La dynamique des crises politiques au Burkina Faso a été empreinte de mobilisations multisectorielles ayant entraîné une désectorisation conjoncturelle de l'espace social avec pour corollaire une mobilité des enjeux des confrontations et des transactions collusives d’opposition et de gouvernement. Ces mobilisations se sont faites autour d’enjeux relatifs notamment : à la conquête du pouvoir d’État, au contrôle de l’appareil d’État ; à l’amélioration des conditions de vie des travailleurs ; à la propriété foncière ; à l’intangibilité des règles constitutionnelles relatives à l’exercice du pouvoir d’État ; à l’alternance au sommet de l’État ; à la participation de certains acteurs à la compétition politique ; à la prise de mesures d’atténuation de la cherté de la vie ; à la quête de la vérité et de la justice.Au final, les mobilisations multisectorielles ont été à l’origine de changements politiques qui, selon la conjoncture, ont été soit pacifiques, soit violents.Quelles que soient leurs caractéristiques, les différentes crises politiques ont contraint les protagonistes, mais aussi des tierces personnes à ces crises, à y trouver des solutions par le recours à diverses stratégies.Ces stratégies de sortie de crises politiques se sont jouées autour d’enjeux liés à : la conservation du pouvoir politique, la préservation de la paix sociale, le redressement économique et financier de l’État, le rétablissement de l’ordre public, la quête de la vérité et de la justice, l’obtention du pardon et de la réconciliation nationale.Elles ont donné lieu à une diversité d’initiatives avec pour corollaire une variété des moyens, coercitifs et pacifiques, utilisés pour sortir des situations de crise. En outre, les initiatives de sortie de crises politiques ont débouché sur des dynamiques de transitions constitutionnelles et de justice transitionnelle. Si elles ont constitué des processus distincts, elles n’en ont pas moins eu des finalités communes : la garantie des droits et la reconstruction de l’État de droit. Ces finalités communes peuvent coïncider de sorte que la dynamique de justice transitionnelle intègre le texte constitutionnel consacrant ainsi sa constitutionnalisation. Finalement, ces dynamiques transitionnelles ont constitué des fenêtres d’opportunités pour procéder à des réformes constitutionnelles et de politiques publiques. / The dynamics of the political crises in Burkina Faso have been marked by multisectoral mobilizations having led to a cyclical desectorization of the social space, with the consequence of a mobility of the stakes of confrontations and collusive opposition and government transactions.These mobilizations were made around relative issues including: the conquest of state power, the control of the state apparatus; to the improvement of the living conditions of the workers; land ownership; the inviolability of constitutional rules relating to the exercise of State power; alternation at the top of the state; the participation of certain actors in the political competition; taking measures to mitigate the high cost of living and the quest for truth and justice.In the end, the multisectoral mobilizations have been at the origin of political changes which, according to the conjuncture, were either peaceful or violent.The different political strategies have forced the protagonists, but also third parties to these crises, to find solutions by the use of various strategies.These strategies out of political crises were played around issues related to: the preservation of political power, the preservation of social peace, the economic and financial recovery of the state, the restoration of public order, the quest truth and justice, obtaining forgiveness and national reconciliation.They have given rise to a variety of initiatives, resulting in a variety of means, coercive and peaceful, used to emerge from crisis situations. In addition, the initiatives to end political crises have resulted in constitutional transitions and transitional justice. Although they constituted distinct processes, they nevertheless had common goals: the guarantee of rights and the reconstruction of the rule of law. These common goals can coincide so that the dynamics of transitional justice integrate the constitutional text thus consecrating its constitutionalisation. Finally, these transitional dynamics constituted windows of opportunity to carry out constitutional and public policy reforms.

En s’appuyant sur les ressources de la science politique et du droit public, cette thèse se donne pour objectif de comprendre le rôle de la seconde chambre française. À dessein, elle tend à considérer combien ce dernier est fonction de sa légitimité. Ce travail ne se donnera donc pas pour but de répondre à la question de la légitimité du Sénat, mais de comprendre comment l’appréciation de cette dernière par l’institution le conduit à interpréter les normes qui lui sont applicables. Le jugement subjectif que l’institution sénatoriale porte sur sa légitimité doit ainsi être envisagé comme une variable explicative des divergences entre le droit et son application. S’appuyant sur une approche institutionnaliste, ce travail analysera la légitimité comme contrainte et comme liberté de définition du rôle et d’interprétation des normes. Contrainte, l’institution l’est, car elle oblige le Sénat à se conformer à ce qu’elle juge être l’interprétation légitime de son rôle. Libre, le Sénat le demeure, car il reste juge et arbitre de ces contraintes à condition de savoir emprunter les chemins balisés par le droit. Dès lors, il convient de repenser la légitimité institutionnelle comme structure de contrainte de la décision permettant d’expliquer l’interprétation de la norme et l’équilibre du système politique. / Based on political science and public law resources, this thesis aims at understanding the role of the French Second Chamber. It considers how this role could be a function of its legitimacy. This work is not, therefore, intended to address the question of the Senate legitimacy, but to understand how the institution's appraisal about this legitimacy leads it to interpret the norms which are applicable to it. The subjective judgment that the senatorial institution focuses on its legitimacy must thus be considered as an explanatory variable of the discrepancies between the law and its application, especially during critical junctures. Relying on an institutionalist approach, this work will analyze legitimacy as a constraint and as a freedom to define a role and to interpret norms. The institution is, in fact, forced since it obliges the Senate to comply with what it considers to be the legitimate interpretation of its role. In fact, the Senate stays free since it remains judge and mediator of these constraints provided that it follows the path dependency marked by history and law. Therefore, it is important to reconsider the institutional legitimacy as a straining structure of the decision allowing to explain the interpretation of the norms and the equilibrium of the political system.

Published Article / The teachers' salary strike, which occurs almost annually in South Africa, is so widespread that it seems to have gained public toleration if not complete acceptance. However, the strike may have a lasting and devastating impact on the teachers' as well as the learners' discipline, motivation and morale, with the learners being the hardest hit. The strike has a negative impact on the learning and teaching culture and on the learners' academic performance. Although the teachers' strike is about salaries and salary-related matters, all too often, debates about it shift from the strike to the tension between the teachers' right to strike and the learners' right to receive education. This study endeavours to fathom the truth about the two rights, to establish whether they can stand side by side without contradicting each other, and to study their implications.

Scanning probe microscopy allows the investigation and manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular level, and is crucial in the development of new and novel techniques within nanoscience. However, to understand the information obtained from the various forms of scanning probe microscopy, a thorough theoretical understanding is necessary. Often this theoretical background is provided through density functional theory, which, while incredibly powerful, has limitations with regards to the size and complexity of the systems in which it can investigate. Thus, for more complicated systems, alternative techniques are desirable to be used both independently and alongside density functional theory. In this work, theoretical techniques are constructed that allow the information obtained from both scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomic force microscopy to be investigated for a variety of systems. These techniques are all based around Huckel molecular orbital theory or extended Huckel molecular orbital theory, and use a simple linear combination of atomic orbital basis, that allows rapid analysis of various systems. The main focus of the work is the scanning probe microscopy of the C60 fullerene molecule. Theoretical scanning tunnelling microscopy images are constructed for the cases where C60 is adsorbed on both the substrate and the scanning probe in the form of a functionalised tip, as well as when a tip-adsorbed molecule interacts with a sample-adsorbed molecule. The atomic force microscopy images of surface adsorbed C60 are considered, with the main focus centred on the repulsive interaction observed due to the Pauli exclusion principle. The structure of the scanning probe, and the effect this has on this imaging is examined, as well as considering the atomic force microscopy images obtained when two C60s interact. Molecules other than C60 are also considered, with the techniques developed used to interpret and understand the atomic force microscopy images obtained when a pentacene and a PTCDA molecule interact with a carbon monoxide functionalised tip. The theoretical work is accompanied throughout by a variety of experimental work, both from previously published work, and from unpublished work obtained by the University of Nottingham nanoscience group. Much focus is given to the interaction between C60 and the Si(111)-(7x7) reconstruction, both in the sense of a functionalised tip interacting with the surface, and with the interactions present where a C60 is adsorbed onto a surface. In doing so, previously postulated bonding sites for C60 on this surface have been verified.

This thesis is broadly split into two parts. In the first part, simple state sum models for minimally coupled fermion and scalar fields are constructed on a 1-manifold. The models are independent of the triangulation and give the same result as the continuum partition functions evaluated using zeta-function regularisation. Some implications for more physical models are discussed. In the second part, the gauge gravity action is written using a particularly simple matrix technique. The coupling to scalar, fermion and Yang-Mills fields is reviewed, with some small additions. A sum over histories quantisation of the gauge gravity theory in 2+1 dimensions is then carried out for a particular class of triangulations of the three-sphere. The preliminary stage of the Hamiltonian analysis for the (3+1)-dimensional gauge gravity theory is undertaken.

Quantum Markov processes are widely used models of the dynamics open quantum systems, a fundamental topic in theoretical and mathematical physics with important applications in experimental realisations of quantum systems such as ultracold atomic gases and new quantum information technologies such as quantum metrology and quantum control. In this thesis we present a mathematical framework which effectively characterises dynamical phase transitions in quantum Markov processes, using the theory of large deviations, by combining insights developed in non-equilibrium dynamics with techniques from quantum information and probability. We provide a natural decomposition for quantum Markov chains into phases, paving the way for the rigorous treatment of critical features of such systems such as phase transitions and phase purification. A full characterisation of dynamical phase transitions beyond properties of the steady state is described in terms of a dynamical perspective through critical behaviour of the quantum jump trajectories. We extend a fundamental result from large deviations for classical Markov chains, the Sanov theorem, to a quantum setting; we prove this Sanov theorem for the output of quantum Markov chains, a result which could be extended to a quantum Donsker-Varadhan theory. We perform an in-depth analysis of the atom maser, an infinite-dimensional quantum Markov process exhibiting various types of critical behaviour: for certain parameters it exhibits strong intermittency in the atom detection counts, and has a bistable stationary state. We show that the atom detection counts satisfy a large deviations principle, and therefore we deal with a phase cross-over rather than a genuine phase transition, although the latter occurs in the limit of infinite pumping rate. As a corollary, we obtain the Central Limit Theorem for the counting process.

Le débat sur l’alternance démocratique irrigue depuis quelques années le cœur dufonctionnement des systèmes politiques en Afrique. Il a pris des proportions au point que laquestion de la succession des dirigeants africains continue d’alimenter la doctrineconstitutionnelle africaine et surtout les sociétés civiles africaines1. Le constat qui se dégageaprès plus de deux décennies de pratique démocratique, c’est que la transmission du pouvoirpolitique n’obéit pas toujours aux prescriptions constitutionnelles, elle continue d’êtreinfluencée par des procédés illégaux2 qui traduisent une anormalité de la vie politiqueconstitutionnelle faite de flux et de reflux, de continuités et de ruptures, de permanences et demutations.On pourrait se demander si l’un des acquis majeurs du retour à la démocratie libérale,à savoir l’expression libre du suffrage universel comme mode de légitimation et de dévolutiondu pouvoir qui, de plus en plus, cristallise la vie politique en Afrique francophone, n’estdémeuré vain et inefficace.Si on part du principe que l’enracinement progressif des principes et valeurs de ladémocratie libérale pose de manière explicite la possibilité d’une alternance démocratique surle continent africain, celle-ci s’impose comme le principal critère d’évaluation de ladémocratie. En effet, l’accession au pouvoir ayant auparavant épousé des contours violents, lalibéralisation des systèmes politiques a introduit l’organisation d’élections disputées commenouveau paradigme dans le contexte politique africain susceptible de déboucher sur unealternance démocratique. Dès lors que des conditions de transparence et de sincéritéélectorales sont réunies, l’alternance démocratique devient un signe distinctif de l’acceptationde la compétition électorale et un gage d’ouverture des systèmes politiques longtempsdominés par la confiscation et la personnalisation du pouvoir. / Summary not transmitted

In this thesis we present a study of the fluctuations and noise which occur in a particular nanoelectrical device, the single electron transistor (SET). Electrical transport through the SET occurs through a combination of stochastic, incoherent tunnelling and coherent quantum oscillations, giving rise to a rich variety of transport processes. In the first section of the thesis, we look at the fluctuations in the electrical properties of a SET. We describe the SET as an open quantum system, and use this model to develop Born-Markov master equation descriptions of the dynamics close to three resonant transport processes: the Josephson quasiparticle resonance, the double Josephson quasiparticle resonance and the Cooper-pair resonances. We use these models to examine the noise properties of both the charge on the SET island and the current flowing through the SET. Quantum coherent oscillations of Cooper-pairs in the SET give rise to noise spectra which can be highly asymmetric in frequency. We give an explicit calculation of how an oscillator capacitively coupled to the SET island can be used to infer the quantum noise properties close to the Cooper-pair resonances. To calculate the current noise we develop a new technique, based on classical full counting statistics. We are able to use this technique to calculate the effect of the current fluctuations on an oscillator coupled to the current through the SET, the results of which are in good agreement with recent measurements. In the final part of the thesis we explore the coupled dynamics of a normal state SET capacitively coupled to a resonator in the presence of an external drive. The coupling between the electrical and mechanical degrees of freedom leads to interesting non-linear behaviour in the resonator. We are able to find regions where the resonator has two possible stable amplitudes of oscillation, which can lead to a bistability in the dynamics. We also look at the fluctuations in the energy of the system. We use numerical methods to simulate the dynamics of the system, and to obtain the probability distribution for the work done, whose form can be interpreted by the appropriate fluctuation relation.

The ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791 brought freedom of the press into the sphere of constitutional legitimacy such that it could not be nullified by the whims of elected officials. Traditionally the guarantee of a free press has been treated as an adjunct of the Speech Clause with little, if any, independent status. Recently, however, that traditional conception has come under increasing attack. Many attorneys, judges and academicians have argued for a separation of the Press and Speech Clauses. For example, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart has stated his belief that the Press Clause is a structural guarantee which provides greater First Amendment protection to the press than that generally accorded the public. Therefore, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Zurcher v. Stanford Daily (1978) that ratified searches of non-suspect, third-party newsmen exemplified for these supporters the nadir of press freedom in recent years. In this study the importance of the Zurcher decision to public policy, public law and legal studies is examined in detail. The study utilizes the systems model popularized by David Easton to observe the events leading up to the decision and both the judicial and legislative responses to that decision. In addition, a new theory of press freedom is presented which analogizes the Press Clause to the Free Exercise of Religion Clause. This theory suggests that the Press Clause should be separated from the Speech Clause in the same way as the Free Exercise Clause has been separated. This would establish the Press Clause as an independent clause granting a special status to the press: a status which the author believes to be warranted by the language of the First Amendment and the absolute necessity for a press free of governmental intrusion and regulation.

A Fourier transform far infrared spectrometer bas been constructed to perform reflectivity and transmission measurements on small semiconductor samples in the temperature range 10-300 grad. K. Far infrared and Raman spectra selection rules have been obtained by the Correlation method from the factor group analysis of the 5nS subset. Crystals of n- and p- type SnS bave been prepared, and the preparation methods are critically reviewed with reference to the T-p-x diagram. The electrical properties (Hall effect, carrier concentration, Hall mobility and barrier height) are measured for these specimens in the temperature range 40-3000 K. Methods of obtaining electrical contacts to SnS are exhaustively studied. Broadband photoconductivity and photovoltaic measurements are reported on n- and p-type specimens in the spectral range 0.5-2 .1 eV at temperatures from 300 grad. K to 10 grad. K. Band structure and impurity energies are suggested to account for the observed results. The band edge shift with temperature is also measured. Far infrared reflectivity and transmission measurements are made between 300 grad. K and 10 grad. K. in order to determine the lattice vibration frequencies. Kramers-Kroenig analysis and computer fitting routines are used to obtain this information from the reflectivity data. The interlayer forces are compared with those obtained in the isomorphic materials GeS and GeSe. Similar spectroscopic and analytic techniques have also been used to examine the room temperature optical properties of ZnS+Fe (Marmatite).