Yue Ho-Yin. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-137). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iv / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Problem Definition --- p.7 / Chapter 1.2 --- Contributions --- p.8 / Chapter 1.3 --- Thesis Organization --- p.10 / Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1 --- "Content-based Retrieval, Background and Indexing Problem" --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Feature Extraction --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Nearest-neighbor Search --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Content-based Indexing Methods --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2 --- Indexing Problems --- p.25 / Chapter 2.3 --- Data Clustering Methods for Indexing --- p.26 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Probabilistic Clustering --- p.27 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Possibilistic Clustering --- p.34 / Chapter 3 --- Fuzzy Clustering Algorithms --- p.37 / Chapter 3.1 --- Fuzzy Competitive Clustering --- p.38 / Chapter 3.2 --- Sequential Fuzzy Competitive Clustering --- p.40 / Chapter 3.3 --- Experiments --- p.43 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Experiment 1: Data set with different number of samples --- p.44 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Experiment 2: Data set on different dimensionality --- p.46 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Experiment 3: Data set with different number of natural clusters inside --- p.55 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Experiment 4: Data set with different noise level --- p.56 / Chapter 3.3.5 --- Experiment 5: Clusters with different geometry size --- p.60 / Chapter 3.3.6 --- Experiment 6: Clusters with different number of data instances --- p.67 / Chapter 3.3.7 --- Experiment 7: Performance on real data set --- p.71 / Chapter 3.4 --- Discussion --- p.72 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- "Differences Between FCC, SFCC, and Others Clustering Algorithms" --- p.72 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Variations on SFCC --- p.75 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Why SFCC? --- p.75 / Chapter 4 --- Hierarchical Indexing based on Natural Clusters Information --- p.77 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Hierarchical Approach --- p.77 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Sequential Fuzzy Competitive Clustering Binary Tree (SFCC- b-tree) --- p.79 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Data Structure of SFCC-b-tree --- p.80 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Tree Building of SFCC-b-Tree --- p.82 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Insertion of SFCC-b-tree --- p.83 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Deletion of SFCC-b-Tree --- p.84 / Chapter 4.2.5 --- Searching in SFCC-b-Tree --- p.84 / Chapter 4.3 --- Experiments --- p.88 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Experimental Setting --- p.88 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Experiment 8: Test for different leaf node sizes --- p.90 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Experiment 9: Test for different dimensionality --- p.97 / Chapter 4.3.4 --- Experiment 10: Test for different sizes of data sets --- p.104 / Chapter 4.3.5 --- Experiment 11: Test for different data distributions --- p.109 / Chapter 4.4 --- Summary --- p.113 / Chapter 5 --- A Case Study on SFCC-b-tree --- p.114 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.114 / Chapter 5.2 --- Data Collection --- p.115 / Chapter 5.3 --- Data Pre-processing --- p.116 / Chapter 5.4 --- Experimental Results --- p.119 / Chapter 5.5 --- Summary --- p.121 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.122 / Chapter 6.1 --- An Efficiency Formula --- p.122 / Chapter 6.1.1 --- Motivation --- p.122 / Chapter 6.1.2 --- Regression Model --- p.123 / Chapter 6.1.3 --- Discussion --- p.124 / Chapter 6.2 --- Future Directions --- p.127 / Chapter 6.3 --- Conclusion --- p.128 / Bibliography --- p.129

O presente trabalho analisou o comportamento tribológico do revestimento superficial cromo duro, aplicado em cilindros de laminação e sua influência durante o processo de laminação a frio, para ligas de aço, cobre e alumínio. Iniciou-se o processo com a análise dos mecanismos de desgaste que ocorrem em cilindros de laminação. Em função das dimensões dos cilindros de laminação, foram produzidas réplicas obtidas em vários cilindros de laminação em diferentes empresas, antes e após a campanha dos cilindros de laminação. Consideramos no processo de amostragem, 3 tipos de acabamento do cilindro: texturizado, jateado e retificado. E ainda, cilindro sem e com revestimento de cromo. A estrutura da Texturização Shot Blaster (SBT) não atende todos os requisitos relacionados ao produto acabado. A camada de cromo duro, aplicado sobre estes cilindros de laminação SBT, melhora a qualidade da superfície da chapa, sendo de interesse para aquelas siderúrgicas que não têm outra alternativa às novas estruturas de superfície, podendo ser obtidas pelos métodos: Electro Discharge Texturing (EDT), Laser Texturing (LT), Electro Beam Texturing (EBT). A função das superfícies geradas, obtidas por estes métodos diferentes vai influenciar as propriedades tribológicas durante os processos de laminação e deformação de chapa. Por outro lado, pode aumentar o custo final do produto ou exigem grandes investimentos para obtenção de tais métodos. / The present work analyzed the tribological behavior of the hard chrome surface coating applied in rolling cylinders and their influence during the cold rolling process for steel, copper and aluminum alloys. The process started by analyzing the wear mechanisms that occur in work rolls. In function on the dimensions of the work rolls, replicas were obtained from several rolls and in different companies, before and after the roll chance. We consider in the sampling process, three types of work rolls finish: texturing, shot blasted and rectified. And still, work rolls without and with chrome coating. The Texture Shot Blaster (SBT) structure is not available in all respects related to the finished product. The hard chromium layer applied to these SBT rollers improves the surface quality of the sheet and is of interest to steel parts that are not of good capacity: EDT Textures, Laser texturing (LT), electrical beam texturization (EBT). The function of the generated surfaces obtained by these different methods is going to influence the tribological properties during the subsequent forming processes. On the other hand, they can increase the product final cost or require large investments to obtain such methods.

Orientador: Jose Antonio Perrella Balestieri / Banca: Rubens Alves Dias / Banca: Marcelo Modesto da Silva / Resumo: Este trabalho descreve um método de identificação e ponderação de indicadores de desempenho sustentáveis para avaliar a eficiência energética em instalações industriais. Tomando como cenário algumas empresas do setor industrial baseadas no Vale do Paraíba/SP, foi proposta uma lista de indicadores de avaliação de critérios de eficiência energética, que fornece uma referência importante para o mapeamento, comparação, evolução e investimento adequado para a avaliação dos tomadores de decisão. O método de pesquisa consistiu em realizar uma revisão abrangente da literatura e a aplicação de dois levantamentos (surveys) envolvendo especialistas e tomadores de decisão da área. Os dados foram modelados a partir da aplicação das ferramentas de análise de agrupamento (cluster analysis) e o método de Processo Analítico Hierárquico (método AHP) para ponderar os indicadores identificados, reduzindo o grau de subjetividade na análise dessas opiniões e buscando níveis de intensidade objetivos. O tamanho das amostras da pesquisa é suficiente para suportar os resultados, que foram validados pela análise de consistência do método AHP. O método proposto também pode ser estendido para desenvolver os indicadores ponderados para outras regiões / Abstract: This dissertation describes a method for the identification and weighting of indicators of sustainable performance for evaluating the energy efficiency of industrial facilities. Taking as a backdrop some industrial companies based in the Paraiba Valley / SP, it was proposed a list of indicators for assessing energy efficiency criteria, which provides an important reference for mapping, comparison, evolution and appropriate investment for the evaluation of decision makers. The research method consisted of performing a comprehensive literature review and the application of two surveys involving experts and decision makers in the area. The data were modeled from the application of cluster analysis and the method of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) tools to weigh indicators identified, reducing the degree of subjectivity in the analysis of these opinions and seeking levels of intensity targets. The size of the samples is sufficient to support search results, which were validated for consistency analysis of the AHP. The proposed method can also be extended to develop the weighted indicators for other regions / Mestre

The main goal of this Master's Thesis is to discover and describe significant differences in consumer's behavior on the Czech tablet chocolate market. Based on these found differences reveal, characterize and develop segment's profiles. Further goal is to design relevant marketing recommendations for these segments. The theoretical part contains the explanation of the segmentation process. The analytical part includes main characteristics of the Czech tablet chocolate market and the analysis of the secondary and primary data. The market segmentation was performed based on the results of these analyses. For the segmentation process was used the IBM SPSS Statistics program. The outcome of the thesis discovers four market segments and proposes corresponding marketing strategies for them.

Main objective of my thesis is to recommend a marketing orientation for clinics through an understanding of why men and women undergo plastic surgery and what is their reason to start considering it. Because women use plastic surgery more than men, the study is mainly focused on them. Another target is to compare competing invasive and non-invasive cosmetic treatments. The research part is consisting of a quantitative research. Quantitative research is based on online questionnaire and distributes plastic surgery market, with potential candidates and clients who have already undergone some treatment to the individual segments. Individual interesting reliances between them are pointed out with cross-analyzing by Excel program. For segmentation process was used IBM SPSS Statistics program. Outcome of this thesis discovers five segments and subsequent recommendations for marketing orientation for selected segments.

Verb valency plays an important role in the description of behaviour of verbs and connects surface realisation of language with its semantics. Verb itself usually encodes several readings. Complementations of a verb help to identify correct reading of the verb. So far valency verb complementations are mostly studied from morphological and syntactical point of view. The purpose of this thesis is to examine possibilities of automatic identification of semantic preferences for valency complementations of verbs. The thesis discusses performance of system with different levels of available verb valency information in connection with cluster analysis. The thesis contains an evaluation section that compares available methods and their comparision.

nÃo hà / Buscaram-se identificar as caracterÃsticas que diferenciam os feirantes que atuam em feiras livres de municÃpios com nÃveis de desenvolvimento distintos (Cascavel e Ocara). Levantaram-se dados primÃrios recolhidos em questionÃrios aplicados com os feirantes; alguns testes estatÃsticos confirmaram a ausÃncia de diferenÃa significativa para algumas variÃveis levantadas, com base na comparaÃÃo dos municÃpios pelo critÃrio de IDH, razÃo pela qual se adotou a anÃlise de agrupamentos para melhor diferenciar os feirantes. Entre os resultados alcanÃados, destacam-se as formas de compra mais adotadas, a compra à vista e a no âapuradoâ, para a mercadoria nÃo produzida pelo feirante. O tipo de produto vendido, a proximidade da Ceasa, limitadas condiÃÃes edafo-climÃticas para produtos agropecuÃrios, existÃncia de intermediÃrios, condiÃÃo socioeconÃmica do feirante e facilidades na compra de mercadoria sÃo fatores que influenciam a forma de governanÃa das transaÃÃes dos feirantes. Conclui-se que, em Cascavel, os feirantes dependem menos das transferÃncias governamentais e, em Ocara, essa dependÃncia à maior, mas menor do que se imaginava; o nÃvel de capital social entre os feirantes à muito baixo; em termos de infra-estrutura, a feira de Ocara necessita de atenÃÃo maior, dada a falta do bÃsico, como um mercado pÃblico com pontos dâÃgua e banheiros; a feira de Cascavel, apesar da infra-estrutura existente, tambÃm necessita de melhorias, principalmente na feira dos animais, na limpeza, na instalaÃÃo de equipamentos, na vigilÃncia noturna e na padronizaÃÃo de bancas de vestuÃrio; alÃm disso, vÃ-se que o BNB poderia estudar possibilidades de financiamento para os feirantes mais propensos a solicitar emprÃstimos - os que lidam com hortifrutigranjeiros, carne suÃna/criaÃÃo ou peixe/frutos do mar - e que, em nÃo produzindo, compram a mercadoria de produtores nÃo parentes ou intermediÃrios de fora do municÃpio, pagando no âapuradoâ, em Cascavel; e os que vendem animais vivos ou peixe, comprando à vista sua mercadoria de intermediÃrios do municÃpio ou nÃo, em Ocara. / It was looked for to identify, in this work, the characteristics that differentiate the merchants that act in free markets of cities with different levels of development (Cascavel and Ocara). Primary data were collected in questionnaires applied with the merchants; some statistical tests confirmed the absence of significant difference for some lifted up variables, with base in the comparison of the cities for the criterion of IDH, reason for which the cluster analysis was adopted for best differentiate the merchants. Among the reached results, stand out: the more adopted purchase forms are the cash sale and pay after sold the merchandise, for the merchandise not produced by the merchant. The type of sold product, the proximity of Ceasa, limited edafo-climatic conditions for agricultural products, middlemen's existence, the merchant's socioeconomic condition and means in the merchandise purchase are factors that influence the governance form of the merchants' transactions. Was ended that, in Cascavel, the merchants depend less on the government transfers, and in Ocara, that dependence is larger, but smaller than it was imagined; the capital stock level among the merchants is very low; in infrastructure terms, Ocaraâs fair needs larger attention, given the lack of the basic, as a public market with points of water and bathrooms; Cascavelâs fair, in spite of the existent infrastructure, also needs improvements, mainly in animalsâ fair, in the subject of the cleaning, installation of equipments, night surveillance and standardization of clothing stands; and that BNB could study financing possibilities for the prone merchants to request loans - the ones that work with fruits and vegetables, pork/mutton or fish - and that, not being a producer, he/she buys the merchandise of no relatives producers or middlemen of out of the city, paying after sold the merchandise, in Cascavel, and the ones that sell alive animals or fish, buying to his/her view merchandise of middlemen of the city or no, in Ocara.

A reforma sanitária, ocorrida após a constituição de 1988, criou o Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), descentralizando a gestão em saúde pública no Brasil e delegando mais autonomia e responsabilidade aos municípios. Esta descentralização traz inúmeros benefícios, pois aproxima a gestão das realidades locais. Os municípios são peculiares e podem apresentar dificuldades em atingir os mesmos padrões de serviços de saúde dos demais entes federados e, eventualmente, incorrer na desigualdade em saúde. Para garantir a integralidade no atendimento, as Redes Regionais de Atenção à Saúde (RRAS) articulam o sistema de maneira a satisfazer os diferentes níveis de complexidade. Procurou-se nesta pesquisa encontrar padrões espaciais destoantes na distribuição de recursos de saúde no estado de São Paulo, de maneira a caracterizar eventuais desigualdades em saúde. Os dados foram analisados por RRAS e por aglomerados de munícipios de atributos similares. Os resultados indicam diferenças regionais nos vários aspectos pesquisados, sobretudo na cobertura por equipes de saúde da família, no acesso aos serviços de saúde e na oferta e ocupação de leitos. Estas diferenças variam conforme se dista da capital do estado e estão associadas à renda e à presença da saúde suplementar. / The health care reformulation, which started after the constitution of 1988, created the Unified Health Care System (SUS), decentralizing the management of public health care in Brazil and delegating more autonomy and responsibility to counties.This decentralization brings numerous benefits because it approaches the county management to local area realities. Counties have different features and may have difficulties achieving the same health care standards of other federative entities and possibly create health care inequalities. To ensure comprehensiveness in health care, the Regional Health Care Networks (RRAS) articulate the system in order to provide the different levels of complexity. It is aimed in this research to find dissonant spatial patterns in health care resources distribution in the state of São Paulo, in order to characterize any inequalities. The data was analyzed by the RRAS and clusters of counties of similar attributes. Results indicate regional differences in several aspects of the research, mostly in family health care teams coverage, access to health care services and availability and bed occupancy rate. These differences vary according to how distant from the state capital the county is and are associated with income and health insurance attendance.

In recent years, there has been increased interest and research on identifying the various ways that students can deviate from expected or desired patterns while using educational software. This includes research on gaming the system, player transformation, haphazard inquiry, and failure to use key features of the learning system. Detection of these sorts of behaviors has helped researchers to better understand these behaviors, thus allowing software designers to develop interventions that can remediate them and/or reduce their negative impacts on student learning. This work addresses two types of student disengagement: carelessness and a behavior we term WTF (“Without Thinking Fastidiously”) behavior. Carelessness is defined as not demonstrating a skill despite knowing it; we measured carelessness using a machine learned model. In WTF behavior, the student is interacting with the software, but their actions appear to have no relationship to the intended learning task. We discuss the detector development process, validate the detectors with human labels of the behavior, and discuss implications for understanding how and why students conduct inquiry without thinking fastidiously while learning in science inquiry microworlds. Following this work we explore the relationship between student learner characteristics and the aforementioned disengaged behaviors carelessness and WTF. Our goal was to develop a deeper understanding of which learner characteristics correlate to carelessness or WTF behavior. Our work examines three alternative methods for predicting carelessness and WTF behaviors from learner characteristics: simple correlations, k-means clustering, and decision tree rule learners.

Trust in automatic controllers may have an impact on awareness of system limitations and ultimately use of these systems. The purpose of this research is to determine the effects and likelihood of too much trust (overtrust) in drivers that use adaptive cruise control (ACC), a type of automatic controller that maintains vehicle speed and headway time. To add to the existing literature, this study aimed to define a significant relationship among trust, use, and awareness of ACC limitations. A post mailed or electronic-based survey was distributed to potential ACC users with 118 responses used for the main analysis. The survey responses provided demographic information, illustrated levels of trust, awareness of ACC limitations, and system use. A hierarchical cluster analysis of the data related to trust in ACC produced four clusters: overtrust, cautious, neutral, and distrust. Binary and multinomial logistic regression models then predicted the likelihood for overtrust (cluster membership). Participants in the overtrust cluster displayed the lowest level of awareness regarding ACC limitations and the highest levels of misuse. Users were more likely to overtrust ACC if they were male, misused the system, lacked limitation awareness, and indicated a willingness to opt for ACC in their next vehicle. Overtrust in ACC was shown to lead to misuse and cloud awareness of the systems' limitations. Trust seemed to be formed in the initial interactions with ACC therefore a priori trust levels of potential users should be sought before appropriate guidance is given or demonstrated through test use.