This project presented a biomechanical model of the lumbosacral spine and pelvis, including novel methodologies associated with the measurement of human mechanics. This research has, for the first time, produced accurate three-dimensional geometric models of the human skeleton from living subjects using magnetic resonance imaging technology, enabling the prediction of physiological muscle action within individuals. The model was used to examine changes in the mechanics of the lumbopelvic musculoskeletal system between the standing and seated postures due to the increasing prevalence of the seated posture in the work and home environment. The outcomes of this research included a novel bone wrapping algorithm used to describe the effect of muscle-bone interactions. a novel method for creating three-dimensional in vivo spinal reconstructions using MRI, three dimensional in vivo helical axis measurements and subject specific normalised moment data.

Data warehousing is a generally accepted method of providing corporate decision support. Today, the majority of information in these warehouses originates from sources within a company, although changes often occur from the outside. Companies need to look outside their enterprises for valuable information, increasing their knowledge of customers, suppliers, competitors etc. The largest and most frequently accessed information source today is the Web, which holds more and more useful business information. Today, the Web primarily relies on HTML, making mechanical extraction of information a difficult task. In the near future, XML is expected to replace HTML as the language of the Web, bringing more structure and content focus. One problem when considering XML-sources in a data warehouse context is their lack of update awareness capabilities, which restricts eligible data warehouse maintenance policies. In this work, we wrap XML-sources in order to provide update awareness capabilities. We have implemented a wrapper prototype that provides update awareness capabilities for autonomous XML-sources, especially change awareness, change activeness, and delta awareness. The prototype wrapper complies with recommendations and working drafts proposed by W3C, thereby being compliant with most off-the-shelf XML tools. In particular, change information produced by the wrapper is based on methods defined by the DOM, implying that any DOM-compliant software, including most off-the-shelf XML processing tools, can be used to incorporate identified changes in a source into an older version of it. For the delta awareness capability we have investigated the possibility of using change detection algorithms proposed for semi-structured data. We have identified similarities and differences between XML and semi-structured data, which affect delta awareness for XML-sources. As a result of this effort, we propose an algorithm for change detection in XML-sources. We also propose matching criteria for XML-documents, to which the documents have to conform to be subject to change awareness extension.

In the Maya region, covering architecture and human remains in white marl has traditionally been interpreted as an act of defacement that accompanied some termination rituals. Recently, researchers have shown that such covering was a form of ritualized wrapping or sealing and could occur in the absence of other signs of desecration, as a part reverential termination. Here, I build on this work to argue that such sealing is not necessarily part of termination rites at all and could occur independently in mortuary contexts. I also suggest that such sealing is a distinct subset of other types of mortuary wrapping. Decoupling sealing from termination and exploring its relationship to other forms of wrapping helps refine our understanding of mortuary and ritual categories in the Maya area.

The purpose of this research was to correlate the applied material properties of stretch film with its elastic properties measured in a laboratory setting. There are currently no tools available for a packaging engineer to make a scientific decision on how one stretch film performs against another without applying the film. The system for stretch wrap comparison is mostly based on trial and error which can lead to a significant loss of product when testing a new film or shipping a new product for the first time. If the properties of applied stretch film could be predicted using a tensile test method, many different films could be compared at once without actually applying the film, saving time and money and reducing risk. The current method for evaluating the tensile properties of stretch film advises the user apply a hysteresis test to a standard sample size and calculate several standard engineering values. This test does not represent how the material is actually used. Therefore, a new tensile testing method was developed that considers the film gauge (thickness) and its prestretch. The results of this testing method allowed for the calculation of the material stiffness (Bisha Stiffness) and were used to predict its performance in unit load containment. Applied stretch film is currently compared measuring containment force, which current standards define as the amount of force required to pull out a 15.2cm diameter plate, 10.1cm out, located 25.4cm down from the top and 45.7cm over from the side of a standard 121.9cm width unit load. Given this definition, increasing the amount of force required to pull the plate out can be achieved by manipulating two different stretch film properties, either increasing the stiffness of the film or increasing the tension of the film across the face of the unit load during the application process. Therefore, for this research, the traditional definition of containment force has been broken down into two components. Applied film stiffness was defined as the amount of force required to pull the film a given distance off the unit load. Containment force was defined as the amount of force that an applied film exerts on the corner of the unit load. The applied stretch film was evaluated using two different methods. The first method used the standard 10.1cm pull plate (same plate as ASTM D 4649) to measure the force required to pull the film out at different increments from the center on the face of the unit load. This measurement force was transformed into a material stiffness and film tension (which were subsequently resolved into containment force). The second, newly developed, method involved wrapping a bar under the film, on the corner of the unit load, and pulling out on the bar with a tensile testing machine. This method allowed for the direct measurement of the containment force and material stiffness. The results indicated that while some statistically significant differences were found for certain films, the material stiffness and containment were relatively consistent and comparable using either method.The use of the Bisha Stiffness to predict the applied stiffness and containment force yielded a statistically significant correlation but with a very low coefficient of determination. These results suggest that while film thickness and prestretch are key variables that can predict applied stiffness and containment force, more research should be conducted to study other variables that may allow for a better. High variability of the predictions observed were caused by the differences in film morphology between the different method of elongation (tensile vs application). This study was the first that attempted to define and correlate the tensile properties of stretch film and the applied properties of stretch film. From this research many, terms have been clarified, myths have been dispelled, formulas have been properly derived and applied to the data collected and a clear path forward had been laid out for future researchers to be able to predict applied stiffness and containment force from the elastic properties of stretch film. / Ph. D.

A wrapping cam mechanism consists of a cam wrapped by a belt or flexible band. An analytical method for synthesizing wrapping cam mechanisms has recently been developed. This thesis extends the previous work and describes the development of an interactive wrapping cam synthesis package based on analytical methods. The software presented in this thesis generates cam profiles for eight configurations of wrapping cam-pulley or wrapping cam-sprocket mechanisms. This software package has a graphical user interface to give intuitive interactions. The modularity of the software package increases the flexibility for future program extension. This thesis also discusses the extended synthesis methods for a wrapping cam-link mechanism. / Master of Science

No description available.

The objective of this thesis is to design a system that can be used to retrieve the music songs by acoustic input. The system listens to the melody or the partial song singing by the Karaoke users, and then prompts them the whole song paragraphs. Note segmentation is completed by both the magnitude of the song and the k-Nearest Neighbor technique. In order to speed up our system, the pitch period estimation algorithm is rewritten by a theory in communications. Besides, a large popular music database is built to make this system more practical.

在亨利‧詹姆士（Henry James）的小說《鴿之翼》（The Wings of the Dove, 1902）中，金錢在人際關係中的流動以及其所產生的交換方式往往為批評家們所忽略。許多批評家將小說中的角色視為兩種極端：以凱特為代表的倫敦人是剝削者；美國女孩米莉則是天真無邪的犧牲者。而注意到小說中交換議題的批評家，也多半以市場交易的模式來看待小說中的交換行為。有別於以往的研究，本論文嘗試以「禮物」的理論，為小說中的交換提供一種新的觀點。 / 法國人類學家牟斯（Marcel Mauss）的理論顯示，禮物贈與牽涉到社會關係的建立與經濟層面的交流。然而牟斯的理論亦顯示出禮物的矛盾：禮物並非單向的贈與，而是送／收禮物的主體之間的互惠交換行為。同樣的，《鴿之翼》中的金錢交換也是以此種送／收禮物的方式來達成。小說中的禮物交換與角色對金錢的追求呼應，形成一個禮物交換的體系。本論文首先討論小說中的交換者進行交換的方式，突顯其用以掩飾禮物矛盾的包裝策略。其次，本論文討論禮物交換的時間結構如何對送禮者與收禮者產生不同的影響，使米莉的回禮得以藉由時間的運用，產生諧擬（parody）的效果，進而展示了凱特所代表的倫敦人所遵從的交換原則有何限制。 / 在《鴿之翼》中，禮物不斷游移於慷慨與私利的兩端，而此種介於經濟與非經濟之間的交換方式，正是禮物有別於商品，並能夠暗渡實質利益的原因。 / In The Wings of the Dove (1902), Henry James presents a flow of money in interpersonal relations from which a distinctive mode of exchange is derived. However, the issue of exchange does not arouse much discussion among the critics on James. Some critics tend to read the two heroines as representatives of moral oppositions—Kate and other Londoners as exploiters, the young American Milly as a victim. Although there are other critics who notice the exchanges in this novel, most of them choose to approach the issue with the mode of exchange in the market. Differing from these critical perspectives, in which the characters’ exchanges are taken as transforming or reflecting transactions of commodities, this thesis analyzes The Wings of the Dove in terms of gift giving and gift returning. / As the work of the French anthropologist Marcel Mauss shows, gift giving is not only a way to construct social relations but also a part of an economic circulation. But a paradox of the gift can also be observed from Mauss’s theory of the gift—the paradox that gift giving appears as a liberal offer but initiates an exchange of gifts by obligating the gift receiver to return. / What this thesis aims to explore with the theories of the gift is whether it is effective for the characters in The Wings of the Dove to exchange money for social resources, and vice versa. The exchanges in this novel, working alongside the Londoners’ quest for money, constitute a system of gift exchange that brings about Kate’s scheme to reap money from Milly. To look into the problems created from this mode of exchange, the thesis will further be committed to the discussions on the characters’ strategies which help them conceal the paradox of the gift, as well as their actions and limitations in the temporal structure of the gift exchange. Ultimately, this thesis attempts to show the capriciousness of the gift revealed in the exchanges in The Wings of the Dove. In constant fluctuations, the gift never ceases to oscillate between the dichotomies of the economic and the noneconomic, which not only shows its elasticity but also offers a space for discussions of its logic from various critical angles.

Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2014-12-30T18:43:27Z No. of bitstreams: 3 Dissertação - Eduardo Araujo de Avila - 2014 - parte 01.pdf: 8646531 bytes, checksum: 2d251c318b31526d24e9168520afd0df (MD5) Dissertação - Eduardo Araujo de Avila - 2014 - parte 02.pdf: 17246080 bytes, checksum: 67dcd9e7820c5cc116d527a40d07cc51 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2014-12-30T18:43:57Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 3 Dissertação - Eduardo Araujo de Avila - 2014 - parte 01.pdf: 8646531 bytes, checksum: 2d251c318b31526d24e9168520afd0df (MD5) Dissertação - Eduardo Araujo de Avila - 2014 - parte 02.pdf: 17246080 bytes, checksum: 67dcd9e7820c5cc116d527a40d07cc51 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-30T18:43:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Dissertação - Eduardo Araujo de Avila - 2014 - parte 01.pdf: 8646531 bytes, checksum: 2d251c318b31526d24e9168520afd0df (MD5) Dissertação - Eduardo Araujo de Avila - 2014 - parte 02.pdf: 17246080 bytes, checksum: 67dcd9e7820c5cc116d527a40d07cc51 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This work presents the outcomes of a research master’s degree in Art and Visual Culture, which consists of experiments in printmaking and in studies on the use of foldings as matrices, whose poetic concept is defined as “gravobraduras”. The study has as reference the wrapping culture (tsutsumu bunka), which involves not only the study of origami, but also about other practices, such as furoshiki, that include the production of involucres and wrappings. The reference in question alludes to “practice of Japanese gift” and the artistic production of this work to the “wanderings of Japanese immigrants in Brazil”. Therefore, the primary objective of this research is to analyze what are the paths, sometimes errant sometimes constant, in which the image generated by the “matrix folding” travels up to become a visual pattern, but also evaluate the development of the artistic production in three methods of printing: by high relief (matrix folding), by permeation (silkscreen) and by digital means. The research also involves reflections on artistic creation as creating networks, according to Cecilia Salles, who emphasizes that are important the concomitant actions and the establishment of links between relevant subjects to the research to generate its own methodology and poetic. / Este trabalho apresenta os (des)dobramentos de uma pesquisa de mestrado em Arte e Cultura Visual, que consiste nas experimentações em gravura e nos estudos sobre o uso de dobraduras como matrizes, cujo conceito poético é definido como “gravobraduras”. O estudo tem como referencial a cultura do invólucro (tsutsumu bunka), e que envolve não apenas os estudos sobre origami, mas também sobre outras práticas, como o furoshiki, que abrangem técnicas de produção de envoltórios e embrulhos. O referencial em questão alude à “prática japonesa de presentear” e a produção artística deste trabalho às “errâncias dos imigrantes japoneses pelo Brasil”. Assim sendo, o objetivo primordial dessa pesquisa é analisar quais são os trajetos, ora errantes ora constantes, que a imagem gerada pela “matriz dobrada” percorre até tornar-se um padrão visual. Também avaliar o desenvolvimento da produção artística em três métodos de impressão: por alto relevo (matriz dobrada), por permeação (serigrafia) e por meio digital (sublimação). A pesquisa também envolve reflexões sobre a criação artística como redes de criação que, segundo Cecília Salles, destaca como importantes as ações concomitantes e o estabelecimento de nexos entre assuntos relevantes à pesquisa para a geração de metodologia e poética próprias.

No description available.