L’identification de biomarqueurs des maladies mentales telles que l’autisme, la schizophrénie ou la maladie d’Alzheimer, est d’une importance capitale non seulement pour établir un diagnostic objectif, mais aussi pour suivre l’effet des traitements. La création et le maintien de fonctions neuronales sub-cellulaires, telle que la plasticité synaptique, sont fortement dépendants du transport intraneuronal, essentiel pour acheminer d’importants composants à des positions spécifiques. Un transport actif défaillant semble être partiellement responsable d’anomalies de la plasticité synaptique et de la morphologie neuronale présentes dans de nombreuses maladies neuropsychiatriques. Cette thèse décrit (i) la mise au point d’une méthode de quantification du transport intraneuronal reposant sur le suivi de nanoparticules de diamants fluorescents (fNDs); (ii) l’application de cette technique simple et faiblement invasive à l’analyse fonctionnelle de variants génétiques associés à des maladies neuropsychiatriques. Ce manuscrit comporte quatre chapitres. Le premier détaille l’architecture polygénique complexe des maladies mentales et démontre la pertinence d’étudier le transport intraneuronal. Les deuxième et troisième chapitres sont dédiés à la méthode et détaillent les stratégies d’internalisation des fNDs, les outils de quantification du transport intraneuronal et la validation de la technique. La forte brillance, la photo-stabilité parfaite et l’absence de toxicité cellulaire font des fNDs un outil de choix pour étudier la dynamique du transport intraneuronal sur une durée d’observation de plusieurs heures avec une haute résolution spatiotemporelle et une bonne puissance statistique. Enfin, dans le quatrième chapitre, nous appliquons cette nouvelle méthode d’analyse fonctionnelle pour étudier l’effet de variants génétiques associés à l’autisme et à la schizophrénie. Pour cela, nous utilisons des lignées de souris transgéniques ayant une faible surexpression des gènes MARK1 et SLC25A12, ainsi que des AAV-shRNA pour induire une haplo-insuffisance du gène AUTS2. Notre méthode de diagnostic moléculaire s’avère suffisamment sensible pour déceler des variations fines de la dynamique du transport intraneuronal, ouvrant la voie à de futurs développements en nanomédecine translationnelle. / The identification of molecular biomarkers of brain diseases as diverse as autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease, is of crucial importance not only for an objective diagnosis but also to monitor response to treatments. The establishment and maintenance of sub-cellular neuronal functions, such as synaptic plasticity, are highly dependent on intracellular transport, which is essential to deliver important materials to specific locations. Abnormalities in such active transport are thought to be partly responsible for synaptic plasticity and neuronal morphology impairment found in many neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. This thesis reports (i) the development of a quantification technic of intraneuronal transport based on fluorescent nanodiamonds (fNDs) tracking; (ii) the application of this simple and minimally invasive approach to the functional analysis of neuropsychiatric disease-related genetic variants.This manuscript falls into four chapters. The first one details the complex polygenic architecture of mental disorders and demonstrates the disease relevance of monitoring the intraneuronal transport. The second and the third chapters are dedicated to the nanodiamond-tracking assay and describe the fNDs internalisation strategies, the spatiotemporal quantitative readouts and the validation of the technic. The high brightness, the perfect photostability and the absence of cytotoxicity make fNDs a tool of choice to perform high throughput long-term bioimaging at high spatiotemporal resolution. Finally, in the fourth chapter, we apply this new functional analysis method to study the effect of genetic variants associated to autism and schizophrenia. We established transgenic mouse lines in which MARK1 and SLC25A12 genes were slightly overexpressed, and AAV-shRNA to induce AUTS2 gene haploinsufficiency. Our molecular diagnosis assay proves sufficiently sensitive to detect fine changes in intraneuronal transport dynamic, paving the way for future development in translational nanomedicine.

[ES] El agua es esencial para la vida. La presente Tesis ha estudiado el uso de ozono y peroximonosulfato como oxidantes en tratamientos de agua para el control de subproductos de desinfección o degradación de contaminantes. La pre-ozonización del agua natural, se consideró como un tratamiento general del agua potable capaz de minimizar la formación de subproductos de la desinfección (DBP). En esta tesis, sin embargo, se ha demostrado que la pre-ozonización de aguas superficiales que contienen cianobacterias comunes, no es un tratamiento adecuado para controlar los DBP basados en cloración (trihalometanos, ácidos haloacéticos, halonitrilos, halocetonas y tricloronitrometano). Los procesos de oxidación avanzada (POAs) basados en ozono y peroximonosulfato se consideran algunas de las tecnologías preferibles para la degradación de contaminantes del agua. Esta tesis ha demostrado que la funcionalización adecuada del carbón activo mediante tratamiento químico da como resultado una funcionalización superficial del carbón con una gran población de grupos funcionales de oxígeno capaces de depositar pequeñas nanopartículas de cobalto. El material resultante exhibe una actividad catalítica para la activación del PMS y la degradación del fenol superior a la mayoría de los estudios previos en este campo. También ha mostrado la posibilidad de desarrollar catalizadores de ozonización libres de metales altamente activos basados en grafito de alta área superficial hidroxilado en los bordes o en nanodiamantes sp2 / sp3 defectuosos. / [CA] L'aigua és essencial per a la vida. La present Tesi ha estudiat l'ús d'ozó i peroximonosulfat com oxidants en tractaments d'aigua per al control de subproductes de desinfecció o degradació de contaminants. La pre-ozonació de l'aigua natural, es va considerar com un tractament general de l'aigua potable capaç de minimitzar la formació de subproductes de la desinfecció (DBP). En aquesta tesi, però, s'ha demostrat que la pre-ozonació d'aigües superficials que contenen cianobacteries comuns, no és un tractament adequat per controlar els DBP basats en cloració (trihalometans, àcids haloacétics, halonitrilos, halocetones i tricloronitrometà). Els processos d'oxidació avançada (POAs) basats en ozó i peroximonosulfat es consideren algunes de les tecnologies preferibles per a la degradació de contaminants de l'aigua. Aquesta tesi ha demostrat que la funcionalització adequada del carbó actiu mitjançant tractament químic dóna com a resultat una funcionalització superficial de l'carbó amb una gran població de grups fun-cionals d'oxigen capaços de dipositar petites nanopartícules de cobalt. El material resultant exhibeix una activitat catalítica per a l'activació del PMS i la degradació del fenol superior a la majoria dels estudis previs en aquest camp. També ha mostrat la possibilitat de desenvolupar catalitzadors d'ozonització lliures de metalls altament actius basats en grafit d'alta àrea superficial hidroxilat en les vores o en nanodiamants sp2 / sp3 defectuosos. / [EN] Water is essential for life. The present Thesis studied the use of ozone and peroxymonosulfate as oxidants in water treatments for disinfection by-products control or pollutant degradation. Pre-ozonation of natural water was considered as a general drinking water treatment able to minimize the formation of DBPs. In this Thesis, however, it has been demonstrated that pre-ozonation of surface water containing common cyanobacteria is not a suitable treatment for controlling chlorination-based DBPs (trihalomethanes, haloacetic acids, haloace-tonitriles, haloketones and trichloronitromethane). AOPs based on ozone and peroxymonosulfate are considered to be some of the preferable technologies for water pollutant degradation. This Thesis has shown that appropriate activated carbon functionalization by chemical treatment results in a surface functionalization with a large population of oxygen functional groups able to deposit small cobalt nanoparticles. The resulting material exhibits a catalytic activity for PMS activation and phenol degradation superior to most of the previous studies in the field. It has also shown the possibility of developing highly active metal-free ozonation catalysts based on edged-hydroxylated high surface area graphite or defective sp2/sp3 nanodiamonds. / Bernat Quesada, F. (2021). Ozone and peroxymonosulfate as oxidants in water treatments for disinfection by-products control or pollutant degradation [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/174887 / TESIS

With industries aiming at higher efficiencies, lightweight parts, and easier manufacturability there has been a recent trend of replacing the metallic materials with polymeric materials and its composites. Particularly in the automotive industry, there is a demand of replacing metallic material of bushes and bearings with polymer based materials (PBM). For these heavy performance requirements (as in automobiles), the commonly used industrial polymers like Acetal and Nylon fail to provide good mechanical and tribological performance. High-performance polymer like Polyphenylene Sulfide (PPS) is a relatively newer material and shows a potential of being a PBM alternative for metallic bearings in automobiles if their tribological performance can be improved.  One of the ways of improving the tribological performance of the polymer is by the addition of filler material, hence making a polymer composite. In this study, we used Short Carbon Fibre as micro-reinforcement material and Nano-diamonds and Graphene Oxide as nano-reinforcement material to make PPS composites. The varying mechanical and tribological behaviour of PPS composites with different weight percentage of reinforcement materials was investigated. The optimum composition of the reinforcement materials was identified, which resulted in significant improvement in mechanical and tribological properties of the base material.

No description available.

1 Abstract Diamond is a unique material for its physical and chemical stability. However, many advance applications rely on surface functionalisation. Here, two types of diamond were modified on the surface - thin layer of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and nanodiamond particles (NDs) high pressure and high temperature (HPHT). The aim of CVD surface modification was to prepare photosensitised, conductive, diamond electrodes for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC). For this purpose, a thin diamond layer doped with boron was deposited on the silicon wafer. Boron doping provided p-type (semi)conductivity to diamonds. The surface of the diamond was hydrogenated with H-plasma, and a short carbon linker with a protected amino group was UV-photografted to the surface. In another study, a photoconverting dye (P1) was covalently attached to the amine-linker. Furthermore, a dye designed based on donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) concepts was attached to the surface. Finally, a systematic study was done for differently conductive diamond layer and the underlying silicon wafer These experiments gradually lead to the highest ever reported photocurrents of 6.6 µA cm2 for a flat photosensitised boron-doped-diamond (BDD) electrode. Monomolecular layer surface functionalizations on CVD diamond are difficult to detect or even quantify...

Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Dissertation wurden neuartige integrierte Einzelphotonenquellen (EPQ) und ihre Anwendung für die Quanteninformationsverarbeitung entwickelt und untersucht. Die Erzeugung von Einzelphotonen basiert auf einzelnen Defektzentren in nanometergroßen Diamantkristallen mit einzigartigen optischen Eigenschaften: Stabilität bei Zimmertemperatur ohne optisches Blinken. Diamantkristalle mit Größen bis unter 20nm wurden mit neuartigen „pick-and-place“ Techniken (z.B. mit einem Atomkraftmikroskop) in komplexe photonische Strukturen integriert. Zwei unterschiedliche Ansätze für die Realisierung der neuartigen EPQ wurden verfolgt. Beim ersten werden fluoreszierende Diamantkristalle in nano- und mikrometergroße Faser-basierte oder resonante Strukturen in einem „bottom-up“ Ansatz integriert, dadurch werden zusätzliche optische Komponenten überflüssig und das Gesamtsystem ultra-stabil und wartungsfrei. Der zweite Ansatz beruht auf einem Festkörperimmersionsmikroskop (FIM). Seine Festkörperimmersionslinse wirkt wie eine dielektrische Antenne für die Emission der Defektzentren. Es ermöglicht die höchsten bisher erreichten Photonenzählraten von Stickstoff-Fehlstellen von bis zu 2.4Mcts/s und Einsammeleffizienzen von bis zu 4.2%. Durch Anwendung des FIM bei cryogenen Temperaturen wurden neuartige Anwendungen und fundamentale Untersuchungen möglich, weil Photonenraten signifikant erhöht wurden. Die Bestimmung der spektralen Diffusionszeit eines einzelnen Defektzentrums (2.2µs) gab neue Erkenntnisse über die Ursachen von spektraler Diffusion. Spektrale Diffusion ist eine limitierende Eigenschaft für die Realisierung von Quanteninformationsanwendungen. Das Tisch-basierte FIM wurde außerdem als kompakte mobile EPQ mit Ausmaßen von nur 7x19x23cm^3 realisiert. Es wurde für ein Quantenkryptographie-Experiment implementiert, zum ersten Mal mit Siliziumdefektzentren. Des Weiteren wurde ein neues Konzept für die Erzeugung von infraroten EPQ entwickelt und realisiert. / The presented thesis covers the development and investigation of novel integrated single photon (SP) sources and their application for quantum information schemes. SP generation was based on single defect centers in diamond nanocrystals. Such defect centers offer unique optical properties as they are room temperature stable, non-blinking, and do not photo-bleach over time. The fluorescent nanocrystals are mechanically stable, their size down to 20nm enabled the development of novel nano-manipulation pick-and-place techniques, e.g., with an atomic force microscope, for integration into photonic structures. Two different approaches were pursued to realize novel SP sources. First, fluorescent diamond nanocrystals were integrated into nano- and micrometer scaled fiber devices and resonators, making them ultra-stable and maintenance free. Secondly, a solid immersion microscope (SIM) was developed. Its solid immersion lens acts as a dielectric antenna for the emission of defect centers, enabling the highest photon rates of up to 2.4Mcts/s and collection efficiencies of up to 4.2% from nitrogen vacancy defect centers achieved to date. Implementation of the SIM at cryogenic temperatures enabled novel applications and fundamental investigations due to increased photon rates. The determination of the spectral diffusion time of a single nitrogen vacancy defect center (2.2µs) gave new insights about the mechanisms causing spectral diffusion. Spectral diffusion is a limiting property for quantum information applications. The table-top SIM was integrated into a compact mobile SP system with dimension of only 7x19x23cm^3 while still maintaining record-high stable SP rates. This makes it interesting for various SP applications. First, a quantum key distribution scheme based on the BB84 protocol was implemented, for the first time also with silicon vacancy defect centers. Secondly, a conceptually novel scheme for the generation of infrared SPs was introduced and realized.