La réalisation d'une mission robotique se décompose usuellement en trois étapes: la planification, i.e. le choix des taches à réaliser, le séquencement, i.e. la détermination du timing et de l'ordre de réalisation des tâches, et finalement l'exécution du plan de tâches. Pour les systèmes redondants tels que les robots humanoïdes, la tâche (dans le sens de fonction de tâche) détermine une commande sur une partie du robot, permettant ainsi la réalisation simultanée de plusieurs tâches à l'aide d'un formalisme de pile de tâches. Cependant, les mécanismes d'ordonnancement classiques ne gèrent pas les cas où le mouvement est déterminé par un ensemble de tâches hiérarchisé: pour ces robots, la phase d'ordonnancement est éludée et l'exécution se base directement sur la plan de tâches donné par le planificateur. Le but de cette thèse est de réintroduire cette phase d'ordonnancement, tout en maintenant le rôle central de la tâche. Dans un premier temps, la continuité de la commande fournie par la pile de tâches est étudiée. En particulier, nous mettons en évidence les discontinuités accompagnant la réalisation d'événements discrets (à savoir l'insertion, le retrait et l'échange de priorité de tâches), puis proposons et comparons plusieurs méthodes de lissage. Ensuite, nous présentons une méthode permettant d'optimiser une séquence de tâches donnée en modifiant le timing et la paramétrisation des tâches, tout en respectant les contraintes liées à l'environnement. Enfin, une nouvelle utilisation de la flexibilité de la fonction de tâche consistant à adapter une séquence de tâches aux préférences d'un utilisateur humain est illustrée. Ces résultats sont illustrés sur un robot humanoïde. / A general agreed approach on mission and motion planning consists in splitting it into three steps: decomposing the mission into a sequence of tasks (task planning), determining the order of realization and the timing of the tasks (task scheduling) and finally executing the task sequence. This approach maintains the task component in the entire reasoning, using it as a bridge between planning, scheduling and execution.In the sense of task function, a task defines a control law on part of the robot. Hence, for highly redundant systems such as humanoid robots, it is possible to realize several tasks simultaneously using a stack-of-tasks formalism. Though, classical schedulers do not handle the case where the motion is specified not by one, but by a combination of tasks organized into a hierarchy. As a result, the scheduling phase is usually skipped. This thesis aims at reintroducing the scheduling phase, while maintaining the central role of the task.First, the stack-of-tasks formalism is recalled and the continuity of the control law is studied. Particularly, we show that discreet operations (insertion, removal and swap of priority between tasks) create discontinuities in the control. We then present and discuss smoothing methods. Second, we present a task-overlapping based method to optimize not only the scheduling but also the behavior of the tasks of a given sequence, while accounting for the physical constraint of the execution. Finally, we introduce a new perspective in the usage of the task-function approach the task function approach to personalize a task sequence and take into account user preferences.These results are experimented on the humanoid robot platform HRP-2.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-05-26T13:44:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Roberta Lopes Augustin.pdf: 24036630 bytes, checksum: 63f94ecda811815207c8cc7078e9c067 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-26T13:44:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Roberta Lopes Augustin.pdf: 24036630 bytes, checksum: 63f94ecda811815207c8cc7078e9c067 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-06-06 / Nenhuma / O presente trabalho constitui-se em um estudo sobre as imbricações entre religiosidade, paisagem e identidade, tendo como campo etnográfico o Caminho das Graças, um empreendimento de turismo religioso que tem como foco proporcionar um espaço de fé local. Idealizado e mantido por moradores da localidade do Banhado Grande, que se situa entre duas atrações turísticas, – o Parque do Caracol e o Parque da Ferradura –, está inserido em um bairro da zona rural do município de Canela, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. O Caminho tem o percurso de sete quilômetros, atravessando pequenos sítios e moradias de famílias locais. Em frente a cada propriedade foi disposto, por essas famílias, um capitel com um santo de devoção, conduta que tem como referenciais a imagética devocional do santoral católico. Os materiais utilizados na construção dos capitéis, assim como suas concepções estéticas, são variados e criativos, explicitando maneiras de utilizar ou adaptar os recursos locais. Essa articulação produz um caminho religioso de ambientação híbrida, elaborado a partir da convergência do lugar e não lugar, composto por agenciamentos turísticos, religiosos, paisagísticos e identitários. O processo investigativo se efetivou por procedimentos orientados pelo método etnográfico, por meio da análise situacional, a partir de técnicas de observação participante, entrevistas semiestruturadas, livros de registros e recursos audiovisuais. Dessa forma, a pluralidade das narrativas foi o escopo para as análises das imbricações do processo de identidade local, por meio da identidade da ação, assim como das interações da religiosidade contemporânea e seus agenciamentos. Essa análise sociológica é fundamentada em considerações fenomenológicas que viabilizam a concepção da intersubjetividade como orientadora da compreensão dos diferentes espaços que o Caminho das Graças proporciona. Observou-se o Caminho das Graças enquanto um contexto empírico, portanto intersubjetivo, plural e significante, mostra-se como uma biografia subjetiva e complexa. Um cenário que estabelece interações por meio de sociações (SIMMEL, 1996), a partir dos processos objetificadores (CSORDAS, 2008), que elaboram o relacional e constituem as histórias das configurações dos diferentes lugares do lugar proporcionando a investigação da “alma do lugar” (YÁZIGI, 2002). Pois, se desvela como um projeto coletivo que objetiva proporcionar o bem-estar por meio de uma experiência espiritual, a partir da religiosidade em contato com a natureza, vivenciada na paisagem a reflexividade necessária. / The present paper is a study about the overlapping of religiosity, landscape(Scenery) and identity, through an ethnographic fieldwork as the “Caminho das Graças” (Path of Grace), a development of religious tourism that focuses on providing a space for local faith. Conceived and maintained by the local residents of Banhado Grande, which is located between two tourist attractions – “Parque do Caracol” and “Parque da Ferradura”. It is in a rural municipality of Canela, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The Path is seven kilometers across small farms and local families homes. In front of each property prepared from these families, a capital with Saints of devotion, such conduct which has reference from the Catholic Saints devotional imaging. The materials used in the construction of the capitals as well as their aesthetic conceptions are varied and creative, explaining the ways of use or adjust the local resources. This articulation produces a religious hybrid setting path, drawn from the convergence of place and no place, composed from tourist assemblages, religious, landscape and identity. The investigative process was accomplished by procedures guided by the ethnographic method, through situational analysis, based on participant observation, semistructured interviews, log books and audiovisual resources. Thus, the plurality of narratives was the scope for the analysis of the overlapping of local identity process through the identity of the action, as well as the contemporary religious interactions and their assemblages. This sociological analysis is based on phenomenological considerations that enable the design of intersubjectivity as a guideline for the understanding of the different spaces that the “Caminho das Graças” offers. The “Caminho das Graças” was observed as empirical context therefore intersubjective, plural and significant, which shows up as a subjective and complex biography. A scenario that establishes interactions through sociações (SIMMEL, 1996), from objetificadores processes (CSORDAS, 2008), elaborating out relational and setting the stories of the different places of the place enabling the investigation of the "soul of place" (YÁZIGI, 2002). Thus unfolds as a collective project that aims to provide welfare through spiritual experiences, from religiosity in touch with nature, experienced in the landscape the required reflexivity.

Seja X um alfabeto finito ou infinito enumerável, e considere como X^n o conjunto de todas as sequências de tamanho n. No presente trabalho, nós consideramos a função Tn, definida em X^n e tomando valores entre 1 e infinito. Tn será o primeiro tempo que demora sequência de tamanho n, digamos w, em aparecer de novo sobre uma sequência infinita do processo que começa com w. Este tempo é conhecido como o tempo de retorno. Seja Sn(w) = n - Tn(w) o nosso objeto de estudo, definido também em X^n e tomando valores entre menos infinito e n-1. A função Sn foi colocada em evidência, entre outros casos, na análise estatística da Recorrência de Poincaré, e possui relação explícita com a entropia do processo. Abadi e Lambert, provaram a convergência da distribuição de Sn, quando a sequência é escolhida de acordo com a medida produto de n variáveis aleatórias independentes e identicamente distribuídas no alfabeto e como consequência, mostraram a convergência da esperança de Sn. Nosso trabalho consiste em generalizar o trabalho feito por Abadi e Lambert para processos com uma condição de dependência \\beta-mixing. / We consider the set of finite sequences of length n over a finite or countable alphabet X . We consider the function defined over X^n, Sn = n-\"the first return\". Abadi and Lambert, computed the exact distribution and the limiting distribution of the Sn when the sequence is generated by independent and identically distributed random variables. Our work consists in a generalization of the work done by Abadi and Lambert to processes that verify the \\beta-mixing condition and \\{Xn\\}_{n\\inN} takes values over finite or countable alphabet.

Endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) is a minimally invasive alternative to open surgery for the treatment of aortic aneurysms (AA). However, standard EVAR is not applicable to complex AA with involvement of vital branches, which could be occluded by the endograft. As an emerging technique, the concept of multiple overlapping uncovered stents (MOUS) have been proposed to manage complex lesions. MOUS was used to modulate the flow pattern inside the aneurysm sac, and promote the thrombus formation followed by the aneurysm shrinkage. In this dissertation, we sought to investigate the mechanism of MOUS-induced flow modulation and key factors associated with the success of this novel technique: - The mechanical behaviour of AA was characterised by uniaxial material tests (Chapter 4). A Bayesian framework was proposed for material constants identification. They were found correlated to the microstructure of tissue fibre network and were capable in differentiating tissue types. - Solid-to-solid interaction and one-way fluid-solid interaction (FSI) analysis was performed based on patient-specific computer tomography angiography (Chapters 5&6). Structural stress concentrations were observed within the landing zones, which increased with the number of stents deployed. In the parameter studies (Chapter 6), the overall porosity was identified as the dominant factor of the flow-diverting outcome, while cross-stent structures of MOUS had limited influence. - The pathological effect of structural stress concentration induced by an implanted device was further studied in rabbit models (Chapter 7). The wall structural stress and fluid shear stress were obtained from FSI analysis based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and correlated to plaque characteristics. Both high structural stress and low fluid shear stress were found correlated to plaque initialisation and increased inflammation. Overall, MOUS modulates the blood flow with robust performance under different overlapping patterns. Image-based biomechanical analysis can optimise MOUS design and can contribute to personalised pre-surgery planning.

O surgimento de juntas é inevitável em certas construções em concreto armado e para garantir que a estrutura trabalhe de forma monolítica, deve-se proporcionar uma adequada transferência de esforços entre os elementos, para isso, faz-se necessário dispor de uma emenda adequada entre os elementos. Emendas com barras retas ocupam muito espaço devido ao comprimento de traspasse necessário, dessa forma, em situações em que há uma limitação de espaço para a emenda, uma armação que constitui uma boa solução é a emenda por meio de laço, que, apesar de ter poucos estudos relacionados, vem sendo bastante difundida na construção civil. O objetivo desse trabalho é estudar o comportamento de emendas em laço em juntas de estruturas de concreto armado submetidas à tração. Para isso, realizam-se simulações numéricas no software DIANA® em modelos numéricos 3D. Inicialmente, fez-se a calibração do modelo numérico com base em ensaios experimentais da literatura, depois foi realizada uma análise paramétrica variando parâmetros geométricos das peças e da armação em laço. Os resultados mostraram que traspasses menores que o diâmetro de dobra dos laços e espaçamentos maiores que 100 mm se mostram insuficientes para a formação de bielas de compressão entre laços. Dessa forma, ao se utilizar emendas em laço em juntas de concreto armado, recomenda-se dispor as barras o mais próximo possível até um espaçamento máximo de 60 mm entre eixos, como também um traspasse mínimo igual ao diâmetro de dobra dos laços. / The appearance of joints is inevitable in certain constructions of reinforced concrete and aiming to guarantee that the structure works monolithically, it is important to provide an appropriate transfer of stresses between elements, for that, it is necessary using a proper overlapping between them. Straight bars overlappings take up too much space due to the required overlapping length, therefore, in limited space situations, a reinforcement that represents a good solution is the loop joint, which has spread a lot in civil construction, although there are very few studies about it. The aim of the present work is to study the loop joint behaviour in reinforced concrete structures under tension. In order to do so, numerical simulations with numerical 3D models are made using the software DIANA®. Initially, it was made the calibration of the numerical model based on experimental tests of the literature, after that, parametric analyses were performed, varying geometric parameters of the elements and of the loop reinforcement. The results showed that overlapping lengths smaller than the loop diameter and distances between loops axes greater than 100 mm are not sufficient for the development of compression struts between loops. Thus, when the loop joint in reinforced concrete structures is used, it is recommended that the bars are placed as near as possible until a distance between the loops axes of 60 mm and a minimum overlapping length equal to the loop diameter of the reinforcement.

<p>Human rights as codified in international documents are claims every human being have by virtue of being a human. Meaning that every state must ensure, through its laws, that each individual is guaranteed these claims or rights equally. Islamic principles like other religions are obligations that its members (Muslims) must perform rather than claims. Therefore, it is possible that individual rights may not be respected within Islamic principles because, of the differences in their origin and emphasis, one is a claim and the other a duty of believers.</p><p>The concern of violating rights of other people within Islamic law calls into attention how Islamic principles can be applied in a state while guaranteeing human rights as universal principles.</p><p>This study discusses various approaches proposed by Muslim authors on how human rights can be justified in Islam. Since human rights are political concepts, in the sense that each state must ensure that human beings go about their life freely, they should be the focus of consensus among different doctrines in a modern state. That is a principle to justify human rights in Islam must consider the fact of pluralism of religious doctrines and how all are included in the political process of the state.</p>

The Applied Miniaturisation Laboratory (AML) has recently built a laser-induced fluorescent capillary electrophoresis (LIF-CE) genetic analysis instrument, called the Tricorder Tool Kit (TTK). By using a photodiode instead of photomultiplier tubes in the optical detection, the AML has lowered the cost and size compared to commercial LIF-CE products. However, maintaining an adequate signal-to-noise (SNR) and limit of detection (LOD) is a challenge. By implementing a multistage amplifier, we increased the bandwidth and voltage swing while maintaining the transimpedance gain compared to the previous design. We also developed signal processing algorithms for post-experiment processing of CE. Using wavelet transform, iterative polynomial baseline fitting, and Jansson's deconvolution, we improved the SNR, reduced baseline variations, and separated overlapping peaks in CE signals. By improving the electronics and signal processing, we lowered the LOD of the TTK, which is a step towards the realisation of inexpensive point-of-care molecular medical diagnosis instruments. / Computer, Microelectronic Devices, Circuits and Systems

In this dissertation, we study the mixed finite element method for the linear plane elasticity problem and iterative solvers for the resulting discrete system. We use the Arnold-Winther Element in the mixed finite element discretization. An overlapping Schwarz preconditioner and a multigrid preconditioner for the discrete system are developed and analyzed. We start by introducing the mixed formulation (stress-displacement formulation) for the linear plane elasticity problem and its discretization. A detailed analysis of the Arnold-Winther Element is given. The finite element discretization of the mixed formulation leads to a symmetric indefinite linear system. Next, we study efficient iterative solvers for the symmetric indefinite linear system which arises from the mixed finite element discretization of the linear plane elasticity problem. The preconditioned Minimum Residual Method is considered. It is shown that the problem of constructing a preconditioner for the indefinite linear system can be reduced to the problem of constructing a preconditioner for the H(div) problem in the Arnold-Winther finite element space. Our main work involves developing an overlapping Schwarz preconditioner and a multigrid preconditioner for the H(div) problem. We give condition number estimates for the preconditioned systems together with supporting numerical results.

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Humanitarian logistics is a young science and complex discipline compared to business logistics because not only are actors in that arena compelled to work with outmost speed in interrupted environments having undetermined demand, they are also forced to work closely with other unknown players. Even more complex are civil-military relations because as studies show, the differences between these two humanitarian actors run deep to include contrasting missions, humanitarian principles, organizational and cultural differences. The purpose of this work is to examine civil-military relations during the preparedness and response phases of humanitarian crises. We developed a frame of reference, set forth some operational and theoretical definitions, examined overlapping supply chains, modeled organizational structures and coordination mechanisms, established civil-military cooperation framework, disaster cycle studies and proposed a working model. Our methodology included primary data collection through an empirical study of two NGOs and the military force through a series of interviews. Data culled was then analyzed in conjunction with the models and literature outlined in the frame of reference. Based on our analysis, a number of observations were made in the conclusion. To begin with a number of strategies are employed during the preparedness and response phase where speed and agility are crucial. Also, overlapping roles between the military and NGOs have both positive and negative impact. Different organizational structures and funding outlay mean differences abound in how actors coordinate activities and share information. Cooperation, trust, information sharing and coordination are closely linked when finding a strategic fit among actors. In spite of the attempt at seeking a right formula for civil-military relations, it would be erroneous to ‘standardize’ relations as no two cases are ever the same.