OBJETIVOS: caracterizar o estado nutricional de indivíduos ativos, portadores de deficiência motora. METODOLOGIA: Foram avaliados 68 indivíduos ativos, do sexo masculino, portadores de lesão medular (LM, n= 28), seqüelas de poliomielite (L, n=32) ou amputados (A, n= 8). Foram avaliados: o consumo alimentar (recordatório de 24h e lista de freqüência de alimentos), antropometria (peso, altura, dobras cutâneas), composição corporal por DEXA e por bioimpedância. Quanto aos parâmetros bioquímicos: glicemia de jejum, lipídeos plasmáticos (colesterol total, LDL, HDL e triacilgliceróis), uréia e creatinina, insulina, cortisol e IGF-1 plasmáticos. Os dados dos grupos foram submetidos à análise univariada (ANOVA) e os contrastes significativos ao teste de Tuckey, além da análise multivariada para detecção das correlações entre os parâmetros de avaliação. RESULTADOS: os grupos apresentaram um consumo energético abaixo das predições normais, o que pode ser explicado pela menor necessidade decorrente da diminuição da massa muscular. A distribuição percentual da ingestão de lipídeos apresentou-se elevada, inversamente ao consumo de carboidratos. O IMC mostrou-se um bom indicador da gordura corporal, o DEXA mostrou alta correlação com os dados obtidos por dobras cutâneas e com as predições convencionais de gordura corporal. A densidade óssea do corpo total apresentou normalidade, porém, nos LMe nos P a região das pernas apontou para osteopenia e/ou osteoporose. Os dados bioquímicos apresentaram-se normais. CONCLUSÕES: a atividade física parece ter sido um fator determinante para a normalidade encontrada na maioria dos parâmetros avaliados, embora não tenha sido suficiente para manter a densidade óssea e muscular nas regiões paralisadas. Ficou evidente a necessidade de trabalhos de Educação Nutricional para esses indivíduos. No que diz respeito a parâmetros de densidade óssea, é importante a análise dos diferentes segmentos do corpo. / OBJECTIVES: to characterize the nutricional status of active, handicapped individuals. METHODOLOGY: 68 individuals active, men, with spinal cord injury (SCI) (LM, n = 28), poliomelite sequels (L, n=32) or amputed ( n = 8). They had been evaluated by: food consumption (24h dietary recall and food frequency), anthropometry (weight, height, skinfolders and cicunferences), body composition from DEXA and bioelectrical impedance. About the biochemical parameters: serum fast glucose, serum lipids (total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides), serum urea and creatinine, insulin, cortisol and IGF-1. The data had been submitted to the ANOVA and the significant contrasts to the Tuckey test, beyond the multivaried analysis for correlations values between the parameters. RESULTS: the groups had presented an energy consumption below of the normal predictions, what it can be explained by the muscle mass reduction. The distribution of the lipids ingestion was high, inversely to the carbohydrates consumption. The body mass index (BMI) revealed to be a good index of the body fat, the DEXA showed high correlation with the skinfolders and with the body fat predicictions. The total bone density presented normality, however, in the LM and the P the region of the legs pointed osteopenia and/or osteoporose. The biochemical data had been normal. CONCLUSIONS: the physical activity seems to have been a determinative factor for the normality found in the majority of the evaluated parameters, even so it has not been enough to keep the bone and muscle density in the paralyzed regions. The necessity of Nutricional Education was evident for these individuals. About the parameters of bone density, the analysis of the different regions is important .

This diploma thesis deals with the development of the school climate in a classroom with a seriously physically disabled child who requires permanent presence of an assistant. The theoretical part focuses on physical disabilities and their impact on the psyche of the child, the specifics of including a seriously disabled child in educational instructional contexts and the life of the classroom, and on the cooperation between a form teacher and an assistant whose support and help is required by the child during all lessons. The practical part uses a narrative of two girls and people who are closely related to them to offer answers to the inquiries into how have relationships within such a classroom and the attitude of classmates to a disabled child changed over the years; how can the presence of an assistant affect the climate of the classroom; and whether the external perception of the inclusion of a disabled child as a successful one corresponds with the feelings of the disabled child, of if the child sees the process otherwise. Case studies which helped the author to get a general picture of the situation confirmed it appeared that the factor which immensely affects inclusion of a physically disabled child in the classroom is the age at which children meet and the attitude of the teacher and the...

La quête de performance a été une constante à travers l’histoire des systèmes informatiques. Il y a plus d’une décennie maintenant, le modèle de traitement séquentiel montrait ses premiers signes d’épuisement pour satisfaire les exigences de performance. Les barrières du calcul séquentiel ont poussé à un changement de paradigme et ont établi le traitement parallèle comme standard dans les systèmes informatiques modernes. Avec l’adoption généralisée d’ordinateurs parallèles, de nombreux algorithmes et applications ont été développés pour s’adapter à ces nouvelles architectures. Cependant, dans des applications non conventionnelles, avec des exigences d’interactivité et de temps réel, la parallélisation efficace est encore un défi majeur. L’exigence de performance en temps réel apparaît, par exemple, dans les simulations interactives où le système doit prendre en compte l’entrée de l’utilisateur dans une itération de calcul de la boucle de simulation. Le même type de contrainte apparaît dans les applications d’analyse de données en continu. Par exemple, lorsque des donnes issues de capteurs de trafic ou de messages de réseaux sociaux sont produites en flux continu, le système d’analyse doit être capable de traiter ces données à la volée rapidement sur ce flux tout en conservant un budget de mémoire contrôlé La caractéristique dynamique des données soulève plusieurs problèmes de performance tel que la décomposition du problème pour le traitement en parallèle et la maintenance de la localité mémoire pour une utilisation efficace du cache. Les optimisations classiques qui reposent sur des modèles pré-calculés ou sur l’indexation statique des données ne conduisent pas aux performances souhaitées. Dans cette thèse, nous abordons les problèmes dépendants de données sur deux applications différentes : la première dans le domaine de la simulation physique interactive et la seconde sur l’analyse des données en continu. Pour le problème de simulation, nous présentons un algorithme GPU parallèle pour calculer les multiples plus courts chemins et des diagrammes de Voronoi sur un graphe en forme de grille. Pour le problème d’analyse de données en continu, nous présentons une structure de données parallélisable, basée sur des Packed Memory Arrays, pour indexer des données dynamiques géo-référencées tout en conservant une bonne localité de mémoire. / A busca por desempenho tem sido uma constante na história dos sistemas computacionais. Ha mais de uma década, o modelo de processamento sequencial já mostrava seus primeiro sinais de exaustão pare suprir a crescente exigência por performance. Houveram "barreiras"para a computação sequencial que levaram a uma mudança de paradigma e estabeleceram o processamento paralelo como padrão nos sistemas computacionais modernos. Com a adoção generalizada de computadores paralelos, novos algoritmos foram desenvolvidos e aplicações reprojetadas para se adequar às características dessas novas arquiteturas. No entanto, em aplicações menos convencionais, com características de interatividade e tempo real, alcançar paralelizações eficientes ainda representa um grande desafio. O requisito por desempenho de tempo real apresenta-se, por exemplo, em simulações interativas onde o sistema deve ser capaz de reagir às entradas do usuário dentro do tempo de uma iteração da simulação. O mesmo tipo de exigência aparece em aplicações de monitoramento de fluxos contínuos de dados (streams). Por exemplo, quando dados provenientes de sensores de tráfego ou postagens em redes sociais são produzidos em fluxo contínuo, o sistema de análise on-line deve ser capaz de processar essas informações em tempo real e ao mesmo tempo manter um consumo de memória controlada A natureza dinâmica desses dados traz diversos problemas de performance, tais como a decomposição do problema para processamento em paralelo e a manutenção da localidade de dados para uma utilização eficiente da memória cache. As estratégias de otimização tradicionais, que dependem de modelos pré-computados ou de índices estáticos sobre os dados, não atendem às exigências de performance necessárias nesses cenários. Nesta tese, abordamos os problemas dependentes de dados em dois contextos diferentes: um na área de simulações baseada em física e outro em análise de dados em fluxo contínuo. Para o problema de simulação, apresentamos um algoritmo paralelo, em GPU, para computar múltiplos caminhos mínimos e diagramas de Voronoi em um grafo com topologia de grade. Para o problema de análise de fluxos de dados, apresentamos uma estrutura de dados paralelizável, baseada em Packed Memory Arrays, para indexar dados dinâmicos geo-localizados ao passo que mantém uma boa localidade de memória. / The quest for performance has been a constant through the history of computing systems. It has been more than a decade now since the sequential processing model had shown its first signs of exhaustion to keep performance improvements. Walls to the sequential computation pushed a paradigm shift and established the parallel processing as the standard in modern computing systems. With the widespread adoption of parallel computers, many algorithms and applications have been ported to fit these new architectures. However, in unconventional applications, with interactivity and real-time requirements, achieving efficient parallelizations is still a major challenge. Real-time performance requirement shows up, for instance, in user-interactive simulations where the system must be able to react to the user’s input within a computation time-step of the simulation loop. The same kind of constraint appears in streaming data monitoring applications. For instance, when an external source of data, such as traffic sensors or social media posts, provides a continuous flow of information to be consumed by an online analysis system. The consumer system has to keep a controlled memory budget and deliver a fast processed information about the stream Common optimizations relying on pre-computed models or static index of data are not possible in these highly dynamic scenarios. The dynamic nature of the data brings up several performance issues originated from the problem decomposition for parallel processing and from the data locality maintenance for efficient cache utilization. In this thesis we address data-dependent problems on two different applications: one on physically based simulations and another on streaming data analysis. To deal with the simulation problem, we present a parallel GPU algorithm for computing multiple shortest paths and Voronoi diagrams on a grid-like graph. Our contribution to the streaming data analysis problem is a parallelizable data structure, based on packed memory arrays, for indexing dynamic geo-located data while keeping good memory locality.

Esta tese possui os objetivos de investigar por que aspectos históricos e como aspectos ergonômicos e estético-simbólicos do design de calçados promovem efetiva inclusão sociocultural para pessoas com deficiência do aparelho locomotor. Esta investigação resultou na criação da metodologia Mi Piacce, que contribui nas análises dos prazeres físicos, psicológicos, sociais e ideológicos provocados pelo design de calçados aos usuários supracitados e verifica como os aspectos mencionados podem promover-lhes inclusão sociocultural. Método indutivo e combinação de metodologia qualitativa e quantitativa foram aplicados. No primeiro subproblema, por que aspectos históricos promovem a esses usuários efetiva inclusão sociocultural, utilizou-se análise comparativa entre fontes secundárias sobre a história do design de calçados nos séculos XX e XXI que resultaram nos principais estilos. Devido à carência de produtos ofertados no Brasil, concluiu-se que os usuários desejam estilos já familiares, considerados icônicos. Concluiu-se ainda que, enquanto o designer de calçados para a moda preocupou-se em manifestar o espírito do tempo, o designer de órteses e próteses valorizou os aspectos da funcionalidade do design. Observado que a mudança de paradigma foi incorporada pela WHO na classificação do ICF (2001), compreendeu-se por que a maioria dos projetos para pessoas com deficiência não considerou as dimensões socioculturais dos usuários. A pesquisa encontra-se sob o viés epistemológico do Construtivismo e da Teoria Interpretativista, especialmente da Teoria Fenomenológica quando analisou entrevistas semi-estruturadas com os usuários. Entrevistou-se dezoito indivíduos, cinco da área da saúde, uma especialista em design de calçados e onze usuários - nove do sexo feminino e dois do masculino. As entrevistas seguiram o Código de Ética de Pesquisas da CONEP. Utilizou-se como técnica de análises das entrevistas com os usuários a codificação e relação posteriori com a Teoria do Quatro Prazeres de Jordan (2000) para responder ao segundo subproblema - como aspectos ergonômicos e estético-simbólicos do design de calçados promovem efetiva inclusão sociocultural aos usuários supracitados. Primeiramente, os dados analisados foram tabulados qualitativamente, realizando-se, a seguir, as tabulações quantitativas por meio de estatística simples. Concluiu-se que cada elemento do design de calçados relaciona-se com específicos tipos de prazer e correlaciona-se com outros. Aos prazeres físicos foram relacionados os conceitos de equilíbrio, segurança e conforto físico. Foi observado que duas dimensões estão presentes nos prazeres psicológicos; na primeira, a realização de tarefas, encontra-se a facilidade e/ou dificuldade de manuseio e de manutenção e, na segunda, a emocional, estão os conceitos de auto-estima e bem estar. Aos prazeres sociais foram relacionados e analisados o desejo pessoal e a sociabilidade. Os prazeres ideológicos foram relacionados à responsabilidade social, desenvolvimento sustentável e ciclo de vida dos produtos. Verificou-se, então, como os conceitos mencionados promovem efetiva inclusão sociocultural dos usuários. As análises qualitativas-quantitativas das entrevistas resultaram em oito generalizações sobre o design de calçados para as pessoas em questão: percepção de maior incidência de pressão social em cerimoniais, desejo por prazeres físicos e por design de calçados que camuflem as restrições, preocupação com o alto custo dos calçados, dificuldade em encontrar calçados prazerosos, aquisição do mesmo par de calçados mais de uma vez, vontade de inclusão e reconhecimento da singularidade. / The aims of this PhD research are to investigate why historical aspects and how ergonomic and aesthetical-symbolical aspects regarding shoe design can with provide physically challenged women both effective social and cultural inclusions. This investigation resulted in the creation of Mi Piacce methodology, which contributes to analyze physiological, psychological, sociological, and ideological pleasures brought about by shoe design those specific wearers. Also, it verifies how these aspects could cause them social and cultural inclusions. Inductive method and combination between qualitative and quantitative methodologies were applied. In the first subproblem, why historical aspects could cause those wearers social and cultural inclusions, comparative analyze between secondary data about the history of shoe design in XX and XXI Century was applied, which resulted in principal styles. Due to the lack of Brazilian products, it could be concluded that the wearers desire known shoe design styles, considered to be iconic. In addition, it could be concluded that while the fashion shoe designer preoccupied in demonstrating time spirit, orthese and prosthese designer valorized the functionality of design. Once the paradigm change was incorporated into ICF Classification (2001) by WHO, it could be understood why the majority of projects for disabled people did not incorporated wearers\' social and cultural dimensions. This research relied on Constructivism Epistemology and Interpretativist Theory, especially Phenomenological Theory when analyzed semistructured interviews with wearers. Eighteen people were interviewed, five health professionals, one shoe design expert and eleven wearers - nine female and two male. The interviews followed the Brazilian Ethics Code of CONEP. It was used to analyze the interviews with wearer\'s the codification and posteriori relation to The Four Pleasures Theory by Jordan (2000) to respond the second subproblem - how ergonomic and aestheticalsymbolical aspects regarding shoe design can with provide physically challenged women both effective social and cultural inclusions. Firstly, qualitative data was analyzed, then, quantitative tabulation was analyzed by applying simple statistic. It was concluded that each shoe design element were related to specific types of pleasure and co-related to others pleasures. Physio-pleasures were related to balance, security and physic comfort concepts. It was observed that psychopleasures are related to two dimensions; the first one implies task accomplishment, i.e., the facility in handling and maintenance; the second dimension, which is emotional, implies self-esteem and well-being concepts. Socio-pleasures were related to personal desire and sociability. Ideo-pleasures were related to social responsibility, sustainable development and life cycle of products. Therefore, it was verified how these concepts can improve both effective social and cultural inclusions. Qualitative-quantitative analyzes from the interviews resulted in eight generalizations regarding to shoe design for physically challenged women: higher perception of social oppression on ceremonial occasions, desire for physio-pleasures and for shoe design which camouflage feet or leg problems, preoccupation with higher price of shoes, difficulty to find pleasant shoes, acquisition of the same shoe style more than once, wish for inclusion and recognition of singularity.

Les revêtements perméables se développent en France et à l’étranger comme une technique d’avenir en réponse aux enjeux de la protection des sols et de l’amélioration du cycle de l’eau en milieu urbain. Le développement de pavés drainants au sein du laboratoire de l’ESITC Caen a mis en évidence le besoin de quantifier les apports des revêtements perméables pour répondre aux attentes des acteurs locaux et favoriser l’utilisation de ces techniques par les aménageurs. Dans ce but, ce travail de thèse porte sur la description des processus hydrologiques au sein des revêtements perméables et la quantification de leurs bénéfices sur le ruissellement urbain. Deux modèles ont été développés pour répondre à ces objectifs.Le premier permet de modéliser les processus hydrologiques au sein des structures perméables avec une approche physique basée sur la résolution de l’équation de RICHARDS par la méthode des éléments finis. Cette modélisation apporte des éléments de compréhension sur l’influence des propriétés de la structure et de son environnement sur ses performances. Elle a abouti à la proposition d’une représentation conceptuelle du comportement hydrologique des structures perméables. Le second modèle permet de modéliser le comportement hydrologique d’un bassin versant avec une approche par systèmes multi-agents. Différents scénarios d’implantation de revêtements perméables ont été simulés sur un site d’étude réel situé à Ouistreham en Normandie. L’exploration de ce modèle apporte des éléments de quantification des bénéfices de l’implantation des revêtements perméables sur le ruissellement de surface. Les résultats obtenus mettent en évidence le lien entre le ratio de surface perméable sur la surface imperméable et la réduction du ruissellement. Ils soulignent l’importance de la dispersion des zones de revêtements perméables pour optimiser leurs bénéfices. / Permeable pavements are developing in France and abroad as a promising response to the growing issues of ground protection and the improvement of the water cycle in urban areas. The development of pervious concrete within the laboratory of ESITC Caen had highlighted the need to quantify the contributions of the permeable pavement, and thus meeting the expectations of local authorities and encouraging the use of these techniques by urban planners. In this purpose, this Phd aims at describing the hydrological mechanisms of the permeable pavements and quantifying their benefits on surface runoff. Two models were developed to respond to these objectives. The first one allows modeling the hydrological processes inside permeable pavement structures with a physically-based approach, which solves RICHARD’s law with a finite element method. This modeling enables the understanding of the influence of the properties of the structure and its environment on its performances. Results have led to the proposal of a conceptual representation of permeable structures. The second model allows modeling the hydrological behavior of an urban catchment with an agent-based approach. Various scenarios of permeable pavement implemantations were simulated on a real study site located at Ouistreham in Normandy. The analysis of this model enables the quantifying of the benefits of the implementation of permeable pavements on surface runoff. Results highlight the link between the permeable surface on the impermeable surface ratio and the reduction of runoff. They emphasize the importance of dispersing permeable pavement areas to maximize their benefits.

Ce travail de recherche vise à caractériser les propriétés hydrodynamiques des sols des Cévennes, une zone de moyenne montagne du sud de la France connue pour être sujette à des crues à cinétique rapide, appelées « crues éclair ». Il s'agit donc de déterminer les paramètres relatifs à la conductivité hydraulique et à la rétention en eau du modèle de Mualem-van Genuchten, leur variabilité spatiale à l'échelle du versant ou du petit bassin, et les facteurs qui expliquent cette variabilité spatiale. Il s'agit également d'évaluer la perméabilité du sous-sol constitué d'une roche plus ou moins altérée, et d'en déduire des informations sur les processus de saturation des sols pouvant être à l'origine de ruissellement.Les propriétés hydrodynamiques des sols et du sous-sol ont été estimées par modélisation inverse de la teneur en eau sols, à partir d'une station pilote sur le site de Sumène et d'un réseau de 50 stations de mesure répartis sur 4 versants granitiques (site de Valescure) et 2 versants schisteux (site de Tourgueille). La station pilote comprend 3 sondes de mesure installées à 20, 40, 60 cm de profondeur, et les stations installées sur les versants comprennent chacune 2 sondes de mesure installées à des profondeurs variables allant de 15 à 45 cm. Les teneurs en eau du sol ainsi que les précipitations ont été mesurées en continu au pas de temps 15 min sur les différents sites. La procédure de modélisation inverse est basée sur l'algorithme génétique multi-objectif NSGA-II. Cette procédure a été appliquée pour chaque station, en considérant que le sol d'épaisseur variable constitué de la superposition de 2 horizons, surmontant un troisième horizon figurant la roche altérée sous-jacente. Au total, quinze paramètres doivent être calibrés pour chaque station, et sont estimés à partir de périodes sélectionnées correspondant aux épisodes de pluie les plus importants. Les processus d'évapotranspiration ont été considérés comme négligeables au cours de ces épisodes. L'analyse des propriétés de rétention et de conductivité obtenues a mis en évidence la très forte conductivité hydraulique des sols étudiés, de l'ordre de 1000 à 2000 mm/h, et leur faible rétention en eau. Les teneurs en eau à saturation estimées s'échelonnent de 0.30 à 0.60 cm3.cm-3, traduisant une grande hétérogénéité locale. On retrouve cette forte variabilité pour l'estimation des profondeurs de sol qui varient de 31 à 120 cm. Pour l'horizon représentant le sous-sol, les perméabilités sont très contrastées, avec des valeurs de conductivités hydrauliques variant de quelques unités à plus d'une centaine de mm/h. Les stations présentant les sols les moins profondes et des sous-sols moins perméables génèrent des zones saturées qui se développent à la base du profil de sol, comme ça a été observé et simulé lors des épisodes pluvieux les plus intenses. Si les propriétés des sols apparaissent très variables d'une station à une autre et d'un versant à un autre, les résultats n'ont pas montré d'organisation particulière de cette variabilité spatiale. La position de la station sur le versant n'apparaît pas être déterminante pour les porosités, les profondeurs, les perméabilités et les rétentions en eau des sols ; les distributions de ces propriétés, calculées à l'échelle des différents versants, ne semblent pas reliées aux grands traits du paysage : géologie, orientation, végétation. / This research work aims to characterize soil hydrodynamic properties of the Cévennes area, a low mountain region known to be prone to flash floods. We thus chose to estimate hydraulic conductivity and water retention properties of the Mualem –van Genuchten model and their spatial variability at the hillslope scale and between multiple hillslope profiles. The objectives are also to evaluate the weathered bedrock permeability, and consequently to enhance our understanding of the soil saturation processes.The soil and bedrock hydrodynamic properties were estimated by inverse modelling of soil moisture from a pilot station and a network of 50 stations distributed on 4 granitic hillslope and 2 schist hillslope. The pilot station was instrumented with 3 soil moisture sensors located at 20, 40 and 60 cm deep whereas the hillslope stations were instrumented with 2 soil moisture sensors located variably from 15 to 45 cm deep. Both soil moisture and precipitation were recorded with a 15 min time step for every station. The inverse modelling procedure is based on the multi-objective genetic algorithm NSGA-II. This procedure was used for every station considering a variably deep soil composed by 2 layers surmounting a 100 cm deep third layer representing the weathered bedrock. Fifteen parameters were calibrated for every station, and were estimated from small selected rainfall periods of 1 to 15 days corresponding to the major rainfall events during the monitoring period. Evapotranspiration has been considered as negligible during those events. The analysis of those retention and conductivity properties shows a very important hydraulic conductivity for the studied soils, ranging from 1000 to 2000 mm/h, and their low retention capacity. The soil saturated water content varies from 0.30 to 0.60 cm3.cm-3, which is a consequence of the important soil heterogeneity at the hillslope scale. We also find that heterogeneity on the estimation of soil depth which varies from 31 to 120 cm. For the weathered bedrock layer, we also found contrasted permeability varying from a few units to a hundred of mm/h. Stations with the shallowest soils and the less permeable bedrock presenting a saturation process at the soil/bedrock contact, as monitored and simulated during the most intense rainfalls. If the estimated soil hydrodynamic properties exhibit important variations at the hillslope scale from a station to another, results showed no specific spatial organization of this variability. The station's position on the hillslope is not decisive to estimate saturated soil moisture, soil depth, soil permeability or water retention capacity. The distribution of those properties, calculated for the 6 studied hillslope is not either correlated to the landscape general characteristic: geology, orientation, land cover.

Les systèmes de réalité virtuelle interactifs combinent des représentations visuelle, sonore et haptique, afin de simuler de manière immersive l'exploration d'un monde tridimensionnel représenté depuis le point de vue d'un observateur contrôlé en temps réel par l'utilisateur. La plupart des travaux effectués dans ce domaine ont historiquement port'e sur les aspects visuels (par exemple des méthodes d'affichage interactif de modèles 3D complexes ou de simulation réaliste et efficace de l'éclairage) et relativement peu de travaux ont été consacrés 'a la simulation de sources sonores virtuelles 'également dénommée auralisation. Il est pourtant certain que la simulation sonore est un facteur clé dans la production d'environnements de synthèse, la perception sonore s'ajoutant à la perception visuelle pour produire une interaction plus naturelle. En particulier, les effets sonores spatialisés, dont la direction de provenance est fidèlement reproduite aux oreilles de l'auditeur, sont particulièrement importants pour localiser les objets, séparer de multiples signaux sonores simultanés et donner des indices sur les caractéristiques spatiales de l'environnement (taille, matériaux, etc.). La plupart des systèmes de réalité virtuelle immersifs, des simulateurs les plus complexes aux jeux vidéo destin'es au grand public mettent aujourd'hui en œuvre des algorithmes de synthèse et spatialisation des sons qui permettent d'améliorer la navigation et d'accroître le réalisme et la sensation de présence de l'utilisateur dans l'environnement de synthèse. Comme la synthèse d'image dont elle est l'équivalent auditif, l'auralisation, appel'ee aussi rendu sonore, est un vaste sujet 'a la croisée de multiples disciplines : informatique, acoustique et 'électroacoustique, traitement du signal, musique, calcul géométrique mais également psycho-acoustique et perception audio-visuelle. Elle regroupe trois problématiques principales: synthèse et contrôle interactif de sons, simulation des effets de propagation du son dans l'environnement et enfin, perception et restitution spatiale aux oreilles de l'auditeur. Historiquement, ces trois problématiques émergent de travaux en acoustique architecturale, acoustique musicale et psycho-acoustique. Toutefois une différence fondamentale entre rendu sonore pour la réalité virtuelle et acoustique réside dans l'interaction multimodale et dans l'efficacité des algorithmes devant être mis en œuvre pour des applications interactives. Ces aspects importants contribuent 'a en faire un domaine 'a part qui prend une importance croissante, tant dans le milieu de l'acoustique que dans celui de la synthèse d'image/réalité virtuelle.

Family Child Care Homes (FCCHs) are the second largest provider of non-relative care in the U.S. However, despite providing care for nearly 1.9 million children under the age of 5, little is known about the physical activity levels of children attending FCCHs. This dissertation sought to provide new information with regards to physical activity in children attending FCCHs. The purpose of the first study was to objectively measure physical activity in children attending FCCHs. 114 children (60 boys and 54 girls) 3.7 �� 1.1 years of age from 47 FCCHs wore an ActiGraph GT1M accelerometer for the duration of child care attendance during a randomly selected week. Counts were classified as sedentary (SED), light (LPA), or moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) using the cut-points developed by Pate et al. (2006). Total physical activity was calculated by summing time spent in LPA and MVPA. Non-wear time was estimated by summing the number of consecutive zero counts accumulated in strings of 10 minutes or longer. Children were included in the analyses if they had 2 or more monitoring days in which wear time was ���75% of the attendance time. On average, children accumulated 25.9 �� 5.7 min of SED, 10.1 �� 4.2 min of MVPA, and 34.1 �� 5.7 min of total physical activity per hour of attendance. Further analysis revealed that among healthy weight children, 4 year-olds exhibited significantly lower levels of SED and significantly higher levels of MVPA and total physical activity than 2- and 3- year-olds. Among 4-year-olds, overweight and obese children exhibited significantly higher levels of SED and significantly lower levels of MVPA and total PHYSICAL ACTIVITY than healthy weight counterparts. The results from this study indicated that preschool-aged children attending FCCHs are mostly sedentary and accumulate low levels of MVPA during the child care day. The purpose of the second study was to assess the validity of two proxy report instruments designed to measure physical activity in children attending FCCHs. Valid self-report measures are needed for large scale intervention studies and/or population-based surveillance studies in which more burdensome objective measures are not feasible. In Year 1 of the study, FCCH Providers (N=37) completed the Burdette parent proxy report, modified for the family child care setting, for 107 children aged 3.4 �� 1.2 years. In Year 2, 42 Providers completed the Harro parent and teacher proxy report, modified for the family child care setting, for 131 children aged 3.8 �� 1.3 years. Both proxy-reports were assessed for validity using objectively measured physical activity as a criterion measure (accelerometry). Significant positive correlations were observed between scores from the modified Burdette proxy report and objectively measured total physical activity (r = 0.31, p < 0.01) and MVPA (r = 0.33, p < 0.01). Across levels of Provider-reported activity, both total physical activity and MVPA increased significantly in a linear dose-response fashion. Provider-reported MVPA scores from modified Harro proxy report were not associated with objectively measured physical activity. These findings suggested that the modified Burdette proxy report may be a useful measurement tool in larger-scale physical activity studies involving FCCHs in which objective measures, such as direct observation or accelerometry, are not practical. The purpose of the third study was to evaluate the effects of two strategies to increase the use of portable play equipment in FCCHs ��� a community-based train-the-trainer physical activity intervention (INT), and the same trainer-the-trainer intervention supplemented with monthly emails promoting the use of portable play equipment (INT+). We hypothesized that Providers completing the standard train-the-trainer intervention would report significantly greater portable play equipment use than Providers completing the food allergy control training (CON). We further hypothesized that Providers completing the supplementary email intervention would report significantly greater portable play equipment use than Providers completing standard train-the-trainer intervention or the food allergy control training. A total of 50 FCCH Providers from Marion, Linn, Benton, Washington, and Lane County, Oregon were randomized to the INT or CON conditions. Twelve Providers from Lincoln County were assigned to the (INT+). The type, variety, and frequency of portable play equipment use was measured by means of self-report via a checklist and two items from the previously validated NAP-SACC Self-Assessment instrument. FCCH Providers who completed the INT reported significantly greater use of portable play equipment than Providers completing the CON training. However, portable play equipment use among Providers completing the INT+ was not significantly different from that reported by Providers in the INT or CON. Notably, neither intervention had a significant impact on the amount or variety of portable play equipment. The results showed that a comprehensive trainer-the-trainer intervention to increase physical activity in FCCHs could successfully increase the use of portable play equipment in the home. However, supplementing the intervention with monthly emails encouraging the use of PPE was not effective. / Graduation date: 2013

<p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </p> <p align="left">The current study aimed to describe the paradox of risk through an exploration of the experiences and perceptions of sexuality and HIV/AIDS among physically disabled young people in Nyanga, South Africa. This is against the background that AIDS has become a national and global crisis, which requires all people to participate in efforts to contain the pandemic. Yet literature indicates that young people with disabilities are not participating in such efforts. There is also an assumption, that physically disabled young people do not experience challenges in expressing their sexuality and accessing HIV/AIDS prevention services, to the same extent as other disability groups such as the blind and those with intellectual disabilities. Hence there was a need to explore disabled young people&rsquo / s own understanding of risk and the factors that hinder or support their participation in existing sexuality education and HIV/AIDS prevention programmes. It was also important for this group to suggest ways in which they may participate in such programmes.</p>

Generating natural phenomena in a virtual world has a number of practical applications. Thanks to the rich and complicated details in the real world, the goal of realistically and efficiently reproducing natural phenomena is well known as an open problem for graphics researchers. In this dissertation, three different issues in modeling liquid animations have been addressed. First, a virtual surface method is proposed to account for surface tension effects and their interactions with solid surfaces in physically based fluid simulation. This allows us to generate various surface tension behaviors in small scale liquid. The second issue that is addressed is how to make small scale fluid simulation more efficient. The proposed solution is a general shallow wave equation model, extended from the original shallow wave equations. By simplifying 3D incompressible fluid dynamics into 2D, small scale liquid can be stably and efficiently simulated over arbitrarily curved surfaces using implicit numerical schemes. The third contribution is a novel hybrid framework that combines image based reconstruction techniques with physically based fluid simulation. While image based methods cannot correctly generate fluid animations alone frame by frame, physics is used as a refinement tool to enforce physical soundness by propagating shape information back and forth in space and time. In this way, water animations can be realistically and faithfully generated from images without error accumulation or stability issues.