Dans l'entreprise, un certain nombre de risques sont mal cernés et non assurés. Ce sont par exemple les contrefaçons, les fraudes mais également les campagnes de désinformation qui peuvent déstabiliser durablement l'entreprise. On essayera dans la thèse de définir les manipulations : désinformation, propagande, rumeur, d'abord en référence à l'Histoire, puis en examinant un certain nombre d'exemples tirés des domaines militaires et diplomatiques. A partir du XIXème siècle, l'économie entre en jeu et les mêmes campagnes de désinformation touchent alors  l'entreprise. On examinera alors au travers de divers exemples puisés dans l'actualité récente les méthodes employées pour toucher un marché. A partir des cette analyse on tentera de mettre en place une méthode de prévention. Se tournant vers les cindyniques ou sciences du danger dont les modèles et hyperespace sont utilisés au quotidien dans l'industrie pour prévenir les accidents, on tentera de voir si ces concepts peuvent être utilisés dans une prévention des manipulations. / In the industry, a lot of risks are unknown or not insured. Among them are, for example, counterfeiting, fraud, but also manipulation of information, which can destabilize firms for a long time. In this work, we shall try to define what is disinformation, propaganda, rumor, first by looking at historical references, and then by analyzing examples taken from military and diplomatic fields. In the 19th century, as economy becomes a major factor, one starts seeing disinformation campaigns being launched against firms. We shall examine through recent examples different methods used to rig a market. Based on this analysis we shall attempt to find ways and means to prevent these types of dangers. Finally, we shall investigate how the models and hyperspace concepts of the new science of risks (or cindynics), frequently used by the industry to prevent accidents, can be used in the prevention of disinformation.

Purpose: The objectives of this pilot study for women breast cancer survivors with lymphedema was 1) to evaluate recruitment rates, retention rates, adherence to Bowenwork (a noninvasive complementary therapy involving gentle muscle movements), home exercises, safety and comfort; 2) determine the effect of Bowenwork on quality of life (QOL), functional status, perceived pain, range of motion (ROM), arm/ankle circumference (to assess for localized and systemic changes). Methods: Participants received 4 Bowenwork sessions with home exercises. Initial and post assessments included QOL, functional status, and pain. ROM, arm/ankle circumference and pain measures were recorded before each session. Results: Twenty-one women enrolled in the study; 95% completion; adherence 100%; home exercises 95%; no adverse events. The intervention improved mental health (SF-36-MCS); breast cancer-related functional (FACT-B); increased ROM; reduced arm circumferences. P value set at <0.05. Conclusions: The Bowenwork intervention was safe and acceptable for women breast cancer survivors with lymphedema.

Generally human titration performance under schedules of reinforcement has not been investigated. In an attempt to examine the variables which control titration, an interlocking progressive-ratio schedule was devised. Under an interlocking progressive-ratio schedule, the number of responses required for reinforcement increases by a constant (the increment value) after every ratio, but during each ratio the response requirement can be lowered (the decrement value) by emitting pauses of a specified duration (the stepdown duration). The first experiment sought to determine if children would titrate when exposed to interlocking progressive-ratio schedules. Although three of the four subjects did not show evidence of titration initially, through a series of manipulations all came under schedule control. Experiment 2 was conducted to determine the effects of a series of increment value manipulations on the level of titration. The series of increment values was tested under large and small decrement conditions. The results showed that increment value was an important determiner of titration level only when the decrement value was small. When the decrement value was large, changes in increment value had no effect upon titration. In Experiment 3 the effects of a series of decrement manipulations on titration level were examined. The decrement manipulations were investigated under two increment values. The results indicated that as the decrement value was decreased the titration level tended to increase under both increment conditions. In all of the experiments, rate of responding, pausing, titration variability, and patterns of responding were examined. Generally rate of responding, pausing, and response patterning were found to be related to changes in increment and decrement values. Titration variability showed no systematic changes across manipulations. Analysis of subjects' behavior in terms of preference indicated that the subjects tended to minimize number of responses rather than maximize reinforcement frequency. Subjects would pause to bring down the response requirement, and thus increase the time between reinforcements, rather than emit responses on a lever, which would have resulted in more reinforcements per unit of time.

The role of eosinophilia in allergic disorders indicates hIL-5 as a target of therapy. The conservation of hIL-5 proximal elements suggests they are important in controlling expression. Corticosteroids are important in the treatment of allergy, and are powerful inhibitors of IL-5 expression. Antisense oligonucleotides are new compounds that can specifically inhibit IL-5 production. This study aimed at understanding the role of conserved lymphokine element 0 (CLEO) in induction and inhibition of IL-5.The conserved proximal CLEO/TATA elements driving a luciferase reporter gene gave higher expression than a 500bp promoter in PER1 17 T-cell line. Two and three copies of IL-5 CLEO upstream of the silent IL-4 minimal promoter gave 150-200 fold increases in expression in forward orientation, but little activity in reverse orientation. Consequently, while CLEO is a powerful activator, it is not a classical enhancer. Antisense technology has also shown the dependence of IL-5 gene transcription on the de novo synthesis of the transcription factor Fra2.Inhibition of IL-5 reporter constructs by dexamethasone when induced by PMNcAMP, but not PMNCaI, provided a tool for understanding the mechanism. Deletion analysis identified CLEO as the key element of dexamethasone inhibition. Non-inhibition of IL-5 reporter constructs by dexamethasone in a Jurkat cell line, however, showed a possible intermediary factor involved in the inhibition mechanism.

<p> Experiments have shown that manipulations of vocal fundamental frequency, a physical correlate of voice pitch, alter perceptions of vocal attractiveness. Individual experiments, however, have found different effects of pitch manipulations on attractiveness. One possible explanation for the disparate findings may be differences in the strength of pitch manipulations used between studies. The focus of this thesis is to determine psychophysical properties of vocal attractiveness based on pitch manipulations. Within the thesis, two experiments are described that were designed to find just-noticeable differences in vocal attractiveness based on pitch manipulations. The experiments were also designed to determine if there are limits for voice pitch preferences. Relevant background concepts to the thesis are described in Chapters 2-5, and a manuscript is presented in Chapter 6 that describes the methods and results of the experiment, and gives a discussion of the findings.</p> <p> In Chapter 2, the basic anatomy underlying vocal production is explained, including the anatomical structures involved in the source-filter model of vocal production.</p> <p> In Chapter 3, relevant acoustic properties of the voice are described, including fundamental frequency, harmonics, and formant frequencies.</p> <p> In Chapter 4, the basic anatomy involved in audition is explained, including how sound is propagated through the ear.</p> <p> In Chapter 5, a brief review of previous psychophysical research on pitch discrimination and perceived vocal traits is given.</p> <p> In Chapter 6, two experiments are described. Experiment 1 was designed to determine just-noticeable differences in voice pitch discrimination. Experiment 2 was designed to determine just-noticeable differences in voice attractiveness based on manipulations of voice pitch. Experiment 2 was also designed to assess potential limits to voice pitch preferences for supernormal stimuli. Just-noticeable differences in vocal attractiveness were larger than just-noticeable differences in pitch discrimination. Just-noticeable differences in attractiveness were larger in women's voices than men's. There was no limit in men's preferences for highpitched voices, however there was a limit for women's preferences for low-pitched voices below the natural male pitch range.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

<p> We present a symbolic analysis of a class of while loop programs which can automatically derive a closed-form symbolic expression for the input-output relation embodied in that program.</p> <p> We show that this is especially well-suited to analyzing programs from scientific computation, in particular programs which compute special functions (like Bessel functions) from its Taylor series expansion. Other than making heavy use of algebraic manipulations, as available in any computer algebra system, we also require the use of recurrence relations. It is from these recurrence relations that we derive most of our information.</p> <p> It is important to note that we can often get interesting information about a program (like termination) without requiring closed-form solutions to the recurrences.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Un nombre croissant de paradigmes d'interaction et de dispositifs ont été développés et étudiés pour les manipulations 3D.Ce développement bénéficie, en particulier, aux domaines scientifiques tels que la visualisation qui s'appuie sur la manipulation de données 3D.De nombreuses études ont démontré les avantages de chacun d'entre eux pour des tâches spécifiques liées à la visualisation. Pourtant, les interfaces utilisateur graphiques classiques ainsi que la souris et les claviers prédominent toujours dans la plupart des environnements interactifs: de tels environnements sont toujours utiles pour des tâches spécifiques et parce qu'ils sont facilement disponibles et accessibles par rapport aux nouveaux paradigmes d'interaction et aux dispositifs innovants. Contrairement à l'approche habituelle qui consiste à créer ou étudier un nouveau paradigme, une nouvelle technique ou un nouveau dispositif d'interaction, les travaux présentés dans cette thèse ouvrent la voie à un continuum d'interaction: la possibilité de passer d'un paradigme d'interaction à l'autre et de combiner deux ou plusieurs paradigmes d'interaction pour en tirer profit. Pour atteindre cet objectif, nous prenons plusieurs mesures. Tout d'abord, en se basant sur l'observation que la souris et le clavier, l'interaction tactile et l'interaction tangible sont maintenant des normes ou se rapprochent d'être des paradigmes d'interaction standard pour les cas d'utilisation occasionnelle ou spécifique, cette thèse étudie et compare leurs avantages et limites inhérents aux manipulations 3D.Sur la base de ce travail, nous créons ensuite un paradigme d'interaction hybride tactile et tangible. Basé sur les besoins de la visualisation scientifique pour la mécanique des fluides, nous mettons en œuvre des techniques spécifiques d'interaction exploratrice 3D avec le paradigme hybride et les évaluons avec des experts du domaine. La mise en œuvre prototypique de ce paradigme hybride est une tablette tactile capable de quantifier ses propres mouvements (rotations et translations). Sur la base des retours d'expérience des experts du domaine, une telle combinaison est plus flexible que l'état de l'art et permet des manipulations 3D précises. Avec le potentiel de ce paradigme hybride, nous abordons ensuite la tâche complexe de la sélection des sous-ensembles 3D ---une étape initiale majeure pour la compréhension des données. Alors que la sélection de sous-ensembles 3D est généralement effectuée avec une entrée 2D initiale étendue ultérieurement par la machine, notre combinaison d'interactions tactiles et tangibles permet aux utilisateurs d'avoir une technique de sélection entièrement manuelle avec la même tablette: un lasso 2D peut être dessiné avec une entrée tactile qui peut ensuite être étendue en 3D lors du déplacement de la tablette. Non seulement cette combinaison comble-t-elle un vide dans la taxonomie des techniques de sélection de sous-ensembles 3D, mais est, qui plus est, plus précise que les solutions partiellement automatisées, quoique plus lentes. Enfin, en nous appuyant sur l'observation selon laquelle une interaction tangible avec un dispositif localement couplé pourrait nécessiter des ajustements de facteur de gain, nous proposons d'utiliser un aspect spécifique de l'interaction tactile, la détection de pression, pour contrôler les facteurs de gain des manipulations tangibles. Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse démontrent donc le potentiel d'un continuum d'interaction pour la visualisation en proposant des paradigmes d'interaction hybrides dans une configuration facile à maintenir, facile à intégrer et abordable. Il fournit les premières étapes nécessaires pour un continuum d'interaction qui, espérons-le, inspirera la création de plus de techniques d'interaction hybrides pour l'interaction de données 3D. / An increasing number of interaction paradigms and devices are being developed and studied for 3D manipulations. This development benefits, in particular, scientific domains such as visualization which rely on manipulation of 3D data. Numerous studies have proven the benefits of each one of them for specific tasks involved in visualization. Yet, classical graphical user interfaces as well as mouse and keyboards still prevail in most interactive settings: such environments are still useful for specific tasks and because they are readily available and accessible when compared to innovative interaction paradigms and devices. In contrast to the usual approach to create or study a new interaction paradigm, technique, or device, the work presented in this thesis paves the way towards an interaction continuum: the possibility to transition between and combine two or more interaction paradigms to benefit from their inherent advantages. To achieve this goal we take several steps. First, building on the observation that mouse and keyboard, tactile interaction and tangible interaction are now standards or are getting close to being standard interaction paradigms for casual or specific use cases, this thesis studies and compares their inherent advantages and limitations for 3D manipulations. Based on this work, we then create a hybrid tactile/tangible interaction paradigm. Based on the needs of scientific visualization for fluid dynamics, we implement specific 3D explorative interaction techniques with the hybrid paradigm and evaluate them with domain experts. The prototypical implementation of this hybrid paradigm is a tactile-enabled and spatially-aware tablet. Based on the feedback from domain experts, such a combination is more flexible than the state of the art and still facilitates precise 3D manipulations. With the potential of this hybrid paradigm, we then tackle the complex task of 3D subsets selection---a major initial step for data understanding. While 3D subset selection is usually conducted with an initial 2D input later extended by the machine, our combination of tactile and tangible interaction allows users to have a fully manual selection technique with the same spatially-aware tablet: a 2D lasso can be drawn with tactile input which can then be extended into 3D when moving the tablet. Not only does this combination fill in an empty space in the taxonomy of 3D subset selection techniques, but we also found it to be more precise than partially-automated solutions---albeit being slower. Finally, building on the observation that tangible interaction with a locally-coupled device might need gain factor adjustments, we propose to use a specific aspect of tactile interaction, pressure-sensing, to control the gain factors of tangible manipulations. The work presented in this thesis thus demonstrates the potential of an interaction continuum for visualization by proposing hybrid interaction paradigms in an easy-to-maintain, easy-to-integrate, and affordable setup. It provides the necessary initial steps for an interaction continuum that will hopefully inspire the creation of more hybrid interaction techniques for 3D data interaction.

A computer numerical control (CNC) apparatus was used to perform droplet centrifugation, droplet DNA extraction, and rapid droplet thermocycling on a single superhydrophobic surface and a multi-chambered PCB heater. Droplets were manipulated using "wire-guided" method (a pipette tip was used in this study). This methodology can be easily adapted to existing commercial robotic pipetting system, while demonstrated added capabilities such as vibrational mixing, high-speed centrifuging of droplets, simple DNA extraction utilizing the hydrophobicity difference between the tip and the superhydrophobic surface, and rapid thermocycling with a moving droplet, all with wire-guided droplet manipulations on a superhydrophobic surface and a multi-chambered PCB heater (i.e., not on a 96-well plate). Serial dilutions were demonstrated for diluting sample matrix. Centrifuging was demonstrated by rotating a 10 muL droplet at 2300 round per minute, concentrating E. coli by more than 3-fold within 3min. DNA extraction was demonstrated from E. coli sample utilizing the disposable pipette tip to cleverly attract the extracted DNA from the droplet residing on a superhydrophobic surface, which took less than 10min. Following extraction, the 1500bp sequence of Peptidase D from E. coli was amplified using rapid droplet thermocycling, which took 10min for 30cycles. The total assay time was 23min, including droplet centrifugation, droplet DNA extraction and rapid droplet thermocycling. Evaporation from of 10 muL droplets was not significant during these procedures, since the longest time exposure to air and the vibrations was less than 5min (during DNA extraction). The results of these sequentially executed processes were analyzed using gel electrophoresis. Thus, this work demonstrates the adaptability of the system to replace many common laboratory tasks on a single platform (through re-programmability), in rapid succession (using droplets), and with a high level of accuracy and automation.

L'objectif de cette étude est d'analyser dans une première étape, la performance financière à moyen et long terme des émissions subséquentes d'actions ordinaires au Canada. Notre échantillon se compose de 327 entreprises canadiennes ayant réalisé 603 émissions d'actions ordinaires entre 1996 et septembre 2006. En utilisant le modèle de Fama et French (1993), nous calculons un rendement anormal cumulé moyen sur 36 mois suivant l'émission de -1.78 % (statistique-t= -1.87). Cette contre-performance est confirmée par le modèle à quatre facteurs de Carhart (1997) avec un rendement anormal cumulé moyen sur 36 mois suivant l'émission de -2.30 % (statistique-t=-2.45). Dans une deuxième étape, nous examinons l'hypothèse de la manipulation des résultats comme explication possible au comportement à long terme des émissions subséquentes d'actions. Nous observons que pour les entreprises qui ont procédé à une gestion agressive des résultats, le rendement anormal cumulé sur 36 mois suivant l'émission est égal à -2.21 % (statistique-t = -1.69). Nos résultats corroborent ceux de Teoh, Welch et Wong (1998 a et 1998 b) qui observent un comportement similaire sur le marché américain. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Émissions subséquentes d'actions, Performance à long terme, Manipulation des résultats, AccruaIs.

L'objectif de cette étude est d'analyser en première étape la performance financière à long terme des placements privés au Canada. Nous utilisons un échantillon composé de 434 entreprises canadiennes ayant procédé à un placement privé d'actions ordinaires entre 1996 et 2005. En utilisant le modèle de Fama et French (1993), nous calculons un rendement anormal mensuel de -1.23 % (statistique-t = -2.09). Avec le modèle de Carhart (1997), nous confirmons également la contre-performance à long terme des placements privés. Le rendement anormal mensuel calculé est de -1.14 % (statistique-t =-1.84). Dans une deuxième étape, nous examinons l'hypothèse de la manipulation des résultats comme explication possible au comportement à long terme des placements privés. Nous observons que pour les entreprises qui ont procédé à une gestion agressive des résultats, le rendement anormal cumulé sur 36 mois suivant l'émission est égal à -9.89 % (statistique-t = -2.37). Nos résultats corroborent avec ceux de Chou, Gombola et Liu (2005) qui observent un comportement similaire chez les émetteurs de placements privés aux États-Unis. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Placements privés, Performance à long terme, Manipulation des résultats, Accruals.