Obesity is considered to be one of the diseases related to the change in the lifestyle, leading to increased incidence of myocardial infarction, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and other diseases. Due to the progressively increasing prevalence of obesity in adulthood, prevention of obesity has to start in childhood and adolescent, in which also increase in prevalence of obesity was found. Actual prevalence of overweight and obesity was tested in this thesis by different standards (5. NAS, WHO, IOTF, CDC) in Czech children population in age of 6.5 - 7.5 years in 2013. Its trend since 1951 was evaluated. Since 2008 maintaining of the values in all categories at the constant level was found. The role of risk factors assessed by personal, family and school questionnaires in overweight prevalence was tested. The most important factors were diet, exercise and family factors. Increased weight/height ratio (WHtR) marker of adipose tissue was found in the category of normal weight children also and it shows the link with above-mentioned risk factors of diet, exercise and family prediction. Key words Obesity, Overweight, Prevalence, Childhood, BMI, 5. NAS, WHO, IOTF, CDC, COSI, WHtR, Waist circumference, Risk factors

O trabalho busca dissertar sobre as técnicas de data mining mais difundidas: regressão logística, árvore de decisão e rede neural, além de avaliar se tais técnicas oferecem ganhos financeiros para instituições privadas que contam com processos ativos de conquista de clientes. Uma empresa do setor financeiro será utilizada como objeto de estudo, especificamente nos seus processos de aquisição de novos clientes para adesão do Crédito Direto ao Consumidor (CDC). Serão mostrados os resultados da aplicação nas três técnicas mencionadas, para que seja possível verificar se o emprego de modelos estatísticos discriminam os clientes potenciais mais propensos dos menos propensos à adesão do CDC e, então, verificar se tal ação impulsiona na obtenção de ganhos financeiros. Esses ganhos poderão vir mediante redução dos custos de marketing abordando-se somente os clientes com maiores probabilidades de responderem positivamente à campanha. O trabalho apresentará o funcionamento de cada técnica teoricamente, e conforme os resultados indicam, data mining é uma grande oportunidade para ganhos financeiros em uma empresa. / The paper intends to discourse about most widespread data mining techniques: logistic regression, decision tree and neural network, and assess whether these techniques provide financial gains for private institutions that have active processes for business development. A company of the financial sector is used as object of study, specifically in the processes of acquiring new customers for adhesion to consumer credit (in Brazil CDC). This research will show the results of the three above mentioned techniques, to check whether the statistical models point out relevant differences between prospects´ intentions to adhere to consumer credit. In the meantime, the techniques are checked whether they leverage financial gain. These gains are expected to came from better focused and directed marketing efforts. The paper presents the operation of each technique theoretically, and as the results indicate, data mining is a great opportunity for a company boost profits.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:24:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vanessa Estephan Maluf.pdf: 845976 bytes, checksum: c9b0052b5a2ee8f1d342b9d9a0f4b081 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-22 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The scope of this work is to make an analysis of the consumer category under the Brazilian Law. In Brazil, this category went through significant changes in the country s system of laws since its early times, to the detriment of the category defined by international rules on the matter; it includes the buyer category under the Vienna Convention on Contracts for International Sale of Goods and possible points of intersection between the two sets of rules. / Este trabalho tem o escopo de analisar a figura do consumidor no Direito Brasileiro, incorporada por significantes mudanças no ordenamento jurídico pátrio desde os primórdios, em detrimento do sujeito esculpido pelas normas internacionais sobre o tema, incluindo a figura do comprador trazida pela CISG e possíveis pontos de intersecção entre as normas

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:27:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Patricia Caldeira.pdf: 698186 bytes, checksum: e95506b028893165db6ccea5f0671acd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-30 / The present study investigates the medical activity and procedures to assess responsibility, focusing on the right/duty to inform. Information involves presentation of the product or service, as well as safety, the legitimate expectation of the consumer. Absence, insufficiency or inadequacy of information may motivate the duty to compensate. Evaluation of the doctor s responsibility is proposed, all rules pertaining to general suppliers being applicable to the doctor as well. The objective is to demonstrate the need to protect the consumer with the observance by the supplier, including the doctor, of the duty to give clear, precise and adequate information referring to the service provided, whereas violation of the duty to inform characterizes objective responsibility / O presente trabalho investiga a atividade médica e a forma de apuração da responsabilidade, com foco no direito/dever de informar. A informação envolve a apresentação do produto ou serviço, assim como a segurança, a legítima expectativa do consumidor. A ausência, insuficiência ou inadequação da informação pode ensejar o dever de indenizar. Propõe-se a avaliação da responsabilidade do médico, com base na informação, aplicando-se a ele, todas as regras dirigidas aos fornecedores em geral. O objetivo é demonstrar a necessidade de proteção do consumidor, com a observância pelo fornecedor, inclusive o médico, do dever de prestar informações claras, precisas e adequadas, referentes à prestação do serviço, sendo que a violação do dever de informação enseja a responsabilidade objetiva

The chemical element carbon plays a key role in the 21st century. “The new carbon age” is associated with the global warming due to increasing carbon dioxide emissions. The latter are a major consequence of the continued combustion of fossil fuels for energy generation. However, carbon is also one key component to overcome these problems. Especially porous carbon materials are highly attractive for many environmentally relevant applications. These materials provide high specific surface area, high pore volume, thermal/chemical stability, and high electrical conductivity. They are promising candidates for the removal of carbon dioxide or other environmentally relevant gases from exhaust gas mixtures. Furthermore, porous carbons are used in electrochemical energy storage devices (e.g. batteries or electrochemical capacitors). The performance of the materials in these applications depends on their pore structure. Hence, precise control over the pore size and the pore geometry is important to achieve. Besides a high specific surface area (SSA) and a well-defined pore size, pore accessibility must be ensured because the surface must be completely available. If the porous carbons exhibit ink-bottle pores, the high surface area is useless because the guest species do not reach the pore interior. Therefore, carbon materials with hierarchical pore structure are attractive. They combine at least two different pore systems of different size which contribute with their individual advantages. While smaller pores provide large specific surface area, larger pores ensure efficient mass transport. Numerous methods for the targeted synthesis of carbide-derived carbon materials (CDCs) with hierarchical pore architectures were developed within this thesis (Figure 1). CDCs are produced by the extraction of metal- or semi-metal atoms from carbide precursors leading to the formation of a microporous carbon network with high specific surface area. PolyHIPE-CDCs with porosity on three hierarchy levels and total pore volumes as high as 8.5 cm3/g were prepared by a high internal phase emulsion technique. CO2 activation increases the SSA to values above 3100 m2/g. These materials are promising for the filtration of non-polar organic compounds from gas mixtures. CDC nanospheres with diameters below 200 nm were obtained from polycarbosilane-based miniemulsions. They show high capacitance of up to 175 F/g in symmetrical EDLCs in 1 M H2SO4 aqueous electrolyte. Besides such emulsion techniques, the hard-templating concept (also referred to as nanocasting) was presented as an efficient approach for the synthesis of CDC mesofoam powders and meso-macroporous CDC monoliths starting from silica templates and polycarbosilane precursors. As a wide range of pore sizes is approachable, the resulting materials are highly versatile in terms of application. Due to their high nanopore volume, well-defined mesopores and large SSA, they show outstanding properties as electrode materials in EDLCs or in Li-S batteries as well as high and rapid uptake in gas adsorption processes. CDC aerogels were produced by pyrolysis and high-temperature chlorine treatment of cross-linked polycarbosilane aerogels. These materials can be tailored for efficient CO2 adsorption and show outstanding performance in EDLC electrodes at high current densities of up to 100 A/g due to the very short electron diffusion pathways within the aerogel-type pore system. It was further shown that CDCs can be combined with mesopores by the sacrificial template method starting from PMMA particles as the pore-forming material. The use of highly toxic hydrofluoric acid for template removal and large amounts of organic solvents as typical for hard- and soft-templating approaches can be overcome. SSAs and total pore volumes of 2434 m2/g and 2.64 cm3/g are achieved ensuring good performance of PMMA-CDCs in Li-S batteries cathodes. Besides the characterization of CDCs in real energy storage devices and adsorption processes, their use as model substances in energy- and environmentally relevant applications was part of this thesis. The questions “How does it work?” and “What do we need?” must be clearly answered before any material can be tailored under the consideration of economic and ecological perspectives. The high potential of CDCs for this purpose was shown in this thesis. These carbons were used as model substances in combination with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques to get a detailed understanding of the adsorption processes on porous carbon surfaces. However, such investigations require the use of model substances with a tailored and well-defined pore structure to clearly differentiate physical states of adsorbed species and to understand fundamental mechanisms. The characterization of the interaction of electrolyte molecules with the carbon surface was performed with solid-state NMR experiments. The materials were also studied in the high-pressure adsorption of 129Xe using an in-situ NMR technique. Both NMR studies enable the analysis of ions or gas atoms adsorbed on the carbon surface on an atomic level and experimentally demonstrate different strength of interaction with pores of variable size and connectivity. In addition, the novel InfraSORP technology was used for the investigation of the thermal response of CDCs and templated carbon and carbide materials during n-butane adsorption. These model systems lead to a more profound understanding of this technique for the rapid characterization of porous materials. The Kroll-Carbon (KC) concept is a highly attractive alternative for the synthesis of well-defined carbons on the large scale. In this technique, the porous materials are produced by the reductive carbochlorination reaction between oxidic nanoparticles and a surrounding carbon matrix. First KC materials were produced with high SSA close to 2000 m2/g and total pore volumes exceeding 3 cm3/g. This method was established with template particles of various dimensions as well as by using various types of oxides (silica, alumina, titania). Hence, porous carbon materials with various textural parameters are approachable. The first generation of KCs is promising for the use in Li-S battery cathodes and as electrode materials in EDLCs.

The thesis entitled “Design and Development of Metal-Free Cross Dehydrogenative Coupling Reactions for the construction of C-S, C-O and C-C bonds” is divided into three Chapters. Chapter 1 is presented in five parts, which reveals the cross dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) strategies for the C–S bond forming reactions through C–H functionalization strategy using heterocyclic thiols and thiones. Chapter 2 presents tetrabutyl ammonium iodide (TBAI) catalyzed chemoselective α-aminoxylation of ketones with N-hydroxyimidates using TBHP as oxidant under cross dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) strategy. Chapter 3 describes a transition metal-free Minisci reaction for the acylation of isoquinolines, quinolines, and quinoxaline. Chapter 1 Iodine Promoted C-S Bond Forming Reactions using Dimethyl Sulfoxide as an Oxidant Chapter 1 reveals the utility of cross dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) reactions for the formation of C–S bonds by employing C–H functionalization strategies.1 The direct functionalization of C–H bonds to form C–C and C–X (N, O, S and P) bonds using metal-free reaction conditions is an interesting research topic in recent years.2 Use of dimethyl sulfoxide as an oxidant is emerging as one of the research topics of great interest and utility.3 Heterocyclic thiols and thiones are important precursors for synthesizing a variety of pharmaceuticals and biologically active compounds.4 Therefore it is useful to develop CDC reactions using heterocyclic thiols and thiones as precursors. In this chapter, we describe CDC reactions of heterocyclic thiols and thiones for the sulfenylation of ketones, aldehydes, α, β unsaturated methyl ketone derivatives, pyrazolones, enaminones and imidazoheterocycles using DMSO as an oxidant Chapter 1: Part 1 Iodine Promoted Regioselective α-Sulfenylation of Carbonyl Compounds using Dimethyl Sulfoxide as an Oxidant: In this chapter, a rare regioselective C–H sulfenylation of carbonyl compounds with heterocyclic thiones and thiols have been described using iodine and dimethyl sulfoxide as reagents. Thus, dimethyl sulfoxide (as an oxidant) and stoichiometric amount of iodine have been used for the sulfenylation of ketones using heterocyclic thiones. Whereas the sulfenylation of ketones with heterocyclic thiols required catalytic amount of iodine. This protocol offers a rare regioselective sulfenylation of (i) methyl ketones in the presence of more reactive α-CH2 or α-CH groups, and (ii) aldehydes under CDC method. A few representative examples are highlighted in Scheme 1.5 The application of this methodology has been demonstrated by synthesizing a few precursors for Julia-Kocienski olefination intermediates. Scheme 1. Iodine promoted rare regioselective α-sulfenylation of ketones and aldehydes Siddaraj , Y.; Prabhu, K. R. Org. Lett. 2016, 18, 6090 Chapter 1: Part 2 Regioselective Sulfenylation of α’-CH3 or α’-CH2 Groups of α, β Unsaturated Ketones using Dimethyl Sulfoxide as an Oxidant: In this chapter, an interesting regioselective sulfenylation of α’-CH3 or α’-CH2 groups of α, β unsaturated ketones using dimethyl sulfoxide as an oxidant and catalytic amount of aq. HI (20 mol %) as an additive has been described. This eco-friendly method uses readily available, inexpensive I2 or HI and DMSO. This methodology exhibits a high regioselectivity without forming Michael addition product in the presence of strong acid such as aq. HI or iodine, which is difficult to achieve under cross dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) conditions. Current methodology exhibits a broad substrate scope. A few examples are shown in Scheme 2.6 Scheme 2. HI and DMSO promoted α’-sulfenylation of α, β unsaturated ketones Siddaraju, Y.; Prabhu, K. R. (Manuscript submitted) Chapter 1: Part 3 Iodine Catalyzed Sulfenylation of Pyrazolones using Dimethyl Sulfoxide as an Oxidant: In this chapter, a sustainable and efficient strategy for the sulfenylation of pyrazolones has been described using metal-free conditions by employing DMSO as an oxidant and iodine as a catalyst. A variety of heterocyclic thiols, heterocyclic thiones and disulfides undergo C–H functionalization reaction with pyrazolone derivatives furnishing the corresponding sulfenylated products in short time. Most of the products are isolated in pure form without column purification. A few examples are presented in Scheme 3.7 Scheme 3. Iodine promoted sulfenylation of pyrazolones Siddaraju, Y.; Prabhu, K. R. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2017, 15, 5191 Chapter 1: Part 4 Iodine-Catalyzed Cross Dehydrogenative Coupling Reaction: Sulfenylation of Enaminones using Dimethyl Sulfoxide as an Oxidant: In this chapter, synthesis of poly functionalized aminothioalkenes has been described using substoichiometric amount of iodine and DMSO as an oxidant. This metal-free methodology enables a facile sulfenylation of enaminones with heterocyclic thiols and thiones. This methodology is one of the simple approaches for the sulfenylation of enaminones under cross dehydrogenative coupling method. A few examples are highlighted in Scheme 4.8 Scheme 4. Cross-dehydrogenative coupling approach for sulfenylation of enaminones Siddaraju, Y.; Prabhu, K. R. J. Org. Chem. 2017, 82, 3084 Chapter 1: Part 5 Iodine-Catalyzed Cross Dehydrogenative Coupling Reaction: A Regioselective Sulfenylation of Imidazoheterocycles using DMSO as an Oxidant: In this chapter, a simple synthetic approach for the regioselective sulfenylation of imidazoheterocycles using iodine as a catalyst and DMSO as an oxidant under cross dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) reaction conditions has been demonstrated. This protocol provides an efficient, mild and inexpensive method for coupling heterocyclic thiols and heterocyclic thiones with imidazoheterocycles. This is the first report on sulfenylation of imidazoheterocycles with heterocyclic thiols and heterocyclic thiones under metal-free conditions. A few examples are shown in Scheme 5.9 Scheme 5. Cross-dehydrogenative coupling approach for sulfenylation of imidazoheterocycles Siddaraju, Y.; Prabhu, K. R. J. Org. Chem. 2016, 81, 7838 Chapter 2 Chemoselective α-Aminoxylation of Aryl Ketones: Cross Dehydrogenative Coupling Reactions Catalyzed by Tetrabutyl Ammonium Iodide: In this chapter, chemoselective α-aminoxylation of ketones with N-hydroxyimidates catalyzed by tetrabutyl ammonium iodide (TBAI) has been presented. The coupling reaction of a variety of ketones with N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHSI), N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI), N-hydroxybenzotriazole (HOBt) or 1-hydroxy-7-azabenzotriazole (HOAt) using TBHP as oxidant has been investigated. This α-aminoxylation of ketones is chemoselective as aryl methyl ketones, aliphatic ketones as well as benzylic position are inactive under the reaction condition. A few examples are highlighted in Scheme 6.10 The application of this method has been demonstrated by transforming a few coupled products into synthetically useful vinyl phosphates. Scheme 6. Chemoselective α-aminoxylation of ketones with N-hydroxyimidates Siddaraju, Y.; Prabhu, K. R. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2015, 13, 11651 Chapter 3 A Transition Metal-Free Minisci Reaction: Acylation of Isoquinolines, Quinolines, and Quinoxaline: In this chapter, transition metal-free acylation of isoquinoline, quinoline and quinoxaline derivatives with aldehydes has been described by employing TBAB (tetrabutyl ammonium bromide, 30 mol %) and K2S2O8 as an oxidant under cross dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) reaction. This intermolecular acylation of electron-deficient heteroarenes provides an easy access and a novel acylation method of heterocyclic compounds. The application of this CDC strategy has been illustrated by synthesizing isoquinoline-derived natural products. A few representative examples are shown in Scheme 7.11 Scheme 7. CDC reactions of heteroarenes with aldehydes Siddaraju, Y.; Lamani, M.; Prabhu, K. R. J. Org. Chem. 2014, 79, 3856

The persistence of biofilms in hospital settings are associated with Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAI), causing increased morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. The resistance of biofilms against commonly used hospital disinfectants has been well reported. Metal and metal oxide nanoparticles (NP) such as silver (Ag), copper (Cu), zinc oxide (ZnO) and copper oxide (CuO) exhibit antimicrobial properties against various pathogens. Methods: Biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus in a Centre for Disease Control (CDC) biofilm reactor and a 96 well plate was compared. A three stage approach including Minimum Biofilm Reduction Concentration (MBRC), R2 values and log(10) reductions was used to assess the efficacy of Ag and ZnO NPs both alone and in combination against P. aeruginosa and S. aureus biofilms. Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) was used to further assess the antimicrobial ability of the metal and metal oxide NPs. The prevention of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus adherence on Ag and ZnO thin film coating on silicon (Si) surfaces was also investigated, as well as icaC, ebpS and fnbB gene expression in S. aureus biofilms. Results: The CDC biofilm reactor demonstrated to be the most effective method for P. aeruginosa and S. aureus biofilm production in comparison to 96 well plates, with lower standard errors of the mean (SE) and higher replicability. Individual MBRC of ZnO and Ag NPs in suspension were 256 and 50 µg/ml for P. aeruginosa and 16 and 50 µg/ml for S. aureus respectively. The concentrations in combination were reduced by at least a half, with concentrations of 32/25 µg/ml of ZnO/Ag NPs in suspension resulting in a significant (p ≤0.05) reduction of 3.77 log(10) against P. aeruginosa biofilms and 8/12 µg/ml of ZnO/Ag NPs in suspension resulted in a 3.91 log(10) (p ≤0.05) against S. aureus biofilms. Both combinations showed an additive effect. Time point analysis confirmed that a 24 hour treatment is vital for any significant (p ≤0.05) antimicrobial activity. AAS data suggested that the Ag+ ions quenched Zn2+ ions, therefore the antimicrobial efficacy of the combination is mainly due to Ag+ ions. Damage of the biofilms from Ag and ZnO NPs was observed in the SEM imaging and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis confirmed the adherence of Zn and Ag within the biofilms. CLSM imaging showed dead (red) cells of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus biofilms throughout the depth of the biofilm. P. aeruginosa formation was reduced by 1.41 log(10) and 1.43 log(10) on Ag and ZnO thin film coatings respectively. For S. aureus, a reduction of 1.82 log(10) and 1.65 log(10) was obtained for Ag and ZnO coating respectively. Only low levels of ribonucleic acid (RNA) were achieved so no further gene analysis could occur. Conclusion: Reductions of ≥3 log(10) were observed for P. aeruginosa and S. aureus biofilm treatment with ZnO/Ag NP suspensions. It can be concluded that the ZnO/Ag NP suspensions had greater antimicrobial activity than Ag and ZnO coated surfaces owing to large concentrations of Ag+ and Zn2+ ions acting upon the biofilms. The slower release of ions from coated surfaces suggest an inadequate concentration of ions in the media, which are therefore unable to prevent biofilm formation as rapidly as NP suspensions, however provide a sustained release of ions over time. The results from this investigation propose that Ag and ZnO NPs in suspension could be a potential alternative to disinfectants for use in nosocomial environments against P. aeruginosa and S. aureus biofilms.

The main focus of my work has been the role of the MRN in the S-phase DNA damage checkpoint. The MRN plays many roles in cellular metabolism; some are checkpoint dependent and some are checkpoint independent. The multiple roles in cellular metabolism complicate study of the role of the MRN in the checkpoint. MRN mutations in budding yeast and mammals may display separation of function. Mechanistically, MRN, along with its cofactor Ctp1, is involved in 5’ resection to create single stranded DNA that is required for both signaling and homologous recombination. However, it is unclear if resection is essential for all of the cellular functions of MRN. Therefore I have made mutations to mimic those in budding yeast and mammals. I found that several alleles of rad32, as well as ctp1Δ, are defective in double-strand break repair and most other functions of the complex but maintain an intact S-phase DNA damage checkpoint. Thus, the MRN S-phase checkpoint role is separate from its Ctp1- and resection-dependent role in double-strand break repair. This observation leads me to conclude that other functions of MRN, possibly its role in replication fork metabolism, are required for S-phase DNA damage checkpoint function. One of the potential roles of Rad32 and the rest of the MRN complex is in sister chromatid exchange. The genetic requirements of sister chromatid exchange have been examined using unequal sister chromatid assays which only are able to assay exchanges that are illegitimate and produce changes in the genome. Most sister chromatid exchange must be equal to maintain genomic integrity and thus far there is no good assay for equal sister chromatid exchange. Yeast cells expressing the human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT1) and the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (tk) are able to incorporate exogenous thymidine into their DNA. This strain makes it possible for the fission yeast DNA to be labeled with halogenated thymidine analogs. This strain is being used to design an assay that will label one sister with BrdU and then DNA combing will be used to see equal sister chromatid exchange.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-08T14:53:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 922500 bytes, checksum: 7431e1ef48899762e4495065c7bbe16e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Programming problems which each function can be represented as a diference of two convex function are called DC programming problems and represent a wide range of applications. In this work, DC programming is used do model and solve the proposed layout problem. Here we present the teory of DC optimization problems and some applications which we will see with more details further for better understanding of the teory. Also is proposed a model for the layout problem, modeled mathematically, further represented as a DC optimization problem and finally, placed in its canonical form (CDC). Its done because the DC structure is closed in many operations commonly found in optimization problems, unlike a convex function, which does not preserve its structure by a simple scalar multiplication. Finally, an algorithm is proposed to solve the layout problem. This problems are of great importance in engineering because, in the real world, changes in the layout are usually costly, time consuming and may even unfeasible, depending on the project. Thus, the objective of this work is to solve the proposed layout problem put in the C.D.C. form, through an algorithm, motivated by the need for optimization of the use of the space, in the general sense of the word. / Problemas de otimização onde cada uma das funções podem ser representadas como a diferença entre funções covexas é chamado de problema de otimização DC e representam uma grande gama de aplicações no mundo real. Neste trabalho é utilizado a Otimização DC para modelar e resolver o problema proposto de arranjo físico. Aqui será apresentada a teoria de otimização DC bem como algumas aplicações que serão tratadas mais detalhadamente, para uma melhor compreensão da teoria. Também é proposto um modelo para o Problema de Arranjo Físico (layout), modelado matematicamente, que é posteriormente representado como um problema de Otimização DC e, por último, é colocado na sua forma Canônica (CDC). Isto é feito porque esta estrutura DC é fechada em muitas das operações comumente encontradas em problemas de otimização, ao contrário de uma função convexa, que não preserva sua estrutura por uma simples multiplicação por escalar. Por fim, um algoritmo é proposto para resolver o problema de arranjo físico. Estes problemas são de grande importância na engenharia dada à realidade de que mudanças no arranjo físico são, geralmente, demoradas e custosas e podem até ser inviáveis, dependendo do projeto. Assim, o objetivo do trabalho é resolver o problema proposto de arranjo físico colocado na forma CDC, através de um algoritmo, motivados devido à necessidade de otimização do uso do espaço, no sentido geral da palavra.

O trabalho busca dissertar sobre as técnicas de data mining mais difundidas: regressão logística, árvore de decisão e rede neural, além de avaliar se tais técnicas oferecem ganhos financeiros para instituições privadas que contam com processos ativos de conquista de clientes. Uma empresa do setor financeiro será utilizada como objeto de estudo, especificamente nos seus processos de aquisição de novos clientes para adesão do Crédito Direto ao Consumidor (CDC). Serão mostrados os resultados da aplicação nas três técnicas mencionadas, para que seja possível verificar se o emprego de modelos estatísticos discriminam os clientes potenciais mais propensos dos menos propensos à adesão do CDC e, então, verificar se tal ação impulsiona na obtenção de ganhos financeiros. Esses ganhos poderão vir mediante redução dos custos de marketing abordando-se somente os clientes com maiores probabilidades de responderem positivamente à campanha. O trabalho apresentará o funcionamento de cada técnica teoricamente, e conforme os resultados indicam, data mining é uma grande oportunidade para ganhos financeiros em uma empresa. / The paper intends to discourse about most widespread data mining techniques: logistic regression, decision tree and neural network, and assess whether these techniques provide financial gains for private institutions that have active processes for business development. A company of the financial sector is used as object of study, specifically in the processes of acquiring new customers for adhesion to consumer credit (in Brazil CDC). This research will show the results of the three above mentioned techniques, to check whether the statistical models point out relevant differences between prospects´ intentions to adhere to consumer credit. In the meantime, the techniques are checked whether they leverage financial gain. These gains are expected to came from better focused and directed marketing efforts. The paper presents the operation of each technique theoretically, and as the results indicate, data mining is a great opportunity for a company boost profits.