An extended Hubbard model with large short and long-ranged Coulomb repulsions and distant transfer is numerically investigated by use of the Lanczos exact diagonalization (ED) method to study the charge order and unconditional dimerization of a chain at density rho (ρ)= 0.4. From the analysis of the spin and charge correlation functions, a picture consistent with the formation of a dimer insulating state, which is of Wigner lattice-type (WL) charge order (CO), is obtained. The next-nearest neighbour (NNN) hopping t2 enhances the intradimer correlations and weakens the interdimer correlations. Implications for the CuO2 chains in Sr14Cu24O41 are discussed.We have also introduced a Heisenberg model which parametrically depends on hole positions. If the electrostatic hole-hole repulsion is included such a model allows to evaluate all energy eigenvalues and eigenstates (for small system size) and thus enables us to evaluate thermodynamic properties as function of temperature,magnetic field, and doping. Assuming certain exchange constants we can investigate the influence of the electrostatic hole-hole repulsion on ground state properties as well as on thermal averages like the magnetization which include contributions of low-lying spin-hole configurations.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the state contribute considerably to the unique state of Caribbean politics, yet their relationship is turbulent which prevents effective policymaking. Specifically, the problem this study addressed is the turbulent relationship between NGOs and the state in Trinidad and Tobago from a postinternational framework. The purpose of this research was to provide an explanation of the NGO-€state relationship through the postinternational concepts of turbulence and distant proximities. Data for this study were acquired through open-€ended surveys from 22 leaders of NGOs and publicly available documentation pertaining to the relationship between government and NGOs. These data theoretically coded and subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. The results indicated that the NGO-€state relationship can be best described as turbulent and characteristic of a distant proximity, thereby implying that the relationship between the participants is characterized by a dynamic tension and the efficacy of the relationship is further exacerbated by distance and proximity. Further, there was evidence of advocacy coalitions (or non-€advocacy coalitions) in the relationships and the state can be resistant to engage in participation. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include opportunities for further academic investigation and presents new knowledge of the NGO-€State relationship in Trinidad and Tobago. This understanding enhances social change by offering direction in the creation and modification of public policies in the Caribbean.

This study examines The Guardian’s portrayal of intersectional feminism, with a focus on gender and race, analysing how social movements, particularly Black Lives Matter, influence its political coverage. Arising from Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality, which recognizes the interconnected nature of various forms of oppression and privilege, the research employs a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse 647 political articles. Quantitative methods, including topic modeling and keyword frequency analysis, provide the structural framework of the thesis. Topic modeling reveals twenty topics, and keyword frequency analysis emphasizes in nine keywords related to intersectional feminism and their prevalence. Qualitative methods, such as collocation analysis and close reading, examine particularly “gender” and “race”. Close reading is used for a deeper examination at every step of the analysis. Despite theme variations, certain subjects like the gender gap and gender identity consistently underscore their enduring significance. Discussions related to Black Lives Matter show spikes in coverage post – 2020, indicating an increased emphasis on diversity and racial justice themes. However, the infrequent use of the term “intersectionality” suggests a potential disparity between the conceptual framework and its direct representation in The Guardian’s political articles.

[pt] Extração de relacionamentos é uma etapa chave para o problema de identificação de uma estrutura em um texto em formato de linguagem natural. Em geral, estruturas são compostas por entidades e relacionamentos entre elas. As propostas de solução com maior sucesso aplicam aprendizado de máquina supervisionado a corpus anotados à mão para a criação de classificadores de alta precisão. Embora alcancem boa robustez, corpus criados à mão não são escaláveis por serem uma alternativa de grande custo. Neste trabalho, nós aplicamos um paradigma alternativo para a criação de um número considerável de exemplos de instâncias para classificação. Tal método é chamado de supervisão à distância. Em conjunto com essa alternativa, usamos ontologias da Web semântica para propor e usar novas características para treinar classificadores. Elas são baseadas na estrutura e semântica descrita por ontologias onde recursos da Web semântica são definidos. O uso de tais características tiveram grande impacto na precisão e recall dos nossos classificadores finais. Neste trabalho, aplicamos nossa teoria em um corpus extraído da Wikipedia. Alcançamos uma alta precisão e recall para um número considerável de relacionamentos. / [en] Relation extraction is a key step for the problem of rendering a structure from natural language text format. In general, structures are composed by entities and relationships among them. The most successful approaches on relation extraction apply supervised machine learning on hand-labeled corpus for creating highly accurate classifiers. Although good robustness is achieved, hand-labeled corpus are not scalable due to the expensive cost of its creation. In this work we apply an alternative paradigm for creating a considerable number of examples of instances for classification. Such method is called distant supervision. Along with this alternative approach we adopt Semantic Web ontologies to propose and use new features for training classifiers. Those features are based on the structure and semantics described by ontologies where Semantic Web resources are defined. The use of such features has a great impact on the precision and recall of our final classifiers. In this work, we apply our theory on corpus extracted from Wikipedia. We achieve a high precision and recall for a considerable number of relations.

Este estudo mapeou os serviços de reabilitação no Brasil utilizados pelos usuários do Hospital de Reabilitação de Anomalias Craniofaciais da Universidade de São Paulo (HRAC/USP) e faz um diagnóstico das necessidades de capacitação dos profissionais que os atendem nas áreas de fonoaudiologia, odontologia, psicologia e serviço social. Os objetivos dessa pesquisa foram: identificar formas de articulação dos serviços/reabilitadores com órgãos locais e HRAC; levantar o perfil dos reabilitadores e conhecer suas necessidades e o interesse em participar do programa de capacitação do HRAC; propor a ampliação das formas de intercâmbio e articulação dos serviços/reabilitadores com diferentes organizações e contribuir para a construção de um pólo de capacitação, tendo como compromisso a humanização e qualificação da atenção. O estudo teve dois momentos: 1º) remessa de questionário para os pacientes do Projeto Florida (475) - projeto interdisciplinar desenvolvido em parceria com a Universidade da Flórida - para identificar os serviços / reabilitadores de seus municípios e/ou região de origem; 2º) remessa de questionário aos serviços/reabilitadores identificados (61). Dentre esses, obtivemos resposta de 21 serviços em 19 cidades, oito Estados e três regiões, em sua maioria de natureza pública e do Terceiro Setor, prestando serviços de reabilitação e assistência social, estabelecendo relações de parceria/convênios com o próprio HRAC, com Prefeituras Municipais/Secretarias de Saúde e Associações de Pais e Pessoas com Fissura Labiopalatina. Os profissionais (72) relataram dificuldades para a prática profissional na área da fissura, com destaque para área de fonoaudiologia, o que sugere medidas urgentes no sentido de se estabelecer estratégias. (95,4%) dos profissionais demonstraram interesse e a necessidade de participar de cursos de capacitação. As sugestões para o atendimento dessa demanda são: aprofundamento no conteúdo dos cursos específicos ministrados no Curso de Anomalias Craniofaciais, ampliação do conteúdo da disciplina de Política de Saúde e Reabilitação ministrada nos cursos de Pós-graduação, chegando à criação de um Núcleo de Telessaúde do HRAC/USP, Articulação da Rede Nacional de serviços na área da fissura labiopalatina que podem impulsionar a criação do pólo de capacitação do HRAC na área, em parceria com outros pólos de educação permanente do SUS no Brasil e do programa de descentralização do HRAC/USP. / This study investigated the services/programs accessed by patients from HRAC-USP, at their cities of origin, focusing on the professionals? reported need for further training in the areas of communication disorders, dentistry, psychology and social work.The objectives of this research were: 1) to identify the route followed by professionals/services in the hospital and other organizations to locate and to have access to out-services/programs for continuity care in craniofacial area; 2) to describe the profile of professionals serving the HRAC?s patients in their cities of origin and to learn about these professionals need and interest in further training in the craniofacial area; 3) to propose means to expand exchange of services and exchange between professionals among existing organizations serving patients with craniofacial anomalies; and 4) to contribute to the development of a network for continuing education focusing on humanization and quality of services. The study had 2 phases: 1) during phase 1 a Questionnaire investigating the existence and the access to outservices/professionals in the patients? city of origin, was distributed to 475 patients participating in another research involving the HRAC and the University of Florida (Florida Project); 2) during phase 2 another questionnaire was sent to the services/professionals serving the HRAC?s patients in their cities of origin and to learn about their profile need and interest in further training in the craniofacial area; was sent to all 61 services identified during phase. Out of the 61 services contacted a total of 21 replied to the second questionnaire. These services represented 19 different cities, 8 states and 3 regions of the country. Most of the services were supported with public or non governmental organizations resources and offered social or rehabilitative services by means of partnerships with the HRAC, local city government or parent/patients? support groups. The 72 professionals from the 21 services investigated that replied to the second questionnaire reported limited abilities to practice in the craniofacial areas, mainly Communication Disorders, suggesting the urgent need for the development of a network for continuing education. A total of 95.4% professionals indicated need and interest to participate in further training programs. The author?s suggestions for attending the reported needs are: 1) to advance the content of already existing courses at HRAC in the Craniofacial Area; 2) to improve the content of the Political Health and Rehabilitative Services discipline already ministered at the Graduate Program at HRAC; 3) the development of a Center for Interactive-Distant Learning at HRAC (Telessaúde HRAC-USP), 4) the organization of all national services in the Craniofacial Area fostering the development of a National Network for Training in Craniofacial Anomalies in a partnership with other networks supported by the Ministry of Health (SUS) and in agreement with HRAC goal for decentralization of services.

Orientador: Maria Teresa Miceli Kerbauy / Banca: Mário Luiz Neves de Azevedo / Banca: Gláucia da Silva Brito / Banca: Ana Maria Freire da Palma Marques de Almeida / Banca: Ricardo Ribeiro / Resumo: Este trabalho tem como objeto de análise as políticas públicas para o Ensino Superior a distância (EAD) e a implementação do Sistema Universidade Aberta do Brasil (UAB), tomando-se como ponto de partida a oficialização dessa modalidade de ensino na atual Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional (Lei no 9.334/96). O foco central são as ações desenvolvidas no Estado do Paraná para a oferta de cursos superiores a distância em trinta e sete polos selecionados por dois editais publicados pela Secretaria de Educação a Distância (SEED) do Ministério da Educação (MEC) em 2005 e 2006. Neste sentido, o objetivo geral deste estudo é analisar os procedimentos adotados para viabilizar a implementação de cursos superiores ofertados em uma modalidade distinta do ensino presencial, no âmbito do Sistema UAB. A metodologia adotada para a aquisição dos dados desta pesquisa envolveu a leitura e a análise do arcabouço legal que institui o Sistema UAB, o que caracteriza este estudo como uma pesquisa documental. Além disto, foram aplicados questionários aos coordenadores de polos, os quais acompanham cotidianamente as atividades desenvolvidas pelas Instituições de Ensino Superior (IES) responsáveis pela oferta dos cursos. O resultado da pesquisa vem reforçar a premissa básica de que a expansão da oferta de cursos superiores a distância por meio da modalidade a distância é um fato inconteste. Mais do que isto, verifica-se que a abertura de vagas por instituições públicas devidamente credenciadas para a modalidade a distância confere credibilidade ao Sistema UAB e reforça o discurso em defesa da universidade pública e gratuita. A pesquisa demonstra que é preciso estabelecer regras e condições mais precisas para que os polos de apoio presencial localizados no Estado do Paraná tenham a estrutura física adequada para a oferta de cursos superiores que possuam... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The aim of this study is to evaluate and analyze public policies regarding remote tertiary education and the establishment of the Brazilian Open University system (BOU-UAB) as a starting point for its officialization of this kind of education in the current federal education law (law number 9.334/96). The central focus are the initiatives taken in the State of Paraná (Brazil), offering tertiary education courses in 37 remote educational clusters published by the Distant Education Secretary (DES-SEED) of the Ministry of Education along 2005 and 2006. The general objective is to evaluate procedures to make feasible the offer of remote courses. The methodology adopted to conduct this study regarded the reading and evaluation of the legal backbone which established the Open University system. Querstionaries were distributed to the coordinators, who are hands on and directly involved in the activities at shop floor level. The main conclusion is that undoubtedly, distant education is growing, moreover, the involvement of the federal official educational system confers credibility of the open university system and emphasizes the discourse over the public and free education. The research shows the need of establishment of clear rules and precise conditions for the remote centers located in the State of Paraná, with adequate infra structure to continue the offer of courses with a quality standard of the UAB open university system. / Doutor

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:23:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrea M Pineda.pdf: 1032962 bytes, checksum: c47b7ecf33ba7e192372f54755fe679b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-14 / With the intent of identifying possible relations between the digital inclusion and the use of digital genders, this study investigated how the process of digital lettering took place by part of the teachers from the state network that participated in a distant course, sponsored by PUC/SP in partnership with the State Education Board (Secretaria Estadual de Educação do Estado de São Paulo SEE/SP), during the March to June 2005 period. The theoretical basis emanated from the contexture of the Brazilian digital inclusion, and then to focus the question of defined genders through the Functional-Systemic Theory approach (Halliday, 1994), focusing especially on the genders potential structure (Hasan, 1985) and finally reverting to the digital genders (Machado, 2002). The literature and researched experiences showed that, to include any actor in the current scenario of the information and communication technology (and inhibit the digital exclusion), instrumental compact drills do not suffice or the connection promptness and access to equipment. It is necessary to consider the context and its preexisting needs and, then focus on digital lettering actions. Recognizing its multiplying potential, the participants of this research were teachers from the public network that, despite of being central agents in the course of the digital inclusion, are very little examined on researches covering the theme. The observed scenario was a distant prolonged graduation course on a on-line modality, by its character to democratize the information. The studied course was the Práticas de Leitura e Escrita na Contemporaneidade (Reading and Writing Practices in Contemporariness), by contemplating the digital lettering in its objectives. The applied corpus was composed by messages posted in two forums and the individual presentations written by the students. In this manner, this study articulates concepts and experiences in two main scopes: of the Information and Communication Technologies (TICs) and the Applied Linguistic. This research intends to foster a reflection about the teachers role in different contexts of digital inclusion and, in this manner, contribute with already existing projects and stimulate the establishment of new ones, addressed to this and other people in general / Com o intuito de identificar possíveis relações entre inclusão digital e a utilização de gêneros digitais, este estudo investigou como ocorreu o processo de letramento digital por parte de professores da rede estadual que participaram de um curso a distância, promovido pela PUC/SP em parceria com a Secretaria Estadual de Educação do Estado de São Paulo SEE/SP, no período de março a junho de 2005. A fundamentação teórica partiu da contextualização da situação da inclusão digital brasileira, para então focar a questão dos gêneros definidos pela abordagem da Teoria Sistêmico-Funcional (Halliday, 1994), focalizando especialmente a estrutura potencial do gênero (Hasan, 1985) e voltando-se finalmente para os gêneros digitais (Machado, 2002). A literatura e as experiências pesquisadas mostraram que, para incluir qualquer ator no atual cenário das tecnologias de informação e comunicação (e inibir a exclusão digital), não bastam breves treinamentos instrumentais ou facilidade de conexão e acesso aos equipamentos. É preciso considerar o contexto e as necessidades preexistentes e, então, focar em ações de letramento digital. Por reconhecer seu potencial de multiplicadores, os participantes desta pesquisa eram professores da rede pública que, apesar de agentes centrais em processos de inclusão digital, são pouco investigados nas pesquisas sobre o tema. O cenário observado foi um curso de formação continuada a distância na modalidade on-line, por seu caráter de democratizar a informação. O curso estudado foi Práticas de Leitura e Escrita na Contemporaneidade, que contempla o letramento digital entre seus objetivos. O corpus utilizado compôs-se de mensagens postadas em dois fóruns e as apresentações pessoais redigidas pelos alunos. Logo, este estudo articulou conceitos e experiências em dois âmbitos principais: das Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TICs) e da Lingüística Aplicada. Finalmente, esta pesquisa pretendeu promover uma reflexão sobre o papel do professor em diferentes contextos de inclusão digital e, dessa forma, contribuir com projetos já existentes e estimular a criação de novos, voltados para este e outros públicos

Ce travail doctoral s’intéresse à la pratique de l’intercompréhension dans un contexte officiellement bilingue, à savoir une Haute école spécialisée en Suisse. Les langues utilisées dans les échanges entre membres de l’école (enseignants, étudiants, employés) sont l’allemand et le français, selon le principe du « chacun parle sa langue », calqué sur les pratiques de l’administration fédérale suisse. Les langues en présence sont distantes, par opposition aux langues proches ou voisines. Ce mode de communication nécessite de la part des participants des compétences réceptives dans la langue partenaire ainsi que des compétences communicationnelles pour interagir dans un contexte bilingue.Cette étude se donne comme objectif de comprendre comment les participants à une réunion bilingue choisissent la/les langue(s) pour communiquer. La question est de savoir si le principe de s’exprimer chacun dans sa langue est respecté ou si une langue domine les échanges. Le cas échéant, divers paramètres influencent le choix de la langue. Des réunions de cette école ont été enregistrées de manière à observer la répartition de l’utilisation des langues en contexte de communication professionnelle. Ce corpus de réunions a été complété par des entretiens semi-directifs, menés auprès de membres de l’école.L’institution propose des cursus en allemand et en français et par là, encourage le bilinguisme des étudiants. La communication bilingue fait également l’objet d’un enseignement dans le cadre d’un cours de langue bilingue, réunissant des étudiants francophones et germanophones. À l’inverse de la pratique de l’intercompréhension, les apprenants s’expriment dans la langue cible. Un tel cours soulève des questions quant à l’approche adoptée par les enseignants pour favoriser l’apprentissage et quant aux stratégies de communication développées par les étudiants. La portée de ce cours observé sur trois années, a été étudiée grâce aux documents de cours, à des enregistrements effectués par les étudiants et les textes réflexifs de ceux-ci.Afin d’assurer le succès de la communication dans ce contexte bilingue, les interlocuteurs, natifs et non-natifs, adaptent leur discours et mettent en place des stratégies, tout en puisant dans leur répertoire plurilingue, que ce soit en contexte professionnel ou en contexte d’apprentissage. / This doctoral research is interested in the practice of intercomprehension in an officially bilingual context: a department of a university of applied sciences in Switzerland. The languages used in exchanges between members of the school (lecturers, students, employees) are German and French, according to the ‘each speaks their own language’ principle, based on the practices of the Swiss federal administration. Languages in presence are distant, in contrast with the languages from the same family. This communication mode requires from the participants receptive skills in the other language as well as general communicative competence to interact in a bilingual context.The objective of this study is to understand how the participants in a bilingual meeting choose the language(s) in which to communicate. The question is whether the ‘each speaks their own language’ principle is respected or if one language dominates the meetings. In this case, various parameters influence the choice of the language. Several meetings at this department were recorded in order to observe the distribution of languages used in a professional communication context. This corpus of meetings was supplemented by semi-structured interviews with members of the department.The institution offers degree programmes in German and in French and in that way encourages bilingualism in the students. Furthermore, bilingual communication is also the objective in a bilingual language module, uniting French- and German-speaking students, in which, contrary to the practice of intercomprehension, learners expresses themselves in the target language. Such a module questions the pedagogic approach adopted by lecturers and the communication strategies developed by students. The impact of this module, observed over three years, was studied using module documents, audio-visual recordings of student performance and reflexive texts written by the students. To ensure the success of communication in this bilingual context, the interlocutors, both native and non-native speakers, adapt their speech and use strategies, while mining their multilingual repertoire, in professional or educational contexts. / Diese Doktorarbeit untersucht die Praxis der Interkomprehension im offiziell zweisprachigen Kontext einer Schweizer Fachhochschule. Die von den Lehrpersonen, Studierenden und Mitarbeitenden verwendeten Sprachen sind Deutsch und Französisch. Sie werden nach dem Prinzip "jeder und jede spricht die eigene Sprache" angewendet, analog zur Praxis in der Schweizer Bundesverwaltung. Deutsch (germanische Sprache) und Französisch (romanische Sprache) stammen nicht aus dem gleichen Zweig der indogermanischen Sprachfamilie und sind folglich nicht nah verwandt. Diese Art zu kommunizieren verlangt von den Teilnehmenden deshalb ausgeprägte rezeptive Kompetenzen in der Partnersprache sowie auch kommunikative Kompetenzen, um in diesem zweisprachigen Kontext interagieren zu können.Diese Studie hat zum Ziel zu verstehen, wie die Teilnehmenden an einer zweisprachigen Sitzung ihre Sprache(n) wählen, um zu kommunizieren. Es soll aufgezeigt werden, ob das Prinzip "jeder und jede in der eigenen Sprache" respektiert wird oder ob eine Sprache den Austausch beherrscht. Verschiedene Parameter beeinflussen hier die Sprachwahl. Um die Verteilung der Sprachverwendung im beruflichen Kontext zu untersuchen, wurden Sitzungen aufgezeichnet. Dieser Korpus wurde mit Leitfadeninterviews ergänzt, die mit Mitarbeitenden der Fachhochschule geführt wurden. Die Schule führt Sprachkurse in Deutsch und Französisch durch und fördert so die Zweisprachigkeit der Studierenden. Die zweisprachige Kommunikation wird auch im Rahmen eines zweisprachigen Sprachkurses mit deutsch- und französischsprachigen Studierenden vermittelt. Im Gegensatz zur Praxis der Interkomprehension drücken sich die Lernenden hier aber in der Zielsprache aus. Bei so einem Kurs interessieren einerseits die von den Lehrpersonen verwendeten Methoden und andererseits die von den Studierenden entwickelten Kommunikationsstrategien. Die Wirkung dieses Kurses wurde über drei Jahre hinweg mit Hilfe der Kursunterlagen, von Audioaufnahmen und Lernreflexionstexten der Studierenden untersucht. Um in diesem zweisprachigen Kontext erfolgreich zu kommunizieren, passen die Sprechenden, ob Muttersprachler oder nicht, ihren Diskurs an. Sie legen sich Strategien zurecht und schöpfen aus ihrem mehrsprachigen Repertoire, sei es nun im beruflichen oder im Lernkontext.

Avec le progrès technologique, de nouvelles technologies sont en cours de développement afin de contribuer à une meilleure expérience dans le domaine de l’éducation. En particulier, les laboratoires distants constituent un moyen intéressant et pratique qui peut motiver les étudiants à apprendre. L'étudiant peut à tout moment, et de n'importe quel endroit, accéder au laboratoire distant et faire son TP (travail pratique). Malgré les nombreux avantages, les technologies à distance dans l’éducation créent une distance entre l’étudiant et l’enseignant. Les élèves peuvent avoir des difficultés à faire le TP si aucune intervention appropriée ne peut être prise pour les aider. Dans cette thèse, nous visons à enrichir un laboratoire électronique distant conçu pour les étudiants en ingénierie et appelé «LaboREM» (pour remote laboratory) de deux manières: tout d'abord, nous permettons à l'étudiant d'envoyer des commandes de haut niveau à un mini-drone disponible dans le laboratoire distant. L'objectif est d'examiner les faces-avant des instruments de mesure électroniques, à l'aide de la caméra intégrée au drone. De plus, nous autorisons la communication élève-enseignant à distance à l'aide du drone, au cas où un enseignant serait présent dans le laboratoire distant. Enfin, le drone doit revenir pour atterrir sur la plate-forme de recharge automatique des batteries, quand la mission est terminée. Nous proposons aussi un système automatique pour estimer l'état de l'étudiant (frustré / concentré..) afin de prendre les interventions appropriées pour assurer un bon déroulement du TP distant. Par exemple, si l'élève a des difficultés majeures, nous pouvons lui donner des indications ou réduire le niveau de difficulté de l’exercice. Nous proposons de faire cela en utilisant des signes visuels (estimation de la pose de la tête et analyse de l'expression faciale). De nombreuses évidences sur l'état de l'étudiant peuvent être acquises, mais elles sont incomplètes, parfois inexactes et ne couvrent pas tous les aspects de l'état de l'étudiant. C'est pourquoi nous proposons dans cette thèse de fusionner les preuves en utilisant la théorie de Dempster-Shafer qui permet la fusion de preuves incomplètes. / With the technological advance, new learning technologies are being developed in order to contribute to better learning experience. In particular, remote labs constitute an interesting and a practical way that can motivate nowadays students to learn. The student can at any time, and from anywhere, access the remote lab and do his lab-work. Despite many advantages, remote technologies in education create a distance between the student and the teacher. Without the presence of a teacher, students can have difficulties, if no appropriate interventions can be taken to help them. In this thesis, we aim to enrich an existing remote electronic lab made for engineering students called “LaboREM” (for remote Laboratory) in two ways: first we enable the student to send high level commands to a mini-drone available in the remote lab facility. The objective is to examine the front panels of electronic measurement instruments, by the camera embedded on the drone. Furthermore, we allow remote student-teacher communication using the drone, in case there is a teacher present in the remote lab facility. Finally, the drone has to go back home when the mission is over to land on a platform for automatic recharge of the batteries. Second, we propose an automatic system that estimates the affective state of the student (frustrated/ confused/ flow..) in order to take appropriate interventions to ensure good learning outcomes. For example, if the student is having major difficulties we can try to give him hints or reduce the difficulty level. We propose to do this by using visual cues (head pose estimation and facial expression analysis). Many evidences on the state of the student can be acquired, however these evidences are incomplete, sometimes inaccurate, and do not cover all the aspects of the state of the student alone. This is why we propose to fuse evidences using the theory of Dempster-Shafer that allows the fusion of incomplete evidence.

Text analytics in the business domain is a growing field in research and practical applications. We chose to concentrate on Relation Extraction from unstructured data which was provided by a corporate partner. Analyzing text from this domain requires a different approach, counting with irregularities and domain specific attributes. In this thesis, we present two methods for relation extraction. The Snowball system and the Distant Supervision method were both adapted for the unique data. The methods were implemented to use both structured and unstructured data from the database of the company. Keywords: Information Retrieval, Relation Extraction, Text Analytics, Distant Supervision, Snowball