Ce travail de recherche propose l’algorithme de calcul pour la modélisation d’un scanner ultrasonore sans contact à ondes de surface. L’approche proposée permet de prendre en compte l’ouverture finie du récepteur, l’atténuation d’air et la réponse électrique he de l’ensemble émetteur-récepteur. Le milieu avec l’atténuation (air et milieu testé) est modélisé dans le domaine temporel à l’aide de la fonction de Green causale permettant la caractérisation large bande. Le réponse he est déterminée de manière expérimentale en utilisant la procédure spatialement développée, incluant la déconvolution des effets d’atténuation. Le modèle est implémenté numériquement en utilisant l’approche de la Représentation Discrète et les résultats obtenus sont validés expérimentalement. La technique chirp est utilisée afin d’améliorer le rapport signal/bruit. Il est démontré que lorsque l’atténuation dans l’air, la dimension de récepteur et la réponse he reconstituée avec précision sont correctement pris en compte, la réponse impulsionnelle du système peut être prédite avec l’erreur de 2-5 %. L’introduction de la taille du récepteur est essentielle pour la prédiction dans le champ proche. Le temps de calcul obtenu est considérablement plus court que le temps nécessaire pour les méthodes FEM. A l’aide de ce modèle l’influence des réglages du scanner est étudiée. Les résultats obtenus permettent de formuler des recommandations pour les réglages optimaux / In this research the time-domain model for the prediction of an acoustic field in an air-coupled, non-contact, surface wave scanner is proposed. The model takes into account the finite size of the aperture receiver, attenuation in air, and the electric response he of the emitter-receiver set he. The attenuation is characterized by a causal time-domain Green’s function, allowing the wideband attenuation of a lossy medium (air and solid tested sample) obeying the power law to be modelled. The response he is recovered experimentally using an original especially developed procedure which includes the deconvolution of air absorption effects. The model is implemented numerically using a Discrete Representation approach and validated experimentally. In order to improve the signal to noise ratio the chirp technique is used. It is shown that when the attenuation in air, the receiver size, and the accurately recovered response he, are correctly taken into account, the model allows the system’s impulse response to be very accurately predicted, with errors ranging between 2-5%. Inclusion of the size of the receiver dimension in the model appears to be crucial to the accuracy of the near field predictions. The obtained computation efficiency is much better that efficiency of FEM methods. The influence of typical user defined settings has been investigated. The obtained conclusions will be used as the recommendations for further use

Ce manuscrit présente une méthode d’imagerie quantitative et sans état de référence, de défauts de corrosion d’une plaque mince, exploitant de manière passive un réseau embarqué de capteurs d’ondes élastiques guidées. Les applications visées sont le contrôle santé intégré (SHM) de structures critiques qui amènent de fortes contraintes à la fois d’intrusivité des capteurs et de fiabilité du diagnostic. Une solution prometteuse, permettant de multiplier la densité de points de mesure sans augmenter l’intrusivité du système, est offerte par les réseaux de Bragg sur fibre optique (FBG). Toutefois, contrairement aux transducteurs piézoélectriques (PZT) classiquement employés en SHM, les FBG ne permettent pas d’émettre d’ondes élastiques. L’idée consiste à utiliser des méthodes dites « passives » permettant de retrouver la fonction de Green entre deux capteurs à partir du bruit ambiant, naturellement présent dans la structure, mesuré simultanément entre ces deux capteurs. Nous étudions dans ce manuscrit deux méthodes passives : la corrélation de bruit et le filtre inverse passif. Nous verrons que ce dernier a plus de potentiel lorsqu’il est couplé à l’imagerie par tomographie. Différents algorithmes de tomographie sont évalués par simulation numérique puis lors d’expériences comparatives actives et passives à l’aide d’un réseau de PZT. Afin de rendre la tomographie passive robuste, nous présentons une méthode clé de détection de temps de vol, basée sur une représentation temps-fréquence. Enfin, nous décrivons une première démonstration expérimentale de mesures passives par FBG qui laisse à penser que la tomographie passive par FBG est prometteuse. / This manuscript presents a baseline-free quantitative method for the imaging of corrosion flaws present in thin plates. This method only requires an embedded guided waves sensors network in a fully passive way. The field ofapplications are Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of critical structures with heavy constrains on both sensors intrusiveness and diagnostic reliability. A promising solution allowing to increase the number of measurement points without increasing the intrusiveness of the system is provided by the Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBGs). However, unlike piezoelectric transducers generally used in SHM, the FBGs cannot emit elastic waves. The idea consists in using passive methods in order to retrieve the Green function from elastic diffuse fields - naturally present in structures - measured simultaneously between two sensors. In this manuscript, two passive methods are studied: the ambient noise correlation and the passive inverse filter. It is shown that the latter gives better results when coupled with tomography. Several tomography algorithms are assessed with numerical simulations and then applied to active and passive datasets measured by a PZT network. In order to make passive tomography robust, a time of flight identification method is proposed, based on a time-frequency representation. Finally, a novel experimental demonstration of passive measurements with FBGs only is presented, suggesting high potential for FBGs passive tomography.

Air-borne ultrasonic transducers are optimised to achieve a maximal sound pressure in a frequency range around 100 kHz. Moreover, the radiation of a high acoustic power is desired, which requires a large transducer area. Within this dissertation the ultrasonic transducers are, therefore, optimised to operate in the resonance mode. Using this operating point the maximal force is fed into the transducer while it is charged with the lowest loss possible. Many applications of air-borne ultrasound need a sufficient bandwidth in addition to a high sound pressure, that s why the swinging mass of the transducer has to be minimised. For these reasons, air-borne capacitive and piezoelectric film transducers take centre stage of these examinations. New network models of the stripe membrane and the pre-stressed stripe plate are derived to optimise these ultrasonic transducers. Besides its mechanical tension and its bending stiffness, the new network model of the pre-stressed and pressure loaded stripe plate takes also the stiffness caused by the shape of the plate into account. The examined transducers achive a maximal piston velocity around 1 m/s. / Ultraschallwandler für Anwendungen in Luft werden zur Bereitstellung eines maximalen Schalldrucks im Frequenzbereich um 100 kHz optimiert. Sie sollen außerdem die Abstrahlung einer großen Schallleistung zulassen, was eine große Wandlerfläche voraussetzt. Deshalb werden in dieser Arbeit die Ultraschallsender für den Resonanzbetrieb optimiert, wo man die maximale Krafteinspeisung bei minimalen Verlusten einstellt. Viele Anwendungen von Ultraschall in Luft benötigen neben einem hohen Schalldruckpegel auch eine ausreichende Bandbreite, wozu die schwingende Masse der Wandler zu minimieren ist. Deshalb stehen kapazitive und piezoelektrische Folienwandler im Resonanzbetrieb im Vordergrund der Untersuchungen. Zur Optimierung dieser Ultraschallsender werden die Netzwerkmodelle der Streifenmembran und der gespannten Streifenplatte abgeleitet. Neben der mechanischen Spannung und der Biegesteifigkeit berücksichtigt das Netzwerkmodell der gespannten und statisch druckbelasteten Streifenplatte die Formversteifung. Die untersuchten Wandler erreichen eine maximale Kolbenschnelle um 1 m/s.

Ultra low power wireless sensors and sensor systems are of increasing interest in a variety of applications ranging from structural health monitoring to industrial process control. Electrochemical batteries have thus far remained the primary energy sources for such systems despite the finite associated lifetimes imposed due to limitations associated with energy density. However, certain applications (such as implantable biomedical electronic devices and tire pressure sensors) require the operation of sensors and sensor systems over significant periods of time, where battery usage may be impractical and add cost due to the requirement for periodic re-charging and/or replacement. In order to address this challenge and extend the operational lifetime of wireless sensors, there has been an emerging research interest on harvesting ambient vibration energy. Vibration energy harvesting is a technology that generates electrical energy from ambient kinetic energy. Despite numerous research publications in this field over the past decade, low power density and variable ambient conditions remain as the key limitations of vibration energy harvesting. In terms of the piezoelectric transducers, the open-circuit voltage is usually low, which limits its power while extracted by a full-bridge rectifier. In terms of the interface circuits, most reported circuits are limited by the power efficiency, suitability to real-world vibration conditions and system volume due to large off-chip components required. The research reported in this thesis is focused on increasing power output of piezoelectric transducers and power extraction efficiency of interface circuits. There are five main chapters describing two new design topologies of piezoelectric transducers and three novel active interface circuits implemented with CMOS technology. In order to improve the power output of a piezoelectric transducer, a series connection configuration scheme is proposed, which splits the electrode of a harvester into multiple equal regions connected in series to inherently increase the open-circuit voltage generated by the harvester. This topology passively increases the rectified power while using a full-bridge rectifier. While most of piezoelectric transducers are designed with piezoelectric layers fully covered by electrodes, this thesis proposes a new electrode design topology, which maximizes the raw AC output power of a piezoelectric harvester by finding an optimal electrode coverage. In order to extract power from a piezoelectric harvester, three active interface circuits are proposed in this thesis. The first one improves the conventional SSHI (synchronized switch harvesting on inductor) by employing a startup circuitry to enable the system to start operating under much lower vibration excitation levels. The second one dynamically configures the connection of the two regions of a piezoelectric transducer to increase the operational range and output power under a variety of excitation levels. The third one is a novel SSH architecture which employs capacitors instead of inductors to perform synchronous voltage flip. This new architecture is named as SSHC (synchronized switch harvesting on capacitors) to distinguish from SSHI rectifiers and indicate its inductorless architecture.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:05:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4541.pdf: 1339407 bytes, checksum: be0e2f3bb86e7d6b4c8d03f4f20214ef (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-19 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Machine Translation (MT) is one of the classic Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications. The state-of-the-art in MT is represented by statistical methods that aim to learn all necessary linguistic knowledge automatically through large collections of texts (corpora). However, while the quality of statistical MT systems had improved, nowadays these advances are not significant. For this reason, research in the area have sought to involve more explicit linguistic knowledge in these systems. One issue that purely statistical MT systems have is the lack of correct treatment of syntactic phenomena. Thus, one of the research directions when trying to incorporate linguistic knowledge in those systems is through the addition of syntactic rules. To accomplish this, many methods and formalisms with this goal in mind are studied. This text presents the investigation of methods which aim to advance the state-of-the-art in statistical MT through models that consider syntactic information. The methods and formalisms studied are those used to deal with tree languages, mainly Tree Substitution Grammars (TSGs) and Tree-to-String (TTS) Transducers. From this work, a greater understanding was obtained about the studied formalisms and their behavior when used in NLP applications. / A Tradução Automática (Machine Translation - MT) é uma das aplicações clássicas dentro do Processamento da Língua Natural (Natural Language Processing - NLP). O estado-da-arte em MT é representado por métodos estatísticos, que buscam aprender o conhecimento linguístico necessário de forma automática por meio de grandes coleções de textos (os corpora). Entretanto, ainda que se tenha avançado bastante em relação à qualidade de sistemas estatísticos de MT, hoje em dia esses avanços não estão sendo significativos. Por conta disso, as pesquisas na área têm buscado formas de envolver mais conhecimento linguístico explícito nesses sistemas. Um dos problemas que não é bem resolvido por sistemas de MT puramente estatísticos é o correto tratamento de fenômenos sintáticos. Assim, uma das direções que as pesquisas tomam na hora de incorporar conhecimento linguístico a esses sistemas é através da adição de regras sintáticas. Para isso, uma série de métodos e formalismos foram e são estudados até hoje. Esse texto apresenta a investigação de métodos que se utilizam de informação sintática na tentativa de avançar no estado-da-arte da MT estatística. Foram utilizados métodos e formalismos que lidam com linguagens de a´rvores, em especial as Gramáticas de Substituição de Árvores (Tree Substitution Grammars - TSGs) e os Transdutores Árvore-para-String (Tree-to-String - TTS). Desta investigação, obteve-se maior entendimento sobre os formalismos estudados e seu comportamento em aplicações de NLP.

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems for future structures and vehicles would involve a process of damage identification and prediction of certain quantities of interest that concerns the function and safety. This process provides SHM systems the ability to not only save cost but also enhance the service life, safety and reliability of the structures and vehicles. Integrated SHM system (ISHM) is an advancement of SHM system that has additional capability of predicting the component life/failure. ISHM system development involves detailed understanding of diagnostic waves, hardware components, signal processing paradigms and intelligent use of algorithms. Diagnostic waves like the guided waves are the elastic waves that propagate in a direction defined by the material boundaries. These waves have the capability of traveling large distance probing the entire thickness in plates/shells. Thus, they are widely used by SHM systems in monitoring the plate structures. Piezoelectric transducers are often employed in the interrogation using guided waves. Most SHM systems employing guided waves are designed for specific structures. Current paradigms of SHM systems are unable to enable the transition from simple or ideal structures to realistic and complicated structures. This is due to the challenges at the fundamental level involving transducer, wave propagation and phenomena of guided wave scattering with damages to evaluate the possible solutions through mathematical modeling and signal analysis capability required by ISHM systems. This thesis aims to develop understanding of these problems at a fundamental level. Complex system level understanding is still needed which is left out as open problem. A primary requirement in designing SHM system is the proper understanding of wave characteristics such as number of modes, wavelength and dispersiveness. Although three-dimensional elasticity solution and simplified theories are available to understand them, their applicability in SHM problem requires a much more detailed look. Effort toward this direction has led to the development of simpler models. However, mathematical models are not available for understanding the wave characteristics in complex structures involving stiffeners and adhesive joints. This problem is addressed in this thesis. There is a fair amount of understanding developed regarding transducer characteristics. This is accomplished by analytical and finite element models of transducers in the past. However, simplified transducer model that are computationally fast to suit SHM system requirements needs to be developed. The development of such model is presented in this thesis. Apart from modeling the transducers and wave scattering due to damage, signal correlation and calibration are needed for practical implementation in SHM. Characterization studies reported in published literature are limited to quasi-static and low frequencies applications. However, SHM of aerospace structures employ guided waves typically in the frequency range of 100-500 kHz. Methods to characterize the transducers at this frequency range needs to be developed, which is addressed in this thesis. Another major requirement of SHM system is the design and development of sensor-actuator network and appropriate algorithm. Techniques developed earlier involving transducer arrays in this regard have limitation due to complexity of geometry and signal interpretation that needs to be addressed. The network with suitable algorithm should ideally monitor large area including the critical areas of failure with minimum number of transducers. ISHM systems further require some capability to estimate the useful life of the damaged structure in order to take suitable decisions. Efficient techniques to achieve these are not developed. Overall, there is a need to improve highly interdisciplinary areas involving mathematical modeling, transducer design, fabrication and characterization, damage detection and monitoring strategies. In this thesis, various novel techniques to combine mathematical model with experimental signals to enhance the damage detection capability are presented. In this thesis, developments in the three main aspects of SHM systems are focused upon. They are (1) development of mathematical models of sensors/actuators, wave propagation and scattering due to damage (2) characterization and calibration of transducers and (3) development of technique to monitor wide variety of damages within the scope of ultrasonic guided wave based SHM. The thesis comprises of ten chapters. First chapter is devoted to the background and motivation for the problem addressed in this thesis. In second chapter, brief overview of available mathematical models and conventional damage monitoring strategy is presented. The significant contributions reported in the subsequent chapters in this thesis are outlined below In chapter 3, a reduced-order model of guided wave propagation in thick structures with reduced-order approximation of higher-order elasto-dynamic field is formulated. The surface normal and shear tractions of the thick structure are satisfied in a closed form. The time-frequency Fourier spectral finite element is developed and is validated using detailed and computationally intensive finite element simulations. Natural frequencies obtained from the developed spectral finite element and the detailed finite element simulations are compared. Transient response due to broad frequency band and narrow frequency band excitations given in the form of surface tractions are validated by comparing with the detailed finite element simulations. Using the developed spectral finite element, wave scattering from a free edge and a notch are simulated and validated by comparing with the detailed finite element simulations. In chapter 4, two-dimensional plane wave and flexural wave scattering models for more complicated features such as stiffener with delamination and stiffener with bolt failures in a stiffened panel are derived using ultrasonic ray tracing based approach combined with wave-field representation. Dispersion relations are reformulated for the base plate where it is bolted with the stiffener. Surface conditions due to contact stiffness and contact damping are modeled by introducing springs and dampers. Scattering coefficients for the bonded and bolted stiffeners are derived. The scattering coefficients are evaluated for various different frequencies. Results are compared for different stiffener parameters. In chapter 5, a simplified analytical model of a piezoelectric actuator with uniform electrodes is modeled. The problem is to determine the launched guided wave characteristics in the structure. The analytical model is derived considering two-dimensional elasticity based approach and Airy’s stress function. The actuator model is used to specify the displacement boundary conditions in the detailed finite element model. The radiated wave patterns in a plate due to actuation from transducers of different shapes are obtained and validated with experiments. Phased array actuators are modeled in the detailed finite element model using the displacements estimated from the actuator model. The radiated wave pattern from the detailed finite element simulations are validated with experiments. Chapter 6 is devoted to the design and characterization of transducers for ultrasonic guided wave applications. The characterization techniques involve the estimation of voltage response for the induced strain by the guided wave at various different frequencies. First, a novel removable bonding technique and a calibration technique are demonstrated and related advantages are discussed. Performance of the piezoelectric thin film under quasi-static, dynamic and transient impact loadings are analyzed first. Next, a guided wave technique is developed to characterize piezoelectric thin film sensors and actuators at ultrasonic frequencies. The transducers with inter digital electrodes are characterized for frequency tuning and directional sensitivity. This characterization study enables in the selection of optimal frequency bands for interrogation. Further, the characterization of transducers with thermal degradation is presented. In chapter 7, a novel guided wave technique to calibrate the thin film sensors for ultrasonic applications is presented. Calibration procedure involves the estimation of the piezoelectric coefficient at ultrasonic range of frequencies. Calibration is done by the measurement of voltage generated across thin films when guided waves are induced on them. With the proposed technique, piezoelectric coefficient can be estimated accurately at any frequency of the propagating wave. Similarly, the measurement of piezoelectric coefficient of thin films with inter digital electrodes is presented. The estimation of piezoelectric coefficient at various different directions using laser Doppler vibrometer is presented. Lastly, the degradation of piezoelectric coefficient is studied for increasing thermal fatigue. In chapter 8, toward SHM methodology development, a guided wave based technique to detect and monitor cracks in a structure is presented. To establish the methodology, a detailed study is carried out on the effect of crack and specimen size on the guided wave propagation characteristics. Using the wave characteristics, an analytical way of modeling Lamb wave propagation in the specimen with plastic zone is proposed. The feasibility to determine plastic zone and fatigue crack propagation with integrated piezoelectric transducers is demonstrated experimentally and the results are verified analytically. A method is further established to detect damage at initial stage and crack-tip plastic zone size along with crack length for a given stress amplitude or vice-versa. An approach to estimate fatigue life from the transducer signals is also proposed. In chapter 9, a compact circular array of sensor-actuator network and an algorithm is presented to monitor large plate structures. A method based on the wavelet transforms of transducer signals is established to localize and estimate the severity of damages. Experiments are conducted to demonstrate the capability of the circular array based method in the localization and quantification of various types of damages like debonding of stiffeners, failure of bolted joints, corrosion and hole-enlargement. A damage index is then computed from wavelet time-frequency map that indicates the severity of damage. Chapter 10 ends with the concluding remarks on the work done with simultaneous discussion on the future scope. The work reported in this thesis is interdisciplinary in nature and it aims to combine the modeling and simulation techniques with realistic data in SHM to impart higher confidence levels in the prediction of damages and its prognosis. The work also aims in incorporating various mathematical models of wave propagation and ray tracing based algorithm to optimize the detection scheme employed in SHM. The future direction based on this study could be aimed at developing intelligent SHM systems with high confidence levels so that statistical machine learning would be possible to deal with complex real-world SHM problems.

[pt] A medição da velocidade de fluidos tem relevância considerável em aplicações industriais e científicas, nas quais medições com baixa incerteza são geralmente requeridas. Nesta tese, tem-se como objetivo projetar e modelar um sistema de medição de velocidade de vento utilizando fusão de dados das informações dos tempos de trânsito obtidas pelas técnicas de detecção de limiar e diferença de fase. Para este propósito, este trabalho é composto por duas partes principais. Na primeira parte, apresenta-se uma análise da propagação de incertezas das técnicas de detecção de limiar e diferença de fase considerando duas estruturas para a medição da velocidade do vento, e faz-se a comparação das faixas de medição e suas incertezas associadas para cada estrutura de medição. Na segunda parte deste trabalho, faz-se um estudo das técnicas de fusão de dados aplicadas a instrumentação e medição, identificandose duas técnicas principais baseadas em: (a) estimação de máxima probabilidade (MLE – Maximum Likelihood Estimation), (b) relação de compatibilidade fuzzy e operadores OWA (Order Weighted Average) com agregação parcial. Em seguida, estas técnicas de fusão são aplicadas para a estimação do tempo de trânsito, considerando-se várias medições independentes do tempo de trânsito obtidas pelas técnicas de detecção de limiar e diferença de fase. Finalmente, realiza-se uma análise da incerteza quantificando-se a incerteza de cada medição sobre o resultado final de fusão. Apresenta-se um estudo de caso englobando estas duas partes do trabalho, desenvolvendo-se o projeto e modelagem de um instrumento de medição de velocidade do vento com baixa incerteza, considerando-se as incertezas associadas, e o uso de técnicas adequadas de fusão de dados para prover informações com maior exatidão e confiabilidade. Resultados experimentais são realizados em um túnel de vento de baixa velocidade com o objetivo de verificar a consistência dos estudos teóricos apresentados. / [en] Flow speed measurement has considerable relevance in industrial and scientific applications, where measurements with low uncertainty are required. In this work, a system for wind speed measurement using ultrasonic transducers is designed and modelled. This system makes use of data fusion techniques for the time-of-flight estimation, combining independent information provided by the threshold detection and phase difference methods. For this purpose, this work consists of two main parts. The first part presents an analysis of uncertainty and error propagation concerning the threshold detection and phase difference techniques and considering two structures for the wind speed measurement. Measurement ranges are associated uncertainties are then compared for each of those estrutures. In the second part of this work, data fusion techniques applied to instrumentation and measurement are studied; two main techniques are singled out: (a) Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE), (b) Fuzzy compatibility relation and Order Weighted Average (OWA) operators with partial aggregation. These fusion techniques are then applied to the time-of-flight estimation, by considering several independent measurements obtained through the threshold detection and phase difference techniques. Finally, uncertainty analysis is carried out by quantifying the influence of each independent measurement on the global fusion result. A case study is also presented, where an instrument for wind speed measurements with low uncertainty is designed and modelled. Appropriate techniques of data fusion aimed at improving accuracy and realiability are considered. Experiments are performed in a wind tunnel in order to verify the consistency of the results in view of the theoretical studies.

Les cancers, qu’il s’agisse de leucémies ou de tumeurs solides, sont le résultat de proliférations cellulaires anormales et non contrôlées au sein des tissus. Ces proliférations anarchiques sont le reflet d’une surexpression et/ou sur-activation de protéines intracellulaires engendrées par un événement oncogénique. Aujourd’hui encore il est donc nécessaire de trouver de nouvelles molécules à usage thérapeutique ciblant spécifiquement ces protéines. C’est dans ce contexte que les facteurs de transcription STAT5 constituent de véritables cibles de choix puisque ces protéines participent activement à la leucogénèse. L’implication directe des protéines STAT5 dans la génèse des leucémies a été démontrée par l’utilisation de formes mutées constitutivement active de STAT5. Les facteurs de transcription STAT5 jouent un rôle essentiel dans la voie de signalisation JAK/STAT. Cette voie aboutit à la régulation de grandes fonctions biologiques telles que la prolifération cellulaire, la différenciation cellulaire ou encore l’apoptose. L’objectif de ce projet consiste donc à cibler spécifiquement les protéines STAT5 dans le but de rétablir le processus de mort cellulaire et empêcher la prolifération des cellules cancéreuses. Les inhibiteurs spécifiques des protéines STAT5 sont sélectionnés selon la méthode SELEX qui permet d’isoler des ligands structurés de forte affinité pour la protéine. L’affinité et la spécificité de ces inhibiteurs, appelés aptamères, sont caractérisées à partir de modèles cellulaires de leucémies dépendant de l’activité des facteurs de transcription STAT5. Les aptamères sont aujourd’hui de véritables outils thérapeutiques en pleine évolution. / Leukemias are due to abnormal cell proliferation, which is the result of intracellular over-expression or excessive activation of protein due to oncogenic event. Still today, it is necessary to find new therapeutic molecules, which specifically target these proteins. STAT5, via the JAK/STAT signaling pathway, controls fundamental cellular processes, including .cell survival, proliferation and differentiation. To struggle against tumorigenesis, JAK/STAT signaling pathway has to be inhibited. The aim of this project is to target specifically STAT5 factors to restore healthy signal transduction. We generated aptamers by an iterative in vitro selection. Aptamers are short-structured single strand DNAs or RNAs that bind with high affinity and specificity to their target. Once STAT5B recombinant proteins are produced, they are subjected to SELEX process. The number of rounds depends on various parameters. After seven rounds, two sequences are retrieved. The specificity and affinity of these aptamers are assessed by fluorescent immunoassays. Binding affinity and kinetics of interaction are characterized by SPR. Aptamer anti proliferative effects are determined by evaluation of the growth of cells depending on STAT5. Finally, we developed several .assays aiming at understanding the mechanism of an aptamer action on STAT5B such as phosphorylation measurement and EMSA. Aptamers are now emerging therapeutic tools; they exhibit significant advantages relative to protein therapeutics.

Les transducteurs ultrasonores capacitifs micro-usinés (cMUT : capacitive Micromachined Ultrasound Transducers) apparaissent, au vu de leur maturité croissante, comme une alternative de plus en plus viable à la technologie piézoélectrique. Caractérisés par une large bande passante et une large directivité, ces transducteurs sont des solutions intéressantes pour le développement de sondes ultrasonores « exotiques » dont les spécifications sont difficilement atteignables en technologie piézoélectrique. C'est dans ce contexte et fort de l'expérience acquise par notre laboratoire sur cette technologie pendant plus d'une dizaine d'années, que s'est inscrit ce travail de thèse. L'originalité du travail rapporté ici est d'aller de l'analyse du comportement général des barrettes cMUT jusqu'à un exemple précis de conception de sonde cMUT pour l'évaluation du tissu osseux. Des outils de modélisation précis et rapides, basés sur l'introduction de conditions de périodicité, ont été développés. Plusieurs modèles ont ainsi été mis en place afin d'adapter la stratégie de modélisation à la topologie du dispositif cMUT à modéliser : cellule isolée, colonne de cellules, matrice de cellules et élément de barrette. Ces modèles ont permis d'étudier le comportement des éléments de barrette cMUT et d'améliorer notre connaissance sur les mécanismes physiques mis en jeu. De cette façon, l'origine des effets de baffle, problème récurrent du comportement des barrettes cMUT, a clairement été interprété par l'intermédiaire d'une analyse modale. Des solutions ont ainsi été identifiées et proposées afin d'optimiser le comportement des barrettes cMUT, de façon à réduire la présence des effets de baffle et à augmenter leur bande passante. Le développement d'une barrette cMUT dédiée à l'évaluation du tissu osseux est présenté dans sa totalité, afin d'illustrer les différents aspects liés à la conception d'une sonde de cette technologie. Un travail original de caractérisation a été réalisé sur cette barrette, afin d'estimer l'homogénéité inter-cellules à l'échelle de l'élément et l'homogénéité inter-éléments à l'échelle de la barrette. Enfin, une confrontation a été réalisée avec une sonde PZT de même topologie sur plusieurs fantômes osseux. Il a ainsi été démontré que la sonde cMUT permettait la détection d'un plus grand nombre de modes guidés, et par conséquent, une meilleure évaluation du tissu osseux. / Following recent advances, the capacitive Micromachined Ultrasound Transducers (cMUT) technology seems to be a good alternative to the piezoelectric technology. For specific applications, the requirements and specifications of the probe are sometimes difficult to obtain with the traditional PZT technology. The cMUT technology, with both large bandwidth and angular directivity, can be an interesting way to overcome these limitations. This PhD has been carried out in this context, in a laboratory which has nearly 10 years of experience in the field of cMUT technology. The originality of the work sustained in this PhD is that it covers the cMUT technology, from general aspects dealing of modeling and characterization up to a complete example of cMUT-based probe applied to the assessment of cortical bone. Fast and accurate modeling tools, based on periodicity conditions, have been developed. Several models have been proposed to match the modeling strategy to the topology of the cMUT array : isolated cell, columns of cells, 2-D matrix of cells and array element. These models have been used to analyze the cMUT array behavior and to understand how mutual couplings between cMUTs impact the response of one element. Origins of the baffle effect, well-known as a recurrent problem in cMUT probe, have been explained using an original method based on the normal mode decomposition of the radiated pressure field. Thus, solutions have been identified and tested to optimize the cMUT frequency response, i.e. to increase the bandwidth, and to suppress parasitic disturbances linked to baffle effect in the electroacoustic response. The development of a dedicated cMUT array for the assessment of bone tissue is accurately detailed in the manuscript, including description of the design rules, fabrication steps and packaging procedure. An original characterization work has been carried out in order to check the device homogeneity, first from cell to cell and then from element to element. Finally, a comparison with a PZT probe with the same topology has been performed on bone mimicking phantom. Nice results has been obtained, showing that cMUT probe allows detecting higher number of guided modes in the cortical shell, and consequently, improving the cortical bone assessment.

Air-borne ultrasonic transducers are optimised to achieve a maximal sound pressure in a frequency range around 100 kHz. Moreover, the radiation of a high acoustic power is desired, which requires a large transducer area. Within this dissertation the ultrasonic transducers are, therefore, optimised to operate in the resonance mode. Using this operating point the maximal force is fed into the transducer while it is charged with the lowest loss possible. Many applications of air-borne ultrasound need a sufficient bandwidth in addition to a high sound pressure, that s why the swinging mass of the transducer has to be minimised. For these reasons, air-borne capacitive and piezoelectric film transducers take centre stage of these examinations. New network models of the stripe membrane and the pre-stressed stripe plate are derived to optimise these ultrasonic transducers. Besides its mechanical tension and its bending stiffness, the new network model of the pre-stressed and pressure loaded stripe plate takes also the stiffness caused by the shape of the plate into account. The examined transducers achive a maximal piston velocity around 1 m/s. / Ultraschallwandler für Anwendungen in Luft werden zur Bereitstellung eines maximalen Schalldrucks im Frequenzbereich um 100 kHz optimiert. Sie sollen außerdem die Abstrahlung einer großen Schallleistung zulassen, was eine große Wandlerfläche voraussetzt. Deshalb werden in dieser Arbeit die Ultraschallsender für den Resonanzbetrieb optimiert, wo man die maximale Krafteinspeisung bei minimalen Verlusten einstellt. Viele Anwendungen von Ultraschall in Luft benötigen neben einem hohen Schalldruckpegel auch eine ausreichende Bandbreite, wozu die schwingende Masse der Wandler zu minimieren ist. Deshalb stehen kapazitive und piezoelektrische Folienwandler im Resonanzbetrieb im Vordergrund der Untersuchungen. Zur Optimierung dieser Ultraschallsender werden die Netzwerkmodelle der Streifenmembran und der gespannten Streifenplatte abgeleitet. Neben der mechanischen Spannung und der Biegesteifigkeit berücksichtigt das Netzwerkmodell der gespannten und statisch druckbelasteten Streifenplatte die Formversteifung. Die untersuchten Wandler erreichen eine maximale Kolbenschnelle um 1 m/s.