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The joint Simon task is a cognitive reaction time task used to assess shared representations and self-other integration when performing a collaborative task with a partner. However, it is unclear if the underlying mechanisms are specific to representing spatial information or are more general. The objective of the current study was to assess a nonspatial joint Simon compatibility effect. Participants completed the joint Simon task with a partner while seated side-by-side, face-to-face, back-to-back, or with their partner not in the room. They completed the task three times, once with horizontal stimuli (left/right of center), once with vertical stimuli (above/below center), and once with central stimuli (at center). In the central task, compatibility was in color where participant responses (assigned red or green response buttons and gloves) were compatible or incompatible to the stimuli (colored red or green). Results showed no significant compatibility effect for any task in any response orientation condition, indicating no evidence of a nonspatial compatibility effect. Results even failed to replicate the standard joint Simon effect of a spatial compatibility effect in the horizontal task when seated side-by-side. However, exploratory analyses showed a significant nonspatial color compatibility effect in the central task for those assigned green in the side-by-side condition only, indicating that the presence of color in the participants' response (i.e., colored responses button and gloves) may have interfered with representing spatial information. This finding has implications for both theory and application of the joint Simon task, indicating it is sensitive to small changes, occurs for features besides location, and may be most effective when seated side-by-side. Additionally, the broader implications for the cognitive and practical study of joint action show the importance of how different features influence shared representations, how different colors are perceived and represented, and how different response orientations influence performance.

Charles-Simon Catels Tragédie lyrique Sémiramis wird zum ersten Mal im Mai 1802 an der Pariser Oper aufgeführt – ein Jahr nach der Approbation seines Traité d’harmonie als offizielles Lehrmittel durch das Pariser Conservatoire. Durch diese zeitliche Nähe ist Sémiramis ein Studienobjekt für das Verhältnis von Musiktheorie und kompositorischer Praxis und kann in verschiedener Hinsicht als Aussage zur Ablösung einer alten Ordnung durch eine neue gelesen werden. In diesem Beitrag wird am Beispiel der Behandlung der Blechblasinstrumente auf die Verschränkung von kompositorischen und instrumentatorischen Ideen in diesem Werk hingewiesen. In der Revision von Sémiramis für eine zweite Produktion 1803 wird der Einfluss von Erfahrungen aus der ersten Aufführung fassbar. Diese Überarbeitung geht auch in die korrigierte Auflage der gedruckten Partitur ein, die jedoch nicht alle vorgenommenen Änderungen wiedergibt und somit nur bedingt als definitive Vorlage für weitere Produktionen dienen kann. Andere Aufführungsmaterialien – auch zu späteren Produktionen im fremdsprachigen Ausland – werfen grundsätzliche Fragen nach der endgültigen Gestalt von notierten Anweisungen und nach der Verbindlichkeit ihrer Umsetzung auf. / Charles-Simon Catel’s Tragédie lyrique Sémiramis received its first performance at the Paris Opera in May 1802 – one year after Catel’s Traité d’harmonie was approved as official course material by the Paris Conservatoire. This chronological proximity of the two makes Sémiramis an object of study regarding the relationship between music theory and compositional practice. In many respects, it can be read as a statement about the replacement of an old order by a new one. This paper will highlight Catel’s treatment of brass instruments to illustrate interlinking issues of composition and instrumentation in his opera. In the revision of Sémiramis for a second production in 1803, the influence of experiences made in the first performance becomes observable. This revision is also incorporated in the corrected edition of the printed score, though it does not feature all his changes and thus can only partly be regarded as a definitive source for future productions. Further extant performance materials – some also intended for later productions in non-francophone countries – raise fundamental questions about the final form of notated instructions and our obligation to implement them.

Cette étude dans le domaine de l'éthique théologique présente les premiers travaux entrepris sur l'ensemble de l'œuvre de René Simon (1919-2004) et plus précisément, de la conceptualisation d'une éthique de la responsabilité. Ce mémoire présentera d'abord les conditions de l'émergence du concept de la responsabilité comme paradigme en éthique contemporaine. Par la suite, seront présentées quelques théories récentes de la responsabilité en philosophie et théologie morale. Puis, l'étude des trois monographies de René Simon sera faite et de manière plus approfondie, l'étude d'Ethique de la responsabilité. C'est suite à l'ensemble de ce parcours qu'il sera possible d'identifier les éléments parallèles entre l'évolution de l'éthique de la responsabilité au 20e siècle et l'itinéraire intellectuel de René Simon.

Thèse--Paris. / Includes bibliographical references.

Zero Magic is a trick for the financial markets, which has the capacity to undermine the perceived value of a publicly traded company and profit from this. Short selling is a way of profiting from loss: Making money if and when a target company loses in value. It is a fundamental market activity that goes as far back as the first stock, yet to this day little is publicly known about the strategies employed by short sellers. On the US exchanges there is no requirement for hedge funds to disclose short positions, and in other jurisdictions such requirements are very limited. Zero Magic was developed by covertly infiltrating a secretive hedge fund specializing in short selling, and reverse engineering its methods. In brief, the hedge fund’s trading strategy is based on identifying suitable short selling targets through analyzing networks of corruption, and then framing critical newsworthy stories about these target companies that can be anonymously distributed among journalists. Profit is gained when a target company loses in value. Rigorous measures are taken by the fund never to be identified as the source of a negative campaign.Access to the hedge fund was gained through the art world. The founder and co-director routinely supports artists and art institutions and is said to have gotten the idea for his fund when looking at a Mark Lombardi drawing (an artist known for mapping networks of power and corruption). It is hard to tell whether the founder’s engagement with art merely entertains personal vanity, or if it functions more strategically as a means of “secret publicity” for the fund; giving access to investors, while staying under the radar of more mainstream public relations. Covert techniques such as hidden recordings and proxy researchers were used to uncover the fund’s methods. With the assistance of Théo Bourgeron, sociologist of finance, Zero Magic not only reconstructs the workings of the trading strategy, but offers a fully operational magic gimmick. The magic gimmick is a computer program providing non-expert users the means to identify relevant short selling targets (companies with weak “valuation conventions”), and a step-by-step guide to undermining their perceived value. With this gimmick one can execute a successful short sale without any previous contacts in the investor community or access to insider information. A US patent application for the trick was filed in January 2016.The artistic PhD “Zero Magic: Shifting the Valuation Convention” concludes with a stage performance and a magic box:The stage performance, “On a Long Enough Timeline the Survival Rate for Everyone Drops to Zero” with magician Malin Nilsson, performed on May 11 and 12, 2016, at Cirkus Cirkör, Stockholm. Through the ticket sales, audience members are drawn into the Zero Magic trick, buying into the predicted future loss of a target company. The magic box, prepared for public archives, contains the Zero Magic computer software, a US patent application for a “Computer Assisted Magic Trick Executed in the Financial Markets” and four historical examples of magic tricks played out beyond the stage, in the world at large.

La canicule des pauvres (2009) raconte dans le détail la vie quotidienne de vingt-six personnages habitant Le Galant, une ancienne maison de passe transformée en un immeuble locatif situé à Montréal, au cœur du Quartier latin. Cette étude prend acte du fait que ce roman choral dresse un portrait particulier et complexe de la ville. Les questions qu’elle se pose sont de cet ordre : qu’est-ce que cette représentation de Montréal nous apprend de la société québécoise actuelle ? que devient la civilisation urbaine — l’urbanité, au sens ancien du terme — dans le monde de La canicule des pauvres ? comment l’écriture de DesRochers travaille-t-elle les représentations habituelles de la ville, que celles-ci proviennent de l’imaginaire social contemporain ou de la littérature passée ? existe-t-il telle chose qu’une postmodernité montréalaise ? S’inspirant des principes de la sociocritique des textes, la lecture proposée postule que c’est dans la forme même du texte que peut se comprendre le complexe de sens lié à la représentation de Montréal élaborée par le roman. Par les images qu’il en donne, par les modes d’énonciation et de narration, par la façon d’unir l’efficacité des brefs chapitres et l’ampleur de la vision romanesque, par les multiples récits de vie décrits et leurs entrecroisements, le roman donne à lire une ville devenue par bien des côtés étrangère et opaque à ses propres habitants. L’étude comprend quatre parties qui examinent respectivement les principaux traits de la mise en texte, la fragmentation du récit, le motif récurrent du smog et la façon de présenter les relations interindividuelles. Au bout du chemin, la ville apparaît paradoxale, vivante certes, mais sans proposer une manière cohérente et émancipatrice du vivre ensemble. / La canicule des pauvres (2009) recounts the daily life of twenty-six characters living at The Galant, a former brothel turned into an apartment building in Montreal’s Latin Quartier. This study shows interest in how the novel reveals a particular and complex image of the city. What can this representation of Montreal teach us about Quebec’s society ? What has become of urban civilization in the world of La canicule des pauvres ? How does DesRochers’s writing work with the usual representations of the city that come from the contemporary social imagination or the past literature ? Is there such a thing as postmodern Montreal ? In the spirit of sociocritical perspective, this memoir postulates that from the flow of the text we can understand the complex of meaning related to the representation of Montreal developed by the novel. By the images it gives, by the modes of enunciation and narration, by its way of uniting the effectiveness of brief chapters and extent of novelistic vision, by the multiple life stories described and their interlacing, the novel presents a city that has become foreign and opaque to its own residents. The study is divided into four parts which respectively examine the main features of the text layout, the narrative fragmentation, the recurring smog theme and the way The Galant’s residents interact with each other. In sum, the city appears paradoxical, alive indeed, but offering no vision of a coherent and liberating way of living together.

The thesis provides an analysis of the First Czechoslovak Republic in Simon Mawer's novel The Glass Room. The first part of the thesis concentrates on Mawer's life, the beginnings of his writing career, his interest in the Czech Republic and the Villa Tugendhat which inspired him in writing the novel and also on the work's receptions. The second part focuses on history of the First Czechoslovak Republic and on an analysis of this era in Mawer's novel. It deals with Czechoslovak political, social and economic situation, Czechoslovak cultural life and art, minorities issue and growing radicalism of 1930's in The Glass Room and compares and contrasts it with the real Czechoslovakia.

O presente estudo possui características de uma pesquisa de natureza exploratória, cujo objetivo é comparar a Reengenharia e a Qualidade Total, através de Critérios de Relevância identificados a partir de uma revisão dos clássicos da literatura administrativa. A idéia aqui esboçada é procurar identificar o que é essencial nestes novos modelos, e quais seriam suas contribuições mais significativas para entender tais tecnologias enquanto instrumentos eficazes para que as organizações façam aquilo que elas se propõem a fazer. O produto do presente estudo visa oferecer subsídios para o entendimento das duas abordagens, bem como representa a tentativa de sugerir alternativas para a ampliação das mesmas. / The present study has the characteristic of an exploratory research . The objective is to compare Reengineering and Total Quality based on relevance criteria identified through the sutdy of selected authors of the administrative theory. The main ideia here outlined isto look for the essential elements in each model and find out which are their most significant contributions to the understanding of these new technologies as efficient instruments for carrying out the, organization objectives. The final product of the present study is a better understanding of both approaches and na attempt to contribute to their improvement.

Entre avril et juin 2008, le prix des commodités (blé, maïs, riz) a atteint un niveau impressionnant, mais pas exceptionnel. Les populations de 48 pays ont été affectées par une sévère sous-alimentation. La plupart d’entre eux avait déjà été affaiblie par des conflits et des catastrophes naturelles inhabituelles et dramatiques. Ces facteurs ont souvent interagi pour aggraver la situation. Pourtant, si la crise de 2007-2008 a été un «problème extraordinaire», c’est aussi parce que la connaissance scientifique «normale» a échoué face à la complexité de la «poly-crises» alimentaire (Morin, 2011). En réponse, nous avons conçu un cadre épistémologique, méthodologique, et technique, à partir de deux approches face à la complexité, celles de Hayek (1899-1992) et de Simon (1916-2001), avec un objectif, satisfaire au critère de cumulativité, un reproche traditionnellement adressé à ce type d’approche. Ce travail a produit deux enseignements. Premièrement, les fondements épistémologiques de la production de la connaissance en économie doivent être révisés en environnement complexe et incertain: 1) du certain/de l’objectif vers l’incertain/le subjectif; 2) de la prédiction exacte vers la conception; 3) de la causalité linéaire inappropriée, ou pire, menaçant la liberté individuelle, vers une causalité complexe. Deuxièmement, dans le processus d’adaptation, le rôle de la production et du partage de la connaissance «tacite» est central. Pour cette raison, le problème économique n’est plus un problème d’allocation des ressources. Il est de savoir comment des êtres humains aux capacités cognitives «limitées» computent et socialisent (Nonaka et alii, 1994, 2001) la connaissance et l’information disponibles, mais dispersées, pour la convertir en heuristiques ou patterns favorisant l’adaptation. Deux autres hypothèses les renforcent : 1) les dynamiques du changement s’enracinent «dans la pensée et la créativité des gens impliqués dans des situations complexes et dans leur capacité à restructurer leurs propres modèles d’interactions», (Ostrom, 2011) ; 2) l’altruisme réciproque (Simon, 1992, 1993) est un comportement rationnel qui peut être plus efficient dans les interactions sociales en environnement complexe que le comportement maximisateur ou égoïste. Ces résultats ont été synthétisés dans une interface que nous avons créée et qui a pris la forme d’une boucle de la connaissance à deux allèles, une pour la connaissance générique, l’autre, pour la tacite, qui, par récursion, produisent une méta-connaissance. Cette interface est à la fois ouverte et fermée et reflète ainsi la position défendue par Hayek et Simon pour qui la science économique est une «science frontière». Une part de la recherche est consacrée à la création d’outils, par exemple à un indicateur de perception de la contribution des facteurs au déclenchement et/ou à l’aggravation de la crise, à partir : 1) des allocutions des 138 Chefs d’État et de Gouvernement présents à la Conférence de Haut Niveau sur la Sécurité alimentaire mondiale (3-5 juin 2008) ; 2) des analyses des économistes, 3) des témoignages des gens qui ont subi la sous-nutrition ou la hausse des prix des denrées alimentaires (database IRIN). Nous proposons également une typologie actualisée des policy-mix mis en œuvre par 18 pays divisés en 3 groupes : des pays en développement, pour la plupart importateurs nets, sévèrement touchés par la crise et qui ont connu des «émeutes de la faim» (Égypte, Tunisie, Cameroun, Côte d’Ivoire, Sénégal, Mauritanie, Haïti, Bangladesh) ; des pays Membres du groupe de Cairns ayant connu soit des «émeutes de la faim», soit des désordres sociaux (Indonésie, Philippines, Thaïlande, Afrique du Sud) ; enfin, des pays ayant adopté des restrictions et/ou prohibitions aux exportations (Chine, Inde, Indonésie, Égypte, Cambodge, Ukraine, Vietnam) [...]. / Over the April-June 2008 period, prices of the commodities such as wheat, maize, rice and vegetable oils, reached impressive yet not exceptional peaks. By contrast, the populations of 48 countries were stricken by severe under nutrition. Most of them had already been weakened not only by conflicts, social disorders, dramatic and unusual climatic and natural disasters, but also by outbreaks, epizooties, and population displacements. In some cases, all these factors together played a significant role in the worsening situation. However, another important reason could be advanced to explain why the 2008 food crisis was an “extraordinary problem”. This one is that “normal” scientific knowledge was defeated by the complexity of what it appears now as a food “poly-crises” (Morin, 2011). We answered by designing an epistemological, methodological, and technical knowledge base from two very different and alternative economics approaches of facing complexity. The first is the Hayekian approach (1899-1992), and the second, the Simonian approach (1916-2001). The research intends to fulfill cumulativity criteria, traditionally difficult to satisfy with the ones of complexity. From the following analysis we mostly learned two things. First, epistemological grounds of economics needed to be broken in complex environment(s): 1) from certainty/objectivity to uncertainty/subjectivity, 2) from accurate prediction to design, 3) from linear causality deemed inappropriate or, worse, threatening people freedoms, to complex causality. Second, in the adaptation process, the role of “tacit” knowledge production and sharing is central. For that reason, the core of economics problem is not allocation of resources anymore. Now, the main problem for humans whose cognitive capacity are “bounded” is to compute, to “socialize” (Nonaka et alii, 1994, 2001), available but dispersed information and knowledge and to converse them into heuristics or patterns allowing the adaptation to complex and uncertain environment(s). Two others auxiliary hypotheses –E. Ostrom (2011) will endorse them later- can be drawn from that preliminary work: 1) the dynamics of change rooted “in the thinking and in the creativity of people involved in complex situations and their capacity to restructure their own models for interactions”, 2) reciprocal altruism (Simon, 1992, 1993) is a rational behavior which can be more effective in/for the social interactions in complex environment(s) than maximizing or selfish behavior. To present preliminary results in an effective way, we created a very simple interface scheme. It takes the form of a three-dimensional knowledge loop with two strands, “generic” and “tacit” knowledge connected between themselves to produce by recursion a meta-knowledge. We made the choice of the interface because it reflects with the most accuracy the position defended by Hayek and Simon which is that economics is a frontier science. Moreover, the interface has the advantage of being both open and closed. A part of the research is more specifically dedicated to design tools increasing the understanding of the “polyfood” crises. We elaborated a three-level indicator with: 1) perceptions of the contribution of each factor to the outbreak and the worsening of the situation; 2) contributions of actors to the explanation of the food crisis proposed in 2008. It was developed from: 1) a case study comparing and contrasting explanations proposed a) in their statements by 138 Heads of State and Government attended the High Level Conference on World Food Security (3-5 June 2008), b) in their analyses by economists, c) in their testimonies by people hit by under nutrition/rising food prices (database IRIN); 2) a new and more updated typology focused on the responses addressed by 18 countries split into 3 groups [...].