La classification de données (ou apprentissage non-supervisé) vise à regrouper un ensemble d'observations sous la forme de classes homogènes et contrastées. Lorsque les données sont caractérisées par un grand nombre de variables, il devient nécessaire d'adapter les méthodes classiques, notamment au niveau des métriques, afin de maintenir des classes pertinentes ; ce phénomène est connu sous le nom de "malédiction de la dimension". Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une mesure de co-similarité basée sur la notion de co-occurrences d'ordre supérieur, directement extraites à partir des données. Dans le cas de l'analyse de texte, par exemple, les similarités entre documents sont calculées en prenant en compte les similarités entre mots, qui simultanément prennent en compte les similarités entre documents. Par cette approche " circulaire ", nous parvenons à mettre en correspondance des documents sans mots communs mais ayant juste des mots similaires. Cette approche s'effectue de manière purement numérique sans nécessiter de thesaurus externe. En outre, notre méthode peut également être étendue pour tirer parti de connaissances "a priori" afin de réaliser des tâches de catégorisation de textes : l'étiquette des documents est utilisée pour influencer les mesures de similarité entre les mots afin de classer de nouvelles données. Ainsi, le même cadre conceptuel, exprimable en terme de théorie des graphes, peut être utilisé à la fois pour les tâches de classification et de catégorisation en fonction de la quantité d'information initiale. Nos résultats montrent une amélioration significative de la précision, par rapport à l'état de l'art, à la fois pour le co-clustering et la catégorisation sur les jeux de données qui ont été testés.

Aujourd’hui, l'entrepreneuriat et l’innovation sont promus par les gouvernements et les organisations mondiales et nationales. Les Libanais perçoivent de bonnes opportunités pour créer de nouvelles entreprises, mais une grande partie des entreprises nouvelles vivent un échec. Le manque d’analyse des compétiteurs, de connaissances d’opportunités externes et de capacités à développer et à gérer leurs entreprises sont les raisons principales qui expliquent cette situation. L’acquisition de nouvelles compétences et la mise en place d’activités entrepreneuriales sont influencées par l’absence d’un écosystème national d’entrepreneuriat et d’innovation. Dans notre recherche, nous présentons l’approche co-innopreneuriat qui propose une méthode de co-innovation et de co-création de valeurs par convergence et par collaboration basée sur des théories en SIC et des concepts en TIC. Notre but est d’améliorer la performance de l’innovation et les avantages compétitifs des entreprises nouvelles, les facteurs d’innovation et les avantages compétitifs, qui sont tous des facteurs clés de succès de l’entrepreneuriat et du développement des compétitivités des nations. L’expérimentation et l’évaluation de notre approche a été réalisée auprès de participants réels appartenant à différentes communautés du savoir externes et correspondant aux activités principales du processus d’innovation et à travers un outil open source. Cette évaluation nous a permis de valider deux hypothèses d’étude concernant l’efficacité et l’efficience de l’innovation pour améliorer la performance de l’innovation et les avantages compétitifs des entreprises nouvelles. / Today, entrepreneurship and innovation are promoted by governments and global and national organizations. Lebanese foreseen good opportunities for starting a business, but a lot of startups face a failure. The lack of competitors’ analysis, knowledge of external opportunities and abilities to develop and manage their companies are the main reasons for this situation. The acquisition of new skills and the development of entrepreneurial activities are influenced by the absence of a national entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem. In this research, we present co-innopreneuriat which provides a method for co-innovation and co-creation of values by a convergence and collaboration approach based on Information and communication sciences’ theories and Information and communication technologies’ concepts. Our objective is to improve innovation performance and competitive advantages of the startups. Innovation and competitive advantages are key success factors of the entrepreneurship and the development of economic competitiveness factors. The experimentation and the evaluation of our approach were conducted with participants from different knowledge communities related to the main activities of the innovation process. This evaluation allowed us to validate two research hypotheses concerning the effectiveness and efficiency of innovation in order to improve the innovation performance and competitive advantages of startups.

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Co-terapi innebär att två terapeuter arbetar tillsammans i terapi med en eller flera patienter och uppstod inom ramen för familjeterapi. Syftet med denna uppsats var att belysa om det finns forskningsstöd för att co-terapi fungerar, såväl för familjer och par i behandling, som för nya terapeuter som ska skolas in i yrket, samt vilken inverkan co-terapiskapet kan ha på terapeuternas utveckling. Vår frågeställning var om det är möjligt att utfärda rekommendationer om när co-terapi är att föredra i behandlingen utifrån den forskning som finns om co-terapi. Metoden i denna litteraturstudie blev en systematisk litteraturgenomgång av vetenskapliga artiklar som avhandlade dessa ämnen. Tio relevanta artiklar valdes och analyserades och presenteras utifrån olika teman. Resultaten var mångfasetterade och gav inga entydiga svar angående om och när co-terapi bör användas. Det betonades att ett gott behandlingsresultat vid co-terapi förutsatte en hög grad av samarbete mellan terapeuterna. Det fanns fördelar med co-terapi: det var värdefullt vid byte av terapeut då utgående och ingående terapeut kunde samverka; en stark allians mellan terapeuterna kunde utgöra en förebild av en relation med fungerande kommunikation; i en utbildningssituation fann oerfarna terapeuter det utvecklande med co-terapi med erfaren terapeut. Slutsatsen är att av de artiklar som analyserades går det inte att rekommendera co-terapi inom några specifika sammanhang men heller inte att avfärda i något sammanhang. Co-terapi är vad co-terapeuterna gör det till och för att göra bra co-terapi krävs kännedom om varandra, en allians och en vilja och tro på att arbeta co-terapeutiskt.

Over the past few years information technology (IT) and business alignment has become a great concern to organizations. To achieve alignment has become a daunting task for organizations due to rapid changes in business environment and lack of IT support. In business organizations business processes and IT are interrelated and interact with each other where one entity influences to another entity i.e. evolution in business processes requires evolution in IT and vice versa. When this co-evolution is not well aligned, a gap is created due to wrong configuration between business requirements and IT deployment. Organizations usually strive to bridge the gap by implementing business and IT strategies (i.e. top-down planning) and tend to ignore other aspects of the co-evolution. Alignment is a continuous co-evolutionary process in which all components of business and IT are interrelated and enhance organization performance. The co-evolution between business and IT is not restricted to a level but it occurs at all levels and therefore, it is necessary to understand and study co-evolution at all levels within organizations. This thesis presents a co-evolutionary framework that helps to study and understand the co-evolution at three levels i.e. strategic level, operational level and individual level in an integrated fashion. The three levels need to co-evolve so that all components at each level co-evolve. This framework will speed up the alignment in organizations. We argue that the lack of knowledge of business among IT people and IT knowledge among business executives may cause the gap; therefore, a need arises to have a knowledgeable mediator between the domains that could help in the co-evolution. A K-mediator (i.e. knowledge mediator) has been used in the proposed co-evolutionary framework that facilitates the co-evolution at each level. Finally the thesis presents a case study in financial domain in order to evaluate and validate the framework.

Milling and co-milling are well known techniques that have potential to enhance the solubility and/or dissolution rate of poorly soluble drugs. There are broadly two aims for this project. The first was to develop an understanding of how individual and combination of techniques may be used to explore the impact of milling on particle characteristics (including phase changes, fractures and change in particle size) as a function of milling time/speed, for a range of single powder materials. Anhydrous (lactose, sucrose), monohydrate (lactose) and dihydrate (trehalose) excipients and a poorly soluble drug (ibuprofen), were chosen as model substrates. Each material was micronized by ball-milling (for various time durations and milling speeds) and then characterized by a range of techniques, specifically, SEM, DSC, TGA, THz and dielectric spectroscopy. The second aim of the project was to investigate the impact of milling and co-milling on the solubility and dissolution rate of ibuprofen after co-milling with a variety of excipients (polymer and surfactants). The principle findings of this programme of work can be summarized as follows: i) ball milling of lactose monohydrate produces nano-structured systems with a mixture of damaged crystals and amorphous phase, that can be characterised by dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS), ii) THz spectroscopy provides estimates for residual crystallinity in lactose monohydrate that were much lower than the estimates from the thermal techniques. Such estimates of residual crystallinity are considered to be more reliable given the fact that the spectroscopic measurement characterizes the material in its native state, whereas thermal techniques require a heating process, which tend to induce de-vitrification and mutarotation of lactose. In case of anhydrous materials, while there was agreement between thermal and THz techniques at long milling times, it was shown that the THz technique was susceptible to moisture absorption and crystallization at short milling times, iii) In the molecular dynamics of milled sugars studied by DRS, the structural relaxation is not visible in the vicinity of glass transition, however the secondary relaxation (β) process is equally capable and provided molecular dynamics in term of activation energy changes. The activation energies of beta process of both lactose and sucrose are least affected by milling time, but the higher activation energies for sucrose as compared with lactose show that sucrose has lower propensity to re-crystallize than lactose during post milling storage, iv) Ibuprofen can be assayed by UV-method in the presence of interfering (in absorption) substance by applying multivariate method involving the calculation of concentration factors and v) Co-milling with soluplus has increased the in the solubility of ibuprofen by ~20% and dissolution rate ~50% in 30 min, while these values are ~5% and 30%, respectively in case of co-milling with HPMC.

The North Sea Regional Advisory Council serves as a case study. Established during the 2002 Common Fisheries Policy, the North Sea Regional Advisory Council (NSRAC) offers stakeholder participation in the decision-making process. Its establishment was to some extent an experiment based on a leap of faith that better governance could help the ailing fisheries policy. A short analysis reveals the shortcomings of the previous fisheries policy, all of which root in the discrepancy between political motivation and legal objectives. The 'Tragedy of the Commons' suggests that democracy might indeed not be perfect for fisheries management. Past decision-making procedures in the European Community lent themselves to state competition and 'tragic' decision-making in the Council. In this situation, Regional Advisory Councils were hoped by some to provide self-regulation fora. EC/ EU constitutional law prevents this. The Common Fisheries Policy requires balancing of highly diverse interests. The NSRAC is not suited for such balancing, due to its (enshrined) industry majority. Nevertheless the NSRAC has already made valuable contributions and offers some potential for more. The double-bind between decision-makers and grass roots fishermen incentivises industry representatives in the NSRAC to propose conservation measures. They are less inclined to be hard-handed on the industry, though. NSRAC members stepped beyond 'stalling tactics' with regard to scientific assessments and proactively support them. In return, the decision-making system needs to acknowledge NSRAC commitment and provide sufficient funds.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction / Sherri Martinie / Low success rates in developmental mathematics courses have caused a growing concern for many institutions including moderately selective four-year universities. As a result, institutions have adopted various course redesign models, such as the emporium and replacement models, which take advantage of interactive online learning tools. Though these models have proven successful for increasing completion rates in algebra intensive courses, the models do not address additional concerns for developmental students enrolled in liberal arts mathematics courses. The co-requisite model of instruction is an alternative pathway for students with developmental needs. This model allows students to enroll in the required general education gateway mathematics course concurrent with a developmental mathematics lab, which offers student-centered instruction and just-in-time support for student learning. This study examined the implementation of a co-requisite model of instruction, at one moderately selective four-year university, by investigating the potential of multiple variables for predicting student success.

Leakage of stored bulk phase CO₂ is one risk for sequestration in deep saline aquifers. As the less dense CO₂ migrates upward within a storage formation or in layers above the formation, the security of its storage depends upon the trapping mechanisms that counteract the migration. The trapping mechanism motivating this research is local capillary trapping (LCT), which occurs during buoyancy-driven migration of bulk phase CO₂ within a saline aquifer with spatially heterogeneous petrophysical properties. When a CO₂ plume rising by buoyancy encounters a region where capillary entry pressure is locally larger than average, CO₂ accumulates beneath the region. One benefit of LCT, applied specifically to CO₂ sequestration and storage, is that saturation of stored CO₂ phase is larger than the saturation for other permanent trapping mechanisms. Another potential benefit is security: CO₂ that occupies local capillary traps remains there, even if the overlying formation that provides primary containment were to be compromised and allow leakage. Most work on LCT has involved numerical simulation (Saadatpoor 2010, Ganesh 2012); the research work presented here is a step toward understanding local capillary trapping at the bench scale. An apparatus and set of fluids are described which allow examining the extent of local capillary trapping, i.e. buoyant nonwetting phase immobilization beneath small-scale capillary barriers, which can be expected in typical heterogeneous storage formation. The bench scale environment analogous to CO₂ and brine in a saline aquifer is created in a quasi-two dimensional experimental apparatus with dimension of 63 cm by 63 cm by 5 cm, which allows for observation of plume migration with physically representative properties but at experimentally convenient ambient conditions. A surrogate fluid pair is developed to mimic the density, viscosity and interfacial tension relationship found at pressure and temperature typical of storage aquifers. Porous media heterogeneity, pressure boundary conditions, migration modes of uprising nonwetting phase, and presence of fracture/breach in the capillary barrier are studied in series of experiments for their influences on LCT. A variety of heterogeneous porous media made of a range of sizes of loosely packed silica beads are used to validate and test the persistence of local capillary trapping mechanism. By adjusting the boundary conditions (fluid levels in reservoirs attached to top and to bottom ports of the apparatus), the capillary pressure gradient across the domain was manipulated. Experiments were conducted with and without the presence of fracture/potential leakage pathway in the capillary seal. The trapped buoyant phase remained secure beneath the local capillary barriers, as long as the effective capillary pressure exerted by the trapped phase (proportional to column height of the phase) is smaller than the capillary entry pressure of the barrier. The local capillary trapping mechanism remained persistent even under forced imbibition, in which a significantly higher hydraulic potential gradient, and therefore a larger gradient in capillary pressure, was applied to the system. The column height of buoyant fluid that remained beneath the local capillary barrier was smaller by a factor corresponding to the increase in capillary pressure gradient. Mimicking a breach of the caprock by opening valves at the top of the apparatus allowed buoyant mobile phase held beneath the valves to escape, but buoyant phase held in local traps at saturations above residual, and therefore potentially mobile, was undisturbed. This work provides systematic validation of a novel concept, namely the long-term security of CO₂ that fills local (small-scale) capillary traps in heterogeneous storage formations. Results from this work reveal the first ever unequivocal experimental evidence on persistence of local capillary trapping mechanism. Attempts to quantify the nonwetting phase saturation and extent of LCT persistence serve as the initial steps to potentially reduce the risks associated with long-term storage security. / text

The objective of this thesis is to experimentally investigate the performance of steam gasification of chars of pure coal (lignite, sub-bituminous), pure biomass (radiata pine, eucalyptus nitens) and their blends. The influences of gasification temperature, types of coal and biomass, coal-biomass blending ratio, alkali and alkaline earth metal (AAEM) in lignite, on specific gasification characteristics (producer gas composition and yield, char reactivity) were studied. In addition, synergistic effects in co-gasification of coal-biomass blend char were also investigated. This project is in accordance with objectives of the BISGAS Consortium. In this study, experiments were performed in a bench-scale gasifier at gasification temperatures of 850°C, 900°C and 950°C, respectively. Two types of coals (lignite and sub-bituminous) and two kinds of biomass (radiata pine and eucalyptus nitens) from New Zealand were selected as sample fuels. From these raw materials, the chars with coal-to-biomass blending ratios of 0:100 (pure coal), 20:80, 50:50, 80:20 and 100:0 (pure biomass), which were derived through the devolatilization at temperature of 900°C for 7 minutes, were gasified with steam as gasification agent. During the gasification tests, the producer gas composition and gas production were continuously analysed using a Micro gas chromatograph. When the gas production was undetectable, the gasification process was assumed to be completed and the gasification time was recorded. The gasification producer gas consisted of three main gas components: hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2). The results from gasification of chars of individual solid fuels (coal or biomass) confirmed that biomass char gasification was faster than coal char gasification. The influences of gasification temperatures were shown as: when gasification temperature increased, the H2 yield increased in coal char gasification but decreased in biomass char gasification. In the meantime, CO yields increased while CO2 yields decreased in both coal char and biomass char gasification. In addition, the char reactivity of all the pure fuel samples increased with elevated gasification temperatures. The results from co-gasification of coal-biomass blend char exhibited that the syngas production rate, which is defined as the total gas production divided by the gasification completion time, was enhanced by an increase in gasification temperatures as well as an increase in the biomass proportion in the blend. The AAEM species played a significant catalytic role in both gasification of pure coal chars and co-gasification of coal-biomass blend chars. The presence of AAEM increased the producer gas yield and enhanced the char reactivity. The positive synergistic effects of the coal-biomass blending char on syngas production rate only existed in the co-gasification of lignite-eucalyptus nitens blend chars. The other blend chars showed either insignificant synergistic effects or negative effects on the syngas production rate.