This dissertation develops efficient solution techniques for general and problem-specific applications within nonconvex optimization, exploiting the constructs of the Reformulation-Linearization Technique (RLT). We begin by developing a technique to enhance general problems in nonconvex optimization through the use of a new class of RLT cuts, called semidefinite cuts. While these cuts are valid for any general problem for which RLT is applicable, we demonstrate their effectiveness in optimizing a nonconvex quadratic objective function over a simplex. Computational results indicate that on average, the semidefinite cuts have reduced the number of nodes in the branch-and-bound tree by a factor of 37.6, while decreasing solution time by a factor of 3.4. The semidefinite cuts have also led to a significant reduction in the optimality gap at termination, in some cases producing optimal solutions for problems that could not be solved using RLT alone. We then narrow our focus to the class of mixed-integer programming (MIP) problems, and develop a modification of Benders' decomposition method using concepts from RLT and lift-and-project cuts. This method is particularly motivated by the class of two-stage stochastic programs with integer recourse. The key idea is to design an RLT or lift-and-project cutting plane scheme for solving the subproblems where the cuts generated have right-hand sides that are functions of the first-stage variables. An illustrative example is provided to elucidate the proposed approach. The focus is on developing a first comprehensive finitely convergent extension of Benders' methodology for problems having 0-1 mixed-integer subproblems. We next address a specific challenging MIP application known as the facility layout problem, and we significantly improve its formulation through outer-linearization techniques and concepts from disjunctive programming. The enhancements produce a substantial increase in the accuracy of the layout produced, while at the same time, providing a dramatic reduction in computational effort. Overall, the maximum error in department size was reduced from about 6% to nearly zero, while solution time decreased by a factor of 110. Previously unsolved test problems from the literature that had defied even approximate solution methods have been solved to exact optimality using our proposed approach. / Ph. D.

Bibliografický záznam: SÁLOVÁ, Anna. Obraz sudetských Němců v českém tisku v krizovém roce 1938. Praha, 2012. 177 s. Diplomová práce. Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta sociálních věd, Institut komunikačních studií a žurnalistiky. Katedra žurnalistiky. Vedoucí diplomové práce PhDr. Petr Bednařík Ph.D. Abstrakt: Diplomová práce "Obraz sudetských Němců v českém tisku v krizovém roce 1938" se zabývá mediálním obrazem německé menšiny v Československu v období mnichovské krize (od dubna 1938 do podpisu mnichovské dohody), a to formou komparace, která zahrnuje ústřední tiskové orgány hlavních politických proudů té doby: u ČSDSD - Právo lidu, u ČSNS - České slovo, u ČND (Národního sjednocení) - Národní listy, u KSČ - Rudé právo, u ČSL - Lidové listy a u agrárníků (Republikánské strany zemědělského a malorolnického lidu) - Venkov. Práce se rovněž dotýká postojů českých fašizujících proudů k sudetským Němcům. Výstupy stranických periodik nejsou zkoumány izolovaně, ale i vzhledem k politickým postojům jednotlivých stran a je zohledněn vývoj těchto postojů v čase s tím, jak se krize prohlubovala, rozdělením zkoumaných témat do tří hlavních období roku 1938. V neposlední řadě jsou tyto postoje konfrontovány i s postoji tisku sudetských Němců. Práce je obecně zarámována pojednáním o mezinárodních a historických souvislostech...

On étudie dans cette thèse des probèlmes de stabilisation en théorie du controle pour trois types de systèmes différents. Tout d'abord, on introduit, pour les systèmes non linéaires de dimension finie perturbés par des erreurs, une classe de controles dits hybrides, car dépendant d'un état mixte discret-continu. Etant donné un système dont l'équilibre est asymptotiquement controlable, on montre qu'il existe un controle tel que l'équilibre du système bouclé soit globalement asymptotiquement stable avec une robustesse par rapport aux petits bruits. On explicite pour les systèmes chainés un tel controle robuste avec une seule dynamique discrète. On donne également un controle hybride et un controle par retour d'état continu et périodique en temps qui recollent robustement deux controles données tout en conservant une propriéetée de stabilitée asymptotique. Ensuite, on étudie le problème de stabilisation d'un bac de fluide par le controle du déplacement longitudinal. C'est un problème de théorie du controle en dimension infinie car on modélise le problème en utilisant les équations de Saint-Venant qui sont des équations aux dérivées partielles hyperboliques. On utilise une approche Lyapunov pour proposer des feedbacks qui, numériquement, stabilisent localement et asymptotiquement l'origine du système bouclé. Enfin, on étudie le problème de stabilisation de l'origine d'un système linéaire en dimension finie lorsqu'on a une incertitude sur les donnes du système. On applique les méthodes de résolutions numériques des inégalités linéaires matricielles avec incertitudes à un problème industriel.

Conventional multicell wireless systems operate with out-of-cell interference treated as background noise; consequently, their performance faces two major limitations: 1)Signal processing is performed on a per-cell basis; and 2)Intercell interference detection is infeasible as intercell interference, although significantly above the noise level, is typically quite weak. In this thesis, we consider a multicell downlink scenario, where base-stations are equipped with multiple transmit antennas, the remote users are equipped with a single antenna, and multiple remote users are active simultaneously via spatial division multiplexing. We propose solutions for the above limitations by considering techniques for mitigating interference. The first part of the thesis proposes solutions for the first limitation. It considers the benefit of coordinating base-stations across multiple cells, where multiple base-stations may jointly optimize their respective beamformers to improve the overall system performance. It focuses on the design criteria of minimizing either the total weighted transmitted power or the maximum per-antenna power across the base-stations subject to signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio (SINR) constraints at the remote users. The main contribution of this part is an efficient algorithm for finding the joint globally optimal beamformers across all base-stations. The proposed algorithm is based on a generalization of uplink-downlink duality to the multicell setting using the Lagrangian duality theory. An important feature is that it naturally leads to a distributed implementation in time-division duplex (TDD) systems. Simulation results suggest that coordinating the beamforming vectors alone already provides appreciable performance improvements as compared to the conventional per-cell optimized network. The second part of the thesis considers the transmission of both private and common messages for the sole purpose of intercell interference mitigation. It solves the issues of the second limitation mentioned above. It considers the benefit of designing decodable interference signals by allowing common-private message splitting at the transmitter and common message decoding by users in adjacent cells. It solves a network optimization problem of jointly determining the appropriate users in adjacent cells for rate splitting, the optimal beamforming vectors for both common and private messages, and the optimal common-private rates to minimize the total transmit power across the base-stations subject to service rate requirements for remote users. Observe that for fixed user selection and fixed common-private rate splitting, the optimization of beamforming vectors can be performed using a semidefinite programming approach. Further, this part of the thesis proposes a heuristic user-selection and rate splitting strategy to maximize the benefit of common message decoding. This part proposes a heuristic algorithm to characterize the improvement in the feasible rates with common-message decoding. Simulation results show that common message decoding can significantly improve both the total transmit power and the feasibility region for cell-edge users when base-stations are closely spaced from each other.

Conventional multicell wireless systems operate with out-of-cell interference treated as background noise; consequently, their performance faces two major limitations: 1)Signal processing is performed on a per-cell basis; and 2)Intercell interference detection is infeasible as intercell interference, although significantly above the noise level, is typically quite weak. In this thesis, we consider a multicell downlink scenario, where base-stations are equipped with multiple transmit antennas, the remote users are equipped with a single antenna, and multiple remote users are active simultaneously via spatial division multiplexing. We propose solutions for the above limitations by considering techniques for mitigating interference. The first part of the thesis proposes solutions for the first limitation. It considers the benefit of coordinating base-stations across multiple cells, where multiple base-stations may jointly optimize their respective beamformers to improve the overall system performance. It focuses on the design criteria of minimizing either the total weighted transmitted power or the maximum per-antenna power across the base-stations subject to signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio (SINR) constraints at the remote users. The main contribution of this part is an efficient algorithm for finding the joint globally optimal beamformers across all base-stations. The proposed algorithm is based on a generalization of uplink-downlink duality to the multicell setting using the Lagrangian duality theory. An important feature is that it naturally leads to a distributed implementation in time-division duplex (TDD) systems. Simulation results suggest that coordinating the beamforming vectors alone already provides appreciable performance improvements as compared to the conventional per-cell optimized network. The second part of the thesis considers the transmission of both private and common messages for the sole purpose of intercell interference mitigation. It solves the issues of the second limitation mentioned above. It considers the benefit of designing decodable interference signals by allowing common-private message splitting at the transmitter and common message decoding by users in adjacent cells. It solves a network optimization problem of jointly determining the appropriate users in adjacent cells for rate splitting, the optimal beamforming vectors for both common and private messages, and the optimal common-private rates to minimize the total transmit power across the base-stations subject to service rate requirements for remote users. Observe that for fixed user selection and fixed common-private rate splitting, the optimization of beamforming vectors can be performed using a semidefinite programming approach. Further, this part of the thesis proposes a heuristic user-selection and rate splitting strategy to maximize the benefit of common message decoding. This part proposes a heuristic algorithm to characterize the improvement in the feasible rates with common-message decoding. Simulation results show that common message decoding can significantly improve both the total transmit power and the feasibility region for cell-edge users when base-stations are closely spaced from each other.

Les robots flexibles sont de plus en plus utilisés dans les applications pratiques. Ces robots sont caractérisés par une conception mécanique légère, réduisant ainsi leur encombrement, leur consommation d'énergie et améliorant leur sécurité. Cependant, la présence de vibrations transitoires rend difficile un contrôle précis de la trajectoire de ces systèmes. Cette thèse est précisément consacrée à l'asservissement en position des manipulateurs flexibles dans les espaces articulaire et opérationnel. Des méthodes de commande avancées, basées sur des outils de la commande robuste et de l'optimisation convexe, ont été proposées. Ces méthodes font en particulier appel à la théorie des systèmes linéaires à paramètres variants (LPV) et aux inégalités matricielles linéaires (LMI). En comparaison avec des lois de commande non-linéaires disponibles dans la littérature, les lois de commande LPV proposées permettent de considérerdes contraintes de performance et de robustesse de manière simple et systématique. L'accent est porté dans notre travail sur la gestion appropriée de la dépendance paramétrique du modèle LPV, en particulier les dépendances polynomiale et rationnelle. Des simulations numériques effectuées dans des conditions réalistes, ont permis d'observer une meilleure robustesse de la commande LPV par rapport à la commande non-linéaire par inversion de modèle face aux bruits de mesure, aux excitations de haute fréquence et aux incertitudes de modèle.

El concentrat de plasma assecat per polvorització (SDP) i el d’immunoglobulines (IC) són suplements dietètics que han estat àmpliament utilitzats en l’alimentació dels animals de granja i que han estat proposats com alternativa a l’ús dels antibiòtics com a promotors del creixement, especialment durant el període posterior al deslletament. Aquests suplements incrementen la taxa de creixement degut, en part, a que atenuen la resposta del sistema immunitari. Per exemple, s’ha pogut observar que la suplementació dietètica amb proteïnes plasmàtiques redueix la sobreestimulació immunitària en un model de malaltia inflamatòria intestinal. El sistema immunitari mucosal comú connecta els llocs inductors (en aquest cas la mucosa intestinal) amb els llocs efectors (com les mucoses naso- i broncoalveolar o la genito-urinària), que facilita el moviment de cèl•lules immunitàries entre teixits allunyats anatòmicament i permet que la dieta moduli la resposta associada a infeccions extraintestinals. Així doncs, ens hem plantejat si la suplementació dietètica amb proteïnes plasmàtiques podia modular la resposta immunitària en una inflamació pulmonar aguda. Primerament es va establir una pauta adequada per obtenir un model d’inflamació pulmonar robust i reproduïble. Seguidament s’han estudiat els efectes dels suplements SDP i IC sobre la resposta immunitària en aquest model d’inflamació, en ratolins acabats de deslletar. S’han analitzat cèl•lules i mediadors inflamatoris involucrats tant en la resposta innata, com en la resposta adaptativa. Finalment, també s’han estudiat els efectes dels pinsos experimentals sobre diferents elements que intervenen en la resolució de la resposta inflamatòria, com les cèl•lules reguladores i les citocines antiinflamatòries. L’administració de LPS produeix una migració de leucòcits i un alliberament massiu de citocines i quimiocines proinflamatòries, que recluten i activen monòcits i neutròfils a l’espai alveolar i al teixit pulmonar. A més estimula la immunitat adaptativa, en la que hi ha un increment considerable de limfòcits Th activats, així com una gran producció de citocines. Ambdues dietes disminueixen el reclutament de leucòcits, sobretot els neutròfils i els monòcits. Tot i que la resposta innata és més extensa, les dietes són més efectives sobre la resposta adaptativa, on redueixen les poblacions limfocitàries estimulades per l’LPS tant a pulmó com a sang. Els suplements també atenuen de forma notable l’efecte de l’LPS sobre l’expressió de citocines i quimiocines proinflamatòries a l’espai alveolar. Els efectes de l’SDP i l’IC estan mediats per canvis en l’expressió de citocines antiinflamatòries, ja que augmenten la concentració de IL-10 a pulmó i a jejú, i la del TGF-β a pulmó. Ambdues dietes redueixen el balanç entre els limfòcits Th activats i els limfòcits T reguladors, d’aquesta manera atenuen la magnitud de la resposta inflamatòria i augmenten la concentració de mediadors essencials per la reparació del teixit. Els resultats d’aquest estudi indiquen que els suplements amb proteïnes plasmàtiques poden limitar la resposta immunitària pulmonar i podrien ser útils en la prevenció i atenuació de les malalties inflamatòries extraintestinals. / The concentrated spray-dried plasma (SDP) and immunoglobulin (IC) are dietary supplements that have been widely used in the diet of farm animals and proposed as an alternative to the use of antibiotics as growth promoters, especially in the subsequent weaning period. These supplements increase the growth rate, in part because they attenuate the response of the immune system. The common mucosal immune system connects the inductive sites (in this case the intestinal mucosa) with the effector sites (as nasopharyngeal and bronchoalveolar mucosa or genito-urinary), which facilitates the movement of immune cells between anatomically distant tissues and allows the diet to modulate the associated response to intestinal infections. Consequently, the aim of the present thesis was to evaluate whether the dietary supplementation with plasma proteins could modulate the immune response in an acute lung inflammation. First, a suitable pattern was established in order to obtain a robust and reproducible inflammatory lung model. Next, the effects of SDP and IC supplementation on the immune response in this inflammation model were studied in newly weaned mice. Cells and inflammatory mediators, involved either in innate response as in adaptive response, have been analyzed. Finally, the effects of experimental feed on different elements involved in the resolution of the inflammatory response, such as regulatory cells and inflammatory cytokines, have also been assessed. Both diets decreased the recruitment of leukocytes. Although the innate response is more extensive, the diets are more effective on the adaptive response. The supplements also significantly attenuated the effect of LPS on the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in the alveolar space. The effects of SDP and IC are mediated by changes in the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokines. Both diets reduced the balance between activated Th cells and regulatory T cells, in such a way that, the magnitude of the inflammatory response is attenuated and the concentration of essential mediators for tissue reparation is increased. In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that plasma protein supplementation is able to limit the pulmonary immune response and could be useful in the prevention and attenuation of the extraintestinal inflammatory diseases.

Advancement of micro-electro-mechanics and wireless communication have proliferated the deployment of large-scale wireless sensor networks. Due to cost, size and power constraints, at most a few sensor nodes can be equipped with a global positioning system; such nodes (whose positions can be accurately determined) are referred to as anchors. However, one can deter-mine the distance between two nearby sensors using some form of local communication. The problem of computing the positions of the non-anchor nodes from the inter-sensor distances and anchor positions is referred as sensor network localization (SNL). In this dissertation, our aim is to develop an accurate, efficient, and scalable localization algorithm, which can operate both in the presence and absence of anchors. It has been demon-strated in the literature that divide-and-conquer approaches can be used to localize large net-works without compromising the localization accuracy. The core idea with such approaches is to partition the network into overlapping subnetworks, localize each subnetwork using the available distances (and anchor positions), and finally register the subnetworks in a single coordinate system. In this regard, the contributions of this dissertation are as follows: We study the global registration problem and formulate a necessary “rigidity” condition for uniquely recovering the global sensor locations. In particular, we present a method for efficiently testing rigidity, and a heuristic for augmenting the partitioned network to enforce rigidity. We present a mechanism for partitioning the network into smaller subnetworks using cliques. Each clique is efficiently localized using multidimensional scaling. Finally, we use a recently proposed semidefinite program (SDP) to register the localized subnetworks. We develop a scalable ADMM solver for the SDP in question. We present simulation results on random and structured networks to demonstrate the pro-posed methods perform better than state-of-the-art methods in terms of run-time, accuracy, and scalability.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop an application for mobile phones that simplifies communication. The company Doberman wanted to look at possibilities to develop such an application that uses Bluetooth™ technol-ogy to communicate in ad-hoc networks. The aim has been an application to run on mobile phones in which you can send messages and files to other devices and also add a user profile with personal information to share with others. The communication will take place in temporary networks created when Bluetooth enabled devices is in range of each other. The market for mobile phones has grown rapidly over the past years and is still growing. There are many differ-ent phone models and it is difficult to find a developer platform that covers many phone models. In the beginning of this thesis an inquiry of different developer platforms has been made. The Java™ platform is supported by most phones but has limitations in accessing functions on the device. The best alternative was Symbian C++ for devices with Symbian OS. This alternative does not have the same limitations as Java and is still supported by relatively many devices. The application was then developed in Symbian C++. There are a number of different versions of Symbian OS and different GUI-platforms that runs on Symbian OS which leads to other issues in the development. We have limited the development of the application to the Series 60 platform for Symbian OS v7.0s. During design and implementation portability to other GUI-platforms has been considered. We have tested the application on emulator compatible with Symbian OS v7.0s and Symbian OS v8.0a and found some compatibility problems between the two versions. We have also tested the application on mobile phones and between emulator and the phone with corresponding OS-version no new problems occurred

Dans un contexte de réduction des intrants chimiques, l’utilisation des phytosanitaires naturels stimulant l’immunité végétale ouvre la porte vers une nouvelle approche de protection des plantes. Ces composés éliciteurs regroupés sous le terme de «Stimulateurs des Défenses naturelles des Plantes» (SDP) activent le système défensif de la plante la rendant plus résistante aux bio-agresseurs. Les SDP, de nature diverse, se présentent sous forme de composés uniques ou en mélange dans les extraits végétaux. Au cours de ma thèse, nous avons démontré l’activité SDP des extraits de marc de raisin. Les extraits issus de sous-produits de la vigne, marc de raisin rouge, marc de raisin blanc et pépins de raisin induisent diverses réactions de défense au sein de plantes modèles. Nous avons focalisé notre étude sur l’extrait de marc de raisin rouge (EMR) stimulant l’immunité chez le tabac. Infiltré sur feuilles, l’EMR induit la réponse de type HR caractérisée par l’apparition de lésions chlorotiques et accumulation de composés autofluorescents dans les tissus infiltrés. Ces réactions de défense locales ont été observées également chez l’arabette et la tomate. L’EMR déclenche les réponses LAR et SAR avec l’accumulation des transcrits des gènes de défense dans les feuilles de tabac et ce quelque soit son mode d’application (infiltration ou pulvérisation). Le mode d’action de l’EMR a été abordé sur cultures cellulaires de tabac BY-2. L’EMR induit une forte alcalinisation du milieu extracellulaire avec une mobilisation du calcium (Ca2+), l’expression des gènes de défense et la mort cellulaire. Une étude pharmacologique de la mort cellulaire suggère la mise en place de mort cellulaire programmée (PCD) dans les cellules de tabac. La caractérisation de la voie de signalisation activée par l’EMR a été étudiée avec le mutant NahG de tabac incapable d’accumuler l’acide salicylique (SA). Les réponses de défense (HR, LAR et SAR) sont faiblement induites par l’EMR chez le mutant nahG. L’EMR provoque une réponse de type HR fortement réduite avec une faible accumulation des composés autofluorescents et une diminution drastique de l’accumulation des transcrits des gènes PR suggérant l’intervention du SA dans l’induction des réactions de défense. Le degré de protection induit par l’EMR a été déterminé sur le pathosystème tabac/Phytophthora parasitica. Pulvérisé sur feuilles, l’EMR réduit de 45% les zones infectées par l’oomycète. Ce degré de protection semble être le résultat de l’activité antimicrobienne de l’EMR combinée à l’activité SDP. Aucune protection n’a été observée chez le mutant nahG confirmant l’implication de SA dans la résistance induite par l’EMR. Le fractionnement de l’EMR a permis de simplifier la formule active des extraits de raisin et d’identifier un mélange de molécules potentiellement capables d’induire l’activité SDP. Les composés actifs sont de nature polyphénolique et contiennent de la procyanidine B2 capable à elle seule d’induire la réponse de type HR et l’expression de l’antimicrobien PR1. Cependant, il semble que cette molécule agisse en association avec d’autres composés polyphénoliques pour stimuler le système défensif de la plante. / In order to reduce chemical inputs, the use of natural phytosanitary products stimulating plant immunity are emerging approaches in phytoprotection. These elicitor compounds known as "Plant Defense Inducers" (PDI) activate the plant defense system and improve their resistance to pests attack. PDI are single molecule or mixture of compounds extracted from plant. In my thesis, we demonstrated the PDI activity of different grape marc extracts. The winery byproducts, red grape marc extract, white grape marc extract and grape seed extract all induced various defense reactions in several plant models. We focused our study on the red grape marc extract (GME) which stimulates the immunity system in tobacco plants. When infiltrated into tobacco leaves, GME induced HR-like response characterized by the appearance of chlorotic lesions and accumulation of autofluorescent compounds in infiltrated tissues. Similar local defense reactions have been observed in Arabidopsis thaliana and tomato. GME also triggered LAR and SAR responses and induced defense gene transcript accumulation in tobacco leaves after infiltration or spraying. The GME mode of action was studied using the suspension-cultured cells of tobacco BY-2. GME induced rapid alkalinization of extracellular medium with calcium mobilization, expression of defense genes and cell death. A pharmacological approach of this defensive phenomenon suggests the establishment of programmed cell death (PCD) in tobacco cells. The characterization of the signaling pathway activated by GME was studied using tobacco nahG mutant unable to accumulate salicylic acid (SA). Defense responses (HR, LAR and SAR) induced by GME were impaired in the nahG mutant. GME drastically reduced HR-like response symptoms and PR transcript accumulation. These data suggest the implication of SA in the GME-induced plant defense reactions. The GME-induced protection was evaluated in the model pathosystem of compatible interaction between Nicotiana tabacum and Phytophthora parasitica var. nicotianae (Ppn). GME could reduce by 45% the infected areas induced by the oomycete on tobacco leaves. This level of protection was the result of the combined antimicrobial and PDI actions of GME. GME had no protecting effect against Ppn on NahG leaves evidencing the involvement of SA in the GME-induced resistance. GME fractionation led to identification of a bioactive molecule mixture capable of inducing the PDI activity. The active compounds are polyphenolics and involve procyanidin B2 which is by itself able to induce the HR-like response and PR1 transcript accumulation. This compound should act in combination with other polyphenolic molecules to stimulate the full plant defense reactions.