Apesar da intensa mistura étnica na formação da população Brasileira, pequenos grupos isolados ainda podem ser encontrados, principalmente representados pelas tribos indígenas e comunidades remanescentes de quilombo. As comunidades de Barra (BA), São Gonçalo (BA) e Valongo (SC) apresentam diferentes histórias demográficas de formação. Os AIMs (Marcadores Informativos de Ancestralidade) são capazes de revelar essas diferenças pois apresentam grandes diferenciais de freqüência () entre os principais grupos populacionais parentais (africanos, ameríndios, europeus) e, por esta razão, constituem polimorfismos com maior poder discriminante em estimativas de mistura étnica. No presente trabalho, foram testados oito AIMs na análise de três remanescentes de quilombo, comparados a duas amostras de população urbana brasileira. Um destes marcadores, o alelo CYP1A1*2C, foi testado em sete aldeias de quatro tribos da Amazônia Central Brasileira, completando a análise dos outros sete marcadores previamente realizados nestas populações ameríndias. Os objetivos, além da descrição formal de tais populações, incluíam comparar eventuais diferenças entre as comunidades quilombolas e verificar a eficiência relativa destes marcadores em estudos deste tipo. A comparação das freqüências do alelo CYP1A1*2C entre os ameríndios e populações mundiais confirma este alelo como um excelente AIM para diferenciar ameríndios de europeus e africanos, informação importante em estimativas de mistura em populações trihíbridas Brasileiras. As freqüências de oito AIMs (FY-Null, RB, LPL, AT3, Sb19.3, APO, PV92 e CYP1A1*2C) foram então estimadas nas comunidades remanescentes de quilombo de Barra (n=47), São Gonçalo (n=51) e Valongo (n=25) e nas populações urbanas de Jequié (n=47) e Hemosc (Hemocentro de Santa Catarina, n=25) a partir dos fenótipos determinados por PCR e PCRRFLP. As análises estatísticas empregaram programas já descritos (GENEPOP, DISPAN, GDA, STRUCTURE, MVSP e ADMIX 2 e 3). As freqüências alélicas e genotípicas diferenciam todas as comunidades remanescentes e urbanas, fato corroborado pelos valores de FST (p<0,01) par a par entre elas. Outros valores de FST mostram similaridades da comunidade de Barra com africanos e da amostra Hemosc com Europeus, o que é confirmado pelas estimativas do componente africano em Barra (95%) e europeu no Hemosc (83%), como também pelas análises de componente principal. Nestas últimas, o locus FY foi a variável de maior peso (loading) sobre o primeiro componente principal e o PV92 o locus de maior peso sobre o segundo componente principal. Este método demonstrou-se particularmente adequado, pois, em ambas as análises, os dois componentes principais explicaram mais do que 95% da variância total. As estimativas dos componentes africano, europeu e ameríndio em São Gonçalo (68%, 22% e 10%) e JQ (52%, 31% e 17%) mostram que os AIMs geram estimativas de contribuição africana maiores do que as obtidas por STRs autossômicos, YSTRs e marcadores clássicos nas mesmas populações. A estimativa do componente africano em Valongo (68%) foi menor que a obtida a partir dos marcadores clássicos. Isto poderia ser considerado como evidência da maior eficiência destes marcadores na quantificação do componente africano, uma vez que o aumento das estimativas não foi generalizado e, portanto, provavelmente não viciado. Conclui-se que os AIMs seriam mais eficientes para o cálculo da proporção relativa dos diferentes componentes formadores destas populações, pois conduziriam a estimativas mais realistas. / In spite of the high degree of inter-ethnic admixture that characterizes the formation of the Brazilian population, small isolated groups, mainly represented by indigenous Amerindian tribes and communities known as quilombo remnants, can still be found. Barra (BA), São Gonçalo (BA) and Valongo (SC) are communities that presented different demographic histories during their formations. The AIMs (Ancestry Informative Markers) are capable of disclosing such differences due to the fact that they present large frequency differentials () between the major ethnic groups that gave origin to the Brazilian population. This provides more reliable information for interethnic admixture estimates. Given that, the present study aimed at establishing the differences regarding inter-ethnic admixture between these three quilombo remnants, which present different demographic histories. The CYP1A1*2C allele frequencies were established in four indigenous tribes from the Brazilian Amazon, which are characterized by low admixture degrees with non-Amerindian people (2-3%), and were compared with frequencies obtained in worldwide populations. This comparison evidenced that such allele is extremely useful for setting Amerindians apart from Europeans and Africans, which is an outstanding feature for estimation of admixture proportions in Brazilian tri-hybrid populations. Allele frequencies of eight AIMs (FY-Null, RB, LPL, AT3, Sb19.3, APO, PV92 and CYP1A1*2C) were obtained in three quilombo remnant communities, Barra (n=47), São Gonçalo (n=51) and Valongo (n=25), and in urban population samples from Jequié (n=47) and Hemosc (n=25), by means of PCR and PCR-RFLP. Statistical analysis were carried out employing the GENEPOP, DISPAN, GDA, STRUCTURE, MVSP and ADMIX 2 and 3 softwares. Allele and genotype frequencies are able to differentiate all quilombo remnant and urban samples, an aspect corroborated by the pair-wise FST (p<0.01) values. Other FST estimates reveal similarities between Barra and Africans and between Hemosc and Europeans, which are supported by the respective African and European admixture estimates in Barra (95%) and Hemosc (83%) and by the Principal Component Analysis. In the latter analysis, the FY locus consisted in the variable with greatest influence (loading) over the first component. On the other hand, the variable PV92 exhibited the highest influence over the second component analysis. This method has proven to be very reliable, given that, in both analyses, the first two principal components explained more than 95% of the total variance. African, European and Amerindian inter-ethnic admixture estimates in São Gonçalo (68%, 22% and 10%) and JQ (52%, 31% and 17%) emphasize the fact that the AIMs provides higher African contribution estimates than the ones obtained by means of autosomal and Y-linked STRs and classical markers in the same populations. African contribution estimated in Valongo (68%) was lower than the one obtained by means of classical markers. Taken together, these estimates may be an evidence of higher effectiveness of this set of markers in quantifying the African component, as long as the increase in African contribution was not generalized and, hence, probably unbiased. In conclusion, the AIMs are more effective in estimating the admixture proportions of the different ethnic components that gave origin to these populations, given that they resulted in more reliable estimates.

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As Stockholm grows, Region Stockholm have begun the extensive work on expanding the subway for increased opportunities to commute. The construction process will take several years to complete and will cause complications such as noise and vibration that are likely to affect people and businesses in the immediate area. Region Stockholm are therefore keen to reach out with relevant information to those affected using audience adapted communication. In this thesis in Information Design with Specialization in Informative Illustration at Mälardalen University, a design proposal in the form of an animated film has been produced to inform about the construction process for pre-schoolers at the age of four who are affected in their school environment. The purpose of the film is to use it with the support of a teacher or educator who can use the material as a basis for dialogue with the children. The study examines the approaches that can be used to visually guide and maintain the user's attention, as well as how sounds and vibrations can be visualized in an animated film. Based on theory and empirical data, the study results in several suggestions on how to improve visual guidance, such as the importance of reducing the number of competing visual elements. It was also shown that visual metaphors can be used to visualize things that are not otherwise visible, such as sound or time. Finally, the study resulted in a design proposal in the form of an animated film that benefits from these suggested approaches. / Med anledning av att Stockholm växer har Region Stockholm påbörjat arbetet med att bygga ut tunnelbanan för ökade kommunikationsmöjligheter. Detta omfattande arbete kommer att ta ett flertal år att genomföra, samt orsaka komplikationer såsom buller och vibrationer som kommer påverka människor och verksamheter i närområdet. Region Stockholm är därför angelägna om att i god tid nå ut med relevant information till de som påverkas genom målgruppsanpassad kommunikation i sina olika kanaler. I detta examensarbete i informationsdesign med inriktning Informativ illustration på Mälardalens högskola har ett gestaltningsförslag i form av en animerad film tagits fram för att informera om byggprocessen för förskolebarn i fyraårsåldern som berörs av utbyggnationen i sin skolmiljö. Syftet med filmen är att väcka intresse hos målgruppen samt att den i skolmiljön ska kunna användas tillsammans med stöd från lärare eller pedagog som ska kunna använda materialet som underlag för dialog med barnen. Studien undersöker vilka tillvägagångssätt som kan användas för att visuellt vägleda och upprätthålla användarens uppmärksamhet i ett rörligt medium, samt hur ljud och vibrationer kan visualiseras i en animerad film. Utifrån insamlad data från teori och empiri, som bland annat innefattar barns perceptionsförmåga, resulterar studien i ett flertal förslag på hur den visuella vägledningen kan effektiviseras, exempelvis vikten av att reducera antalet konkurrerande bildelement. Det framkom även att visuella metaforer kan användas för att visualisera sådant som inte syns för blotta ögat, såsom ljud och tid. Slutligen resulterade studien i ett gestaltningsförslag i form av en animerad film som drar nytta av dessa tillvägagångssätt.

This thesis proposes new algorithms for a group of sensing robots to learn a para- metric model for a dynamic spatio-temporal field, then based on the learned model trajectories are planned for sensing robots to best estimate the field. In this thesis we call these two parts learning and monitoring, respectively. For the learning, we first introduce a parametric model for the spatio-temporal field. We then propose a family of motion strategies that can be used by a group of mobile sensing robots to collect point measurements about the field. Our motion strategies are designed to collect enough information from enough locations at enough different times for the robots to learn the dynamics of the field. In conjunction with these motion strategies, we propose a new learning algorithm based on subspace identification to learn the parameters of the dynamical model. We prove that as the number of data collected by the robots goes to infinity, the parameters learned by our algorithm will converge to the true parameters. For the monitoring, based on the model learned from the learning part, three new informative trajectory planning algorithms are proposed for the robots to collect the most informative measurements for estimating the field. Kalman filter is used to calculate the estimate, and to compute the error covariance of the estimate. The goal is to find trajectories for sensing robots that minimize a cost metric on the error covariance matrix. We propose three algorithms to deal with this problem. First, we propose a new randomized path planning algorithm called Rapidly-exploring Random Cycles (RRC) and its variant RRC* to find periodic trajectories for the sensing robots that try to minimize the largest eigenvalue of the error covariance matrix over an infinite horizon. The algorithm is proven to find the minimum infinite horizon cost cycle in a graph, which grows by successively adding random points. Secondly, we apply kinodynamic RRT* to plan continuous trajectories to estimate the field. We formulate the evolution of the estimation error covariance matrix as a differential constraint and propose extended state space and task space sampling to fit this problem into classical RRT* setup. Thirdly, Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle is used to find a set of necessary conditions that must be satisfied by the optimal trajectory to estimate the field. We then consider a real physical spatio-temporal field, the surface water temper- ature in the Caribbean Sea. We first apply the learning algorithm to learn a linear dynamical model for the temperature. Then based on the learned model, RRC and RRC* are used to plan trajectories to estimate the temperature. The estimation performance of RRC and RRC* trajectories significantly outperform the trajectories planned by random search, greedy and receding horizon algorithms.

Unmanned autonomous vehicles, airborne or terrestrial, can be used to solve many varying tasks in vastly different environments. This thesis describes a proposed collaboration between two types of such vehicles, namely unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). The vehicles' objective is to traverse unknown terrain in order to access a target area. The exploration of the unknown terrain is in this thesis divided into three parts. These parts are terrain mapping, informative path planning (IPP) for the UAVs and path planning for the UGV. A Gaussian Process (GP) is used to model the terrain. The use of a GP map makes it possible to model spatial dependence and to interpolate data between measurements. Furthermore, sequential update of the map is achieved with a Kalman filter when new measurements are collected. In the second part, IPP is used to decide the best locations for the terrain height measurements. The IPP algorithm will prioritize measurements in locations with uncertain terrain height estimates in order to lower the overall map uncertainty. Finally, when the map is complete, the UGV plans an optimal path through the mapped terrain using A* graph search, while minimizing the total altitude difference for the path and respecting the map uncertainty. Collaborative behavior of autonomous vehicles requires highly accurate position estimates. In this thesis RTK is investigated and its accuracy and precision evaluated for the positioning of autonomous UAVs and UGVs through a series of experiments. The experiments range from stationary and dynamic accuracy to investigation of the consistency of the positioning estimates. The results are promising, RTK outperforms standard GNSS and can be used for centimeter-level accuracy when positioning a UAV in-flight. The proposed exploration algorithms are evaluated in simulations. The results show that the algorithms successfully solves the task of mapping and traversing unknown terrain. IPP makes the mapping of the unknown terrain efficient, which enables the possibility to use the resulting map to plan safe paths for the UGV. Traversing unknown terrain is hard for a single UGV but with the help from one or more UAVs the process is much more efficient. The use of multiple cooperating autonomous vehicles makes it possible to solve tasks complicated for the individual vehicle in an efficient manner.

The following essay is a thesis in information design with orientation on informative illustration. The purpose of this study is to investigate, based on a given graphic assignment, how to shape an event that is a response to the great big and world-wide event, the bombing in Hiroshima. The purpose of the thesis is to explore how, in an ethical way, the way radiation can be seen on people who was on the scene. The aim of the work is to design a visualization that is ethical and at the same time easily understandable and interesting. This study is done after a graphic assignment assigned from the TT news agency. This graphic shows the effects of the radiation from the atomic bomb in Hiroshima on the population of the city and the magnitude of the consequential damage. The final design was formed by data collection and theories in visual rhetoric and cognition. Methods that have been used are a survey as well as a method for creating ethical visualization described by Katherine Hepworth, a professor of visual journalism. The results of the survey show that in order to create an ethical visualization, one must work close to one's target group. Find out what they have for past experiences and knowledge in the subject you are working on. The choice of manners also affects the feeling of images and how to interpret them. / Följande undersökning är ett examensarbete i informationsdesign med inriktning informativ illustration. Denna studie syftar till att utifrån ett givet grafikuppdrag undersöka hur man kan gestalta en händelse som är ett svar på den väldigt stora och världsomställande händelsen, bombningen i Hiroshima. Syftet med examensarbetet är att utforska hur man, på ett etiskt sätt, kan gestalta hur strålningen påverkade människorna på platsen. Målet med arbetet är att utforma en visualisering som är etiskt och samtidigt lätt förståelig och intresseväckande. Denna studie är utförd efter ett grafikuppdrag som är tilldelat från TT nyhetsbyrån. Denna grafik ska redogöra för de effekter som strålningen från atombomben i Hiroshima drabbade befolkningen i staden och hur stora följdskadorna har blivit. Genom datainsamling och teorier inom visuell retorik samt kognition utformades den slutgiltiga gestaltningen. Metoder som har används är enkät samt en metod för att skapa etisk visualisering som är beskriven av Katherine Hepworth. Hepworth är professor inom visuell journalistik. Resultatet av undersökningen påvisar att för att skapa en etisk visualisering måste man jobba nära sin målgrupp. Ta reda på vad de har för tidigare erfarenheter och kunskaper inom det ämnet man jobbar med. Valet av manér påverkar också känslan av bilder och hur man tolkar dem.

Colonoscopy is an endoscopic technique that allows a physician to inspect the mucosa of the human colon. Previous methods and software solutions to detect informative frames in a colonoscopy video (a process called informative frame filtering or IFF) have been hugely ineffective in (1) covering the proper definition of an informative frame in the broadest sense and (2) striking an optimal balance between accuracy and speed of classification in both real-time and non real-time medical procedures. In my thesis, I propose a more effective method and faster software solutions for IFF which is more effective due to the introduction of a heuristic algorithm (derived from experimental analysis of typical colon features) for classification. It contributed to a 5-10% boost in various performance metrics for IFF. The software modules are faster due to the incorporation of sophisticated parallel-processing oriented coding techniques on modern microprocessors. Two IFF modules were created, one for post-procedure and the other for real-time. Code optimizations through NVIDIA CUDA for GPU processing and/or CPU multi-threading concepts embedded in two significant microprocessor design philosophies (multi-core design and many-core design) resulted a 5-fold acceleration for the post-procedure module and a 40-fold acceleration for the real-time module. Some innovative software modules, which are still in testing phase, have been recently created to exploit the power of multiple GPUs together.

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Informative sound design serves as an indicator to the player that something just happened, it can be urgently needing the players immediate attention, or serve as a feedback for a job well done. This paper studies how players interpret different informative sounds, how confident they are about their interpretation, and why they interpret the sound that way.

<p>Tactile sensing is an essential human ability for understanding their surroundings. It allows humans to detect and manipulate objects that are concealed or difficult to see in low-light settings. Further, tactile sensing enables people to comprehend object and surface properties that cannot be obtained through visual feedback alone. This is achieved with gentle touches, enabling tactile exploration of fragile, sensitive objects, or living organisms. This capability could be transferred to robots through suitable hardware and algorithms. Nevertheless, current tactile sensors and skills for robotics are not comparable to the tactile sense of humans, thus resulting in inferior characterization of scenes and a risk of altering object states.</p> <p><br></p> <p>To address these limitations, this dissertation proposes a novel framework for robot active tactile exploration and object characterization. The framework combines bioinspired soft sensors and minimally invasive tactile exploration strategies to minimize perturbations to objects. This framework was achieved by: (1) an ultrasensitive whisker sensor that enables object characterization with minimal interaction forces; (2) autonomous tactile exploration skills to localize objects and then characterize their shape and surface properties; and (3) machine learning techniques to analyze contact information gathered by our tactile sensors, enabling the understanding of object attributes by tactile sensing alone. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Experiments were conducted to validate the effectiveness of the framework. In terms of object localization efficiency, informative path planners and contour exploration patterns outperformed baseline methods. Furthermore, the whisker sensor was successfully employed to characterize object surface and liquid properties. Finally, the features found through the characterization process allowed for successful classification by machine learning techniques. These results indicate that the proposed framework can effectively gather multimodal features from environments while maintaining the safety of objects. </p>