As organizações em toda parte do mundo estão investindo em Tecnologia da Informação (TI) e aproveitando as vantagens dos sistemas de TI para alterar a conduta do negócio tanto no mercado interno como externo. Os recursos encontrados na TI podem aperfeiçoar o desempenho das organizações e aumentar a competitividade, sendo esta uma alternativa para enfrentar os desafios apresentados pelo mundo empresarial. É neste contexto que o impacto dos benefícios da utilização de um Sistema de Gestão de Transporte (TMS) é estudado neste trabalho. O objetivo geral da pesquisa é avaliar o impacto dos benefícios do uso do sistema de gestão de transporte e sua relação no desempenho das operações de transporte das empresas e na relação com fornecedores de serviço de transporte na percepção dos usuários. Para atingir este objetivo foram identificados na literatura, fatores relevantes sobre o tema para a elaboração de um instrumento de pesquisa sobre o impacto dos benefícios de um TMS. O método utilizado foi a pesquisa survey e um modelo conceitual foi elaborado e validado, por meio de testes estatísticos. Obteve-se um total de 118 respostas válidas para análise dos dados. Esta análise utilizou modelagem de equações estruturais para a avaliação do modelo conceitual e das hipóteses de pesquisa. O resultado indica que os benefícios de um TMS têm impacto positivo no desempenho das operações de transporte, que, por sua vez, têm impacto positivo na relação com fornecedores de serviço de transporte. Na percepção dos usuários participantes da pesquisa, esse impacto positivo tem mais força para os benefícios voltados aos processos operacionais do que para os benefícios gerenciais de um TMS. / Organizations around the world are investing in Information Technology (IT) and taking advantage of IT systems to change the conduct of business in both domestic and overseas market. The resources found in IT can improve organizational performance and increase competitiveness. This has been an alternative to deal with the challenges presented by the business in the world. In this context, the benefits impact of using a Transportation Management System (TMS) are studied in this research. The main purpose of this research is to evaluate the TMS benefits impact and its relation to the transport operations performance and to the transport service suppliers relationship through users’ perception. To achieve this goal, factors to measure the benefits were identified on literature to develop a survey instrument about the TMS benefits impact. The method used was a survey and a conceptual model was developed and validated by statistical tests. A total of 118 usable questionnaires were obtained. The data analysis used structural equation modeling to evaluate the conceptual model and research hypotheses. The result indicates that the TMS benefits have a positive impact on the transport operations performance and the transport operations performance has a positive impact on the transport service suppliers relationship. The users’ perception indicates that the positive impact is stronger for the operational process benefits than for the management benefits of a TMS.

O Gerenciamento Autonômico de Redes é uma visão que utiliza princípios da Computação Autonômica para o Gerenciamento de Redes. Além disso, algum grau de descentralização é necessário para habilitar capacidades autonômicas completas. Uma alternativa interessante de infraestrutura para essa união é a utilização de overlays Peer-to-Peer (P2P). No entanto, a consistência do estado dos dados de gerenciamento entre os peers é um desafio importante. Mecanismos tradicionais para manter a consistência desses estados são implementados por meio de centralização, o que desperdiça algumas propriedades desejáveis de abordagens P2P. Em contraste com esses mecanismos, é proposto um mecanismo distribuído, escalável e robusto para a manutenção da consistência do estado dos dados de gerenciamento pela introdução de funcionalidades de Manutenção da Verdade Multiagente. Além disso, são propostas estratégias de comunicação para prover suporte a essas funcionalidades. São apresentados também estudos de caso para ilustrar as possibilidades da proposta: o gerenciamento cooperativo de falhas em enlaces Ethernet em provedores de serviços e a ativação distribuída de políticas de gerenciamento de redes. Experimentos simulados são realizados a fim de verificar as propriedades de escalabilidade e robustez da presente proposta. / Autonomic network management is a vision that brings Autonomic Computing principles to Network Management. Besides, it is necessary some level of decentralization to enable broad autonomic capabilities. An interesting alternative of infrastructure for this union is the utilization of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) overlays. However, the consistency of state of management data among peers is an important challenge. Traditional mechanisms to maintain consistency of these states are supported by some centralization which wastes some desirable properties of P2P approach. In contrast to these mechanisms, a distributed, scalable and robust mechanism to maintain the consistency of state of management data is proposed through the introduction of Multi-Agent Truth Maintenance features. Besides, communication strategies are proposed to support these features. Case studies are presented to show possibilities of this proposal: cooperative fault management of Ethernet links in service providers and distributed activation of network management policies. Simulated experiments are performed to verify the scalability and robustness properties of this proposal.

As organizações em toda parte do mundo estão investindo em Tecnologia da Informação (TI) e aproveitando as vantagens dos sistemas de TI para alterar a conduta do negócio tanto no mercado interno como externo. Os recursos encontrados na TI podem aperfeiçoar o desempenho das organizações e aumentar a competitividade, sendo esta uma alternativa para enfrentar os desafios apresentados pelo mundo empresarial. É neste contexto que o impacto dos benefícios da utilização de um Sistema de Gestão de Transporte (TMS) é estudado neste trabalho. O objetivo geral da pesquisa é avaliar o impacto dos benefícios do uso do sistema de gestão de transporte e sua relação no desempenho das operações de transporte das empresas e na relação com fornecedores de serviço de transporte na percepção dos usuários. Para atingir este objetivo foram identificados na literatura, fatores relevantes sobre o tema para a elaboração de um instrumento de pesquisa sobre o impacto dos benefícios de um TMS. O método utilizado foi a pesquisa survey e um modelo conceitual foi elaborado e validado, por meio de testes estatísticos. Obteve-se um total de 118 respostas válidas para análise dos dados. Esta análise utilizou modelagem de equações estruturais para a avaliação do modelo conceitual e das hipóteses de pesquisa. O resultado indica que os benefícios de um TMS têm impacto positivo no desempenho das operações de transporte, que, por sua vez, têm impacto positivo na relação com fornecedores de serviço de transporte. Na percepção dos usuários participantes da pesquisa, esse impacto positivo tem mais força para os benefícios voltados aos processos operacionais do que para os benefícios gerenciais de um TMS. / Organizations around the world are investing in Information Technology (IT) and taking advantage of IT systems to change the conduct of business in both domestic and overseas market. The resources found in IT can improve organizational performance and increase competitiveness. This has been an alternative to deal with the challenges presented by the business in the world. In this context, the benefits impact of using a Transportation Management System (TMS) are studied in this research. The main purpose of this research is to evaluate the TMS benefits impact and its relation to the transport operations performance and to the transport service suppliers relationship through users’ perception. To achieve this goal, factors to measure the benefits were identified on literature to develop a survey instrument about the TMS benefits impact. The method used was a survey and a conceptual model was developed and validated by statistical tests. A total of 118 usable questionnaires were obtained. The data analysis used structural equation modeling to evaluate the conceptual model and research hypotheses. The result indicates that the TMS benefits have a positive impact on the transport operations performance and the transport operations performance has a positive impact on the transport service suppliers relationship. The users’ perception indicates that the positive impact is stronger for the operational process benefits than for the management benefits of a TMS.

Introduktion: Huntingtons sjukdom är en ärftlig progressiv neurodegenerativsjukdom som orsakas av en mutation på kromosom 4. Mutationen sker genom enökning av cytosin-adenosin-guanin (CAG) sekvenser som kodar för aminosyranglutamin. Huntingtons sjukdom är komplex och dess symtom inträder vanligtvismellan 30 och 50 års ålder, de symtomen som uppkommer orsakas av de förändringarsom sker i hjärnan. Karaktäristiska symtom för Huntingtons sjukdom är en successivförsämring i både motorisk och kognitiv funktion samt olika psykiatriska symtom. Detär framförallt områden som de basala ganglierna och hypotalamus som drabbas, menäven hjärnbarken påverkas. I dagsläget finns ingen botande behandling ellerbehandling som kan påverka sjukdomsförloppet utan man behandlar de symtom somuppkommer. Symtomatisk behandling kan förbättra livskvalitén och underlättavardagen för de drabbade. Syfte: Syftet med litteraturstudien var att jämföra substanserna tetrabenazin ochpriodipidins effekt på motoriska symtom vid Huntingtons sjukdom med avseende påförändring i UHDRS-TMS. Metod: Litteratursökningar genomfördes i både PubMed och Cochranes databaser,med hjälp av MeSH termer och fritextsökningar. Till denna litteraturstudie valdes åttaorginalstudier ut, dessa analyserades och sammanställdes. En bedömningsmallanvändes för att värdera studiernas kvalité. Resultat: Pridopidin har för dosen 90 mg uppvisat en signifikant förändring iUHDRS-TMS i jämförelse med placebo, medan lägre doser av pridopidin inte var bättreän placebo. I den öppna fortsättningsstudien ökade däremot samtliga grupper iUHDRS-TMS. Tetrabenazin har inte uppvisat entydiga resultat, två studier visade på ensignifikant sänkning av UHDRS-TMS i jämförelse med placebo medan en studie visadepå en signifikant ökning av UHDRS-TMS. I den retrospektiva studien sågs en ökning avUHDRS-TMS både vid första och andra uppföljningen varav den sistnämnda varsignifikant. Diskussion: De studier som användes till detta arbete har haft olika studiedesign,studielängd och antal studiedeltagare samt haft varierande doser av de enskildasubstanserna. Vilket leder till olika förutsättningar och möjlighet till statistisk styrka idess resultat. Genomgående har studierna haft ett relativt lågt antal studiedeltagarevilket beror på sjukdomens låga prevalens. Mer forskning krävs inom det här området,dels för att hitta en bra symtomatisk behandling men också för att hitta ett sätt attförhindra och eller bota sjukdomen. Slutsats: Resultaten som påvisats är att både tetrabenazin och pridopidin tycks ha ensänkande effekt på motoriska symtom samt att de tenderar att tappa sin effekt vidlängre tids behandling. Tetrabenazin ger till störst del sin effekt genom att dämpa deofrivilliga rörelserna, chorean. På grund av studiens begränsningar kan inga konkretajämförelser dras mellan substanserna eftersom studierna som använts inte är heltjämförbara med varandra.

Ce travail de thèse s’intéresse à l’estimation des angles articulaires et des positions segmentaires du membre supérieur à partir de capteurs inertiels (MIMU). Malgré l’intérêt grandissant de la communauté scientifique pour cette technologie, plusieurs questions de recherche restent en suspens. Ce travail de thèse contribue à l’avancée de connaissances scientifiques à la fois au niveau de la modélisation cinématique du membre supérieur associée aux capteurs inertiels et au niveau de la validation même des données cinématiques de sortie (angles articulaires et positions segmentaires). Au travers d’une approche méthodologique complète, des recommandations de calibration anatomique sont avancées. De plus, des valeurs clefs de caractérisation sont proposées, telles qu’une reproductibilité des données angulaires de l’ordre de 5-10° et une erreur de positionnement de la main de 7-15 cm. La finalité de ce travail de thèse est la mise à disposition d’un système ambulatoire pour l’évaluation des postures et des mouvements du membre supérieur dans une optique d’évaluation des risques de troubles musculo-squelettiques en milieu professionnel. Une modélisation cinématique avancée prenant en compte un capteur inertiel sur la scapula et la caractérisation du système en milieu perturbé magnétiquement apparaissent comme une suite logique à ce travail de thèse / This PhD work is focused on the estimation of joint angles and segment positions of the upper limb based on inertial sensor technology (MIMU). Despite much interest from the scientific community in this topic, several aspects of research deserve more investigation. This work contributes to the enhancement of scientific knowledge related to (1) the kinematic modeling associated to MIMU and (2) the validation of final kinematic outputs (joint angles and segment positions). Based on an exhaustive methodological approach, recommendations related to the anatomical calibration of MIMU are highlighted. Moreover, key-values related to the characterization of kinematic outputs are proposed, such as a precision of joint angles of 5-10° and a hand positioning error of 7-15 cm. The aim of this study is the development of an ambulatory system for the assessment of postures and movements of the upper limb, in a general context of musculoskeletal disorders risk assessment at work. From now on, an advanced kinematic modeling that uses a MIMU placed on the scapula as well as a characterization of the system under magnetic disturbances represent two of the main scientific questions to explore

At the beginning of this work, recent studies had evidenced a tight link between serial order in verbal working memory and space processing. In a first study, we investigated the nature of this link. By discarding the possibility that it results from conceptual associations, our results favoured the idea that the representation of serial order is intrinsically of a spatial nature. This led us to hypothesize that a deficit of space processing should be accompanied by a deficit of serial order. To test this hypothesis, we investigated verbal working memory abilities in a group of brain-damaged patients with hemispatial neglect, a syndrome characterized by a deficit of spatial attention. We showed that these patients have a specific deficit for serial order, as they showed difficulties when judging the ordinal relations between memorized items, whereas they were able to judge the identity of these items. This deficit of serial order was related to hemispatial neglect severity and to posterior parietal lesions. We formulated the hypothesis that the link between serial order and space results from the overlap of brain networks subtending these cognitive processes, at the level of the posterior parietal cortex. To test this hypothesis, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to temporarily disrupt this area in healthy participants, with the prediction that TMS would induce a similar bias when judging the position of a landmark on horizontal lines (spatial task), and when judging the position of an item in memorized sequences (ordinal task). In line with previous studies, TMS induced a bias in the spatial task. However, contrary to our prediction, TMS over the same area in the same participants did not induce a similar bias in the ordinal task. / Doctorat en Sciences psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Avec les récents changements climatiques et la mutation de plusieurs secteurs industriels, une meilleure gestion des rejets de dioxyde de carbone (CO2) est fortement envisagée. De plus en plus d'intérêt est porté sur la valorisation de CO2 au lieu de son stockage simple. Ainsi, ce projet de thèse s'est focalisé sur l'utilisation de polyoxométallates (POMs) et plus particulièrement ceux substitués par des métaux de transition (TMS-POMs), pour la valorisation de CO2 via son électroréduction. Cette approche permet par la même occasion d'assurer une meilleure gestion de l'énergie électrique. Différentes structures de TMS-POMs ont été préparés, donnant des POM mono et polysubstitués aux métaux de transition simples, ainsi qu'un POM fonctionnalisé par un complexe organométallique actif pour l'électroréduction de CO2. Une approche synthétique originale a permis d'obtenir ce dernier complexe, ouvrant la voie à de nouveaux complexes actifs pour l'électroréduction de CO2. Les propriétés électrochimiques, ainsi que leurs aptitudes à catalyser l'électroréduction de CO2 ont été évaluées en différents milieux réactionnels. Une vue globale sur l'application potentielle de cette classe de complexe a ainsi été adopté, montrant notamment la capacité de ces complexes de mener la réduction à 4 électrons et 4 protons de CO2 en formaldéhyde. / With the recent climate change issues and the recent industrial evolutions, a better management of carbon dioxide (CO2) releases is highly demanded. More and more research is focused on CO2 industrial uses rather than its mere storage. Thus, this PhD project deals with the use of polyoxometalates (POMs), especially transition metals substituted ones (TMS-POMs), for CO2 conversion through its électroréduction. This approach allows both a better electrical power and CO2 release management. Different TMS-POMs structures were prepared, yielding mono and polysubstituted POM with simple transition metal and also functionalized ones with active organometallic complex for CO2 électroréduction. An original synthetic approach allowed us to achieve this late functionalization, opening the way for new catalysts for CO2 conversion. Theirs electrochemical properties, as well as their ability to catalyze CO2 électroréduction were investigated in different reaction media. An overview on the potential application of this complex class has been adopted. Noticeably, it highlighted the ability of these complexes to carry out the 4-electrons and 4-protons reduction of CO2 to formaldehyde.

Convergent findings have elucidated the regions involved in semantic cognition. The anterior temporal lobes (ATL) act as a hub for multimodal semantic processing alongside modality-specific ‘spoke’ regions. In addition, areas of inferior parietal, posterior temporal and frontal cortex are necessary for semantic cognition. However, many questions remain. Little is known about the timing of the ATL or how distributed regions interact in order to perform semantic processing. In order to gain knowledge of the precise spatial and temporal dynamics of the ATL and semantic cognition network, a series of studies was performed. Chapter 3 investigated the time at which the ATL is necessary for a semantic judgement using chronometric TMS. The ATL was found to be necessary for semantic cognition from 400ms post-stimuli presentation. This is known to be a critical time for semantic processing. Processing of items presented in different modalities converges around this time. This supports the role of the ATL in multimodal semantic cognition. Chapter 4 used offline repetitive TMS to investigate the role of ATL subregions and posterior temporal cortex in semantic and phonological processing. However, no significant TMS effects were demonstrated. Chapter 5 employed dual echo fMRI to assess how different types of semantic relationships are instantiated within the brain. Association (spatially and temporally co-occurring concepts) and conceptual similarity (concepts sharing features) were shown to rely on the same cortical regions. This provides evidence against theories suggesting separate representational hubs for these different relationship types. Instead it supports the reliance of both relationship types on the ATL hub. These two kinds of relationship may be more similar than previously thought, with the hub-and-spoke model able to explain both. The semantic network identified here included ATL, posterior temporal, frontal and ventral parietal cortex. This network of semantic regions was shown to be interconnected in Chapter 6 during a semantic task (using a psychophysiological interaction analysis) and during rest (using a seed-based functional connectivity analysis). Differential connectivity was identified between the ventral ATL (to multimodal semantic regions) and the aSTG (to language-related regions). The semantic network overlapped with the default mode network (DMN) and involved regions previously found to constitute the frontoparietal network (FPN).Emergent questions related to the overlap between previously identified network and the semantic network were addressed with preliminary independent component analyses in Chapter 7. This showed the dynamic connectivity of the ATL in task and rest. The semantic network was found to be distinct from but overlapping with the DMN and FPN. The role of this network in semantic cognition was confirmed, whereas the DMN was not found to relate to semantic processing. The anterior DMN component appeared semantic based on activity alone, suggesting prior results relating the DMN to semantic cognition fail to take the dynamic connectivity of the regions in to account. The left FPN overlapped with semantic control regions but appeared to relate to more general control processes. When assessed with dual echo fMRI, the ATL appears to be highly connected in a dynamic fashion and may be an important region currently under-represented within studies of the connectome. Overall, these studies add to the hub-and-spoke model of semantic cognition, elucidating the types of relationship involved, how regions interact and the precise temporal and spatial dynamics of these areas.

No description available.

Long-term motor skill learning has been consistently shown to result in functional as well as structural changes in the adult human brain. However, the effect of short learning periods on brain structure is not well understood. In the present study, subjects performed a sequential pinch force task (SPFT) for 20 min on 5 consecutive days. Changes in brain structure were evaluated with anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans acquired on the first and last day of motor skill learning. Behaviorally, the SPFT resulted in sequence-specific learning with the trained (right) hand. Structural gray matter (GM) alterations in left M1, right ventral premotor cortex (PMC) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) correlated with performance improvements in the SPFT. More specifically we found that subjects with strong sequence-specific performance improvements in the SPFT also had larger increases in GM volume in the respective brain areas. On the other hand, subjects with small behavioral gains either showed no change or even a decrease in GM volume during the time course of learning. Furthermore, cerebellar GM volume before motor skill learning predicted (A) individual learning-related changes in the SPFT and (B) the amount of structural changes in left M1, right ventral PMC and DLPFC. In summary, we provide novel evidence that short-term motor skill learning is associated with learning-related structural brain alterations. Additionally, we showed that practicing a motor skill is not exclusively accompanied by increased GM volume. Instead, bidirectional structural alterations explained the variability of the individual learning success.