Stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) in human tissues, which reflect the stable isotope composition of the diet, offer numerous applications in the field of nutrition. One of the biggest contributors to uncertainty in stable isotope dietary reconstruction applications is potential variability in the isotopic composition of foods. No prior studies have evaluated the existing food carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data in an effort to determine broad-scale patterns and characterize the degree of variability of stable isotopes within the American diet. The purpose of this investigation was to improve our understanding of the isotopic composition of the modern American food supply by 1.) Determining geographically representative means and inter-sample variability of animal foods 2.) Assessing the impact of cooking on food stable isotope composition.To define the range of δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of animal proteins within the American food supply, we analyzed nationally-collected milk, fish, and shellfish samples from the USDA’s National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference and compared these to previously published data from the international literature. USDA milk samples were characterized by low overall variability, although regional variations in δ¹³C values were present. In contrast, seafood samples exhibited high overall variability but were consistent throughout the domestic and international samples. No variations in δ¹³C or δ¹⁵N values were detected throughout the baking or fermentation process in yeast buns or cookies. The representative values determined in this study can be used as a foundation for interpreting the stable isotope composition of the American diet. / Master of Science

No / Although the origins of domestic animals have been well-documented, it is unclear when livestock were first exploited for secondary products, such as milk. The analysis of remnant fats preserved in ceramic vessels from two agricultural sites in central and eastern Europe dating to the Early Neolithic (5900-5500 cal BC) are best explained by the presence of milk residues. On this basis, the authors suggest that dairying featured in early European farming economies. The evidence is evaluated in the light of analysis of faunal remains from this region to determine the scale of dairying. It is suggested that dairying ¿ perhaps of sheep or goats ¿ was initially practised on a small scale and was part of a broad mixed economy.

Yes / The Bioarchaeology of Care approach developed by Tilley is usually applied to skeletalized human remains, given the usual constraints of preservation bias that are seen with archaeological assemblages. However, other tissues, such as hair are sometimes preserved and can provide a wealth of information that can supplement the skeletal data. Archaeological hair has been analysed for drug compounds for almost thirty years. This article integrates data from hair analyses for coca metabolites, stable light isotope analysis and aDNA to expand the potential of the Bioarchaeology of Care approach using the example of a spontaneously mummified adult female from northern Chile. / Arts and Humanities Research Council, United Kingdom, Doctoral Studentship 2008/140561 (ELB)

We present an online distributed algorithm, the Causation Logging Algorithm (CLA), in which Autonomous Systems (ASes) in the Internet individually report route oscillations/flaps they experience to a central Internet Routing Registry (IRR). The IRR aggregates these reports and may observe what we call causation chains where each node on the chain caused a route flap at the next node along the chain. A chain may also have a causation cycle. The type of an observed causation chain/cycle allows the IRR to infer the underlying policy routing configuration (i.e. the system of economic relationships and constraints on route/path preferences). Our algorithm is based on a formal policy routing model that captures the propagation dynamics of route flaps under arbitrary changes in topology or path preferences. We derive invariant properties of causation chains/cycles for ASes which conform to economic relationships based on the popular Gao-Rexford model. The Gao-Rexford model is known to be safe in the sense that the system always converges to a stable set of paths under static conditions. Our CLA algorithm recovers the type/property of an observed causation chain of an underlying system and determines whether it conforms to the safe economic Gao-Rexford model. Causes for nonconformity can be diagnosed by comparing the properties of the causation chains with those predicted from different variants of the Gao-Rexford model.

A collection of poems that are history- and place-infused lyrical songs that that sounds the landscapes and distances of the South, with a critical preface that explores erotic encounters with the divine.

We give a definition of the scanning map for configuration spaces that is equivariant under the action of the diffeomorphism group of the underlying manifold. We use this to extend the Bödigheimer-Madsen result for the stable splittings of the Borel constructions of certain mapping spaces from compact Lie group actions to all smooth actions. Moreover, we construct a stable splitting of configuration spaces which is equivariant under smooth group actions, completing a zig-zag of equivariant stable homotopy equivalences between mapping spaces and certain wedge sums of spaces. Finally we generalise these results to configuration spaces with twisted labels (labels in a fibre bundle subject to certain conditions) and extend the Bödigheimer-Madsen result to more mapping spaces.

La th´eorie de la complexit´e permet de classifier les probl`emes en fonction de leur difficult´e. Le cadre classique dans lequel elle s’applique est celui d’un algorithme centralis´e qui dispose de toutes les informations. Avec l’essor des r´eseaux et des architectures d´ecentralis´ees, l’algo- rithmique distribu´ee a ´et´e ´etudi´ee. Dans un grand nombre de probl`emes, en optimisation et en ´economie, les d´ecisions et les calculs sont effectu´es par des agents ind´ependants qui suivent des objectifs diff´erents dont la r´ealisation d´epend des d´ecisions des autres agents. La th´eorie des jeux est un cadre naturel pour analyser les solutions de tels probl`emes. Elle propose des concepts de stabilit´e, le plus classique ´etant l’´equilibre de Nash.Une mani`ere naturelle de calculer de telles solutions est de “ faire r´eagir “ les agents ; si un agent voit quelles sont les d´ecisions des autres joueurs ou plus g´en´eralement un “ ´etat du jeu “, il peut d´ecider de changer sa d´ecision pour atteindre son objectif faisant ainsi ´evoluer l’´etat du jeu. On dit que ces algorithmes sont des “ dynamiques “.On sait que certaines dynamiques convergent vers un concept de solution. On s’int´eresse `a la vitesse de convergence des dynamiques. Certains concepts de solutions sont mˆeme complets pour certaines classes de complexit´e ce qui rend peu vraisemblable l’existence de dynamiques simples qui convergent rapidement vers ces solutions. On a utilis´e alors trois approches pour obtenir une convergence rapide : am´eliorer la dynamique (en utilisant par exemple des bits al´eatoires), restreindre la structure du probl`eme, et rechercher une solution approch´ee.Sur les jeux de congestion, on a ´etendu les r´esultats de convergence rapide vers un ´equilibre de Nash approch´e aux jeux n´egatifs. Cependant, on a montr´e que sur les jeux sans contrainte de signe, calculer un ´equilibre de Nash approch´e est PLS-complet. Sur les jeux d ’appariement, on a ´etudi´e la vitesse de dynamiques concurrentes lorsque les joueurs ont une information partielle param´etr´ee par un r´eseau social. En particulier, on a am´elior´e des dynamiques naturelles afin qu’elles atteignent un ´equilibre enO(log(n)) tours (avec n le nombre de joueurs). / Complexity theory allows to classify problems by their algorithmic hardness. The classical framework in which it applies is the one of a centralized algorithm that knows every informa- tion. With the development of networks and decentralized architectures, distributed dynamics was studied. In many problems, in optimization or economy, actions and computations are made by independant agents that don’t share the same objective whose realization depends on the actions of other agents. Game theory is a natural framework to study solutions of this kind of problem. It provides solution concepts such as the Nash equilibrium.A natural way to compute these solutions is to make the agents “react” ; if an agent sees the actions of the other player, or more generally the state of the game, he can decide to change his decision to reach his objective and updates the state of the game. We call �dynamics� this kind of algorithms.We know some dynamics converges to a stable solution. We are interested by the speed of convergence of these dynamics. Some solution concepts are even complete for some complexity classes which make unrealistic the existence of fast converging dynamics. We used three ways to obtain a fast convergence : improving dynamics (using random bits), finding simple subcases, and finding an approximate solution.We extent fast convergence results to an approximate Nash equilibria in negative congestion games. However, we proved that finding an approximate Nash equilibrium in a congestion games without sign restriction is PLS-complete. On matching game, we studied the speed of concurrent dynamics when players have partial information that depends on a social network. Especially, we improved natural dynamics for them to reach an equilibrium inO(log(n)) rounds (with n is the number of players).

Le crassier du site MetalEurop (Noyelles-Godault) a accueilli des scories de première fusion entre les années 1936 à 2003. Il est actuellement constitué de 4 millions de tonnes de ces matériaux générés par les deux procédés pyrométallurgiques les plus usités dans le monde pour la production du plomb et du zinc : le procédé Lead Blast Furnace (LBF) et le procédé Impérial Smelting Furnace (ISF). L'utilisation de ces scories en tant que matériau de substitution dans les ciments et dans les routes a été envisagée et a fait l'objet de recherches, mais présente des risques environnementaux, c'est-à-dire, essentiellement la dissémination de polluants (Pb et Zn) / Primary smelting slags, known as Lead Blast Furnace (LBF) and Imperial Smelting Furnace (ISF), were generated by the former pyrometallurgical industries located in Noyelles-Godault, Northern France. Following its closure in 2003, 4 million tons of primary slags have been landfilled as a heap in the vicinity of the Deûle River, near the industrial basin of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. These slag materials are often enriched in particular metals (Pb, Zn) that can be released into the environment through alteration processes and leaching. Many biological and chemical processes might take place within these tailings and thus affect significantly the slag weathering. Predicting the environmental impact of these wastes requires an understanding of the mineral-water interactions as well as the influence of the biological activities (the involvement of microorganisms). Thus, this research is designed to simulate the natural weathering of slag by simulating different weathering conditions with or without the involvement of the microorganisms as well as by varying several chemical parameters. Chemical weathering of both LBF and ISF slags was studied by as a function of pHs (4, 5.5, 7, 8.5 and 10) as well as under two atmospheres (open air and nitrogen). Significant amounts of Ca, Fe and Zn were released under acidic conditions (pH 4) with a decrease towards the neutral to alkaline conditions (pH 7 and 10) for both slags. The concentrations of all elements increased gradually after 216 h compared to initial 24 h of leaching period. The presence of oxygen under open-air atmosphere not only enhanced oxidative weathering but also encouraged formation of secondary oxide and carbonate phases. In addition, Zn dissolution was related to extremes zinc isotopic signatures in the leachate; heavier δ66Zn values at low pH than at high pH for both slags under open-air atmosphere. On the other hand, bioweathering of both slags was studied in the presence of a pure heterotrophic bacterial strain (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) in a bioreactor operated in batch conditon as well as in a semi-flow through reactor with intermittent leachate renewal conditions. P. aeruginosa is shown to play a significant role in slags weathering by enhancing the leaching and solubility of Zn and Pb. In addition, the cumulative bulk release of dissolved Fe, Si, Ca and Mg doubled in the presence of bacteria, probably due to the release of soluble complexing organic molecules (e.g. siderophores). Bacterial biomass served as the bioadsorbent for Pb, Fe and Zn as 70-80% of Pb and Fe, 40-60% of Zn released are attached to and immobilized by the bacterial biomass. Oxides, hydroxides and carbonates were predicted as secondary phases during chemical weathering of slags whereas carbonates and phosphates were dominant phases during bioweathering. These predictions were in agreement with the observations by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis, and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analysis

En traitement du signal audio, le signal observé est souvent supposé être égal à la somme des signaux que nous souhaitons obtenir. Dans le cadre d'une modélisation probabiliste, il est alors primordial que les processus stochastiques préservent leur loi par sommation. Le processus le plus employé et vérifiant cette stabilité est le processus gaussien. Comparé aux autres processus α - stables vérifiant la même stabilité, les processus gaussiens ont la particularité d'admettre des outils statistiques facilement interprétables comme la moyenne et la covariance. L'existence de ces moments permet d'esquisser des méthodes statistiques en séparation des sources sonores (SSS) et plus généralement, en traitement du signal. La faiblesse de ces processus réside néanmoins dans l'incapacité à s'écarter trop loin de leurs moyennes. Cela limite la dynamique des signaux modélisables et peut provoquer des instabilités dans les méthodes d'inférence considérées. En dépit de non-existence d'une forme analytique des densités de probabilités, les processus α - stables jouissent de résultats non valables dans le cas gaussien. Par exemple, un vecteur α - stable non-gaussien admet une représentation spatiale unique. En résumé, le comportement d'une distribution multivariée α - stable est contrôlé par deux opérateurs. Une mesure dite «spectrale» informant sur l'énergie globale venant de chaque direction de l'espace et un vecteur localisant le centroïde de sa densité de probabilité. Ce mémoire de thèse introduit différents modèles α - stables d’un point de vue théorique et les développe dans plusieurs directions. Nous proposons notamment une extension de la théorie de filtrage α - stable monocanal au cas multicanal. En particulier, une nouvelle représentation spatiale pour les vecteurs α - stables est adoptée. Nous développons en outre un modèle de débruitage où le bruit et la parole découlent de distributions α - stables mais ayant un exposant caractéristique α différent. La valeur d' α permet de contrôler la stationnarité de chaque source. Grâce à ce modèle hybride, nous avons également déduit une explication rigoureuse sur des filtrages de Wiener heuristiques esquissés dans les années 80. Une autre partie de ce manuscrit décrit en outre comment la théorie α - stable permet de fournir une méthode pour la localisation de sources sonores. En pratique, elle nous permet d'en déduire si une source est active à un endroit précis de l'espace. / It is classic in signal processing to model the observed signal as the sum of desired signals. If we adopt a probabilistic model, it is preferable that law of the additive processes is stable by summation. The Gaussian process notoriously satisfies this condition. It admits useful statistical operators as the covariance and the mean. The existence of those moments allows to provide a statistical model for SSS. However, Gaussian process has difficulty to deviate from its mean. This drawback limits signal dynamics and may cause unstable inference methods. On the contrary, non-Gaussian α - stable processes are stable under addition, and permit the modeling of signals with considerable dynamics. For the last few decades, α -stable theory have raised mathematical challenges and have already been shown to be effective in filtering applications. This class of processes enjoys outstanding properties, not available in the Gaussian case. A major asset for signal processing is the unique spatial representation of a multivariate α - stable vector, controlled by a so-called spectral measure and a deterministic vector. The spectral measure provides information on the global energy coming from all space directions while the vector localizes the centroid of the probability density function. This thesis introduces several α -stables models, with the aim of extending them in several directions. First, we propose an extension of single-channel α - stable filtering theory to a multichannel one. In particular, a novel spatial representation for α - stable vectors is proposed. Secondly, we develop α - stable models for denoising where each component could admit a different α . This hybrid model provides a rigorous explanation of some heuristic Wiener filters outlined in the 1980s. We also describe how the α - stable theory yields a new method for audio source localization. We use the spectral measure resulting from the spatial representation of α - stable vectors. In practice, it leads to determine whether a source is active at a specific location. Our work consisted in investigating the α -stable theory for signal processing and developing several models for a wide range of applications. The models introduced in this thesis could also be extend to more signal processing tasks. We could use our mutivariate α - stable models to dereverberation or SSS. Moreover, the localization algorithm is implementable for room geometry estimation.

Stable matchings were introduced in 1962 by David Gale and Lloyd Shapley to study the college admissions problem. The seminal work of Gale and Shapley has motivated hundreds of research papers and found applications in many areas of mathematics, computer science, economics, and even medicine. This thesis studies stable matchings in graphs and hypergraphs. We begin by introducing the work of Gale and Shapley. Their main contribution was the proof that every bipartite graph has a stable matching. Our discussion revolves around the Gale-Shapley algorithm and highlights some of the interesting properties of stable matchings in bipartite graphs. We then progress to non-bipartite graphs. Contrary to bipartite graphs, we may not be able to find a stable matching in a non-bipartite graph. Some of the work of Irving will be surveyed, including his extension of the Gale-Shapley algorithm. Irving's algorithm shows that many of the properties of bipartite stable matchings remain when the general case is examined. In 1991, Tan showed how to extend the fundamental theorem of Gale and Shapley to non-bipartite graphs. He proved that every graph contains a set of edges that is very similar to a stable matching. In the process, he found a characterization of graphs with stable matchings based on a modification of Irving's algorithm. Aharoni and Fleiner gave a non-constructive proof of Tan's Theorem in 2003. Their proof relies on a powerful topological result, due to Scarf in 1965. In fact, their result extends beyond graphs and shows that every hypergraph has a fractional stable matching. We show how their work provides new and simpler proofs to several of Tan's results. We then consider fractional stable matchings from a linear programming perspective. Vande Vate obtained the first formulation for complete bipartite graphs in 1989. Further, he showed that the extreme points of the solution set exactly correspond to stable matchings. Roth, Rothblum, and Vande Vate extended Vande Vate's work to arbitrary bipartite graphs. Abeledo and Rothblum further noticed that this new formulation can model fractional stable matchings in non-bipartite graphs in 1994. Remarkably, these formulations yield analogous results to those obtained from Gale-Shapley's and Irving's algorithms. Without the presence of an algorithm, the properties are obtained through clever applications of duality and complementary slackness. We will also discuss stable matchings in hypergraphs. However, the desirable properties that are present in graphs no longer hold. To rectify this problem, we introduce a new ``majority" stable matchings for 3-uniform hypergraphs and show that, under this stronger definition, many properties extend beyond graphs. Once again, the linear programming tools of duality and complementary slackness are invaluable to our analysis. We will conclude with a discussion of two open problems relating to stable matchings in 3-uniform hypergraphs.