Une nouvelle tentative pour faire face au défi sceptique est menée depuis une quarantaine d’années. Cette tentative repose sur une théorie de la connaissance centrée sur la notion d’alternatives pertinentes. La thèse se propose de montrer les faiblesses de cette théorie, même lorsqu’elle s’appuie sur l’appareillage des mondes possibles, et suggère que le scepticisme demeure la meilleure position épistémologique. Dans le premier chapitre on passe en revue une série de difficultés liées au sujet des alternatives pertinentes et l'on essaye d'argumenter en faveur de l'idée qu'il n'y a peut-être pas, finalement, de moyens en quelque sorte objectifs pour établir quelles sont les alternatives pertinentes relativement à une situation quelconque. À partir du deuxième chapitre, il est procédé à une analyse critique des tentatives de certains auteurs qui se sont servis, pour élaborer leurs propres conceptions bien précises, du langage des mondes possibles. Dans le deuxième chapitre, l'on se concentre surtout sur la question du degré de proximité qu'un monde possible donné doit exhiber pour être considéré comme suffisamment proche du monde actuel et l'on essaye de montrer qu'il n’est probablement pas possible de tracer d'une manière non arbitraire une ligne de démarcation entre ces mondes possibles qu’on peut ignorer et ceux qu’on ne peut ignorer dans nos attributions de connaissance. Dans le troisième chapitre, l'on se concentre surtout sur la question des critères qui devraient guider nos évaluations de proximité et l'on essaye de montrer le caractère discutable de n'importe quelle règle visant à établir quels seraient ces critères-là. / Over the last forty years, a new attempt to answer to the skeptic challenge has been proposed. This attempt is based on a theory of knowledge, which is grounded on the notion of relevant alternative. My dissertation aims to show the problems of such a theory, even when formulated in terms of possible worlds, and suggests that in the end skepticism remains the best epistemological option. In the first chapter, I will offer a discussion of the issue of relevant alternatives, and I will argue in favor of the idea that perhaps there are no objective criteria to establish which are the relevant alternatives with respect to a certain given situation. In the second chapter, I will propose a critical analysis of the attempts of some philosophers to formulate their own proposals in the language of possible worlds. In particular, I will focus on the issue of the proximity degree that a certain possible world must have in order to be considered as sufficiently closed to the real world, and I will try to show that perhaps it is not possible to draw a sharp line of demarcation between those possible worlds that we can ignore and those that we must take into account in our attribution of knowledge. In the third chapter, I will critically discuss the criteria that should guide our evaluations about proximity, and I will show the problematic aspects of any rule aimed to establish which these criteria in effect should be.

This thesis questions what it was like for pre-service teachers registered in a Bachelor of Education program to experience Kpanlogo, a West African dance from Ghana. Over a period of two years, the primary researcher introduced this dance to her peers first as a pre-service teacher, and then as a graduate student in a variety of ways: 1) practicing it for a performance at a community building talent show on campus, 2) learning it through a professional development workshop, and 3) teaching it to intermediate students at a local school, on two different occasions. Five pre-service teachers responded to an invitation to participate in a phenomenological study about their experiences. The two research questions which guided the interviews were: 1) What was it like to experience Kpanlogo, a West African dance, as a pre-service teacher? 2) What was it like as a pre-service teacher to teach students Kpanlogo? The conceptual framework of Sankofa Cyclical Waves, situated in a collectivist African Worldview orients us to the philosophy of Ubuntu, which posits that humanness is found and cultivated within community. Sankofa, a Ghanaian proverb which encourages its people to go back, physically or spiritually, to retrieve what was once lost or forgotten was used as a particular path to analyze the lived experiences of the pre-service teachers. In this thesis the Sankofa Cyclical Waves provided a structure to identify their various levels of understanding Ubuntu. Experiences analyzed as being novice in nature were awkward at the start, then as the dancer moves towards the end of the continuum, towards Ubuntu, the dancer moves through a series of waves as they become more familiar with rhythms, movements, African dance attire, and becoming a part of the whole; the Other‘s community.

This dissertation is a nuanced study of ‘compassion’ in the context of the Pauline Letters. The Letters are considered within the socio/political context of imperial Rome. ‘Compassion’ is a complex emotion, therefore it has been necessary to include, in my analysis, cognate sentiments such as patience, kindness, gentleness, perseverance. As this is a semantic study the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains, compiled by Louw and Nida (L-N), is used extensively. A dictionary provides a potential meaning, but it is the context of the sentence, the sentence within a larger unit of the text as a whole, considered within the prevailing social conditions, that influence meaning. This method reveals that Paul envisages ‘compassion’ as the means to establish communities, not enslaved by the values of ‘the world’, nor grasping things for themselves at the expense of others. In Paul, ‘compassion’ is expansive and inclusive, where the good of the whole community is valued. His paradigm is the sacrifice of Christ. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M. A. (Ancient Languages and Cultures)

A lei atual foi forjada sobre a premissa de que a humanidade está no centro do mundo e de que o homem é o único e legitimado senhor de todos os seres vivos. Desde que Darwin revelou para o mundo uma então chocante realidade sim, nós viemos de um símio ancestral os princípios filosóficos do antropocentrismo começaram a ruir. E os animais, que nós sempre pensamos como objetivos de uso e consumo humano, como sofás, mesas e cadeiras? E os seres que nós descobrimos serem tão relacionados a nós que os chamamos de primos ou humanlike? Eles ainda são bens móveis nas palavras fora de moda do direito posto? Pois agora que uma nova realidade está implodindo os antigos tabus de irracionalidade e instinto pavloviano, muitos juristas e filósofos passaram a defender a existência de direitos fundamentais (como à vida, à liberdade, e à integridade física) a vários animais, baseados na sua igualdade substancial aos seres humanos. Para os que sustentam tais ideias, os animais, como a maioria de nós, têm interesses considerados relevantes, o que significa que eles podem pensar racionalmente, evitando a dor e o sofrimento, e procurando o bem-estar, mas somente o pequeno grupo chamado de grandes primatas (no qual se incluem o próprio homem e, além dele, os outros hominoides e antropoides, isto é, os chimpanzés, gorilas, orangotangos e bonobos) conhecem os rudimentos (blocos construtores) da moralidade. Aos grandes primatas podem ser reconhecidos direitos subjetivos? A resposta pode ser encontrada tanto no jusnaturalismo (na teoria do direito natural), que concebe direitos inatos, partilhados, segundo Justiniano, entre todas as criaturas vivas, quanto na teoria do interesse de Ihering, em oposição à teoria da vontade de Windscheid. Conjuntamente, eles podem explicar um novo conceito de personalidade jurídica mínima para os grandes primatas. / Modern Law is founded over the premise that mankind is in the center of the world; that man is the sole master and ruler of all living beings. Since Darwin brought into the eyes of humanity a brand new shocking reality yes, we came from the apish ancestor philosophy principles of anthropocentrism have collapsed. What about those animals we always thought as mere objects like sofas, tables or chairs? What about those beings we have now discovered so close related to us that we are used to call them as kin or humanlike creatures? Are they still goods by the old-fashioned words of written law? For a new reality is overcoming ancient taboos of irrationality and pavlovian instincts, there are now many jurists and philosophers who defend basic rights (such as life, liberty and bodily integrity) to lots of animals, based on their substantial equality to humans. For those who claim in their favor, animals, like most of us, have interests considered relevant, which means that they can think rationally, avoiding pain and suffering, and seeking for wellness of living, but only the small group called the great apes (in which we include the man himself as also the other hominoids or anthropoids: chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and bonobos) know the building blocks of morality. Are they so entitled to have rights? The answer lies in both jusnaturalism (theory of natural rights), which conceives inherent rights of living, commonly shared, according to Justinian, by all living creatures, and in Ihering theory of interest opposed to Windscheids of will. Combined together they can provide a new concept of minimum notion of legal personhood for the great apes.

nÃo hà / Este estudo investiga a hipÃtese de eficiÃncia de mercado, a qual designa que estratÃgias de previsibilidade baseadas no comportamento passado das sÃries de retornos de aÃÃes nÃo implicam a obtenÃÃo de lucros econÃmicos. SÃo analisados dados de 25 mercados, estendendo-se de janeiro de 1990 a janeiro de 2010. A metodologia principal consiste na aplicaÃÃo de cinco testes de raiz unitÃria para painel, entre os quais se destaca o de Pesaran, Smith e Yamagata (2009), o qual assume que existe um determinado nÃmero de variÃveis que sÃo simultaneamente afetadas por um dado conjunto de fatores comuns nÃo observados. Os resultados modificam-se conforme altera-se o poder dos testes. O principal teste aplicado, particularmente, rejeita a hipÃtese em questÃo, sinalizando a possibilidade de exploraÃÃo de certas ineficiÃncias para a obtenÃÃo de lucros adicionais. / This paper investigates the efficient market hypothesis, which indicates a situation where investors are not able to develop a familiarity with past patterns of returns in order to obtain extra profits. It is used a sample containing 25 markets over the period January 1990 to January 2010. Econometric Methodology consists in exploiting five unit root tests, between which Pesaran, Smith e Yamagata (2009) is in relief, which assumes that there exists a number of variables that are simultaneously affected by a given set of unobserved common factors. Main results reject the efficient market hypothesis, indicating possibilities of exploiting inefficiency for obtaining extra profits.

Cette thèse regroupe les principaux jalons pour l’analyse concurrentielle des marchés impliquant des activités de réseau et des services ou produits numériques. Le propos s’organise en trois parties qui sont autant d’essais pour rendre compte de l’impact des spécificités de ces marchés sur leur dynamique concurrentielle. La première partie de la thèse porte sur la question de la concentration des plateformes Internet. Un modèle de marché biface est spécifié pour rendre compte des différents niveaux d’interdépendance sur les plateformes mettant en relation entreprises ou annonceurs, d’une part, et audience ou consommateurs, d’autre part. Il en ressort que les effets de réseaux (les synergies et économies d’échelle émanant du nombre d’utilisateurs de la plateforme) sont telles que tout avantage (premier entré sur le marché, qualité ou part d’audience relative supérieure,…), constitue à terme un avantage compétitif pérenne. La deuxième partie aborde la question de la délimitation des « marchés pertinents » lors des opérations de concentration appliquée au marché de l’accès à Internet fixe. La structure de la demande d’accès à Internet est examinée économétriquement afin de vérifier l’existence, ou l’absence, d’une segmentation (voire d’une différenciation) de celle-ci selon que les technologies sont de types haut ou très haut débit. La troisième partie traite de l’effet des ad-blockers sur les médias et fournisseurs de contenus dont le modèle économique repose sur la gratuité. Un modèle de marché biface est spécifié afin de vérifier quel rôle peuvent jouer les fournisseurs d’accès à Internet pour internaliser les externalités de réseau et limiter les phénomènes de congestion. Descripteurs : économie numérique, concurrence, plateformes, concentration, marché pertinent, publicité, externalités de réseau, média / This PhD thesis set the milestones that are relevant for the competitive analysis of markets based on network activities and digital products or services. This work counts three parts, designed as separate essays, and aims to appreciate the impact of the characteristics of these markets on their competitive dynamics. The first part of the thesis tackles the concentration issue of online platforms. We specify a model of two-sided market in order to appreciate the different levels of interdependence on online platforms linking on firms (or advertisers) on one side and audience or consumers on the other side. As a result, network effects (synergies and scale economies relating to the number of users) are such that any competitive advantage (first-mover advantage, better quality or market share…), as low as it can be, turns out to be durable. The second part deals with the “relevant market” delineation in horizontal mergers issue and suggest an application to the retail market for fixed broadband Internet access. We econometrically analyze the demand for broadband access in order to verify whether or not there exists a segmentation (or even a differentiation) of the demand depending on the access technologies that can be very fast broadband or regular broadband access technologies. The third part examines the effects of “ad-blocking” software on the media and content providers whose business model is based on free access. We also specify a model of two-sided market in order to appreciate the role that Internet service providers can play to internalize network effects and to curb congestion phenomena.

The increasingly observable excess capacity in the fixed networks calls into question the established long-standing pricing standards for wholesale services based on forward-looking long-run incremental costs (FL-LRAIC). The FL-LRAIC standard has worked quite well in expanding markets, although even there price-squeeze problems have appeared. In contracting markets the price-squeeze issue, however, becomes paramount and lower prices both at the wholesale and retail levels would be efficient. This would favor a retail-minus approach (RM) under long-term contraction. Because both expansion and contraction could be relevant in the future, we propose an optional approach based on the wholesale price formula p = min(FL-LRAIC, RM). This will generally protect alternative competitors against price-squeeze while at the same time allowing the fixed-network incumbent full downward price flexibility. It also protects alternative competitors and end users against excessively high prices. Hence, implementing this option successfully at wholesale level would eliminate the need to regulate retail markets. The combination of RM and FL-LRAIC seems to be most realistic, because it is relatively simple and internationally partly tested already. We show that this option is superior to FL-LRAIC or RM alone and to other approaches, such as short-run marginal costs. We also consider a possible combination with capacity-based charging, which may have particular merits for converged services in next generation networks (NGNs). / Series: Working Papers / Research Institute for Regulatory Economics

This study identifies the components of an instructional programme for information literacy that is culturally relevant to Kuwaiti students. It discusses culturally relevant education, instruction for information literacy, the provision of library and information skills instruction in Kuwait, and its characteristics as an independent nation, and as a Gulf, Arab, Islamic, and developing country. The study further tests the effect of cultural relevance on instruction for information literacy for Kuwaiti students with an experiment of comparative instruction. The control group received Western-oriented instruction for information literacy and the experimental group received instruction that substituted Kuwaiti cultural referents for some of the Western-oriented referents. The aims of instruction for both groups were basic levels of proficiency as described in Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning, and the main vehicle of instruction was the Big SixTM information problem solving strategy. The only difference in instruction between groups were the images in the Big SixTM transparencies used for overhead projection, the examples used in class to discuss various information problems and the corresponding images that represented the examples. The study measured the information problem solving achievement of 126 fourth- and eighth grade students with a pre- post-test, the recall of the Big Six strategy with a post-test, and student attitudes with a questionnaire. The analyses revealed that, overall, there is a significant difference in the mean achievement scores in information problem solving and the recall of the Big Six strategy between students who received culturally relevant instruction and those who received instruction that was not culturally relevant. Examined separately, males' scores were significantly higher in the group that received culturally relevant instruction, while females responded equally well to both types of instruction. In addition, the study found a strong correlation between the attitudes of students in the control and experimental groups, and between males and females within groups.

This thesis examines how traditional medicine workshops offered by an Aboriginal health centre contribute to capacity re-building through self-care in two local communities in Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Health disparities that exist between Aboriginal people and the rest of the population have prompted a need to better understand health determinants that are of relevance in these communities including the importance of culture, tradition, and self-determination. A variety of qualitative methods were employed in this work including in-depth interviews, focus groups and “art voice.” The use of art voice on Manitoulin Island advances decolonizing methodologies by emphasizing how the incorporation of locally and culturally relevant methods or “methods-in-place,” is an effective way to engage communities in the research process. Results show the need to approach traditional teachings, health programs, and research from an Aboriginal worldview and indicate that more frequent workshops are required to empower youth and adults to practice and share traditional knowledge. Furthermore, a continuum exists in which the interest in language, culture, and tradition increases with age. Capacity can therefore be re-built over time within communities promoting autonomy and self-determination through self-care. Findings can be expected to further inform the traditional programming in participating communities, enhance existing Aboriginal determinants of health models by including traditional medicine as an element of self-care, and can act as a springboard for the inclusion of unique place-based methods into community-based research projects in the future.

Cette thèse s'intéresse à la modélisation de la contamination nitrique de la nappe des calcaires de Champigny, ressource stratégique pour l'alimentation en eau potable de l'Île-de-France et pour laquelle plusieurs champs captants ont été identifiés comme prioritaires. Le couplage d'un modèle agronomique STICS et d'un modèle hydrogéologique MODCOU permet de modéliser le transfert des nitrates résultant des pratiques agricoles à travers l'hydrosystème.La mise en place de MODCOU sur la zone d'étude a nécessité d'apporter des modifications au logiciel afin de représenter le fonctionnement de l'hydrosystème comportant des singularités hydrogéologiques. L'application du modèle entre 1971 et 2011 a montré l'importance des échanges nappes-rivières dans le fonctionnement de la nappe et particulièrement sur les bassins d'alimentation des captages (BAC) prioritaires, préalablement identifiés lors d'études antérieures. Pour prendre en compte ces échanges dans la modélisation de la contamination nitrique, un module évaluant les concentrations en rivières par bassin versant a été développé et permet de reproduire l'évolution de la contamination du passé à l'actuel et de réaliser par la suite des scénarios prospectifs.Le développement d'une méthodologie spécifique a permis d'identifier les zones les plus contributives à l'alimentation des captages. Elles se révèlent être situées essentiellement le long des cours d'eaux et représentent un peu moins de la moitié de la superficie des BAC. La mise en rapport des zones d'alimentation principale et de la rapidité du transfert permet de déterminer les zones d'actions prioritaires les plus pertinentes sur lesquelles des mesures de protection pourraient être plus spécifiquement appliquées / This thesis focuses on modelling of the nitrogenous contamination in Champigny's limestone aquifer. This groundwater is a strategic resource for Ile-de-France drinking water supply where several well-fields have been identified as a priority. The coupling of an agronomic model (STICS) and a hydrogeological model (MODCOU) enables to simulate the transfer of nitrates through the hydrosystem resulting from agricultural practices.The implementation of MODCOU on the study area has required improvement of the software for better representing distinctive features of the hydrosystem. The application of this model from 1971 to 2011 shows the importance of exchanges between rivers and aquifers in order to capture aquifer functioning and particularly the behaviour of the well field's water supply basins identified in previous studies. To integrate these exchanges in the modelling of nitrogenous contamination, a module assessing concentrations in rivers has been developed for each catchment and enables to reproduce the evolution of contamination from the past to the present and subsequently realize forward-looking scenarios.The development of a specific methodology enabled to identify the most contributory areas for well-field supply. Results show that these areas are located essentially along streams and represent a little less than half of the area of the well field's water supply basins. The linking between the main recharge area and the transfer velocity enables to determine the most relevant priority action areas on which protective measures could be more specifically applied.