Thesis (MSc Food Sc)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Phenolic compounds of the types present in plums have been found to exhibit health-promoting properties associated with their antioxidant capacity. Fruits with red peel and/or flesh are thus sought-after for their high antioxidant levels. In the current study South African plum (Prunus salicina Lindl.) cultivars and selections, harvested during two consecutive fruit seasons, were compared in terms of general fruit attributes (colour, firmness, °Brix, pH, titratable acidity), phenolic composition and antioxidant capacity. The effect of season and a commercial cold storage and ripening regime was also investigated. A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography-diode-array-fluorescence detection (HPLC-DAD-FLD) method suitable for use with mass spectrometry (MS) detection, was optimised for separation and identification of phenolic compounds from four phenolic groups (phenolic acids, anthocyanins, flavan-3-ols and flavonols) in six South African plum cultivars and five selections. Parameters that were optimised include the mobile phases, analysis temperature and gradient program. Good stability, linearity and inter- and intra-day precision were obtained. Identification of compounds was based on comparison of retention times, UV-Vis spectra and mass fragments with available authentic phenolic standards and/or literature data. The optimised method allowed identification or tentative identification of twenty-four phenolic compounds, including cyanidin-3-O-glycosides, quercetin glycosides, monomeric, dimeric and trimeric flavan-3-ols, and hydroxycinnamic acids. An on-line ABTS•+ (2,2ʹ-azinobis-(3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) antioxidant assay, performed for qualitative evaluation of the antioxidant response of individual phenolic compounds, indicated the flavan-3-ols as major antioxidants in plums. Eighteen phenolic compounds were quantified, including anthocyanins and flavonol glycosides, flavan-3-ols (monomers and dimers) and hydroxycinnamic acids. Phenolic composition differed greatly between cultivars and selections. Cyanidin-3-O-glucoside was the predominant anthocyanin in plums with red peel and/or flesh, followed by cyanidin-3-O-rutinoside. Cyanidin-3-O-galactoside was present only in the cultivar Laetitia (red peel, yellow flesh). The ripe fruit of Ruby Red and PR04-19, both with red peel and flesh, had the highest anthocyanin content for the first and second harvest season, respectively. Neochlorogenic acid and quercetin-3-O-glucoside were the major phenolic acid and flavonol, respectively. Chlorogenic acid, 3-O-p-coumaroylquinic acid and several quercetin-glycosides and -diglycosides were also present in some cultivars and selections. Procyanidin B1 was the flavan-3-ol present in the highest concentration in the majority of cultivars and selections and its content correlated with the (+)-catechin content, while the same was observed for procyanidin B2 and (-)-epicatechin. The effect of cold storage and ripening on fruit attributes differed greatly between cultivars and selections. The increase and decrease in pH and titratable acidity, respectively, were as expected for ripe fruit as opposed to unripe fruit. Ripe fruit had higher a*-values and lower L*-values. The cold storage and ripening regime had no significant effect on total polyphenol and total flavan-3-ol content of the cultivars and selections, but the anthocyanin content increased in some cases. In terms of in vitro antioxidant capacity, the selections PR04-32 and PR04-35, both with red peel and flesh, had the highest antioxidant capacity, irrespective of assay. Sapphire (red peel, yellow flesh), with the lowest total polyphenol content, also had the lowest antioxidant capacity in the ORAC and FRAP assays. Both the total polyphenol and flavan-3-ol contents correlated significantly to antioxidant capacity, irrespective of assay. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Fenoliese verbindings, soos teenwoordig in pruime, is bekend vir hul gesondheidsbevorderende eienskappe wat geassosieer word met antioksidant kapasiteit. Vrugte met ‘n rooi skil en/of vleis is veral gesog as gevolg van hul hoë antioksidant aktiwiteit. Met hierdie studie is Suid-Afrikaanse pruim (Prunus salicina Lindl.) kultivars en seleksies, geoes tydens twee opeenvolgende seisoene, vergelyk in terme van algemene vrug einskappe (kleur, fermheid, °Brix, pH en titreerbare suurheid), fenoliese samestelling en antioksidant kapasiteit. Die effek van ‘n kommersiële koelopberging en rypwording prosedure is ook ondersoek. ‘n Omgekeerde-fase hoë-druk vloeistof chromatografie (HPLC) metode met diode-opstelling en fluoressensie deteksie, maar wat ook geskik is vir massa spektrometrie (MS), is geoptimiseer om fenoliese verbindings te skei en te identifiseer in Suid-Afrikaanse pruime. Verbindings van vier fenoliese groepe (fenoliese sure, antosianiene, flavan-3-ole en flavonole) wat in ses kultivars en vyf seleksies voorgekom het, is ondersoek. Die vloeistof fases, skeidingstemperatuur en gradiënt van die metode is geoptimiseer. Goeie resultate vir stabiliteit, lineariteit en inter- en intra-dag akkuraatheid is verkry. Verbindings is geïdentifiseer deur vergelyking van retensie tye, UV-Vis spektra en massa fragmente met dié van egte fenoliese standaarde en/of met literatuur data. Vier-en-twintig fenoliese verbindings is geïdentifiseer of voorlopig geïdentifiseer, insluitende sianidien- en kwersetien glikosiede, flavan-3-ol monomere, dimere en trimere, en hidroksikaneelsure. ‘n Aanlyn ABTS•+ (2,2 ʹ-azino-di-(3-etielbensotialosien-sulfoon suur) radikaal katioon blussingstoets is gebruik om die antioksidant reaksie van individuele polifenole op ‘n kwalitatiewe wyse te evalueer en flavan-3-ole is as hoof antioksidante in pruime aangetoon. Kwantifisering van agtien verbindings, insluitende antosianiene, flavonol glikosiede, flavan-3-ole (monomere en dimere) en hidroksikaneelsure, was moontlik met hierdie geoptimiseerde metode. Die fenoliese samestelling het aansienlik verskil tussen kultivars en seleksies. Sianidien-3-O-glukosied was die hoof antosianien in pruime met ‘n rooi skil en/of vleis, gevolg deur sianidien-3-O-rutinosied. Sianidien-3-O-galaktosied het slegs in Laetitia (rooi skil en geel vleis) voorgekom. Ryp vrugte van Ruby Red en PR04-19, beide met rooi skil en vleis, het onderskeidelik die hoogste antosianieninhoud gehad met die eerste en tweede seisoen se oeste. Neochlorogeniese suur en kwersetien-3-O-glukosied was die hoof fenoliese suur en flavon-3-ol, onderskeidelik. Chlorogeniese suur, 3-O-p-kumarienkwiniensuur en verskeie kwersetien glikosiede en diglikosiede was teenwoordig in sekere kultivars/seleksies. Die flavan-3-ol, prosianidien B1, was teenwoordig in die hoogste konsentrasie in die meerderheid kultivars/seleksies. Die prosianidien B1 inhoud het met die (+)-katekien inhoud gekorreleer, terwyl dieselfde gevind is vir prosianidien B2 en (-)-epikatekien. Die effek van koelopberging en rypwording op die algemene vrug einskappe het tussen kultivars en seleksies verskil. Die pH en titreerbare suurheid het onderskeidelik toegeneem en afgeneem, soos verwag is vir ryp vrugte teenoor onryp vrugte. Ryp vrugte het hoër a*-waardes en laer L*-waardes getoon. Koelopberging en rypwording het geen beduidende effek op die totale polifenol- en totale flavan-3-ol inhoud gehad nie, maar die antosianieninhoud het vir sommige kultivars en seleksies toegeneem. In terme van in vitro antioksidant kapasiteit het die seleksies PR04-32 en PR04-35, beide met rooi skil en vleis, die hoogste antioksidant kapasiteit getoon, ongeag die antioksidant toets wat gebruik is. Sapphire (rooi skil en geel vleis) het die laagste totale polifenolinhoud gehad, asook die laagste antioksidant kapasiteit soos bepaal deur die ORAC en FRAP toetse. Beide die totale polifenol- en flavan-3-ol inhoud het beduidend met die antioksidant kapasiteit korreleer, ongeag van die toets wat gebruik is.

The contribution of this thesis is twofold: 1) the development of a hydrodynamic landscape evolution model for use on high-performance computing systems and 2) assessing the sensitivity of hydrogeomorphic processes to high-resolution rainfall input data and erosional parameterisation using the model. The thesis addresses a limitation in numerical landscape evolution models regarding how spatial variation in rainfall is represented or parameterised within such models. Typically, landscape evolution models forsake a realistic representation of rainfall patterns in favour of a simpler treatment of rainfall as being spatially homogeneous across the model domain. This simplification of rainfall spatial variability is still made despite the fact that many geomorphological processes are sensitive to thresholds of sediment entrainment and transport, driven by the distribution and movement of water within the landscape. The thesis starts by exploring current limitations in rainfall representation in landscape evolution models, and assesses various precipitation data sources that could be potentially used as more realistic rainfall inputs to landscape evolution models. A numerical model of landscape evolution is developed for deployment on high-performance parallel computing systems, based on the established CAESAR-Lisflood model (Coulthard et al., 2013). The new model code is benchmarked, showing performance benefits compared with the original CAESAR-Lisflood model it is based on. The model is applied to assessing the sensitivity of flood-inundation predictions, sediment flux, and erosion distribution within river catchments to spatial variation in rainfall during extreme storm events. Two real storm events that caused localised flash flooding in the UK are used as test cases: the Boscastle storm of 2004 and the North York Moors storm of 2005. Flood extent predictions and river discharges are found to be sensitive to the use of spatially variable input rainfall data, with high-resolution rainfall data leading to larger peak flood discharges. However, the differences are less pronounced in smaller catchments. The role of sediment erosion during large floods is also assessed, but it is found to play a minor role relative to spatially variable rainfall data. In contrast, the geomorphological response of catchments to single storm events is shown to be less sensitive to the spatial heterogeneity of rainfall input and controlled more strongly by the choice of erosional process parameterisation within the model. Nonetheless, spatial variability in rainfall data is shown to increase sediment yields during flash flood simulations.

The current volume of research in the field of High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) is focused on identifying the factors, which influence their effectiveness. The realisation that there is a need to move forwards from the structural aspects of HPWS towards understanding their implementation has led to two new sectors of research. The first sector is investigating the role of actors in implementation using aspects such as cross functionality, shared responsibility and interaction. Another sector is investigating the impact of contextual factors on the implementation of HPWS. This research has combined the two sectors and looks at the implementation of HPWS from the perspectives of both the actors and the environment. This research investigates how the interaction between actors affects the implementation of HPWS. Also how internal and external institutional factors affect this interaction as well as the implementation. This research is qualitatively based on an interpretivist paradigm. Case study research design was used to conduct the research. Two Saudi Arabian banks were selected as case studies. Data was collected using 54 semi-structured interviews and 61 focus group interviews. Data about implementation and the impact of institutional factors was obtained through semi-structured interviews with human resource managers, line managers and senior managers. Data about employee outcomes was obtained using focus group interviews with the employees. This research finds evidence of conflict between the intended and actual outcomes of HPWS in the Saudi banking sector due to institutional pressures. This research contributes and extends the growing body of research on HPWS implementation by including the interaction of actors and accounting for institutional pressures. The finding highlights that the combination of these two factors are contextual institutional conductors and contribute to diversity in the implementation of HPWS practices. The managerial benefit of this research is that its model can help practitioners to improve their social interaction conditions for better performance.

Ao analisarem-se súmulas dos campeonatos estaduais de ginástica artística dos últimos anos observou-se uma redução drástica no número de praticantes a partir dos 12 anos de idade. A desistência nesta faixa etária no RS passou a ser um problema para a ginástica artística (GA) de alto rendimento do Estado. Devido à falta de estudos específicos para esta modalidade esportiva no RS esta pesquisa propõese aos seguintes objetivos: (1) analisar os fatores que levam à desistência das ginastas de alto rendimento no RS; (2) identificar e descrever os fatores positivos e negativos do desenvolvimento no processo de formação das ginastas; (3) correlacionar o tipo de treinamento aplicado as ginastas em formação com os resultados obtidos na carreira; (4) verificar se há trabalho psicológico com as ginastas e que tipo de trabalho é realizado; (5) correlacionar a influência da iniciação precoce com a formação das ginastas; (6) verificar a influência do nível sócio econômico no desenvolvimento das ginastas; (7) identificar e analisar o papel da família no processo de formação das ginastas; (8) identificar e analisar o papel do técnico no processo de formação das ginastas. Para a pesquisa, foram selecionadas 10 ex-ginastas que treinaram no RS e participaram de Campeonatos Brasileiros de 1ª divisão e que desistiram da GA a partir de janeiro de 1998. Foram incluídos seus respectivos pais e/ou responsáveis. O instrumento utilizado para a coleta de informações foi a entrevista semiestruturada em duas versões, uma para as exginastas e outra para os pais. Os resultados apontam haver 14 razões para a desistência da prática da GA de alto rendimento e outros itens positivos, entre estes o principal ponto citado foi a disciplina adquirida para a realização de outras atividades fora da vida esportiva. / When analysing the state championships of gymnastic artistic summaries of the last years, it is possible to observe a huge reduction of the numbers of practitioners with 12 years old. The desistance in this age group has become a problem for the high performance artistic gymnastics (AG) in Rio Grande do Sul (RS). Due to the lack of specific studies about this sport, this research aims to: (1) analyse the factors that leads to desistance from the high performance gymnasts in RS; (2) identify and describe the positive and negative factors of the development in the gymnasts training; (3) correlate the kind of training that is applied to the gymnasts with the results that are obtained in their careers; (4) verify if is there a psychological attendance for the gymnasts and what kind of attendance was being given; (5) correlate the influence of precocious initiation with the gymnasts training; (6) verify the influence of the socio-economic level in the development of the gymnasts; (7) identify and analyse the role of the family in the process of gymnasts training; (8) identify and analyse the role of the coacher in the process of gymnasts training. Ten ex-gymnasts were selected for this research, who had trained in RS and had participated of Brazilian Championships and had given-up from artistic gymnastics from January 1998. Their parents were also selected. The semi-structured interview was used in two versions: one for the ex-gymnasts and another one for their parents. The results point out that there are fourteen reasons for the desistance from high performance gymnastics, and that there are positive items like the acquired discipline to accomplish other activities that are not related with sports.

La hiérarchie mémoire des serveurs de calcul est de plus en plus complexe. Les machines disposent de plusieurs niveaux de caches plus ou moins partagés et d’une mémoire distribuée. Plus récemment le paysage du Calcul Haute Performance (CHP) a vu apparaître des mémoires adressables embarquées dans le processeur ainsi que de nouvelles mémoires non-volatiles (périphérique mémoire sur le bus d’entrées sorties et prochainement de la mémoire non-volatile directement sur le bus mémoire). Cette hiérarchie est nécessaire pour espérer obtenir de bonnes performances de calcul, au prix d’une gestion minutieuse du placement des données et des tâches de calcul. Là où la gestion des caches était entièrement matérielle et masquée au développeur, le choix du placement des données dans telle ou telle zone de mémoire, plus ou moins rapide, volatile ou non, volumineuse ou non, est maintenant paramétrable logiciellement. Cette nouvelle flexibilité donne une grande liberté aux développeurs mais elle complexifie surtout leur travail quand il s’agit de choisir les stratégies d’allocation, de communication, de placement, etc. En effet, les caractéristiques des nombreux niveaux de hiérarchie impliqués varient significativement en vitesse, taille et fonctionnalités. Dans cette thèse, co-encadrée entre Atos Bull Technologies et Inria Bordeaux– Sud-Ouest, nous détaillons la structure des plates-formes contemporaines et caractérisons la performance des accès à la mémoire selon plusieurs scénarios de localité des tâches de calcul et des données accédées. Nous expliquons comment la sémantique du langage de programmation impacte la localité des données dans la machine et donc la performance des applications. En collaboration avec le laboratoire INESC-ID de Lisbonne, nous proposons une extension au célèbre modèle Roofline pour exposer de manière intelligible les compromis de performance et de localité aux développeurs d’applications. Nous proposons par ailleurs un outil de synthèse de métriques de localité mettant en lien les évènements de performance de l’application et de la machine avec la topologie de cette dernière. Enfin, nous proposons une approche statistique pour sélectionner automatiquement la meilleure politique de placement des tâches de calcul sur les coeurs de la machine et des données sur les mémoires. / Through years, the complexity of High Performance Computing (HPC) systems’ memory hierarchy has increased. Nowadays, large scale machines typically embed several levels of caches and a distributed memory. Recently, on-chip memories and non-volatile PCIe based flash have entered the HPC landscape. This memory architecture is a necessary pain to obtain high performance, but at the cost of a thorough task and data placement. Hardware managed caches used to hide the tedious locality optimizations. Now, data locality, in local or remote memories, in fast or slow memory, in volatile or non-volatile memory, with small or wide capacity, is entirely software manageable. This extra flexibility grants more freedom to application designers but with the drawback of making their work more complex and expensive. Indeed, when managing tasks and data placement, one has to account for several complex trade-offs between memory performance, size and features. This thesis has been supervised between Atos Bull Technologies and Inria Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest. In the hereby document, we detail contemporary HPC systems and characterize machines performance for several locality scenarios. We explain how the programming language semantics affects data locality in the hardware, and thus applications performance. Through a joint work with the INESC-ID laboratory in Lisbon, we propose an insightful extension to the famous Roofline performance model in order to provide locality hints and improve applications performance. We also present a modeling framework to map platform and application performance events to the hardware topology, in order to extract synthetic locality metrics. Finally, we propose an automatic locality policy selector, on top of machine learning algorithms, to easily improve applications tasks and data placement.

Marine brown algae (seaweeds) are a rich source of fucoxanthin, a xanthophyll carotenoid that is naturally, an accessory pigment in the process of photosynthesis of sea vegetation such as Sargassum incisifolium. Fucoxanthin has been exploited by nutraceutical companies for its anti-obesity effects that has resulted in an increase of seaweed slimming preparations such as FucoThin™. The field is getting widespread consumer attention as interest in fucoxanthin has also transcended to its widespread biological potential which include cytotoxicity, anti-diabetic, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-plasmodium effects. We therefore wanted to identify a reliable source(s) of fucoxanthin from diverse samples of South African marine brown algae in order to explore our medicinal chemistry interests around the cytotoxicity and anti-malarial potential of fucoxanthin. A known source, Sargassum incisifolium, was used to isolate (maceration in CH₂Cl₂/MeOH at 35 °C followed by a hexane/EtOAc step gradient silica column of the crude extract and reversed phase semi-prep HPLC) and characterize (1D and 2D NMR) fucoxanthin (reference standard) in order to develop an analytical method for its determination in selected diverse brown algae commonly found in South Africa. The HPLC [Column: Phenomenex® Synergi™ (250 x 3.0 mm i.d); Mobile phase: ACN/H2O (95:5)] method developed for this analysis was validated according the guidelines set by the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH). Fifteen species were then assessed for fucoxanthin content (μg/g of dried weight) using the developed method. Stability studies on fucoxanthin were also carried out to assess photo- and pH degradation of fucoxanthin. Zonaria subarticulata (KOS130226-18) from Kenton-On-Sea beach and Sargassum incisifolium (PA130427-1) from Port Alfred beach were found to be the highest producers of fucoxanthin with 0.50 mg/g and 0.45 mg/g dried weight respectively. Fucoxanthin was found to be both photo-labile and sensitive to both acidic and basic pH environments. However, the pigment was more photostable in pure as opposed to extract form and also showed to be more stable at pH 10.0. Our findings show that Z. subarticulata and S. incisifolium could be reliable sources of fucoxanthin and can be considered as the algae to use in optimized extraction procedures in further studies. Also, when working with fucoxanthin, it is important to protect it from light. Any consideration of taking fucoxanthin preparation orally (as a nutraceutical) should consider protecting the active from the harsh conditions of the gastrointestinal tract. Any upscale production of fucoxanthin from seaweed should consider variations such as geographical, seasonal, lifecycle stage, etc. of identified algae as these may be important factors in obtaining effective concentrations of fucoxanthin.

Submitted by Maria Medeiros (maria.dilva1@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-08-24T11:22:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MIRTES AILA RODRIGUES DE CARVALHO - DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGECA) 2018.pdf: 2832182 bytes, checksum: eb9e4bf2802a12b8ca3371f98de48cbb (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T11:22:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MIRTES AILA RODRIGUES DE CARVALHO - DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGECA) 2018.pdf: 2832182 bytes, checksum: eb9e4bf2802a12b8ca3371f98de48cbb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-12 / Capes / As misturas asfálticas com ligantes modificados por polímeros são cada vez mais utilizadas para satisfazer as necessidades crescentes do tráfego rodoviário, melhorando as condições de resistência, de durabilidade dos revestimentos asfálticos sob a ação de cargas pesadas. Os polímeros reativos/não-reativos e o ácido polifosfórico, em separado, são opções utilizadas como modificadores dos ligantes cujo o objetivo é melhorar as propriedades mecânicas da mistura asfáltica. No entanto, o uso combinado dos modificadores pode proporcionar melhores resultados que o uso individual. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi de avaliar o comportamento mecânico de misturas asfálticas quando modificadas por polímero reativo/não-reativo associados ao ácido polifosfórico como catalizador em diferentes teores. Para isso foram realizados ensaios físicos e mecânicos nos ligantes 50/70 com adição de Etileno Acrilato de Metila e Metacrilato de Glicidila (EMA-GMA) comercialmente conhecido por S74, Terpolímero de Alta densidade (SX500) e Ácido Polifosfórico (PPA116%), antes e após envelhecimento a curto prazo (RTFO) e nos ligantes 50/70, 55/75 sem a modificação. Foram dosadas misturas asfálticas com 1,8%S74, 0,3%SX500 associadas a teores variados de 0,15; 0,3 e 0,5% PPA116% e analisado o comportamento mecânico das misturas asfálticas por meio de ensaios de Resistência a Tração, Módulo de Resiliência, Módulo Dinâmico, Flow Number, Lotman Modificado e Desgaste Cântabro. Os resultados indicam que as misturas asfálticas com os ligantes modificados com polímero reativo/não-reativo associados ao ácido polifosfórico nos teores de 0,3 e 0,5%PPA se classificam como ligantes elastoméricos 60/85-E e suas respectivas misturas asfálticas possuem maior resistência a deformação permanente quando submetidos a altas temperaturas, maior resistência ao desgaste e menor susceptibilidade a umidade, indicando que tais misturas podem ser usadas como alternativa a misturas asfálticas convencionais, principalmente para regiões de clima tropical. / The polymer modified asphalt mixtures are increasingly being used to satisfy the growing road traffic needs, improving their resistance conditions and the asphalt coating durability under the action of heavy loads. The reactive/non-reactive polymers and the polyphosphoric acid, separated, are largely used as modifiers for the asphalt binders whose objective is to improve its mechanical properties. However, the combined use of them can provide better results that individually. This researches objective was to evaluate the mechanical behavior of the asphalt mixtures when modified with reactive/non-reactive polymer associated with the polyphosphoric acid as a catalyst in different contents. There were performed physical and mechanical tests on the 50/70 binder with the addition of ethylene methyl acrylate and glycidyl methacrylate (EMA-GMA) commercially known as S74, high density thermo-polymer (SX500) and polyphosphoric acid (PPA 116%), before and after the short term aging process (RTFO). The same procedures were performed on the 50/70 and 55/75 non modified binders. Asphalt mixtures were designed with 1,8%S74, 0,3SX500 associated with varied contents of 0,15; 0,30 and 0,50% PPA 116% and analyzed in relation to its mechanical behavior by means of traction resistance, resilience module, dynamic module, flow number, modified lotman and cântabro wear tests. The results indicate that the asphalt mixtures modified with reactive/non-reactive polymer associated with the polyphosphofic acid in the contents of 0,3 and 0,5%PPA are classified as 60/85-E elastomeric binders and have a higher permanent deformation resistance when subjected to high temperatures, greater wear resistance and lower susceptibility to humidity, indicating that this mixtures can be used as an alternative to conventional asphalt mixtures, mainly in tropical climate regions.

Message Passing Interface (MPI) é o padrão de facto para o desenvolvimento de aplicações paralelas e de alto desempenho que executem em clusters. O padrão define APIs para as linguagens de programação Fortran, C e C++. Por outro lado a programação orientada a objetos é o paradigma de programação dominante atualmente, onde linguagens de programação como Java e C# têm se tornado muito populares. Isso se deve às abstrações voltadas para facilitar a programação oriundas dessas linguagens de programação, permitindo um ciclo de programação/manutenção mais eficiente. Devido a isso, diversas bibliotecas MPI para essas linguagens emergiram. Dentre elas, pode-se destacar a biblioteca MPI.NET, para a linguagem de programação C#, que possui a melhor relação entre abstração e desempenho. Na computação paralela, o modelo utilizado para o desenvolvimento das aplicações é muito importante, sendo que o modelo Divisão & Conquista é escalável, aplicável a diversos problemas e permite a execução eficiente de aplicações cuja carga de trabalho é desconhecida ou irregular. Para programar utilizando esse modelo é necessário que o ambiente de execução suporte dinamismo, o que não é suportado pela biblioteca MPI.NET. Desse cenário emerge a principal motivação desse trabalho, cujo objetivo é explorar a criação dinâmica de tarefas na biblioteca MPI.NET. Ao final, foi possível obter uma biblioteca com desempenho competitivo em relação ao desempenho das bibliotecas MPI para C++. / Message Passing Interface (MPI) is the de facto standard for the development of high performance applications executing on clusters. The standard defines APIs for the programming languages Fortran C and C++. On the other hand, object oriented programming has become the dominant programming paradigm, where programming languages as Java and C# are becoming very popular. This can be justified by the abstractions contained in these programming languages, allowing a more efficient programming/maintenance cycle. Because of this, several MPI libraries emerged for these programming languages. Among them, we can highlight the MPI.NET library for the C# programming language, which has the best relation between abstraction and performance. In parallel computing, the model used for the development of applications is very important, and the Divide and Conquer model is efficiently scalable, applicable to several problems and allows efficient execution of applications whose workload is unknown or irregular. To program using this model, the execution environment must provide dynamism, which is not provided by the MPI.NET library. From this scenario emerges the main goal of this work, which is to explore dynamic tasks creation on the MPI.NET library. In the end we where able to obtain a library with competitive performance against MPI C++ libraries.

Computação voluntária é um tipo de computação distribuída na qual o proprietário do computador cede parte dos seus recursos computacionais, tais como poder de processamento ou armazenamento, para a execução de um ou mais projetos de pesquisa de seu interesse. Na área de processamento de alto desempenho, o modelo de computação voluntária desempenha um papel muito importante. Sistemas de computação voluntária de larga escala provaram ser mecanismos eficientes para resolução de problemas complexos. Em tais sistemas, que são essencialmente centralizados, centenas ou milhares de computadores são organizados em rede para processar uma série de tarefas, encaminhadas e distribuídas por um servidor central. Nesse tipo de solução, é imprescindível ter um mecanismo para a persistência dos resultados intermediários produzidos, de maneira periódica, para evitar a perda de informações em caso de falhas. Esse mecanismo, chamado de checkpoint, também é importante, em ambientes de computação voluntária, para garantir que no momento em que o proprietário do recurso retomar sua utilização, os resultados intermediários produzidos sejam armazenados para uma posterior recuperação. Sem um mecanismo de checkpoint consistente, resultados produzidos pelos nodos de computação voluntária podem ser perdidos, gerando um desperdício do poder de computação. A pesquisa contemplada nessa dissertação tem por objetivo propor um mecanismo de checkpoint baseado no armazenamento do contexto de execução, através da prevalência de objetos. Essa abordagem proporciona a participação, em sistemas de computação voluntária, de recursos com capacidades limitadas de processamento, memória e espaço em disco que possuam curtos, porém frequentes, períodos de inatividade. Dessa forma, esses recursos poderão realizar checkpoints rápidos e frequentes, produzindo resultados efetivos. / Volunteer computing is a type of distributed computing in which resource owners donate their computing resources, such as processing power and storage, to one or more projects of interest. In the high-performance computing field, the volunteer computing model has been playing an important role. On current volunteer computing systems, which are essentially center-based, hundreds or thousands of computers are organized in a network to process a series of tasks, originally distributed by a centralized server. For this kind of environment, it is essential to have a mechanism to ensure that all intermediate produced results are stored, avoiding the loss of already processed data in case of failures. This mechanism, known as checkpoint, is also important in volunteer computing environments to ensure that when the resource owner takes control of the activities, all intermediate results are saved for later recovery. Without a consistent checkpoint mechanism, already produced data could be lost, leading to waste of computing power. The research done on this dissertation aims mainly at introducing a checkpoint mechanism based on context execution storage, through object prevalence. On it, resources which usually have limited processing power, memory and storage and with small but frequent periods of inactivity could be allowed to join volunteer computing environments. This is possible because they would be able to execute fast and frequent checkpoint operations in short period of times and therefore, be able to effectively produce results during its inactivity periods.

O presente trabalho aborda o desenvolvimento de um algoritmo de controle para um sistema de suspensão ativa para elevadores de alto desempenho. Esses dispositivos são muito usados no caso de suspensões veículos automotivos, mas não tanto em elevadores. Visando compreender os fenômenos envolvidos e executar testes do controle proposto através de simulações, é realizado um estudo da modelagem matemática desse sistema. O elevador estudado é de cabine com duplo andar (double-deck) e será usado em uma guia de 200 [m] de curso em um edifício de aproximadamente 500 [m] de altura. A velocidade de estado estacionário do elevador é 40 km/h. Buscando situar este trabalho no campo de pesquisa proposto, é apresentada uma introdução aos critérios e técnicas de controle linear utilizadas. O desenvolvimento do controlador é baseado no uso de um modelo matemático linear em espaço de estados que representa a dinâmica do sistema em um dos planos ortogonais. A síntese do controlador por realimentação no espaço de estados foi feita usando o método da alocação de pólos, com ajuda do regulador quadrático linear, realimentando os estados com um observador de ordem total. Um modelo computacional foi construído e utilizado para a realização de simulações computacionais com o controlador proposto. Os resultados de simulações do sistema passivo e ativo são apresentados e discutidos. / The present work proposes the development of an algorithm to control active suspension systems for high performance elevators. These devices are used in suspensions for automotive vehicles, but not in such a way in elevators. Aiming at the understanding of the involved phenomena and making tests of the controller considered through simulations, a mathematical model of this system is developed. The studied elevator is a double-deck one and will be used in a 200 [m] guide in an approximately 500 [m] height skyscraper. The steady state speed of the elevator is 40 km/h. Trying to contextualize this work, it is presented an introduction to the criteria and techniques of linear control applied in this work. The development of the controller is based on the use of a linear mathematical model in the states space that represents the dynamics of the system in one of the two orthogonals planes. The synthesis of the feedback controller in the states space was made using the pole placement method with the aid of the linear quadratic regulator, and the feedback of the states with a full order observer. A computational model was constructed. The results of passive and active simulations of the system are presented and discussed.