In today's textbooks, analyzing prestressed members and bridges takes a two-dimensional approach. Two-dimensional analysis is the only way to analyze prestressed bridges and members because otherwise the hand calculations are extremely difficult. Skewed bridges, however, need to be analyzed and designed three-dimensionally. Based on engineering inspection, it is possible to tell how a non-skewed symmetric bridge will behave. However, the knowledge of how a skewed bridge will behave cannot be obtained by inspection only. Finite element analysis can be used to model a bridge and discover how the bridge will react to dead loads and post-tensioning forces. When a bridge is built on a skew, the acute corners of the bridge support much less concrete weight than the obtuse corners of the bridge. If the post-tensioning force causes a decrease in load at the acute corners of the skewed bridge and if the skew of the bridge is great enough, there is a concern that there could be uplift at these acute corners of the bridge. Uplift at any corner of the bridge should not be allowed. The objective of this study is to investigate a simple span skewed box girder bridge to see if any uplift occurs at the acute corners of the bridge due to post-tensioning forces. After careful study of a skewed simple span cast-in-place post-tensioned box girder bridge, it was found that the post-tensioning force actually transfers more downward force into the acute corners of the bridge. Based on this study, the post-tensioning force will not cause uplift in the acute corners of the skewed bridge.

Malhas de relógio são arquiteturas de rede de relógio adequadas para distribuir confiavelmente o sinal de relógio na presença de variações de processo e ambientais. Tal propriedade se torna muito importante nas tecnologias submicrônicas onde variações têm um papel importante. A confiabilidade da malha de relógio é devido aos caminhos redundantes conectando o sinal de relógio até os receptores de forma que variações afetando um caminho possam ser compensadas pelos outros caminhos. A confiabilidade vem ao custo de mais consumo de potência e fiação. Desta forma fica claro o balanceamento necessário entre distribuir confiavelmente o sinal de relógio (mais redundância) e o consumo de potência e aumento de fiação. O clock skew é definido como a diferença entre os tempos de chegada do sinal de clock nos seus receptores. Quanto maior é o clock skew, mais lento o circuito precisa operar. Além de diminuir a velocidade do circuito, um valor alto de clock skew aumenta a probabilidade de o circuito não funcionar devido às variações. Neste trabalho, nos focamos no problema de clock skew. Inicialmente extraímos informações úteis de como o comprimento da fiação e a capacitância variam a medida que o tamanho da malha varia. São apresentadas fórmulas analíticas que encontram o tamanho ótimo para ambos objetivos e é apresentado um estudo de como o clock skew varia a medida que nos afastamos do tamanho ótimo da malha de relógio. Um método para a redução de clock skew através do deslocamento dos buffers também é apresentado. Tal melhoria no clock skew não afeta o consumo de potência já que o tamanho dos buffers e a malha não são alterados. / Clock meshes are a suitable clock network architecture for reliably distributing the clock signal under process and environmental variations. This property becomes very important in the deep sub-micron technology where variations play a main role. The clock mesh reliability is due to redundant paths connecting clock buffers to clock sinks, so that variations affecting one path can be compensated by other paths. This comes at cost of more power consumption and wiring resources. Therefore it is clear the tradeoff between reliably distributing the clock signal (more redundancy) and the power and resource consumption. The clock skew is defined as the difference in the arrival time of clock signal at clock sinks. The higher is the clock skew, the slower is the circuit. Besides slowing down the circuit operation, a high clock skew increases the probability of circuit malfunction due to variations. In this work we focus on the clock skew problem. We first extract some useful information on how the clock wirelength and capacitance change as the mesh size changes. We present analytical formulas to find the optimum mesh size for both goals and study how the clock skew varies as we move further away from the optimum mesh size. We also present a method for reducing the clock mesh skew by sliding buffers from the position where they are traditionally placed. This improvement comes at no increasing cost of power consumption since the buffer size and the mesh capacitance are not changed.

O presente trabalho se propôs a estudar os esquemas estruturais alternativos para pontes esconsas e avaliar as modelagens matemáticas possíveis através de softwares especializados, como o SAP2000 e STRAP2010, a fim de identificar as melhores soluções e modelos para cada caso. O objetivo foi o de aprimorar os modelos de cálculo, especialmente no que diz respeito à previsão das reações de apoio e das forças cortantes, ponto mais delicado de obras esconsas. O estudo baseou-se em soluções de superestrutura em laje e em grelha, com ou sem transversinas, com esconsidade variável entre zero e sessenta graus, eixo longitudinal reto, modeladas por barras e elementos finitos. Não foi objeto deste estudo a influência da meso e da infraestrutura dessas pontes nos esforços na superestrutura. / The present work is proposed to study alternative structural schemes for skew bridges and to evaluate possible mathematical modeling through specialized software, such as SAP 2000 and STRAP2010, in order to identify the best solutions and models for each case. The aim was to improve the calculation models, especially with regard to the prediction of the support reactions and shear forces, most delicate point in skew bridges. The study was based on slab or grid, with or without transversal beams, superstructure solutions, with variable skew between zero and sixty degrees, straight longitudinal axis, modeled through bars and shell elements. It was not purpose of this study the influence of meso and infrastructure of the bridge on its superstructure.

Malhas de relógio são arquiteturas de rede de relógio adequadas para distribuir confiavelmente o sinal de relógio na presença de variações de processo e ambientais. Tal propriedade se torna muito importante nas tecnologias submicrônicas onde variações têm um papel importante. A confiabilidade da malha de relógio é devido aos caminhos redundantes conectando o sinal de relógio até os receptores de forma que variações afetando um caminho possam ser compensadas pelos outros caminhos. A confiabilidade vem ao custo de mais consumo de potência e fiação. Desta forma fica claro o balanceamento necessário entre distribuir confiavelmente o sinal de relógio (mais redundância) e o consumo de potência e aumento de fiação. O clock skew é definido como a diferença entre os tempos de chegada do sinal de clock nos seus receptores. Quanto maior é o clock skew, mais lento o circuito precisa operar. Além de diminuir a velocidade do circuito, um valor alto de clock skew aumenta a probabilidade de o circuito não funcionar devido às variações. Neste trabalho, nos focamos no problema de clock skew. Inicialmente extraímos informações úteis de como o comprimento da fiação e a capacitância variam a medida que o tamanho da malha varia. São apresentadas fórmulas analíticas que encontram o tamanho ótimo para ambos objetivos e é apresentado um estudo de como o clock skew varia a medida que nos afastamos do tamanho ótimo da malha de relógio. Um método para a redução de clock skew através do deslocamento dos buffers também é apresentado. Tal melhoria no clock skew não afeta o consumo de potência já que o tamanho dos buffers e a malha não são alterados. / Clock meshes are a suitable clock network architecture for reliably distributing the clock signal under process and environmental variations. This property becomes very important in the deep sub-micron technology where variations play a main role. The clock mesh reliability is due to redundant paths connecting clock buffers to clock sinks, so that variations affecting one path can be compensated by other paths. This comes at cost of more power consumption and wiring resources. Therefore it is clear the tradeoff between reliably distributing the clock signal (more redundancy) and the power and resource consumption. The clock skew is defined as the difference in the arrival time of clock signal at clock sinks. The higher is the clock skew, the slower is the circuit. Besides slowing down the circuit operation, a high clock skew increases the probability of circuit malfunction due to variations. In this work we focus on the clock skew problem. We first extract some useful information on how the clock wirelength and capacitance change as the mesh size changes. We present analytical formulas to find the optimum mesh size for both goals and study how the clock skew varies as we move further away from the optimum mesh size. We also present a method for reducing the clock mesh skew by sliding buffers from the position where they are traditionally placed. This improvement comes at no increasing cost of power consumption since the buffer size and the mesh capacitance are not changed.

This study presents the behavior of a precast skewed integral abutment bridge (IAB) using the recently developed NEXT-F Beam section in particular. In order to understand the bridge response, a 3-dimensional finite element model of a bridge (Brimfield Bridge) was developed to examine the thermal effect on the response of the bridge structural components. Eighteen months of field monitoring including abutments displacements, abutment rotations, deck strains, and beam strains was conducted utilizing 136 strain gauges, 6 crackmeters, and 2 tiltmeters. The behavior of the NEXT beams during construction was examined by conducting hand calculation considering all factors that could affect strain readings captured by strain gauges embedded in the 6 beams. Parametric analysis and model validation were conducted considering the effect of soil conditions, distribution of thermal loads, and the coefficient of thermal expansion used for the analyses. Using the validated model, the effect pile orientation was investigated. All the results and illustration plots are presented in detail in this study. As a result of this study, the behavior of the NEXT beams during construction was explained. Long term behavior of the bridge was also explained using field data and FE model. Furthermore, it was concluded that the coefficient of thermal expansion of concrete and temperature variation along the bridge depth and transverse direction can have a significant effect on the strain readings and calculated response, respectively. Lastly, it was found that orienting piles with their web perpendicular on the bridge centerline or with their web perpendicular to the abutment centerline will result in small ratio of moment demand to moment capacity.

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Most widely accepted measures of performance for learning algorithms, such as accuracy and area under the ROC curve, provide information about behavior at the data set level. They say nothing about which instances are misclassified, whether two learning algorithms with the same classification accuracy on a data set misclassify the same instances, or whether there are instances misclassified by all learning algorithms. These questions about behavior at the instance level motivate our empirical analysis of instance hardness, a measure of expected classification accuracy for an instance. We analyze the classification of 57 data sets using 9 learning algorithms. Of the over 175000 instances investigated, 5% are misclassified by all 9 of the considered learning algorithms, and 15% are misclassified by at least half. We find that the major cause of misclassification for hard instances is class overlap, manifested as outliers and border points which can be exacerbated by class skew. We analyze these causes and show to what extent each leads to misclassifications, both in isolation and jointly. 19.8% of all misclassified instances are outliers; 71.3% are border points; 21% belong to a minority class. We also find that 91.6% of all outliers and 38.3% of all border points are misclassified whereas only 3.5% of instances without class overlap are misclassified. We propose a set of heuristics to predict when an instance will be hard to correctly classify. Additionally, we analyze how different learning algorithms perform on tasks with varying degrees of outliers, border points and class skew.

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No description available.

This work is dedicated to the study of the structure of attractors of dynamical systems with the objective of estimating their fractal dimension. First we study the case of exponential global attractors of some generalized gradient-like semigroups in a general Banach space, and estimate their fractal dimension in terms of themaximumof the dimension of the local unstablemanifolds of the isolated invariant sets, Lipschitz properties of the semigroup and rate of exponential attraction. We also generalize this result for some special evolution processes, introducing a concept of Morse decomposition with pullback attractivity. Under suitable assumptions, if (A, \'A POT. \') is an attractor-repeller pair for the attractor A of a semigroup {T (t ) : t 0}, then the fractal dimension of A can be estimated in terms of the fractal dimension of the local unstable manifold of \'A POT. \', the fractal dimension of A, the Lipschitz properties of the semigroup and the rate of the exponential attraction. The ingredients of the proof are the notion of generalized gradient-like semigroups and their regular attractors, Morse decomposition and a fine analysis of the structure of the attractors. Also, making use of the skew product semiflow and its Morse decomposition, we give some estimates of the fractal dimension of the pullback attractors of non-autonomous dynamical systems / Este trabalho é dedicado ao estudo da estrutura dos atratores de sistemas dinâmicos com o objetivo de obter estimativas de suas dimensões fractais. Primeiramente estudamos o caso de atratores globais exponenciais de alguns semigrupos gradient-like generalizados em um espaço de Banach geral, e estimamos suas dimensões fractais em termos da máxima dimensão das variedades instáveis locais dos conjuntos invariantes isolados, a propriedades de Lipschitz do semigrupo e da taxa de atração exponencial. Também generalizamos este resultado para alguns processos de evoluções especiais, introduzindo um conceito de decomposição de Morse com atração pullback. Sob hipóteses apropriadas, se (A, \'A POT. \') é um par atrator-repulsor para o atratorA de um semigrupo {T (t ) : t 0}, então a dimensão fractal de A pode ser estimada em termos da dimensão fractal da variedade instável de \'A POT. \', a dimensão fractal de A, as propriedades de Lipschitz do semigrupo e a taxa de atração exponencial. Os ingredientes da demonstração são a noção de semigrupos gradient-like e seus atratores regulares, decomposição de Morse e uma análise fina da estrutura dos atratores. Além disto, fazendo uso do skew product semiflow e sua decomposição de Morse, damos estimativas da dimensão fractal dos atratores pullback de sistêmas dinâmicos não-autônomos