The aim of this experiment was to study the role of (un)predictability in a fear conditioning paradigm: analyzing the differences in both cue and context conditioning. For this reason, we manipulated the presentation of the unconditional stimulus (US) using two conditions: a paired presentation of the US-CS (predictable) and an unpaired presentation of the US (unpredictable). We manipulated the context using the lightning of the experimental room: dark and light conditions. Our dependent variables were the skin conductance response (SCR) and the startle reflex measurement. Participants were 65 students from the University of Leuven. Results showed more context conditioning in the unpaired block (unpredictable) compared to the paired one and cue conditioning in the paired block (predictable). / El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar el rol de la (im)predictabilidad en el paradigma de condicionamiento de miedo, al analizar las diferencias tanto en el condicionamiento específico (cue) como en el contextual. Por consiguiente, se manipuló la presentación del estímulo incondicionado (EI) utilizando dos condiciones: una presentación apareada del EI con el estímulo condicionado —EC en adelante— (predecible) y una presentación no apareada del EI (impredecible). Se manipuló el contexto utilizando la luz central del cuarto experimental: condiciones de oscuridad y claridad. Las variables independientes fueron la respuesta de conductancia de la piel y la medición de la respuesta de sobresalto. Los participantes fueron 65 alumnos de primer año de psicología. Los resultados muestran más condicionamiento contextual en el bloque no apareado (impredecible) comparado con el apareado, y condicionamiento específico en el bloque apareado (predecible).

In response to uncertainty imposed on ITO business environments, it is reported that relational and structural embeddedness play an important role in safeguarding against opportunistic behaviour and improving long-term performance. A firm can outsource its IT services to a partner who is believed to be reliable and competent among existing parties for whom it has the outsourcing histories in the perspective of relational embeddedness. In contrast, from the viewpoint of structural embeddedness, a firm can collect information on multiple alternative candidates through the observation of their network linkages and the information transmission via third parties although it has no outsourcing histories for them. Also, based on this information, it can outsource its IT services to a new partner who could make better performance as well as who is considered reliable. However, the building and maintenance of new outsourcing relationships require resources which could be better used for the refinement of existing outsourcing relationships. Therefore, a firm faces the tension between the two types of embeddedness. Prior studies addressing relational and structural embeddedness in the context of ITO are mainly based on relational exchange theory and social capital theory respectively. They also provide a body of empirical evidence rooted in these theories. However, each ITO research stream on relational or structural embeddedness has mainly focused on its own advantages in response to uncertainty. That is, the conditional superiority of each type of embeddedness has not been investigated in ITO studies. Furthermore, although they have been compared in other research contexts, the main research focus has been on which is preferred at the high level of uncertainty rather than which leads to better performance according to the type and level of uncertainty. Therefore, this research aims at answering the following research question in the context of ITO: which of the two types of embeddedness is more appropriate in improving long-term performance in the presence of uncertainty of which the type and level are not uniform across a wide range of outsourced IT services? In particular, the following uncertainties from two different sources are introduced for the comparison between the two types of embeddedness: the uncertainty stemming from the unpredictability of technological requirements and the uncertainty originating in the difficulty in measuring performance. In this research, they are called “technological unpredictability” and “measurement difficulty” respectively. It is widely accepted that the two uncertainties discovered from transaction cost theory and agency theory increase the possibility of opportunism and threaten performance. Therefore, the different levels of technological unpredictability and measurement difficulty can create an ideal platform to investigate the conditional superiority of relational or structural embeddedness.In order to address the research question, an ITO network is simulated. Firms in this network perform the role of a coordinator or a partner in establishing ITO consortia to respond to outsourcing opportunities with the different levels of the two uncertainties. As coordinators, firms take the partner selection and control strategy based on relational or structural embeddedness, which is called “the relational strategy” or “the structural strategy” in this research. They also compete with each other to maximise their longterm profits. As partners, firms behave cooperatively or opportunistically. Their decision-makings and payoffs are modelled through a game-theoretic method. In addition, a full factorial design of experiments is applied for efficient simulation experiments and systematic analyses. Consequently, the simulation results show that the superiority of each type of embeddedness is different according the type and level of uncertainty. The research on relational embeddedness emphasises the advantage of trust and commitment generated by the repetition or long-term maintenance of outsourcing relationships with reliable partners as shown in the literature on long-term cooperative ITO relationships. The findings in this research support this argument when measurement difficulty is at the high level and technological unpredictability is at the low level. On the other hand, the study on structural embeddedness focuses on the use of (potential) partners’ network positions and information transmitters as revealed in the literature on network-based ITO relationships. The simulation results support this claim when technological unpredictability is at the high level regardless of the level of measurement difficulty. Especially, at the high levels of both uncertainties, structural embeddedness enables better performance. This research contributes to the literature in three research areas: (1) IT outsourcing, (2) network dynamics and (3) environmental adaptation. Firstly, this research examines the conditional superiority of each type of embeddedness at the different levels of technological unpredictability and measurement difficulty. Therefore, the findings resolve the tension between the two types of embeddedness in ITO studies. Especially,this resolution can provide possible theoretical answers to why an ITO partnership based on relational embeddedness fails in spite of its popularity in the industry and academia, and in which condition structural embeddedness is preferred in ITO business environments. Secondly, the simulation results reveal that some coordinators preferring relational embeddedness consolidate their existing network ties while others favouring structural embeddedness increase the number of network ties. Therefore, this research improves an understanding of how the strength and structure of network ties at the egocentric level can be changed by the type and level of uncertainty. Thirdly, the relational and structural strategy in this research focus on the utilisation of present partners and the search for alternative partners respectively. Therefore, the concepts underlying the two types of embeddedness are in line with those underlying exploitation and exploration. The examination on the relative advantage of each type of embeddedness can extend the general argument that more resources should be invested in exploration than in exploitation to adapt to uncertain business settings.

Through the life history theory perspective, this paper seeks to demonstrate how early adversity shapes the development of effortful control in ways that aim to best match the individual to the proximal environment toward ultimate goals despite trade-offs related to social, academic, and later health outcomes. Investigation linking early life harshness (i.e., cues of extrinsic morbidity-mortality; Ellis et al., 2009) and unpredictability (i.e., stochastic changes in environmental conditions; Ellis et al., 2009) to the development of self-regulation could facilitate a more nuanced understanding of early environmental effects on development. The current study investigates early environmental harshness and unpredictability as unique predictors for a self-regulation construct, effortful control. It was hypothesized that early life harshness and unpredictability would uniquely and negatively predict effortful control among preschoolers. While there was no evidence that cues of unpredictability predicted effortful control, cues of harshness, specifically neighborhood harshness, did statistically significantly predict effortful control in the direction expected. This appears to be the first study to explicitly investigate effortful control development in early childhood within the harshness and unpredictability framework.

Parental care is likely to evolve when benefits of care are greater than costs. Provision of parental care may buffer vulnerable offspring against unpredictable or hazardous environments permitting parents to breed in situations too hostile for unassisted juvenile survival. The nature of environmental unpredictability faced by parents and their offspring (e.g., availability of nutritional resources, breeding resources and/or the strength of competition) provides the ecological context in which costs and benefits of parental traits are defined. Therefore investigations about how the environment might shape parental traits ought not only to be conducted in the laboratory but also in a natural setting where unanticipated parameters may have profound effects on theoretical predictions. I conducted a series of manipulative experiments and observational studies in the laboratory and in the field using burying beetles, Nicrophorus vespilloides, to examine the effects of environmental variation on parental competitive ability, reproductive productivity, longevity and the expression of parental sex-role differences and alternative reproductive tactics. In these beetles a relative size advantage confers success in contests for scarce and vital breeding resources so a central prediction was that reproductive success would be positively correlated with body size. In contrast I found that reproductive performance was favoured over contest success when nutritional resources were delayed temporarily during a developmental window. Larger beetles do win contests for breeding-resources but the benefits of being large depend on the quality of the social environment experienced (i.e., the relative size of an opponent). In a naturalistic setting, smaller males avoided direct contests because they attracted proportionately more females and as a result their breeding associations were more often monogamous. This has potential benefits for females because they avoid female-female contests and brood parasitism. Variation in the nutritional environment provided by parents (the carcass size on which offspring are reared) directly influences body size creating a dynamism between the nutritional and social environments experienced by these beetles depending on their size, which has ramifications for their individual success and maintenance of alternative strategies in the population as a whole.

Este trabalho apresenta uma investigação sobre o alcance da aplicação da teoria da onerosidade excessiva, prevista nos artigos 478 a 480 do Novo Código Civil, aos acordos de acionistas, tipo contratual cada vez mais presente na realidade empresarial brasileira. Especial atenção é dada ao fato de que o acordo de acionistas está inserido em um contexto marcado não só por um ambiente negocial e mercadológico sujeito a acontecimentos imprevisíveis que podem desequilibrar as prestações de forma excessivamente onerosa para uma das partes, mas também marcado por um equilíbrio na composição do conteúdo contratual e na alocação de riscos correspondente combinados pelas partes. Para isso, serão analisadas as questões relativas ao alcance da aplicação do mecanismo de reequilíbrio contratual mencionado em acordo de acionistas, à identificação do objeto do conteúdo contratual que contém o programa de alocação de risco e ao elemento-guia utilizado pela jurisprudência nesse sentido, uma vez que foi o uso desenfreado do reequilíbrio contratual que fez com que este fosse quase expulso da sistemática contratual durante o período clássico. A pesquisa apontou como elemento-guia autorizador da aplicação da onerosidade excessiva pelos órgãos judiciais estudados a conjunção da identificação dos critérios legais com a identificação do fato de a onerosidade excessiva estar além daquele risco implícito e da álea normal da natureza do negócio jurídico celebrado. Tais resultados apontam para uma criteriosa possibilidade de correção de desequilíbrio contratual compatível com a dinâmica e o ambiente dos acordos de acionistas / This work presents an investigation concerning the scope of application of the excessive onerous theory, provided in articles 478 to 480 of the Brazilian Civil Code, in the sharesholders agreement matter, a contractual type increasingly present in the Brazilian business reality. Special attention is given to the fact the sharesholders agreement is inserted in a context characterized not only by the negotial and market environment subject to unpredictable events that may disrupt the provision in an excessive onerous way to a relevant party, but also characterized by a balance in the composition of the content and of the contractual allocation of risks combined by the relevant parties. For this, we analyze the issues related to the scope of application of the mentioned contractual rebalancing mechanism in the shareholders agreement matter, to the identification of the contractual content object that contains the risk allocation program and to the guide-element used in the jurisprudence in this sense, since it was the umlimited use of contractual rebalancing that caused this was almost kicked out of the contractual systematically during the classical period. The survey pointed out as guide-element to the application of excessive onerous by the legal courts studied the association of the legal criteria identification with the identication of the fact that the excessive onerous being beyond that inherent and normal risk concluded of the nature of the legal business. These results point to the possibility of a careful correction of contractual imbalance compatible with the shareholders agreements dynamic and environment.

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health was used to test predictions from life history theory. It was hypothesized that (1) in young adulthood an emerging life history strategy would exist as a common factor underlying many life history traits (e.g., health, relationship stability, and economic success), (2) both environmental harshness and unpredictability would account for unique variance in expression of adolescent and young adult life history strategies, and (3) adolescent life history traits would predict young adult life history strategy. These predictions were supported. The current findings suggest that the environmental parameters of harshness and unpredictability have concurrent effects on life history development in adolescence, as well as longitudinal effects into young adulthood. In addition, life history traits appear to be stable across developmental time from adolescence into young adulthood.

In terms of the works contracts as a general rule the target prices between the parties are immutable. However, in the execution of the contracts for works might well emerge unforeseeable events, which would produce costs to the contractor. To these events, what actions the parties migth take? What kind of remedies does the Peruvian Civil Code offer?. In this article, the autor analizes these issues and proposes solutions to these unforeseeable risks, all on the basis of Peruvian Civil Code and a comparative study with Italian Civil Code. / En materia de los contratos de obra por regla general los precios fijados entre las partes son inalterables. Sin embargo, en las labores del contrato de obra podrían surgir sucesos imprevisibles, que producirían nuevos gastos para el contratista. Ante estos sucesos, ¿Qué acciones podrían realizar las partes? ¿Qué tipo de remedios ofrece el Código Civil peruano?.En este artículo, el autor analiza estos temas y propone soluciones ante estos riesgos imprevisibles, todo ello sobre la base del Código Civil peruano y un estudio comparado con el Código Civil italiano.

Este trabalho apresenta uma investigação sobre o alcance da aplicação da teoria da onerosidade excessiva, prevista nos artigos 478 a 480 do Novo Código Civil, aos acordos de acionistas, tipo contratual cada vez mais presente na realidade empresarial brasileira. Especial atenção é dada ao fato de que o acordo de acionistas está inserido em um contexto marcado não só por um ambiente negocial e mercadológico sujeito a acontecimentos imprevisíveis que podem desequilibrar as prestações de forma excessivamente onerosa para uma das partes, mas também marcado por um equilíbrio na composição do conteúdo contratual e na alocação de riscos correspondente combinados pelas partes. Para isso, serão analisadas as questões relativas ao alcance da aplicação do mecanismo de reequilíbrio contratual mencionado em acordo de acionistas, à identificação do objeto do conteúdo contratual que contém o programa de alocação de risco e ao elemento-guia utilizado pela jurisprudência nesse sentido, uma vez que foi o uso desenfreado do reequilíbrio contratual que fez com que este fosse quase expulso da sistemática contratual durante o período clássico. A pesquisa apontou como elemento-guia autorizador da aplicação da onerosidade excessiva pelos órgãos judiciais estudados a conjunção da identificação dos critérios legais com a identificação do fato de a onerosidade excessiva estar além daquele risco implícito e da álea normal da natureza do negócio jurídico celebrado. Tais resultados apontam para uma criteriosa possibilidade de correção de desequilíbrio contratual compatível com a dinâmica e o ambiente dos acordos de acionistas / This work presents an investigation concerning the scope of application of the excessive onerous theory, provided in articles 478 to 480 of the Brazilian Civil Code, in the sharesholders agreement matter, a contractual type increasingly present in the Brazilian business reality. Special attention is given to the fact the sharesholders agreement is inserted in a context characterized not only by the negotial and market environment subject to unpredictable events that may disrupt the provision in an excessive onerous way to a relevant party, but also characterized by a balance in the composition of the content and of the contractual allocation of risks combined by the relevant parties. For this, we analyze the issues related to the scope of application of the mentioned contractual rebalancing mechanism in the shareholders agreement matter, to the identification of the contractual content object that contains the risk allocation program and to the guide-element used in the jurisprudence in this sense, since it was the umlimited use of contractual rebalancing that caused this was almost kicked out of the contractual systematically during the classical period. The survey pointed out as guide-element to the application of excessive onerous by the legal courts studied the association of the legal criteria identification with the identication of the fact that the excessive onerous being beyond that inherent and normal risk concluded of the nature of the legal business. These results point to the possibility of a careful correction of contractual imbalance compatible with the shareholders agreements dynamic and environment.

« On considère que le XXIe siècle sera “le siècle des robots”comme le XXe siècle a été le siècle des ordinateurs » , annonce Franck Bauchard. Or, si les robots ne semblent pas avoir tout à fait envahi notre quotidien, en revanche, au théâtre, ils sont bien là. Depuis plusieurs années, le « cyber-théâtre » convoque sur scène, et ailleurs (dans les musées, dans la rue, dans le cadre d’expositions d’art contemporain) toutes sortes de robots, qu’il s’agisse d’androïdes, d’humanoïdes, de robots zoomorphes, ou « simplement » mécanomorphes. Quelles formes revêt ce théâtre ? Qu’advient-il de l’acteur, mis, une fois de plus, en présence d’un énième artefact technologique, cette fois mobile et intelligent, avec lequel il devra partager la scène recomposée ? Enfin, comment le public réagit-il à la présence concrète de ces monstres tridimensionnels, qui jusque-là n’existaient qu’au cinéma, ou dans la littérature ?Un corpus élargi nous permettra d’apprécier la diversité du cyber-théâtre contemporain, qu’il soit « anthropo-mimétique », ou « non-anthropo-mimétique ». Néanmoins, nous avancerons l’hypothèse que le premier se révèle étriqué et rigide, au point, parfois, de mettre en péril l’acte théâtral. En revanche, nous saluerons dans le second un théâtre riche d’esthétiques débridées, et de dramaturgies inédites. Ce théâtre-là interroge et refonde une relation homme / machine millénaire et tumultueuse, mais désormais basée sur l’égalité, et le respect des paradigmes de chacun. Sur ces scènes occupées par des créatures technologiques autonomes et imprévisibles, l’acteur aux aguets n’a jamais été autant immergé dans le hic et nunc, tandis que le robot, lui, s’augmente d’une dimension nouvelle : il accède à ce que nous avons baptisé la « vie scénique ». / « We assume that the XXIst century will be the century of robots, as well as the XXeth century was the one of computers » , reveals Franck Bauchard. Yet robots don’t seem to have invaded our daily life, indeed we meet them in theatre. For some years now, Robots have appeared on stage, and in other variuos places, such as museums, public spaces (street), art exhibitions. Those new technological creatures divide into humanoïds and androïds, zoomorphic machines, and « pure » machines, that generally don’t refer to anything familiar. What does this theatre look like ? Whats does the actor become, when dropped, one more time, on a technological stage, but which he has to share, this time, with mobile intelligent creatures ? Last, how does the public react to such genuine tridimensional monsters that were only present in cinema or in littérature so far ?Our enlarged corpus, will allow us to to figure out the diversity of contemporanean cyber-creation, either « anthropo-mimetic or » « non-anthropo-mimetic. Then we will put the hypothesis that anthropo-mimetic cyber-theatre shows rigid, and narrow, so far as to endanger the theatrical act. Whereas the other proposal reveals audacious aesthetics, and renewed dramaturgies. This theatre questions and reinvents the relashionships between robots and humans, that priviledge equality and collaboration. Thus, in the representation process, actors coping with such autonomus and unpredictable technological robots gain spontanity and presence, whereas robots find themselves elevated to a new prestigious dimension : they acquire what we have called « scenic life ».

This dissertation is about some of the most important philosophical aspects of chaos research, a famous recent mathematical area of research about deterministic yet unpredictable and irregular, or even random behaviour. It consists of three parts. First, as a basis for the dissertation, I examine notions of unpredictability in ergodic theory, and I ask what they tell us about the justification and formulation of mathematical definitions. The main account of the actual practice of justifying mathematical definitions is Lakatos's account on proof-generated definitions. By investigating notions of unpredictability in ergodic theory, I present two previously unidentified but common ways of justifying definitions. Furthermore, I criticise Lakatos's account as being limited: it does not acknowledge the interrelationships between the different kinds of justification, and it ignores the fact that various kinds of justification - not only proof-generation - are important. Second, unpredictability is a central theme in chaos research, and it is widely claimed that chaotic systems exhibit a kind of unpredictability which is specific to chaos. However, I argue that the existing answers to the question "What is the unpredictability specific to chaos?" are wrong. I then go on to propose a novel answer, viz. the unpredictability specific to chaos is that for predicting any event all sufficiently past events are approximately probabilistically irrelevant. Third, given that chaotic systems are strongly unpredictable, one is led to ask: are deterministic and indeterministic descriptions observationally equivalent, i.e., do they give the same predictions? I treat this question for measure-theoretic deterministic systems and stochastic processes, both of which are ubiquitous in science. I discuss and formalise the notion of observational equivalence. By proving results in ergodic theory, I first show that for many measure-preserving deterministic descriptions there is an observationally equivalent indeterministic description, and that for all indeterministic descriptions there is an observationally equivalent deterministic description. I go on to show that strongly chaotic systems are even observationally equivalent to some of the most random stochastic processes encountered in science. For instance, strongly chaotic systems give the same predictions at every observation level as Markov processes or semi-Markov processes. All this illustrates that even kinds of deterministic and indeterministic descriptions which, intuitively, seem to give very different predictions are observationally equivalent. Finally, I criticise the claims in the previous philosophical literature on observational equivalence.