Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Spontaneous approaches'

La pharmacovigilance a pour but de détecter le plus précocement possible les effets indésirables des médicaments commercialisés. Elle repose sur l’exploitation de grandes bases de données de notifications spontanées, c’est-à-dire de cas rapportés par des professionnels de santé d’évènements indésirables soupçonnées d’être d’origine médicamenteuse. L’exploitation automatique de ces données pour l’identification de signaux statistiques repose classiquement sur des méthodes de disproportionnalité qui s’appuient sur la forme agrégée des données. Plus récemment, des méthodes basées sur des régressions multiples ont été proposées pour prendre en compte les poly-expositions médicamenteuses. Dans le chapitre 2, nous proposons une méthode basée sur le score de propension en grande dimension (HDPS). Une étude empirique, conduite sur la base de pharmacovigilance française et basée sur un ensemble de référence relatif aux atteintes hépatiques aigues (DILIrank), est réalisée pour comparer les performances de cette méthode (déclinée en 12 modalités) à des méthodes basées sur des régressions pénalisées lasso. Dans ce travail, l’influence de la méthode d’estimation des scores est minime, contrairement à la méthode d’intégration des scores. En particulier, la pondération sur l’HDPS avec des poids matching weights montre de bonnes performances, comparables à celles des méthodes basées sur le lasso. Dans le chapitre 3, nous proposons une méthode basée sur extension du lasso: le lasso adaptatif qui permet d’introduire des pénalités propres à chaque variable via des poids. Nous proposons deux nouveaux poids adaptés aux données de notifications, ainsi que l’utilisation du BIC pour le choix de la valeur de pénalité. Une vaste étude de simulations est réalisée pour comparer les performances de nos propositions à d’autres implémentations du lasso adaptatif, une méthode de disproportionnalité, des méthodes basées sur le lasso et sur l’HDPS. Les méthodes proposées montrent globalement de meilleurs résultats en termes de fausses découvertes et de sensibilité que les méthodes concurrentes. Une étude empirique analogue à celle du chapitre 2 vient compléter l’évaluation. Toutes les méthodes présentées sont implémentées dans le package R « adapt4pv » disponible sur le CRAN. En parallèle des développements méthodologiques sur les notifications spontanées, un intérêt croissant s’est porté autour de l’utilisation des bases médico-administratives pour la détection de signaux en pharmacovigilance. Les efforts de recherche méthodologique dans ce domaine en sont encore à leurs débuts. Dans le chapitre 4, nous explorons des stratégies de détection exploitant les notifications spontanées et l’Echantillon Généraliste des Bénéficiaires (EGB). Nous évaluons tout d’abord les performances d'une détection sur l'EGB à partir de DILIrank. Puis, nous considérons une détection conduite sur les notifications spontanées basée sur un lasso adaptatif intégrant, au travers de ses poids, l’information relative à l’exposition médicamenteuse d’individus contrôles mesurée dans l'EGB. Dans les deux cas, l’apport des données médico-administratives est difficile à évaluer du fait de la relative faible taille des données de l’EGB
Post-marketing pharmacovigilance aims to detect as early as possible adverse effects of marketed drugs. It relies on large databases of individual case safety reports of adverse events suspected to be drug-induced. Several automated signal detection tools have been developed to mine these large amounts of data in order to highlight suspicious adverse event-drug combinations. Classical signal detection methods are based on disproportionality analyses of counts aggregating patients’ reports. Recently, multiple regression-based methods have been proposed to account for multiple drug exposures. In chapter 2, we propose a signal detection method based on the high-dimensional propensity score (HDPS). An empirical study, conducted on the French pharmacovigilance database with a reference signal set pertaining to drug-induced liver injury (DILIrank), is carried out to compare the performance of this method (in 12 modalities) to methods based on lasso penalized regressions. In this work, the influence of the score estimation method is minimal, unlike the score integration method. In particular, HDPS weighting with matching weights shows good performances, comparable to those of lasso-based methods. In chapter 3, we propose a method based on a lasso extension: the adaptive lasso which allows to introduce specific penalties to each variable through adaptive weights. We propose two new weights adapted to spontaneous reports data, as well as the use of the BIC for the choice of the penalty term. An extensive simulation study is performed to compare the performances of our proposals with other implementations of the adaptive lasso, a disproportionality method, lasso-based methods and HDPS-based methods. The proposed methods show overall better results in terms of false discoveries and sensitivity than competing methods. An empirical study similar to the one conducted in chapter 2 completes the evaluation. All the evaluated methods are implemented in the R package "adapt4pv" available on the CRAN. Alongside to methodological developments in spontaneous reporting, there has been a growing interest in the use of medico-administrative databases for signal detection in pharmacovigilance. Methodological research efforts in this area are to be developed. In chapter 4, we explore detection strategies exploiting spontaneous reports and the national health insurance permanent sample (Echantillon Généraliste des bénéficiaires, EGB). We first evaluate the performance of a detection on the EGB using DILIrank. Then, we consider a detection conducted on spontaneous reports based on an adaptive lasso integrating, through weights, the information related to the drug exposure of a control group measured in the EGB. In both cases, the contribution of medico-administrative data is difficult to evaluate because of the relatively small size of the EGB

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’évaluer les effets d’un travail principalement vocal en musicothérapie active sur les aspects relationnels d’enfants porteurs de Troubles du Spectre autistique (TSA). Il s’agit également de définir les modalités d’application les plus pertinentes et de dégager quelques principes pour le travail autour de la voix en musicothérapie avec ces enfants. Afin de circonscrire au mieux notre objet, nous nous appuyons sur divers champs disciplinaires tels que la musicothérapie, la psychologie développementale, la musicologie et l'ethnomusicologie, l'anthropologie, la phoniatrie, les neurosciences ou la psychanalyse. À partir d’une première étude exploratoire, nous avons élaboré des couplages gestuelle-voix (GLM) et tenté de repérer quelles en étaient les composantes les plus pertinentes pour générer l’intérêt des enfants. Nous avons gardé les couplages les plus efficients et les avons intégrés à un dispositif de musicothérapie axé sur la voix, les gestes et des jeux rythmiques. Notre étude principale a été réalisée à partir de matériel vidéo clinique recueilli dans le cadre des soins courants en musicothérapie sur une année scolaire. Elle concerne seize enfants porteurs de TSA, âgés de 2 à 8 ans, accueillis en hôpital de jour. À partir des films, nous évaluons les effets des séances de notre dispositif de musicothérapie sur l’évolution des comportements autistiques des enfants accueillis, grâce à la grille d’Évaluation des Comportements Autistiques (ECA-R, Barthélémy, Roux, Adrien et al., 1997). Nous comparons par ailleurs l'impact des propositions vocales associées à une gestuelle (GLM) à celui des activités rythmiques ou des comptines, concernant plus spécifiquement le regard, l’imitation et le partage émotionnel. Dans une troisième étude, nous évaluons les effets des couplages voix-geste sur un jeune enfant autiste non verbal en situation de musicothérapie active individuelle. Dans cette étude, nous réalisons une analyse de films vidéo recueillis dans le cadre des soins courants, et cherchons à évaluer l’évolution des manifestations vocales, des comportements d’approche spontanée et d’évitement de l’enfant. Notre quatrième étude s’intéresse à l’utilisation des couplages voix-geste auprès d’un enfant autiste non verbal et déficient visuel sévère en musicothérapie individuelle. À travers cette étude de cas, nous essayons de comprendre les processus que les couplages GLM permettraient de mettre à l’œuvre. L'ensemble de nos résultats soutiennent l’hypothèse que la voix associée à une co-modalité, telle qu’elle est présentée dans nos couplages GLM, présente un réel intérêt pour travailler la sphère relationnelle avec des enfants porteurs de TSA à partir d’une expérience vocale
The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the effects of a mainly vocal work in active music therapy on the relational aspects of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). It is also a question of defining the most relevant modalities of application and to draw some principles for the work around voice in music therapy with these children. In order to best circumscribe our object, we rely on various disciplinary fields such as music therapy, developmental psychology, musicology and ethnomusicology, anthropology, phoniatrics, neurosciences or psychoanalysis. On a first exploratory study, we developed gesture-voice coupling (GLM) and tried to identify what were the most relevant components to generate the interest of children. At the end of this step, we found that the laryngeal mechanisms at work in the couplings could be a determining factor. We kept the most efficient couplings and integrated them into a device of music therapy focused on voice, gestures and rhythmic games. Our main study was based on clinical video material collected as part of the current care in music therapy program over a school year. It concerns sixteen children with ASD, aged 2 to 8 years, who were admitted to a day hospital. From the films, we evaluate the impact of the sessions of our music therapy device on the evolution of the autistic behaviors of the children, thanks to the Revised Behavior Summarized Evaluation Scale (BSE-R), (Barthélémy, Roux, Adrien et al., 1997). We also compare the impact of gesture-voice couplings (GLM) with that of rhythmic activities or nursery rhymes, more specifically concerning gaze, imitation and emotional sharing. In a third study, we evaluate the effects of voice-gesture coupling on a young non-verbal autistic child in a situation of individual active music therapy. In this study, we perform an analysis of video films collected as part of routine care, and seek to evaluate the evolution of vocal manifestations, spontaneous approach behaviors and avoidance of the child. Our fourth study focuses on the use of voice-gesture couplings in non-verbal autistic children with severe visual impairment in individual music therapy. Through this case study, we try to understand the processes that GLM couplings would put into action. Overall, our results support the hypothesis that voice associated with co-modality, as presented in our GLM couplings, is of real interest for working in the relational sphere with children with ASD

Most studies on the antihypertensive effects of bioflavonoids have reported short-term effects (within 7 weeks) at high concentrations (40–100 mg kg–1 day–1). The present study by contrast has investigated long-term effects of low concentrations of bioflavonoids on arterial blood pressure and left ventricular performance in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Spontaneously hypertensive rats were divided into a treated (n = 16) and a control (n = 16) group. The treated group received daily a grape seed proanthocyanidin extract (GSPE) at a concentration of 4mg kg–1day–1over six months. Arterial blood pressure (ABP) was measured once monthly on six randomly selected rats from both groups using an indirect tail-cuff method. After three months, the remaining rats underwent catheterizations to measure left ventricular performance and aortic pressure. The possible role of nitric oxide (NO) in the effects of GSPE was investigated by blocking NO synthase with N-nitro-Larginine methyl ester (L-NAME). Animals in the treated group had significantly lower arterial end-diastolic pressures (AEDP) after three months of treatment compared with control animals, and this trend continued until six months. In the treated group, left ventricular systolic pressures (LVSP) were reduced by 16.6% (P = 0.005), their dP/dtmax (left ventricular pressures) were reduced by 19.7% (P = 0.050), and cardiac work was reduced by 22.0% (P = 0.045) at the end of three months. Treatment with L-NAMEsuggested a contribution of NO to the effects of GSPE on blood pressure. A low concentration of GSPE administered over six months lowered AEDP significantly, and the L-NAME response suggested that NO is involved. The decreased AEDP had a lowering effect on left ventricular dynamics of hypertensive rats.

This study's main purpose is to examine the space children's spontaneous imaging gets in a preschool. I have chosen to focus on two preschool teachers views on their own approach to children's spontaneous imaging and what space they find that it gets in preschool. I have also investigated how this is documented in preschool. As a theoretical approach I adopt Lev S Vygotsky's socio-cultural theories of learning and development. In my essay, I also describe previous studies on children's imaging. I have collected the material through qualitative methods such as interviews of two preschool teachers and through six days of observation divided on two of the preschool departments. The result shows that preschool teachers adult-driven approach characterizes the creative climate of the nursery, which is not particularly allowing in practice, but allowing in theory and preschool teachers thoughts. The preschool teachers approach is significant for how well the child's spontaneous creation capability will be developed or inhibited. Children can come to have a view of his own creation as something insignificant and without meaning if it never followed up in the form of pedagogical documentation or attention. The results also show that children's spontaneous imaging don´t get space in the form of schedule, this is because preschool teachers have a view on the activity as a pastime rather than an educational activity with a clear goal or purpose.

Plus de 150 millions de personnes souffrent de troubles dépressifs à travers le monde. Malgré le nombre croissant d’études s’intéressant à la physiopathologie de ce trouble, aucune amélioration majeure concernant ses traitements ou la compréhension des mécanismes biologiques sous-jacents n’a été faite. Bien qu’une prédisposition génétique et des évènements stressants aient été proposés comme facteurs de risque, ni les gènes impliqués ni le fonctionnement des interactions gène x environnement ne sont encore connus. Cela peut s’expliquer par le manque de modèles animaux satisfaisants et par le fossé existant entre les connaissances / méthodes de diagnostic appliquées en recherche clinique et celles disponibles en recherche fondamentale. Des manipulations pharmacologiques, lésionnelles, génétiques ou de l’environnement sont quasi exclusivement utilisées chez le rongeur. Certains primates non-humains (PNH), plus proches de nous sur les plans comportementaux et phylogénétiques, montrent pourtant, comme l’Homme, des modifications comportementales et physiologiques atypiques et spontanées en réponse à des conditions de vie stressantes. Malgré les travaux pionniers et prometteurs d’Harlow et de ses collaborateurs dans les années 60, rares sont les équipes qui étudient la dépression chez le macaque aujourd’hui. Nous avons émis l’hypothèse que parmi des grandes populations de PNH captifs, une petite proportion d’individus exprime des comportements atypiques pouvant s’apparenter à des symptômes dépressifs. Mon projet de thèse a eu pour but de proposer une approche novatrice et non invasive d’identification de ces profils « depressive-like » chez le macaque, en combinant les compétences et connaissances de l’éthologie, de la psychiatrie et des neurosciences. L’impact des expériences de vie précoces et de l’espèce a également été abordé. Les comportements, les postures et orientations du corps, les localisations spatiales, les regards et/ou les distances inter-individuelles ont été relevés chez plus de 200 macaques rhésus et cynomolgus d’élevage, nés en captivité ou dans la nature. Des sous-groupes d’individus ont été identifiés à l’aide d’analyses multifactorielles. Dans chaque population observée, un profil « depressive-like » a été mis en évidence par comparaison avec les symptômes décrits dans le Manuel Diagnostique et Statistiques des Troubles Mentaux et avec les modèles animaux existants dans la littérature. La prévalence de ces profils étant supérieure chez les macaques rhésus et chez les animaux nés en captivité, nos résultats concordent avec le rôle suggéré du stress dans l’expression des troubles dépressifs. En plus d’exprimer ce profil comportemental atypique dans leur environnement habituel, les singes « depressive-like » présentaient une réactivité émotionnelle altérée au cours 2 tests comportementaux, associée à des taux élevés de cortisol plasmatique et noradrénaline cérébro-spinale. Pris dans leur ensemble, ces résultats prometteurs confèrent une bonne validité de représentation à notre modèle macaque de symptômes dépressifs. Une caractérisation plus complète de ce modèle est bien sûr nécessaire et pourrait ouvrir de nouvelles perspectives quant à la compréhension de l’étiologie et de la physiopathologie des troubles dépressifs
More than 150 million people worldwide suffer from major depressive disorder (MDD). Although investigations of its pathophysiology have dramatically increased in the last decade, no substantial improvement has been made concerning the treatments and the understanding of its underlying mechanisms. A genetic predisposition and stressful experiences have been acknowledged as risk factors involved in MDD. However, no specific genes have been identified so far and little is known about the gene x environment interactions. This is likely due to the lack of bona fide animal models of depressive-like symptoms. Indeed, there is a huge gap between the knowledge / diagnostic methodology of clinical research and the animal models used in fundamental research, mainly focusing on environmental, pharmacological, lesional or genetic manipulations. Phylogenetically and behaviourally closer to Humans compared to rodents, non-human primates (NHPs) can show spontaneous behavioural and physiological modifications in response to stressful life events. Although promising results had been reported in the 1960’s by the pioneering studies of Harlow and colleagues, the investigation of depressive-like symptoms in macaques are scarce in the current literature. We hypothesize that, among large captive NHP populations, a few individuals will display atypical behaviours that could mimic depressive symptoms. Combining the skills and knowledge of ethology, psychiatry and neurosciences, my PhD project aimed at proposing an innovative non-invasive detection method of such depressive-like profiles. The impact of birth origin and species was questioned as well. Behaviours, body postures, body orientations, spatial location, gaze direction and/or inter-peer distances were collected among more than 200 rhesus and cynomolgus captive- or wild-born farm-bred macaques. Using multifactorial analyses, clusters of individuals displaying distinct behavioural profiles were identified. In each population, a common depressive-like profile was characterised by its similarities with symptoms described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder and with other animal models of depression. The prevalence of such profiles was increased in the rhesus populations and by captive early life experience, corroborating the role of stress in the development of MDD. In addition to expressing depressive-like features in their home cage, these animals displayed higher levels of plasmatic cortisol and cerebrospinal noradrenaline which correlated with a passive emotional reactivity in 2 behavioural paradigms. Altogether these promising results conferred good face validity to our NHP model of depressive-like symptoms. Further characterization of this model is required and might bring new insights to the understanding of MDD pathophysiology and etiology

There is some evidence from scholarship that politeness norms in China are diversified. I maintain that a study aiming to provide systematic evidence of this would require an approach to politeness phenomena that is able to address such diversity. Drawing upon the insights of recent scholarship on the distinction between the modernist and postmodernist approaches to politeness, I survey relevant literature. I show that many current works on politeness argue that the modernist approach (Lakoff 1973/1975, Brown and Levinson 1987[1978], Leech 1983) generally tends to assume that society is relatively homogeneous with regard to politeness norms. By contrast, I demonstrate that the postmodernist approach to politeness (e.g. Eelen 2001, Mills 2003, Watts 2003) foregrounds the heterogeneity of society and the rich variability of politeness norms within a given culture. I argue that, by using a postmodernist approach to politeness, it is possible to show evidence of differences between groups of the Chinese in their politeness behaviour and the informing norms of politeness. I then explore this issue in depth by focusing on compliments and compliment responses (CRs). I show that studies on these speech acts in Chinese have to date tended to adopt a modernist approach to politeness and often assume a compliment and a CR to be easily identifiable. Moreover, I show that they do not address the heterogeneity of Chinese society and generally assume interactants to be homogeneous in terms of politeness norms that inform compliment and CR behaviours. On this basis, I raise the questions as to whether, by adopting a postmodernist rather than modernist approach, there is empirical evidence that politeness norms informing compliments and CRs vary among the Chinese, and whether these norms correlate with generation. v To this end, by audio-recording both spontaneous naturally occurring conversations and follow-up interviews, I construct a corpus of compliments and CRs generated by two generations of the Chinese brought up before and after the launch of China's reform. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of these data show that there is variation in compliment and CR behaviours in Chinese and the informing politeness norms. Furthermore, the result shows that this variation is correlated with generation. I then show how, by using a research methodology which emphasizes the interactants' perceptions obtained through follow-up interviews, my study brings to light problems with previous studies on compliments and CRs which hitherto are not addressed. By showing evidence that compliments and CRs are not as easy to identify as many previous researchers have indicated. I argue that my emic approach to data analysis provides a useful perspective on the complexity of intention in studies on speech acts and perhaps beyond. My study, therefore, makes an interesting contribution to the debate over this notion central to politeness research. Moreover, I argue my methodology which is able to categorize and analyze data according to participants' self-reported perceptions allows me to draw out differences in the two generations' compliment and CR behaviours and the informing politeness norms.

Communicative Language Teaching in the modem foreign languages (MFL) curriculum in English schools has become the norm and yet is relatively under-theorised. This thesis sets out to explore through an in-depth case study of one school, the theory and practice of a model of CLT developed by the University of Cumbria. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in English secondary schools typically involves pupils learning to communicate around set topics, for example 'holidays.' Activities such as role plays and listening exercises focus on this topic language. However, despite this communicative focus, studies have shown pupils lack confidence, creativity and spontaneity in speaking and interacting in the target language. Modem foreign languages lessons which employ the University of Cumbria Approach (UCA) immediately strike the observer as being different. The teacher and pupils speak the target language almost exclusively, with constant interaction in the target language. Lessons feature songs, mimes, a team competition, and competitive activities and are well-paced and dynamic. More traditional lessons may feature these, but rarely together. This study set out to identify if the UCA had a unique combination of features, through transcription and analysis of lesson observations and interviews with pupils and teachers. The most striking feature of the lessons was pupils' use of the target language: spontaneous, fluent, playful, argumentative, often not about the lesson's focus but about apparently trivial matters. Pupils clearly had things they wanted to communicate in the here and now. The first central conclusion of this study is that pupils were beginning to engage in spontaneous, unpredictable, real-time conversation in the classroom. The second main conclusion is that the teacher is key in creating the conditions for this to happen. She promotes and facilitates this conversation through management of both the target language and the creation of a communicative classroom context. Finally, it is argued that the DCA is unique in that it is a form of CLT which combines product (pupils learn the target language) with process (pupils engage in spontaneous, interactive communication). The two combine to create a rich and dynamic learning experience.

Using the spontaneously diabetic, insulin-dependent BB/E rat as a model for human insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) three possible new approaches to the treatment of this disorder have been studied. The first study was concerned with assessing the function of isolated pancreatic islets encapsulated in alginate-poly-L-lysine-alginate microcapsules designed to protect transplanted islets from both graft rejection and autoimmune destruction. The glucose-induced insulin secretory response of (1) freshly isolated free (i.e. non-encapsulated), and (2) free and encapsulated islets cultured for different periods of time, was investigated using a multichannel perifusion system. Insulin secretion by freshly isolated free islets was shown to be significantly higher than that of free cultured and encapsulated cultured islets. A slight delay was observed in the first phase insulin response to glucose in encapsulated islets. Insulin secretion by free cultured and encapsulated cultured islets was optimal after six and seven days culture respectively and diminished thereafter. A precisely timed recovery period in culture prior to implantation appears to be important for optimal function of encapsulated islet grafts. In the second study, metabolic control and patterns of food intake were compared in BB/E rats with spontaneous, autoimmune, insulin-dependent diabetes and rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes (STZ-diabetes) which were treated either with conventional insulin therapy (CIT) in the form of daily subcutaneous injections of insulin, or with sustained release insulin implants (SRII). In the final study, the effect of a short course (14 days) of treatment with non-depleting and depleting monoclonal antibodies specific for T lymphocyte subsets on preventing rejection and autoimmune destruction of intraportal islet allografts was investigated in BB/E rats with established, insulin-dependent diabetes.

In this thesis we develop a mathematically rigorous framework of the so-called ''classical limit'' of quantum systems and their semi-classical properties. Our methods are based on the theory of strict, also called C*- algebraic deformation quantization. Since this C*-algebraic approach encapsulates both quantum as classical theory in one single framework, it provides, in particular, an excellent setting for studying natural emergent phenomena like spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) and phase transitions typically showing up in the classical limit of quantum theories. To this end, several techniques from functional analysis and operator algebras have been exploited and specialised to the context of Schrödinger operators and quantum spin systems. Their semi-classical properties including the possible occurrence of SSB have been investigated and illustrated with various physical models. Furthermore, it has been shown that the application of perturbation theory sheds new light on symmetry breaking in Nature, i.e. in real, hence finite materials. A large number of physically relevant results have been obtained and presented by means of diverse research papers.

Landscape ecology has been defined in a variety of different ways, but the common theme is the study of the ecological effects of ecosystem spatial patterning. Since the long history of landscape alteration has created novel systems with unknown dynamics, new tools are necessary to understand, manage and restore human dominated landscapes, preventing the loss of biodiversity. Among all, habitat fragmentation is the main process which affects biodiversity especially in human dominated landscapes. This thesis is based on three research papers concerning the evaluation of plant species diversity in fragmented and secondary plant communities. Moreover, the effect of natural reforestation process on biodiversity of secondary plant communities was investigated through a review paper. Focusing in each paper on different specific objectives due to the variability of landscape context and habitat type, the overall goal of this work was to detect spatial and management components influencing vascular plant species diversity. Through the different tools and methodologies used in each case study, we want to demonstrate the great applicability and versatility of landscape ecology approach both in theory and practice. The analyses were conducted on three fragmented secondary plant communities, i.e. meadow-pastures (Paper II), recent secondary woodlands (Paper III) and hedgerows (Paper IV), scattered in a dominant matrix type. Paper III was done during the collaboration with the Technische Universität of Berlin (Department of Ecology) during my research period abroad. The case studies were conducted both at patch and at landscape level, considering actual field data and management variables of the secondary plant communities surveyed (patch level) and the analysis of landscape asset around (landscape level). The latter was performed by GIS analysis. Regression models were used to relate plant species diversity to spatial and management variables. The survival of species depends on landscape dynamics and on spatial plant community configuration (Paper I). More specifically, where environmental site condition and management variables have not impact on secondary community variability and they did not differ between the surveyed communities, plant species diversity can be deeply influenced by spatial variables (Paper II and III). On the contrary, where management variables have a strong effect on secondary community alteration, i.e. in agrarian hedgerows, this effect is independent from the landscape assets of the different surveyed sites (Paper IV). In general, the integrative methods used by the “landscape ecology approach” allowed us to quantify in a holistic way complex natural-cultural patterns and processes on different time-space scales that influenced vascular plant species diversity.
L’ecologia del paesaggio studia l’influenza dei pattern spaziali sui flussi di specie. La continua frammentazione ed alterazione delle fitocenosi in paesaggi antropizzati rende necessario comprendere le dinamiche delle comunità vegetali che caratterizzano il paesaggio antropizzato, cercando di evitare il più possibile la perdita di diversità biologica che spesso è conseguenza di tali trasformazioni. La mia tesi è basata su tre articoli di ricerca riguardanti l’analisi della diversità della flora vascolare in fitocenosi secondarie e frammentate. In un lavoro di review invece, è stato analizzato l’effetto della riforestazione spontanea su fitocenosi secondarie a seguito dell’abbandono delle pratiche agricole. Ciascun lavoro è stato caratterizzato da specifici obiettivi, adattati in base alla variabilità del paesaggio e del tipo di fitocenosi secondaria indagata. Ciononostante, l’obiettivo comune di questa tesi è stato quello di esaminare l’influenza delle variabili di paesaggio e gestionali sulla variabilità della flora vascolare, tramite l’utilizzo di metodologie e strumenti propri dell’ecologia del paesaggio. Le analisi sono state effettuate in tre fitocenosi secondarie e frammentate, i.e. pascoli (Paper II), neoformazioni boschive (Paper III) e siepi rurali (Paper IV), inserite all’interno di differenti matrici paesaggistiche. Il terzo caso di studio (Paper III) è stato sviluppato in collaborazione con la Technische Universität di Berlino durante il mio periodo di dottorato all’estero. Le analisi sono state effettuate sia a livello di patch che di paesaggio, considerando quindi congiuntamente i rilievi floristici e le variabili gestionali (livello di patch) e l’analisi dell’assetto paesaggistico attorno alle fitocenosi indagate (livello di paesaggio). Le analisi di paesaggio sono state effettuate tramite strumenti GIS. Vari modelli di regressione sono stati utilizzati per mettere in relazione la diversità di specie vascolari con le variabili di paesaggio e gestionali. La sopravvivenza delle specie dipende profondamente dalle dinamiche del paesaggio e dalla sua configurazione spaziale (Paper I). Più nello specifico, nei casi di studio in cui le variabili stazionali e gestionali sono ininfluenti o omogenee in tutti i siti, la diversità di specie vascolari è profondamente influenzata dalle variabili spaziali (Paper II e III). Dove invece la gestione altera sostanzialmente l’equilibrio della fitocenosi, l’effetto è indipendente dalle variabili di paesaggio (Paper IV). In generale, i principi ed i metodi dell’ecologia del paesaggio che sono stati utilizzati nei casi di studio presentati, hanno permesso di quantificare precisamente i processi e le dinamiche che influenzano la diversità di specie vascolari a differnti scale spaziali e temporali.

L’acquisition du lexique précoce est très importante dans le développement du langage dans la mesure où les mots sont constitutifs des énoncés signifiants de l’enfant mais également car leur développement préfigure dans une certaine mesure les habiletés langagières ultérieures. Il est aujourd’hui admis que l’acquisition du lexique se fait sur la base d’étapes communes mais au sein desquelles il existe de fortes variations inter-individuelles, qui selon les chercheurs seraient d’ordre linguistiques, sociales ou idiosyncrasiques. Cependant, il reste encore des zones d’ombre, notamment sur l’influence possible des méthodes d’évaluation sur les résultats ; et malgré le fait que certains chercheurs conseillent l’utilisation conjointe de plusieurs méthodes de collecte pour éviter cette influence liée à la méthodologie, cette préconisation est peu suivie.Cette thèse vise à étudier les trajectoires développementales du lexique en production et leurs variations selon les enfants ; plus spécifiquement, il s’agit de montrer l’apport de méthodes complémentaires et l’importance de l’exploration du contexte de production des mots lors des observations spontanées en milieu naturel pour mieux interpréter les différences inter-individuelles.Des questionnaires parentaux ont été remplis pour 10 enfants français monolingues de 8;16 à 32;27 mois, que nous avons régulièrement filmé en milieu naturel (corpus TOTAL). Globalement, le développement et la composition du vocabulaire des 10 enfants évalués par l’IFDC suivent les tendances observées dans la littérature. Nous nous sommes ensuite focalisés sur 4 de ces enfants pour les stades linguistiques 15-25 ; 50 ; 70-120 mots (corpus CIBLÉ). L’utilisation des deux méthodes – questionnaires parentaux et données spontanées – a permis d’évaluer le développement lexical de manière plus fiable et complète, les avantages d’une méthode permettant de combler les limites de l’autre. Afin de mieux comprendre les divergences de certains résultats entre ces deux méthodes, nous avons poursuivi nos investigations sur les données spontanées des 4 enfants en examinant les contextes situationnels et interactionnels. Nous avons défini et catégorisé les situations présentes dans les enregistrements du corpus TOTAL. Une variation dans les durées de ces diverses situations a été trouvée entre stades linguistiques et entre enfants du corpus CIBLÉ. Des analyses croisées sur la production du vocabulaire en fonction des situations ont permis de réinterpréter les différences inter-individuelles des 4 enfants du corpus CIBLÉ. Par exemple, il est apparu que les deux enfants dont les effectifs de mots sont les moins élevés au niveau des données spontanées ont été davantage filmés en situation ludique solitaire ; situation où les analyses révèlent que le nombre d’unités lexicales produites est le plus faible. Ensuite, un autre travail a consisté à décrire le contexte interactionnel et plus précisément à comprendre les implications des enfants dans les échanges interactionnels. Beaucoup de différences inter-individuelles sont apparues, dont certaines nous permettent de clarifier les données des enfants. Ainsi, chaque analyse apporte des informations complémentaires – du vocabulaire estimé des questionnaires parentaux, au vocabulaire en usage enregistré en milieu naturel. En dépit du nombre restreint d’enfants qui composent cet échantillon, ces résultats encouragent l’utilisation de méthodes complémentaires. L’analyse des contextes situationnels et interactionnels nous semble aussi cruciale pour comprendre les mesures lexicales des enfants et mieux interpréter les différences intra et inter-individuelles
The acquisition of early lexicon is very important for the development of language considering that it is the early lexicon that builds infants’ first significant utterances and that it prefigures to a certain extent infants’ future language skills. It is well established that lexical acquisition presents common developmental trends and milestones, nevertheless a great amount of individual variation exists. This variation comes from linguistic, social and/or idiosyncratic factors. Further research should be done to investigate the possible influence of evaluation procedures on the results. Although the use of a complementary approach could limit this bias, it has rarely been used in lexical acquisition research. This work aims at describing not only the common developmental trajectories of early lexicon in French monolingual children, but also the inter-individual differences. More specifically, we want to show the importance of applying a complementary approach and of exploring word production during spontaneous interactions in real-life settings to better interpret inter-individual differences. The parents of 10 French monolingual children aged from 8;16 to 32;27 months filled out a questionnaire (IFDC) regarding their child’s vocabulary. The same children were video-recorded at home (corpus TOTAL). Overall, the development and the composition of individual lexicon, evaluated through the IFDC, follow the trends already reported in the literature. As for the spontaneous vocabulary, we focused our study on 4 children at the 15-52; 50; 70-120 word linguistic stages (corpus CIBLÉ). The integration of two complementary approaches, i.e. parental questionnaires and spontaneous observations, proved to be efficient and allowed us to reliably evaluate the lexical development and to avoid the bias linked to the use of a single method. To better understand the results variations between the two methods, we explored the situational and interactional context on the corpus CIBLÉ. We defined and categorized the different situations in the corpus TOTAL, then we focused on the corpus CIBLÉ to calculate their duration and we found variations between situations. A Cross-analysis on word production as a function of the situation helped to understand the lexical measure on linguistic stages and enabled the reinterpretation of individual variations. For example, the two children with the smallest lexicon had the longest duration of solitary play. During this activity, the number of produced words was generally very low. Next, we describe the interactional context, and more particularly, the rate and the nature of the children exchanges. The analyses revealed an important variation between measures and differences in the exchange rate among children. To a certain degree, for some children the interactional measures provide a richer interpretation of lexical measures.Our work clearly shows the advantages of combining several types of data to evaluate the early lexical development and the differences between individuals and encourages this approach. The analysis of situational and interactional contexts shows that these are crucial for understanding children lexical measures and better interpreting intra- and inter-individual differences

In this thesis, quantum cluster methods are used to calculate electronic properties of correlated-electron systems. A special focus lies in the determination of the ground state properties of a 3/4 filled triangular lattice within the one-band Hubbard model. At this filling, the electronic density of states exhibits a so-called van Hove singularity and the Fermi surface becomes perfectly nested, causing an instability towards a variety of spin-density-wave (SDW) and superconducting states. While chiral d+id-wave superconductivity has been proposed as the ground state in the weak coupling limit, the situation towards strong interactions is unclear. Additionally, quantum cluster methods are used here to investigate the interplay of Coulomb interactions and symmetry-breaking mechanisms within the nematic phase of iron-pnictide superconductors. The transition from a tetragonal to an orthorhombic phase is accompanied by a significant change in electronic properties, while long-range magnetic order is not established yet. The driving force of this transition may not only be phonons but also magnetic or orbital fluctuations. The signatures of these scenarios are studied with quantum cluster methods to identify the most important effects. Here, cluster perturbation theory (CPT) and its variational extention, the variational cluster approach (VCA) are used to treat the respective systems on a level beyond mean-field theory. Short-range correlations are incorporated numerically exactly by exact diagonalization (ED). In the VCA, long-range interactions are included by variational optimization of a fictitious symmetry-breaking field based on a self-energy functional approach. Due to limitations of ED, cluster sizes are limited to a small number of degrees of freedom. For the 3/4 filled triangular lattice, the VCA is performed for different cluster symmetries. A strong symmetry dependence and finite-size effects make a comparison of the results from different clusters difficult. The ground state in the weak-coupling limit is superconducting with chiral d+id-wave symmetry, in accordance to previous renormalization group approaches. In the regime of strong interactions SDW states are preferred over superconductivity and a collinaer SDW state with nonuniform spin moments on a quadrupled unit cell has the lowest grand potential. At strong coupling, inclusion of short-range quantum fluctuations turns out to favor this collinear state over the chiral phase predicted by mean-field theory. At intermediate interactions, no robust conclusion can be drawn from the results. Symmetry-breaking mechanisms within the nematic phase of the iron-pnictides are studied using a three-band model for the iron planes on a 4-site cluster. CPT allows a local breaking of the symmetry within the cluster without imposing long-range magnetic order. This is a crucial step beyond mean-field approaches to the magnetically ordered state, where such a nematic phase cannot easily be investigated. Three mechanisms are included to break the fourfold lattice symmetry down to a twofold symmetry. The effects of anisotropic magnetic couplings are compared to an orbital ordering field and anisotropic hoppings. All three mechanisms lead to similar features in the spectral density. Since the anisotropy of the hopping parameters has to be very large to obtain similar results as observed in ARPES, a phonon-driven transition is unlikely.

博士
國立臺灣大學
電信工程學研究所
97
Detection of edit disfluencies is one of the keys to transcribing spontaneous utterances. In this dissertation, we present improved features and models to detect edit disfluencies and enhance transcription of spontaneous Mandarin speech using hypothesized disfluency interruption points (IPs) and edit word detection. A comprehensive set of prosodic features that takes into account the special characteristics of edit disfluencies in Mandarin is developed, and an improved model combining decision trees and maximum entropy is proposed to detect IPs. This model is further adapted to desired prosodic conditions by latent prosodic modeling, a probabilistic framework for analyzing speech prosody in terms of a set of latent prosodic states. These techniques contribute to higher recognition accuracy (by rescoring with the hypothesized IPs) and better edit word detection (using conditional random fields defined on Chinese characters) in the final transcription, as verified by experiments on a spontaneous Mandarin speech corpus. Detailed analysis on the output latent states of the proposed latent prosodic modeling is conducted. Further analysis on the relevance of the proposed prosodic features to each type of edit disfluency is also conducted for further insight into the characteristics of various disfluency categories.

Tony Chung, Kwok Hung.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-253).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The conventional mechanism of fermion mass generation in the Standard Model involves Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (SSB). In this thesis, we study an alternate mechanism for the generation of fermion masses that does not require SSB, in the context of lattice field theories. Being inherently strongly coupled, this mechanism requires a non-perturbative approach like the lattice approach.

In order to explore this mechanism, we study a simple lattice model with a four-fermion interaction that has massless fermions at weak couplings and massive fermions at strong couplings, but without any spontaneous symmetry breaking. Prior work on this type of mass generation mechanism in 4D, was done long ago using either mean-field theory or Monte-Carlo calculations on small lattices. In this thesis, we have developed a new computational approach that enables us to perform large scale quantum Monte-Carlo calculations to study the phase structure of this theory. In 4D, our results confirm prior results, but differ in some quantitative details of the phase diagram. In contrast, in 3D, we discover a new second order critical point using calculations on lattices up to size $ 60^3$. Such large scale calculations are unprecedented. The presence of the critical point implies the existence of an alternate mechanism of fermion mass generation without any SSB, that could be of interest in continuum quantum field theory.

Dissertation

Mine fire is one of the important aspect for the loss of production in coal mines. Once the coal catches fire, then it is challenging to defeat it. Spontaneous heating of coal causes due to auto-oxidation, when coal interacts with oxygen existing in the environment, then auto-oxidation process takes place. The interaction of coal and oxygen liberates heat, and the continuous accumulation of heat accelerate the rate of oxidation. If heat releases throughout the oxidation process are more than the heat dissipated, it causes to increase in the temperature. When the temperature of coal reaches up to the ignition point, then it catches fire it known as spontaneous heating. Spontaneous heating depends on the quality of coal. It is crucial to investigate their degree of proneness to the spontaneous heating; if we are able to find out, the nit helps the mine management to take action towards the mine fire to avoid loss of lives and property, coal reserves, environmental pollution and financial elements of mine.This M.Tech.work deals with designing of the prediction models using the various soft computing techniques. In my project, data collected from the previous researcher's work, it includes the data of South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL),Western Coalfields Limited (WCL),Eastern coalfield limited(ECL), North Eastern Coalfields (NEC), Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL), Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO), Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) and Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO).Fifty-eight coal sample data have been used, which includes proximate analysis, ultimate analysis and susceptibility indices, i.e., crossing point temperature and wet oxidation potential difference of samples. This work deals with designing various soft computing models for prediction of spontaneous heating susceptibility indices of coal samples. To decide the input parameter for the various model statistical regression analysis carried out between the intrinsic parameters and the susceptibility indices and the parameters which shows a significant statistical result was taken as attributes for the models Further different soft computing techniques such as ANN Multilayer Perceptron Network (MLP),Fuzzy logic, Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS),support vector regression(SVR)and hybrid soft computing technique, i.e., an adaptive neuro-fuzzy interface system (ANFIS) applied for the prediction of susceptibility indices to assess the spontaneous heating of coal.Input parameters for the proposed models selected by regression analysis. After the successful completion of all the proposed models, comparative studies were made between the models iv based on the coefficient of regression and root mean square error. From the various designed models, it was observed that wet oxidation provided a better result with ANFIS model than MLP, SVR, MARS and Fuzzy logic

Title: Development of methamphetamine (ex)users that decided to cease without professional intervention - follow-up study Abstract: BACKGROUND: This work relates to author's research in 2011/2012, in which author captured experience of (ex)users with ceasing drug using without professional help through narrative interviews. Findings shown, that respondents keeps in their narration space for reusing of methamphetamine, so author decided to work with respondents also in future. This work is theoretically based in idiographic and narrative approach, which focus on AIMS: To capture development of methamphetamine (ex)users that decided to cease using methamphetamine without professional intervention after 3 years. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: To capture users' answers about future aiming of individuals, based on preceding research, to catch biography-time development of respondents and to analyze reasoning according to (non)returning to using methamphetamine. METHODS: With those individuals, which were cooperating enough, interviews were held about their current situation. It creates set of interviews from 2011/2012 and from 2015/2016. Interviews were analyzed through narrative-oriented analysis, specifically through categories of values and beliefs. According to demandingness and comprehensiveness of approach, only two...

In this thesis, quantum cluster methods are used to calculate electronic properties of correlated-electron systems. A special focus lies in the determination of the ground state properties of a 3/4 filled triangular lattice within the one-band Hubbard model. At this filling, the electronic density of states exhibits a so-called van Hove singularity and the Fermi surface becomes perfectly nested, causing an instability towards a variety of spin-density-wave (SDW) and superconducting states. While chiral d+id-wave superconductivity has been proposed as the ground state in the weak coupling limit, the situation towards strong interactions is unclear. Additionally, quantum cluster methods are used here to investigate the interplay of Coulomb interactions and symmetry-breaking mechanisms within the nematic phase of iron-pnictide superconductors. The transition from a tetragonal to an orthorhombic phase is accompanied by a significant change in electronic properties, while long-range magnetic order is not established yet. The driving force of this transition may not only be phonons but also magnetic or orbital fluctuations. The signatures of these scenarios are studied with quantum cluster methods to identify the most important effects. Here, cluster perturbation theory (CPT) and its variational extention, the variational cluster approach (VCA) are used to treat the respective systems on a level beyond mean-field theory. Short-range correlations are incorporated numerically exactly by exact diagonalization (ED). In the VCA, long-range interactions are included by variational optimization of a fictitious symmetry-breaking field based on a self-energy functional approach. Due to limitations of ED, cluster sizes are limited to a small number of degrees of freedom. For the 3/4 filled triangular lattice, the VCA is performed for different cluster symmetries. A strong symmetry dependence and finite-size effects make a comparison of the results from different clusters difficult. The ground state in the weak-coupling limit is superconducting with chiral d+id-wave symmetry, in accordance to previous renormalization group approaches. In the regime of strong interactions SDW states are preferred over superconductivity and a collinaer SDW state with nonuniform spin moments on a quadrupled unit cell has the lowest grand potential. At strong coupling, inclusion of short-range quantum fluctuations turns out to favor this collinear state over the chiral phase predicted by mean-field theory. At intermediate interactions, no robust conclusion can be drawn from the results. Symmetry-breaking mechanisms within the nematic phase of the iron-pnictides are studied using a three-band model for the iron planes on a 4-site cluster. CPT allows a local breaking of the symmetry within the cluster without imposing long-range magnetic order. This is a crucial step beyond mean-field approaches to the magnetically ordered state, where such a nematic phase cannot easily be investigated. Three mechanisms are included to break the fourfold lattice symmetry down to a twofold symmetry. The effects of anisotropic magnetic couplings are compared to an orbital ordering field and anisotropic hoppings. All three mechanisms lead to similar features in the spectral density. Since the anisotropy of the hopping parameters has to be very large to obtain similar results as observed in ARPES, a phonon-driven transition is unlikely.