Aujourd'hui dans le Var, certains agriculteurs produisent dans des eaux saumâtres une bactérie alimentaire appelée : spiruline. En se formant à cette culture atypique, ces agriculteurs ne visent pas uniquement une production d'avenir, car leur identité est en jeu. Dès lors, leur vision du monde a commencé à changer. Le but de ce travail est d'étudier comment la culture de la spiruline et sa consommation peuvent déclencher notamment par ses représentations et ses pratiques un processus de « conversion éthique » sur ces agriculteurs en quête de sens. Afin de restituer au mieux, une étude anthropologique, nous avons choisi d'investir deux groupes cibles : des agriculteurs qui suivent une formation professionnelle afin de devenir des producteurs de spiruline et des producteurs formés à cette culture. Le protocole ethnographique employé s'attache à récolter les données par des entretiens libres inscrits dans une méthode compréhensive et une observation participante. Cette approche novatrice, mettant en œuvre l'étude de producteurs/consommateurs de spiruline s'avère pertinente. Elle a permis de mettre en évidence une véritable conversion de mes groupes cibles qui ont basculé progressivement d'une singularité biologique à une singularité sociale ancrée dans l'éthique. L'échec professionnel et la crise identitaire qu'ils vivaient, ont été le démarrage de leur démarche introspective et la préparation consciente ou inconsciente à leur rencontre avec la spiruline. / Today in the Var some farmers produce in brackish waters a food bacterium called spirulina. By training in this atypical cultivation, these farmers do not only aim at a future turned production: their identity is at stake. From then on, their vision of the world has begun to change. The purpose of this work is to study how spirulina cultivation and its consumption can activate, in particular by its representations and its practices, a process of "ethical conversion" on these farmers in search of meaning sense. To restore at best, an anthropological study, we chose to induct two target groups: Farmers attending a professional training course to become spirulina producers and producers trained in this cultuvation. The applied ethnographical protocol attempts to collect data during free discussions fitting a comprehensive method and a participating observation. This innovative approach, involving spirulina producers /consumers in a study turns out to be relevant. It allowed to bring to light a real conversion of my target groups which gradually swinged from a biological peculiarity to a social peculiarity fixed in the ethics. Their professional failure and the identity crisis they endured turned to be the starting point of their introspective processes, preparing consciously or not their minds for their encounter with spirulina. Then, by learning about the culture of this food and about its consumption, these farmers changed steadily their representations, their behavior and their practices, to finally restructure their life and identity.

A conversão de voz é um problema emergente em processamento de fala e voz com um crescente interesse comercial, tanto em aplicações como Tradução Fala para Fala (Speech-to-Speech Translation - SST) e em sistemas Text-To-Speech (TTS) personalizados. Um sistema de Conversão de Voz deve permitir o mapeamento de características acústicas de sentenças pronunciadas por um falante origem para valores correspondentes da voz do falante destino, de modo que a saída processada é percebida como uma sentença pronunciada pelo falante destino. Nas últimas duas décadas, o número de contribuições cientícas relacionadas ao problema de conversão de voz tem crescido consideravelmente, e um panorama sólido do processo histórico, assim como de técnicas propostas são indispensáveis para contribuição neste campo. O objetivo deste trabalho é realizar um levantamento geral das técnicas utilizadas para resolver o problema, apontando vantagens e desvantagens de cada método, e a partir deste estudo, desenvolver novas ferramentas. Dentre as contribuições do trabalho, foram desenvolvidos um método para decomposição espectral em termos de bases radiais, mapas fonéticos articiais, agrupamentos k-verossímeis, funções de empenamento em frequência entre outras, com o intuito de implementar um sistema de conversão de voz inter-linguístico independente de texto de alta qualidade. / Voice conversion is an emergent problem in voice and speech processing with increasing commercial interest, due to applications such as Speech-to-Speech Translation (SST) and personalized Text-To-Speech (TTS) systems. A Voice Conversion system should allow the mapping of acoustical features of sentences pronounced by a source speaker to values corresponding to the voice of a target speaker, in such a way that the processed output is perceived as a sentence uttered by the target speaker. In the last two decades the number of scientic contributions to the voice conversion problem has grown considerably, and a solid overview of the historical process as well as of the proposed techniques is indispensable for those willing to contribute to the eld. The goal of this work is to provide a critical survey that combines historical presentation to technical discussion while pointing out advantages and drawbacks of each technique, and from this study, to develop new tools. Some contributions proposed in this work include a method for spectral decomposition in terms of radial basis functions, articial phonetic map, warping functions among others, in order to implement a text-independent crosslingual voice conversion system of high quality.

Household appliances utilize single-phase motors to perform everyday jobs whether it is to run a fan in an air conditioner or the compressor in a refrigerator. With the movement of the world going “green” and trying to make everything more efficient, it is a logical step to start with the items that we use every day. This can be done by replacing single-phase motors with three-phase motors in household appliances. Three-phase motors are 14% more efficient than single-phase motors when running at full load and typically cost less over a large range of sizes [1]. One major downside of incorporating three-phase motors in household appliance is that three-phase power is not readily available in homes. With the motor replacement, a single to three-phase converter is necessary to convert the single-phase wall power into the required three-phase input of the motor. One option is active conversion, which uses switches and introduces different stages that produce power loss [2]. An alternative solution is passive conversion that utilizes the resistances within the motor windings along with additional capacitors and inductors, which in theory are lossless. This study focuses on three different single to three-phase passive converters to run both wye and delta-connected three-phase induction motors, and a possible third winding configuration that utilizes one of the three converters. There will be an emphasis on proving the equivalency of two converters, one proposed by Stuart Marinus and Michel Malengret [11] and the other by Otto Smith [12]. Sensitivity analysis is performed to study the effects of variation of torque and converter component tolerances on the system.

Les travaux de recherche présentés dans ce manuscrit ont pour but de concevoir, simuler, fabriquer et caractériser un convertisseur modal à base de canne microstructurée air-silice (CMAS). Cette fonction représente un élément clé pour les multiplexeurs modaux et les compensateurs de dispersion chromatique. Le composant proposé est basé sur une CMAS effilée dite « taper » qui constitue une transition entre les deux fibres différentes. La conversion se fait à travers l’excitation d’un mode particulier dans une fibre multimode à partir d’une fibre standard. Dans les structures à diamètre évolutif, la compréhension des différentes théories régissant le couplage entre les différents modes est nécessaire. Une étude approfondie est réalisée pour analyser le phénomène de couplage et étudier le critère d’adiabaticité. Ce composant est élaboré autour d’une technologie de fabrication existante à XLIM qui se base sur la technique fusion-étirage. Enfin, nous validons numériquement et expérimentalement ce principe. Nous réussissons à exciter le mode fondamental et d’autres modes d’ordre supérieur dans une fibre multimode. / These research works presented in this manuscript aim at designing, simulate, manufacture and characterizing the modal converter based microstructured air-silica cane. This function represents a key element for modal multiplexers and chromatic dispersion compensators. The proposed component is based on a tapered microstructured air-silica cane « taper » which constitutes a transition between the two different fibers. The conversion is done through the excitation of a particular mode in a multimode or few mode fibers from a standard fiber. In the tapered structures, the understanding of the different theories involving the coupling between the different modes was yet necessary. A thorough study is carried to analyze the phenomenon of coupling and study the adiabatic criterion. This component is developed around an existing manufacturing technology at XLIM which based in the technique « stack and draw». Finally, we validate numerically and experimentally that principle. We succeed to excite the fundamental mode and higher order modes in a multimode fiber.

Ce travail de thèse, réalisé au Laboratoire de Physique de la MatièreCondensée (LPMC), s'inscrit dans le contexte des nouveaux lasers etamplificateurs à fibre optique opérant dans le visible. Cependant, ledéveloppement de telles fibres est limité par des phénomènes tels que le photonoircissement.Cette thèse a été consacrée à l'étude et à la résolution desproblèmes de photo-noircissement des fibres optique de silice dopées àl’aluminium et au thulium, sous pompage optique à 1,07 μm. Au cours de cettethèse, une nouvelle méthode de fabrication spécifique à nos besoins a étédéveloppée et mise en oeuvre au LPMC. Une étude systématique du rôle de laconcentration en thulium dans les mécanismes de photo-noircissement a étémenée. Le rôle du co-dopage avec de l'aluminium, du cérium ou du lanthane aaussi été analysé par des études systématiques. Le photo-noircissement estimputé à la génération de centres colorés par le pompage. Une fois créés, cescentres colorés peuvent être blanchis par la pompe. Un modèlephénoménologique sur la dynamique du photo-noircissement permet dediscuter séparément de la génération et du blanchiment. Au cours de cetravail, il a été montré que l'augmentation de la concentration en thulium et/oula puissance de pompe a pour effet d'améliorer le phénomène de génération. Àl'opposé, l'augmentation de la concentration en aluminium ou en cérium ou enlanthane a pour effet d'améliorer les mécanismes de blanchiment. La mise enévidence et la compréhension de ces mécanismes ouvrent la voie vers desnouveaux lasers et amplificateurs à fibre optique dans le domaine du visible / This thesis, conducted at the Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée(LPMC), is in the context of new lasers and optical fiber amplifiers operating inthe visible. This wavelength range is currently booming for many applications.However, the development of such fibers are limited by the photo-darkeningphenomenon. This phenomenon consists of the loss of transparency in thematerial during its use under optical pumping. This thesis is devoted to thestudy and the resolution of issues caused by photo-darkening in aluminum- andthulium-doped silica optical fibers when optically pumped at 1.07 μm. In thisthesis, a new method of fiber manufacture that is specific to our needs hasbeen developed and implemented at LPMC. A systematic study of the role ofthulium concentration in the photo-darkening mechanism was conducted. Therole of the co-doping with aluminum, cerium or lanthanum was also analyzedby systematic studies. The photo-darkening is attributed to the generation ofcolor centers by pumping. Once created, these color centers can be bleachedby the pump. A phenomenological model of the dynamics of photo-darkeningallows a separate discussion between the generation and the bleachingphenomena. In this work, it is shown that the increasing of the concentration ofthulium and/or the pump power has the effect of increasing the generationphenomenon. In opposite, increasing of the concentration of aluminum orcerium or lanthanum has the effect to intensify the bleaching mechanism. Theidentification and understanding of these mechanisms open the path to newlasers and optical fiber amplifiers in the visible range

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'analyser le phénomène subjectif qu'est la conversion religieuse chez le sujet mystique, à l'aide de la théorie psychanalytique et plus particulièrement grâce à des concepts tels que la pulsion invocante et la voix.A partir de l'ouvrage « les confessions » de Saint Augustin, nous allons analyser de quelle manière s'inscrit chez ce sujet l'appel de Dieu dans sa conversion religieuse. En effet, dans cette oeuvre, il témoigne de la recherche de sa foi en Dieu mais aussi de sa conversion en s'interrogeant sur les énigmes majeures de son existence.Pour ce faire, nous nous interrogerons sur le statut de la voix de Dieu et sur la place fantasmatique qu'occupe la figure déique pour le religieux. Effectivement, la voix du Divin semble venir se loger à la place du refoulement originaire, elle est cause inconsciente du désir et se localise en qualité d'objet a.Cette voix divine viendrait recouvrir la question du refoulement originaire. Elle ne s'entend pas avec l'oreille mais elle s'éprouve. Elle est source de jouissance et s'inscrit dans une jouissance archaïque. / The aim of this thesis is to analyze the subjective phenomenon that is the mystic subject religious conversion's, using the psychoanalitic theory and more particulary thanks to concepts such as the invocatory drive and the voice.From the book « Confessions » of Saint Augustin, we are going to analyze how God's call affected him in his religious conversion. Indeed, in this work he testifes to the search for his faith in God, but also, to his conversion by wondering about the major riddles of his existence.For that purpose, we wonder about God's voice statuts and about the fantastical place that the divine figure occupies for Saint Augustin.Actually, the voice of Lord seems to print it self over of the primal repression. It is the unconscious cause of desire and it seems to impose itself as the « a » object.This divine voice would be covering the primal repression issue. It is not heared though the ear, it is experienced. It is a source of enjoyement, classified as an archaïc enjoyement.

Les symptômes de conversion, que Freud a jusqu’à la fin de sa vie qualifiés de « mystérieux », continuent aujourd’hui de susciter de nombreux questionnements. L’un d’entre eux concerne le rapport qu’ils entretiennent avec la douleur : si les douleurs sans étiologie médicale retrouvée sont parfois considérées comme des symptômes de conversion au même titre que les symptômes sensori-moteurs, elles semblent pouvoir correspondre à des pathogénies variées (névrose d’angoisse, hypocondrie, manifestations psychosomatiques…). À l’appui de ce constat, nous faisons l’hypothèse que là où les symptômes sensori-moteurs représenteraient le résultat d’un mécanisme de conversion pouvant être sous-tendu par des registres conflictuels divers mais impliquant nécessairement une dimension d’expression symbolique de ces conflits, les symptômes douloureux pourraient quant à eux s’inscrire le long d’un continuum allant d’un pôle conversif, marqué par cette valeur symbolique, à un pôle non conversif, porteur d’une valeur moins symbolique qu’économique – étant cependant entendu qu’il existerait des possibilités de passage d’un pôle à l’autre. Au pôle conversif, les symptômes seraient sous-tendus par de bonnes capacités d’élaboration psychique de l’excitation, des enveloppes psychiques relativement solides et souples et de bonnes capacités à s’appuyer sur un objet psychique interne ; au pôle non conversif, ils seraient sous-tendus par des difficultés d’élaboration psychique de l’excitation, des enveloppes psychiques marquées par la fragilité et des difficultés à s’appuyer sur un objet psychique interne.Afin de mettre nos hypothèses à l’épreuve, nous avons, dans le cadre d’une vaste recherche mise en place par le Dr Lisa Ouss à l’hôpital Necker-Enfants malades, rencontré 27 enfants et adolescents âgés de 8 à 15 ans et présentant un trouble de conversion ou un trouble douloureux (diagnostics DSM-IV-TR) ; 8 présentaient des symptômes exclusivement sensori-moteurs, 11 des symptômes à la fois sensori-moteurs et douloureux, et 8 des symptômes exclusivement douloureux. Nous avons recueilli et analysé les données issues des entretiens et des épreuves projectives (Rorschach et TAT) de chaque patient dans une perspective psychodynamique, puis avons procédé à des comparaisons inter-groupes.Les résultats montrent que les patients présentant des symptômes sensori-moteurs (accompagnés ou non de symptômes douloureux) disposent de capacités d’élaboration psychique et de capacités à s’appuyer sur un objet psychique interne significativement meilleures que les patients présentant des symptômes exclusivement douloureux, ce qui tend à confirmer notre hypothèse de départ ; il n’existe en revanche pas de différence significative entre les groupes en matière de qualité des enveloppes psychiques. Les résultats montrent en outre que les (pré)adolescents (11-15 ans) disposent de capacités d’élaboration psychique et de capacités à s’appuyer sur un objet psychique interne significativement meilleures que les enfants en période de latence (8-10 ans), et que les filles disposent de capacités d’élaboration psychique, de capacités à s’appuyer sur un objet psychique interne et d’une solidité des enveloppes psychiques significativement meilleures que les garçons. / Conversion symptoms have been considered “mysterious” by Freud until the end of his life. They still raise numerous questions. One of them deals with their relation to pain: whereas medically unexplained pain symptoms are sometimes considered to be conversion symptoms in the same way as sensorimotor symptoms, they can correspond to various pathogeneses (anxiety neurosis, hypocondria, psychosomatic symptoms...).We thus hypothesize that whereas sensorimotor symptoms result from a conversion mechanism (which might be underlied by various conflicts but necessarily imply a symbolical expression of these conflicts), pain symptoms, as for them, may range along a continuum extending from a conversive end characterized by this symbolical dimension to a non conversive end characterized by a more economical than symbolical dimension (including possibilities of moving from an end to another). On the conversive end, symptoms would be underlied by good abilities in psychical elaboration of excitation, strong and supple psychical envelopes and good abilities to rely on a psychical internal object. On the non conversive end, symptoms would be underlied by difficulties in psychical elaboration of excitation, fragile psychical envelopes and difficulties to rely on a psychical internal object.In order to test our hypotheses, we have met 27 children and adolescents (8 to 15 years old) diagnosed as having a conversion disorder or a pain disorder (DSM-IV-TR diagnoses), in the framework of a wide research set up by Dr Lisa Ouss at the Necker-Enfants malades hospital (Paris). Among these patients, 8 had exclusively sensorimotor symptoms, 11 had both sensorimotor and pain symptoms, and 8 had exclusively pain symptoms. We have gathered and analysed the data of clinical encounters and projective tests (Rorschach and TAT) of each patient in a psychodynamic way. We then have made intergroup comparisons.The results show that patients with sensorimotor symptoms (accompanied or not by pain symptoms) have significantly better abilities in psychical elaboration of excitation and significantly better abilities to rely on a psychical internal object than patients with exclusively pain symptoms, which tends to confirm our initial hypothesis. Yet there is no significant difference between the groups as far as psychical envelopes’ quality is concerned. The results also show that (pre)adolescents (11 to 15 years old) have significantly better abilities in psychical elaboration of excitation and significantly better abilities to rely on a psychical internal object than latent children (8 to 10 years old), and that girls have significantly better abilities in psychical elaboration of excitation, significantly better abilities to rely on a psychical internal object and significantly stronger psychical envelopes than boys.

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This dissertation presents a new class of engineered devices, fabricated from synthetic materials and protein transporters extracted from cell membranes of plants, that use chemomechanical and chemoelectrical energy conversion processes to perform mechanical and electrical work. The chemomechanical energy conversion concept is implemented in a protein based actuator. The chemical energy is applied as an electrochemical gradient of protons across a membrane assembly formed from phospholipids and SUT4 -a proton-sucrose cotransporter. The membrane assembly forms a physical barrier between two chambers in the actuator. The SUT4 proteins in the membrane assembly balances the applied electrochemical gradient by a concentration gradient of sucrose across the membrane. The sucrose gradient simultaneously generates an osmotic flow which deforms a flexible wall in a constrained chamber of the actuator, thus exhibiting mechanical strain. The sucrose concentration balanced by the protein transporter is used as the control variable for fluid flow through the membrane. The transport properties of the membrane assembly has been characterized for the control variable in the system. The reaction kinetics based model for solute transport through the cotransporter is modified to compute the equilibrium constant for solute binding and fluid translocation rate through the membrane. The maximum initial flux rate through the membrane is computed to be 2.51+/-0.6 ul/ug.cm^2.min for an applied pH4.0/pH7.0 concentration gradient across the membrane. The flux rate can be modulated by varying the sucrose concentration in the actuator. The prototype actuator has been fabricated using the characterized membrane assembly. A maximum deformation of 60microns at steady state is developed by the actuator for 20 mM sucrose concentration in the system. The chemoelectrical energy conversion concept is based on the electrogenic proton pumps in plasma and vacuolar membranes of a plant cell. A prototype device referred to as a BioCell demonstrates the chemoelectric energy conversion using V-type ATPase extracted from plant cell membranes. The enzyme in the bilayer lipid membrane hydrolyzes ATP and converts the chemical energy from the reaction into a charge gradient across the membrane. Silver-silver chloride electrodes on both the sides of the membrane convert the charge established by the proton pumps into cell voltage. The redox reactions at the surface of the electrodes result in a current through the external load connected to the terminals of the BioCell. The single cell behaves like a constant current power source and has an internal resistance of 10-22kOhms. The specific power from the cell of the membrane assembly is estimated to be around 2microwatts/sq/cm. The demonstration of chemoelectrical energy conversion shows the possibility to use ATP as an alternative source of electrical power to design novel chemo-electro-mechanical devices. / Ph. D.

This dissertation attempts to explore the nature of a particular food consumption pattern using a number of different deviance theories in order to outline the career path of vegetarianism. Using semi-structured interviews with 45 practicing vegetarians from two regions of the United States, the career path of the vegetarians was developed around David Matza's (1969) theory of becoming deviant. Within each stage of Matza's classic work, more specific theories were applied to explain the friction between vegetarianism and the more socially-accepted practice of meat eating within the United States. The framework of the stages includes the affinity for, affiliation with, and signification of vegetarian ideology and practice. Each stage within the theory is also a stage in the development of the vegetarian identity. The more specific theories utilized to explain phenomena within each particular stage attempt to show a progression from initially being interested in the ideals and practice of vegetarianism to becoming and verbalizing as a mature, practicing vegetarian. Finally, the vegetarians interviewed were asked to give the prognosis for the future of vegetarianism. / Ph. D.