The purpose of the present study was to increase our understanding of the relations among embarrassment, Theory of Mind (ToM), and emotion dysregulation in adolescents with Asperger's Syndrome and High Functioning Autism (AS/HFA), topics that have not previously been the foci of research in this population. The research sample consisted of 42 participants, split equally between adolescents with AS/HFA and typically developing (TD) adolescents. Participants with AS/HFA were matched with TD participants for chronological age and gender. Parents of all participants, typically mothers, were also required to complete measures. Participants were presented with vignettes of embarrassing or anger inducing scenarios, following which they were asked to provide ratings indicating the degree to which they would be embarrassed or angry in the protagonists' positions. Next they were asked to justify those ratings. Results indicated that the AS/HFA group experienced greater difficulty than the TD group with measures requiring ToM abilities. This was particularly true of embarrassment/social faux pas situations. In contrast, both groups performed similarly on measures involving anger-inducing situations that require less ToM. The significant difficulty of the AS/HFA group in understanding ToM in embarrassment measures was corroborated by their poor performance on an independent ToM measure. In addition to having significant difficulty in understanding embarrassment, the AS/HFA group was significantly less able than the TD group to recount personally embarrassing experiences. Regarding emotion regulation, participants with AS/HFA were significantly less able than their TD peers to regulate their emotions through reappraisal. Similarly, parents of the AS/HFA participants reported a significantly higher level of emotion dysregulation in their children than did the parents of the TD participants. Further, participants with AS/HFA had a significantly higher utilization frequency of negative strategies than their TD peers when embarrassed, which aligned with parent report. Negative strategies included internal, verbal, and physical self-injurious behaviors, as well as destructive interpersonal behaviors, e.g., falsely accusing, yelling at, or hitting others. These findings emphasize the critical and potentially harmful impact of embarrassing experiences in the daily lives of adolescents with AS/HFA.

The theoretical part of the thesis concentrates at the begining on pedagogical profession in general with deeper focus on a repertoire of techers' activities. There are being charecterised mandatory personal presumptions and competences of teachers. In detail is elaborated the part about autism. The main part of the chapter constitutes of a review of psychological and medicinal aproach to this issue, diagnostical criteria and a overview of all the pervasive developmental disorders. The final part describes the possibilities of educating children with autism not just in the Czech republic but as well in other european countries. The empirical part of the thesis shows results of qualitative research focused on evaluation of psychological specifics of the work of teachers educating children with autism in the Czech republic from the point of view of the teachers and parents. The data were collected by observation, interview and analysis of documents. KEY WORDS Teacher, working competences, autism, educating children with autism.

This thesis examines the attitude of Malaysia’s Islamist movements – (1) The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS); (2) The National Trust Party (AMANAH); (3) The Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM) and (4) the Malaysian Muslim Solidarity Front (ISMA) towards the 2011 Arab Uprisings events or popularly known as the ‘Arab Spring’ in the Middle East and North Africa. In particular, it explores the knowledge and perceptions of selected Islamist movement activists, politicians and members in Malaysia towards the Arab Uprisings as well as considering how the events impact their activism, political approach and attitudes towards the issues of regime change, civil disobedience, political revolution, democracy, Islamism and political stability. This thesis also identifies a number lessons learnt by the Malaysian Islamists from the development of post-Arab Uprisings in the MENA region. The tendency of Malaysian Islamists to be influenced by the development in the Middle East and global political Islam are not seen as something new as evidently shown in the case of the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution. This popular event was known for its indirect impact on the political activism and approaches of PAS and ABIM in Malaysia back in the 1980-1990s, as well as inspiring many Malaysian Islamists to uphold the struggle of establishing an Islamic state in the country. Following the recent uprisings in several Arab states, which also witnesses the rise of Arab Islamist parties in securing a ruling power, these events have also been widely followed by the Malaysians in general and the Islamists in particular with great interest. Furthermore, the major involvement of Malaysian Islamists in a series of mass protests, popularly known in Malaysia as the “Bersih movement” (circa 2011-2016), against the ruling government, were perceived by numerous local and foreign journalists as an attempt to create a “Malaysian Spring” which inspired by the ‘Arab Spring’ phenomenon for the sake of toppling the current regime. However, there have been strong opinions voiced by the Malaysian authorities and various local scholars suggesting that there was no basis for presuming an Arab Uprisings impact in the context of the Malaysian experience. This raises the question of the relationship between the Arab Uprisings and Malaysian Islamists. Nevertheless, no matter how relevant the questions raised between Malaysia’s Islamist movements and the ‘Arab Spring’, the central concern that needs to be highlighted is the extent to which Malaysian Islamists grasp the fundamental issues of the 2011 Arab Uprisings before jumping to any conclusion about the polemics of the “Malaysian Spring”. In so doing, both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied through a questionnaire based-survey which was conducted in Malaysia involving 530 respondents, primarily among the registered and active representative of Malaysian Islamist between the ages of 18 and 45, as well as 15 in-depth interviews with selected Malaysian Islamist activists and leaders ranging from those in opposition political parties (PAS and AMANAH) to those in non-government Islamist organisations (ABIM and ISMA). The survey of Malaysian Islamists’ attitudes towards the Arab Uprisings development covered a variety of dimensions, namely understanding the general issues about the Arab Uprisings’ phenomenon, factors that lead to the Uprisings, the role of Islamist movements, the influences of the Uprisings on Malaysia’s Islamist movements activism and finally lessons learnt from the Arab Uprisings. The data is statistically analysed with the assistance of the SPSS computer package, and by using a number of statistical procedures, such as frequencies and cross-tabulations. The outcome of this research shows that the majority of respondents have an outstanding knowledge on the Arab Uprisings which was mostly obtained via new social media such as Facebook and Twitter, along with mixed perceptions toward the events. Furthermore, they also reached an understanding that the uncertainties in the Arab world would eventually lead to another wave of uprisings in the long term. Speaking of the global impact of the Arab Uprisings events, some elements of political repression, coupled with corruption and power abuses (which some claimed to be practised by the Malaysian regime), led to a number of Malaysian Islamists believing that they were inspired by the acts of mass street protests during the Arab Uprisings. This inspiration came when they witnessed the ousting of several long-serving autocratic Arab rulers in their respective states by the Arab protesters. However, the fear of insecurity and political instability which is currently evident in the post-Arab Uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Syria and the Yemen led to many respondents favouring political stability rather than regime change. Most of the respondents were quite sceptical about the polemics of the “Malaysian Spring” as most of them neither disagreed nor agreed that the series of political rallies by the Bersih movement were an indirect effort to topple the ruling government which was ‘accused’ by several pro-government media, politicians and authorities in Malaysia. Overall, this empirical research found that the majority of Malaysian Islamists from PAS, ABIM, ISMA and AMANAH are supportive of a free and democratic elections as a relevant medium for political change, rather than overthrowing the current regime via civil disobedience, street demonstration, or ‘revolution’.

Glucose allocation is an important cellular process that is misregulated in the interrelated diseases obesity, diabetes and cancer. Cells have evolved critical mechanisms for regulating glucose allocation, one of which is sensory protein kinases. PAS kinase is a key sensory protein kinase that regulates glucose allocation in yeast, mice and man; and is a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cancer. Despite its importance, the molecular mechanisms of PAS kinase function are largely unknown. Through large-scale protein-interaction studies, we have identified 93 novel binding partners for PAS kinase which help to expand its role in glucose allocation as well as suggest novel roles for PAS kinase including mitochondrial metabolism, cell growth/division, protein modification, stress tolerance, and gene/protein expression. From a subset of these binding partners, we identified 5 in vitro substrates of PAS kinase namely Mot3, Utr1, Zds1, Cbf1 and Pbp1. Additionally, we have further characterized Pbp1 and Cbf1 as PAS kinase substrates through both in vitro and in vivo evidence as well as phenotypic analysis. Evidence is provided for the PAS kinase-dependent phosphorylation and activation of Pbp1, which in turn inhibits cell proliferation through the sequestration of TORC1. In contract, PAS kinase-dependent phosphorylation of Cbf1 inhibits its activity, decreasing cellular respiration. This work elucidates novel molecular mechanisms behind PAS kinase function in both mitochondrial and cell growth pathways in eukaryotic cells, increasing our understanding of the regulation of central metabolism.

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrónica e de Computadores. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2012

Our understanding about the presence, behavior, and toxicities of atmospheric persistent organic pollutants is limited by our ability to accurately measure them. This dissertation details the development and characterization of a model for the determination of an accurate sampling rate (Rs), and effective sampling volume (Veff), for polyurethane equipped passive air samplers (PUF-PAS), and the subsequent application of PUF-PAS sampling methods towards novel applications studying polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The user friendly mathematical model resulting from this work, published as a Matlab script, predicts Rs and Veff as a function of local hourly meteorology and the physical-chemical properties of the target analytes. The model was first developed using active sampling methods in urban Chicago, where good agreement was found between the PUF-PAS and high volume active samplers: Active/Passive = 1.1 ± 1.2. The model was then expanded and calibrated globally using the dataset from the Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling (GAPS) network. After this global calibration we found acceptable agreement between modelled and depuration-determined sampling rates for an independent dataset, with several compounds having near zero mean percent bias (±6%). The globally applicable model is the best alternative for locations experiencing low average wind speeds or cold temperatures, and is particularly useful for the interpretation of samples with long deployments, deployments conducted under warming conditions, and compounds with high volatility. An interactive web-based graphical user interface for the sampling rate model was developed. Users input sampler locations, deployment dates, and target chemicals, in the web-interface and are provided with a sample and compound specific Rs and Veff. The sampling rate model was examined for use in the indoor environment and it was found that both the experimentally calibrated (1.10 ± 0.23 m3 d-1) and modeled (1.08 ± 0.04 m3 d-1) Rs agreed with literature reports. Correlating sample specific wind speeds with uptake rates, it was determined that variability of wind speeds throughout the room significantly (p-value < 0.001) affected uptake rates. Despite this, the PUF-PAS concentration measurements using modelled Rs values were within 27% of the active sampling determined concentration measurements. Using PUF-PAS samplers, PCBs 47, 51, and 68 were found to account for up to 50% of measured indoor sum PCB concentration (2700 pg m-3). Direct surface measurements were conducted to identify finished cabinetry to be a major source, as a result of the decomposition of 2,4-dichlorobenzoyl peroxide used as an initiator in free-radical polymerization of polyester resins. While this phenomenon has been detected at trace levels in other polymer products, it has never been shown to be a significant environment source of PCBs. PUF-PAS samplers were similarly used to study the presence of airborne hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs) and PCBs in the metropolitan Chicago area. While OH-PCBs have been hypothesized to be an important removal mechanism for atmospheric PCBs, they were not directly measured in the air until recently. The two most frequently detect OH-PCB congeners in this study, 2OH-PCB2 and 6OH-PCB2, were detected at levels comparable to a previous report of atmospheric OH-PCBs utilizing active sampling methods, suggesting the viability of PUF-PAS methods to study atmospheric OH-PCBs. One sampling site detected as many as 50 OH-PCBs but uncertainties with sampling and laboratory methods prevent any strong conclusions from being drawn.

Cherchant à harmoniser l'organisation d'un territoire national bouleversée par l'essor de la mobilité individuelle et par les dynamiques de métropolisation, le législateur s'est lancé, depuis 1995, dans un possible découpage en pays. Ce vieux concept multiforme de la géographie ressurgit avec l'ambition de devenir le cadre seyant le mieux aux pratiques spatiales des populations. Mais si le pays semble présenter des avantages, notamment de par son dimensionnement intermédiaire, la question de son insertion dans un système institutionnel obsolète et fortement enchevêtré demeure essentielle. Au delà de la réponse aménageuse, le pays peut-il constituer un ferment de la simplification décentralisatrice souhaitée par le législateur ? C'est ici la thématique abordée dans cette thèse qui essaiera de tester la validité du pays comme nouveau découpage territorial. Défini par un texte de loi très souple ne contraignant qu'au respect des récents contours intercommunaux et bénéficiant d'une connotation symbolique positive, le pays est aujourd'hui inscrit dans une dynamique à succès qu'il convient d'analyser. Outre le jeu de construction politique que le pays se doit d'entretenir avec les intercommunalités et les incidences liées à sa représentation, nous testerons la pertinence de la réalité fonctionnelle de cet outil, son essence même qui le définit comme un espace répondant à une polarisation de proximité. Pour cela, notre démonstration prendra appui sur l'étude de l'espace Lille-Dunkerque qui présente notamment la particularité d'être polarisé par ses extrémités.

La modélisation pluie-débit est une discipline des sciences hydrologiques qui s'intéresse principalement au cycle hydrologique afin d'aboutir à un outil de travail exploitable dans différents domaines. Deux dimensions définissent la modélisation pluie-débit. La première est l'échelle d'espace. Pour différentes superficies, allant d'une maille de quelques mètres carrés au bassin versant de quelques dizaines de milliers de kilomètres carrés, il existe une littérature très riche qui va de la proposition de divers types de modèles jusqu'à la critique de ceux ci. La deuxième dimension est l'échelle de temps. Du pas de temps horaire jusqu'au pas de temps pluriannuel, on trouve dans la littérature de nombreux modèles fonctionnant à chaque pas de temps. Cependant, rares sont les auteurs qui se sont intéressés à la modélisation avec une vue d'ensemble de tous les principaux pas de temps. La présente thèse tente de répondre à une question qui nous semble intéressante : peut-on tirer profit de l'échelle de temps dans la modélisation pluie-débit en vue d'obtenir des modèles plus efficaces et plus cohérents entre eux?<br />Nous nous sommes intéressés dans ce travail de recherche, aux pas de temps pluriannuel, annuel et mensuel. Pour chaque échelle de temps, nous avons procédé à une étude comparative des modèles tirés de la littérature en les testant sur un échantillon de 429 bassins versants de caractéristiques hydro-climatiques très variables. Grâce à des allers-retours entre les pas de temps, nous avons largement amélioré les modèles disponibles pour chaque pas de temps. Ainsi nous avons pu proposer trois modèles conceptuels globaux aux pas de temps pluriannuel, annuel et mensuel. De plus, suite à une vue d'ensemble de ces trois pas de temps, en y ajoutant le pas de temps journalier, nous avons décelé une cohérence dans la présence d'un échange souterrain indiquant clairement qu'un bassin versant est un système qui est ouvert sur toutes les frontières et pas seulement sur celle avec l'atmosphère.

La pollution de l'air est un sujet de préoccupation majeur au XXIème siècle affectant la santé et notre environnement. Deux types de pollution atmosphérique retiennent plus particulièrement l'attention des physicochimistes à l'heure actuelle : la pollution à l'ozone dite photochimique et la pollution particulaire (PM10, PM2.5). La région Nord-Pas-De-Calais (NPDC) est une des régions françaises ayant la plus forte densité de population (324 hab./km2 en 2006). Elle est également le lieu de passage d'un trafic routier transfrontalier particulièrement intense. Enfin, elle présente une forte activité industrielle (pétrochimie, sidérurgie, métallurgie) au niveau de la zone côtière de Dunkerque. Les émissions issues des secteurs du transport mais aussi industriel et tertiaire sont une source importante de composés primaires (NOx, COV et particules) précurseurs de la pollution à l'ozone et particulaire.Au cours du travail de thèse les chaînes de modélisation MM5-CHIMERE et MM5-FLEXPART ont été installées et utilisées sur plusieurs périodes d'études à l'échelle de la région NPDC. Le système MM5-CHIMERE a été utilisé sur la période juin-juillet 2006 propice au développement d'épisodes de pollution photochimique. Diverses applications ont été réalisées : étude de la relation entre concentration en polluant et conditions météorologiques, impact de l'intégration du cadastre d'émission régional, impact de la résolution de la grille et des données dynamiques, origine locale/régionale des niveaux de pollution observés en région NPDC. Puis, le système MM5-FLEXPART a été utilisé afin de déterminer l'origine de deux évènements intenses de pollution particulaire observés en mars et décembre 2007 au niveau de Dunkerque. Enfin, les performances dynamiques et chimiques du système ont été évaluées au niveau de la zone spécifique industrielle de Dunkerque sur deux périodes en avril et mai 2006. Au cours de ces périodes, les données dynamiques ont été collectées lors d'une campagne de mesures réalisée sur Dunkerque par le Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie de l'Atmosphère (LPCA) de l'Université du Littoral - Côte d'Opale. Les résultats concernant la performance et les applications des systèmes ainsi que les perspectives à court terme seront présentés et discutés.

L'analyse des mécanismes de génération de bruit pour des tronçons d'aile placés dans des écoulements à grand nombre de Reynolds s'inscrit dans le cadre de la réduction du bruit de cellule des avions. Afin d'améliorer la compréhension des phénomènes mis en jeu, nous proposons de développer un code aéroacoustique permettant d'obtenir directement le bruit d'un profil. Nous détaillons en particulier le développement de méthodes numériques minimisant les erreurs de dispersion et de dissipation afin de préserver la nature des ondes acoustiques. Une stratégie de calcul multi échelles multi pas de temps permet la réalisation de raffinements locaux en maillage structuré et ainsi la réduction du coût de calcul. Ce code est mis en oeuvre pour simuler le bruit rayonné par un profil NACA0012 en 2D à faible nombre de Reynolds et étudier l'influence de l'angle d'attaque. Parmi les mécanismes de génération de bruit, le mécanisme de bruit tonal peut se rencontrer dans des configurations avec des nombres de Reynolds modérés. Une discussion sur l'existence de ce mécanisme par un profil NACA0012 à Reynolds 200 000 est proposée. Nous menons aussi une étude numérique 3D de l'influence du confinement expérimental, créé par les parois d'une soufflerie, sur les champs aérodynamique et acoustique autour d'un profil NACA0018 à Reynolds 160 000. Enfin, le bruit de bord de fuite d'un profil NACA0012 tronqué à grand nombre de Reynolds (2.32 millions) est calculé par simulation des grandes échelles. Une première comparaison des résultats est effectuée avec la base de données expérimentale EXAVAC. Les principaux mécanismes de génération sonore sont bien reproduits par notre approche multi domaine.