The aim of the present work is to develop a tool for identification of Motor Third Party Liability insurance contracts which are at risk of cancellation. Methods for explorative data analysis, building a logistic regression model, comparing models and their validation and calibration are presented. Several models are developed on the real dataset using mentioned methods and then the final one is chosen. Behavior of the final model is verified by the validation on the out-of-time sample. Last step is calibration of the model to the expected value of the future portfolio cancellation rate.

L'engagement est au cœur du lien social, aussi les juristes lui ont accordé une place considérable au sein de la sphère du droit ; le droit des contrats est le premier concerné. A côté de cela, il n'est plus possible d'ignorer le phénomène du désengagement. La place croissante de ce dernier a conduit la doctrine à se pencher sur lui, à s'intéresser aux règles qui prévoient en matière de droit des contrats une faculté de repentir. Compte tenu de cela, il nous paraît particulièrement intéressant de traiter de l' « engagement », en le confrontant avec son symétrique, le « désengagement ». Cela pourrait, croyons-nous, changer la façon dont l'un et l'autre peuvent être appréhendés. Et nous avons choisi de concentrer nos efforts sur les dispositifs issus du droit de la consommation, qui à nos yeux sont l'expression la plus forte de l'idée de désengagement contractuel. / On one hand, the commitment is at the heart of the social link, therefore the civil lawyers granted it a crucial place within the sphere of the law. It is particularly true for contract law. On the other hand, it is not possible any more to ignore the phenomenon of the right of withdrawal. The increasing place of the latter, led the doctrine to deal with it, to be interested in the rules, which plan regarding contract law a faculty to regret. Considering it, it seems to us particularly interesting to deal with the "commitment", by confronting it with its contrary, the "right of withdrawal". It could, we believe, change the way both can be apprehended. Therefore, we focus on the consumer law, which is, for us, the highest expression of the right of withdrawal.

Submitted by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2019-01-28T10:45:37Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Elaine Ferreira Froes - 2018.pdf: 2043316 bytes, checksum: 7f2771d15d088e6fc52b0bc3715a9ec4 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2019-01-28T10:47:23Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Elaine Ferreira Froes - 2018.pdf: 2043316 bytes, checksum: 7f2771d15d088e6fc52b0bc3715a9ec4 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2019-01-28T10:47:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Elaine Ferreira Froes - 2018.pdf: 2043316 bytes, checksum: 7f2771d15d088e6fc52b0bc3715a9ec4 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-11-29 / Objective: to investigate the profile of cancellation of surgeries in a public teaching hospital. Method: retrospective, descriptive, quantitative study performed at the Surgical Center unit of a public teaching hospital, located in the city of Goiânia-GO, Brazil. This surgical center consists of 11 operating rooms and 01 anesthetic recovery room with 7 beds. In the institution, approximately 4,400 surgeries per year are performed: bucomaxillofacial, cardiac, general, plastic, coloproctology, gynecology, mastology, neuro, otorhinolaryngology, orthopedics, thoracic, urology and vascular. Surgery cancellation data were collected between May and July 2017, related to the year 2016, using as a research source the surgical warnings, hospital data computerization system and nursing reports. The data were computed in spreadsheets and divided into two factors: structural, like the incomplete surgical team and process, such as the change in medical conduct. The information collected was analyzed descriptively and through the chi-square test in STATA® (14.0). Results: in 2016, 4,423 surgeries were performed, 2,885 (74.95%) were elective and 1,538 (87.74%) were emergency / emergency. Of these, 1,179 (21.05%) were canceled. The specialties that presented the highest frequency of cancellation were orthopedics / traumatology (30.79%), otorhinolaryngology (16.11%) and general surgery (15.35%). Among the reasons for cancellation, 67.35% were related to the processes; 20.19%, due to lack of hospitalization; 12.46% patient without clinical conditions. Other reasons were related to the structure, 32.65%, standing out 7.46%, technical problems in the material center and sterilization. Conclusion: Most of the surgeries were canceled due to patient-related reasons, related to the process and not to the hospital unit, therefore considered avoidable. These data are of great relevance in the aid of an institutional planning, since, to minimize cancellations, implies to guarantee a higher quality in the health and safety services of the patient, as well as the rational use of human and financial resources. / Objetivo: investigar o perfil de cancelamento de cirurgias em um hospital público de ensino. Método: estudo retrospectivo, descritivo, quantitativo, realizado na unidade do Centro Cirúrgico de um hospital público de ensino, localizado no município de Goiânia-GO, Brasil. Este Centro Cirúrgico é constituído por 11 salas de operação e 01 sala de recuperação anestésica com 7 leitos. Na instituição são realizadas, aproximadamente, 4.400 cirurgias por ano, das especialidades: bucomaxilofacial, cardíaca, geral, plástica, coloproctologia, ginecologia, mastologia, neuro, otorrinolaringologia, ortopedia, torácica, urologia e vascular. Os dados de cancelamento de cirurgia foram coletados entre maio e julho de 2017, relativos ao ano de 2016, tendo como fonte de pesquisa os avisos cirúrgicos, sistema de informatização de dados do hospital e relatórios de enfermagem. Os dados foram computados em planilhas e divididos em dois fatores: estruturais, a exemplo da equipe cirúrgica incompleta e de processo, como a mudança de conduta médica. As informações levantadas foram analisadas de maneira descritiva e por meio do teste de qui-quadrado no STATA® (14.0). Resultados: no ano de 2016 foram realizadas 4.423 cirurgias, 2.885 (74,95%) eletivas e 1.538 (87,74%) de urgência/emergência. Dessas, foram canceladas 1.179 (21,05%). As especialidades que apresentaram maior frequência de cancelamento foram ortopedia/traumatologia (30,79%), otorrinolaringologia (16,11%) e cirurgia geral (15,35%). Ente os motivos de cancelamento, 67,35% foram relacionados aos processos; 20,19%, à falta de internação do paciente; 12,46% paciente sem condições clínicas. Outros motivos foram relacionados à estrutura, 32,65%, destacando-se 7,46%, problemas técnicos no centro de material e esterilização. Conclusão: a maioria das cirurgias foram canceladas por razões vinculadas ao paciente, relacionadas ao processo e não a unidade hospitalar, portanto, consideradas evitáveis. Esses dados são de grande relevância no auxílio de um planejamento institucional, pois, minimizar os cancelamentos, implica em garantir maior qualidade nos serviços de saúde e segurança do paciente, bem como, o uso racional dos recursos humanos e financeiros.

A wireless, battery operated pulse oximeter system with a forehead mounted optical sensor was designed in our laboratory. This wireless pulse oximeter (WPO) would enable field medics to monitor arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) and heart rate (HR) information accurately following injuries, thereby help to prioritize life saving medical interventions when resources are limited. Pulse oximeters developed for field-based applications must be resistant to motion artifacts since motion artifacts degrade the signal quality of the photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals from which measurements are derived. This study was undertaken to investigate if accelerometer-based adaptive noise cancellation (ANC) can be used to reduce SpO2 and HR errors induced by motion artifacts typically encountered during field applications. Preliminary studies conducted offline showed that ANC can minimize SpO2 and HR errors during jogging, running, and staircase climbing. An 8th order LMS filter with ì = 0.01 was successfully implemented in the WPO's embedded microcontroller. After real-time adaptive filtering of motion corrupted PPG signals, errors for HR values ranging between 60 - 180BPM were reduced from 12BPM to 6BPM. Similarly, ambient breathing SpO2 errors were reduced from 5% to 2%.

"A wireless wearable battery-operated pulse oximeter has been developed in our laboratory for field triage applications. The wearable pulse oximeter, which uses a forehead-mounted sensor to provide arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) and heart rate (HR) information, would enable field medics to monitor vital physiological information following critical injuries, thereby helping to prioritize life saving medical interventions. This study was undertaken to investigate if accelerometry (ACC)-based adaptive noise cancellation (ANC) is effective in minimizing SpO2 and HR errors induced during jogging to simulate certain motion artifacts expected to occur in the field. Preliminary tests confirmed that processing the motion corrupted photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals by simple Least-Mean-Square (LMS) and Recursive Least-Squares (RLS) ANC algorithms can help to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of motion-corrupted PPG signals, thereby reducing SpO2 and HR errors during jogging. The study showed also that the degree of improvement depends on filter order. In addition, we found that it would be more feasible to implement an LMS adaptive filter within an embedded microcontroller environment since the LMS algorithm requires significantly less operations."

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T18:47:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Micheli Patricia de Fatima Magri.pdf: 1102664 bytes, checksum: 874b54c39950a11c5274ec08e40f2f5b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-08 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This thesis is based on the theoretical and interdisciplinary issues surrounding eye health in the elderly and the socio-cultural barriers facilitators. The issue focuses on the elderly with visual impairment caused by cataract senile and needs to undergo an outpatient surgical procedure and, for reasons that are investigated here, can not or will delay the procedure. Research of the statements from the elderly, the reasons for the suspension of cataract surgery. The quantitative approach accounts for the collection and presentation of data obtained from documents and databases available, suitable for "translation" numeric (absolute and relative) in the period January to December 2009. The qualitative approach was conducted from interviews with older people who have benefited from cataract surgery. We used a "field journal" to record the situations that involve the suspension of cataract surgeries. We note that the results in the year 2009 had a total of 2,956 surgical schedule. Of these 78% (2306) were performed and 21% (650) were suspended. The clinical causes of hypertension and had the cough causes more prevalent. The rate of recovery varied between 73.2% to 84.7%. Indicators of surgery cancellation between 15.3% to 26.3%. We selected the stories that attracted the most attention by the content set out in its analysis. Seeking a deeper analysis of the data collected, other meanings were revealed regarding the issues considered as problems that caused the suspension of surgery in the lives of individuals and how they were treated in the health services at two levels: municipal and regional health. In assessing what caused the suspension of the surgery and cause the elderly to find that the financial and psychological impacts are most significant to the elderly respondents / Esta dissertação fundamenta-se na perspectiva teórica e interdisciplinar com questões que envolvem a saúde ocular em idosos e os entraves facilitadores sócio-cultural. O problema focaliza os idosos com dificuldade visual causada pela catarata senil e precisa se submeter a um procedimento cirúrgico ambulatorial e, por motivos que são aqui investigados, não conseguem ou protelam o procedimento. Investigam-se, a partir de falas dos idosos, as razões da suspensão de cirurgias de catarata. A abordagem quantitativa responde, pela coleta e apresentação de dados obtidos junto a documentos e bancos de dados disponíveis; passíveis de tradução numérica (absoluta e relativa), no período janeiro a dezembro de 2009. A abordagem qualitativa foi realizada a partir de entrevistas junto a idosos que não se beneficiaram da cirurgia de catarata. Foi utilizado um diário de campo para o registro das situações que, envolvem a suspensão das cirurgias de catarata. Verificamos nos resultados que, no ano de 2009 tivemos um agendamento cirúrgico total de 2.956. Destas 78% (2.306) foram realizadas e 21% (650) foram suspensas. As causas clínicas tiveram a Hipertensão arterial e a tosse as causas mais prevalente. A taxa de aproveitamento cirúrgico variou de 73,2% a 84,7%. Os indicadores de suspensão de cirurgia entre 15,3% a 26,3%. Foram selecionados os relatos que mais chamaram a atenção pelo conteúdo expostos na sua analise. Buscando uma maior profundidade na análise dos dados coletados, outros significados foram revelados relativos às questões consideradas como dificuldades que a suspensão da cirurgia causou nas vidas dos indivíduos e, como foram atendidos nos serviços de saúde nos dois níveis: municipal e regional de saúde. Ao avaliar o que a suspensão da cirurgia causou e causa para os idosos verificamos que os impactos psicológicos e financeiros são os mais significantes aos idosos entrevistados

Développer un générateur de signal analogique efficace est un élément clés pour les BIST des circuits analogiques et mixtes afin de produire le stimulus de test approprié, et remplacer les générateurs de signaux externes couteux dans les protocoles de standard de test fonctionnel analogique et mixte. Dans cette optique, nous présentons dans cette thèse des stratégies différentes de génération de signal sinusoïdal, basées sur les techniques d’annulation d’harmonique, pour le design d’un synthétiseur embarqué de signal sinusoïdal à haute fréquence. Les générateurs proposés utilisent des circuits numériques pour produire un ensemble de signaux carrés déphasés. Ces signaux carrés sont pondérés et combinés en appliquant différentes stratégies d’annulation d’harmonique dans un convertisseur numérique-analogique simplifié. Le générateur sélectionné permet d’annuler toutes les harmoniques en dessous de la 11ème. De plus, une simple stratégie de calibration a été conçue pour compenser l’effet de mismatch et de la variation de process de fabrication sur l’efficacité de la technique d’annulation d’harmonique. La simplicité du circuit rend cette approche adaptable pour le BIST des circuits intégrés analogique et mixte. Les modèles comportementaux, les simulations électriques d’un design en 28nm FDSOI et les résultats expérimentaux sont fournis pour valider la fonctionnalité du générateur proposé. Les résultats obtenus montrent des performances du circuit calibré autour de 52dB de SFDR pour un signal généré à 166MHz. / One of the main key points to enable mixed-signal BIST solutions is the development of efficient on-chip analog signal generators that can provide appropriate test stimuli and replace costly external signal generators in standard analog and mixed-signal functional test protocols. In this line, we present in this thesis different sinewave generation strategies based on harmonic cancellation techniques to design a high-frequency on-chip sinusoidal synthetize. The proposed generators employ digital hardware to provide a set of phase-shifted digital square-wave signals. These square-wave signals are scaled and combined using different harmonic cancellation strategies in a simplified current-steering DAC. The selected generator allows the cancellation of all harmonic components up to the eleventh. Additionally, a simple calibration strategy has been devised to compensate the impact of process variations and mismatch on the effectiveness of the harmonic cancellation. The simplicity of the circuitry makes this approach suitable for mixed-signal BIST applications. Electrical simulations of a 28nm FDSOI design and experimental results are provided to validate the functionality of the proposed signal generator. Obtained results show a calibrated performance around 52dB of SFDR for a generated sinusoidal signal at 166 MHz.

<p>A common problem of hearing aids is whistling caused by feedback from the loudspeaker back to the microphone. A method of reducing the negative effects, caused by the feedback, is called feedback cancellation. A variant of feedback cancellation uses a probe signal, which is applied to the speaker of the hearing aid and is used to continuously estimate the feedback. Oticon A/S has suggested a master's thesis with the purpose of designing and evaluating an algorithm generating a probe signal for feedback cancellation systems. The challenge was to find an inaudible probe signal with as much energy as possible. </p><p>Two approaches have been investigated for generating a probe signal. In the first approach the psychoacoustic principle of masking was used to estimate how much noise that could be added to a signal without being heard. Psychoacoustic models, including masking, are used in MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) audio coding and one of these models has been examined in the thesis. In the second approach a standard LPC (Linear Prediction Coding) algorithm was used. In both the MPEG and the LPC approach, warped signal processing has been utilized improving the methods. </p><p>A listening test was performed, evaluating the methods generating the probe signal. The purpose of the test was to determine whether the noise, generated using the MPEG and LPC approach, was inaudible. A hearing aid system with feedback cancellation, using the probe signal, was also simulated. The listening test showed that the noise (probe signal) had to be lowered, much more than expected, to be inaudible. As a consequence, shown in the simulations, the feedback cancellation system, using the probe signal, had trouble identifying the feedback of the hearing aid.</p>

A fundamental aspect in performance engineering of wireless networks is optimizing the set of links that can be concurrently activated to meet given signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) thresholds. The solution of this combinatorial problem is the key element in scheduling and cross-layer resource management. In this paper, we assume multiuser decoding receivers, which can cancel strongly interfering signals. As a result, in contrast to classical spatial reuse, links being close to each other are more likely to be active concurrently. Our focus is to gauge the gain of successive interference cancellation (SIC), as well as the simpler, yet instructive, case of parallel interference cancellation (PIC), in the context of optimal link activation. We show that both problems are NP-hard and develop compact integer linear programming formulations that enable to approach global optimality. We provide an extensive numerical performance evaluation, indicating that for low to medium SINR thresholds the improvement is quite substantial, especially with SIC, whereas for high SINR thresholds the improvement diminishes and both schemes perform equally well.

Acoustic echo cancelation (AEC) composes a fundamental property of speech processing to enable a pleasant telecommunication conversation. Without this property of the telephone the communicator would hear an annoying echo of his own voice along with the speech from the other communicator. This would make a conversation through any telecommunication device an unpleasant experience. AEC has been subject of interest since 1950s in the telecom industry and very efficient solutions were devised to cancel linear echo. With the advent of low cost hands free communication devices the issue of non linear echo became prominent because these devices use cheap loudspeakers that produce artifacts in addition to the desired sound which will cause non linear echo that cannot be cancelled by linear echo cancellers. In this thesis a Harmonic Distortion Residual Echo Cancelation algorithm has been chosen for further investigations (HDRES). HDRES has many of those features that are desirable for an algorithm which is dealing with nonlinear acoustic echo cancelation, such as low computational complexity and fast convergence. The algorithm was first implemented in Matlab where it was tested and modified. The final result of the modified algorithm was then implemented in C and integrated with a complete AEC system. Before the implementation a number of measurements were done to distinguish the nonlinearities that were cause by the mobile phone loudspeaker. The measurements were performed on three different mobile pones which were documented to have problems with nonlinear acoustic echo. The result of this thesis has shown that it might be possible to use an adaptive filter, which has both low complexity and fast convergence, in an operating AEC system. However, the request for such a system to work would be that a doubletalk detector is implemented along with the adaptive algorithm. That way the doubletalk situation could be found and the adaptation of the algorithm could be stopped. Thus, the major part of the speech would be saved.