Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Richard J. Harris / The increasing number of non-native English-speaking instructors in American universities constitutes an issue of controversial debate, concerning the interaction of native English- speaking students and non-native English speaking instructors. This study investigated the effects of native or non-native speakers and audiovisual or audio-only lecture mode on English native speakers’ comprehension and memory for information from a classroom lecture, measuring both factual memory and strength of pragmatic inferences drawn from the text. College students (N = 130) were tested on their comprehension of information derived from basic entomology lectures given by both an English native speaker and an English non-native speaker GTA. Participants also evaluated both lecturers in terms of communication skills. Results indicated that participants evaluated the native speaker as having better communication skills, which is in accordance with previous studies suggesting that both the difficulty of understanding non-native-accented speech (Reddington, 2008) and the possibility of prejudice triggered when listeners hear a non-native accent (Bresnahan et al., 2002) influence listeners’ evaluations of English non-native speaker instructors. Results revealed that familiarity with the topic also played an important role in listening comprehension, especially for lectures given by the non-native speaker. Likewise, the access to visual cues (gestures and facial expressions) enhanced understanding, but it was not a pre-requisite for adequate comprehension when the topic of the lectures did not require visual information. These findings were consistent with the polystemic speech perception approach (Hawkins, 2003), in that it is not essential to recognize all words in text in order to make connections with previous knowledge and construct meaning. Furthermore, overall participants took longer to answer questions from lectures given by the non-native speaker than by the native speaker. This suggests that non-native-accented speech may require more time to answer questions related to that speech, although listeners can adapt to it quickly (Derwing, 1995). Findings from this study are important in suggesting tools for thinking about how different aspects of a lecture can contribute to the learning process. Implications for further research are addressed.

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans le domaine de la vérification dulogiciel. Le but de la vérification du logiciel est d'assurer qu'uneimplémentation, un programme, répond aux exigences, satisfait saspécification. Cela est particulièrement important pour le logicielcritique, tel que des systèmes de contrôle d'avions, trains oucentrales électriques, où un mauvais fonctionnement pendantl'opération aurait des conséquences catastrophiques.Les exigences du logiciel peuvent concerner la sûreté ou lefonctionnement. Les exigences de sûreté, tel que l'absence d'accès à lamémoire en dehors des bornes valides, sont souvent implicites, dans lesens que toute implémentation est censée être sûre. D'autre part, les exigences fonctionnelles spécifient ce que leprogramme est censé faire. La spécification d'un programme est souventexprimée informellement en décrivant en anglais la mission d'une partie du code source. La vérification duprogramme se fait alors habituellement par relecture manuelle,simulation et tests approfondis. Par contre, ces méthodes negarantissent pas que tous les possibles cas d'exécution sontcapturés. La preuve déductive de programme est une méthode complète pour assurerla correction du programme. Ici, un programme, ainsi que saspécification formalisée à l'aide d'un langage logique, est un objetmathématique et ses propriétés désirées sont des théorèmes logiques àprouver formellement. De cette façon, si le système logiquesous-jacent est cohérent, on peut être complètement sûr que lapropriété prouvée est valide pour le programme en question et pourn'importe quel cas d'exécution. La génération de conditions de vérification est une techniquecensée aider le programmeur à prouver les propriétés qu'il veut surson programme. Ici, un outil (VCG) analyse un programme donné avec saspécification et produit une formule mathématique, dont la validitéimplique la correction du programme vis à vis de saspécification, ce qui est particulièrement intéressant lorsque lesformules générées peuvent être prouvées automatiquement à l'aide desolveurs SMT. Cette approche, basée sur des travaux de Hoare et Dijkstra,est bien comprise et prouvée correcte en théorie. Des outils devérification déductive ont aujourd'hui acquis une maturité qui leurpermet d'être appliqués dans un contexte industriel où un hautniveau d'assurance est requis. Mais leurs implémentations doiventgérer toute sorte de fonctionnalités des langages et peuvent donc devenir très complexes et contenir des erreurs ellesmêmes - au pire des cas affirmer qu'un programme est correct alorsqu'il ne l'est pas. Il se pose donc la question du niveau de confianceaccordée à ces outils.Le but de cette thèse est de répondre à cette question. Ondéveloppe et certifie, dans le système Coq, un VCGpour des programmes C annotés avec ACSL, le langage logique pour laspécification de programmes ANSI/ISO C.Notre première contribution est la formalisation d'un VCGexécutable pour le langage intermédiaire Whycert, un langageimpératif avec boucles, exceptions et fonctions récursives, ainsi quesa preuve de correction par rapport à la sémantique opérationnelle bloquante à grand pas du langage. Une deuxièmecontribution est la formalisation du langage logique ACSL et lasémantique des annotations ACSL dans Clight de Compcert. De lacompilation de programmes C annotés vers des programmes Whycert et sapreuve de préservation de la sémantique combiné avec uneaxiomatisation en Whycert du modèle mémoire Compcert résulte notrecontribution principale: une chaîne intégrée certifiée pour lavérification de programmes C, basée sur Compcert. En combinant notrerésultat de correction avec celui de Compcert, on obtient un théorèmeen Coq qui met en relation la validité des l'obligations de preuvegénérées avec la sûreté du code assembleur compilé. / This thesis belongs to the domain of software verification. The goalof verifying software is to ensure that an implementation, a program,satisfies the requirements, the specification. This is especiallyimportant for critical computer programs, such as control systems forair planes, trains and power plants. Here a malfunctioning occurringduring operation would have catastrophic consequences. Software requirements can concern safety or functioning. Safetyrequirements, such as not accessing memory locations outside validbounds, are often implicit, in the sense that any implementation isexpected to be safe. On the other hand, functional requirementsspecify what the program is supposed to do. The specification of aprogram is often expressed informally by describing in English or someother natural language the mission of a part of the program code.Usually program verification is then done by manual code review,simulation and extensive testing. But this does not guarantee that allpossible execution cases are captured. Deductive program proving is a complete way to ensure soundness of theprogram. Here a program along with its specificationis a mathematical object and its desired properties are logicaltheorems to be formally proved. This way, if the underlying logicsystem is consistent, we can be absolutely sure that the provenproperty holds for the program in any case.Generation of verification conditions is a technique helpingthe programmer to prove the properties he wants about his programs.Here a VCG tool analyses a program and its formal specification andproduces a mathematical formula, whose validity implies the soundnessof the program with respect to its specification. This is particularlyinteresting when the generated formulas can be proved automatically byexternal SMT solvers.This approach is based on works of Hoare and Dijkstra and iswell-understood and shown correct in theory. Deductive verificationtools have nowadays reached a maturity allowing them to be used inindustrial context where a very high level of assurance isrequired. But implementations of this approach must deal with allkinds of language features and can therefore become quite complex andcontain errors -- in the worst case stating that a program correcteven if it is not. This raises the question of the level ofconfidence granted to these tools themselves. The aim of this thesis is to address this question. We develop, inthe Coq system, a certified verification-condition generator (VCG) forACSL-annotated C programs.Our first contribution is the formalisation of an executableVCG for the Whycert intermediate language,an imperative language with loops, exceptions and recursive functionsand its soundness proof with respect to the blocking big-step operational semantics of the language.A second contribution is the formalisation of the ACSL logicallanguage and the semantics of ACSL annotations of Compcert's Clight.From the compilation of ACSL annotated Clight programs to Whycertprograms and its semantics preservation proof combined with a Whycertaxiomatisation of the Compcert memory model results our maincontribution: an integrated certified tool chainfor verification of C~programs on top of Compcert. By combining oursoundness result with the soundness of the Compcert compiler we obtaina Coq theorem relating the validity of the generated proof obligationswith the safety of the compiled assembly code.

This diploma thesis deals with the development of the school climate in a classroom with a seriously physically disabled child who requires permanent presence of an assistant. The theoretical part focuses on physical disabilities and their impact on the psyche of the child, the specifics of including a seriously disabled child in educational instructional contexts and the life of the classroom, and on the cooperation between a form teacher and an assistant whose support and help is required by the child during all lessons. The practical part uses a narrative of two girls and people who are closely related to them to offer answers to the inquiries into how have relationships within such a classroom and the attitude of classmates to a disabled child changed over the years; how can the presence of an assistant affect the climate of the classroom; and whether the external perception of the inclusion of a disabled child as a successful one corresponds with the feelings of the disabled child, of if the child sees the process otherwise. Case studies which helped the author to get a general picture of the situation confirmed it appeared that the factor which immensely affects inclusion of a physically disabled child in the classroom is the age at which children meet and the attitude of the teacher and the...

A link between eye movement mechanics and the mental processing associated with text reading has been established in the past. The pausing of an eye gaze on a specific word within a sentence reflects correctness or fluency of a translated text. A cognitive translation system has been built employing a single, inexpensive web camera without the use of infrared illumination. It was shown that the system translates the text, detects rarely occurring and out-of-context words from eye gaze information, and provides solutions in real time while the user is still reading. The solutions are in form of a translation, definition or synonym for the word in question. The only effort required is that of reading.

Nous nous intéressons dans cette thèse au problème de l’automatisation du processus de choix et de paramétrage des visualisations en fouille visuelle de données. Pour résoudre ce problème, nous avons développé un assistant utilisateur "VizAssist" dont l’objectif principal est de guider les utilisateurs (experts ou novices) durant le processus d’exploration et d’analyse de leur ensemble de données. Nous illustrons, l’approche sur laquelle s’appuie VizAssit pour guider les utilisateurs dans le choix et le paramétrage des visualisations. VizAssist propose un processus en deux étapes. La première étape consiste à recueillir les objectifs annoncés par l’utilisateur ainsi que la description de son jeu de données à visualiser, pour lui proposer un sous ensemble de visualisations candidates pour le représenter. Dans cette phase, VizAssist suggère différents appariements entre la base de données à visualiser et les visualisations qu’il gère. La seconde étape permet d’affiner les différents paramétrages suggérés par le système. Dans cette phase, VizAssist utilise un algorithme génétique interactif qui a pour apport de permettre aux utilisateurs d’évaluer et d’ajuster visuellement ces paramétrages. Nous présentons enfin les résultats de l’évaluation utilisateur que nous avons réalisé ainsi que les apports de notre outil à accomplir quelques tâches de fouille de données. / In this thesis, we deal with the problem of automating the process of choosing an appropriate visualization and its parameters in the context of visual data mining. To solve this problem, we developed a user assistant "VizAssist" which mainly assist users (experts and novices) during the process of exploration and analysis of their dataset. We illustrate the approach used by VizAssit to help users in the visualization selection and parameterization process. VizAssist proposes a process based on two steps. In the first step, VizAssist collects the user’s objectives and the description of his dataset, and then proposes a subset of candidate visualizations to represent them. In this step, VizAssist suggests a different mapping between the database for representation and the set of visualizations it manages. The second step allows user to adjust the different mappings suggested by the system. In this step, VizAssist uses an interactive genetic algorithm to allow users to visually evaluate and adjust such mappings. We present finally the results that we have obtained during the user evaluation that we performed and the contributions of our tool to accomplish some tasks of data mining.

For my thesis I have chosen the theme of the importance and possibilities of a teacher assistant in school integration of children with disabilities. The research was conducted in the district of Český Krumlov. There are currently 20 basic schools and 26 kindergartens of which eight basic schools and two kindergartens have integrated pupils with disabilities. My two hypotheses are based on the fact that teacher assistants are the ones who, in my opinion, form an indispensable part of a pedagogic team, ensuring successful and beneficial integration of disabled children into the regular type of schools and school facilities and affecting the process of integration (hypothesis 1). Moreover, I believe that the competencies of two different professional groups, being teacher assistants and personal assistants, are often confused and neither professionals nor the lay public are able to clearly distinguish between their functions (hypothesis 2). In order to obtain information in respect of the set out issues, the method of interviews in the form of questionnaires was used. The questionnaire was designed for directors and teachers of basic schools and kindergartens integrating pupils with disabilities and also for parents of disabled children integrated in a regular school. The processed data are displayed in graphs and tables. Both the raised hypotheses have been confirmed. It was revealed that the respondents consider a teacher assistant as an indispensable element without which the school integration would not be successful. Some of them refer to their previous experience when no teacher assistant was available. The hypothesis which assumed confusion of competencies of an assistant teacher and a personal assistant was also clearly confirmed. The research revealed that some respondents suggested an interesting idea to unify these two assistants' functions into one that would fall under one resort. By this diploma thesis I would like to contribute to the explanation of ambiguities in the competences of a teacher assistant and a personal assistant and to promote the importance of a teacher assistant in school integration of children with disabilities.

Les activités de validation et vérification de modèles sont devenues essentielles dans le développement de systèmes complexes. Les efforts de formalisation de ces activités se sont multipliés récemment étant donné leur importance pour les systèmes embarqués critiques. Notre travail s’inscrit principalement dans cette voie. Nous abordons deux visions complémentaires pour traiter cette problématique. La première est une description syntaxique implicite macroscopique basée sur une ontologie pour aider les concepteurs dans le choix des outils selon leurs exigences. La seconde est une description sémantique explicite microscopique pour faciliter la construction de techniques de vérification compositionnelles. Nous proposons dans la première partie de cette thèse une ontologie pour expliquer et expliciter les éléments fondateurs du domaine que nous appelons VVO. Cette ontologie pourra avoir plusieurs autres utilisations : une base de connaissance, un outil de formation ou aussi un support pour le choix de la méthode à appliquer et l’inférence de correspondance entre outils. Nous nous intéressons dans la seconde partie de cette thèse à une formalisation dans un assistant à la preuve de l’introduction de composants dans un langage de modélisation et des liens avec les activités de validation et vérification. Le but est d’étudier la préservation des propriétés par composition : les activités de vérification sont généralement coûteuses en terme de temps et d’effort, les faire d’une façon compositionnelle est très avantageux. Nous partons de l’atelier formel pour l’Ingénierie Dirigée par les Modèles Coq4MDE. Nous suivons la même ligne directrice de développement prouvé pour formaliser des opérateurs de composition et étudier la conservation des propriétés par assemblage. Nous nous intéressons au typage puis à la conformité de modèles par rapport au métamodèle et nous vérifions que les opérateurs définis permettent de conserver ces propriétés. Nous nous focalisons sur l’étude d’opérateurs élémentaires que nous exploitons pour spécifier des opérateurs de plus haut niveau. Les préconditions des opérateurs représentent les activités de vérification non compositionnelles qui doivent être effectuées en plus de la vérification des composants pour assurer la postcondition des opérateurs qui est la propriété souhaitée. Nous concluons en présentant des perspectives pour une formalisation algébrique en théorie des catégories. / The validation and verification of models have become essential in the development of complex systems. The formalisation efforts for these activities have increased recently being given their importance for critical embedded systems. We discuss two complementary visions for addressing these issues. The first is a syntactic implicit macroscopic description based on an ontology to help designers in the choice of tools depending on their requirements. The second is a microscopic explicit semantics description aiming to facilitate the construction of compositional verification techniques. We propose in the first part of this thesis an ontology to explain and clarify the basic elements of the domain of Verification and Validation that we call VVO. This ontology may have several other uses: a knowledge base, a training tool or a support for the choice of the method to be applied and to infer correspondence between tools. We are interested in the second part of this thesis in a formalisation using a proof assistant for the introduction of components in a modelling language and their links with verification and validation activities. The aim is to study the preservation of properties by the composition activities. The verification are generally expensive in terms of time and efforts, making theme in a compositional way is very advantageous. Starting from the formal framework for Model Driven Engineering COQ4MDE, we follow the same line of though to formalize the composition operators and to study the conservation of properties by composition. We are interested in typing and conformity of models in relation with metamodels and we verify that the defined operators allow to preserve these properties. We focus on the study of elementary operators that we use to specify hight level operators. The preconditions for the operators represent the non-compositional verification activities that should be performed in addition to verification of components to ensure the desired postcondition of the operator. We conclude by studying algebraic formalisation using concepts from category theory.

Esta tese trata do perfil sócio-demográfico, político e de atividades dos agentes comunitários de saúde que atuam há mais de um ano em unidades de saúde da família, integrantes da rede assistencial de sete municípios da região de saúde de Juiz de Fora - MG. Considera a percepção do próprio agente comunitário de saúde sobre o seu trabalho, a concepção das equipes e coordenadores do programa e a visão dos usuários. Apoia-se, na interação entre as metodologias qualitativa e quantitativa, atuando de forma complementar, sendo seus principais resultados: (i) o perfil social dos agentes no que concerne aos aspectos de residência, segue os requisitos propostos pelo programa nacional. Quanto aos aspectos de liderança e ajuda solidária, somente uma pequena parcela já desenvolvia ações sociais e de solidariedade com sua comunidade, não sendo referência para a mesma, em termos de saúde, (ii) o perfil de atividades se prende às diretrizes e normas ditadas pela política de saúde vigente, emanadas das Secretarias Municipais de Saúde, reforçando a dimensão técnica universalista do seu trabalho.

Esta tese trata do perfil sócio-demográfico, político e de atividades dos agentes comunitários de saúde que atuam há mais de um ano em unidades de saúde da família, integrantes da rede assistencial de sete municípios da região de saúde de Juiz de Fora - MG. Considera a percepção do próprio agente comunitário de saúde sobre o seu trabalho, a concepção das equipes e coordenadores do programa e a visão dos usuários. Apoia-se, na interação entre as metodologias qualitativa e quantitativa, atuando de forma complementar, sendo seus principais resultados: (i) o perfil social dos agentes no que concerne aos aspectos de residência, segue os requisitos propostos pelo programa nacional. Quanto aos aspectos de liderança e ajuda solidária, somente uma pequena parcela já desenvolvia ações sociais e de solidariedade com sua comunidade, não sendo referência para a mesma, em termos de saúde, (ii) o perfil de atividades se prende às diretrizes e normas ditadas pela política de saúde vigente, emanadas das Secretarias Municipais de Saúde, reforçando a dimensão técnica universalista do seu trabalho.

The thesis deals with the function of a teacher's assistant in a primary school. The work is divided into theoretical and practical part. In the theoretical part, I focus on inclusive education, which is related to students with special educational needs. The second chapter of the theoretical part deals with the teaching assistants, their qualification, and personal prerequisites. I also deal with the role and activities of assistants in primary school and their job. The third part is devoted to cooperation between teachers and assistants. I present the possible benefits and risks of this cooperation. Due to the current epidemy of coronavirus, I focused the practical part on the cooperation between assistants and teachers during distance learning. I used the method of semi-structured interviews. The results of my research show that each cooperation was handled differently. Most teachers are aware of the benefits of this cooperation and have involved and collaborated with assistants even during distance learning, during which the assistants acted not only as support for kids with SEN. Key Words Assistant teacher, inclusive education, primary school, cooperation between teacher and assistant teacher