Th. 3e cycle, 1978. Titre de soutenance : Structuration du discours dans l'œuvre romanesque de M. Dib. / Bibliogr. pp. 327-336.

Thesis (doctoral), Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III, 2004.

Le milieu interstellaire (ISM) représente un fraction mineur de la matière de la Voie Lactée, mais joue un rôle clefs dans l'évolution et la structure galactique. La majorité des constituants du ISM a été identifiée grâce à leur émissions ou absorptions, mais une catégorie d'absorption, les "bandes interstellaires diffuses" (DIBs), n'ont pas des particules absorbantes identifiées. En particulier, il y a une DIB centrée à 862 nm dans le intervalle spectroscopique du Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS), un des instruments des la mission ESA Gaia. La première partie de ma thèse est reliée à la construction de ce future catalogue et son usage potentiel. J'ai développé un code de profile fitting adapté à la DIB "Gaia" et à l'instrument RVS. Je présente dans ma thèse l'estimation de DIB mesurable.La second partie de ma thèse est en relation aux cartes 3D du ISM. J'ai focalisé sur l'usage potentiel des DIBs pour le mapping. J'ai fait la première tomography basée sur des données composées, extinction et DIB. J'ai tourné des inversions parallèles des extinctions et DIB pour les mêmes targets stellaires, et comparé les distributions. J'ai développé une technique exprès pour le massive dataset, appelée "technique topographique hiérarchique" et j'ai appliqué cet technique aux nouveau catalogue de 30 millions des mesures d'extinction basé sur Gaia. Finalement, j'ai utilisé des spectres au sol pour extraire soit les vitesses soit la colonne des matériaux interstellaire avec du profile-fitting et j'ai participé aux premiers steps d'une carte cinématique 3D du ISM. / The Interstellar Medium (ISM) represents a small fraction of the Milky Way matter, but it plays a fundamental role because it governs the galactic evolution and its structure.Most of the ISM gaseous constituents have been identified through their emission or absorption characteristics, however, the "diffuse interstellar bands" (or DIBs), still has no counterpart in absorbing species.A favourable situation is the presence of a DIB (with central wavelength 862 nm) within the spectral interval of the Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS), one of the instruments of the ESA Gaia mission. The first part of the work presented in this document is directly related to the construction of this future catalog and its potential use.I have developed a profile fitting code adapted to the emph{Gaia} DIB and to the RVS instrument. I estime in my thesis how many DIBs will be measured.The second part of this thesis is related to the three-dimensional (3D) mapping of the ISM. I made the first tomography based on composite data, both extinctions and DIBs and showed this is a viable way. I ran parallel inversions of two extinction and DIB datasets for the same target stars and compared the distributions.The full 3D tomographic inversion technique in this case requires an unrealistically large computing time. I have developed a technique and I have applied it to a new catalog of 30 millions of extinction measurements based on Gaia.Finally, I used ground-based stellar spectra to extracted radial velocities and columns of IS absorbing species and participated to the first step of a "kinematic" 3D map of the ISM.

Thèse doctorat : Lettres et arts : Lyon 2 : 2000. / Le document est protégé en vertu de la loi du droit d'auteur. Titre provenant de l'écran-titre. Bibliogr. Index.

Reproduction de : Thèse de doctorat : Lettres et arts : Lyon 2 : 2005. / Titre provenant de l'écran-titre. Bibliogr.

Within the vestibular system are otolith organs, both the utricle and saccule. The primary function of these organs is to transduce linear head accelerations and static head tilts into afferent signals that are sent to the central nervous system for the utilization of image fixation, muscle posture control, and the coordination of musculoskeletal movement in dynamic body motion. The utricle of the red ear slider turtle was studied in this dissertation. The turtle's utricle is composed of several layers. The base layer contains a set of neural receptor cells, called hair cells, and supporting cells. The three layers above the base layer compose the utricle's otoconial membrane (OM) and are: 1.) a saccharide gelatinous layer, 2.) a column filament layer, and 3.) a calcite and aragonite otoconial crystal layer. The primary goal of this research was to study the dynamic response of the turtle's OM to a variety of natural inertial stimuli in order to characterize its inherent mechanical properties of natural frequency ("n), damping ("), and shear modulus (G). The medial-lateral (ML) and anterior-posterior (AP) anatomical axes parameters were measured for the utricle. The ML axis median with 95% confidence intervals was found to be "n = 374 (353, 396) Hz, " = 0.50 (0.47, 0.53), and G = 9.42 (8.36, 10.49) Pa. The AP axis median with 95% confidence intervals was found to be "n = 409 (390, 430) Hz, " = 0.53 (0.48, 0.57), and G = 11.31 (10.21, 12.41). Nonlinearites were not found to occur in the OM for the tested inertial stimuli and no significant difference was found between the mechanical properties for the ML and AP axes. Additionally, this research presents the initial steps to form a novel bio-inspired accelerometer based on the morphology of the utricle. The primary transducer element for this possible otolith organ inspired accelerometer design is a droplet interface bilayer (DIB). A DIB is a lipid bilayer that is formed when the interface of two aqueous droplets, that contain free-floating lipids, are joined. The aqueous droplets are suspended in a nonpolar environment (oil) and the oil/water interface forms a lipid monolayer. This research developed and used an experimental test setup to characterize the mechanoelectrical characteristics of a micron-sized DIB. This information, along with examples in the text, could be used to further design the aforementioned accelerometer. / Ph. D.

This dissertation investigates the behavior of the Escherichia Coli mechanosensitive (MS) channel MscL, when incorporated within a droplet interface bilayer (DIB). The activity of MscL channels in an artificial DIB system is demonstrated for the first time in this document. The DIB represents a building block whose repetition can form the basis to a new class of smart materials. The corresponding stimuli-responsive properties can be controlled by the type of biomolecule incorporated into the lipid bilayer, which is in the heart of this material. In the past decade, many research groups have proven the capability of the DIB to host a wide collection of natural and engineered functional biomolecules. However, very little is known about the mechano-electrical transduction capabilities of the DIB. The research present herein specifically seeks to achieve three direct goals: 1) exploring the capabilities of the DIB to serve as a platform for mechano-electrical transduction through the incorporation of bacterial MscL channels, 2) understanding the physics of mechano-electrical transduction in the DIB through the development of theoretical models, and 3) using the developed science to regulate the response of the DIB to a mechanical stimulus. MscL channels, widely known as osmolyte release valves and fundamental elements of the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane, react to increased tension in the membrane. In the event of hypo-osmotic shocks, several channels residing in the membrane of a small cell can generate a massive permeability response to quickly release ions and small molecules, saving bacteria from lysis. Biophysically, MscL is well studied and characterized primarily through the prominent patch clamp technique. Reliable structural models explaining MscL's gating mechanism are proposed based on its homolog's crystal structure modeling, which lead to extensive experimentation. Under an applied tension of ~10 mN/m, the closed channel which consists of a tight bundle of transmembrane helices, transforms into a ring of greatly tilted helices forming an ~8 A water-filled conductive pore. It has also been established that the hydrophobicity of the tight gate, positioned at the intersection of the inner TM1 domains, determines the activation threshold of the channel. Correspondingly, it was found that by decreasing the hydrophobicity of the gate, the tension threshold could be lowered. This property of MscL made possible the design of various controllable valves, primarily for drug delivery purposes. For all the aforementioned properties and based on its fundamental role of translating cell membrane excessive tensions into electrophysiological activities, MscL makes a great fit as a mechanoelectrical transducer in DIBs. The approach presented in this document consists of increasing the tension in the lipid bilayer interface through the application of a dynamic mechanical stimulus. Therefore, a novel and simple experimental apparatus is assembled on an inverted microscope, consisting of two micropipettes (filled with PEG-DMA hydrogel) containing Ag/AgCl wires, a cylindrical oil reservoir glued on top of a thin acrylic sheet, and a piezoelectric oscillator actuator. By using this technique, dynamic tension can be applied by oscillating one droplet, producing deformation of both droplets and area changes of the DIB interface. The tension in the artificial membrane will cause the MS channels to gate, resulting in an increase in the conductance levels of the membrane. The increase in bilayer tension is found to be equal to the sum of increase in tensions in both contributing monolayers. Tension increase in the monolayers occurs due to an increase in surface area of the constant volume aqueous droplets supporting the bilayer. The results show that MS channels are able to gate under an applied dynamic tension. Interestingly, this work has demonstrated that both electrical potential and surface tension need to be controlled to initiate mechanoelectric coupling, a property previously not known for ion channels of this type. Gating events occur consistently at the peak compression, where the tension in the bilayer is maximal. In addition, the experiments show that no activity occurred at low amplitude oscillations (< 62.5um). These two findings basically present an initial proof that gating is occurring and is due to the mechanical excitation, not just a random artifact. The role of the applied potential is also highlighted in this study, where the results show that no gating happens at potentials lower that 80 mV. The third important observation is that the frequency of oscillation has an important impact of the gating probability, where no gating is seen at frequencies higher than 1 Hz or lower than 0.1 Hz. Each of the previous observations is addressed separately in this research. It was found that the range of frequencies to which MscL would respond to in a DIB could be widened by using asymmetrical sinusoidal signals to stimulate the droplets. By increasing the relaxation time and shorting the compression time, a change in the monolayer's surface area is achieved, thus higher tension increase in the bilayer. It was also found that a high membrane potential assists in the opening of MscL as the droplets are stimulated. This is due to the sensitivity of MscL to the polarity of the signal. By using the right polarity the channel could be regulated to become more susceptible to opening, even at tensions lower than the threshold. Finally, it was demonstrated, for the first time, that MscL would gate in asymmetric bilayers without the need to apply a high external potential. Asymmetric bilayers, which are usually composed from different lipids in each leaflet, generate an asymmetric potential at the membrane. This asymmetric potential is proven to be enough to cause MscL to gate in DIBs upon stimulation. / Ph. D.

Thèse--Lettres. / Bibliogr. p. 609-686 . Index.

The research presented in this thesis includes the development of designs, materials, and fabrication processes and the results of characterization experiments for a meso-scale hydrogel-based lipid bilayer array system. Two design concepts are investigated as methods for forming Droplet Interface Bilayer (DIB) arrays. Both concepts use a base of patterned silver with Ag/AgCl electrodes patterned onto a flat polymer substrate. In one technique, photopolymerizable hydrogel is cured through a mask to form an array of individual hydrogels on top of the patterned electrodes. The other technique introduces a second type of polymer substrate that physically supports an array of hydrogels using a set of microchannels. This second substrate is fitted onto the first to contact the hydrogels to the electrodes. The hydrogels are used to support and shape droplets of water containing phospholipids, which self-assemble at the surface of the droplet when submerged in oil. Two opposing substrates can then be pushed together, and a bilayer will form at the point where each pair of monolayers come into contact. The photopatterning technique is used to produce small arrays of hydrogels on top of a simple electrode pattern. Systems utilizing the microchannel substrate are used to create mesoscale hydrogel arrays of up to 3x3 that maintained a low resistance (~50-150 kΩ) connection to the substrate. Up to three bilayers are formed simultaneously and verified through visual observation and by recording the current response behavior. Arrays of varying sizes and dimensions and with different electrode patterns can be produced quickly and inexpensively using basic laboratory techniques. The designs and fabrication processes for both types of arrays are created with an eye toward future development of similar systems at the microscale. / Master of Science

Au cours des décennies 1970 et 1980, alors que le statut des immigrants et la question de leur intégration alimentent débats et controverses en France, trois écrivains proposent chacun le récit d’un Maghrébin vivant à Paris qui interroge la société et dénonce ses dysfonctionnements. Ce mémoire vise à montrer l’apport de Mohammed Dib (Habel, 1977), d’Abdelwahab Meddeb (Phantasia, 1986) et d’Annie Cohen (L’Édifice invisible, 1988) aux représentations nouvelles de la capitale apparues dans l’imaginaire social depuis la décolonisation. Face à la suprématie de la culture française, les protagonistes proposent une ouverture radicale à l’altérité et questionnent les processus d’aliénation et de renforcement du statu quo identitaire et culturel. Une modalité d’écriture commune aux romans à l’étude, la promenade conduit les trois auteurs à travailler sur la mise en forme du récit tout en plaçant les héros en opposition face à l’évolution urbaine et la société occidentale consumériste. / During the 1970s and 1980s, while the status of immigrants and the question of their integration are feeding debate and controversy in France, three writers offer the story of a North African living in Paris who questions society and denounces its shortcomings. This dissertation aims to show the contribution of Mohammed Dib (Habel, 1977), Abdelwahab Meddeb (Phantasia, 1986) and Annie Cohen (L’Édifice invisible, 1988) to new representations of Paris that appeared in the social imaginary after decolonization. Given the supremacy of French culture, the protagonists offer a radical openness to alterity and question the alienation process and the status quo in the matters of culture and identity. A theme common to the three novels analyzed, the “promenade” leads their authors to work on the formatting of the story while placing the heroes in opposition to the changing urban and consumerist Western society.