Mechanomyography (MMG) has been proposed as a control modality for alternative access technologies for individuals with disabilities. However, MMG recordings are highly susceptible to contamination from limb movements. Pressure-based transducers are touted to be the most robust to external movement although there is some debate about their optimal chamber geometry, in terms of low frequency gain and spectral flatness. To investigate the question of preferred geometry, transducers with varying chamber shapes were designed, manufactured and tested. The best performance was achieved with a transducer consisting of a low-frequency MEMS microphone, a 4 micron thick aluminized mylar membrane and a rigid conical chamber 7 mm in diameter and 5 mm in height. Furthermore, microphone-derived MMG spectra were found to be less influenced by motion artifact than corresponding accelerometer-derived spectra. However, artifact harmonics were present in both spectra, suggesting that bandpass filtering may not remove artifact influences permeating into MMG frequency bands.

Mechanomyography (MMG) has been proposed as a control modality for alternative access technologies for individuals with disabilities. However, MMG recordings are highly susceptible to contamination from limb movements. Pressure-based transducers are touted to be the most robust to external movement although there is some debate about their optimal chamber geometry, in terms of low frequency gain and spectral flatness. To investigate the question of preferred geometry, transducers with varying chamber shapes were designed, manufactured and tested. The best performance was achieved with a transducer consisting of a low-frequency MEMS microphone, a 4 micron thick aluminized mylar membrane and a rigid conical chamber 7 mm in diameter and 5 mm in height. Furthermore, microphone-derived MMG spectra were found to be less influenced by motion artifact than corresponding accelerometer-derived spectra. However, artifact harmonics were present in both spectra, suggesting that bandpass filtering may not remove artifact influences permeating into MMG frequency bands.

Les lésions de la moelle épinière ont un impact significatif sur la qualité de la vie car elles peuvent induire des déficits moteurs (paralysie) et sensoriels. Ces déficits évoluent dans le temps à mesure que le système nerveux central se réorganise, en impliquant des mécanismes physiologiques et neurochimiques encore mal connus. L'ampleur de ces déficits ainsi que le processus de réhabilitation dépendent fortement des voies anatomiques qui ont été altérées dans la moelle épinière. Il est donc crucial de pouvoir attester l'intégrité de la matière blanche après une lésion spinale et évaluer quantitativement l'état fonctionnel des neurones spinaux. Un grand intérêt de l'imagerie par résonance magnétique (IRM) est qu'elle permet d'imager de façon non invasive les propriétés fonctionnelles et anatomiques du système nerveux central. Le premier objectif de ce projet de thèse a été de développer l'IRM de diffusion afin d'évaluer l'intégrité des axones de la matière blanche après une lésion médullaire. Le deuxième objectif a été d'évaluer dans quelle mesure l'IRM fonctionnelle permet de mesurer l'activité des neurones de la moelle épinière. Bien que largement appliquées au cerveau, l'IRM de diffusion et l'IRM fonctionnelle de la moelle épinière sont plus problématiques. Les difficultés associées à l'IRM de la moelle épinière relèvent de sa fine géométrie (environ 1 cm de diamètre chez l'humain), de la présence de mouvements d'origine physiologique (cardiaques et respiratoires) et de la présence d'artefacts de susceptibilité magnétique induits par les inhomogénéités de champ, notamment au niveau des disques intervertébraux et des poumons. L'objectif principal de cette thèse a donc été de développer des méthodes permettant de contourner ces difficultés. Ce développement a notamment reposé sur l'optimisation des paramètres d'acquisition d'images anatomiques, d'images pondérées en diffusion et de données fonctionnelles chez le chat et chez l'humain sur un IRM à 3 Tesla. En outre, diverses stratégies ont été étudiées afin de corriger les distorsions d'images induites par les artefacts de susceptibilité magnétique, et une étude a été menée sur la sensibilité et la spécificité de l'IRM fonctionnelle de la moelle épinière. Les résultats de ces études démontrent la faisabilité d'acquérir des images pondérées en diffusion de haute qualité, et d'évaluer l'intégrité de voies spinales spécifiques après lésion complète et partielle. De plus, l'activité des neurones spinaux a pu être détectée par IRM fonctionnelle chez des chats anesthésiés. Bien qu'encourageants, ces résultats mettent en lumière la nécessité de développer davantage ces nouvelles techniques. L'existence d'un outil de neuroimagerie fiable et robuste, capable de confirmer les paramètres cliniques, permettrait d'améliorer le diagnostic et le pronostic chez les patients atteints de lésions médullaires. Un des enjeux majeurs serait de suivre et de valider l'effet de diverses stratégies thérapeutiques. De telles outils représentent un espoir immense pour nombre de personnes souffrant de traumatismes et de maladies neurodégénératives telles que les lésions de la moelle épinière, les tumeurs spinales, la sclérose en plaques et la sclérose latérale amyotrophique. / Spinal cord injury has a significant impact on quality of life since it can lead to motor (paralysis) and sensory deficits. These deficits evolve in time as reorganisation of the central nervous system occurs, involving physiological and neurochemical mechanisms that are still not fully understood. Given that both the severity of the deficit and the successful rehabilitation process depend on the anatomical pathways that have been altered in the spinal cord, it may be of great interest to assess white matter integrity after a spinal lesion and to evaluate quantitatively the functional state of spinal neurons. The great potential of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) lies in its ability to investigate both anatomical and functional properties of the central nervous system non invasively. To address the problem of spinal cord injury, this project aimed to evaluate the benefits of diffusion-weighted MRI to assess the integrity of white matter axons that remain after spinal cord injury. The second objective was to evaluate to what extent functional MRI can measure the activity of neurons in the spinal cord. Although widely applied to the brain, diffusion-weighted MRI and functional MRI of the spinal cord are not straightforward. Various issues arise from the small cross-section width of the cord, the presence of cardiac and respiratory motions, and from magnetic field inhomogeneities in the spinal region. The main purpose of the present thesis was therefore to develop methodologies to circumvent these issues. This development notably focused on the optimization of acquisition parameters to image anatomical, diffusion-weighted and functional data in cats and humans at 3T using standard coils and pulse sequences. Moreover, various strategies to correct for susceptibility-induced distortions were investigated and the sensitivity and specificity in spinal cord functional MRI was studied. As a result, acquisition of high spatial and angular diffusion-weighted images and evaluation of the integrity of specific spinal pathways following spinal cord injury was achieved. Moreover, functional activations in the spinal cord of anaesthetized cats was detected. Although encouraging, these results highlight the need for further technical and methodological development in the near-future. Being able to develop a reliable neuroimaging tool for confirming clinical parameters would improve diagnostic and prognosis. It would also enable to monitor the effect of various therapeutic strategies. This would certainly bring hope to a large number of people suffering from trauma and neurodegenerative diseases such as spinal cord injury, tumours, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

O tema da cultura organizacional tem sido visivelmente aprofundado a partir de mudanças na sua base epistemológica (de um paradigma funcionalista para um interpretativista) e na utilização de diferentes perspectivas conceituais (de uma abordagem gerencial para uma simbólica) e metodológicas (de pesquisas quantitativas para qualitativas). Todavia, a despeito de todos esses avanços, o tema não tem acompanhado o desenvolvimento alcançado pelos estudos antropológicos que enfocam o corpo como modo de repensar a problemática cultural. É meu objetivo nesta tese, portanto, desvelar de que modo um enfoque no corpo humano propicia um melhor entendimento da noção de cultura organizacional, a partir de dois eixos teóricos que trabalham com a relação corpo-cultura: o ‘corpo artefato’ (corpo sócio-histórico-cultural) e o ‘embodiment’ (experiência cultural incorporada). Para realizar ambas as análises, parto de observações oriundas de uma etnografia organizacional junto a uma grande livraria de shopping center, a Livraria Cultura de Porto Alegre. O grupo de informantes privilegiado nessas análises foi a equipe de vendedores. Com base nesse material empírico e, primeiramente, com base em estudos da Antropologia do Corpo (capítulo 2), na primeira parte deste trabalho, analisei o corpo do trabalhador como um artefato organizacional que se singulariza por seu caráter dinâmico, sua hierarquização e sua dimensão política. A partir dessas análises, foi possível repensar o caráter de objeto inanimado e a pouca atenção que é oferecida para questões como classificação, hierarquização e dimensão política dos artefatos organizacionais. Na segunda parte (capítulo 3), aponto para a relação cultural pré-objetiva (pré-reflexiva) que trabalhadores estabelecem com as organizações e com os produtos que comercializam, ou seja, como a cultura organizacional é experienciada e incorporada. Para isso, parto de estudos da Filosofia e de Ciências Sociais e Humanas para buscar compreender como os estudos de embodiment possibilitam um novo modo de se conduzir metodologicamente as pesquisas de cultura organizacional e como incrementam sua conceituação. Levantei que o foco no embodiment desvela o papel ativo que o corpo tem na vida organizacional e permite uma melhor compreensão da dinâmica do conceito de cultura. / The theme of organizational culture has been visibly deepened – changing its epistemological base (from a Functionalist paradigm to an interpretative one) generating different conceptual (from a managerial to a symbolic approach) and methodological perspectives (from quantitative to qualitative researches). However, in spite of all these advances, the theme has not been following the development reached by anthropological studies, which focus the body as a form of representing the culture. Therefore, it is my aim in this thesis to unveil in what way the focus on the human body propitiates a better understanding of the notion of organizational culture, starting from two theoretical orientations which work with the relation body-culture: the ‘body artifact’ (socio-historiccultural body) and the ‘embodiment’. In order to perform both analyses, I begin with observations resulting from an organizational ethnography in a great bookstore of shopping center, Livraria Cultura de Porto Alegre. The group of informers who have been privileged to participate in these analyses was the team of shop assistants. Based on this empirical material and, firstly, on studies of The Anthropology of Body (chapter two), I analyzed the body of the worker as an organizational artifact which is singularized by their dynamic feature, hierarchization, and political dimension. Based on these analyses, it was possible to reconsider the feature of inanimate object and the little attention that is offered to questions like classification, hierarchization, and political dimension of organizational artifacts. In the second part (chapter three), I indicate the pre-objective cultural relation (pre-reflexive) that the workers establish with the organizations and the products they commercialize, that is, the embodiment of organizational culture. Hence, I start from studies of Philosophy, Social, and Human Sciences to understand how studies of embodiment enable a new form of conducting methodologically researches about organizational culture and how they develop their conceptualization. I indicate that the focus on embodiment unveil the active role the body has in the organizational life and allows a better understanding of the dynamics of cultural concept.

O tema da cultura organizacional tem sido visivelmente aprofundado a partir de mudanças na sua base epistemológica (de um paradigma funcionalista para um interpretativista) e na utilização de diferentes perspectivas conceituais (de uma abordagem gerencial para uma simbólica) e metodológicas (de pesquisas quantitativas para qualitativas). Todavia, a despeito de todos esses avanços, o tema não tem acompanhado o desenvolvimento alcançado pelos estudos antropológicos que enfocam o corpo como modo de repensar a problemática cultural. É meu objetivo nesta tese, portanto, desvelar de que modo um enfoque no corpo humano propicia um melhor entendimento da noção de cultura organizacional, a partir de dois eixos teóricos que trabalham com a relação corpo-cultura: o ‘corpo artefato’ (corpo sócio-histórico-cultural) e o ‘embodiment’ (experiência cultural incorporada). Para realizar ambas as análises, parto de observações oriundas de uma etnografia organizacional junto a uma grande livraria de shopping center, a Livraria Cultura de Porto Alegre. O grupo de informantes privilegiado nessas análises foi a equipe de vendedores. Com base nesse material empírico e, primeiramente, com base em estudos da Antropologia do Corpo (capítulo 2), na primeira parte deste trabalho, analisei o corpo do trabalhador como um artefato organizacional que se singulariza por seu caráter dinâmico, sua hierarquização e sua dimensão política. A partir dessas análises, foi possível repensar o caráter de objeto inanimado e a pouca atenção que é oferecida para questões como classificação, hierarquização e dimensão política dos artefatos organizacionais. Na segunda parte (capítulo 3), aponto para a relação cultural pré-objetiva (pré-reflexiva) que trabalhadores estabelecem com as organizações e com os produtos que comercializam, ou seja, como a cultura organizacional é experienciada e incorporada. Para isso, parto de estudos da Filosofia e de Ciências Sociais e Humanas para buscar compreender como os estudos de embodiment possibilitam um novo modo de se conduzir metodologicamente as pesquisas de cultura organizacional e como incrementam sua conceituação. Levantei que o foco no embodiment desvela o papel ativo que o corpo tem na vida organizacional e permite uma melhor compreensão da dinâmica do conceito de cultura. / The theme of organizational culture has been visibly deepened – changing its epistemological base (from a Functionalist paradigm to an interpretative one) generating different conceptual (from a managerial to a symbolic approach) and methodological perspectives (from quantitative to qualitative researches). However, in spite of all these advances, the theme has not been following the development reached by anthropological studies, which focus the body as a form of representing the culture. Therefore, it is my aim in this thesis to unveil in what way the focus on the human body propitiates a better understanding of the notion of organizational culture, starting from two theoretical orientations which work with the relation body-culture: the ‘body artifact’ (socio-historiccultural body) and the ‘embodiment’. In order to perform both analyses, I begin with observations resulting from an organizational ethnography in a great bookstore of shopping center, Livraria Cultura de Porto Alegre. The group of informers who have been privileged to participate in these analyses was the team of shop assistants. Based on this empirical material and, firstly, on studies of The Anthropology of Body (chapter two), I analyzed the body of the worker as an organizational artifact which is singularized by their dynamic feature, hierarchization, and political dimension. Based on these analyses, it was possible to reconsider the feature of inanimate object and the little attention that is offered to questions like classification, hierarchization, and political dimension of organizational artifacts. In the second part (chapter three), I indicate the pre-objective cultural relation (pre-reflexive) that the workers establish with the organizations and the products they commercialize, that is, the embodiment of organizational culture. Hence, I start from studies of Philosophy, Social, and Human Sciences to understand how studies of embodiment enable a new form of conducting methodologically researches about organizational culture and how they develop their conceptualization. I indicate that the focus on embodiment unveil the active role the body has in the organizational life and allows a better understanding of the dynamics of cultural concept.

Physiological signals, electroencephalogram (EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV), are generated by complex self-regulating systems. These signals are extremely inhomogeneous and nonstationary, and fluctuate in an irregular and highly complex manner. These fluctuations are due to underlying dynamics of the system. The synchronous neural activity measured as scalp EEG indicates underlying neural dynamics of the brain. Hence, quantitative EEG analysis has become a very useful tool in interpreting results from physiological experiments. The analysis of HRV provides valuable information to assess the autonomous nervous system (ANS). The HRV can be significantly affected by physiological state changes and many disease states. Hence, HRV analysis is becoming a major experimental and diagnostic tool. In this thesis, we focus on the study of EEG and HRV time series using tools from nonlinear time series analysis with special emphasis on its implications in detecting physiological state changes such as, in diseases like epileptic seizure and schizophrenia, and in altered states of consciousness as in sleep and meditation. The proposed nonlinear techniques are used in discriminating different physiological states from control states. Artifact processing of EEG signal Interferences (artifacts) from various sources unavoidably contaminate EEG recordings. In quantitative analysis, results can differ significantly by these artifacts, which may lead to wrong interpretation of the results. In this part of the thesis, we have devised methods to minimize ocular and muscle artifacts in EEG. The artifact correction methods are based on blind source separation (BSS) techniques such as singular value decomposition (SVD), algorithm for multiple signal extraction (AMUSE), canonical correlation analysis (CCA), information maximization (INFOMAX) independent component analysis (ICA) and joint approximate diagonalization of eigen-matrices (JADE) ICA. We have proposed a method to simulate clean and artifact corrupted EEG data based on the BSS methods. In order to enhance the performance of BSS methods, a technique called wavelet-filtered component inclusion method has been introduced. In addition, second-order statistics (SOS) and higher-order statistics (HOS) based BSS methods have been studied considering less number of EEG channels; and performance comparison of these methods has also been made. We have also addressed the problem of simultaneous correction of ocular and muscle artifacts in EEG recordings using the BSS methods. Irrespective of the BSS methods, the component elimination method has introduced high spectral error in all the bands after reconstruction of clean EEG. However, the wavelet filtered component inclusion method has retained almost all spectral powers of EEG channels in theta, alpha, and beta bands after ocular artifact minimization. When the number of EEG channels is very less, the enhanced CCA (SOS BSS) has given superior artifact minimization results than HOS BSS methods, especially in delta band. The component elimination method is used in muscle artifact minimization, and hence the SVD method cannot be used for this purpose since it leads to large spectral distortion of reconstructed EEG. The AMUSE and CCA methods have given comparable performance in muscle artifact minimization. In addition, the JADE method has introduced less mean spectral error compared to other methods. The CCA method has shown superior performance in simultaneous minimization of ocular and muscle artifacts, and AMUSE and JADE methods have given comparable results. Furthermore, the less computation time of wavelet enhanced SOS BSS methods make them very useful in real clinical environments. Fractal characterization of time series In biomedical signal analysis, fractal dimension (FD) is used as a quantitative measure to estimate complexity of physiological signals. Such analysis helps to study physiological processes of underlying systems. The FD can also be used to study dynamics of transitions between different states of systems like brain and ANS, in various physiological and pathological states. In this part, we have proposed a method to estimate FD of time series, called multiresolution box-counting (MRBC) method. A modification of this method resulted in multiresolution length (MRL) method. The estimation performance of the proposed methods is compared with that of Katz, Sevcik, and Higuchi methods, by simulating mathematically defined fractal signals, and also the computation time is compared between the methods. The MRBC and MRL methods have given comparable performance to that of Higuchi method, in estimating FD of waveforms, with the advantage of less computational time. In addition, various properties of the FD are studied and discussed in connection with classical signal processing concepts such as amplitude, frequency, sampling frequency, effect of noise, band width, correlation, etc. The FD value of signals has increased with number of harmonics, noise variance, band-width, and mid-band frequency, and decreased with degree of correlation in AR signal. An analogy between Katz FD and smoothed Teager energy operator has also been made. Application of fractal analysis to EEG and HRV time series The fluctuation of EEG potentials normally depends upon degree of alertness, and varies in amplitude and frequency. Hence, the EEG is an important clinical tool for studying sleep and sleep related disorders, epileptic seizures, schizophrenia, and meditation. In this part of the thesis, we have used FD which gives signal complexity, and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) which gives multiscale exponent of time series to quantify EEG. We have extended the concept of FD to multiscale FD to compute complexity of time series at multiple scales. The main applications of the proposed method are epileptic seizure detection, sleep stage detection, schizophrenia EEG analysis, and analysis of heart rate variability during meditation. For seizure detection, we have used intracranial EEG recordings with seizure-free and seizure intervals. In sleep EEG analysis, whole-night sleep EEG is used and results are compared with the manually scored hypnogram. The schizophrenia symptom is further categorized into positive and negative symptoms and complexity is estimated using FD and DFA. We have also analyzed HRV data of Chi and Kundalini meditation using FD and DFA techniques. In all the applications considered, we have tested for statistical significance of the computed parameters, between the case of interest and corresponding control cases, to discriminate between the physiological states. The ocular artifact has reduced FD while muscle artifact increased FD of EEG. The FD of seizure EEG has shown high value compared to that of seizure-free EEG. In addition, the seizure-free EEG has more DFA exponent-1 than seizure EEG. The value of FD of EEG is decreased with deepening of sleep, wake state having high FD value. The FD of REM state sleep EEG showed value between that of wake and state-1. The DFA exponent-1 has increased with deepening of sleep state, having small value for wake state. The REM state has given exponent-1 value between wake and state-1. The schizophrenia subjects have shown lower FD value than healthy controls in all the EEG channels except the bilateral temporal and occipital regions. The positive symptom sub-group has shown comparatively high FD values than healthy controls as well as overall schizophrenia sample in the bilateral tempero-parietal-occipital region. In addition, the positive symptom sub-group has shown significantly higher regional FD values than negative symptom sub-group especially in right temporal region. The overall schizophrenia samples as well as the positive and negative subgroup have shown least FD values in the bilateral frontal region. The values of DFA exponent-2 have shown significant high value in schizophrenia samples. In addition, the schizophrenia group has shown less DFA exponent-1 in bilateral temporal region than healthy control. The FD, multiscale FD, DFA exponents have shown significant performance in discriminating different physiological states from control states. The FD value of HRV time series during meditation is less compared to pre-meditation state in both Chi and Kundalini meditation. Irrespective of the type of meditation, meditation state has shown significantly high DFA exponent-1 than pre-meditation state, and significantly high DFA exponent-2 in pre-meditation state compared to meditation state. Functional connectivity analysis of brain during meditation In functionally related regions of the brain, even in those regions separated by substantial distances, the EEG fluctuations are synchronous, which is termed as functional connectivity. In this part, a novel application of functional connectivity analysis of brain using graph theoretic approach has been made on the EEG recorded from meditation practitioners. We have used 16 channel EEG data from subjects while performing Raja Yoga meditation. The pre-meditation condition is used as control state, against which meditation state is compared. For finding connectivity between EEG of various channels, we have computed pair-wise linear correlation and mutual information between the EEG channels, to form a connection matrix of size 16x16. Then, various graph parameters, such as average connection density, degree of nodes, characteristic path length, and cluster index, are computed from the connection matrix. The computed parameters are projected on to the scalp to get topographic head maps that give spatial variation of the parameter, and results are compared between meditation and pre-meditation states. The meditation state has shown low average connection density, less characteristic path length, and high average degree in fronto-central and central regions. Furthermore, high cluster index is shown in frontal and central regions than pre-meditation state. The parameters such as complexity, characteristic path length and average connection density are used as features in quadratic discriminant classifier to classify meditation and pre-meditation state, and have given good accuracy performance. Connectivity analysis using mutual information has given high average connection density in meditation state in theta, alpha and beta bands compared to pre-meditation state. The characteristic path length is high in delta, alpha and beta bands in meditation state. In addition, the meditation state has shown high degree and cluster index in theta and beta bands compared to pre-meditation state. Nonlinear dynamical characterization of HRV during meditation The cardiovascular system is influenced by internal dynamics as well as from various external factors, which makes the system more dynamic and nonlinear. In this part of the thesis, a novel application of using HRV data for studying Chi and Kundalini meditation has been made. The HRV time series are embedded into higher dimensional phase-space using Takens’ embedding theorem to reconstruct the attractor. After estimating the minimum embedding dimension to unfold the attractor dynamics, the complexity of the attractor is computed using correlation dimension, Lyapunov exponent, and nonlinearity scores. In all the analyses, the pre-meditation state is used as control state against which meditation state is compared. The statistical significance of the parameters estimated is tested to discriminate meditation state from control state. The HRV time series of both pre-meditation and meditation have shown similar minimum embedding dimensions in both Chi and Kundalini meditation. Irrespective of the type of meditation, the meditation state has shown high correlation dimension, largest Lyapunov exponent, and low nonlinearity score compared to pre-meditation state. Recurrent quantification analysis of HRV during meditation In this part, a novel application of recurrent quantification analysis (RQA) to HRV during meditation is studied. Here, the time series is embedded into a higher dimensional phase-space and Euclidean distance between the embedded vectors is calculated to form a distance matrix. The matrix is converted into binary matrix by applying a suitable threshold, and plotted as image to get recurrence plot. Various parameters are extracted from the recurrence plot such as percent recurrence rate, diagonal parameters (determinism, divergence, entropy, ratio), and vertical or horizontal parameters (laminarity, trapping time, maximal vertical line length). The procedure is applied to HRV data during meditation and pre-meditation (control) to discriminate between the states. The HRV of meditation state has shown more diagonal line structure whereas more black patches are observed in pre-meditation state. In addition, at low embedding dimensions, the meditation state has shown low recurrence rate, high determinism, low divergence, low entropy, high ratio, high laminarity, high trapping time, and less maximal vertical line length compared to pre-meditation state. These RQA parameters have shown superior performance in discriminating meditation state from control state.

Cette thèse défend un modèle de l’entrepreneuriat en équipe en tant que processus dynamique, en évolution au niveau global et systémique, médiatisé par les TIC. Nous présentons l’entrepreneuriat en équipe comme une activité en contexte, qui s’incarne dans une culture, une histoire, un environnement, et qui se développe au travers même des moments d’interaction qu’elle génère. Ces moments de coopération et de coordination en équipes localisées, ou multi-localisées (Vacherand-Revel, 2017) constituent des espaces d’intersubjectivité (Zarifian 1996) dans lesquels différents artefacts entrent en jeu. Nous émettons l’hypothèse que ces artefacts dans l’activité vont participer activement au développement de l’activité entrepreneuriale innovante en servant de support à la formation des équipes, à l’élaboration des idées, et à la conception. Basées sur un protocole méthodologique qualitatif et développemental, nos analyses mettent en évidence plusieurs facteurs et ressources de l’activité, notamment le dispositif de formation entrepreneuriale, et les artefacts mobilisés par les acteurs. Ces artefacts dans l’activité (Adé, 2000), sont transformés en artefacts de l’activité au cours de processus de genèse instrumentale (Rabardel, 1995). Ils peuvent alors prendre un statut d’objets intermédiaires (Vinck, 1999, 2009) ou d’objets-frontières (Star, 2010, Vinck, 2009) au sein de l’activité. Les analyses montrent le rôle prépondérant de l’objet d’innovation, qui est l’œuvre commune de l’équipe. Il est à la fois un aboutissement et un point de départ permettant le développement des intentions de l’équipe et de la trajectoire du projet. L’objet d’innovation nait d’un processus de conception et de création (Almudever, 2012). Ces analyses montrent l’interdépendance des situations de coopération et de conception collective dans la formalisation de l’objet d’innovation. La nature du projet entrepreneurial, objet construit et en construction, souligne l’intérêt d’un dialogue entre théories de l’activité et théories de l’action. / This thesis defends a model of entrepreneurship as a dynamic, global and systemic process, mediated by technologies. We present entrepreneurship as an activity in context, embodied in a culture, a story, an environment, and which develops itself through interactions. The moments of cooperation and coordination in localized teams, or multi-localized teams (Vacherand-Revel, 2017) constitute spaces of intersubjectivity (Zarifian 1996) in which different artefacts are used. We hypothesize that these artifacts in the activity will actively participate in the development of innovative entrepreneurial activity by providing support for team training, idea development, and design. Based on a qualitative and developmental methodological protocol, the analysis highlights several factors and resources of the activity, in particular the entrepreneurial training device, and the artefacts mobilized by the actors. These artifacts in the activity (Adé, 2000) are transformed into artifacts of the activity during instrumental genesis processes (Rabardel, 1995). They can then take a status of intermediate objects (Vinck, 1999, 2009) or boundary objects (Star, 2010, Vinck, 2009) within the activity. The analysis shows the predominant role of the innovation object, which is a common production of the team. It is both an outcome and a starting point for the development of intentions and the trajectory of the project. The innovation object arises from a process of design and creation (Almudever, 2012). This research shows the interdependence of the situations of cooperation and collective design in the formalization of the innovation object. The nature of the entrepreneurial project – an object built and under construction - highlights the interest of a dialogue between Activity theory and Action theories.

Den nuvarande pandemin har begränsat mänskligheten och det digitala vaccinationspasset för covid-19 utlovar återgången till ett normalt liv. Studien syftar till att undersöka vilket handlingsutrymme ett vaccinationspass ger medborgare utifrån deras förväntningar och vaccinationspassets krav. Det digitala vaccinationspassets egenskaper och förutsättningar som digital artefakt undersöks i relation till affordance modellen. Forskningsstrategin för studien har varit en fallstudie av kvalitativ karaktär där datainsamlingen består av semistrukturerade intervjuer med medborgare i Sverige och en litteraturgenomgång som utgör den aktuella debatten i relaterade forskningen. Studien visar på hur medborgare uppfattar införandet av ett digitalt vaccinationspass för covid-19 och vill visa på rekommendationer i arbetet med tillgängliggörandet av det digitala vaccinationspasset för medborgarna. Studien grundar sig i att tillgängliggörandet av det digitala vaccinationspasset kommer att ske någonstans framöver och vi vill därför poängtera att resultatet inte kan fastslås utan kommer förändras beroende på förutsättningarna och tidsramen för undersökningen. Studien identifierar bristerna med förmedlingen av information samt myndigheternas globala ansvar vid införandet av ett digitalt vaccinationspass mot covid-19. För att hantera detta rekommenderar vi att en strategi bör utvecklas och även ett förtydligande av informationen gällande vaccinationspasset mot covid-19. Utifrån studien tolkas det att det digitala vaccinationspasset utformas för de rika och att covid-19 har påskyndat digitalisering av samhället. Vi anser att alla bör ha tillgång till vaccin och tillgång till digital teknik innan det digitala vaccinationspasset mot covid-19 införs. / The current pandemic has limited humanity and the digital vaccination passport for covid-19 promises the return to a normal life. The study aims to investigate what room for maneuver a vaccination passport gives citizens based on their expectations and the requirements of the vaccination passport. The properties and conditions of the digital vaccination passport as a digital artifact are examined in relation to the affordance model. The research strategy for the study has been a case study of a qualitative nature where the data collection consists of semi-structured interviews with citizens in Sweden and a literature review that constitutes the current debate in related research. The study shows how citizens perceive the introduction of a digital vaccination passport for covid-19 and wants to show recommendations in the work of making the digital vaccination passport available to citizens. The study is based on the fact that the digital vaccination passport will be made available somewhere in the future and we therefore want to point out that the result can not be determined but will change depending on the conditions and time frame for the examination. The study identifies the shortcomings with the dissemination of information as well as the authorities' global responsibility in introducing a digital vaccination passport against covid-19. To deal with this, we recommend that a strategy should be developed and also a clarification of the information regarding the vaccination passport against covid-19. Based on the study, it is interpreted that the digital vaccination passport is designed for the rich and that covid-19 has accelerated digitization of society. We believe that everyone should have access to vaccines and access to digital technology before the digital vaccination passport against covid-19 is introduced.

Still life arise from interactions related to a particular situation, location and experience. They are composed of objects that are located on a given place, of my own and borrowed or donated by my "partners". Reflect the time memory. They are a physical reminder of the experience. Still Life is manipulated, staged, composed of various artifacts that are symbolic bearer of facts that preceded them, Images may affect the perception of emotions associated with the concept of beauty, transience, decay, evoking a feeling of emptiness, to reflect the time - an irreversible momentum. Photos show a banal, everyday objects, often so obvious and neglected, What remains for us ... What remains ... What goes around ... What is gone ... Similar scenarios acquire different meanings, finding what is already absent,

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