Modal logics have found applications in many diferent contexts. For example, epistemic modal logics can be used to reason about security protocols, temporal modal logics can be used to reason about the correctness of distributed systems and propositional dynamic logic can reason about the correctness of programs. However, pure modal logic is expressively weak and cannot represent many interesting secondorder properties that are expressible, for example, in the μ-calculus. Here we investigate the extension of modal logics with propositional quantification modulo bisimulation (bisimulation quantification). We extend existing work on bisimulation quantified modal logic by considering the variety of logics that result by restricting the structures over which they are interpreted. We show this can be a natural extension of modal logic preserving the intuitions of both modal logic and propositional quantification. However, we also find cases where such intuitions are not preserved. We examine cases where the axioms of pure modal logic and propositional quantification are preserved and where bisimulation quantifiers preserve the decidability of modal logic. We translate a number of recent decidability results for monadic second-order logics into the context of bisimulation quantified modal logics, and show how these results can be used to generate a number of interesting bisimulation quantified modal logics.

Zugl.: Rostock, Univ., Habil.-Schr.

Research. Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of Computer Science and Software Engineering, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-170).

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2006. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Tübingen, 2003.

The present study aims to investigate the default of alumni abroad, motives and profile. To answer this question, the methodology was an exploratory, qualitative and quantitative descriptive statistics based on the available Scholarships Abroad Coordinator of the Coordination of Higher Education Personnel (Capes) and research into the processes in progress in the audit. It was shown that the strategy of the Capes on concessions in the form of sandwich scholarships results in lower default rates than the full doctorate abroad. The evolution of the scholarships abroad in the period 1996 to 2009 is presented and discussed. Based on descriptive statistics, the decrease was shown in the concessions of a PhD scholarship in comparison to the sandwich mode. The growth in the form concessions sandwich , judging by the relative demand/concession, more than offset reduced him to form a full doctorate. This study focused on areas directly related to science education, were highlighted as areas of mathematics, physics and chemistry, particularly the biological sciences I, II and III. Also, questions are suggested for future investigations, which have been identified, but not answered in the research that was proposed in the original design. / O presente estudo tem por objetivo investigar a inadimplência de ex-bolsistas no exterior, motivos e perfil. Para responder a essa pergunta a metodologia foi de natureza exploratória, qualitativa e quantitativa com base nas estatísticas descritivas disponíveis na Coordenadoria de Bolsas no Exterior da Coordenação de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes), e na investigação dos processos em tramitação na Auditoria. Foi demonstrado que a estratégia da Capes em relação às concessões de bolsas na modalidade sanduíche resulta em menor inadimplência que o doutorado pleno no exterior. A evolução da concessão de bolsas no exterior no período 1996 a 2009 é apresentada e discutida. Com base nas estatísticas descritivas, foi mostrada a diminuição nas concessões das bolsas de Doutorado Pleno em comparação ao modo Sanduíche. O crescimento das concessões na modalidade sanduíche, julgar pela relação demanda/concessão, mais que compensou o a redução na modalidade Doutorado Pleno. A presente pesquisa se concentrou nas áreas relacionadas diretamente com a educação em ciências, pois foram destacadas as áreas de matemática, física e química, em especial as ciências biológicas I, II e III. Também são sugeridas questões para investigações futuras, que foram identificadas, mas não respondidas na pesquisa que foi proposta no projeto original.

La présente thèse est consacrée à l'étude sémiotique de la dimension passionnelle des écritsjournalistiques sur la crise de 2008. Dans une perspective théorique, cette thèse contribue auquestionnement général de la sémiotique des passions développée par Greimas et Fontanille.Elle décrit l'adaptation théorique significative que la sémiotique des passions réalise en ajoutantà la description du processus de production des états passionnels des écrits journalistiques decrise, un préalable qui est le potentiel passionnel des situations économiques et sociales. Dupoint de vue méthodologique, ce travail s'inscrit dans le contexte d'une sémiotique ouverte surl'interdisciplinarité. Il se situe à l'intérieur d'un cadre épistémologique où les frontières entresémiotique des passions, anthropologie, économie et sociologie deviennent perméables. Pourcela, nous avons sélectionné, entre autres, le niveau des formes de vie et la sémiotique desinteractions développée par Landowski qui permettent une analyse spécifique des relations auxautres et à l'action. Le discours journalistique sur la crise marque ainsi le point de départ d'uneréflexion sémiotique relative à une question sociale d'actualité. Notre travail de recherche définittout d'abord l'écriture journalistique selon un point de vue génératif qui montre les constituantsles plus simples comme reliés aux constituants les plus complexes dans un parcours qui lesorganise et provoque des échanges. Dans un second temps, nous démontrons que les effetspassionnels existants dans le système économique sont le résultat de défaillances provenantd'une incompatibilité de positionnement interne des différents acteurs entre rationalité et liberté.Enfin, la troisième partie présente l'analyse du corpus de presse et expose le processus deproduction des états passionnels. / This thesis is devoted to the semiotic study of the passionate dimension of journalistic writingsabout the 2008 financial crisis. From a theoretical perspective, this thesis contributes to thegeneral questioning of the semiotics of passions developed by Greimas and Fontanille. Itdescribes the significant theoretical adaptation that semiotics of passions provided, by adding tothe description of the production process of passionate states journalistic writings crisis, theprerequisite of the emotional potential of economic and social situations. From a methodologicalpoint of view, this work is written in the context of open interdisciplinary semiotics. It is locatedwithin an epistemological framework in which the boundaries between semiotics of passions,anthropology, economics and sociology become permeable. For this, we have selected, amongothers, the level of life forms and semiotic interactions developed by Landowski that allow specificanalysis of relationships with others and with action. The journalistic discourse on the crisis thusmarks the starting point of a semiotic reflection on a topical social issue. Our three-step analysisinitially defines journalistic writing as a generative perspective which shows the simplestcomponents as related to complex components in a course that organizes and provokesexchange. The second step shows that the existing passion effects in the economic system arethe result of failures from an incompatibility in internal positioning between the different actors�rationality and freedom. The third part presents the news corpus and exposes the process ofproduction of passionate states.

Ce travail offre une nouvelle perspective sur l’analyse de l’imperfectivité dans la presse espagnole. Le point de départ pour cette analyse est la catégorie sémantico-fonctionnelle de l’aspectualité qui peut être exprimée en espagnol par l’aspect, aktionsart, des adverbes, des périphrases verbales, etc. Sur la base de l’imperfectivité comme une catégorie sémantico-fonctionnelle, qui comprend tous les moyens possibles pour exprimer l’indétermination sémantique comme l’imparfait(cantaba), le présent (canta), ESTAR+GERUNDIO, etc., il est possible d’établir un lien sémantique avec d’autres catégories sémantiques comme la temporalité, la modalité et l’évidentialité où le point central de ce chevauchement est constitué par la perspective du locuteur, à partir de laquelle il formule son énoncé, ce qui est associé à sa subjectivité dans le choix, par exemple, d’une forme verbale imperfective(cantaba) dans des contextes où devrait apparaître une forme verbale perfective(cantó) : El valor total […] ascendía a unos 5.950 euros.Bien que, dans certains contextes, cette décision puisse être expliquée de façon grammaticale, dans d’autres contextes (textes journalistiques) cela ne semble pas être le cas parce que le locuteur se sert de l’indétermination sémantique exprimée par le pretérito imperfecto pour exprimer ses énoncés avec une intention,par exemple, pour signaler une distanciation, une reprise d’énoncés, etc.À cause de son indétermination sémantique, l’imperfectivité se rapproche d’autres fonctions sémantiques comme la modalité épistémique et l’évidentialité indirecte qui permettent de donner à une situation un caractère ‘ouvert’ ou ‘indéterminé’ pour exprimer par exemple une supposition, la reprise d’une citation ou la distanciation du locuteur face à ce qui a dit. / The aim of this study is to analyse the use of imperfectivity in the Spanishpress. The point of departure for this analysis is the semantic-functional category ofaspectuality which can be expressed in Spanish by diverse linguistic means likegrammatical aspect, Aktionsarten, adverbs, verbal periphrases, etc. By consideringimperfectivity as a semantic-functional category, which comprises all the possiblelinguistic means to express semantic indeterminacy like the Spanish imperfecto(cantaba), presente (canta), ESTAR+GERUNDIO, etc., a semantic relation to othercategories such as temporality, modality and evidentiality can be made. Thesecategories interplay with the speaker’s stance in expressing an utterance, which isassociated with subjectivity. For example, an imperfective verb form (cantaba) maybe chosen in contexts where the perfective verb form (cantó) is expected to appear:El valor total […] ascendía a unos 5.950 euros (‘The total value […] rose (imperfecto)to some 5.950 euros’).Although in some contexts the use of the imperfective verb form isgrammatically motivated, there are other contexts where this is not the case, e.g. injournalistic texts. The speaker takes advantage of the semantic indeterminacy of theSpanish imperfecto cantaba with a specific intention like showing distance from theutterance or reproducing an utterance made by third parties, etc.Thus imperfectivity, due to its semantic indeterminacy, relates to othersemantic functions like epistemic modality and indirect evidentiality by which asituation is presented as open and undetermined, e.g. the expression of asupposition, or a quotation, or a speaker’s distance from his utterance.

This thesis was motivated by a study of how robots can be taught by humans, with an emphasis on allowing persons without programming skills to teach robots. The focus of this thesis was to investigate what criteria could or should be used by a robot to evaluate whether a human teacher is (or potentially could be) a good teacher in robot learning by demonstration. In effect, choosing the teacher that can maximize the benefit to the robot using learning by imitation/demonstration. The study approached this topic by taking a technology snapshot in time to see if a representative example of research laboratory robot technology is capable of assessing teaching quality. With this snapshot, this study evaluated how humans observe teaching quality to attempt to establish measurement metrics that can be transferred as rules or algorithms that are beneficial from a robot's point of view. To evaluate teaching quality, the study looked at the teacher-student relationship from a human-human interaction perspective. Two factors were considered important in defining a good teacher: engagement and immediacy. The study gathered more literature reviews relating to further detailed elements of engagement and immediacy. The study also tried to link physical effort as a possible metric that could be used to measure the level of engagement of the teachers. An investigatory experiment was conducted to evaluate which modality the participants prefer to employ in teaching a robot if the robot can be taught using voice, gesture demonstration, or physical manipulation. The findings from this experiment suggested that the participants appeared to have no preference in terms of human effort for completing the task. However, there was a significant difference in human enjoyment preferences of input modality and a marginal difference in the robot's perceived ability to imitate. A main experiment was conducted to study the detailed elements that might be used by a robot in identifying a 'good' teacher. The main experiment was conducted in two subexperiments. The first part recorded the teacher's activities and the second part analysed how humans evaluate the perception of engagement when assessing another human teaching a robot. The results from the main experiment suggested that in human teaching of a robot (human-robot interaction), humans (the evaluators) also look for some immediacy cues that happen in human-human interaction for evaluating the engagement.

abstract: Health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) is a significant treatment outcome for persons with end-stage renal disease (ESRD); however, little is known about the HR-QOL of Mexican patients with ESRD. This pilot study describes relationships between demographics, sleep disorders, spirituality, mood, folk practices and dialysis modality on the HR-QOL of patients with ESRD residing in Guanajuato, Mexico. Mexican patients receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) and hemodialysis (HD) provided information on demographics, clinical health data including body mass index (BMI), and folk health practices. Measures included the Short Form (SF)-36 HR-QOL survey, Sleep Habits Questionnaire, Latin Spirituality Perspective Scale and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Data were analyzed using SAS software (V9.1). Signifi¬cance level for this pilot study was set at p<0.10. The Quality-Adjusted Life Year method was utilized to examine cost effectiveness for each dialysis modality. Demographics and clinical data showed participants (N=121) to be 59 (SD=13) years, predominantly men (55.4%), married (66.9%), Catholic (92.6%), and not currently working (78.3%). The majority were diabetic (72%) and slightly overweight (BMI M=26.1; SD=5.1). The CAPD group (n=39) demonstrated significantly lower HR-QOL scores compared to the APD (n=42) and HD (n=40) groups. Patients on HD reported higher rates and greater numbers of sleep disorders, including insomnia symptoms, non-restorative and insufficient sleep, and daytime somnolence compared to patients on CAPD and APD. Patients on CAPD reported more anxiety and depression compared to patients on HD and APD. Overall linear regression for HR-QOL found dialysis type, sleep disorders and income to be significant predictors and the model accounted for 31% of the variance. Cost analysis indicated APD as the preferred treatment because it is less costly and results in the best HR-QOL compared to the other treatment modalities. Findings provide the first SF-36 norms for Mexicans with ESRD. Sleep disorders and dialysis type greatly impinge on the HR-QOL of these patients, particularly their mental health. APD was identified as the preferred treatment based on low cost and improved HR-QOL. Results can inform clinical care and health policy for Mexican patients with ESRD. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Nursing and Healthcare Innovation 2011