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yes / How well can neurotypical adults’ interpret mental states in people with ASD? ‘Targets’ (ASD and neurotypical) reactions to four events were video-recorded then shown to neurotypical participants whose task was to identify which event the target had experienced. In study 1 participants were more successful for neurotypical than ASD targets. In study 2, participants rated ASD targets equally expressive as neurotypical targets for three of the events, while in study 3 participants gave different verbal descriptions of the reactions of ASD and neurotypical targets. It thus seems people with ASD react differently but not less expressively to events. Because neurotypicals are ineffective in interpreting the behaviour of those with ASD, this could contribute to the social difficulties in ASD.

No / Parameterisation of facial expressions on PDE surface representations of human faces are presented in this work. Taking advantage of the boundary-value approach inherent to Bloor-Wilson PDE method, facial expressions are achieved by manipulating the original boundary curves. Such curves are responsible for generating a surface representation of a human face in its neutral configuration, so that regions on these curves represent a given facial expression in a fast and realistic manner. Additionally, the parameterisation proposed here is carried out by applying different mathematical transformations to the affected curves according to the corresponding facial expression. Full analytic expressions parameterising some of the most common facial expressions such as smiling and eyebrow raising are in this work. Some graphical examples of these facial expressions are used to illustrate the results obtained using Bloor-Wilson PDE method as the foundations of the parameterisation scheme proposed here. Thus, it is shown that an efficient, intuitive and realistic parameterisation of facial expressions is attainable using Bloor-Wilson PDE method in along with a suitable mathematical expression.

Regular expressions (regexes) are a widely-used yet little-studied software component. Engineers use regexes to match domain-specific languages of strings. Unfortunately, many regex engine implementations perform these matches with worst-case polynomial or exponential time complexity in the length of the string. Because they are commonly used in user-facing contexts, super-linear regexes are a potential denial of service vector known as Regular expression Denial of Service (ReDoS). Part I gives the necessary background to understand this problem. In Part II of this dissertation, I present the first large-scale empirical studies of super-linear regex use. Guided by case studies of ReDoS issues in practice (Chapter 3), I report that the risk of ReDoS affects up to 10% of the regexes used in practice (Chapter 4), and that these findings generalize to software written in eight popular programming languages (Chapter 5). ReDoS appears to be a widespread vulnerability, motivating the consideration of defenses. In Part III I present the first systematic comparison of ReDoS defenses. Based on the necessary conditions for ReDoS, a ReDoS defense can be erected at the application level, the regex engine level, or the framework/runtime level. In my experiments I report that application-level defenses are difficult and error prone to implement (Chapter 6), that finding a compatible higher-performing regex engine is unlikely (Chapter 7), that optimizing an existing regex engine using memoization incurs (perhaps acceptable) space overheads (Chapter 8), and that incorporating resource caps into the framework or runtime is feasible but faces barriers to adoption (Chapter 9). In Part IV of this dissertation, we reflect on our findings. By leveraging empirical software engineering techniques, we have exposed the scope of potential ReDoS vulnerabilities, and given strong motivation for a solution. To assist practitioners, we have conducted a systematic evaluation of the solution space. We hope that our findings assist in the elimination of ReDoS, and more generally that we have provided a case study in the value of data-driven software engineering. / Doctor of Philosophy / Software commonly performs pattern-matching tasks on strings. For example, when validating input in a Web form, software commonly tests whether an input fits the pattern of a credit card number or an email address. Software engineers often implement such string-based pattern matching using a tool called regular expressions (regexes). Regexes permit software engineers to succinctly describe the sequences of characters that make up common "languages" like the set of valid Visa credit card numbers (16 digits, starting with a 4) or the set of valid emails (some characters, an '@', and more characters including at least one'.'). Using regexes on untrusted user input in this manner may be a dangerous decision because some regexes take a long time to evaluate. These slow regexes can be exploited by attackers in order to carry out a denial of service attack known as Regular expression Denial of Service (ReDoS). To date, ReDoS has led to outages affecting hundreds of websites and tens of thousands of users. While the risk of ReDoS is well known in theory, in this dissertation I present the first large-scale empirical studies measuring the extent to which slow regular expressions are used in practice. I found that about 10% of real regular expressions extracted from hundreds of thousands of software projects can exhibit longer-than-expected worst-case behavior in popular programming languages including JavaScript, Python, and Ruby. Motivated by these findings, I then consider a range of ReDoS solution approaches: application refactoring, regex engine replacement, regex engine optimization, and resource caps. I report that application refactoring is error-prone, and that regex engine replacement seems unlikely due to incompatibilities between regex engines. Some resource caps are more successful than others, but all resource cap approaches struggle with adoption. My novel regex engine optimizations seem the most promising approach for protecting existing regex engines, offering significant time reductions with acceptable space overheads.

Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) are the major insect pollinators of many different crops. A drastic decline in the honey bee populations has been reported over the past decade. While many factors have contributed to this decline, pesticides, poor nutrition, and Varroa mites are the most common concerns noted by scientists and beekeepers. Aside from direct toxicity from pesticides, it has been observed that sublethal pesticide doses have effects on honey bee physiology and behavior such as oxidative stress, disruption of foraging and homing, and changes to honey bee neurophysiology. The primary objectives of this project were to examine honey bee gut microbiome, physiology, and pesticide exposure along an agricultural intensification gradient and to examine the interactive impacts of pesticide exposure and poor nutrition on honey bees in a controlled laboratory cage setting. Sixteen honey bee colonies were placed in four locations across Mississippi with varying degrees of natural forage availability.

De plus en plus d'applications ont pour objectif d'automatiser l'analyse des comportements humains afin d'aider les experts qui réalisent actuellement ces analyses. Cette thèse traite de l'analyse des expressions faciales qui fournissent des informations clefs sur ces comportements.Les travaux réalisés portent sur une solution innovante, basée sur l'organisation des expressions, permettant de définir efficacement une expression d'un visage.Nous montrons que l'organisation des expressions, telle que définie, est universelle : une expression est alors caractérisée par son intensité et sa position relative par rapport aux autres expressions. La solution est comparée aux méthodes classiques et montre une augmentation significative des résultats de reconnaissance sur 14 expressions non basiques. La méthode a été étendue à des sujets inconnus. L'idée principale est de créer un espace d'apparence plausible spécifique à la personne inconnue en synthétisant ses expressions basiques à partir de déformations apprises sur d'autres sujets et appliquées sur le neutre du sujet inconnu. La solution est aussi mise à l'épreuve dans un environnement multimodal dont l'objectif est la reconnaissance d'émotions lors de conversations spontanées. Notre méthode a été mise en œuvre dans le cadre du challenge international AVEC 2012 (Audio/Visual Emotion Challenge) où nous avons fini 2nd, avec des taux de reconnaissance très proches de ceux obtenus par les vainqueurs. La comparaison des deux méthodes (la nôtre et celles des vainqueurs) semble montrer que l'extraction des caractéristiques pertinentes est la clef de tels systèmes.

Title: Working with numerical and algebraic expressions in the compulsory education Author: Bc. Lenka Pantůčková Department: Department of Mathametics and Mathematical Education Supervisor: Prof. RNDr. Jarmila Novotná, CSc. This Diploma Thesis deals with numerical and algebraic expressions in elementary school. The theoretical part deals with the framework educational programme for elementary education and grammar schools. It further mentions the propaedeutic of algebraic expressions at the first and second levels. It also introduces the most frequent mistakes done in calculating algebraic expressions. Meanings for the variable are stated as well. The last pre-chapter of the theoretical part is focused on statistics, which is further used for the experiment result evaluation. The experimental part first states the aims and methods of the research. Selected elementary schools taking part in the experiment are further introduced. An analysis of mathematics text books for the eighth grade (mainly chapters concerning the algebraic expressions), the selected schools use in their lessons, is also carried out. The experimental part also introduces the test presented to 128 pupils. Further pre-chapters are devoted to hypotheses and expected mistakes in single subtasks. In the conclusion of the experimental...