La présente recherche se propose, en dépassant la vieille querelle des tenants de la théorie « classique » des actes de langage (J. R. Searle et D. Vanderveken) et des analystes des interactions (« École de Genève » principalement), à la fois d’étudier le fonctionnement des actes de langage en interaction et de montrer qu’il est possible d’articuler ces deux positions en apparence divergentes. En fait, nous proposons un concept d’acte de langage qui reste dans l’esprit de la théorie searlienne, mais en ajoutant une perspective contextualiste (selon le modèle proposé par A. Trognon et Ch. Brassac) susceptible de rendre compte du fonctionnement de l’acte dans la dynamique discursive. Le but principal de cette démarche est ainsi d’apporter des données nouvelles à la description de ces unités. Un second but s’ajoute au premier : traiter ces unités dans une dimension comparative entre deux langues – le français et le roumain –, telles qu’elles sont utilisées par des locuteurs natifs. Le corpus est constitué d’interactions de classe enregistrées dans les deux systèmes d’enseignement mentionnés, et ensuite transcrites. L’analyse du fonctionnement et des réalisateurs des actes de langage dans un genre d’interaction verbale, permet de soutenir la nécessité d’une analyse contextualisée des actes de langage et, en outre, d’identifier des types d’actes de langage, des réalisations linguistiques de ces actes, des schémas interactionnels spécifiques d’un genre particulier de discours. La récurrence de ces types d’actes, réalisations préférentielles, schémas interactionnels, explique également la ritualisation de certaines séquences de l’activité didactique et, en particulier, de la séquence d’ouverture - l’incipit, sur lequel se focalise l’analyse dans cette thèse. Par ailleurs, l’approche contrastive met en évidence des différences quantitatives ainsi que des réalisations préférentielles manifestant des différences institutionnelles, attitudinales, idéologiques. / The main aim of the present research is, surpassing the old quarrel between the supporters of the classical theory of speech acts (J. R. Searle and D. Vanderveken) and those of the analysts of interaction/discourse (mainly « The Geneva School»)), both to study the functioning of speech acts in interaction and to show that these two, apparently divergent positions, may function together. Actually, we propose a concept of speech act in the line of Searle’s theory, adding, however, a contextualist perspective (according to the model proposed by A. Trognon and Ch. Brassac), which is likely to account for the functioning of the act in the discursive dynamics. The main aim of this endeavour is to provide new data for the description of these units. The second aim of this thesis is to treat these units comparatively, in two languages –French and Romanian-, such as they are used by native speakers. The corpus consists of class interactions, which were recorded in the two above-mentioned education systems and then, transcribed. The analysis of the functioning and of the patterns of realisation of speech acts in a specific type of verbal interaction has the advantage of supporting the necessity of a contextualized analysis of speech acts and, on the other hand, to identify types of speech acts, linguistic realisations of these acts, interactional schemas, which are specific to a particular discourse genre. The recurrence of these types of acts, of their preferential realizations and of the interactional schemas also explains the ritualization of several sequences of the didactic activity and, particularly, of the opening sequence- the incipit, which is the focus of the analysis of this thesis. Also, the contrastive approach emphasizes quantitative differences, as well as preferential realisations which indicate institutional, attitudinal and ideological differences.

Content: Leather is a fairly durable and flexible material created by tanning animal rawhides and can be found in many household and personal products. However, ensuring that the product endures attack from the environmental elements that contribute to its wear and tear is the key concern of the general consumer. Animal rawhides are soft collagenous connective tissues. The most important function of collagen is a mechanical one - to withstand loads acting on the leather material. The purpose of this paper is to show how findings from recent studies on the mechanics of collagen in connective tissues lend to the goal of structural biologists to establish a complete understanding of the functional significance of collagen in connective tissues. In particular, 28 different types of collagen have been identified - about 90% being type 1 collagen - in the human body. Most types of collagen participate in higher-order assemblies such as networks, filaments, microfibrils, fibrils, fibres/fascicles. These assemblies collectively form a hierarchical architecture in the tissue from the molecular level to the macroscopic level. A complete understanding the functional significance of collagen in connective tissues could direct the development of new technology, e.g. leather design and production. In this paper, I shall discuss findings related to the higher-order assemblies. The conventional understanding of the collagenous fibre-like structures - embedded in a hydrated ground substance - in connective tissue finds an analogy to engineering fibres reinforcing composite materials such as carbon fibre reinforced polymer composites. The macroscopic stress- strain response of the connective tissue to external loads acting on it is consistent with fibre composite behaviour. A structure-mechanical framework, underpinning the hierarchical architecture of the connective tissue, is proposed to explain this mechanical response of the tissue. By integrating models specific to the different levels of the tissue to enable better understanding of the macroscopic nature of the tissue, the framework serves as a representation of reality for guiding further research, especially for the purpose of exploring hypotheses and revealing properties for which only sparse (or no observational data) is available. This paper ends with a discussion on the prospect and challenges for future studies on collagen in connective tissues. Take-Away: A fresh look at the degree of collagen fibril alignment in tissue Rethinking the mechanics of cross-linking between fibrils Interfibrillar mechanics is governed by plastic stress transfer Influence of fibril diameter on interfibrillar stress transfer

Combination of the compact but sterically flexible ferrocene scaffold with intermolecular binding potential and conformational variability of (2-hydroxyethyl)ammonium structural motif was utilised in the construction of solid crystalline materials. Crystallisation in systems containing ferrocenecarboxylic, 2-ferrocenylacetic, 3-ferrocenylpropionic, 3-ferrocenyl- acrylic, 3-ferrocenylacrylic, 3-ferrocenylpropiolic, ferrocene-1,1'-dicarboxylic or ferrocene- sulfonic acid with 2-aminoethanol afforded crystals of the corresponding salts. The resulting crystalline products were characterised with the usual methods (proton nuclear magnetic resonance, infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis) and their crystal structures were determined by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The crystal structures of the salts mentioned above usually contain rather complicated two dimensional networks of charge-assisted hydrogen bonds. With the aim of studying potentially more simple hydrogen-bonded structures, additional crystallisation experiments were conducted in systems of ferrocenecarboxylic acid and 2-(methylamino)ethanol or 2-(dimethylamino)ethanol. These experiments yielded simple salt of the former amine and adducts of salts of both bases with ferrocenecarboxylic acid in the ratio of 1:1. The...