Haïti a inventé une nation comme république patriotique : la première République noire et indépendante. Cependant, après 200 ans d’histoire, sévit un clivage récurent à caractère social, économique et anthropologique entre deux catégories de population. Une grande partie des « citoyens » haïtiens sont en fait exclus de l’exercice de la citoyenneté. Cette exclusion interroge particulièrement l’éducation. Elle rend nécessaire la refondation d’une éducation créatrice d’une nouvelle citoyenneté.La thèse s’interroge sur l’apport de la parole et de l’action de Joseph Wresinski comme « nouveauté » dans l’éducation à la citoyenneté en Haïti. Elle explore les fondements philosophiques de l’éducation à travers des approches anthropologiques sur la civilisation et sur les civilisations, respectivement dans les travaux du penseur haïtien Anténor Firmin et du penseur antillais Édouard Glissant.Le cadre théorique est celui de « l’action politique comme surgissement du nouveau et de l’agir-ensemble avec les autres » chez Hannah Arendt, et celui de la « nation comme communauté des citoyens » d’après Dominique Schnapper. Le Mouvement ATD Quart Monde met en œuvre la pensée sociale et éducative de son fondateur Joseph Wresinski de sorte que la reconnaissance des expériences et des savoirs des personnes exclues contribue à une citoyenneté à part entière en Haïti.Une recherche basée sur une enquête sociologique du chercheur impliqué a permis de recueillir et de comparer les représentations de la citoyenneté des membres d’ATD Quart Monde et de celles de diverses autres personnes. Les membres d’ATD Quart Monde de milieux différents ont présenté comment ils construisent une communauté de pensée et d’action qui associe les apports de l’école et ceux de la famille, les apports de la communauté de vie ou des quartiers avec ceux des « élites ». C’est ce que nous appelons une « citoyenneté de la rencontre », dont la thèse montre qu’elle a pu et peut se réaliser, à partir de l’action de Joseph Wresinski en Haïti, mais non sans difficultés ni contradictions. / Haiti has invented a nation that is also a patriotic republic: the first independant black Republic. However after 200 years of history, a recurrent social economical and anthropological cleavage pervades between two categories of the population. A great number of Haitian "citizens"are in fact excluded from the practice of citizenship. This type of exclusion questions especially education. It necessitates a radical educational reform that gives birth to a new kind of citizenship. This thesis studies the contribution of the message and action of Joseph Wresinski as something original in the education to citizenship in Haiti. It examines the philosophical foundations of education through anthropological approaches on civilization and on different types of civilizations, in the work of the Haitian and West Indian thinkers ANTENOR FIRMIN and EDOUARD GLISSANT respectively. The theoretical framework is similar to that of "the political action as sudden appearance of novelty and of common action with others" according to Hannah Arendt. It is also close to the context of "the nation as community of citizens" by Dominique Schnapper. ATD FOURTH WORLD implements the social and educational thought of their founder JosephWresinski in such a way that the acknowledgement of the experiences and know-how of excluded individuals contributes to complete citizenship in Haiti. Research based on a sociolological survey made by the researcher who is deeply concerned by the project has enabled us to collect the representations of citizenship by members of ATD FOURTH WORLD and to compare them with those established by other individuals. Members of the movement from different social backgrounds have shown how they establish a community of thought and action that associates the approaches of the school and those of the family, the contribution of the community and districts where people live together with that of the "elite". It's what we call "encounter citizenship". Which, as the thesis can be achieved from and through the action of Joseph Wresinski in Haïti, although with some difficulties and a certain number of contradictions.

The present dissertation aims to shed light on the molecular machinery involved in the process of shell formation (thecagenesis) in Arcella (Arcellinida : Amoebozoa). Arcellinida are single-celled testate amoebae organisms, characterized by the presence of an outer shell (test or carapace); it is a monophyletic lineage of Amoebozoa, sister group to a naked amoeboid lineage. No homologous structure to shell is present in the sister group of Arcellinida, thus it is considered an evolutionary novelty. The origin and evolution of the shell in Arcellinida are currently open questions; deciphering its formation process is a key step to address these questions. During each reproductive process by budding division, these organisms build a new shell. In the span of more than a century, several authors have described the thecagenesis process on Arcellinida, primarily focusing on the genus \\textit, based on cyto-morphological evidence. Conversely, the absence of molecular data has impaired advances on describing the molecular aspects of shell formation. In this study, we designed and applied a molecular framework to identify candidate genes and develop a molecular model for the shell formation process in Arcella; we based this framework on single-cell RNA-sequencing, gene expression profiling, Gene Ontology analysis, and comparative analysis of cyto-morphological with newly generated molecular data. We identify and propose a set of 539 genes as the candidate genes for shell formation, based on expression profiling and biological process assignment. We propose a model for the the shell formation process, which describes the mechanistic aspect of this process, hypothetically based on a molecular machinery conserved in Eukaryotes. Additionally, we identified a massive expansion of the Rab GTPase family, a protein likely to be involved on the process of shell formation. In the lights of the present study, we briefly discuss possible evolutionary scenarios involved on the origin and evolution of the shell and present future perspectives; we propose the shell of Arcellinida as a prosperous model to study the origin and evolution of evolutionary novelties, as well as other evolutionary questions / A presente dissertação tem como objetivo lançar luz sobre a maquinaria molecular envolvida no processo de formação de teca (tecagênese) em \\textit (Arcellinida: Amoebozoa). Arcellinida são amebas tecadas unicelulares, caracterizadas pela presença de uma teca (carapaça ou concha) externa; é uma linhagem monofilética de Amoebozoa, grupo irmão de alguns organismos amebóides nus. Nenhuma estrutura homóloga à carapaça está presente no grupo irmão de Arcellinida, sendo considerada como uma novidade evolutiva. A origem e evolução da carapaça em Arcellinida são questões em aberto; Decifrar seu processo de formação é um passo fundamental para abordar essas questões. Durante todo processo reprodutivo, por divisão por brotamento, estes organismo constroem uma nova concha. No decorrer de mais de um século, vários autores descreveram o processo de tecagênese nestes organismos, focando principalmente no gênero \\textit, baseados em evidências cito-morfológicas. Enquanto isso, a ausência de dados moleculares impede avanços na descrição dos aspectos moleculares da formação de conchas. Neste estudo, projetamos e aplicamos uma \\textit molecular para identificar genes candidatos e desenvolver um modelo molecular para o processo de formação de teca em \\textit; Baseamos este \\textit em sequenciamento de RNA \\textit, perfil de expressão gênica, análise de \\textit{Gene Ontology} e análise comparativa de dados cito-morfológicos e moleculares. Nós identificamos e propomos um conjunto de 539 genes como genes candidatos para a formação de carapaça, com base no perfil de expressão e na atribuição de processos biológica. Propomos um modelo para o processo de formação de carapaça, que descreve o aspecto mecanicista deste processo, hipoteticamente baseado em um mecanismo molecular conservado em Eucariotos. Além disso, identificamos uma expansão maciça da família gênica das Rab GTPase, gene provavelmente envolvida no processo de formação de carapaça. À luz do presente estudo, discutimos brevemente possíveis cenários evolutivos envolvidos na origem e evolução da teca e apresentamos perspectivas futuras; propomos a teca dos Arcellinida como próspero modelo para estudar a origem e evolução das novidades evolutivas, bem como outras questões evolutivas

Cette thèse traite de l’apprentissage automatique pour la classification de données. Afin de réduire le coût de l’étiquetage, l’apprentissage actif permet de formuler des requêtes pour demander à un opérateur d’étiqueter seulement quelques données choisies selon un critère d’importance. Nous proposons une nouvelle mesure d’incertitude qui permet de caractériser l’importance des données et qui améliore les performances de l’apprentissage actif par rapport aux mesures existantes. Cette mesure détermine le plus petit poids nécessaire à associer à une nouvelle donnée pour que le classifieur change sa prédiction concernant cette donnée. Nous intégrons ensuite le fait que les données à traiter arrivent en continu dans un flux de longueur infinie. Nous proposons alors un seuil d’incertitude adaptatif qui convient pour un apprentissage actif à partir d’un flux de données et qui réalise un compromis entre le nombre d’erreurs de classification et le nombre d’étiquettes de classes demandées. Les méthodes existantes d’apprentissage actif à partir de flux de données, sont initialisées avec quelques données étiquetées qui couvrent toutes les classes possibles. Cependant, dans de nombreuses applications, la nature évolutive du flux fait que de nouvelles classes peuvent apparaître à tout moment. Nous proposons une méthode efficace de détection active de nouvelles classes dans un flux de données multi-classes. Cette méthode détermine de façon incrémentale une zone couverte par les classes connues, et détecte les données qui sont extérieures à cette zone et proches entre elles, comme étant de nouvelles classes. Enfin, il est souvent difficile d’obtenir un étiquetage totalement fiable car l’opérateur humain est sujet à des erreurs d’étiquetage qui réduisent les performances du classifieur appris. Cette problématique a été résolue par l’introduction d’une mesure qui reflète le degré de désaccord entre la classe donnée manuellement et la classe prédite et une nouvelle mesure d’"informativité" permettant d’exprimer la nécessité pour une donnée mal étiquetée d’être réétiquetée par un opérateur alternatif / This thesis focuses on machine learning for data classification. To reduce the labelling cost, active learning allows to query the class label of only some important instances from a human labeller.We propose a new uncertainty measure that characterizes the importance of data and improves the performance of active learning compared to the existing uncertainty measures. This measure determines the smallest instance weight to associate with new data, so that the classifier changes its prediction concerning this data. We then consider a setting where the data arrives continuously from an infinite length stream. We propose an adaptive uncertainty threshold that is suitable for active learning in the streaming setting and achieves a compromise between the number of classification errors and the number of required labels. The existing stream-based active learning methods are initialized with some labelled instances that cover all possible classes. However, in many applications, the evolving nature of the stream implies that new classes can appear at any time. We propose an effective method of active detection of novel classes in a multi-class data stream. This method incrementally maintains a feature space area which is covered by the known classes, and detects those instances that are self-similar and external to that area as novel classes. Finally, it is often difficult to get a completely reliable labelling because the human labeller is subject to labelling errors that reduce the performance of the learned classifier. This problem was solved by introducing a measure that reflects the degree of disagreement between the manually given class and the predicted class, and a new informativeness measure that expresses the necessity for a mislabelled instance to be re-labeled by an alternative labeller

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T14:20:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RAPHAEL MOURA CARDOSO.pdf: 1296913 bytes, checksum: 8b2625c1a0fa267fe8ef037e09343e1c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-09-19 / Pesquisas prévias indicam que os processos de facilitação social e intensificação do estímulo podem aumentar a aceitação de um item alimentar desconhecido dentro de grupos de macacos-prego. Os macacos-prego forrageiam em grupo e o sucesso individual é afetado pelo comportamento de outro membro do grupo. Ademais, os adultos de macacos-prego são socialmente tolerantes, principalmente em relação aos imaturos. Por exemplo, durante o processamento de frutos encapsulados os imaturos permanecem próximos ao indivíduo que processa o alimento, ou mesmo surrupiam pequenos pedaços de alimentos consumidos pelos companheiros. A tolerância, por sua vez, é considerada como um aspecto que favorece a troca de informações sociais em um grupo. Em Cebus nigritus, por exemplo, a emissão de assobios afeta o comportamento da audiência em relação à escolha de onde buscar alimento. Em contextos de exploração de uma fonte alimentar, o macaco-prego do cerrado (Cebus libidinosus) também emite assobios que, em geral, atraem outros indivíduos à fonte alimentar. No presente trabalho, realizamos experimentos envolvendo a apresentação, em uma estação alimentar (EA), de 20 itens alimentares conhecidos e 20 desconhecidos a um grupo semi-livre de Cebus libidinosus do Bosque Laranjeiras em Goiânia (16°43 S: 49°13 W). durante as sessões, registrávamos: o sexo e a faixa etária dos indivíduos em contato com a EA, a 05m e a 10 m da EA, em intervalos de 1 minuto; todas as ocorrências de interações que envolviam o interesse pelo alimento em posse de outro, e a identidade dos sujeitos envolvidos. Todas as sessões foram filmadas e gravadas digitalmente. Para cada indivíduo filmado na EA somamos o número de notas e sílabas de assobios foram contabilizadas a partir de sonogramas gerados pelo programa Avisoft LabPro 4.39. O tamanho e composição do grupo presente na área experimental foram similares entre as duas condições (alimento familiar e alimento novo), e indicou tolerância em relação à proximidade de imaturos. Os macacos mostraram-se sensíveis à novidade alimentar, emitindo mais comportamentos exploratórios e menos de familiaridade nesta condição. A probabilidade de ocorrência de interações do tipo Interesse pelo Alimento do Outro foi significativamente maior na condição onde o alimento apresentado era desconhecido ao grupo. A emissão de assobios foi maior na condição em que o alimento era familiar e apresentou uma correlação negativa com comportamentos de inspeção (uma medida indireta de novidade alimentar). Nossos resultados corroboram a ideia de que a tolerância e a troca de informações entre os indivíduos podem compensar os custos associados à competição durante o forrageio social, em particular no caso de informações sobre novos recursos. Sugerimos novas investigações sobre o papel das vocalizações associadas ao alimento no processo de aprendizagem de quais itens desconhecidos são seguros ou não.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T14:20:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcileyde Tizo.pdf: 976236 bytes, checksum: f30ad0f2c7b47722cc770eb0e7b1b88f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-01 / It has been widely investigated how children learn to relate new words to objects or events. The present study, composed with three experiments, verified how the auditory-visual conditional relations are acquired by children in their first years of life. The first experiment was designed to verify if responses are controlled by: a) new pictures when new words are spoken; b) inclusion of the plural ending in a new word (lexical tip) when it is spoken in the presence of a comparative stimulus that is composed of several small and identical pictures; c) increasing choice opportunities. Ten children (ages from 2.5 to 4 years old) have participated. Results have shown that new stimuli have controlled the majority of responses despite of the lexical tip. Some responses of known stimuli to new spoken words have been observed in the first and second experiments. Experiment II has been conducted with six children (ages from 2.2 to 3 years old). Its main goal was to verify if responses would change by replacing known stimuli with other known pictures. Results were similar to the first experiment: children went on responding with known pictures to new spoken words. The third experiment has intended to check if responses are modified by repositioning the comparative stimuli. Four children aged from 2.7 to 4 years old have participated. Then, it was observed a significant reduction of responding with known pictures to new spoken words. In conclusion, new stimulus has controlled child behavior during all three experiments and lexical tips have not controlled the observed responses. / Como crianças aprendem a relacionar palavras novas a objetos ou eventos, tem sido amplamente estudado. O presente estudo teve o objetivo de verificar como ocorre a aquisição de relações condicionais auditivo-visuais por crianças nos primeiros anos de vida. Para isso, foram realizados três experimentos. O Experimento I teve como objetivos específicos: a) verificar se a presença de uma figura nova quando uma palavra nova é ditada controla o responder; b) verificar se o acréscimo da terminação de plural em uma palavra nova controla o responder quando ditado na presença de várias figuras de um mesmo estímulo novo agrupadas representando um único estímulo de comparação; c) verificar se aumentando as oportunidades de escolha o responder se modifica. Participaram desse experimento 10 crianças com 2 anos e meio a 4 anos de idade. Os resultados mostraram que o estímulo novo controlou o responder da maioria das crianças, independente da dica lexical. Um dado obtido no Experimento I e verificado no Experimento II foi a ocorrência de respostas para estímulos conhecidos quando uma palavra nova foi ditada. O Experimento II foi realizado com seis crianças que tinham 2 anos e dois meses a 3 anos e seis meses de idade. Esse estudo teve o objetivo de verificar se substituindo os estímulos conhecidos por outras figuras conhecidas, o responder seria modificado. Os resultados foram semelhantes ao Experimento I. Isto é, as crianças continuaram respondendo para as figuras conhecidas quando uma palavra nova foi ditada. Para continuar essa investigação, foi realizado o Experimento III, que verificou se, alterando a posição dos estímulos de comparação, modificaria o responder. O Experimento III foi realizado com quatro crianças com 2 anos e oito meses a 4 anos de idade. Observou-se nesse estudo a diminuição significativa de respostas para as figuras conhecidas quando uma palavra nova foi ditada. Concluiuse que a presença do estímulo novo controlou o comportamento das crianças durante os três experimentos realizados e que a dica lexical não exerceu controle sobre a resposta.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T17:27:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos Roberto da Silveira.pdf: 1462937 bytes, checksum: 08c9cd7daac45a59fd7e8709c5de662b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-07 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The personalism of Emmanuel Mounier (1905-1950) came up during a historical situation permeated by great disorder. Within the context of mankind in crisis, Mounier always promoted the person. He defended the recovery of inalienable human rights, and paved the way for the ethical universe of the person in his time and place. He proposed an awakening, a bloom of the true human existence made of immanence and transcendence. Thus awakened, the person, being-in-the-world and with-the-world, takes hold of his humanity, refuses passivity and conformism when faced with alienating threats of any nature. His philosophy, which unites reflection and action, reached the other shores of the Atlantic and had an improving repercussion in Brazil from the fifity s. Times of great intellectual, cultural, philosophical, political, and social production were lived as never before in the history of Brazil. Everything was interrupted by the Military Coup of 1964: came to an end the spring of the times for liberty, education and a culture centralized in the dignity of the human person. Not following the logic of the seasons, it was starting a long time of somber winter. A time that can be never forgotten, even though nowadays everything is being done to reject this shamefull past. Anyway, even under the iron fist of the totalitarian order (established disorder), the personalism in Brazil during the 1970 s managed to maintain the spark lighted through a starting trench of thinking, specifically more philosophical. Time going, attending to nowadays time, it is noticed that new incidents against human dignity do occur daily. It is not an odd thing to think that, referring at the beginning of the 21st century to the view uphold by Mounier, one comes to rediscover that the idea of the person can contribute much to our time. Mounier s thought about the person can provide help for a personal awakening that enclose each other, promoting a responsibility ethics , and bringing with it, in the structures of its personal universe, something new, so much needed by a community (commonunity), that urgently must be understood as planetary / O personalismo de Emmanuel Mounier (1905-1950) surgiu diante de uma condição histórica permeada por grandes desordens. Dentro do contexto de humanidade em crise, Mounier promoveu sempre a pessoa. Defendeu uma retomada dos inalienáveis direitos humanos, abriu vias para o universo ético da pessoa em seu tempo e lugar. Propôs um despertar, um desabrochar de existência verdadeiramente humana feita de imanência e transcendência. Assim desperta, a pessoa, ser-no-mundo e com-o-mundo, assume a humanidade, recusa a passividade e o conformismo diante das ameaças alienantes de qualquer natureza. Elegendo-se, compromete-se numa luta permanente para humanizar a humanidade. Sua filosofia, que une reflexão e ação, chegou às outras margens do Atlântico e teve progressivamente repercussão no Brasil a partir da década de 50. Momentos de grande produção intelectual, cultural, filosófica, política e social foram vividos como jamais visto na História do Brasil. Tudo foi interrompido pelo Golpe Militar de 1964: chegava ao fim a primavera dos tempos de libertação, de educação e de cultura centrada na dignidade da pessoa humana. Ao furtar a lógica das estações, iniciava-se um longo período de inverno sombrio. Período que jamais pode ser esquecido, embora atualmente, tudo se faça para rejeitar este passado vergonhoso. Ainda que sob o punho de ferro da ordem totalitária (desordem estabelecida), o personalismo no Brasil na década de 70 conseguiu manter a centelha acessa, através de uma incoativa trincheira de um pensar mais especificamente filosófico. Com o passar do tempo, ao sintonizar os dias atuais, nota-se que novos episódios contra a dignidade humana ocorrem diariamente. Não é estranho pensar que, aludindo no início do século XXI ao enfoque defendido por Mounier, venha-se a redescobrir que a idéia de pessoa pode contribuir muito para o nosso tempo. O pensamento de Mounier sobre a pessoa pode fornecer subsídios para um despertar pessoal que abarque os outros, promova uma ética de responsabilidade e traga consigo, nas estruturas de seu universo pessoal, a novidade, tão necessária a uma comunidade (comum-unidade) que precisa urgentemente entender-se como planetária

Evolutionary novelty, the origin of new characters such as the turtle shell or the flower, is a fundamental problem for an evolutionary view of life. Accordingly, it is a central research topic in contemporary biology involving input from several biological disciplines and explanations at several levels of organization. As such it raises questions relative to scientific collaboration and multi-level explanations. Novelty is also involved in theoretical debates in evolutionary biology. It has been appropriated by evo-devo, a scientific synthesis linking research on evolution and development. Thanks to its focus on development, evo-devo claims to explain the mechanistic origin of novelties as new forms, while the Modern Synthesis can only provide statistical explanation of evolutionary change. The origin of an evolutionary novelty is a historical emergence of a new character involving form and function. I focus on three neglected dimensions of the problem of novelty, the functional-historical approach to the problem, research on novelty in the Modern Synthesis era and novelty in plants. I compare the evo-devo approach to novelty to a functional-historical approach of novelty. I focus on its origin in Darwin and its presence in the Modern Synthesis. The comparison of the two approaches reveals distance between conceptual frameworks and proximity in explanatory practices. This is partly related to unwarranted conceptual opposition. In particular, I list several ways of distinguishing novelty and adaptation, some of which are not conceptually sound. I then focus on the relation between novelty and adaptation in the Modern Synthesis era, and on the relation of novelty to other fundamental biological problems (speciation, origin of higher taxa, complexity). Pushing this approach further, I challenge the view that the Modern Synthesis excluded development and reached a hardened consensus. Finally, I analyse how Günter Wagner's developmental theory of novelty applies to novelties in plant.

A novelty detection algorithm inspired by human audio pattern recognition is conceptualized and experimentally tested. This anomaly detection technique can be used to monitor the health of a machine or could also be coupled with a current state of the art system to enhance its fault detection capabilities. Time-domain data obtained from a microphone is processed by applying a short-time FFT, which returns time-frequency patterns. Such patterns are fed to a machine learning algorithm, which is designed to detect novel signals and identify windows in the frequency domain where such novelties occur. The algorithm presented in this paper uses one-dimensional kernel density estimation for different frequency bins. This process eliminates the need for data dimension reduction algorithms. The method of "pseudo-likelihood cross validation" is used to find an independent optimal kernel bandwidth for each frequency bin. Metrics such as the "Individual Node Relative Difference" and "Total Novelty Score" are presented in this work, and used to assess the degree of novelty of a new signal. Experimental datasets containing synthetic and real novelties are used to illustrate and test the novelty detection algorithm. Novelties are successfully detected in all experiments. The presented novelty detection technique could greatly enhance the performance of current state-of-the art condition monitoring systems, or could also be used as a stand-alone system.

[Truncated thesis] This thesis is concerned with executive functioning in two different but related ways. The first is as an information processing construct in cognitive psychology. There are many different conceptualisations of the information processing basis of executive functioning but this thesis will pursue the notion that executive functioning is best thought of as adaptation to novelty. In the thesis, this will be operationalised using performance indices (principally reaction time) from a number of information processing tasks. These tasks have typically been used in the literature to index either executive functioning or speed of information processing. Both kinds of tasks are used to tackle the second concern of this thesis, namely, how executive functioning is measured. The data analytic techniques developed in this thesis are based on the hypothesis that executive functioning is the process or processes involved in resolving task novelty and consequently measurement will be enhanced through an analysis of performance changes within tasks as the task changes from novel to familiar. The analysis methods will be based largely on the computation of coefficient of variation of reaction time in successive performance windows across the information processing tasks. An elderly sample was chosen for this thesis because of a history of research that has attempted to determine whether cognitive deficits in the elderly are the consequence of the slowing of information processing speed or to impairment in executive functioning. ... The analysis was driven by the hypothesis that a significant shift in the coefficient of variation would mark a transition from novelty to familiarity in task performance and hence from executive to non-executive phases. Three methods were applied to individual performance curves to determine the point at which for each task this transition occurred. Using criterion measures of variability to separate the task data into two stages, analyses showed, contrary to the hypothesis, that later task performance was more highly associated with executive functioning than in initial task performance. The fourth stage of analysis (Chapter 7) applied confirmatory factor analysis to the newly-formed pre- and post transition data. Evidence was found that the magnitude of the contributions of EF across the pre- and post-criterion phases was stable, failing to support the hypothesis. Finally, structural equation modelling was used to examine how age and intelligence in this elderly sample exerts its influence on task performance and whether EF or IPS was the primary cause of age-related cognitive decline. The results showed that the age and intelligence effects on performance were mediated by the requirement to adapt to novelty. Although there was limited evidence to claim that EF is the primary cause of age-related cognitive decline, ageing effects were only apparent when the participants were adapting to novelty. The thesis concludes that there is some support for the hypothesis that executive functioning is best thought of as the processes underpinning adaptation to novelty. While not a panacea, the analytic techniques developed show promise for future research.

Introduction: Previous epidemiologic studies suggest that the personality of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients differs from that of controls, and laboratory evidence supports a potential common pathophysiology of personality traits and PD. One nested case-control study found that PD cases were significantly more anxious than controls before the clinical onset of the disease, and additional data suggest that certain occupations may be risk factors for the disease. Additionally, the latent period that precedes the onset of motor symptoms of PD is unknown. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to evaluate the association of PD with objective indicators of current and pre-morbid personality, to determine the correlation of early-adult life personality indicators with current personality characteristics and to evaluate the role of personality as indicated by occupational choice and employment patterns in the risk for PD using the Dictionary of Occupational Titles job classification system. Methods: Eighty-nine cases and 99 controls completed in-person structured interviews. Assessments included measures of current personality characteristics and indicators of early-adult (ages 20-35 years) personality, such as activities and lifestyle patterns. Associations between these latent personality variables and current personality characteristics were studied using correlation, partialling out the effects of age, sex and education. Multiple logistic regression was used to evaluate the associations of early-adult personality and occupational characteristics and the risk for Parkinson's disease. Results: Cases with Parkinson's disease reported higher levels of neuroticism (OR=1.05 (95% CI 1.00-1.11)) and harm-avoidance (OR = 1.07 (95% CI 1.00-1.15)) compared with controls on measures of current personality. A stable association among many traits, particularly traits such as novelty-seeking, which are driven by dopaminergic function, was present not only among controls with presumably normal dopaminergic function throughout their lives, but also among cases. Early-adult life routinization was correlated with current levels of neuroticism (cases: r=0.33, p=0.01; controls: r=0.26, p=0.04), extraversion (cases: r=-0.33, p=0.01; controls: r=-0.33, p=0.04), novelty-seeking (cases: r=-0.33, p=0.015; controls: r=-0.34, p=0.007) and harm-avoidance (cases: r=0.47, p=0.0003; controls: r=0.45, p=0.0002) and for the association of early-adult life activity risks with harm-avoidance (cases: r=-0.47, p=0.0004; controls: r=-0.42, p=0.0006). Taking or wanting to take "activity risks," such as riding on roller coasters as a young adult was found to reduce the odds of Parkinson's disease (OR = 0.78 (95% CI 0.63-0.97)) in the entire sample, while higher levels of early-adult routinization were associated with a greater risk for Parkinson's disease among women (OR=1.63 (95% CI 1.05-2.53)). Parkinson's disease was inversely associated with the total number of jobs held (OR=0.87 (95% CI 0.75-0.99)) but not with the number of job categories or duration of the primary occupation. Increased complexity of work with people was associated with PD among women (OR=0.69 (95% CI 0.53-0.89), as was less complex work with things (OR=1.45 (95% CI 1.11-1.88). The complexity of work with data, people or things was not associated with the risk for PD among men or in the sample as a whole. Men with PD whose work involved greater complexity with data took fewer activity risks (r=0.32, p=0.02) and reported greater routinization (r=-0.34, p=0.01) as a young adult. Conclusions: This evaluation of early-adult risk factors advances current knowledge about the premorbid period of PD and supports the hypothesis that a long period of subclinical disease precedes the onset of motor symptoms. These findings validate the association of these early-adult personality traits and PD and support the idea that behaviors associated with PD personality exist many years before the presentation of motor symptoms. Dopaminergic aspects of personality were related to occupational choices and future consideration of this hypothesis is warranted. Since PD is a degenerative disorder, determining the age of onset of this illness is important in the search for modifiable risk factors and neuroprotective strategies.