The acquisition of relational concepts plays an integral role and is assumed to be a prerequisite for analogical reasoning. Language and token-trained apes (e.g. Premack, 1976; Thompson, Oden, and Boysen, 1997) are the only nonhuman animals to succeed in solving and completing analogies, thus implicating language as the mechanism enabling the phenomenon. In the present study, I examine the role of meaning in the analogical reasoning abilities of three different primate species. Humans, chimpanzees, and rhesus monkeys completed relational match-to-sample (RMTS) tasks with either meaningful or nonmeaningful stimuli. For human participants, meaningfulness facilitated the acquisition of analogical rules. Individual differences were evident amongst the chimpanzees suggesting that meaning can either enable or hinder their ability to complete analogies. Rhesus monkeys did not succeed in either condition, suggesting that their ability to reason analogically, if present at all, may be dependent upon a dimension other than the representational value of stimuli.

La propagation de lumière dans un réseau de guides s'effectue par couplages successifs et diffère ainsi fortement de la propagation en milieu libre. De plus, il existe, entre le formalisme du couplage optique décrivant cette propagation, de grandes similarités avec l'équation de Schrödinger. Nous utilisons ces similarités pour réaliser, dans des structures optiques composées de guides d'ondes, des analogies à des phénomènes quantiques. Les guides d'ondes sont analogues à des niveaux discrets d'énergie tandis que les constantes de couplage entre les guides sont analogues aux fréquences de Rabi des pulses laser couplant ces niveaux d'énergie. Pour la démonstration de ces analogies riches d'enseignement et potentiellement attractives pour des applications, il est intéressant de pouvoir disposer de structures optiques polyvalentes pouvant être reconfigurées. Notre approche est basée sur la réalisation de ces structures par la technique d'illumination latérale développée au laboratoire. Contrairement à la majorité des techniques d'inscriptions classiques (CVD, échange d'ions, inscription par laser femtoseconde, etc.) qui conduisent à des structures fixes et très difficilement modifiables, cette technique donne des structures reconfigurables. Elle consiste en l'éclairement contrôlé d'un cristal photoréfractif soumis à un champ électrique, permettant d'inscrire des guides grâce à la photo-conductivité du matériau et à l'effet Pockels. Dès lors, nous montrons qu'il est possible de réaliser au sein du même cristal, différentes structures de réseaux de guides, de design, périodicités et contrastes d'indice différents. Nous mettons ensuite à profit ces différents résultats pour la démonstration d'analogies à des effets quantiques. En premier lieu nous démontrons un transfert adiabatique de lumière similaire au phénomène de STIRAP ("STImulated Raman Adiabatic Passage"). La lumière, couplée à l'entrée dans un guide, est transférée à un guide de sortie éloigné, à travers plusieurs guides intermédiaires (jusqu'à neuf) si les constantes de couplage sont modulées longitudinalement dans un ordre dit "contre-intuitif". Nous utilisons ensuite ce transfert adiabatique de lumière pour la réalisation d'un diviseur de faisceau multi-ports, dont les ratios d'intensité dans les ports de sorties sont déterminés par le rapport des constantes de couplage de la structure. Nous démontrons également que ce diviseur de faisceau est très robuste et très largement achromatique sur plus de 200 nm. Puis, nous réalisons une analogie au phénomène d'EIT ("Electromagnetically Induced Transparency") dans une structure optique composée de trois guides. La présence d'un troisième guide très proche du deuxième empêche tout transfert de lumière depuis le premier guide qui devient alors "transparent". Enfin, en créant un désaccord dans les constantes de propagation longitudinale des trois guides, le transfert de lumière peut être réactivé pour deux valeurs particulières du désaccord, similairement à l'effet quantique Autler-Townes / The propagation of light in an array of waveguides differs strongly from the one in free space. In coupled waveguides, light propagation can be described using a coupled wave theory leading to an equation similar to the Schrödinger equation. We use this similarity in order to study optical-quantum analogies in waveguides array. Waveguides are analogous to discrete energy levels whereas coupling constants between the waveguides are similar to the Rabi frequencies of pulses that couple these levels. In order to demonstrate these analogies, versatile structures are highly desirable. However, all conventional techniques of waveguide inscription (CVD, ion/proton exchange or photo-inscription using femtosecond laser) provide static and non reconfigurable structures. Our approach is based on a proper lateral illumination of a biased photorefractive crystal. The photo-induction of the structure is possible thanks to the crystal photo-conductivity and the Pockels effect. Thus, we show that, using our approach, different versatile structures can be realized in the same sample. We use these structures in order to demonstrate different quantum optical analogies. Firstly, we investigate an optical analogy to the STIRAP effect (STImulated Raman Adiabatic Passage). The light, initially injected into the first waveguide, is transferred to the last waveguide through an array composed of up to nine waveguides. This transfer is achieved only if the longitudinally modulated coupling constants are arranged in a counter-intuitive order. Moreover, we use this analogy to demonstrate theoretically and experimentally an achromatic beam splitter where the intensity ratio in the output ports depends only on the ratio of the coupling constants. We also realize an analogy to the EIT effect (Electromagnetically Induced Transparency) in an optical structure composed of three coupled waveguides. If the third waveguide is placed very close to the second one, light transfer from the first becomes "transparent". Finally, we demonstrate that by detuning the propagation constant of the first waveguide, the light transfer can be re-activated for two particular values of the detuning in analogy to the Autler-Townes effect

An important stage in the policy process involves deciding what strategy is to be adopted for implementation so that the objectives of the policy are met in the best way possible. A Policy Implementation Strategy (PIS) adopts a broad view of implementation, which is argued to transcend formulation and decision-making, thereby offering a more realistic view of the policy process. Governmental decision-makers are often faced with having to choose one PIS amongst several possible alternatives, at varying cost levels. In order to aid in such a decision-making process, PIS effectiveness forecasts are proposed as a decision-support tool.Current methods for such a purpose are found to include ex-ante evaluative techniques such as Impact Assessment (IA) and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA). However, these approaches are often resource-intensive and such an investment is not always rewarded with accurate predictions. Hence, a judgmental forecasting approach for making PIS effectiveness predictions is proposed as a means for screening the different PIS under contention to provide a shortlist of candidates with particular potential. The selected few can then be further analysed via the quantitative evaluative techniques such as IA and CBA. Judgmental approaches to forecasting are considered ideal for such a role because they are relatively quick and inexpensive to implement. More specifically, a structured analogies approach is proposed as information about analogous PIS is believed to be useful for such a purpose.The proposed structured analogies approach is tested over a series of experiments and the evidence suggests that a structured analogies approach is more accurate when compared to unaided judgment and the more support given to the expert the better. Furthermore, experts were seen to produce considerably more accurate predictions than non-experts. Level of experience and number of analogies recalled did not seem to affect accuracy. The expert forecasts were also comparable to those produced by governments. The thesis concludes with suggestions for future research in the area.

This study reports the results of an investigation of the potential pollution hazard of a potash brine disposal pond located near Esterhazy, Saskatchewan. The most serious problems associated with the brine pond are the potential pollution of groundwater resources and the possible contamination of a nearby stream by groundwater discharge. The primary geologic feature is a glacial buried valley aquifer consisting of highly-permeable sands and gravels. A three dimensional electric analog model was constructed to simulate the steady state and transient groundwater flow systems in the buried valley aquifer. The steady state analysis enabled the author to calculate the convective travel times of the brine from the brine pond to the nearby creek. The transient analysis was used to assess the feasibility of reversing the hydraulic gradient in the buried valley aquifer. Steady state results indicate that the most serious potential pollution hazard is brine seepage onto the surface immediately east of the brine pond. At a distance of 5600 feet from the brine pond, this seepage will occur within 30 years; nearer to the brine pond, it will occur sooner. This type of brine seepage could enter the nearby stream as a result of surface drainage. Brine pollution by groundwater discharge directly into the creek will take between 640 to 1260 years, so this mechanism does not pose an immediate pollution hazard. Transient results indicate that low-rate injection wells (up to 50 IGPM) would not reverse the hydraulic gradient in the buried valley aquifer. Injection rates between 370 to 575 IGPM would be required, but fresh water supplies of this magnitude are not available. The design of future brine ponds should include seepage calculations in the initial phases of design instead of after the fact. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

<p>Physicians must explain medical information to patients in a way that patients can understand, and physician use of analogies is one strategy that may help patients better understand health information. The present dissertation, guided by patient-centered communication, investigated whether the use of analogies by a physician within a medical encounter enhances participants’ objective understanding, perceived understanding, and perceptions of clarity regarding information about a health condition, and perceptions of the physician in areas of liking, similarity, satisfaction, and affective communication. The experiment consisted of eight conditions with a 2 (familiar/unfamiliar health condition) x 4 (no analogies, diagnosis analogies, treatment analogies, both diagnosis and treatment analogies) design, and the conditions varied by being exposed to the familiar or unfamiliar health issue first. An actor physician delivered a 1-2 minute video-recorded message, diagnosing the participants, serving as analogue patients, with the familiar or unfamiliar health issue. After watching the video and responding to the dependent variable measures based on their perceptions of the physician and video message, U.S. adult participants read a vignette of another physician diagnosing them with the other (familiar or unfamiliar) health issue, and answered the same dependent variable measures regarding the physician and vignette message. Open-ended questions sought to understand what participants remembered from the message and whether they recalled analogies in their retelling of the physician messages, whether they (dis)liked the analogies, what they (dis)liked about the physicians and whether these perceptions differed by analogy conditions, whether they remembered any analogies from their own clinicians, and in which medical situations they found provider analogies to be useful. Findings indicated when including health literacy as a covariate, analogies did not enhance perceptions of clarity, perceived understanding, or objective understanding. Regarding positive perceptions, analogies did not influence liking, similarity, satisfaction, or affective communication. There was no significant interaction between use of analogies and health issues, nor a difference in the effectiveness of the analogies based on whether they were used to describe diagnosis or treatment. Explanations containing analogies resulted in increased objective understanding for the vignette compared to the video format. When recalling the physician’s message, participants rarely recalled analogies, nor explicitly mentioned them as something they liked or disliked. However, some participants recalled clinician use of particular analogies, and most of them indicated they found clinician analogies to be useful, especially when describing complex health issues that are difficult for patients to understand. The dissertation results indicate that healthcare providers may want to use analogies when interacting with patients, which could potentially improve the doctor-patient relationship. </p>

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the Miller Analogies Test scores of graduate school students and their undergraduate grade-point averages, as well as to find the relationship between Miller Analogies Test scores and the grade-point averages in graduate school of these students. A secondary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between each of the following variables: sex, age, curriculum and the performance levels of the subjects.

The language-based analogical reasoning abilities of Deaf children are a controversial topic. Researchers lack agreement about whether Deaf children possess the ability to reason using language-based analogies, or whether this ability is limited by a lack of access to vocabulary, both written and signed. This dissertation examines factors that scaffold the development of language-based analogical reasoning through signed language. First it examines how background factors, such as age, race/ethnicity, or additional disabilities can affect the development of language-based analogical reasoning. Second, it looks at how different kinds of American Sign Language (ASL) vocabulary support the development of language-based analogical reasoning. Five-hundred and fifty-six Deaf children were given five tasks from the ASL Assessment Instrument; one analogies task and four vocabulary tasks: an antonyms task, a synonyms task, a definitions task, and a contextual-based vocabulary task. The data showed that background traits can and do affect how well Deaf children reason using language-based analogies. The most important predictor of performance on the analogies task was ASL vocabulary knowledge, although other factors such as age, race/ethnicity, and additional disabilities can impact task performance. The data also showed that ASL vocabulary knowledge that promotes metalinguistic thinking is the best predictor of language-based analogical reasoning abilities. Potential applications to the classroom and to teacher training are also discussed.

L'objectif initial de ce travail de thèse est de valoriser les informations relatives au suivi temporel de la vigne, du raisin et de l'environnement de la plante et enregistrées dans des bases de données (BD) de traçabilité pour permettre la comparaison entre parcelles et millésimes, en vue de décisions par analogies.Les travaux réalisés durant cette thèse ont permis de proposer une méthode de transformation qui permet de représenter des ensembles de données asynchrones dans un espace commun afin de les comparer. Cette méthode s'appuie sur l'expertise du système de production. Dans ce travail de thèse, cette méthode a été appliquée à la comparaison de couples parcelle×millésime.L'expertise du système de production viticole permet, dans une première phase, de définir (i) la forme générale de la cinétique d'évolution de grandeurs de mesures évaluées sur la vigne, le raisin ou l'environnement de la plante et (ii) l'effet du climat sur la plante. Cette expertise est utilisée, dans une seconde phase, pour proposer des modèles paramétriques de l'évolution de chaque grandeur. Les données de suivi de chaque couple parcelle×millésime permettent d'ajuster les paramètres du modèle. Un vecteur de paramètres est défini par couple parcelle×millésime. Ce vecteur représente l'espace commun qui rend les couples parcelle×millésime comparables. Deux stratégies de comparaison sontalors possibles : (i) les comparaisons sont réalisées à partir des paramètres (méthode intensive), ou (ii) les comparaisons sont réalisées à partir de l'estimation de la valeur de la grandeur pour chaque couple parcelle×millésime et chaque unité de temps, commune à tous les couples (méthode extensive).Cette méthode a été appliquée à trois exemples différents.Dans une première application, les climats de différents millésimes intervenus sur différents cépages, entre la floraison et la véraison, ont été comparés entre eux après modélisation des grandeurs de mesure climatiques, à l'aide de modèles très simples.Dans une seconde puis une troisième application, la cinétique d'augmentation du pH et d'accumulation des sucres dans les baies de raisin pendant la maturation a été modélisée sous la forme d'une sigmoïde. Les comparaisons ont ensuite été réalisées en travaillant sur (i) la courbe représentative de chaque cinétique (pH), (ii) les paramètres du modèle (sucres) et (iii) une estimation journalière de la concentration en sucres dans les baies.Les bases de données utilisées dans ces applications proviennent de deux régions très différentes. Des données issues du suivi de la station expérimentale INRA Pech Rouge en Languedoc-Roussillon, dans le sud de la France, ont été utilisées pour l'application 1 et une partie de l'application 3. Des données de suivi de différents domaines de la Napa Valley en Californie ont servi pour l'application 2 et une partie de l'application 3.Le changement d'espace de représentation des données apporte une connaissance nouvelle pour décrire les individus et les phénomènes temporels de la vigne. Cette connaissance pourrait permettre de formaliser un raisonnement par analogies utilisant et valorisant l'expérience passée pour la gestion du millésime en cours. / The initial objective of this thesis is to enhance the in-time follow-up information of the vine, the grape and the environment of the plant stored in traceability databases (BD) traceability to allow comparison between plots and vintages, to a future analogy-based decision support.The work done during this thesis allowed to propose a transformation method for representing sets of asynchronous data in a common space for comparison. This method relies on the expertise of the production system. In this thesis, this method was applied to the comparison of pairs of plot×vintage.The expert knowledge of the vineyard production system allows, in a first phase, to define (i) the general shape of the kinetics of on the vine, the grapes or the plant environment measured grandeurs, and (ii) the effect of the climate on the plant.This expertise is used in a second phase, to propose parametrical models that represent each grandeur kinetic. Monitoring data of each pair plot×vintage are used to adjust the model parameters. A vector of parameters is defined for each pair plot×vintage. This vector represents the common space that makes pairs of plot×vintage comparable. Two comparison strategies are possible: (i) comparisons are made from the parameters (intensive method), or (ii) comparisons are made from the estimation of the value of the quantity for each pair plot×vintage and each time unit, common to all pairs (extensive method).This method was applied to three different examples.In a first application, the climate of different vintages occurred on different grape varieties, between flowering and veraison, were compared with each other after modeling of the measured climate grandeurs, with very simple models.In a second and a third application, the kinetics of the increase of pH and accumulation of sugars in grape berries during ripening was modeled using a sigmoid. Comparisons were then made by working on (i) the graph of each kinetic (pH), (ii) parameters (sugars) and (iii) an estimation of the daily sugar concentration in berries.The databases used in these applications come from two very different winegrowing regions. Data from the monitoring of the INRA Pech Rouge Experimental Station, in Languedoc-Roussillon in the south of France, were used for the application 1 and part of the application 3. Monitoring data from different estates of Napa Valley in California were used for the application 2 and part of the application 3.The change of space where data are represented constitutes a new knowledge that permit one to describe individuals and temporal phenomena of the vine. This knowledge could allow to formalize an analogy-based reasoning that uses and promotes past experience to manage the current vintage.

Wave scattering by arrays of cylinders has received special attention by many authors and analytical solutions have been derived. The investigation of optical and acoustical analogies to the problem of interaction of water waves with rigid and flexible cylinder arrays is the main focus of this thesis. In acoustics, a sound may be attenuated while it propagates through a layer of bubbly liquid. In fact, if the natural frequency of the bubbles is in the range of the wave periods, the attenuation becomes more evident. The ultimate objective of the research described herein is to determine if this phenomenon may also be found in the interaction between water waves and arrays of flexible cylinders. In a first approach, arrays of rigid cylinders are studied in shallow water. The array is treated as an effective medium, which allows for the definition of reflection and transmission coefficients for the array, and theories from Hu and Chan (2005) associated with the Fabry-Perot interferometer are compared against direct computations of wave scattering using the commercial code WAMIT. Reflection and transmission coefficients from WAMIT are evaluated by applying a Maximum Likelihood Method. The results from WAMIT were found to be in good agreement with those obtained from the effective medium theory. Due to observed inconsistencies for short wave periods and small incident angles, the effective width of the medium is defined and corrected. For the case of a flexible cylinder, generalized modes corresponding to deformations of the cylinder's surface are formulated and added to WAMIT's subroutine. Equations of motion are derived from the theory of vibration for thin shells and mass and stiffness matrices are defined. The objective is to maximize wave attenuation from the array of flexible cylinders. Therefore, the natural periods of the "breathing" mode for these cylinders is set in the range of the studied wave periods. Then, material properties, as well as mass and stiffness matrices, are chosen to achieve this effect.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of using verbal analogies in teaching ninth-grade physical science. The experiment is designed to determine if teaching by analogies is more effective than conventional methods of teaching, and to ascertain the effect of analogies on achievement for different ability levels in different subject areas of physical science.