Les recherches présentées dans ce manuscrit ont comme objet d'étude la conception, et plus particulièrement la conception en ingénierie électrique. Cette activité de recherche a connu un essor important ces dernières décennies. Elle s'est traduite par un développement scientifique de Méthodes et d'Outils logiciels : typiquement les outils d'optimisation automatique ou les systèmes experts. La première partie du manuscrit présente des travaux qui s'inscrivent directement dans cette tradition. Il s'agit plus particulièrement de travaux autour de Méthodes et d'Outils pour instrumenter les phases de dimensionnement et d'études de faisabilité de composants et de systèmes d'ingénierie. Les Savoirs utiles pour ces phases sont des modèles multi-physiques de type analytique ou semi analytique, dont des exemples sont des schémas électriques équivalents. C'est pourquoi ont été développées, autour de ces types de savoir : - des méthodes de programmation automatique, - des méthodes de dérivation formelle pour des couplages avec des algorithmes d'optimisation - différentes générations de plates-formes logicielles dont la dernière intitulée CADES, qui en plus d'être un outil de capitalisation des méthodes précédentes, explore un paradigme nouveau d'architecture logicielle : le framework basé sur le concept de composant logiciel. Ce paradigme offre des propriétés d'inter-opérabilité et de modularité. Il peut ainsi apporter une solution aux problématiques de conception multi-physiques, multi-niveaux de modélisation, et de passage du composant au système. La deuxième partie du manuscrit présente cependant la thèse d'une crise, d'une approche de la conception, comme elle serait trop souvent abordée scientifiquement en ingénierie, à savoir une discipline de physique appliquée ne s'intéressant qu'aux Objets, Savoirs, Méthodes et Outils, et visant un idéal de rationalisation et d'automatisation. Il est montré que d'autres conceptions de la conception sont possibles. Elles se placent dans un cadre épistémologique avec des hypothèses qui font de la conception une activité complexe ne pouvant émerger que dans des systèmes intégrant les concepteurs/modélisateurs. Ces derniers y sont porteurs de ressources comme l'intuition, la maturation, les connaissances tacites, ... Cette argumentation servira de base pour montrer la nécessité de s'intéresser, aussi !!! , à des objets d'études que sont d'une part les Connaissances/Compétences portées par les concepteurs et d'autre part les Systèmes/Organisations permettant de les coordonner. Ceci permettra de légitimer les fondements de travaux passés, en cours (des plates-formes Internet de travail collaboratif autour des méthodes et outils, pour la capitalisation et l'échange de modèles, ...) et à venir (conception innovante, conception par l'usage, ...) Ces recherches sont ainsi une contribution à des questions scientifiques du type : - Comment caractériser la nature de la conception : quelles sont des conceptions possibles de la conception ? - La conception est-elle à terme entièrement rationalisable et automatisable, ou cette perspective est-elle un rêve naïf voire dangereux ? - Quelles approches de la conception développer, et à quels objets d'études faut-il s'intéresser pour développer une science de la conception dans un domaine tel que l'ingénierie électrique, amené à concevoir et à innover dans des applications clefs tels que la production, la distribution et la gestion de l'énergie, le bio-médical, ...

This thesis addresses the current state of court interpretation in the Czech Republic. The work consists of two parts, theoretical and empirical. The theoretical part describes EU legislation on court interpretation and projects that aim to improve the quality of court interpretation. The thesis also discusses the development of Czech legislation regarding court interpretation from its inception to the present and expands to expected future development in the field of court interpretation. Major institutions such as EULITA at the European level and KST ČR in the Czech Republic are alluded to in the work. The empirical part consists of research conducted by a questionnaire among court interpreters, judges and investigators. The aim of the research is to answer the question who the present Czech court interpreters are and what their co-operation with the judges and investigators is like.

The thesis focuses on the status of court interpreters in the Czech Republic as a party cooperating with state authorities (courts and police) mainly in criminal proceedings. It aims to explore the work conditions of court interpreters in the Czech Republic. The thesis consists of two parts. The first part describes general features of court interpreting, the legal framework of court interpreting in the Czech Republic, the settings of court interpreting and the role of different participants of criminal proceedings. The second part examines the status of court interpreters in the Czech Republic through a questionnaire-based survey and interviews with court interpreters, representatives of courts and police officers. The survey showed that state authorities are not fully aware of the difficulty of court interpreting and do not create entirely suitable conditions for its practice. Considering also the low compensation of court interpreters, their status in the Czech Republic is rather problematic. The thesis was partly written in connection with the European project IMPLI (Improving Police and Legal Interpreting). Key-words: court interpreting, criminal proceedings, courts, police, act on experts and interpreters.

Dans le cours des dernières années, la traçabilité s’est positionnée au cœur de plusieurs enjeux fondamentaux pour les entreprises. Cependant, cette notion est encore aujourd’hui vue comme une contrainte, servant uniquement à respecter des impositions légales et à rappeler des produits non-conformes. Dans ce projet, nous nous sommes attachés à élargir la définition de traçabilité aux domaines de la prévision et de la protection, pour qu’elle ne soit plus perçue comme une obligation supplémentaire à assumer, mais comme un véritable argument d’avantage concurrentiel. Ces travaux de recherche sont consacrés à l’exploitation des informations de traçabilité par l’utilisation des techniques d’intelligence artificielle et de recherche opérationnelle, afin de proposer des actions d’amélioration en production et en logistique. Ils ont été menés en collaboration avec la société ADENTS International, experte en traçabilité. Ce projet est composé de deux principaux axes de travail : l’un portant sur le diagnostic de la criticité d’une production, en fonction des informations de traçabilité et l’autre sur les actions à entreprendre par rapport à ce diagnostic. Dans le premier, nous remarquons l’importance de la notion de dispersion de matières premières et des composants, ainsi que celle des écarts en termes de qualité et de sécurité. Dans le second, nous nous intéressons d’avantage à la notion de rappel de produits, visant une gestion de transformations adaptée en aval de la production, afin de minimiser ces rappels. Pour la mise en place de ces deux grandes activités, nous nous sommes engagés à proposer des modèles et des méthodes flexibles et réactives, pouvant s’adapter à la versatilité ontologique des flux d’informations de traçabilité / The recent product traceability requirements demonstrate an industrial need to improve the information management strategies within traceability systems in order to evolve from reactivity to proactivity. The aim of this work is to exploit the recently available real-time access to traceability information. We propose the utilization of artificial intelligence and operational research techniques to analyse the information and therefore suggest improvement actions. This research project is composed of two main activities: first, the diagnosis of the criticality value associated to a production regarding the traceability information and second, the actions to undertake as a result of this diagnosis. One of the issues studied in this thesis is the problem of minimizing the size of products recall. Initially the problem of raw materials dispersion minimization is analysed. Then a result of the dispersion rate along with other production criteria are evaluated in order to determine a risk level criterion in terms of quality and security that we name “production criticality”. This criterion is used subsequently to optimize deliveries dispatch with the purpose of minimizing the number of batch recalls in case of crisis. This is achieved by implementing flexible and reactive tools

A method for implicit variable selection in mixture-of-experts frameworks is proposed. We introduce a prior structure where information is taken from a set of independent covariates. Robust class membership predictors are identified using a normal gamma prior. The resulting model setup is used in a finite mixture of Bernoulli distributions to find homogenous clusters of women in Mozambique based on their information sources on HIV. Fully Bayesian inference is carried out via the implementation of a Gibbs sampler.

Introdução: As morbidades e mortalidade relacionadas ao uso de medicamentos (MRM) representam um desafio para a saúde pública e são consequências da utilização não efetiva e insegura dos medicamentos. Estudos internacionais mostram como as MRM afetam pacientes internados no hospital e como podem ser evitadas na maioria dos casos. Entretanto, pouco é conhecido sobre as MRM na prática ambulatorial. Estas pesquisas têm abordado as consequências clínicas negativas para os usuários de medicamentos e sugerem que vultosas somas de recursos financeiros são utilizadas para manejar e resolver estas morbidades ao redor do mundo. Já no Brasil, o conhecimento sobre as MRM é escasso em ambas perspectivas e o seu impacto econômico é desconhecido. Objetivo: O propósito desta Tese foi obter uma estimativa sobre os gastos com morbidade e mortalidade associadas ao uso de medicamentos no Brasil, utilizando modelos farmacoeconômicos (teórico e empírico). Métodos: Foram considerados como morbidades relacionadas a medicamentos os novos problemas de saúde advindos da utilização de uma farmacoterapia (por exemplo, reações adversas, dependência a medicamentos e intoxicação por overdose) e as falhas terapêuticas (por exemplo, efeito insuficiente dos medicamentos e problemas de saúde não tratados). Foram conduzidos dois estudos utilizando abordagens distintas (bottom up e top down) na coleta de dados sobre custos. O primeiro estimou, por meio da análise do tipo microcosting, os custos para resolução de Morbidades Relacionadas a Medicamentos em casos identificados no serviço de emergência de um hospital universitário. Resultados: O custo médio para tratar cada um desses pacientes é de aproximadamente R$ 2.200. Reações adversas a medicamentos, falta de adesão à farmacoterapia e problemas resultantes da administração de doses incorretas foram as causas mais prevalentes das morbidades. No segundo estudo, um modelo do tipo cost-of-illness foi traduzido e adaptado para a realidade brasileira, e então um painel com especialistas (farmacêuticos e médicos) foi realizado para estimar a proporção de pacientes que experimentam uma MRM, a proporção de MRM evitáveis e as consequências clínicas resultantes desta morbidade. A partir disto, o custo das MRM para o sistema de saúde brasileiro foi modelado, baseado em estatísticas nacionais sobre o consumo de serviços de saúde. Os especialistas julgaram as morbidades relacionadas a medicamentos como um evento bastante frequente. De acordo com esta estimativa central, as MRM seriam responsáveis por um uso considerável de recursos, podendo chegar a 23% do orçamento público anual total destinado à saúde no Brasil. Para cada real gasto com medicamentos, pelo Ministério da Saúde no Brasil, cinco reais seriam gastos para resolver as MRM. Da mesma forma foi verificado que mais da metade dos casos seriam evitáveis. Conclusão: As MRM são, de fato, um problema de ordem econômica-orçamentária, clínica e humanística para os usuários de medicamentos e para o sistema de saúde brasileiro, e que é imperiosa a criação de políticas públicas e ações capazes de evitar os danos gerados pelo uso não racional de medicamentos, garantir a segurança dos pacientes, bem como uma melhor alocação de recursos em saúde. / Introduction: Drug related morbidities and mortality (DRM) is a challenge to public health due to the consequences of ineffective and unsafe medicines use. It is well known that the DRM are common among hospitalized patients, and are preventable to some extent, but little is known about DRM outside the hospital. In Brazil, the knowledge on the subject is scarce and its economic impact is unknown. However, international studies suggest that DRM result in considerable amounts of financial resources to manage and resolve these morbidities around the world and the negative clinical consequences for those who use medicines. Aim: In this thesis, the drug related morbidities include: new medical problems arising from the pharmacotherapy (adverse effects, addiction to drugs and intoxication by overdose) and therapeutic failure (e.g. insufficient drug effect and untreated health problems). Methods: Two studies were conducted using different methodologies. The first study was a cross-sectional study, based on a microcosting analysis, where patients admitted to a teaching hospital emergency were identified in order to determine the proportion of people seeking health services due to a DRM, and, consequently, to obtain the cost for manage these patients. Results: It was observed that 14.6% of patients visiting an emergency service, do so because of a DRM and the average cost to treat each of these patients is approximately R$ 2,000. Adverse drug reactions, lack of adherence to pharmacotherapy and problems resulting from the administration of incorrect doses were the most prevalent causes of morbidity. In the second study, a cost-of-illness model was translated to portuguese and adapted, and then a panel of experts (pharmacists and physicians) was conducted to estimate the proportion of patients experiencing DRM, the proportion of preventable DRM, and the negative outcomes resulting from this morbidity. From this, the DRM cost for the Brazilian Health System was modeled, based on national statistics on the consumption of health services. Experts have judged drug-related morbidities to be a fairly frequent event. According to central estimate, the DRM would be responsible for a considerable use of resources, being able to reach 23% of the total annual public health budget in Brazil. For each real (R$ 1,00) spending on medicines, by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, five reais (R$ 5,00) would be spent to manage the DRM. Likewise, in this study it was also verified that more than half of the cases would be avoidable. In the second, a panel of experts (pharmacists and physicians) was performed to estimate the proportion of patients experiencing an DRM, DRM preventable ratio and the clinical consequences of this morbidity. From this, the cost of DRM for the Brazilian health system was modeled, based on national statistics on the consumption of health services. Conclusion: Based on these and many other results presented in this thesis, it is concluded that the DRM are indeed, an economic, clinical and humanistic issue for those who use medicines and to the Brazilian health system, and that is overriding the establishment of public policies and actions to prevent the damage caused by the non-rational use of medicines to ensure patient safety and to the best allocation of health resources.

SAFO (Sistema Agregador de Ferramentas de Operação de Rede) é um ambiente aberto e integrado que visa auxiliar na tarefa de gerenciamento de redes. O sistema e o resultado de um estudo de vários utilitários já existentes e a seleção de um conjunto mínimo necessário para a realização de monitoramento e manipulação dos componentes da rede. Os utilitários selecionadas foram integradas num típico ambiente, onde o usuário interage com o sistema através de uma interface gráfica baseada em janelas, facilitando o uso dos utilitários disponíveis. O grande número de parâmetros inerentes a cada utilitário podem inibir ou reduzir seu uso, por isso foi implementado um sistema de help on-line para todos os utilitários com o objetivo de auxiliar na sua utilização. Muitas vezes, as mensagens decorrentes da execução dos utilitários são de difícil interpretação ou são desconhecidas, o que torna o seu resultado praticamente inútil. Para tentar minimizar este problema, o SAFO oferece uma Função Assistente, que auxilia nesta interpretação interagindo com um Banco de Recomendações, onde e apresentada a mensagem resultante da execução do utilitário, as prováveis causas que deram origem a mensagem e, sempre que possível, apresenta sugestões e/ou comentários de ações que podem ser tomadas para eliminar o determinado problema. Com estas funções, o SAFO pretende ser um utilitário útil na complexa tarefa de gerenciamento de rede servindo tanto a operadores experientes como aos inexperientes, auxiliando e agilizando na execução de suas tarefas diárias de manter a rede operacional e num nível de performance satisfatório. / SAFO (Integrated System of Tools for Network Operation) is an open and integrated system built up to aid in network management work. The system results from a study of many existing tools and from the selection of a minimum set of tools necessary for network monitoring and handling. The selected tools were integrated in an environment where the user interacts with the system through a graphic interface based on windows, to facilitate the use of available tools. The high number of parameters inferent to each tool can inhibit or reduce its use, so an on-line help system for all tools was developed. Usually the messages resulting from execution of the tools are difficult to understand or are unknown, making the results quite useless. Trying to minimize this problem, the SAFO offers a Function Assistant, that helps in this interpretation interacting with a Base of Recommendations, where the resulting message , the likely cause which originated the message and, if possible, suggestions and/or comments of actions that can be taken to eliminate the problem are shown. With these functions. the SAFO intends to become an useful tool in the complex task of managing networks providing support for both experienced and beginer users, helping and speeding up the network operator's daily task of maintaining the network operational and with good performance.

Este estudo tem por objetivo analisar a visão de pesquisadores e decisores brasileiros, sobre diferentes temas relacionados à mobilidade urbana sustentável. Os dados analisados, parcialmente definidos em grupos focais e coletados por questionários online, são referentes a uma amostra de 2863 profissionais de diversas áreas. Foram identificados respondentes em 676 cidades, de todos os estados e do Distrito Federal. Os tópicos abordados indicam que pedestres e ciclistas estão interessados tanto em ações voltadas para melhoria da infraestrutura dos modos não motorizados, quanto em medidas políticas para reduzir o espaço dos modos motorizados. Em uma análise geral, ficou evidente a diferença de posicionamento para os temas centrais avaliados (economia, engenharia, modos não motorizados, planejamento urbano e sustentabilidade). Os respondentes concordaram mais com os julgamentos que favoreciam medidas para melhores condições de mobilidade urbana. A sentença que representou o discurso sobre planejamento urbano recebeu o maior grau de concordância. A partir destas considerações, fica evidente que os respondentes estão conscientes para uma mudança de paradigma no planejamento de transportes. Para a avaliação em relação à aplicação de investimentos a diferentes tipos de infraestrutura, foi observada uma tendência em favorecer pedestres, ciclistas e o transporte público. Nas análises das questões divididas em grupos, foram observadas divergências de opinião principalmente para os respondentes que indicaram conhecer detalhadamente o texto da Lei da Mobilidade, reforçando a importância dessas diretrizes para a promoção dos modos de transporte sustentáveis. / This study aimed at analyzing the vision of Brazilian researchers and decision makers on different themes related to sustainable urban mobility. The data analyzed, partially defined in focus groups and collected by online questionnaires, refer to a sample of 2863 professionals from different areas. Respondents were identified in 676 cities, from all states and the Federal District. The topics covered indicate that pedestrians and cyclists are interested both in actions aimed at improving the infrastructure of non- motorized modes and in policies to reduce the space of motorized modes. In a general analysis, the difference in position was evident for the central themes evaluated (economy, engineering, non-motorized modes, urban planning and sustainability). The respondents agreed more with the judgments that favored measures for better conditions of urban mobility. The sentence that represented the discourse on urban planning received the highest degree of agreement. From these considerations, it is evident that respondents are aware of a paradigm change in transportation planning. For the evaluation regarding the implementation of investments to different types of infrastructure, there was a tendency to favor pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. In the analysis of the questions divided into groups, differences of opinion were observed mainly for the respondents who indicated to know in detail the text of the Law of Mobility, reinforcing the importance of these guidelines for the promotion of sustainable transport modes.

La plupart des systèmes experts actuels reposent sur les connaissances de surface (le savoir-faire) d'un expert du domaine d'application. Plus récemment, une autre approche s'est développée. Elle vise a exploiter les connaissances profondes (théoriques) acquises dans le domaine d'application. La thèse étudie cette dernière approche dans le cadre du projet pic (poste de travail intelligent pour le comptable). Les aspects méthodologiques sont développés dans la première partie. Une nouvelle classe d'applications des systèmes experts est proposée: l'interprétation comparative. Elle a pour but de mettre en évidence et expliquer la cause des différences entre deux états d'un système. Une methode générale permettant d'aborder ce probleme est présentée, ainsi que des techniques la mettant en œuvre sur des modèles qualitatifs et numériques. Les contributions au projet pic sont développées dans la seconde partie. Un générateur de systèmes experts d'interprétation comparative est d'abord présenté. Il a servi a la réalisation de deux systèmes: le premier pour l'analyse de la performance d'une entreprise par la methode des surplus, le second pour le diagnostic financier d'entreprise. Un système expert pour la déduction des écritures comptables utilisant également l'approche profonde est ensuite présenté. A la lumière de ces deux dernières applications déjà abordées par les systèmes experts utilisant des connaissances de surface, les deux approches de conception de systèmes experts sont comparées

<p>We now live in an era of experts on virtually everything, among which we have professional medical ethicists, who gained prominence in the late 60s due to dramatic advances in medical technology. Before then, medical ethics issues were not thought as separable from the warp and woof of the everyday life. Medical technology’s advancement cascades legions of moral problems in medicine and biomedical research. Series of innovative interventions in medicine raise throngs of ethical questions. In most cases that have to do with issues of life and death, there are perceived moral conflicts. Due to this swath of problematic issues that need solutions, some apologists favour medical ethics experts as fit for the job, while critics argue that no one has the knowledge or skill for dealing with moral quandaries because objective truth is not feasible in ethics and moral judgment is relative to cultures, beliefs and values. The necessity for medical ethicists to take active role in Medical Ethics Debates, either in Committees at the institutional level, or at any other decision-making mechanisms is justified in this thesis. In addition to this, the thesis also justifies medical ethicists’ role as expert consultants to clinicians and individuals alike This justification is based on complex moral problems accentuated by medical technology, which are far from being easily solved through mere appeal to individual reason, but rather by involving medical ethicists based on their specialized knowledge and high level understanding of research and practice. Although critics question the authority with which experts speak on these issues, nevertheless, the thesis unravels the roles, functions, significance and components of expert’s expertise that separate him/her from the crowd. Arguments are critically analysed and medical ethicists’ limits and professional flaws are addressed, with a view to establishing a virile foundation for the profession of medical ethics.</p>