The distribution of electricity is a natural monopoly. The infrastructure of the electricity grid is divided into areas and the distribution system operator (DSO) has concession for the distribution of the defined area. The concession is governed by laws and regulation.The Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate (Ei) is the national regulatory authority. The continuity of supply of electricity is a part of the regulation. The incentive is given by a revenue cap regulation which may result in a reward or penalty.The performance indicators are a measure of the continuity of supply and used in the calculation of the revenue cap regulation.The Master thesis aims to specify the possible consequences for the electricity distribution system operators and their customers utilizing the electricity grid in case of a change of the current methods used to measure the continuity of supply in Sweden.With the current methods, the Ei regulation for year 2016-2019, is the continuity of supply in the local electrical grid estimated from a view where each disruption is treated equal and therefore is SAIFI and SAIDI used. In the regional electrical grid is another method used to measure the continuity of supply, estimated from a view where the loss of supplied energy is considered, therefore uses PNS and ENS. In the documentation is the term ILE used for ENS and ILEffekt for PNS.The Master thesis is constructed to analyze new performance indicators for the local and regional distribution grid. The new performance indicator is the mathematically instrument to measure the continuity of supply and is supported by analytically advantages and disadvantages.The result shows the choice of performance indicators cause a great impact in the revenue cap regulation. AIT, AIF corresponds to ENS and PNS, respectively, divided by power. The three most important results are given by:1. Mathematical and theoretical results show that ENS, PNS are not good indicators individually or in combination with SAIDI, SAIFI and CEMI4 as power consumption within each customer group varies in the local electrical grid.In the regional electrical grid, power consumption may also vary between the norm period and the supervisory period, which means that ENS, PNS can sometimes be misleading.2. The inclusion of power disruption over 12 hours generate stronger incentives in the regulation. Because it requires long term planning to avoid interruptions exceeding 12 hours. The difference is shown mainly in local electrical grid with the indicators SAIDI, SAIFI and CEMI4 and gives a slight increase in rewards in the regulation. This affects the DSO’s and their customers with a marginal difference.3. In the short term, the introduction of AIT, AIF as quality indicators means that customers who consume more power within their customer group get higher-value interruptions. An interruption of a high-consumption customer would then be prioritized compared to a customer with a lower consumption. One way to counteract this is to use CEMI4, in order to capture these customers' interruptions in the regulation.In the long term, the regulation does not become cyclically sensitive, meaning that reasonable rewards or penalties are made. This should benefit a long-term planning of the electrical grid, as the DSO’s do not have to compensate for this. / Det elektriska distributionsnätet är ett naturligt monopol. Infrastrukturen av nätet är uppdelat i områden och där nätägaren har nätkoncession för området som omfattas. Koncessionen är styrd av lagar och reglering.Energimarknadsinspektionen (Ei) är en tillsynsmyndighet som arbetar med uppdrag från regeringen. En del av tillsyn för energimarknaden, är reglering av leveranssäkerhet i det elektriska distributionsnätet. Incitamentet i regleringen ges av intäktsramens begränsning vilket kan resultera i en ökning eller minskning av intäktsramen.Kvalitetsindikatorer är ett matematiskt verktyg för att mäta leveranssäkerhet och används i regleringen av intäktsramen.Examensarbetet syftar till att synliggöra de möjliga konsekvenserna för nätföretagen respektive deras kunder av olika förändringar av de mätmetoder som används för att uppskatta leveranssäkerhet.De mätmetoder som används styrs av indikatorer. Indikatorer som mäter antal avbrott per totalt antal kunder kallas SAIFI. Indikatorer som mäter tid för dessa avbrott per totalt antal kunder kallas SAIDI. En annan metod är att de ingående indikatorerna ska mäta icke levererad energi eller effekt och då kallas de ILE respektive ILEffekt.Energimarknadsinspektionen har inför reglerperioden år 2016-2019 tillämpat SAIDI och SAIFI för kunder kopplade till lokalnät och ILE och ILEffekt för kunder och gränspunkter inom regionnätetExamensarbetet är utformat för att analysera nya typer av kvalitetsindikatorer i lokalnät och regionnät. De nya kvalitetsindikatorerna är olika matematiska verktyg för att mäta leveranssäkerheten och motiveras med analytiska för- och nackdelar.Resultatet visar att valet av indikator har stor betydelse i intäktsramens reglering. AIT, AIF motsvarar ILE respektive ILEffekt dividerat med effekt. De tre viktigaste resultaten ges av:1. Matematiska och teoretiska resultat visar att ILE, ILEffekt är inte bra indikatorer enskilt eller i kombination med SAIDI, SAIFI och CEMI4 då effektförbrukningen inom varje kundgrupp varierar för lokalnät.I regionnät så kan effektförbrukningen också variera mellan normperiod och tillsynsperiod vilket ger att ILE, ILEffekt ibland kan bli missvisande.2. Avbrott över 12 timmar genererar ett starkare incitament i regleringen. Eftersom det kräver långsiktig planering för att undvika avbrott som överstiger 12 timmar. Skillnaden visas främst i lokalnät med indikatorerna SAIDI, SAIFI och CEMI4 och ger en svag höjning av tillägg i regleringen sett på en systemnivå. Det påverkar nätföretagen och deras kunder med en marginell skillnad.3. På kort sikt innebär införandet av AIT, AIF som kvalitetsindikatorer att de kunder som förbrukar mer inom sin kundgrupp får högre värderade avbrott. Ett avbrott hos en kund med hög förbrukning skulle då prioriteras före en kund med lägre förbrukning. Ett sätt att motverka detta är att använda CEMI4 för att fånga upp dessa kunders avbrott i regleringen.På lång sikt innebär det att regleringen inte blir konjunkturkänslig, vilket innebär att rimliga tillägg eller avdrag görs. Det borde gynna en långsiktig planering av elnätet då elnätsföretagen inte behöver kompensera för detta inom regionnäten och lokalnäten.

<p>At birth the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is rapidly colonized by microbial organisms which exhibit considerable fluctuations in composition across the first two years of life. During this period, the enteric nervous system (ENS) continues to undergo significant structural and functional changes. In the present study, we investigated whether exposure to intestinal microbiota influences the postnatal development of the ENS. We focused our investigations on dopaminergic neurons as they are among the latest populations of neurons to differentiate during enteric development. The myenteric plexus of specific pathogen-free (SPF) and germ-free (GF) mice were examined in whole-mount preparations of the small and large intestine at three time-points: postnatal day 1 (P1), P7, and P28. The density of dopaminergic neurons did not differ significantly between SPF and GF mice in any region of the intestine examined at P1. However, at P7, GF mice had significantly fewer myenteric dopaminergic neurons in the ileum than did SPF mice, and this difference was maintained at P28.</p> <p>The proportion of enteric dopaminergic neurons has been shown to be dependent upon the availability of serotonin. In the GI tract, serotonin can be of neuronal or enterochromaffin (EC) cell origin. We therefore tested the hypothesis that reductions in myenteric dopaminergic neuron densities in the ileum of GF mice were secondary to changes in enteric serotonergic neuron densities or EC cell frequencies. Neither serotonergic neurons nor EC cell numbers were affected by GF status during the postnatal period. The reduction in dopaminergic neurons seen in GF mice must therefore be attributable to a mechanism that has yet to be determined.</p> <p>These findings are consistent with the notion that enteric microbiota can influence the development of late-born neuronal populations. The reduced proportion of dopaminergic neurons in the ileum of GF mice at P7 and P28 may contribute to the previously described altered motility patterns in postnatal GF mice.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

In this thesis, we propose a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) Web proxy cache for enterprise networks (ENs). Currently, enterprises use a centralized proxy-based Web cache, where a dedicated proxy server does the caching. A dedicated proxy Web Cache has to be over-provisioned to handle peak loads. It is expensive, a single point of failure, and a bottleneck. In a P2P Web Cache, the clients themselves cooperate in caching the Web objects without any dedicated proxy cache. The resources from the client machines are pooled together to form a Web cache. This eliminates the need for extra hardware and the single point of failure, and improves the average response time, since all the machines serve the request queue. The most important attraction for the P2P scheme is its inherent scalability. Squirrel was the earliest P2P Web cache. Squirrel is built upon a structured P2P protocol called Pastry. Pastry is based on consistent hashing; a special hashing that performs well in the presence of client membership changes. Consistent hashing based protocols are designed for Internet-wide environments to handle very large membership sizes and high rates of membership change. To minimize the protocol bandwidth, the membership state maintained at each peer is very small. This state consists of the information about the peer’s immediate neighbours, and those of a few other P2P members, to achieve faster look-up. This scheme has the following advantages: (i) since peers do not maintain information about all the other peers in the system, any peer needing an object has to find the peer responsible for the object through a multi-hop lookup, thereby increasing the latency, and (ii) the number of objIds assigned to a peer depends on the hashing used, and this can be skewed, which affects the load distribution. The popular applications of the P2P paradigm have been file-sharing systems. These systems are deployed across the Internet. Hence, the existing P2P protocols were designed to operate within the constraints of Internet environments. The P2P proxy Web cache has been a recent application of the P2P paradigm. P2P Web Proxy caches operate across the entire network of an enterprise. An enterprise network(EN) comprises all the computing and communications capabilities of an institution. Institutions typically consist of many departments, with each department having and managing its own local area netwok (LAN). The available bandwidth in LANs is very high. LANs have low latency and low error rates. EN environments have smaller membership size, less frequent membership changes and more available bandwidth. Hence, in such environments, the P2P protocol can afford to store more membership information. This thesis explores the significant differences between EN and Internet environments. It proposes a new P2P protocol designed to exploit these differences, and a P2P Web proxy caching scheme based on this new protocol. Specifically, it shows that it is possible to maintain complete the consistent membership information on ENs. The thesis then presents a load distribution policy for a P2P system with complete and consistent membership information to achieve (i) load balance and (ii) minimum object migrations subsequent to each node join or node leave event. The proposed system requires extra storage and bandwidth costs. We have seen that the necessary storage is available in general workstations and the required bandwidth is feasible in modern networks. We then evaluated the improvement in performance achieved by the system over existing consistent hashing based systems. We have shown that without investing in any special hardware, the P2P system can match the performance of dedicated proxy caches. We have further shown that the buddy based P2P scheme has a better load distribution, especially under heavy loads when load balancing becomes critical. We have also shown that for large P2P systems, the buddy based scheme has a lower latency than the consistent hashing based schemes. Further, we have compared the costs of the proposed scheme and the existing consistent hashing based scheme for different loads (i.e., rate of Web object requests), and identified the situations in which the proposed scheme is likely to perform best. In summary, the thesis shows that (i) the membership dynamics of P2P systems on ENs are different from that of Internet file-sharing systems and (ii) it is feasible in ENs, to maintain complete the consistent view of the P2P membership at all the peers. We have designed a structured P2P protocol for LANs that maintains a complete and consistent view of membership information at all peers. P2P Web caches achieve single hop routing and a better balanced load distribution using this scheme. Complete and consistent view of membership information enabled a single-hop lookup and a flexible load assignment.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:00:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Ivone dos Santos Siqueira.pdf: 1006663 bytes, checksum: 546e4f56c26aca6441e64ff86e41d16f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-10 / This investigation has the evaluation of teachers' performance on State Schools in Goiás as the study subject. The main objective of this research was to investigate the systematic of the performance evaluation of the teachers, from planning to the use of the results. The investigation comprehends the period from 2007 to 2010 and had, as methodological tools, the qualitative approach in the utilization of the technique of the case study. In the data collection, there were used the following instruments: semi-structured interview with 31 subjects, analyses of documents and non-participant observation. For the data treatment, it was used the content-analyses technique. On the discussions, there were many aspects of the theme: national and international politics for education and the evaluation of teachers' performance, as well as the institutional evaluation as part of the evaluation of teachers' performance. The theoretical contributions that substantiated these discussions were made by contributions from many national and international researchers. From national literature, I highlight: De Tommasi, Depresbiteris, Abramowicz, Maués, Alves, Libâneo, Vianna, Freitas, Costa, Castro, Dourado, Sordi, Lück. From international literature: Rosales, Nóvoa, Enguita, Garcia, Day, Afonso, Ball, Rizo, Vaillant, Torrecilla. On this investigation I start from these authors' considerations to discuss matters that involve the evaluation of teachers' performance and unveil the complexity of this theme, which comprehends many aspects, including students' learning process, work conditions, educational management and the educational politics. The subjects considered in the study were: members of the evaluation committee and evaluated teachers from two schools in Goiânia, managers of the Secretaria de Educação (Department of Education) and Subsecretaria Metropolitana (Metropolitan Undersecretary) and managers of the teachers' union. During the systematization of the data, they were grouped by approached subjects, organized by themes. The study converged into four categories: 1) the role of actors in the evaluation of teachers' performance systematic; 2) operation of the process of the evaluation of teachers' performance in the researched schools; 3) evaluation tools used in the evaluation of teachers' performance; 4) use of the results from the evaluation of teachers' performance. The data collected in this research revealed that the mechanisms of the preparation of the proposal show an authoritarian relation, which did not count with the participation of teachers in its elaboration. The evaluated and evaluators were not prepared for the process. Concerning the tools, they could not identify the work developed by the teachers. The evaluation systematic shows itself as a State mechanism to create progression criteria in the career and it is disjointed from the training programs, school evaluation and discussions about the teachers' work conditions. / Esta investigação tem a avaliação de desempenho dos professores da Rede Estadual de Ensino de Goiás como objeto de estudo. O objetivo central desta pesquisa foi investigar a sistemática de avaliação de desempenho dos professores, do planejamento a utilização dos resultados. A investigação compreende o período de 2007 a 2010 e teve como ferramentas metodológicas a abordagem qualitativa na utilização da técnica do estudo de caso. Na coleta dos dados foram utilizados os seguintes instrumentos: entrevista semi-estruturada com 31 sujeitos, análise de documentos e observação não-participante. Para o tratamento dos dados fez-se uso da técnica de análise de conteúdo. Nas discussões foram abordados vários aspectos da temática: políticas internacionais e nacionais para a educação e a avaliação de desempenho de professores, bem como a avaliação institucional como parte da avaliação de desempenho de professores. Os aportes teóricos que fundamentaram essas discussões foram constituídos por contribuições de vários pesquisadores nacionais e internacionais. Da literatura nacional destaco: De Tommasi, Depresbiteris, Abramowicz, Maués, Alves, Libâneo, Vianna, Freitas, Costa, Castro, Dourado, Sordi, Lück. Da literatura internacional: Rosales, Nóvoa, Enguita, Garcia, Day, Afonso, Ball, Rizo, Vaillant, Torrecilla. Nessa investigação parto das considerações desses autores para discutir questões que envolvem a avaliação de desempenho de professores e desvelam a complexidade dessa temática, a qual abrange vários aspectos, dentre eles, a aprendizagem dos estudantes, as condições de trabalho, a gestão educacional e as políticas educacionais. Os sujeitos considerados no estudo foram: membros da comissão de avaliação e professores avaliados de duas escolas de Goiânia, gestores da Secretaria de Educação e Subsecretaria Metropolitana e gestores do sindicato dos professores. Durante a sistematização dos dados, estes foram agrupados por assuntos abordados, organizados por temas. O estudo convergiu para quatro categorias: 1) o papel dos atores na sistemática de avaliação de desempenho dos professores; 2) operacionalização do processo de avaliação de desempenho dos professores nas escolas campo; 3) instrumentos avaliativos utilizados na avaliação de desempenho dos professores, 4) utilização dos resultados da avaliação de desempenho dos professores. Os dados levantados nessa pesquisa revelaram que os mecanismos de elaboração da proposta explicitam uma relação autoritária, a qual não contou com a participação dos professores na sua elaboração. Os avaliados e avaliadores não foram preparados para o processo. Em relação aos instrumentos, os mesmos não conseguem identificar o trabalho desenvolvido pelos professores. A sistemática avaliativa se mostra como um mecanismo do Estado para criar critérios de progressão na carreira e se encontra desarticulada dos programas de formação, da avaliação da escola e de discussões das condições de trabalho dos professores.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:18:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao part1 Nelson Luis da Cunha.pdf: 8015945 bytes, checksum: 4d6119f1259b4290890438622c5cd008 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-29 / The city of Aparecida de Goiania-GO has a current estimate of 16,782,313 m² of urban roads, and there are still 51.5% to be paved. However, the technical staff of the mayor is facing a challenge related to the purchase of lateritic gravel for paving of these streets. Taking into account that most roads in the city has a low volume of traffic (N &#8804; 5.105), it becomes necessary to find an alternative solution to this adversity to show technical and economic viability. Through a partnership between the Federal University of Goiás (UFG) and the city hall of Aparecida de Goiânia-GO, it was started a study to propose the use of nonconventional materials in paving. This way, initially a study was developed through laboratory tests of characterization, compactation, swelling, California Bearing Ratio and dynamic triaxial with the following materials: soil typical abundant in the area, crushed rock, quarry waste and hydrated lime type III and lateritic gravel. The results of these tests presented better performances for the mixtures soil (50%)-crushed rock(50%), soil(50%)- quarry waste(50%) and soil(91%)-lime(9%) which were the samples chosen for use in experimental pavement. To evaluate the behavior of these mixtures and lateritic gravel at layer pavement were used tests of Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP), loading plate and beam Benkelman during construction of subgrade, on base and at coating pre-mixed cold (PMF) and also six and twelve months after opening to traffic. At the end was made a cost estimate of materials used in each subarea for assessment of the economical viability and the possible replacement of lateritic gravel by these materials. It is possible to conclude that the mixtures studied in this research present technical, economical and environmental viability and can be used to replace the lateritic gravel traditionally used in paving in the region. / O município de Aparecida de Goiânia-GO tem uma estimativa atual de 16.782.313 m² de vias urbanas, sendo que deste total ainda faltam 51,5% para serem pavimentados. No entanto, a equipe técnica da prefeitura enfrenta um desafio relacionado à aquisição de cascalho para pavimentação dessas ruas. Tendo em vista que a maioria das vias do município apresenta baixo volume de tráfego (N&#8804; 5.105), torna-se necessário encontrar uma solução alternativa a essa adversidade que apresente viabilidade técnica e econômica. Uma parceria realizada entre a Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG) e a Prefeitura de Aparecida de Goiânia-GO, iniciou um estudo para utilização de materiais não convencionais nas obras de pavimentação. Inicialmente foi desenvolvido um estudo laboratorial com ensaios de caracterização, compactação, expansão, Índice de Suporte Califórnia e triaxial dinâmico com os seguintes materiais: solo fino típico abundante na região, brita 1, expurgo de pedreira, cal hidratada do tipo CH-III e cascalho. Os resultados desses ensaios indicaram melhor desempenho para as misturas solo(50%)-brita1(50%), solo(50%)-expurgo(50%) e solo(91%)-cal(9%) que foram as amostras escolhidas para utilização em um trecho experimental. Para avaliar o comportamento dessas misturas e do cascalho laterítico na camada de base do pavimento foram realizados ensaios de penetrômetro dinâmico de cone (DCP), prova de carga sobre placa e viga Benkelman durante a construção no subleito, sobre a base e no revestimento de pré misturado a frio (PMF) e também seis e doze meses após abertura ao tráfego. Ao final realizou-se estimativa de custo dos materiais utilizados em cada subtrecho para avaliação da viabilidade econômica e a possível substituição do cascalho por esses materiais. Conclui-se que as misturas estudadas nesta pesquisa apresentam viabilidade técnica, econômica e ambiental e podem ser utilizados em substituição ao cascalho laterítico tradicionalmente usado nas obras de pavimentação da região. OBS: Está sobrescrito o 5 em 5.105. O programa não copia algumas formatações.

A estimulação elétrica periférica (PES), que abrange diversas técnicas com respostas fisiológicas diversas, tem apresentado em alguns casos resultados clínicos promissores para o tratamento da dor e reabilitação clínica. No entanto, as respostas encontradas são heterogêneas, principalmente porque há uma falta de compreensão em relação ao seu mecanismo de ação. Neste estudo, buscamos avaliar os efeitos da PES através da medição da ativação cortical cerebral utilizando a espectroscopia funcional por infravermelho (fNIRS). A fNIRS é um método de imagem óptica funcional que avalia mudanças hemodinâmicas nas concentrações de hemoglobina oxigenada (HbO) e desoxigenada (HbR), relacionadas à atividade cortical. Nós hipotetizamos que a PES do nervo acessório espinal (ASN) pode promover a ativação do córtex motor (MC) e do córtex pré-frontal dorsolateral (DLPFC), relacionados ao processamento da dor. Quinze voluntários saudáveis receberam estimulação elétrica ativa e sham em um ensaio clínico randomizado cruzado. A resposta hemodinâmica à estimulação elétrica unilateral direita do nervo acessório com 10 Hz foi medida pela espectroscopia funcional por um sistema de 40 canais. A variação de HbO nas áreas corticais de interesse mostrou ativação do DLPFC direito (p=0,025) e do MOTOR esquerdo (p=0,042) no grupo ativo comparado com sham. Em relação ao DLPFC esquerdo (p=0,610) e ao MOTOR direito (p=0,154), não houve diferença estatística entre os grupos. Como na modulação top-down, a estimulação bottom-up do nervo acessório parece ativar as mesmas áreas corticais, relacionadas às dimensões sensório-discriminativas e afetivo-motivacionais da dor. Esses resultados fornecem evidência adicional para desenvolver e otimizar o uso clínico da estimulação elétrica periférica. / Peripheral electrical stimulation (PES), which encompasses several techniques with heterogeneous physiological responses, has shown in some cases remarkable outcomes for pain treatment and clinical rehabilitation. However, results are still mixed, mainly because there is a lack of understanding regarding its neural mechanisms of action. In this study, we aimed to assess its effects by measuring cortical activation as indexed by functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). fNIRS is a functional optical imaging method to evaluate hemodynamic changes in oxygenated (HbO) and de-oxygenated (HbR) blood hemoglobin concentrations in cortical capillary networks that can be related to cortical activity. We hypothesized that PES of accessory spinal nerve (ASN) can promote cortical activation of motor cortex (MC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) pain processing cortical areas. Fifteen healthy volunteers received both active and sham ASN electrical stimulation in a crossover design. The hemodynamic response to unilateral right ASN burst electrical stimulation with 10 Hz was measured by a 40- channel fNIRS system. The effect of ASN electrical stimulation over HbO concentration in cortical areas of interest was observed through the activation of right- DLPFC (p=0.025) and left-MOTOR (p=0.042) in the active group but not in sham group. Regarding left-DLPFC (p=0.610) and right-MOTOR (p=0.174) there was no statistical difference between groups. As in non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) topdown modulation, bottom-up electrical stimulation to the accessory spinal nerve seems to activate the same critical cortical areas on pain pathways related to sensorydiscriminative and affective-motivational pain dimensions. These results provide additional mechanistic evidence to develop and optimize the effects of peripheral neural electrical stimulation.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T16:25:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Rita de Cassia Mendonca.pdf: 2311795 bytes, checksum: 48636bc792002f04d6f00cd6bd5c47a4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-04-28 / There is a great demand in Brazil for research that have, as the main object of study, the adolescent voice during the stage of vocal change. In regard to the study of the voice of these youngsters, whether solo or in choirs, what we observe is the use of pedagogical practices more appropriate for mature adult s voices. The voice teacher, as well as the conductor, must have knowledge about the predictable and successive stages of vocal development which young people go through at the time of the transition from childhood to adulthood. In addition to these stages, it is necessary to understand the emotional, physiological and sociological issues, as well as the cognitive abilities of the adolescents. With such knowledge, the teacher and the conductor may help with the development of the voices of their students / singers based on the principles of vocal and emotional health. The improper handling of these voices during the process of maturing can cause vocal and psychological problems that may be irreversible. In light of contemporary theories about the adolescent and the vocal study, this study aims to define a repertoire and vocal technique exercises that will work as an appropriate program to be sung by the adolescent voice in phase of change. This program will be applied at the Instrument Technical Course of the Federal Institute of the Education Science and Technology of Goiás, where the students, at this stage, may answer to the aspirations for a consistent training in order to become professional singers and, at the same time, attending to the working world, combined with the vocal and emotional health of the adolescents. / No Brasil há uma grande demanda por pesquisas que tenham como principal objeto o estudo sobre o adolescente em fase de mudança vocal. Com relação ao estudo do canto destes jovens, tanto solo, como em corais, o que se observa é a utilização de práticas pedagógicas apropriadas para as vozes maduras dos adultos. O professor de canto, assim como o regente, devem ser conhecedores dos estágios de desenvolvimento vocal, previsíveis e sucessivos, que ocorrem com os jovens no momento de transição entre a infância e a fase adulta. Além destes estágios, faz-se necessário conhecer as questões emocionais, fisiológicas, sociológicas e cognitivas dos adolescentes. De posse destes conhecimentos, o professor e o regente poderão acompanhar e desenvolver as vozes de seus alunos/cantores a partir do princípio da saúde vocal e emocional. O tratamento inadequado destas vozes em fase de amadurecimento pode provocar problemas vocais e psicológicos muitas vezes irreversíveis. Sob a luz de teorias contemporâneas sobre o adolescente e o ensino do canto, o presente estudo tem como objetivo definir repertórios e exercícios de técnica vocal adequados ao adolescente em fase de mudança vocal. Esta proposta se destina a ser aplicada a alunos do Curso Técnico em Instrumento Musical do Instituto Federal de Educação Ciência e Tecnologia de Goiás, cujas vozes se encontram nesta fase de mudança, atendendo, por um lado, os anseios destes jovens cantores em busca de uma formação profissional e, por outro, do mundo do trabalho, aliados à saúde vocal e emocional da adolescência.

Il rapporto del giovane Heidegger con Duns Scoto viene analizzato con particolare riferimento alla tesi del 1916 "La dottrina delle categorie e del significato in Duns Scoto". Il pensatore scolastico viene indicato come fonte di primaria importanza per lo sviluppo dell'ontologia heideggeriana matura attraverso alcuni elementi chiave: l'univocità del concetto di essere, la razionalità di principio dell'individuo, la ricerca di un linguaggio descrittivo adatto alla filosofia. Carl Braig risulta uno degli autori il cui contributo determinò maggiormente in Heidegger l'interesse per i problemi dell'ontologia scotista. / The young Heidegger’s relationship to Duns Scotus is analysed with particular reference to the thesis on “Duns Scotus’s Doctrine of Categories and Meaning” (1916). The scholastic thinker is shown to be a source of primary importance for Heidegger’s mature ontology by the means of some key features: the univocity of the concept of Being, the basic intelligibility of the individual, the search for a descriptive language suitable for philosophy. Carl Braig turns out to be one of the authors who contributed the most to determine Heidegger’s interest in the problems of scotist ontology.

<div>Electrical nerve stimulation (ENS) is an emerging therapy for many neurological disorders. Compared with conventional one-way stimulations, closed-loop ENS approaches increase the stimulation efficacy and minimize patient's discomfort by constantly adjusting the stimulation parameters according to the feedback biomarkers from patients. Wireless neurostimulation devices capable of both stimulation and telemetry of recorded physiological signals are welcome for closed-loop ENS systems to improve the quality and reduce the costs of treatments, and real-time digital signal processing (DSP) engines processing and extracting features from recorded signals can reduce the data transmission rate and the resulting power consumption of wireless devices. Electrically-evoked compound action potential (ECAP) is an objective measure of nerve activity and has been used as the feedback biomarker in closed-loop ENS systems including neural response telemetry (NRT) systems and a newly proposed autonomous nerve control (ANC) platform. It's desirable to design a DSP engine for real-time processing of ECAP in closed-loop ENS systems. </div><div><br></div><div>This thesis focuses on developing the DSP architecture for real-time processing of ECAP, including stimulus artifact rejection (SAR), denoising, and extraction of nerve fiber responses as biomedical features, and its VLSI implementation for optimal hardware costs. The first part presents the DSP architecture for real-time SAR and denoising of ECAP in NRT systems. A bidirectional-filtered coherent averaging (BFCA) method is proposed, which enables the configurable linear-phase filter to be realized hardware efficiently for distortion-free filtering of ECAPs and can be easily combined with the alternating-polarity (AP) stimulation method for SAR. Design techniques including folded-IIR filter and division-free averaging are incorporated to reduce the computation cost. The second part presents the fiber-response extraction engine (FREE), a dedicated DSP engine for nerve activation control in the ANC platform. FREE employs the DSP architecture of the BFCA method combined with the AP stimulation, and the architecture of computationally efficient peak detection and classification algorithms for fiber response extraction from ECAP. FREE is mapped onto a custom-made and battery-powered wearable wireless device incorporating a low-power FPGA, a Bluetooth transceiver, a stimulation and recording analog front-end and a power-management unit. In comparison with previous software-based signal processing, FREE not only reduces the data rate of wireless devices but also improves the precision of fiber response classification in noisy environments, which contributes to the construction of high-accuracy nerve activation profile in the ANC platform. An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) version of FREE is implemented in 180-nm CMOS technology, with total chip area and core power consumption of 19.98 mm² and 1.95 mW, respectively. </div><div><br></div>