Existe-t-il un au-delà de la castration ? Cette aporie que Freud nous a légué comme un point de butée infranchissable est le point de départ de ma thèse. Celle-ci consistera à étudier le concept de la castration et son lien inextricable avec le complexe d’OEdipe, à travers les oeuvres de Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan et Pierre Fedida. A l’appui de la clinique psychanalytique d’aujourd’hui, il s’agira de montrer comment la cure psychanalytique, et la position du psychanalyste, visent à introduire la castration. La castration, au coeur de la théorie psychanalytique, est le pivot de la vie psychique et est impliquée dans la formation des symptômes mais aussi de leur résolution. Cetravail tente d’articuler les oeuvres de trois auteurs majeurs de la psychanalyse, Freud, Lacan et Fedida, non pas pour les opposer ou les confondre mais pour mettre en perspective leur champ d’expérience, selon leur référentiel et leur style, desquels ressortiront notamment les notions de spaltung (division et clivage) et d’absence / Is there exist one beyond castration ? This aporia where Freud left us as an insuperable point is the starting point of my thesis. This one will consist in studying the concept of castration an its inextricable link with the OEdipus complex, through the writings of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan and Pierre Fedida. In support of the psychoanaytical private clinic of today, it will be a question of showing how the psychoanalytical cure, and the position of the psychoanalyst, aim at introducing castration. Castration, at the core of psychoanalytic theory, is the pivot of psychic life and is implied in the formation of the symptoms but also in their resolution. This work tries to articulate works of three major authors of the psychoanalysis, Freud, Lacan and Fedida, not to oppose them or confuse them but to put in perspective their field of experience, according to their reference and their style, of which will notably arise the concepts of spaltung (division and splitting) and of absence.

L’électronique de spin tient une place primordiale dans les technologies de l’information. Un exemple flagrant est le disque dur magnétique à haute densité de stockage intégré aujourd’hui dans la plupart des ordinateurs personnels. D’un point de vue fondamental, les opérations de base comme l’injection, la propagation et la détection de l’information de spin restent néanmoins complexes à réaliser. Des plateformes adaptées à la réalisation de ces tâches élémentaires sont très recherchées. Dans ce contexte, les nanomatériaux carbonés sont très prometteurs. Au cours de ma thèse, je me suis intéressé au transport de spin dans des nanotubes de carbone multi-parois présentant des effets de super-réseaux (Moiré 1D). J’ai également étudié la croissance de barrières moléculaires conformationnelles afin d’optimiser l’injection et la détection de l’information de spin. Je présenterai tout d’abord les caractérisations électriques des dispositifs mettant en évidence des effets de Moirés, identifiés grâce aux simulations effectuées par l’équipe de Jean-Christophe Charlier. Je montrerai ensuite comment la croissance de la couche moléculaire influence le transport en formant une barrière d’injection. Finalement, je présenterai les expériences de magnéto-transport dans ces dispositifs hybrides. La magnétorésistance observée semble indiquer un transport de spin efficace sur des distances au moins de l’ordre du micromètre. Je discuterai particulièrement de l’amplitude, du signe et de la dépendance en tension de la magnétorésistance dans le cadre de modèles standards de transport de spin / Spin electronics holds a key role in information technology. A glaring example is the high-density magnetic hard disk storage built into most personal computers. From a fundamental point of view, basic operations such as injection, propagation and detection of spin information remain nevertheless complex. Platforms adapted to the realization of these basic tasks are highly sought after. In this context, carbon nanomaterials are very promising. During my thesis, I was interested in the transport of spin in multi-wall carbon nanotubes presenting super-lattice effects (Moiré 1D). I have also studied the growth of conformational molecular barriers in order to optimize injection and detection of spin information. I will present first the electrical characterizations of the devices highlighting the effects of Moirés, identified thanks to the simulations carried out by the team of Jean-Christophe Charlier. I will then show how the growth of the molecular layer influences transport by forming an injection barrier. Finally, I will present the experiments of magneto-transport in these hybrid devices. The observed magnetoresistance seems to indicate efficient spin transport over distances of at least a micrometer. I will discuss in particular the amplitude, the sign and the voltage dependence of the magnetoresistance in the framework of standard models of spin transport

Optimization theories and algorithms are used to efficiently find optimal solutions under constraints. In the era of “Big Data”, the amount of data is skyrocketing,and this overwhelms conventional techniques used to solve large scale and distributed optimization problems. By taking advantage of structural information in data representations, this thesis offers convex and non-convex optimization solutions to various large scale optimization problems such as super-resolution, sparse signal processing,hypothesis testing, machine learning, and treatment planning for brachytherapy. Super-resolution: Super-resolution aims to recover a signal expressed as a sum of a few Dirac delta functions in the time domain from measurements in the frequency domain. The challenge is that the possible locations of the delta functions are in the continuous domain [0,1). To enhance recovery performance, we considered deterministic and probabilistic prior information for the locations of the delta functions and provided novel semidefinite programming formulations under the information. We also proposed block iterative reweighted methods to improve recovery performance without prior information. We further considered phaseless measurements, motivated by applications in optic microscopy and x-ray crystallography. By using the lifting method and introducing the squared atomic norm minimization, we can achieve super-resolution using only low frequency magnitude information. Finally, we proposed non-convex algorithms using structured matrix completion. Sparse signal processing: L1 minimization is well known for promoting sparse structures in recovered signals. The Null Space Condition (NSC) for L1 minimization is a necessary and sufficient condition on sensing matrices such that a sparse signal can be uniquely recovered via L1 minimization. However, verifying NSC is a non-convex problem and known to be NP-hard. We proposed enumeration-based polynomial-time algorithms to provide performance bounds on NSC, and efficient algorithms to verify NSC precisely by using the branch and bound method. Hypothesis testing: Recovering statistical structures of random variables is important in some applications such as cognitive radio. Our goal is distinguishing two different types of random variables among n>>1 random variables. Distinguishing them via experiments for each random variable one by one takes lots of time and efforts. Hence, we proposed hypothesis testing using mixed measurements to reduce sample complexity. We also designed efficient algorithms to solve large scale problems. Machine learning: When feature data are stored in a tree structured network having time delay in communication, quickly finding an optimal solution to the regularized loss minimization is challenging. In this scenario, we studied a communication-efficient stochastic dual coordinate ascent and its convergence analysis. Treatment planning: In the Rotating-Shield Brachytherapy (RSBT) for cancer treatment, there is a compelling need to quickly obtain optimal treatment plans to enable clinical usage. However, due to the degree of freedom in RSBT, finding optimal treatment planning is difficult. For this, we designed a first order dose optimization method based on the alternating direction method of multipliers, and reduced the execution time around 18 times compared to the previous research.

This dissertation examines the process of commodifying television formats (e.g., Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Survivor, Big Brother, and Idol) from television show ideas into global commodities. Instead of assuming that a format has always been a commodity, this dissertation seeks to understand the historical process of the transformation from a concept into a commodity. Specifically, it answers three questions: a) What is the process whereby a format obtains property status and becomes a copyrighted work? b) Who enables the transnational movement of a format, and how does that happen? and c) How do people recognize which formats are more valuable than others? To answer these questions, by articulating the distribution of value as a theoretical framework, this dissertation closely examines institutions of format distributions: legal frameworks for copyright, multinational corporations, and global television markets. Through historical analyses, this dissertation reveals that institutions of distribution gave rise to three aspects of the commodity form of formats: legality, functionality, and materiality. The development of these three aspects shows that a format became a commodity, rather than simply a method of copying television programs, only after 2004. This dissertation contends that the long history of copying television show ideas was punctuated by the emergence of the commodity form of formats, distinguishing the present state of global format trade from the previous one.

Cette thèse a pour objectif de moduler la nanoporosité et la densité de gels Résorcinol-Formaldéhyde (RF) afin d’étudier leurs performances dans des applications industrielles telles que les supercondensateurs ou les matériaux d’isolation thermique. En effet, c’est leur texture, et plus particulièrement leur porosité, qui confère à ces matériaux de telles propriétés. Ce travail de thèse a consisté à étudier les paramètres de synthèse des systèmes RF en ajoutant un additif et à utiliser de nouveaux précurseurs. Notre choix s’est d’abord porté sur un polyélectrolyte cationique qui est susceptible de modifier les mécanismes de synthèse des gels ainsi que leur procédé de fabrication. Dans un second temps, l’emploi de nouveaux précurseurs a ouvert de nouvelles possibilités de synthèse de ces matériaux. Enfin, l’aspect sécuritaire du procédé a été abordé afin d’évaluer tous les risques liés à la synthèse de gels RF pour faciliter le transfert du procédé à plus grande échelle. / The objective of this thesis is to modulate the nanoporosity and the density of Resorcinol-Formaldehyde (RF) gels in order to study their performances in industrial applications such as supercapacitors or thermal insulation materials. Indeed, it is their texture and more particularly their porosity which give these materials such properties. This thesis work consisted in studying synthesis parameters of RF systems by adding an additive and using new precursors. We chose a cationic polyelectrolyte which is likely to modify the synthesis mechanisms of the gels as well as their elaboration process. In a second time, the use of new precursors offered new possibilities of synthesis of these materials. Finally, process security was discussed in order to evaluate all risks linked to RF gels synthesis in order to facilitate the scaling-up of the process.

Intracellular cargo transport involves the movement of critical cellular components (e.g. vesicles, organelles, mRNA, chromosomes) along cytoskeletal tracks by tiny molecular motors. Myosin Va motors have been demonstrated to play a vital role in the transport of cargos destined for the cell membrane by navigating their cargos through the three-dimensional actin networks of the cell. Transport of cargo through these networks presents many challenges, including directional and physical obstacles which teams of myosin Va-bound to a single cargo must overcome. Specifically, myosin Va motors are presented with numerous actin-actin intersections and dense networks of filaments which can act as a physical barrier to transport. Due to the complexities of studying myosin Va cargo transport in cells, much effort has been focused on the in vitro observation and analysis of myosin Va transport along single actin filaments or simple actin cytoskeletal models. However, these model systems often rely on non-physiological cargos (e.g. beads, quantum dots) and two-dimensional arrangements of actin attached to glass surfaces. Interestingly, a disconnect exists between the transport of cargo on these simple model systems and studies of myosin Va transport on suspended 3D actin arrangements or cellular networks which show longer run lengths, increased velocities, and straighter, more directed trajectories. One solution to this discrepancy is that the cell may use the fluidity of the cargo surface, the recruitment of myosin Va motor teams, and the 3D geometry of the actin, to finely tune the transport of intracellular cargo depending on cellular need. To understand how myosin Va motors transport their cargo through 3D networks of actin, we investigated myosin Va motor ensembles transporting fluorescent 350 nm lipid-bilayer cargo through arrangements of suspended 3D actin filaments. This was accomplished using single molecule fluorescent imaging, three-dimensional super resolution Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM), optical tweezers, and in silico modeling. We found that when moving along 3D actin filaments, myosin motors could be recruited from across the fluid lipid cargo’s surface to the filaments which enabled dynamic teams to be formed and explore the full actin filaments binding landscape. When navigating 3D actin-actin intersections these teams capable of maneuvering their cargo through the intersection in a way that encouraged the vesicles to continue straight rather than switch filaments and turn at the intersection. We hypothesized that this finding may be the source of the relatively straight directed runs by myosin Va-bound cargo observed in living cells. To test this, we designed 3D actin networks where the vesicles interacted with 2-6 actin filaments simultaneously. Actin forms polarized filaments, which, in cells, generally have their plus-ends facing the exterior of the cell; the same direction in which myosin Va walks. We found that to maintain straight directed trajectories and not become stationary within the network, vesicles needed to move along filaments with a bias in their polarity. This allows for cargo-bound motors to align their motion along the polarized networks and produced productive motion despite physical and directional obstacles. Together this work demonstrates the physical properties of the cargo, the geometric arrangement of the actin, and the mechanical properties of the motor are all critical aspects of a robust myosin Va transport system.

Les cristaux phononiques et métamatériaux acoustiques sont des matériaux structurés artificiels qui fournissent un moyen prometteur pour manipuler les ondes acoustiques avec de nombreuses applications potentielles nouvelles. Après une introduction à l'état de l'art, le chapitre 2 propose des multicouches actives à base de structures piézoélectriques résonnantes. Leur transmission et leurs propriétés effectives peuvent être contrôlées activement en changeant les conditions électriques. Le chapitre 3 développe des méthodes d'homogénéisation pour une plaque de cristal phononique et montre pour la première fois la possibilité de contrôler simultanément la propagation de toutes les ondes fondamentales de Lamb. La méthode est appliquée à la conception de lentilles à gradient d'indice. Le chapitre 4 propose un nouveau type de cristal phononique en plaque à base de piliers creux qui met en évidence de nouveaux modes fortement localisés, tels que les modes de galerie, aussi bien dans le gap de Bragg que dans un gap à basse fréquence. Ces modes peuvent être activement accordés en remplissant les parties creuses des piliers avec un liquide dont on contrôle la hauteur ou la température. Le chapitre 5 propose une métasurface acoustique comportant un pilier unique ou une ligne de piliers déposés sur une plaque. Ces piliers ont des modes de résonance dipolaires et monopolaires qui sont très sensibles aux paramètres géométriques des piliers. Nous étudions en détail l'amplitude et la phase des ondes émises lorsqu'une onde incidente est diffusée par les piliers et montrons qu'elles peuvent être décrites comme des ondes émises par les piliers résonnants comme sources d'ondes acoustiques. / Phononic crystals and acoustic metamaterials are artificial structured materials which provide a promising way to manipulate acoustic/elastic waves with many novel potential applications. After an introduction to the state of the art, the 2nd chapter designs actively controlled multilayers with piezoelectric resonant structures. The corresponding transmission and effective properties can be tuned by changing the electric boundary conditions of the piezoelectric materials. The 3rd chapter develops homogenization methods for phononic crystal plates and demonstrates for the first time the possibility of controlling simultaneously all the fundamental Lamb waves. The full control method developed here is applied to the design of various gradient index lenses that can exhibit several functionalities such as wave focusing or wave beaming. The 4th chapter designs a new type of phononic crystal/metamaterial plate with hollow pillars that exhibits several new localized modes, such as whispering-gallery modes, inside both Bragg and low frequency band gaps. These modes can be actively tuned by filling the hollow parts with a liquid for which the height or the temperature is controlled. The 5th chapter proposes acoustic metasurface consisting of a single pillar or one line of pillars deposited on a thin plate. Local resonances of dipolar and monopolar symmetries can be characterized which are very sensitive to the pillar’s geometric parameters. We study the amplitude and phase of the waves resulting from the scattering of an incident wave by the pillars and show that they can be described as dipolar or monopolar waves emitted by the pillar resonators as acoustic sources.

In many practical imaging scenarios, including computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the goal is to reconstruct an image from few of its Fourier domain samples. Many state-of-the-art reconstruction techniques, such as total variation minimization, focus on discrete ‘on-the-grid” modelling of the problem both in spatial domain and Fourier domain. While such discrete-to-discrete models allow for fast algorithms, they can also result in sub-optimal sampling rates and reconstruction artifacts due to model mismatch. Instead, this thesis presents a framework for “off-the-grid”, i.e. continuous domain, recovery of piecewise smooth signals from an optimal number of Fourier samples. The main idea is to model the edge set of the image as the level-set curve of a continuous domain band-limited function. Sampling guarantees can be derived for this framework by investigating the algebraic geometry of these curves. This model is put into a robust and efficient optimization framework by posing signal recovery entirely in Fourier domain as a structured low-rank (SLR) matrix completion problem. An efficient algorithm for this problem is derived, which is an order of magnitude faster than previous approaches for SLR matrix completion. This SLR approach based on off-the-grid modeling shows significant improvement over standard discrete methods in the context of undersampled MRI reconstruction.

The use of digitized information is rapidly gaining acceptance in bio-medical applications. Video compression plays an important role in the archiving and transmission of different digital diagnostic modalities. The present scheme of video compression for low bit-rate networks is not suitable for medical video sequences. The instability is the result of block artifacts resulting from the block based DCT coefficient quantization. The possibility of applying deformable motion estimation techniques to make the video compression standard (H.263) more adaptable for bio-medial applications was studied in detail. The study on the network characteristics and the behavior of various congestion control mechanisms was used to analyze the complete characteristics of existing low bit rate video compression algorithms. The study was conducted in three phases. The first phase involved the implementation and study of the present H.263 compression standard and its limitations. The second phase dealt with the analysis of an external force for active contours which was used to obtain estimates for deformable objects. The external force, which is termed Gradient Vector Flow (GVF), was computed as a diffusion of the gradient vectors associated with a gray-level or binary edge map derived from the image. The mathematical aspect of a multi-scale framework based on a medial representation for the segmentation and shape characterization of anatomical objects in medical imagery was derived in detail. The medial representations were based on a hierarchical representation of linked figural models such as protrusions, indentations, neighboring figures and included figures--which represented solid regions and their boundaries. The third phase dealt with the vital parameters for effective video streaming over the internet in the bottleneck bandwidth, which gives the upper limit for the speed of data delivery from one end point to the other in a network. If a codec attempts to send data beyond this limit, all packets above the limit will be lost. On the other hand, sending under this limit will clearly result in suboptimal video quality. During this phase the packet-drop-rate (PDR) performance of TCP(1/2) was investigated in conjunction with a few representative TCP-friendly congestion control protocols (CCP). The CCPs were TCP(1/256), SQRT(1/256) and TFRC (256), with and without self clocking. The CCPs were studied when subjected to an abrupt reduction in the available bandwidth. Additionally, the investigation studied the effect on the drop rates of TCP-Compatible algorithms by changing the queuing scheme from Random Early Detection (RED) to DropTail.

The last decade has seen numerous proposals to reform existing tribunal systems in jurisdictions throughout the common law world. Across the board, there have been proposals to adopt generalist tribunal models in preference to smaller, specialist tribunal systems, and to achieve these changes through the process of amalgamation. The most significant recent developments to occur in Australia have taken place in Victoria and NSW during the past five years. Legislators in these States have chosen to amalgamate a number of smaller, specialist tribunals into larger, generalist bodies. In 1997 the NSW Parliament passed legislation amalgamating a number of specialist tribunals to create the Administrative Decisions Tribunal (ADT); comparable legislation was passed in Victoria in 1998 to create the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT). There were concurrent attempts to implement similar reforms at federal level. In 1998 the Commonwealth government announced its intention to amalgamate four Commonwealth merits review tribunals to form one �super Tribunal� � the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART). The Bills containing these proposals were ultimately defeated in the Senate, however the Australian Government remains convinced of the benefits of amalgamation at federal level. Similar reforms have been proposed in Western Australia, Tasmania and the United Kingdom. This thesis argues that these reforms are taking place in the absence of data about their likely implications, and without a thorough understanding of the objectives that generalist versus specialist tribunal systems can realistically achieve. This ill-considered or �over-hasty� trend towards amalgamation raises a number of questions which have not previously been addressed in academic or policy-making circles. An obvious question is whether or not an amalgamated tribunal model is more effective than a series of smaller, specialised tribunals in delivering administrative justice, in other words, whether there is any net gain to be had from a government�s decision to amalgamate. The less explored, but equally important, question addressed in this thesis is how the process of amalgamation should be approached in order to realise the maximum potential benefits that an amalgamated tribunal can bring. That is, to ask what are the ingredients of an optimal amalgamation. This is not a question about whether government decisions to pursue amalgamation are intrinsically worthwhile or beneficial for stakeholders. Rather, it is about how government decisions to amalgamate should best be implemented. This thesis proposes a way of differentiating between good and bad amalgamations, that is grounded in theory and informed by experience to date. The proposed approach is to assess the effectiveness of amalgamation processes using relevant measures drawn from an analysis of organisational theory literature: � Legislation � the legislation establishing an amalgamated tribunal needs to ensure the tribunal will have appropriate independence, powers, processes, membership and structure. � Political commitment � those responsible for proposing and planning an amalgamation need to provide appropriate funding and support for the process and for the establishment of an autonomous, self-directed tribunal. � Organisational structure � the structures put in place need to be appropriate, integrated and flexible, and should promote cohesion and interaction. � Process and procedure � the processes and procedures adopted in an amalgamated tribunal need to capitalise upon the opportunities provided by amalgamation, as well as being appropriate, efficient and able to balance the needs of a range of stakeholders. � Organisational culture � an organisational culture which counters natural tendencies towards disjunction will assist members and staff to identify with a newly amalgamated tribunal and to implement initiatives that will improve its performance. � Leadership � effective leadership plays an important role in ensuring a smooth transition from specialist to amalgamated tribunal, and engendering commitment from members and staff. Broadly speaking, these factors fall into the four categories of law, context, organisation and people. It is argued that attention must be paid to all four of these ingredients in order to achieve optimal tribunal reform. The thesis tests this proposition by examining the three most advanced tribunal amalgamations so far, namely, the Commonwealth ART, the NSW ADT and VCAT in Victoria. It is argued that the fate of the Commonwealth ART proposal proves the importance of a solid, generally endorsed legislative foundation in creating a viable amalgamated tribunal. The importance of context, organisation and people is borne out by qualitative research into the amalgamation experiences in NSW and Victoria. The fact that the NSW and Victorian governments decided to pursue policies of amalgamation at the same time provided a unique opportunity to compare the success or otherwise of two concurrent attempts at amalgamation in different jurisdictions. This thesis finds that the unfavourable political context in NSW prevented the ADT from realising its potential. In contrast, the VCAT experience highlights the benefits of paying careful attention to the wide range of factors that can contribute to a successful amalgamation. Of most relevance are the initial scale of an amalgamation, the political �will� behind its implementation, the appointment of a core of full-time members, and the creation of an open institutional culture which facilitates the sharing of information. In short, the thesis concludes that the successful construction and consolidation of a tribunal post-amalgamation requires that the necessary ingredients of optimal tribunal reform � legislation, context, organisation and people � are thoughtfully addressed.