A textura da íris humana é uma das peculiaridades biométricas mais confiáveis, pois os padrões que compõem sua estrutura são considerados únicos e estáveis por longos anos. No entanto, amostras de íris capturadas em ambiente não cooperativo como reconhecimento de íris a distância, por exemplo, estão sujeitas a conter variações na textura, devido a mudanças comportamentais da membrana da íris. Outro problema é a complexidade do algoritmo, que o torna inviável para aplicações práticas ou em tempo real. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar alguns descritores de textura locais para o reconhecimento biométrico de íris, considerando os efeitos de dilatação e contração da pupila. Para a comprovação da hipótese desta tese de doutoramento, foi utilizada uma base de dados contendo amostras de íris com a pupila contraída e dilatada, simulando assim, a aquisição natural em ambiente não cooperativo. Além disso, foram propostos dois novos descritores, denominados como Median Local Mapped Pattern (Median-LMP) e Modified Median Local Mapped Pattern (MM-LMP), que foram comparados com o método de Daugman, o Local Mapped Pattern (LMP), o Completed Modeling of Local Binary Pattern (CLBP), o Median Binary Pattern (MBP) e o Weber Law Descriptor (WLD). Os resultados da avaliação de desempenho mostraram que o algoritmo de Daugman é o melhor para o reconhecimento de íris quando é realizada a comparação entre amostras de íris com pupilas contraídas. No entanto, se a pupila está dilatada, os descritores propostos apresentaram o melhor desempenho, principalmente se uma amostra de íris com uma pupila contraída é comparada com outra íris com a pupila dilatada. Além disso, os descritores propostos e o LMP obtiveram os menores tempos de processamento, sendo mais adequados do que os demais para aplicações em tempo preditivo com implementação em hardware. / The texture of the human iris is one of the most reliable biometric traits, so the patterns that make up its structure are the only criteria and stable for long time. However, iris samples captured in a noncooperative environment as recognition of nature, for example, subject to contain variations in texture, due to behavioral changes of the iris membrane. Another problem is an algorithm complexity, which makes it impractical for practical or in real-time applications. The objective of this work is to evaluate some local texture descriptors for the biometric iris recognition, considering the effects of dilation and contraction of the pupil. In order to prove the hypothesis of this doctoral question, a database was used containing iris samples with a contracted and dilated pupil, thus simulating a natural acquisition in a noncooperative environment. In addition, two new descriptors, named Median-Local Standard Mapped (Median-LMP) and Modified Modified Local Standard Mapped (MM-LMP) were proposed, which were compared with the Daugman method, the Mapped Local Pattern (LMP), the Complete Local Binary Pattern Modeling (CLBP), the Median Binary Standard (MBP) and Weber Law Descriptor (WLD). The results of the performance evaluation show that the Daugman algorithm is the best for iris recognition when a study of iris samples with the students is performed. However, if a pupil is dilated, the proposed descriptors show the best performance, especially a sample of iris with a contracted pupil is compared to another iris with a dilated pupil. In addition, the proposed descriptors and the LMP obtained the shortest processing times, being more adequate than the others for predictive time applications with hardware implementation.

O Brasil é um dos países de maior destaque do setor sucroenergético, uma vez que detém a maior produção mundial de cana-de-açúcar e pouco mais de um terço da cana cultivada no mundo. O presente experimento teve como principal finalidade caracterizar detalhadamente oito variedades de cana-de-açúcar, utilizando esta caracterização como suporte para parametrização do modelo CANEGRO/DSSAT que por sua vez é uma importante ferramenta na tomada de decisão dos cultivos de cana-de-açúcar, sendo assim os objetivos neste trabalho foi realizar uma análise agronômica e tecnológica de oito variedades de cana-de-açúcar, mensurar o máximo de parâmetros do modelo CANEGRO/DSSAT; efetuar a parametrização do CANEGRO/DSSAT para oito variedades de cana-de-açúcar; simular o processo de fotossíntese e partição de fotoassimilados, de modo a estabelecer um processo de Benchmarking da produtividade limite das principais variedades de cana-de-açúcar; simular o crescimento e produtividade da cana-de-açúcar no ambiente de produção do Cluster Caçú - GO da Empresa Odebrecht Agroindustrial, Caçu - GO. O experimento base foi conduzido em casa de vegetação, pertencente à área experimental do Departamento de Engenharia de Biossistemas (LEB) da Escola Superior de Agricultura \'Luiz de Queiroz\' (ESALQ/USP) localizada em Piracicaba - SP. O experimento foi delineado com três fontes de variação (FV), sendo: quatro épocas de amostragem, quatro lâminas de irrigação e oito variedades de cana-deaçúcar. As amostragens (épocas) foram realizadas trimestralmente, sendo a primeira, aproximadamente 100 dias após o corte da cana planta. As lâminas avaliadas (L50, L75, L100 e L75*) constituíram na reposição de frações da ETc tomando como referência o tratamento L100, em que se manteve a umidade do solo próximo capacidade de campo (θcc) em todo o experimento. As parametrizações foram realizadas baseadas nos dados coletados nas parcelas submetidas à lâmina L100. A etapa de simulações foi realizada para unidade Agroindustrial Rio Claro localizada em Caçu/GO pertencente a Empresa Odebrecht Agroindustrial. A produtividade de massa fresca de colmo é influenciada pela lâmina de irrigação já na segunda época de amostragem (~205 DAC), neste ponto há redução de 35% entre L100 e L50. Os parâmetros medidos apresentaram grande diferença em relação aos valores padrão do CANEGRO/DSSAT, principalmente CHUPIBASE e TT_POPGROWTH. As variedades que obtiveram menores produtividades observadas em campo foram as que apresentaram os melhores índices estáticos relacionados quando simulado a produtividade de massa fresca. Nas simulações realizadas para Caçu-GO, a maior produtividade (173,9 t ha-1) foi alcançada pela variedade V2 no solo 1 em cultivo irrigado e a menor produtividade de massa fresca (68,4 t ha-1) ocorreu na variedade V7 no plantio de setembro em cultivo sequeiro no solo 3. / Brazil is one of the countries with major sugarcane industry, as it holds the world\'s largest production of sugarcane and just over a third of the sugarcane area grown in the world. This experiment aimed to characterize in detail eight sugarcane varieties, as support for parameterization of CANEGRO model / DSSAT which in turn is an important tool in the decision making process of sugarcane crops , therefore the objectives of this study were to measure the maximum parameters of CANEGRO / DSSAT model; parameterize CANEGRO / DSSAT for eight varieties of sugarcane; simulating the process of photosynthesis and assimilate partitioning in order to establish a benchmarking process productivity limits of the main varieties of sugarcane; simulate the growth and productivity of sugarcane in the Cluster production environment Caçu - GO Agroindustrial Company Odebrecht, Caçu - GO. The basic experiment was conducted at the experimental area of the Department of Biosystems Engineering (LEB) of the Escola Superior de Agricultura \"Luiz de Queiroz\" (ESALQ / USP) located in Piracicaba - SP. The experiment was designed with three sources of variation (PV), as follows: four sampling times, four irrigation levels and eight varieties of sugarcane. Sampling (times) were held quarterly, with the first, approximately 100 days after cutting the plant cane. The evaluated blades (L50, L75, L100 and L75*) were the replacement fractions of ETc with reference to the treatment L100, which kept the soil moisture near field capacity (θcc) throughout the experiment. The parameterization was carried out based on data collected at the 100 % irrigation depth (L100). The simulations were performed to Agroindustrial Rio Claro unit in Caçu / GO (Odebrecht Agroindustrial). The productivity of fresh culms was influenced by water depth in the second time of sampling (~ 205 DAC), at this point there is a reduction of 35% between L100 and L50. The measured parameters showed big difference compared to standard values CANEGRO / DSSAT mainly CHUPIBASE and TT_POPGROWTH. The varieties with smaller yields observed in the field were the ones with the best static indexes related when simulated fresh culm productivity. In simulations performed to Caçu GO, the highest yield (173.9 t ha-1) was accomplished by the V2 array 1 in the soil irrigated and the lowest fresh culm weight yield (68.4 t ha-1) was in the range V7 in September planting in rainfed cultivation in soil 3.

Clonagem ou técnica de transferência nuclear (TN) permite a geração de um organismo geneticamente idêntico a outro. Inúmeras aplicações da TN têm sido descritas para uso em pecuária e em medicina humana. O sucesso na clonagem de ovinos, bovinos, suínos e caprinos confirma a utilidade da TN para o propósito de expansão clonal de animais de valor zootécnico. Diversos trabalhos mostram que há uma perda de embriões e neonatos de animais clonados, sendo que má formações de órgãos e alterações de tamanho e peso destes animais são freqüentemente descritas. Mediante o exposto este trabalho visa esclarecer do ponto de vista morfológico as principais alterações apresentadas por animais que vieram a óbito, usando como método de estudo a biometria de órgãos e a avaliação dos que apresentam algum tipo de alteração. Este estudo foi conduzido na fazenda Tambaú, no período compreendido entre 2004 e 2008, foram necropsiados 13 animais clonados pela TN, pertencentes à espécie bovina, das raças Nelore e Simental, com idade variando de 1 a 19 dias, de ambos os sexos. Foram registrados o peso do animal, dos órgãos, bem como avaliação morfológica, histológica e imunoistoquímica destes. As alterações do tamanho e da morfologia de órgãos são os problemas mais freqüentemente encontrados, se alocando dentro da síndrome do bezerro anormal onde estão envolvidos alterações morfológicas, como o gigantismo, presente em 92,3 % dos animais necropsiados neste estudo. Houve uma importância muito grande em descrever estas anormalidades, através de estudos morfológicos e imunoistoquímicos, para uma melhor caracterização e entendimento dos problemas envolvendo a clonagem animal e também contribuir no desenvolvimento da neonatologia bovina. / Cloning or Nuclear Transfer (NT) allows generation of identical organisms. Innumerous applications of NT in veterinary and human medicine have been described. The success of cloning bovine, ovine, caprine and swine confirms the utility of NT in clonal expansion of valuable animals with high zootechnical performance. Many articles show that there is an important embryonal and neonatal loss of cloned animals, in which malformations of organs and alteration of size and weight are the most frequent problems described. This work aims to clarify, through morphological evaluation, the main alterations found in neonatally dead cloned bovines, using biometric rates of organs and evaluation of those that present any alteration. This work was conducted at the Tambaú Farm, São Paulo State, Brazil, from 2004 to 2008, and 13 bovine cloned by NT, male and female, belonging to Nelore and Simental breeds, aging from 01 to 19 days of life. The weight of animals and organs were registered and also morphological, histopathological and immunohistochemical analyses were performed during this work. The alterations of size and morphology of the animals and organs were the most frequent problems found in our study, referred to as abnormal offspring syndrome that describes morphological alterations such as gigantism, present in 92,3% of necropsied animals of this study. It is very important to identify and describe these abnormalities, by morphological, immunohistochemical approach aiming a better characterization of the problems related to cloning procedure, and also to contribute to the development of neonatal medicine bovines.

Neste trabalho objetivou-se avaliar modelos de taper utilizando-se dados obtidos em uma cubagem rigorosa absoluta e em outra cubagem relativa para o Corymbia citriodora. Os dados foram obtidos em um plantio comercial localizado na região do município de Gurupi, região Sul do Estado do Tocantins. Foram coletados dados de 35 árvores-amostra, cujos dados se utilizou no ajuste 5 modelos de taper, Schöepfer, Demaerschalk, Ormerod, Hradetzky e Biging. Na avaliação destes, adotou-se os critérios estatísticos: erro padrão da estimativa, coeficiente de determinação ajustado e desvio médio, além da análise da distribuição dos resíduos. Concluiu-se que o modelo de Hradetzky (1976) foi o que mais se ajustou para descrever o perfil do tronco de Corymbia citriodora na região Sul do Tocantins e o modelo de Biging, utilizando a cubagem absoluta, foi o que apresentou melhor predição dos diâmetros seguido de Hradetzky, ambos sendo adequados para quantificar multiprodutos da madeira de Corymbia citriodora. / The objective of this work was to evaluate taper models, together with two forms of absolute and relative rigor, for Corymbia citriodora in a commercial plantation located in the municipality of Dueré, southern region of the State of Tocantins. Data were collected from 35 sample trees, whose data were used in the adjustment of 5 taper models, Schöepfer, Demaerschalk, Ormerod, Hradetzky and Biging. In the evaluation of these, the statistical criteria were adopted: standard error of the estimate, adjusted coefficient of determination and mean deviation, and the complementary analysis of graphical distribution of the residues. It was concluded that the model of Hradetzky (1976) was the one that most fit to describe the profile of the trunk of the species Corymbia citriodora in the South region of Tocantins, and the model of Biging using the absolute cuba was the one that presented better prediction of the diameters , followed by Hradetzky, both being suitable to quantify multiproducts of the wood of Corymbia citriodora.

Gu Yingying. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-164). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- IPFM Model --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Description of IPFM Model --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- Background of IPFM Related Modeling --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2 --- Windkessel Model --- p.8 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Background of the Windkessel Model --- p.8 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Windkessel Related Modeling --- p.13 / Chapter 1.3 --- Photoplethysmogram (PPG) --- p.14 / Chapter 1.3.1 --- Principle of PPG --- p.14 / Chapter 1.3.2 --- Characteristics of PPG Signal --- p.16 / Chapter 1.4 --- A Study on the Beat-to-Beat BPV --- p.18 / Chapter 1.5 --- Main Purposes of the Study --- p.19 / Chapter 1.6 --- Organization of the Thesis --- p.20 / Chapter 2 --- Spectral Analysis on the IPFM Process --- p.22 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.22 / Chapter 2.2 --- A Theoretical Study on the Neural Firing Rate Function --- p.23 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Mathematical Derivation of the Neural Firing Rate --- p.23 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Spectral Analysis of the IPFM Process --- p.27 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Reconstruction of Neural Firing Rate through LPF --- p.30 / Chapter 2.3 --- Effects of Neural Dynamics --- p.33 / Chapter 2.4 --- Discussion & Conclusion --- p.35 / Chapter 3 --- A New Model for the Generation of PPG --- p.37 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.37 / Chapter 3.2 --- Principles of PPG --- p.38 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Relationship between Pressure and Flow --- p.38 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Peripheral Pressure and Flow Curves --- p.41 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Generation of PPG signal --- p.43 / Chapter 3.3 --- Model Description --- p.44 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- IPFM model --- p.45 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Windkessel model --- p.46 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- New Model for the Generation of PPG --- p.49 / Chapter 3.4 --- Simulation --- p.51 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Generation of ECG --- p.51 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Generation of PPG --- p.57 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Effects of the Modulation Depth on the Output --- p.65 / Chapter 3.4.4 --- Effects of Mean Autonomic Tone on HRV --- p.72 / Chapter 3.5 --- Discussion & Conclusion --- p.75 / Chapter 4 --- A Correlation Study on the Beat-to-Beat Features of Photoplethysmographic Signals --- p.80 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.80 / Chapter 4.2 --- Methodology --- p.81 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Experimental Conditions --- p.81 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Definition of the Parameters --- p.82 / Chapter 4.3 --- Data Analysis --- p.85 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- At Normal Relaxed State --- p.85 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- At Different Levels of Contacting Force --- p.87 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- At Different Levels of Local Skin Finger Temperature --- p.90 / Chapter 4.3.4 --- At Dynamic State --- p.93 / Chapter 4.3.5 --- Repeatability Study --- p.95 / Chapter 4.3.6 --- Spectral Analysis --- p.96 / Chapter 4.4 --- Discussion --- p.98 / Chapter 5 --- The Estimation of the Beat-to-Beat Blood Pressure Variability --- p.103 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.103 / Chapter 5.2 --- BP Estimation using FY Interval --- p.104 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Multi-Beat BP Estimation under Different Levels of Contacting Force --- p.104 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Beat-to-Beat BP Estimation --- p.108 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Repeatability Study --- p.112 / Chapter 5.3 --- A Study on the Beat-to-Beat BPV --- p.113 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Background of the Beat-to-Beat BPV --- p.113 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Analysis of the Beat-to-Beat BPV --- p.115 / Chapter 5.4 --- Improving the PPG Model with the Time-Varying BP --- p.120 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Modification of the Model --- p.121 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Simulation --- p.127 / Chapter 5.4.3 --- Application of the PPG Model --- p.132 / Chapter 5.5 --- Discussion & Conclusion --- p.134 / Chapter 6 --- A Novel Biometric Approach --- p.139 / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.139 / Chapter 6.2 --- Human Verification by PPG Signal --- p.140 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Experiment --- p.141 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Feature Extraction --- p.142 / Chapter 6.2.3 --- Decision-making --- p.143 / Chapter 6.2.4 --- Results --- p.146 / Chapter 6.3 --- Discussion --- p.149 / Chapter 7 --- Conclusions --- p.151 / Chapter 7.1 --- Conclusions of Major Contributions --- p.151 / Chapter 7.2 --- Work to Be Done --- p.154

Yeung Hoi Wo. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-88). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.10 / Chapter 1.1 --- Biometric Systems --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Comparison of Biometrics --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Introduction of Fingerprint --- p.6 / Chapter 1.3.1 --- History of Fingerprint --- p.6 / Chapter 1.3.2 --- Fingerprint Analysis --- p.8 / Chapter 1.4 --- Fingerprint Verification --- p.13 / Chapter 1.4.1 --- Correlation Based Verification: --- p.13 / Chapter 1.4.2 --- Minutiae Based Verification: --- p.15 / Chapter 1.4.3 --- Ridge Feature-Based Verification: --- p.16 / Chapter 1.5 --- Evaluation of Verification Systems --- p.17 / Chapter 1.6 --- Difficulties of Fingerprint Verification --- p.22 / Chapter 1.7 --- Contributions --- p.25 / Chapter 1.8 --- Organization of the Thesis --- p.26 / Chapter 2. --- Two-Pass Direct Gray-Scale for Minutiae Detection --- p.28 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.28 / Chapter 2.2 --- Background Information --- p.29 / Chapter 2.3 --- Two-Pass Direct Gray Scale --- p.34 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- First Pass of TPD --- p.38 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Second Pass of TPD --- p.41 / Chapter 2.4 --- Other Implementation Details --- p.44 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Foreground Detection --- p.45 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Region of Interest Detection --- p.48 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Matching Methodology --- p.52 / Chapter 2.5 --- Experimental Results --- p.58 / Chapter 2.6 --- Summary --- p.62 / Chapter 3. --- Image Mosaicking and Template Synthesis --- p.63 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.63 / Chapter 3.2 --- Background Information --- p.65 / Chapter 3.3 --- Template Synthesis and Image Mosaicking --- p.66 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Template Alignment --- p.66 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Template Synthesis --- p.68 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Image Mosaicking --- p.70 / Chapter 3.4 --- Experiments --- p.72 / Chapter 3.5 --- Summary --- p.75 / Chapter 4. --- Conclusion and Future Investigations --- p.77 / References --- p.81

Clonagem ou técnica de transferência nuclear (TN) permite a geração de um organismo geneticamente idêntico a outro. Inúmeras aplicações da TN têm sido descritas para uso em pecuária e em medicina humana. O sucesso na clonagem de ovinos, bovinos, suínos e caprinos confirma a utilidade da TN para o propósito de expansão clonal de animais de valor zootécnico. Diversos trabalhos mostram que há uma perda de embriões e neonatos de animais clonados, sendo que má formações de órgãos e alterações de tamanho e peso destes animais são freqüentemente descritas. Mediante o exposto este trabalho visa esclarecer do ponto de vista morfológico as principais alterações apresentadas por animais que vieram a óbito, usando como método de estudo a biometria de órgãos e a avaliação dos que apresentam algum tipo de alteração. Este estudo foi conduzido na fazenda Tambaú, no período compreendido entre 2004 e 2008, foram necropsiados 13 animais clonados pela TN, pertencentes à espécie bovina, das raças Nelore e Simental, com idade variando de 1 a 19 dias, de ambos os sexos. Foram registrados o peso do animal, dos órgãos, bem como avaliação morfológica, histológica e imunoistoquímica destes. As alterações do tamanho e da morfologia de órgãos são os problemas mais freqüentemente encontrados, se alocando dentro da síndrome do bezerro anormal onde estão envolvidos alterações morfológicas, como o gigantismo, presente em 92,3 % dos animais necropsiados neste estudo. Houve uma importância muito grande em descrever estas anormalidades, através de estudos morfológicos e imunoistoquímicos, para uma melhor caracterização e entendimento dos problemas envolvendo a clonagem animal e também contribuir no desenvolvimento da neonatologia bovina. / Cloning or Nuclear Transfer (NT) allows generation of identical organisms. Innumerous applications of NT in veterinary and human medicine have been described. The success of cloning bovine, ovine, caprine and swine confirms the utility of NT in clonal expansion of valuable animals with high zootechnical performance. Many articles show that there is an important embryonal and neonatal loss of cloned animals, in which malformations of organs and alteration of size and weight are the most frequent problems described. This work aims to clarify, through morphological evaluation, the main alterations found in neonatally dead cloned bovines, using biometric rates of organs and evaluation of those that present any alteration. This work was conducted at the Tambaú Farm, São Paulo State, Brazil, from 2004 to 2008, and 13 bovine cloned by NT, male and female, belonging to Nelore and Simental breeds, aging from 01 to 19 days of life. The weight of animals and organs were registered and also morphological, histopathological and immunohistochemical analyses were performed during this work. The alterations of size and morphology of the animals and organs were the most frequent problems found in our study, referred to as abnormal offspring syndrome that describes morphological alterations such as gigantism, present in 92,3% of necropsied animals of this study. It is very important to identify and describe these abnormalities, by morphological, immunohistochemical approach aiming a better characterization of the problems related to cloning procedure, and also to contribute to the development of neonatal medicine bovines.

A textura da íris humana é uma das peculiaridades biométricas mais confiáveis, pois os padrões que compõem sua estrutura são considerados únicos e estáveis por longos anos. No entanto, amostras de íris capturadas em ambiente não cooperativo como reconhecimento de íris a distância, por exemplo, estão sujeitas a conter variações na textura, devido a mudanças comportamentais da membrana da íris. Outro problema é a complexidade do algoritmo, que o torna inviável para aplicações práticas ou em tempo real. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar alguns descritores de textura locais para o reconhecimento biométrico de íris, considerando os efeitos de dilatação e contração da pupila. Para a comprovação da hipótese desta tese de doutoramento, foi utilizada uma base de dados contendo amostras de íris com a pupila contraída e dilatada, simulando assim, a aquisição natural em ambiente não cooperativo. Além disso, foram propostos dois novos descritores, denominados como Median Local Mapped Pattern (Median-LMP) e Modified Median Local Mapped Pattern (MM-LMP), que foram comparados com o método de Daugman, o Local Mapped Pattern (LMP), o Completed Modeling of Local Binary Pattern (CLBP), o Median Binary Pattern (MBP) e o Weber Law Descriptor (WLD). Os resultados da avaliação de desempenho mostraram que o algoritmo de Daugman é o melhor para o reconhecimento de íris quando é realizada a comparação entre amostras de íris com pupilas contraídas. No entanto, se a pupila está dilatada, os descritores propostos apresentaram o melhor desempenho, principalmente se uma amostra de íris com uma pupila contraída é comparada com outra íris com a pupila dilatada. Além disso, os descritores propostos e o LMP obtiveram os menores tempos de processamento, sendo mais adequados do que os demais para aplicações em tempo preditivo com implementação em hardware. / The texture of the human iris is one of the most reliable biometric traits, so the patterns that make up its structure are the only criteria and stable for long time. However, iris samples captured in a noncooperative environment as recognition of nature, for example, subject to contain variations in texture, due to behavioral changes of the iris membrane. Another problem is an algorithm complexity, which makes it impractical for practical or in real-time applications. The objective of this work is to evaluate some local texture descriptors for the biometric iris recognition, considering the effects of dilation and contraction of the pupil. In order to prove the hypothesis of this doctoral question, a database was used containing iris samples with a contracted and dilated pupil, thus simulating a natural acquisition in a noncooperative environment. In addition, two new descriptors, named Median-Local Standard Mapped (Median-LMP) and Modified Modified Local Standard Mapped (MM-LMP) were proposed, which were compared with the Daugman method, the Mapped Local Pattern (LMP), the Complete Local Binary Pattern Modeling (CLBP), the Median Binary Standard (MBP) and Weber Law Descriptor (WLD). The results of the performance evaluation show that the Daugman algorithm is the best for iris recognition when a study of iris samples with the students is performed. However, if a pupil is dilated, the proposed descriptors show the best performance, especially a sample of iris with a contracted pupil is compared to another iris with a dilated pupil. In addition, the proposed descriptors and the LMP obtained the shortest processing times, being more adequate than the others for predictive time applications with hardware implementation.

Assessment of different gait patterns of daily living could provides useful information in studying one individual's stability and mobility during locomotion. As the foundation for better assessment of different gait patterns, the ability to automatically identity different patterns and walking surroundings provide valuable information for further understanding the relations between gait pattern and energy consumption. We apply Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) for feature generation and Fuzzy-logic based approach for designing the multi-class classifier to identify gait patterns among fiat walking, descending stairs, and ascending stairs based on continuous kinematic signals. / Falls in the aging population has always been one of the most challenging problems in public health care. We propose an automatic falling detection algorithm based on the analysis of plantar force on both feet, because plantar forces are an important parameters directly associated with postures of human locomotion. The proposed two-stage algorithm efficiently overcome the shortcomings of the widely proposed accelerometer or gyroscope based algorithms and could provide efficient assistant for automatic detection of falls once they occur. / Finally, the research of studying gait abnormalities is introduced. We develop the methodology for modeling and classifying abnormal gaits including toe-in, toe-out, over-supination, and heel walking via machine learning algorithms, hidden Markov models (HMM) and support vector machine (SVM) based on a suite of gait parameters. The trained classifiers can classify abnormal gait patterns mentioned above and the proposed methodology will make it possible to provide realtime feedback to assist persons with gait abnormalities in the development of a normal walking pattern in their daily life. / Keeping abnormal motion for long time will ultimately lead to pain in the feet, ankles, legs and skeletal disease, and badly influences the skelecton growth especially for children and adolescents. In biomedicine, gait analysis has been proved as an useful approach. in revealing helpful insights into the recognition of motion abnormalities. Analysis of gait is commonly used as a routine procedure in identifying movement or posture related abnormalities of humans and aiding the therapeutic processes. Our goal is to monitor and study gaits of humans in order that proper motion adjustments can he advised to improve their posture style and long-term well being. / Most currently utilized measurement systems for motion and gait analysis have the shortcomings of that the monitoring and analysis of motion is constrained in a limited environment and human-related assistance is essential. All of them cannot be acceptable for the purpose of long-term monitoring and studying of motion abnormalities. In this thesis, a new concept of an inexpensive, compact, and lightweight shoe-integrated platform is introduced. The shoe-integrated system is composed of a suite of sensors for wirelessly capturing gait parameters and generating well qualified analysis results. The ideal platform requires no specialized equipment or lab setup, allowing data to be collected not only in the narrow confines of a research lab, but essentially anywhere, both indoors and outdoors. / To be one of the common postural abnormalities, postural kyphosis is studied and modeled. We apply Cascade Neural Networks with Node-Decoupled Extended Kalman Filtering (CNN-NDEKF) to train the model for this binary classification problem. This proposed study is of particular significance to provide feedback in the application of postural kyphosis rectification. / Chen, Meng. / "December 2009." / Adviser: Yangsheng Xu. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-01, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-130). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

This thesis studies the requirements and processes involved in building an authentication system using the fingerprint biometric, where the fingerprint template is protected during storage and during comparison. The principles developed in this thesis can be easily extended to authentication systems using other biometric modalities. Most existing biometric authentication systems store their template securely using an encryption function. However, in order to perform matching, the enrolled template must be decrypted. It is at this point that the authentication system is most vulnerable as the entire enrolled template is exposed. A biometric is irreplaceable if compromised and can also reveal sensitive information about an individual. If biometric systems are taken up widely, the template could also be used as an individual's digital identifier. Compromise in that case, violates an individual's right to privacy as their transactions in all systems where they used that compromised biometric can be tracked. Therefore securing a biometric template during comparison as well as storage in an authentication system is imperative. Eight different fingerprint template representation techniques, where templates were treated as a set of elements derived from the locations and orientations of fingerprint minutiae, were studied. Four main steps to build any biometric based authentication system were identified and each of the eight fingerprint template representations was inducted through the four steps. Two distinct Error Tolerant Cryptographic Constructs based on the set difference metric, were studied for their ability to securely store and compare each of the template types in an authentication system. The first construct was found to be unsuitable for a fundamental reason that would apply to all the template types considered in the research. The second construct did not have the limitation of the first and three algorithms to build authentication systems using the second construct were proposed. It was determined that minutiae-based templates had significant intra sample variation as a result of which a very relaxed matching threshold had to be set in the authentication system. The relaxed threshold caused the authentication systems built using the first two algorithms to reveal enough information about the stored templates to render them insecure. It was found that in cases of such large intra-sample variation, a commonality based match decision was more appropriate. One solution to building a secure authentication system using minutiae-based templates was demonstrated by the third algorithm which used a two stage matching process involving the second cryptographic construct and a commonality based similarity measure in the two stages respectively. This implementation was successful in securing the fingerprint template during comparison as well as storage, with minimal reduction in accuracy when compared to the matching performance without the cryptographic construct. Another solution is to use an efficient commonality based error tolerant cryptographic construct. This thesis lists the desirable characteristics of such a construct as existence of any is unknown to date. This thesis concludes by presenting good guidelines to evaluate the suitability of different cryptographic constructs to protect biometric templates of other modalities in an authentication system.