The daily routine of every human is structured by the belly. Not only is food important for survival but also initiates the most fundamental ritual in the everyday, eating. It forms a catalyst for socialising from the essential to the festive level. Architecture of the everyday should be able to accommodate these rituals. By using food and the ritual around the table as analogy, an architecture that is viable everyday can be studied. This dissertation further stresses the importance of the architect as anthropologist, where the designer should be preoccupied with the study of ritual and meaning in a cultural context and so translate it to the built environment. A food market is proposed in the Pretoria Central Business District (CBD). In the contemporary city, supermarkets have dominated the urban fabric. As it is the place where one buys one food, the supermarket becomes the anchor point in the city landscape. With the current global climate crisis, the way people live is questioned, even the manner one goes about to buy food. Supermarkets have dominated the market and let the consumer be isolated from the producer and the rural landscape. Not only has the supermarket cover the interdependency of the urban and the rural but also eliminated the social aspect that surrounds the procurement of food. The opportunity of a vibrant public area is replaced by a place of efficiency. The proposed market should be a means to reinstate the relationship between the urban society and the rural landscape. The opportunity what food creates for social engagement should be activated in this public space. This new market is sited west of Church Square, near the Steenhovenspruit. This area is in a state of despair, with vacant buildings and abandoned land. The only buildings in close proximity are high rise residential buildings; the Kruger Park Complex that is currently vacant and; Schubart Park Complex that is in need of urgent maintenance. A new framework proposes densification of the area to create a new community in the city. This vacant land can be regenerated by initiating a new concept for a food market in the city. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

Ce travail de recherche s’attache à spécifier la valeur argumentative de l’analogie à la lumière des recherches récentes sur l’analogie en prenant compte l’apport des sciences cognitives. Les liens de l’analogie avec une théorie plus générale de l’argumentation sont étudiés. Un corpus a été constitué, constituant une étude de cas, celui du discours de la critique cinématographique. Ce travail met en évidence le lien argumentatif entre analogie et connivence, phénomène qui a pu être observé dans diverses de ses manifestations et qui conduit à définir ce discours comme genre de discours dans la relation particulière qu’il instaure entre orateur et auditoire, entre critique et lecteur. Cette recherche a évolué vers ce qui semble être la caractéristique majeure de ce type de critiques : la recherche d'une forme ou d'une autre de connivence avec le lecteur. / This research aims to specify the argumentative value of analogy in light of recent research on analogy and its links with a more general theory of argumentation. A body has been formed, constituting a case study, the discourse of film criticism. This work highlights the argumentative relationship between analogy and collusion, a phenomenon that has been observed in a variety of its manifestations and leads to define this discourse as a kind of speech in the special relationship that develops between speaker and audience, between critical and reader. This research has evolved into what appears to be the major feature of this type of criticism: the search for a form or other of complicity with the reader.

L’analogie désigne une similitude non fortuite entre deux choses ou deux idées de nature différente. Elle est un processus cognitif par lequel l’information attachée à un élément spécifique est transférée à un autre élément spécifique, et joue un rôle important dans le processus de la mémorisation, de la communication et de la résolution de problèmes. La méthode analoigique est utilisée dans plusieurs disciplines, et possède ses applications propres dans divers domaines. Dans la recherche en linguistique, l’analogie est aussi un sujet très intéressant. Au fil de nos recherches, nous constatons que l’analogie a une influence importante sur la création et l’évolution d’une langue, et, lorsqu’elle est correcte, joue aussi un rôle positif dans l’apprentissage : il devient alors possible de relier deux ou plusieurs langues par l’analogie. Par conséquent, notre travail consiste à mettre en relation de la langue française, de la langue anglaise et de la langue chinoise dans l’apprentissage du français, qui est la langue cible, l’anglais et le mandarin chinois étant déjà acquis par la plupart des apprenants chinois et constituant donc les langues de référence. A travers l’analogie, on pourra trouver les similarités entre les langues concernées qui ont une influence positive sur l’apprentissage, ainsi que les différences entre les langues qu’on peut utiliser pour former la compétence interculturelle des apprenants. / The analogy refers to a non-coincidental similarity between two things or two ideas of different nature. It is a cognitive process whereby information attached to a specific element is transferred to another specific element, and plays an important role in the process of memorization, communication and problem solving. It is used as a method in many disciplines, it also has its own definition in different areas. In linguistic research, the analogy is also a very interesting topic. According to our research, we find that the analogy has an important influence on the creation and the evolution of a language, when we learn a language, the correct analogy also plays a positive role, it is possible to connect two or more languages by analogy. Therefore, our work is to link French, English and Chinese because French is the language we want to learn, English and Chinese are the languages of reference as these two languages are already spoken by most Chinese students. Through the analogy, we can find similarities between the three languages and these similarities have a positive influence for the study, and also the differences between languages that can be used to train the intercultural competence of learners.

L’analogie est la réponse résolutive autant qu’aporétique au problème de l’unité et de la différence, scellée dans la multiplicité déroutante des significations de l’être. De cette réponse, il en va du statut de « science » pour la métaphysique. Notre enquête vise à retracer les conditions historiques d’émergence d’un concept (ou d’un complexe conceptuel) qui a marqué de son sceau l’histoire de la pensée, d’Aristote, voire même de Platon jusqu'aux nos jours. Sans cette même pensée de l’analogie – voici notre hypothèse – ni la constitution ni la « destruction » de la métaphysique ne seraient plus pensables. Mais qu’est-ce au juste que l’analogie ? Et jusqu’où s’étend sa portée métaphysique ? La certitude du terme a quo laisse en suspens l’extension de cette parabole, qui exige par reflet la fixation idéale d’un terme ad quem. On fera de la phénoménologie husserlienne un observatoire privilégié pour témoigner des derniers éclats de l’analogie, avant que la « destruction » de la métaphysique n’en décrète la disparition. En fixant dans l’aristotélisme du XIXe siècle le point d’ancrage entre Aristote et la phénoménologie, l’on tâchera d’établir des connexions, autant que faire se peut : de Trendelenburg à Brentano et de Brentano à Husserl, avec le regard toujours tourné vers Aristote, l’analogie – voici la thèse que l’on veut démontrer – n’abandonnera jamais son statut originaire d’analogie de l’être. / Analogy is the aporetic answer to the problem of unity and difference, sealed in the puzzling multiplicity of being’s meanings. On this answer depends the status of “science” for metaphysics. Our research aims to redraw the historical conditions of emergence of this concept (more likely a conceptual complex) which has been marking with its seal the history of western philosophy, from Aristotle and even before from Plato up to nowadays. Without analogy – here goes our hypothesis – neither the constitution, nor the «destruction” of metaphysics could be conceivable. But what is “analogy”? And up to where arrives its metaphysical impact ? The certainty of the term a quo leaves unresolved the extension of the curve, demanding therefore the ideal establishment of a term ad quem. Making out of husserlian phenomenology an advantaged observatory, we will grasp the last sparkling lights of analogy before the “destruction” of metaphysics decrees its disappearance. By fixing in the Aristotelianism of the XIXth century the anchorpoint between phenomenology and Aristotle, we shall establish as far as possible a series of connections: from Trendelenburg to Brentano and from Brentano to Husserl, always glancing at Aristotle, the analogy – this is the thesis we would to demonstrate – never abandon its original status of analogy of being.

Les méthodes classiques d'apprentissage automatique reposent souvent sur une hypothèse simple mais restrictive: les données du passé et du présent sont générées selon une même distribution. Cette hypothèse permet de développer directement des garanties théoriques sur la précision de l'apprentissage. Cependant, elle n'est pas réaliste dans un grand nombre de domaines applicatifs qui ont émergé au cours des dernières années.Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons à quatre problèmes différents en intelligence artificielle, unis par un point commun: tous impliquent un transfer de connaissance d'un domaine vers un autre. Le premier problème est le raisonnement par analogie et s'intéresse à des assertions de la forme "A est à B ce que C est à D". Le second est l'apprentissage par transfert et se concentre sur des problèmes de classification dans des contextes où les données d'entraînement et de test ne sont pas de même distribution (ou n'appartiennent même pas au même espace). Le troisième est l'apprentissage sur flux de données, qui prend en compte des données apparaissant continument une à une à haute fréquence, avec des changements de distribution. Le dernier est le clustering collaboratif et consiste à faire échanger de l'information entre algorithmes de clusterings pour améliorer la qualité de leurs prédictions.La principale contribution de cette thèse est un cadre général pour traiter les problèmes de transfer. Ce cadre s'appuie sur la notion de complexité de Kolmogorov, qui mesure l'information continue dans un objet. Cet outil est particulièrement adapté au problème de transfert, du fait qu'il ne repose pas sur la notion de probabilité tout en étant capable de modéliser les changements de distributions.En plus de cet effort de modélisation, nous proposons dans cette thèse diverses discussions sur d'autres aspects ou applications de ces problèmes. Ces discussions s'articulent autour de la possibilité de transfert dans différents domaines et peuvent s'appuyer sur d'autres outils que la complexité. / Classical learning methods are often based on a simple but restrictive assumption: The present and future data are generated according to the same distributions. This hypothesis is particularly convenient when it comes to developing theoretical guarantees that the learning is accurate. However, it is not realistic from the point of view of applicative domains that have emerged in the last years.In this thesis, we focus on four distinct problems in artificial intelligence, that have mainly one common point: All of them imply knowledge transfer from one domain to the other. The first problem is analogical reasoning and concerns statements of the form "A is to B as C is to D". The second one is transfer learning and involves classification problem in situations where the training data and test data do not have the same distribution (nor even belong to the same space). The third one is data stream mining, ie. managing data that arrive one by one in a continuous and high-frequency stream with changes in the distributions. The last one is collaborative clustering and focuses on exchange of information between clustering algorithms to improve the quality of their predictions.The main contribution of this thesis is to present a general framework to deal with these transfer problems. This framework is based on the notion of Kolmogorov complexity, which measures the inner information of an object. This tool is particularly adapted to the problem of transfer, since it does not rely on probability distributions while being able to model the changes in the distributions.Apart from this modeling effort, we propose, in this thesis, various discussions on aspects and applications of the different problems of interest. These discussions all concern the possibility of transfer in multiple domains and are not based on complexity only.

No description available.

Ghrelin analogs in food intake regulation Ghrelin, to date the only known peripherally produced and centrally acting peptide that stimulates food intake, is mainly synthesized in the stomach and acts through growth- hormone-secretagogue receptor (GHS-R). In addition to its orexigenic effect, ghrelin stimulates growth hormone (GH) release, gastric motility and acid secretion. The diverse functions of ghrelin raise the possibility of its clinical application for GH deficiency, eating disorders, and gastrointestinal diseases. Ghrelin agonists could be a promising therapeutics in cachexia occurring at cancer or chronic inflammatory diseases. Octanoylation of Ser3 is crucial for preservation of ghrelin activity. In this study, biological properties (binding to GHS-R, food intake stimulation in mice) of full length and shorter ghrelin analogues with octanoic acid coupled to diaminopropionic acid (Dpr) replacing Ser3 or without octanoic acid were followed. This substitution resulted in a prolonged stability and orexigenic effect of above mentioned ghrelin analogues. Importance of N-terminal part of ghrelin and octanoylation peptide was also confirmed.

Peptide CART (cocaine- and amphetamine- regulated transcript) is a neuropeptide acting in the hypothalamus to reduce food intake (anorexigenic peptide). Despite all efforts the receptor and the mechanism of action is still unknown. This peptide has two biologically active forms, CART(55-102) and CART(61-102). Peptide CART is able to bind to pheochromocytoma cells PC12. PC12 cells differentiated in neuronal phenotype with NGF (nerve growth factor) showed a higher number of binding sites (11250 ± 2520 binding sites/cell) compared to undifferentiated cells (3600 ± 570 binding sites/cell). PC12 cells differentiated by dexamethasone to chromaffin cells showed high non-specific binding. Peptide CART contains three disulfide bridges. To clarify the importance of each disulfide bridge to maintain biological activity, analogues with one (analogue 3, 4 and 5) or two (2, 6, 7 and 8) disulfide bridges and a peptide analogue of CART (61-102), which has methionin at position 67 replaced with norleucine were synthesized. We showed that biological activity was unchanged at analogue 1 and analogue 7 containing disulfide bridges in positions 74-94 and 88-101. When investigating cell signaling in PC12 cells, we tested if peptide CART activate of c-Fos, c-Jun, phosphorylated ERK1/2, CREB, JNK and p38. CART peptide...

Vitamine E analogues α-tocopheryl succinate (α-TOS) and mitochondrially targeted vitamine E succinate (MitoVES) are anti-cancer agents from the group of "mitocans", the compounds acting via mitochondria which present a promising invariant target for cancer cell therapy. α-TOS and MitoVES induce apoptosis selectively in various cancer cell types involving generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Generated superoxid anion radicals in response to α-TOS and MitoVES are believed to be converted into hydrogen peroxide that is known to activate Mammalian sterile 20-like kinase (Mst1), the central component of Hippo signalling pathway, that presents an universal size control mechanism in all metazoans and its deregulation is linked to tumourigenesis. MitoVES and α-TOS were both reported to activate Mst1 that phosphorylates Forkhead box O1 (FoxO1) transcription factor resulting in its transport to nucleus where induce the expression of pro-apoptotic genes, including NOXA, and thus promote apoptosis. The target of Hippo signalling pathway is transcriptional co- activator Yes-associated protein (Yap) which was found in Drosophila melanogaster to regulate the expression of transcription factor c-Myc which is known as the most prominent human oncogene. This thesis focused on involvement of Hippo signalling...

Diabetes mellitus is considered as one of world's most common metabolic diseases. Complicated treatment and increasing number of newly diagnosed patients, suffering from diabetes every year, shows the importance and necessity of research in this area. Some of the major aims of this research are the development of new therapeutically utilized drugs and defining the problems of insulin acting in human body. Insulin is a peptide hormone whose main physiological function is to regulate blood glucose level in organism connected with large impact on whole metabolism. Insulin acts through binding of its monomeric form to the insulin receptor. Upon binding to the receptor molecule of insulin undergoes specific structural changes, which put the hormone into an active state. As of now, the structure of the insulin's active monomeric form is still unknown. By testing binding affinities of many modified insulin analogues there was discovered strong evidence between structural conformation of the C-terminus of the B-chain and binding affinity to the receptor. The most crucial data, necessary for this work, were observed from the structure of highly active insulin analogues that possessed unique B26 turn, recently prepared and described by team of Dr. J. Jiráček, IOCB AS CR. The aim of this work was synthesis of...