L’objectif de cette thèse est de proposer un modèle comportemental de l’être humain pour la simulation d’évacuation de bâtiment en cas d’incendie et de l’intégrer dans un outil de simulation d’évacuation de bâtiment. Le modèle proposé représente une approche individu-centré du comportement et répond aux axiomes de la Rationalité Limitée énoncés par Herbert Simon grâce à une conception hiérarchique des moyens cognitifs des agents simulés. L’implémentation du modèle du comportement présente la particularité d’être intégralement réalisée en GPU (via OpenGL 2.0). Ainsi la fréquence du moteur de comportement est très proche de celle du simulateur et permet une adaptation quasi temps réel des comportements des agents à un changement de perception de leur environnement. Le logiciel d’évacuation développé permet :– l’importation de scénario d’incendie de bâtiment simulé grâce au logiciel FDS,– la configuration des archétypes de comportement des agents évacuant, notamment :– la description des hypothèses sur le monde (connaissance individuelle),– la configuration des comportements des agents (moyens cognitifs individuels).– le positionnement des agents dans le bâtiment,– la simulation de l’évacuation,– l’enregistrement et le play-back d’un scénario d’évacuation.Les contraintes (feu, fumée, obstacles, autres agents) captées par un agent sont interprétées par ce dernier en fonction de son archétype de comportement afin de déterminer si sa stratégie d’évacuation doit être remise en cause. / The main objective of this thesis is to propose a behavioral model of the human being in presence of several constraints and to integrate it into a simulation tool for building egress. The proposed model represents an individual-based approach of behavior modelisation and implement axioms of the bounded rationality set by Herbert Simon providing two key features :– individual prioritization and parametisation of cognitivemeans,– individual perception and knowledgemanagement.The proposed software has the particularity to run entirely on GPU via OpenGL 2.0. Thus the frequency of the behavior engine is very near to that of the simulator and allow adaptation of near real-time behavior of agents in a changing perception of their environment.

A Computação Ciente de Contexto permite a obtenção e utilização de informações de contexto adquiridas de dispositivos computacionais no ambiente, com o objetivo de prover serviços; esta dinâmica aliada à evolução das redes de computadores vem provocando profundas modificações nos aspectos sociais e comportamentais das pessoas, uma vez que gradativamente têm necessidade de viverem imersas na tecnologia e integradas ao ambiente, com transparência e mobilidade, e de tal forma que as aplicações de software se adaptam ao comportamento das pessoas e nas informações de contexto capturadas do ambiente. Um dos desafios desta interação ser humano - ambiente - tecnologia - ubiqüidade é garantir a segurança. Como principal inovação e contribuição, esta tese propõe um mecanismo de autenticação contínua de usuários que faz uso de informações de contexto do ambiente, da análise do comportamento do usuário, da biometria facial, das teorias comportamentais de Skinner e da Confiança Matemática da Teoria das Evidências de Dempster-Shafer, para compor uma política de segurança adaptativa e um Sistema de Autenticação Contínua de Usuários Conhecidos - KUCAS (Known User Continuous Authentication System), que estabelece níveis de confiança para autenticar o usuário através da análise do comportamento dele em um ambiente ou domínio específico nas redes de computadores, num determinado período de tempo. A dinâmica de gerenciamento incluso nesse sistema compara o comportamento atual com o histórico de comportamentos anteriores do usuário e com as restrições de atribuição de confiança; caso haja indícios de mudanças no comportamento do usuário, aciona por meio de sensores, a Tecnologia de Reconhecimento Facial Tridimensional (3D), que captura a imagem da face do usuário, validando-a e armazenando-a nos bancos de dados de imagens; havendo incertezas e divergências, mecanismos de segurança e sinais de alerta são acionados. O Sistema KUCAS proposto possui uma infra-estrutura de um framework F-KUCAS, um Módulo de Segurança S-KUCAS e um Algoritmo de Autenticação A-KUCAS. / Context-aware Computing allows to obtain and use context informations acquired through devices in the environment, with the goal to provide services. This dynamics, allied to the computer networks evolution, has been provoking deep modifications in peoples social and behavior aspects, seeing that they have the necessity to live immersed in technology and integrated with the environment, with transparency and mobility, anywhere, anytime, so that the software applications adapt themselves to the persons behavior, based on the context information captured through the environment. One of the challenges of this human ? environment - technology ? ubiquity interaction is to provide security. As main innovation and contribution, this thesis presents an authentication mechanism of users which makes use of environmental context information, users behavior analysis, the face recognition technology, the behavior theories of Skinner and the Mathematical Confidence of the Theory of the Evidences of Dempster-Shafer, to compose an adaptative security policy and the Known User Continuous Authentication System (KUCAS) that establishes trust levels to authenticate the user by his behavior analysis in a specific domain of the computer networks, in a period of time. The dynamics of enclosed management in this system compares the current behavior with the users previous behaviors description and with the trust restrictions. In case of indications of changes in the users behavior, the 3D Technology Face Recognition is set in motion by sensors, which capture the image of the users face, validating it and storing it in the data bases of images. If there are uncertainties and divergences, mechanisms of security and signals of alert are set in motion. The KUCAS System has an infrastructure of one framework F-KUCAS, a Security Module S-KUCAS and an Algorithm of Authentication A-KUCAS.

The principle aim of the study is to describe, analyze and problemize the ways in which television science documentaries (within a public service context) discursively represent scientific theories, research results and conclusions about the origins of human nature and the causes of human behavior. The study covers 25 programs broadcasted by SVT and UR during a period of four years,2002-2005 , and 12 additional programs are used as a basis for discussion. Most of the programs included in the study are productions purchased mainly from BBC Science. Thus, managing editors, producers and presenters were interviewed for the purpose of illuminating quality judgements and purchasing criteria. A five stage-model of critical discourse analysis has inspired the method which emphasizes the network of communicative practices in which the media text and representation are embedded. That includes media genre, production and narrative conventions as well as the wider historical, social and political/ideological context and discourse practices of which the issues represented are a part. The critical discourse analysis has been complemented by ideas about different documentary modes of representation or basic ways of organizing documentary texts in relation to certain recurrent features or conventions. In the analysis these modes have been applied to understand the degree of transparency and editorial presence and visibility in the science documentaries. The importance of the discourses presented is related to their more applied meanings. When certain descriptions, explanations and understandings of alleged human “basics” gain priority, it may affect the possibilities to define and handle very concrete social issues in a way that is inconsistent with this fundamental perspective. Thus, the ideological function of the science documentaries (as public service-program and educational media) deserves serious attention.

The digital footprints collected from the prevailing sensing systems provide novel ways to perceive an individual's behaviors. Furthermore, large collections of digital footprints from communities bring novel understandings of human behaviors from the community perspective (community behaviors), such as investigating their characteristics and learning the hidden human intelligence. The perception of human behaviors from the sensing digital footprints enables novel applications for the sensing systems. Bases on the digital footprints collected with accelerometer-embedded mobile phones and GPS equipped taxis, in this dissertation we present our work in recognizing individual behaviors, capturing community behaviors and demonstrating the novel services enabled. With the GPS footprints of a taxi, we summarize the individual anomalous passenger delivery behaviors and improve the recognition efficiency of the existing method iBOAT by introducing an inverted index mechanism. Besides, based on the observations in real life, we propose a method to detect the work-shifting events of an individual taxi. With real-life large-scale GPS traces of thousands of taxis, we investigate the anomalous passenger delivery behaviors and work shifting behaviors from the community perspective and exploit taxi serving strategies. We find that most anomaly behaviors are intentional detours and high detour inclination won't make taxis the top players. And the spatial-temporal distribution of work shifting events in the taxi community reveals their influences. While exploiting taxi serving strategies, we propose a novel method to find the initial intentions in passenger finding. Furthermore, we present a smart taxi system as an example to demonstrate the novel applications that are enabled by the perceived individual and community behaviors

This dissertation explores the questions: (l) how use of specific information and communication technologies (ICT) matters to youth, (2) how use of these ICT is experienced by youth and (3) how youth conceptualize their relations to ICT in their daily lives. It provides a networked perspective that emphasizes youth's experiences of ICT in contexts. This networked perspective focuses on the dynamic connections between adolescent development, societal change and technological innovations when understanding youth's ICT use. Such a perspective positions youth as nexus in online and offline relational networks. It recognizes youth as actors who experience intense emotions when using ICT and who learn skills to navigate and negotiate these networks. Simultaneously, it situates youth's experiences of ICT use as emergent from adolescent, societal and technological contexts and within continuous cultural change. Methodologically, this study draws on multi-sited ethnographic research practices (Marcus, 1998; 2005) as well as being guided by the notion of congruency between site, methodology, and phenomenon (Oberg, 2003). Data was primarily gathered through four interviews held with six youth aged 16-18, two focus groups, and the researcher's immersion over five years in the Computer Human Interaction Software Engineering Lab (CHISEL). Three themes of how ICT use matters to youth emerged: Fun, Convenience and Connections. These themes illuminate how ICT have multiple ways of mattering for young people within their unique life contexts, such as providing continued connections to peers after school and shifting spatial and temporal boundaries. Patterns of emotional experience emerged that encompassed simultaneous existence of contradictory emotions (e.g., stimulating and overwhelming) when engaged in a specific activity such as instant messaging. Examples of Self-ICT relations are: "We're immersed" and "I feel empty without it." These conceptualizations are linked to networked theories of self that constitute ICT as in relation to self. This dissertation concludes by applying a networked perspective to understanding youth's ICT use as well as stepping back in order to raise larger cultural questions. It argues for the importance of recognizing the complexities that shape human — ICT connections in order to assist youth in learning skills to negotiate their emergent sense of self successfully.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experience of front-line practitioners working with suicidal children and youth. Five front-line practitioners who had experienced working with children or youth who were suicidal participated in the semi-structured interviews. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed and summarized under the following three areas of experience: Participants' Descriptions of Working with Suicidal Children and Youth, Knowledge Valued by Participants' to Inform their Practice with Suicidal Children and Youth, and Participants' Physical and Emotional Responses to Suicidal Children and Youth. There were a total of sixteen emergent theme clusters. The themes related to the experience of practice with suicidal children and youth provided a rich context for understanding the nature of meaning of the suicidal behaviors for participants. The emergent themes relating to the knowledge valued by participants to guide their approach provided a specific understanding of the multiple sources of knowledge participants were drawing from in the encounters. The emergent themes relating to the physical and emotional responses participants experienced in relation to their encounters with a suicidal child or youth provided an awareness of the impact the encounters had on participants. The major findings included the participants' broad scope of knowledge they used to guide their approach, as well as that encounters with suicidal children and youth did evoke strong physical and emotional responses amongst participants. The study concludes by describing the implications of these findings for Child and Youth Care practice and for future directions in research.

The impact of transportation concerning older adults is under scrutiny as the number of older adults is expected to significantly increase in the coming years. The World Health Organization (WHO) spearheaded a world wide initiative that sought to examine what contributed to an “age-friendly community” in both developed and underdeveloped nations. This paper examines, in particular, the role that transportation plays in relation and contribution to an “age-friendly” community in Saanich, British Columbia, as an addition to the WHO initiative. Focus groups were conducted to ensure that information received was the lived experience of the individual. Results suggested that transportation was more than the ability to operate a vehicle, but in the ability to move safely within an environment. Additional information provided by participants spoke to the necessity of increasing awareness of licensing systems and improvements that could be implemented to ensure safety for older adult drivers and the community.

Is there a low-risk drinking level for youth? The likelihood of engaging in risk behaviors (e.g. drinking and driving) as a function of alcohol use was examined in 540 youth from the Victoria Healthy Youth Survey, age 16-23 (M=19.5; 245 Males, 294 females). Logistic regression revealed that both the frequency and quantity of alcohol use matter in terms of determining one’s risk. Quantity of consumption in excess of the recommended ≤2 drinks/occasion (CAMH guidelines) substantially increases ones risk of harm; as does consumption >once a week. However, for those consuming at low quantity (≤ 2 drinks/occasion) and low or moderate frequency levels (≤ once a week) the risk did not exceed that experienced by abstainers and may be considered “low-risk”. It is suggested that youth require a special set of drinking guidelines that focus on quantity consumed/occasion followed by clear limits on the number of drinking days (frequency).

This multiple case study examined the self-regulation strategies used by 6 preschool-aged boys. The participants in this study were selected based on criterion of an undercontrolled behavior style. The researcher gained this description of the children via parental perceptions and naturalistic videotaped observations. Using these videotaped observations of natural play in the preschool environment, the researcher gained insights into the self-regulatory behaviors of these boys within their solitary play, and their peer and adult interactions. The across-case patterns revealed that the boys' behavior included a large proportion of prosocial and constructive coping responses. The data also suggested that the boys demonstrated deficits in their language strategies, especially within distressing or challenging peer situations where their negative emotion seemed to disrupt their use of skilled responses. Similarly, the boys were only observed using aggressive and negatively emotional responses subsequent to their failed attempts at peer interactions. The findings of this study can assist educators and parents in providing early education practices and play experiences that promote the development of socially competent language, emotional regulation, and peer initiation strategies.

Automated analysis of temporal data is a task of utmost importance for intelligent machines. For example, ubiquitous computing systems need to understand the intention of humans from the stream of sensory information, and health-care monitoring systems can assist patients and doctors by providing automatically annotated daily health reports. We present a set of extensions of switching linear dynamic systems (SLDSs) which provide the ability to capture the higher-order temporal structures within data and to produce more accurate results for the tasks such as labeling and estimation of global variations within data. The presented models are formulated within a dynamic Bayesian network formulation along with the inference and learning methods thereof. First, segmental SLDSs (S-SLDSs) produce superior labeling results by capturing the descriptive duration patterns within each LDS segment. The encoded duration models describe data more descriptively and allow us to avoid the severe problem of over-segmented labels, which leads to superior accuracy. Second, parametric SLDSs (P-SLDSs) allows us to encode the temporal data with global variations. In particular, we have identified two types of global systematic variations : temporal and spatial variations. The P-SLDS model assumes that there is an underlying canonical model which is globally transformed in time and space by the two associated global parameters respectively. Third, we present hierarchical SLDSs (H-SLDSs), a generalization of standard SLDSs with hierarchic Markov chains. H-SLDSs are able to encode temporal data which exhibits hierarchic structure where the underlying low-level temporal patterns repeatedly appear among different higher-level contexts. The developed SLDS extensions have been applied to two real-world problems. The first problem is to automatically decode the dance messages of honey bee dances where the goal is to correctly segment the dance sequences into different regimes and parse the messages about the location of food sources embedded in the data. The second problem is to analyze wearable exercise data where we aim to provide an automatically generated exercise record at multiple temporal and semantic resolutions. It is demonstrated that the H-SLDS model with multiple layers can be learned from data, and can be successfully applied to interpret the exercise data at multiple granularities.