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No / In support of the increasing number of elderly population, wearable sensors and portable mobile devices capable of monitoring, recording, reporting and alerting are envisaged to enable them an independent lifestyle without relying on intrusive care programmes. However, the big data readings generated from the sensors are characterized as multidimensional, dynamic and non-linear with weak correlation with observable human behaviors and health conditions which challenges the information transmission, storing and processing. This paper proposes to use Locality Sensitive Bloom Filter to increase the Instance Based Learning efficiency for the front end sensor data pre-processing so that only relevant and meaningful information will be sent out for further processing aiming to relieve the burden of the above big data challenges. The approach is proven to optimize and enhance a popular instance-based learning method benefits from its faster speed, less space requirements and is adequate for the application.

Pinker et Bloom (1990), deux représentants de la psychologie évolutionniste, soutiennent que le langage est une adaptation biologique ayant pour fonction la communication. Ils prétendent ainsi jeter un éclairage sur l’origine et l’évolution du langage. Le présent mémoire propose une analyse critique de leur argumentation, et ce, du point de vue de la philosophie de la biologie. D’une part, il tente de dissiper la confusion entourant la conception du langage adoptée par Pinker et Bloom, afin de mieux définir le trait censé constituer une adaptation biologique. Ce faisant, ce mémoire fait ressortir certains présupposés de leur conception du langage et en souligne l’aspect problématique. En ce sens, les concepts d’innéité, de modularité, de grammaire universelle et de systématicité sont abordés de façon critique. D’autre part, ce travail entend expliciter un concept clé de l’argumentation de Pinker et Bloom : celui d’adaptation. L’analyse montre que l’opposition entre adaptationnisme et anti-adaptationnisme tient, dans le cas présent, à une divergence quant à la façon de définir l’adaptation biologique. Une distinction importante doit être faite entre une adaptation résultant exclusivement de la sélection naturelle dans un contexte fonctionnel particulier et une adaptation qui n’exclut pas a priori d’autres facteurs évolutifs, dont l’exaptation. Dans la mesure où l’argumentation de Pinker et Bloom conduit à affirmer que le langage constitue une adaptation seulement au deuxième sens du terme, ce mémoire montre qu’ils ne sont pas à même de rendre compte de l’origine du langage. / Pinker and Bloom (1990), two proponents of evolutionary psychology, argue that language has evolved as a biological adaptation for the function of communication. In doing so, they claim to shed light on the origin and evolution of language. This paper proposes a critical analysis of their argument from the point of view of the philosophy of biology. On the one hand, it attempts to clarify Pinker and Bloom’s conception of language in order to better define the trait that is regarded as an adaptation. Thus, this paper brings to the fore several problematic assumptions underlying their conception of language. In this context, the concepts of innateness, modularity, universal grammar and systematicity are addressed in a critical manner. On the other hand, this paper aims to make explicit a key concept of their argument: the concept of adaptation. The analysis shows that the opposition between adaptationism and anti-adaptationism is due, in the present instance, to a divergence in the way biological adaptation is defined. An important distinction has to be drawn between an adaptation resulting exclusively from natural selection in a particular functional context and an adaptation that does not a priori exclude other evolutionary factors such as exaptation. In so far as Pinker and Bloom’s argument allows them to conclude that language is an adaptation only in the second meaning of the term, this paper shows that they are not in a position to provide an account of the origin of language.

A síndrome de Bloom (SB) é uma síndrome de instabilidade cromossômica rara, transmitida por herança autossômica recessiva. Caracteriza-se por deficiência de crescimento pré e pós-natal, microcefalia, hipoplasia malar, eritema telangiectásico em face e comprometimento do sistema imunológico, entre outras manifestações clínicas. Os pacientes com SB apresentam predisposição aumentada para o desenvolvimento de neoplasias em idade precoce, sendo esta, a principal causa de óbito. Ao estudo citogenético observa-se aumento de quebras cromossômicas espontâneas e trocas entre cromátides irmãs (TCI), que são utilizadas como marcador diagnóstico para a SB. Além disso, a literatura mostra que a maioria dos pacientes também apresenta mutações no gene BLM, que estão relacionadas a defeitos no mecanismo de reparo do DNA. No entanto, os mecanismos fisiopatológicos não são completamente compreendidos. Nesse sentido estudamos o transcriptoma de duas pacientes portadoras da síndrome de Bloom e de três controles utilizando a metodologia RNA-seq (Illumina, Inc., San Diego, CA). A análise de expressão diferencial revelou 216 genes diferencialmente expressos relacionados a vias relacionadas à resposta imune como replicação negativa da regulação da replicação do genoma viral, regulação positiva da proliferação de células B, via de sinalização mediada por interferon gama, ativação de células B, resposta a vírus, resposta imune adaptativa e processo efetor imune, e nenhuma diferença da expressão em genes de reparo de DNA. Concomitantemente, observamos a hiperexpressão do gene BLM para ambas as pacientes, contribuindo para a desestabilização de genes envolvidos em vias imunológicas, fenômeno também observado em alguns tumores. Dessa forma, sugerimos que a combinação de defeitos de proliferação linfocitária e defeitos de sinalização celular somados a outros, como perda celular e expressão alterada do gene BLM, podem contribuir diretamente para as principais características observadas na síndrome de Bloom, como a deficiência de crescimento e o elevado risco de câncer. Futuramente, o estudo do transcriptoma, aplicado a outros portadores da SB e outras síndromes de instabilidade, possibilitará uma análise mais acurada das interações gênicas relevantes para a desestabilização do genoma / Bloom Syndrome (BS) is a rare chromosome instability syndrome, with recessive autosomal inheritance. The main clinical manifestations are pre and postnatal growth deficiency, microcephaly, malar hypoplasia, telangiectasic facial erythema and compromised immune system, among others. Patients with BS present increased risk to the development of neoplasias at an early age, which is the main cause of death. Cytogenetic test is used as a diagnostic marker for BS since the patient\'s cells present increase in spontaneous chromosomal breaks and sister chromatid exchange (SCE). In addition, the literature reveals that most patients also present mutations in the BLM gene, which are related to defects in the DNA repair mechanism; however, it is still not completely understood. In this sense, we studied the transcriptome of two patients with Bloom\'s syndrome and three controls using the RNA-seq methodology (Illumina, Inc., San Diego, CA). Differential expression analysis revealed 216 differentially expressed genes related to immunological pathways such as: negative replication of the regulation of the viral genome replication, positive regulation of B cells proliferation, gama-interferon mediated signalization pathway, B cells activation, virus response, adaptive immune response and immune effector process, and absence of difference of DNA repair genes expression. At the same time, we observed the hyperexpression of the BLM gene for both patients contributing for the destabilization of genes involved in immunological pathways, a phenomenon also observed in some tumors. Thus, we suggest that the combination of lymphoid proliferation defects and cell signaling defects added to others such as cell loss and altered expression of the BLM gene may contribute directly to the main characteristics observed in Bloom\'s syndrome, such as growth failure and high risk of cancer. In the future, the study of the transcriptome applied to other BS carriers and other instability syndromes, will allow a more accurate analysis of the relevant gene interactions to the destabilization of the genome

Just as packet switched networks constituted a major breakthrough in our perception of the information exchange in computer networks so have the decoupling properties of publish/subscribe systems revolutionized the way we look at networking in the context of large scale distributed systems. The decoupling of the components of publish/subscribe systems in time, space and synchronization has created an appealing platform for the asynchronous information exchange among anonymous information producers and consumers. Moreover, the content-based nature of publish/subscribe systems provides a great degree of flexibility and expressiveness as far as construction of data flows is considered. However, a number of challenges and not yet addressed issued still exists in the area of the publish/subscribe systems. One active area of research is directed toward the problem of the efficient content delivery in the content-based publish/subscribe networks. Routing of the information based on the information itself, instead of the explicit source and destination addresses poses challenges as far as efficiency and processing times are concerned. Simultaneously, due to their decoupled nature, publish/subscribe systems introduce new challenges with respect to issues related to dependability and fail-awareness. This thesis seeks to advance the field of research in both directions. First it shows the design and implementation of routing algorithms based on the end-to-end systems design principle. Proposed routing algorithms obsolete the need to perform content-based routing within the publish/subscribe network, pushing this task to the edge of the system. Moreover, this thesis presents a fail-aware approach towards construction of the content-based publish/subscribe system along with its application to the creation of the soft state publish/subscribe system. A soft state publish/subscribe system exposes the self stabilizing behavior as far as transient timing, link and node failures are concerned. The result of this thesis is a family of the XSiena content-based publish/subscribe systems, implementing the proposed concepts and algorithms. The family of the XSiena content-based publish/subscribe systems has been a subject to rigorous evaluation, which confirms the claims made in this thesis.

Pinker et Bloom (1990), deux représentants de la psychologie évolutionniste, soutiennent que le langage est une adaptation biologique ayant pour fonction la communication. Ils prétendent ainsi jeter un éclairage sur l’origine et l’évolution du langage. Le présent mémoire propose une analyse critique de leur argumentation, et ce, du point de vue de la philosophie de la biologie. D’une part, il tente de dissiper la confusion entourant la conception du langage adoptée par Pinker et Bloom, afin de mieux définir le trait censé constituer une adaptation biologique. Ce faisant, ce mémoire fait ressortir certains présupposés de leur conception du langage et en souligne l’aspect problématique. En ce sens, les concepts d’innéité, de modularité, de grammaire universelle et de systématicité sont abordés de façon critique. D’autre part, ce travail entend expliciter un concept clé de l’argumentation de Pinker et Bloom : celui d’adaptation. L’analyse montre que l’opposition entre adaptationnisme et anti-adaptationnisme tient, dans le cas présent, à une divergence quant à la façon de définir l’adaptation biologique. Une distinction importante doit être faite entre une adaptation résultant exclusivement de la sélection naturelle dans un contexte fonctionnel particulier et une adaptation qui n’exclut pas a priori d’autres facteurs évolutifs, dont l’exaptation. Dans la mesure où l’argumentation de Pinker et Bloom conduit à affirmer que le langage constitue une adaptation seulement au deuxième sens du terme, ce mémoire montre qu’ils ne sont pas à même de rendre compte de l’origine du langage. / Pinker and Bloom (1990), two proponents of evolutionary psychology, argue that language has evolved as a biological adaptation for the function of communication. In doing so, they claim to shed light on the origin and evolution of language. This paper proposes a critical analysis of their argument from the point of view of the philosophy of biology. On the one hand, it attempts to clarify Pinker and Bloom’s conception of language in order to better define the trait that is regarded as an adaptation. Thus, this paper brings to the fore several problematic assumptions underlying their conception of language. In this context, the concepts of innateness, modularity, universal grammar and systematicity are addressed in a critical manner. On the other hand, this paper aims to make explicit a key concept of their argument: the concept of adaptation. The analysis shows that the opposition between adaptationism and anti-adaptationism is due, in the present instance, to a divergence in the way biological adaptation is defined. An important distinction has to be drawn between an adaptation resulting exclusively from natural selection in a particular functional context and an adaptation that does not a priori exclude other evolutionary factors such as exaptation. In so far as Pinker and Bloom’s argument allows them to conclude that language is an adaptation only in the second meaning of the term, this paper shows that they are not in a position to provide an account of the origin of language.

The Teaching and learning computer-programming process as been the target of scientific research since the early days of computing. Although several strategies have been and are still being tested, its application in computer-based courses has been difficult, since it requires some commitment from educators to search, study and evaluate them. Although not looking for a miraculous cure for all problems in this area (reported in the literature), and believing in the pedagogical potential of the socio-cognitive conflict theory, it has been decided to develop a teaching method of programming based on Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives to be applied using the pair-programming technique. This method is being used to produce a book of Algorithms and Programming Techniques intending to be acknowledged by the Academy. Experiments with such method has been carried out at a private University and there has been a significant increase of motivation by the students that underwent the experiments. / O ensino-aprendizagem de programação de computadores tem sido alvo de investigações cientificas desde os primórdios da computação. Embora diversas estratégias foram e ainda têm sido experimentadas, sua aplicação em cursos de computação e afins se mostra difícil, uma vez que exige algum empenho de educadores em buscá-las, estudá-las e avaliá-las. Não procurando a cura milagrosa para todos os problemas nessa área (relatados na literatura), e acreditando no potencial pedagógico da teoria do conflito sócio-cognitivo, decidiu-se construir um método de ensino de programação baseado na taxionomia de objetivos educacionais de Bloom a ser aplicado através da técnica de Programação em Duplas. O método está sendo utilizado na produção de um livro de Algoritmos e Técnicas de Programação no intuito de difundi-lo na Academia. Foram realizados experimentos com o método em uma Universidade da iniciativa privada e constatou-se um expressivo aumento de motivação dos aprendizes que a ele foram submetidos. / Doutor em Ciências