In study one, the executive functioning of 19 high-functioning (HFA) and 19 low-functioning (LFA) children with ASD were compared to 28 children with normal development using a battery of neuropsychological tests. Results not only confirmed previous knowledge that children with ASD had significant executive dysfunctions compared with children with normal development, but also extended it to show that LFA children were significantly more impaired than HFA children. Study two built on this knowledge and examined whether immunological abnormalities are associated with the differential executive dysfunctions in 18 HFA and 19 LFA children. Results indicated that LFA children showed greater executive dysfunctions as well as higher levels of total lymphocyte, T lymphocyte and suppressor/cytotoxic T lymphocyte levels than HFA children. In addition, executive dysfunctions were significantly associated with the three lymphocyte levels, lending support to the notion that immunological factors may play a role in the cognitive dysfunctions in individuals with ASD. Study three further examined whether the differential executive dysfunctions and immunologic levels in LFA and HFA children are associated with their neural connectivity. Results on 17 HFA and 14 LFA children showed that LFA children had significantly elevated theta coherence in the anterior network, as well as at the left intra-hemispheric and right-to-left inter-hemisphere connections than HFA children. LFA children also had significantly elevated immunologic level specifically in suppressor/cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Furthermore, the executive dysfunctions, disordered neural connectivity, and abnormal immunologic levels were found to be associated. / Recent evidence suggests that deficient executive functions are fundamental to the cognitive deficits in Autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It has been suggested that individuals with ASD have disrupted neural connectivity including that in the frontal lobes that mediate executive functions. With reports of immunologic abnormalities in children with ASD, it is plausible that such abnormalities disrupt the neural connectivity in the brains of individuals with ASD. There is, however, relatively little empirical evidence to support the notion. This dissertation reports on three studies to examine whether the executive dysfunction in children with ASD is associated with their immunologic abnormalities and disordered neural connectivity. / These findings have provided some initial evidence to support the notion that immunologic factors may play a role in causing neuronal damage in the anterior region of the brains of children with ASD, which is manifested in their disordered neural connectivity of that region, and their executive dysfunctions mediated by that same region. / Han, Yvonne Ming Yee. / Adviser: Agnes Chan. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-01, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-132). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Nos últimos anos, o volume de dados e de informações disponíveis pelas RSSF cresceu consideravelmente por ser uma tecnologia que permite o desenvolvimento de aplicações em diversos tipos de ambientes (pervasivos, ubíquos, ambientes controlados e de difícil acesso), fazendo com que a preocupação em gerenciar esse conteúdo se tornasse maior. Dentre as propostas apresentadas, um grande número utiliza ontologias como forma de organizar e categorizar dados; existem duas questões chaves na gerência de dados nas redes de sensores sem fio: o armazenamento de dados e o processamento da consulta. O presente trabalho propõe uma abordagem semântica para o gerenciamento dos dados dinâmicos e estáticos da rede, oferecendo um serviço de metadados sobre as RSSF e suas aplicações; esta técnica baseia-se na construção de ontologias que permitem escalabilidade, incremento de eficiência das atividades do ambiente e reusabilidade. Verificou-se mediante testes realizados baseados em consultas sobre a ontologia que o modelo proposto é apropriado, e que a busca baseada em semântica resulta na obtenção de dados das RSSF de forma mais adequada, quanto comparada com as abordagens tradicionais. / In the recent years, the volume of data available from wireless sensor networks (WSN) has increased considerably. WSN is a technology that allows the development of applications in various types of environments (pervasives, Ubiquitous, controlled and with difficult access environment), doing that concern for content managing is greater. Among the proposals, many use ontologies as a way to organize and categorize data; there are two key issues in data management in WSN: data storage and query processing. The present work proposes a semantic approach to the management of dynamic and static data from the network, providing a metadata service on WSN and its applications; this technique is based on the construction of ontologies that allows scalability, enhancement of efficiency in the activities of the environment and reusability. It was verified by means of tests based on querys on the ontology that the proposed model is appropriate, and that the search based on semantics provided retrieval of data from WSN more adequately, as compared with traditional approaches.

A Síndrome de Asperger, um Transtorno Global do Desenvolvimento, pertencente ao espectro autístico caracteriza-se por dificuldades na comunicação, abstração e socialização. O conceito de morte é adquirido paralelamente ao desenvolvimento cognitivo e afetivo da criança, sendo descritos três estágios em seu desenvolvimento paralelos aos estágios piagetianos. Ele é composto pelas dimensões universalidade, irreversibilidade e não funcionalidade. O objetivo deste trabalho foi de verificar se o conceito de morte em portadores da síndrome de Asperger é similar ao observado em pessoas sem psicopatologia ou se relaciona com o observado em portadores de deficiência mental leve. Para isso foram avaliados indivíduos com Síndrome de Asperger, indivíduos com deficiência mental leve e indivíduos sadios, sem doenças mentais e/ou neurológicas, utilizando-se o Instrumento de Sondagem do Conceito de Morte elaborado por Wilma Torres. Os resultados apontaram prejuízo na aquisição do conceito de morte de acordo com a seguinte hierarquia, nas dimensões universalidade e não funcionalidade: Sadios > Síndrome de Asperger > deficiência mental leve. Na dimensão irreversibilidade a hierarquia encontrada foi Sadios > Síndrome de Asperger = deficiência mental leve. Esses resultados apontam déficits na aquisição do conceito de morte por indivíduos com Síndrome de Asperger, possivelmente relacionados a déficits na teoria da mente, função executiva e fraca coerência central. / Aspergers Disorder, a Pervasive Development Disorder, is part of the autism spectrum and is characterized by difficulties in communication, abstraction, and social interaction. The concept of death is acquired in parallel with cognitive and affective development of children, and three stages in its development are described in parallel with piagetian stages. It is made up of the dimensions of universality, irreversibility, and non-functionality. The objective of this work is to verify if the concept of death in people with Aspergers disorder is similar to the one observed in people without psychopathological symptoms , or if it relates to the one observed in people with mild mental retardation. With that purpose, individuals with Aspergers disorder, individuals with mild mental retardation and healthy individuals, without mental and/or neurologic diseases were evaluated by means of the Instrument of Investigation of the Concept of Death developed by Wilma Torres. The results indicated damage in the acquisition of the concept of death according to the following hierarchy, in the universality and non-functionality dimmensions: Healthy > Aspergers disorder > mild mental retardation. In the irreversibility dimension, the hierarchy found was healthy > Aspergers disorder= mild mental retardation. These results indicate deficit in the acquisition of the concept of death by individuals with Aspergers disorder, possibly related to deficits in the theory of mind, executive function, and weak central coherence.

Chan, Yuet Ning Janice. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-136). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; some appendixes also in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.iv / Contents --- p.vi / "List of Figures, Tables, and Appendices" --- p.vii / INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- The Nature of Autism --- p.5 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- Literature Review on Psychological Adjustment of Siblings of Autistic Probands and Associating Factors --- p.16 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- Purpose of the Study and Hypotheses --- p.59 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- Methodology --- p.66 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- Results --- p.75 / Chapter CHAPTER SIX --- Discussion --- p.100 / CONCLUSION --- p.124 / References --- p.126 / Appendices --- p.137

A Síndrome de Asperger, um Transtorno Global do Desenvolvimento, pertencente ao espectro autístico caracteriza-se por dificuldades na comunicação, abstração e socialização. O conceito de morte é adquirido paralelamente ao desenvolvimento cognitivo e afetivo da criança, sendo descritos três estágios em seu desenvolvimento paralelos aos estágios piagetianos. Ele é composto pelas dimensões universalidade, irreversibilidade e não funcionalidade. O objetivo deste trabalho foi de verificar se o conceito de morte em portadores da síndrome de Asperger é similar ao observado em pessoas sem psicopatologia ou se relaciona com o observado em portadores de deficiência mental leve. Para isso foram avaliados indivíduos com Síndrome de Asperger, indivíduos com deficiência mental leve e indivíduos sadios, sem doenças mentais e/ou neurológicas, utilizando-se o Instrumento de Sondagem do Conceito de Morte elaborado por Wilma Torres. Os resultados apontaram prejuízo na aquisição do conceito de morte de acordo com a seguinte hierarquia, nas dimensões universalidade e não funcionalidade: Sadios > Síndrome de Asperger > deficiência mental leve. Na dimensão irreversibilidade a hierarquia encontrada foi Sadios > Síndrome de Asperger = deficiência mental leve. Esses resultados apontam déficits na aquisição do conceito de morte por indivíduos com Síndrome de Asperger, possivelmente relacionados a déficits na teoria da mente, função executiva e fraca coerência central. / Aspergers Disorder, a Pervasive Development Disorder, is part of the autism spectrum and is characterized by difficulties in communication, abstraction, and social interaction. The concept of death is acquired in parallel with cognitive and affective development of children, and three stages in its development are described in parallel with piagetian stages. It is made up of the dimensions of universality, irreversibility, and non-functionality. The objective of this work is to verify if the concept of death in people with Aspergers disorder is similar to the one observed in people without psychopathological symptoms , or if it relates to the one observed in people with mild mental retardation. With that purpose, individuals with Aspergers disorder, individuals with mild mental retardation and healthy individuals, without mental and/or neurologic diseases were evaluated by means of the Instrument of Investigation of the Concept of Death developed by Wilma Torres. The results indicated damage in the acquisition of the concept of death according to the following hierarchy, in the universality and non-functionality dimmensions: Healthy > Aspergers disorder > mild mental retardation. In the irreversibility dimension, the hierarchy found was healthy > Aspergers disorder= mild mental retardation. These results indicate deficit in the acquisition of the concept of death by individuals with Aspergers disorder, possibly related to deficits in the theory of mind, executive function, and weak central coherence.

L'émergence des technologies sans fil et l'ubiquité des dispositifs mobiles ont introduit le concept des environnements pervasifs. Dans ces environnements, les tâches d'un utilisateur peuvent être exécutées en utilisant des composants déployés sur des dispositifs ayant des capacités différentes. Un paradigme approprié pour la construction de ces tâches est le Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). En utilisant l'architecture SOA, les tâches d'un utilisateur sont représentées par un assemblage de composants abstraits (les services), sans préciser leurs implémentations, d'où la nécessité de résoudre les services en composants concrets. La résolution d'une tâche implique la sélection automatique des composants concrets à travers différents dispositifs de l'environnement d'exécution. Pour ceci, nous présentons une approche qui permet à chaque service d'une tâche de l'utilisateur, la sélection du meilleur dispositif et composant en tenant compte des préférences de l'utilisateur, des capacités des dispositifs, des besoins des services et des préférences des composants. En raison de la dynamicité des environnements pervasifs, nous nous sommes intéressés aussi à la continuité d'exécution des tâches de l'utilisateur dans ces environnements. Pour cet objectif, nous présentons une approche qui permet aux composants de surveiller localement ou à distance les changements de propriétés fournies par d'autres composants. Nous avons également considéré l'adaptation des tâches de l'utilisateur en proposant une première approche de re-sélection partielle de dispositifs et de composants. Nous proposons aussi une approche d'adaptation structurelle par l'injection des patrons d'adaptation, qui offrent un comportement extra-fonctionnel. Nous avons conçu l'architecture d'un middleware permettant la résolution des tâches, le monitoring de l'environnement et l'adaptation des tâches. Nous donnons quelques éléments d'implémentation des composants du middleware et nous présentons des résultats d'évaluation / The proliferation of small devices and the advancements in various technologies have introduced the concept of pervasive environments. In these environments, user tasks can be executed by using the deployed components provided by devices with different capabilities. One appropriate paradigm for building user tasks for pervasive environments is Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). Using SOA, user tasks are represented as an assembly of abstract components (i.e., services) without specifying their implementations, thus they should be resolved into concrete components. The task resolution involves automatic matching and selection of components across various devices. For this purpose, we present an approach that allows for each service of a user task, the selection of the best device and component by considering the user preferences, devices capabilities, services requirements and components preferences. Due to the dynamicity of pervasive environments, we are interested in the continuity of execution of user tasks. Therefore, we present an approach that allows components to monitor locally or remotely the changes of properties, which depend on. We also considered the adaptation of user tasks to cope with the dynamicity of pervasive environments. To overcome captured failures, the adaptation is carried out by a partial reselection of devices and components. However, in case of mismatching between an abstract user task and a concrete level, we propose a structural adaptation approach by injecting some defined adaptation patterns, which exhibit an extra-functional behavior. We also propose an architectural design of a middleware allowing the task's resolution, monitoring of the environment and the task adaptation. We provide implementation details of the middleware's components along with evaluation results

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is recognized the world over as a major public health issue. Autism is highly prevalent, persists across the lifespan, and is characterized by behaviors that can profoundly impair typical functioning. Interventions based on behavioral strategies have proven effective, but there are significant barriers to care, including cost, intensity of treatment, and access to qualified practitioners. The impact of ASD and obstacles to appropriate care are magnified by systemic limitations in developing countries. Parent training holds promise as a method of disseminating therapy to underserved areas. This study investigated the effectiveness of a pyramidal parent training intervention in Macedonia. Fifteen parents of children with ASD were trained in three specific strategies for promoting prosocial skills: eye contact, compliance, reducing restricted repetitive behaviors (RRB). Parents reported daily ratings of these skills and their own confidence, action or engagement, and family distress. Participants were ethnic Macedonians from the capital of Skopje with at least one child with ASD between the ages of 2 and 13 years. This study utilized a single case research design. Data were collected per and post intervention using an interrupted time series design. Individual response was analyzed visually and Tau U effect sizes were calculated. Moderator and mediator effect was considered following the method initially established by Gaynor and Harris (2008). Effect sizes were small but significant for the group overall for all variables except restricted repetitive behaviors (RRB). The program was especially effective for younger children, those with comorbid hyperactivity, those with low to moderate symptomology, and those with no prior special education services.

Le paradigme d'émergence spontanée de services (Spontaneous Emergence Paradigm, SEP) pour la mise en œuvre de l’informatique omniprésente ou diffuse (pervasive computing), consiste à fournir des services aux utilisateurs en fonction de leur environnement ad hoc. Ce paradigme a prouvé son efficacité et son adéquation aux applications distribuées sensibles au contexte. Ce travail se concentre sur deux aspects liés à la mise en œuvre des services SEP. Le premier se distingue de ce qui est proposé dans la littérature, par une approche physiologique de « Dead Reckoning » (Physiological Pedestrian Dead Reckoning Approach, PDR), qui permet de corriger les erreurs de positionnement à partir de données physiologiques comme la fréquence cardiaque et la vitesse de déplacement. Cette approche utilise des modèles stochastiques, qui reposent sur la distribution des probabilités des fréquences cardiaques précédemment collectées par rapport à la vitesse de déplacement de l’utilisateur (par exemple, par apprentissage via une marche sur un tapis roulant). Le modèle proposé permet ainsi d’ajuster les vitesses lues dans n’importe quel futur système PDR. Le deuxième aspect de cette recherche concerne la détection de réseaux d’affinités (Social Relationship Detection framework, SRD). Cette approche propose d’explorer le niveau d’affinité entre personnes en fonction de leur connexions et interactions selon plusieurs conditions. Ces connexions à des bornes WAP (Wireless Access Point), par rapport à chaque condition, sont consolidées pour former des distributions de probabilités. Par la suite, ces distributions de probabilités sont introduites dans un réseau de neurones (back propagation neural network) pour détecter et déterminer les affinités entre utilisateurs. Cette approche permet une prise de décision adaptative à chaque connexion au WAP et selon le comportement de l’utilisateur, contrairement aux approches classiques reposant uniquement sur une connaissance globale au préalable de la convergence des attributs des utilisateurs concernés. / Service Emergence Paradigm (SEP), based on a pervasive computing approach, consists of providing services to users within intended applications, transparently from their intentions, relatively to their needs, and regardless of the time and devices used. This considered paradigm has been proved sufficiently in applications that have context awareness schemes and various working threads. This research focuses on two aspects for providing SEP services. This first aspect is to implement a Physiological Pedestrian Dead Reckoning Approach (PPDR) that corrects position errors in pedestrian dead reckoning systems based on the heart rate parameter. This approach uses specific stochastic models that rely on probability distributions of previously collected heart rate values with respect to their velocities of a user during a treadmill walk. The reason behind this collection is to form a pattern that contributes in adjusting currently read velocities in any future PDR system. The second aspect of this research is the Social Relationship Detection framework (SRD). This approach proposes a mean for exploring the level of relationship between people by observing the network connection pattern of each person over several conditions. These connections, with respect to each condition, are consolidated to form a set that holds different probability distributions. These distributions are formed based on the users’ Wireless Access Point (WAP) connection establishment routine. Afterwards, the distributions of the probabilities are fed into a trained back propagation neural network to detect the level of relationship between candidate users for forthcoming friendship recommendations. This approach is elaborated in a technique that achieves intelligent decision-making whenever the connection pattern to the WAP and the user behavior are changing with time. It is also distinguished from other classical approaches that rely solely on prior knowledge of the convergence of the users’ attributes.

This thesis describes research on methods for Ubiquitous/Pervasive Computing to better suit users in an Intelligent Environment. The approach is to create and equip a computing environment, such as our Active Office, with technologies that can identify user needs and meet these need in a timely, efficient and unobtrusive manner.¶ The critical issues in the Intelligent Environment are how to enable transparent, distributed computing to allow continued operation across changing circumstances and how to exploit the changing environment so that it is aware of the context of user location, the collection of nearby people and objects, accessible devices and changes to those objects over time.¶ Since the Intelligent Environment is an environment with rapid and rich computing processing, the distributed context processing architecture (DiCPA) was developed to manage and respond to rapidly changing aggregation of sensor data. This architecture is a scalable distributed context processing architecture that provides: 1. continued operation across changing circumstances for users, 2. the collection of nearby people and objects, 3. accessible devices and 4. the changes to those objects over time in the environment. The DiCPA approach focuses on how the Intelligent Environment provides context information for user location, user mobility and the user activity model. Users are assumed mobile within the Intelligent Environment and can rapidly change their access to relevant information and the availability of communications and computational resources.¶ Context-Aware Computing is a new approach in software engineering for Intelligent Environment. It is an approach in the design and construction of a context-aware application that exploits rapid changes in access to relevant information and the availability of communication and computing resources in the mobile computing environment. The goal of Context-Aware Computing is to make user interaction with the computer easier in the smart environment where technology is spread throughout (pervasive), computers are everywhere at the same time (ubiquitous) and technology is embedded (ambient) in the environment. Context-aware applications need not be difficult, tedious or require the acquisition of new skills on the part of the user. They should be safe, easy, simple to use and should enable new functionality without the need to learn new technology. They should provide relevant information and a simple way for a user to manage.¶ The Intelligent Environment requires a context-aware application to improve its efficiency and to increase productivity and enjoyment for the user. The context awareness mechanism has four fundamental cores i.e. identity (who), activity (what), location (where) and timestamp (when). Based on DiCPA architecture, the model of user location (where), user mobility (where), user activity (what) and Intelligent Environment response (what) were developed. Prototypes were also developed to proof the Context-Aware Computing concept in the Intelligent Environment.¶ An Intelligent Environment uses the multi-disciplinary area of Context-Aware Computing, which combines technology, computer systems, models and reasoning, social aspects, and user support. A “good quality” project for Context-Aware Computing requires core content and provides iterative evaluation processes, which has two types of iteration: design and product iteration of the evaluation. The aim of the development of an evaluation program in Context-Aware Computing is to determine what to test, how to test and the appropriate metrics to use. This work presents the metrics for a good quality project in the Context-Aware Computing area, which is followed by the evaluation of the prototypes of this work.

Les équipements électroniques envahissent progressivement l'univers quotidien. D'aucuns souhaiteraient que ces équipements puissent intelligemment réagir à l'activité de l'utilisateur afin de l'assister dans ces activités de tous les jours. Le domaine de l'Informatique Pervasive adresse la vision de ce monde naturellement numérique assistant les individus sans être intrusif.<br /><br />Face aux défis de l'Informatique Pervasive dans les réseaux locaux, notamment la distribution, l'hétérogénéité et la dynamique des équipements, cette thèse répond par une ligne de conduite et l'approche logicielle Home SOA. Cette ligne de conduite distingue les situations où les solutions protocolaires sont pertinentes et ramène les autres situations à des problèmes de génie logiciel. Parmi les solutions protocolaires, la proposition d'une interface uniforme de gestion de cycle de vie logiciel dans le Comité de Travail UPnP Device Management est une des contributions importantes. <br /><br />Le Home SOA est l'association de technologies de développement modulaire et d'un ensemble de patrons de conception orientés objets. Au-delà de l'orientation objet, le Home SOA exploite les modèles récents de composants à services et le concept de plateforme de services. Les pilotes orientés service masquent les aspects distribués tout en réifiant la dynamique des entités pervasives sur la plateforme. Les pilotes raffinés adaptent les objets mandataires dans des interfaces à la sémantique du domaine d'application visé. La contextualisation des services de la plateforme alliée à une automatisation de la sélection de service achève de simplifier le développement d'applications pervasives. Le cadriciel est implémenté au-dessus de la plateforme OSGi et est validé par la réalisation d'applications conscientes du contexte et mixant des domaines d'applications distincts dans le réseau domestique.