La protéine TAT1 (Testis Anion Transporter 1 ; SLC26A8) appartient à la famille des SLC26, une famille de transporteurs d’anions qui contribuent dans différents épithelia à l’homéostasie cellulaire. La protéine TAT1 s’exprime exclusivement dans les cellules germinales mâles, chez l’homme et chez la souris. Sur le spermatozoïde mature, la protéine TAT1 est localisée à la jonction des pièces intermédiaire (PI) et principale (PP) du flagelle, au niveau de l’annulus, une structure en forme d’anneau composée de différents polymères de Septines (1, 4, 6, 7 et 12).Le modèle murin d’invalidation du gène Tat1 présente une infertilité mâle par asthénozoospermie totale (absence de mobilité des spermatozoïdes) et des défauts de capacitation associés à des anomalies structurales du flagelle (plicature du flagelle, disjonction entre la PI et la PP, atrophie de l’annulus). Ce modèle indique que la protéine TAT1 pourrait avoir un rôle structural dans le maintien de l’annulus et dans la mise en place du flagelle. Par ailleurs, la protéine TAT1 possédant une activité de transport d’anions, il est vraisemblable qu’elle puisse influer directement sur la régulation de la mobilité et de la capacitation puisqu’il est bien établi que les échanges ioniques sont essentiels au contrôle de ces deux processus.En effet, les ions chlorure, bicarbonate et calcium participent à l’activation de la voie de signalisation AMPc/PKA, au cours des processus de mobilité et de capacitation (i.e. processus de maturation ayant lieu dans le tractus génital féminin et conférant au spermatozoïde un mouvement hyperactivé et la capacité à interagir avec l’ovocyte).Plusieurs travaux ont montré une interaction physique et fonctionnelle des membres de la famille SLC26 avec le canal chlorure/bicarbonate CFTR (Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Regulator) dont les mutations sont responsables de la mucoviscidose. De manière intéressante des données récentes ont montré l’expression de CFTR dans le spermatozoïde et son rôle dans la régulation des flux de chlorure au cours de la capacitation. Au cours de ma thèse, nous avons testé la coopération entre les protéines TAT1 et CFTR ; nous avons pu montrer que la protéine TAT1 est capable d’interagir physiquement avec CFTR et de stimuler son activité de transport d’anions, suggérant qu’in vivo les deux protéines forment un complexe moléculaire impliqué dans la régulation des flux de chlorure et de bicarbonate dans le spermatozoïde.Tout comme TAT1, plusieurs membres de la famille SLC26 ont une expression tissulaire spécifique. Par ailleurs, les mutations génétiques de certains SLC26 sont associées à des pathologies humaines (surdité, diarrhée chlorurée congénitale et chondrodysplasie). De par le phénotype du modèle murin Tat1 et l’importance des SLC26 en pathologie humaine, TAT1 constitue un bon candidat dans la recherche des causes génétiques des asthénozoospermies humaines.Le laboratoire a mis en place au cours de ma thèse, un projet de recherche de mutations du gène TAT1 dans les asthénozoospermies humaines. Le séquençage des régions codantes du gène TAT1 dans une cohorte de 147 hommes infertiles par asthénozoospermie a ainsi permis d’identifier des variations de séquence inédites du gène chez 7 sujets. L’étude in vitro de certains variants indique pour trois d’entre eux une instabilité des formes mutantes associée à un défaut de stimulation du canal CFTR, in vitro. Par ailleurs, les spermatozoïdes de ces patients présentent d’importantes anomalies flagellaires dans la mise en place de la pièce intermédiaire, compatible avec un rôle de la protéine TAT1 et de ses partenaires (les septines) dans la genèse du flagelle / TAT1 (Testis Anion Transporter 1 ; SLC26A8) belongs to the SLC26 family of anion transporters, which is implicated in cellular homeostasis of different epithelia. TAT1 is exclusively expressed in male germ cells, in human and mouse. On mature spermatozoa, TAT1 is located at the annulus, a ring-shaped structure composed of different septins polymers (1, 4, 6, 7 and 12), at the junction of the midpiece (MP) and principal piece (PP) of the flagellum.The knock-out mouse model of Tat1 gene shows a male infertility by complete asthenozoospermia (lack of sperm motility) and capacitation defects combined with flagellar structural abnormalities (flagella bending, MP and PP disjunction and atrophy of the annulus). This model suggests that the TAT1 protein could fulfill structural roles in the annulus and during flagellum biogenesis. Moreover TAT1 displayind an anion transport activity, it could also be implicated in the control of sperm motility and capacitation by regulating anions exchannges, which are well known to be essential for both processes.Indeed, chloride, bicarbonate and calcium ions are involved in the activation of the cAMP/PKA pathway, controlling sperm motility and capacitation processes (i.e. maturation events occuring in the female genital tract and providing the spermatozoa an hyperactivation movement and the ability to interact with oocyte).Several publications have reported a physical and functionnal interaction between SLC26 family members and the chloride/bicarbonate CFTR channel (Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Regulator), which mutations are responsible of cystic fibrosis. Interestingly, recent data showed CFTR expression in spermatozoa and its role in the regulation of chloride fluxes during capacitation. During my thesis, we tested TAT1 and CFTR cooperation; we showed that TAT1 can interact physically with CFTR and stimulate its anion transport activity, suggesting that in vivo they form a molecular complex involved in the regulation of chloride and bicarbonate fluxes during sperm capacitation.Like TAT1, several SLC26 family members have a tissue specific expression. Furthermore genetic mutations in several SLC26 members result in human pathology such as deafness, congenital chloride diarrhea and chondrodysplasia. According to the phenotype of the KO Tat1 mouse model and the role of SLC26 members in human pathology, TAT1 constitutes a good candidate for the search of genetic causes of human asthenozoospermia.During my thesis, the laboratory has set up, a research project aiming at identifying mutations in the TAT1 gene that are responsible for human asthenozoospermia.Sequencing of the TAT1 gene coding regions in a cohort of 147 infertile men presenting with asthenozoospermia allowed us to identify several new sequence variations in in the TAT1 gene. In vitro study of these variants shows that 3 of them are associated with protein instability and abrogate CFTR stimulation. Besides, patients sperm show important flagellar abnormalities in the midpiece, consistent with a role of TAT1 and its partners (septins) in flagellum biogenesis.

L’œuvre de la romancière libanaise ‘Alawiyya Ṣubḥ (née à Beyrouth en 1955) est traversée par un rapport intrinsèque entre le corps épanoui et son exercice de la parole, de même qu’entre le corps réprimé et son embrigadement dans le silence, le tout lié à une peur du féminin dans ses manifestations aussi bien corporelles que langagières. Face à la norme répressive, le langage des personnages, lieu de l’articulation du savoir et du pouvoir, comme leur corps, lieu de l’exercice de la domination masculine, deviennent des lieux de contre-pouvoirs, des « subjectivités » en devenir comme dirait Michel Foucault. Ainsi se pose dans les trois romans de Ṣubḥ : Maryam al-ḥakāyā (2002), Dunyā (2006) et Ismuhu l-ġarām (2009) la question de la représentation des femmes et la possibilité qu’elles ont de prendre ou non la parole et de se faire entendre. Dans le système patriarcal mis en scène dans ces romans, le silence est la norme contre laquelle s’élève la voix de certains personnages, femmes et hommes. Par conséquent, quand elle intervient, leur parole, qui se situe aux confins de l’admissible, du convenable et du soutenable, a tout de suite valeur de transgression. Une fois cette parole advenue, la femme, parce que c’est surtout d’elle qu’il s’agit, récupère sa voix et l’image de son corps, ce dernier étant, en quelque sorte, le premier lieu où se manifeste l’appropriation patriarcale du discours féminin, et sa réappropriation par la femme, le premier et principal signe d’une possible émancipation. Un parler « féminin » est alors célébré, un parler qui n’est pas exclusivement de femmes, mais un parler qui ne prétend pas à l’universel, et qui permet l’émergence d’un discours minoritaire échappant à la vision logocentrique et théocentrique du monde. / The work of the Lebanese novelist 'Alawiyya Ṣubḥ (Beirut, 1955) is traversed by an intrinsic relationship between the unimpeded body and its exercise of speech, likewise between the repressed body and its enslavement in silence, all being linked to a fear of what feminine would be in its corporal and linguistic manifestations. Faced with the repressive norms, the language of the characters being a place where power and knowledge articulate on the one hand and their body, as the place of the exercise of male domination on the other hand, become places of counter power. In other hands, they become places of upcoming "subjectivities", as Michel Foucault would say. In the three novels of Ṣubḥ: Maryam al-ḥakāyā (2002), Dunyā (2006) and Ismuhu l-ġarām (2009), arises the question of the representation of women and the possibility for them to be voiced and heard. In the patriarchal system depicted in these novels, silence is the norm against which the voice of certain women and men rises. Therefore, when their word intervene, lying at the confines of the admissible, the suitable and the sustainable, it has immediately the value of transgression. Once this word has come, the woman, main subject of this word, recovers her voice and the image of her body. The body is the first place where the patriarchal appropriation of feminine discourse manifests itself, and the reappropriation of this discourse by woman becomes the first and principal sign of a possible emancipation. A « feminin » speech is then celebrated, a speech that is not exclusively that of women, yet a speech that does not pretend to the universal, and which allows the emergence of a minority discourse that escapes the logocentric and theocentric visions of the world.

In this essay, we have unpacked four different levels (the role of women as: a) a part of game history, b) design process, c) characters of the game and d) users) to get a better understanding of the users choice of characters in the popular fighting game Tekken 7.   We have examined the role of women as part of the game’s history and design-process to gain a deeper understanding into the background of the game’s designing process. We have interviewed users with qualitative methods and used analysis strategies such as semiotic analysis and thematic analysis.   The results of our analysis show that users choose their characters based on visual attributes and that they imagine the characters as being an extension of themselves. Users apprehend the characters as stereotypical and thereby reproduce gender-related norms. The process of picking a character to play with is difficult for some of the users - There is a difference between female and male users due to stereotypical visual attributes of the characters which means that it is more problematic for female users to identify themselves with many of the characters. This is affecting the female users experience in a negative way.

Esta dissertação analisa comparativamente textos cabo-verdianos de autoria masculina e feminina à luz do tema Literatura e representação social das mulheres em Cabo Verde, com o objetivo de demonstrar como constroem a historicidade das mulheres naquele contexto, com base na abordagem de gênero e numa hermenêutica do cotidiano feminino. Diante do exposto, centramos as leituras nas personagens femininas das narrativas, especialmente as protagonistas, no intuito de acompanhar suas trajetórias de objetos a sujeitos históricos, tendo em conta a complexidade do fenômeno da emancipação feminina em Cabo Verde e a entrada um pouco tardia, todavia decisiva, de produções de mulheres no cânone literário. Buscamos demonstrar, em nossa pesquisa, como a escritura literária masculina de António Aurélio Gonçalves, Baltasar Lopes, Manuel Ferreira, Oswaldo Osório, Teobaldo Virgínio e Virgílio Pires apreende e apresenta realidades femininas, sobretudo por meio da exposição, ao passo que as escrituras literárias femininas de Camila Mont-Rond, Dina Salústio, Fátima Bettencourt, Ivone Aída e Maria Margarida Mascarenhas revelam subjetividades femininas que lançam novos olhares e novos recortes que dialogam o universo representado pela ótica masculina. / This dissertation analyses comparatively Cape Verdean texts of masculine and feminine authorship by the light of the subject Literature and social representation of the women in Cape Verde, with the objective to demonstrate how they build the historicity of women in that context, based on the approach gender and a hermeneutics of everyday women. Given the above, the readings have focused on female characters of the narratives, especially the protagonists in order to follow their paths of objects to historical subjects taking into account the complexity of the phenomenon of female emancipation in Cape Verde and coming a little late, but decisive , productions of women in the literary canon. We demonstrate in our research, such as male literary writings of António Aurélio Gonçalves, Baltasar Lopes, Manuel Ferreira, Oswaldo Osório Pires Teobaldo Virgínio and Virgílio Pires learns and presents women\'s realities, especially through the exhibition, while the female literary writings of Camila Mont-Rond, Dina Salústio, Fátima Bettencourt, Ivone Aída and Maria Margarida Mascarenhas and reveal female subjectivities that cast new visions and new cuts that dialogue the universe represented by the male perspective.

C-paper Abstract Title: Fluidity and Solidity in Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping Author: Linda Lindqvist The purpose of this essay is to show that fluidity and solidity constitute a central tension on all levels in Housekeeping, and how this tension leads to a choice of either a fluid or a solid lifestyle and view of the world. I focus on fluidity and solidity in gender roles, in memories, in dreams, in nature, and in different perceptions of reality. By taking a closer look at Ruth’s first-person narration (seeing fluidity as not resisting deformation, while solidity resists deformation), we find that the characters in Housekeeping have fluid and solid traits, but that there is no reality that allows mixed manifestations of these. This results in repression of either fluidity or solidity, which creates tension and feelings of loss. Ruth chooses a fluid lifestyle, thus her memories and dreams become mixed with her present, and this also leads her to become a transient, outside gender roles and traditional small town society. Transience in this novel questions all distinctions conventionally made between dream and reality; male and female. In conclusion, this essay highlights how tension between fluidity and solidity is generated on all levels in Housekeeping, and how this leads to either fluid or solid lifestyles since the characters follow a cultural code that dictates a choice between them.

This essay will examine the youth novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. The aim of this essay is to find tendencies of how the novel favours non-stereotypical male behaviour and characteristics. Using gender criticism, the novel and its most central male characters are analysed to highlight their gender characteristics. Symbols and metaphors constitute a part of the analysis for a more comprehensive examination. The results of this essay show that the male characters are divided into two factions, the good side and the evil side. It is evident that the male characters on the evil side are characterised by stereotypical male gender behaviour and the male characters on the good side tend to show a lack of stereotypical masculine traits. The Fantasy genre, which dictates a strong good versus evil storyline, extends this polarisation. The stereotypical male gender roles are therefore opposed and non-stereotypical male behaviour is promoted in the narration by favouring male vulnerability and ridiculing stereotypical masculine traits.

This essay analyzes the difference between feminine and masculine narration in Stephanie Meyer's final novel in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. The methods used are Narratology, Reader-Response Criticism and Gender Theory. Breaking Dawn is divided into three different books and one of the main characters, Bella, is the narrator in the first and the last book, and the other main character, Jacob, is the narrator in the second book. Bella's and Jacob's narration styles are manifested in the title names and inside the text, and the analysis shows why Bella is a stereotypically female narrator and why Jacob is a stereotypically masculine narrator.

L'altérité de genre est un des sujets qui intéressait et intéresse toujours les linguistes. Dans notre thèse, nous avons choisi d'étudier les mots (tous types) qui connaissent l'altérité masculin-féminin et qui peuvent référer aux êtres humains spécifiques. Notre étude concerne donc les différentes classes grammaticales des langues française et arabe. Nous nous intéressons plus précisément à la manière dont le féminin est formé afin de constater si le mot, marqué en genre, représente le féminin comme l'Autre ou non. En d'autres termes, si le mot au féminin se forme à partir ou par rapport au masculin, ou s'il est indépendant de ce dernier. Le rapprochement entre le féminin et l'Autre, lié à la position qu'occupe chacun dans sa relation : masculin-féminin / Moi-Autre, permet, en fait, de voir, vu le statut attribué à l'Autre, si la position seconde du féminin reflète une certaine infériorité, entrainant une discrimination à l'égard des femmes dans la langue. / Gender alterity is one of the topics that was and still interesting to the linguists. In our thesis, we chose to study the words (all types) which have the masculine-feminine alterity and can refer to a specific human. Our study is concerned with the different grammatical classes of French and Arabic languages. We focus specifically on how the feminine is formed to note whether the word, is marked by the gender, represents the feminine as the Other or not. In other words, if the feminine word form relates, depends on the masculine or if it is an independent form. The comparison between the feminine and the Other that is related to the occupied position by each one in its relationship (masculine-feminine / Me-the Other), will allow in fact (acoording to the Other status that is attributed) to figure out if the second position of the feminine reflects a certain inferiority, which leads to a discrimination against women in the language.

Résumé : L’imagerie testiculaire développée dans notre unité a deux thématiques principales : l’infertilité et la caractérisation tumorale. Cette imagerie est basée sur l’échographie et l’IRM multiparamétriques. Nous avons défini des critères diagnostiques pour différentes pathologies, ayant un impact sur la prise en charge des patients, et évalué des modalités innovantes.Nous avons caractérisé l’aspect des testicules de patients infertiles porteurs d’un syndrome de Klinefelter. Nous avons déterminé l’aspect en Mode B et en Doppler couleur des tumeurs à cellules de Leydig dont la plupart sont actuellement découvertes de façon fortuite et peuvent bénéficier d’une surveillance ou d’une tumorectomie. Nous avons défini les critères diagnostiques des tumeurs éteintes ou «burned out tumors» découvertes en écho-Doppler chez des patients adressés pour bilan d’infertilité.Nous avons montré la capacité de l’IRM multiparamétrique à améliorer la caractérisation tumorale, par l’analyse qualitative et quantitative du rehaussement et par la valeur du coefficient de diffusion (ADC).L’échographie de contraste a montré des différences significatives entre les tumeurs éteintes et les autres lésions.L’élastographie par onde de cisaillement a montré des différences de dureté entre les testicules des patients infertiles par mécanisme obstructif et non obstructif mais le chevauchement des valeurs minimise l’impact clinique potentiel. Les tumeurs bénignes à cellules de Leydig étaient plus molles que les tumeurs malignes et les tumeurs éteintes. Le couplage des informations données par le mode B, le Doppler couleur, et l’élastographie ont permis une caractérisation optimale.Le Doppler ultrasensible a permis une analyse qualitative de l’architecture vasculaire des tumeurs, de la vascularisation testiculaire dans les urgences scrotales et une quantification de la vascularisation testiculaire. Nous avons objectivé une diminution de la vascularisation testiculaire pendant la manœuvre de Valsalva chez les patients avec varicocèle, ce qui représente une explication physiopathologique à l’infertilité par mécanisme hypoxique. / The testicular imaging we developped in our department focused on two main subjects: infertility and tumoral characterization. It is based on multiparametric ultrasound and MRI. We defined diagnostic criteria of several pathologies, which may change the patient’s management, and we evaluated new modalities.We characterized Klinefelter patient’s testis.We determined the Color-Doppler features of Leydig cell tumors which are currently incidentally discovered and can benefit from monitoring or tumorectomy.We defined multiparametric US and MRI diagnostic’s criteria of burned out tumors in patients referred for US infertility screening.We demonstrated the ability of multiparametric MRI to improve the tumoral characterization using qualitative and quantitative enhancement parameters and apparent diffusion coefficient values.CEUS showed significant differences between the burned out tumors and other lesions.. Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) showed significant differences in testicular stiffness between normal, obstructive azoospermia on one side and non-obstructive azoospermic patients, but overlapped values seemed to minimize the potential clinical impact. Benign Leydig cell were softer compared to malignant tumors and burned out tumors. Association of B mode, color Doppler, and elastography allowed an optimal characterization.Ultrasensitive Doppler allowed a qualitative evaluation of the tumoral vascular architecture, a testicular vascularization assessment in case of acute scrotum, and a testicular perfusion quantification. We demonstrated a decreased testicular vascularization during the Valsalva maneuver confirming the hypoxic physiopathological explanation of the infertility process.

No description available.