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This thesis is concerned with plants, chronic illness and medicine in Oku, Northwest Region, Cameroon. I focus on patient strategies to obtain effective medical outcomes, and on how such outcomes may be obtained through seeking traditional medicine in Oku. I argue that biomedical notions of efficacy do not appropriately represent the central and diverse roles that plants play in traditional medicine nor do they correctly represent how people in Oku evaluate the efficacy of plant-based traditional medicine. I argue instead that efficacy must be understood in terms of the emic concept of power. This power is understood to be located in the Oku landscape, which is still uniquely forested and said to embody powerful ancestral spirits. With plants as the primary tangible material of power, and traditional doctors in Oku as those who claim exclusive rights to manipulate and disperse such power, I discuss traditional medicine in Oku as a system wherein power from the natural landscape is drawn upon to challenge harmful powers feared to derive from the social arena. Using the pragmatic and phenomenological approaches, I show how patients evaluate the efficacy of a medical treatment based on their bodily experiences, and how their actions, as revealed in their therapeutic trajectories, reveal their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a given diagnosis and/or therapy. I discuss how enduring illness generates and exacerbates bodily, treatment-outcome, social, and psychological uncertainties. In this context, effective outcomes can be understood as those which address and limit these uncertainties and anxieties while offering ways to imagine hopeful prognoses. This thesis then outlines the major sources of uncertainty, people’s responses to such uncertainties, and what people might achieve in terms of limiting uncertainties by seeking traditional medicine in Oku.

For adolescents with asthma, adhering to asthma regimes implies not only taking medications to relieve asthma attacks, but also adjusting their life styles in order to prevent asthma attacks. These life style modifications, such as avoiding allergens or having to limit physical activity, sometimes force adolescents to compromise their social life. On the other hand, the impact of such life style modifications on their social life may in turn force adolescents to give up adhering to asthma regimes. Indeed, adolescents are learning to be more independent while they enjoy a more complicated social life at home and at school than previously, and this rapid social development may thus be a great life challenge to adolescents with asthma. This thesis reports four studies which investigated the relationship between multi-dimensional asthma management (in medication and life style regimes) and the social life of young people with asthma at the transitional age from childhood to adolescence (or early adolescence, age 9-14), which also marks the transition from primary school to secondary school. In line with the literature on other adolescent chronic illnesses, study 1 demonstrated a downward trend of multi-dimensional asthma management in early adolescence. This developmental change was further investigated in study 2, 3 and 4, in which theories in behavioural psychology were followed to emphasise human behaviour influenced by the social activities and social relationships in the living environment, or the social environment. This was supplemented by theories in developmental psychology to identify relevant aspects of the social environment in early adolescence, especially the social relationships with parents, school staff and peers. Using quantitative and qualitative approaches, the studies not only supported the direct influence of asthma-specific social support, but also explored some mechanisms with which social relationships influenced asthma management in a more subtle and context-dependent way. By approaching asthma management behaviour with theories from behavioural and developmental psychology, it is also hoped that this thesis could be an example that shows the importance of recognising and to understanding the social life of young adolescents when adolescent behaviour is concerned.

L’abeille domestique (Apismellifera) a un rôle majeur dans les écosystèmes naturels et agronomiques mais est exposée à un nombre croissant de pressions environnementales (nouveaux parasites, xénobiotiques, variations climatiques et malnutrition). Dans ce contexte, la compréhension des phénomènes impliqués dans les réponses au stress ainsi que leurs coûts associés devient cruciale pour mieux appréhender l’impact de ces pressions sur les abeilles. L’émergence d’un stress perturbe généralement l’homéostasie de l’organisme qui doit mettre en place une cascade d’adaptations physiologiques et comportementales pour le surmonter. Cependant, du fait de son mode de vie social, il est raisonnable de penser que les réponses vont se faire dans l’intérêt du groupe et non plus seulement dans l’intérêt de l’individu. Afin de caractériser les réponses au stress et de déterminer leur spécificité en fonction de la nature du stimulus (xénobiotiques, immunitaire, thermique, social), j’ai adopté une approche multidisciplinaire en ciblant l’identification des modifications i) physiologiques associées à la division du travail, ii) du métabolisme énergétique, et iii) comportementales. J’ai démontré quequelque soit leur rôle social (nourrice, gardienne, butineuse), les abeilles répondent de la même manière à un stress donné, si celui-­ci est écologiquement pertinent (hyperthermie et stress immunitaire mais pas xénobiotique). Une tendance à la diminution des ressources énergétiques a également été observée suite à un stress suggérant une modification des performances comportementales. Afin de vérifier cela, je me suis concentrée sur l’activité de butinage; le vol chez les insectes étant un des processus physiologiques les plus coûteux du règne animal. Une altération des performances de butinage a été mise en évidence chez les abeilles soumises à un stress immunitaire avec une réorientation des préférences de butinage au dépens du pollen, plus coûteux àc ollecter et moins riche en ressource énergétique que le nectar ; ceci probablement pour pallier au coût énergétique du stress. En revanche, en réponse àune hyperthermie, une augmentation de l’activité de butinage a été observée mais sans engendrer un coût supplémentaire au niveau des ressources collectées.Ces résultats sont discutés à la lumière du coût énergétique du stress et des conséquences potentielles sur les performances des abeilles, qui infine pourrait perturber l’homéostasie énergétique de la colonie. / Honeybees (Apis mellifera), which play an important role in natural and agronomic ecosystems, are exposed to a growing number of environmental pressures(new parasites, pesticides, climatechangeand poor nutrition). In this context, deciphering the mechanisms underlying stress responses and their costs becomes crucial to better understand theim pact of these pressures. Stress usually represents a challenge to the homeostasis of a norganism. In response, a cascade of physiological and behavioural adaptations enables the organism to cope with the stress. However, dueto their sociallife style, we could suggest that stress response in honeybees will occurin the interest of the colony and not only in the interest of the individual. To characterise the stress response and determine its specificity according to the stimulus (xenobiotic, immune, thermal, social), I developed a multidisciplinary approach to identify changes in i) task-­related physiology, ii) energetic metabolism, and iii) behaviour. I demonstrated that, regardless of their social function (nurse, guard, forager), bees respond in the sameway to a given stress, if itis ecologically-­relevant (heat and immune stress but not pesticides). Atendencytoward decreas ingenergetic resources was also observed following stress exposure, which suggests changes in behavioural performance.In order to test this hypothesis, I analysed changes in foraging activity in response to stress, as insect flight is one of the most costly physiological processes in the animal kingdom. I found that for aging performances were affected by animmune stress : bees changed their foraging preferences at the expense of pollen, probably to reduce the stress energetic cost, given that pollen is more costly to collect and provides alower energetic return than nectar. In contrast, in response to heat stress, an increase in colony for aging activity was observed, without an additional cost on resource collection. These results are discussed in the light of stress energetic cost and its potential consequences onhoneybee performances, which could disrupt the colony’s energetic homeostasis.

Diploma thesis Assistance to the handicapped people and their families deals with demanding challenges which parents with children born with handicap are faced. Concerning the exacting situations that aren't one - time but long-term, parents are grateful for each support or help. Therefore a sensitive assistance to these families is very important. To make it effective, it's necessary to understand both thinking, feelings, handicapped child's needs and members of their broad surroundings. That's why this thesis occupies with challenging life situations, stress and stress coping in general, child's handicap, accepting this child and related unexpected new situations by parents. The thesis deals with issues related to children with autism and with Down's syndrome. It presents significant role of support for children with handicap and their families provided by the self-governed associations and groups. It occupies with assistance to these families with handicapped children by means of challenge for pastoral work and evangelization. Key words: Stress, demanding situation, handicap, family, autism, Down's syndrome, pastoral work, assistance, self-governed associations, social network.