Earlier research has repeatedly shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorders are significantly impaired in emotional recognition of biological motion. This study adopted an approach where the typically developed and the autistic participants rated emotional valence and recognition of isolated gestures in Point-light display. Results revealed that participant groups did not differ in their emotional valence of the gestures but differed in recognition of the gestures. The method of using isolated gestures in Point-light display has not been used in autism emotional research earlier and this paper functions as a pilot of this technique. The results are discussed from a perspective that individuals with autism perceive the world differently and hence understand and interact differently with the world.

A técnica de campo visual dividido foi utilizada na análise dos padrões de assimetria cerebral para a percepção de expressões faciais de valência positiva e negativa. Oitenta universitários destros (65 mulheres, 15 homens) foram distribuídos em cinco grupos experimentais com o objetivo de se investigar separadamente a percepção de expressões de alegria, medo, surpresa, tristeza e da face neutra. Em cada apresentação de estímulo, uma face alvo e uma face distratora eram apresentadas à direita ou à esquerda de um ponto de fixação localizado no centro da tela do computador. O tempo de apresentação dos estímulos foi de 150 ms e os participantes tiveram que determinar o lado (esquerdo ou direito) em que havia sido apresentada a face alvo, utilizando um mouse para responderem aos estímulos. As análises estatísticas de tempo de reação e erros de julgamento indicaram não haver diferenças entre o desempenho de homens e mulheres na tarefa experimental. Expressões faciais de alegria e medo foram identificadas mais rapidamente quando apresentadas no campo visual esquerdo, indicando uma possível vantagem do hemisfério direito na percepção destas emoções. Menores tempos de reação e erros de julgamento foram observados para as condições de pareamento em que faces emocionais foram apresentadas no campo visual esquerdo e faces neutras no campo visual direito. A análise dos pareamentos entre faces indicou que faces neutras e de alegria são percebidas mais rapidamente e com maior acerto que faces de medo e tristeza. Embora não tenha havido uma vantagem do hemisfério direito para a percepção de todas as expressões faciais, os resultados deste estudo tendem a concordar com a hipótese do hemisfério direito para o processamento emocional. / The divided visual field technique was used to analize the patterns of brain asymmetry in the perception of positive and negative facial expressions. Eighty undergraduate students (65 female, 15 male) were distributed in five experimental groups in order to investigate separately the perception of expressions of happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, and neutral. In each trial, a target and a distractor expression were presented in a computer screen during 150 ms and participants had to determine the side (left or right) on which the target expression was presented using a mouse to respond to the stimuli. Time reaction and judgment errors analysis showed no differences between men and womens performance in experimental task. Results indicated that expressions of happiness and fear were identified faster when presented on the left visual field, suggesting an advantage of the right hemisphere in the perception of these expressions. Fewer judgment errors and faster reaction times were observed for the matching condition in which emotional faces were presented on the left visual field and neutral faces on the right visual field. Analysis of the pairs of faces indicated that neutral and happy faces were perceived faster and more accurately than faces of fear and happiness. Although an advantage of the right hemisphere was not occurred for the perception of all expressions, results tend to support the right hemisphere hypothesis for emotional processing.

In this Thesis, I systematize, clarify, and expand the current theory of emotion based on the principles of predictive processing-the interoceptive inference view of emotion-so as to show the following: (1) as it stands, this view is problematic. (2) Once expanded, the view in question can deal with its more pressing problems, and it compares favourably to competing accounts. Thus, the interoceptive inference view of emotion stands out as a plausible theory of emotion. According to the predictive processing (PP) framework, all what the brain does, in all its functions, is to minimize its precision-weighted prediction error (PE) (Clark, 2013, 2016; Hohwy, 2013). Roughly, PE consist in the difference between the sensory signals expected (and generated) from the top-down and the actual, incoming sensory signals. Now, in the PP framework, visual percepts are formed by minimizing visual PE in a specific manner: via visual perceptual inference. That is, the brain forms visual percepts in a top-down fashion by predicting its incoming lower-level sensory signals from higher-level models of the likely (hidden) causes of those visual signals. Such models can be seen as putting forward content-specifying hypotheses about the object or event responsible for triggering incoming sensory activity. A contentful percept is formed once a certain hypothesis achieves to successfully match, and thus supress, current lower-level sensory signals. In the interoceptive inference approach to interoception (Seth, 2013, 2015), the principles of PP have been extended to account for interoception, i.e., the perception of our homeostatic, physiological condition. Just as perception in the visual domain arises via visual perceptual inference, the interoceptive inference approach holds that perception of the inner, physiological milieu arises via interoceptive perceptual inference. Now, what might be called the interoceptive inference theory of valence (ITV) holds that the interoceptive inference approach can be used so as to account for subjective feeling states in general, i.e., mental states that feel good or bad-i.e., valenced mental states. According to ITV, affective valence arises by way of interoceptive perceptual inference. On the other hand, what might be called the interoceptive inference view of emotion (IIE) holds that the interoceptive inference approach can be used so as to account for emotions per se (e.g., fear, anger, joy). More precisely, IIE holds that, in direct analogy to the way in which visual percepts are formed, emotions arise from interoceptive predictions of the causes of current interoceptive afferents. In other words, emotions per se amount to interceptive percepts formed via higher-level, content-specifying emotion hypotheses. In this Thesis, I aim to systematize, clarify, and expand the interoceptive inference approach to interoception, in order to show that: (1) contrary to non-sensory theories of affective valence, valence is indeed constituted by interoceptive perceptions, and that interoceptive percepts do arise via interoceptive perceptual inference. Therefore, ITV holds. (2) Considering that IIE exhibits problematic assumptions, it should be amended. In this respect, I will argue that emotions do not arise via interoceptive perceptual inference (as IIE claims), since this assumes that there must be regularities pertaining to emotion in the physiological domain. I will suggest that emotions arise instead by minimizing interoceptive PE in another fashion. That is, emotions arise via external interoceptive active inference: by sampling and modifying the external environment in order to change an already formed interoceptive percept (which has been formed via interoceptive perceptual inference). That is, emotions are specific strategies for regulating affective valence. More precisely, I will defend the view that a certain emotion E amounts to a specific strategy for minimizing interoceptive PE by way of a specific set of stored knowledge of the counterfactual relations that obtain between (possible) actions and its prospective interoceptive, sensory consequences ("if I act in this manner, interoceptive signals should evolve in such-and-such way"). An emotion arises when such knowledge is applied in order to regulate valence.

This thesis presents a series of electron impact ionization measurements on the gas phase targets of argon and krypton. The (e,2e) coincidence technique has been employed to measure the triple differential cross section (TDCS) using a new coincidence spectrometer designed to operate in the low energy regime (2 to 5 times the ionization energy) and in the coplanar geometry. The spectrometer is a conventional device utilizing a non-energy selected electron gun and two 1800 hemispherical electron analysers fitted with channel electron multipliers for detection of the outgoing electrons. A series of TDCS measurements were performed on the 3s inner-valence and 3p valence orbitals of argon employing coplanar asymmetric kinematics. Measurements for both orbitals were performed at an incident energy of 113.5 eV, ejected energies of 10, 7.5, 5 and 2 eV and a scattering angle of -15°. The energy of the scattered electron in each case was chosen to satis~' energy conservation and is dependent on the ionization energies of the different orbitals. The experimental cross sections are compared to theoretical TDCS calculations using the distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) and variations of the DWBA in an attempt to investigate the role that post collisional interaction (PCI), polarization and electron exchange play in describing the TDCS in the low energy regime. To further extend this analysis, a series of TDCS measurements were performed on the 3s and 4s. orbitals of argon and krypton, respectively, employing coplanar symmetric kinematics. Measurements were performed for the 3s orbital at outgoing energies of 50, 20, 10 and 4eV and for the 4s orbital at outgoing energies of 85, 50, 20 and 10 eV. The kinematics were chosen to coincide with several of the (e,2e) measurements made in the same geometry on the 3p orbital of argon by Rouvellou et al (1998). The experimental results were again compared to a DWBA calculation and similar variations to those employed for the asymmetric measurements.

Ce travail se propose de corréler les propriétés de transport électronique souvent très remarquables des oxydes de structure dérivée de la perovskite à leurs propriétés structurales. D'un point de vue expérimentale, l'intercalation électrochimique d'espèces oxygénées dans ces réseaux a permis d'obtenir des matériaux de cations de valences élevées où les phénomènes de transfert de charges sont exacerbés...

The reaction mechanisms for the hemoglobin degrading enzymes in the Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite, plasmepsin II (Plm II) and histo-aspartic protease (HAP), have been analyzed by molecular simulations. The reaction free energy profiles, calculated by the empirical valence bond (EVB) method in combination with molecular dynamics (MD) and free energy perturbation (FEP) simulations are in good agreement with experimental data. Additional computational methods, such as homology modelling and automated substrate docking, were necessary to generate a 3D model and a reactive substrate conformation before the reaction mechanism in HAP could be investigated. HAP is found to be an aspartic protease with a peptide cleaving mechanism similar to plasmepsin II. The major difference between these enzymes is that the negatively charged tetrahedral intermediate is stabilized by the charged histidine in HAP while in Plm II it is a neutral aspartic acid. Also the reaction mechanism for two other aspartic proteases, cathepsin D and HIV-1 protease, was simulated. These enzymes are relevant both for the inhibitor selectivity and for obtaining a general picture of catalysis in aspartic proteases. Another project involves inhibitor design towards plasmepsins. In particular, Plm II directed inhibitors based on the dihydroxyethylene scaffold have been characterized computationally. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to propagate the investigated system through time and to generate ensembles used for the calculation of free energies. The ligand binding affinities were calculated with the linear interaction energy (LIE) method. The most potent inhibitor had a Ki value of 6 nM and showed 78 % parasite inhibition when tested on red blood cells infected by malaria parasite P. falciparum. Citrate synthase is part of the citric acid cycle and is present in organisms that live in cold sea water as well as hot springs. The temperature adaptation of citrate synthase to cold and heat was investigated in terms of the difference in transition state stabilization between the psychrophilic, mesophilic and hyperthermophilic homologues. The EVB, FEP and MD methods were used to generate reaction free energy profiles. The investigated energetics points toward the electrostatic stabilization during the reaction as the major difference between the different citrate synthase homologues. The electrostatic stabilization of the transition state is most effective in the following order of the citrate synthase homologues: hyperthermophile, mesophile, psycrophile. This could be a general rule for temperature adaptation of enzyme catalysis.

Through the development of physical chemistry and chemical physics over the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the relationship between physics and chemistry changed to create a broad interdisciplinary framework in which chemists and physicists could make contributions to problems of common value. It is here argued that evolving disciplinary factors such as physical and chemical responses to the atomic hypothesis, the nature of disciplinary formation in Germany and the United States, the reception of quantum mechanics within physics and chemistry, and the application of quantum mechanics to the problem of chemical bonding by physicists and chemists, formed the chemical bond into a physico-chemical theory. In the late nineteenth-century context of early physical chemistry, the chemical bond was known as a physical link between atoms, which could not be studied by chemical means because of the lack of an adequate atomistic framework. Both chemists and physicists broadly accepted the atomistic hypothesis following the discovery of the electron at the turn of the twentieth century, which afforded theoretical study of chemical bonding. Between 1916 and 1919, Gilbert N. Lewis and Irving Langmuir proposed the valence bond to be a pair of electrons shared between two atoms, within the context of a cubic model of the atom. However, the lack of a physical mechanism for the shared electron pair prevented the formation of a fully physico-chemical view of bonding. In 1927, physicists Walter Heitler and Fritz London showed the stability of the valence bond was caused by the wave mechanical phenomenon of resonance. Chemist Linus Pauling extended their treatment of the valence bond to a theory of structural chemistry in The Nature of the Chemical Bond. His synthesis of the physical and chemical views, his value as a physico-chemical researcher during the 1930s, and the research of his contemporaries John Slater and Robert Mulliken show that a true physico-chemical blend was only realized within the amorphous discipline of chemical physics. Finally, it is seen that this interdisciplinarity of chemical bonding and its supporting framework force a reevaluation of the reductionist criteria, and a re-definition of the chemical bond as a physico-chemical work.

Through the development of physical chemistry and chemical physics over the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the relationship between physics and chemistry changed to create a broad interdisciplinary framework in which chemists and physicists could make contributions to problems of common value. It is here argued that evolving disciplinary factors such as physical and chemical responses to the atomic hypothesis, the nature of disciplinary formation in Germany and the United States, the reception of quantum mechanics within physics and chemistry, and the application of quantum mechanics to the problem of chemical bonding by physicists and chemists, formed the chemical bond into a physico-chemical theory. In the late nineteenth-century context of early physical chemistry, the chemical bond was known as a physical link between atoms, which could not be studied by chemical means because of the lack of an adequate atomistic framework. Both chemists and physicists broadly accepted the atomistic hypothesis following the discovery of the electron at the turn of the twentieth century, which afforded theoretical study of chemical bonding. Between 1916 and 1919, Gilbert N. Lewis and Irving Langmuir proposed the valence bond to be a pair of electrons shared between two atoms, within the context of a cubic model of the atom. However, the lack of a physical mechanism for the shared electron pair prevented the formation of a fully physico-chemical view of bonding. In 1927, physicists Walter Heitler and Fritz London showed the stability of the valence bond was caused by the wave mechanical phenomenon of resonance. Chemist Linus Pauling extended their treatment of the valence bond to a theory of structural chemistry in The Nature of the Chemical Bond. His synthesis of the physical and chemical views, his value as a physico-chemical researcher during the 1930s, and the research of his contemporaries John Slater and Robert Mulliken show that a true physico-chemical blend was only realized within the amorphous discipline of chemical physics. Finally, it is seen that this interdisciplinarity of chemical bonding and its supporting framework force a reevaluation of the reductionist criteria, and a re-definition of the chemical bond as a physico-chemical work.

Existing research investigating human judgment and decision making describes patterns of systematic biases in the way people process information and make decisions. Framing effects, for example, demonstrate that logically equivalent alternatives presented in divergent linguistic frames can lead to systematically different choice outcomes; in general, people demonstrate a preference for risk-averse behaviour when information is framed positively and risk-seeking behaviour when information is framed negatively. Similarly, the status quo bias describes a tendency for decision makers to maintain current or previous decisions when confronted with the availability of new options, demonstrating that people possess a predisposition to continue with established behaviour. This research proposes that the goals a decision maker adopts and the hedonic tone of the stimulus being evaluated influence whether framing effects are observed; similarly, the past performance of the status quo and complexity of available options influence whether participants exhibit a preference for the status quo. Using a survey-based experimental methodology, the aforementioned propositions are investigated by systematically manipulating characteristics of decision problems in order to reveal the mechanisms which influence the emergence of framing effects and the status quo bias. The results demonstrate that when positive goals or stimuli are emphasized, usual framing effects are observed; that is, participants demonstrate a preference for risk-averse behaviour in the positive frame and risk-seeking behaviour in the negative frame. Conversely, when negative goals or stimuli are emphasized, participants fail to demonstrate the expected shift in risk-preference. Past performance and complexity of the available alternatives are also shown to influence preference for the status quo; specifically, participants demonstrate greater preference for the status quo when past performance is strong compared to when it is weak, and when the number of available options is low compared to when it is high. The findings of this research improve our understanding of how contextual factors influence shifts in preference and the emergence of decision making biases; moreover, the current research demonstrates the need for future research to consider the influence of situational and contextual factors when investigating decision making in particular and human behaviour in general.

Existing research investigating human judgment and decision making describes patterns of systematic biases in the way people process information and make decisions. Framing effects, for example, demonstrate that logically equivalent alternatives presented in divergent linguistic frames can lead to systematically different choice outcomes; in general, people demonstrate a preference for risk-averse behaviour when information is framed positively and risk-seeking behaviour when information is framed negatively. Similarly, the status quo bias describes a tendency for decision makers to maintain current or previous decisions when confronted with the availability of new options, demonstrating that people possess a predisposition to continue with established behaviour. This research proposes that the goals a decision maker adopts and the hedonic tone of the stimulus being evaluated influence whether framing effects are observed; similarly, the past performance of the status quo and complexity of available options influence whether participants exhibit a preference for the status quo. Using a survey-based experimental methodology, the aforementioned propositions are investigated by systematically manipulating characteristics of decision problems in order to reveal the mechanisms which influence the emergence of framing effects and the status quo bias. The results demonstrate that when positive goals or stimuli are emphasized, usual framing effects are observed; that is, participants demonstrate a preference for risk-averse behaviour in the positive frame and risk-seeking behaviour in the negative frame. Conversely, when negative goals or stimuli are emphasized, participants fail to demonstrate the expected shift in risk-preference. Past performance and complexity of the available alternatives are also shown to influence preference for the status quo; specifically, participants demonstrate greater preference for the status quo when past performance is strong compared to when it is weak, and when the number of available options is low compared to when it is high. The findings of this research improve our understanding of how contextual factors influence shifts in preference and the emergence of decision making biases; moreover, the current research demonstrates the need for future research to consider the influence of situational and contextual factors when investigating decision making in particular and human behaviour in general.