Recentemente os efeitos de diferentes estruturas de prática na aprendizagem de habilidades motoras têm sido investigados sob um modelo de não-equilíbrio denominado Processo Adaptativo. Há indicativos de que, primeiramente, haja necessidade da prática constante para formar a estrutura da habilidade e, posteriormente, da prática aleatória para promover a sua diversificação. Entretanto, os estudos acerca da estruturação da prática incitam indagações relacionadas ao efeito da estrutura de prática que inclui alguma liberdade de escolha do aprendiz no processo adaptativo. Assim, o objetivo do estudo foi investigar os efeitos de diferentes estruturas de prática com liberdade de escolha na aprendizagem de habilidades motoras. Realizou-se um experimento que consistiu de duas fases: estabilização e adaptação. Na fase de estabilização, as 120 crianças participantes foram distribuídas em seis grupos formados pela associação entre as estruturas de prática constante e constante-aleatória e diferentes tipos de liberdade de escolha - da seqüência ou de alguns componentes para formar uma seqüência. Na fase de adaptação, os aprendizes foram testados em sua capacidade de se adaptar a uma modificação perceptivo-efetora da tarefa. Os resultados permitiram concluir que a estrutura de prática constante com liberdade na escolha de alguns componentes para formar a seqüência proporcionou melhor adaptação à nova tarefa / Recently the effects of practice schedules on motor skills learning have been investigated under a non-equilibrium model known as Adaptive Process. There are indicatives that, firstly, it has necessity of constant practice to form the skill?s structure and, later, of random practice to further its diversification. However, studies about practice schedules incite inquiries related with the effects of practice schedule that includes some freedom of choice of the learners in the adaptive process. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different practice schedules with freedom of choice on learning of motor skills. It was carried out one experiment that consisted of two phases: stabilization and adaptation. In the stabilization phase 120 children were assigned into six groups formed by association between constant and constant-random practice schedules and different kinds of freedom of choice (sequence or components). In the adaptation phase, the learners were submitted to perceptual-motor task modification. The results allowed to conclude that constant practice schedule with freedom in the components choice provided better adaptation to the new task

É sabido que a população idosa vem aumentando em números relativamente altos, gerando preocupações em relação aos cuidados que necessitam. Uma forma de idosos se manterem ativos é através da aprendizagem de novas habilidades motoras. Neste sentido, foram encontrados poucos estudos envolvendo a população idosa e o efeito da interferência contextual, particularmente estudos que utilizassem habilidades esportivas como tarefa. O objetivo do estudo foi investigar se há o efeito da interferência contextual na aprendizagem de uma habilidade esportiva em idosos. Foram selecionados para participar do estudo quarenta idosos (65-80 anos), fisicamente ativos, que foram divididos aleatoriamente em dois grupos: prática variada aleatória; e prática variada em blocos. A tarefa praticada foi o arremesso a ponto do jogo de bocha e bola deveria atingir três alvos nas distâncias de 2, 4 e 6 metros. A prática constou de 120 tentativas divididas em duas sessões de prática. Foram realizados dois testes de Retenção (10min e 24h) e também dois testes de Transferência (24 horas), sendo um realizado com a mão preferencial e outro com a mão não preferencial do participante, com o alvo à 5 metros. As medidas de desempenho utilizadas foram o erro radial, o desvio padrão do erro radial e a frequência de erros grosseiros. Também foram realizadas medidas cinemáticas, como amplitude, velocidade média e pico de aceleração de deslocamento da bola no forwardswing; e velocidade de soltura da bola. Na comparação entre os grupos de prática, não foi encontrada diferença no erro radial ou no desvio padrão do erro (p > 0,05), mas na frequência de erros grosseiros houve diferença entre os grupos apenas na fase de aquisição (p < 0,05). Além disso, as análises inferenciais referentes às medidas cinemáticas nos testes de retenção e transferência, tanto da velocidade média como da velocidade de soltura, mostraram que os idosos de ambos os grupos mudaram a velocidade nos testes (p < 0,05), provavelmente procurando ajustar o movimento. Correlações de Pearson foram realizadas entre medidas de desempenho e medidas cinemáticas e observou-se apenas uma correlação fraca entre o erro radial e a amplitude de deslocamento da bola no teste de transferência com a mão não preferencial (p < 0,05). Em conjunto, os resultados mostraram que os grupos apresentaram desempenho semelhante em ambas as estruturas de prática (aleatória e blocos) e, portanto, não houve efeito da interferência contextual na aprendizagem de idosos nesta habilidade esportiva. No entanto, pode ser argumentado que o controle adequado de força necessário no arremesso a ponto possa exigir maior tempo de prática para ser adquirido / It is known that the elderly population is increasing in relatively high numbers, generating concerns about the care they need. A form of seniors remain active is through the learning of new motor skills. In this sense, few studies involving the elderly population and the contextual interference effect have been found, particularly, studies that used sports skills as task. The objective of this study was to investigate if there is the contextual interference effect on sports skill learning in elderly. We selected 40 old persons (65-80 years old), physically active, which were divided randomly into two groups: random varied practice; and practice varied in blocks. The task was the throwing practiced at the bocce game, in which the ball should reach three targets at distances of 2, 4 and 6 meters. The practice consisted of 120 attempts divided into two practice sessions. Two Retention tests were conducted (10 min and 24 hours) and also two Transfer tests (24 hours), being performed with the preferential hand and also with the non-preferential hand of the participant, with the target at 5 meters. The performance measures used were the radial error, the standard deviation of radial error and frequency of gross errors. Kinematic measures were also used, such as amplitude, average speed and peak of acceleration in the displacement of the ball on the forwardswing; and also, speed of release of the ball. Comparisons between the practice groups, found no difference in the radial error or the standard deviation of the error (p > 0.05), but in the frequency of gross errors, there was a difference between the groups only at the acquisition phase (p < 0.05). In addition, the inferential analysis on retention and transfer tests, both the average speed as the speed of release, showed that the elderly of both groups have changed the speed (p < 0.05), probably trying to adjust the movement. Pearson correlations were performed between performance and kinematic measures and there was only a weak correlation between the radial error and amplitude on the transfer test with the non-preferential hand (p < 0.05). Overall, the results showed that the groups have similar performance on both practice structures (random and blocks) and, therefore, there was no effect of contextual interference in learning this sport skill by the elderly. However, it can be argued that the proper control of force needed in this task may require more practice time to be acquired

O objetivo desse trabalho foi investigar os efeitos da estrutura de prática no processo adaptativo de aprendizagem motora em razão da complexidade da tarefa. Os participantes foram 160 crianças de ambos os gêneros e a tarefa foi de timing coincidente. No experimento 1, as crinaças executaram uma tarefa que consistiu tocar certos alvos de forma seqüencial em integração a um estímulo visual (tarefa simples) e, o experimento 2, uma tarefa com 6 toques (tarefa complexa). O delineamento dos dois experimentos constou de quatro grupos (prática constante, prática aleatória, prática constante-aleatória, e prática aleatória-constante) e de duas fases de aprendizagem (estabilização e adaptação) As variáveis dependentes foram os erros absoluto, variável e constante. Os resultados mostraram que a complexidade da tarefa afetou os efeitos da estruturação da prática no processo adaptativo de aprendizagem motora. Verificou-se que, para a aprendizagem da tarefa simples, a adaptação ocorreu com similar desempenho para os quatro grupos, enquanto que para a tarefa complexa, o desempenho foi pior para o grupo constante / The objective of this work was to investigate the effects of practice schedule in the adaptive process of motor learning in reason of task complexity. The participants were one hundred and sixty children of both gender and the task was of coincident timing. In the experiment 1 the children performed a task that consisted of touching four response keys sequentially in conjunction with a visual stimulus (simple task), and, the experiment 2, the task evolved six touches (complex task). The experimental design of both experiments consisted of four practice groups (constant, random, constant-random and random-constant) and two learning phases (stabilization and adaptation). Dependent variables were absolute, variable and constant errors. The results show that task complexity affected the effects of practice schedule in the adaptive process of motor learning. It was verified that for learning of simple task the adaptation occurred with similar performance for all groups, while the complex task occurred worse performance for constant group

O Job Shop Scheduling Problem é um problema NP-Difícil que chama a atenção de muitos pesquisadores devido seu desafio matemático e sua aplicabilidade em contextos reais. Geralmente, principalmente em cenários próximos aos de fábricas e indústrias, obter um escalonamento ótimo por meio de métodos computacionais exatos implica em um alto desprendimento de tempo. Em contrapartida, devido às exigências de um mercado cada vez mais competitivo, as decisões de onde, como, quando e com o que produzir devem ser tomadas rapidamente. O presente trabalho propõe o desenvolvimento de um método heurístico Beam Search para solucionar o Job Shop Scheduling Problem e o Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem. Para isso, inicialmente um algoritmo do tipo list scheduling é definido e então o método Beam Search é construído baseado neste algoritmo. Os métodos propostos foram avaliados em diferentes níveis de complexidade utilizando instâncias da literatura que retratam diferentes cenários de planejamento. Em linhas gerais, as soluções encontradas se mostraram bastante competitivas quando comparadas a outras soluções da literatura. / The Job Shop Scheduling Problem is a NP-Hard problem which draws the attention of researchers due to both its mathematical challenge and its applicability in real contexts. Usually, mainly in industry and factory environments, an optimal schedule got by the use of exact computational methods implies in a long spending time. On the other hand, due to a more and more competitive marketplace, the decisions on where, how, when and with which to produce must be taken quickly. The present work proposes the development of an heuristic Beam Search method to solve both the Job Shop Scheduling Problem and the Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem. To that end, at rst a list scheduling algorithm is dened and then the Beam Search method is built based on the list scheduling algorithm. The proposed methods were evaluated over dierent complexity levels using instances from the literature that report dierent planning environments. In general terms, the solutions implemented have been proved very competitive when compared against other solutions in the literature.

abstract: Functional regression models are widely considered in practice. To precisely understand an underlying functional mechanism, a good sampling schedule for collecting informative functional data is necessary, especially when data collection is limited. However, scarce research has been conducted on the optimal sampling schedule design for the functional regression model so far. To address this design issue, efficient approaches are proposed for generating the best sampling plan in the functional regression setting. First, three optimal experimental designs are considered under a function-on-function linear model: the schedule that maximizes the relative efficiency for recovering the predictor function, the schedule that maximizes the relative efficiency for predicting the response function, and the schedule that maximizes the mixture of the relative efficiencies of both the predictor and response functions. The obtained sampling plan allows a precise recovery of the predictor function and a precise prediction of the response function. The proposed approach can also be reduced to identify the optimal sampling plan for the problem with a scalar-on-function linear regression model. In addition, the optimality criterion on predicting a scalar response using a functional predictor is derived when the quadratic relationship between these two variables is present, and proofs of important properties of the derived optimality criterion are also provided. To find such designs, an algorithm that is comparably fast, and can generate nearly optimal designs is proposed. As the optimality criterion includes quantities that must be estimated from prior knowledge (e.g., a pilot study), the effectiveness of the suggested optimal design highly depends on the quality of the estimates. However, in many situations, the estimates are unreliable; thus, a bootstrap aggregating (bagging) approach is employed for enhancing the quality of estimates and for finding sampling schedules stable to the misspecification of estimates. Through case studies, it is demonstrated that the proposed designs outperform other designs in terms of accurately predicting the response and recovering the predictor. It is also proposed that bagging-enhanced design generates a more robust sampling design under the misspecification of estimated quantities. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Statistics 2020

In view of the problem of uneven load distribution and energy consumption among nodes in a multi-hop wireless sensor network, this research constructs the routing schedule problem as a MOP (Multi-objective Optimization Problem), and proposed an energy-aware routing optimization scheme RDSEGA based on multi-objective optimization. In this scheme, in order to avoid the searching space explosion problem caused by the increase of nodes, KSP Yen's algorithm was applied to prune the searching space, and the candidate paths selected after pruning are recoded based on priority. Then adopted the improved strengthen elitist genetic algorithm to get the entire network routing optimization scheme with the best energy efficiency. At the same time, in view of the problem of routing discontinuity in the process of path crossover and mutation, new crossover and mutation method was proposed that based on the gene fragments connected by the adjacent node or the same node to maximize the effectiveness of the evolution result. The experimental results prove that the scheme reduced the energy consumption of nodes in the network, the load between nodes becomes more balanced, and the working time of the network has been prolonged nearly 40% after the optimization. This brings convenience to practical applications, especially for those that are inconvenient to replace nodes.

Freshness of information has become of high importance with the emergence of many real- time applications like monitoring systems and communication networks. The main idea behind all of these scenarios is the same, there exists at least a monitor of some process to which the monitor does not have direct access. Rather, the monitor indirectly receives updates over time from a source that can observe the process directly. The common main goal in these scenarios is to guarantee that the updates at the monitor side are as fresh as possible. However, due to the contention among the nodes in the network over limited channel resources, it takes some random time for the updates before they are received by the monitor. These applications have motivated a line of research studying the Age of Information (AoI) as a new performance metric that captures timeliness of information. The first part of this dissertation focuses on the AoI problem in general multi-source multi-hop status update networks with slotted transmissions. Fundamental lower bounds on the instantaneous peak and average AoI are derived under general interference constraints. Explicit algorithms are developed that generate scheduling policies for status update dissem- ination throughout the network for the class of minimum-length periodic schedules under global interference constraints. Next, we study AoI in multi-access channels, where a number of sources share the same server with exponentially distributed service times to communicate to a monitor. Two cases depending on the status update arrival rates at the sources are considered: (i) random arrivals based on the Poisson point process, and (ii) active arrivals where each source can generate an update at any point in time. For each case, closed-form expressions are derived for the average AoI as a function of the system parameters. Next, the effect of energy harvesting on the age is considered in a single-source single- monitor status update system that has a server with a finite battery capacity. Depending on the server’s ability to harvest energy while a packet is in service, and allowing or blocking the newly-arriving packets to preempt a packet in service, average AoI expressions are derived. The results show that preemption of the packets in service is sub-optimal when the energy arrival rate is lower than the status update arrival rate. Finally, the age of channel state information (CSI) is studied in fully-connected wire- less networks with time-slotted transmissions and time-varying channels. A framework is developed that accounts for the amount of data and overhead in each packet and the CSI disseminated in the packet. Lower bounds on the peak and average AoI are derived and a greedy protocol that schedules the status updates based on minimizing the instantaneous average AoI is developed. Achievable average AoI is derived for the class of randomized CSI dissemination schedules.

This thesis is about evolutionary algorithms with a concrete solution for an Aircraft Landing Problem. The goal is to create a genetic algorithm for this task resolution, apply selected modifications and compare all outputs. The program runs with different selection methods which are further reviewed. Input data are taken from Operations research library for this task. The outcome of this thesis gives a closer look to evolutionary programming and it’s problem resolution.

The thesis focuses on the contract´s terms and conditions of FIDIC in project management. Especially, the processing of time reserves in the project schedule. The aim of the thesis is to answer questions related to time reserves. Who owns them in the construction project. Who and in what conditions the time reserves can be drawn in case of project delay. The output of the thesis is a summary of these findings and recommen-dations for other projects.

The topic of this thesis is schedule planning for Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) BUT. Thesis describes the process of creating a schedule at FIT and the information concerning study at FIT that are pertinent to this process. It presents the design and implementation of an application designed to support schedule planning at FIT. The primary focus of this thesis is to simplify and expedite the process of checking, if the schedule being planned is correct. The product of this thesis is a functional application used for schedule planning at FIT, in conjunction with one other application.