Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:56:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RicardoCOM_DISSERT.pdf: 2871437 bytes, checksum: ca804782bf10029c3e31983e4917ea6a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-04-18 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / This work presents a theoretical and experimental analysis about the properties of microstrip antennas with integrated frequency selective surfaces (Frequency Selective Surface - FSS). The integration occurs through the insertion of the FSS on ground plane of microstrip patch antenna. This integration aims to improve some characteristics of the antennas. The FSS using patch-type elements in square unit cells. Specifically, the simulated results are obtained using the commercial computer program CST Studio Suite? version 2011. From a standard antenna, designed to operate in wireless communication systems of IEEE 802.11 a / b / g / n the dimensions of the FSS are varied to obtain an optimization of some antenna parameters such as impedance matching and selectivity in the operating bands. After optimization of the investigated parameters are built two prototypes of microstrip patch antennas with and without the FSS ground plane. Comparisons are made of the results with the experimental results by 14 ZVB network analyzer from Rohde & Schwarz ?. The comparison aims to validate the simulations performed and show the improvements obtained with the FSS in integrated ground plane antenna. In the construction of prototypes, we used dielectric substrates of the type of Rogers Corporation RT-3060 with relative permittivity equal to 10.2 and low loss tangent. Suggestions for continued work are presented / Este trabalho apresenta uma investiga??o te?rica e experimental sobre as propriedades das antenas de microfita integradas com superf?cies seletivas em frequ?ncia (Frequency Selective Surface FSS). A integra??o se d? por meio da inser??o da FSS no plano de terra da antena patch de microfita. Essa integra??o visa a melhoria de algumas caracter?sticas das antenas como, por exemplo, ganho, largura de banda, dentre outras. As FSS utilizam elementos do tipo patch quadrado nas c?lulas unit?rias. Especificamente, os resultados simulados s?o obtidos utilizando-se o programa computacional comercial CST Studio Suite? vers?o 2011. A partir de uma antena padr?o, projetada para operar em sistemas de comunica??es sem fio dos padr?es IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n, as dimens?es da FSS s?o variadas de forma a obter uma otimiza??o de alguns par?metros da antena, como casamento de imped?ncia e seletividade nas bandas de opera??o. Ap?s a otimiza??o dos par?metros investigados, s?o constru?dos dois prot?tipos de antenas patch de microfita com e sem a FSS no plano de terra. S?o feitas compara??es dos resultados simulados com os resultados experimentais obtidos pelo analisador de rede ZVB 14 da Rohde & Schwarz?. A compara??o visa validar as simula??es efetuadas e mostrar as melhorias obtidas com a FSS integrada no plano de terra da antena. Na constru??o dos prot?tipos, foram utilizados substratos diel?tricos da Rogers Corporation do tipo RT-3060 com permissividade relativa igual a 10,5 e baixa tangente de perdas. Sugest?es de continuidade do trabalho s?o apresentadas

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:46:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FredericoASL_TESE.pdf: 2802303 bytes, checksum: be814c8392c7d14ab8b3a30bbd50da04 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-11-18 / One of the current challenges of Ubiquitous Computing is the development of complex applications, those are more than simple alarms triggered by sensors or simple systems to configure the environment according to user preferences. Those applications are hard to develop since they are composed by services provided by different middleware and it is needed to know the peculiarities of each of them, mainly the communication and context models. This thesis presents OpenCOPI, a platform which integrates various services providers, including context provision middleware. It provides an unified ontology-based context model, as well as an environment that enable easy development of ubiquitous applications via the definition of semantic workflows that contains the abstract description of the application. Those semantic workflows are converted into concrete workflows, called execution plans. An execution plan consists of a workflow instance containing activities that are automated by a set of Web services. OpenCOPI supports the automatic Web service selection and composition, enabling the use of services provided by distinct middleware in an independent and transparent way. Moreover, this platform also supports execution adaptation in case of service failures, user mobility and degradation of services quality. The validation of OpenCOPI is performed through the development of case studies, specifically applications of the oil industry. In addition, this work evaluates the overhead introduced by OpenCOPI and compares it with the provided benefits, and the efficiency of OpenCOPI s selection and adaptation mechanism / Um dos principais desafios atuais da computa??o ub?qua ? o desenvolvimento de aplica??es complexas, que consistem em mais do que simples alarmes disparados por sensores ou ferramentas para configurar o ambiente de acordo com prefer?ncias dos usu?rios. Tais aplica??es s?o dif?ceis de desenvolver uma vez que envolve uso de servi?os que s?o providos por diferentes middleware, sendo necess?rio conhecer as peculiaridades de cada um deles, principalmente no que diz respeito ao modelo de comunica??o e ao modelo de representa??o de informa??es de contexto. Essa tese de doutorado apresenta o OpenCOPI, uma plataforma para integra??o de diferentes middleware de provis?o de contexto que fornece um servi?o de contexto unificado e baseado em ontologias, bem como um ambiente que facilita o desenvolvimento das aplica??es ub?quas atrav?s da defini??o de workflows sem?nticos com a descri??o abstrata da aplica??o. Esses workflows sem?nticos s?o transformados em workflows concretos, chamados de planos de execu??o. Um plano de execu??o ? em uma inst?ncia de um workflow contendo atividades que s?o automatizadas por um conjunto de servi?os Web. O OpenCOPI suporta composi??o e sele??o autom?tica de servi?os Web, possibilitando o uso transparente de servi?os de contexto providos por diferentes middleware. Essa plataforma tamb?m fornece suporte para adapta??o da execu??o das aplica??es em caso de falha de servi?os, mobilidade do usu?rio ou degrada??o da qualidade do servi?o. A valida??o do OpenCOPI ? realizada atrav?s de estudos de caso, especificamente aplica??es da ind?stria do petr?leo e g?s (monitoramento de po?os e de dutos de transporte de petr?leo). Al?m disso, esse trabalho avalia o overhead introduzido pelo OpenCOPI, contrastando com os seus benef?cios, e tamb?m avalia a efici?ncia dos mecanismos de sele??o e adapta??o

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In the US, more than 1 million burn injuries are reported annually. About 45,000 injuries due to fires and burns result in hospitalization and ten percent of these result in death every year. Advances in burn treatment have led to a reduction in mortality rate over the last decades. Since more patients are surviving the initial resuscitation phase even with very large areas of skin being burned away, wound care has become increasingly important to ensure continued patient survival and improvement. While currently a common treatment for third degree burn wounds, skin grafts have several drawbacks. The availability of donor sites for autografts may be limited, especially in incidences of extensive skin loss. The rejection associated with the use of allografts and xenografts may render them inadequate or undesirable. Even if a suitable graft is found, poor retention due to infection, hematoma, and low vascularity at the recipient site are other drawbacks associated with the use of skin grafts as a primary treatment for severe burn wounds. As such, research has been done into alternative treatments, which include but are not limited to artificial skin, cell therapy, and growth factor application. We propose the delivery of adipose derived stem cells (ASC) in combination with endothelial progenitor cells (EC) via Integra Dermal Regenerative Template (DRT) to promote faster graft vascularization and thus faster healing of wounds. Integra DRT is an acellular skin substitute that consists of a dermal layer composed of bovine collagen and chondroitin-6-sulfate glycosaminoglycan, and an "epidermal" layer, which consists of silicone polymer. This silicone layer is removed after the collagen matrix is adequately vascularized (usually takes 2-3 weeks), and then a thin layer autograft is applied to the top of the neo-dermis. ASC are derived from the stromal-vascular fraction (SVF) of adipose tissue and are a readily available, pluripotent, mesenchymal cell known to promote angiogenesis. They are being explored as a treatment for a myriad of diseases and conditions, including wound healing. In combination with ECs, they form stable microvessel networks in vitro and in vivo. In our work, we found that ASC+EC form stable microvessel networks when cultured on Integra DRT. Also, ASC and ASC+EC conditioned media promoted both survival and migration of human epidermal keratinocytes compared to control medium. In a full thickness wound healing model, using healthy NSG mice, the ASC+EC case showed a significantly higher rate of wound closure compared to control. Based on best linear unbiased estimates (BLUE), the difference between the healing rates of ASC alone treatment and the Control treatment group is -0.45 +/- 0.22 mm²/day (p=0.041), which is not less than 0.025 and thus not statistically significant (Bonferroni Adjusted). However, the BLUE for the difference between the ASC+EC group and the Control group healing rates is -0.55 +/- 0.28 mm²/day (p = 0.017<0.025, Bonferroni Adjusted), which is statistically significant. Histology revealed a significantly higher number of vessels compared to control in both ASC alone and ASC+EC case. CD31 staining revealed the presence of human vessels in ASC+EC treatment scaffolds. We conclude that the combination of ASC and EC can be used to accelerate healing of full-thickness wounds when delivered to site of the wound via Integra. This result is especially compelling due to the fact that the mice used were all healthy. Thus our treatment shows an improvement in healing rate even compared to normal wound healing.