NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Sermons In Stones. Argument And Artefact For Sustainability

The focus of the study is on the values, priorities and arguments needed to advance ‘design for sustainability’. The discussion critiques conventions related to innovation and technology and offers a product design approach that emphasises minimal intervention, integrated thinking-and-doing, reinstating the familiar, localization and the particularities of place. These interdependent themes are discussed in terms of their relationship to design for sustainability and are clarified through the conceptualization, design, production and use of a simple functional object that is, essentially, a ‘symbolic sustainable artefact’. Although it is fully functional, its practical usefulness in contemporary society would probably be seen as marginal. Its potential contribution is as a symbol of an alternative direction. It asks us to consider aspects of our humanity that are beyond instrumental approaches. It challenges sustainable initiatives that become so caught up in practical and environmental concerns that they fail to question the underlying values, priorities and social drivers which affect how we act in the world; those behaviours and norms that have created the very problems we are so urgently trying to tackle. The discussion is accompanied by a parallel series of photographs that document the relationship between argument, locale and the creation of the conceptual artefact. These photographs convey some of the qualitative differences between the place of much contemporary artefact acquisition, i.e. the shopping mall, and the particular locale that yielded the artefact created during this study; they are also useful in conveying the potential relationship that exist between place and the aesthetics of functional objects.

Keyphrases: design
Faussetés imaginaires

Morally deviant fictional narratives can be problematic with regards to what is “true in the story.” Although one has no difficulty in imagining as fictionally true that “Giselda killed her baby,” one has a different reaction when it comes to imagining the cancellation of one’s own moral values. When confronted with a narrative featuring the claim that “In killing her baby, Giselda did the right thing, after all, it was a girl,”one’s response is likely to involve the questioning of the author’s authority: indeed the author may think that female infanticide is morally right, but that is false, even in the story. The conditions giving rise to this sort of phenomenon have been differently articulated, typically with the aim of going beyond the moral/non-moral divide. A more general contrast between evaluative and descriptive claims is often suggested. After characterizing with more precision the notions of imagination and imaginability, I will briefly review the litterature devoted to this topic, and argue in favor of a solution based on rules for modifying the extension and intension of imaginary predicates. According to this account, what takes place in morally deviant narratives is to be explained through a more general principle that applies to both evaluative and descriptive claims.

Keyphrases: imagination
Imagining Others

It is often argued that the ability to imagine what others think and feel is central to moral functioning. In this paper, I consider to what extent this is true. I argue that neither the ability to think of others as having representational mental states, nor the ability to imagine being in their position, is necessary for moral understanding or moral motivation. I go on to argue that the area in which thinking about others’ thoughts and feelings appears to play the largest role is that of supererogatory actions. Being able to get on well with others seems to be importantly predicated on our ability to think about their thoughts and feelings and being able to take up their perspective. However, when it comes to grosser moral norms and restrictions, such as harm norms, there is little reason to think that thinking about others’ thoughts and feelings plays a central role in understanding such norms or being motivated by them.

Keyphrases: imagination
Transnationalisation religieuse : un temple d’umbanda à Montréal

Religious practices in North Atlantic countries are evolving, and there are particular cases where one can observe a changeover from institutional beliefs towards forms of spirituality issuing from a variety of traditions, many of which appeared on the scene towards the middle of the 20th century. The present thesis aims to shed some light on one facet of contemporary religious diversity; following up on questions which arose in the course of this exploration, it also addresses issues underlying the anthropological analysis of religious groups, for instance how to approach fieldwork, and how to consider such a group. To this end I have chosen to describe a religious group in Quebec which is linked to an Afro-Brazilian cult named Umbanda, and which is part of a transnational network of Umbanda temples. I shall begin by setting out how Umbanda developed in Brazil, since this informs us as to, for instance, the likelihood of permeability of such a tradition once it is “planted” in Northern soil. I will then analyse the type of transnationalisation that was at work when the Montreal group was set up, since this provides relevant indicators allowing us to determine how the group settles into the religious landscape of different countries. Finally, by examining the religious practices of members of the group, I shall attempt to elucidate a number of distinctive local features.

Keyphrases: Umbanda, Initiation, Transe, Religious transnationalisation, Afro-Brazilian Religion, Afro-American Religion, Religious Practices, Mediumship, Initiation, Trance, Experiential ethnographer, Ethnographic objectivity
Les esters cyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxyliques et les dérivés cyclopropaniques 1,2,3-substitués : synthèses et applications

Cyclopropanes are important scaffolds as they are present in many biologically actives compounds and they are useful intermediates in the synthesis of complex molecules. In this thesis, we developed a novel general method for the synthesis of iodonium ylides of malonates, which are important precursors in the synthesis of cyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxylic esters. From these ylides, a method to generate racemic cyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxylic esters very efficiently was developed. Further works was also achieved on an asymmetric version of this reaction. Cyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxylic esters were used to develop two new methods: a (3+3) cycloaddition reaction with azomethine imines and the formation of allenes by the 1,7-addition of cuprates. We also continued our studies towards the total synthesis of cylindrocyclophane F, which use the cyclopropanes to control all chiral centers. The 1,5-addition of a cuprate on a cyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxylic ester was utilized as one of the key steps of our synthesis. The other chiral centre was controlled by the hydrogenolysis of a cyclopropylmethanol. Moreover, these studies led to the development of a novel highly enantioselective arylcyclopropanation reaction using zinc carbenoids generated in situ from diazo compounds. This method allows the efficient access to 1,2,3-substituted cyclopropanes. Moreover, we developed the first Simmons-Smith reaction using a catalytic amount of zinc to produce an enantioenriched product.

Keyphrases: cyclopropane, cylindrocyclophane F, arylcyclopropanation, Simmons-Smith, zinc, cyclopropane, cyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxylic ester, iodonium ylide, rhodium dimer, copper/bisoxazoline complex, azomethine imine, quinolinium ylide, (3+3) cycloaddition, allene, cylindrocyclophane F, 1,2,3-substituted cyclopropane, arylcyclopropanation, phenyldiazomethane, Simmons-Smith, zinc
Rendu d'images en demi-tons par diffusion d'erreur sensible à la structure

This work covers some important methods in the domain of halftoning: analog screening, ordered dither, direct binary search, and most particularly error diffusion. The methods will be compared in the modern perspective of sensitivity to structure. A novel halftoning method is also presented and subjected to various evaluations. It produces images of visual quality comparable to that of the state-of-the-art Structure-aware Halftoning method; at the same time, it is two to three orders of magnitude faster. First is described how an image can be decomposed into its local frequency content. Then, the basic behavior of the proposed method is given. Next, a carefully chosen set of parameters is presented that allow modifications to this behavior, so as to maximize the eventual reactivity to frequency content. Finally, a calibration step determines what values the parameters should take for any local frequency information encountered. Once the algorithm is assembled, any image can be treated very efficiently: each pixel is attached to its dominant frequency, the frequency serves as lookup index to the calibration table, proper diffusion parameters are retrieved, and the determined output color contributes in expectation to underline the structure from which the pixel comes.

Keyphrases: Quantification, Halftoning, Texture, Quantization, Seuil, Error, Gabor, Texture, Threshold, Calibration, Calibration, Frequency, Analysis
L'attrition de la marque d'usage PROVERBIAL de la 7e (1878) à la 8e (1932-35) édition du Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

This study looks at the attrition of the usage label PROVERBIAL between the 7th (1878) and 8th edition (1932-35) of the Dictionnaire published by the Académie française. The electronic version of the eight completed editions of this work (Redon 2002), which allows for the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data, shows that the label was consistently used in the first seven editions, but that its use falls dramatically between the 1878 and 1932-35 edition. Within the scope of this study, we have tried to identify the reasons behind this reduction. To achieve this, all lexies (~ lexical unit) from the 7th and the 8th edition with this usage label were meticulously noted, while taking into consideration all logically possible cases: the removal of an article or a lexie in the 8th edition, shared lexies with the 7th edition but a) lacking the label, b) labelled differently or c) inheriting the original label. In the 1878 edition, PROVERBIAL is assigned to 4 674 lexies in 1 645 articles. Through our research, we have identified the proverbial expressions that have disappeared or have been maintained during the crucial passage from the 7th to the 8th edition of the Dictionnaire published by the Académie française. We draw conclusions from these results that, amongst other things, address the transformation of the labelling system in the tradition of the institution’s Dictionnaire.

Keyphrases: Lexicography, Usage labels, Proverbial, Proverbial
Conception des réseaux maillés sans fil à multiples-radios multiples-canaux

Generally, network design problems consist of selecting links and vertices of a graph G so that a cost function is optimized and all constraints involving links and the vertices in G are met. A change in the criterion of optimization and/or the set of constraints leads to a new representation of a different problem. In this thesis, we consider the problem of designing infrastructure Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) where we show that the design of such networks becomes an optimization problem with multiple objectives instead of a standard optimization problem (a cost function is optimized) to take into account many aspects, often contradictory, but nevertheless essential in the reality. This thesis, composed of three parts, introduces new models and algorithms for designing WMNs from scratch. The first part is devoted to the simultaneous optimization of two equally important objectives: cost and network performance in terms of throughput. Three bi-objective models which differ mainly by the approach used to maximize network performance are proposed, solved and compared. The second part deals with the problem of gateways placement, given its impact on network performance and scalability. The concept of hop constraints is introduced into the network design to reduce the transmission delay. A novel algorithm based on a clustering approach is also proposed to find the strategic positions of gateways that support network scalability and increase its performance without significantly increasing the cost of installation. The final section addresses the problem of reliability in the presence of single failures. Allowing the installation of redundant components in the design phase can ensure reliable communications, but at the expense of cost and network performance. A new algorithm is developed based on the theoretical approach of "ear decomposition" to install the minimum number of additional routers to tolerate single failures. In order to solve the proposed models for real-size networks, an evolutionary algorithm (meta-heuristics), inspired from nature, is developed. Finally, the proposed models and methods have been evaluated through empirical and discrete events based simulations.

Keyphrases: WMN, WMN, Multi-objective optimization, Amélioration de la performance, Improving performance, Network scalability, Clustering, Robustness, Ear decomposition, Meta-heuristics
Échantillonnage dynamique de champs markoviens

One of the most active topics of research in unsupervised learning is the Boltzmann machine --- particularly the Restricted Boltzmann Machine or RBM. In order to train, evaluate or exploit such models, one has to draw samples from it. Two recent algorithms, Fast Persistent Contrastive Divergence (FPCD) and Herding aim to improve sampling during training. In particular, herding gives up on obtaining a point estimate of the RBM's parameters, rather defining the model's distribution with a dynamical system guided by training samples. We generalize these ideas in order to obtain algorithms capable of exploiting the probability distribution defined by a pre-trained RBM, by sampling from it, without needing to make use of the training set. We present three methods: Sample Penalization, based on a theoretical argument as well as FPCD and Herding using constant statistics for their positive phases. These methods define dynamical systems producing samples with the right statistics and we evaluate them using non-parametric density estimation. We show that these methods mix substantially better than Gibbs sampling, which is the conventional sampling method used for RBMs.

Keyphrases: Champs markoviens, MCMC, Machine learning, Markov random fields, Boltzmann machine, MCMC, Probabilistic models
Comparaison de l’ubiquitylation de différentes protéines à domaine SH3 impliquées dans l’endocytose suite à leur interaction avec la ligase de l’ubiquitine Itch

Itch is the only C2-WW-HECT type ubiquitin ligase that can bind SH3 domain proteins. This domain is particularly frequent in accessory endocytic proteins. We have used Bioluminescent Resonance Energy Transfer to examine a few candidate endocytic proteins, in addition to the already known substrate of Itch, endophilin. We then used standard in vitro techniques to confirm these interactions, and tested Itch capacity to ubiquitylate these putative substrate proteins. We thus discovered two new substrates of Itch, amphiphysin and pacsin. We also determined that although Itch interacts with the isolated SH3 domains of intersectin, it does not recognize the full length protein, thus rulling out Intersectin as a substrate of Itch. Itch is thus a putatively important regulator of endocytosis, through its capacity to recognize and ubiquitylate several SH3-domain proteins.

Keyphrases: Itch, Amphiphysine, Endophilin, Pacsin, Intersectin, Amphiphysin, Ubiquitin, Endocytosis
Théories du choix rationnel : perspectives et implications en design institutionnel

Because of its explanatory and operational strengths, rational choice theory is used in a variety of social sciences disciplines. Most economists understand rational choice theory as a utility maximization process. For this reason, the reach of the rational model has been subject of a great deal of criticism. For many commentators, there are preferences that cannot be represented by this model of explanation.   In the following, three alternative rational choice theory accounts will be presented: the rationality as a virtual presence, rationality as an intentional mechanism and rationality as a science of choice.   Each rationality account offers a different view of institutional design. The first focus on agents non-egoistic motivations. The second, on the adaptive aspect with an emphasis on causal mechanism. The third, on the multiplicity of rational actor models. Depending of which rational choice theory account is adopted, implications in institutional design will be different.

Keyphrases: Philosophy, individualism, economic approach, institutional design, intentionality, causality
La mobilisation politique des expropriés de Mirabel

In 1969, the government of Pierre Elliott-Trudeau made the biggest expropriation of all time in the history of the country.  The project was a total failure for social, political and economic reasons.  This study focuses on the post-expropriation impact on the population of Mirabel and their political positioning.

Keyphrases: Mirabel, Expropriation, 1969, Pierre Elliott-Trudeau, Mirabel, Expropriation, 1969, Pierre Elliott-Trudeau, Politic, Resistance
Zone d'attente pour personnes en instance : une ethnographie de la détention frontalière en France

This ethnographic study of border detention in France investigates how, in response to trends in transnational migration, borders are governed through practices such as the confinement and deportation of foreign migrants. In particular, the increasing prominence of camps or other restricted areas in which migrants or illegal aliens are held for varying lengths of time highlight a new distribution of power, defined by access to mobility. Focusing on a specific form of control – the “waiting zone” at an airport's borders – this empirical study offers an in depth meditation on this power dynamic, which reflects, in itself, another political topography of globalization. The research investigates how democratic governments manage non citizen populations, and examines the ways in which the types of restriction and surveillance brought to bear on these people reconfigure physical, moral and political boundaries. The ethnographic components of the study seek to explore the everyday experience of the people who become subject to these tangled legal and humanitarian procedures. The research interweaves several key issues which shape policy on border detention: confinement, albeit in a humanitarian form, constructed through judicial activism and the administrative application of different standards of rights for various alien populations; the conflation of humanitarian care and control for populations identified as vulnerable; the redrawing of frontiers through networks and zones; and, lastly, the experience of mobility produced by the differential management of movement within the modern archipelagos of surveillance, of which waiting zones are part.

Keyphrases: Asile, Alien confinement, Legal resistance, Humanitarian care, Borders, Asylum, Transnational migrations, Anthropology in the margins
Processus cérébraux adaptés aux systèmes tutoriels intelligents

The learner module is the most important component within an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). The extension of the learner module is still in progress, despite the integration of the cognitive profile and the emotional profile, it is not yet exhaustive. To improve the prediction of the learner’s emotional and cognitive states, many physiological sensors have been used, but all of these sensors are cumbersome. In addition, they are not always adapted to the learners with reduced capacities. Beside, most of the pedagogical strategies that are executed by the tutor module are based on no-live collections of data. This fact reduces their efficiency. The objective of our research is to explore the electrical brain activity and use it as a communication channel between a learner and an ITS. To reach this aim, we suggest to conceive, to implement and to evaluate the multi-agent system NORA. Integrated to an ITS, this one became a Brain Sensitive Intelligent Tutoring System (BS-ITS). Agents of NORA interpret the learner’s brain electrical signal and react to it. The new BS-ITS is the extension of an ITS and enrich the learner module with the brain profile and the tutor module with a new Neuropedagogical Strategies. We aim to reach more categories of learners and help them to manage their stress, anxiety and maintain the concentration, the attention and the interest.

Keyphrases: Intelligent Tutoring System, Brainwaves, Electroencephalogram, Learner model
Modèle informatique du coapprentissage des ganglions de la base et du cortex :
l'apprentissage par renforcement et le développement de représentations

Throughout lifetime, the brain develops abstract representations of its environment that allow the individual to maximize his benefits. How these representations are developed while trying to acquire rewards remains a mystery. It is reasonable to assume that these representations arise in the cortex and that the basal ganglia are playing an important role in reward maximization. In particular, dopaminergic neurons appear to code a reward prediction error signal. This thesis studies the problem by constructing, using machine learning tools, a computational model that incorporates a number of relevant neurophysiological findings.  After an introduction to the machine learning framework and to some of its algorithms, an overview of learning in psychology and neuroscience, and a review of models of learning in the basal ganglia, the thesis comprises three papers. The first article shows that it is possible to learn a better representation of the inputs while learning to maximize reward. The second paper addresses the important and still unresolved problem of the representation of time in the brain. The paper shows that a time representation can be acquired automatically in an artificial neural network acting like a working memory. The representation learned by the model closely resembles the activity of cortical neurons in similar tasks. Moreover, the model shows that the reward prediction error signal could accelerate the development of the temporal representation. Finally, it shows that if such a learned representation exists in the cortex, it could provide the necessary information to the basal ganglia to explain the dopaminergic signal. The third article evaluates the explanatory and predictive power of the model on the effects of differences in task conditions such as the presence or absence of a stimulus (classical versus trace conditioning) while waiting for the reward. Beyond making interesting predictions relevant to the timing literature, the paper reveals some shortcomings of the model that will need to be resolved.  In summary, this thesis extends current models of reinforcement learning of the basal ganglia and the dopaminergic system to the concurrent development of representation in the cortex and to the interactions between these two regions.

Keyphrases: Reinforcement learning, Temporal-difference learning, Classical conditioning, Trace conditioning, Cortex, Cortex, Dopamine, Dopamine, Basal ganglia, Interval timing, Computational neuroscience, Abstract representation