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This dissertation analysed the interactions between instructors and students in a language classroom in Russia. Using video-recorded data, instructor interviews, and student assessments from English classes at a private language school for children in the Urals region of Russia, a Conversation Analytic [CA] framework was employed to determine: how the talk (specifically turn-taking, adjacency pairs, and repairs) was sequentially organised; if and how the institutional setting constrained the talk; and if previously determined 'universal' structures of talk applied to this Russian academic discourse. This research also tested the hypotheses that the 'universal' structures of talk would apply regardless of gender, but would be used differently by the boys and girls, and by the instructors interacting with them. The relevance of the participants' institutional identities or gender to the interaction was also examined. The analysis showed that the participants did orient to their institutional identities of instructor or student, and the institutional setting did constrain the organisation of talk. The instructors' responses to the interviews and 'student assessment' questionnaires showed that they generally had positive attitudes toward girls and mixed attitudes toward boys. While the underlying sequences, the universal 'rules' of interaction, applied to interactions with both boys and girls, how (and how frequently) the sequences were used did vary by gender (i.e., typically 'male' and 'female' speech styles). Also, some of the organisation of talk showed that the instructors did orient to the students' genders in the classroom. This research is significant as the first CA study of the sequential organisation of talk in an institutional setting in Russia. In general, this research contributes to the CA findings on the organisation of talk in different languages, cultures, and settings; specifically, it provides the first point of comparison of Russian classroom interactions, from a CA perspective, with the large corpus of data already collected in classrooms in the Western tradition of education. Finally, this research is significant as it provides a thorough microanalysis of the relativity of gender-specific verbal behaviour; the analysis also shows how the instructors behave verbally, and in this way produce gender-specific communication styles. / Slavic Linguistics

[pt] Estudaremos dinâmicas simbólicas associadas a alfabetos finitos. Consideraremos seqüências bi-infinitas e espaços com memória finita. Estudaremos propriedades invariantes por conjugação. Analisaremos a relação entre os espaços de seqüências e propriedades de matrizes não negativas. O principal exemplo desta correlação é o Teorema de Perron- Frobenius que relaciona a entropia de um espaço de seqüências e os autovalores de uma matriz não negativa associada ao espaço. Neste contexto, certos grafos e suas propriedades aparecem de forma natural. / [en] We study symbolic dynamics associated to finite alphabets. We consider bi-infinite sequences and spaces with finite memory. We pay attention to properties which are invariant by conjugations. We analyze the relation between spaces of sequences and properties of non-negative matrices. The main example is given by the Perron-Frobenius theorem relating the entropy of a space of sequences and the eigerrvalues of a non-negative matrix associated to the space. In this setting, certain graphs and their properties appear in a natural way.

[pt] Num modelador de sólidos, uma das ferramentas mais poderosas para a criação de objetos tridimensionais de qualquer nível de complexidade geométrica é a aplicação das operações booleanas. Elas são formas intuitivas e populares de combinar sólidos, baseadas nas operações aplicadas a conjuntos. Os tipos principais de operações booleanas comumente aplicadas a sólidos são: união, interseção e diferença. Havendo interesse prático, para garantir que os objetos resultantes possuam a mesma dimensão dos objetos originais, sem partes soltas ou pendentes, o processo de regularização é aplicado. Regularizar significa restringir o resultado de tal forma que apenas volumes preenchíveis possam existir. Na prática, a regularização é realizada classificando-se os elementos topológicos e eliminando-se estruturas de dimensão inferior. A proposta deste trabalho é o desenvolvimento de um algoritmo genérico que permita a aplicação do conjunto de operações booleanas em um ambiente de modelagem geométrica aplicada à análise por elementos finitos e que agregue as seguintes funcionalidades: trabalhar com um número indefinido de entidades topológicas (conceito de Grupo), trabalhar com objetos de dimensões diferentes, trabalhar com objetos non-manifold, trabalhar com objetos não necessariamente poliedrais ou planos e garantir a eficiência, robustez e aplicabilidade em qualquer ambiente de modelagem baseado em representação B-Rep. Neste contexto, apresenta-se a implementação do algoritmo num modelador geométrico pré- existente, denominado MG, seguindo o conceito de programação orientada a objetos e mantendo a interface com o usuário simples e eficiente. / [en] In a solid modeler, one of the most powerful tools to create threedimensional objects with any level of geometric complexity is the application of the Boolean set operations. They are intuitive and popular ways to combine solids, based on the operations applied to sets. The main types of Boolean operations commonly applied to solids are: union, intersection and difference. If there is practical interest, in order to assure that the resulting objects have the same dimension of the original objects, without loose or dangling parts, the regularization process is applied. To regularize means to restrict the result in a way that only filling volumes are allowed. In practice, the regularization is performed classifying the topological elements and removing the lower dimensional structures. The objective of this work is the development of a generic algorithm that allows the application of the Boolean set operations in a geometric modeling environment applied to finite element analysis, which aggregates the following functionalities: working with an undefined number of topological entities (Group concept), working with objects of different dimensions, working with nonmanifold objects, working with objects not necessarily plane or polyhedrical and assuring the efficiency, robustness and applicability in any modeling environment based on B-Rep representation. In this context, the implementation of the algorithm in a pre-existing geometric modeler named MG is presented, using the concept of object oriented programming and keeping the user interface simple and efficient.

O presente trabalho aborda o Problema de Coleta Domiciliar Urbana (PCDU) de resíduos sólidos, tratado no nível tático de planejamento, em que zonas de coleta são definidas para cada dia da semana e designadas aos veículos coletores, cuja frota deve ser dimensionada. O problema estudado é baseado em um caso real, o qual possui como particularidades: cada zona de coleta é formada por regiões adjacentes e será representada por um nó-semente; a demanda de cada zona deverá ser atendida dentro do período de uma semana, conforme múltiplos programas possíveis de coleta; em um turno de um dia de trabalho um veículo poderá realizar múltiplas viagens; e há uma garagem para a frota e uma estação de transbordo, a qual possibilita que o veículo seja esvaziado para realizar outras viagens. A literatura apresenta alguns métodos heurísticos para a resolução de variantes deste problema, sendo os métodos exatos utilizados somente na resolução de instâncias pequenas, dado que o problema de VRP (Vehicle Routing Problem) é classificado como NP-hard. A imposição de adjacência é uma característica particular, a qual é justificada pela possível melhoria na utilização dos veículos em posterior planejamento operacional. São propostos um modelo matemático e um método heurístico para resolver o problema, sobre os quais são realizados experimentos computacionais. O método heurístico é aplicado sobre um estudo de caso de um problema de escala real, sendo obtida solução heurística como resultado. / The present work addresses the Urban Household Solid Waste Problem (UHSWP) on a tactical planning level, wherein collection zones are assigned to every week daywork and collection vehicles, which fleet is to be sized. The studied problem is based on a real case, such peculiarities as: each collection zone is a set of adjacent areas and a seed node represents it; the demand each zone must attended within a week, according to the several possible collection schedule; on a work day shift a vehicle can be assigned to multiple trips; and there is a base depot for the fleet and a transfer station, where the vehicles are unloaded, restoring their load capacity for the next trips. Literature presents heuristic methods for the solving of its problem variants, in which exact methos are only applied to small instances, due to the VRP (Vehicle Routing Problem) NP-hard property. The adjacency imposition is a peculiar feature, which is justified by the potential improvement on vehicle usage considering a posterior operational planning. A mathematical model and a heuristic method are proposed for the problem solving and evaluated by computational experiments. A real scale problem case study is solved by the heuristic method and the results are presented.

This thesis develops a strategy for polymerized volume data set construction. Given a volume data set defined over a regular three-dimensional grid, a polymerized volume data set (PVDS) can be defined as follows: edges between adjacent vertices of the grid are labeled 1 (active) or 0 (inactive) to indicate the likelihood that an edge is contained in (or spans the boundary of) a common underlying object, adding information not in the original volume data set. This edge labeling “polymerizes” adjacent voxels (those sharing a common active edge) into connected components, facilitating segmentation of embedded objects in the volume data set. Polymerization of the volume data set also aids real-time data compression, geometric modeling of the embedded objects, and their visualization. To construct a polymerized volume data set, an adjacency class within the grid system is selected. Edges belonging to this adjacency class are labeled as interior, exterior, or boundary edges using discriminant functions whose functional forms are derived for three local adjacency classes. The discriminant function parameter values are determined by supervised learning. Training sets are derived from an initial segmentation on a homogeneous sample of the volume data set, using an existing segmentation method. The strategy of constructing polymerized volume data sets is initially tested on synthetic data sets which resemble neuronal volume data obtained by three-dimensional microscopy. The strategy is then illustrated on volume data sets of mouse brain microstructure at a neuronal level of detail. Visualization and validation of the resulting PVDS is shown in both cases. Finally the procedures of polymerized volume data set construction are generalized to apply to any Bravais lattice over the regular 3D orthogonal grid. Further development of this latter topic is left to future work.

The main purpose of this study is to conduct a contrastive analysis on a corpus of Swedish and Spanish family conversations with respect to two adjacency pairs: opinion-agreement/disagreement (OADs) and offer-acceptance/rejection (OARs). On one hand, from a structural perspective, based on the methodology of Conversation Analysis, one of the objectives is to observe how (dis)preferred turns of the OADs and OARs are managed by the interlocutors. On the other hand, from a functional perspective, based on the methodology of Sociocultural Pragmatics, the intention is to study how face is constructed and how politeness is managed by the family members when expressing OADs and OARs. The structural analysis of OADs and OARs shows that the majority of agreements and acceptances follow the rules for preferred turns proposed by orthodox conversation analysts, i.e. they appear directly after the first part of the adjacency pair (opinion or offer), and they are brief and unambiguous. However, the structural analysis also reveals that 70% (Swedish corpus) and 72% (Spanish corpus) of the disagreements as well as 64% (Swedish corpus) and 70% (Spanish corpus) of the rejections have a tendency to not follow the proposed rules for dispreferred turns, i.e. they are not delayed or accompanied by hesitations, justifications, etc. and nor are they evaluated as dispreferred by the participants. This indicates that social perspective, especially face, has to be considered when deciding what is considered (dis)preferred. The functional analysis of the OADs indicates that the majority of the disagreements in both Swedish (68%) and Spanish (79%) corpus are not mitigated, but rather are expressed in a fairly direct manner. Swedes tend to avoid disagreements, and therefore we expected to find a major difference between the two groups. One explanation could be that family members enjoy close relationships, and therefore the Swedes feel free to express their disagreements. As for the impact on the family members face, in both groups, it is both autonomy face and affiliation face that are influenced when OADs are expressed. As for agreement, for example, it is usually autonomy face that is affected. We interpret this as a way for the participants to show that both speakers and listeners have valuable opinions that deserve to be both voiced and commented on. This reveals the more discursive (rather than ritual) nature of OADs. In addition, the functional study of OARs shows that acceptances and rejections in both corpora are expressed using both ritual and attenuating politeness according to the norms required by the situation. Concerning the impact on face, autonomy face has different requirements in the two cultures: in the Swedish conversations, it is important to offer food without insisting several times, and in the Spanish corpus, it is important to offer food more than one or two times, and there is also a tendency to refuse the offer several times before accepting it. Therefore, according to one’s situational role, one has to know how to both give and receive offers, which points to the more ritual nature of OARs. Finally, we want to emphasize that by adding a social perspective to the structural one, we can interpret the meaning of the conversations in a way that provides a broader understanding of what is being said as participants express OADs and OARs.

Various data structures have been proposed for representing the connectivity of manifold triangle meshes. For example, the Extended Corner Table (ECT) stores V+6T references, where V and T respectively denote the vertex and triangle counts. ECT supports Random Access and Traversal (RAT) operators at Constant Amortized Time (CAT) cost. We propose two novel variations of ECT that also support RAT operations at CAT cost, but can be used to represent and process Simplicial 2-Complexes (S2Cs), which may represent star-connecting, non-orientable, and non-manifold triangulations along with dangling edges, which we call sticks. Vlist stores V+3T+3S+3(C+S-N) references, where S denotes the stick count, C denotes the number of edge-connected components and N denotes the number of star-connecting vertices. Ering stores 6T+3S+3(C+S-N) references, but has two advantages over Vlist: the Ering implementation of the operators is faster and is purely topological (i.e., it does not perform geometric queries). Vlist and Ering representations have two principal advantages over previously proposed representations for simplicial complexes: (1) Lower storage cost, at least for meshes with significantly more triangles than sticks, and (2) explicit support of side-respecting traversal operators which each walks from a corner on the face of a triangle t across an edge or a vertex of t, to a corner on a faces of a triangle or to an end of a stick that share a vertex with t, and this without ever piercing through the surface of a triangle.

O presente trabalho aborda o Problema de Coleta Domiciliar Urbana (PCDU) de resíduos sólidos, tratado no nível tático de planejamento, em que zonas de coleta são definidas para cada dia da semana e designadas aos veículos coletores, cuja frota deve ser dimensionada. O problema estudado é baseado em um caso real, o qual possui como particularidades: cada zona de coleta é formada por regiões adjacentes e será representada por um nó-semente; a demanda de cada zona deverá ser atendida dentro do período de uma semana, conforme múltiplos programas possíveis de coleta; em um turno de um dia de trabalho um veículo poderá realizar múltiplas viagens; e há uma garagem para a frota e uma estação de transbordo, a qual possibilita que o veículo seja esvaziado para realizar outras viagens. A literatura apresenta alguns métodos heurísticos para a resolução de variantes deste problema, sendo os métodos exatos utilizados somente na resolução de instâncias pequenas, dado que o problema de VRP (Vehicle Routing Problem) é classificado como NP-hard. A imposição de adjacência é uma característica particular, a qual é justificada pela possível melhoria na utilização dos veículos em posterior planejamento operacional. São propostos um modelo matemático e um método heurístico para resolver o problema, sobre os quais são realizados experimentos computacionais. O método heurístico é aplicado sobre um estudo de caso de um problema de escala real, sendo obtida solução heurística como resultado. / The present work addresses the Urban Household Solid Waste Problem (UHSWP) on a tactical planning level, wherein collection zones are assigned to every week daywork and collection vehicles, which fleet is to be sized. The studied problem is based on a real case, such peculiarities as: each collection zone is a set of adjacent areas and a seed node represents it; the demand each zone must attended within a week, according to the several possible collection schedule; on a work day shift a vehicle can be assigned to multiple trips; and there is a base depot for the fleet and a transfer station, where the vehicles are unloaded, restoring their load capacity for the next trips. Literature presents heuristic methods for the solving of its problem variants, in which exact methos are only applied to small instances, due to the VRP (Vehicle Routing Problem) NP-hard property. The adjacency imposition is a peculiar feature, which is justified by the potential improvement on vehicle usage considering a posterior operational planning. A mathematical model and a heuristic method are proposed for the problem solving and evaluated by computational experiments. A real scale problem case study is solved by the heuristic method and the results are presented.

Det är viktigt med ett effektivt samarbete och en välfungerande kommunikation i dynamiska miljöer, till exempel vid släckningsarbetet av en brand. Bristande kommunikation i en sådan miljö skulle kunna få förödande konsekvenser. Denna uppsats bygger på material från studien ”Bridging Cultural Barriers to Collaborative Decision Making in On-Site Operations Coordination Centers”, där 32 svenskar samarbetade i olika lagkonstellationer med att släcka simulerade eldar i mikrovärlden C3Fire. Kommunikationsteorier visar på att personer samtalar med varandra efter en viss struktur; deras yttranden tenderar att komma i par, så kallade närhetspar. Denna studie syftade till att undersöka närhetspar i beställningssekvenser, i form av en beställning av vatten och/eller bränsle följd av en bekräftelse. Till sin hjälp hade försöksdeltagarna en datorskärm med en karta samt tillgång till ett e-postverktyg för att kommunicera inom laget. Varje person genomgick åtta spelomgångar, vilket resulterade i totalt 64 spelomgångar. De lag som lyckades släcka elden antogs ha större andel närhetspar i beställningssekvenserna, vilket innebar att de skulle bekräfta varandras beställningar mer kontinuerligt än de lag som inte lyckades släcka elden. För studiet av närhetsparen kategoriserades e-postmeddelandena från samtliga spelomgångar, för att se hur strukturen i kommunikationen såg ut. Resultatet visade på att något annat måste ha påverkat de medverkandes prestation, eftersom det inte fanns någon påtaglig skillnad i andelen närhetspar i beställningssekvenserna mellan de olika lagen. Det uppmärksammades att de inte bekräftade varandras beställningar endast genom e-postmeddelanden utan även genom direkta manipulationer. Anledningen till detta antas vara att alla lagmedlemmar blev presenterade samma information på sina datorskärmar, vilket frambringade en mer implicit kommunikation. / Efficient communication and cooperation is important in dynamic environments, for instance in fire-fighting teamwork. A lack of communication in this environment could cause devastating consequences. This Master’s thesis is based on material from ”Bridging Cultural Barriers to Collaborative Decision Making in On-Site Operations Coordination Centers”, a study where 32 Swedes collaborated in teams conducting fire-fighting exercises in the micro-world C3Fire. Communication theories propose that people talk with each other after a certain structure; their utterances tend to come in pairs, so-called adjacency pairs. The purpose of this study was to examine adjacency pairs in request sequences, in form of a request for water and/or fuel followed by a confirmation. The participants had access to a computer screen with a map together with an e-mail tool, to communicate within the team. Every person participated in eight rounds of the game, which resulted in 64 rounds of the game altogether. The teams who managed to extinguish the fire were assumed to have a larger amount of adjacency pairs in their request sequences than the teams who did not extinguish the fire. For the study of the adjacency pairs, the e-mails were categorized, to see what the structure of the communication looked like. The result showed that some other factor must have influenced the participants’ performance, since there was no obvious difference in the amount of the adjacency pairs in the request sequence between the teams. It was observed that the team members did not confirm each other’s requests just by sending e-mail, but also by direct manipulations. The reason for this is assumed to be that every member of the team was shown the same information on his computer screen, which gave rise to a more implicit communication.