Durant cette thèse, nous nous sommes intéressés à la problématique de la captation de mouvement sans marqueurs. Une approche classique est basée sur l'utilisation d'un modèle prédéfini du sujet, et est divisée en deux phases : celle d'initialisation, où la pose initiale du sujet est estimée, et celle de suivi, où la pose actuelle du sujet est estimée à partir des précédentes. Souvent, la phase d'initialisation est faite manuellement, rendant impossible l'utilisation en direct, ou nécessite des actions spécifiques du sujet. Nous proposons une phase d'initialisation automatique et temps-réel, utilisant l'information topologique extraite par squelettisation d'une reconstruction 3D du sujet. Cette information est représentée sous forme d'arbre (arbre de données), qui est mis en correspondance avec un arbre utilisé comme modèle, afin d'identifier les différentes parties du sujet. Pour obtenir une telle méthode, nous apportons des contributions dans les domaines de la topologie discrète et de la théorie des graphes. Comme notre méthode requiert le temps réel, nous nous intéressons d'abord à l'optimisation du temps de calcul des méthodes de squelettisation, ainsi qu'à l'élaboration de nouveaux algorithmes rapides fournissant de bons résultats. Nous nous intéressons ensuite à la définition d'une mise en correspondance efficace entre l'arbre de données et celui décrivant le modèle. Enfin, nous améliorons la robustesse de notre méthode en ajoutant des contraintes novatrices au modèle. Nous terminons par l'application de notre méthode sur différents jeux de données, démontrantses propriétés : rapidité robustesse et adaptabilité à différents types de sujet / This manuscript deals with the problem of markerless motion capture. An approach to thisproblem is model-based and is divided into two steps : an initialization step in which the initialpose is estimated, and a tracking which computes the current pose of the subject using infor-mation of previous ones. Classically, the initialization step is done manually, for bidding the possibility to be used online, or requires constraining actions of the subject. We propose an automatic real-time markerless initialization step, that relies on topological information provided by skeletonization of a 3D reconstruction of the subject. This topological information is then represented as a tree, which is matched with another tree used as modeldescription, in order to identify the different parts of the subject. In order to provide such a method, we propose some contributions in both digital topology and graph theory researchfields. As our method requires real-time computation, we first focus on the speed optimization of skeletonization methods, and on the design of new fast skeletonization schemes providing good results. In order to efficiently match the tree representing the topological information with the tree describing the model, we propose new matching definitions and associated algorithms. Finally, we study how to improve the robustness of our method by the use of innovative con-straints in the model. This manuscript ends by a study of the application of our method on several data sets, demon-strating its interesting properties : fast computation, robustness, and adaptability to any kindof subjects

Japanese philosopher and ethician Watsuji Tetsurō (1889-1960) implements ethics in ontology and creates an original philosophical system on this basis. This ethical-ontological system represents a philosophical dialogue between East and West far exceeding the Japanese context. Whereas ontology in his phenomenological approach provides a direct link between the development of world cultures and the space in which these cultures have developed, his ethics overcomes the Western concept of individuality, which Watsuji perceived as destructive egoism. He unfolds a concept of ethics fundamentally based on mutual relation or betweenness (aidagara 間 柄), which relates individuals to the community and their existential environment (climate). His work Climate (Fūdo 風土) discusses the relation between individual, community and the climate as a means of understanding the complexity of the real world people live in. Whereas, on the one hand, Watsuji highlights the exclusivity of Japanese culture, on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of preserving the diversity of cultures in its features. Watsuji analyses the Japanese culture in terms of its uniqueness, but also emphasizes its ability to take over new cultural patterns and adapt it. Such a "middle course" approach where cultures recognize their own...

Betweenness is a project questioning the relation between us and what we surround us with. To reveal our assumptions around artifacts and by doing so create an conversation between us viewers/ users and the objects themselves. Who owns the dialogue: the object or the viewer? Taking a deeper dive into the symbols and languages of objects, the quiet voices they posses and the functions surfaces, the visualization circle around words such as visual function, ornamentation,  material displacement and attraction.  By trying to convey the objects “inner thoughts” and creating a dialogue it pushes our ideas of what is desirable, what is strange, what is useful or even beautiful. The trick is in the contrast between what we see and what we know, bordering into imaginary, creating voices for ambiguous objects.

The significance of Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, is often ignored in Christian life. The most influential modern theologian who has taken its importance seriously is the Swiss Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar. He has presented a very innovative but also controversial interpretation that on Holy Saturday Jesus Christ suffered in utter solidarity with the dead in Hell and took to himself our self-damnation. However, this interpretation and several other aspects of his theology related to it seem to depart from the traditional teaching in an idiosyncratic way and have invited various critiques. What this thesis aims to do is to critically examine Balthasar’s theology of Holy Saturday and present its implications for Christian suffering and discipleship, while doing full justice to the genre within which he is working (a combination of theology and spirituality) and at the same time taking into consideration the main critiques made against him. First of all, we will argue that Balthasar does not try to present a radical reinterpretation of the doctrine of the Descent into Hell in contrast to the traditional teachings but rather tries to fully appreciate the in-betweenness of Holy Saturday as the day of transition from the Cross to the Resurrection, in other words, from the old aeon to the new. Balthasar says that Christ Himself descended into Hell as victor over sin and death objectively, but He still had to wait for the victory to arrive subjectively. Further, we will claim that this silent waiting on Holy Saturday, which marks the transition from the Cross to the Resurrection, helps us to deepen our understanding of the meaning of suffering in Christian discipleship. The waiting on Holy Saturday represents the fundamentally ‘tragic’ state of the Christian (understood as “tragedy under grace”) torn between the law of this world and the truth of Christ. As a paradoxical being in transition, the Christian believes that their victory is both already there and not there yet. In this sense, the Christian still lives in Holy Saturday. This notion deepens our understanding of suffering in the Christian life, because now we could translate the meaning of suffering into ‘tragic waiting,’ while fully facing the subjective reality of suffering and at the same time maintaining the hope of finding its salvific meaning by relating it to the paschal mystery. Our conclusion will be that this ‘tragic waiting,’ which itself is our lives, now can be seen in a Christological light. In short, we can patiently endure our Holy Saturday because of Christ’s Holy Saturday in Hell.

This thesis presents an approach to the design and management of core networks where the packet transport is the main service and the backbone should be able to respond to unforeseen changes in network parameters in order to provide smooth and reliable service for the customers. Inspired by Darwin's seminal work describing the long-term processes in life, and with the help of graph theoretic metrics, in particular the "random-walk betweenness", we assign a survival value, the network criticality, to a communication network to quantify its robustness. We show that the random-walk betweenness of a node (link) consists of the product of two terms, a global measure which is fixed for all the nodes (links) and a local graph measure which is in fact the weight of the node (link). The network criticality is defined as the global part of the betweenness of a node (link). We show that the network criticality is a monotone decreasing, and strictly convex function of the weight matrix of the network graph. We argue that any communication network can be modeled as a topology that evolves based on survivability and performance requirements. The evolution should be in the direction of decreasing the network criticality, which in turn increases the network robustness. We use network criticality as the main control parameter and we propose a network management system, AutoNet, to guide the network evolution in real time. AutoNet consists of two autonomic loops, the slow loop to control the long-term evolution of robustness throughout the whole network, and the fast loop to account for short-term performance and robustness issues. We investigate the dynamics of network criticality and we develop a convex optimization problem to minimize the network criticality. We propose a network design procedure based on the optimization problem which can be used to develop the long-term autonomic loop for AutoNet. Furthermore, we use the properties of the duality gap of the optimization problem to develop traffic engineering methods to manage the transport of packets in a network. This provides for the short-term autonomic loop of AutoNet architecture. Network criticality can also be used to rank alternative networks based on their robustness to the unpredicted changes in network conditions. This can help find the best network structure under some pre-specified constraint to deal with robustness issues.

This thesis presents an approach to the design and management of core networks where the packet transport is the main service and the backbone should be able to respond to unforeseen changes in network parameters in order to provide smooth and reliable service for the customers. Inspired by Darwin's seminal work describing the long-term processes in life, and with the help of graph theoretic metrics, in particular the "random-walk betweenness", we assign a survival value, the network criticality, to a communication network to quantify its robustness. We show that the random-walk betweenness of a node (link) consists of the product of two terms, a global measure which is fixed for all the nodes (links) and a local graph measure which is in fact the weight of the node (link). The network criticality is defined as the global part of the betweenness of a node (link). We show that the network criticality is a monotone decreasing, and strictly convex function of the weight matrix of the network graph. We argue that any communication network can be modeled as a topology that evolves based on survivability and performance requirements. The evolution should be in the direction of decreasing the network criticality, which in turn increases the network robustness. We use network criticality as the main control parameter and we propose a network management system, AutoNet, to guide the network evolution in real time. AutoNet consists of two autonomic loops, the slow loop to control the long-term evolution of robustness throughout the whole network, and the fast loop to account for short-term performance and robustness issues. We investigate the dynamics of network criticality and we develop a convex optimization problem to minimize the network criticality. We propose a network design procedure based on the optimization problem which can be used to develop the long-term autonomic loop for AutoNet. Furthermore, we use the properties of the duality gap of the optimization problem to develop traffic engineering methods to manage the transport of packets in a network. This provides for the short-term autonomic loop of AutoNet architecture. Network criticality can also be used to rank alternative networks based on their robustness to the unpredicted changes in network conditions. This can help find the best network structure under some pre-specified constraint to deal with robustness issues.

Once known only as Bodybuilding and Women’s Bodybuilding, the sport has grown to include multiple competition categories that both limit and expand opportunities for female bodybuilders. While the creation of additional categories, such as Fitness, Figure, Bikini, and Physique, appears to make the sport more inclusive to more variations and interpretation of the feminine, muscular physique, it also creates more in-between spaces. This auto ethnographic research explores the ways that multiple female competition categories within the sport of Bodybuilding define, reinforce, and complicate the gendered experiences of female physique athletes, by bringing freak theory into conversation with body categories.

Esse trabalho consiste em um estudo sobre a aplicabilidade da medida de centralidade de intermediação (betweenness centrality) combinada com demandas de tráfego em redes viárias com o objetivo de identificar os principais pontos dessas redes. Como principais pontos refere-se aqui aos que aparecem com maior frequência entre os caminhos utilizados pelos motoristas que se deslocam pela rede viária. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório, que se inicia com a aplicação da centralidade de intermediação sobre redes simples, estendendo-se até simulações sobre redes baseadas em mapas reais. Nesse trabalho é analisado o comportamento da medida de centralidade sobre a topologia da rede - i.e. tanto sem considerar uma demanda, como considerando demandas de diversas magnitudes. Para ilustrar a proposta, os resultados são confrontados com valores de centralidade de intermediação calculados sobre as taxas de ocupação das vias extraídas de simulação microscópica. Ao final, foram apresentadas evidências de que o método proposto consegue explicar os fluxos de tráfego com melhor desempenho do que a centralidade de intermediação original. No entanto, o método mostrou-se muito sensível à função de custo utilizada na atribuição da demanda de tráfego ao grafo da rede. Os melhores resultados demonstrados pela abordagem proposta foram obtidos em experimentos sobre redes não regulares e com demandas de tráfego não uniformes. No caso de redes regulares com demanda uniforme, o melhor desempenho foi obtido pelo cálculo da centralidade sem considerar a demanda, mas atribuindo-se o custo unitário às arestas do grafo representativo da rede. / This work consists of a study of applicability of betweenness centrality combined with traffic demands in road networks with the objective of identifying their central points. By central points we refer to those which appear with high frequency among the paths used by drivers that move along the road network. It is an exploratory study, which begins with the application of the betweenness centrality on simple networks, extending to simulations on networks based on real maps. In this study we have analyzed the behavior of the metric over the network topology - i.e. without considering demand, as well as experiments considering demands with several magnitudes. To illustrate the proposed method, the results are compared with betweenness centrality values calculated over roadways occupation rates extracted from microscopic simulation. At the end, evidence that the proposed method can explain traffic flows with better performance than the original betweenness centrality were presented. However, the proposed method was shown to be very sensitive to the cost function used in the allocation of the graph network traffic demand. The best results demonstrated by the proposed approach were obtained in experiments on nonregular networks and non-uniform traffic demands. In the case of regular networks with uniform demand, the best performance was obtained by calculating the betweenness centrality without considering the demand, but assigning the unitary cost to the edges of the network graph.

Esse trabalho consiste em um estudo sobre a aplicabilidade da medida de centralidade de intermediação (betweenness centrality) combinada com demandas de tráfego em redes viárias com o objetivo de identificar os principais pontos dessas redes. Como principais pontos refere-se aqui aos que aparecem com maior frequência entre os caminhos utilizados pelos motoristas que se deslocam pela rede viária. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório, que se inicia com a aplicação da centralidade de intermediação sobre redes simples, estendendo-se até simulações sobre redes baseadas em mapas reais. Nesse trabalho é analisado o comportamento da medida de centralidade sobre a topologia da rede - i.e. tanto sem considerar uma demanda, como considerando demandas de diversas magnitudes. Para ilustrar a proposta, os resultados são confrontados com valores de centralidade de intermediação calculados sobre as taxas de ocupação das vias extraídas de simulação microscópica. Ao final, foram apresentadas evidências de que o método proposto consegue explicar os fluxos de tráfego com melhor desempenho do que a centralidade de intermediação original. No entanto, o método mostrou-se muito sensível à função de custo utilizada na atribuição da demanda de tráfego ao grafo da rede. Os melhores resultados demonstrados pela abordagem proposta foram obtidos em experimentos sobre redes não regulares e com demandas de tráfego não uniformes. No caso de redes regulares com demanda uniforme, o melhor desempenho foi obtido pelo cálculo da centralidade sem considerar a demanda, mas atribuindo-se o custo unitário às arestas do grafo representativo da rede. / This work consists of a study of applicability of betweenness centrality combined with traffic demands in road networks with the objective of identifying their central points. By central points we refer to those which appear with high frequency among the paths used by drivers that move along the road network. It is an exploratory study, which begins with the application of the betweenness centrality on simple networks, extending to simulations on networks based on real maps. In this study we have analyzed the behavior of the metric over the network topology - i.e. without considering demand, as well as experiments considering demands with several magnitudes. To illustrate the proposed method, the results are compared with betweenness centrality values calculated over roadways occupation rates extracted from microscopic simulation. At the end, evidence that the proposed method can explain traffic flows with better performance than the original betweenness centrality were presented. However, the proposed method was shown to be very sensitive to the cost function used in the allocation of the graph network traffic demand. The best results demonstrated by the proposed approach were obtained in experiments on nonregular networks and non-uniform traffic demands. In the case of regular networks with uniform demand, the best performance was obtained by calculating the betweenness centrality without considering the demand, but assigning the unitary cost to the edges of the network graph.

Esse trabalho consiste em um estudo sobre a aplicabilidade da medida de centralidade de intermediação (betweenness centrality) combinada com demandas de tráfego em redes viárias com o objetivo de identificar os principais pontos dessas redes. Como principais pontos refere-se aqui aos que aparecem com maior frequência entre os caminhos utilizados pelos motoristas que se deslocam pela rede viária. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório, que se inicia com a aplicação da centralidade de intermediação sobre redes simples, estendendo-se até simulações sobre redes baseadas em mapas reais. Nesse trabalho é analisado o comportamento da medida de centralidade sobre a topologia da rede - i.e. tanto sem considerar uma demanda, como considerando demandas de diversas magnitudes. Para ilustrar a proposta, os resultados são confrontados com valores de centralidade de intermediação calculados sobre as taxas de ocupação das vias extraídas de simulação microscópica. Ao final, foram apresentadas evidências de que o método proposto consegue explicar os fluxos de tráfego com melhor desempenho do que a centralidade de intermediação original. No entanto, o método mostrou-se muito sensível à função de custo utilizada na atribuição da demanda de tráfego ao grafo da rede. Os melhores resultados demonstrados pela abordagem proposta foram obtidos em experimentos sobre redes não regulares e com demandas de tráfego não uniformes. No caso de redes regulares com demanda uniforme, o melhor desempenho foi obtido pelo cálculo da centralidade sem considerar a demanda, mas atribuindo-se o custo unitário às arestas do grafo representativo da rede. / This work consists of a study of applicability of betweenness centrality combined with traffic demands in road networks with the objective of identifying their central points. By central points we refer to those which appear with high frequency among the paths used by drivers that move along the road network. It is an exploratory study, which begins with the application of the betweenness centrality on simple networks, extending to simulations on networks based on real maps. In this study we have analyzed the behavior of the metric over the network topology - i.e. without considering demand, as well as experiments considering demands with several magnitudes. To illustrate the proposed method, the results are compared with betweenness centrality values calculated over roadways occupation rates extracted from microscopic simulation. At the end, evidence that the proposed method can explain traffic flows with better performance than the original betweenness centrality were presented. However, the proposed method was shown to be very sensitive to the cost function used in the allocation of the graph network traffic demand. The best results demonstrated by the proposed approach were obtained in experiments on nonregular networks and non-uniform traffic demands. In the case of regular networks with uniform demand, the best performance was obtained by calculating the betweenness centrality without considering the demand, but assigning the unitary cost to the edges of the network graph.