<p>Cognitive psychologists have long been interested in the nature of the representations that underlie human behaviours. In the domain of human memory, two main accounts have been forwarded to explain how memory is represented. The multiple memory systems account posits that different phenomenological experiences of memory are the result of separate and distinct representations. In contrast, the processing account posits that there is one memory system, and that different phenomenological experiences of memory are the result of the processes engaged in when probing memory. The explanatory power of these two accounts has been evaluated in a number of domains, where it has been shown that a processing view can accommodate many of the key findings that previously led researchers to propose a separate systems framework. The goal of this thesis was to extend this work by assessing the nature of the representations that underlie implicit sequence learning. The empirical portions of this thesis provide preliminary evidence suggesting that contextual features are incorporated into implicit sequence learning. Overall, the results reported in the empirical chapters of this thesis are consistent with a processing account, as they indicate that the episodic representations that are involved in explicit remembering also support performance in implicit memory tasks.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

No / In a memory survey, adult respondents recalled, dated, and described two earliest positive and negative memories that they were highly confident were memories. They then answered a series of questions that focused on memory details such as clothing, duration, weather, and so on. Few differences were found between positive and negative memories, which on average had 4/5 details and dated to the age of 6/6.5 years. Memory for details about activity, location, and who was present was good; memory for all other details was poorer or at floor. Taken together, these findings indicate that (full) earliest memories may be considerably later than previously thought and that they rarely contain the sort of specific details targeted by professional investigators. The resulting normative profile of memory details reported here can be used to evaluate overly specific childhood autobiographical memories and to identify memory details with a low probability of recall.

The most recent research trend within the field of organizational justice is the study of interactional justice (Tyler &amp; Bies, 1990; Greenberg, 1990). Most of the work conducted in this area focuses on the explanations leaders give to followers about decisions made or actions taken that frequently lead to adverse consequences or loss. These explanations are called "social accounts". While research indicates that social accounts are effective at mitigating negative reactions to adverse decisions, and improving perceptions of justice, the underlying causes remain largely unknown. This study used the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as a theoretical base to explore what factors make an account "acceptable", and the impact that an acceptable account has on a number of organizationally relevant outcomes. Specifically, this study used an experimental design in a pay-for-performance context to assess the impact of message specificity (high vs. low) and source expertise (expert vs. non-expert), under varying conditions of outcome involvement (higher vs. lower) on the acceptability of a justification for a change in a distributive criterion that resulted in a loss. Other dependent variables investigated included perceptions of justice (procedural, interactional, and distributive fairness), attitudes (satisfaction with the trainer and the task), and behaviors (commitment to the trainer and the task, and complaints). The results indicated that justifications delivered by the expert trainer were more acceptable than non-experts under conditions of lower involvement (except when a non-expert delivered a specific justification). This effect reversed itself, however, under higher involvement. There was a main effect of specificity such that specific justifications were more acceptable than vague justifications regardless of the level of involvement. Acceptability was positively related to all dependent measures with the exception of complaints, which had a negative relationship. Furthermore, acceptability fully mediated the impact of message specificity on trainer commitment, and partially on procedural fairness, distributive fairness (assessment), and task commitment. Acceptability fully mediated the negative impact of expertise under high involvement on procedural and distributive fairness (assessment), and interactional fairness. / Ph. D.

Immersive virtual environments (VEs) are broadly applicable to situations where a user can directly perceive and interact with three-dimensional (3D) virtual objects. Currently, successful interactive applications of VEs are limited. Some interactive applications in the AEC (architecture / engineering / construction) domain have not yet benefited from applying VEs. A review of prior work has suggested that 3D interaction has not reached a level that meets real-world task requirements. Most interaction techniques pay little attention to the application contexts. When designers assemble these techniques to develop an interactive system, the interfaces often have very simple and not highly useful UIs. In this work, we describe a domain-specific design approach (DSD) that utilizes pervasive and accurate domain knowledge for interaction design. The purpose of this dissertation is to study the effects of domain knowledge on interaction design. The DSD approach uses a three-level interaction design framework to represents a continuous design space of interaction. The framework has generative power to suggest alternative interaction techniques. We choose the AEC domain as the subject of study. Cloning and object manipulation for massing study are the two example tasks to provide practical and empirical evidences for applying the DSD. This dissertation presents several important results of the knowledge use in the DSD approach. First, the DSD approach provides a theoretical foundation for designing 3D interaction. Techniques produced using DSD result in more useful real-world applications, at least in the domain of AEC. Second, the three-level interaction design framework forms a continuum of design and expands our understanding of 3D interaction design to a level that addresses real-world use. Third, this research proposes an integrated system design approach that integrates DSD and the usability engineering process. Fourth, this work produces a large set of empirical results and observations that demonstrate the effectiveness of domain-knowledge use in designing interaction techniques and applications. Finally, we apply domain-specific interaction techniques to real world applications and create a fairly complex application with improved usefulness. / Ph. D.

Yes / In vivo tests for male reproductive genotoxicity are time consuming, resource-intensive and their use should be minimised according to the principles of the 3Rs. Accordingly, we investigated the effects in vitro, of a variety of known, phase-specific germ cell mutagens, i.e. pre-meiotic, meiotic, and post-meiotic genotoxins, on rat spermatogenic cell types separated using Staput unit-gravity velocity sedimentation, evaluating DNA damage using the Comet assay. N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU), N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU) (spermatogenic phase), 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) and 5-bromo-2'-deoxy-uridine (5-BrdU) (meiotic phase), methyl methanesulphonate (MMS) and ethyl methanesulphonate (EMS) (post-meiotic phase) were selected for use as they are potent male rodent, germ cell mutagens in vivo. DNA damage was detected directly using the Comet assay and indirectly using the TUNEL assay. Treatment of the isolated cells with ENU and MNU produced the greatest concentration-related increase in DNA damage in spermatogonia. Spermatocytes were most sensitive to 6-MP and 5-BrdU while spermatids were particularly susceptible to MMS and EMS. Increases were found when measuring both Olive tail moment (OTM) and % tail DNA, but the greatest changes were in OTM. Parallel results were found with the TUNEL assay, which showed highly significant, concentration dependent effects of all these genotoxins on spermatogonia, spermatocytes and spermatids in the same way as for DNA damage. The specific effects of these chemicals on different germ cell types matches those produced in vivo. This approach therefore shows potential for use in the detection of male germ cell genotoxicity and could contribute to the reduction of the use of animals in such toxicity assays.

No / Male germ stem cells are responsible for transmission of genetic information to the next generation. Some chemicals exert a negative impact on male germ cells, either directly, or indirectly affecting them through their action on somatic cells. Ultimately, these effects might inhibit fertility, and may exhibit negative consequences on future offspring. Genotoxic anticancer agents may interact with DNA in germ cells potentially leading to a heritable germline mutation. Experimental information in support of this theory has not always been reproducible and suitable in vivo studies remain limited. Thus, alternative male germ cell tests, which are now able to detect phase specificity of such agents, might be used by regulatory agencies to help evaluate the potential risk of mutation. However, there is an urgent need for such approaches for identification of male reproductive genotoxins since this area has until recently been dependent on in vivo studies. Many factors drive alternative approaches, including the (1) commitment to the principles of the 3R's (Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement), (2) time-consuming nature and high cost of animal experiments, and (3) new opportunities presented by new molecular analytical assays. There is as yet currently no apparent appropriate model of full mammalian spermatogenesis in vitro, under the REACH initiative, where new tests introduced to assess genotoxicity and mutagenicity need to avoid unnecessary testing on animals. Accordingly, a battery of tests used in conjunction with the high throughput STAPUT gravity sedimentation was recently developed for purification of male germ cells to investigate genotoxicity for phase specificity in germ cells. This system might be valuable for the examination of phases previously only available in mammals with large-scale studies of germ cell genotoxicity in vivo. The aim of this review was to focus on this alternative approach and its applications as well as on chemicals of known in vivo phase specificities used during this test system development. / Natural Science Fund of Shandong Province, China (No. ZR2012DM014) and the People’s Livelihoods Science and Technology Project of Qingdao, Shandong Province, China (13-1-3-73-nsh).

This study focuses on intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic resources in multiple dimensions and decomposes the influence of parents’ education, social class, and income in relation to the same outcomes for children as well as the unique impact of mothers and fathers on sons and daughters. In order to minimize measurement error in parental characteristics and life course bias for children, high quality Swedish administrative register data (spanning over 40 years) is utilized. A sibling correlation approach is employed to establish the net influence of each parental resource, both in general and by parents’ and children’s gender. The results show that intergenerational inequality is subject to resource specificity. First, same resource transmission implies that the same parental resource as the child outcome matter most in transmission of advantage. In this sense, educational elites foster educational elites, while economic advantage favor children’s own economic status. Second, the intermediate and overlapping socioeconomic field resource, parental social class, explains most of children´s outcomes in education and income suggesting that there is a same field transmission. Parental resources explain little variation in its field opposite (i.e. parental education on child income and parental income on child education). Finally, whether or not intergenerational inequality is subject to gender specificity is ambiguous, it ranges from negligible to substantial contributions. Mothers’ and fathers’ resources do matter independently over all outcomes, where especially fathers’ income dominate and drives the total influence of parental income. However, the result for the same gender transmission is mixed. The conclusion is that gender and, especially, resource specificity cannot be neglected without biasing results, confusing time trends, and underestimating the true rate of intergenerational inequality. Intergenerational processes of inequality will be misrepresented in a unidimensional conceptualization of socioeconomic transmission, which will also affect both theoretical understanding and the prospects of policy intervention.

No description available.

This practice-as-research project investigates how a piece of site-responsive Installation Art, titled Triple Point Dunnage (exhibited in Royal William Yard, June 2009), can be used to generate knowledge about memory work through experience of site. Working in dialogue with the ideas of Daniel C. Dennett, Lucy Lippard and Gaston Bachelard, I attempted to create a permeable and fluctuating creative setting for the memory work of participants. An approach that used site as a stimulant within a process which also incorporated theoretical themes. During the period of design and construction, I interacted with and recorded interviews with people who had a personal connection with the site or with an interest in how memory works. The final installation presented layers of spoken fragmented content in a dialectic relationship within the installation’s spatial construction. The responses of the installation’s visitors and participants were collated through a response book and interviews. These were analysed in order to discover to what extent, if at all, the properties I had developed and designed into the work had shaped the engagements of the participants. The multi-valented properties of the work generated an array of responses that suggested that the viewers had fashioned their experience by blending the fragmented stories of others with their own personal histories. This engagement resembles Dennett’s concept of “self-narrator” and resonates with Bachelard’s concept of the fusion of physical and psychological space and Lippard’s understanding of place. By exploring memory through site Triple Point Dunnage generated a sense of place that was a fusion of the participants’ responses to the external physical environment and their associative memories stimulated by the affective fragmented properties of the work.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’analyser la question du management des spécificités des rayons en grande distribution. Elle est focalisée sur le rayon fruits et légumes dont les particularités semblent peu prises en compte par les distributeurs. Ce travail s’inscrit dans le cadre du courant d’analyse stratégique du canal de distribution, qui adopte la perspective du distributeur, et reconnait que sa stratégie est orientée tant vers l’amont que l’aval du canal. Le développement des politiques marketing des distributeurs les ont conduits à opérer des restructurations visant à consolider leurs achats, et à centraliser leurs décisions. Déployant un modèle axé sur la rentabilité, le rôle de l’encadrement en magasin a été redéfini. Ce modèle semble peu compatible avec les rayons à métier. Dans une première phase d’exploration hybride, la spécificité des rayons F&L est identifiée et définie. Un cadre conceptuel d’un mode de management de ces particularités est proposé. Trois objectifs de recherche sont définis : spécifier les relations entre le mode de management du rayon et ses performances, et comprendre l’influence du degré de centralisation des décisions, et du profil spécialisé ou non du manager, sur ces modes de management. L’étude empirique s’appuie sur l’étude de quatre cas imbriqués, pour proposer un modèle final. Nous montrons qu’un mode de management respectueux des spécificités du rayon permet d’en exploiter le potentiel. Pour cela, le manager de rayon doit maîtriser à la fois des compétences redéployables dans d’autres rayons, et des compétences produits. L’efficacité d’un mode de management centralisé est limitée, les performances du rayon dépendant avant tout des capacités du manager de rayon à gérer le processus de dégradation de la qualité des produits, et de la présentation du rayon. / The purpose of this research is to analyze the management of the specificities of departments in retail store. It is focused on the produce department, whose particularities are not well recognized.This work draws on the strategic approach to distribution channel, which emphases the distributor’s perspective and acknowledges that its strategy is oriented towards both the upstream and downstream channel. The development of marketing policies of retailers has led them restructuring to consolidate their purchases and to centralize their decisions. Deploying a model based on profitability, the role of middle managers at the stores level has been redefined. This model seems to create tensions with some specific product departments. The specificity of produce department is defined based on a first hybrid exploration phase. A conceptual framework for a management style of these features is proposed. Three research objectives are defined: to specify the relations between the management style of the department and its performance, to understand the impacts of the degree of centralization of decisions on these management practices, and to acknowledge the need for manager specific skills.A final model, based on an embedded, multiple case study method is proposed. We show that a management style that respects produce specificities allow to exploit the department’s performance potential. For this, the department manager should develop both re-deployable skills and product expertise. The effectiveness of a centralized management style is limited, since the department performance depends primarily on the manager’s ability to master the process of degradation of products quality and department’s layout.