Esta dissertação visa identificar as variáveis que possuem maior influência sobre os resultados de campanhas de publicidade digital. Para levantar possíveis variáveis que interferem na taxa de cliques (click-through rate) nos anúncios online, inicialmente foi realizada uma revisão da literatura disponível sobre o tema. Para tanto, utilizou-se como estrutura conceitual o modelo da Teoria da Informação para categorização dos fatores encontrados. A partir dessa categorização, foram selecionados fatores para um projeto de experimento fatorial utilizando análise de variância (ANOVA). Os fatores escolhidos foram a segmentação do público-alvo por gênero, o segmento econômico do anunciante e características do anúncio: cor, presença de animação e frase de chamada para ação (call to action). O experimento concluiu que a ausência de frase de chamada para ação (call to action), imagens estáticas sem animação e a aderência do público-alvo a ser atingido pela campanha ao publico do produto anunciante são as características que apresentam uma performance significativa para taxas de cliques. As conclusões do estudo apontam direcionamentos úteis para as empresas que investem em mídia digital e elaboram campanhas online de publicidade. Do ponto de vista acadêmico, a revisão da literatura e o projeto de experimento deste estudo fornecem evidências para o entendimento das principais variáveis de influência sobre este tipo de projeto. / This master thesis aims to identify factors that influence on the results of digital advertising campaigns. To understand what can increase the digital click-through rate in these campaings, the first part of this research addressed a literature review about academic and professional studies about the influencing factors of these campaigns. The identified factors were organized in three main categories from the information-processing theory: source, message and recipient dimensions. These factors were then analyzed by means of a factorial experiment project using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The factors chosen were target gender, the advertiser’s economic segment and the advertisment characteristics: color and presence of animation and call to action. The experiment concluded that some factors were meaningful for the increase of the click-through rate. The fit between advertising campaign and the advertiser’s product target, absence of call to action phrase and non-animated banners presented meaningful increases in the performances of the banners click-through rates. The conclusions of this study point useful directions for digital media advertisers. From academic point of view, the literature revision and the analysis of variance in this research provide evidences for the understanding the main influence factors in this kind of projects.

Orientador: Vicente Lopes Junior / Banca: Samuel Silva / Banca: Michael John Brennan / Banca: Carlos Alberto Cimini Junior / Resumo: Pesquisadores de diversas partes do mundo se empenham em desenvolver técnicas capazes de monitorar a integridade de máquinas, veículos e estruturas, principalmente as que a ruptura ou destruição possa provocar acidentes e catástrofes. Neste contexto, várias técnicas não destrutivas podem ser utilizadas para monitorar estes sistemas permitindo a realização de reparos e, evitando maiores prejuízos econômicos e danos sociais. A técnica da Impedância Eletromecânica está entre as técnicas baseadas na utilização de materiais piezelétricos e, particularmente, utiliza-se de uma curva sensível a pequenas variações na estrutura, característica que faz a técnica ser eficiente na detecção de danos incipientes. No entanto, sob variações das condições ambiente e de teste, a sensibilidade da técnica pode produzir falsos diagnósticos. Desta forma, o desafio atual é aplicar a técnica da Impedância Eletromecânica em sistemas de monitoramento considerando condições mais próximas às condições de operação reais dos sistemas a serem monitorados. Este trabalho apresenta duas metodologias para sistemas SHM, a primeira consiste em utilizar a técnica de agrupamento Fuzzy c-means para entender e considerar o efeito da temperatura nos sinais da Impedância Eletromecânica. A segunda metodologia utiliza análise de variância (ANOVA) para propor uma metodologia de detecção mais robusta, e assim, incorporar variações aleatórias nos sistemas de medição e aquisição sem comprometer o diagnóstico SHM / Abstract: Researchers around the world are engaged to develop techniques for structural health monitoring of machinery, vehicles and structures, especially systems where damage or destruction could induce accidents and disasters. In this context, several non-destructive techniques can be used to monitor these systems allowing repairs and avoiding major economic losses or social losses. The electromechanical impedance technique is among the techniques based on piezoelectric materials use and it is sensible to small variations in the structure which makes it efficient in detecting incipient damages. However, variations in the ambient or test conditions can cause false diagnoses. Therefore, the current challenge is to apply the electromechanical impedance technique considering monitoring conditions closer to real operating conditions of the systems to be monitored. This work presents two methodologies for SHM systems. The first one uses Fuzzy c-means clustering to distinguish the temperature effect on impedance signal. The second method uses analysis of variance (ANOVA) to propose a more robust detection methodology and thus incorporate random variations in measurement systems and acquisition without loss of SHM diagnostic / Mestre

Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2014-09-26T18:06:22Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação_PIBMF_Corrigida.pdf: 1135541 bytes, checksum: abeaf5cd4791754623b20793845be1d8 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jaqueline Silva (jtas29@gmail.com) on 2014-09-26T18:11:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação_PIBMF_Corrigida.pdf: 1135541 bytes, checksum: abeaf5cd4791754623b20793845be1d8 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-09-26T18:11:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação_PIBMF_Corrigida.pdf: 1135541 bytes, checksum: abeaf5cd4791754623b20793845be1d8 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05-30 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / The thermogravimetry has emerged to be an alternative technique for the analysis of biodiesel due to the rapidly methods, sensitivity and accuracy. Because of different characteristics between biodiesel and petroleum products, is difficult to adapt standard methods as in many cases the result dimension is quite distinct by capability of equipment detection. The micro residue of carbon test is one of the techniques which do not accomplish the biodiesel requirements. There is a deviation between national legislation and stipulated technical standard, thru ASTM D4530 for petroleum samples, the test should be applied with the residual of 0,10% (w/w) once previously distilled to remove 90% (v/v) of the total volume. Therefore thermogravimetry turn as an alternative for essay of micro carbon residue based on the results of this study which perform in biodiesel analysis and it has several advantages. / Com a necessidade de metodologias mais rápidas, mais sensíveis e mais precisas, a termogravimetria desponta como uma forte alternativa para a análise de biodiesel. Devido à diferença entre a natureza do biodiesel e a dos produtos de petróleo é difícil à adaptação dos métodos padrões, já que em muitos casos a magnitude do resultado é bem distinta da capacidade de detecção do método do equipamento utilizado. O teste de micro resíduo de carbono pertence a esse grupo de técnicas as quais não satisfazem os requerimentos do biodiesel. Existindo divergências entre a legislação nacional e o estipulado pela norma técnica, deve-se ter em conta que apesar da norma ASTM D4530 ser aplicável a produtos de petróleo, ela considera que a análise pode ser feita para amostras que apresentem valores de resíduo abaixo de 0,10 % (m/m), devendo-se apenas, destilar previamente amostra para remover 90 % (v/v) do volume total. Com isso a Termogravimetria se apresenta como uma alternativa na execução do ensaio de micro resíduo de carbono e com base nos resultados apresentados neste trabalho ela se mostrou capaz de realizar a análise de micro resíduo de carbono em biodiesel, além de apresentar diversas vantagens perante o método atualmente utilizado.

Though applied in bioarchaeology, dental wear is an underexplored age indicator in the biological anthropology of contemporary populations, although research has been conducted on dental attrition in forensic contexts (Kim et al. 2000, Prince et al. 2008, Yun et al. 2007). The purpose of this study is to apply and adapt existing techniques for age estimation based on dental wear to a modern American population, with the aim of producing accurate age range estimates for individuals from an industrialized context. Methodologies following Yun and Prince were applied to a random sample from the University of New Mexico (n=583) and Universidade de Coimbra (n=50) cast and skeletal collections. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between tooth wear scores and age. Application of both Yun et al. (2007) and Prince et al. (2008) methodologies resulted in inaccurate age estimates. Recalibrated sectioning points correctly classified individuals as over or under 50 years for 88% of the sample. Linear regression demonstrated 60% of age estimates fell within ±10 years of the actual age, and accuracy improved for individuals under 45 years, with 74% of predictions within ±10 years. This study demonstrates that age estimation from dental wear is possible for modern populations, with comparable age intervals to other established methods. It provides a quantifiable method of seriation into “older” and “younger” adult categories, and is a more reliable method than cranial sutures in instances where only the skull is available. / 2019-07-11T00:00:00Z

The primary objective of this study is to develop new computational methods for solving a general random eigenvalue problem (REP) commonly encountered in modeling and simulation of high-dimensional, complex dynamic systems. Four major research directions, all anchored in polynomial dimensional decomposition (PDD), have been defined to meet the objective. They involve: (1) a rigorous comparison of accuracy, efficiency, and convergence properties of the polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) and PDD methods; (2) development of two novel multiplicative PDD methods for addressing multiplicative structures in REPs; (3) development of a new hybrid PDD method to account for the combined effects of the multiplicative and additive structures in REPs; and (4) development of adaptive and sparse algorithms in conjunction with the PDD methods. The major findings are as follows. First, a rigorous comparison of the PCE and PDD methods indicates that the infinite series from the two expansions are equivalent but their truncations endow contrasting dimensional structures, creating significant difference between the two approximations. When the cooperative effects of input variables on an eigenvalue attenuate rapidly or vanish altogether, the PDD approximation commits smaller error than does the PCE approximation for identical expansion orders. Numerical analysis reveal higher convergence rates and significantly higher efficiency of the PDD approximation than the PCE approximation. Second, two novel multiplicative PDD methods, factorized PDD and logarithmic PDD, were developed to exploit the hidden multiplicative structure of an REP, if it exists. Since a multiplicative PDD recycles the same component functions of the additive PDD, no additional cost is incurred. Numerical results show that indeed both the multiplicative PDD methods are capable of effectively utilizing the multiplicative structure of a random response. Third, a new hybrid PDD method was constructed for uncertainty quantification of high-dimensional complex systems. The method is based on a linear combination of an additive and a multiplicative PDD approximation. Numerical results indicate that the univariate hybrid PDD method, which is slightly more expensive than the univariate additive or multiplicative PDD approximations, yields more accurate stochastic solutions than the latter two methods. Last, two novel adaptive-sparse PDD methods were developed that entail global sensitivity analysis for defining the relevant pruning criteria. Compared with the past developments, the adaptive-sparse PDD methods do not require its truncation parameter(s) to be assigned a priori or arbitrarily. Numerical results reveal that an adaptive-sparse PDD method achieves a desired level of accuracy with considerably fewer coefficients compared with existing PDD approximations.

Övervikt är en av de ledande folkhälsoutmaningarna i världen där cirka en tredjedel av världens befolkning är övervikta eller har fetma vilket medför negativa hälsoeffekter och sjukdomar. Övervikt och fetma drabbar även barn och unga där en kraftig ökning har skett under de senaste 40 åren. Fysisk aktivitet utgör en viktig komponent för att minska fetmaepidemin, dock förekommer även en ökad andel fysiskt inaktiva barn och unga i Sverige. Skolan ses som en bra arena för folkhälsoarbete men det förekommer dock spridd forskning gällande effekterna av interventioner som syftar att öka den fysiska aktiviteten. Syftet med studien var att genomföra en effektutvärdering av projektet ”Rörelsesatsning i skolan” genom en före- och eftermätning av primärutfallet som var skolelevernas fysiska aktivitet samt sekundärutfall som idrottsengagemanget, välmåendet samt klassrumsro. En kvantitativ metod genomfördes med en Single Case Experimental Design där totalt 148 elever deltog vid baslinjemätning och 125 elever vid uppföljningen, eleverna gick i årskurserna 3–6 på en skola i Västerås. Resultatet analyserades genom chi2-test samt ANOVA. Resultatet visar att interventionen gett effekt på utövandet av bollsporter/klättra/springa på rasterna samt att utöva bollsport med ledare på fritiden. Även liten effekt på ökad andel cyklande till skolan och andel som orienterade/cyklade på fritiden med ledare kunde ses.

Water resources in Florida have been severely degraded by eutrophic conditions, resulting toxic algae blooms, which negatively affect health and tourism. Eutrophication, or excessive amount of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) in water, overstimulates the production of aquatic plants, depletes dissolved oxygen, and deteriorates the aquatic environment. However, phosphorus is a non-renewable resource essential for all living organisms. In fact, more than half of the total demand for P globally is to supply the food industry, which has concerningly accelerated the depletion rates of phosphate reserves. In many wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), the enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) approach has been employed to achieve high phosphorus removals from wastewater through phosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs). However, during either anaerobic or aerobic digestion of EBPR sludge, stored polyphosphates are released and carried into the sidestream, which is typically returned to the headworks of the main treatment facility, thereby recycling phosphorus back into the system. This treatment train is highly inefficient because nutrients rather are recirculated rather than recovered. Struvite (MgNH4PO4•6H2O) is precipitated in oversaturated aqueous solutions with equal molar concentrations of magnesium, ammonium, and phosphate. The controlled crystallization of struvite may be applied to remove phosphorus and some ammonium from sidestreams, which is the liquid portion of the digester effluent. Struvite can be employed as a sustainable slow-release fertilizer due to its low solubility in water. This offers the opportunity of marketing the struvite produced under controlled conditions and creating a revenue for the utility. The specific research objectives of this thesis are (1) to investigate different possible operating conditions under which anaerobically digested sludge from EBPR facilities might be treated through struvite precipitation; (2) to quantify the removal of N and P from sidestreams from anaerobically digested EBPR sludge via struvite precipitation and assess the composition of the precipitate obtained; and (3) to generate a cost analysis to assess the trade-offs between the capital and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs of struvite production and the benefits such as reduced chemical use and production of a slow-release fertilizer. The main parameters affecting struvite precipitation are the Mg2+ to PO43- molar ratio, pH, temperature, mixing speed, hydraulic retention time (HRT), and the seed quantity added to promote nucleation. Different operating conditions within these parameters were batch-tested as part of this study using sidestream from the pilot-scale anaerobic digester (AD) fed from Falkenburg Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant (FAWWTP) EBPR sludge. Additionally, the effect of temperature and pH were investigated using Visual MINTEQ simulations. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was employed to investigate the variance within the removals from the centrate obtained for phosphate, ammonium, magnesium, and calcium. The chemical composition of the solids collected after employing the selected operating conditions was analyzed by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). The results for the batch tests performed as part of this thesis were quantified in terms of the removals of phosphate, ammonium, magnesium, and calcium from the centrate. The greatest amount of phosphate removal was achieved by operating the struvite reactor at 4.0 mmol of Mg2+ per mmole of PO43-. The other molar ratios tested were 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Visual inspection of the data showed significant variability in removals of ammonium, calcium, and magnesium, which are likely to be correlated with the highly variable influent concentrations into the struvite reactor. In this case, ANOVA will require larger data sets to accurately analyze variance in the results. The statistical results given by ANOVA for the pH suggests that the main species to contribute with struvite being precipitated are statistically stable within the tested pH values of 8.5, 9.0, and 9.5. The results obtained by the simulation using Visual MINTEQ indicated that maximum saturation as function of pH takes place at a pH between 9.5 and 10.0. The ANOVA for the mixing speed showed that significant amounts of ammonium were removed at higher mixing speeds. This is likely due ammonium being volatilized, which is enhanced by turbulence. Magnesium and phosphate showed lower removals at higher mixing speeds, suggesting that too high mixing speeds will promote struvite seed dissolution. ANOVA identified NH4+ and Ca2+ as the species significantly impacted by modifying the HRT from 8 to 20 minutes. This suggests that prolonged HRT promotes inorganic nitrogen species to volatilize. It is likely that at higher HRT, tricalcium phosphates (TCP) or other favored calcium species coprecipitated together with struvite. Regarding the added struvite seed for nucleation, the greatest removals of ammonium, magnesium, and, phosphate were observed when 1g/L of struvite seed was added. The results also indicated that adding 5 and 10 g/L was an excessive amount of seed, which ended up contributing significantly to more nutrients into the centrate rather than precipitating them. The results also suggested that the struvite crystals formed in the sidestream by secondary nucleation, since removals close to zero were reached after adding no seed. The optimum temperature identified by the simulation in Visual MINTEQ was 21°C. Operating the struvite reactor under the optimal conditions identified in the batch tests, resulted in an average of 99% total P (TP) and 17% total N (TN) removals. The precipitate molar composition for [Mg2+:NH4+:PO43-] was equal to [2:2:1] based on the concentrations that disappeared from the aqueous solution, suggesting that other minerals coprecipitated with struvite. Visual MINTEQ predicted that together with struvite, CaHPO4 and CaHPO4•2H2O will also precipitate under the tested conditions. However, given the obtained ratio it is likely that other unpredicted species by Visual MINTEQ, such as magnesium carbonates or magnesium hydroxide coprecipitated with struvite. PXRD analysis also revealed that the sample was likely contaminated struvite, although the specific contaminants were not identified. A cost analysis was performed to distinguish the economic feasibility of incorporating a struvite harvesting system to treat the anaerobically digested sidestream from the Biosolids Management Facility (BMF) within the Northwest Regional Water Reclamation Facility (NWRWRF). Three different scenarios were evaluated; in Scenario (1) Ostara® Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. (Ostara®) evaluated the production of struvite from anaerobically digested EBPR sidestream using a fluidized reactor. In Scenario (2), Ostara® evaluated the production of struvite in a fluidized bed reactor by employing Waste Activated Sludge Stripping to Remove Internal Phosphorus (WASSTRIP™) in a mixture of post-anaerobic digestion centrate and pre-digester thickener liquor. Scenario (3) was addressed by Schwing Bioset Inc. (SBI) for a continuously-stirred reactor followed by a struvite harvesting system. Scenario (2) offers the highest TP and TN recoveries through WASSTRIP™ release due to the additional mass of phosphorus that is sent to the phosphorus recovery process. Therefore, although Scenario (2) has the highest total capital costs ($5M) it also has the shortest payback period (18 years). Scenarios (1) and Scenario (3) have similar payback periods (22-23 years) but very different total capital costs. The annual savings by producing struvite in Scenario (3) is $40K, which is about 30% less than producing struvite in Scenario (1). This is probably because the only savings considered under Scenario (3) were the lower alum usage and the fertilizer revenue; however, the savings by producing class A biosolids, were not accounted for. Consequently, the reduced total capital cost of $960K and the annual payment amount per interest period close to $80K, positioned Scenario (3) as the more feasible one, considering 20 years as the expected life of the asset at a 5% interest rate.

Le thème général de cette thèse est celui de la construction de modèles permettantd'approximer une fonction f lorsque la valeur de f(x) est connue pour un certainnombre de points x. Les modèles considérés ici, souvent appelés modèles de krigeage,peuvent être abordés suivant deux points de vue : celui de l'approximation dans les espacesde Hilbert à noyaux reproduisants ou celui du conditionnement de processus gaussiens.Lorsque l'on souhaite modéliser une fonction dépendant d'une dizaine de variables, lenombre de points nécessaires pour la construction du modèle devient très important etles modèles obtenus sont difficilement interprétables. A partir de ce constat, nous avonscherché à construire des modèles simplifié en travaillant sur un objet clef des modèles dekrigeage : le noyau. Plus précisement, les approches suivantes sont étudiées : l'utilisation denoyaux additifs pour la construction de modèles additifs et la décomposition des noyauxusuels en sous-noyaux pour la construction de modèles parcimonieux. Pour finir, nousproposons une classe de noyaux qui est naturellement adaptée à la représentation ANOVAdes modèles associés et à l'analyse de sensibilité globale.

Abstract Due to the recent financial crisis, global economy downturn forces corporate to downsize, shut down unprofitable plants and layoff which have increased unemployment rate dramatically. Franchising creates a lot of employment opportunities as well as dream come true for many people who dream of becoming a boss. For those reasons, franchising operation model is one of the quickest ways to increase business scale and conquer market share in both Mainland China and Taiwan in a short time. In a value chain, a franchising system not only can increase economy of scale and operation efficiency through ship in/out logistic, production process, marketing, after sale service but also through supporting activities such as infrastructure, human resource, training, purchasing, research and development. However, how to survive or even stand out in such a competitive market, key successful factors plays a very important role. This research paper focuses on beverage franchising chain policy, aiming at understanding key factors which effect a franchisee to choose best fit franchiser and to understand beverage market trend in both mainland China and Taiwan. This research paper chooses a couple franchising policy factors among mainland China and Taiwan and uses analytical hierarchy process to understand franchisee¡¦s decision making process. The interviewees include industrial experts among mainland China and Taiwan, academic representatives and franchisees from both mainland China and Taiwan (9each). By having in depth discussion with each interviewee, qualitative and quantitative AHP survey data was collected for analysis in order to understand franchising industry development trend in mainland China and Taiwan. This research paper further understands the relationship between franchising key policies and future development trend in mainland China and Taiwan through collecting qualitative and quantitative AHP survey data at the same time. By comparing perception differences between the 3 types of interviewees through ANOVA analysis, a more specific proposal can be provided for franchisee, franchiser and related government department for reference. Keyword: Franchising, Chain, beverage market , human resource, analytical hierarchy process, AHP, ANOVA statistic analysis

Since the micro-electro mechanical system microphone, MEMS microphone, has the advantages of superior sound quality, low power consumption, higher temperature resistance and anti-noise ability in used. The researchers therefore have studied the functions of MEMS microphone since 1980s. The MEMS microphones is applied as the part of 3G mobile phone in the market. Though the functions of microphone are improved by manufacturing process technique and new material designed, this study tends to provide a new, low-cost and rapid design idea to gain the performance in chamber of microphone. Taguchi method and BEASY software, which is boundary element method, are combined to evaluate the results of the design in sound field. Taguchi method is a famous method in industrial design to find out relations between system parameters and chamber size. BEASY is a tool for sound field analysis in the research. The result from Taguchi method appears the sound pressure level gain about 2.2 dB to 2.4 dB due to the change of microphone chamber size only. It is also interested in studying the optimization design for position of microphone. It is displayed that the location of port is closer to the boundary of chip will also increase about 0.3 dB to 0.6dB sound pressure level in sound field. The higher frequency of sound source will also create larger sound pressure level at two corners on the port.