Methods for structural design, control, and testing offlexible aircraft structures are considered. Focus is onnonconventional aircraft con- figurations and control concepts.The interaction between analysis and testing is a central topicand all studies include validation testing and comparisonbetween computational and experimental results. The first part of the thesis is concerned with the designand testing of an aeroelastic wind-tunnel model representing aBlended Wing Body (BWB) aircraft. The investigations show thata somewhat simplified wind-tunnel model design concept isuseful and efficient for the type of investigations considered.Also, the studies indicate that well established numericaltools are capable of predicting the aeroelastic behavior of theBWB aircraft with reasonable accuracy. Accurate prediction ofthe control surface aerodynamics is however found to bedifficult. A new aerodynamic boundary element method for aeroelastictimedomain simulations and its experimental validation arepresented. The properties of the method are compared totraditional methods as well as to experimental results. Thestudy indicates that the method is capable of efficient andaccurate aeroelastic simulations. Next, a method for tailoring a structure with respect to itsaeroelastic behavior is presented. The method is based onnumerical optimization techniques and developed for efficientdesign of aeroelastic wind-tunnel models with prescribed staticand dynamic aeroelastic properties. Experimental validationshows that the design method is useful in practice and that itprovides a more efficient handling of the dynamic aeroelasticproperties compared to previous methods. Finally, the use of multiple control surfaces andaeroelastic effects for efficient roll maneuvering isconsidered. The idea is to design a controller that takesadvantage of the elasticity of the structure for performancebenefits. By use of optimization methods in combination with afairly simple control system, good maneuvering performance isobtained with minimal control effort. Validation testing usinga flexible wind-tunnel model and a real-time control systemshows that the control strategy is successful in practice.Keywords: aeroelasticity, active aeroelastic structures,aeroelastic tailoring, control, structural optimization,wind-tunnel testing. / QC 20120320

A North American man has approximately a one in six chance of being diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime. In most cases, there is no clearly optimal treatment, so he may be invited to participate in a treatment decision between several medically reasonable options, each with potential short- and long-term side effects. Information needs are high at diagnosis and can continue to be elevated for years or decades. Many men and their families seek information online, where, due partly to the array of websites available and high variation in information preferences, it can be difficult to find personally relevant and useful websites. This research sought to address this issue by developing methods to categorize prostate cancer websites and exploring quantitative and qualitative relationships between websites, information-seekers, and individuals’ assessments of websites. The research involved a series of three studies. In the first study, 29 men with prostate cancer participated in a needs assessment involving questionnaires, an interview, and interaction with a prototype website. In the second study, a detailed classification system was developed and applied to a set of forty websites selected to be representative of the variety of prostate cancer websites available. The third (online) study collected clinical, cognitive, and psychosocial details from 65 participants along with their ratings of websites from study two. A number of hypotheses were tested. One finding was that, compared to men with greater trust, men with lower trust in their physician tended to judge commercial websites as less relevant and useful, and found websites with descriptions of personal experiences more relevant and useful. Analyses also addressed a number of exploratory questions, including whether website and individual attributes might predict preferences for websites. Using discriminant analysis on 80% of the data, two functions were identified that predicted ratings significantly better than chance. These relationships were then validated with 20% of the data held back for testing. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for information tailoring and recommender systems for prostate cancer patients searching for information online. Limitations of the current research and recommendations for future research are also presented.

A North American man has approximately a one in six chance of being diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime. In most cases, there is no clearly optimal treatment, so he may be invited to participate in a treatment decision between several medically reasonable options, each with potential short- and long-term side effects. Information needs are high at diagnosis and can continue to be elevated for years or decades. Many men and their families seek information online, where, due partly to the array of websites available and high variation in information preferences, it can be difficult to find personally relevant and useful websites. This research sought to address this issue by developing methods to categorize prostate cancer websites and exploring quantitative and qualitative relationships between websites, information-seekers, and individuals’ assessments of websites. The research involved a series of three studies. In the first study, 29 men with prostate cancer participated in a needs assessment involving questionnaires, an interview, and interaction with a prototype website. In the second study, a detailed classification system was developed and applied to a set of forty websites selected to be representative of the variety of prostate cancer websites available. The third (online) study collected clinical, cognitive, and psychosocial details from 65 participants along with their ratings of websites from study two. A number of hypotheses were tested. One finding was that, compared to men with greater trust, men with lower trust in their physician tended to judge commercial websites as less relevant and useful, and found websites with descriptions of personal experiences more relevant and useful. Analyses also addressed a number of exploratory questions, including whether website and individual attributes might predict preferences for websites. Using discriminant analysis on 80% of the data, two functions were identified that predicted ratings significantly better than chance. These relationships were then validated with 20% of the data held back for testing. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for information tailoring and recommender systems for prostate cancer patients searching for information online. Limitations of the current research and recommendations for future research are also presented.

For optimal rotor performance in a tiltrotor aircraft the difference in the inflow and the rotor speeds between the hover and cruise flight modes suggests different blade twist and chord distributions. The blade twist rates in current tiltrotor applications are defined based upon a compromise between the figure of merit in hover and propeller efficiency in airplane mode. However, when each operation mode is considered separately the optimum blade distributions are found to be considerably different. Passive blade twist control, which uses the inherent variation in centrifugal forces on a rotor blade to achieve optimum blade twist distributions in each flight mode through the use of extension-twist coupled composite rotor blades, has been considered for performance improvement of tiltrotor aircraft over the last two decades. The challenge for this concept is to achieve the desired twisting deformations in the rotor blade without altering the aeroelastic characteristics of the vehicle. A concept referred to as the sliding mass concept is proposed in this work in order to increase the twist change with rotor speed for a closed-cell composite rotor blade cross-section to practical levels for performance improvement in a tiltrotor aircraft. The concept is based on load path changes for the centrifugal forces by utilizing non-structural masses readily available on a conventional blade, such as the leading edge balancing mass. A multilevel optimization technique based on the simulated annealing method is applied to improve the performance of the XV15 tiltrotor aircraft. A cross-sectional analysis tool, VABS together with a multibody dynamics code, DYMORE are integrated into the optimization process. The optimization results revealed significant improvements in the power requirement in hover while preserving cruise efficiency. It is also shown that about 21% of the improvement is provided through the sliding mass concept pointing to the additional flexibility the concept provides for tailoring of the structure without any additional weight penalty on the system.

<p>Methods for structural design, control, and testing offlexible aircraft structures are considered. Focus is onnonconventional aircraft con- figurations and control concepts.The interaction between analysis and testing is a central topicand all studies include validation testing and comparisonbetween computational and experimental results.</p><p>The first part of the thesis is concerned with the designand testing of an aeroelastic wind-tunnel model representing aBlended Wing Body (BWB) aircraft. The investigations show thata somewhat simplified wind-tunnel model design concept isuseful and efficient for the type of investigations considered.Also, the studies indicate that well established numericaltools are capable of predicting the aeroelastic behavior of theBWB aircraft with reasonable accuracy. Accurate prediction ofthe control surface aerodynamics is however found to bedifficult.</p><p>A new aerodynamic boundary element method for aeroelastictimedomain simulations and its experimental validation arepresented. The properties of the method are compared totraditional methods as well as to experimental results. Thestudy indicates that the method is capable of efficient andaccurate aeroelastic simulations.</p><p>Next, a method for tailoring a structure with respect to itsaeroelastic behavior is presented. The method is based onnumerical optimization techniques and developed for efficientdesign of aeroelastic wind-tunnel models with prescribed staticand dynamic aeroelastic properties. Experimental validationshows that the design method is useful in practice and that itprovides a more efficient handling of the dynamic aeroelasticproperties compared to previous methods.</p><p>Finally, the use of multiple control surfaces andaeroelastic effects for efficient roll maneuvering isconsidered. The idea is to design a controller that takesadvantage of the elasticity of the structure for performancebenefits. By use of optimization methods in combination with afairly simple control system, good maneuvering performance isobtained with minimal control effort. Validation testing usinga flexible wind-tunnel model and a real-time control systemshows that the control strategy is successful in practice.Keywords: aeroelasticity, active aeroelastic structures,aeroelastic tailoring, control, structural optimization,wind-tunnel testing.</p>

Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) firms are in need to modify their business models to exploit available opportunities by the increasing role of knowledge management and information technology in the global economy. This thesis will propose business models for AEC firms to sell consulting knowledge on-line. The three proposed business models are: business and management intelligence, design optimization and innovation and; software customization and real time data analytics. The business models are based on selling online consulting knowledge services customized to the customers' business needs through enabling emerging information technologies like cloud computing. The models were developed through benchmarking cases in other industries, previous classifications in the area of business models and, experts insights. The suitability of these models to different clients will be assessed in addition to the most suitable revenue streams. Finally, the validated final business models will be presented in the framework by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010).

Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) firms are in need to modify their business models to exploit available opportunities by the increasing role of knowledge management and information technology in the global economy. This thesis will propose business models for AEC firms to sell consulting knowledge on-line. The three proposed business models are: business and management intelligence, design optimization and innovation and; software customization and real time data analytics. The business models are based on selling online consulting knowledge services customized to the customers' business needs through enabling emerging information technologies like cloud computing. The models were developed through benchmarking cases in other industries, previous classifications in the area of business models and, experts insights. The suitability of these models to different clients will be assessed in addition to the most suitable revenue streams. Finally, the validated final business models will be presented in the framework by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010).

abstract: The energy band gap of a semiconductor material critically influences the operating wavelength of an optoelectronic device. Realization of any desired band gap, or even spatially graded band gaps, is important for applications such as lasers, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), solar cells, and detectors. Compared to thin films, nanowires offer greater flexibility for achieving a variety of alloy compositions. Furthermore, the nanowire geometry permits simultaneous incorporation of a wide range of compositions on a single substrate. Such controllable alloy composition variation can be realized either within an individual nanowire or between distinct nanowires across a substrate. This dissertation explores the control of spatial composition variation in ternary alloy nanowires. Nanowires were grown by the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism using chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The gas-phase supersaturation was considered in order to optimize the deposition morphology. Composition and structure were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and x-ray diffraction (XRD). Optical properties were investigated through photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The chalcogenides selected as alloy endpoints were lead sulfide (PbS), cadmium sulfide (CdS), and cadmium selenide (CdSe). Three growth modes of PbS were identified, which included contributions from spontaneously generated catalyst. The resulting wires were found capable of lasing with wavelengths over 4000 nm, representing the longest known wavelength from a sub-wavelength wire. For CdxPb1-xS nanowires, it was established that the cooling process significantly affects the alloy composition and structure. Quenching was critical to retain metastable alloys with x up to 0.14, representing a new composition in nanowire form. Alternatively, gradual cooling caused phase segregation, which created heterostructures with light emission in both the visible and mid-infrared regimes. The CdSSe alloy system was fully explored for spatial composition variation. CdSxSe1-x nanowires were grown with composition variation across the substrate. Subsequent contact printing preserved the designed composition gradient and led to the demonstration of a variable wavelength photodetector device. CdSSe axial heterostructure nanowires were also achieved. The growth process involved many variables, including a deliberate and controllable change in substrate temperature. As a result, both red and green light emission was detected from single nanowires. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Materials Science and Engineering 2012

Submitted by Mario BC (mario@bc.ufrpe.br) on 2016-06-27T14:05:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rainier Emanuel Freire de Freitas Guedes.pdf: 2265927 bytes, checksum: bcf758a5c55cbae0662b2002b796eb50 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-27T14:05:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rainier Emanuel Freire de Freitas Guedes.pdf: 2265927 bytes, checksum: bcf758a5c55cbae0662b2002b796eb50 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-03 / The use of innovation in its broadest sense has become an imperative to define the survival of firms in the market competition. It is expected that companies located in Local Productive Arrangements - APL present advantages resulting from geographical proximity to facilitate the transmission of knowledge and innovation, including innovative elements by technological or organizational means contributing to the increased competitiveness of these clothing manufacturers enterprises in APL, as well as the region's economy. It is observed that the city of Santa Cruz do Capibaribe-PE shall be consolidated with the production of clothing in Agreste, since the APL the municipality corresponds to the largest number of projects related to the production and marketing of clothing, especially between the three most prominent to local economic dynamism. On the production arrangements, sought to address the theoretical assumptions of RedeSist to understanding the specialized environment productively in a territorial delimitation. For the approach to innovation, was based on the contributions of Schumpeterian thought and neochumpeterianos authors to understand the introduction of new or improvement of products, processes and performance in the market both in the social environment and in business. The aim of this work is to analyze the determinants of innovation in micro and small business making Santa Cruz do Capibaribe-PE. And investigate possible links between the supporting actors (public and private) of APL aimed at stimulating innovation in the municipalities making activity that compose it. It was fundamental theoretical support of the connection between the Oslo Innovation Manual OECD and the similarities of the Bogotá Manual approach; with the adapted model of the Innovation Radar Bachmann and Destefani (2008) used by SEBRAE and the Local Productive Arrangement approach RedeSist/UFRJ. These connections subsidized instruments for field research (questionnaire and interview guide). Methodologically, a direct search by the author with a sample of fifty-nine clothing manufacturers enterprises (formal and informal) where questionnaires were applied was performed. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eighteen actors support. The content of these two research instruments (questionnaires and interviews script) rely on the conceptual and methodological basis of manuals Oslo and Bogota, the RedeSist and Sebrae. The results point to the following: i) on average, companies have low innovation index, with a score of 2.38, which the metric of innovation radar ranges from 1 to 5, resulting in the setting of enterprises whose innovative evidence they are sporadic and incipient; ii) the highest scores were observed in the platform size, brand, relationship and networking, where the last three are directly related to the market and the customer relationship; iii) on the other hand, appear as challenging dimensions, from the point of view of innovation management, the dimensions called solutions, processes, organization, supply chain and innovative ambience and iv) between the difficulties of APL stood out those more common in micro and small environment, such as difficulties in accessing specialized services, such as technology, design, logistics and credit; v) with respect to support policy actions were observed in the city studied and in other cities of APL, but so little planned and structured lacking greater efficiency of the actions taken since they occur in a little coordinated manner and diffuse between themselves and companies. / O emprego de inovações em seu sentido amplo tem se tornado um imperativo para definir a sobrevivência de empresas no âmbito da concorrência de mercado. Espera-se que as empresas situadas em Arranjos Produtivos Locais – APL apresentem vantagens resultantes da proximidade geográfica ao facilitar a transmissão do conhecimento e das inovações, compreendendo os elementos inovativos por meio tecnológico ou organizacional contribuindo para o aumento da competitividade desses empreendimentos confeccionistas no APL, assim como para a economia da região. Observa-se que o município de Santa Cruz do Capibaribe-PE passa a se consolidar com a produção de confecção no Agreste, uma vez que no APL o município corresponde ao maior número de empreendimentos ligados à produção e comercialização de confecção, destacando-se entre os três mais proeminentes para o dinamismo econômico local. Sobre os arranjos produtivos, buscou-se abordar os pressupostos teóricos da Redesist para a compreensão do ambiente especializado produtivamente numa delimitação territorial. Para a abordagem da inovação, pautou-se nas contribuições do pensamento schumpeteriano e de autores neochumpeterianos para compreender a introdução de novos ou aperfeiçoamento de produtos, processos e atuação no mercado tanto no ambiente social como nos negócios. O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar os condicionantes da inovação nas micro e pequenas empresas de confecção de Santa Cruz do Capibaribe-PE. E investigar as possíveis articulações entre os atores de apoio (públicos e privados) do APL direcionadas a estimular a inovação na atividade de confecção dos municípios que o compõem. Foi fundamental o apoio teórico da conexão entre o Manual de Inovação de Oslo da OCDE e suas semelhanças da abordagem do Manual de Bogotá; com o Modelo adaptado do Radar de Inovação de Bachmann e Destefani (2008) utilizado pelo Sebrae e a abordagem de Arranjo Produtivo Local da Redesist/UFRJ. Essas conexões subsidiaram os instrumentos para a pesquisa de campo (questionário e roteiro de entrevista). Metodologicamente, foi realizada uma pesquisa direta pelo autor com uma amostra de cinquenta e nove empreendimentos confeccionistas (formais e informais) onde foram aplicados questionários. Além disso, foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com dezoito atores de apoio. O conteúdo desses dois instrumentos de pesquisa (questionários e roteiro de entrevistas) se apoiam na base conceitual e metodológico dos manuais de Oslo e Bogotá, da Redesist e do Sebrae. Os resultados encontrados apontam para os seguintes aspectos: i) na média, as empresas apresentam baixo índice de inovação, com escore de 2,38, cuja a métrica do radar de inovação varia de 1 a 5, resultando no cenário de empreendimentos cujas evidências inovadoras são esporádicas e incipientes; ii) os maiores escores foram observados nas dimensões plataforma, marca, relacionamento e rede, onde as três últimas estão relacionadas diretamente com o mercado e com o relacionamento de clientes; iii) por outro lado, apresentam-se como dimensões desafiadoras, do ponto de vista da gestão da inovação, as dimensões denominadas de soluções, processos, organização, cadeia de fornecimento e ambiência inovadora e iv) entre as dificuldades do APL destacaram-se aquelas mais comuns num ambiente de micro e pequenas, tais como, dificuldades no acesso a serviços especializados, a exemplo de tecnologia, design, logística e crédito; e v) com a relação à política de apoio, foram observados ações no município estudado e em outras cidades do APL, porém de forma pouco planejada e estruturada carecendo de maior eficiência das ações empreendidas uma vez que elas ocorrem de forma pouco coordenada e difusas ente si e com as empresas.

Software system usually faces changing and diverse requirements during its use. Traditional solution by redesigning and rebuilding of the system normally costs too much and is hard to maintain. An applicable solution could be employing tailorable system which allows for user customization in run-time. The contribution of this work is two-fold. On one hand it investigated the state of the art technology of tailorable system. On the other hand it tried to find out how to facilitate user tailoring by providing appropriate tailoring interface. A tailorable prototype with different type of tailoring interfaces was implemented acting as the experiment environment. These interfaces were script file type, wizard type and 2D interactive environment type respectively. In the experiment, three categories of user – customer, tester and programmer were identified. User effort in the experiment was evaluated to identify the best tailoring interface for the user. Results from the experiment show that there is no best interface for all the users. Design of tailoring interface should depend on the skill level of the user.