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No description available.

No description available.

Protein Kinase C delta (PKCδ) is expressed in platelets and activated downstream of protease-activated receptors (PAR)s and glycoprotein VI (GPVI) receptors. We evaluated the role of PKCδ in platelets using two approaches - pharmacological and molecular genetic approach. In human platelets pretreated with isoform selective antagonistic RACK peptide (δV1-1)TAT, and in the murine platelets lacking PKCδ, PAR4-mediated dense granule secretion was inhibited, whereas GPVI-mediated dense granule secretion was potentiated. These effects were statistically significant in the absence and presence of thromboxane A2 (TXA2). Furthermore, TXA2 generation was differentially regulated by PKCδ. However, PKCδ had a small effect on platelet P-selectin expression. Calcium- and PKC-dependent pathways independently activate fibrinogen receptor in platelets. When calcium pathways are blocked by dimethyl-BAPTA, AYPGKF-induced aggregation in PKCδ null mouse platelets and in human platelets pretreated with (δV1-1)TAT, was inhibited. In a FeCl3-induced injury in vivo thrombosis model, PKCδ-/- mice occluded similar to their wild-type littermates. Hence, we conclude that PKCδ differentially regulates platelet functional responses such as dense granule secretion and TXA2 generation downstream of PARs and GPVI receptors, but PKCδ deficiency does not affect the thrombus formation in vivo. We further investigated the mechanism of such differential regulation of dense granule release by PKCδ in platelets. SH2 domain-containing Inositol Phosphatase (SHIP)-1 is phosphorylated on Y1020, a marker for its activation, upon stimulation of human platelets with PAR agonists, SFLLRN and AYPGKF, or GPVI agonist, convulxin. GPVImediated SHIP-1 phosphorylation occurred rapidly at 15 sec whereas PAR-mediated phosphorylation was delayed, occurring at 1 min. Lyn and SHIP-1, but not SHIP-2 or Shc, preferentially associated with PKCδ upon stimulation of platelets with a GPVI agonists, but not with a PAR agonist. In PKCδ null murine platelets, convulxin-induced SHIP-1 phosphorylation was inhibited, suggesting that PKCδ regulates the phosphorylation of SHIP-1. Furthermore, in Lyn null murine platelets, GPVI-mediated phosphorylations on Y-1020 of SHIP-1, Y311 and Y155 of PKCδ were inhibited. In murine platelets lacking Lyn, or SHIP-1, GPVI-mediated dense granule secretions were potentiated, whereas PAR-mediated dense granule secretions were inhibited. Phosphorylated SHIP-1 associated with phosphorylated-Y155 PKCδ peptide. Therefore, we conclude that Lyn-mediated phosphorylations of PKCδ and SHIP-1 and their associations negatively regulate GPVI-mediated dense granule secretion in platelets. / Physiology

Dense array seismic techniques can be applied to multiple types of seismic data to understand regional tectonic processes via analysis of crustal velocity structure, imaging reflection surfaces, and calculating high-resolution hypocenter locations. The two regions presented here include an intraplate seismogenic fault zone in Virginia and a steep cratonic margin in eastern Oregon and Idaho. The intraplate seismicity study in Virginia consisted of using 201 short-period vertical-component seismographs, which recorded events as low as magnitude -2 during a period of 12 days. Dense array analysis revealed almost no variation in the seismic velocity within the hypocentral zone, indicating that the aftershock zone is confined to a single crystalline-rock terrane. The 1-2 km wide cloud of hypocenters is characterized by a 29° strike and 53° dip consistent with the focal mechanism of the main shock. A 5° bend along strike and a shallower dip angle below 6 km points toward a more complex concave shaped fault zone. The seismic study in Idaho and Oregon was centered on the inversion of controlled-source wide-angle reflection and refraction seismic P- and S-wave traveltimes to determine a seismic velocity model of the crust beneath this part of the U.S. Cordillera. We imaged a narrow, steep velocity boundary within the crust that juxtaposes the Blue Mountains accreted terranes and the North American craton at the western Idaho shear zone. We found a 7 km offset in Moho depth, separating crust with different seismic velocities and Poisson's ratios. The crust beneath the Blue Mountains terranes is consistent with an intermediate lithology dominated by diorite. In the lower crust there is evidence of magmatic underplating which is consistent with the location of the feeder system of the Columbia River Basalts. The cratonic crust east of the WISZ is thicker and characterized by a felsic composition dominated by granite through most of the crust, with an intermediate composition layer in the lower crust. This sharp lithologic and rheologic boundary strongly influenced subsequent deformation and magmatic events in the region. / Ph. D.

This dissertation focuses on two different types of responses of Earth; that is, seismic and electromagnetic, and aims to better understand Earth processes at a wider range of scales than those conventional approaches offer. Electromagnetic responses resulting from the subsurface diffusion of applied electromagnetic fields through heterogeneous geoelectrical structures are utilized to characterize the underlying geology. Geology exhibits multiscale hierarchical structure which brought about by almost all geological processes operating across multiple length scales and the relationship between multiscale electrical properties of underlying geology and the observed electromagnetic response has not yet been fully understood. To quantify this relationship, the electromagnetic responses of textured and spatially correlated, stochastic geologic media are herein presented. The modelling results demonstrate that the resulting electromagnetic responses present a power law distribution, rather than a smooth response polluted with random, incoherent noise as commonly assumed; moreover, they are examples of fractional Brownian motion. Furthermore, the results indicate that the fractal behavior of electromagnetic responses is correlated with the degree of the spatial correlation, the contrasts in ground electrical conductivity, and the preferred orientation of small-scale heterogeneity. In addition, these inferences are also supported by the observed electromagnetic responses from a fault zone comprising different lithological units and varying wavelengths of geologic heterogeneity. Seismic signals generated by aftershocks are generally recorded by local aftershock networks consisted of insufficient number of stations which result in strongly spatially-aliased aftershock data. This limits aftershock detections and locations at smaller magnitudes. Following the 23 August 2011 Mineral, Virginia earthquake, to drastically reduce spatial aliasing, a temporary dense array (AIDA) consisting of ~200 stations at 200-400 m spacing was deployed near the epicenter to record the 12 days of the aftershocks. The backprojection imaging method is applied to the entire AIDA dataset to detect and locate aftershocks. The method takes advantage of staking of many seismograms and improves the signal-to-noise ratio for detection. The catalog obtained from the co-deployed, unusually large temporal traditional network of 36 stations enabled a quantitative comparison. The aftershock catalog derived from the dense AIDA array and the backprojection indicates event detection an order of magnitude smaller including events as small as M–1.8. The catalog is complete to magnitude –1.0 while the traditional network catalog was complete to M–0.27 for the same time period. The AIDA backprojection catalog indicate the same major patterns of seismicity in the epicentral region, but additional details are revealed indicating a more complex fault zone and a new shallow cluster. The b-value or the temporal decay constant were not changed by inclusion of the small events; however, they are different for two completeness periods and are different at shallow depth than greater depth. / Ph. D.

Many organisations face problems with data digitisation and continuous data gathering. They often gather and store this data in outdated systems that are difficult to search through. In our thesis, we utilise the engineering method to investigate the feasibility of incorporating artificial intelligence to search a large corpus of data and find accurate answers. To achieve the thesis goal, we conducted a literature review, studying existing solutions that enhance flexibility and facilitate artificial intelligence operations to search in databases. This resulted in the choice of utilising OpenSearch. Within OpenSearch, we conducted an experiment investigating which sentence transformer for embedding the contextual meaning of sentences could be best utilised for semantic search in the database. We then evaluated the sentence transformers´s performance with the MS MARCO dataset measuring both speed and accuracy. Through the experiment we found two sentence transformers that outperformed the rest by a slight margin and that all the sentence transformers performed similarly overall. A notable result is that the sentence transformers specifically dedicated to semantic search and sentence transformers with larger dimensions did not perform better. Further, these results showed the easy combination of existing search engines that incorporate artificial intelligence to semantically search in the documentation and showed that this could be used within organisations to handle a large corpus of data.

L'utilisation de membranes pour la séparation/purification de mélanges de gaz permet d'envisager la mise en œuvre de procédés continus et faiblement énergivores. Les performances des membranes étant directement reliées à la méthode utilisée pour leur synthèse/modification, une nouvelle génération de membranes est attendue à partir de la méthode originale de dépôt « dynamique » développée et mise au point dans ce travail, en milieu CO2 supercritique (CO2SC). Les propriétés des fluides supercritiques, intermédiaires entre celles d'un liquide et d'un gaz (densité et diffusivité élevées, viscosité faible), laissent en effet présager la formation de microstructures originales. Les précurseurs sont solubilisés dans le CO2 sous pression puis transportés jusqu'au support membranaire. Cette méthode a été explorée pour : i) la synthèse directe de membranes à base de silice sur des supports macroporeux et ii) la modification de membranes zéolithiques MFI par des alcoxydes (MDES, TEOS) ou par des oligomères fluorés. Dans le premier cas, l'étude des paramètres de dépôt montre que la maîtrise des phénomènes chimiques de la transition sol-gel (contrôlés principalement par la température) dicte la microstructure du matériau final, au travers du degré de condensation/réticulation des clusters déposés. La modification des membranes zéolithiques MFI par un alcoxyde permet de doubler la permsélectivité He/SF6 initiale, sans forte baisse de perméance (Π(He)~10-6 mol.Pa-1.s-1.m-2). Dans ce cas, la force, la nature et la disponibilité des sites acides de la charpente MFI sont des critères clés pour la fixation de l'alcoxyde. Les membranes MFI modifiées par un oligomère fluoré sont imperméables au SF6 et la permsélectivé He/N2 peut atteindre une valeur de 136 à 25°C (Π(He)~10-8 mol.Pa-1.s-1.m-2). Cette nouvelle méthode dynamique de dépôt/modification développée dans ce travail apparaît comme une approche très versatile qui permet de contrôler la structure du matériau déposé en ajustant les paramètres du procédé. / Using membranes for the separation/purification of gas mixtures makes possible the implementation of continuous processes with low energy consumption. Membrane performance being directly related to their synthesis/modification method, a new membrane generation is expected from the original "dynamic" deposition method which has been designed and developed in this work, in supercritical CO2 (scCO2) media. Indeed, the properties of supercritical fluids are intermediate between those of liquids and gases (high density and diffusivity, low viscosity), original membrane microstructures are expected to be derived from this process. The selected precursors are solubilized in compressed CO2 and then transported to the membrane support. This method has been explored for both: i) the synthesis of silica-based membranes on macroporous supports and ii) the modification of MFI zeolite membranes by either alkoxides (MDES, TEOS) or fluorinated oligomers. In the first case, an investigation of the deposition parameters demonstates that the sol-gel chemistry (controlled mainly by temperature) masters the final material microstructure, through the degree of condensation/crosslinking of the deposited clusters. Modification of MFI zeolite membranes with alkoxides can double their initial He/SF6 permselectivity without lowering too much their permeance (Π(He)~10-6 mol.Pa-1.s-1.m-2). In this case, the alkoxide fixation is monitored by the strength, nature and availability of acid sites in the MFI network. MFI membranes modified with fluorinated oligomers are SF6-tight and their He/N2 permselectivity can reach 136 at 25°C (Π(He)~10-8 mol.Pa-1.s-1.m-2). This new dynamic deposition/modification method developed in this work appears as a versatile approach in which the final material structure can be controlled by adjusting the process parameters.

La matière dense et tiède (WDM) est un régime caractérisé par une densité proche du solide pour une température avoisinant celle de Fermi. Pour étudier cet état de la matière, dans cette thèse, une expérience d'interférométrie dans le domaine des fréquences est mise en place afin de mesurer la phase et la réflectivité - dans les deux directions de polarisation S et P - d'une onde sonde en réflexion sur un échantillon chauffé de manière très brève par une impulsion laser ultra-courte (sub-100fs). Il est alors porté dans un état hors-équilibre. Une méthode basée sur les mesures de réflectivité est mise en place pour contrôler la forme de l'interface entre le vide et la matière chauffée. Pour des fluences laser de l'ordre de 1 J/cm2, l'hydrodynamique d'un échantillon chauffé est étudiée par la mesure du déplacement de la surface et comparée au code hydrodynamique à deux températures ESTHER. Ensuite, la fonction diélectrique à 800 nm et 400 nm est déduite des mesures expérimentales et certaines quantités en sont extraites comme la densité électronique, la température électronique et les fréquences de collision en régime WDM. Elles sont par la suite comparées avec des modèles couramment utilisés. / The Warm Dense Matter (WDM) regime is characterised by a density close to the solid density and an electron temperature close to the Fermi temperature. In this work, the nonequilibrium Warm Dense Matter is studied during the solid to liquid phase transition induced by an ultra short laser interacting with a solid. A 30 femtoseconds time resolution pump-probe experiment (FDI) is set up, yielding to the measurement of the heated sample complex reflectivity for both S and P polarisation.We have determined a criterion based on the measured reflectivities, which permits to control the interface shape of the probed matter. For pump laser fluences around 1 J/cm2, the hydrodynamics of the heated matter is studied and experimental results are compared to the two-temperatures code ESTHER. Furthermore, the evolution of the dielectric function at 800 nm and 400 nm is inferred from our measurements on a sub-picosecond time-scale. Within the Drude-Lorentz model for the conduction electrons, the dielectric function yields information such as ionisation state, electronic temperature and electron collision frequency.

L'absorption du CO2 à l'ammoniaque au sein d'une colonne garnie est une technologie prometteuse pour capter le CO2 en postcombustion. La fuite d'NH3 engendrée par la volatilité de ce solvant gêne néanmoins le déploiement de ce procédé. Dans cette étude, la faculté des contacteurs membranaires à permettre des performances d'absorption du CO2 intensifiées et des pertes en NH3 réduites par rapport au procédé conventionnel est évaluée. Pour cela, l'emploi de fibres composites innovantes constituées d'une peau dense assurant un transport sélectif du CO2 vis-à-vis de NH3 a été proposé. Compte tenu des propriétés de ces molécules, aucun matériau ne présentait jusqu'alors de sélectivité de séparation favorable au CO2. Des essais de temps-retards ont permis de révéler 6 matériaux fluorés présentant les propriétés de sélectivités inverses recherchées. Le Teflon AF2400, polymère hautement perméable au CO2, a été choisi pour constituer les fibres creuses composites employées lors d'expériences d'absorption. Leurs performances ont été comparées à celles de contacteurs commerciaux microporeux (Oxyphan) et composites (Oxyplus) pour différentes conditions opératoires. Alors qu'aucune expérience stable n'a pu être achevée avec les contacteurs microporeux du fait de la précipitation de sels d'ammonium, les contacteurs composites ont permis des performances de capture supérieures aux objectifs fixés. La modélisation 2D du transfert de matière a permis de révéler le rôle prépondérant du support microporeux dans les performances d'absorption observées. Enfin, une intensification élevée des performances d'absorption du CO2 et des pertes en NH3 fortement réduites par rapport au procédé conventionnel ont pu être démontrées / Aqueous ammonia as a solvent for post-combustion CO2 capture in a packed column is seen as a promising technology. Nevertheless, ammonia volatility is a considerable drawback for its large scale deployment. In this study, the ability of hollow fiber membrane contactors to significantly improve CO2 mass transfer performances while mitigating ammonia losses when compared to packed column is evaluated. In that purpose, the use of innovating composite fibers made of a thin dense layer selective for CO2 over NH3 is proposed. Up to now, a faster permeation of CO2 compared to NH3 in dense polymers was totally unexpected and to our knowledge unexplored. Time-lag experiments have revealed a series of 6 fluorinated structures showing the desired reverse selectivity properties. Teflon AF2400 has been selected as the dense skin of composite fibers used during absorption experiments. Their performances have been compared, for different operating conditions, to those given by commercial microporous (Oxyphan) and composite (Oxyplus) membrane contactors. Due to ammonium salt precipitation issues, no stable experiment has been achieved using microporous membrane contactors. At the opposite, absorption efficiencies higher than post-combustion capture standards have been reached using composite membrane contactors. 2D mass transfer modeling has revealed the controlling role of the microporous support in the observed absorption performances. Finally, high CO2 mass transfer intensification factor and drastically reduced ammonia losses have been shown