Statistical modelling of extreme rainfall in Madeira Island

Extreme rainfall events have triggered a significant number of flash floods in Madeira Island along its past and recent history. Madeira is a volcanic island where the spatial rainfall distribution is strongly affected by its rugged topography. In this thesis, annual maximum of daily rainfall data from 25 rain gauge stations located in Madeira Island were modelled by the generalised extreme value distribution. Also, the hypothesis of a Gumbel distribution was tested by two methods and the existence of a linear trend in both distributions parameters was analysed. Estimates for the 50– and 100–year return levels were also obtained. Still in an univariate context, the assumption that a distribution function belongs to the domain of attraction of an extreme value distribution for monthly maximum rainfall data was tested for the rainy season. The available data was then analysed in order to find the most suitable domain of attraction for the sampled distribution. In a different approach, a search for thresholds was also performed for daily rainfall values through a graphical analysis. In a multivariate context, a study was made on the dependence between extreme rainfall values from the considered stations based on Kendall’s τ measure. This study suggests the influence of factors such as altitude, slope orientation, distance between stations and their proximity of the sea on the spatial distribution of extreme rainfall. Groups of three pairwise associated stations were also obtained and an adjustment was made to a family of extreme value copulas involving the Marshall–Olkin family, whose parameters can be written as a function of Kendall’s τ association measures of the obtained pairs.

Sobre projetos, palavras e imagens: relacionando textos e desenhos nos trabalhos finais de graduação em arquitetura e urbanismo

This research continues the current debate about the role of the images and the words in the architectural design persuasion, where we emphasize the increasing valuation of written documents (FORTY, 2004; MARKUS; CAMERON, 2002), the seduction for the graphical representation (DURAND, 2003) and the rhetorical effects of the graphical and textual resources (TOSTRUP, 1999). Based on these quarrels, we look for verify in the graduate final projects the relation between the design texts and images. From the PROJEDATA, database of the PROJETAR research group (UFRN), we selected the final projects of two brazilians universities, UFRN and USP, that in a first analysis, they had shown as ideal types of two distinct design presentation models, respectively: texts and drawings in separated documents, or combined in an only support. Based on Markus explanation about the function and the content of the texts, on the Durand perspective with regard to graphical representation uses and on Tostrup point of view concerning the rhetorical potential of texts and drawings, we analyze, in a set of 25 projects, how the students relate the textual and imagetical speeches. For this, we related the focus of each speech, in order to verify the possible coherence between both. We conclude that in the model of USP final project the coherence between the texts and the drawings is clearer than in the model adopted in UFRN

Utilização de um aplicativo de simulação computacional na avaliação de desempenho térmico de protótipo de habitação de interesse social (his)

This Masters Degree dissertation seeks to make a comparative study of internal air temperature data, simulated through the thermal computer application DesignBuilder 1.2, and data registered in loco through HOBO® Temp Data Logger, in a Social Housing Prototype (HIS), located at the Central Campus of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte UFRN. The prototype was designed and built seeking strategies of thermal comfort recommended for the local climate where the study was carried out, and built with panels of cellular concrete by Construtora DoisA, a collaborator of research project REPESC Rede de Pesquisa em Eficiência Energética de Sistemas Construtivos (Research Network on Energy Efficiency of Construction Systems), an integral part of Habitare program. The methodology employed carefully examined the problem, reviewed the bibliography, analyzing the major aspects related to computer simulations for thermal performance of buildings, such as climate characterization of the region under study and users thermal comfort demands. The DesignBuilder 1.2 computer application was used as a simulation tool, and theoretical alterations were carried out in the prototype, then they were compared with the parameters of thermal comfort adopted, based on the area s current technical literature. Analyses of the comparative studies were performed through graphical outputs for a better understanding of air temperature amplitudes and thermal comfort conditions. The data used for the characterization of external air temperature were obtained from the Test Reference Year (TRY), defined for the study area (Natal-RN). Thus the author also performed comparative studies for TRY data registered in the years 2006, 2007 and 2008, at weather station Davis Precision Station, located at the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais INPE-CRN (National Institute of Space Research), in a neighboring area of UFRN s Central Campus. The conclusions observed from the comparative studies performed among computer simulations, and the local records obtained from the studied prototype, point out that the simulations performed in naturally ventilated buildings is quite a complex task, due to the applications limitations, mainly owed to the complexity of air flow phenomena, the influence of comfort conditions in the surrounding areas and climate records. Lastly, regarding the use of the application DesignBuilder 1.2 in the present study, one may conclude that it is a good tool for computer simulations. However, it needs some adjustments to improve reliability in its use. There is a need for continued research, considering the dedication of users to the prototype, as well as the thermal charges of the equipment, in order to check sensitivity

Metodologias estatísticas aplicadas a dados de análises químicas da água produzida em um campo maduro de petróleo

Produced water is characterized as one of the most common wastes generated during exploration and production of oil. This work aims to develop methodologies based on comparative statistical processes of hydrogeochemical analysis of production zones in order to minimize types of high-cost interventions to perform identification test fluids - TIF. For the study, 27 samples were collected from five different production zones were measured a total of 50 chemical species. After the chemical analysis was applied the statistical data, using the R Statistical Software, version 2.11.1. Statistical analysis was performed in three steps. In the first stage, the objective was to investigate the behavior of chemical species under study in each area of production through the descriptive graphical analysis. The second step was to identify a function that classify production zones from each sample, using discriminant analysis. In the training stage, the rate of correct classification function of discriminant analysis was 85.19%. The next stage of processing of the data used for Principal Component Analysis, by reducing the number of variables obtained from the linear combination of chemical species, try to improve the discriminant function obtained in the second stage and increase the discrimination power of the data, but the result was not satisfactory. In Profile Analysis curves were obtained for each production area, based on the characteristics of the chemical species present in each zone. With this study it was possible to develop a method using hydrochemistry and statistical analysis that can be used to distinguish the water produced in mature fields of oil, so that it is possible to identify the zone of production that is contributing to the excessive elevation of the water volume.

Compressão de Imagens Usando a Função de Peano e a Transformada Wavelet 1D

In this work, spoke about the importance of image compression for the industry, it is known that processing and image storage is always a challenge in petrobrás to optimize the storage time and store a maximum number of images and data. We present an interactive system for processing and storing images in the wavelet domain and an interface for digital image processing. The proposal is based on the Peano function and wavelet transform in 1D. The storage system aims to optimize the computational space, both for storage and for transmission of images. Being necessary to the application of the Peano function to linearize the images and the 1D wavelet transform to decompose it. These applications allow you to extract relevant information for the storage of an image with a lower computational cost and with a very small margin of error when comparing the images, original and processed, ie, there is little loss of quality when applying the processing system presented . The results obtained from the information extracted from the images are displayed in a graphical interface. It is through the graphical user interface that the user uses the files to view and analyze the results of the programs directly on the computer screen without the worry of dealing with the source code. The graphical user interface, programs for image processing via Peano Function and Wavelet Transform 1D, were developed in Java language, allowing a direct exchange of information between them and the user

Effects of plant density and proportion on the interaction between wheat with alexandergrass plants

A determinação das relações competitivas entre espécies de plantas requer delineamentos experimentais e métodos de análise apropriados. A hipótese da pesquisa foi que duas espécies crescendo em convivência têm comportamento de crescimento e desenvolvimento distintos em função da sua competitividade relativa. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi quantificar a competitividade relativa da cultura do trigo com o capim-marmelada através da medida dos efeitos da densidade e da proporção de plantas, usando experimentos em série substitutiva. Monoculturas foram cultivadas em densidades de 1, 3, 5, 10 e 15 plantas por caixa e analisadas por regressão dos dados de massa seca, em 2006. Experimento em mistura foi cultivado nas proporções trigo:capim-marmelada de 0:6, 1:5, 2:4, 3:3, 4:2, 5:1 e 6:0 plantas por caixa e analisado através de interpretação gráfica de características de crescimento e produção, em 2007. Ambos os experimentos foram realizados em delineamento completamente casualizado com quatro repetições. Capim-marmelada foi mais sensível que trigo à competição intraespecífica. Capim-marmelada foi levemente mais competitivo que trigo. Número e massa de espigas e número de afilhos foram as características do trigo mais afetadas pela interferência do capim-marmelada.

Egg production curve fitting using nonlinear models for selected and nonselected lines of White Leghorn hens

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Inclusão e deficiência: em busca das representações sociais na mídia impressa em Natal/RN

This thesis is the result of an extensive research on print media discourse on the inclusion of disabled people in society. Articles published in the newspapers Diário de Natal/O Poti and Tribuna do Norte from 1992 to 2002 have been analyzed. Beginning with the very same questions that moved Moscovici (1978) in his classic study La Psychalyse son image et son public , according to which the media play a predominant role in the formation and propagation of social representations as well as in the construction of human behaviors, we have chosen this mass media as our investigation field. Understanding the importance of the communication theory, we intend to associate it to the social representation theory, since communication, as an aspiration, relates to the fundamentals of all humanity (WOLTON, 2004, p. 56). Moreover, means of communication represent an important space for symbolic production and representational process, allowing the analysis of the circulating discourses on social inclusion and disability. Based on these questions, we have determined social representations present in print media on the subject to be our study object. This objective was elected due to the fact that the thematic of disability and inclusion is scarcely and sporadically found in journalistic speech. The research questions have been: which is the representation of disabled people s condition in print media? What changes have occurred during the analyzed period and which was the role played by print media in this process? The research corpus was composed of newspaper articles about various aspects concerning disability and of free word association by reporters. We have analysed: 1) graphical language promoted by the picture of the substances propagated in the period from 1992 a 2002; 2) free word association experiments carried out with reporters of both newspapers; and 3) texts published from 1996 to 1997 using the high-tech program ALCESTE (Contextual Lexical Analysis of a Set of Segments of Texts). The results revealed that the print media in Natal/RN refer to the topic in a discontinuous way, and depend on specific events to highlight disabled people s fight for their rights. Social inclusion is still a great challenge for these people in all levels. We believe that this incapacity to overcome all kinds of obstacles is established in a dialectic relation between society and the media: society remains silent (the manifestation of interest for the cause only attracts some people s or groups attention) and the media, which selects which information is to be broadcasted, gives no evidence to the issue. This representation may be noticed in the infrequency in which articles about the subject are published, as well as in the emphasis to sports, a more important issue for the media. An implication of this study is that a new perspective is opened for analysis and reflection: the Paralympics games as both an inclusive and a segregating social phenomenon. It would be beautiful to have all of us together!

A dimensão social do desenho: um estudo sobre as interações no processo de (re) construção imagética da criança no Ensino Fundamental

In the historical-cultural perspective, the drawing is processed by means of a shared and complex way, under diverse relations with the other and with the immersed signs of the culture. That is, something constituted by the social interactions and that can modify the structure of the psychological functions, therefore as socialized sign, propitiates the incorporation of the functions socially. In this way, the figuration carrier sensitive and established meanings historically disclosing the shared experiences and the ways of the subject to think and perceive the world. Such reflections gave shape to the main problem of this research: how to think over about the drawing at the school to incide in the reconstruction of the childs imaginative language? Under such perspective, this work deals with the interactions in the production process of the drawing of the children in a context of teach-Iearning of the elementary school having as goal to analyze the interactions established in the cIassroom in the process of production of the drawings; to propose situations of learnings that favor the advance graphical expression of the students; and to identify in the interactive games some relations between body expression and drawing. For its accomplishment, it was opted for the construction process based in the collaborative investigation by the fact to propitiate negotiations, sharing and confrontation of ideas, becoming possible a joint construction of the knowledge. For this research, the researcher and the collaborating teacher, as well as the involved children, become themselves into co-authors of the context studied. As locus of the research, it was chosen a first cycle class, with 30 students, from Municipal School Profª. Emília Ramos (Natal/RN - Brazil), whose election took in account the fact of this school to constitute in a promotional space of reflections and professional development of teachers in service and, at the same time, for presentinglimitations theoretic- methodological in the field of teaching for Arts. In the process of the research, it was perceived that the children with the support of the verbal language formulates meanings on the seen and imagined object, printing lines and forms that if overlap to the physiological aspects of the visual perception. That is, the drawing discloses a reality appraised, enriched for the picked up vision of the image, but the meanings established for the author, or observer who becomes it perceivable and identified. In the systemizing situations, it was observed that the teaching-Iearning process of the drawing, implies a co-construction between teachers and learners. And, moreover, the necessity to interlace emotion and cognition by means of plastic-corporal interactions that foment drawing experiences, whose process concurs for the imagenative reconstruct of the apprentices

Diagnóstico Socioambiental da disposição final dos resíduos sólidos no distrito de Guajiru São Gonçalo do Amarante/RN, ressaltando a situação socioeconômica dos catadores

One of the concerns of this century is with the handling and the final destination of urban solid waste (RSU), where depending on the form as they will be made use, they can cause diverse problems, they are of ambient or social order, being able to generate the loss of the quality of life and illnesses to the population, of direct or indirect form. The objective of the present work was to diagnosis the environmental partner situation of the Final Destination of the urban solid residues in the District of Guajiru, city of São Gonçalo do Amarante/RN, standing out the partner-economic situation of the scavengers. The research was carried through in the period of March of 2008 the October of 2009, with a methodology developed through analyzes them of documents made available for the state ambient agency, the Air base of Christmas and managing agencies of the city. For collection of the date, it was used directly application of the questionnaire with 20 existing scavengers in points of destination of residues, evaluation of the old place of final destination through the use of the spread sheet of the IQR (Index of Quality of the Residues), developed for the CETESB, identification of the matter dump and photographic register. For effect of treatment of the data, a descriptive analysis with regard to the answers of the interviewed scavengers was carried through. The acquired date, Scale had been according to tabulated and analyzed in Excel 2003, where they had been generated graphical to observe the behavior of the data. The results show that of the twenty interviewed scavengers, 35% possess age between 20 and 30 years; 75% possess incomplete basic education; 60% inhabit in houses of waal or huts (cardboard or wood); 55% do not make use of system of water supply and system of sanitary exhaustion; with regard to income monthly for scavengers, 35% had presented income between R$ 200,00 and R$300,00 and 20% possess income above of R$ 500,00 for possessing another source of income; 80% of the interviewed ones, use some type of equipment of individual protection; In the year of 2009, confirming what it was informed by the State agency of Environment, during the field visit, we evidence that the city of Is Gonçalo do Amarante, currently, destines its residues in Sanitary landfill of São Region Metropolitan of Natal in the District of Massaranduba in the city of Ceará-Mirim, after some interventions of the State Public prosecution service. However, in the district of Guajiru some diggings still exist that today are used as final destination of RCD' s (Residues of Construction and Demolition) of the cities of Natal and São Gonçalo do Amarante, as well as private dumps that are used by scavengers that deviate the final destination (Sanitary landfill) of the residues of the great generators (supermarkets, shopping Center and hotels), with presence of urubus, generating a new ambient problem for the city and the aeroportuária security. Ahead of this scene, the study it suggests viable alternatives for the elimination of the private dumps and for the social situation of the escavengers, aiming at to improve its quality of life and 10 to minimize the ambient impacts caused by the inadequate destination of the solid waste in the community of Guajiru, São Gonçalo do Amarante/RN, being able to contribute so that the public managers carry through action in the handling and the control of the final destination of the urban solid waste

Um protocolo de comunicação multicast na camada de aplicação com Consciência de Localização

Internet applications such as media streaming, collaborative computing and massive multiplayer are on the rise,. This leads to the need for multicast communication, but unfortunately group communications support based on IP multicast has not been widely adopted due to a combination of technical and non-technical problems. Therefore, a number of different application-layer multicast schemes have been proposed in recent literature to overcome the drawbacks. In addition, these applications often behave as both providers and clients of services, being called peer-topeer applications, and where participants come and go very dynamically. Thus, servercentric architectures for membership management have well-known problems related to scalability and fault-tolerance, and even peer-to-peer traditional solutions need to have some mechanism that takes into account member's volatility. The idea of location awareness distributes the participants in the overlay network according to their proximity in the underlying network allowing a better performance. Given this context, this thesis proposes an application layer multicast protocol, called LAALM, which takes into account the actual network topology in the assembly process of the overlay network. The membership algorithm uses a new metric, IPXY, to provide location awareness through the processing of local information, and it was implemented using a distributed shared and bi-directional tree. The algorithm also has a sub-optimal heuristic to minimize the cost of membership process. The protocol has been evaluated in two ways. First, through an own simulator developed in this work, where we evaluated the quality of distribution tree by metrics such as outdegree and path length. Second, reallife scenarios were built in the ns-3 network simulator where we evaluated the network protocol performance by metrics such as stress, stretch, time to first packet and reconfiguration group time

Uma arquitetura P2P baseada na hierarquia do endereçamento IP com roteamento unificado

There are some approaches that take advantage of unused computational resources in the Internet nodes - users´ machines. In the last years , the peer-to-peer networks (P2P) have gaining a momentum mainly due to its support for scalability and fault tolerance. However, current P2P architectures present some problems such as nodes overhead due to messages routing, a great amount of nodes reconfigurations when the network topology changes, routing traffic inside a specific network even when the traffic is not directed to a machine of this network, and the lack of a proximity relationship among the P2P nodes and the proximity of these nodes in the IP network. Although some architectures use the information about the nodes distance in the IP network, they use methods that require dynamic information. In this work we propose a P2P architecture to fix the problems afore mentioned. It is composed of three parts. The first part consists of a basic P2P architecture, called SGrid, which maintains a relationship of nodes in the P2P network with their position in the IP network. Its assigns adjacent key regions to nodes of a same organization. The second part is a protocol called NATal (Routing and NAT application layer) that extends the basic architecture in order to remove from the nodes the responsibility of routing messages. The third part consists of a special kind of node, called LSP (Lightware Super-Peer), which is responsible for maintaining the P2P routing table. In addition, this work also presents a simulator that validates the architecture and a module of the Natal protocol to be used in Linux routers

Desenvolvimento de um ressoador retangular de fenda com múltiplas camadas de substrato e com utilização de material PBG para sistema de comunicação sem fio

In the globalized world modern telecommunications have assumed key role within the company, causing a large increase in demand for the wireless technology of communication, which has been happening in recent years have greatly increased the number of applications using this technology. Due to this demand, new materials are developed to enable new control mechanisms and propagation of electromagnetic waves. The research to develop new technologies for wireless communication presents a multidisciplinary study that covers from the new geometries for passive antennas, active up to the development of materials for devices that improve the performance at the frequency range of operation. Recently, planar antennas have attracted interest due to their characteristics and advantages when compared with other types of antennas. In the area of mobile communications the need for antennas of this type has become increasingly used, due to intensive development, which needs to operate in multifrequency antennas and broadband. The microstrip antennas have narrow bandwidth due to the dielectric losses generated by irradiation. Another limitation is the degradation of the radiation pattern due to the generation of surface waves in the substrate. Some techniques have been developed to minimize this limitation of bandwidth, such as the study of type materials PBG - Photonic Band Gap, to form the dielectric material. This work has as main objective the development project of a slot resonator with multiple layers and use the type PBG substrate, which carried out the optimization from the numerical analysis and then designed the device initially proposed for the band electromagnetic spectrum between 3-9 GHz, which basically includes the band S to X. Was used as the dielectric material RT/Duroid 5870 and RT/Duroid 6010.LM where both are laminated ceramic-filled PTFE dielectric constants 2.33 and 10.2, respectively. Through an experimental investigation was conducted an analysis of the simulated versus measured by observing the behavior of the radiation characteristics from the height variation of the dielectric multilayer substrates. We also used the LTT method resonators structures rectangular slot with multiple layers of material photonic PBG in order to obtain the resonance frequency and the entire theory involving the electromagnetic parameters of the structure under consideration. xviii The analysis developed in this work was performed using the method LTT - Transverse Transmission Line, in the field of Fourier transform that uses a component propagating in the y direction (transverse to the real direction of propagation z), thus treating the general equations of the fields electric and magnetic and function. The PBG theory is applied to obtain the relative permittivity of the polarizations for the sep photonic composite substrates material. The results are obtained with the commercial software Ansoft HFSS, used for accurate analysis of the electromagnetic behavior of the planar device under study through the Finite Element Method (FEM). Numerical computational results are presented in graphical form in two and three dimensions, playing in the parameters of return loss, frequency of radiation and radiation diagram, radiation efficiency and surface current for the device under study, and have as substrates, photonic materials and had been simulated in an appropriate computational tool. With respect to the planar device design study are presented in the simulated and measured results that show good agreement with measurements made. These results are mainly in the identification of resonance modes and determining the characteristics of the designed device, such as resonant frequency, return loss and radiation pattern

Proposta de um sistema de segurança eletrônica predial

This work presents a suggestion of a security system of land automation having as objective main the creation of a system capable from easy method, supervise the installations of a building with the goal to preserver security personal and patrimonial necessities, aim at portability low cost and use easiness. Was designed an alarms central and access controller that has digital and analogical inputs for sensors and outputs for buzzer, telephonic dialing and electronic lock. The system is supervised by software that makes solicitations of information to the alarms central through the one computer's serial port (RS-232). The supervisory software was developed in platform LabVIEW with displays the received data on a graphical interface informing the sensors' current states distributed in the building and system events as alarns occurrences. This system also can be viewed through the Internet for people registered by the land security's system administrator

Análise de antenas de microfita em rampa com múltiplas camadas dielétricas

The present work deals with the ana1ysis of microstrip patch antennas printed on tapered dielectric substrates. We investigate the influence ofthe substrate height variations on the properties of configurations such as microstrip patch antennas, microstrip patch antennas with overlay and suspendeô microstrip patch antennas. The dielectric substrates can be isotropic or anisotropic ones. This accurate analysis is based on the full-wave formulation. It is carried out initially for the determination of the impedance matrix, through the use of the spectral¬domain immitance approach. We use a model based on a segmentation of the considered line into uniform microstrip line subsections. Normalized phase constants and characteristic impedances are obtained by means of the Galerkin numerical technique. Then, the cascaded combination of the uniform microstrip subsections are analyzed through an interactive procedure. Numerical results are presented for the input reflection coefficient, voltage standing wave ratio, resonant frequency, and radiation pattems ofthe E_plane and H-plane diagrams. It is found that the variations in the substrate height profile produce a great influence on the bandwidth of microstrip antennas. This procedure gives bandwidth improvements without altering considerably the resonant frequency. Furthermore, the tapered microstrip antenna can be used as a lightweight altemative for bandwidth control and to eXtend the use of microstiip antenna technology to a wider variety of applications. Finally, suggestions for the continuity of this work are presented