[pt] Para atender a necessidade de se tornarem mais competitivas, as organizações passaram a adotar sistemas de trabalho de alta performance, com vistas a aumentar o envolvimento dos trabalhadores no processo produtivo. Neste modelo, a gestão e a organização do trabalho são centradas em trabalhadores altamente qualificados, engajados e com autonomia, e os resultados são atingidos através do desenvolvimento de uma força de trabalho mais motivada e comprometida. Todavia, esse sistema produz, também, um processo de intensificação do trabalho, que pode trazer impactos negativos sobre a força de trabalho. Apesar dessa possibilidade, nota-se que as empresas ditas de alta performance tendem a ser bastante atraentes para os profissionais, que muitas vezes disputam suas vagas em processos seletivos concorridos. Essa constatação motivou a realização do presente trabalho, que teve como objetivo analisar as bases do contrato psicológico acordado entre indivíduos e empresas reconhecidas pelo mercado por adotarem as práticas de trabalho de alta performance, pela perspectiva de profissionais da área de recursos humanos destas empresas. Os resultados permitiram identificar os acordos criados entre profissionais e organizações de alta performance, sugerindo que estas empresas oferecem oportunidades de crescimento na carreira e a possibilidade de um aprendizado intenso associado à autonomia e responsabilidade. Em troca, esperam que seus funcionários sejam flexíveis, multifuncionais, tenham uma dedicação incondicional aos resultados da empresa e sejam capazes de trabalhar num cenário de intensificação do trabalho, onde a qualidade de vida é algo que deve ser deixada em segundo plano. / [en] To meet the need of becoming more competitive, organizations have adopted systems of high-performance work, aimed at increasing employee involvement in the production process. In this model, management and work organization are focused on highly skilled, engaged and autonomous employees, and the results are achieved through the development of a more motivated and committed workforce. However, this system produces a process of intensification of work also, which may bring negative impacts on the workforce. Despite this possibility, we note that the so-called high-performance companies tend to be quite attractive to professionals, who often compete for jobs in their crowded selection processes. This finding motivated the present study, which aimed to analyze the foundations of the psychological contract agreed between individuals and companies recognized by the market by adopting the high-performance work practices, from the perspective of human resources professionals from these companies. The results have allowed identifying the established agreements between professionals and high performance organizations, suggesting that these companies offer opportunities for career growth and the possibility of an intense learning associated with autonomy and responsibility. In return, they expect their employees to be flexible, multifunctional, have an unconditional dedication to the company s results and be able to work against a intensifying work backdrop, where life balance is something that should be left in the background.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第23697号 / 理博第4787号 / 新制||理||1685(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)教授 青木 慎也, 教授 大西 明, 教授 萩野 浩一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

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<p>We present an extension to the language of Atomic Verifiable Operation (AVOp) streams to allow the expression of loops which are rewritable via an arbitrary permutation. Inspired by (and significantly extending) hardware register rotation to data buffers in multi-core programs, we hope to achieve similar performance benefits in expressing software pipelined programs across many cores. By adding loops to AVOp streams, we achieve significant stream compression, which eliminates an impediment to scalability of this abstraction. Furthermore, we present a fast extension to the previous AVOp verification process which ensures that no data hazards are present in the program’s patterns of communication. Our extension to the verification process is to verify loops without completely unrolling them. A proof of correctness for the verification process is presented.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

This research provides the real-time computational resource for three dimensional tomographic chemical threat mapping using mobile hyperspectral sensors from sparse input data. The crucial calculation limiting real-time execution of the algorithm is the determination of the projection matrix using the algebraic reconstruction technique (ART). The computation utilizes the inherent parallel nature of ART with an implementation of the algorithm on a field programmable gate array. The MATLAB Fixed-Point Toolbox is used to determine the optimal fixed-point data types in the conversion from the original floating-point algorithm. The computation is then implemented using the Xilinx System Generator, which generates a hardware description language representation from a block diagram design. / Electrical and Computer Engineering

Controlled Rocking Steel Braced Frames (CRSBFs) have been developed as a high-performance structural solution to resist seismic forces, due to their ability to minimize structural damage and self-centre the structure back to its original position after an earthquake. A CRSBF is intentionally allowed to uplift and rock on its foundation, which acts as the nonlinear mechanism for the system rather than member yielding and buckling. While the CRSBF is in the rocking phase, the response of the system is controlled by prestressing which anchors the frame to the foundation and energy dissipation devices which are engaged by uplift. Although CRSBFs have shown promising structural performance, an assessment of the overall effectiveness of this system must also consider the performance of nonstructural components which have a significant impact on the safety and economic performance of the system. The purpose of this thesis is to compare the performance of nonstructural components in buildings with CRSBFs to their performance in a conventional codified system such as a buckling restrained braced frame (BRBF), while also investigating which design parameters influence nonstructural component demands in CRSBFs. The responses of various types of nonstructural components, including anchored components, stocky unanchored components that slide, and slender unanchored components that rock, are determined using a cascading analysis approach where absolute floor accelerations generated from nonlinear time-history analyses of each structural system are used as input for computing the responses of nonstructural components. The results show that the trade-off of maintaining elastic behaviour of the CRSBF members is, in general, larger demands on nonstructural components compared to the BRBF system. The results also show that the stiffness of the frame and vibration of the frame in its elastic higher modes are the main influencers for nonstructural component demands in buildings with CRSBFs, while energy dissipation has a minimal impact. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc) / Controlled Rocking Steel Braced Frames (CRSBFs) have been proposed as a high-performance structural system that resists earthquake forces on buildings. This system has the ability to minimize damage to structural members and self-centre the building back to its original position after an earthquake, two characteristics that are typically not achieved by current conventional systems. However, an assessment of the CRSBF’s overall effectiveness cannot be limited to the consideration of only the structural skeleton, as the performance of nonstructural components (e.g. architectural elements, mechanical and electrical equipment, furnishings, and building contents) that are not part of the structural skeleton can have a significant impact on the safety and economic performance of earthquake resisting systems. This thesis compares the demands on nonstructural components in buildings with CRSBFs to their demands in a more conventional system during earthquake motions. The results show that the trade-off for avoiding damage to structural members in the CRSBFs is often higher demands on the nonstructural components.

Effective determination of long-term prestress losses is important in the design of prestressed concrete bridges. Over-predicting prestress losses results in an overly conservative design for service load stresses, and under-predicting prestress losses, can result in cracking at service loads. Creep and shrinkage produce the most significant time-dependent effect on prestress losses, and research has shown that high performance and high strength concretes (HPC and HSC) exhibit less creep and shrinkage than conventional concrete. For this reason, the majority of traditional creep and shrinkage models and methods for estimating prestress losses, over-predict the prestress losses of HPC and HSC girders. Nine HPC girders, with design compressive strengths ranging from 8,000 psi to 10,000 psi, and three 8,000 psi lightweight HPC (HPLWC) girders were instrumented to determine the changes in strain and prestress losses. Several creep and shrinkage models were used to model the instrumented girders. For the HPLWC, each model over-predicted the long-term strains, and the Shams and Kahn model was the best predictor of the measured strains. For the normal weight HPC, the models under-estimated the measured strains at early ages and over-estimated the measured strains at later ages, and the B3 model was the best-predictor of the measured strains. The PCI-BDM model was the most consistent model across all of the instrumented girders. Several methods for estimating prestress losses were also investigated. The methods correlated to high strength concrete, the PCI-BDM and NCHRP 496 methods, predicted the total losses more accurately than the methods provided in the AASHTO Specifications. The newer methods over-predicted the total losses of the HPLWC girders by no more than 8 ksi, and although they under-predicted the total losses of the normal weight HPC girders, they did so by less than 5 ksi. / Ph. D.

This work is concerned with the production of high performance polymer foams via a benign foaming process. The first goal of this project was to develop a process and the conditions necessary to produce a low density (>80% density reduction) foam from poly(arylene ether sulfone) (PAES). Water and supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) were used as the blowing agents in a one-step batch foaming process. Both water and scCO2 plasticize the PAES, allowing for precise control on both the foam morphology and the foam density. To optimize the foaming conditions, both thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetery (DSC) were used to determine the solubility and the reduced glass transition temperature (Tg) due to plasticization of the polymer. It was determined that 2 hours was sufficient time to saturate the PAES with water and scCO2 when subjected to a temperature of 220 oC and 10.3 MPa of pressure. Under these conditions, a combination of 7.5% of water and scCO2 were able to diffuse into the PAES specimen, correlating to ~60 oC reduction in the Tg of the PAES. The combination of water and scCO2 produced foam with up to an 80% reduction in density. The compressive properties, tensile modulus, and impact strength of the foam were measured. The relative compressive properties were slightly lower than the commercially available structural foam made of poly(methacrylimide). The second objective of the dissertation was to enhance the compressive properties of the PAES foam, without concern for the foam density. Foam was produced over a range of density, by controlling the cell size, in order to optimize the compressive properties. Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were also added to the PAES matrix prior to foaming to both induce heterogeneous nucleation, which leads to smaller cell size, and to reinforce the cell walls. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), on saturated CNF-PAES, was used to determine the reduced Tg due to plasticization and establish the temperature for pressure release during foaming. DMTA proved to be more effective than DSC in establishing quantitative results on the reduction in the Tg. The CNF-PAES foam produced had compressive properties up to 1.5 times the compressive properties of the PAES foam. / Ph. D.

This thesis presents a shared memory parallel version of the hybrid classification algorithm IGSCR (iterative guided spectral class rejection), a novel data reduction technique that can be used in conjunction with PIGSCR (parallel IGSCR), a noise removal method based on the maximum noise fraction (MNF), and a continuous version of IGSCR (CIGSCR) that outputs soft classifications. All of the above are either classification algorithms or preprocessing algorithms necessary prior to the classification of high dimensional, noisy images. PIGSCR was developed to produce fast and portable code using Fortran 95, OpenMP, and the Hierarchical Data Format version 5 (HDF5) and accompanying data access library. The feature reduction method introduced in this thesis is based on the singular value decomposition (SVD). This feature reduction technique demonstrated that SVD-based feature reduction can lead to more accurate IGSCR classifications than PCA-based feature reduction. This thesis describes a new algorithm used to adaptively filter a remote sensing dataset based on signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) once the maximum noise fraction (MNF) has been applied. The adaptive filtering scheme improves image quality as shown by estimated SNRs and classification accuracy improvements greater than 10%. The continuous iterative guided spectral class rejection (CIGSCR) classification method is based on the iterative guided spectral class rejection (IGSCR) classification method for remotely sensed data. Both CIGSCR and IGSCR use semisupervised clustering to locate clusters that are associated with classes in a classification scheme. This type of semisupervised classification method is particularly useful in remote sensing where datasets are large, training data are difficult to acquire, and clustering makes the identification of subclasses adequate for training purposes less difficult. Experimental results indicate that the soft classification output by CIGSCR is reasonably accurate (when compared to IGSCR), and the fundamental algorithmic changes in CIGSCR (from IGSCR) result in CIGSCR being less sensitive to input parameters that influence iterations. / Ph. D.

Today, power consumption costs supercomputer centers millions of dollars annually and the heat produced can reduce system reliability and availability. Achieving high performance while reducing power consumption is challenging since power and performance are inextricably interwoven; reducing power often results in degradation in performance. This thesis aims to address these challenges by providing theories, techniques, and tools to 1) accurately predict performance and improve it in systems with advanced hierarchical memories, 2) understand and evaluate power and its impacts on performance, 3) control power and performance for maximum efficiency. Our theories, techniques, and tools have been applied to high-end computing systems. Our theroetical models can improve algorithm performance by up to 59% and accurately predict the impacts of power on performance. Our techniques can evaluate power consumption of high-end computing systems and their applications with fine granularity and save up to 36% energy with little performance degradation. / Ph. D.