the original abstract boundary construction, which requires differentiability of both manifolds and metrics, and which we summarise below. The second -- and significantly longer -- part involves extensions of those constructs and results to more general metrics.