We introduce an algorithm for mining expressive temporal relationships from complex data. Our algorithm, AprioriSetsAndSequences (ASAS), extends the Apriori algorithm to data sets in which a single data instance may consist of a combination of attribute values that are nominal sequences, time series, sets, and traditional relational values. Datasets of this type occur naturally in many domains including health care, financial analysis, complex system diagnostics, and domains in which multi-sensors are used. AprioriSetsAndSequences identifies predefined events of interest in the sequential data attributes. It then mines for association rules that make explicit all frequent temporal relationships among the occurrences of those events and relationships of those events and other data attributes. Our algorithm inherently handles different levels of time granularity in the same data set. We have implemented AprioriSetsAndSequences within the Weka environment and have applied it to computer performance, stock market, and clinical sleep disorder data. We show that AprioriSetsAndSequences produces rules that express significant temporal relationships that describe patterns of behavior observed in the data set.

Le sport, objet de la modernité, existe sous une forme communautaire chez les populations immigrées installées dans la Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux (CUB) depuis les années 30. Dans cette même région, au sein de la population marocaine, la pratique sportive associative s’observe dès la fin des années 70, avec la création d’équipes de football liées à la volonté politique de la part du gouvernement marocain de surveiller ses migrants pensés comme pendulaires. On assiste alors à l’émergence d’un conglomérat d’équipes de football très fermées qui ne survivent que quelques années. Au début des années 90, les premières associations étudiantes culturelles marocaines voient dans la pratique sportive un outil pour attirer et souder la communauté étudiante marocaine. En même temps, dans la commune de Pessac, le club de l’USSAP Boxe est créé par des Marocains, responsables d’une association culturelle dédiée aux musiques du Maghreb. Le club de boxe devient alors un espace où les logiques sociétaires prennent le pas sur les logiques communautaires et où l’excellence sportive semble être le moteur principal. Les tissus associatifs marocains se constituent donc sous forme de constellations dans la CUB et illustrent le rôle parfois complexe joué par les cultures sportives pour les populations immigrées. Par le biais de la frontière comme objet heuristique, une comparaison entre les associationnismes portugais et marocains met en avant la disparition progressive des logiques communautaires dans les associations sportives au profit de la modernité sportive qui recherche l’excellence et qui oblige ces clubs à s’ouvrir et perdre leur valence communautaire. Du côté des pratiques plus traditionnelles, on constate l’absence de culture physique chez les Marocains là où les danses traditionnelles portugaises contribuent à construire des espaces d’entre-soi fermés. / Sport, object of modernity, exists in a communal form in immigrant populations settled in the Bordeaux Urban Community (Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux - CUB) since the 1930s. Within the Moroccan population in the same region, associative sport was observed in the late 1970s with the creation of football teams related to political will on the part of the Moroccan government to monitor its emigrants who might return to Morocco. This resulted in the emergence of a conglomerate of ‘closed’ football teams that survived only a few years. In the early 1990s, the first Moroccan student cultural associations saw in sport a tool to attract and unite the Moroccan student community. Meanwhile, in the commune of Pessac, the USSAP Boxing Club was created by Moroccans responsible for a cultural association dedicated to the music of the Maghreb. The boxing club became a space where the vision of its members was overriding the opinion of the community and where sporting excellence seemed to be the driving force. Therefore the Moroccan associative networks were formed as constellations within the Bordeaux Urban Community and illustrated the sometimes complex role that sports cultures played amongst the immigrant populations. Through boundary as a heuristic object, a comparison between the Portuguese and Moroccan associate activity highlights the gradual disappearance of communal visions in sports associations for the benefit of modernity of sport, seeking excellence and at the same time forcing the clubs to open up and therefore reduce their alterity.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Les systèmes intelligents sont de plus en plus présents dans notre société à l’instar des systèmes de surveillance et de protection de sites civils ou militaires. Leur but est de détecter les intrus et remonter une alarme ou une menace à un opérateur distant. Dans nos travaux, nous nous intéressons à de tels systèmes avec comme objectif de gérer au mieux la qualité de l’information présentée à l’opérateur en termes de fiabilité et précision. Nous nous concentrons sur la modalité image en vue de gérer des détections à la fois incertaines et imprécises de façon à présenter des objets fiables à l’opérateur.Pour préciser notre problème nous posons les contraintes suivantes. La première est que le système soit modulaire, l’une des briques (ou sous-fonctions) du système étant la détection de fragments correspondant potentiellement à des objets. Notre deuxième contrainte est alors de n’utiliser que des informations issues de la géométrie des détections fragmentaires : localisation spatiale dans l’image et taille des détections. Une menace est alors supposée d’autant plus importante que les détections sont de tailles importantes et temporellement persistantes.Le cadre formel choisi est la théorie des fonctions de croyance qui permet de modéliser des données à la fois imprécises et incertaines. Les contributions de cette thèse concernent la représentation des objets en termes de localisation imprécise et incertaine et le filtrage des objets.La représentation pertinente des informations est un point clé pour les problèmes d’estimation ou la prise de décision. Une bonne représentation se reconnaît au fait qu’en découlent des critères simples et performants pour résoudre des sous-problèmes. La représentation proposée dans cette thèse a été valorisée par le fait qu’un critère d’association entre nouvelles détections (fragments) et objets en construction, a pu être défini d’une façon simple et rigoureuse. Rappelons que cette association est une étape clé pour de nombreux problèmes impliquant des données non étiquettées, ce qui étend notre contribution au-delà de l’application considérée.Le filtrage des données est utilisé dans de nombreuses méthodes ou algorithmes pour robustifier les résultats en s’appuyant sur la redondance attendue des données s’opposant à l’inconsistance du bruit. Nous avons alors formulé ce problème en termes d’estimation dynamique d’un cadre de discernement contenant les ‘vraies hypothèses’. Ce cadre est estimé dynamiquement avec la prise en compte de nouvelles données (ou observations) permettant de détecter deux principaux types d’erreurs : la duplication de certaines hypothèses (objets dans notre application), la présence de fausses alarmes (dues au bruit ou aux fausses détections dans notre cas).Pour finir nous montrons la possibilité de coupler nos briques de construction des objets et de filtrage de ces derniers avec une brique de suivi utilisant des informations plus haut niveau, telle que les algorithmes de tracking classiques de traitement d’image.Mots clés: théorie des fonctions des croyances, association de données, filtrage. / Intelligent systems are more and more present in our society, like the systems of surveillance and civilian or military sites protection. Their purpose is to detect intruders and present the alarms or threats to a distant operator. In our work, we are interested in such systems with the aim to better handle the quality of information presented to the operator in terms of reliability and precision. We focus on the image modality and we have to handle detections that are both uncertain and imprecise in order to present reliable objects to the operator.To specify our problem, we consider the following constraints. The first one is that the system is modular; one subpart of the system is the detection of fragments corresponding potentially to objects. Our second constraint is then to use only information derived from the geometry of these fragmentary detections: spatial location in the image and size of the detections. Then, a threat is supposed all the more important as the detections have an important size and are temporally persistent.The chosen formal framework is the belief functions theory that allows modeling imprecise and uncertain data. The contributions of this thesis deal with the objects representation in terms of imprecise and uncertain location of the objects and object filtering.The pertinent representation of information is a key point for estimation problems and decision making. A representation is good when simple and efficient criteria for the resolution of sub problems can be derived. The representation proposed has allowed us to derive, in a simple and rigorous way, an association criterion between new detections (fragments) and objects under construction. We remind that this association is a key step for several problems with unlabelled data that extends our contribution beyond of the considered application.Data filtering is used in many methods and algorithms to robustify the results using the expected data redundancy versus the noise inconsistency. Then, we formulated our problem in terms of dynamic estimation of a discernment frame including the 'true hypotheses'. This frame is dynamically estimated taking into account the new data (or observations) that allow us to detect two main types of errors, namely the duplication of some hypotheses (objects in our application) and the presence of false alarms (due to noise or false detections in our case).Finally, we show the possibility of coupling our sub-functions dealing with object construction and their filtering with a tracking process using higher level information such as classical tracking algorithm in image processing.Keywords: belief functions theory, data association, filtering.

Cette thèse porte sur les rapports de pouvoir dans les associations d’entraide féminines. La sous-représentation des femmes dans les instances décisionnelles, justifiée par les formes de leadership féminins, notamment d’absence de pouvoir, nous ont conduite à la question de l’exercice de pouvoir au sein de ces associations. Nous avons posé l’hypothèse que les associations féminines tendent à instituer de nouvelles formes de pratiques dont les cadres de référence s’inscrivent dans des chaines complexes de solidarité et de pouvoir, combinant des rapports de réciprocité tout en articulant intérêts collectifs et intérêts individuels. Pour cela, nous proposons une approche des associations féminines par l’analyse des rapports de pouvoir, où sont inclus des intérêts collectifs mais également des intérêts individuels. Nous avons étudié ces phénomènes à travers les observations de terrain notamment dans les associations de tontine, les associations ethniques et les associations de marchés et nous montrons que les pratiques d’entraide et de solidarité qui fondent ces associations sont remises en cause par des logiques de pouvoir, et d’accumulation de certains leaders. L’étude de ces associations laisse apparaître des luttes âpres pour leur contrôle et des modes de gestion de pouvoir autocratiques qui ne laissent pas de place à l’alternance à la tête de ces associations. / This dissertation explores power relationships in women mutual aid associations. Women underrepresentation in decision-making teams, which is justified by female leadership properties and notably lack of power, has led to the question of power exercise in those associations. We hypothesize that women associations create new practices whose reference frames are made of complex power and solidarity chains, intertwining reciprocal relationships as well as group and individual interests. To this end, we approach women associations under the power relationships angle where group interests mix with individual ones. We proceed through field observations in tontine groups, ethnic associations and market retailers associations. We show that mutual aid and solidarity practices are damaged by power relationships and some leader’s accumulation logics. Study of women associations shows fierce control taking contests. Autocratic power management methods prevent changes of management team.

Denna uppsats diskuterar den komplexa och undermedvetna process som ger upphov till spontana musikaliska idéer. Förhoppningen med detta arbete är att fungera som underlag för vidare och mer utarbetade teorier kring uppkomsten av spontana musikaliska idéer och hur vi kan kombinera vår intuitiva och diskursiva kunskap i syfte att få mer originella idéer. För att uppnå syfte har fyra musikaliska verk inspirerade av färger skrivits med fokus på det melodiska innehållet. De fyra verken är komponerade utan instrument (Idémedium) och har sedan på gehör programmerats och arrangerats (digitalt) med utgångspunkt i de respektive färgunderlagen. Övningen har sedan utvärderats och diskuterats med utgångspunkt i de idéer om den intuitiva härledningsprocessen som formulerats i samband med arbetet. Produkterna av de fyra musikaliska verken för detta arbete uppvisar tydliga olikheter sinsemellan. Vissa tydligt medvetna associationer går direkt att härleda ur respektive färgunderlag samtidigt som vissa mer svårmotiverade val har gjorts under komponerings- och arrangeringsprocessen. / This study has been formed through a series of thoughts regarding the complex and subconscious process that form spontaneous musical ideas - the process of intuition. The expectations with this essay is to underlay future, and more thorough, theories about the origin of spontaneous ideas and how we can combine our intuitive knowledge and our discursive knowledge in order to get more original ideas. In an attempt to test how spontaneous musical ideas might get affected by the use of a medium for translating ideas (in this case a musical instrument) four songs have been composed without the use of musical instruments. In the process of composing the songs, colours have figured as a source of inspiration in an attempt to “force” the intuitive process to take less direct ways to a source of information based on past experience of music. The argument for this is that a colour is a non-musical stimulus which in contrast to a musical stimulus (something with musical qualities to it) makes it harder for our intuition to take shortcuts to relevant data based on our past experiences of music. The four songs later got lightly arranged with an intuitive approach, which in this case means to ”as little as possible” reflect (discursively) over the choices of instruments and other aspects of the arrangement. This exercise has then been discussed and evaluated with reference to my assumptions about the intuitive process. The result of i this exercise shows four songs that are remarkably different from one another and also some potentially ”unwanted” side effects of the chosen method for testing these ideas.

L2 (second or foreign language) research indicates that vocabulary knowledge is not only the “single best predictor of text comprehension,” but also a strong indicator of listening, speaking, and writing proficiency (Alderson, 2000, p. 35). Understanding the development of vocabulary knowledge, including both vocabulary size and vocabulary depth, or quality of vocabulary knowledge—is therefore essential to the building of an overall insight into L2 proficiency. This study aims to explore the developmental status of vocabulary depth among postsecondary CFL (Chinese as a foreign language) learners of higher proficiency levels who have studied Chinese for over four years. In particular, it focuses on these learners' identification of two types of word association—synonym and collocational associations and how factors such as association type and target-word frequency impact association identification. The process and strategy use that are involved in the inference of word association are also explored. For these purposes, this study employs a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Cross-sectional data were collected through a paper-and-pencil test of Chinese word associates from seventeen learners within five postsecondary CFL programs in the U.S. Each participant worked on two test booklets assessing synonym and collocational associates respectively for the same 44 adjectives selected from the three word frequency levels of below 1000, between 1000 and 5000, and above 5000. A two-factor within-subjects ANOVA revealed both significant main effects for association type and word frequency on association identification and a significant interaction between the two. Simple effect analysis and pair-wise comparisons further revealed that association identification became increasingly stronger with the increase of word frequency for collocational association, yet remained non-impacted by frequency before reaching the mid- to high-frequency transition for synonym association. Meanwhile, CFL learners' collocational knowledge was significantly higher than synonym knowledge at mainly the medium- and high-frequency levels. These reslts indicate that synonym knowledge seemed to lag behind in development as familiarity with words increased, but began to catch up at higher-frequency levels. Interview data collected from six CFL learners show that they employed a wide variety of knowledge sources, such as radical knowledge, morphological knowledge, contextual clues, sound information, or L1 in inferring word association. Inference success seemed to be influenced not only by their preexisting word knowledge, but also an integrated and flexible use of linguistic and contextual information in the inference process. Implications of these findings are discussed in relevance to curriculum and pedagogical development of CFL teaching and the understanding and definition of CFL proficiency in general. This study fills a gap in CFL vocabulary research by building a tentative measure of vocabulary depth and bringing greater insights into the developmental status of higher-level CFL learners in synonym and collocational association as well as the process that is involved in inference of word association.

Variations in gene expression have long been hypothesised to be the major cause of individual differences. An initial focus of this research thesis is to elucidate the genetic regulatory architecture of gene expression. Expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) mapping analyses have been performed on expression levels of over 22,000 mRNAs from three tissues of a panel of recombinant inbred mice. These analyses are "single-locus" where "linkage" (i.e. significant correlation) between an expression trait and a putative eQTL is considered independently of other loci. Major conclusions from these analyses are: 1. Gene expression is mainly influenced by genetic (sequence) variations that act in trans rather than in cis; 2. Subsets of genes are controlled by master regulators that influence multiple genes; 3. Gene expression is a polygenic trait with multiple regulators. Single-locus mapping analyses are not designed for detecting multiple regulators of gene expression, and so observation of multiple-linkages (i.e. one expression trait mapped to multiple eQTLs) formed the basis of the second objective of this research project: to investigate the relationship between multiple-linkages and genotype pattern-association. A locus-pair is said to have associated genotype patterns if they have similar inheritance pattern across a panel of individuals, and these are attributed to one of fours sources: 1. linkage disequilibrium between loci located on the same chromosome; 2. non-syntenic association; 3. random association; 4. un-associated. To understand the validity of multiple-linkages observed in single-locus mapping studies, a newly developed method, bqtl.twolocus, is applied to confirm two-locus effects for a total of 898 out of 1,233 multiple-linkages identified from the three studies mentioned above as well as from seven publicly available eQTL-mapping studies. Combining these results with information of genotype pattern-association, a subset of 478 multiple-linkages has been deduced for which there is high confidence to be real.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Psychology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Aktieägaravtal är ett frekvent använt sätt att mellan delägare i ett aktiebolag reglera frågor avseende det gemensamma aktieägandet. Aktieägaravtalet reglerar många gånger frågor som även i bolagsordningen reglerats. Vid ingående av ett aktieägaravtal riskerar en normkollision uppstå: är det bolagsordningsnormen som ska gälla eller är det aktieägaravtalet? Då rättsläget rörande sådana normkollisioner är oklart, är det av intresse att undersöka om en jämförelse mellan bolagsordning och aktieägaravtal kan klargöra rättsläget. Analysen har möjliggjorts genom insamling av historiska argument rörande bolagsordningens likhet med aktieägaravtal. Dessa argument härleds sedan till nu gällande rätt i den mån det är möjligt. Analysen baserar sig även på en beskrivning av aktieägaravtalet samt vissa avtalsrättsliga aspekter rörande tolkning. Resultatet av framställningen är att bolagsordning och aktieägaravtal uppvisar sådana likheter att en jämförelse kan göras för att lösa normkollisioner genom tillämpning av vissa avtalsrättsliga aspekter rörande tolkning. Vad som härvidlag framkommer är för det första att bolagsordningen genom dess tvingande normer begränsar vad som med aktiebolagsrättslig verkan kan föreskrivas i aktieägaravtal. För det andra, när alla aktieägare inte är part till aktieägaravtalet får parterna istället göra vad de kan för att söka uppfylla avtalets innehåll. Slutligen kan lojalitetsplikt användas för att fastställa hur aktieägaravtalet ska tillämpas för att så långt som möjligt undgå normkollisioner mellan bolagsordning och aktieägaravtal. / Shareholders agreements are a frequently used form for regulating issues arising as a result of a common interest as owners in a joint-stock company. The shareholder agreement often regulates issues already regulated in the articles of association. When entering into a shareholders agreement standard collisions may occur: shall the articles of association or the shareholders agreement supersede? As the legal situation as regards such standard collisions is unclear, it is of interest to find out if a comparison between the articles of association and shareholders agreement can clarify the legal situation. The analysis has been made possible by looking at the history. In the retrospective, arguments regarding the similarity of the articles of association and shareholders agreement are identified. Then these arguments are derived to current law to the extent possible. The analysis is also based of a description of the shareholders agreement and certain contractual aspects of interpretation. The result of the thesis is that the articles of association and shareholders agreements are similar to that extent that a comparison between the two can be conducted in order to solve standard collisions through an application of certain contractual aspects of interpretation. In this respect, firstly, the articles of association limit through its mandatory standards the issues that can be legally regulated in a shareholders agreement. Secondly, if not all shareholders are part to the shareholders agreement the parties have to do what they can to make sure the agreement is fulfilled. Finally, the duty of loyalty can be applied to determine an application of shareholders agreement that avoid standard collisions between the articles of association and the shareholders agreement.