La gestion préventive des risques naturels et technologiques constitue un enjeu de premier ordre pour les autorités étatiques que ce soit à l’égard des populations, des biens et de l’environnement ou pour le coût que la réalisation de tels risques peut représenter. Aussi, le décideur public, contraint juridiquement de protéger ces enjeux, est dans l’obligation, après avoir évalué et qualifié le risque, de déclencher une action publique préventive. C’est au cours d’un processus décisionnel complexe qu’il devra déterminer le degré de dangerosité du risque et les mesures préventives appropriées et proportionnées. S’effectue alors, pour le décideur public, la recherche du meilleur compromis possible entre les libertés et les objectifs de sécurité dans le cadre d’un difficile bilan coûts/avantages. Le droit tente d’encadrer ce processus décisionnel en laissant une marge d’appréciation importante et nécessaire au décideur public dans la détermination du degré d’acceptabilité du risque. C’est la recherche de ce compromis qui sera étudiée dans le cadre de cette thèse et plus particulièrement la manière dont le droit encadre cette recherche, gère cette question délicate et éventuellement contrôle les décisions entérinées. / Preventive management of natural and technological hazards is a major issue for state authorities, in regards to the people, property and the environment or in regards to the cost represented by the realization of such risks. Therefore, policy makers legally bound to protect these interests are required to initiate a preventive public action after evaluating and qualifying the risks. The level of hazard and the appropriateness and proportionality of preventive measures will be determined within a complex decision-making process. The policymakers then strive to reach the best possible compromise between freedom and security objectives within the framework of a delicate cost/benefit analysis. The law attempts to regulate this decision-making process by leaving a large and necessary margin of discretion to the public policy makers in determining the acceptability of the risk. This thesis will explore the process to reach this compromise, and in particular how the law governs it, manages this delicate issue and potentially controls the endorsed decisions.

The majority of black South Africans utilize the services of indigenous healers and the new National Health Plan for South Africa makes provision for cooperation between the healers and formal health practitioners. The purpose of this study was to determine the role played by indigenous African healers in the prevention of diseases and the promotion of health, and to design a model which will provide guidelines for cooperation between indigenous healers and formal health workers. This study was ethno-medical, contextual, exploratory and qualitative. It was designed to look into the health care of a specific cultural group to explore in depth the experiences of indigenous healers in providing health care within their cultural context. Data was collected by individual free-type interviews from indigenous African healers, users of formal health services and by observation. It was found that there is dual utilization of both formal and indigenous health service systems by clients. A specific culbrral terminology relating to health was found to be used. Such terminology could result in communication gaps and breakdowns if not known to or used by formal health workers. The findings show that cultural beliefs are still strongly adhered to. These were found to influence the life-styles and health maintenance behaviour of a cultural group. The fmdings show that divination fonns the core of health assessment and health-problem diagnosis. It was found that no health problem could be attended to without first going through a divination session. The findings also show involvement of indigenous healers in primary health care workers at first contact levels of prevention in the field of paediatric preventive care. Diarrhoea and vomiting in children was found to be the preventable disease in which healers specialize. Infertility and impotence were found to be conditions taken to healers for treatment. Other sexually transmitted diseases as well as culture-bound syndromes treated by indigenous healers were found in this study. The use of rituals and rites of passage and the involvement of ancestors were found to form part ofholistic health care. The fmdings show the willingness of healers to collaborate with formal health workers. A model is designed to guide the process of collaboration. / Health Studies / D. Lit. et Phil. (Advanced Nursing Sciences)

Bientôt, les robots ne travailleront plus de manière isolée mais avec nous. Ils entrent peu à peu dans notre vie de tous les jours pour coopérer, assister, aider, servir, apprendre, enseigner ou même jouer avec l'homme. Dans ce contexte, nous considérons que ce ne doit pas être à l'homme de s'adapter au robot. Au contraire, le robot doit être capable d'intégrer, dans ses stratégies de planification et de décision, différents facteurs d'effort et de confort et de prendre en compte les préférences et désirs de l'homme ainsi que les normes sociales de son environnement. Tout en respectant les principes de sécurité réglementaire, le robot doit se comporter, naviguer, manipuler, communiquer et apprendre d'une manière qui soit pertinente, acceptée et compréhensible par l'homme. Cette thèse explore et définit les ingrédients clés nécessaires au robot pour développer une telle intelligence socio-cognitive. Elle définit également un cadre pour l'interaction homme-robot permettant de s'attaquer à ces challenges dans le but de rendre le robot socialement intelligent / Robots will no longer be working isolated from us. They are entering into our day-to-day life to cooperate, assist, help, serve, learn, teach and play with us. In this context, it is important that because of the presence of robots, the human should not be on compromising side. To achieve this, beyond the basic safety requirements, robots should take into account various factors ranging from human’s effort, comfort, preferences, desire, to social norms, in their various planning and decision making strategies. They should behave, navigate, manipulate, interact and learn in a way, which is expected, accepted, and understandable by us, the human. This thesis begins by exploring and identifying the basic yet key ingredients of such socio-cognitive intelligence. Then we develop generic frameworks and concepts from HRI perspective to address these additional challenges, and to elevate the robots capabilities towards being socially intelligent