Natural fire return intervals are relatively long in eastern Canadian boreal forests and often allow for the development of stands with multiple, successive cohorts of trees. Multi-cohort forest management (MCM) provides a strategy to maintain such multi-cohort stands that focuses on three broad phases of increasingly complex, post-fire stand development, termed “cohorts”, and recommends different silvicultural approaches be applied to emulate different cohort types. Previous research on structural cohort typing has relied upon primarily subjective classification methods; in this thesis, I develop more comprehensive and objective methods for three common boreal mixedwood and black spruce forest types in northeastern Ontario. Additionally, I examine relationships between cohort types and stand age, productivity, and disturbance history and the utility of airborne LiDAR to retrieve ground based classifications and to extend structural cohort typing from plot to stand-levels. In both mixedwood and black spruce forest types, stand age and age related deadwood features varied systematically with cohort classes in support of an age-based interpretation of increasing cohort complexity. However, correlations of stand age with cohort classes were surprisingly weak. Differences in site productivity had a significant effect on the accrual of increasingly complex multi-cohort stand structure in both forest types, especially in black spruce stands. The effects of past harvesting in predictive models of class membership were only significant when considered in isolation of age. As an age emulation strategy, the three cohort model appeared to be poorly suited to black spruce forests where the accrual of structural complexity appeared to be more a function of site productivity than age. Airborne LiDAR data appear to be particularly useful in recovering plot-based cohort types and extending them to the stand-level. The main gradients of structural variability detected using LiDAR were similar between boreal mixedwood and black spruce forest types; the best LiDAR-based models of cohort type relied upon combinations of tree size, size heterogeneity, and tree density related variables. The methods described here to measure, classify, and predict cohort-related structural complexity assist in translating the conceptual three cohort model to a more precise, measurement based management system. In addition, the approaches presented here to measure and classify stand structural complexity promise to significantly enhance the detail of structural information in operational forest inventories in support of a wide array of forest management and conservation applications.

Natural fire return intervals are relatively long in eastern Canadian boreal forests and often allow for the development of stands with multiple, successive cohorts of trees. Multi-cohort forest management (MCM) provides a strategy to maintain such multi-cohort stands that focuses on three broad phases of increasingly complex, post-fire stand development, termed “cohorts”, and recommends different silvicultural approaches be applied to emulate different cohort types. Previous research on structural cohort typing has relied upon primarily subjective classification methods; in this thesis, I develop more comprehensive and objective methods for three common boreal mixedwood and black spruce forest types in northeastern Ontario. Additionally, I examine relationships between cohort types and stand age, productivity, and disturbance history and the utility of airborne LiDAR to retrieve ground based classifications and to extend structural cohort typing from plot to stand-levels. In both mixedwood and black spruce forest types, stand age and age related deadwood features varied systematically with cohort classes in support of an age-based interpretation of increasing cohort complexity. However, correlations of stand age with cohort classes were surprisingly weak. Differences in site productivity had a significant effect on the accrual of increasingly complex multi-cohort stand structure in both forest types, especially in black spruce stands. The effects of past harvesting in predictive models of class membership were only significant when considered in isolation of age. As an age emulation strategy, the three cohort model appeared to be poorly suited to black spruce forests where the accrual of structural complexity appeared to be more a function of site productivity than age. Airborne LiDAR data appear to be particularly useful in recovering plot-based cohort types and extending them to the stand-level. The main gradients of structural variability detected using LiDAR were similar between boreal mixedwood and black spruce forest types; the best LiDAR-based models of cohort type relied upon combinations of tree size, size heterogeneity, and tree density related variables. The methods described here to measure, classify, and predict cohort-related structural complexity assist in translating the conceptual three cohort model to a more precise, measurement based management system. In addition, the approaches presented here to measure and classify stand structural complexity promise to significantly enhance the detail of structural information in operational forest inventories in support of a wide array of forest management and conservation applications.

Ce travail envisage la question de la fonction du jeu dans la thérapie des enfants à partir d’un point de vue clinique et théorique. Dans un premier temps, trois approches psychanalytiques sont mises en perspective. Celle de Donald Woods Winnicott – qui fit du jeu le paradigme de la cure analytique – est envisagée du point de vue de la notion de playing, de ses paradoxes théoriques ainsi que des impasses auxquelles cette notion peut conduire si elle n’est pas clairement distinguée de la notion commune de jeu. La théorie de Melanie Klein, ensuite, est envisagée selon deux points de vue : celui d’une « technique analytique du jeu », découverte permettant la cure des enfants et posant la difficulté d’une réduction du jeu à une technè et, d’autre part, celui d’une théorie du jeu conçu comme « personnification » dont le mécanisme, en définitive schizo-paranoïde, consiste en la combinaison d’une Spaltung et d’une « projection ». Dans un troisième temps, le jeu, conformément à une approche freudienne, se trouve, d’une part, métapsychologiquement envisagé dans son rapport au fantasme. D’autre part, un rapprochement du mécanisme de l’humour et de celui du jeu permet d’évoquer un dispositif ludique fondé sur la dénégation. Au terme de ce parcours, est proposée une tripartition structurale des jeux épousant le champ freudien. Selon cette classification, sont distingués trois types de jeux : les jeux « trompe-l’œil » fondés sur le mécanisme de la dénégation (Verneinung), les jeux « leurres » fondés sur le déni (Verleugnung) et enfin les jeux « suppléance » fondés sur le mécanisme de la forclusion (Verwerfung). Suite au constat selon lequel une telle classification ne permet pas d’embrasser l’objet-jeu dans toute sa complexité, c’est la spécificité de la forme ludique qui se verra prise en considération, dans un deuxième temps, selon une logique trans-structurelle. Le jeu ne pouvant être réduit à un seul de ses aspects – réduction trop fréquente dans la littérature –, il est proposé d’étudier celui-ci sous trois angles différents dialectiquement liés. Tout d’abord, c’est la dimension du « cadre » du jeu qui est envisagée, c’est-à-dire la question de la structure ludique : ce qui fait d’un jeu un jeu ainsi que l’intérêt d’un tel repérage pour la clinique. Ensuite, c’est le contenu du jeu qui, dans sa phénoménologie « d’être-au-jeu », est pris en considération selon deux axes : d’une part, le jeu en tant qu’institution d’un monde et d’autre part le jeu en tant que « pensée sauvage » structurée à la manière du mythe. Est avancée l’hypothèse selon laquelle, dans la forme du jeu, ce sont les déterminants du sujet qui trouvent à s’énoncer. Enfin, c’est la dimension « jouante » du jeu – et non plus « jouée » – qui se trouve approfondie. Permettant de dépasser une approche du jeu toujours tentée, du point de vue clinique, par la psychopathologie, c’est la dimension créatrice et inédite du jeu qui trouve à être développée. / This doctorate envisions the question of the function of play in the treatment of children, from a clinical and theoretical point of view. First, three psychoanalytic approaches are put into perspective. The approach pioneered by Donald Woods Winnicott – who made play the paradigm of the psychoanalytic cure – is considered through the notion of playing. We consider the theoretical paradoxes of this notion, as well as the impasses to which it can lead if it is not clearly distinguished from the common notion of play. Next, we unpack two of Melanie Klein's concepts : firstly, her “psycho-analytic play technique,” a discovery that opened up the cure to children, and that exposed the difficulty of reducing play to technè, and secondly, a theory of play conceived of as “personification” whose mechanism, by definition schizo-paranoid, consists in the combination of Spaltung and “projection.” Finally, the Freudian model conceives of play as a formation of the unconscious, just like dreams or faulty acts. For Freud, the game is a space where fantasies are created. We will compare Ernst's and Hans' play with that of Arpad, Sándor Ferenczi's “little chanticleer”, in order to tease out two possible tendencies of play: on the one hand, negation, and on the other hand, disavowal. Following this exposition, we propose a Freudian-inflected tripartite structure of play. According to this classification, we distinguish play based on the mechanism of negation (Verneinung) that we call “trompe-l'oeil” games; play based on disavowal (Verleugnung) that we call “decoy” games; and finally “suppléance” games based on the mechanism of foreclusion (Verwerfung). We maintain that detecting the principal mechanism at play in a child's game is an indispensable moment for receiving him as a patient. A second line of thought, in counterpoint to this triple classification, attempts to describe the “three dimensions” of play. If the first classification divided the notion of play, we now attempt to illuminate play's multiple facets. First of all, we interrogate the “frame” of playing, in other words, its structure. What makes a game a game and what is the clinical interest of this distinction? Next, a phenomenology of the “being-at-play” induces a study of the content of play. Play will be considered along two axes: on the one hand, the game as world-making, and on the other hand, the game as “untamed thought” (Levi-Strauss) with a mythical structure. Our hypothesis is that the determinants of the subject are enunciated in the form taken by the game. Finally, we consider the active dimension of play: the child as playing and not as plaything. In this section, we explore the creative and innovative dimension of playing in contrast with the content of his play, allowing us to move beyond an approach to playing that remains colored, from a clinical point of view, by psychopathology. For the subject, this dimension of play inaugurates a new relationship to the real.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo principal apresentar um processo de qualificação de peças estruturais das espécies emergentes Leucaena leucocephala, Corymbia maculata e híbrido torelliodora: Corymbia torelliana x Corymbia citriodora, através de ensaios simplificados a fim de profissionalizar o uso generalizado da madeira. O mercado madeireiro não dispõe de recursos técnicos e econômicos para oferecer, com critério de segurança, novas alternativas de madeiras. Cumpriu-se um exigente programa de métodos de ensaios laboratoriais conhecidos em normas e de novos procedimentos de ensaio de obra aliando vantagens econômicas, segurança e tempo. São apresentados ensaios de flexão não destrutivos e destrutivos em peças na condição real de uso em máquina universal de ensaio, em obra e em corpos de provas segundo recomendações da norma brasileira NBR 7190/97. Não houve diferenças significativas entre os métodos de ensaio, concluindo-se, por um lado, que dificilmente se conseguem corpos de prova totalmente isentos de defeitos e, por outro lado, que os ensaios de obra são plenamente confiáveis. Estabeleceram-se correlações entre módulo de elasticidade (EM0) e o módulo de ruptura (fM) e entre resistência à compressão (fc0) e o módulo de ruptura (fM), módulo de elasticidade (EM0), módulo de elasticidade na compressão (Ec0), resistência ao cisalhamento (fv0) e densidade aparente, a fim de determinarem-se as propriedades mecânicas obtidas por ensaios mais complicados a partir de ensaios mais simples e, assim minimizar custos e tempo. Os resultados corroboraram para que a madeira seja comercializada e qualificada pelo módulo de elasticidade (EM0) e módulo de ruptura (fM) para cálculos e dimensionamentos de estruturas de madeira, possibilitando otimização de material e maior segurança nas estruturas. As espécies estudadas são aptas para o mercado de madeira estrutural ficando evidenciado que o ensaio de obra constitui-se numa metodologia que pode ser facilmente utilizada a nível comercial e de obra. / The current study aims to present a qualification process of structural wood pieces of emerging species Leucaena leucocephala, Corymbia maculata and hybrid torelliodora (Corymbia torelliana x C. citriodora), through simplified tests to professionalize the generalized timber uses. The wood market, due to lack of technical and economic resources, cannot offer, with safety criteria, alternatives to timber sources. A demanding program of standard laboratory testing protocols was followed and new test procedures for field tests combining economic advantages, security and time were developed. Nondestructive and destructive bending tests are presented in timber pieces in the real use condition in the universal testing machine, in field tests and in specimens according to recommendations of the Brazilian standard NBR 7190/97. No significant differences between the test methods were observed, which implies, from one side, that is almost impossible to obtain entirely defect-free specimens and, from the other side, the field tests are fully reliable. Correlations were established between modulus of elasticity (EM0) and modulus of rupture (fM); and between compression strength (fc0) and modulus of rupture (fM), modulus of elasticity (EM0), modulus of elasticity in compression in parallel to the grain (Ec0), shear strength (fv0) and apparent density to determine the more complex mechanical properties from those simpler and thus reducing costs and time. The results contribute to timber marketing and qualification by the modulus of elasticity (EM0) and modulus of rupture module (fM) for calculations and dimensioning of wooden structures, enabling material optimization and higher structural safety. The studied species are suitable for the structural wood market becoming an evidence that the field tests constitute a methodology that can be easily used in commercial level and construction.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo principal apresentar um processo de qualificação de peças estruturais das espécies emergentes Leucaena leucocephala, Corymbia maculata e híbrido torelliodora: Corymbia torelliana x Corymbia citriodora, através de ensaios simplificados a fim de profissionalizar o uso generalizado da madeira. O mercado madeireiro não dispõe de recursos técnicos e econômicos para oferecer, com critério de segurança, novas alternativas de madeiras. Cumpriu-se um exigente programa de métodos de ensaios laboratoriais conhecidos em normas e de novos procedimentos de ensaio de obra aliando vantagens econômicas, segurança e tempo. São apresentados ensaios de flexão não destrutivos e destrutivos em peças na condição real de uso em máquina universal de ensaio, em obra e em corpos de provas segundo recomendações da norma brasileira NBR 7190/97. Não houve diferenças significativas entre os métodos de ensaio, concluindo-se, por um lado, que dificilmente se conseguem corpos de prova totalmente isentos de defeitos e, por outro lado, que os ensaios de obra são plenamente confiáveis. Estabeleceram-se correlações entre módulo de elasticidade (EM0) e o módulo de ruptura (fM) e entre resistência à compressão (fc0) e o módulo de ruptura (fM), módulo de elasticidade (EM0), módulo de elasticidade na compressão (Ec0), resistência ao cisalhamento (fv0) e densidade aparente, a fim de determinarem-se as propriedades mecânicas obtidas por ensaios mais complicados a partir de ensaios mais simples e, assim minimizar custos e tempo. Os resultados corroboraram para que a madeira seja comercializada e qualificada pelo módulo de elasticidade (EM0) e módulo de ruptura (fM) para cálculos e dimensionamentos de estruturas de madeira, possibilitando otimização de material e maior segurança nas estruturas. As espécies estudadas são aptas para o mercado de madeira estrutural ficando evidenciado que o ensaio de obra constitui-se numa metodologia que pode ser facilmente utilizada a nível comercial e de obra. / The current study aims to present a qualification process of structural wood pieces of emerging species Leucaena leucocephala, Corymbia maculata and hybrid torelliodora (Corymbia torelliana x C. citriodora), through simplified tests to professionalize the generalized timber uses. The wood market, due to lack of technical and economic resources, cannot offer, with safety criteria, alternatives to timber sources. A demanding program of standard laboratory testing protocols was followed and new test procedures for field tests combining economic advantages, security and time were developed. Nondestructive and destructive bending tests are presented in timber pieces in the real use condition in the universal testing machine, in field tests and in specimens according to recommendations of the Brazilian standard NBR 7190/97. No significant differences between the test methods were observed, which implies, from one side, that is almost impossible to obtain entirely defect-free specimens and, from the other side, the field tests are fully reliable. Correlations were established between modulus of elasticity (EM0) and modulus of rupture (fM); and between compression strength (fc0) and modulus of rupture (fM), modulus of elasticity (EM0), modulus of elasticity in compression in parallel to the grain (Ec0), shear strength (fv0) and apparent density to determine the more complex mechanical properties from those simpler and thus reducing costs and time. The results contribute to timber marketing and qualification by the modulus of elasticity (EM0) and modulus of rupture module (fM) for calculations and dimensioning of wooden structures, enabling material optimization and higher structural safety. The studied species are suitable for the structural wood market becoming an evidence that the field tests constitute a methodology that can be easily used in commercial level and construction.

The vast and growing volume of 3D protein structural data stored in the PDB contains abundant information about macromolecular complexes, and hence, data about protein interfaces. Non-covalent contacts between amino acids are the basis of protein interactions, and they are responsible for binding afinity and specificity in biological processes. In addition, water networks in protein interfaces can also complement direct interactions contributing significantly to molecular recognition, although their exact role is still not well understood. It is estimated that protein complexes in the PDB are substantially underrepresented due to their crystallization dificulties. Methods for automatic classifification and description of the protein complexes are essential to study protein interfaces, and to propose putative binding regions. Due to this strong need, several protein-protein interaction databases have been developed. However, most of them do not take into account either protein-peptide complexes, solvent information or a proper classification of the binding regions, which are fundamental components to provide an accurate description of protein interfaces. In the firest stage of my thesis, I developed the SCOWLP platform, a database and web application that structurally classifies protein binding regions at family level and defines accurately protein interfaces at atomic detail. The analysis of the results showed that protein-peptide complexes are substantially represented in the PDB, and are the only source of interacting information for several families. By clustering the family binding regions, I could identify 9,334 binding regions and 79,803 protein interfaces in the PDB. Interestingly, I observed that 65% of protein families interact to other molecules through more than one region and in 22% of the cases the same region recognizes different protein families. The database and web application are open to the research community (www.scowlp.org) and can tremendously facilitate high-throughput comparative analysis of protein binding regions, as well as, individual analysis of protein interfaces. SCOWLP and the other databases collect and classify the protein binding regions at family level, where sequence and structure homology exist. Interestingly, it has been observed that many protein families also present structural resemblances within each other, mostly across folds. Likewise, structurally similar interacting motifs (binding regions) have been identified among proteins with different folds and functions. For these reasons, I decided to explore the possibility to infer protein binding regions independently of their fold classification. Thus, I performed the firest systematic analysis of binding region conservation within all protein families that are structurally similar, calculated using non-sequential structural alignment methods. My results indicate there is a substantial molecular recognition information that could be potentially inferred among proteins beyond family level. I obtained a 6 to 8 fold enrichment of binding regions, and identified putative binding regions for 728 protein families that lack binding information. Within the results, I found out protein complexes from different folds that present similar interfaces, confirming the predictive usage of the methodology. The data obtained with my approach may complement the SCOWLP family binding regions suggesting alternative binding regions, and can be used to assist protein-protein docking experiments and facilitate rational ligand design. In the last part of my thesis, I used the interacting information contained in the SCOWLP database to help understand the role that water plays in protein interactions in terms of affinity and specificity. I carried out one of the firest high-throughput analysis of solvent in protein interfaces for a curated dataset of transient and obligate protein complexes. Surprisingly, the results highlight the abundance of water-bridged residues in protein interfaces (40.1% of the interfacial residues) that reinforces the importance of including solvent in protein interaction studies (14.5% extra residues interacting only water- mediated). Interestingly, I also observed that obligate and transient interfaces present a comparable amount of solvent, which contrasts the old thoughts saying that obligate protein complexes are expected to exhibit similarities to protein cores having a dry and hydrophobic interfaces. I characterized novel features of water-bridged residues in terms of secondary structure, temperature factors, residue composition, and pairing preferences that differed from direct residue-residue interactions. The results also showed relevant aspects in the mobility and energetics of water-bridged interfacial residues. Collectively, my doctoral thesis work can be summarized in the following points: 1. I developed SCOWLP, an improved framework that identiffies protein interfaces and classifies protein binding regions at family level. 2. I developed a novel methodology to predict alternative binding regions among structurally similar protein families independently of the fold they belong to. 3. I performed a high-throughput analysis of water-bridged interactions contained in SCOWLP to study the role of solvent in protein interfaces. These three components of my thesis represent novel methods for exploiting existing structural information to gain insights into protein- protein interactions, key mechanisms to understand biological processes.

The vast and growing volume of 3D protein structural data stored in the PDB contains abundant information about macromolecular complexes, and hence, data about protein interfaces. Non-covalent contacts between amino acids are the basis of protein interactions, and they are responsible for binding afinity and specificity in biological processes. In addition, water networks in protein interfaces can also complement direct interactions contributing significantly to molecular recognition, although their exact role is still not well understood. It is estimated that protein complexes in the PDB are substantially underrepresented due to their crystallization dificulties. Methods for automatic classifification and description of the protein complexes are essential to study protein interfaces, and to propose putative binding regions. Due to this strong need, several protein-protein interaction databases have been developed. However, most of them do not take into account either protein-peptide complexes, solvent information or a proper classification of the binding regions, which are fundamental components to provide an accurate description of protein interfaces. In the firest stage of my thesis, I developed the SCOWLP platform, a database and web application that structurally classifies protein binding regions at family level and defines accurately protein interfaces at atomic detail. The analysis of the results showed that protein-peptide complexes are substantially represented in the PDB, and are the only source of interacting information for several families. By clustering the family binding regions, I could identify 9,334 binding regions and 79,803 protein interfaces in the PDB. Interestingly, I observed that 65% of protein families interact to other molecules through more than one region and in 22% of the cases the same region recognizes different protein families. The database and web application are open to the research community (www.scowlp.org) and can tremendously facilitate high-throughput comparative analysis of protein binding regions, as well as, individual analysis of protein interfaces. SCOWLP and the other databases collect and classify the protein binding regions at family level, where sequence and structure homology exist. Interestingly, it has been observed that many protein families also present structural resemblances within each other, mostly across folds. Likewise, structurally similar interacting motifs (binding regions) have been identified among proteins with different folds and functions. For these reasons, I decided to explore the possibility to infer protein binding regions independently of their fold classification. Thus, I performed the firest systematic analysis of binding region conservation within all protein families that are structurally similar, calculated using non-sequential structural alignment methods. My results indicate there is a substantial molecular recognition information that could be potentially inferred among proteins beyond family level. I obtained a 6 to 8 fold enrichment of binding regions, and identified putative binding regions for 728 protein families that lack binding information. Within the results, I found out protein complexes from different folds that present similar interfaces, confirming the predictive usage of the methodology. The data obtained with my approach may complement the SCOWLP family binding regions suggesting alternative binding regions, and can be used to assist protein-protein docking experiments and facilitate rational ligand design. In the last part of my thesis, I used the interacting information contained in the SCOWLP database to help understand the role that water plays in protein interactions in terms of affinity and specificity. I carried out one of the firest high-throughput analysis of solvent in protein interfaces for a curated dataset of transient and obligate protein complexes. Surprisingly, the results highlight the abundance of water-bridged residues in protein interfaces (40.1% of the interfacial residues) that reinforces the importance of including solvent in protein interaction studies (14.5% extra residues interacting only water- mediated). Interestingly, I also observed that obligate and transient interfaces present a comparable amount of solvent, which contrasts the old thoughts saying that obligate protein complexes are expected to exhibit similarities to protein cores having a dry and hydrophobic interfaces. I characterized novel features of water-bridged residues in terms of secondary structure, temperature factors, residue composition, and pairing preferences that differed from direct residue-residue interactions. The results also showed relevant aspects in the mobility and energetics of water-bridged interfacial residues. Collectively, my doctoral thesis work can be summarized in the following points: 1. I developed SCOWLP, an improved framework that identiffies protein interfaces and classifies protein binding regions at family level. 2. I developed a novel methodology to predict alternative binding regions among structurally similar protein families independently of the fold they belong to. 3. I performed a high-throughput analysis of water-bridged interactions contained in SCOWLP to study the role of solvent in protein interfaces. These three components of my thesis represent novel methods for exploiting existing structural information to gain insights into protein- protein interactions, key mechanisms to understand biological processes.