Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Language routines'

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-108).
This thesis describes a spatial language understanding system based on a lexicon of words defined in terms of spatial routines. A spatial routine is a script composed from a set of primitive operations on sensor data, analogous to Ullman's visual routines. By finding a set of primitives that underlie natural spatial language, the meaning of spatial terms can be succinctly expressed in a way that can be used to obey natural language commands. This hypothesis is tested by using spatial routines to build a natural language interface to a real time strategy game, in which a player controls an army of units in a battle. The system understands the meaning of context-dependent natural language commands such as "Run back!" and "Move the marines on top above the fiamethrowers on the bottom." In evaluation, the system successfully interpreted a range of spatial commands not seen during implementation, and exceeded the performance of a baseline system. Beyond real-time strategy games, spatial routines may provide the basis for interpreting spatial language in a broad range of physically situated language understanding systems, such as mobile robots or other computer game genres.
by Stefanie Tellex.
S.M.

Young children who learn a second language (L2) are able to attain native pronunciation norms. However, L2 learners beyond childhood rarely rid themselves of foreign accent. Various hypotheses and models have been offered to explain such age-related differences. Few of these explanations have addressed the issue of perception/production asymmetries. Neufeld's research has demonstrated that some older learners evidence native-like knowledge of phonological distinctions at the perceptual level, while unable to reproduce these distinctions in output. This asymmetry led him to propose his performance-based Pre- and Post-articulatory Verification model. This model assumes that, although native-like phonological representations may exist in the learner's L2 system, last-second morphophonological and phonetic adjustment may not take place because of a developmentally induced shift in focus from low- to high-level linguistic processing, i.e. to content and form. This thesis elaborates upon Neufeld's ideas by centering on articulatory realization of phonetic specifications derived in the ultimate stage of sentence planning. It is suggested that, in order to meet real-time constraints, frequent and well-practiced articulatory sequences are eventually encoded as rapidly accessible routines. These routines are packaged instructions which translate phonetic representations into articulatory goals. This extension of Neufeld's model seeks to explain much of foreign accent in adolescent and adult L2 learners as the result of entrenched erroneous motor routines.

This study investigates behaviour in seeking and giving advice in Australian English and Indonesian. It seeks to determine the crosscultural similarities and differences in seeking and giving advice in both languages in the areas of (i) the use of language routines and strategies (ii) the influences of cultural and social aspects. Data were collected from two preliminary questionnaires and a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The DCT was completed by Australian and Indonesian native speakers in their first language. Analysis focussed on both qualitative and quantitative aspects. Findings reveal that speakers of both languages use similar strategies in terms of politeness, directness or indirectness and Speaker-or-Hearer Oriented utterances. The realization of the language routines of advice seeking and giving in both languages is, however, different. The influence of socio-cultural features is noticeable in both languages in terms of formality, relationship of interlocutors, age and gender. The results are not always consistent with the hypotheses posed in the study. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the Study and Chapter 2 presents the theoretical background and discusses the concept of advice. In Chapter 3 the methodology of the Study is described and the hypotheses are stated. Chapter 4 presents the results of the analysis of data and Chapter 5 sets out conclusions and recommendations.

The present study explores the influence of acculturation on learning pragmatic routines in the study-abroad context by students of diverse cultural backgrounds. It is a longitudinal investigation that involves a mixed-method approach. One hundred twenty-two International students in their first semester of study at US universities completed a series of pre-tests and post-tests that measured their sociocultural adaptation and their knowledge of pragmatic routines. Moreover, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a subset of 10 learners in order to obtain details about their individual pragmatic learning and acculturation trajectories. A quantitative analysis revealed that sociocultural adaptation development influenced gains in recognition and production of pragmatic routines, but the effect was different across cultures. The qualitative analysis showed individual trajectories that illustrated the interplay among sociocultural adaptation, background culture, and gains in knowledge of pragmatic routines.
El presente estudio analiza la influencia de la aculturación sobre el aprendizaje de rutinas pragmáticas en el contexto de estudios en el extranjero y por parte de estudiantes de distinto bagaje cultural. Se trata de un estudio longitudinal con un enfoque mixto de investigación. Ciento veintidós estudiantes internacionales en su primer semestre de inmersión completaron una serie de pre- and post-test que medían su nivel de adaptación sociocultural y su conocimiento de rutinas pragmáticas. Además, se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas a un subgrupo de 10 participantes con el fin de obtener detalles sobre sus trayectorias individuales de aculturación y de aprendizaje pragmático. El análisis cuantitativo mostró que la adaptación sociocultural influía en el desarrollo del reconocimiento y del uso de rutinas, pero este efecto era distinto según la cultura. El análisis cualitativo presentó trayectorias individuales que ilustraban la interacción entre aculturación, bagaje cultural y las ganancias en conocimiento de rutinas pragmáticas.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often do not acquire language naturally within ecological systems (i.e., parent-child interaction in daily routines); therefore some of these children have significant delays in social communication skills. Language interventions such as discrete-trial teaching procedures, the verbal behavior approach, and naturalistic language teaching approaches have been developed to improve language use among children with ASD. However, few research studies have examined the generalization and maintenance effects of language intervention implemented by parents on child’s communication skills across natural family routines. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a language intervention model that synthesizes three theoretical frameworks, enhanced milieu language teaching (EMT), general case programming principles, and the activity setting (i.e., daily or weekly routine) as a unit of analysis and intervention for promoting generalized language use by young children with ASD. The study employed an empirical case study design with one parent-child dyad. Parent training was presented in a two-day workshop. Results showed improvements in parent use of EMT and in child use of language in indirectly trained and non-trained (i.e., generalization) family routines in the home. These improvements maintained at one and two months post-intervention. The results are discussed with reference to previous research, contributes, future directions, and implications for practitioners and researchers who are involved in language promotion interventions.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Cincinnati, 2007.
Advisor: Nancy A. Creaghead. Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed Apr. 4, 2009). Keywords: speech-language pathologist; speech-language therapy; inclusion; collaboration; service delivery; special education; related services. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

xv, 110 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
In this dissertation study, the efficacy of Vocabulary Enhanced Systematic and Explicit Teaching Routines (VE SETR) as a vocabulary intervention was examined for first grade Spanish-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs). The quasi-experimental study included two groups of elementary students in two schools that had an "early exit" Spanish language arts programs, meaning students are instructed in their native languages for the purposes of early reading instruction for 2-3 years before they are transitioned to reading in English. The study examined the efficacy of a 15 minute daily vocabulary intervention using VE SETRs to enhance the vocabulary instruction in a first grade Spanish reading program. The VE SETR treatment cohort of students received 75 minutes of core reading instruction using the Macmillan McGraw-Hill reading curriculum, Tesoros, in conjunction with systematic and explicit teaching routines (SETR) that addressed all areas of reading instruction (e.g., phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension) plus 15 minutes of small group VE SETR instruction. The SETR comparison group received 90 minutes of the general core-reading curriculum using Tesoros and the SETRs only, without the 15 minutes of vocabulary enhanced instruction. The study examined whether the VE SETR intervention improved vocabulary development for students in the VE SETR treatment cohort. Assessment measures included the Bilingual Verbal Ability Test (BVAT), the Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes Peabody PVT-III (TVIP), Indicadores Dinámicos del Éxito en la Lectura (IDEL) oral reading fluency measure and the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) measure. Research findings indicated a statistically significant difference in favor of VE SETR treatment on students' ability to define and use target vocabulary words as measured by the Depth of Knowledge assessment. However, the VE SETR treatment had no statistically significant effect on the treatment students' oral reading fluency and on their receptive vocabulary as measured by the TVIP, or their bilingual verbal ability as measured by the BVAT. Overall, the VE SETR treatment had a positive effect for the VE SETR treatment group on one of the four measures.
Committee in charge: Edward Kameenui, Chairperson, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Gerald Tindal, Member, Educational Leadership; Paul Yovanoff, Member, Educational Leadership; Scott Baker, Member, Not from U of 0; Robert Davis, Outside Member, Romance Languages

__Les réflexions sur le FLE en Angola sont envisagées dans le cadre historique, sociolinguistique et pédagogique. Elle a pour objectif la mise en place d’un dispositif du FLE niveau A1 vers A2 et B1 vers B2 en vue d’aider les enseignants du FLE qui se trouvent en difficultés d’améliorer leurs pratiques et aux étudiants de mieux s’approprier le FLE.La recherche porte sur une problématique spécifique qui est les difficultés langagières des étudiants en FLE qui nous interpelle et nous nous sommes posés les questions suivantes : dans quelle mesure les difficultés langagières des étudiants seraient en lien avec les difficultés des enseignants peu formés pour enseigner le français langue étrangère.Qui enseigne ? Quelle est sa formation ? Comment enseigne-t-il ? À qui enseignent-ils ?Les réponses à ces questions ont nécessité l’élucidation des plusieurs concepts. Ce travail a privilégié une approche comparative avec des vidéographies de classe et des entretiens. Nous avons décrit les activités de classe en nous intéressant à la fois à la circulation des savoirs et surtout à l’analyse des gestes professionnels des professeurs de nos institutions universitaires. Ainsi, deux types d’analyse ont été privilégiés à savoir linguistique et didactique.La thèse a vérifié l’hypothèse selon laquelle la didactique du français langue étrangère permet d’élaborer des savoirs linguistiques et culturels adaptés au contexte angolais, de pallier les difficultés dans l’activité enseignante et de faire des apprenants les acteurs de leur propre apprentissage. ________________________________________ ______________________________________
French as a Foreign Language (with the French acronym FLE) in Angola is first considered in its historical, socio-linguistic and pedagogic contexts. This thesis focuses on teaching methods with the objective of proposing a teaching strategy for FLE from level A1 to A2 and from B1 to B2. The aim is to assist those FLE teachers who find themselves in difficulty to improve their practice as well as to increase students’ mastery of FLE. The research centres on the specific problem which is the language difficulties of the poor results that students achieve in FLE, which is a cause for concern and has led to the following questions: to what extent the language difficulties of students would be linked to the difficulties of teachers who are poorly trained to teach French as a foreign language? Who are the teachers? What training have they received? How do they teach? Whom do they teach to? The answers to these questions have required the clarification of linguistic concepts and different aspects within linguistics. This study has adopted a comparative approach using video recordings of classes and interviews. We have described classroom activities with a focus on the exchange of knowledge and in particular on an analysis of the professional practice of teaching staff in our university institutions. Two types of analysis have thus been undertaken: linguistic and pedagogic. The results confirm the hypothesis that the approach adopted in teaching French as a Foreign Language allows the acquisition of linguistic and cultural knowledge appropriate to the Angolan context, overcomes difficulties faced by teachers and enables learners to take an active role in the own learning

The focus of this PhD has been to explore new ways of expanding the language of my improvised solo piano performances through the investigation of, and immersion in various forms of creative media. I have combined this interest with an exploration into textures found largely in contemporary classical music scores and recordings, and more specifically selected contemporary classical piano compositions. By extracting the principles of their construction in an intuitive manner, I have developed a number of models and exercises for developing similar textures in an improvisatory context'. These textures are then melded with fragments of music and film dialogue and executed in live performance settings. The recordings and the accompanying commentary are structured in a chronological format, and, when used in tandem provide a detailed record of the research whereby the reader is taken through each work in a step-by-step (and in some cases second-by-second) account. After examining a few of the works in detail, the discussion assumes a much broader approach in illustrating how the methodology has progressed toward embracing a variety of performance contexts, including working with other musicians in a number of creative settings and also the opportunity of designing a soundtrack for a silent film. This research documents the evolution of an intuitive methodology that is in a state of constant flux, which continues to have a life beyond the duration of the research period. The main achievement of the outcomes of this research was developing a disciplined, selfanalytical and flexible strategy by which to plan and execute original musical works.

Statistical classification techniques for natural-language call routing systems have matured to the point where it is possible to distinguish between several hundreds of semantic categories with an accuracy that is sufficient for commercial deployments. For category sets of this size, the problem of maintaining consistency among manually tagged utterances becomes limiting, as lack of consistency in the training data will degrade performance of the classifier. It is thus essential that the set of categories be structured in a way that alleviates this problem, and enables consistency to be preserved as the domain keeps changing. In this paper, we describe our experiences of using a two-level multi-slot semantics as a way of meeting this problem. Furthermore, we explore the ramifications of the approach with respect to classification, evaluation and dialogue design for call routing systems.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1997.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 152-156).
by Christopher D. Metcalf.
Ph.D.

Based on the interlanguage hypothesis and with reference to skill learning and central concepts of connectionist language-acquisition theory, this study develops an explanatory model, with the help of which untutored acquisition of grammatical gender in German is shown to be a sequence of meta-individual developmental phases. The empirical evidence consists of linguistic data compiled from interviews with Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish foreign workers carried out within the framework of the ZISA- Cross-Sectional Study.

The acquisition process is promoted by a combination of two cognitive procedures, one analytic (restructuring) and the other reproductive (automation). Both contribute to the construction of a network of associative form-function mappings which, in the course of the process, assume the character of prefabricated linguistic elements or chunks, thus enabling automatic processing. Accordingly, the gender of a noun is not acquired separately as such, but rather as an integral component of an automatic form-function mapping.

Formula and routine are central concepts. They denote the norm-language (formula) and interlanguage (routine) chunks used by the learner and thereby the subsumed forms of the respective determiners, that is, gender markers. Their creation and substitution, as well as the sequence of their acquisition, are described and elucidated by means of cognitive mechanisms and psycholinguistic principles.

For the interlanguage routine in particular, but to some extent for the norm-language formula as well, it was possible to confirm the fundamental concept of the interlanguage hypotheses, according to which the learner sets up provisional hypotheses about the perceived elements and gradually approaches the form of the target language, albeit with the assistance of a concept of language acquisition that does not primarily center on any rule-defined morphology of the target language but rather on the phonetic surface-level form of concrete linguistic communication.

Against this background some key concepts of previous language-acquisition research, such as explicit/implicit, rules, chunks, simplification, omission, and over-generalization, are discussed and partially reassessed.

Durant les quinze dernieres annees, les recherches sur l'apprentissage d'une seconde langue se sont multipliees, le processus d'acquisition est interroge. Par une approche psycholinguistique, nous avons etudie le processus d'acquisition du francais grace au copntenu de l'interlangue au sein de deux bilinguismes opposes, formes de deux langues explicites (espagnol francais) pour le prmier, de langues implicite et explicite (cambpdgien francais) pour le second. Le choix de ces deux bilinguismes est soustendu par une typologie differentielle de langues, devant permettre de clarifier le mode de construction de l'interlangue. En effet, celle-ci est etroitement deppendante des langues en presence et des correspondances possible ou non entre elles dans le domaine du bilinguisme hispano-francais, c'est sur les mots proches, sur les ponts effectues entre les deux langues que se batissent a la fois l'acquisition du francais, mais aussi que surgissent les interferences et l'interlangue. Par contre, pour le bilinguisme cambodgien-francais, c'est sur les mots francais, parce qu'aucun pont ne peut etre realise entre la premiere et la seconde langue, que l'interlangue va se trouver sous la forme de la categorisation et de la pensee cambodgienne transcrites en francais. Ces deux formes d'interlangue regroupent des contenus cognitifs bien differencies. Nous proposons une analyse de ces interlangues differentes, etudiees au travers de dialogues d'enfants de quatre a neuf ans, de langues sources espagnole et cambodgienne, et de langue cible francaise. Les protocoles verbaux produits montrent l'influence de certaines taches sur le surgissement d'interferences. Soulignons l'importance de routines interactives d'origine culturelle qu'il est indispensable de prendre en compte, que ce soit en psycholinguistique, en linguistique, dans l'enseignement du francais pour monolingues ou bilingues, ou bien dans la vie quotidienne
During the last fifteen years, the researches on the second language acquisation have been multiplicating. Acquisition process is interrogated. By a pycholinguistical approach, we have studied the acquisition process of french thourgh the content of interlanguage coming from two opposed bilinguisms, formed with two explicite languages (spanish french) for the first, with implicite and explicte languages (cambodgian french) for the second. The choice of these bilinguisms is supported by a differential typology of languages, proposed to clarify the mode of construction of interlanguage. In fact, one is tightly dependent of the languages in contact and of the possible correspondance between them. In the bilinguim hispano-french, french acquisistion is built on close wores, on the bridges between the two languages; interferences and interlanguage are occuring on this way. On the contrary, in the case of the bilinugism cambodigiano-french, no bridge can be realized between the first and the second language, so interlanguage is found on the french words with cambodgian categorization and thought traduced in french. These two forms for interlanguage are assembling differenciated cognitive contents. We are proposing an anlysis of these diffrenciated interlanguages, studied thourght dialogues of children aged from four to mine years-old. The verbal protocoles produced are showing the influence of certain tasks on the occurence of interferences. They exemplify the importance of cultural interactive routines that must be taken into account, in psycholinguistics, in linguistics, in the teaching of french for monolingual or bilingual learners, or in quotidian life

Speakers of Persian, like speakers of other languages, utilise Routine Politeness Formulae (RPF) to negotiate central interpersonal interactions. RPF in Persian have not received any systematic description as to their forms, their functions, their typical conditions of use and their discourse structure rules. Bridging this gap, for the first time, RPF from five frequently-used speech acts – namely, greeting, leave-taking, apologizing, thanking and requesting – are documented in this thesis. Data were derived from Persian soap operas and from role-plays with native speakers, and were entered into a database for further analysis. The analysis is qualitative and the data are conceived of as phraseological units to be represented as dictionary entries. The study of the aforementioned speech acts and their related array of RPF reveals the dynamics of interpersonal polite behaviour among Persians, reflecting the following socio-cultural values prevalent in Iranian society: (i) its group-oriented nature, (ii) a tendency towards positive (solidarity) politeness, (iii) sensitivity to remaining in people’s debt, (iv) sensitivity to giving trouble to others, (v) a high premium on reciprocity in interpersonal communications, (vi) the importance of seniority in terms of age and social status, and (vii) differentiation between members of the ‘inner circle’ and the ‘outer circle’. This thesis also reveals the dominance of the strategy of self-lowering and other-elevating. Almost all RPF in Persian allow for the use of this pervasive strategy, which is also manifested by two further sub-strategies: (i) a propensity to exaggerate favours received from others, and (ii) giving precedence to others over oneself. Finally, it is suggested that Islamic teachings have significantly influenced the formation and use of certain RPF. The dictionary resulting from this work can serve as a resource for researchers in sociolinguistics and pragmatics, and for the teaching of Persian to non-Persian speakers.

Les relations entre Chinois et les Français se multiplient, et cela à tous les niveaux. La problématique de l'interculturel fait peu à peu son chemin dans les esprits, notamment de ceux qui sont chargés de l'enseignement du F. L. E. Ce travail se veut une contribution, certes modeste, à cette prise de conscience : l'angle d'attaque choisi en est la politesse, ses routines culturelles et les différents malentendus qu'elles engendrent lors des interactions exolingues. Pour ce faire ont été convoqués les outils théoriques de la pragmatique, de l'analyse conversationnelle et de la sociolinguistique
Relations between the Chinese and the French continue to develop in all aspects. Therefore, questions relating to the cross-cultural aspect has gradually taken up the minds of especially those in charge of teaching French as a foreign language. Consideration of such cross-culturality can be pointed out in the modest contribution of various cultural aspects such as "Politeness", "Curtesy or its cultural routines" and "Different misunderstandings that are brought about in exolingual interactions". In order to carry out such a presentation, theoretical tools of pratice, conversational analysis and sociolinguistics have been looked at in perspective

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO
O foco do estudo é a prática docente no ensino de língua portuguesa, com desafios no cotidiano escolar, em perspectivas de ordem micro e macro, em uma escola pública localizada em uma favela na Zona Oeste do Rio de Janeiro, área de violência e de exclusão social. O objetivo consiste em gerar entendimentos sobre algumas questões que emergiram a partir das interações em sala de aula e que resultaram em embates e resistências ao fazer pedagógico, afetando o processo de ensino e aprendizagem naquele contexto. As discussões e reflexões foram orientadas por atividades de letramentos com potencial exploratório realizadas principalmente em duas turmas de oitavo ano no ano de 2014. Em uma perspectiva da Linguística Aplicada Transgressiva e alinhando-me a proposições que questionam o fazer científico tradicional, este estudo sugere a descolonialidade de nossas práticas como pesquisadores, orientando-se metodologicamente pelo olhar autoetnográfico e etnográfico. A proposta é embasada pela Prática Exploratória, como foco no processo pedagógico, buscando priorizar a qualidade de vida na sala de aula com a participação ativa de todos os envolvidos. Em encontro a esta proposta, defendo a ideia de um ensino de Língua Portuguesa voltado a uma noção de reação interpretativa durante as práticas de letramentos e de uma postura mais consciente do professor em relação à linguagem como práxis. Os dados compõem-se de uma série de sequências pedagógicas em atividades de sala de aula, assim como de informações institucionais, relatos, reportagens, entrevistas e anotações de meu diário e notas de campo, gerados desde minha inserção na rede municipal de ensino em 2013. As primeiras atividades realizadas apontaram para os modelos tradicionais de ensino como os legítimos a serem utilizados nas aulas de LP e sugeriram a ratificação de meu papel como professora a partir da autorização dos alunos. Com as atividades exploratórias, as percepções dos alunos sobre si e o outro no espaço escolar indicaram desnaturalizações sobre pré-conceitos e crenças sobre ensino, dinamizando as interrelações estabelecidas em sala de aula. Os entendimentos gerados colaboraram para apreensão do outro como alguém potencialmente igual, enfatizando a alteridade como um exercício necessário e permanente para as práticas sociais e pedagógicas. Houve uma mudança de atitude em relação à legitimação do ensino de LP, sublinhando a compreensão de que o uso da língua e as atividades de letramentos encontram-se em todas as ações cotidianas. A vivência naquele contexto escolar demandou uma pesquisa que questionasse a própria forma de se pesquisar, possibilitando, especialmente, o discernimento dos diferentes saberes trazidos pelos alunos e de suas histórias locais como epistemes, e dando visibilidade aos diferentes mundos e culturas em contato no espaço escolar como mundos possíveis e em construção. Neste sentido, a idealização de uma escola que pudesse responder a todas as necessidades das classes menos privilegiadas cede vez à percepção de que pensar uma escola possível de acordo com as especificidades locais torna-se uma proposta mais coerente e engajada com aqueles outros mundos possíveis e seus atores na criação de inteligibilidades contingentes, processuais e contínuas.
The focus of this study is the Portuguese language teaching practice under macro and micro perspectives with everyday school challenges at a public school located in a poor community in Zona Oeste, Rio de Janeiro. The purpose consists in generating understandings about some questions which emerged from classroom interactions and resulted in loggerheads and resistance against pedagogical labor, affecting the teaching-learning process in that context. The discussion and reflections were oriented by exploratory potential-like literacy activities mainly performed by two 8th grade classes during the year 2014. Adopting a Transgressive Applied Linguistics perspective and being aligned to propositions that question the traditional scientific methods, this study suggests the decoloniality of our practices as researchers, being guided by autoethnographic and ethnographic views. The proposal is based upon Exploratory Practice, as a pedagogical process focus, seeking to prioritize the quality of life in the classroom with active participation of all involved. Accommodating that proposal, I defend the idea of a Portuguese Language teaching focusing an interpretative reaction notion during literacy practices and a more conscious attitude from teachers towards language as praxis. Data is composed of a series of pedagogical sequences in classroom activities, as well as institutional information, accounts, reports, interviews and writings from my diary and field notes, which have been generated since my insertion in the municipal teaching system in 2013. The first accomplished activities pointed out to the traditional teaching models as the ones legitimated to be used in the PL classes and suggested the ratification of my role as a teacher from the students authorization. With the exploratory activities, the students perceptions about oneself and the other in the school context indicated denaturing of preconcepts and beliefs, enhancing the interrelations in the classroom. The achieved understandings collaborated with the apprehension of the other as someone potentially equal, emphasizing alterity as a necessary and permanent exercise to social and pedagogical practices. There was a change in the attitude towards the legitimating of PL, underlying the comprehension that the use of language and the literacy activities are present in everyday actions. The existence in that school context demanded a kind of research which questioned the very way of researching, especially by enabling the different knowledge carried by the students and their local histories to be understood as episteme, and creating visibility to the different worlds and cultures in contact at school space as possible worlds under construction. In this respect, the idealization of a school which could respond to all the needs of the less privileged classes is replaced by the perception that thinking about a possible school according to the local specificities turns out to be a more coherent and engaged proposal to those other possible worlds and actors towards the creation of contingent, procedural and continuing intelligibilities.

Машинско учење и неуронске мреже су алати који налазе све већупримену у решавању практичних проблема. За креирање неуронскемреже потребан је скуп података, који може бити прикупљен наразличите начине. У овој тези је показано да се подаци за тренингнеуронске мреже могу успешно прикупити креирањем веб игре.Сакупљени скуп података садржи стратегије решавања проблематрговачког путника и проблема рутирања возила.
Mašinsko učenje i neuronske mreže su alati koji nalaze sve većuprimenu u rešavanju praktičnih problema. Za kreiranje neuronskemreže potreban je skup podataka, koji može biti prikupljen narazličite načine. U ovoj tezi je pokazano da se podaci za treningneuronske mreže mogu uspešno prikupiti kreiranjem veb igre.Sakupljeni skup podataka sadrži strategije rešavanja problematrgovačkog putnika i problema rutiranja vozila.
Machine learning and neural networks are the tools that are finding more andmore fields of application in solving practical problems. For the creation ofthe neural networks, data can be successfully collected by creating a webgame. The data collected in this manner has strategic solutions for theproblems of Travel salesperson problem and vehicle routing problem.

Network on Chip is a scalable and flexible communication infrastructure for the design of core based System on Chip. Communication performance of a NoC depends heavily on the routing algorithm. Deterministic and adaptive distributed routing algorithms have been advocated in all the current NoC architectural proposals. In this thesis we make a case for the use of source routing for NoCs, especially for regular topologies like mesh. The advantages of source routing include in-order packet delivery; faster and simpler router design; and possibility of mixing non-minimal paths in a mainly minimal routing. We propose a method to compute paths for various communications in such a way that traffic congestion is avoided while ensuring deadlock free routing. We also propose an efficient scheme to encode the paths.

We developed a tool in Matlab that computes paths for source routing for both general and application specific communications. Depending upon the type of traffic, this tool computes paths for source routing by selecting best routing algorithm out of many routing algorithms. The tool uses a constructive path improvement algorithm to compute paths that give more uniform link load distribution. It also generates different types of traffics. We also developed a simulator capable of simulating source routing for mesh topology NoC. The experiments and simulations which we performed were successful and the results show that the advantages of source routing especially lower packet latency more than compensate its disadvantages. The results also demonstrate that source routing can be a good routing candidate for practical core based SoCs design using network on chip communication infrastructure.

In South Africa access to mental healthcare resources is restricted for a number of reasons including language barriers that prevent suitable communication between mental healthcare professionals and African language speaking South Africans. The translation of psychometric tools into African languages has been identified as one method in improving access to psychological services for African language speakers. The Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) has demonstrated its clinical utility within the United Kingdom (UK) National Healthcare Service (NHS) as a standardised psychotherapy outcome measure that evaluates the degree of psychological distress individuals present with at the start of psychotherapy treatment, and the degree of change that has been effected at the termination of therapy. A measure like the CORE-OM holds valuable clinical utility for the South African context. This thesis argues that the availability of a valid Xhosa version of the CORE-OM would allow for improved access to psychotherapy resources for Xhosa speaking individuals, and allow for the evaluation of the effectiveness of psychotherapy interventions conducted in Xhosa. The CORE-OM developers have provided a translation design and set of guidelines to standardise the translation of the CORE-OM into different languages. However this thesis argues that these guidelines are incomplete. Instead International Test Commission (ITC) guidelines are recommended as a culturally sensitive method to supplement current CORE-OM translation guidelines, in order to generate a valid Xhosa measure of distress. A mixed methods approach is applied which first investigates the construct equivalence and bias of the CORE-OM English version within a South African student population sample, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in order to establish the degree of adaptation required to generate a valid Xhosa version of distress. Next the CORE-OM English version is translated into Xhosa using the five-stage translation design prescribed by the CORE System Trust, supplemented by ITC guidelines. All changes made to the CORE-OM during translation into Xhosa are documented. The CORE-OM Xhosa version is then investigated for reliability and validity. This investigation reveals low internal reliability within the subjective wellbeing domain indicating that these items are less meaningful as depictions of distress within the Xhosa language. A reduced version of the CORE-OM demonstrates strong psychometric properties as a valid Xhosa measure of distress.

Transcranial routing of signal (TCROS) was accomplished using completely-in-the-canal (CIC) hearing aids in 5 profoundly unilaterally hearing-impaired individuals. The functional gain realized by the participants far exceeded the gain predicted by measuring the acoustic output and real ear aided response of the hearing aids. The difference between predicted and functional gain increased with signal frequency and was attributed at least in part to mechanical vibration of the hearing aid in the external canal. Implications for fitting unilateral hearing loss using TCROS amplifying systems are discussed.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico
CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior
No universo dos estudos fraseolÃgicos, investigaram-se os pragmatemas do portuguÃs brasileiro. A Ãnfase foi dada Ãs expressÃes que se constituem como atos de fala, ocorrem de modo rotineiro, cumprem funÃÃes pragmÃticas especÃficas e estÃo prontas para ser usadas em determinadas situaÃÃes comunicativas (IRIARTE SANROMÃN, 2001; GLENK, 2007; ALVARADO ORTEGA, 2008; BLANCO, 2010; MONTEIRO-PLANTIN, 2012). O motivo mais forte para empreender a pesquisa foi contribuir com os estudos de aprendizes de portuguÃs como lÃngua estrangeira (PLE) e a esse aliaram-se mais dois: o auxÃlio ao trabalho de tradutores e a carÃncia de manual ou dicionÃrio, impresso ou eletrÃnico, que contemple essas estruturas. Com o objetivo de estabelecer as bases teÃricas para a elaboraÃÃo de um dicionÃrio eletrÃnico (WELKER, 2006; LEFFA, 2006; KRIEGER, 2007; PONTES, 2010 e 2011), foram realizados o levantamento, a categorizaÃÃo e a descriÃÃo dos pragmatemas presentes em obras gerais da Fraseologia brasileira e em interaÃÃes comunicativas de corpora orais disponÃveis na Internet. A ferramenta AntConc 3.4.4w (2014) foi utilizada para auxiliar na busca de candidatos a pragmatemas e os resultados obtidos foram armazenados numa base de dados criada por meio do programa Microsoft Access. A base de dados foi alimentada com 565 expressÃes pragmÃticas, descritas em dez campos: tipologia, funÃÃo social, expressividade, registro, modalidade, pragmatema, sentido, variantes/equivalentes, contexto e exemplos. Foram analisadas as quinze primeiras expressÃes detectadas e, para ter acesso a todas elas, foram criadas duas formas: a primeira, pela expressÃo propriamente dita e a outra, por um nome temÃtico que reflete a expressividade do falante. Assim, concluiu-se pela exequibilidade de um dicionÃrio eletrÃnico dos pragmatemas, utilizando-se, ao mesmo tempo, as tÃcnicas lexicogrÃficas onomasiolÃgicas e semasiolÃgicas, a fim de facilitar a busca para estudantes em contexto de aprendizagem do portuguÃs brasileiro como lÃngua estrangeira e materna, professores e tradutores.
In the universe of phraseological studies, we investigated the pragmatemes of the Brazilian Portuguese. Emphasis was given to expressions that considered speech acts which occur routinely, fulfill specific pragmatic functions and are ready to be used in certain communicative situations (IRIARTE SANROMÃN, 2001; GLENK, 2007; ALVARADO ORTEGA, 2008; BLANCO, 2010; MONTEIRO-PLANTIN, 2012). The strongest reason for undertaking the research was to contribute to the studies of Portuguese as a Foreign Language. The other two other objectives of this research were to help translators in their hard work of translation and to try to compensate the lack of printed or electronic dictionaries/manuals which cover these structures. In order to establish the theoretical basis for the development of an electronic dictionary (WELKER, 2006; LEFFA, 2006; KRIEGER, 2007; PONTES, 2010 and 2011) one carried out the survey, categorization and description of pragmatemes present in general works of Brazilian phraseology and communicative interactions of oral corpora available on the Internet. The AntConc 3.4.4w tool (2014) was used to assist in the search for possible pragmatemes and the results were stored in a database created by Microsoft Access(c) program. The database was fed with 565 pragmatic expressions, described in ten fields: type, social function, expressiveness, record mode, pragmateme, direction, variants / equivalent, context and examples. The first nine detected expressions were analyzed and in order to have access to all of them two forms of search were created: first, the expression itself and the other by a theme name that reflects the expression of the speaker. Thus, in conclusion, it is possible to say that an electronic dictionary of pragmatemes is completely feasible if it is used at the same time onomasiological, semasiological and lexicographical techniques, with the aim to facilitate the search method by students in the context of the Brazilian Portuguese learning as a foreign and mother language, teachers and translators.

Les études longitudinales en milieu scolaire débutant en maternelle permettent une analyse des facteurs propres à l'enfant et à son environnement impliqués dans le développement de la lecture et de la réussite scolaire. Cependant, les études visant à analyser l'influence longitudinale de ces facteurs dès l'école maternelle restent exceptionnelles en France. Une étude épidémiologique initiée en 2001 dans la Communauté Urbaine de Creusot Montceau (Saône-et-Loire, France) avait comme objectif l'examen des contributions des facteurs propres à l'enfant et des variables environnementales dans l'acquisition de la lecture et la réussite scolaire dès la maternelle (3-6 ans) jusqu'au milieu de l'école élémentaire (CE2, 8-9 ans). Le travail de thèse présenté a permis le prolongement de la période de recueil de donnés jusqu'à la fin du collège (3ème, 14-15 ans) représentant une période de suivi de 10 ans dans la population générale. L'objectif principal de ce travail est d'identifier les facteurs propres à l'enfant (cognitifs, académiques et comportementaux) et des variables environnementales (facteurs sociodémographiques et caractéristiques familiales) dans le développement de la lecture à la fin de l'école primaire (CM2) et la réussite scolaire à la fin du collège (3ème). Les échantillons comprenaient 829 enfant inscrits en Grande Section de Maternelle pendant l'année scolaire 2001-2001 (Cohorte 1, 90% de l'échantillon initial) suivis jusqu'à la fin du collège (année scolaire 2010-2011) et 812 enfants de Grande Section de Maternelle durant l'année 2003-2004 (Cohorte 3) suivis jusqu'à la fin de l'école élémentaire (Cours Moyen 2, année scolaire 2008-2009). En Grande Section de Maternelle, le recueil de données a compris l'évaluation des compétences cognitives, académiques et comportementales des enfants, ainsi que le recueil des informations concernant le contexte familial. Les mesures de réussite scolaire ont compris les résultats des enfants dans les évaluations nationales réalisées à la fin du collège pour la Cohorte 1, (Diplôme National du Brevet) et les performances des enfants dans une mesure standardisée de lecture de mots à la fin de l'école élémentaire pour la Cohorte 3 (ODEDYS, Jacquier-Roux, Valdois & Zorman, 2002). Les compétences de traitement phonologique, la connaissance de lettres et le comportement attentif étaient les prédicteurs le plus significatifs de la lecture de mots au Cours Moyen 2. Le signalement par les parents d'antécédents familiaux de difficultés de lecture était associé simultanément avec des difficultés de lecture et le comportement inattentif à la fin de l'école élémentaire. En 3ème année du collège, les compétences de langage oral, la connaissance de lettres, la mémoire verbal à court terme, le raisonnement perceptif (facteur non-verbal) et le comportement attentif des enfants en maternelle, ainsi que le niveau d'éducation des parents et le type de famille, ont prédit significativement la mesure de réussite scolaire générale à la fin du collège. En outre, les résultats ont montré l'influence de plusieurs caractéristiques familiales dont la nationalité du père, le mode de garde avant la scolarisation, les rituels d'endormissement et les antécédents familiaux de difficultés de lecture. Ces caractéristiques renvoient à des facteurs qui mettent un enfant en risque d'échec scolaire à la fin du collège. Ce travail contribue à la littérature scientifique existante concernant les facteurs propres à l'enfant et à son environnent familial liés à l'acquisition de la lecture et à la réussite scolaire. Les résultats permettent l'identification des facteurs familiaux mettant un enfant à risque d'échec scolaire. Il ont des importantes implications pour repérer le plus précocement possible les enfants à risque de développer des difficultés de lecture et d'échec scolaire et pour mettre en place des programmes d'intervention adéquats à ses difficultés dès le début des trajectoires académiques de l'enfant
Longitudinal studies starting during kindergarten provide an appropriate method to investigate the child- and environmental-level factors that account for children's reading and academic achievement later in their educational trajectories. In France, studies designed to follow-up children longitudinally from kindergarten onwards remain scarce. An epidemiological study started in 2001 in the Urban Community of Creusot Montceau (Saône-et-Loire, France) sought initially to identify the factors associated with children's reading acquisition and academic achievement from preschool (3-6 years) to the middle of elementary school (Grade 3, 8-9 years). The PhD project reported here aimed to extend the original design of data collection to the end of middle school (Grade 9, 14-15 years) spanning a 10-year follow-up period in the general population. This work aimed to investigate the specific contributions of child-level factors (cognitive-academic skills, behavior problems) and environment-level factors (sociodemographic and family characteristics) for children's subsequent reading acquisition at the end of elementary school (Grade 5), as well as academic achievement at the end of middle school (Grade 9). The samples of analysis comprised 829 kindergarteners in the 2001-2002 school year (Cohort 1, 90% of the initial sample) followed through the end of middle school (Cohort 1, 2010-2011 school year) and 812 kindergarteners in the 2003-2004 school year (Cohort 3), from which a sub-sample of 154 participants was followed through the end of elementary school (2008-2009 school year). At kindergarten, assessment included measures of children's cognitive-academic and behavioral skills, as well as family background characteristics. Outcome measures were composed of children's results in the national evaluations performed at the end of middle school for Cohort 1 ("Diplôme National du Brevet") and of children's scores in standardized measures of word reading achievement at the end of elementary school for Cohort 3 (ODEDYS, Jacquier-Roux, Valdois & Zorman, 2002). The results indicated that children's phonological processing skills, letter knowledge and attentive behavior were the most robust predictors of word reading achievement at Grade 5. In addition, parental reports of familial antecedents of reading difficulties also contributed to predict word reading at Grade 5 and were specifically associated with both reading difficulties and inattention behavior at this grade level. At Grade 9, children's oral language skills, letter knowledge, short-term verbal memory, perceptual reasoning (non-verbal cognitive ability) and attentive behavior at kindergarten predicted significantly the outcome measure of general academic achievement at Grade 9, together with parental educational level and family structure. Moreover, results indicated the influence of several family characteristics referring to father's nationality, type of early childcare, language-based bedtime routines and familial antecedents of reading difficulties as risk factors for children's subsequent academic underachievement. The present work contributes to the extant literature regarding the child- and family-level factors associated with subsequent reading acquisition and academic achievement from kindergarten to elementary and middle school. Importantly, these results allowed the identification of novel familial risk factors that influence negatively children's subsequent academic trajectories. These findings have important implications regarding the child and family factors that should be targeted during kindergarten in order to prevent children's subsequent reading and academic difficulties and to promote adequate intervention strategies early in children's educational trajectories

The subject of this study is language use in a special type of social activity: the exchange of goods, services and information in a commercial setting. The main aim is to gain an understanding of the work that shop assistants perform using language. In the analysis, the focus is on verbal routine work. One part of the analysis thus entails mapping the typical utterances and conversational sequences related to such activities. Another part involves investigating how much non-task-oriented interaction the various activities require or “tolerate”, for instance, in the form of “small talk”. A central theme in the study is the interactants’ conversational rights and obligations, from the perspective of politeness theory, especially Fraser’s theory of the conversational contract. The service encounters are categorised as activity types, according to Levinson’s activity theory. In the comparative parts of the study, the concept of pragmeme is used as a tool to examine different realisations of prototypical situated communicative acts. The empirical material consists of authentic conversations, analysed by methods borrowed from conversation analysis. The conversations were recorded at a supermarket checkout till, a deli counter with manual service and an information desk in a bookshop. It turned out that only a few of the customer conversations were without complications. At the supermarket till, for instance, only one out of four conversations was completely routine and unproblematic. Also presented is a diachronic investigation of the norms relating to service encounters that have been taking place in shops since the 1940s. The main sources here are manuals and study materials for shop employees, together with interviews and material gathered from role playing. In this part of the study, a number of features in the historical change process are described, for instance in the manner of addressing people and the use of politeness expressions.

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The present work the resulted of research that had as its main objective to analyze the evaluation in the pedagogical routine of infantile education. The Law of Lines of direction and Bases of the National Education of 1996, in its Art. 31, assures that the evaluation in this level of education "will become by means of accompaniment and register" of the development of the children. Thus, recognizing the amplitude of the inherent aspects to the infantile development and the areas of the knowledge, it was opted to directing in this analysis the look for the languages that are explored the classroom. For in such a way, bedding in the studies of Hoffmann searched (1998) (1993), in the defense of a mediating evaluation; Romão (1998), with the dialógica perspective of evaluation; Luckesi (1996), for understanding the evaluation as loving act; Santaella (2005) and Peirce (1995) that they conceive language as all production human being the one that if attributes sensible e, Bakhtin (1998) with the idea of social language as practical, amongst others. In a qualitative boarding, the research was delineated in a study of case of the type observacional, developed together the two teachers and 16 children of a group of the daily pay-school of the municipal net of Campina Grande - PB. During the months of september and November of 2006, use became da comment as instrument of collection of data, beyond an interview and a Daily one of Classroom. During the comments, the information were registered in the daily one of field of the researcher. For the analysis of these comments, the method of content analysis was used (BARDIN, 1979), through the elaboration of categories, established in the questions of the research and delineated from abstracted pointers of the collected information. The data disclose the influence of the pertaining to school model in the daily pay-school, decurrent of the evaluation that occurs in the pedagogical routine of classroom, either through the interaction teacher/child, of the perception that they have the children of the "error", or the forms of exploration and evaluation of the written language of the reading and the mathematics, or the emphasis in the exploration of some languages in detriment of other. This study it can contribute with a reflection of making pedagogical/evaluation that occurs in the routines of classroom of the infantile education.
O presente trabalho é resultado de uma pesquisa que teve como objetivo principal analisar a avaliação na rotina pedagógica da educação infantil. A Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional de 1996, em seu Art. 31, assegura que a avaliação neste nível de ensino far-se-á mediante acompanhamento e registro do desenvolvimento das crianças. Assim, reconhecendo a amplitude dos aspectos inerentes ao desenvolvimento infantil e às áreas do conhecimento, optou-se por direcionar nesta análise o olhar para as linguagens que são exploradas em sala de aula. Para tanto, buscou-se fundamento nos estudos de Hoffmann (1993), (1998), na defesa de uma avaliação mediadora; Romão (1998), com a perspectiva dialógica de avaliação; Luckesi (1996), por compreender a avaliação como ato amoroso; Santaella (2005) e Peirce (1995) que concebem linguagem como toda produção humana a que se atribui sentido e, Bakhtin (1998) com a idéia de linguagem como prática social, dentre outros. Numa abordagem qualitativa, a pesquisa delineou-se num estudo de caso do tipo observacional, desenvolvida junto a duas professoras e 16 crianças de uma turma da préescola da rede municipal de Campina Grande PB. Durante os meses de setembro a novembro de 2006, fez-se uso da observação como instrumento de coleta de dados, além de uma entrevista e de um Diário de Classe. Durante as observações, as informações eram registradas no diário de campo da pesquisadora. Para a análise destas observações, utilizou-se o método de análise de conteúdo (BARDIN, 1979), através da elaboração de categorias, fundadas nas questões da pesquisa e delineadas a partir de indicadores abstraídos das informações coletadas. Os dados revelam a influência do modelo escolar na pré-escola, decorrente da avaliação que ocorre na rotina pedagógica de sala de aula, seja através da interação docente/criança, da percepção que as crianças têm o erro , das formas de exploração e avaliação da linguagem escrita da leitura e da matemática, ou da ênfase na exploração de algumas linguagens em detrimento de outras. Este estudo pode contribuir com uma reflexão do fazer pedagógico/avaliativo que ocorre nas rotinas de sala de aula da educação infantil.

Dans le contexte d’incertitude actuel entourant la problématique de l’exposition au bitume dans les travaux de revêtement routier, la thèse vise l’élaboration de principes généraux et de méthodes d’action pour des solutions préventives nouvelles permettant d’enrichir les dispositifs de prévention existants. Dans cette perspective, nous avons développé une démarche centrée sur l’association des travailleurs de tout niveau hiérarchique (opérateurs, encadrement de proximité, préventeurs et décideurs) autour « d’objets intermédiaires de prévention » afin de soutenir un débat collectif. Ce débat collectif est envisagé comme une pratique réflexive sur l’activité de travail, elle-même considérée comme la condition d’un langage commun, permettant de changer des choix initiaux et constituant une ressource pour les apprentissages mutuels entre acteurs. Pour cela, nous avons développé, repris et enrichi la notion de représentation des risques qui favorise la mise en visibilité et la reconnaissance des savoirs construits, développés et portés par les travailleurs sur leur activité et sur les façons de se protéger des dangers. Ces représentations du risque et ces savoir-faire sont un élément déterminant de la prévention car ils s’exercent à la fois dans des modes normaux et dégradés de l’activité et sont issus de l’expérience et d’une construction sociale. Nous avons développé une connaissance précise de l’activité des opérateurs de mise en oeuvre d’enrobés dans deux agences de travaux publics, qui a mis en évidence que les acteurs de terrain possèdent des connaissances fines sur les risques chimiques. Ces représentations, essentiellement permises par l’expérience du corps et des sens, ne sont pas toujours convocables pour mettre en oeuvre des activités de protection dans l’activité de travail. Elles seraient empêchées voire « enkystées » quand il semble impossible aux travailleurs de faire autrement avec la nécessité de gérer aléas, variabilités et autres dangers présents et quand leur pouvoir d’agir leur apparait comme inexistant. Pourtant, nous montrons qu’elles deviennent accessibles à partir de références à la sphère intime et domestique dans des activités réflexives qui mobilisent à la fois des données d’observations, de mesures et des verbalisations. Dans une perspective de recherche en prévention, l’objet de la thèse est alors d’établir un dialogue entre différents mondes, institutionnels et de l’entreprise, afin de permettre aux acteurs de s’investir et de mobiliser leurs ressources individuelles, collectives et organisationnelles pour proposer des solutions de prévention. Cet « espace intermédiaire de dialogue » est rendu possible par la co-construction d’objets intermédiaires en capacité 1- de produire et soutenir un débat autour des pratiques effectives des opérateurs et de leurs représentations au regard des dispositifs de sécurité existants et 2- d’être support aux dialogues et aux apprentissages mutuels. Ces objets intermédiaires de prévention sont in fine des entités circulantes pour la coproduction d’un savoir pour l’action : produire des connaissances et générer collectivement des solutions innovantes de prévention
In the context of current uncertainty surrounding the problem of exposure to bitumen in road surfacing (coating), the aim of the thesis is to set up general principles and methods of action for new preventive solutions that will enrich the existing measures. In this perspective, we have developed an approach centred on the association of workers at all hierarchical levels (operators, proximity managers, prevention workers and decision-makers) around "intermediary objects of prevention" in order to support a collective debate. This collective debate is seen as a reflective practice on work activity, which is itself seen as the condition of a common language, allowing for initial choices to be changed and a resource for mutual learning between actors. To this end, we have developed, reworked and enriched the notion of risk representation, which promotes the visibility and recognition of the knowledge built, developed and carried by workers on their activities and on ways to protect themselves from dangers or hazards. These representations of risk and the know-hows are a decisive element of prevention because they are applied in both normal and degraded modes of the activity and are derived from experience and social construction. We have developed a fine and precise knowledge of the activity of asphalt processing operators in two public works agencies, which highlighted that the players in the field have a detailed knowledge of chemical risks. These representations, which were essentially made possible by the experience of the body and the senses, cannot always been called up with a view to setting up protective measures in the work activity. They would be prevented or even "encysted" when it seems impossible for workers to do otherwise with the need to manage the hazards, variability and other dangers present and when their power to act seems to them to be non existent. And yet, we show that they become accessible from references to the intimate and domestic sphere in reflexive activities that mobilize both data from observations, measurements and verbalizations. From a preventive research perspective, the aim of the thesis is to establish a dialogue between different institutional and corporate worlds so as to enable the actors to get involved and mobilize their individual, collective and organizational resources to propose prevention solutions. This "intermediate space for dialogue" is made possible by the coconstruction of intermediate objects capable of 1- producing and supporting a debate about the current practices of the operators and their representations with regard to the existing safety devices and 2- supporting dialogues and mutual learning. These intermediate prevention objects are ultimately circulating entities for the co-production of knowledge for action: to generate knowledge and to collectively generate innovative prevention solutions

Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2004. Graduate Programme in Computer Science and Engineering.
Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-79). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url%5Fver=Z39.88-2004&res%5Fdat=xri:pqdiss &rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR11842

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This paper presents a new partitioning strategy with the objective of increasing scalability by reducing computational effort of routing in networks. The original network is partitioned into blocks (subnetworks) so that there is a bi-directional link between any two blocks. When there is a connection request between a pair of nodes, if the nodes are in the same block, we only use the small single block to derive routings. Otherwise we combine the two blocks where the two nodes locate and in this way the whole network will never be used. The strategy is generic in that it can be used in any underlying routing algorithms in the network layer and can be applied to any networks with fixed topology such as fixed wired subnetworks of the Internet. The performance of this strategy has been investigated by building a simulator in Java and a comparison with existing stochastic partitioning techniques is shown to give superior performance in terms of trade-off in blocking probability (the probability of failure to find a path between source and destination satisfying QoS constraints) and reduction of computational effort.

A dynamic decision making framework implementing multi criteria routing of multimedia services at private-public network border with access technology convergence is presented. The ingredients of the framework include information model, semantics capturing via ontology, information sharing and dissemination mechanisms and rule/policy specifications methodology. The control and management over the infrastructure is carried out by revamping the sole signaling protocols (SIP, diameter and SNMP). DEN-ng is enhanced and tagged in accordance with the requirements over the underlying framework. A dedicated language for the platform is proposed that has its deep roots inside the framework to avoid conflicts and overlapping. A dynamic decision engine is developed for routing the requests/sessions at private-public network border over the underlying multi-homed environment. Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) theory is used for decision computation/calculation and the adapted methods are exploited according to the scenario and decision computation mode while keeping in view the corresponding enforcement mode. A test bed is developed to validate the proposed framework. The proposed system offers higher throughput and lowers call-dropping probability with an add-on susceptible delay.

A Abordagem Baseada nas rotinas é preconizada na intervenção precoce, pois valoriza as rotinas das crianças nos contextos naturais e com os cuidadores de maior afeto, sendo também as Práticas Centradas na Família um pilar desta abordagem. Esta investigação procurou auscultar os Terapeutas da Fala (TF) portugueses sobre a Abordagem Baseada nas Rotinas, recolhendo a sua perceção sobre a mesma e indagando se a utilizam na sua prática profissional. Para a operacionalização destes objetivos formularam-se 5 questões que envolveram os graus de importância e frequência na prática profissional dos TF, bem como a identificação de fatores facilitadores e barreira à sua implementação e vantagens e desvantagem neste tipo de intervenção. Estes Terapeutas também foram questionados sobre quais as estratégias que consideram pertinentes para a implementação desta abordagem. Para obtenção das respostas desenvolveu-se um estudo com desenho quantitativo recorrendo-se à aplicação de um questionário divulgado online, tendo sido salvaguardadas questões éticas, não esquecendo o anonimato dos intervenientes e a confidencialidade das informações recolhidas. Os dados foram recolhidos entre os meses de novembro e dezembro do ano transato, sendo a amostra constituída por 55 Terapeutas da Fala que responderam ao questionário. Os dados foram tratados com recurso à estatística inferencial através do Statistical Package for the Social Sciences e técnicas de análise de conteúdo para as respostas semiabertas. Após estas duas análises - quantitativa e qualitativa – conclui-se que os Terapeutas consideram muito importante a Abordagem Baseada nas Rotinas, embora apresentem alguma dificuldade em a executar de uma forma regular na sua prática profissional. Também foram encontrados alguns fatores facilitadores e fatores barreira, que poderão justificar as dificuldades sentidas na sua implantação. Por fim, foram destacadas vantagens e desvantagens, bem como algumas estratégias que são reconhecidas e implementadas pelos TF no âmbito desta Abordagem.
The Routine-Based intervention is advocated in early intervention, as it values children's routines in natural settings and with caregivers of greater affection and, Family-Centered Practices are also a pillar of this Approach. In this investigation we sought to listen to the Portuguese speech-language therapists (SLT) about the routine-based intervention, gathering their perception about it and asking if they use it in their professional practice. In order to implement these objectives, 5 questions were asked involving the degrees of importance and frequency in the SLTs´ work experience, as well as the facilitating factors and barrier to the implementation, and if there are advantages and disadvantages in this type of intervention. These therapists were also asked what strategies they considered relevant to the implementation of this approach. To obtain answers, a quantitative study was developed using a online questionnaire, where all ethical questions were safeguarded, not forgetting the anonymity of the participants and the confidentiality of the information collected. Data were collected between November and December of last year, 55 Speech-language Therapists answered the questionnaire. Statistical analysis was done through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, and content analysis for descriptive answers. After these two reviews - quantitative and qualitative - we can conclude that the Therapists consider the Routine-based intervention very important, although they have some difficulty in performing it on a regular basis in their professional practice. We also found some facilitating factors and barrier factors, which may justify the difficulties experienced in its implementation. Finally, advantages and disadvantages were found, as well as some strategies recognized and implemented by Speech-language therapist in this Approach.

This study investigates the nature of Asperger's Syndrome and specifically the social impairments experienced by learners affected by this syndrome. The incorrect social language, narrow interests and repetitive routines, and the deficits of theory of mind, central coherence and executive functioning of learners with Asperger's Syndrome are also outlined, and an attempt is made to relate these impairments to the social difficulties that learners with Asperger's Syndrome may experience in any inclusive setting. Chapters two and three comprise an in-depth literature study on this specific subject, thus forming a basis for the empirical research reported in chapter five. A qualitative research design is used, first to gain information about and understanding of the nature of the social impairments that afflict learners with Asperger's Syndrome, and secondly to gauge the effectiveness of using social stories as a means to assist the social development of affected learners. More specifically, an ethnographic research design has been chosen for its flexibility which readily permits last-minute adjustments to suit any design, and also because it helps to give meaning to personal encounters. The sensitive nature of the topic is another important reason for choosing this approach (ie. interaction with the researcher could be "fine-tuned" to achieve the ends of this adapted interview situation effectively, circumspectly and safely without undue upset for all concerned). The interview responses of two mothers of learners with Asperger's Syndrome, as well as the observation of these learners are reported. The results of the interviews and observations are checked against the literature study for corroboration in order to bring about a more positive awareness of the impairments experienced by these learners. The technique of social stories was investigated as a method of enhancing the social development of learners with Asperger's Syndrome. Three specific social stories were developed for this research in order to test the effectiveness of this method. Positive outcomes were achieved after implementation of the stories. Results of this study indicated that knowledge and understanding of Asperger's Syndrome, as well as positive attitudes, are critical to ensure the acceptance and accommodation of learners with Asperger's Syndrome in the school environment and in society as a whole. Also, the issue of accommodating learners with Asperger's Syndrome in an inclusive setting should receive concerted attention since it can have major implications for their educational prospects.
Educational Studies
Thesis (D. Ed.)