Evolutionära algoritmer har visat sig vara effektiva för att utveckla spelnivåer. Dock finns fortfarande ett behov av nivåer som både uppfyller de krav som spelen har, samt att nivåerna som skapas ska vara så olika som möjligt för att uppmuntra upprepade spelomgångar. För att åstadkomma detta kan man använda Novelty Search. Dock saknar Novelty Search funktioner som gör att populationen vill uppfylla de krav som nivåerna ska ha. Arbetet fokuserar därför på att jämföra två Novelty Search baserade algoritmer som båda uppmuntrar kravuppfyllning: Feasible Infeasible Novelty Search (FINS) och Pareto based Multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (PMOEA) med två mål: krav och Novelty Search. Studien jämför algoritmerna utifrån tre värden: hur stor andel av populationen som följer de ställda kraven, hur bra dessa individer är på att lösa ett nivårelaterat problem samt diversiteten bland dessa individer. Utöver PMOEA och FINS implementeras även en Novelty Search algoritm och en traditionell evolutionär algoritm. Tre experiment genomförs där nivåernas storlek och antalet krav varierade. Resultatet visar att PMOEA var bättre på att skapa fler individer som följde alla kraven och att dessa individer överlag var bättre på att optimera lösningar än vanlig Novelty Search och FINS. Dock hade FINS högre diversitet bland individerna än alla algoritmerna som testades. Studiens svaghet är att resultatet är subjektivt till algoritmernas uppsättning i artefakten, som sådan borde framtida arbeten fokusera på att utforska nya uppsättningar för att generalisera resultatet.

This  thesis  conducts  a  philosophical,  theoretical, and  practical  exploration  of digital technology design to examine how digital technologies can fulfill our two-facet of existentiality – identified in the thesis as belonginess and novelty. By belonginess, I identify human’s innate need for a feeling of connectedness and harmony with the self, others, and the natural world. The word novelty implies the human interest in exploration, invention, and desire for new experiences. This research suggests that contemporary  digital  technologies  are  largely  novelty  need-oriented,  while  our belonginess  need  is  either  ignored  or  its  growth  curtailed.  The  research  question presented in this thesis is how and why can design enable digital technologies to mediate aligned  existentiality?  With  this  broad  question,  I  will  argue  that  an  alignment between digital technologies and our two-facet of existentiality can be met through refocused design practices.  Strong arguments have been forwarded that novelty focused digital technologies can reduce our existential  needs of belonginess. Digital technologies are leading consumerist  commodities  associated  with  creating  unrelenting  demand  for  new experiences.  The  search  for  constant  stimulation  and  novelty  has  resulted  in  a fragmented and alienated state of being-human where the only way of feeling a sense of belonging comes from consuming more novel experiences. As contemporary everyday life is increasingly intertwined with digital technologies, their effect on our way of being-human becomes even more notable.  Against  this  background,  the  research  attempts  to  ‘bring  back’  our  needs  of belonginess to an equal footing with novelty in digital technologies. I have examined the  current  digital  technology  design’s  philosophical,  theoretical,  and  practical foundations  to  refocus  design,  from  its  too  strong focus  on  developing  novelty experiences  to  mediating  aligned  existentiality.  With  the  aim  of  refocusing  the design  role,  a  theoretical  framework  based  on  holism  has  emerged  that  could provide design a background to focus on mediating aligned existentiality. Primarily ivinformed by three thinkers – Marin Heidegger, Karl Marx, and John Dewey – the proposed holistic theoretical framework aims to provide design with a basis to (1) embed belonginess values in digital technologies (2) redirect digital technologies from  alienating  values  such  as  consumerism,  and  (3)  provide  a  mediating materiality for digital technologies to advance aligned existentiality while in use. The  thesis  further  illustrates  the  proposed  holistic  dimensions  –  philosophy, theory, and practice – using three empirical materials. I argue that the proposed holistic foundation for design is also aligned with how digital technologies are being used in the everyday lifeworld. Consequently, by freeing design from its traditional responsibility of making technically savvy and novel artifacts and refocusing its role to mediating aligned existentiality, design can itself be used to support our being-human in the world of digital artifacts. / <p>Vid tidpunkten för disputationen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 8 accepterat, delarbete 9 under granskning.</p><p>At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished: paper 8 accepted, paper 9 under review.</p>

Les réflexions au point de départ de Bergson nous donnent une forte impression. Maintenant, nous pouvons dire qu’il y a là la puissance intuitive de négation et le temps qui « agit ». Et quand nous promenons nos yeux sur les œuvres de Bergson, il nous semble qu’on ne peut pas les négliger. En premier lieu, Bergson aboutit déjà à une méthode de la connaissance autre que l’intelligence. Comme l’intuition est une méthode de la connaissance propre à Bergson, l’intuition qui porte la puissance de négation est une découverte qui fait époque. En deuxième lieu, cette intuition incite elle-même à se rendre vers l’intuition immédiate. Elle soutient l’intuition de la durée. En troisième lieu, le temps qui « agit » est une appréhension originelle de l’expérience. Un des fondements et un des contenus de la liberté proviennent de ce temps qui « agit » et de cette intuition. En quatrième lieu, Bergson souligne que l’illusion du « possible » fait méconnaître « la nouveauté radicale ». Et cette appréhension montre que l’acte libre et l’univers sont la création du nouveau. L’idée d’illusion du « possible » qui s’établit dans les dernières années de sa vie provient des réflexions au point de départ. Enfin, obtenir une appréhension originale par la puissance intuitive de négation, semble être une façon d’étudier chez Bergson. Il recueille les faits scientifiques ou académiques qui font l’objet de son étude. Et il trouve un problème par la puissance intuitive de négation. Il semble que nous pouvions imaginer que ce qui est profond chez Bergson revient à ces deux points. Dès lors, nous pensons que les réflexions au point de départ sont dignes d’être pris comme objet de réflexion. / We can say that the action of time and the intuitive power of negation are important aspects in Bergson’s reflections on his point of departure. And when we survey his works, it seems to us that they cannot be neglected. First, Bergson arrives already at a method of acquiring knowledge which differs from the intelligence. As intuition is a method of the knowlege proper to Bergson, intuition that has the power of negation is an important discovery. Second, this intuition urges itself to proceed to an intuition of the duration. And the former supports the latter. Third, his notion of the action of time is an original understanding of its experience. One of the foundations of the freedom and one of the contents of the freedom are derived from the action of time and this previously mentioned intuition. Fourth, Bergson emphasizes that the illusion of the « possible » leads us to misunderstand « the radical novelty ». And this understanding shows that the free act and the universe are both creations of novelty. The notion of the illusion of the « possible » that is established in his later years has its origin in his reflections on his point of de departure. Finally, it seems that to obtain an original understanding through the intuitive power of the negation is a Bergson’s way of studying his subject. He gathers scientific or academic facts. He identifies problems through the use of the intuitive power of the negation. In short, it seems that we can imagine that what is profound in Bergson’s thought comes from the action of time and the intuitive power of negation. So we think that the reflections on the point of departure is worthy of in-depth consideration.

This thesis is mostly about supervised visual recognition problems. Based on a general definition of categories, the contents are divided into two parts: one which models categories and one which is not category based. We are interested in data driven solutions for both kinds of problems. In the category-free part, we study novelty detection in temporal and spatial domains as a category-free recognition problem. Using data driven models, we demonstrate that based on a few reference exemplars, our methods are able to detect novelties in ego-motions of people, and changes in the static environments surrounding them. In the category level part, we study object recognition. We consider both object category classification and localization, and propose scalable data driven approaches for both problems. A mixture of parametric classifiers, initialized with a sophisticated clustering of the training data, is demonstrated to adapt to the data better than various baselines such as the same model initialized with less subtly designed procedures. A nonparametric large margin classifier is introduced and demonstrated to have a multitude of advantages in comparison to its competitors: better training and testing time costs, the ability to make use of indefinite/invariant and deformable similarity measures, and adaptive complexity are the main features of the proposed model. We also propose a rather realistic model of recognition problems, which quantifies the interplay between representations, classifiers, and recognition performances. Based on data-describing measures which are aggregates of pairwise similarities of the training data, our model characterizes and describes the distributions of training exemplars. The measures are shown to capture many aspects of the difficulty of categorization problems and correlate significantly to the observed recognition performances. Utilizing these measures, the model predicts the performance of particular classifiers on distributions similar to the training data. These predictions, when compared to the test performance of the classifiers on the test sets, are reasonably accurate. We discuss various aspects of visual recognition problems: what is the interplay between representations and classification tasks, how can different models better adapt to the training data, etc. We describe and analyze the aforementioned methods that are designed to tackle different visual recognition problems, but share one common characteristic: being data driven. / <p>QC 20140604</p>

Neste trabalho, estudo a poesia de Patativa do Assaré, procurando descrever características e impasses que a singularizam no âmbito de literatura brasileira. De um cotejo com as poéticas do cordel e da cantoria, passando por seu diálogo com a poesia culta, vai se revelando uma produção que, dialeticamente, adere e se diferencia da tradição de onde surgiu, por força de um forte componente autoral. Este trabalho contém uma introdução, cinco capítulos e anexos. O primeiro capítulo faz um mapeamento formal da obra. O segundo consiste na análise e interpretação de três sonetos. No terceiro, estudo variações líricas em torno do tema do sertão, por meio da análise de quatro poemas. O quarto capítulo apresenta uma leitura interpretativa do poema-canção Vaca Estrela, Boi Fubá. E o quinto estuda aspectos e impasses do conflito entre tradicionalismo e modernização em representações do mundo do trabalho na obra do poeta / The aim of this thesis is to study Patativa do Assaré\'s Poetry by trying to describe characteristics and impasses that make it unique in the Brazilian literature scope. As a comparison with the poetic of the cordel as well as the chant, passing by its dialog with the erudite poetry, it is revealed as a production which adheres dialectically and differentiates from the traditional environment where it has been raised based on a strong authorial component. This research contains an introduction, five chapters and attachments. The first chapter leads the reader to a formal plotting of the work. The second one consists of an analysis and interpretation of three sonnets. In the third one, a study on lyrical variations using the sertão as a theme, by analyzing of four poems. The fourth chapter presents an interpretative reading of the poem-song Vaca Estrela, Boi Fubá. Finally, the fifth chapter studies aspects and impasses involving the conflict between traditionalism and modernization in work world representations in this poet\'s work

A pesquisa busca investigar e refletir, na perspectiva teórica da Análise do Discurso (Pêcheux; Orlandi), em interface com pesquisadores das Ciências Sociais, sobre o sujeito e os efeitos de sentido produzidos pelo discurso midiático de dietas e suas novidades, que promete resultados rápidos e fáceis na busca de um corpo muitas vezes irreal. A preocupação em perder peso tem aumentado e, segundo alguns psiquiatras, tornou-se um problema de grandes proporções. Neste processo de construção do corpo, nos interessa o discurso produzido pela mídia atual e materializado em práticas sociais e condutas corporais. O corpus foi composto por revistas e sites que promovem as novas dietas, e que, além da publicação impressa, dispunham de versão digital com espaço para comentário dos leitores. A nossa hipótese é a de que o discurso midiático das novas modalidades de regime afeta a constituição da mulher e sua relação com o corpo na contemporaneidade. Esse discurso, com uma linguagem ancorada em simbolismos, promete que o novo (dieta, exercício) por si só, é e será sempre o melhor, mesmo com o surgimento de coisas novas em velocidade incompatível com a capacidade dos sujeitos de consumi-las e entendê-las em sua totalidade. As condições de produção do discurso das dietas são marcadas profundamente por alguns aspectos: o texto da mídia, a linguagem publicitária (imagens e textos atuando em conjunto), a velocidade, a repetição, o consumo e a tecnologia. A dieta não deve ser analisada apenas como um produto, mas como um fenômeno discursivo que faz circular sentidos em uma ambiência midiática que opera em um cenário sócio-histórico, cultural e econômico-capitalista. A ideologia das dietas está atrelada ao mercado, que por sua vez interpela os sujeitos através da mídia, convocando-os a alcançarem patamares de excelência cristalizados em formatos corporais. O sujeito é interpelado a re(fabricar)-se a todo momento. O imperativo sucesso perpassa as formações ideológicas e seus discursos. Enquanto o discurso da boa forma interpela o sujeito convocando-o a ser mais ágil e rápido na busca do corpo-perfeito, o corpo da realidade testa seus limites deparando-se com sua fragilidade. É nesse processo que sentidos como os de beleza se constituem, através de um jogo de filiações históricas que os determinam, mas que jamais se estabilizam completamente. Nesse jogo, percebemos o funcionamento da ideologia legitimando o que deve ser compreendido como formato (imagem) do corpo contemporâneo. Os sentidos do discurso midiático das dietas e boa forma, ao enaltecer o corpo-projeto, menospreza o corpo-abjeto. O corpo-abjeto simplesmente é, enquanto o corpo-projeto está calcado em um devir, em um deve ser. A ideologia do mercado das dietas faz circular sentidos de um corpo-projeto que contrastam com a obsolescência do corpo da realidade, tomando-o como um objeto frágil e obsoleto pela gordura que carrega, pelo processo de envelhecimento e pelas doenças que o castigam. O sujeito é convocado a viver na encruzilhada entre a excelência imposta pelas ferramentas midiáticas e a imperfeição da realidade. / The present research seeks to investigate and to reflect, at the interface of the theoretical perspective of Discourse Analysis (Pêcheux; Orlandi) and the Social Sciences researches, the subject and the effects of meaning produced by the media diets discourse and their novelties, which promises fast results and easy to find an often unreal body. Concern about weight loss has increased and, according to some psychiatrists, has become a major problem. In this process of \"body building\", we are interested in the discourse produced by the current media and materialized in social practices and corporal behaviors. The corpus was composed of magazines and sites that promote the new diets, and, had a digital version with space for readers´comments. Our hypothesis is that the mediatic discourse of the new diets modalities affects the constitution of the woman and her relation with the body in the contemporaneity. This discourse, with a language anchored in symbolism, promises that the new (diet, exercise) by itself, is and will always be the best, even if the emergence of new things occurs at a speed incompatible with the subjects\' ability to consume and understand them in their totality. The production conditions of the diets\' discourse are deeply marked by some aspects: the \"text of the media\", the advertising language (images and texts acting together), speed, repetition, consumption and technology. Diet should not be analyzed only as a product, but as a discursive phenomenon that circulates meanings in a mediatic environment that operates in a socio-historical, cultural and economic-capitalist scenario. The ideology of diets is linked to the market, which in turn challenges the subjects through the media, inviting them to reach levels of excellence crystallized in body shapes. The subject is called upon to re-fabricate himself at all times. The imperative \"success\" permeates ideological formations and their discourses. While the discourse of good shape challenges the subject by summoning him to be more agile and quick in the quest for the perfect body, the body of reality tests its limits by encountering its fragility. It is in this process that senses such as those of beauty are constituted through a set of historical affiliations that determine them, but never fully stabilize. In this game, we perceive the functioning of ideology legitimizing what must be understood as the shape (image) of the contemporary body. The senses of the diet mediatic discourse and good form, when uplifting the body-project, despise the body-abject. The body-abject simply is, while the body-design is set in a becoming, in a must be. The ideology of the diet market circulates the senses of a body-project that contrasts with the obsolescence of the real body, taking it as a fragile and obsolete object because of the fat it carries, the aging process and the diseases that punish it. The subject is convened to live at the crossroads between the excellence imposed by the media tools and the imperfection of reality.

Neste trabalho a detecção de novidade é tratada como o problema de identificação de conceitos emergentes em dados que podem ser apresentados em um fluxo contínuo. Considerando a relação intrínseca entre tempo e novidade e os desafios impostos por fluxos de dados, uma nova abordagem é proposta. OLINDDA (OnLIne Novelty and Drift Detection Algorithm) vai além da classficação com uma classe e concentra-se no aprendizado contínuo não-supervisionado de novos conceitos. Tendo aprendido uma descrição inicial de um conceito normal, prossegue à análise de novos dados, tratando-os como um fluxo contínuo em que novos conceitos podem aparecer a qualquer momento. Com o uso de técnicas de agrupamento, OLINDDA pode empregar diversos critérios de validação para avaliar grupos em termos de sua coesão e representatividade. Grupos considerados válidos produzem conceitos que podem sofrer fusão, e cujo conhecimento é continuamente incorporado. A técnica é avaliada experimentalmente com dados artificiais e reais. O módulo de classificação com uma classe é comparado a outras técnicas de detecção de novidade, e a abordagem como um todo é analisada sob vários aspectos por meio da evolução temporal de diversas métricas. Os resultados reforçam a importância da detecção contínua de novos conceitos, assim como as dificuldades e desafios do aprendizado não-supervisionado de novos conceitos em fluxos de dados / In this work novelty detection is treated as the problem of identifying emerging concepts in data that may be presented in a continuous ow. Considering the intrinsic relationship between time and novelty and the challenges imposed by data streams, a novel approach is proposed. OLINDDA, an OnLIne Novelty and Drift Detection Algorithm, goes beyond one-class classification and focuses on the unsupervised continuous learning of novel concepts. Having learned an initial description of a normal concept, it proceeds to the analysis of new data, treating them as a continuous ow where novel concepts may appear at any time. By the use of clustering techniques, OLINDDA may employ several validation criteria to evaluate clusters in terms of their cohesiveness and representativeness. Clusters considered valid produce concepts that may be merged, and whose knowledge is continuously incorporated. The technique is experimentally evaluated with artificial and real data. The one-class classification module is compared to other novelty detection techniques, and the whole approach is analyzed from various aspects through the temporal evolution of several metrics. Results reinforce the importance of continuous detection of novel concepts, as well as the dificulties and challenges of the unsupervised learning of novel concepts in data streams

Adolescence is a time of high risk behavior and increased exploration. This developmental period is marked by a greater probability to initiate drug use and is associated with an increased risk to develop addiction and dependency in adulthood. Human adolescents are predisposed toward an increased likelihood of risk taking behaviors (Zuckerman M, 1986), including drug use or initiation. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in developmental risk taking behaviors and neurochemical responsivity to cocaine based on these behavioral characteristics. Adolescent and adult animals were exposed to a novel stimulus in a familiar environment to assess impulsivity, novelty preference and exploratory behaviors, subsequently, in vivo microdialysis was performed to assess dopaminergic responsivity to cocaine. Adolescent animals had greater novelty-induced locomotor activity, greater novelty preference, were more impulsive and showed higher exploratory behaviors compared to adult animals. Furthermore, the results demonstrate neurochemical differences between adolescent and adult animals in novel environment exploratory behavior, novel object preference, novelty-induced impulsivity and novelty-induced exploration. These data support the notion that adolescents may be predisposed toward sensation seeking and consequently are more likely to engage in risk taking behaviors, such as drug use initiation.

The relationship between alcohol consumption and traumatic brain injury (TBI) often focuses on alcohol consumption increasing the likelihood of incurring a TBI, rather than alcohol use outcomes after TBI. This focus is in part due to the large numbers of TBI patients visiting emergency rooms notable levels of alcohol in their blood. Additionally, increases in alcohol use disorders following TBI can be predicted by previous history of alcohol use. However, studies have also shown patients without a history of an alcohol use disorder can experience increases in problem drinking after single or multiple TBIs. Due to the diffuse impact of alcohol consumption and mild TBI on the brain, it is likely that an interaction exists between TBI outcomes and problematic alcohol use after TBI. To examine the impact of mild repetitive TBI (rmTBI) on voluntary alcohol consumption, male mice were subjected to four mild TBI or sham procedures over a two week period, then offered ethanol (20% v/v) for 2, 4, 6 or 8 weeks using the two-bottle choice, drinking in the dark paradigm. Following the drinking period, mice were sacrificed and brains were extracted to examine expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α, a possible shared mechanism of neuronal damage. An additional cohort of mice was subjected to the same rmTBI and voluntary ethanol paradigm and tested for cognitive and behavioral deficits following the set drinking period. Results indicate there is a temporary decrease in ethanol consumption following rmTBIs compared to Sham mice in this model. Results also suggest an attenuated expression of TNF-α in rmTBI, ethanol drinking groups compared to ethanol exposed mice after the Sham procedure. The outcomes of the cognitive and behavioral tasks suggest that ethanol consumption after rmTBI can cause transient cognitive dysfunction and increased novelty preference.

<p>This thesis examines innovation and design processes in small established companies. There is a great interest in this area yet paradoxically the area is under-researched, since most innovation research is done on large companies. The research questions are: How do small established companies carry out their innovation and design processes? and How does the context and novelty of the process and product affect the same processes?</p><p>The thesis is built on three research papers that used the research method of multiple case studies of different small established companies. The innovation and design processes found were highly context dependent and were facilitated by committed resources, a creative climate, vision, low family involvement, delegated power and authority, and linkages to external actors such as customers and users. Both experimental cyclical and linear structured design processes were found. The choice of structure is explained by the relative product and process novelty experienced by those developing the product innovation. Linear design processes worked within a low relative novelty situation and cyclical design processes worked no matter the relative novelty. The innovation and design processes found were informal, with a low usage of formal systematic design methods, except in the case of design processes for software. The use of formal systematic methods in small companies seems not always to be efficient, because many of the problems the methods are designed to solve are not present. Customers and users were found to play a large and important role in the innovation and design processes found and gave continuous feedback during the design processes. Innovation processes were found to be intertwined, yielding synergy effects, but it was common that resources were taken from the innovation processes for acute problems that threatened the cash flow. In sum, small established companies have the natural prerequisites to take advantage of lead-user inventions and cyclical design processes. Scarce resources were found to be the main factor hindering innovation, but the examined companies practiced several approaches to increase their resources or use existing scarce resources more efficiently in their innovation and design processes. Examples of these approaches include adopting lead-user inventions and reducing formality in the innovation and design processes.</p>