Com o aumento da degradação ambiental e o uso múltiplo dos reservatórios, e de fundamental importância proceder-se à avaliação da qualidade da água desses sistemas para o adequado gerenciamento de seus recursos. Este estudo teve como objetivo caracterizar a comunidade fitoplanctônica, por responder rapidamente às mudanças nas condições ambientais, testar alguns índices de qualidade da água e também elaborar um protocolo para programas de biomonitoramento utilizando esta comunidade como indicador. A comunidade fitoplanctônica foi estudada em seis reservatórios no Estado de São Paulo (Atibainha, Billings, Cachoeira, Itupararanga, Pirapora e Ponte Nova) em quatro épocas de coleta (primavera, verão, outono e inverno), período de 1997-98, em um ponto de amostragem localizado aproximadamente a 2 km da barragem. A coleta da comunidade fitoplanctônica foi realizada com rede de 20m para análise qualitativa, e a amostragem quantitativa foi realizada na sub-superfície (20 cm), com garrafa van Dorn, em três réplicas. Em laboratório, as análises foram realizadas em microscópio invertido e a contagem realizada em câmaras de Utermöhl. Foi utilizado o programa estatístico CANOCO versão 3.1 para tratamento dos dados através de análises de ordenação (Análise de Correspondência Canônica, Análise de Correspondência e Análise de Componentes Principais). Em cada reservatório, a riqueza em número de táxons foi diferente: Atibainha – 153; Billings – 154; Cachoeira – 152; Itupararanga – 194; Pirapora – 204; e Ponte Nova – 213. O grupo das clorofíceas apresentou o maior número de táxons em todos os reservatórios. As cianofíceas foram dominantes, principalmente nos reservatórios Billings e Itupararanga, com abundância de Microcystis spp. e Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, entre outras. Os Índices de Qualidade de Água aplicados neste estudo mostraram-se eficientes na avaliação do grau de trofia, tanto o IVA- Índice de Qualidade da Água para Proteção da Vida Aquática, como o Índice de Comunidade Fitoplanctônica, ora proposto. A comunidade fitoplanctônica mostrou ser uma boa ferramenta em programas de biomonitoramento, tendo em vista o gradiente trófico apresentado através das espécies encontradas, índices e análises estatísticas aplicadas. Foi proposto um protocolo de biomonitoramento utilizando-se a comunidade fitoplanctônica. / With increasing degradation of environmental quality and the multiple uses of the reservoirs, it is important to evaluate the water quality of those resources, to help in their appropriate management. The objectives included the characterization of the phytoplankton community, as their have a quick reaction to changes in the environmental conditions; the testing of some indexes of water quality; and the elaboration of a protocol for biomonitoring programs using that community as an indicator of environmental quality. The phytoplankton community was studied in six reservoirs of São Paulo State (Atibainha, Billings, Cachoeira, Itupararanga, Pirapora and Ponte Nova) in four sampling periods (spring, summer, autumn and winter) from 1997 to 1998, in a sampling point located approximately at 2 km of the dam. Phytoplankton community was sampled through a m mesh for qualitative analysis, the quantitative sampling being accomplished in the sub-surface (20 cm depth) with a van Dorn bottle, in three replicas. In the laboratory, the analyses were performed using an inverted microscope and Utermöhl cubes. For statistical analyses, it was used the CANOCO version 3.1 for treatment of the data through ordination analyses (Canonical Correspondence Analysis, Correspondence Analysis and Principal Components Analysis). In each reservoir, the richness in number of taxons was different: Atibainha – 153; Billings – 154; Cachoeira – 152; Itupararanga – 194; Pirapora – 204; and Ponte Nova – 213. The Chlorophyceae showed the largest number of taxons in all the reservoirs. Cyanophyceae were dominant, mainly in the reservoirs Billings and Itupararanga, with Microcystis spp. and Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii being most abundant, among others. The Water Quality Indexes applied in this study showed to be efficient in the evaluation of the trophic level, from the IVA - Index of Water Quality for Protection of the Aquatic Life, to the Phytoplankton Community Index, now proposed. The phytoplankton community showed to be a valuable tool in biomonitoring programs, in view of the trophic gradient found through the listed species, indexes and statistical analyses applied. A biomonitoring protocol using the phytoplankton community was proposed.

As proporções na face e no corpo humano são analisadas desde a antiguidade, a exemplo do Homem Vitruviano de Leonardo da Vince. A existência das proporções Divinas ou proporções áureas em crânios esqueletizados é um campo de estudo que apresenta um potencial colaborador para as áreas de sobreposição de imagens, reconstrução facial e identificação forense. O objetivo deste trabalho é estabelecer parâmetros antropométricos regionais baseados nas proporções áureas, instituindo coeficientes e índices faciais específicos para a amostra composta por sessenta crânios esqueletizados (n=60), oriundos do Instituto Médico Legal da Bahia. As mensurações foram realizadas diretamente sobre o crânio utilizando paquímetros digitais. Foram selecionadas 14 medidas craniométricas diferentes e a partir delas foram calculados 06 relações horizontais, 04 verticais e 06 índices faciais. Os dados foram tabulados e descritos por valores de média e desvio padrão, utilizou-se o intervalo de confiança da média (p<0,05). A proporção áurea (1,618) não foi encontrada na população examinada, entretanto foi possível estabelecer índices faciais e coeficientes próprios para as medidas, construindo parâmetros antropométricos regionais baseados nas proporções estudadas. A proporção altura da cabeça em relação a altura da face (V-GN/N-GN) igual a 1,69 foi a variável que mais se aproximou do número de ouro e a relação entre a altura nasal ser igual a metade da altura da face (N-SN=N-GN/2) como valor de 0,92 foi a variável que mais se aproximou entre as igualdades. Admiti-se que a partir de uma medida é possível alcançar a outra utilizando os índices faciais e as retas de regressão calculadas. Este estudo fornece indicadores úteis, pois busca estabelecer proporções nos crânios que são reproduzíveis na face, contribuindo para o aperfeiçoamento das técnicas auxiliares de Reconstrução Facial e Sobreposição de Imagens em estudos futuros. / The proportions of the human face and body have been studied since, at least, Leonardo da Vinci and his Vitruvian Man. The existence of divine or Golden Ratios in human skulls may collaborate with Image Superposition, Facial Reconstruction and Forensics Identification. The goal of this study is establishing regional anthropometrics parameters based on golden ratios, using specifics facial coefficients and indexes for sixty skulls (n=60), obtained from Institute of Legal Medicine of Bahia, BRA. The measurements were done directly over the skull using a digital pachymeter. Fourteen different measurements were selected and, from them, 06 horizontals and 04 verticals relations and 06 facial indexes were calculated. The data was charted and described by average and standard deviation. An average confidence interval was used (p<0,05).The golden ratio (1,618) has not been found among the population analyzed, however was possible establishing facial indexes and coefficients for the measurements, building regional anthropometric parameters based on the studied proportions. The proportion height of the head related to the height of the face (V-GN/N-GN) equal to 1,69 was the closest variable to the golden number and the relation between nasal height being equal to half a height of the face (N-SN=N-GN/2) as 0,92 was the closest variable between equalities. Admitting that from one measurement to another can be achieved using the facial indexes facial and linear regression calculated. This study provides useful indicators since tries to establish proportions on the skull that can be reproducible on the face, contributing for the improvement of auxiliary techniques of Facial Reconstruction and Images Superposition in future studies.

A grande quantidade de dados gerada em diversas áreas do conhecimento cria a necessidade do desenvolvimento de técnicas de mineração de dados cada vez mais eficientes e eficazes. Técnicas de agrupamento têm sido utilizadas com sucesso em várias áreas, especialmente naquelas em que não há conhecimento prévio sobre a organização dos dados. Contudo, a utilização de diferentes algoritmos de agrupamento, ou variações de um mesmo algoritmo, pode gerar uma ampla variedade de resultados. Tamanha variedade cria a necessidade de métodos para avaliar e selecionar bons resultados. Uma forma de avaliar esses resultados consiste em utilizar índices de validação de agrupamentos. Entretanto, uma grande diversidade de índices de validação foi proposta na literatura, o que torna a escolha de um único índice de validação uma tarefa penosa caso os desempenhos dos índices comparados sejam desconhecidos para a classe de problemas de interesse. Com a finalidade de obter um consenso entre resultados, é possível combinar um conjunto de agrupamentos ou índices de validação em uma única solução final. Combinações de agrupamentos (clustering ensembles) foram bem sucedidas em obter soluções robustas a variações no cenário de aplicação, o que faz do uso de comitês de agrupamentos uma alternativa interessante para encontrar soluções de qualidade razoável, segundo diferentes índices de validação. Adicionalmente, utilizar uma combinação de índices de validação pode tornar a avaliação de agrupamentos mais completa, uma vez que uma maioria dos índices combinados pode compensar o fraco desempenho do restante. Em alguns casos, não é possível lidar com um único conjunto de dados centralizado, por razões físicas ou questões de privacidade, o que gera a necessidade de distribuir o processo de mineração. Combinações de agrupamentos também podem ser estendidas para problemas de agrupamento de dados distribuídos, uma vez que informações sobre os dados, oriundas de diferentes fontes, podem ser combinadas em uma única solução global. O principal objetivo desse trabalho consiste em investigar técnicas de combinação de agrupamentos e de índices de validação aplicadas na seleção de agrupamentos para combinação e na mineração distribuída de dados. Adicionalmente, algoritmos evolutivos de agrupamento são estudados com a finalidade de selecionar soluções de qualidade dentre os resultados obtidos. As técnicas desenvolvidas possuem complexidade computacional reduzida e escalabilidade, o que permite sua aplicação em grandes conjuntos de dados ou cenários em que os dados encontram-se distribuídos / The large amount of data resulting from different areas of knowledge creates the need for development of data mining techniques increasingly efficient and effective. Clustering techniques have been successfully applied to several areas, especially when there is no prior knowledge about the data organization. Nevertheless, the use of different clustering algorithms, or variations of the same algorithm, can generate a wide variety of results, what raises the need to create methods to assess and select good results. One way to evaluate these results consists on using cluster validation indexes. However, a wide variety of validation indexes was proposed in the literature, which can make choosing a single index challenging if the performance of the compared indexes is unknown for the application scenario. In order to obtain a consensus among different options, a set of clustering results or validation indexes can be combined into a single final solution. Clustering ensembles successfully obtained results robust to variations in the application scenario, which makes them an attractive alternative to find solutions of reasonable quality, according to different validation indexes. Moreover, using a combination of validation indexes can promote a more powerful evaluation, as the majority of the combined indexes can compensate the poor performance of individual indexes. In some cases, it is not possible to work with a single centralized data set, for physical reasons or privacy concerns, which creates the need to distribute the mining process. Clustering ensembles can be extended to distributed data mining problems, since information about the data from distributed sources can be combined into a single global solution. The main objective of this research resides in investigating combination techniques for validation indexes and clustering results applied to clustering ensemble selection and distributed clustering. Additionally, evolutionary clustering algorithms are studied to select quality solutions among the obtained results. The techniques developed have scalability and reduced computational complexity, allowing their usage in large data sets or scenarios with distributed data

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of muscle fatigue on shooting accuracy in male handball players. Sixteen elite young male handball players (age: 17.12&plusmn / 1.74 year / height: 185.26&plusmn / 7.17 / body mass: 78.93&plusmn / 11.07) volunteered to participate in the study. The study composed of laboratory and field test sessions. In the laboratory test, maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) obtained from treadmill running test, blood lactate concentration, heart rate monitoring at resting and every 3 minutes during running were measured. Running speed equal to 75% speed at VO2max values of participants was used as initial velocity for 30-15 intermittent fitness test (30-15IFT). In the field tests, after determined the optimum shooting velocity of each participant, they shots to each targets placed at the four corner of the handball goal 4 times, totally 16 times. Blood lactate concentration was measured from the earlobe of participant who completed shooting to target test session. Then, 30-15IFT was applied as fatigue protocol and at the end of the test, blood lactate concentration was measured again and participant repeated shooting to target test session immediately after fatigue protocol. During all shooting procedures, acceleration of wrist and speed of ball were recorded. Blood lactate concentration over 8mmol/L, v 90% of HRmax, respiratory exchange ratio&gt / 1 and exhaustion of participant accepted ending criteria for the tests. As a result, no significant differences were found between pre-fatigue and post-fatigue protocols in terms of accurate and inaccurate shots. Shooting consistency, ball speed, response time, X, Y, Z axis of wrist acceleration variables highly correlated each other in terms of shooting accuracy both in pre and post fatigue conditions. Shooting consistency has an effect on accurate shots. Ball velocity has effect on inaccurate shots in pre-fatigue condition. However, none of variable has effect on accurate and inaccurate shots in post-fatigue conditions. In pre-fatigue conditions, right to left motion of wrist (X axis) was the most important motion, back to forward motion (y axis) was became more important in post fatigue condition.

Interaction of human-induced factors with natural hazards results in diverse uncertainties and risks among the built environment. Impacts of disaster events experienced in Turkey have revealed the vulnerability of the social, economic, and physical environments along with the various insufficiencies of awareness, legislation, practice and building inspection concepts. The shift towards risk-based disasters policy among the international agenda influences the national disaster policies and efforts. Parallel to this, it is expected from practicing architects to enhance their capacities through disaster risk-based professional training programs in order to develop disaster resilient built environments. Building Inspection System (BIS) is one of the important components of risk reduction approach which ensures the safety of built environment and occupants. The effective BIS has important gaps and deficiencies within the administrative, legal, and technical structures which results in failure of building production process in Turkey. Among the other problems, the main concern related to the ongoing BIS is its fragmented and missing risk-based understanding. The critical analysis indicates the deficient points of administrative and technical issues within the BIS conducted with the certification and professional training model which are not consistent with shifting comprehensive disasters policy and risk-based understanding in Turkey, and proposing a holistic and risk-based certification and training model for practicing architects in Turkey which focuses on disaster resilient built environment development through the comparison of some international best-practiced training model examples with Turkish context. The proposed professional training model has a three-step knowledge acquisition levels (awareness-detailed knowledge-advanced knowledge) which aims to approach to the architectural built environment problems, develop awareness, build-up knowledge and support practice through the holistic disaster risk reduction understanding, and in addition to attend on the complementary and supportive strategies (such as building and environment, building and material, structure and construction contexts) between related issues.

Database systems employ physical structures such as indexes and materialized views to improve query performance, potentially by orders of magnitude. It is therefore important for a database administrator to choose the appropriate configuration of these physical structures (i.e., the appropriate physical design) for a given database. Deciding on the physical design of a database is not an easy task, and a considerable amount of research exists on automatic physical design tools for relational databases. Recently, XML database systems are increasingly being used for managing highly structured XML data, and support for XML data is being added to commercial relational database systems. This raises the important question of how to choose the appropriate physical design (i.e., the appropriate set of physical structures) for an XML database. Relational automatic physical design tools are not adequate, so new research is needed in this area. In this thesis, we address the problem of automatic physical design for XML databases, which is the process of automatically selecting the best set of physical structures for a given database and a given query workload representing the client application's usage patterns of this data. We focus on recommending two types of physical structures: XML indexes and relational materialized views of XML data. For each of these structures, we study the recommendation process and present a design advisor that automatically recommends a configuration of physical structures given an XML database and a workload of XML queries. The recommendation process is divided into four main phases: (1) enumerating candidate physical structures, (2) generalizing candidate structures in order to generate more candidates that are useful to queries that are not seen in the given workload but similar to the workload queries, (3) estimating the benefit of various candidate structures, and (4) selecting the best set of candidate structures for the given database and workload. We present a design advisor for recommending XML indexes, one for recommending materialized views, and an integrated design advisor that recommends both indexes and materialized views. A key characteristic of our advisors is that they are tightly coupled with the query optimizer of the database system, and rely on the optimizer for enumerating and evaluating physical designs whenever possible. This characteristic makes our techniques suitable for any database system that complies with a set of minimum requirements listed within the thesis. We have implemented the index, materialized view, and integrated advisors in a prototype version of IBM DB2 V9, which supports both relational and XML data, and we experimentally demonstrate the effectiveness of their recommendations using this implementation.

The aim of this thesis is to propose a safety management framework for construction companies. A literature review was performed to identify significant factors that would improve safety performance. Two management tools are used within the scope of this study: the balanced scorecard and quality function deployment (QFD). Strategic goals are established for each perspective of the balanced scorecard: financial and cultural, employee, process and learning and growth. Afterwards, a questionnaire was prepared using the QFD approach. The goals in the financial and cultural perspective were defined as the needs of the organization related to safety (&ldquo / customer requirements&rdquo / in the original QFD approach). The goals in the remaining perspectives formed the actions that the organization could do to achieve its needs (&ldquo / product how&rsquo / s&rdquo / in the original QFD). Results of the questionnaire were used to form the final strategic goals in balanced scorecard. Safety performance measures and initiatives were defined for the accomplishment of the goals in the balanced scorecard.

In this study, the hydrology and physical, chemical and biological variables of a shallow lake system including the Lakes Mogan and Eymir between 1997-2005 were evaluated. In Lake Eymir, a biomanipulation study was conducted between August, 1998 &ndash / December, 1999. Upon biomanipulation, Lake Eymir shifted to clearwater state with submerged vegetation domination during 2000-2003. However, in 2004, the lake shifted back to algae-dominated turbid state since the buffer mechanisms provided by submerged plants were absent. In the summer of 2005, fish kills were observed due to algal bloom. However, due to increasing hydraulic residence time in the lake, internal processes became more important for nutrients. Lake Mogan faces seasonal and interannual water level fluctuations. During the low water levels experienced in 2001 and 2005, which coincided with the high hydraulic residence times, the in-lake phosphorus amount was controlled by internal processes rather than external loading. Moreover, results revealed that hydrology and submerged plants were important in the ecology of Lake Mogan. Furthermore, the relationship between the phytoplankton, zooplankton and the environment in Lakes Eymir and Mogan, which was predicted via Canonical Corresponding Analysis, revealed that nutrients and water transparency were both important for plankton communities. Both the top-down and bottom up effects were valid in Lake Eymir, while only the bottom-up effect and submerged plants were important for Lake Mogan. Finally, the present study provided a good example for the submerged plant dominated clearwater state triggered by biomanipulation, and the impact of hydrology on the ecology of shallow lakes.

In this study, it is aimed to relate architecture with the changing definitions of territory. In this context, the research will focus on the issue of in-between, where the boundaries between public and private domains are blurred in the modern world. The Dutch Embassy in Berlin designed by OMA / Rem Koolhaas is built upon a creative redefinition of blurring boundaries between &amp / #8216 / public&amp / #8217 / and &amp / #8216 / private&amp / #8217 / . Given the fact that the Embassy is a diplomatic structure for which the safety factor is one of the most important design criteria, how Koolhaas interprets the idea of openness, of transparency, modernity which are meant to symbolize the Netherlands, will be studied in this research.

Self compacting concrete (SCC) is first developed in Japan in the late 1980s in order to overcome the consolidation problems associated with the presence of congested reinforcement. It is also termed as a high performance concrete, as it can flow under its own weight and completely fill the formworks. As the fresh properties of SCC are quite important, mix design of a SCC is performed by considering various workability related fresh properties. Therefore, a well designed SCC should satisfy all requirements of a hardened concrete, besides its superior workability properties. The aim of this research is to assess the effects of some basic ingredients of SCC on the fresh properties of SCC. This will be performed by applying design of experiment techniques and obtaining significant statistical models, which will give valuable information about the effects of the model parameters on the rheology and fresh state characteristics of SCC. In this research program, four different variables / use of fly ash replacement, use of high range water reducing admixture (HRWRA), use of viscosity modifying admixtures (VMA) and water-cementitious material ratio, are considered as the variables of the experimental design. Central Composite Design (CCD), a design of experiment technique, is employed throughout the experimental program and a total of 21 mixtures of concrete are cast. Slump flow, V-funnel, L-box, sieve segregation, initial and final setting time tests are performed, furthermore / to investigate the effects of these variables to the rheology of SCC, relative plastic viscosity and relative yield stress, which are the parameters of Bingham Model are measured with the help of a concrete rheometer. As a result of the experimental program, the fresh state properties of SCC are expressed by mathematical equations. Those equations are then used in order to explain the effects of fly ash replacement, HRWRA and VMA concentration, and the w/cm ratio on the fresh state properties of SCC. According to the derived models, it is stated that the water-cementitious material ratio of the concrete mixture is the most effective parameter on the flowability and passing ability of SCC beside the other parameters utilized in this research as its coefficient was the highest in the related models.