This research program represents the first systematic exploration of the subjective experience of alogia, anhedonia, attention problems, avolition, and emotional blunting, and its relation to other objective and subjective factors in schizophrenia. Using a combined rational-empirical approach, a vulnerability-stress-coping model of adjustment to the 5 negative symptoms was developed and tested. Three aspects of appraisal were examined, the primary appraisals of symptom severity and distress, and the secondary appraisal of control. The dimensions of coping with individual symptoms were initially examined using a rational approach, and then empirically using exploratory factor analyses. The Appraisal and Coping with Negative Symptoms Interview Schedule (ACNSIS) was developed for use in Study 1. Both qualitative and quantitative appraisal and coping data were examined for 20 people with negative symptoms. Responses to the ACNSIS demonstrated that appraisals and coping responses varied across participants and individual negative symptoms. Previously employed categorisations of coping behaviour were used to examine and quantify coping. Negative symptom-specific differences were found in awareness of negative symptom presence, degree of agreement with objective ratings, appraisals, reliance on different types of coping, and relations with participant characteristics. Participant coping responses from Study 1 were used to construct the self-report measure used in subsequent studies. Study 2 involved the development, administration, and evaluation of the self-report Appraisal and Coping with Negative Symptoms Questionnaire (ACNSQ). Both an electronic and paper version of the ACNSQ were developed. The ACNSQ was administered to 120 people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Participants were required to make severity, distress and control appraisals for each negative symptom they believed they were suffering from. Following symptom appraisals, a number of symptom-specific and general coping items were presented for each negative symptom. In Study 2A, the multidimensionality of coping responses and the nature of empirically derived subscales were explored individually for each negative symptom. Factor analyses of data from 119 participants resulted in 3 underlying coping dimensions for each symptom. These dimensions, which formed the basis of the ACNSQ coping subscales, were labelled as active, emotional, or avoidant forms of coping. Coping subscales were found to be moderately similar across symptoms. The subscales were shown to be internally consistent and largely independent within symptoms. It was found that the degree of reliance on particular coping subscales was negative symptom-specific, although participant coping was related across symptoms. In Study 2B, the nature of negative symptom appraisals and the psychometric properties of the ACNSQ were examined. There was evidence that the nature of appraisals varied according to negative symptom. Retest reliability analyses indicated that overall, ACNSQ appraisals had a low to moderate degree of reliability while coping subscales demonstrated a moderate to high degree of reliability. Differential associations between appraisal and coping and a range of theoretically related variables provided evidence of the construct validity of the ACNSQ. Study 3 used exploratory techniques to conduct cross-sectional tests of a vulnerability-stress-coping model of adjustment to individual negative symptoms based on the data of the 119 participants. Associations between the objective indicator of negative symptom stressor level, and the subjective experience variables of insight, appraisal and coping were examined in relation to adjustment using a multidimensional approach. Two models of the relations between negative symptom predictors and 3 separate domains of adjustment were investigated. Study 3A provided moderate support for a direct effects model for each of the 5 negative symptoms. Objective negative symptom level, insight, primary appraisals and coping subscales all had significant direct effects on one or more domains of adjustment. In general, higher objective negative symptom levels, higher severity and distress appraisals, and greater reliance on avoidant forms of coping were associated with poorer adjustment. The direct effects of active and emotional forms of coping were less consistent and varied across symptoms and adjustment domains. Study 3B extended these findings by providing a limited amount of support for a mediated effects model. Appraisal and coping were found to act as mediators in some of the relations between objective indicators and subjective experience variables for alogia, attention problems and avolition. There was evidence that the impact of insight on coping was partly mediated by control appraisals. Coping partly mediated the relation between stress and adjustment, and appraisal and adjustment. Overall, this series of exploratory studies make a unique contribution to understanding the subjective experience of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The proposed vulnerability-stress-coping model demonstrated utility in identifying variables important in the prediction of adjustment to individual negative symptoms, and in delineating the nature of associations between variables. Further research is required to improve the psychometric properties of the ACNSQ. However, it offers promise as an instrument with which to assess negative symptom appraisals and coping responses, in both clinical and research settings. The present findings have important theoretical and clinical implications concerning the role of subjective and objective factors involved in adjustment to the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. This research program provides a valuable foundation for future research to test the vulnerability-stress-coping model in its entirety.

The process of embryogenesis is governed by the expressions of groups of genes which are acting in a coordinate way. Uncovering how the expressions of these genes control the development of a multicellular organism is fundamental for developmental biology. Gene expression atlases could capture quantitative spatio-temporal information of all genes expressed in a developing embryo. In other words, they could reveal the underlying genetic activity during the embryogenetic processes by providing information about, apart from how much and which, where and when the genes are expressed at cellular level and the interactions between them. The extraction of relative gene expression data and their simultaneous study in animal models, such as zebrafish, would be greatly facilitated by the existence of such atlases. This Master Thesis focuses on the early zebrafish embryogenesis and its goal is to design and implement an image processing framework that will provide the means to gather the expression patterns of different genes from different embryos at a given developmental stage into a common template. The framework should work with image-based data from different embryos, each fluorescently stained to label nuclear DNA and the expression patterns of a reference gene and another gene of interest. The volumetric data from each fluorescent label are contained in different channels. Therefore the crux of the framework lies in its ability to combine appropriately the information from the different channels and deal with a three-dimensional image registration problem. The implemented framework works with datasets of two embryos, one that serves as a template and depicts a whole embryo and another that has to be aligned with the first and depicts part of the other embryo. It is composed of different steps, responsible for preprocessing the channels, coarsely positioning the partial embryo view in the three dimensional template’s space and determining the geometrical transformation that finally aligns it with the template using as reference the gene expression pattern common to all labelled embryos. The resulting transformation is used to map the second expression patterns, thus producing their spatial expression atlas. The algorithm developed is based on the Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit. The framework was evaluated with data from six embryos at the same developmental stage and four different registration methods were compared in terms of performance. Visual inspection of the results identified the combination of the correlation coefficient, as a similarity measure function between two images, with the gradient descent optimization algorithm as the most appropriate method for this specific application. The final results obtained showed that the framework achieves its goal of integrating several gene expression patterns into a common template. This framework is ready to be used in order to construct a gene expression atlas integrating a large number of gene expression data of the zebrafish embryogenesis. In the near future, this atlas should be validated with known genetic interactions and used to unravel new ones, so that gene regulatory network models can become a reality. / Η διαδικαςία ανάπτυξης των εμβρύων καθορίζεται από τις συγχρονισμένες εκφράσεις ορισμένων γονιδίων. Το πώς αυτές ελέγχουν την δημιουργία ενός πολυκύτταρου οργανισμού από ένα κύτταρο αποτελεί αντικείμενο μελέτης της Αναπτυξιακής Βιολογίας. Ένας χάρτης γονιδιακής έκφρασης θα μπορούσε να συνδυάζει χρονικές, χωρικές και ποσοτικές πληροφορίες σχετικά με την έκφραση των γονιδίων που ενορχηστρώνουν την διαδικασία ανάπτυξης ενός εμβρύου. Σε έναν τέτοιον χάρτη η γενετική δραστηριότητα θα αναλυόταν σε συνιστώσες που αφορούν το ποια, πότε, πού και πόσο εκφράζονται τα γονίδια σε κυτταρικό επίπεδο. Η ύπαρξη τέτοιων χαρτών για οργανισμούς, όπως το ζεβρόψαρο, που πρωταγωνιστεί σε μελέτες που αφορούν σπονδυλωτά, θα διευκολύνει την ταυτόχρονη μελέτη των εκφράσεων και των μεταξύ τους αλληλεπιδράσεων. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εστιάζεται στον σχεδιασμό και στην υλοποίηση μιας διαδικασίας επεξεργασίας εικόνας που θα είναι ικανή να συγκεντρώσει τις γονιδιακές εκφράσεις ενός συγκεκριμένου σταδίου ανάπτυξης του ζεβρόψαρου σε έναν τρισδιάστατο άτλαντα. Τα δεδομένα που πρέπει να επεξεργαστεί είναι τρισδιάστατες απεικονίσεις διαφορετικών εμβρύων, κάθε ένα από τα οποία έχει σημανθεί με φθορίζουσες ουσίες με στόχους το DNA των πυρήνων και τις εκφράσεις δύο γονιδίων, εκ των οποίων η μία είναι κοινή για όλα τα έμβρυα. Η πληροφορία που αποκαλύπτει κάθε ουσία βρίσκεται σε διαφορετικό κανάλι της κάθε εικόνας. Συνεπώς η διαδικασία θα πρέπει να συνδυάζει κατάλληλα τις πληροφορίες των διαφορετικών καναλιών και να ευθυγραμμίζει τρισδιάστατες εικόνες. Η υλοποιημένη διαδικασία δέχεται σειρές δεδομένων από δύο έμβρυα. Η μία απεικονίζει πλήρως ένα έμβρυο, το οποίο αποτελεί το έμβρυο αναφοράς και η άλλη μέρος του άλλου εμβρύου, το οποίο κα πρέπει να ευθυγραμμιστεί με το πρώτο. Η διαδικασία αποτελείται από διάφορα βήματα, τα οποία προεπεξεργάζονται τα δεδομένα, μετασχηματίζουν την εικόνα του μερικώς απεικονιζόμενου εμβρύου ώστε να αποκτήσει μια κατάλληλη αρχική θέση στον χώρο που ορίζεται από την εικόνα του ολόκληρου εμβρύου και τέλος ευθυγραμμίζουν την πρώτη εικόνα στην δεύτερη χρησιμοποιώντας ως αναφορά τη γονιδιακή έκφραση που είναι κοινή για όλα τα σημασμένα έμβρυα. Οι παράμετροι που προκύπτουν από την ευθυγράμμιση χρησιμοποιούνται για την αντιστοίχιση των άλλων σημασμένων γονιδιακών εκφράσεων, δημιουργώντας έτσι ένα τρισδιάστατο χάρτη εκφράσεων. Η υλοποίηση βασίστηκε στο Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit. Η διαδικασία δοκιμάστηκε με δεδομένα από έξι έμβρυα του ίδιου σταδίου ανάπτυξης και συγκρίθηκαν οι επιδόσεις τεσσάρων μεθόδων αντιστοίχισης. Οπτική αξιολόγηση των αποτελεσμάτων ανέδειξε τον συνδυασμό της συνάρτησης του συντελεστή συσχέτισης με τον αλγόριθμο βελτιστοποίησης gradient descent ως την πιο κατάλληλη μέθοδο για την συγκεκριμένη εφαρμογή. Τα τελικά αποτελέσματα απέδειξαν ότι η διαδικασία επιτυγχάνει τον στόχο της. Η διαδικασία που υλοποιήθηκε στην παρούσα διπλωματική είναι έτοιμη προς χρήση για την δημιουργία ενός χάρτη γονιδιακής έκφρασης του ζεβρόψαρου. Αντικείμενο μελλοντικής μελέτης αποτελεί η επικύρωση του χάρτη με ήδη γνωστές γονιδιακές αλληλεπιδράσεις και κατόπιν η χρήση του για την εύρεση νέων.

Text in English / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology, with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

Nous étudions la distillation extractive continue de mélanges azéotropiques à temperature de bulle minimale avec un entraineur lourd (classe 1.0-1a) avec comme exemples les mélanges acétone-méthanol avec l’eau et DIPE-IPA avec le 2-méthoxyethanol. Le procédé inclut les colonnes de distillation extractive et de régénération de l’entraineur en boucle ouverte et en boucle fermée. Une première stratégie d’optimisation consiste à minimiser la fonction objectif OF en cherchant les valeurs optimales du débit d’entraineur FE, les positions des alimentations en entraineur et en mélange NFE, NFAB, NFReg, les taux de reflux R1, R2 et les débits de distillat de chaque colonne D1, D2. OF décrit la demande en énergie par quantité de distillat et tient compte des différences de prix entre les utilités chaudes et froides et entre les deux produits. La deuxième stratégie est une optimisation multiobjectif qui minimise OF, le coût total annualisé (TAC) et maximise deux nouveaux indicateurs thermodynamiques d’efficacité de séparation extractive totale Eext et par plateau eext. Ils décrivent la capacité de la section extractive à séparer le produit entre le haut et le bas de la section extractive. L’analyse thermodynamique des réseaux de courbes de résidu ternaires RCM et des courbes d’isovolatilité montre l’intérêt de réduire la pression opératoire dans la colonne extractive pour les séparations de mélanges 1.0-1a. Une pression réduite diminue la quantité minimale d’entraineur et accroît la volatilité relative du mélange binaire azéotropique dans la région d’opération de la colonne extractive. Cela permet d’utiliser un taux de reflux plus faible et diminue la demande énergétique. La première stratégie d’optimisation est conduite avec des contraintes sur la pureté des produits avec les algorithmes SQP dans les simulateurs Aspen Plus ou Prosim Plus en boucle ouverte. Les variables continues optimisées sont : R1, R2 et FE (étape 1). Une étude de sensibilité permet de trouver les valeurs de D1, D2 (étape 2) et NFE, NFAB, NFReg (étape 3), tandis l’étape 1 est faite pour chaque jeu de variables discrètes. Enfin le procédé est resimulé en boucle fermée et TAC, Eext et eext sont calculés (étape 4). Les bilans matières expliquent l’interdépendance des débits de distillats et des puretés des produits. Cette optimisation permet de concevoir des procédés avec des gains proches de 20% en énergie et en coût. Les nouveaux procédés montrent une amélioration des indicateurs Eext et eext. Afin d’évaluer l’influence de Eext et eext sur la solution optimale, la seconde optimisation multiobjectif est conduite. L’algorithme génétique est peu sensible à l’initialisation, permet d’optimiser les variables discrètes N1, N2 et utilise directement le shéma de procédé en boucle fermée. L’analyse du front de Pareto des solutions met en évidence l’effet de FE/F et R1 sur TAC et Eext. Il existe un Eext maximum (resp. R1 minimum) pour un R1 donné (resp. Eext). Il existe aussi un indicateur optimal Eext,opt pour le procédé optimal avec le plus faible TAC. Eext,opt ne peut pas être utilisé comme seule fonction objectif d’optimisation mais en complément des autres fonctions OF et TAC. L’analyse des réseaux de profils de composition extractive explique la frontière du front de Pareto et pourquoi Eext augmente lorsque FE diminue et R1 augmente, le tout en lien avec le nombre d’étage. Visant à réduire encore TAC et la demande énergétique nous étudions des procédés avec intégration énergétique double effet (TEHI) ou avec des pompes à chaleur (MHP). En TEHI, un nouveau schéma avec une intégration énergétique partielle PHI réduit le plus la demande énergétique. En MHP, la recompression partielle des vapeurs VRC et bottom flash partiel BF améliorent les performances de 60% et 40% respectivement. Au final, le procédé PHI est le moins coûteux tandis que la recompression totale des vapeurs est la moins énergivore. / We study the continuous extractive distillation of minimum boiling azeotropic mixtures with a heavy entrainer (class 1.0-1a) for the acetone-methanol with water and DIPE-IPA with 2-methoxyethanol systems. The process includes both the extractive and the regeneration columns in open loop flowsheet and closed loop flowsheet where the solvent is recycled to the first column. The first optimization strategy minimizes OF and seeks suitable values of the entrainer flowrate FE, entrainer and azeotrope feed locations NFE, NFAB, NFReg, reflux ratios R1, R2 and both distillates D1, D2. OF describes the energy demand at the reboiler and condenser in both columns per product flow rate. It accounts for the price differences in heating and cooling energy and in product sales. The second strategy relies upon the use of a multi-objective genetic algorithm that minimizes OF, total annualized cost (TAC) and maximizes two novel extractive thermodynamic efficiency indicators: total Eext and per tray eext. They describe the ability of the extractive section to discriminate the product between the top and to bottom of the extractive section. Thermodynamic insight from the analysis of the ternary RCM and isovolatility curves shows the benefit of lowering the operating pressure of the extractive column for 1.0-1a class separations. A lower pressure reduces the minimal amount of entrainer and increases the relative volatility of original azeotropic mixture for the composition in the distillation region where the extractive column operates, leading to the decrease of the minimal reflux ratio and energy consumption. The first optimization strategy is conducted in four steps under distillation purity specifications: Aspen Plus or Prosim Plus simulator built-in SQP method is used for the optimization of the continuous variables: R1, R2 and FE by minimizing OF in open loop flowsheet (step 1). Then, a sensitivity analysis is performed to find optimal values of D1, D2 (step 2) and NFE, NFAB, NFReg (step 3), while step 1 is done for each set of discrete variables. Finally the design is simulated in closed loop flowsheet, and we calculate TAC and Eext and eext (step 4). We also derive from mass balance the non-linear relationships between the two distillates and how they relate product purities and recoveries. The results show that double digit savings can be achieved over designs published in the literature thanks to the improving of Eext and eext. Then, we study the influence of the Eext and eext on the optimal solution, and we run the second multiobjective optimization strategy. The genetic algorithm is usually not sensitive to initialization. It allows finding optimal total tray numbers N1, N2 values and is directly used with the closed loop flow sheet. Within Pareto front, the effects of main variables FE/F and R1 on TAC and Eext are shown. There is a maximum Eext (resp. minimum R1) for a given R1 (resp. Eext). There exists an optimal efficiency indicator Eext,opt which corresponds to the optimal design with the lowest TAC. Eext,opt can be used as a complementary criterion for the evaluation of different designs. Through the analysis of extractive profile map, we explain why Eext increases following the decrease of FE and the increase of R1 and we relate them to the tray numbers. With the sake of further savings of TAC and increase of the environmental performance, double-effect heat integration (TEHI) and mechanical heat pump (MHP) techniques are studied. In TEHI, we propose a novel optimal partial HI process aiming at the most energy saving. In MHP, we propose the partial VRC and partial BF heat pump processes for which the coefficients of performance increase by 60% and 40%. Overall, optimal partial HI process is preferred from the economical view while full VRC is the choice from the environmental perspective.

O trabalho reflete acerca dos critérios referentes à avaliação psiquiátrica nas internações e tratamento involuntários. A restrição da liberdade é infração aos direitos do homem e, se ela é justificada em nome da patologia mental, qualificá-la é um imperativo legal e ético. Historicamente, a internação crônica em hospitais psiquiátricos levou à exclusão social e rompimento dos laços significativos da vida pessoal. Nos serviços de emergência ela é muitas vezes determinada em nome de um risco. Assim, é proposta uma análise crítica (à semelhança da desconstrução de Derrida e da genealogia de Foucault) do saber médico-psiquiátrico, que é ferramenta essencial do trabalho clínico. Um panorama dos arranjos dos dispositivos públicos de regulação das internações psiquiátricas involuntárias no ocidente mostra a inter-relação de um modelo médico com um modelo legalista (focado nos direitos dos pacientes), cada qual com seus ganhos e dificuldades. A medicalização da vida humana é um fenômeno do mundo moderno, e é vista como um processo dinâmico, onde a apropriação das categorias médicas por parte dos usuários e familiares também gera empoderamento e mudanças. Vemos como, historicamente, o viés moral da práxis realizada no hospital psiquiátrico é indissociável da construção do saber, e a psicopatologia oficial é de uma nosologia descritiva; mas o trabalho clínico permite outras psicopatologias, mais participativas, centradas na relação do sujeito com o mundo, que possam servir a ele como instrumentos de compreensão e ajuda na experiência vivida. Assim, a categoria da vontade em psicopatologia clássica adota a perspectiva aristotélica de uma deliberação racional, mas a leitura filosófica de Arendt destaca a centralidade da liberdade e da espontaneidade inerentes ao conceito. Esta dicotomia entre vontade livre e determinação traz repercussões para a clínica e para a justiça, como nos casos da avaliação da responsabilidade dos pacientes sobre seus atos. Neste campo, assim como na avaliação do juízo crítico, a ciência não garante a objetividade totalizante, deixando sempre a decisão sobre a internação psiquiátrica involuntária na dependência do político, da moral e da ética que constituem a clínica. / This work is a reflection on the criteria used in psychiatric practice to justify involuntary detention and treatment. The restriction of freedom is an infringement of human rights, and if it is to be justified on the grounds of mental pathology, it must be legally and ethically qualified. Historically, long term internment of people in psychiatric institutions led to social exclusion and the rupture of importante social and personhood ties. Emergency hospitalization is often justified on the grounds of risk. Hence, a critical analysis is offered (along the lines of Derridas deconstruction and Foucaults genealogy), of our current medical-psychiatric understanding, which is the foundation of all clinical work. An overview of the many arrangements for psychiatric involuntary detention on a variety of Western countries demonstrates an interplay between medical and legal (rights based) models. These arrangements all come with benefits and challenges. The medicalization of human life is a modern, world-wide phenomenon, and is viewed as a dynamics process where the appropriation of medical categories by users and their families also produces empowerment and change. We see how, historically, moral bias of practice performed at psychiatric hospitals is inseparable to knowledge construction, and oficial psychopathology is a descriptive nosology, but clinical practice allows other psychopathologies, more participative ones, centered on the relations between the subject and the world, which may help him to understand and survive life experiences. Thus classical pathology adopts a rational aristotelian approach to understanding the concept of Will, while the philosophical view of Arendt emphasizes the centrality of freedom and spontaneity. The inherent dichotomy between free Will and determinism leads to clinical and legal repercussions, in the case of assessing a patients level of responsibility for his actions. In this field, as in the evaluation of a patients level of insight, science does not warrant total objectivity. Hence the decisions about psychiatric involuntary detention will always depend on the basis of the complex interplay between politics, morality and ethics, basis of all clinical work.

I den allmänna debatten kan vi återkommande läsa och ta del av medborgares tyckanden och tänkanden kring stundande eller redan genomförda privatiseringar inom den allmänna vård och omsorgen. Utifrån den allmänna diskursen och den tidigare forskningen kring fenomenet privatisering inom det offentliga Sverige har frågor väckts om hur man inför dessa nya driftsformer säkerställer folkliga värdegrunder som offentlighetsprincip och insyn. Redan i de inledande delarna av upphandlingsdokumenten som de båda huvudmännen, Sala Kommun och Västmanlands läns landsting, upprättat framgår en intressant olikhet i fråga om begreppsinnebörd och tolkning. Allmänt förhåller sig båda fallens avtalsregleringar mycket detaljerade och utförliga. Sammanfattningsvis har denna studie visat att såväl offentlighetsprincip som insyn säkras under upphandling.

La formation technique et professionnelle a souvent été considérée comme un facteur déterminant dans le processus de développement des forces productives des pays en quête de progrès, de croissance et de modernité tel que le Gabon. C'est dans cette logique qu'elle fut institutionnalisée et légitimée dans la loi 16/66 portant organisation générale de l'enseignement dans la République gabonaise. Mais depuis la tenue des Etats Généraux de l'Education et de la formation de 1983 au Gabon, le bilan diagnostic et les perspectives de l'enseignement technique et professionnel scolaire conduisent au désenchantement. Ses effets, pervers ne cessent d'être relevés dans les discours tenus par la société civile nationale et internationale. La parole n'étant jusqu'à ce jour pas donnée à ses principaux bénéficiaires que sont les élèves et les enseignants, c'est tout l'objectif de la présente étude. Avec eux, nous débattons des attributs sociaux de l'enseignement technique et professionnel scolaire, afin de répondre à la question de son attractivité, en dépit des discours peu élogieux prononcés à son égard. Nous examinons aussi les causes de l'inefficacité de l'enseignement technique et professionnel scolaire en interrogeant les conditions de scolarité des élèves, les certifications, les rendements scolaires et le vécu de carrière enseignante. / Technical and vocational studies have often been considered as a major element in the development process leading to progress, growth and modernity in countries such as Gaboon. lt is in such a state of mind that it was institutionalized and became legitimate with the law 10/66 which dealt with the general organization of education in the Republic of Gaboon. Since the EtatsGénétaux de l'Education Formation in 1983, the balance and perspectives of technical and vocational education led to a disillusioned view. lts biased effects are examined by the civil national and international society. Although, up to now the main benefactors such as the students and the teachers have not been allowed to speak up, it is thus the main object of our study. With their comments, on one hand, we shall view the main social features of the technical and vocational school in order to check its interest, notwithstanding the lack of favorable comments in public speeches. On the other hand we shall examine the causes of the lack of efficiency of the technical and vocational schools regarding the schooling, the process of graduation, the output and the insight of a teacher's career concerning his wages.

Customer insight is at the heart of the big data era. This revolution makesit possible to directly obtain high potential data and in large quantitiesabout customers. Thus we take note that, more than ever, a large volumeof big data is collected by companies.We observe that big data have become a necessary tool within marketing.More and more companies orient their decisions according to theinformations provided by data, with the aim of quickly having betterresults.Nevertheless, in order to integrate these big data in a better way and gaina competitive advantage, companies must face new challenges. Tomeasure and understand the impact of big data in marketing decisions,we propose, with the support of our scientific and theoretical resources, areasoning, demonstrating all the issues. Big data is increasinglyubiquitous and necessary for companies (I). Their impact in decisionsneeds to be taken into account (II) and their use is leading to amanagement revolution (III). Moreover, it modifies the close relationbetween decision and intuition. (IV). In this article, we present aperspective that study all these concepts. We close by offering a modeland a conclusion answering our problematic.

In today's highly competitive industries, engineers are driven to not only design a better product to fulfill users' needs but also demanded to develop a product in a short time to occupy the market. With the development of data collection and visualization technology, the application of data visualization into product development to enhance the ability of better product design is a significant trend.  Data visualization becomes more and more important since it could illustrate the valuable information, such as tacit needs and patterns which hidden from data, in a communicated way to help engineers get more inspiration for the conceptual design.   It is not hard to collect data; however, the challenge is to visualize the valuable information from a large number of data concisely and intuitively. In recent years, there are some visualization techniques available for product design, while, most of them are implemented in the later stage of product development, few methods are applicable for conceptual design. Therefore, this thesis is carried out to explore appropriate visualization techniques to provide support for conceptual design.   The aim of this thesis is, in an engineering environment, to investigate ways to visualize complex data legibly and intuitively to enhance engineers’ ability for conceptual design from better understanding the current machine. In order to achieve the objective, a conceptual design case of the improvement of wheel loader fuel consumption is applied, which consisted of plenty of data sets within various parameters, to explore how to reveal the hidden information of complex data for engineers.   As the result of this thesis, a prototype contains a series of visualization techniques is proposed to demonstrate data information from a wheel loader under several visualization situations. The final prototype has the functions of visualizing different operations separately; visualizing the overall fuel consumption in one operation; cluster's patterns visualization; visualizing the impact of one variable on the whole value.

This study seeks to explore students’ subjective and collective experience of an experiential family therapy module within the Clinical Psychology Masters training programme. It looks at the perceptions of nine trainee therapists who used genograms and family sculpting to present their family of origin. The study takes place after the completion of the practical internship year with the purpose of exploring relevant emotional, cognitive, social and therapeutic effects of this module. A literature survey reveals that the use of genograms and family sculpting during training has received little research interest as most studies have primarily focused on their use during therapy with clients and in supervision. There is a scarcity of literature available that pertains directly to psychologists themselves and their wider social context. An exploratory review has been made to supplement the literature and pertains to experiential programmes in training in general and the psychologist’s self in training. The epistemology that directs this research falls within a postmodern frame. The experience is viewed from within the broad systems perspective. This approach acknowledges the dynamic and recursive interactions which occur between and within systems, and permits a broad perspective to be taken that is inclusive rather than exclusive. A qualitative research design was selected as it lends itself particularly well to the study of the ‘lived realities’ of people within their context and allows the information gained from the study to guide the research process. Semi-structured open-ended in-depth interviews were used as they allow for greater freedom and fewer restrictions regarding direction for the participant. A thematic analysis was carried out in order for the central themes of the experience to emerge. These themes were discussed extensively and integrated with the literature available. The multigenerational family presentation seems to create greater awareness of patterns and roles and these insights have a pervasive impact in many contexts. Understandably, the trainees feel emotionally overwhelmed as they become both observer and observed, viewing their interaction from a third-person perspective. This awareness of process results in a loss of spontaneous response and initial debilitation which is associated with feelings of loss and isolation. The self-exploratory behaviour gives rise to a reflexive reconstruction of self as a result of the access to new meanings regarding the dynamics and relationships within the family system, which enhances understanding of the complex interplay of systems, and ultimately facilitates the processes of integration, repair and resolution. / Dissertation (MA (Clinical Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted