Dans l'environnement, les organismes sont soumis à des stress de multiples natures (e.g., polluants et pathogènes/parasites). Dans ce contexte, le système immunitaire joue un rôle fondamental. La pression chimique exercée par les polluants peut impacter leur système immunitaire, affaiblir leur santé et les prédisposer à contracter des maladies infectieuses. En écotoxicologie, l'évaluation de marqueurs d'immunocompétence peut servir à diagnostiquer l'état de santé des organismes et mieux comprendre le danger immunotoxique des xénobiotiques. Lymnaea stagnalis est un gastéropode d'eau douce représentatif de nombreux milieux lentiques sur la planète. Des tests OCDE de reprotoxicité sont disponibles mais peu d'études se sont focalisées sur des paramètres immunotoxiques. Le premier axe de la thèse se porte sur la connaissance et le développement de méthodes pour évaluer l'immunocompétence de manière répétée à l'échelle individuelle chez L. stagnalis. Le deuxième axe évalue cette approche multibiomarqueurs dans différents contextes écotoxicologiques. Plusieurs populations (élevages vs terrain), temps d'expositions (3 vs 29 – 44 jours), concentrations d'exposition (environnementales vs non réalistes) et contaminants ont été évalués : des médicaments (les anti-cancéreux Etoposide et cyclophosphamide, l'anti-rejet de greffes cyclosporine A et l'antiinflammatoire diclofenac), l'insecticide deltaméthrine, le métal cadmium et des effluents de station d'épuration. Des comparaisons entre des traits de vie et des traits immunitaires ont été réalisées. La réflexion est bâtie sur les questionnements relatifs à (i) la sensibilité de l'approche, (ii) le temps de réponse des marqueurs, (iii) leur précocité physiologique, (iv) la transposition d'immunotoxicité de xénobiotiques entre le phylum des chordata et L. stagnalis et (vi) l'utilisation pratique de L. stagnalis (élevages, collecte en milieu naturel, calibration, reproduction) / In natural environments, animals encounter multiple stresses (e.g., pollutants and pathogens/ parasites). In this context, the immune system plays a pivotal role. Chemical insults from pollutants can jeopardize the immune system of these animals, weaken their health and make them vulnerable to contracting infectious diseases. In ecotoxicology, assessment of immunocompetence markers can be used to diagnose the health of organisms and better understand the immunotoxic hazard of xenobiotics. Lymnaea stagnalis is a freshwater gastropod representative of several lentic ecosystems on the planet. OECD reprotoxicity tests are available using this species, but too few studies have focused on immunotoxic parameters. The first part of this thesis covers the description, comprehension and development of the methods used to assess the immunocompetence at an individual scale and repeatedly within an experiment in L. stagnalis. The second part assesses this multibiomarker approach in several ecotoxicological contexts. Several populations (laboratory-bred vs collected in the field), time exposures (3 vs 29–44 days), concentrations (environmental vs unrealistic) and contaminants were evaluated : pharmaceuticals (the anti-cancer drugs etoposide and cyclophosphamide, the anti-xenograft rejection drug cyclosporine A, the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac), the insecticide deltamethrin, the metal cadmium and wastewater treatment plant effluents. The general reasoning is built on questions relative to (i) the sensitivity of the approach, (ii) the rapidity of the response, (iii) their physiological precocity of alteration (immune vs life-history traits), (iv) the transposition of xenobiotic immunotoxicity between L. stagnalis and the Chordata phylum and (vi) the pragmatic use of L. stagnalis (breeding, collection in the environment, calibration and reproduction)

Scripture is God’s Word in human language – a truth reflected over 2000years of Church history. Without this truth, proper knowledge of God is impossible. All human efforts to come to a true and meaningful understanding of God, lead to a variety of religious “isms.” The pluralism, post-modernism and post-Christian society of the 21st century, brings its own challenges. Words mean nothing and truth is relative. There are, however, unique resemblances with the pluralism, pre-modern and pre-Christian society of the patristic. From a historical-theological perspective, the researcher points out that these resemblances could shed light on the current burning issue around the authority of Scripture. This historic continuity with the patristic and apostolic tradition is addressed in relation to Tertullian and Augustine. Both these Church Fathers had to give Biblical answer to the burning issues of their day that sought to undermine the authority of Scripture. The patristic’s emphasis on the authority of Scripture, stems from the unique unity between the Old and New Testament. It finds expression in the Apostolic preaching – regula fidei – the rule by which sound theology and godly living is guaranteed. Their historical-literal method of Biblical exegesis reflects a Christian worldview in contrast to the secular worldview of their day. In conclusion the researcher points out the relevance of this study for Southern-Africa. The confusion within the ranks of society, and the disillusionment of hundreds of thousands in Africa concerning the role of the Church, ask for clear direction and uncompromising answers on the fundamentals of the Christian faith with the framework of the authority of Scripture. / Dissertation (MA (Church History))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Church History and Church Polity / unrestricted

La présente thèse porte sur la question de l’intelligibilité de la traduction juridique pour un praticien du droit. Notre hypothèse de travail consiste à dire que l’échec de la traduction juridique s’explique par l’absence de pertinence de la traduction pour son utilisateur. Pour éclairer cet aspect, une approche interdisciplinaire est adoptée. Méthodologiquement, nous partons de la critique de la notion d’équivalence et de la conception de la traduction comme recherche d’équivalents. Notre état de l’art se déploie en trois volets. Le premier volet traite de la théorie de la pertinence de Sperber et Wilson. Le second volet expose le traitement de la notion de pertinence en sciences de l’information. Le troisième volet présente la théorie de la pertinence et la théorie des connaissances élaborées par le sociologue Alfred Schütz Notre corpus d’étude comporte 145 bitextes allemand-français servant de base à des analyses contrastives. Dans la dernière partie, nous proposons une définition de la notion de pertinence et de ses conditions en traduction. Enfin, une méthode pratique de traduction fondée sur les notions de pertinence et d’usage est esquissée. / This thesis deals with the question of the intelligibility of legal translation for a legal practitioner. Our working hypothesis is that the failure of the legal translation is explained by the lack of relevance of the translation for its user. To shed light on this aspect, an interdisciplinary approach is adopted. Methodologically, we start from the criticism of the notion of equivalence and the conception of translation as a search for equivalents. Our state of the art is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the relevance theory of Sperber and Wilson. The second part describes the treatment of relevance in information science. The third part presents the theory of relevance and the theory of knowledge developed by sociologist Alfred Schütz. Our corpus includes 145 French-German texts used as a basis for contrasts analyses. In the personal contribution, we propose a definition of relevance and its conditions in translation. Finally, a practical method of translation based on the notions of relevance and usage is outlined.

O problema da descontinuidade semântica tem sido um dos principais focos de pesquisa no desenvolvimento de sistemas de recuperação de imagens baseada em conteúdo (CBIR). Neste contexto, as pesquisas mais promissoras focam principalmente na inferência de pesos de características contínuos e na seleção de características. Entretanto, os processos tradicionais de inferência de pesos contínuos são computacionalmente caros e a seleção de características equivale a uma ponderação binária. Visando tratar adequadamente o problema de lacuna semântica, este trabalho propõe dois métodos de transformação de espaço de características métricos baseados na inferência de funções de transformação por meio de algoritmo genético. O método WF infere funções de ponderação para ajustar a função de dissimilaridade e o método TF infere funções para transformação das características. Comparados às abordagens de inferência de pesos contínuos da literatura, ambos os métodos propostos proporcionam uma redução drástica do espaço de busca ao limitar a busca à escolha de um conjunto ordenado de funções de transformação. Análises visuais do espaço transformado e de gráficos de precisão vs. revocação confirmam que TF e WF superam a abordagem tradicional de ponderação de características. Adicionalmente, foi verificado que TF supera significativamente WF em termos de precisão dos resultados de consultas por similaridade por permitir transformação não lineares no espaço de característica, conforme constatado por análise visual. / The semantic gap problem has been a major focus of research in the development of content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems. In this context, the most promising research focus primarily on the inference of continuous feature weights and feature selection. However, the traditional processes of continuous feature weighting are computationally expensive and feature selection is equivalent to a binary weighting. Aiming at alleviating the semantic gap problem, this master dissertation proposes two methods for the transformation of metric feature spaces based on the inference of transformation functions using Genetic Algorithms. The WF method infers weighting functions and the TF method infers transformation functions for the features. Compared to the existing methods, both proposed methods provide a drastic searching space reduction by limiting the search to the choice of an ordered set of transformation functions. Visual analysis of the transformed space and precision. vs. recall graphics confirm that both TF and WF outperform the traditional feature eighting methods. Additionally, we found that TF method significantly outperforms WF regarding the query similarity accuracy by performing non linear feature space transformation, as found in the visual analysis.

The current study has explored the language of 30 non-commercial advertisements, both quantitatively and qualitatively, within the framework of pragmatics. The main incentive was to conduct an investigation into how the advertiser working with such a philanthropic genre employs attention-seeking, informing and persuading functions when she communicates with her audience. Orbiting around key notions of Relevance Theory (1986; 1995; 2012) and Tanaka’s pragmatic approach to advertising (2005), the study attempted to determine whether non-commercial advertising differs from its commercial counterpart in terms of informing and persuading intentions, and to examine the extent to which non-commercial advertising relies on internal and external contexts in its explicit and implicit language. The findings show that non-commercial advertising utilises attention-seeking, informing and persuading functions in a variable fashion since they can be incorporated into complex arrangements in which they sometimes overlap or collaborate. This fuse appears to enable the advertiser to achieve her intended meaning at the same time as she can make efficient use of space and time. The study also found that there are non-commercial advertisements that completely lack persuasion. By excluding explicit and implicit imperative speech acts, conjunctive adjuncts and pronouns that involve the audience, such advertisements appear to be solely objective and informative. In turn, these findings suggest that the informing function in non-commercial advertising is not always subordinated to the persuading function, which contrasts with the informing-persuading hierarchy in commercial advertising. Finally, since the creator of non-commercial advertising frequently exposes her audience to weak relevance, she requires them to locate and solve explicatures and implicatures with help from both internal and external contexts, which strengthens Tanaka’s (2005) claim that advertisers treat their audience as potentially creative and resourceful once attention has been attracted and sustained.

During the industrialization of the 19th century the negative health effects of vitamin D was discovered as children in the cities developed osteomalacia or more commonly known as rickets caused by vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is produced in the skin from 7-dehydrocholesterol during sun-exposure and enhances intestinal phosphor and calcium absorption thus enhancing the bone remodeling process. Now, in the 21st century, Vitamin D is still relevant as positive health effects have been recognized and with it an increased number of samples and a demand for accurate analyzing. Vitamin D is commonly believed to be sensitive to ultraviolet radiation in serum and blood samples and therefore have traditionally been kept protected from light exposure from the time of sampling until the finished analyze. However recent studies have proven 25- hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) to be stable in both whole blood and serum. As previous studies have been primarily conducted in research laboratories with the aim to study vitamin D under specific research-laboratory conditions the aim of this study was to study the stability of 25[OH]D in serum and whole blood within both primary care- and hospital laboratories under normal and exaggerated conditions with the purpose to evaluate possible pre-analytical issues with everyday handling processes. The assay used was high pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, HPLCMS/MS, and the sought analytes 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, 25[OH]D2 and 25[OH]D3. The results showed that 25-hydroxyvitamin D is stable in serum for 24 hours at room temperature whilst exposed to light both ultraviolet and fluorescent. The analyte is also stable for up to four freeze-thaw cycles rendering the process of light-protection and samples frozen immediately after centrifugation superfluous. The results also ensure reliable results even if samples are accidently left on benchtops or saved refrozen to be reanalyzed at a later date. / Under den industriella revolutionen på 1800 talet upptäcktes de negativa hälsoeffekterna av vitamin D-brist då barnen i städerna utvecklade rakit (osteomalaci) eller engelska sjukan som sjukdomen också kallas på grund av brist på sol och D-vitamin. Vitamin D produceras i huden från 7-dehydrokolesterol vid solexponering och ökar upptaget av fosfor och kalcium i tarmen som i sin tur förbättrar återuppbyggnaden av skelettet. Vitamin D är fortfarande aktuell även nu i vår tid men då för dess nyupptäckta hälsofrämjande egenskaper som till exempel förebyggandet av coloncancer. Detta medför även en ökning av antalet analyser och kräver därmed en adekvat analysmetod. Traditionellt har det antagits att vitamin D är ljuskänsligt i alla former därför har blod och serum ljusskyddats, från provtagningstillfället fram tills dess att analysen är utförd. Dock har nya studier visat att 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) är mycket stabilt bundet till vitamindbindande protein i både serum och helblod. Syftet med studien var att utvärdera om 25[OH]D i serum och helblod behöver ljusskddas genom att studera stabiliteten hos 25[OH]D i både serum och helblod under normala primärvårdslaboratorie- och sjukhuslaboratorieförhållanden samt under extrema förhållanden för att utvärdera eventuella preanalytiska problem eller fel relaterade till den vardagliga hanteringen av vitamin D prover. Proverna analyserades med högupplösande vätskekromatografi-tandem masspektrometri, HPLC-MS/MS, och de sökta analyterna var 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, 25[OH]D2 och 25[OH]D3. Resultat från studien visade att 25-hydroxyvitamin D är stabilt i serum i 24 timmar i rumstemperatur med ljusexponering från både ultraviolett och fluorescerande ljus. 25-hydroxyvitamin D är även stabil i serum upp till fyra frys- och tiningscykler. Detta gör att provhanteringen kan förenklas genom att dessa prover inte behöver ljusskyddas samt att serumet ej behöver frysas in direkt efter centrifugering. Resultatet säkerställer även tillförlitliga resultat om prover lämnas framme på bänken av misstag eller om prover behöver sparas och frysas om för att analyseras vid senare tillfälle.

Předmětem diplomové práce je implementace teoretických poznatků s cílem ověřit relevantnost zdrojů informací sloužících pro výpočty ukazatelů finanční analýzy. První část je zaměřena ne teoretické poznatky finanční analýzy zejména u výrobních podniků a služeb. V této části je věnována velká pozornost poměrovým ukazatelům a jejich výpočtům. Teoretická část je zakončena specifiky finanční analýzy pro komernčí pojišťovnu. Výstupem práce je pak ověření relevance dat a poměrových ukazatelů finanční analýzy pro specifické odvětví pojišťoven z hledsika vývoje v čase a faktorů ovlivňujích jejich vývoj.

Denominationalism is a concept that the church became used to. Very few people question the concept and simply accept it as part of the make-up of the universal church. More recently, and specifically with the advent of postmodernism, many people started questioning whether God’s will for the church is for it to function within the boundaries of denominations. The natural question to ask then is whether the concept of denominationalism is still relevant within the postmodern context. At the same time very direct and pertinent questions along the same lines have been asked of the Baptist Union of Southern Africa, specifically as to its relevance as a denomination. To obtain answers with respect to these questions seems simple enough at face value, but it is not really possible to address the relevance of denominationalism in the postmodern era without a thorough understanding of where the church came from and how the concepts of denominations developed over the centuries. Similarly, one cannot ignore the philosophical outlook of the world and how that played a part in the formation of the thousands of denominations we have today. The study finds that denominations, and specifically the Baptist Union of Southern Africa, have a purpose and are indeed relevant in the postmodern era. Any denomination has two distinct functions that it must fulfil in order to justify its existence: A pragmatic or functional purpose and a custodian purpose. These purposes remain constant, regardless of the era in which the church functions. Most denominations fulfil the functional role very well. This includes pooling resources enabling it to achieve more together than what individual congregations can achieve on their own. The custodian function is fulfilled less admirably. The church, and denominations in particular, are custodians of Biblical truth. This truth is to be disseminated to members of the denomination in a responsible, yet effective and efficient manner. The issue at hand is that the postmodern mind rejects the possibility to attain any kind of absolute truth. It is in this environment that denominations have a particularly important role to play. The Baptist Union of Southern Africa is ideally placed to fulfil both the functional and custodian functions, largely due to the way in which it is structured. However, the Union also has many weaknesses that need to be addressed so that the truth of the Gospel may be proclaimed in a responsible, yet efficient manner to a world that denies the very concept of truth. This makes the task particularly difficult and denominations have to consider how they will adapt in order to meet these challenges. / Dissertation (MA(Theol))--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Science of Religion and Missiology / unrestricted

Cette thèse porte sur la caractérisation du milieu des think tanks aux États-Unis à travers l’étude de leur discours et de leur culture professionnelle dans le cadre d’une recherche en anglais de spécialité. L’objectif est de démontrer que ce milieu hétérogène peut être envisagé comme un milieu spécialisé, caractérisé par un discours et une culture spécifiques qui répondent aux impératifs de son objectif d’influence. Dans une première partie, nous exposons les fondements épistémologiques de la thèse : nous présentons les défis soulevés par l’étude de cet objet du point de vue de la recherche en anglais de spécialité, et proposons une approche de sa spécialisation fondée sur sa raison d’être. Une définition opératoire est élaborée, et le cadre méthodologique de la thèse à la croisée de l’histoire institutionnelle et politique des États-Unis, de l’ethnographie, de l’analyse du discours et de la pragmatique est exposé. La deuxième partie porte sur les modalités notamment culturelles de la spécialisation ; nous montrons comment le milieu s’est structuré en réponse à un besoin d’expertise dans la société américaine, et s’organise autour de missions, pratiques, valeurs et genres communs. Une topographie de ces genres est proposée pour éclairer les modalités communicationnelles de la stratégie programmatique des think tanks. La troisième partie explore les modalités discursives de cette stratégie dans deux genres, les blogs et les policy briefs, pris individuellement, puis en vis-à-vis ; l’analyse des modules péritextuels, structurels et interpersonnels révèle un ensemble de choix argumentatifs qui reflètent les enjeux de captation et de crédibilité de l’intervention des experts. / This dissertation aims to characterize the milieu of think tanks in the United States through their discourse and professional culture from the French point of view of research on English for Specific Purposes. We contend that this heterogeneous milieu may nonetheless be considered a specialized milieu, as its discourse and its culture are shaped by its programmatic aim. Part 1 presents the epistemological foundations of our research: it sheds light on the theoretical challenges raised by the study of think tanks in the framework of English for Specific Purposes and offers an approach to specialization based on its raison d’être. We suggest a working definition for the milieu and explain the methodology for this study situated at the crossroads between US institutional and political history, ethnography, the French approach to discourse analysis, and pragmatics. Part 2 focuses on the cultural manifestations of think tanks’ programmatic aim; it shows how the milieu has crystallized in response to a need for expertise in US society and is characterized by similar aims, practices, values and genres. A topography of these genres is offered to cast light on the milieu’s discursive strategy. Part 3 explores the discursive manifestations of this strategy and concentrates on two genres, blog posts and policy briefs, which are studied first individually and then jointly. The analysis of peritextual, structural and interpersonal modules reveals the argumentative choices experts make to remain credible and attractive in the marketplace of ideas.

Empathie wird als ein multidimensionales Konstrukt verstanden, welches kognitive Aspekte wie empathische Akkuratheit (die Fähigkeit, die Emotionen einer anderen Person akkurat zu erken-nen) als auch affektive Aspekte wie Emotionskongruenz (die Fähigkeit, die Emotionen anderer zu teilen) und Mitgefühl (die Fähigkeit, ein Gefühl von Sorge für diese Person zu erleben) umfasst (z.B. Davis, 1994; Eisenberg & Fabes, 1990). Ziel der Dissertation war es zu einem umfassenden Verständnis altersbezogener Unterschiede in diesen drei Empathiefacetten beizutragen. Ausgehend von der Überlegung, dass empathische Akkuratheit wesentlich von alterssensitiven kognitiven Prozessen determiniert wird (z.B. Adolphs, 2002), während affektive Empathiefacetten vor allem altersfreundliche emotionsregulatorische Voraussetzungen haben (z.B. Eisenberg, 2000), wurde vermutet, dass empathische Akkuratheit Altersdefizite aufweist, während Gefühlskongruenz und Mitgefühl altersbezogene Zugewinne zeigen. Da Evidenz dafür vorliegt, dass altersbezogene Defizite in unterschiedlichen kognitiven und emotionalen Leistungsbereichen reduziert werden, wenn die Aufgabe eine besondere Bedeutung für Ältere hat (z.B. Hess, Rosenberg & Waters, 2001; Kunzmann & Grühn, 2005), lag ein weiteres Ziel der Studie darin, zu überprüfen, ob Altersunterschiede in der Empathie durch die Altersrelevanz der Aufgabe moderiert werden. Grund für diese Annahme liefert das Modell der selektiven Optimierung mit Kompensation (z.B. Baltes & Baltes, 1990) sowie die Selective Engagement Theorie (Hess, 2006), die übereinstimmend po-stulieren, dass Personen mit zunehmendem Alter dazu tendieren mit den ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Ressourcen sparsam umzugehen und diese primär in Bereichen einsetzen, die sie für relevant halten. Basierend auf diesen Überlegungen wurde vermutet, dass Altersdefizite in empathischer Akkuratheit weniger wahrscheinlich sind, wenn die Aufgabe von hoher Relevanz für Ältere ist; in der Emotionskongruenz sollten sich die Altersgewinne in den für Ältere relevanten Aufgaben sogar vergrößern. Da erste Evidenz dafür vorliegt, dass Altersunterschiede im Mitgefühl nicht durch die Altersrelevanz moderiert werden, wurde vermutet, dass Ältere ein höheres Ausmaß an Mitgefühl berichten – unabhängig von der Relevanz der Aufgabe. Zur Überprüfung der Hypothesen wurden 101 jungen und 101 älteren Erwachsenen Filmausschnitte präsentiert, in denen eine junge oder eine ältere Person ein autobiografisches, für ihre Altersgruppe relevantes oder altersneutrales Erlebnis schilderte, und dabei echte Emotionen wiedererlebte. Zur Erfassung empathischer Fähigkeiten sollten die Teilnehmer mithilfe einer Emotionsadjektivliste angeben, in welchem Ausmaß die gezeigte Person sowie sie selbst jedes dieser Gefühle erlebt haben. Erwar-tungsgemäß zeigten sich für die Filme ohne besondere Altersrelevanz negative Altersunterschiede in empathischer Akkuratheit, während Gefühlskongruenz und Mitgefühl Altersgewinne aufwiesen. Wie angenommen wurden Altersdefizite in empathischer Akkuratheit durch die Altersrelevanz der Aufgabe moderiert; Ältere erzielten die gleiche Leistung wie Jüngere, wenn das geschilderte Thema von hoher Relevanz für sie war. Hingegen zeigte sich keine Moderation der Altersunterschiede für Emotionskongruenz. Wie erwartet erlebten Ältere mehr Mitgefühl als Jüngere – unabhängig von der Aufgabenrelevanz. Zusammengenommen sprechen die Befunde dafür, dass Altersunterschiede in der Empathie multidirektional und kontextabhängig verlaufen.