All-wheel drive EVs: from the modeling and validation to the development of a design tool and advanced control strategies

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Design and Validation of a High-Level Controller for Automotive Active Systems

Active systems, from active safety to energy management, play a crucial role in the development of new road vehicles. However, the increasing number of controllers creates an important issue regarding complexity and system integration. This article proposes a high-level controller managing the individual active systems - namely, Torque Vectoring (TV), Active Aerodynamics, Active Suspension, and Active Safety (Anti-lock Braking System [ABS], Traction Control, and Electronic Stability Program [ESP]) - through a dynamic state variation. The high-level controller is implemented and validated in a simulation environment, with a series of tests, and evaluate the performance of the original design and the proposed high-level control. Then, a comparison of the Virtual Driver (VD) response and the Driver-in-the-Loop (DiL) behavior is performed to assess the limits between virtual simulation and real-driver response in a lap time condition. The main advantages of the proposed design methodology are its simplicity and overall cooperation of different active systems, where the proposed model was able to improve the vehicle behavior both in terms of safety and performance, giving more confidence to the driver when cornering and under braking. Some differences were discovered between the behavior of the VD and the DiL, especially regarding the sensitivity to external disturbances

Municipalities secession and uncertainty on public goods provision

This paper investigates the causes of municipalities secession in Brazil. The theoretical modelproposes that the median voter is not fully informed about the efficiency effect of secession on publicgood provision and uses the break up decision undertaken by neighbor’s municipalities within thestate to account for his voting. Our empirical results confirms that prediction

Corporate venture capital: geração e acompanhamento de oportunidades de investimento em empresas inovadoras

O objetivo deste trabalho é compreender a utilização de estruturas corporate venture capital - CVC (capital de risco corporativo), identificando as motivações e as dificuldades no processo de implementação, com foco nos estágios de geração e acompanhamento de oportunidades de investimentos. A abordagem metodológica pautou-se inicialmente por uma revisão de literatura, seguida de um estudo de caso em uma empresa com unidade de novos negócios voltada ao CVC. Finalmente, foi utilizado um painel de especialistas da área de VC, composto por três grupos de especialistas: Mercado, Empreendedores e Neutro (acadêmicos, consultores em inovação e gerentes de incubadoras). Com o auxílio do software ATLAS.ti foi feita a análise de conteúdo dos discursos dos entrevistados, gerando um interessante painel a respeito das práticas de venture capital que poderá orientar não só a organização estudada, como também aos envolvidos na indústria de capital de risco, inovação e empreendedorismo. O trabalho aponta para a busca de opções de investimentos alinhadas aos mercados alvo, mas também de empreendedores alinhados à filosofia da organização. Também se observou diferenças na percepção entre os atores do painel de especialistas. Finalmente, foi destacada a importância de intermediários na aproximação das empresas inovadoras e o CVC.This study aims to understand the use of corporate venture capital structures (CVCs), identifying the motivations and difficulties in the implementation process, with focus on the generation and monitoring of investment opportunities. The methodological approach was based on a literature review, followed by an exploratory study performed in a service firm, especially in the new business unit dedicated to CVCs. Finally, we used a panel of specialists of the VC, composed of three groups of experts: Market, Entrepreneurs, and Neutral (academics, consultants, and managers of innovation incubators). The analysis of the interviews was performed using the software ATLAS.ti and content analysis, generating an interesting panel about the Venture Capital practices, which may lead not only to the organization studied, but also to those involved in the venture capital industry innovation and entrepreneurship. The study shows the importance of the alignment between the investment options and organization's target markets, as well as the alignment between the entrepreneur and the organization's philosophy. Differences in perception between the actors of the panel of specialists were identified. Finally, the importance of intermediaries as a bridge between innovative companies and CVC was highlighted

Animal use in Major Depressive Disorder : a necessary evil? Assessing the past to improve the future

Animal models are widely used in research aimed at advancing human healthcare, although their utility for this purpose is more often presumed, than studied. In this thesis I evaluate the contribution of animal models to current knowledge of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), a poorly understood mental disorder of multifactorial origin that affects thousands of people worldwide. My hypothesis is that if animal models are contributing meaningfully to medical advances, then animal studies will be well cited by human medical literature. Accordingly, and after conducting a pilot study on ADHD (Chapter 2), I conducted a citation analysis on studies which used rats (Chapter 3) and non-human primates (NHP) (Chapter 4) as models for MDD research. The number of citations of these papers by human medical papers was low. To determine if the low number of citations could be caused by the need for sufficient evidence to accumulate within a field, before a medical breakthrough can be reached, I determined if the citations were by papers on the same disorder, or on unrelated disorders (Chapter 5). In an attempt to determine if low citation numbers are common to all indirect research approaches, I compared the number and relevance of citations of in silico, in vitro and NHP studies, by human medical papers. Other research approaches more effectively informed human research, than NHP models (Chapter 4). I also quantified the citations of other research methods by subsequent animal studies. Citations were low, contrary to common expectations that in vitro and in silico inform subsequent animal studies (Chapter 6). Overall, these results indicate that animal models make poor contributions to human mental disorders research. This merits a change in the extant paradigm in biomedical research, at least in some human disorders, as proposed in Chapter 7