The thesis analyzes how the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia is treated, interpreted and staged. It concentrates on two questions: what strategies do the authors use to recover the memory of the events and how do the different communities translate and share their memories? In the first part I sketch the development of the political contexts and discourses of expulsion in German and Czech memory culture on the basis of the model of ‚floating gap' by Jan Assman. In the second part, I present seven ‚strategies of commemoration' (Documenting, Interpreting, Investigating, Exhibiting of fragmentarized Memories, Swearing/staging of Trauma, Drawing of Genealogies, Reading in Landscapes), which the authors use in Literature (and Art) to represent the expulsion. The third part focuses finally on the problem of intercultural translation of memories, its shareability and the inner dialogism. The constant line of the analysis is the irreductibility of connection of memory and forgetting, which underline each other from the level of text to the level of memory politic.

Layered learning is a machine learning paradigm used to develop autonomous robotic-based agents by decomposing a complex task into simpler subtasks and learns each sequentially. Although the paradigm continues to have success in multiple domains, performance can be unexpectedly unsatisfactory. Using Boolean-logic problems and autonomous agent navigation, we show poor performance is due to the learner forgetting how to perform earlier learned subtasks too quickly (favoring plasticity) or having difficulty learning new things (favoring stability). We demonstrate that this imbalance can hinder learning so that task performance is no better than that of a suboptimal learning technique, monolithic learning, which does not use decomposition. Through the resulting analyses, we have identified factors that can lead to imbalance and their negative effects, providing a deeper understanding of stability and plasticity in decomposition-based approaches, such as layered learning. To combat the negative effects of the imbalance, a complementary learning system is applied to layered learning. The new technique augments the original learning approach with dual storage region policies to preserve useful information from being removed from an agent’s policy prematurely. Through multi-agent experiments, a 28% task performance increase is obtained with the proposed augmentations over the original technique.

No description available.

No description available.

Accelerated long-term forgetting (ALF) is a recently described memory impairment associated with epilepsy. Patients with ALF appear to learn and initially retain new information normally, but forget it at an accelerated rate over subsequent days. ALF can have a profound impact on the lives of the people who suffer from it, but it is also of theoretical interest. In particular, the study of this disorder may provide insight into the mechanisms of memory consolidation. ALF is especially prevalent in transient epileptic amnesia (TEA), an epileptic syndrome in which the seizure focus is thought to be the medial temporal lobes (MTL). The MTL house the hippocampus and a number of other structures critical for declarative memory function. The aims of this doctoral thesis were to investigate which aspects of memory function are disrupted in patients with TEA-associated ALF, and to shed light on the neural basis of the memory impairment. Slow wave sleep (i.e. deep sleep) is known to exacerbate epileptic activity. It is also thought to play a key role in the consolidation of declarative memory. The most commonly posited explanation of ALF is the disruption of sleep- dependent memory consolidation. However, it remains possible that ALF is caused by a subtle problem with encoding that usually goes undetected until delayed memory tests. The results of this thesis demonstrate that sleep can actually benefit memory retention in TEA ALF patients just as much as it does in healthy people, and that it is not necessary for the retention interval to contain sleep in order for ALF to be seen. However, the relationship between slow wave sleep and memory was found to be abnormal in these patients. The amount of slow wave sleep, and the power in the slow oscillation frequency range, during the post-learning night correlated negatively with the benefit of that night of sleep for memory retention. Furthermore, resting-state brain activity patterns thought to reflect post-encoding memory reprocessing were found to correlate negatively with subsequent memory performance in these patients. Another chapter of this thesis provides evidence that TEA ALF patients encode memories abnormally; these patients showed reduced activity in the left hippocampus while viewing stimuli that they went on to forget. Furthermore, this encoding-related brain activity correlated with their long-term forgetting. The final experimental chapter reports a correlation in these patients between grey matter in the left hippocampus and long-term forgetting, which cannot entirely account for the encoding-related brain activity results. The hippocampus and its surrounding structures are thought to be critical to our ability to discriminate between similar stimuli and events. An intriguing hypothesis consistent with the pattern of results in this thesis is that ALF is caused by a functional impairment of the MTL that results in a diminished capacity to distinguish between similar experiences, ultimately causing memory problems; abnormally formed memories may interact with new material and memory consolidation processes in an aberrant manner, leading to retrieval deficits.

Based on Christina Reid&rsquo / s five Plays &ldquo / Tea in a China Cup,&rdquo / &ldquo / Did You Hear the One About the Irishman &hellip / ?,&rdquo / &ldquo / Joyriders,&rdquo / &ldquo / The Belle of the Belfast City,&rdquo / and &ldquo / My Name, Shall I Tell You My Name?&rdquo / the aim of this study is to put under discussion the idea that the sectarian conflict between the two ethno-religious communities in Northern Ireland is maintained deliberately and a national identity unique to the people in this country cannot be constructed at least in the near future. The Protestants in Northern Ireland cannot choose Irishness as a national identity because the Irishness has been monopolized by the Catholics, and cannot adopt the Britishness as a national identity because of the varieties in the social factors they have. Likewise, the Catholics in Northern Ireland do not call themselves British because their Catholicism involves an Irish identity with the rejection of the British rule, and they cannot truly entitle themselves Irish due to the differences in social conditions. However, both factions try to adhere themselves to a national identity through their communal ideology. The Protestants claim that they are part of Britain, while the Catholics claim that they are members of Irish Nation. This situation has led to reluctance in both communities to stop the conflictual circumstances which encourage both groups to tether to their traditions more intensely, to contribute to the otherization process reinforcing their social identity and lead them to impose their working ideology on their new members whose divergence from traditions will definitely pose a threat to their identity. Also, in this country the forgetting / remembering process, which is actually exploited to forge a national identity, is orchestrated by the two communities to enlarge the intercommunal chasm through the narration of the old stories and memories, creation of stories, commemoration activities and museumizing certain objects. Throughout the study the key points which will be highlighted are as follows: nation, national identity and nation building process, the sectarian conflict between the two communities in Northern Ireland, maintenance of conflictual situation and the employment of the forgetting / remembering process in Northern Ireland.

In visually guided control of a robot, a large residual problem occurs when the robot configuration is not in the neighborhood of the target acquisition configuration. Most existing uncalibrated visual servoing algorithms use quasi-Gauss-Newton methods which are effective for small residual problems. The solution used in this study switches between a full quasi-Newton method for large residual case and the quasi-Gauss-Newton methods for the small case. Visual servoing to handle large residual problems for tracking a moving target has not previously appeared in the literature. For large residual problems various Hessian approximations are introduced including an approximation of the entire Hessian matrix, the dynamic BFGS (DBFGS) algorithm, and two distinct approximations of the residual term, the modified BFGS (MBFGS) algorithm and the dynamic full Newton method with BFGS (DFN-BFGS) algorithm. Due to the fact that the quasi-Gauss-Newton method has the advantage of fast convergence, the quasi-Gauss-Newton step is used as the iteration is sufficiently near the desired solution. A switching algorithm combines a full quasi-Newton method and a quasi-Gauss-Newton method. Switching occurs if the image error norm is less than the switching criterion, which is heuristically selected. An adaptive forgetting factor called the dynamic adaptive forgetting factor (DAFF) is presented. The DAFF method is a heuristic scheme to determine the forgetting factor value based on the image error norm. Compared to other existing adaptive forgetting factor schemes, the DAFF method yields the best performance for both convergence time and the RMS error. Simulation results verify validity of the proposed switching algorithms with the DAFF method for large residual problems. The switching MBFGS algorithm with the DAFF method significantly improves tracking performance in the presence of noise. This work is the first successfully developed model independent, vision-guided control for large residual with capability to stably track a moving target with a robot.

Submitted by Juliana Alvim (juliana.alvim@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-12-06T17:55:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Alvim_dissertação_mestrado profissional_versão final para entrega.pdf: 1419653 bytes, checksum: 54c7e52fa71432021414980f3ebbf70b (MD5) / Rejected by ÁUREA CORRÊA DA FONSECA CORRÊA DA FONSECA (aurea.fonseca@fgv.br), reason: Rejeitada a pedido da aluna. Att.. Áurea SRA on 2016-12-12T19:27:54Z (GMT) / Submitted by Juliana Alvim (juliana.alvim@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-12-12T20:41:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Alvim_dissertação_mestrado profissional_versão final para entrega.pdf: 1419676 bytes, checksum: 093a063ae65986babf6780364b99b701 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rafael Aguiar (rafael.aguiar@fgv.br) on 2016-12-16T18:23:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Alvim_dissertação_mestrado profissional_versão final para entrega.pdf: 1419676 bytes, checksum: 093a063ae65986babf6780364b99b701 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-22T12:45:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Alvim_dissertação_mestrado profissional_versão final para entrega.pdf: 1419676 bytes, checksum: 093a063ae65986babf6780364b99b701 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-09 / Even after almost 27 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the memory of East Germany is still disputed. Its appropriation today happens mainly through ‘museumization’ and the marketing of symbols from the past, but individual memories are still sufficiently powerful to prevent forgetting through consumerism. In this dissertation, I seek to approach different ways of remembering East Germany through testimonies of people who, in very distinctive ways, lived the socialist regime that ended with the country’s unification with West Germany in 3 October 1990. I also intend to present a foreign outlook into Berlin’s complexities and its commitment to not forgetting its difficult past / Mesmo após quase 27 anos da queda do Muro de Berlim, a memória da Alemanha Oriental ainda é alvo de disputas. Sua apropriação se dá, hoje, principalmente por meio da musealização e da comercialização de símbolos do passado, mas o peso das memórias individuais ainda é suficientemente grande para impedir o esquecimento pela via do consumo. Neste trabalho, procuro abordar diferentes modos de lembrar a Alemanha Oriental por meio de depoimentos de pessoas que vivenciaram, de maneiras muito distintas, o regime socialista que findou definitivamente com a unificação do país com a Alemanha Ocidental, em 3 de outubro de 1990. Pretendo também apresentar um olhar estrangeiro sobre as complexidades de Berlim e seu apego ao não-esquecimento de seu difícil passado.

O objetivo da presente dissertação é entender como ocorre a ficcionalização da memória da guerra colonial portuguesa nos romances Os Cus de Judas e A Costa dos Murmúrios e as estratégias usadas pelos autores para expressar essa memória em termos literários. Essas narrativas ao constatarem o colapso da antiga utopia colonialista do discurso nacional português, propõem uma revisão dos antigos valores nacionais e da retórica do regime salazarista, que afetou de forma profunda a vida dos autores. Em ambas as narrativas, a experiência da guerra é reconstruída através do testemunho e da reavaliação das reminiscências do passado das personagens, o que confere às obras um perfil confessional. Ao desmontar o tradicional relato histórico, relativizando verdades universalmente aceitas, a ficção visa preencher as lacunas do discurso histórico oficial, entendido como uma escritura dos vencedores. O confronto entre a memória individual resgatada pelas personagens e a memória legitimada da nação tem uma função redentora sobre o passado na medida em que interrompe a lógica dominante no momento presente. O estudo das referidas obras individualmente é concluído com uma análise sob o viés comparativo que visa estabelecer semelhanças e possíveis discrepâncias na forma de representação das memórias da guerra colonial / The aim of the present dissertation is to understand how fictionalization of the Portuguese colonial war memory occurs in the novels Os Cus de Judas e A costa dos Murmúrios and the strategies used by the authors to express this memory in literary terms.These narratives, atesting the collapse of the old colonialist utopia spread by the portuguese nations narrative, propose a re-evaluation of outdated national values as well as the rhetoric of Salazars regime, which affected profoundly these writers lives. In both narratives, the war experience is reconstructed through the characters testimonials and re-evaluation of their past reminiscences, what gives them a confessional profile. Dismounting the traditional historical narrative by the relativization of widely accepted truths, fiction intends to fill the gaps of the official historical record, seen as a discourse comiited with the dominant classes. The confrontation between the characters individual memory and the legitimized nation's memory, has a libertarian dimension about the past, as it interrupts the dominant logic of the present. The study of the refered novels individualy is concluded with a comparative analisys which stablish similarities and possible discrepancies between their representation of the colonial war memories

O objetivo da presente dissertação é entender como ocorre a ficcionalização da memória da guerra colonial portuguesa nos romances Os Cus de Judas e A Costa dos Murmúrios e as estratégias usadas pelos autores para expressar essa memória em termos literários. Essas narrativas ao constatarem o colapso da antiga utopia colonialista do discurso nacional português, propõem uma revisão dos antigos valores nacionais e da retórica do regime salazarista, que afetou de forma profunda a vida dos autores. Em ambas as narrativas, a experiência da guerra é reconstruída através do testemunho e da reavaliação das reminiscências do passado das personagens, o que confere às obras um perfil confessional. Ao desmontar o tradicional relato histórico, relativizando verdades universalmente aceitas, a ficção visa preencher as lacunas do discurso histórico oficial, entendido como uma escritura dos vencedores. O confronto entre a memória individual resgatada pelas personagens e a memória legitimada da nação tem uma função redentora sobre o passado na medida em que interrompe a lógica dominante no momento presente. O estudo das referidas obras individualmente é concluído com uma análise sob o viés comparativo que visa estabelecer semelhanças e possíveis discrepâncias na forma de representação das memórias da guerra colonial / The aim of the present dissertation is to understand how fictionalization of the Portuguese colonial war memory occurs in the novels Os Cus de Judas e A costa dos Murmúrios and the strategies used by the authors to express this memory in literary terms.These narratives, atesting the collapse of the old colonialist utopia spread by the portuguese nations narrative, propose a re-evaluation of outdated national values as well as the rhetoric of Salazars regime, which affected profoundly these writers lives. In both narratives, the war experience is reconstructed through the characters testimonials and re-evaluation of their past reminiscences, what gives them a confessional profile. Dismounting the traditional historical narrative by the relativization of widely accepted truths, fiction intends to fill the gaps of the official historical record, seen as a discourse comiited with the dominant classes. The confrontation between the characters individual memory and the legitimized nation's memory, has a libertarian dimension about the past, as it interrupts the dominant logic of the present. The study of the refered novels individualy is concluded with a comparative analisys which stablish similarities and possible discrepancies between their representation of the colonial war memories