La douleur se divise en composantes sensorielles, cognitives et affectives qui s’inter-influencent. La composante affective semble jouer un rôle dominant dans certaines douleurs chroniques, mais aussi dans le recrutement des mécanismes endogènes de contrôle de la douleur (conditioned pain modulation; CPM) et des réponses du système nerveux autonome (SNA). De plus, des études récentes supportent que les réponses du SNA semblent être liées avec l’efficacité des CPM. Il va de soi que la composante affective soit grandement impliquée dans des douleurs qui affectent les relations interpersonnelles et même les relations intimes, comme la vestibulodynie provoquée (VP), une douleur à l’entrée du vagin au moment d’une pénétration ou de l’insertion d’un tampon. Un des facteurs affectifs important dans la douleur est justement relationnel, soit l’empathie. En effet, l’observation d’une personne en douleur, principalement si elle nous est significative, est douloureuse pour l’observateur et s’accompagne de réponses physiologiques similaires à la douleur vécue. Dans cette étude, nous avons vérifié si l’observation d’étrangers en douleur provoque l’activation d’une réponse inhibitrice s’apparentant aux CPM, comme c’est le cas pour l’observation du conjoint. Nous avons aussi vérifié si le fait de souffrir de VP influence l’efficacité inhibitrice par la douleur expérimentale (situation contrôle) et par l’observation d’une femme et d’un homme inconnus dans la même situation de douleur expérimentale (situation d’observation). Les résultats ont démontré que l’observation d’étrangers en douleur n’était pas suffisant pour activer une inhibition descendante de la douleur, et ce, indépendamment de la condition de l’observateur. De plus, l’évaluation de la douleur perçue ne différait pas entre les deux groupes. Finalement, le portrait clinique des femmes souffrant de VP montre la présence de trois sous-groupes de patientes présentant des dysfonctions des CPM différentes. En somme, ces données permettent de mieux cerner l’effet de la composante affective chez des sujets sains et chez des patientes qui souffrent de VP. Les résultats permettent de faire évoluer nos connaissances des facteurs qui modulent ces douleurs ainsi que l’observation de la douleur d’autrui.

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Um ensino de física contextualizado é fortemente identificado no discurso de professores, educadores e pesquisadores da área, reforçado também pelos próprios documentos oficiais do Ministério da Educação do Brasil. Entretanto, a própria noção de contextualização apresenta diferentes vertentes, algumas das quais têm uma visão simplista e acrítica sobre a contextualização no processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Defendemos, contudo, uma contextualização que passe pela problematização e modelização dos saberes disciplinares, partindo de objetos (abstratos ou concretos) de uma dada realidade ou de uma prática social de referência, permitindo ao indivíduo revisitar e perceber o mundo ao seu redor de modo diferenciado, com novas perspectivas e possibilidades de ação. Tal abordagem tende a exigir múltiplas estratégias metodológicas e recursos didático-pedagógicos, dentre os quais destacamos a Robótica Educacional (RE), a qual encontra no ensino de ciências um campo novo de aplicações ainda por ser explorado, seja no cenário nacional seja no internacional. Nossa hipótese é a de que materiais dessa natureza potencializam o desenvolvimento de atividades com problematizações que permeiam uma vasta gama de práticas sociais, possibilitando que a realidade seja percebida e se transforme em objeto de reflexão. Ressaltamos que a RE não se justifica por si só, contar com novos e emergentes recursos oferecidos pelas novas tecnologias não necessariamente implica enriquecimento das aulas, é preciso pensá-las vinculadas às necessidades de formação. Especialmente no ensino de física, é necessário atentar-se ao saber-fazer, práxis, sem se esquecer do discurso lógico que o permeia e auxilia na compreensão desse saber-fazer, o logos. Com foco na Robótica Educacional para fomentar a contextualização, analisamos quatro atividades que fazem uso de kits da Lego no ensino de física. Dessas quatro atividades, duas foram aplicadas para estudantes do primeiro ano do ensino médio em uma escola pública do estado da Bahia, Brasil. Fundamentamos nossa investigação com base na Teoria Antropológica do Didático (TAD), a qual permite modelar o conhecimento por meio de uma Organização Praxeológica (OP) e analisar processos de estudo através dos Momentos Didáticos. Constatamos, dentre outras coisas, que a análise praxeológica gera indicadores que auxiliam numa possível reestruturação e desenvolvimento de sequências didáticas para fomentar o processo de contextualização no ensino de física, tais como os níveis de ressonância, podendo ser interno, um diálogo entre o bloco prático-técnico com o tecnológico-teórico da OP didática, e externo, denominado de Verossimilhança Praxeológica (VP), um diálogo entre a OP didática e a OP de referência. Isso foi feito em termos de tarefas, técnicas, tecnologias e teorias, bem como através da investigação da relação do indivíduo (X) com os objetos (O) contidos em diferentes práticas mas centradas em um mesmo bloco tecnológico-teórico. Assim, esperamos contribuir com soluções e reflexões sobre o desenvolvimento e estruturação de atividades didáticas para melhor contextualizar uma dada realidade na perspectiva que adotamos, além de compreender os limites e possibilidades da robótica nesse cenário educacional. / A physics teaching contextualized is strongly identified in the discourse of teachers, educators and researchers in the area, reinforced also by own official documents of the Ministry of Education of Brazil. However, the very notion of contextualization presents different aspects, some of which have a simplistic and uncritical about the background on the teaching and learning process. We advocate, however, a contextualization that pass by questioning and modeling of disciplinary knowledges, starting from objects (abstract or concrete) of a given reality or a social practice of reference, allowing the individual \"revisit\" and perceive the world around them in different ways, with new perspectives and opportunities for action. Such an approach tends to require multiple methodological strategies and didactic resources educational, among which we highlight the Education Robotics (ER), which is in the teaching of science a new field of applications still to be explored, is the scenario national or international. Our hypothesis is that materials of this nature potentiate the development of activities with problematization that permeate a wide range of social practices, enabling the reality is perceived and become object of reflection. We emphasize that the ER does not in itself justify, rely on new and emerging resources offered by new technologies does not necessarily imply in enrichment classes, it is necessary to conceive them linked to the training needs. Especially in the teaching of physics, you need to pay attention to know-how, praxis, not forgetting the logical discourse that permeates and assists in the understanding of this know-how, the logos. With a focus on Education Robotics to promote the contextualization, we analyzed four activities that make use of kits from Lego in physics teaching. Two activities were applied to students of the first year of high school in a public school in the state of Bahia, Brazil. We have considered the research on the basis of Anthropological Theory of Didactic (ATD), which allows you to model the knowledge through a Praxeological Organization (PO) and analyze processes of study through the Didactics Moments. We found, among other things, that the praxeological analysis generates indicators that assist in a possible restructuring and development of didactic sequences to promote the process of contextualization in physics teaching, such as the levels of resonance, which can be internal, a dialog between the block practical-technical with the technologytheoretical of the didactics PO, and external, called Verisimilar Praxeology (VP), a dialog between the didactics and reference PO. This was done in terms of tasks, techniques, technologies and theory, investigating also the relation of the individual (X) with objects (O) contained in different practices, but focusing on a same block technological-theoretical. Thus, we hope to be able to contribute with solutions and reflections on the development and structuring of didactic activities to better contextualize a given reality in the perspective that we have adopted, as well as understand the limits and possibilities of robotics in this educational scenario.

Les écoulements chargés en particules sont présents dans de nombreuses applications industrielles telles que le transport de boues ou l’industrie chimique en général. Dans des mélanges constitués de particules solides immergées dans un fluide visqueux, les interactions entre particules jouent un rôle essentiel dans la viscosité globale du mélange.Le phénomène de suspension est causé par des interactions hydrodynamiques à courte distance, connues sous le nom de lubrification. Les forces de lubrification sont généralement sous-estimées en raison de leur nature et de la discrétisation spatiale du problème.Dans cette thèse, nous proposons un modèle de lubrification qui estime les forces et couples hydrodynamiques non résolues par un solveur couplant la résolution des équations de Navier-Stokes incompressible par une méthode de volumes pénalisés, à la résolution de la dynamique des particules par une méthode aux éléments discrets. Les corrections des contraintes hydrodynamiques sont faites localement sur la surface des particules en interaction sans aucune hypothèse sur la forme générale des particules. La version finale du modèle de lubrification proposée peut être utilisée pour des suspensions de particules convexes sans aucune tabulation. La méthode numérique a été validée avec des particules sphériques et des ellipsoïdes, en comparant des simulations à des données expérimentales.Dans le cas de particules sphériques, le modèle de lubrification est aussi précis que les modèles de lubrification existants qui sont limités à ce type de géométrie. La compatibilité du modèle avec des particules convexes a été validée en comparant des simulations,utilisant des ellipsoïdes, à des mesures expérimentales que nous avons réalisées. / Particle-laden flows can be found in many industrial applications such as slurry transport or the chemical industry in general. In mixtures made of solid particles emerged in a viscous fluid, particle interactions play an essential role in the overall mixture viscosity. The suspension phenomenon is caused by short-range hydrodynamic interactions, known as lubrication. Lubrication forces are usually underestimated due to their singularities and the spatial discretization of the numerical schemes. In this thesis, we propose a lubrication model for a coupled volume penalization method and discrete element method solver that estimates the unresolved hydrodynamic forces and torques in incompressible Navier-Stokes flows. Corrections are made locally on the surfaces of the interacting particles without any assumption on the global particle shapes. The final version of the local lubrication model can be used for suspension of convex particles without any tabulations. The numerical method has been validated against experimental data with spherical and ellipsoidal particles. With spherical particles, the lubrication model performs as well as existing numerical models that are limited to this specific particle shape. The model compatibility with convex particles has been validated by comparing simulations using ellipsoids to experimental measurements we made.

ABSTRACT Doubravová L.: Research of the Natural History Knowledge of 9th Grade Elementary School and 4th Grade High School Pupils Diploma Thesis, 2011 This thesis presents the level of natural history latent knowledge of pupils who have completed compulsory education. The creation of a didactic test and giving it to pupils who finish attending the 9th grade of elementary school and 4th grade at high school are parts of this work. The thesis deals with the comparison of these two groups of respondents. Results evaluation is presented in words and also illustrated by tables and graphs. Supervisor: PaedDr. Radka Závodská, Ph.D. Department of Biology PF JU, Czech Republic

Um ensino de física contextualizado é fortemente identificado no discurso de professores, educadores e pesquisadores da área, reforçado também pelos próprios documentos oficiais do Ministério da Educação do Brasil. Entretanto, a própria noção de contextualização apresenta diferentes vertentes, algumas das quais têm uma visão simplista e acrítica sobre a contextualização no processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Defendemos, contudo, uma contextualização que passe pela problematização e modelização dos saberes disciplinares, partindo de objetos (abstratos ou concretos) de uma dada realidade ou de uma prática social de referência, permitindo ao indivíduo revisitar e perceber o mundo ao seu redor de modo diferenciado, com novas perspectivas e possibilidades de ação. Tal abordagem tende a exigir múltiplas estratégias metodológicas e recursos didático-pedagógicos, dentre os quais destacamos a Robótica Educacional (RE), a qual encontra no ensino de ciências um campo novo de aplicações ainda por ser explorado, seja no cenário nacional seja no internacional. Nossa hipótese é a de que materiais dessa natureza potencializam o desenvolvimento de atividades com problematizações que permeiam uma vasta gama de práticas sociais, possibilitando que a realidade seja percebida e se transforme em objeto de reflexão. Ressaltamos que a RE não se justifica por si só, contar com novos e emergentes recursos oferecidos pelas novas tecnologias não necessariamente implica enriquecimento das aulas, é preciso pensá-las vinculadas às necessidades de formação. Especialmente no ensino de física, é necessário atentar-se ao saber-fazer, práxis, sem se esquecer do discurso lógico que o permeia e auxilia na compreensão desse saber-fazer, o logos. Com foco na Robótica Educacional para fomentar a contextualização, analisamos quatro atividades que fazem uso de kits da Lego no ensino de física. Dessas quatro atividades, duas foram aplicadas para estudantes do primeiro ano do ensino médio em uma escola pública do estado da Bahia, Brasil. Fundamentamos nossa investigação com base na Teoria Antropológica do Didático (TAD), a qual permite modelar o conhecimento por meio de uma Organização Praxeológica (OP) e analisar processos de estudo através dos Momentos Didáticos. Constatamos, dentre outras coisas, que a análise praxeológica gera indicadores que auxiliam numa possível reestruturação e desenvolvimento de sequências didáticas para fomentar o processo de contextualização no ensino de física, tais como os níveis de ressonância, podendo ser interno, um diálogo entre o bloco prático-técnico com o tecnológico-teórico da OP didática, e externo, denominado de Verossimilhança Praxeológica (VP), um diálogo entre a OP didática e a OP de referência. Isso foi feito em termos de tarefas, técnicas, tecnologias e teorias, bem como através da investigação da relação do indivíduo (X) com os objetos (O) contidos em diferentes práticas mas centradas em um mesmo bloco tecnológico-teórico. Assim, esperamos contribuir com soluções e reflexões sobre o desenvolvimento e estruturação de atividades didáticas para melhor contextualizar uma dada realidade na perspectiva que adotamos, além de compreender os limites e possibilidades da robótica nesse cenário educacional. / A physics teaching contextualized is strongly identified in the discourse of teachers, educators and researchers in the area, reinforced also by own official documents of the Ministry of Education of Brazil. However, the very notion of contextualization presents different aspects, some of which have a simplistic and uncritical about the background on the teaching and learning process. We advocate, however, a contextualization that pass by questioning and modeling of disciplinary knowledges, starting from objects (abstract or concrete) of a given reality or a social practice of reference, allowing the individual \"revisit\" and perceive the world around them in different ways, with new perspectives and opportunities for action. Such an approach tends to require multiple methodological strategies and didactic resources educational, among which we highlight the Education Robotics (ER), which is in the teaching of science a new field of applications still to be explored, is the scenario national or international. Our hypothesis is that materials of this nature potentiate the development of activities with problematization that permeate a wide range of social practices, enabling the reality is perceived and become object of reflection. We emphasize that the ER does not in itself justify, rely on new and emerging resources offered by new technologies does not necessarily imply in enrichment classes, it is necessary to conceive them linked to the training needs. Especially in the teaching of physics, you need to pay attention to know-how, praxis, not forgetting the logical discourse that permeates and assists in the understanding of this know-how, the logos. With a focus on Education Robotics to promote the contextualization, we analyzed four activities that make use of kits from Lego in physics teaching. Two activities were applied to students of the first year of high school in a public school in the state of Bahia, Brazil. We have considered the research on the basis of Anthropological Theory of Didactic (ATD), which allows you to model the knowledge through a Praxeological Organization (PO) and analyze processes of study through the Didactics Moments. We found, among other things, that the praxeological analysis generates indicators that assist in a possible restructuring and development of didactic sequences to promote the process of contextualization in physics teaching, such as the levels of resonance, which can be internal, a dialog between the block practical-technical with the technologytheoretical of the didactics PO, and external, called Verisimilar Praxeology (VP), a dialog between the didactics and reference PO. This was done in terms of tasks, techniques, technologies and theory, investigating also the relation of the individual (X) with objects (O) contained in different practices, but focusing on a same block technological-theoretical. Thus, we hope to be able to contribute with solutions and reflections on the development and structuring of didactic activities to better contextualize a given reality in the perspective that we have adopted, as well as understand the limits and possibilities of robotics in this educational scenario.

Streaming of on-line gaming video is a challenging problem because of the enormous amounts of video data that need to be sent during game playing, especially within the limitations of uplink capabilities. The encoding complexity is also a challenge because of the time delay while on-line gamers are communicating. The main goal of this research study is to propose an enhanced on-line game video streaming system. First, the most common video coding techniques have been evaluated. The evaluation study considers objective and subjective metrics. Three widespread video coding techniques are selected and evaluated in the study; H.264, MPEG-4 Visual and VP- 8. Diverse types of video sequences were used with different frame rates and resolutions. The effects of changing frame rate and resolution on compression efficiency and viewers' satisfaction are also presented. Results showed that the compression process and perceptual satisfaction are severely affected by the nature of the compressed sequence. As a result, H.264 showed higher compression efficiency for synthetic sequences and outperformed other codecs in the subjective evaluation tests. Second, a fast inter prediction technique to speed up the encoding process of H.264 has been devised. The on-line game streaming service is a real time application, thus, compression complexity significantly affects the whole process of on-line streaming. H.264 has been recommended for synthetic video coding by our results gained in codecs comparative studies. However, it still suffers from high encoding complexity; thus a low complexity coding algorithm is presented as fast inter coding model with reference management technique. The proposed algorithm was compared to a state of the art method, the results showing better achievement in time and bit rate reduction with negligible loss of fidelity. Third, recommendations on tradeoff between frame rates and resolution within given uplink capabilities are provided for H.264 video coding. The recommended tradeoffs are offered as a result of extensive experiments using Double Stimulus Impairment Scale (DSIS) subjective evaluation metric. Experiments showed that viewers' satisfaction is profoundly affected by varying frame rates and resolutions. In addition, increasing frame rate or frame resolution does not always guarantee improved increments of perceptual quality. As a result, tradeoffs are recommended to compromise between frame rate and resolution within a given bit rate to guarantee the highest user satisfaction. For system completeness and to facilitate the implementation of the proposed techniques, an efficient game video streaming management system is proposed. Compared to existing on-line live video service systems for games, the proposed system provides improved coding efficiency, complexity reduction and better user satisfaction.

We have used a molecular modeling of both random and blocky sequence hydrogel networks of poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone-co-2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (P(VP-co-HEMA)) with a composition of VP:HEMA = 37:13 to investigate the effect of the monomeric sequence and the water content on the equilibrium structures and the mechanical and transport properties by full-atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The degree of randomness of the monomer sequence for the random and the blocky copolymers, were 1.170 and 0.104, respectively, and the degree of polymerization was fixed at 50. The equilibrated density of the hydrogel was found to be larger for the random sequence than for the blocky sequence at low water contents (< 40 wt %), but this density difference decreased with increasing water content. The pair correlation function analysis shows that VP is more hydrophilic than HEMA and that the random sequence hydrogel is solvated more than the blocky sequence hydrogel at low water content, which disappears with increasing water content. Correspondingly, the water structure is more disrupted by the random sequence hydrogel at low water content but eventually develops the expected bulk-water-like structure with increasing water content. From mechanical deformation simulations, the stress-strain analysis showed that the VP is found to relax more efficiently, especially in the blocky sequence, so that the blocky sequence hydrogel shows less stress levels compared to the random sequence hydrogel. As the water content increases, the stress level becomes identical for both sequences. The elastic moduli of the hydrogels calculated from the constant strain energy minimization show the same trend with the stress-strain analysis. Ascorbic acid and D-glucose were used to study the effect of the monomeric sequence on the diffusion of small guest molecules within the hydrogels. By analyzing the pair correlation functions, it was found that the guest molecule has greater accessibility to the VP units than to the HEMA units with both monomeric sequences due to its higher hydrophilicity compared to the HEMA units. The monomeric sequence effect on the P(VP-co-HEMA) hydrogel is clearly observed with 20 wt % water content, but the monomeric sequence effect is significantly reduced with 40 wt % water content and disappears with 80 wt % water content. This is because the hydrophilic guest molecules are more likely to be associated with water molecules than with the polymer network at the high water content. By analyzing the mean square displacement, the displacement of the guest molecules and the inner surface area, it is also found that the guest molecule is confined in the system at 20 wt % water content, resulting in highly anomalous subdiffusion. Therefore, the diffusion of the guest molecules is directly affected by their interaction with the monomer units, the monomeric sequence and the geometrical confinement in the hydrogel at a low water content, but the monomeric sequence effect and the restriction on the diffusion of the guest molecule are significantly decreased with increasing the water content. We also investigated the de-swelling mechanisms of the surface-grafted poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (P(NIPAAm)) brushes containing 1300 water molecules at 275 K, 290 K, 320 K, 345 K, and 370 K. We clearly observed the de-swelling of the water molecules for P(NIPAAm) above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) (~305 K). Below the LCST, we did not observe the de-swelling of water molecules. Using the upper critical solution temperature (UCST) systems (poly(acrylamide) brushes) for comparison purposes, we did not observe the de-swelling of water molecules at a given range of temperatures. By analyzing the pair correlation functions and the coordination numbers, the de-swelling of the water molecules occurred distinctly around the isopropyl group of the P(NIPAAm) brush above the LCST because C(NIPAAm) does not offer sufficient interaction with the water molecules via the hydrogen bonding type of secondary interaction. We also found that the contribution of the N(NIPAAm)-O(water) pair is quite small because of the steric hindrance of the isopropyl group. By analyzing the change in the hydrogen bonds, the hydrogen bonds between polar groups and water molecules in the P(NIPAAm) brushes weaken with increasing temperature, which leads to the de-swelling of the water molecules out of the brushes above the LCST. Below the LCST, the change in the hydrogen bonds is not significant. Again, the contribution of the NH(NIPAAm)-water pairs is insignificant; the total number of hydrogen bonds is ~20, indicating that the interaction between the NH group and the water molecules is not significant due to steric hindrances. Lastly, we observed that the total surface area of the P(NIPAAm) brushes that is accessible to water molecules is decreased by collapsing the brushes followed by the de-swelling of water molecules above the LCST.

Mandarin Chinese is said to be a radical pro-drop language, in the sense that verbal arguments in this language can be dropped rather freely. However, in this dissertation, I show that the omission of arguments in Mandarin Chinese is in fact constrained by various conditions. First, I demonstrate that the availability of a discourse topic is insufficient to license empty categories in Mandarin Chinese by showing that subject and object positions cannot be left empty at random. Some empty subject positions are neither true instances of nominal ellipsis nor variables bound by discourse topics; instead, they are a side effect of verb or vP movement followed by TP-ellipsis. Next, I address the issue of when objects can be "dropped" in Mandarin Chinese. I argue that structural parallelism built on verbal identity between sentences plays an important role in licensing `objectless' sentences. I propose that the mechanism responsible for the creation of such sentences is V-stranding VP-ellipsis rather than argument ellipsis. In the last part of this dissertation, I show that, although we cannot rely on the strength of discourse alone to account for empty categories, the concept of topic-hood is nevertheless implicated in the appearance of certain empty argument positions in sentences used in monologues. I claim that subject pro in Mandarin Chinese must have as its antecedent an element located in an A'-position, which can be overt or covert. In addition, I suggest that the differences between Italian, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese with respect to the use of subject pro can be boiled down to the featural properties of the covert topic TOP preceding subject pro: this covert topic has inherently valued phi-features in Italian and Japanese, while its counterpart in Mandarin Chinese does not. / Linguistics