Дисертації з теми "Heuristic function of emotions"

This was a qualitative study looking at the experience of emotional connection in therapy from both clients’ and therapists’ perspectives. The aim was to see whether and how the experience of emotional connection was the same or different for each party; and whether and how it was connected to client change. It was an heuristic enquiry and explored the experiences of five client/therapist pairs including the researcher and the researcher’s therapist. The client and therapist in each co-researcher pair were interviewed separately about a session (chosen by the client) where both had experienced an emotional connection with each other (the researcher pair had a mutual dialogue about the experience). The interviews were then analysed using heuristic processes of immersion, incubation, illumination, explication and creative synthesis. The main findings were: (1) emotional connection was experienced on two different levels: a conscious, articulated level (the ‘manifest level’) and an unarticulated, subliminal level (the ‘hidden level’); (2) emotional connection was connected to client change on both levels; (3) the main ‘work’ of therapy took place on the manifest level; (4) however, healing of the client’s deepest, or primary hurt, took place at the hidden level; (5) at the hidden level there was a good emotional match between the client and therapist. The implications of this research are that the healing mechanisms within therapy may not always be under our conscious control and that for deep healing work it may be important for there to be a good fit at an emotional level between client and therapist.

Submitted by Marco Antônio de Ramos Chagas (mchagas@ufv.br) on 2016-09-09T16:23:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 700752 bytes, checksum: d8590a35a9faff6d372adf439ca649d6 (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-09T16:23:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 700752 bytes, checksum: d8590a35a9faff6d372adf439ca649d6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-25
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
Nesta dissertação apresentamos métodos gulosos para a seleção de um subconjunto de funções heurísticas de um grande conjunto de possibilidades com o objetivo de reduzir o tempo de execução de algoritmos de busca. Trabalhos anteriores mostraram que a busca pode ser mais rápido se vários bancos de dados padrão menores são usados em vez de um grande banco de dados padrão. Nossos métodos são capazes de selecionar boas heurísticas de um grande conjunto de funções heurísticas para guiar uma A*. Implementamos nosso método em Fast Downward e mostrou empiricamente que produz heurísticas que superam o estado-da-arte de outros planejadores na Competição Internacional de Planejamento.
In this dissertation we present greedy methods for selecting a subset of heuristic functions from a large pool of possibilities with the objective of reducing the running time of search algorithms. Previous works showed that search can be faster if several smaller pattern databases are used instead of one large pattern database. Our methods are able to select good heuristics from a large set of heuristic functions to guide A* search. We implemented our method in Fast Downward and showed empirically that it produces heuristics which outperform the state-of-the-art planners in the International Planning Competition benchmarks.
Autor sem Lattes.

In this paper we study a complex real world workforce scheduling problem. We apply constructive search and variable neighbourhood search (VNS) metaheuristics and enhance these methods by using a variable fitness function. The variable fitness function (VFF) uses an evolutionary approach to evolve weights for each of the (multiple) objectives. The variable fitness function can potentially enhance any search based optimisation heuristic where multiple objectives can be defined through evolutionary changes in the search direction. We show that the VFF significantly improves performance of constructive and VNS approaches on training problems, and ¿learn¿ problem features which enhance the performance on unseen test problem instances.

Results from 10 empirical studies and 1 review article are described and can be summarized as follows: Only moral emotions represent an evaluation of person's behavior, whereas non-moral emotion provide information about outcomes. Positive moral emotions (e.g. pride, respect) signal that a person's (self or other) behavior was right, whereas negative moral emotions (e.g., guilt, indignation) signal that a person's behavior was wrong. These evaluations and signals are elicited by judgments of ought, goal attainment and effort (see Heider, 1958). Some moral emotions (e.g., shame or admiration) are also elicited by judgments on a person's ability. A person's responsibility (Weiner, 1995, 2006) and the perceived morality of a person's behavior (i.e., with regard to rightness and wrongness) represent further cognitive antecedents of moral emotions. Some moral emotions (e.g., regret, sympathy) are also influenced by a person's empathy (see Paulus, 2009) towards others. There are specific moral emotions that are closely connected to help-giving (e.g., sympathy), whereas other moral emotions are more closely related to reward (e.g., admiration) or punishment (e.g., anger). With regard to the cognitive effort underlying emotions, moral emotions require more cognitive effort (i.e., longer reaction times) than non-moral emotions.

Envy is a painful emotion that can negatively impact one’s self-worth. It is also a shameful, socially undesirable emotion, implying both inferiority and hostility. Some scholars suggest that these features of envy lead to a need to cope with the emotion. Thus, over time, envy tends to be transformed into more socially acceptable responses such as resentment or dislike. The present study tested this claim. First, envy was manipulated by asking participants to read an article containing an interview with either a high- or low-envy target. The second article manipulated the likeability of the target by varying whether or not he or she made an arrogant statement. Finally, a third article indicated that the target had suffered a misfortune. Although, as predicted, envy decreased, the manipulation of likeability did not affect this decrease. Consistent with predictions, resentment increased after the second article and this was more likely when the target was dislikeable than when the target was likeable. Finally, the participants felt greater schadenfreude when the dislikeable target suffered than when the likeable target suffered and marginally more schadenfreude when the target was more enviable. Clearly, envy dissipated over time, but further research is needed to determine precisely why.

A hyper-heuristic is a search method or learning mechanism for selecting or generating heuristics to solve computational search problems. Researchers classify hyper-heuristics according to the source of feedback during learning: Online learning hyper-heuristics learn while solving a given instance of a problem; Offline learning hyper-heuristics learn from a set of training instances, a method that can generalise to unseen instances. Genetic programming (GP) can be considered a specialization of the more widely known genetic algorithms (GAs) where each individual is a computer program. GP automatically generates computer programs to solve specified tasks. It is a method of searching a space of computer programs. GP can be used as a kind of hyper-heuristic to be a learning algorithm when it uses some feedback from the search process. Our research mainly uses genetic programming as offline hyper-heuristic approach to automatically design various heuristics for evolutionary programming.

Fundamental to the electronic security of information and communication systems, is the correct use and application of appropriate ciphers. The strength of these ciphers, particularly in their ability to resist cryptanalytic attacks, directly in uences the overall strength of the entire system. The strength of the underlying cipher is reliant upon a robust structure and the carefully designed interaction between components in its architecture. Most importantly, however, cipher strength is critically dependent on the strength of the individual components of which it is comprised. Boolean functions and substitution boxes (s-boxes) are among the most common and essential components of ciphers. This is because they are able to provide a cipher with strengthening properties to resist known and potential cryptanalytic attacks. Thus, it is not surprising that significant research effort has been made in trying to develop ways of obtaining boolean functions and substitution boxes with optimal achievable measures of desirable cryptographic properties. Three of the main cryptographic properties required by strong boolean functions and s-boxes are nonlinearity, correlation immunity and propagation criteria, with different cryptographic applications requiring different acceptable measures of these and other properties. As combinations of cryptographic properties exhibited by functions can be conicting, finding cryptographically strong functions often means that a trade-off needs to be made when optimizing property values. Throughout this thesis, the term "optimization" specifically refers to seeking to obtain the best achievable combination of target property values which may be exhibited by boolean functions and s-boxes, regardless of whether the relevant properties are conflicting or complementary. This thesis focusses on a particular class of techniques for obtaining strong functions for cryptographic applications, referred to as heuristic methods or, simply, heuristics. Three new heuristic methods, each aimed at generating boolean functions optimizing one or more of the main cryptographic properties mentioned above, in addition to other desirable properties, are presented. The first of the new heuristic methods developed for this thesis focusses on generating boolean functions which are balanced and exhibit very high nonlinearities. Highly nonlinear balanced functions are critical to many cryptographic applications, as they provide good resistance to linear cryptanalytic attacks. This first method is based on the recursive modification of a starting bent function and is shown to be highly successful and efficient at generating numerous such functions, which also exhibit low autocorrelation values, in a very short computational time. The generation of balanced, correlation immune boolean functions that also exhibit the confl icting property of high nonlinearity is the focus of the second new heuristic method developed for this thesis. By concatenating selected pairs of lower-dimensional boolean functions together in the Walsh Hadamard transform domain, direct optimization for both resilience and nonlinearity was able to take place at each level towards and for the final function. This second method was able to generate examples of boolean functions with almost all of the best known optimal combinations of target property values. Experiments have shown the success of this method in consistently generating highly nonlinear resilient boolean functions, for a range of orders of resilience, with such functions possessing optimal algebraic degree. A third new heuristic method, which searches for balanced boolean functions which satisfy a non-zero degree of propagation criteria and exhibit high nonlinearity, is presented. Intelligent bit manipulations in the truth table of starting functions, based on fundamental relationships between boolean function transforms and measures, provide the design rationale for this method. Two new function generation schemes have been proposed for this method, to efficiently satisfy the requirements placed on the starting functions utilized in the computational process. An optional process attempts to increase the algebraic degree of the resulting functions, without sacrificing the optimalities that are achievable. The validity of this method is demonstrated through the success of various experimental trials. Switching the focus from single output boolean functions to multiple output boolean functions (s-boxes), the effectiveness of existing heuristic techniques (namely Genetic Algorithm, Hill Climbing Method and combined Genetic Algorithm/Hill Climbing) in primarily being applied to improve the nonlinearity of s-boxes of various dimensions, is investigated. The prior success of these heuristic techniques for improving the nonlinearity of boolean functions has been previously demonstrated, as has the success of hill climbing in isolation when applied to bijective s-boxes. An extension to the bijective s-box optimization work is presented in this thesis. In this new research, a Genetic Algorithm, Hill Climbing Method and the two in combination are applied to the nonlinearity and autocorrelation optimization of regular NxM s-boxes (N > M) to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of each of these heuristics. A new breeding scheme, utilized in the Genetic Algorithm and combined Genetic Algorithm/Hill Climbing trials, is also presented. The success of experimental results compared to random regular s-box generation is demonstrated. New research in applying the Hill Climbing Method to construct NxM sboxes (N > M) required to meet specific property criteria is presented. The consideration of the characteristics desired by the constructed s-boxes largely dictated the generation process. A discussion on the generation process of the component functions is included. Part of the results produced by experimental trials were incorporated into a commonly used family of stream ciphers, thus further supporting the use of heuristic techniques as a useful means of obtaining strong functions suitable for incorporation into practical ciphers. An analysis of the cryptographic properties of the s-box used in the MARS block cipher, the method of generation and the computational time taken to obtain this s-box, led to the new research reported in this thesis on the generation of MARS-like s-boxes. It is shown that the application of the Hill Climbing Method, with suitable requirements placed on the component boolean functions, was able to generate multiple MARS-like s-boxes which satisfied the MARS sbox requirements and provided additional properties. This new work represented an alternative approach to the generation of s-boxes satisfying the MARS sbox property requirements but which are cryptographically superior and can be obtained in a fraction of the time than that which was taken to produce the MARS s-box. An example MARS-like s-box is presented in this thesis. The overall value of heuristic methods in generating strong boolean functions and substitution boxes is clearly demonstrated in this thesis. This thesis has made several significant contributions to the field, both in the development of new, specialized heuristic methods capable of generating strong boolean functions, and in the analysis and optimization of substitution boxes, the latter achieved through applying existing heuristic techniques.

To manage an uncertain future relevant societal groups, such as government and corporate sectors, utilise economic forecasts to help plan future strategies. Many vital decisions are based on economic forecasts. Economists have traditionally been the professionals employed as economic forecasting experts. The dominant paradigm for present day forecasting is the "rational expectations theory", which assumes that a forecaster is capable of making optimal use all of the available information. The field of psychology offers a different, yet complementary, approach to the topic of economic forecasting. The aim of the current study was to research mental processes and behaviours of individuals participating in a forecasting task. The role of the following psychological variables within economic prediction behaviour was assessed: (1) task complexity, (2) decision making style, (3) the anchoring and adjustment heuristic, (4) the framing effect, and (5) personal feelings about the task content. All of these variables were hypothesised to have a direct influence on prediction behaviour. In addition, task complexity and decision making style were assumed to moderate the influence of the other psychological variables. A conceptual framework was designed to depict the assumed relationships. (For complete abstract open document)

Doutoramento em Psicologia
The work presented in this thesis aimed to explored the cardiac response of the emotions of disgust and fear using visuo-auditory and olfactory stimuli. This thesis is organized into three major sections. The first section provides a brief revision of the theories of emotions, a brief description of automatic recognition of emotion based on ECG (electrocardiogram) and a review of chemosensory signals transmitted via body odors, as well as their effects in human’s physiological, cognitive and behavioral responses. The second section presents the four studies that were conducted. In Study 1we used movies to induce disgust, fear and neutral emotions and examined whether noise entropy of ECG can work as a potential biomarker to discriminate disgust from fear and neutral conditions. The results showed that it is possible to discriminate such emotions based on ECG noise entropy with 88% (p<.05) accuracy and that the median value of the disgust condition was higher when compared with the fear and neutral conditions. In Study 2 we developed and tested a classifier to automatically classify emotions using noise entropy of ECG. The performance of the classifier was good for fear and disgust identification (60% of sensitivity and 80% of specificity) and perfect for identification of the neutral condition (100%). In addition to the responses to the visual stimuli, we also evaluated the cardiac response using olfactory stimuli, namely the body odors collected in conditions of disgust, fear and neutral. To control for potential individual differences in disgust propensity and sensitivity on body odor perception, in Study 3 we examined the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of DPSS-R. The results confirmed the existence of two distinct factors, disgust propensity and sensitivity. Moreover, the scale showed an acceptable convergent and discriminant validity and a satisfactory reliability. In the Study 4 we investigated how a BO prime affects the emotional tone of a subsequent BO message, on cardiac and subjective responses. The results demonstrated a reduction in heart rate variability (HRV-HF) when the participants smelled the neutral body odors after they smelled the disgust and fear body odors. The effect of order of presentation was also evident in the subjective ratings, with the neutral odors being perceived as more intense when the receivers smelled the neutral odors after they smelled the negative body odors. Such effects were independent of the pleasantness of the body odors. Finally, in the third section we presented the general discussion of the main results, the current limitations of the studies as well the future directions and the potential implications and applications of the results. Overall, the findings of the studies described in this thesis suggest that the ECG noise contains meaningful information that can allow emotion recognition and that the order of presentation of body odor can affect the cardiac response and subjective response of the receivers.
O trabalho apresentado nesta tese teve como objetivo explorar a resposta cardíaca das emoções de nojo e de medo usando estímulos visuo-auditivos e olfativos. Esta tese está organizada em três grandes partes. A primeira parte apresenta uma breve revisão das teorias das emoções, uma descrição sobre o reconhecimento automático da emoção baseado no sinal do ECG e uma revisão acerca dos sinais químico-sensoriais transmitidos pelos odores corporais, assim como os seus efeitos nas respostas fisiológicas, cognitivas e subjetivas. A segunda parte apresenta os quatro estudos que foram realizados. No Estudo 1 usámos filmes para induzir as respostas emocionais de nojo, de medo e neutras e examinámos se a entropia do ruído do sinal de ECG pode funcionar como um potencial biomarcador para discriminar as três condições emocionais. Os resultados mostraram que é possível discriminar as três condições emocionais usando a entropia do ruído do sinal de ECG com 88% (p < .05) de precisão e que o valor da mediana da condição de nojo foi superior, quando comparado com as condições de medo e neutras. No Estudo 2 usámos a entropia do ruído do sinal de ECG para desenvolver e testar um algoritmo que classifica as emoções automaticamente. O classificador obteve um bom desempenho na identificação de nojo e medo (com 60% de sensibilidade e 80% de especificidade) e um desempenho perfeito na condição neutra. Para além da resposta a estímulos visuais, também avaliámos a resposta cardíaca usando estímulos olfativos, nomeadamente os odores corporais de nojo, medo e neutros. De forma a controlar as diferenças individuais da propensão e sensibilidade ao nojo na perceção dos odores corporais, no Estudo 3 examinámos as características psicométricas da versão Portuguesa da DPSS-R. Os resultados confirmaram a existência de dois fatores independentes, propensão e sensibilidade ao nojo. Adicionalmente, a escala obteve uma validade convergente e discriminante aceitável e confiabilidade satisfatória. No Estudo 4, investigámos como é que os odores corporais recolhidos em condições emocionais específicas influenciam a resposta de odores corporais emocionais apresentados subsequentemente, ao nível subjetivo e da resposta cardíaca. Os resultados demonstraram uma redução da variabilidade da frequência cardíaca (HF-HRV) quando os participantes cheiraram os odores corporais neutros depois dos odores corporais de nojo e de medo. O efeito da ordem de apresentação dos odores corporais também se verificou nas avaliações subjetivas, sendo os odores corporais neutros avaliados como mais intensos depois da apresentação dos odores de medo e de nojo. Este efeito foi independente da agradabilidade atribuída aos odores corporais. Finalmente, na terceira parte, apresentamos a discussão geral dos principais resultados, as limitações dos estudos, bem como propostas para estudos futuros e potenciais implicações e aplicações dos resultados. Em síntese, os resultados dos estudos descritos neste trabalho sugerem que o ruído do ECG contém informações significativas que podem permitir reconhecer emoções e que a ordem de apresentação do odor corporal pode afetar a resposta cardíaca e subjetiva dos participantes.

The experiment was designed to investigate group differences by examining the effects of hostility on bilateral measures of skin conductance while making affective facial configurations. Males reporting high and low hostility were instructed in making facial configurations that were identified by raters as happy, angry, or neutral in affective valence. All subjects were asked to make the set of facial configurations twice with unstructured baselines taken prior to each face. The initial hypotheses included: (1) there would be higher skin conductance levels for the facial configuration trials than the baseline trials; (2) there would be more reactivity for the angry facial configuration followed by the happy facial configuration and then by the neutral facial configuration; (3) the left extremity would show higher conductance levels than the right; (4) the high hostile group would show higher conductance levels across the emotional faces as compared to the neutral facial configuration than the low hostile group; (5) the high hostile group would show higher conductance levels across both extremities than the low hostile group; and (6) a three-way interaction of group, extremity, and affective facial configuration would be noted. The experimental hypotheses were partially supported. As expected, the facial configuration produced significant increases in skin conductance from baseline across all three facial configurations. Differential effects of facial configuration were found. Skin conductance varied among the groups as a function of the three facial configurations. A three-way Group x Extremity x Block interaction was found. An interaction between group, extremity, and affective facial configuration was not found. Neuropsychological models of emotion are discussed as well as the possibility of altered right cerebral systems in high hostile individuals.
Master of Science

Fear is an intrinsic human emotion, which produces with variable intensity a bodily reaction as a response to a stimuli. It is considered one of the basic human emotions, and it is universal of all animal species. Despite its subjective quality, fear has gained a rather negativistic stereotype that this research intends to debate and readdress, proposing that “negative fear” is part of an evolutionary transition cultivated by social and cultural constructs. This thesis will analyze the context in which fear operates, employing experience design methodologies and design research to reevaluate the role of fear in the contemporary settings of our societies to prove its connection to imagination, transhumanism and the production of empathy. After a brief historical perspective to situate this thesis in the contemporary framework of experience design, this research will investigate fear as prolific tool for the production of imagination, derived from its aesthetic connection to wonder and pleasure. This particular connection between fear to wonder was investigated among others by Charles Darwin, who also promoted the functionality of fear as the key to animal survival. The complex mechanism in which fear engages us will lead to the production of design prototypes that look at the animal kingdom and several other species’ talents in the detection and implementation of fear as a tool to survive. Here, the potential of our species to further evolve through the use of design will open a discussion on transhumanism and the future of humanity. The last section speculates a counterfactual conditional statement of how our humanity would operate, if emotional identities were reevaluated. In particular, the emotion of fear will be reevaluated for its unpleasant characteristics, from the bodily sensations to the mental postliminary conditions, to understand why certain human behaviors are still exercised, when the physiological effects are universally acknowledged as distasteful. By interpreting the physiological impact of fear, this research will continue its argument towards empathy, questioning what it truly means to ‘stand in someone’s else shoes’, specifically when fear is practiced. Empathy, as a pilaster in the mission statement of many contemporary disciplines, has surfaced in this research as viral phenomenon, which little has to do with truly ‘empathizing’. Here, it investigates how empathy can be experienced when fear is in play: if sharing fear as the bodily experience of someone else can lead to the production of authentic empathy, then humans have a chance to reevaluate its application in the contemporary global topics of war and diplomacy, domestic and public violence, or bullying to name a few. This research ultimately establishes a new perspective on the role of emotions in our societies, and creates a connection between design and the experience of intangibles, producing a view of the intrinsic systems of our being as ones deemed of value in the ambitious evolution of our species.

The full thesis contains copyrighted material which has been removed in the published version.

Concept Maps (CMs) are considered a well-known pedagogy technique in creating curriculum, educating, teaching, and learning. Determining comprehension of concepts result from comparisons of candidate CMs against a master CM, and evaluate "goodness". Past techniques for comparing CMs have revolved around the creation of a subjective rubric. We propose a novel CM scoring scheme called MAnanA based on a Fuzzy Similarity Scaling (FSS) score to vastly remove the subjectivity of the rubrics in the process of grading a CM. We evaluate our framework against a predefined rubric and test it with CM data collected from the Introduction to Computer Security course at the University of New Orleans (UNO), and found that the scores obtained via MAnanA captured the trend that we observed from the rubric via peak matching. Based on our evaluation, we believe that our framework can be used to objectify CM analysis.

Genetic algorithm has been widely used in different areas of optimization problems. Ithas been combined with renewable energy domain, photovoltaic system, in this thesis.To participate and win the solar boat race, a control program is needed and C++ hasbeen chosen for programming. To implement the program, the mathematic model hasbeen built. Besides, the approaches to calculate the boundaries related to conditionhave been explained. Afterward, the processing of the prediction and real time controlfunction are offered. The program has been simulated and the results proved thatgenetic algorithm is helpful to get the good results but it does not improve the resultstoo much since the particularity of the solar driven boat project such as the limitationof energy production

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already a fundamental component of computer games. In this context is emotions a growing part in simulating real life. The proposed emotional state module, provides a way for the game agents to select an action in real-time virtual environments. The modules function has been tested with the open-source strategy game ORTS. This thesis proposes a new approach for the design of an interacting network, similar to a spreading activation system, of emotional states that keeps track of emotion intensities changing and interacting over time. The network of emotions can represent any number of persisting states, such as moods, emotions and drives. Any emotional signal can affect every state positively or negatively. The states' response to emotional signals are influenced by the other states represented in the network. The network is contained within an emotional state module. This interactions between emotions are not the focus of much research, neither is the representation model. The focus tend to be on the mechanisms eliciting emotions and on how to express the emotions.

Diversi studi hanno dimostrato i reciproci rapporti di influenza tra respiro e variabili psicologiche ma scarsa attenzione è stata rivolta all’indagine delle funzioni espressive del suono del respiro. Studio 1 è stato finalizzato alla costruzione di un modello di analisi multi-livello per la descrizione acustica del respiro. Sono state effettuate audio e video registrazioni del respiro di 2 coppie di soggetti in performance individuali e congiunte. Sui 1903 respiri raccolti sono state condotte analisi video e audio che hanno portato alla costruzione di tre categorie di indici: respiratori, acustici e interattivi (relativi alla relazione tra i comportamenti respiratori di due partners in un’azione congiunta). Studio 2 ha investigato cosa poteva essere inferito dall’ascolto del suono respiro relativamente all’identità, allo stato emotivo e all’attività svolta da una persona. Inoltre, ha verificato se l’imitazione facilitasse l’identificazione rispetto al solo ascolto. Sono state raccolte registrazioni ecologiche del respiro di persone coinvolte in 6 attività e 4 emozioni. Un campione di 90 persone ha ascoltato le tracce e risposto ad un questionario relativo alle suddette variabili. Altre 90 persone prima di rispondere imitavano il respiro. Il campione ha efficacemente inferito informazioni relative alle variabili indagate, con risultati migliori nel task di imitazione. Studio 3 mirava a descrivere acusticamente 6 condizioni di respiro emotivo (rabbia, paura, tristezza, disgusto, tenerezza, gioia) e a investigare se “respirare insieme” influenzasse il processo di sintonizzazione. 20 coppie di donne hanno partecipato. Per ogni emozione, entro ogni coppia una partecipante leggeva una storia emotivamente connotata e respirava come se si trovasse in quella situazione. L’altra esprimeva la propria vicinanza respirando come lei. Al termine rispondevano a un questionario. I respiri sono stati audio registrati e analizzati. E’ stato possibile ricondurre ciascuna delle emozioni a un differente pattern respiratorio. Inoltre il task ha influenzato diverse dimensioni della sintonizzazione: la sincronizzazione, il decoding emotivo, l’esperienza emotiva e la percezione di somiglianza interpersonale.
Several psycho-physiological studies have provided evidences about the reciprocal influence between respiration and psychological variables but few attentions have been brought to the investigation of the expressive function of breathing sounds. Study 1 aims to build a multilayer analysis model that enable an acoustic description of breathing sounds. Audio and video recordings of breathing of two pairs of participants engaged in individual and joint performance were conducted. 1903 were video and audio analyzed and 3 sets of indexes were derived: respiratory, acoustic and interactive (aimed to relate partner’s respiratory behaviour during joint performances). Study 2 investigates what could be inferred about a person’s identity, emotional state and activity from the sound of his/her breathing. Moreover, it aims to verify whether imitation of breathing patterns improve the identification of those features. Ecological recordings of breathing sounds of people engaged in 6 activities and 4 emotions. 90 participants listen to the tracks and answer a questionnaire about such variables. Other 90 mimicked the tracks before answering. Participants were able to infer valuable information about the aspects under investigation with better results in the imitation task. Study 3 aims to describe the acoustic features of 6 emotional breathing patterns (anger, fear, sadness, disgust, tenderness and joy) and to see whether breathing together could strengthen the attunement process. 20 pairs of women participated. For each emotion, within the pair one participant read a story emotionally connoted and breathes as if she actually was in that situation. Her partner had to convey her closeness breathing in the same way. Finally they filled in a questionnaire. Different respiratory patterns were related to each emotion. Moreover the task influenced several attunement dimensions: synchronization, emotional decoding, emotional experience and perception of interpersonal similarity.

Demand for healthcare services is rising dramatically as the proportion of older adults in the United States increases, and the success of these healthcare organizations depends on cooperation among patients, doctors, and nurses. These interpersonal interactions come with costs associated with managing one's emotions in ways that are in line with completing job tasks effectively, especially as past research has demonstrated that nurses are likely to experience and respond to incivility, and nurses of minority backgrounds even moreso. This study examines the effect of experiencing incivility on engaging in surface acting, or simulating emotions that are not actually felt; how these two factors influence well-being outcomes; and the impact of racial differences in these relationships. A sample of 100 Black and White nurses participated in this research. Results indicate that experiencing incivility increases emotional exhaustion both directly and indirectly through engaging in surface acting in response to incivility. Additionally, findings suggest that Black nurses are more likely than White nurses to experience incivility from other nurses. These results highlight how incivility can contribute to burnout and negative health outcomes and that this effect may be particularly salient among Black nurses.

Behavior-analytic accounts of rule-adherence behavior suggest that rule-governance is a general class of functional (i.e., instrumental) behavior maintained by social consequences (Baum, 2005; Malott & Suarez, 2004; Jacobs et al., in prep.). Evolutionary Life-History (LH) theory suggests that LH strategy may underlie variation in rule-adherence behavior. Based on an integration of these two theories, a theoretical structural model of rule-governance was developed and tested. The structure of this model was used to develop follow-up experiments to test particularly salient links in the model. Consistent with theory, the structural model indicated that slow LH strategy directly and indirectly (through increased moral emotions and increased executive functioning) contributed to strength of rule-governance. Two experiments failed to replicate previously demonstrated effects of executive function depletion or moral identity priming (on moral behavioral outcome measures). Further, self-report measures of slow LH strategy, executive functioning, and rule-governance did not predict prosocial (donating) or rule-defiance (cheating) behavior in laboratory tasks. The limitations of relying solely on either self-report or behavioral tasks of unknown external validity are discussed.

This master's thesis deals with informed search algorithms. It's theoretical section summarizes basic theoretical ideas and terms which are related to this topic. It means especially discrete mathematics, graph theory, artificial intelligence and agent systems. Cardinal aim of this section is to provide theoretical analysis of search algorithms and to classify them into informed and uninformed classes. Theoretical section describes basic search strategies such as breadth first search, deep first search and modifications of these strategies, then it is focused on informed search algorithms, specifically A* (A-Star), IDA* (Iterative Deepening A-Star) and SMA* (Simplified Memory bounded A-star). It also describes topics related to informed search strategies -- heuristic functions and problem relaxation method. Given algorithms are analyzed in order to compare their time and space complexity. Main goal of practical part of this thesis is to design and implement software application, which will use informed and uninformed search strategies described in theoretical section. This application is intended to solve fifteen puzzle problem, so-called Lloyds fifteen puzzle game. First part of practical section analyses fifteen puzzle from mathematical and informatical perspective, then it examines possible implementation variants of algorithms and heuristics and proposes design of the application. Description of main interfaces and classes of the realized application follows. At the end of this section the analysis of informed algorithms and heuristics is performed using the implemented application and obtained results are compared to theoretical characteristics of these algorithms.

We introduce a steepest-descent-like search algorithm for the design of Boolean functions, yielding multiple desirable cryptographic properties in their Walsh and autocorrelation spectra together. The algorithm finds some Boolean functions on 9, 10, 11, 13 variables with very good cryptographic properties unattained in the literature. More specifically, we have discovered 9-variable rotation symmetric Boolean functions (RSBFs) having nonlinearity of 241, which exceeds the bent concatenation bound and has remained as an open question in the literature for almost three decades. We have then shown that there is no RSBF having nonlinearity greater than 241, and that there are 8x189 many RSBFs having nonlinearity of 241, such that, among them there are only two that are different up to the affine equivalence. We also propose a generalization to RSBFs and dihedral symmetric Boolean functions (DSBFs), which improves the nonlinearity result of 9-variable Boolean functions to 242. Further, we classify all possible permutations (362, 880) on the input variables of 9-variable Boolean functions and find that there are only 30 classes, which are different with respect to the linear equivalence of invariant Boolean functions under some permutations. Some of these classes and their subsets yield new 9-variable Boolean functions having the nonlinearity of 242 with different autocorrelation spectra from those of the Boolean functions found in generalized RSBF and DSBF classes. Moreover, we have attained 13-variable balanced Boolean functions having nonlinearity of 4036 which is greater than the bent concatenation bound of 4032, and improves the recent result of 4034.

Environmental impact has become one of the most relevant issues in liner shipping during the recent years. Maritime shipping is responsible for the 2.7 per cent of the world CO2 emissions, of which 25 per cent is attributable to container ships. This business also produces a significant quantity of sulphur, a very dangerous substance for human health, especially if it is emitted in areas next to the coast. At the same time, bunker cost represents the biggest portion of the operational cost of a shipping company. Slow steaming is a cheap and effective strategy from both save pollutants emissions and bunker cost. Moreover, it can be immediately put into practice. This report introduces a Mixed Integer Programming Model to solve the Liner Shipping Routing and Speed Optimization Problem (LSRSOP). The final goal is to find the best route and to optimize the the sailing speed of the vessel considering the Emission Control Areas and maximum transit times between ports. Two Heuristic Methods -the 2-Steps Method and the Simulated Annealingare proposed to solve big instances that would require too much running time to be solved until optimality. Both of them use a Hill-Climbing Algorithm that generates a slight different route from a given one. A Bi-Objective Function Model has been designed for instances whose the optimal solution can be found in reasonable time. It considers the operative cost of the vessel and the external cost of emissions. The results show efficient solutions that are the "golden line" between the most convenient solution for the company and the most sustainable solution.

A Virtualização de Funções de Rede (NFV – Network Function Virtualization) é um novo conceito arquitetural que está remodelando a operação de funções de rede (e.g., firewall, gateways e proxies). O conceito principal de NFV consiste em desacoplar a lógica de funções de rede dos dispositivos de hardware especializados e, desta forma, permite a execução de imagens de software sobre hardware de prateleira (COTS – Commercial Off-The-Shelf). NFV tem o potencial para tornar a operação das funções de rede mais flexíveis e econômicas, primordiais em ambientes onde o número de funções implantadas pode chegar facilmente à ordem de centenas. Apesar da intensa atividade de pesquisa na área, o problema de posicionar e encadear funções de rede virtuais (VNF – Virtual Network Functions) de maneira escalável e com baixo custo ainda apresenta uma série de limitações. Mais especificamente, as estratégias existentes na literatura negligenciam o aspecto de encadeamento de VNFs (i.e., objetivam sobretudo o posicionamento), não escalam para o tamanho das infraestruturas NFV (i.e., milhares de nós com capacidade de computação) e, por último, baseiam a qualidade das soluções obtidas em custos operacionais não representativos. Nesta tese, aborda-se o posicionamento e o encadeamento de funções de rede virtualizadas (VNFPC – Virtual Network Function Placement and Chaining) como um problema de otimização no contexto intra- e inter-datacenter. Primeiro, formaliza-se o problema VNFPC e propõe-se um modelo de Programação Linear Inteira (ILP) para resolvêlo. O objetivo consiste em minimizar a alocação de recursos, ao mesmo tempo que atende aos requisitos e restrições de fluxo de rede. Segundo, aborda-se a escalabilidade do problema VNFPC para resolver grandes instâncias do problema (i.e., milhares de nós NFV). Propõe-se um um algoritmo heurístico baseado em fix-and-optimize que incorpora a meta-heurística Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) para explorar eficientemente o espaço de solução do problema VNFPC. Terceiro, avalia-se as limitações de desempenho e os custos operacionais de estratégias típicas de aprovisionamento ambientes reais de NFV. Com base nos resultados empíricos coletados, propõe-se um modelo analítico que estima com alta precisão os custos operacionais para requisitos de VNFs arbitrários. Quarto, desenvolve-se um mecanismo para a implantação de encadeamentos de VNFs no contexto intra-datacenter. O algoritmo proposto (OCM – Operational Cost Minimization) baseia-se em uma extensão da redução bem conhecida do problema de emparelhamento ponderado (i.e., weighted perfect matching problem) para o problema de fluxo de custo mínimo (i.e., min-cost flow problem) e considera o desempenho das VNFs (e.g., requisitos de CPU), bem como os custos operacionais estimados. Os resultados alcaçados mostram que o modelo ILP proposto para o problema VNFPC reduz em até 25% nos atrasos fim-a-fim (em comparação com os encadeamentos observados nas infra-estruturas tradicionais) com um excesso de provisionamento de recursos aceitável – limitado a 4%. Além disso, os resultados evidenciam que a heurística proposta (baseada em fix-and-optimize) é capaz de encontrar soluções factíveis de alta qualidade de forma eficiente, mesmo em cenários com milhares de VNFs. Além disso, provê-se um melhor entendimento sobre as métricas de desempenho de rede (e.g., vazão, consumo de CPU e capacidade de processamento de pacotes) para as estratégias típicas de implantação de VNFs adotadas infraestruturas NFV. Por último, o algoritmo proposto no contexto intra-datacenter (i.e. OCM) reduz significativamente os custos operacionais quando comparado aos mecanismos de posicionamento típicos uti
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a novel concept that is reshaping the middlebox arena, shifting network functions (e.g. firewall, gateways, proxies) from specialized hardware appliances to software images running on commodity hardware. This concept has potential to make network function provision and operation more flexible and cost-effective, paramount in a world where deployed middleboxes may easily reach the order of hundreds. Despite recent research activity in the field, little has been done towards scalable and cost-efficient placement & chaining of virtual network functions (VNFs) – a key feature for the effective success of NFV. More specifically, existing strategies have neglected the chaining aspect of NFV (focusing on efficient placement only), failed to scale to hundreds of network functions and relied on unrealistic operational costs. In this thesis, we approach VNF placement and chaining as an optimization problem in the context of Inter- and Intra-datacenter. First, we formalize the Virtual Network Function Placement and Chaining (VNFPC) problem and propose an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) model to solve it. The goal is to minimize required resource allocation, while meeting network flow requirements and constraints. Then, we address scalability of VNFPC problem to solve large instances (i.e., thousands of NFV nodes) by proposing a fixand- optimize-based heuristic algorithm for tackling it. Our algorithm incorporates a Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) meta-heuristic, for efficiently exploring the placement and chaining solution space. Further, we assess the performance limitations of typical NFV-based deployments and the incurred operational costs of commodity servers and propose an analytical model that accurately predict the operational costs for arbitrary service chain requirements. Then, we develop a general service chain intra-datacenter deployment mechanism (named OCM – Operational Cost Minimization) that considers both the actual performance of the service chains (e.g., CPU requirements) as well as the operational incurred cost. Our novel algorithm is based on an extension of the well-known reduction from weighted matching to min-cost flow problem. Finally, we tackle the problem of monitoring service chains in NFV-based environments. For that, we introduce the DNM (Distributed Network Monitoring) problem and propose an optimization model to solve it. DNM allows service chain segments to be independently monitored, which allows specialized network monitoring requirements to be met in a efficient and coordinated way. Results show that the proposed ILP model for the VNFPC problem leads to a reduction of up to 25% in end-to-end delays (in comparison to chainings observed in traditional infrastructures) and an acceptable resource over-provisioning limited to 4%. Also, we provide strong evidences that our fix-and-optimize based heuristic is able to find feasible, high-quality solutions efficiently, even in scenarios scaling to thousands of VNFs. Further, we provide indepth insights on network performance metrics (such as throughput, CPU utilization and packet processing) and its current limitations while considering typical deployment strategies. Our OCM algorithm reduces significantly operational costs when compared to the de-facto standard placement mechanisms used in Cloud systems. Last, our DNM model allows finer grained network monitoring with limited overheads. By coordinating the placement of monitoring sinks and the forwarding of network monitoring traffic, DNM can reduce the number of monitoring sinks and the network resource consumption (54% lower than a traditional method).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-17T14:53:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Gustavo Araujo.pdf: 2606649 bytes, checksum: efb1a5ded768b058f25d23ee8967bd38 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-04-28
In this work the main objective is to present the development of learning algorithms for online application for the solution of algebraic Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. The concepts covered are focused on developing the methodology for control systems, through techniques that aims to design online adaptive controllers to reject noise sensors, parametric variations and modeling errors. Concepts of neurodynamic programming and reinforcement learning are are discussed to design algorithms where the context of a given operating point causes the control system to adapt and thus present the performance according to specifications design. Are designed methods for online estimation of adaptive critic focusing efforts on techniques for gradient estimating of the environment value function.
Neste trabalho o principal objetivo é apresentar o desenvolvimento de algoritmos de aprendizagem para execução online para a solução da equação algébrica de Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman. Os conceitos abordados se concentram no desenvolvimento da metodologia para sistemas de controle, por meio de técnicas que tem como objetivo o projeto online de controladores adaptativos são projetados para rejeitar ruídos de sensores, variações paramétricas e erros de modelagem. Conceitos de programação neurodinâmica e aprendizagem por reforço são abordados para desenvolver algoritmos onde a contextualização de determinado ponto de operação faz com que o sistema de controle se adapte e, dessa forma, apresente o desempenho de acordo com as especificações de projeto. Desenvolve-se métodos para a estimação online do crítico adaptativo concentrando os esforços em técnicas de estimação do gradiente da função valor do ambiente.

El objetivo general de esta investigación se ha centrado en comprobar cómo se manifiestan los aspectos emocionales en la parte verbal de los anuncios publicitarios en prensa escrita en lengua alemana, sin la pretensión de confirmar la existencia de una publicidad emocional o racional, sino más bien describir la complementariedad de éstos, tanto a nivel funcional como formal. Para ello, el desarrollo temático se ha utilizado como indicador de la organización textual, puesto que permite analizar los recursos semántico-sintácticos poniéndolos en relación con las funciones comunicativas, de las cuales a su vez se han considerado las relaciones entre el tipo y el modo oracional. Además, esta elección ha permitido poner de manifiesto las formas de realización indirecta, indicativas de una estrategia persuasiva. Como último paso, para analizar las estrategias persuasivas de implicación emocional se ha elaborado un catálogo de categorías que indican tanto del vínculo existente entre los interlocutores (proximidad o distancia) como del uso de la empatía. El corpus se constituye de 178 textos-anuncio de diferentes semanarios de difusión masiva en Alemania, y se han seleccionado solamente aquéllos que han sido válidos tras superar un requisito estadístico con el fin de asegurar una representatividad suficiente. Cada texto-anuncio se ha clasificado inicialmente dentro de un desarrollo temático, para a continuación comprobar su pertinencia tanto por su disposición textual como por sus recursos discursivos, léxicos y gramaticales. Seguidamente se ha descrito la presencia de los tipos ilocutivos, los recursos expresivos de la información objetiva y de las estrategias persuasivas de implicación emocional dentro de esta misma clasificación. Los resultados del análisis no se han alejado de la propuesta de la tipología textual tradicional, concretándose en una preeminencia de las estrategias descriptivas en la formulación del discurso publicitario. Además, se ha corroborado la presencia de la emocionalidad mediante la función expresiva y las estrategias persuasivas de implicación emocional, describiéndose así su papel como complementario al de la transferencia de información, la cual también ha estado muy presente. Estas conclusiones se suman así a las aportaciones de la llamada inteligencia emocional, donde se promueve la importancia de las emociones en la toma de decisiones humanas. Igualmente, la presencia de la emocionalidad ha reflejado atributos indiscutibles de la sociedad contemporánea, enfocada hacia el divertimento y la búsqueda de emociones. Por último, cabe apuntar la utilidad del material para ser explotado didácticamente en el aula, tanto por su contenido como su marco comunicativo, así como la posible aplicación del modelo de análisis a otros ámbitos.
This study focuses on the way emotional aspects appear in the verbal part of press advertisements in German, with no intention to confirm the existence of emotional or rational advertising, but rather to describe the complementarity of these concepts, on both a functional and a formal level. To that end, its thematic development has been used as an indicator of the textual organization, since it allows analysis of the semantic-syntactic resources relating them to the communicative functions, from which the connections between sentence type and sentence mode have been established. Furthermore, this choice has allowed reveal the indirect realization forms, signs of a persuasive strategy. Finally, in order to analyze the persuasive strategies of emotional involvement, a catalogue has been elaborated with categories revealing the existing attachment between the interlocutors (proximity or distance) and the use of empathy. The study data were extracted from a verbal language corpus. It consists of 178 advertisements, each of these classified into a thematic development. All advertisements were transcribed and lemmatized to ensure sufficient representativeness. The analysis results do not deviate from the traditional proposal of textual typology; they show a preeminence of descriptive strategies in advertising discourse formulation. Furthermore, it has been substantiated the existence of emotional aspects, both by means of the expressive function and by means of the persuasive strategies of emotional involvement, thereby stressing its role as a complement to the information transfer, which has also been very prominent. These conclusions are added to the contributions of the so called emotional intelligence, which draws the attention to the importance of emotions at decisiontaking. Likewise, the presence of emotionality reflects indisputable attributes of contemporary society, focused on entertainment and its quest for emotions. Finally, it is relevant to mention the usefulness of the material as teaching material in the classroom, both for its content and its communicative frame, as well as the potential application of its analysis method in other fields.

This work deals with scheduling problem in particular plastic production service. The solution is based on heuristic algorithms, programming languages C + +, C # and is built on the .NET framework and LINQ to XML. It provides the users with comparisons of the heuristic approach with genetic algorithms applied to production problem. All methods results are compared in relation to hand-arranged plans.

Linear time-invariant (LTI) dynamic networks are described by their dynamical structure function, and generally, they have many possible state space realizations. This work characterizes the necessary and sufficient conditions on a state transformation that preserves the dynamical structure function, thereby generating the entire set of realizations of a given order for a specific dynamic network.

While in traditional computer game playing agents were designed solely for the purpose of playing one single game, General Game Playing is concerned with agents capable of playing classes of games. Given the game's rules and a few minutes time, the agent is supposed to play any game of the class and eventually win it. Since the game is unknown beforehand, previously optimized data structures or human-provided features are not applicable. Instead, the agent must derive a strategy on its own. One approach to obtain such a strategy is to analyze the game rules and create a state evaluation function that can be subsequently used to direct the agent to promising states in the match. In this thesis we will discuss existing methods and present a general approach on how to construct such an evaluation function. Each topic is discussed in a modular fashion and evaluated along the lines of quality and efficiency, resulting in a strong agent.

[ES] En la actualidad, uno de los principales desafíos a los que se enfrentan las grandes áreas metropolitanas es la congestión provocada por el tráfico, la cual se ha convertido en un problema importante al que se enfrentan las autoridades de cada ciudad. Para abordar este problema es necesario implementar una solución eficiente para controlar el tráfico que genere beneficios para los ciudadanos, como reducir los tiempos de viaje de los vehículos y, en consecuencia, el consumo de combustible, el ruido, y la contaminación ambiental. De hecho, al analizar adecuadamente la demanda de tráfico, es posible predecir las condiciones futuras del tráfico, y utilizar esa información para la optimización de las rutas tomadas por los vehículos. Este enfoque puede ser especialmente efectivo si se aplica en el contexto de los vehículos autónomos, que tienen un comportamiento más predecible, lo cual permite a los administradores de la ciudad mitigar los efectos de la congestión, como es la contaminación, al mejorar el flujo de tráfico de manera totalmente centralizada. La validación de este enfoque generalmente requiere el uso de simulaciones que deberían ser lo más realistas posible. Sin embargo, lograr altos grados de realismo puede ser complejo cuando los patrones de tráfico reales, definidos a través de una matriz de Origen/Destino (O-D) para los vehículos en una ciudad, son desconocidos, como ocurre la mayoría de las veces. Por lo tanto, la primera contribución de esta tesis es desarrollar una heurística iterativa para mejorar el modelado de la congestión de tráfico; a partir de las mediciones de bucle de inducción reales hechas por el Ayuntamiento de Valencia (España), pudimos generar una matriz O-D para la simulación de tráfico que se asemeja a la distribución de tráfico real. Si fuera posible caracterizar el estado del tráfico prediciendo las condiciones futuras del tráfico para optimizar la ruta de los vehículos automatizados, y si se pudieran tomar estas medidas para mitigar de manera preventiva los efectos de la congestión con sus problemas relacionados, se podría mejorar el flujo de tráfico en general. Por lo tanto, la segunda contribución de esta tesis es desarrollar una Ecuación de Predicción de Tráfico para caracterizar el comportamiento en las diferentes calles de la ciudad en términos de tiempo de viaje con respecto al volumen de tráfico, y aplicar una regresión logística a esos datos para predecir las condiciones futuras del tráfico. La tercera y última contribución de esta tesis apunta directamente al nuevo paradigma de gestión de tráfico previsto, tratándose de un servidor de rutas capaz de manejar todo el tráfico en una ciudad, y equilibrar los flujos de tráfico teniendo en cuenta las condiciones de congestión del tráfico presentes y futuras. Por lo tanto, realizamos un estudio de simulación con datos reales de congestión de tráfico en la ciudad de Valencia (España), para demostrar cómo se puede mejorar el flujo de tráfico en un día típico mediante la solución propuesta. Los resultados experimentales muestran que nuestra solución, combinada con una actualización frecuente de las condiciones del tráfico en el servidor de rutas, es capaz de lograr mejoras sustanciales en términos de velocidad promedio y tiempo de trayecto, ambos indicadores de un menor grado de congestión y de una mejor fluidez del tráfico.
[CA] En l'actualitat, un dels principals desafiaments als quals s'enfronten les grans àrees metropolitanes és la congestió provocada pel trànsit, que s'ha convertit en un problema important al qual s'enfronten les autoritats de cada ciutat. Per a abordar aquest problema és necessari implementar una solució eficient per a controlar el trànsit que genere beneficis per als ciutadans, com reduir els temps de viatge dels vehicles i, en conseqüència, el consum de combustible, el soroll, i la contaminació ambiental. De fet, en analitzar adequadament la demanda de trànsit, és possible predir les condicions futures del trànsit, i utilitzar aqueixa informació per a l'optimització de les rutes preses pels vehicles. Aquest enfocament pot ser especialment efectiu si s'aplica en el context dels vehicles autònoms, que tenen un comportament més predictible, i això permet als administradors de la ciutat mitigar els efectes de la congestió, com és la contaminació, en millorar el flux de trànsit de manera totalment centralitzada. La validació d'aquest enfocament generalment requereix l'ús de simulacions que haurien de ser el més realistes possible. No obstant això, aconseguir alts graus de realisme pot ser complex quan els patrons de trànsit reals, definits a través d'una matriu d'Origen/Destinació (O-D) per als vehicles en una ciutat, són desconeguts, com ocorre la majoria de les vegades. Per tant, la primera contribució d'aquesta tesi és desenvolupar una heurística iterativa per a millorar el modelatge de la congestió de trànsit; a partir dels mesuraments de bucle d'inducció reals fetes per l'Ajuntament de València (Espanya), vam poder generar una matriu O-D per a la simulació de trànsit que s'assembla a la distribució de trànsit real. Si fóra possible caracteritzar l'estat del trànsit predient les condicions futures del trànsit per a optimitzar la ruta dels vehicles automatitzats, i si es pogueren prendre aquestes mesures per a mitigar de manera preventiva els efectes de la congestió amb els seus problemes relacionats, es podria millorar el flux de trànsit en general. Per tant, la segona contribució d'aquesta tesi és desenvolupar una Equació de Predicció de Trànsit per a caracteritzar el comportament en els diferents carrers de la ciutat en termes de temps de viatge respecte al volum de trànsit, i aplicar una regressió logística a aqueixes dades per a predir les condicions futures del trànsit. La tercera i última contribució d'aquesta tesi apunta directament al nou paradigma de gestió de trànsit previst. Es tracta d'un servidor de rutes capaç de manejar tot el trànsit en una ciutat, i equilibrar els fluxos de trànsit tenint en compte les condicions de congestió del trànsit presents i futures. Per tant, realitzem un estudi de simulació amb dades reals de congestió de trànsit a la ciutat de València (Espanya), per a demostrar com es pot millorar el flux de trànsit en un dia típic mitjançant la solució proposada. Els resultats experimentals mostren que la nostra solució, combinada amb una actualització freqüent de les condicions del trànsit en el servidor de rutes, és capaç d'aconseguir millores substancials en termes de velocitat faig una mitjana i de temps de trajecte, tots dos indicadors d'un grau menor de congestió i d'una fluïdesa millor del trànsit.
[EN] Currently, one of the main challenges that large metropolitan areas have to face is traffic congestion, which has become an important problem faced by city authorities. To address this problem, it becomes necessary to implement an efficient solution to control traffic that generates benefits for citizens, such as reducing vehicle journey times and, consequently, use of fuel, noise and environmental pollution. In fact, by properly analyzing traffic demand, it becomes possible to predict future traffic conditions, and to use that information for the optimization of the routes taken by vehicles. Such an approach becomes especially effective if applied in the context of autonomous vehicles, which have a more predictable behavior, thus enabling city management entities to mitigate the effects of traffic congestion and pollution by improving the traffic flow in a city in a fully centralized manner. Validating this approach typically requires the use of simulations, which should be as realistic as possible. However, achieving high degrees of realism can be complex when the actual traffic patterns, defined through an Origin/Destination (O-D) matrix for the vehicles in a city, are unknown, as occurs most of the times. Thus, the first contribution of this thesis is to develop an iterative heuristic for improving traffic congestion modeling; starting from real induction loop measurements made available by the City Hall of Valencia, Spain, we were able to generate an O-D matrix for traffic simulation that resembles the real traffic distribution. If it were possible to characterize the state of traffic by predicting future traffic conditions for optimizing the route of automated vehicles, and if these measures could be taken to preventively mitigate the effects of congestion with its related problems, the overall traffic flow could be improved. Thereby, the second contribution of this thesis was to develop a Traffic Prediction Equation to characterize the different streets of a city in terms of travel time with respect to the vehicle load, and applying logistic regression to those data to predict future traffic conditions. The third and last contribution of this thesis towards our envisioned traffic management paradigm was a route server capable of handling all the traffic in a city, and balancing traffic flows by accounting for present and future traffic congestion conditions. Thus, we perform a simulation study using real data of traffic congestion in the city of Valencia, Spain, to demonstrate how the traffic flow in a typical day can be improved using our proposed solution. Experimental results show that our proposed solution, combined with frequent updating of traffic conditions on the route server, is able to achieve substantial improvements in terms of average travel speeds and travel times, both indicators of lower degrees of congestion and improved traffic fluidity.
Finally, I want to thank the Ecuatorian Republic through the "Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación" (SENESCYT), for granting me the scholarship to finance my studies.
Zambrano Martínez, JL. (2019). Efficient Traffic Management in Urban Environments [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/129865
TESIS

This thesis focuses mainly on the Maximum Independent Set (MIS) problem. Some related graph theoretical combinatorial problems are also considered. As these problems are generally NP-hard, we study their complexity in hereditary graph classes, i.e. graph classes defined by a set F of forbidden induced subgraphs. We revise the literature about the issue, for example complexity results, applications, and techniques tackling the problem. Through considering some general approach, we exhibit several cases where the problem admits a polynomial-time solution. More specifically, we present polynomial-time algorithms for the MIS problem in: + some subclasses of $S_{2;j;k}$-free graphs (thus generalizing the classical result for $S_{1;2;k}$-free graphs); + some subclasses of $tree_{k}$-free graphs (thus generalizing the classical results for subclasses of P5-free graphs); + some subclasses of $P_{7}$-free graphs and $S_{2;2;2}$-free graphs; and various subclasses of graphs of bounded maximum degree, for example subcubic graphs. Our algorithms are based on various approaches. In particular, we characterize augmenting graphs in a subclass of $S_{2;k;k}$-free graphs and a subclass of $S_{2;2;5}$-free graphs. These characterizations are partly based on extensions of the concept of redundant set [125]. We also propose methods finding augmenting chains, an extension of the method in [99], and finding augmenting trees, an extension of the methods in [125]. We apply the augmenting vertex technique, originally used for $P_{5}$-free graphs or banner-free graphs, for some more general graph classes. We consider a general graph theoretical combinatorial problem, the so-called Maximum -Set problem. Two special cases of this problem, the so-called Maximum F-(Strongly) Independent Subgraph and Maximum F-Induced Subgraph, where F is a connected graph set, are considered. The complexity of the Maximum F-(Strongly) Independent Subgraph problem is revised and the NP-hardness of the Maximum F-Induced Subgraph problem is proved. We also extend the augmenting approach to apply it for the general Maximum Π -Set problem. We revise on classical graph transformations and give two unified views based on pseudo-boolean functions and αff-redundant vertex. We also make extensive uses of α-redundant vertices, originally mainly used for $P_{5}$-free graphs, to give polynomial solutions for some subclasses of $S_{2;2;2}$-free graphs and $tree_{k}$-free graphs. We consider some classical sequential greedy heuristic methods. We also combine classical algorithms with αff-redundant vertices to have new strategies of choosing the next vertex in greedy methods. Some aspects of the algorithms, for example forbidden induced subgraph sets and worst case results, are also considered. Finally, we restrict our attention on graphs of bounded maximum degree and subcubic graphs. Then by using some techniques, for example ff-redundant vertex, clique separator, and arguments based on distance, we general these results for some subclasses of $S_{i;j;k}$-free subcubic graphs.

Бакаленко Е. А. Понятие сердца в отечественной философии: гносеологический аспект / Е. А. Бакаленко // Філософська спадщина Г. С. Сковороди і сучасність: матеріали IХ Харківських міжнародних Сковородинівських читань (до 280-річчя Г. С. Сковороди). – Харків: Екограф, 2002. – С. 3–5.

碩士
長庚大學
資訊工程學系
98
The major difficult of problem solving processes is the oversized search space corresponding to a complicated game state; therefore, efficient heuristics is always important to search algorithms. In this thesis, we conduct a series of novel experiments that train artificial neural networks to serve as heuristic functions. Adaptable heuristics is expected to reduce the states being retrieved and thus can make the problem solving process more effective. Our experiments divide into two parts. The first part implemented Greedy Algorithms, and improved the heuristics thereof by consulting all the best children’s absolute positions and relative positions respectively. The basic idea is to move the states with worthless offspring backwords in the candidate queue; this way, we can avoid quantities of unnecessary retrievals on these states. The experimental results indicated that this method can reduce the searching nodes and time. However, the solutions obtained by greedy search were eventually much worst then the best solutions. In the second part of our experiments, we conducted A* Algorithms. Initially, artificial neural networks were successfully confirmed to simulate the currently known most effective heuristic function. Then we went a step futher to adjust the target values of the states that were involved in the near best solutions. Training like this enabled the near- best solutions to be found quickly. The experimental results revealed that the solutions obtained by this method are very close to the shortest path and both the retrieved nodes and search time were significantly reduced.

The aim of this study was to critically examine the role and function of emotions in primary school children's meaningful learning. Emotions that are commonly experienced by primary school children were identified and an indication was given of how they relate to meaningful learning. Factors that affect both emotions and meaningful learning were also discussed. In an empirical investigation that was undertaken, it was found that emotions influence meaningful learning of primary school children either positively or negatively. The following emotions pointed to both positive and negative significant correlations with regard to meaningful learning: anger, aggression, anxiety, fear, love, joy and affection. Factors like family size, gender and the environment (life world of primary school children) also influence meaningful learning.
Psychology of Education
M.Ed.(Psychology of Education)

碩士
國立清華大學
工業工程與工程管理學系
101
With the demand for various types of electronic products tend to be light, thin, short and small. The precision of parts and the density between the parts of the printed circuit board will increase. In order to control product cost effectively and enhance production quality and efficiency, the manufacturers must find the advanced manufacturing technology to improve surface mount technology. Most surface mount technology problems are correlated to solder paste printing (Pan et al. 1999 , Huang 2010, Tsai 2008), and solder paste volume is an important quality measure of solder paste printing process. Therefore, controlling the solder paste volume is a key production technologies to obtain high–yield rate and maintain production effectiveness. Controlling the solder paste volume is an operating window problem, plenty of parameters will affect the output; if we only rely on engineer’s experiences to determine the values, the defect rate may increase owing to the unstable manufacturing process. This study proposes a systematic procedure for parameter optimization of the solder paste printing process. First, historical data and engineering knowledge are used to determine the significant factors. Second, the ideal squeegee pressure and optimal parameter settings are determined by using Taguchi methods. Also, we propose utilizing back-propagation neural network and desirability function and integrating genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, and simulate anneal to obtain the optimal parameter combination. A real case was implemented and analyzed to demonstrate the proposed approach’s effectiveness. The results show that our proposed method can reduce the waste of solder paste volume and substantially increase the operation window width in order to improve product quality.

In the 1980s, in the discipline of Classical studies in the field of Greco-Roman philosophy, the scholars showed renewed interest in the subject of the emotions. The outcome of their research reinstated the cognitive function in emotions. The research also recognised that the values and beliefs in the emotions are culturally conditioned. This outcome opened the possibility of discovering the values of a culture by analysing the emotions. Another outcome of the research showed that the interpretation of a lexical term, designating an emotion, did not necessarily imply the same meaning universally. The knowledge of the emotions in this discipline influenced numerous branches of academic study. It was noted that this did not apply to New Testament studies and therefore became an opportunity for a research subject, namely: An Analysis of Emotions of Anger and Fear in the Undisputed Pauline letters. The purpose was to determine their meanings within the context of Imperial Roman values. The analysis was based on Aristotle's definition of anger and fear. This approach also required a study of social conditions in the provincial Roman cities in which Paul had formed communities. The study was dependent on the emotional language used by Paul in his undisputed letters. Louw-Nida New Testament Greek-English Lexicon based on Semantic Domains was used to locate the words that expressed the emotional concepts of anger and fear. The essence of the research problem was to discover the meaning of the emotions in the undisputed Pauline letters in the first century CE.
Religious Studies and Arabic
D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

The moderation function of in-group status position on the relationship between group-based guilt and reparation intention was tested in a 2 (group-based guilt: low versus high) x 2 (status loss: weak versus strong) factorial between-subjects design, using an online survey software program named Qualtrics. The target population was white South African undergraduate students born after 1988 and registered at the University of South Africa. The results of the first Experiment confirmed the hypothesis, that the relationship between group-based guilt and reparation intention becomes less significant the more participants perceive a loss of status for their in-group. However, the hypothesis could not be confirmed in Experiment 2. The results are presented and discussed in detail
Psychology
M.A. (Psychology)

Function Shift is the transference of functions, which involves responsibilities, assets and human resources (including their employment packages), from one department to the next. The Function Shift to which I refer in this study entails the shifting of functions from the former Adult Education and Training provincial directorates to the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). This process started in 2009 in terms of proclamation 48 of 2009. The purpose of my active research is to investigate in depth the experienced positive and negative consequences of Function Shift with the intention of exploring problematic features and challenges of Community Education and possibilities for addressing them. By ‘experienced’ consequences, I mean consequences that are not just imagined but were expressed by participants. I employed an 'active' qualitative research approach whereby I, as a researcher, am actively involved in the research process in trying to ensure that the research is bearing results for me as well as for the participants. I based the selection of Community Education and Training Colleges on the characteristics of the regions in which the colleges belonged. I clustered regions that portrayed similar characteristics and came out with 3 clusters. I selected one region and its respective college from each of the 3 clusters. From each of the selected regions and their corresponding colleges, I sampled a Regional manager, Curriculum Implementer or regional official, Principal, 1 Centre manager, 1 lecturer and 1 student. I collected data through first and second interview sessions, focus group discussion in 1 college and through evaluative discussion with 2 head office officials. To carry out data analysis, I used the principles of Atlas TI that encourages the coding, categorisation and thematising data collected from participants simultaneously with data from the reviewed literature. It emerged that all participants agreed that a multilevel change management system is suitable for Function Shift as opposed to the traditional rational/linear model and that Function Shift is a potential solution to Adult Education and Training challenges. The prevailing challenge was insufficient consultation, which resulted in some transitional challenges that could have been identified and mitigated against. My concluding recommendation is that the oral or print input made by members on the ground including the assessment of the real and practical situation in Community Learning Centres must drive the development of policies that are still cascaded by the DHET. Consultation must be characterised by dialogue, not announcements of deadlines.
Ku susumetiwa ka mintirho swi vula ku susiwa ka vutihlamuleri endzawuleni yinwana byi yisiwa endzawuleni yin’wani. Vutihlamuleri lebyi byi katsa tinhundu, timali, vatirhi ni miholo ya vona ni hikwaswo leswi fambelanaka ni xiyenge xexo. Ndzavisiso lowu wu vulavula hi ku susiwa ka vutihlamuleri bya dyondzo ni vudzaberi/vuthwaseli bya vatswatsi (Adult Education and Training) e mindzawuleni ya dyondzo ya le hansi ya swifunda (Provincial Department of Basic Education) ku yisiwa e ndzawuleni ya le henhla ya dyondzo ni vudzaberi (Department of Higher Education and Training). Nghingiriko lowu wa ku cinciwa ka vutihlamuleri wu sungurile hi lembe ra 2009. Makungu ya ndzavisiso lowu wa mahika I ku lavisisa hi vuxokoxoko vumbhoni bya switandzaku (mbuyelo lowunene ni lowu wu nga tsakisiki) leswi vangiwanga hi ku cinciwa ka vutihlamuleri, hi xikongomelo xo paluxa swirhalanganyi swa dyondzo ya vaaki (Community Education) ni ku ololoxa swirhalanganyi leswi. Loko ni ku vumbhoni bya switandzaku, ndzi vula switandzaku leswi swi nga kumbeteriwiki, kambe leswi vahlamuri (participants/respondents) va nyikaka vumbhoni bya leswi va nga swi vona ni ku switwa. Ndzi endlile vulavisisi bya mahika (active research), laha mina tani hi mulavisisi ndzi tlangeke xiyenge xa ku endla leswaku vulavisisi lebyi byi va ni mbuyelo lowu nga ta pfuna mina xikan’we na muhlamuri. Ndzi hlawurile tilholichi ta dyondzo ni vudzaberi ta vaaki ku ya hi tindhawu /tirhijini laha tikholichi leti ti kumekaka kona. Ndzi longoloxile tirhijini hinkwato, ndzi ti katsakanya hi timpawu ta tona, ivi ndzi huma na mintlawa minarhu. Ndzi hlawule kholeji yin’we eka ntlawa wun’wani ni wun’wani ni tirhijini ta tona. Eka rhijini yin'wana na yin'wana ndzi hlawurile no tihlanganisa na vanhu lava landzelaka: mufambisi wa rhijini, mukamberi/museketeri wa dyondzo a rhijinini, nhloko ya kholeji, mufambisi wa sentara, mudzaberi na xichudeni. Eka Kholeji yo sungula ni ya vumbirhi, ndzi hlengeletile mahungu hi ku burisana ni vahlamuri hi wun’we ha wun’we. Eka Kholeji ya vunharhu, ndzi hlengelete mahungu hi mbhurisano wa hlengeletano ya murhangeri wa senthara, vadzaberi va nharhu ni machudeni mambirhi. Ku kuma voxokoxoko ni nhlavutelo wa mahungu lawa ndzi wa hlengeleteke, ndzi tirhisile maendlelo ya "Atlas Tl" yaku hlohlotela ku kuma vuxokoxoko hi ku tirhisa tekinoloji, ku longoloxa ku ya hi swiyimo ni ku endla vulavisisi eka tibuku tin'wana. Vahlamuri va pfumelelanile leswaku mafambiselo ya ku cinca loku khumbhaka swiyenge swo hambana-hambana (Multilevel change management) hi nkarhi wun’we hi wona lama fanelaka ku susumetiwa ka vutihlamuleri. Nakambe vahlamuri va pfumelelanile leswaku ku susmetiwa ka vutihlamuleri swi nga tisa xintshuxo eka ku tikeriwa loku a ku ri kona e ka dyondzo ni vudzaberi bya vatswatsi. Ndzi heta hi ku vula leswaku swibumabumelo leswi tsariweke ni ku vuriwa hi milomo ya vaaki, ni ku xopaxopela xiyimo lexi xi nga etisenthareni ta dyondzo ya vaaki, hi swona leswi fanelaka ku va makombandlela ya ku tumbuluxiwa ni ku hangalasiwa ka milawu (policies) leyi ya ha endliwaka hi ndzawulo ya le henhla ya dyondzo ni vudzaberi. Njhenhjekisano wa miehleketo exikarhi ka varhangeri ni vaaki hi yona ndlela ya kahle yaku tihlanganisa (consultation) na vanhu.
Phetišetšo ya mošomo ke go fetišetša mešomo, yeo e amago maikarabelo, dithoto le methopo ya batho (go akaretšwa ditshwanelo tša bona tša mošomo), go tloga go kgoro ye nngwe go ya go ye nngwe. Phetišetšo ya mošomo yeo ke bolelago ka yona ka mo dinyakišišong e ama go fetišetša mešomo ya Thuto ya Batho ba Bagolo le Tlhahlo go tloga go diofisi tša bolaodibogolo bja diprofense tša Thuto ya Batho ba Bagolo le Tlhahlo tša pele go ya go go Thuto ya Godimo le Tlhahlo (DHET). Tshepetšo ye e thomile ka 2009 go ya ka pego ya 48 ya 2009. Nepo ya dinyakišišo tša ka tša go rarolla bothata ke go nyakišiša go tsenelela dipoelo tše dibotse le tše dimpe tša maitemogelo tša Phetišetšo ya Mošomo ka nepo ya go nyakišiša dibopego tša mathata le ditlhohlo tša Thuto ya Setšhaba le dikgonagalo tša go šogana le tšona. Ka ‘dipoelo tša maitemogelo’ ke bolela ka dipoelo tšeo di sa akanywego fela eupša di tšweletšwa ke bakgathatema. Ke šomišitše mokgwa wa dinyakišišo wa boleng wa “go rarolla bothata’ moo nna, bjalo ka monyakišiši, ke amana ka dinyakišišong ka mafolofolo go kgonthiša gore dinyakišišo di na le dipoelo tše dibotse go nna le go bakgathatema. Ke theile kgetho ya ka ya Thuto ya Setšhaba le Dikholetšhe tša Tlhahlo go dibopego tša dilete tšeo dikholetšhe tše di lego gona. Ke hlopile dilete tšeo di bontšhago dibopego tša go swana gomme ka tšweletša dihlopha tše tharo. Go tšwa go dilete tše dingwe le tše dingwe tšeo di kgethilwego le dikholetšhe tšeo di amanago le tšona, ke dirile sešupo ka molaodi wa Selete, Mophethagatši wa Lenaneothuto goba mohlankedi wa selete, Hlogo ya Sekolo, molaodi wa Senthara yo motee, mofahloši yo motee le moithuti yo motee. Ke kgobokeditše data ka dikopano tša mathomo le tša bobedi tša dipoledišano, dipoledišano tša sehlopha sa nepišo kholetšheng ye tee ka dipoledišano tša tekolo le bahlankedi ba babedi ba kantorokgolo. Go dira tshekatsheko ya data, ke šomišitše methopo ya Atlas TI ye e hlohleletšago go swaya, go hlopha le go kgetha data ye e kgobokeditšwego go tšwa go bakgathatema ka nako ye tee le data go tšwa go dingwalwa tšeo di sekasekilwego. Go tšweletše gore bakgathatema ka moka ba dumetše gore mokgwa wa taolo ya phetogo ya magato a mantši o loketše Phetišetšo ya Mošomo kgahlanong le mmotlolo wa tlwaelo/thwii wa mathomong le gore Phetišetšo ya Mošomo ke tharollo ye e kgonagalago ya ditlhohlo tša Thuto ya Batho ba Bagolo le Tlhahlo. Tlhohlo ye e tšwelelago e be e le therišano yeo e sa lekanago, yeo e feleditšego ka ditlhohlo tša phetišetšo tšeo di bego di utollotšwe gomme tša fedišwa. Tigelo ya ka ya go phetha ke dikgopolo tša molomo le tšeo di gatišitšwego tšeo di filwego ke maloko a mo fase go akaretšwa kelo ya maemo a nnete le a tiro mo Disenthareng tša Go ithuta tša Setšhaba di swanetše go eta pele tšweletšopele ya dipholisi tšeo di sa fetišwago ke DHET. Ditherišano di swanetše go bopša ke poledišano, e sego ditsebišo tša matšatši a mafelelo.
ABET and Youth Development
D. Ed. (Socio Education)

Tesis (Lic. en Ciencias. de la Computación)--Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía, Física y Computación, 2019.
En el diseño actual de filtros activos una de las opciones de implementación es la denominada RC (resistencia/capacitor), en la cual el filtro se construye a partir de amplificadores operacionales, resistencias y capacitores. Para satisfacer el cumplimiento de las especificaciones del filtro resulta de gran importancia la selección de los componentes discretos del filtro. Dado el amplio espectro de valores que los componentes pueden tomar, resulta ineficiente enumerar todas las combinaciones posibles y seleccionar entre ellas la mejor. En este trabajo usamos una metaheurística denominada ACOR la cual permite resolver este tipo de problemas combinatorios con restricciones en tiempos de ejecución razonables al tiempo que garantiza que las soluciones obtenidas satisfacen todas las restricciones aunque pueden no ser de la mejor calidad (donde la calidad se define respecto a alguna característica dependiente de los valores elegidos).
In the current active filter design, one of the possible implementations is the so called RC, in which the filter is built with operational amplifiers, resistors and capacitors. In order to satisfy the filter specifications it’s of great importance the selection of the discrete components that make up the filter. Given the wide range of values that these components can take, it results inefficient to enumerate all possible combinations and select amongst them the best one. In this work we use a metaheuristic called ACOR which allows to solve this kind of constrained combinatorial optimization problems in reasonable time while guaranteeing that the obtained solutions satisfy all the restrictions, though they might not be of the best quality (where quality is defined with respect to some characteristic that depends on the chosen values).

Le deuil normal, ou résilient, a souvent été laissé pour compte dans la littérature, au profit de l’intérêt plus grand porté au deuil pathologique. Cette réalité, qui s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une culture de médicalisation, a pu contribuer à la normalisation de la vision du deuil comme nuisible au fonctionnement et inutilement souffrant. Or, un certain regain d’intérêt pour l’étude des processus du deuil normal est visible dans la littérature, l’idée que le deuil résilient est en fait plus répandu que les deuils plus difficiles n’ayant été que récemment démontrée empiriquement (Bonanno, 2009). Une confusion demeure quant au rôle des émotions liées au deuil, qui sont souvent vues comme des symptômes, étant mal différenciées les unes des autres dans leur nature et leur fonction. Pourtant, la tristesse, apanage d’un deuil résilient et sain, aurait une fonction adaptative, contrairement à la détresse et la dépression, qui évoquent davantage le processus de séparation entre l’enfant et sa figure d’attachement. En effet, l’enfant, lors du départ de la figure d’attachement, vit une émotion débordante et intolérable, la protestation, suivie d’un état de désespoir. Ces émotions seraient ainsi qualitativement différentes, et non seulement quantitativement différentes. Cette thèse vise donc d’une part, via un volet théorique, à proposer un modèle du deuil résilient, mais aussi du deuil pathologique, en lien avec la tristesse, la détresse et la dépression, redonnant à chacune leur juste place. Ces deux types de deuil sont présentés comme les extrêmes d’un continuum entre lesquels toute variation peut exister. La tristesse, dans ce modèle, est dépeinte comme une émotion utile, jouant un rôle dans l’acceptation de la perte et dans la capacité à lui donner un sens. D’autre part, un volet empirique s’intéresse à l’expérience subjective de la tristesse chez des endeuillés résilients adultes ayant perdu un parent. Des entrevues semi-structurées ont été conduites auprès de six participants, et les résultats ont été analysés avec une approche qualitative, l’Analyse Phénoménologique Interprétative (IPA). Les résultats montrent que la tristesse était vécue comme étant tolérable, comme ayant une fonction adaptative et un sens, même si elle reste désagréable à vivre. Comme le deuil n’est pas vécu en vase clos, un surplus de matériel à métaboliser et des circonstances externes variables, ainsi que des variations dans les capacités de mentalisation, peuvent expliquer la présence d’autres expériences émotionnelles et de symptômes somatiques. La tristesse semble toutefois être un ingrédient essentiel d’un deuil résilient, où la personne demeure fonctionnelle et n’est triste que par courtes périodes, venant par vagues. Les implications cliniques et diagnostiques de ces résultats ainsi que du modèle présenté dans cette thèse sont abordées.
Normal, or resilient, grief has often been neglected in the literature, overshadowed by the greater number of studies on pathological grief. This fact, congruent with the trend towards a culture of medicalization, can explain the normalization of the idea of grief as uselessly painful, or even harmful, a nuisance to productivity and functioning. On the other hand, there has been a growing interest in the processes of normal grief in recent years, the idea that resilient grief is more common than pathological grief having only been recently supported by empirical research (Bonanno, 2009). However, the function and nature of grief-related emotions, which are often seen as symptoms, still isn’t clear. Sadness, contrarily to common knowledge, seems to be a healthy characteristic of resilient grief, and could have an adaptive function, whereas distress and depression would evoke the protest and despair phases of the separation between the child and her attachment figure. Thus, these three affective experiences would be qualitatively, and not only quantitatively, distinct. This thesis aims to present, in its first part, a theoretical model of both resilient and pathological grief, elaborating on the function and place of sadness, distress and depression. These two types of grief are presented as the extremes of a continuum, in between which any number of variations could exist. Sadness, in this model, is depicted as a useful emotion that plays a part in the acceptation of loss and in the creation of a meaning. In its second, empirical part, the subjective experience of sadness in resilient grieving adults who lost a parent is observed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants, and the results were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results show that sadness was experienced as tolerable, adaptive, and making sense, even if it was painful. As grief is never an isolated experience in life, circumstances and concurrent events, and variations in mentalization abilities, can explain the presence of other emotions or of somatic symptoms. Sadness, however, seems to be an essential ingredient of resilient grief, where the person remains functional, but is sad only by shorts bursts, coming in waves. The clinical and diagnostic implications of these results and of the theoretical model presented in this thesis are discussed.

This thesis focuses mainly on the Maximum Independent Set (MIS) problem. Some related graph theoretical combinatorial problems are also considered. As these problems are generally NP-hard, we study their complexity in hereditary graph classes, i.e. graph classes defined by a set F of forbidden induced subgraphs. We revise the literature about the issue, for example complexity results, applications, and techniques tackling the problem. Through considering some general approach, we exhibit several cases where the problem admits a polynomial-time solution. More specifically, we present polynomial-time algorithms for the MIS problem in: + some subclasses of $S_{2;j;k}$-free graphs (thus generalizing the classical result for $S_{1;2;k}$-free graphs); + some subclasses of $tree_{k}$-free graphs (thus generalizing the classical results for subclasses of P5-free graphs); + some subclasses of $P_{7}$-free graphs and $S_{2;2;2}$-free graphs; and various subclasses of graphs of bounded maximum degree, for example subcubic graphs. Our algorithms are based on various approaches. In particular, we characterize augmenting graphs in a subclass of $S_{2;k;k}$-free graphs and a subclass of $S_{2;2;5}$-free graphs. These characterizations are partly based on extensions of the concept of redundant set [125]. We also propose methods finding augmenting chains, an extension of the method in [99], and finding augmenting trees, an extension of the methods in [125]. We apply the augmenting vertex technique, originally used for $P_{5}$-free graphs or banner-free graphs, for some more general graph classes. We consider a general graph theoretical combinatorial problem, the so-called Maximum -Set problem. Two special cases of this problem, the so-called Maximum F-(Strongly) Independent Subgraph and Maximum F-Induced Subgraph, where F is a connected graph set, are considered. The complexity of the Maximum F-(Strongly) Independent Subgraph problem is revised and the NP-hardness of the Maximum F-Induced Subgraph problem is proved. We also extend the augmenting approach to apply it for the general Maximum Π -Set problem. We revise on classical graph transformations and give two unified views based on pseudo-boolean functions and αff-redundant vertex. We also make extensive uses of α-redundant vertices, originally mainly used for $P_{5}$-free graphs, to give polynomial solutions for some subclasses of $S_{2;2;2}$-free graphs and $tree_{k}$-free graphs. We consider some classical sequential greedy heuristic methods. We also combine classical algorithms with αff-redundant vertices to have new strategies of choosing the next vertex in greedy methods. Some aspects of the algorithms, for example forbidden induced subgraph sets and worst case results, are also considered. Finally, we restrict our attention on graphs of bounded maximum degree and subcubic graphs. Then by using some techniques, for example ff-redundant vertex, clique separator, and arguments based on distance, we general these results for some subclasses of $S_{i;j;k}$-free subcubic graphs.