Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Humanas, Departamento de Filosofia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia, 2013. / Submitted by Ana Cristina Barbosa da Silva (annabds@hotmail.com) on 2014-10-27T16:23:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2013_AnaLuisaLamounierCosta.pdf: 425710 bytes, checksum: be248a2ea2eb5ab8d331fa869818432b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tania Milca Carvalho Malheiros(tania@bce.unb.br) on 2014-10-29T11:26:24Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2013_AnaLuisaLamounierCosta.pdf: 425710 bytes, checksum: be248a2ea2eb5ab8d331fa869818432b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-29T11:26:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2013_AnaLuisaLamounierCosta.pdf: 425710 bytes, checksum: be248a2ea2eb5ab8d331fa869818432b (MD5) / A neurociencia como uma ciencia autonoma consolidou-se a partir de pouco antesda metade do seculo XX. Ela inclui conhecimentos provenientes de muitas areasdiferentes, incluindo a bioquimica, a biologia molecular, neurofisiologia, a ciencia dacomputacao e a psicologia comportamental. Os seus objetivos, problemas e a forma deelaborar explicacoes sao distintos das outras areas da biologia e das ciencias biomedicas.Um modelo de explicacao para a neurociencia precisa estar preparado para lidar com essasquestoes. A mais expressiva abordagem explicativa para a neurociencia, atualmente, e omodelo mecanistico-causal elaborado por Carl Craver em 2007. Segundo essa abordagem,explicacoes em neurociencia descrevem mecanismos, ou seja, como partes se organizam einteragem para produzir um fenomeno. Essas partes pertencem a varios niveis decomposicao e relacionam-se causalmente umas com as outras. Alem disso, a neurociencia eunificada quando cientistas das diversas areas que a compoem trabalham juntos paraelaborar mecanismos. Esse modelo foi extensamente discutido nos ultimos anos, tendosido levantadas diversas criticas contra eles. Algumas delas sao pertinentes e sugerem queele sofra alguns ajustes. Ainda assim, ele sobrevive como o mais robusto modelo paraexplicacoes em neurociencia existente. Esse trabalho apresenta-se como um estudo dessemodelo, bem como das criticas feitas a ele. ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / Neuroscience as an independent science was consolidated hardly before the firsthalf of the twentieth century. It encloses knowledge from many different areas, includingbiochemistry, molecular biology, neurophysiology, computer science and behavioralpsychology. Its purposes, its problems and how its explanations are formulated are distinctfrom other areas of biology and biomedical sciences. An explanatory model forneuroscience has to be prepared to deal with these questions. The most expressive accountof explanations in neuroscience is currently the causal-mechanistic model formulated byCarl Craver in 2007. According to him, explanations in neuroscience describe mechanisms,in other words, it points out how parts organize themselves and interact to engender thephenomenon. These parts belong to various levels of composition and are causally relatedto one another. Furthermore, neuroscience is unified when scientists from different areasthat compose it work together to develop mechanisms. This model was extensivelydiscussed in the last years and several criticisms were raised towards it. Some of them arerelevant and suggest some adjustments. Still, it remais as the soundest model forexplanations in neuroscience nowadays. This work is presented as a review of this model,as well as the critiques worked out against it.

No description available.

Este trabalho consiste em um estudo que focaliza a trajetória das mudanças linguísticas derivadas do item lexical vista até se chegar aos itens gramaticais, com acepção causal, haja vista, haja vista que, tendo em vista e tendo em vista que. O objetivo principal é descrever o processo de gramaticalização das locuções em vista de, haja vista, haja vista que, tendo em vista e tendo em vista que como elementos conectivos em Português, demonstrando os deslizamentos semânticos e as alterações morfossintáticas das construções estudadas e de suas variantes, analisando-se a função que exercem numa amostra de 3.801 enunciados que compõem seu corpus, todos provenientes do site Corpus do Português. Adota-se, neste estudo, o conceito de construção, segundo Goldberg (1995, 2003), como o pareamento convencional de forma e sentido, estando relacionadas à forma propriedades fonológicas, morfológicas e sintáticas e ao sentido, propriedades semânticas, pragmáticas e discursivo-funcionais. Este estudo fundamenta-se nos pressupostos da atual abordagem construcional da gramaticalização proposta por Bybee (2016) em que a emergência e o desenvolvimento de construções nas línguas devem-se à atuação de processos cognitivos de domínio geral, tais como, categorização, encadeamento e analogia. Em conformidade com essa abordagem, hipotiza-se que uma construção se gramaticaliza a partir do aumento de frequência de uma instância específica de um padrão estrutural existente e, com o aumento de frequência, tal instância pode vir a se tornar um chunk e, então, ser um exemplar da categoria a que pertence. A partir da análise dos dados do corpus, registra-se o continuum de construções, procedentes do item lexical vista, apontando-se cada um dos chunks desse processo de gramaticalização até se atingir o grau mais abstrato, ou seja, o de preposição ou de conjunção. Por conseguinte, em relação aos processos de gramaticalização das locuções em vista de, haja vista, haja vista que, tendo em vista e tendo em vista que, como elementos causais em Português, os chunks e os types podem ser esquematizados, do item mais concreto ao item mais abstrato, desta forma: item lexical vista => item lexical vista ~ item gramatical em vista de => item lexical vista ~ item gramatical em vista de ~ item gramatical tendo em vista => item lexical vista ~ item gramatical em vista de ~ item gramatical tendo em vista ~ item gramatical tendo em vista que e item lexical vista => item lexical vista ~ item gramatical em vista de => item lexical vista ~ item gramatical em vista de ~ item gramatical haja vista => item lexical vista ~ item gramatical em vista de ~ item gramatical haja vista ~ item gramatical haja vista que. Também verifica-se que a escolha do verbo ter ou do verbo haver para compor a construção afeta diretamente na quantidade, no tipo de categoria dos componentes, no tempo e no modo da forma verbal eleita para participar da expressão causal, tanto que se encontram registros de variantes das expressões estudadas, embora raros, no registro das construções havendo em vista e tenha vista que como conectivos causais. / This work focuses on the trajectory of the linguistic changes derived from the lexical item vista until reaching grammatical items, with causal meaning, em vista de, haja vista, haja vista que, tendo em vista and tendo em vista que. The main objective is to describe the process of grammaticalization of the locutions, em vista de, haja vista, haja vista que, tendo em vista and tendo em vista que as connective elements in Portuguese, demonstrating the semantic slides and morphosyntactic changes of the construction and their variants, the function they perform in a sample of 3,801 statements which are part of their corpus, all coming from the Corpus do Português website. According to Goldberg (1995, 2003), the concept of construction is used as the conventional pairing of form and meaning. The phonological, morphological and syntactic properties are related to form and to the meaning, semantic, pragmatic and discursive-functional properties. This study is based on the assumptions of the current constructional approach to grammaticalization proposed by Bybee (2016). In this approach, the emergence and development of language constructions is due to general domain cognitive processes, such as categorization, chaining, and analogy. In accordance with this approach, a construct is hypothesized to be grammaticalized from the frequency increase of a specific instance of an existing structural pattern and, with increasing frequency, such an instance may become a chunk, a copy of the category to which it belongs. From the analysis of the data of the corpus, we record the continuum of constructions, from the lexical item vista, pointing each one of the chunks of this process of grammaticalization until reaching the most abstract degree, that is, the one of preposition or of conjunction. Therefore, in relation to the grammaticalization processes of the locutions, em vista de, haja vista, haja vista que, tendo em vista e tendo em vista que, as causal elements in Portuguese, chunks and types can be schematized, from the most concrete item to the most abstract item, in this way: lexical item vista => lexical item vista ~ grammatical item em vista de => lexical item vista ~ grammatical item em vista de ~ grammatical item tendo em vista => lexical item vista ~ grammatical item em vista de ~ grammatical item tendo em vista ~ grammatical item tendo em vista que and lexical item vista => lexical item vista ~ grammatical item em vista de => lexical item vista ~ grammatical item em vista de ~ grammatical item haja vista => lexical item vista ~ grammatical item em vista de ~ grammatical item haja vista ~ grammatical item haja vista que. It is also verified that the choice of the verb ter or of the verb haver the construct directly affects the quantity, the type of category of the components, the time and the mode of the chosen verbal form to participate in the causal expression. There are registers of variants of the expressions studied, although rare, in the register of the constructions havendo em vista and tenha vista que as causal connectives.

We have developed a causal model of how various aspects of a computer game influence how much a player enjoys the experience, as well as how long the player will play. This model is organized into three layers: a generic layer that applies to any game, a refinement layer for a particular game genre, and an instantiation layer for a specific game. Two experiments using different games were performed to validate the model. The model was used to design and implement a system and API for Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment(DDA). This DDA system and API uses machine learning techniques to make changes to a game in real time in the hopes of improving the experience of the user and making them play longer. A final experiment is presented that shows the effectiveness of the designed system.

In this thesis, we compute the distance spectrum for non-causal generating signals and compare the different spectrum effects for different non-causal systems. The non-causal system is the system which the present output is determined by the future and the past. The distance spectrum is the list of the difference measures of any two signals and search through all the possible event paths by trellis as much as possible. We use the method of the line difference to compute the distance spectrum of non-causal generating signal systems by defining the line and the line difference to find the distance for every pair of signals. Using this method, we have computed the distance spectrum for non-causal generating signals. Finally, we compare the different spectrums for different non-causal systems of different coefficients.

No description available.

The current study provides evidence for the dissociation between two types of asymmetries in relations within semantic memory: those due to unidirectional associative strength (e.g., Kahan, Neely & Forsythe, 1999), and the inherent asymmetry of causal relations (e.g., Fenker, Waldmann & Holyoak, 2005). By manipulating the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) in a relation recognition task, I demonstrate that expectancy differentially impacts the effects of these asymmetries. An asymmetrical directional response time advantage was seen with causal relations at both long (1000 ms) and short (150 ms) SOAs, but only at long SOAs for unidirectional associates. These data are taken to support the hypothesis that latencies due to unidirectional association are a result of the manner in which these relations are accessed, and latencies due to the asymmetry of causal relations are reflective of the manner in which cause-effect asymmetries are represented.

The current study provides evidence for the dissociation between two types of asymmetries in relations within semantic memory: those due to unidirectional associative strength (e.g., Kahan, Neely & Forsythe, 1999), and the inherent asymmetry of causal relations (e.g., Fenker, Waldmann & Holyoak, 2005). By manipulating the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) in a relation recognition task, I demonstrate that expectancy differentially impacts the effects of these asymmetries. An asymmetrical directional response time advantage was seen with causal relations at both long (1000 ms) and short (150 ms) SOAs, but only at long SOAs for unidirectional associates. These data are taken to support the hypothesis that latencies due to unidirectional association are a result of the manner in which these relations are accessed, and latencies due to the asymmetry of causal relations are reflective of the manner in which cause-effect asymmetries are represented.

Most empirical work focuses on the estimation of average treatment effects (ATE). In this dissertation, I argue for a different way of thinking about causal inference by estimating individual causal effects (ICEs). I argue that focusing on estimating ICEs allows for a more precise and clear understanding of causal inference, reconciles the difference between what the researcher is interested in and what the researcher estimates, allows the researcher to explore and discover treatment effect heterogeneity, bridges the quantitative-qualitative divide, and allows for easy estimation of any other causal estimand. / Government

For many years, nationwide, approximately one third of American high school students have not been graduating from high school. The dropout rate is one of the reasons cited for the implementation of the No Child Left Behind legislation, which highlighted the severity of the dropout problem and the imposing priorities and standards placed on school districts. Mississippi leads the nation in the rate of students who drop out of high school. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that contribute to the dropout epidemic in secondary schools in the Jackson (Mississippi) Public School District where annually a high percentage of students, particularly African Americans, fail to graduate with their Grade 9 cohorts. This study used a descriptive and causal-comparative research design to identify the contributing factors to secondary school dropouts among 80 students enrolled in the Career Academic Placement (CAP) program in the Jackson Public School District. The Jackson Public Schools Dropout (JPSD) Questionnaire was utilized for the study. Differences in the students’ responses were examined using a Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings in this study indicated that the number one factor that led students to decide to drop out of school was feeling that they were behind, or failing course work. This affected about 55% of the students, causing them to leave school early. Additional results revealed 15% of the respondents who dropped out were Grade 9 students, and approximately 15% of the respondents who dropped out were Grade 12 students. Approximately 42.5% of the students comprised 10th graders and 27.5% were 11th graders.