L'industrie de l'emballage, comme de nombreux industriels, veut construire ses propres représentations du consommateur final pour mieux le prendre en compte dans son processus de conception. Dans ce contexte, l'ergonomie est une des disciplines contributrices à la production de données inhérentes aux interactions entre le consommateur final et l'emballage. L'objectif de notre recherche est de mettre en place une méthode d'étude destinée à comprendre et analyser les critères d'usage et de préhension d'emballages de liquides alimentaires, et de faciliter leur intégration en conception. Nous avons pour cela couplé deux démarches. La première a été la mise en place de tests utilisateurs portant sur l'usage d'emballages de différents matériaux et de différentes formes, selon des critères de perception, de performance, de confort et de satisfaction. Parallèlement, notre deuxième démarche s'est centrée sur les caractéristiques biomécaniques de l'interaction main-bouteille, par la transposition de méthodes d'étude des outils à main vers les emballages. Nos principaux résultats portent sur l'impact de la forme des emballages sur la saisie, sur la comparaison des matériaux et son implication dans l'utilisation, et sur l'évaluation des poignées de saisie pour emballages de grands contenants. L'ensemble des tests portant sur la biomécanique de l'interaction main-bouteille a apporté des réponses sur les modalités de saisie à l'utilisation, et des résultats sur les rôles de la main dans la préhension, sur son utilisation et sur la perception que l'utilisateur en a. Nos travaux donnent lieu à un cahier de recommandations exploitable par l'entreprise.

Dans le domaine de la microrobotique, la manipulation d'objets de petites tailles (micromécanismes, cellules, etc...) est courante. Afin de caractériser les interactions aux dimensions de travail considérées, la mesure de force en microrobotique est nécessaire. Dans cette optique, nous avons développé un capteur de forces qui repose sur un principe de lévitation magnétique passive et ne nécessitant pas d'asservissement pour assurer la lévitation. Les dimensions globales du capteur n'excèdent pas un volume total de 170 mm x 100 mm x 60 mm. Le capteur est composé d'une tige en matériau polymère, servant d'effecteur, sur laquelle sont fixés deux aimants permanents. L'ensemble tige et aimants permanents lévite entre deux plaques de graphite à l'aide d'une configuration particulière d'aimants porteurs. La mesure de force avec le capteur développé peut se faire principalement suivant trois directions. L'utilisation de ce capteur permet de couvrir une plage de mesure deforce allant de quelques dizaines de nanonewton (nN) à plusieurs milliNewton (mN) avec une résolution de mesure de l'ordre du nanoNewton (nN). Les modèles magnétiques et diamagnétique développés permettent de déterminer les forces qui s'appliquent sur l'effecteur par le biais de la connaissance de la position spatiale de la tige. En terme applicatif, le capteur de forces est actuellement utilisé pour la détermination des caractéristiques mécaniques de cellules humaines de type ovocyte. Ce travail est mené en étroite collaboration avec l'équipe de fécondation in vitro du CHU de Besançon.

The affordability and availability of fast motion cameras presents an ideal opportunity to build computer systems that create real-time feed- back loops. These systems can enable users to learn at a faster rate than traditional systems, as well as present a more engaging experience. In this dissertation, I document the development and evaluation of a real- time audio and visual feedback system for geometric poi manipulation. The goal of the system is to present an experiential and objectively su- perior learning tool when compared to traditional learning techniques in the object manipulation community. For the evaluation, I conduct an experiment that compares the feedback training system with traditional learning techniques in the object manipulation community. The results suggest that the feedback system presents a more engaging experience than traditional mirror feedback training, and conclude that further re- search is warranted.

This paper describes and tests a largely ignored but important preliminary step for comparative effectiveness research: retrospective evidence syntheses to first establish a knowledge base of condition-based medical conditions. By aggregating and organizing what is already known about a treatment or system, gaps in knowledge can be identified and future research designed to meet those gaps.An information synthesis process may also discover that few knowledge gaps in the knowledge base yet exist, the gaps are negligible, and / or treatment effectiveness and study quality is stable across many years, but is simply not clinically important. A consistent finding of low effectiveness is evidence against more research, including exclusion of a treatment from future comparative effectiveness studies. Though proponents of weak treatments or systems may choose to proceed with further research, use of public funds or resources that eventually increase costs to the public are unwarranted.By first establishing a treatment or system knowledge base, at least three comparative effectiveness research decisions are conceivable: (1) treatment or system should be included in future comparative effectiveness trials to establish relative effectiveness for a given condition, (2) has promise but requires more research in a prospective CER trial, or (3) the treatment is less effective than others for a given condition, making future research unnecessary. Thus, a "retroactive comparative effectiveness research method," rCER, is proposed here to identify which treatments are worth including in future prospective trials and which are known to have small to modest effect sizes and are not worth the time and expense of a closer look.The rCER method herein showed that for non-surgical low back pain any treatments did not improve greatly upon the normal and natural pain trajectory for acute low back pain. Therefore, any advantage in pain reduction by any treatment of acute low back pain over back pain's normal course of resolution without care, is quite small, and as such, the incremental cost for the marginal improvement over no treatment becomes quite large. While the quality of non-surgical low back pain studies over the past 34 years has steadily increased, the effect size has not, leading to the conclusion that future research on non-surgical low back pain treatment is unwarranted.

This research aims to detect and measure earnings management using a newly modified version of the standard Jones model (Jones, 1991). The standard model is extended to include a measure of discretionary accruals as an additional regressor instead of using the residuals. The variable used to measure discretionary accruals is a composite variable that consists of two components, one that represents the incentive and the other represents the tool of manipulation. The model is applied to detect earnings management in loss reversal companies for listed companies in Jordan and examine the market reaction to the loss reversal. The model is also applied on loss reversal companies for listed companies in the UK and the US. In chapter three, the new model is applied on listed companies in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). The ASE is structured into two markets: the first market and the second market. Companies are motivated to be listed or remain listed in the first market since it only lists profitable companies. Companies reporting losses more frequently are listed in the second market. Results provide evidence of earnings management for companies listed in the first market. Companies that report a loss in a previous period manipulate in the following period to report profits. As a result of loss reversal, they preserve their place in the first market and avoid dropping back to the second market. This research conducts statistical simulation tests to compare the extended Jones model with the standard model. Results show that the extended model detects earnings management better than the standard one. This new model also separates discretionary accruals from measurement error (i.e. residuals) and makes it possible to accurately measure the whole amount of manipulation. Chapter four examines the investor reaction to the manipulation taking place in the first market. Results show that the market is pricing the discretionary accruals (the manipulation) as a component of net income, although they result only from earnings management. In chapter five, the model is applied on loss reversal firms listed in the UK and in the US. Results show that the companies manipulate to reverse losses and the manipulation depends on to the presence of R&D activities and the changing level in these activities.

This thesis explores social learning in mother-reared and “enculturated” capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). At the outset a framework for understanding the social influence on learning is discussed, followed by a review of the social and cognitive abilities of capuchin monkeys, establishing the rationale for studying social learning in this species. Studies of wild capuchins suggest an important role for social learning but experiments with captive subjects have generally failed to support this. Some potential reasons for the lack of evidence in experimental settings are given. An example of using the two - method design to test social learning in acquiring behaviour by enculturated subjects is addressed. The results are related to findings with other species tested with a similar apparatus. Before testing mother-reared monkeys, an observational study of the object manipulation and tool-use repertoire of the subjects was carried out in order to facilitate the design of suitable social learning tasks for these monkeys. The first empirical study in Chapter 6 reports results of experiments with the enculturated and mother-reared capuchin monkeys employing the two -action method together with a third control group. The enculturated monkeys exhibited high fidelity copying that included the specific tool use technique witnessed while opening the foraging box. Mother-reared monkeys exhibited fidelity at a lower level, tending only to re-create the results the model had achieved. The second empirical study in Chapter 7 tested whether capuchin monkeys could show cumulative cultural learning manifested in the ability to switch from an established mode of manipulating a dipping box to a complex yet more advantageous one. Both populations were able to do so. The enculturated monkeys, as in the previous study, showed higher fidelity copying of the model. The last experiment was a preliminary study employing the “do as I do” method which was carried out with four of the enculturated monkeys. It provides suggestive evidence for at least one monkey's understanding of the task. The results of the studies are discussed in relation to previous experimental research as well as to data from capuchin monkeys in nature. The possible role of enculturation in social learning ability is considered.

Thesis (M.Tech.: Chiropractic)-Dept. of Chiropractic, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005 96, [20] leaves / Strengthening of the rotator cuff muscles forms an integral part of any rehabilitation programme for the shoulder. Shoulder rehabilitation programmes which incorporate early motion and emphasize strengthening, have a lower incidence of recurrent subluxations and dislocations. If cervical manipulation were proven to increase the strength of the rotator cuff muscles, then this could be used to develop and implement more effective treatment and rehabilitation protocols for patients with musculoskeletal painful shoulders and rotator cuff pathologies, and therefore provide future patients with more effective health care. Studies have shown consistent reflex responses associated with spinal manipulative treatments. These reflex responses have been hypothesized to cause the clinically beneficial effects of decreasing hypertonicity in muscles, pain reduction and increasing the functional ability of the patient, and although spinal manipulation has been shown to affect muscle strength, it has not been extensively researched and it is unclear whether increased muscle strength is yet another reflex effect of manipulation. As the rotator cuff is innervated by nerves arising from the mid and lower cervical spine, it is theorised that dysfunction of the spinal joints adversely affects nerve endings, causing inhibition of nerve function and affecting the rotator cuff. This is congruent with research which describes how there could be a decrease in muscular activity due to interference with the nerve supply of a muscle by means of a spinal joint fixation. In light of this, one could hypothesize that removal of a cervical joint dysfunction by manipulation, could increase motor unit recruitment and muscular activity of the muscles supplied by that cervical level and therefore possibly strengthen the muscles involved. Therefore the aim of this study was to determine whether cervical manipulation could contribute to the strengthening process of the rotator cuff. / M

An increasingly blurred understanding of the moral significance of accurate and authentic memory reconsolidation for an adequate apprehension of self, other, and community suggests a critical need to explore the inter-relationships shared between autobiographical memory, emotional rationality, and narrative identity in light of the contemporary possibilities of neurocognitive memory manipulation, particularly as it bears on ethical decision making. Grounding its thesis in four evidential effects – namely, (i) neurocognitive memory manipulation disintegrates autobiographical memory, (ii) the disintegration of autobiographical memory degenerates emotional rationality, (iii) the degeneration of emotional rationality decays narrative identity, and (iv) the decay of narrative identity disables one to seek, identify, and act on the good – the dissertation argues that neurocognitive memory manipulation cannot be justified as a morally licit biomedical practice insofar as it disables one to seek, identify, and act on the good. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Health Care Ethics / PhD; / Dissertation;

While it is known that acute and chronic stress can impact cognition, less is known about the immediate impacts of minor frustrations or positive experiences on subsequent behavior and cognition in primates. This study used a novel methodology to engineer both a positive and (slightly) frustrating experience, using the same apparatus, in 15 adult capuchin monkeys. Subjects were presented with a working memory task (DMTS) for 30 minutes after the experimental manipulations (or a control). As predicted, the frustrating task prior to testing resulted in a decrease in performance on the DMTS compared to performance after a positive experience or the control. Contrary to predictions, a positive experience did not facilitate performance to higher levels than the control condition. Manipulations also impacted several behaviors. Although there may be different results in different contexts, these results indicate that even mild negative experiences impact subsequent behavior and cognition in primates.

A dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for a Master's Degree in Technology: Chiropractic, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005. / Low back pain has been shown to be associated with inhibition of the lower limb musculature. This inhibition is called arthrogenic muscle inhibition (AMI). Sacroiliac joint dysfunction has been linked with AMI of the ipsilateral and contralateral quadriceps and hamstring muscles. Sacroiliac manipulation has been shown to significantly reduce ipsilateral AMI, however no studies have been conducted to illustrate the effect of sacroiliac manipulation on contralateral AMI. Neither have their been studies to show the presence or extent of spinal dysfunction between the levels of L2-L5 and its significance on muscle inhibition in the quadriceps and hamstring muscles, nor the effect of manipulation of these levels on AMI of the quadriceps and hamstring muscles. The purpose of this study was therefore to determine whether spinal manipulation has an effect on AMI of the contralateral limb as well as that of the ipsilateral limb. / M