<p dir="ltr">As Machine learning (ML) and Artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming increasingly prevalent in high-stake decision-making, fairness has emerged as a critical societal issue. Individuals belonging to diverse groups receive different algorithmic outcomes largely due to the inherent errors and biases in the underlying training data, thus resulting in violations of group fairness or bias.  </p><p dir="ltr">This study investigates the problem of resolving group fairness by detecting mislabeled data and flipping the label instances in the training data. Four solutions are proposed to obtain an ordering in which the labels of training data instances should be flipped to reduce the bias in predictions of a model trained over the modified data. Through experimental evaluation, we showcase the effectiveness of repairing mislabeled data using mislabel detection techniques to improve the fairness of machine learning models.</p>

Diploma thesis deals with detection of romantic and realistic components in three selected novels, traditionally placed on the border between romanticism and realism, and more closely examines if their ambiguity in terms of literary movement is from a contemporary point of view up-to-date and relevant, and what constitutes it. This main goal is preceded by the need to define the most complex concepts of literary romanticism and realism, including their specific characteristics, tendencies and distinct feautures. Particular analyses are developed according to a preselected warp whose individual items are universal aspects of a literary work such as subject matter, plot, narration, characters, space-time and language devices which are monitored, on the basis of conclusions rendered in a theoretical part of this thesis, for a particular degree of romantic and realistic heritage. Within each analysis we were able to decide which aspects of the work are fully or rather consistent with the principles of romanticism and which are conversely in accordance with realistic tradition. The subsequent summary analysis helped to answer the question whether the work as a whole is closer to romanticism or realism. Recognition of different forms of realationship between romantic and realistic principle that naturally...

O estudo envolvendo a interação entre picratos de terras raras (III) hidratados e aminoácidos é reportado no presente trabalho. Este estudo consiste na preparação dos compostos de adição entre esses sais e os aminoácidos Larginina (Arg), L-lisina (Lys) e L-Ieucina (Leu), bem como a caracterização dos mesmos utilizando várias técnicas físico-químicas e analíticas. Os compostos foram preparados na relação molar 1:2 entre os respectivos sais hidratados e os ligantes (Arg, Lys e Leu) utilizando rotas de sínteses específicas para cada um desses aminoácidos. Os compostos obtidos são sólidos pouco cristalinos e higroscópicos. Os compostos com Arg e Lys são aparentemente, parcialmente solúveis em água e insolúveis em etanol, metanol, acetonitrila e nitrometano. Os compostos com Leu são aparentemente, solúveis em água, acetona, etanol, metanol, nitrometano, parcialmente solúveis em acetonitrila e comportam-se como não-eletrólitos em soluções de acetona e nitrometano. As fórmulas gerais dos compostos foram propostas tomando-se como base os teores de terras raras obtidos por análise complexométrica com EDTA e termogravimetria, dos teores de água também obtidos por termogravimetria, além dos teores de C, N e H obtidos por análise elementar. Através da combinação desses resultados foi possível sugerir as seguintes fórmulas gerais: TR(pic)32AA.2H2O e TR(pic)32Leu.5H2O (TR = La - Lu e Y, pic = picrato, AA = Arg e Lys). Em todos os compostos, os aminoácidos estão coordenados aos íons terras raras através do átomo de nitrogênio do grupo amino do carbono &#945; e os picratos, pelos menos em parte, estão coordenados de forma bidentada, através do átomo de oxigênio do grupo fenólico e um átomo de oxigênio de um dos grupos orto-nitro, conforme evidenciado por espectros de absorção no infravermelho. Todos os compostos de lisina são isomorfos entre si. Os compostos TR(pic)3.2Arg.2H2O (TR = La - Nd e Gd - Lu) formam uma série isomorfa, porém os compostos TR(pic)32Arg.2H2O (TR = Sm, Eu e Y) não pertencem a série citada e também não são isomorfos entre si. Os compostos de leucina formam três séries isomorfas. A primeira série corresponde aos compostos dos elementos La - Nd, a segunda Tb e Gd e a terceira Ho - Lu e Y. Os compostos de Sm, Eu e Dy não pertencem as séries citadas e também não são isomorfos entre si. Através dos parâmetros obtidos dos espectros de absorção na região do visível dos compostos de neodímio, foi verificado que as ligações metais-ligantes são de baixo caráter covalente. Os compostos de európio apresentam luminescência à temperatura ambiente e 77 K, já os compostos com térbio não mostram luminescência devido a seu estado emissor estar acima do estado tripleto do ligante, sendo este determinado utilizando o espectro de fosforescência do picrato, no complexo de gadolínio. As características espectrais e o comportamento biexponencial dos compostos de európio mostram que existe a presença de mais de um ambiente químico ao redor do íon Eu3+, ou seja, os compostos podem formar estruturas poliméricas. A estabilidade e o comportamento térmico dos compostos foram estudados por meio das técnicas de termogravimetrialtermogravimetria derivada (TG/DTG) e calorimetria exploratória diferencial (DSC). A estabilidade térmica dos compostos dentro de cada série é semelhante e comparando os compostos com os três aminoácidos, verifica-se que os compostos com o aminoácido Lys são os mais estáveis e os com Arg os menos estáveis. A decomposição térmica dos compostos com os três aminoácidos é distinta, porém dentro de cada série o processo ocorre de forma similar. Através das curvas termogravimétricas, além de informações quanto à estabilidade e os processos de decomposição térmica, foi possível também determinar a quantidade de moléculas de água, bem como as percentagens dos íons terras raras. / A study involving the interaction of rare-earth (III) hydrated picrates and amino acids is reported in this work. The addition compounds with L-arginine (Arg), L-Iysine (Lys) and L-Ieucine (Leu) were prepared and characterized by severaI common techniques. The compounds were prepared in the molar ratio 1:2 (hydrated salts: ligands, Arg, Lys and Leu) using specific synthetic routes for each amino acid. The Arg and Lys complexes are partially soluble in water and insoluble in ethanol, methanol,acetonitrile and nitromethane. The Leu complexes are soluble in water, acetone, ethanol, methanol and nitromethane; they are partially soluble in acetonitrile and they are non-electrolytes in acetone and nitromethane. The general formulae for the complexes, determined by EOTA titrations, elemental analyses and thermogravimetry, are RE(pic) 3.2AA.2H2O and RE(pic) 3.2Leu.5H2) (RE =La-Lu and Y, pic =picrate, AA =Arg and Lys). In all compounds, the amino acids are bonded to RE(III) ions through the &#945;aminogroup nitrogen atom and picrates, at least partially, are coordinated as bidentate ligands, through the phenoxy oxygen and one o-nitrogroup oxygen atom, as evidenced by IR absorption spectra. The Arg and Lys complexes display only one isomorphous series, but the Leu compounds present three isomorphous series. Parameters obtained from visible absorption spectra of the Nd complexes indicate that ligand-metal bonds are weakly covalent. Eu complexes are luminescent, both at room temperature and at 77K. Tb complexes are not luminescent, since their upper emitting state is above the Iigand\'s triplet state. The position of this state was determined by the picrate phosphorescence spectra of the Gd compound. Spectral characteristics, as well as the biexponential decay of Eu luminescence suggest that there is more than one coordination environment around the Eu(III) ion and that these complexes have polymeric structures. The stability and thermal behavior of these compounds were studied by thermogravimetry (TG), derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). In the three series of complexes thermal stability is similar, but the Lys complexes are the most stable and the Arg complexes the least stable ones. Thermal decompositions differ, but in each series the decomposition is similar. From TG curves it was possible also to determine water contents and the RE percent compositions.

Dans l’état de l’art actuel, la reconnaissance de symboles signifie généralement la reconnaissance des symboles isolés. Cependant, ces méthodes de reconnaissance de symboles isolés ne sont pas toujours adaptés pour résoudre les problèmes du monde réel. Dans le cas des documents composites qui contiennent des éléments textuels et graphiques, on doit être capable d’extraire et de formaliser les liens qui existent entre les images et le texte environnant, afin d’exploiter les informations incorporées dans ces documents.Liés à ce contexte, nous avons d’abord introduit une méthode de reconnaissance graphique basée sur la programmation dynamique et la mise en correspondance de caractéristiques issues de la transformée de Radon. Cette méthode permet d’exploiter la propriété de cette transformée pour inclure à la fois le contour et la structure interne des formes sans utiliser de techniques de compression de la représentation du motif dans un seul vecteur et qui pourrait passer à côté d’informations importantes. La méthode surpasse en performances les descripteurs de forme de l’état de l’art, mais reste principalement adapté pour la reconnaissance de symboles isolés seulement. Nous l’avons donc intégrée dans une approche complètement nouvelle pour la reconnaissance de symboles basé sur la description spatio-structurelle d’un «vocabulaire» de primitives visuelles extraites. La méthode est basée sur les relations spatiales entre des paires de types étiquetés de ce vocabulaire (dont certains peuvent être caractérisés avec le descripteur mentionné précédemment), qui sont ensuite utilisées comme base pour construire un graphe relationnel attribué (ARG) qui décrit des symboles. Grâce à notre étiquetage des types d’attribut, nous évitons le problème classique NP-difficile d’appariement de graphes. Nous effectuons une comparaison exhaustive avec d’autres modèles de relations spatiales ainsi qu’avec l’état de l’art des approches pour la reconnaissance des graphismes afin de prouver que notre approche combine efficacement les descripteurs statistiques structurels et globaux et les surpasse de manière significative.Dans la dernière partie de cette thèse, nous présentons une approche de type sac de caractéristiques utilisant les relations spatiales, où chaque paire possible primitives visuelles est indexée par sa configuration topologique et les types visuels de ses composants. Ceci fournit un moyen de récupérer les symboles isolés ainsi que d’importantes parties connues de symboles en appliquant soit un symbole isolée comme une requête soit une collection de relations entre les primitives visuelles. Finalement, ceci ouvre des perspectives vers des processus de reconnaissance de symboles fondés sur le langage naturel / In the current state-of-the-art, symbol recognition usually means recognising isolated symbols. However, isolated symbol recognition methods are not always suitable for solving real-world problems. In case of composite documents that contain textual and graphical elements, one needs to be able to extract and formalise the links that exist between the images and the surrounding text, in order to exploit the information embedded in those documents.Related to this context, we first introduce a method for graphics recognition based on dynamic programming matching of the Radon features. This method allows to exploit the Radon Transform property to include both boundary and internal structure of shapes without compressing the pattern representation into a single vector that may miss information. The method outperforms all major set of state-of-the-art of shape descriptors but remains mainly suited for isolated symbol recognition only. We therefore integrate it in a completely new approach for symbol recognition based on the spatio-structural description of a ‘vocabulary’ of extracted visual primitives. The method is based on spatial relations between pairs of labelled vocabulary types (some of which can be characterised with the previously mentioned descriptor), which are further used as a basis for building an attributed relational graph (ARG) to describe symbols. Thanks to our labelling of attribute types, we avoid the general NP-hard graph matching problem. We provide a comprehensive comparison with other spatial relation models as well as state-of-the-art approaches for graphics recognition and prove that our approach effectively combines structural and statistical descriptors together and outperforms them significantly.In the final part of this thesis, we present a Bag-Of-Features (BOFs) approach using spatial relations where every possible pair of individual visual primitives is indexed by its topological configuration and the visual type of its components. This provides a way to retrieve isolated symbols as well as significant known parts of symbols by applying either an isolated symbol as a query or a collection of relations between the important visual primitives. Eventually, it opens perspectives towards natural language based symbol recognition process

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2018-04-25T16:10:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Maicon dos Santos_.pdf: 3747706 bytes, checksum: ef8b81f35d6d19fc23c56bfba79044c5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-25T16:10:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maicon dos Santos_.pdf: 3747706 bytes, checksum: ef8b81f35d6d19fc23c56bfba79044c5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-01-18 / Nenhuma / Engenharia reversa de código desempenha um papel fundamental em várias atividades de Engenharia de Software, tais como geração de modelos a partir de código legado e recuperação de funcionalidades (ou features) de sistemas. No contexto de Linha de Produto de Software (LPS), por exemplo, um produto de software é formado por um conjunto de features que são constantemente alteradas para acomodar mudanças de regras de negócio. Consequentemente, o modelo (por exemplo, diagrama de classes da UML) que representa toda LPS precisa ser modificado para refletir as atualizações realizadas. Neste contexto, várias ferramentas têm sido propostas nas últimas décadas, por exemplo, Astah e ArgoUML. Porém, as ferramentas (e suas técnicas) não dão suporte à engenharia reversa orientada a features, são imprecisas no que se refere à completude dos diagramas gerados, bem como exige um alto esforço para atualização dos modelos pois são manuais ou semiautomáticas. Para mitigar esta problemática, este trabalho propõe a TechREF, uma técnica de engenharia reversa orientada a features. De forma automática, a TechREF captura o fluxo de execução do código associado a uma feature, identifica as informações estruturais e comportamentais do código, e gera diagramas de classes UML, bem como persiste tais diagramas. A TechREF foi avaliada através de um estudo de caso tendo cenários reais de engenharia reversa. Esta avaliação buscou verificar o esforço e a corretude das atividades que serão realizadas no experimento com o uso dos modelos orientados a features. / Reverse code engineering plays a key role in various Software Engineering activities, such as model generation from legacy code and retrieval of system features. In the context of Software Product Line (LPS), for example, a software product is composed of a set features that are constantly changed to accommodate changes in business rules. Consequently, the model (for example, UML class diagram) that represents the entire LPS needs to be modified to reflect the updates made. In this context, several tools have been proposed in the last decades, for example, Astah and ArgoUML. However, the tools (and their techniques) do not support feature-oriented reverse engineering, are imprecise in terms of the completeness of the generated diagrams, as well as requiring a high effort to update the models because they are manual or semiautomatic. To mitigate this problem, this paper proposes TechREF, a reverse engineering technique oriented to features. Automatically, TechREF captures the execution flow of code associated with a feature, identifies the structural and behavioral information of the code, and generates diagrams of UML classes, as well as persists such diagrams. TechREF was evaluated through a case study having real reverse engineering scenarios. This evaluation sought to verify the effort and correctness of the activities that will be carried out in the experiment with the use of the models oriented to features.

A topic of this thesis addresses the media image of three football clubs as this was reflected in the Czech press within 2010/2011 season. The attention is paid to the press coverage of Sparta Praha, Manchester United and Dukla Praha. The specifics of their image are followed in three differently profiled Czech titles. Deník Sport represents the sport - focused newspaper, Mladá fronta Dnes stands for the most widely read Czech newspaper with a special regional sport section and Hospodářské noviny has been chosen because of their specifically economic profile where the sport section represents just a minor part of each issue. The term "media image" is linked to the signs of evaluation and expression of support for a particular team as it is mediated through the articles. This support is analysed through the structure of topics and through the use of subjective language. The aim is to point on how these teams were presented during the season and how their presence kept changing in the press within the time. The possible differences and overlapping are explained more into details. The term "media bias" is related to subjective reporting that stresses negativity or stardom on the contrary. The term is used to point out potential devotion from objective reporting. It is used to address possibly...

O estudo envolvendo a interação entre picratos de terras raras (III) hidratados e aminoácidos é reportado no presente trabalho. Este estudo consiste na preparação dos compostos de adição entre esses sais e os aminoácidos Larginina (Arg), L-lisina (Lys) e L-Ieucina (Leu), bem como a caracterização dos mesmos utilizando várias técnicas físico-químicas e analíticas. Os compostos foram preparados na relação molar 1:2 entre os respectivos sais hidratados e os ligantes (Arg, Lys e Leu) utilizando rotas de sínteses específicas para cada um desses aminoácidos. Os compostos obtidos são sólidos pouco cristalinos e higroscópicos. Os compostos com Arg e Lys são aparentemente, parcialmente solúveis em água e insolúveis em etanol, metanol, acetonitrila e nitrometano. Os compostos com Leu são aparentemente, solúveis em água, acetona, etanol, metanol, nitrometano, parcialmente solúveis em acetonitrila e comportam-se como não-eletrólitos em soluções de acetona e nitrometano. As fórmulas gerais dos compostos foram propostas tomando-se como base os teores de terras raras obtidos por análise complexométrica com EDTA e termogravimetria, dos teores de água também obtidos por termogravimetria, além dos teores de C, N e H obtidos por análise elementar. Através da combinação desses resultados foi possível sugerir as seguintes fórmulas gerais: TR(pic)32AA.2H2O e TR(pic)32Leu.5H2O (TR = La - Lu e Y, pic = picrato, AA = Arg e Lys). Em todos os compostos, os aminoácidos estão coordenados aos íons terras raras através do átomo de nitrogênio do grupo amino do carbono &#945; e os picratos, pelos menos em parte, estão coordenados de forma bidentada, através do átomo de oxigênio do grupo fenólico e um átomo de oxigênio de um dos grupos orto-nitro, conforme evidenciado por espectros de absorção no infravermelho. Todos os compostos de lisina são isomorfos entre si. Os compostos TR(pic)3.2Arg.2H2O (TR = La - Nd e Gd - Lu) formam uma série isomorfa, porém os compostos TR(pic)32Arg.2H2O (TR = Sm, Eu e Y) não pertencem a série citada e também não são isomorfos entre si. Os compostos de leucina formam três séries isomorfas. A primeira série corresponde aos compostos dos elementos La - Nd, a segunda Tb e Gd e a terceira Ho - Lu e Y. Os compostos de Sm, Eu e Dy não pertencem as séries citadas e também não são isomorfos entre si. Através dos parâmetros obtidos dos espectros de absorção na região do visível dos compostos de neodímio, foi verificado que as ligações metais-ligantes são de baixo caráter covalente. Os compostos de európio apresentam luminescência à temperatura ambiente e 77 K, já os compostos com térbio não mostram luminescência devido a seu estado emissor estar acima do estado tripleto do ligante, sendo este determinado utilizando o espectro de fosforescência do picrato, no complexo de gadolínio. As características espectrais e o comportamento biexponencial dos compostos de európio mostram que existe a presença de mais de um ambiente químico ao redor do íon Eu3+, ou seja, os compostos podem formar estruturas poliméricas. A estabilidade e o comportamento térmico dos compostos foram estudados por meio das técnicas de termogravimetrialtermogravimetria derivada (TG/DTG) e calorimetria exploratória diferencial (DSC). A estabilidade térmica dos compostos dentro de cada série é semelhante e comparando os compostos com os três aminoácidos, verifica-se que os compostos com o aminoácido Lys são os mais estáveis e os com Arg os menos estáveis. A decomposição térmica dos compostos com os três aminoácidos é distinta, porém dentro de cada série o processo ocorre de forma similar. Através das curvas termogravimétricas, além de informações quanto à estabilidade e os processos de decomposição térmica, foi possível também determinar a quantidade de moléculas de água, bem como as percentagens dos íons terras raras. / A study involving the interaction of rare-earth (III) hydrated picrates and amino acids is reported in this work. The addition compounds with L-arginine (Arg), L-Iysine (Lys) and L-Ieucine (Leu) were prepared and characterized by severaI common techniques. The compounds were prepared in the molar ratio 1:2 (hydrated salts: ligands, Arg, Lys and Leu) using specific synthetic routes for each amino acid. The Arg and Lys complexes are partially soluble in water and insoluble in ethanol, methanol,acetonitrile and nitromethane. The Leu complexes are soluble in water, acetone, ethanol, methanol and nitromethane; they are partially soluble in acetonitrile and they are non-electrolytes in acetone and nitromethane. The general formulae for the complexes, determined by EOTA titrations, elemental analyses and thermogravimetry, are RE(pic) 3.2AA.2H2O and RE(pic) 3.2Leu.5H2) (RE =La-Lu and Y, pic =picrate, AA =Arg and Lys). In all compounds, the amino acids are bonded to RE(III) ions through the &#945;aminogroup nitrogen atom and picrates, at least partially, are coordinated as bidentate ligands, through the phenoxy oxygen and one o-nitrogroup oxygen atom, as evidenced by IR absorption spectra. The Arg and Lys complexes display only one isomorphous series, but the Leu compounds present three isomorphous series. Parameters obtained from visible absorption spectra of the Nd complexes indicate that ligand-metal bonds are weakly covalent. Eu complexes are luminescent, both at room temperature and at 77K. Tb complexes are not luminescent, since their upper emitting state is above the Iigand\'s triplet state. The position of this state was determined by the picrate phosphorescence spectra of the Gd compound. Spectral characteristics, as well as the biexponential decay of Eu luminescence suggest that there is more than one coordination environment around the Eu(III) ion and that these complexes have polymeric structures. The stability and thermal behavior of these compounds were studied by thermogravimetry (TG), derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). In the three series of complexes thermal stability is similar, but the Lys complexes are the most stable and the Arg complexes the least stable ones. Thermal decompositions differ, but in each series the decomposition is similar. From TG curves it was possible also to determine water contents and the RE percent compositions.

Le traitement d’images est un axe de recherche très actif depuis des années. L’interprétation des images constitue une de ses branches les plus importantes de par ses applications socio-économiques et scientifiques. Cependant cette interprétation, comme la plupart des processus de traitements d’images, nécessite une phase de segmentation pour délimiter les régions à analyser. En fait l’interprétation est un traitement qui permet de donner un sens aux régions détectées par la phase de segmentation. Ainsi, la phase d’interprétation ne pourra analyser que les régions détectées lors de la segmentation. Bien que l’objectif de l’interprétation automatique soit d’avoir le même résultat qu’une interprétation humaine, la logique des techniques classiques de ce domaine ne marie pas celle de l’interprétation humaine. La majorité des approches classiques d’interprétation d’images séparent la phase de segmentation et celle de l’interprétation. Les images sont d’abord segmentées puis les régions détectées sont interprétées. En plus, au niveau de la segmentation les techniques classiques parcourent les images de manière séquentielle, dans l’ordre de stockage des pixels. Ce parcours ne reflète pas nécessairement le parcours de l’expert humain lors de son exploration de l’image. En effet ce dernier commence le plus souvent par balayer l’image à la recherche d’éventuelles zones d’intérêts. Dans le cas échéant, il analyse les zones potentielles sous trois niveaux de vue pour essayer de reconnaitre de quel objet s’agit-il. Premièrement, il analyse la zone en se basant sur ses caractéristiques physiques. Ensuite il considère les zones avoisinantes de celle-ci et enfin il zoome sur toute l’image afin d’avoir une vue complète tout en considérant les informations locales à la zone et celles de ses voisines. Pendant son exploration, l’expert, en plus des informations directement obtenues sur les caractéristiques physiques de l’image, fait appel à plusieurs sources d’informations qu’il fusionne pour interpréter l’image. Ces sources peuvent inclure les connaissent acquises grâce à son expérience professionnelle, les contraintes existantes entre les objets de ce type d’images, etc. L’idée de l’approche présentée ici est que simuler l’activité visuelle de l’expert permettrait une meilleure compatibilité entre les résultats de l’interprétation et ceux de l’expert. Ainsi nous retenons de cette analyse trois aspects importants du processus d’interprétation d’image que nous allons modéliser dans l’approche proposée dans ce travail : 1. Le processus de segmentation n’est pas nécessairement séquentiel comme la plus part des techniques de segmentations qu’on rencontre, mais plutôt une suite de décisions pouvant remettre en cause leurs prédécesseurs. L’essentiel étant à la fin d’avoir la meilleure classification des régions. L’interprétation ne doit pas être limitée par la segmentation. 2. Le processus de caractérisation d’une zone d’intérêt n’est pas strictement monotone i.e. que l’expert peut aller d’une vue centrée sur la zone à vue plus large incluant ses voisines pour ensuite retourner vers la vue contenant uniquement la zone et vice-versa. 3. Lors de la décision plusieurs sources d’informations sont sollicitées et fusionnées pour une meilleure certitude. La modélisation proposée de ces trois niveaux met particulièrement l’accent sur les connaissances utilisées et le raisonnement qui mène à la segmentation des images. / Image processing has been a very active area of research for years. The interpretation of images is one of its most important branches because of its socio-economic and scientific applications. However, the interpretation, like most image processing processes, requires a segmentation phase to delimit the regions to be analyzed. In fact, interpretation is a process that gives meaning to the regions detected by the segmentation phase. Thus, the interpretation phase can only analyze the regions detected during the segmentation. Although the ultimate objective of automatic interpretation is to produce the same result as a human, the logic of classical techniques in this field does not marry that of human interpretation. Most conventional approaches to this task separate the segmentation phase from the interpretation phase. The images are first segmented and then the detected regions are interpreted. In addition, conventional techniques of segmentation scan images sequentially, in the order of pixels appearance. This way does not necessarily reflect the way of the expert during the image exploration. Indeed, a human usually starts by scanning the image for possible region of interest. When he finds a potential area, he analyzes it under three view points trying to recognize what object it is. First, he analyzes the area based on its physical characteristics. Then he considers the region's surrounding areas and finally he zooms in on the whole image in order to have a wider view while considering the information local to the region and those of its neighbors. In addition to information directly gathered from the physical characteristics of the image, the expert uses several sources of information that he merges to interpret the image. These sources include knowledge acquired through professional experience, existing constraints between objects from the images, and so on.The idea of the proposed approach, in this manuscript, is that simulating the visual activity of the expert would allow a better compatibility between the results of the interpretation and those ofthe expert. We retain from the analysis of the expert's behavior three important aspects of the image interpretation process that we will model in this work: 1. Unlike what most of the segmentation techniques suggest, the segmentation process is not necessarily sequential, but rather a series of decisions that each one may question the results of its predecessors. The main objective is to produce the best possible regions classification. 2. The process of characterizing an area of interest is not a one way process i.e. the expert can go from a local view restricted to the region of interest to a wider view of the area, including its neighbors and vice versa. 3. Several information sources are gathered and merged for a better certainty, during the decision of region characterisation. The proposed model of these three levels places particular emphasis on the knowledge used and the reasoning behind image segmentation.

Large, software intensive systems are typically developed using a feature oriented development paradigm in which feature specifications are derived from domain requirements and features are implemented to satisfy such specifications. Historically, this approach has been followed in the telecommunications industry. More recently, in the automotive industry, features (for e.g. electronic stability control, collision avoidance etc.) are being developed as part of a software product line and a suitable subset of these features is integrated in an automobile model based on market requirements. Typically, features are designed independently by different engineering teams and are integrated later to create a system. Integrating features that are designed independently is extremely hard because the interactions between features are not understood properly and any incompatibilities may lead to costly redesign. In this thesis, we propose a framework for developing feature based systems such that even if features are incompatible, they can be integrated without redesign. Our view is that a feature based system consists of a base system and multiple features (or controllers), each of which independently advise the base system on how to react to an input so as to conform to their respective specifications. Such a system may reach a point of “conflict” between two or more features when they do not agree on a common action that the base system should perform. Instead of redesigning one or more features for resolving a conflict, we propose the novel notion of “conflicttolerance”, which requires features to be “resilient” or “tolerant” with regard to violations of their advice. Thus, unlike a classical feature, a conflicttolerant feature observes that its advice has been overridden, and takes this fact into account before proceeding to offer advice for subsequent behaviour of the base system. Conflict-tolerant features are composed using a priority order such that whenever a conflict occurs between two features, the base system continues with the advice of the higher priority feature. We guarantee that each feature is “maximally” utilized in that its advice is not taken only when there is a conflict with some higher priority controller. We show how to specify conflict-tolerant features for finite state, timed, and hybrid systems and also provide decision procedures for automated verification of finite state and timed systems. This provides a compositional technique for verifying systems which are composed of conflict-tolerant features. Our framework for developing feature based systems enables conflictresolution without redesign. The scope for reusing conflict tolerant features is significantly higher thus reducing design and verification effort.

This report describes simulations of observations with the near-infrared high-resolution spectrometer SIMPLE that is proposed to the ESO telescope E-ELT. We simulate M4 and G2 stars with transiting Earth-like planets and the goal is to distinguish spectral features originating from the atmosphere of the exoplanet. Noise levels of different magnitudes are added to the simulations and the minimal signal-to-noise required for detection of the atmosphere is estimated. Our conclusion is that detection of atmospheric features looks promising using this setup.