Orientador: João Antonio da Costa Andrade / Banca: Mario Luiz Teixeira de Moraes / Banca: José Branco de Miranda Filho / Resumo: Este trabalho foi desenvolvido com o objetivo de verificar o progresso com seleção recorrente nos Compostos Flintisa e Dentado, além da potencialidade dos mesmos para um possível uso como variedades comerciais. Observou-se que os rendimentos médios dos melhores ciclos de seleção do Flintisa e do Dentado equipararam-se com as melhores cultivares comerciais, apresentando rendimento de 5,5 t/ha e 5,3 t/ha na condição de baixa tecnologia e 7,3 t/ha e 7,7 t/ha na condição de alta tecnologia, respectivamente. O ganho com seleção para menor altura de espigas foi quantificado em um decréscimo de 1,2% ao longo de doze ciclos seletivos no Flintisa e 11,9% ao longo dos quatro últimos ciclos seletivos no Dentado, na avaliação conjunta dos ambientes de alta e baixa tecnologia. Ao longo de todo o processo seletivo houve uma resposta correlacionada de -4,1%/ciclo no acamamento do Flintisa na avaliação em baixa tecnologia e de -5,2%/ciclo no Dentado em alta tecnologia. Os resultados indicam que a seleção foi eficiente em aumentar o rendimento e diminuir a altura de espigas quando o processo seletivo foi voltado especificamente para esses caracteres. A continuidade do programa deve ter como base a seleção entre progênies para REND e AE conjuntamente nos próximos ciclos, em ambos os compostos. / Abstract: This research was developed aiming to verify the progress after recurrent selection in Flintisa and Dentado Composite of maize, as well as the potentiality of the same population for a possible commercial use. It was observed that grain yield representing the best cycles of selection of Flintisa and Dentado (5.5 and 5.3 t/ha, in low technology; and 7.3 and 7.7 t/ha in high technology, respectively) were compared with the best commercial cultivars. The effect of selection on ear height resulted an average decrease of 1.2% after 12 cycles in Flintisa and 11.9% after four cycles in Dentado, evaluated under low and high technology. Along the selective process, the correlated responses for plant lodging were -4.1% per cycle for Flintisa in low technology and -5.2% per cycle in Dentado in high technology. The overall results indicated that selection was effective to increase grain yield and reduce ear height when the selection process was directed specifically for each trait. The continuity of the program shell is based on selection among progenies simultaneously for higher grain yield and lower ear height. / Mestre

We implement a state-of-the-art question answering system based on Convolutional Neural Networks and Attention Mechanisms and include four different variants of answer triggering that have been discussed in recent literature. The mechanisms are included in different places in the architecture and work with different information and mechanisms. We train, develop and test our models on the popular SQuAD data set for Question Answering based on Reading Comprehension that has in its latest version been equipped with additional non-answerable questions that have to be retrieved by the systems. We test the models against baselines and against each other and provide an extensive evaluation both in a general question answering task and in the explicit performance of the answer triggering mechanisms. We show that the answer triggering mechanisms all clearly improve the model over the baseline without answer triggering by as much as 19.6% to 31.3% depending on the model and the metric. The best performance in general question answering shows a model that we call Candidate:No, that treats the possibility that no answer can be found in the document as just another answer candidate instead of having an additional decision step at some place in the model's architecture as in the other three mechanisms. The performance on detecting the non-answerable questions is very similar in three of the four mechanisms, while one performs notably worse. We give suggestions which approach to use when a more or less conservative approach is desired, and discuss suggestions for future developments.

Esta pesquisa consistiu na verificação do comportamento do reator UASB de bancada (volume igual a 10,5 litros), quando submetido a variações senoidais de vazão afluente, comparando-se com a eficiência no seu funcionamento com vazão constante, através de análises de amostras de afluentes e efluentes. O reator UASB utilizado foi montado no Laboratório de Processos Biológicos da EESC-USP dentro de uma câmara com temperatura constante de 30 ± 3°C, e alimentado com esgoto sintético, com DQO de 500 mg/l, 750 mg/l e 1000 mg/l. O reator foi inoculado em abril de 1999, com 3,5 litros de lodo anaeróbio proveniente de um reator compartimentado, também situado na EESC-USP. Devido à dificuldade de atingir um valor esperado para a eficiência de remoção de Matéria orgânica, foi dada nova partida no reator, em julho de 1999, desta vez com lodo proveniente de outro UASB. Após a segunda partida, o reator operou com vazão constante e DQO afluente em torno de 500 mg/l até setembro de 1999, com média de remoção de DQO bruta de 75% no período, passando-se, então, à fase de variação senoidal de vazão de forma que o máximo e o mínimo fossem de ±30%, ±45% e ±60% da vazão média. Para este regime, obteve-se 80% de eficiência média de remoção de DQO bruta. Os valores de pH, alcalinidade e ácidos voláteis foram praticamente constantes durante a operação. Os perfis de remoção de DQO ao longo do dia mostraram uma pequena queda na eficiência do reator, aproximadamente 1,5 vezes o tempo de detenção hidráulica médio (8 horas), após os máximos de vazão para o regime de variação de vazão de ±30% e ±45% e 2,5 vezes o tempo de detenção hidráulica médio, para variação e ±60%. O mesmo experimento foi repetido para DQO afluente de 1000 mg/l e obteve-se, em média, eficiências de 65% de remoção de DQO. / This research consisted in the UASB reactor performance verification when it was submitted to sine-based variations of loading rate, in comparison to its normal operation. The UASB reactor used was set up at the Biological Process Laboratory of EESC-USP, inside a camera with temperature of 30°C ± 3°C. It was fed with synthetic sewage (COD = 500, 750 and 1000 mg/l). After start-up, the reactor was operated with constant loading rate (COD = 500 mg/l) until September 1999. The organic matter removal average in this period was 75%. Then, it was initiated the phase of sine-based variation loading rate (±30%, ±45% and ±60%). In this regime, it was obtained a medium gross COD removal efficiency of 80%. The pH values, alkalinity and volatile acids were practically constant during the operation. The COD removal profiles during the day showed a subtle fall in the reactor efficiency after 1.5 times the medium hydraulic detection time, for the loading rate variation of ±30% and ±45%. For ±60% variation, the answer time was approximately 2.5 times the medium hydraulic detection time. The efficiency of gross COD removal stay however over 78,53% until the experiment 9, witch showed that the reactor can stand the loading rate variations. The efficiency of filtered COD removal decreased on the second experiment, came back to the initial values and decreased again. The values of variation didn\'t surpass 6,6% for gross COD and 8,43% for filtered COD.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-06-26T19:12:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rosivaldo Toscano dos Santos Júnior.pdf: 1193171 bytes, checksum: a3313a4b0a9478f1120d823247b76270 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-26T19:12:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rosivaldo Toscano dos Santos Júnior.pdf: 1193171 bytes, checksum: a3313a4b0a9478f1120d823247b76270 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-20 / Nenhuma / O estudo investiga duas posturas que deformam a interpretação do direito no Brasil e propõe a solução para resolver esse problema. Identifica, em ambas, o decisionismo fundado na vontade de poder, rompendo-se a normatividade. Na cúpula, sob a ideia do Judiciário como corporação, e a pretexto de maior eficiência, mas na vontade do Mercado, são importados institutos que, pretensamente, seriam da common law, mas que estão fora do contexto de sua criação e são aplicados de maneira deturpada, ou por não guardarem as especificidade do caso concreto ou por se descolarem na normatividade, constituem exercício escamoteado da vontade de poder. Súmulas, vinculantes ou não, e pretensos precedentes geram violência contra a independência funcional do magistrado de instâncias inferiores e contra as partes, pois a atribuição de sentidos não advém do caso concreto. Nas bases do Judiciário, nosso estudo investiga a predominância da aceitação acrítica e obediente desse common law à brasileira, expresso em súmulas e em enunciados assertóricos abstratizados. Criam-se mimetismos. Contudo, nossa formação histórica autoritária e estamental impede a percepção de que há uma diferença ontológica entre potestas e potentia - de que um não subsiste sem ou outro sem que se torne poder ilegítimo. Assim, nas bases o fenômeno do decisionismo subsiste como prática suplementar, numa aprendizagem por observação das cúpulas - a modelagem, criando-se ou se aderindo a princípios ad-hoc e a conceitos assertóricos. Tanto verticalmente (hierarquização - solipsismo da cúpula para as bases) quanto horizontalmente (solipsismo pelas bases), rompe-se a autonomia do direito, seja pela política, seja pela economia. "Liberdade do intérprete" como pretexto para a libertinagem normativa. "Eficiência econômica" como deficiência normativa. Outrora, o discurso patrimonialista em prol dos estamentos. Hoje, o discurso econômico neoliberal. Invade-se o direito pela economia, dessa vez em forma de Cavalo-de-Tróia: a análise econômica do direito - AED. Substitui-se a normatividade pelo utilitarismo mercadológico. Os pré-juízos inautênticos que sustentam essa dupla deformação hermenêutica nascem de um condicionamento operante (estímulo-reforço) dos profissionais do direito, desde os bancos de faculdade até a atividade profissional e, atingindo, em especial, seu principal destinatário: o magistrado. Esse discurso de poder produz realidades - tetos epistemológicos que encobrem o fato de que: a) só há interpretação no caso concreto porque não existem conceitos desprovidos de faticidade; b) não cabe argumento de autoridade para além da normatividade; c) a importação de teorias estrangeiras precisa sofrer um processo de compatibilização com nossa realidade jurídica, social, política e econômica. A partir do giro ontológico-linguístico, com a superação do esquema sujeito-objeto da filosofia da consciência e a consideração da diferença ontológica (ser e ente; texto e norma), dá-se o desvelamento da interpretação como existencial, e de que os sentidos não advêm da vontade do sujeito autônomo da modernidade, mas de uma intersubjetividade, de uma verdade que advém da fusão de horizontes dentro de uma tradição, bem como da importância da integridade e coerência do direito. A resposta constitucionalmente correta não pode depender da consciência do juiz, do livre convencimento, da busca da "verdade real". Decidir não é, definitivamente, escolher. / The study investigates two positions that distort the interpretation of law in Brazil and proposes a solution to solve this problem. Identifies, in both, the decisionism founded on the will to power, breaking up normativity. The idea of the judiciary as a corporation dominates the Supreme Court and the National Council of Justice. They imports institutes that would be the common law. Except that out of context, under the guise of efficiency and in accordance with the will of the market. Are concealed exercise of will power for neglecting the specificity of the case and normativity. Dockets, binding or not, and pseudoprecedents would generate violence against the functional independence of the judges of low courts and against the litigants because the attribution of meaning doesn’t comes the case. In the basis of the judiciary, our study investigates the prevalence of uncritical and obedient to this “Brasilian’s common law”, expressed in dockets and abstract statements. It creates memes. However, our national government history was authoritative and the states interrupts the perception that there is an ontological difference between potestas and potentia – that one can not exist without the other, or without it becoming illegitimate power. Thus, on the basis, the decisionism phenomenon subsists as an extra practice in a learning by observation of summit - modeling, creating or sticking to ad-hoc principles and abstracts concepts. Both vertically (hierarchical - solipsism from supreme court to the basis) and horizontally (on the low courts), it breaks up the autonomy of law, whether in politics and in the economy. “Freedom of the interpreter” as a pretext for libertinism of rules. “Economic efficiency” as disabiliting rules. Erstwhile, speaking on behalf of the casts. Today, neoliberal economic discourse. The economy invades the law, this time in the form of Trojan horse: the Economic Analysis of Law. Replaces up normativity by merchandising utilitarianism. The inauthentic prejudice that sustain this double deformation of hermeneutic born from a operant conditioning (stimulus-reinforcement) of legal practitioners from college to professional activity, and reaching, in particular, its main destination: the judges. This discourse of power produces realities - epistemological ceilings that hide the fact that: a) there is only interpretation in this case because there are no concepts without facticity; b) does not fit the argument from authority beyond normativity; c) the importation of foreign theories must undergo a process of 13 reconciling with our legal, social, political and economic reality. From the ontological-linguistic turn, with the overcoming of the subject-object scheme of the philosophy of consciousness and consideration of the ontological difference (between Being and beings, and text and norm), there is the unveiling of interpretation as existential and the senses will not come from the autonomous subject of modernity, but under intersubjectivity, a truth that comes from the fusion of horizons within a tradition as well as the importance of integrity and coherence of the law. The constitutionally correct answer can not depend on awareness of the judge, the free conviction or from search of the “real truth”. Deciding is not choose, definitely.

La maladie de Crohn (MC) est une maladie inflammatoire chronique du tube digestif caractérisée par un état d’hyperactivation du système immunitaire intestinal. L’étiologie de cette maladie est encore mal connue mais les données cliniques et expérimentales montrent que l’étiologie de la MC fait intervenir des facteurs environnementaux, génétiques et infectieux entraînant une réponse immunitaire aberrante. A ce jour, aucun traitement spécifique n’est disponible et la MC représente un problème majeur de santé publique de par ses conséquences invalidantes, sa nature chronique et récidivante, et sa prévalence croissante. Plusieurs groupes dont le nôtre ont rapporté une colonisation anormale de la muqueuse intestinale des patients atteints de MC par des souches de E. coli adhérentes et invasives dénommées AIEC. La caractérisation des souches AIEC a montré qu’elles sont capables d’adhérer et d’envahir des cellules épithéliales intestinales, de survivre et se multiplier dans des macrophages et d’induire une forte réponse pro-inflammatoire. Des études récentes ont montré que l’autophagie est induite dans les cellules hôtes en réponse à l’infection par les AIEC afin de contrôler la réplication intracellulaire des AIEC.Les travaux menés au cours de cette thèse visent à étudier les mechanismes moleculaires impliqués dans l’interaction entre l’hôte et les AIEC avec 2 objectifs principaux : (i) étudier l’implication des exosomes dans les interactions hôte/AIEC, (ii) étudier l’implication de la voie de signalisation GCN2/eIF2α/ATF4 dans la réponse autophagique à l’infection par les AIEC. Concernant le premier axe de recherche, les résultats ont permis de mettre en lumière une fonction jusque-là inconnue des exosomes dans la communication cellule à cellule au cours des réponses de l’hôte à l’infection par les AIEC. Ainsi, nous avons mis en évidence que les exosomes sont impliqués à la fois dans la réplication intracellulaire des AIEC et dans les réponses immunitaires innées des cellules hôtes à l’infection. Les résultats du deuxième axe de recherche ont permis de révéler un rôle essentiel de la voie de signalisation GCN2/eIF2α/ATF4 dans la réponse autophagique de l’hôte à l’infection par les AIEC associés à la MC. Nous avons démontré que l’infection par les souches AIEC conduit à l’activation de cette voie de signalisation, entraînant la mise en place d’une machinerie autophagique efficace pour contrôler la réplication intracellulaire des AIEC et inhiber l’inflammation. / Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the digestive tract characterized by a state of hyperactivation of the intestinal immune system. The etiology of this disease is still poorly understood, but clinical and experimental data show that the etiology of CD involves environmental, genetic and infectious factors leading to an aberrant immune response. To date, no specific treatment is available and CD represents a major public health problem due to its disabling consequences, its chronic and recurrent nature, and its increasing prevalence. Several groups, including ours, have reported abnormal colonization of the intestinal mucosa of CD patients with adherent and invasive E. coli strains called AIEC. The characterization of AIEC strains has shown that they are able to adhere and invade intestinal epithelial cells, survive and multiply in macrophages and induce a strong pro-inflammatory response. Recent studies have shown that autophagy is induced in host cells in response to AIEC infection in order to control the intracellular replication of AIEC. The work conducted during this thesis aims to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in interaction between host and AIEC with 2 main objectives: (i) to study the involvement of exosomes in host / AIEC interactions, (ii) to study the involvement of the GCN2 / eIF2α / ATF4 signaling pathway in the response autophagic to infection with AIEC. With regard to the first line of research, the results shed light on a hitherto unknown function of exosomes in cell-to-cell communication during host responses to AIEC infection. Thus, we have shown that exosomes are involved in both intracellular replication of AIECs and innate immune responses of host cells to infection. The results of the second line of research revealed a critical role for the GCN2 / eIF2α / ATF4 signaling pathway in the host autophagic response to AIEC infection associated with CD. We have shown that infection with AIEC strains leads to activation of this signaling pathway, leading to the establishment of autophagic machinery that is effective in controlling intracellular replication of AIEC and inhibiting inflammation.

The purpose of the research reported in this monograph has been twofold. First, it aims at contributing to an inquiry of the ways in which language and context are intertwined. Second, it aims at giving a characterization of a specific communicative event, second language teaching. The study starts out from a broad social-theoretical perspective, inspired by language game theory and ethnomethodology, as well as Goffman's (1974) 'frame analysis' and the work of Ragnar Rommetveit (1974, 1987). Levinson's (1979) notion 'activity type' is used in exploring how relevance criteria and frames of interpretation vary with the context of the activity in which language is used. The empirical material for the study consists of eight dyadic lessons of Swedish as a second language in grades 4-6 of the Swedish comprehensive, compulsory school. As material for comparison, the pupils, 10-12 year old boys from the Middle East, also participate in two non-didactic conversations around tasks defined by the research team, one together with his teacher of Swedish, one together with a class-mate of his. The first of the three empirical studies is a qualitative, discursive analysis of salient dialogue processes in language teaching activities. Abrupt shifts and breaks in the dialogue, misunderstandings, and lack of tuning between the conversational parties are interpreted as results of a tension between language at two levels in the language lesson. The dialogue in the language lessons of the corpus is characterized by an ambivalence between two perspectives on language, the ordinary, everyday perspective on language as a means for constructing and conveying messages versus the 'level 2 perspective', where language is seen as anabstract system of decontextualized linguistic items. The two other empirical studies are quantitatively oriented. In the first of these, important differences in dialogue processes, concerning dynamics, coherence and fluency are found between the lessons and the non-didactic conversations, as well as between different activities within the confines of a lesson. One of the most important results is that the teacher's interactional dominance seems to be systematically related to the content of lesson activities. The results of the last study suggest that in lessons, and especially language lessons proper, the pupil is givenfewer opportunities for talking and, also, that he refrains from taking the opportunities actually given to him. The main significance of the research is the demonstration of the dynamic character of linguistic communication and of the way in which linguistic meaning is the product of utterances being embedded in activities on which activity-specific premisses for communication are brought to bear. Also, the second language teaching situation is characterized as connected with particular communicative practices that are imbued with a certain degree of ambivalence and ambiguity.

While automated game playing systems like Deep Blue perform excellent within their domain, handling a different game or even a slight change of rules is impossible without intervention of the programmer. Considered a great challenge for Artificial Intelligence, General Game Playing is concerned with the development of techniques that enable computer programs to play arbitrary, possibly unknown n-player games given nothing but the game rules in a tailor-made description language. A key to success in this endeavour is the ability to reliably extract hidden game-specific features from a given game description automatically. An informed general game player can efficiently play a game by exploiting structural game properties to choose the currently most appropriate algorithm, to construct a suited heuristic, or to apply techniques that reduce the search space. In addition, an automated method for property extraction can provide valuable assistance for the discovery of specification bugs during game design by providing information about the mechanics of the currently specified game description. The recent extension of the description language to games with incomplete information and elements of chance further induces the need for the detection of game properties involving player knowledge in several stages of the game. In this thesis, we develop a formal proof method for the automatic acquisition of rich game-specific invariance properties. To this end, we first introduce a simple yet expressive property description language to address knowledge-free game properties which may involve arbitrary finite sequences of successive game states. We specify a semantic based on state transition systems over the Game Description Language, and develop a provably correct formal theory which allows to show the validity of game properties with respect to their semantic across all reachable game states. Our proof theory does not require to visit every single reachable state. Instead, it applies an induction principle on the game rules based on the generation of answer set programs, allowing to apply any off-the-shelf answer set solver to practically verify invariance properties even in complex games whose state space cannot totally be explored. To account for the recent extension of the description language to games with incomplete information and elements of chance, we correctly extend our induction method to properties involving player knowledge. With an extensive evaluation we show its practical applicability even in complex games.

Bildverarbeitungsanwendungen stellen besondere Ansprüche an das ausführende Rechensystem. Einerseits ist eine hohe Rechenleistung erforderlich. Andererseits ist eine hohe Flexibilität von Vorteil, da die Entwicklung tendentiell ein experimenteller und interaktiver Prozess ist. Für neue Anwendungen tendieren Entwickler dazu, eine Rechenarchitektur zu wählen, die sie gut kennen, anstatt eine Architektur einzusetzen, die am besten zur Anwendung passt. Bildverarbeitungsalgorithmen sind inhärent parallel, doch herkömmliche bildverarbeitende eingebettete Systeme basieren meist auf sequentiell arbeitenden Prozessoren. Im Gegensatz zu dieser "Unstimmigkeit" können hocheffiziente Systeme aus einer gezielten Synergie aus Software- und Hardwarekomponenten aufgebaut werden. Die Konstruktion solcher System ist jedoch komplex und viele Lösungen, wie zum Beispiel grobgranulare Architekturen oder anwendungsspezifische Programmiersprachen, sind oft zu akademisch für einen Einsatz in der Wirtschaft. Die vorliegende Arbeit soll ein Beitrag dazu leisten, die Komplexität von Hardware-Software-Systemen zu reduzieren und damit die Entwicklung hochperformanter on-Chip-Systeme im Bereich Bildverarbeitung zu vereinfachen und wirtschaftlicher zu machen. Dabei wurde Wert darauf gelegt, den Aufwand für Einarbeitung, Entwicklung als auch Erweiterungen gering zu halten. Es wurde ein Entwurfsfluss konzipiert und umgesetzt, welcher es dem Softwareentwickler ermöglicht, Berechnungen durch Hardwarekomponenten zu beschleunigen und das zu Grunde liegende eingebettete System komplett zu prototypisieren. Hierbei werden komplexe Bildverarbeitungsanwendungen betrachtet, welche ein Betriebssystem erfordern, wie zum Beispiel verteilte Kamerasensornetzwerke. Die eingesetzte Software basiert auf Linux und der Bildverarbeitungsbibliothek OpenCV. Die Verteilung der Berechnungen auf Software- und Hardwarekomponenten und die daraus resultierende Ablaufplanung und Generierung der Rechenarchitektur erfolgt automatisch. Mittels einer auf der Antwortmengenprogrammierung basierten Entwurfsraumexploration ergeben sich Vorteile bei der Modellierung und Erweiterung. Die Systemsoftware wird mit OpenEmbedded/Bitbake synthetisiert und die erzeugten on-Chip-Architekturen auf FPGAs realisiert. / Image processing applications have special requirements to the executing computational system. On the one hand a high computational power is necessary. On the other hand a high flexibility is an advantage because the development tends to be an experimental and interactive process. For new applications the developer tend to choose a computational architecture which they know well instead of using that one which fits best to the application. Image processing algorithms are inherently parallel while common image processing systems are mostly based on sequentially operating processors. In contrast to this "mismatch", highly efficient systems can be setup of a directed synergy of software and hardware components. However, the construction of such systems is complex and lots of solutions, like gross-grained architectures or application specific programming languages, are often too academic for the usage in commerce. The present work should contribute to reduce the complexity of hardware-software-systems and thus increase the economy of and simplify the development of high-performance on-chip systems in the domain of image processing. In doing so, a value was set on keeping the effort low on making familiar to the topic, on development and also extensions. A design flow was developed and implemented which allows the software developer to accelerate calculations with hardware components and to prototype the whole embedded system. Here complex image processing systems, like distributed camera sensor networks, are examined which need an operating system. The used software is based upon Linux and the image processing library OpenCV. The distribution of the calculations to software and hardware components and the resulting scheduling and generation of architectures is done automatically. The design space exploration is based on answer set programming which involves advantages for modelling in terms of simplicity and extensions. The software is synthesized with the help of OpenEmbedded/Bitbake and the generated on-chip architectures are implemented on FPGAs.

This qualitative study focused on four secondary school physics teachers in Bangladesh using semi-structured interviews and observations to explore their understanding about the relationship between practical work and developing students’ conceptual knowledge of physics. Recent studies indicate that practical work helps secondary science students easily and effectively learn the concepts and theories of physics. However, the secondary school physics teachers in Bangladesh in this study did not provide students with practical work during classroom teaching. Rather, they provided practical work in separate practical classes. Although the teachers believed that practical work made their teaching and also students’ learning easier and effective, they did not offer frequent practical demonstrations in teaching the contents of physics. The major findings of the study include that teachers used mostly transmissive pedagogy to assist students to understand physics concepts and theories. Even though there are clear and specific instructions for the teachers to do demonstrations in the secondary physics curriculum, there were constraints on teachers and on students trying to conduct practical work. Constraints included: a lack of sufficient equipment. Teachers and students in non-government schools faced comparatively more difficulties than those in government schools. Low teacher/student ratios and no positions for laboratory assistants were reasons given for teachers’ intense workloads. This study implies a need to provide government and non-government schools with necessary equipment for doing practical work; to appoint sufficient teachers with higher studies and training that includes practical work in physics; to create positions for laboratory assistants; to set up classrooms with a smaller number of students; and to develop awareness of the value of practical work among school administration and among physics teachers.

Deciphering the functioning of biological networks is one of the central tasks in systems biology. In particular, signal transduction networks are crucial for the understanding of the cellular response to external and internal perturbations. Importantly, in order to cope with the complexity of these networks, mathematical and computational modeling is required. We propose a computational modeling framework in order to achieve more robust discoveries in the context of logical signaling networks. More precisely, we focus on modeling the response of logical signaling networks by means of automated reasoning using Answer Set Programming (ASP). ASP provides a declarative language for modeling various knowledge representation and reasoning problems. Moreover, available ASP solvers provide several reasoning modes for assessing the multitude of answer sets. Therefore, leveraging its rich modeling language and its highly efficient solving capacities, we use ASP to address three challenging problems in the context of logical signaling networks: learning of (Boolean) logical networks, experimental design, and identification of intervention strategies. Overall, the contribution of this thesis is three-fold. Firstly, we introduce a mathematical framework for characterizing and reasoning on the response of logical signaling networks. Secondly, we contribute to a growing list of successful applications of ASP in systems biology. Thirdly, we present a software providing a complete pipeline for automated reasoning on the response of logical signaling networks.