No description available.

Educational leaders, families, and politicians debate the methods for teaching, the materials taught, and the content learned (Benninga, Berkowitz, Kuehn, and Smith, 2006; Kohn, 1997). These stakeholders all agree, however, that a major goal for education is to produce learned, productive members of society (DeRoche and Williams, 2001). The goal of this research is to develop a framework that provides schools and division-level leaders with essential elements to resolve character education issues and to provide the means for implementing and evaluating those programs. I used the Delphi research method to collect information from notable researchers and practitioners in the educational world (Keeney, McKenna, and Hasson, 2010). Many of the panelists were selected because their previous research on character education formed a large part of my literature review in Chapter 2. The practitioners are current superintendents, principals, or program directors in representative school systems. The study itself consisted of three rounds of questionnaires; the first round consisted of three open-ended questions that then elicited responses on which the other two rounds were based. The panelists indicated that clearly defined goals and values, stakeholder buy-in, and inclusion of social/emotional issues were the essential elements needed for an effective character education program. Shared responsibilities by stakeholders and student-driven debates were seen as the keys to implementing said program. Finally, the panelists concurred that attendance and discipline data and surveys were the best tools/methods for evaluating character education programs. / Ed. D.

Cette thèse aborde deux problèmes relatifs à l’analyse et au traitement des données biologiques à haut débit: le premier touche l’analyse bioinformatique des génomes à grande échelle, le deuxième est consacré au développement d’algorithmes pour le problème de la recherche d’un classement consensus de plusieurs classements.L’épissage des ARN est un processus cellulaire qui modifie un ARN pré-messager en en supprimant les introns et en raboutant les exons. L’hétérodimère U2AF a été très étudié pour son rôle dans processus d’épissage lorsqu’il se fixe sur des sites d’épissage fonctionnels. Cependant beaucoup de problèmes critiques restent en suspens, notamment l’impact fonctionnel des mutations de ces sites associées à des cancers. Par une analyse des interactions U2AF-ARN à l’échelle génomique, nous avons déterminé qu’U2AF a la capacité de reconnaître environ 88% des sites d’épissage fonctionnels dans le génome humain. Cependant on trouve de très nombreux autres sites de fixation d’U2AF dans le génome. Nos analyses suggèrent que certains de ces sites sont impliqués dans un processus de régulation de l’épissage alternatif. En utilisant une approche d’apprentissage automatique, nous avons développé une méthode de prédiction des sites de fixation d’UA2F, dont les résultats sont en accord avec notre modèle de régulation. Ces résultats permettent de mieux comprendre la fonction d’U2AF et les mécanismes de régulation dans lesquels elle intervient.Le classement des données biologiques est une nécessité cruciale. Nous nous sommes intéressés au problème du calcul d’un classement consensus de plusieurs classements de données, dans lesquels des égalités (ex-aequo) peuvent être présentes. Plus précisément, il s’agit de trouver un classement dont la somme des distances aux classements donnés en entrée est minimale. La mesure de distance utilisée le plus fréquemment pour ce problème est la distance de Kendall-tau généralisée. Or, il a été montré que, pour cette distance, le problème du consensus est NP-difficile dès lors qu’il y a plus de quatre classements en entrée. Nous proposons pour le résoudre une heuristique qui est une nouvelle variante d’algorithme à pivot. Cette heuristique, appelée Consistent-pivot, s’avère à la fois plus précise et plus rapide que les algorithmes à pivot qui avaient été proposés auparavant. / It is thought to be more and more important to solve biological questions using Bioinformatics approaches in the post-genomic era. This thesis focuses on two problems related to high troughput data: bioinformatics analysis at a large scale, and development of algorithms of consensus ranking. In molecular biology and genetics, RNA splicing is a modification of the nascent pre-messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) transcript in which introns are removed and exons are joined. The U2AF heterodimer has been well studied for its role in defining functional 3’ splice sites in pre-mRNA splicing, but multiple critical problems are still outstanding, including the functional impact of their cancer-associated mutations. Through genome-wide analysis of U2AF-RNA interactions, we report that U2AF has the capacity to define ~88% of functional 3’ splice sites in the human genome. Numerous U2AF binding events also occur in other genomic locations, and metagene and minigene analysis suggests that upstream intronic binding events interfere with the immediate downstream 3’ splice site associated with either the alternative exon to cause exon skipping or competing constitutive exon to induce inclusion of the alternative exon. We further build up a U2AF65 scoring scheme for predicting its target sites based on the high throughput sequencing data using a Maximum Entropy machine learning method, and the scores on the up and down regulated cases are consistent with our regulation model. These findings reveal the genomic function and regulatory mechanism of U2AF, which facilitates us understanding those associated diseases.Ranking biological data is a crucial need. Instead of developing new ranking methods, Cohen-Boulakia and her colleagues proposed to generate a consensus ranking to highlight the common points of a set of rankings while minimizing their disagreements to combat the noise and error for biological data. However, it is a NP-hard questioneven for only four rankings based on the Kendall-tau distance. In this thesis, we propose a new variant of pivot algorithms named as Consistent-Pivot. It uses a new strategy of pivot selection and other elements assignment, which performs better both on computation time and accuracy than previous pivot algorithms.

Le monde de l’amphithéâtre, entre l’apparition, au IIIe s. av. J.-C., des ludi qu’il abrite à partir de la fin du IIe s. av. J.-C., et l’abandon de ce type d’édifice en tant que monument de spectacle dans lecourant du Ve s. ap. J.-C., a longtemps été perçu par l’historiographie soit comme l’excroissance monstrueuse d’une civilisation brillante, soit comme l’exemple même de la cruauté d’une société autocratique et esclavagiste. Cette image de l’arène s’appuyait en particulier sur les rites se déroulant dans les édifices dédiés aux munera décrits par les écrivains chrétiens à partir de Tertullien au IIe s. ap. J.-C. Plus tard, pour livrer une étude dépassionnée de la gladiature, Georges Ville a postulé une "laïcisation" précoce de l’institution et rejeté ainsi les textes des polémistes chrétiens dans le domaine du pur discours. La reprise attentive de l’ensemble de la documentation, tant littéraire qu’épigraphique ou iconographique permet de nuancer ces constats. Si la religion est au cœur des jeux, c’est avant tout parce que ceux-ci, non seulement, sont parfaitement intégrés à la société romaine et provinciale, mais aussi et surtout car ils sont un des lieux par excellence où est montrée l’image idéalisée de Rome, sa structure sociale, culturelle et donc religieuse. Les dieux de l’amphithéâtre sont donc avant tout les dieux de la cité, garants de sa pérennité et de son équilibre. Ils sont adorés dans les amphithéâtres par des actes publics et privés, par l’ensemble de la communauté, des groupes sociaux, ou encore des individus de toute origine. La société se soude dans ce contexte où les spectateurs forment une communauté émotionnelle, prélude à la communauté cultuelle et sociale. Les acteurs des jeux eux-mêmes ont des préférences pour des dieux censés les protéger : Diane, Hercule, Némésis, Fortune, Mars, Minerve, Vénus, Mercure, et sont acteurs des rites de la cité. Cela ne fait pas d’elles les seules divinités des arènes et tout citoyen peut également se tourner vers elles dans les sacella des amphithéâtres, généralement ouverts à tous. / The amphitheater was used as a spectacle edifice between the end of the IInd century BC, hosting the ludi that appeared during the IIIrd century BC, and the Vth century AC. It was long perceived by historiographers either as the monstrous appendix of an enlightened civilization or as an example of an autocratic and slavering society. This image of the arena was derived from the rituals taking place in the edifices dedicated to munera and described by Christian writers starting with Tertullien in the IInd century AC. Georges Ville later conducting a dispassionate study of the Gladiatura, postulated an early non-religious nature of the institution and rejected the texts written by the Christian polemists as pure discourse. The careful study of the whole literary, epigraphic and iconographic documentation allows to nuance those statements. Religion is seen as the central core of the games not only because they are perfectly integrated to the Roman and provincial society but also because they are the best place to show an idealized image of Rome with its social, cultural and de facto religious structure. The gods worshiped in the amphitheater are first and foremost those of the city that guarantee its perenniality and stability. Inside the amphitheater they receive public and private adoration from the part of the whole community, of social groups and of individuals. The audience thus becomes united creating an emotional community that will later turn into a cultural and social community. The actors of the games give preference to certain gods expected to protected them -Diana, Hercules, Nemesis, Fortuna, Mars, Minerva, Venus and Mercury- and thus become actors in the city’s rites. Other gods and goddesses can also be worshiped in the sacella of the amphitheater that are generally open to all citizens.

La multiplication des sources d'information et le développement de nouvelles technologies ont engendré des bases données complexes, souvent caractérisées par un nombre de variables relativement élevé par rapport aux individus. En particulier, dans les études environnementales sur la pollution de l'air intérieur, la collecte des informations sur les individus se fait au regard de plusieurs thématiques, engendrant ainsi des données de grande dimension avec une structure multi-blocs définie par les thématiques. L'objectif de ce travail a été de développer des méthodes de classification adaptées à ces jeux de données de grande dimension et structurées en blocs de variables. La première partie de ce travail présente un état de l'art des méthodes de classification en général et dans le cas de la grande dimension. Dans la deuxième partie, trois nouvelles approches de classification d'individus décrits par des variables structurées en blocs ont été proposées. La méthode 2S-SOM (Soft Subspace-Self Organizing Map), une approche de type subspace clustering basée sur une modification de la fonction de coût de l'algorithme des cartes topologiques à travers un double système de poids adaptatifs défini sur les blocs et sur les variables. Nous proposons ensuite des approches CSOM (Consensus SOM) et Rv-CSOM de recherche de consensus de cartes auto-organisées basées sur un système de poids déterminés à partir des partitions initiales. Enfin, la troisième partie présente une application de ces méthodes sur le jeu de données réelles de la campagne nationale logement (CNL) menée par l'OQAI afin de définir une typologie des logements au regard des thématiques : qualité de l'air intérieur, structure du bâtiment, composition des ménages et habitudes des occupants. / The multiplication of information source and the development of news technologies generates complex databases, often characterized by relatively high number of variables compared to individuals. In particular, in the environmental studies on the indoor air quality, the information's collection is done according to several thematic, yielding column partitioned or multi-block data set. However, in case of high dimensional data, classical clustering algorithms are not efficient to find clusters which may exist in subspaces of the original space. The goal of this work is to develop clustering algorithms adapted to high dimensional data sets with multi-block structure. The first part of the work shows the state of art on clustering methods. In the second part, three new methods of clustering: the subspace clustering method 2S-SOM (Soft Subspace-Self Organizing Map)is based on a modified cost function of the Self Organizing Maps method across a double system of weights on the blocks and the variables. Then we propose two approaches to find the consensus of self-organized maps CSOM (Consensus SOM) and Rv-CSOM based on weights determined from initial partitions. The last part presents an application of these methods on the OQAI data to determine a typology of dwellings relatively to the following topics: indoor air quality, dwellings structure, household characteristics and habits of the inhabitants.

No description available.

How can a normative consensus on human rights develop out of a plurality of different and conflicting ethico-cultural discourses? It is frequently assumed that any agreement on universal human rights must necessarily occur in spite of pluralism from which conflict might arise. Consequently, various images of consensus have been proposed wherein pluralism is viewed as something to be mitigated or overcome. However, such images of consensus fail to offer a satisfactory response to the original question since they fail to fully recognise the political and contestational nature of human rights discourse. This thesis aims to address questions as to how conflict and contingency, both commonly associated with pluralism, can be mediated in a way that is constructive of a particular political community, and constitutive of a vital and innovative discourse on human rights. Hence, theories on agonistic pluralism are discussed and evaluated since they address this very issue ??? the potential for struggle to act as a constructive force. Also in this thesis, a historical analysis of key milestones in the development of a human rights discourse is presented wherein it is argued that human rights have indeed been contingent upon particular instances of struggle and have found expression in a plurality of distinct ethico-cultural discourses. Finally, in order to further illustrate the adaptability of human rights to more than one ethical discourse, examples are presented in which various Muslim scholar-activists justify human rights norms according to Islamic doctrinal principles. Overall, it is the argument of this thesis that it is possible to imagine a human rights consensus, not as a ???world consensus???, but in terms of a sectional political association whose membership is culturally pluralist. In saying this, it must be acknowledged that this construction is necessarily always precarious, precisely because of the contestational, contingent and transformative nature of the discourse of human rights. Also, although only sectional in terms of its support base, the ???consensus??? I describe necessarily strives to become a universal consensus. While universal respect for human rights is ultimately illusive, in view of the universalism of human rights as a discourse, to strive for anything less is unacceptable. In the end, the constant struggle to establish a universal consensus on human rights is precisely that which effects positive, practical change.

Dissertation--Philosophische Fakultät--Universität Freiburg, 2007. / Bibliogr. p. 215-222.

How can a normative consensus on human rights develop out of a plurality of different and conflicting ethico-cultural discourses? It is frequently assumed that any agreement on universal human rights must necessarily occur in spite of pluralism from which conflict might arise. Consequently, various images of consensus have been proposed wherein pluralism is viewed as something to be mitigated or overcome. However, such images of consensus fail to offer a satisfactory response to the original question since they fail to fully recognise the political and contestational nature of human rights discourse. This thesis aims to address questions as to how conflict and contingency, both commonly associated with pluralism, can be mediated in a way that is constructive of a particular political community, and constitutive of a vital and innovative discourse on human rights. Hence, theories on agonistic pluralism are discussed and evaluated since they address this very issue ??? the potential for struggle to act as a constructive force. Also in this thesis, a historical analysis of key milestones in the development of a human rights discourse is presented wherein it is argued that human rights have indeed been contingent upon particular instances of struggle and have found expression in a plurality of distinct ethico-cultural discourses. Finally, in order to further illustrate the adaptability of human rights to more than one ethical discourse, examples are presented in which various Muslim scholar-activists justify human rights norms according to Islamic doctrinal principles. Overall, it is the argument of this thesis that it is possible to imagine a human rights consensus, not as a ???world consensus???, but in terms of a sectional political association whose membership is culturally pluralist. In saying this, it must be acknowledged that this construction is necessarily always precarious, precisely because of the contestational, contingent and transformative nature of the discourse of human rights. Also, although only sectional in terms of its support base, the ???consensus??? I describe necessarily strives to become a universal consensus. While universal respect for human rights is ultimately illusive, in view of the universalism of human rights as a discourse, to strive for anything less is unacceptable. In the end, the constant struggle to establish a universal consensus on human rights is precisely that which effects positive, practical change.

A family of E. coli - P. ruminis shuttle-plasmids was constructed to allow the isolation and characterization of gene promoters from the rumen bacterium P. ruminis. The promoter rescue plasmid pBK was used to isolate a total of 4 genomic DNA fragments that promoted transcription in P. ruminis strains 0/10. These promoters, and an additional promoter, previously isolated from P. ruminis strain OR38 (Schoep, 1999), were identified by their ability to initiate expression of a promoterless ermAM gene in P. ruminis. Within 4 of the fragments, a total of 5 transcription start sites were identified in P. ruminis using a novel, fluorescent-primer extension analysis protocol. Comparison of promoters isolated in this and previous studies revealed a strong consensus RNA polymerase DNA-binding motif, including the well characterized –35 and –10 elements. Consensus sequences established for these elements were: TTgacA and AtAATAta respectively, where bold upper-case font, regular upper-case, and lower-case fonts represent conservation in 100%, 80%, and 70% of promoters respectively. The −10 and −35 motifs were interspaced by 16 – 18 nt. Among the newly identified promoters, the consensus for the –10 element was extended one nucleotide upstream and downstream of the standard hexamer (boxed). These motifs were similar to those recognized by eubacterial RNA polymerase containing the σ70-like factor. Promoters also contained possible UP elements, and were significantly more curved than protein-coding regions. Additional plasmid vectors were constructed, to allow the use of both the quantitative SYBR green real time PCR and ß-glucuronidase assays, to examine 4 promoters in depth. This showed a wide range of promoter strengths within the group. However, no correlation was found between the composition and context of elements within P. ruminis promoters, and promoter strength. A mutation within the –35 element of one promoter revealed that promoter strength, and the choice of transcription start site were both sensitive to single nucleotide