Les dérivés réactifs de l'oxygène (ROS) sont considérés comme des messagers intracellulaires et sont produits principalement par les NADPH oxydases (Nox) dont Nox4 est l'un des représentants. Le dysfonctionnement de Nox4 est relié à de nombreuses pathologies (cancer, athérosclérose, hypertension pulmonaire ou arthrose). La régulation de l'activité NADPH oxydase de Nox4 est encore peu connue. L'objectif de ce travail est d'étudier l'activité NADPH oxydase et diaphorase (initiation du transfert d'électron) de Nox4.<br />Le clonage du gène de Nox4 a mis en évidence deux isoformes protéiques (Nox4A, forme entière et Nox4B, forme délétée d'un domaine de fixation du NADPH). La mise en place de deux modèles d'étude cellulaire (cellules HEK293E) et acellulaire (protéines recombinantes Nox4 tronquées) a permis d'obtenir les résultats suivants:<br />1) L'activité NADPH oxydase de Nox4A surexprimée dans les cellules HEK293E est constitutive et la partie C terminale cytosolique en milieu acellulaire possède une activité diaphorase. Par contre, Nox4B est inactive. <br />2) L'activité NADPH oxydase de Nox4 est inhibée par une série de composés quinones faiblement substitués (benzoquinone, hydroquinone, tMetBQ) et stimulée par d'autres quinones (tBuBQ, tBuBHQ, duroquinone, AA-861). L'implication du calcium et de la 5-lipoxygénase dans le mécanisme d'action des composés AA-861 et tBuBHQ a été écartée. Nos données convergent vers l'hypothèse d'une action directe des quinones sur la partie N terminale membranaire de Nox4.<br />Nous avons donc démontré que l'activité NADPH oxydase de Nox4 n'est pas seulement constitutive mais modulable par différentes quinones. Le mécanisme moléculaire précis reste à définir.

It is crucial to find a good balance between positioning accuracy and cost when developing navigation systems for ground vehicles. In open sky or even in a semi-urban environment, a single global navigation satellite system (GNSS) constellation performs sufficiently well. However, the positioning accuracy decreases drastically in urban environments. Because of the limitation in tracking performance for standalone GNSS, particularly in cities, many solutions are now moving toward integrated systems that combine complementary sensors. In this master thesis the improvement of tracking performance for a low-cost ground vehicle navigation system is evaluated when complementary sensors are added and different filtering techniques are used. How the GNSS aided inertial navigation system (INS) is used to track ground vehicles is explained in this thesis. This has shown to be a very effective way of tracking a vehicle through GNSS outages. Measurements from an accelerometer and a gyroscope are used as inputs to inertial navigation equations. GNSS measurements are then used to correct the tracking solution and to estimate the biases in the inertial sensors. When velocity constraints on the vehicle’s motion in the y- and z-axis are included, the GNSS aided INS has shown very good performance, even during long GNSS outages. Two versions of the Rauch-Tung-Striebel (RTS) smoother and a particle filter (PF) version of the GNSS aided INS have also been implemented and evaluated. The PF has shown to be computationally demanding in comparison with the other approaches and a real-time implementation on the considered embedded system is not doable. The RTS smoother has shown to give a smoother trajectory but a lot of extra information needs to be stored and the position accuracy is not significantly improved. Moreover, map matching has been combined with GNSS measurements and estimates from the GNSS aided INS. The Viterbi algorithm is used to output the the road segment identification numbers of the most likely path and then the estimates are matched to the closest position of these roads. A suggested solution to acquire reliable tracking with high accuracy in all environments is to run the GNSS aided INS in real-time in the vehicle and simultaneously send the horizontal position coordinates to a back office where map information is kept and map matching is performed.

Esta tese de doutorado trata de dois desafios que projetistas de circuitos integrados analógicos enfrentam quando estimando a confiabilidade de transistores fabricados em modernos processos CMOS: radiação e ruído flicker. Em relação a radiação, o foco desde trabalho é a Dose Total Ionizante (TID): acumulação de dose ionizante (elétrons e prótons) durante um longo período de tempo nas camadas isolantes dos dispositivos, então resultando na degradação dos parâmetros elétricos (por exemplo, a tensão de limiar e as correntes de fuga). Este trabalho apresenta um caso de estudo composto por circuitos referência tensões de baseados na tensão de bandgap e na tensão de limiar dos transistores. Esses circuitos foram fabricados em uma tecnologia comercial CMOS de 130 nm. Um chip contendo os circuitos foi irradiado usando raio gama de uma fonte de cobalto (60 Co), e o impacto dos efeitos da radiação até uma dose de 490 krad nas tensões de saída é apresentado. Foi verificado que o impacto da radiação foi similar ou até mesmo mais severo que os efeitos causados pelo processo de fabricação para a maior parte dos circuitos projetados. Para as referências baseadas na tensão de bandgap implementadas com transistores de óxido fino e grosso, a variação na tensão de saída causada pela radiação foi de 5.5% e 15%, respectivamente. Para as referências baseadas na tensão de limiar, a variação da tensão de saída foi de 2% a 15% dependendo da topologia do circuito. Em relação ao ruído, o foco desta tese é no ruído flicker do transitor MOS quando este está em operação ciclo-estacionária. Nesta condição, a tensão no terminal da porta está constantemente variando durante a operação e o ruído flicker se torna uma função da tensão porta-fonte e não é precisamente estimado pelos tradicionais modelos de ruído flicker dos transistores MOS. Esta tese apresenta um caso de estudo composto por osciladores de tensão (topologia baseada em anel e no tanque LC) projetados em processos 45 e 130 nm. A frequência de oscilação e sua dependência em relação à polarização do substrato dos transistores foi investigada. Considerando o oscilador em anel, a média da variação da frequência de oscilação causada pela variação da tensão de alimentação e da polarização do substrato foi 495 kHz/mV e 81 kHz/mV, respectivamente. A média da frequência de oscilação é de 103,4 MHz e a média do jitter medido para 4 amostras é de 7.6 ps. Para o tanque LC, a frequência de oscilação medida é de 2,419 GHz e sua variação considerando 1 V de variação na tensão de substrato foi de aproximadamente 0,4 %. / This thesis is focused on two challenges faced by analog integrated circuit designers when predicting the reliability of transistors implemented in modern CMOS processes: radiation and noise. Regarding radiation, the concern of this work is the Total Ionizing Dose (TID): accumulation of ionizing dose deposited (electrons and protons) over a long time in insulators leading to degradation of electrical parameters of transistors (e.g. threshold voltage and leakage). This work presents a case-study composed by bandgap-based and threshold voltagebased voltage reference circuits implemented in a commercial 130 nm CMOS process. A chip containing the designed circuits was irradiated through γ-ray Cobalt source (60 Co) and the impact of TID effects up to 490 krad on the output voltages is presented. It was found that the impact of radiation on the output voltage accuracy was similar or more severe than the variation caused by the process variability for most of the case-study circuits. For the bandgap-based reference implemented using thin-oxide and thick-oxide transistors, TID effects result in a variation of the output voltage of 5.5 % and 12%, respectively. For the threshold voltage references, the output variation was between 2% and 15% depending on the circuit topology. Regarding noise, the concern of this work is the transistor flicker noise under cyclostationary operation, that is, when the voltage at transistor gate terminal is constantly varying over time. Under these conditions, the flicker noise becomes a function of VGS; and its is not accurately predicted by traditional transistor flicker noise models. This thesis presents a case-study composed by voltage oscillators (inverter-based ring and LC-tank topologies) implemented in 45 and 130 nm CMOS processes. The oscillation frequency and its dependency on the bulk bias were investigated. Considering the ring-oscillator, the average oscillation frequency variation caused by supply voltage and bulk bias variation are 495 kHz/mV and 81 kHz/mV, respectively. The average oscillation frequency is 103.4 MHz for a supply voltage of 700 mV, and the measured averaged period jitter for 4 measured samples is 7.6 ps. For the LC-tank, the measured oscillation frequency was 2.419 GHz and the total frequency variation considering 1 V of bulk bias voltage was only ~ 0.4 %.

Esta tese de doutorado trata de dois desafios que projetistas de circuitos integrados analógicos enfrentam quando estimando a confiabilidade de transistores fabricados em modernos processos CMOS: radiação e ruído flicker. Em relação a radiação, o foco desde trabalho é a Dose Total Ionizante (TID): acumulação de dose ionizante (elétrons e prótons) durante um longo período de tempo nas camadas isolantes dos dispositivos, então resultando na degradação dos parâmetros elétricos (por exemplo, a tensão de limiar e as correntes de fuga). Este trabalho apresenta um caso de estudo composto por circuitos referência tensões de baseados na tensão de bandgap e na tensão de limiar dos transistores. Esses circuitos foram fabricados em uma tecnologia comercial CMOS de 130 nm. Um chip contendo os circuitos foi irradiado usando raio gama de uma fonte de cobalto (60 Co), e o impacto dos efeitos da radiação até uma dose de 490 krad nas tensões de saída é apresentado. Foi verificado que o impacto da radiação foi similar ou até mesmo mais severo que os efeitos causados pelo processo de fabricação para a maior parte dos circuitos projetados. Para as referências baseadas na tensão de bandgap implementadas com transistores de óxido fino e grosso, a variação na tensão de saída causada pela radiação foi de 5.5% e 15%, respectivamente. Para as referências baseadas na tensão de limiar, a variação da tensão de saída foi de 2% a 15% dependendo da topologia do circuito. Em relação ao ruído, o foco desta tese é no ruído flicker do transitor MOS quando este está em operação ciclo-estacionária. Nesta condição, a tensão no terminal da porta está constantemente variando durante a operação e o ruído flicker se torna uma função da tensão porta-fonte e não é precisamente estimado pelos tradicionais modelos de ruído flicker dos transistores MOS. Esta tese apresenta um caso de estudo composto por osciladores de tensão (topologia baseada em anel e no tanque LC) projetados em processos 45 e 130 nm. A frequência de oscilação e sua dependência em relação à polarização do substrato dos transistores foi investigada. Considerando o oscilador em anel, a média da variação da frequência de oscilação causada pela variação da tensão de alimentação e da polarização do substrato foi 495 kHz/mV e 81 kHz/mV, respectivamente. A média da frequência de oscilação é de 103,4 MHz e a média do jitter medido para 4 amostras é de 7.6 ps. Para o tanque LC, a frequência de oscilação medida é de 2,419 GHz e sua variação considerando 1 V de variação na tensão de substrato foi de aproximadamente 0,4 %. / This thesis is focused on two challenges faced by analog integrated circuit designers when predicting the reliability of transistors implemented in modern CMOS processes: radiation and noise. Regarding radiation, the concern of this work is the Total Ionizing Dose (TID): accumulation of ionizing dose deposited (electrons and protons) over a long time in insulators leading to degradation of electrical parameters of transistors (e.g. threshold voltage and leakage). This work presents a case-study composed by bandgap-based and threshold voltagebased voltage reference circuits implemented in a commercial 130 nm CMOS process. A chip containing the designed circuits was irradiated through γ-ray Cobalt source (60 Co) and the impact of TID effects up to 490 krad on the output voltages is presented. It was found that the impact of radiation on the output voltage accuracy was similar or more severe than the variation caused by the process variability for most of the case-study circuits. For the bandgap-based reference implemented using thin-oxide and thick-oxide transistors, TID effects result in a variation of the output voltage of 5.5 % and 12%, respectively. For the threshold voltage references, the output variation was between 2% and 15% depending on the circuit topology. Regarding noise, the concern of this work is the transistor flicker noise under cyclostationary operation, that is, when the voltage at transistor gate terminal is constantly varying over time. Under these conditions, the flicker noise becomes a function of VGS; and its is not accurately predicted by traditional transistor flicker noise models. This thesis presents a case-study composed by voltage oscillators (inverter-based ring and LC-tank topologies) implemented in 45 and 130 nm CMOS processes. The oscillation frequency and its dependency on the bulk bias were investigated. Considering the ring-oscillator, the average oscillation frequency variation caused by supply voltage and bulk bias variation are 495 kHz/mV and 81 kHz/mV, respectively. The average oscillation frequency is 103.4 MHz for a supply voltage of 700 mV, and the measured averaged period jitter for 4 measured samples is 7.6 ps. For the LC-tank, the measured oscillation frequency was 2.419 GHz and the total frequency variation considering 1 V of bulk bias voltage was only ~ 0.4 %.

Esta tese de doutorado trata de dois desafios que projetistas de circuitos integrados analógicos enfrentam quando estimando a confiabilidade de transistores fabricados em modernos processos CMOS: radiação e ruído flicker. Em relação a radiação, o foco desde trabalho é a Dose Total Ionizante (TID): acumulação de dose ionizante (elétrons e prótons) durante um longo período de tempo nas camadas isolantes dos dispositivos, então resultando na degradação dos parâmetros elétricos (por exemplo, a tensão de limiar e as correntes de fuga). Este trabalho apresenta um caso de estudo composto por circuitos referência tensões de baseados na tensão de bandgap e na tensão de limiar dos transistores. Esses circuitos foram fabricados em uma tecnologia comercial CMOS de 130 nm. Um chip contendo os circuitos foi irradiado usando raio gama de uma fonte de cobalto (60 Co), e o impacto dos efeitos da radiação até uma dose de 490 krad nas tensões de saída é apresentado. Foi verificado que o impacto da radiação foi similar ou até mesmo mais severo que os efeitos causados pelo processo de fabricação para a maior parte dos circuitos projetados. Para as referências baseadas na tensão de bandgap implementadas com transistores de óxido fino e grosso, a variação na tensão de saída causada pela radiação foi de 5.5% e 15%, respectivamente. Para as referências baseadas na tensão de limiar, a variação da tensão de saída foi de 2% a 15% dependendo da topologia do circuito. Em relação ao ruído, o foco desta tese é no ruído flicker do transitor MOS quando este está em operação ciclo-estacionária. Nesta condição, a tensão no terminal da porta está constantemente variando durante a operação e o ruído flicker se torna uma função da tensão porta-fonte e não é precisamente estimado pelos tradicionais modelos de ruído flicker dos transistores MOS. Esta tese apresenta um caso de estudo composto por osciladores de tensão (topologia baseada em anel e no tanque LC) projetados em processos 45 e 130 nm. A frequência de oscilação e sua dependência em relação à polarização do substrato dos transistores foi investigada. Considerando o oscilador em anel, a média da variação da frequência de oscilação causada pela variação da tensão de alimentação e da polarização do substrato foi 495 kHz/mV e 81 kHz/mV, respectivamente. A média da frequência de oscilação é de 103,4 MHz e a média do jitter medido para 4 amostras é de 7.6 ps. Para o tanque LC, a frequência de oscilação medida é de 2,419 GHz e sua variação considerando 1 V de variação na tensão de substrato foi de aproximadamente 0,4 %. / This thesis is focused on two challenges faced by analog integrated circuit designers when predicting the reliability of transistors implemented in modern CMOS processes: radiation and noise. Regarding radiation, the concern of this work is the Total Ionizing Dose (TID): accumulation of ionizing dose deposited (electrons and protons) over a long time in insulators leading to degradation of electrical parameters of transistors (e.g. threshold voltage and leakage). This work presents a case-study composed by bandgap-based and threshold voltagebased voltage reference circuits implemented in a commercial 130 nm CMOS process. A chip containing the designed circuits was irradiated through γ-ray Cobalt source (60 Co) and the impact of TID effects up to 490 krad on the output voltages is presented. It was found that the impact of radiation on the output voltage accuracy was similar or more severe than the variation caused by the process variability for most of the case-study circuits. For the bandgap-based reference implemented using thin-oxide and thick-oxide transistors, TID effects result in a variation of the output voltage of 5.5 % and 12%, respectively. For the threshold voltage references, the output variation was between 2% and 15% depending on the circuit topology. Regarding noise, the concern of this work is the transistor flicker noise under cyclostationary operation, that is, when the voltage at transistor gate terminal is constantly varying over time. Under these conditions, the flicker noise becomes a function of VGS; and its is not accurately predicted by traditional transistor flicker noise models. This thesis presents a case-study composed by voltage oscillators (inverter-based ring and LC-tank topologies) implemented in 45 and 130 nm CMOS processes. The oscillation frequency and its dependency on the bulk bias were investigated. Considering the ring-oscillator, the average oscillation frequency variation caused by supply voltage and bulk bias variation are 495 kHz/mV and 81 kHz/mV, respectively. The average oscillation frequency is 103.4 MHz for a supply voltage of 700 mV, and the measured averaged period jitter for 4 measured samples is 7.6 ps. For the LC-tank, the measured oscillation frequency was 2.419 GHz and the total frequency variation considering 1 V of bulk bias voltage was only ~ 0.4 %.

This thesis deals with game development on the Xbox 360 platform and implementation of a starter kit for this platform. After introduction of the Xbox 360 as a modern and very powerful gaming console, the XNA technology that makes development of games for console possible for the first time in history not only for professionals but also for amateurs, is introduced. The next part mentions existing starter kits for 3D XNA games, existing tools widely used to analyze implemented solution with focus on performance and tools commonly used for game content creation. The main part of thesis is dedicated to design, implementation and testing of a real time strategy starter kit prototype, with emphasis on efficiency, understandability and usability by XNA community members in mind.

Le génome de différents organismes contient près de 30% de séquences codantes pour des protéines membranaires. Celles-ci sont impliquées dans des processus biologiques tels que la signalisation cellulaire, la transduction énergétique ou le transport des métabolites. Cependant, leur étude structurale se heurte souvent aux problèmes de surexpression, ainsi qu'aux différents inconvénients liés à leur extraction de leur environnement natif. Le canal mécanosensible à large conductance MscL d'Escherichia coli est une protéine intrinsèque de la membrane interne de la bactérie. L'activité de cette protéine est fortement dépendante de la membrane ; en effet, le canal s'ouvre lorsque la pression au niveau de la membrane augmente, lors d'un choc hypoosmotique, relarguant de l'eau et différents substrats afin que la bactérie retrouve un état osmotique adéquat à sa survie. Il est donc essentiel de recueillir des données structurales de la protéine dans son environnement natif. Pour cela, nous proposons une étude structurale de la protéine par résonance magnétique nucléaire en phase solide. La surexpression de la protéine et son marquage aux isotopes 13C et 15N sont deux étapes clés d'un tel projet. Une surexpression bactérienne et un marquage uniforme de la protéine ont été effectués. Les données spectrales obtenues montrent une bonne résolution, mais l'imbrication des corrélations ne permet pas d'en extraire des données structurales. Afin de réduire le nombre de résidus marqués, un marquage spécifique a été appliqué par la voie de la synthèse in vitro. Le premier test a montré que l'approche permettait de réduire le temps d'acquisition, tout en diminuant la quantité d'informations. Différentes méthodes ont ensuite été appliquées pour trouver les meilleures combinaisons d'acides aminés à marquer spécifiquement en synthétisant la protéine in vitro. Ces approches utilisent les programmes de prédiction de déplacements chimiques ou l'analyse de la séquence à la recherche de paires d'acides aminés uniques. Une approche combinatoire a été également testée. Les différents échantillons synthétisés ont montré une bonne résolution, et ont permis l'identification de plusieurs corrélations. Les méthodes développées au cours de ce travail pourront aider progressivement à déterminer la structure de la protéine MscL. Elles pourront également servir à d'autres protéines membranaires pour leur étude par résonance magnétique nucléaire.

<p><!-- --></p><p>In the wake of the economic growth of the Chinese market the past couple of decades, the energy consumption has surged. One of the biggest consequences of the increased energy consumption is a massive increase in CO₂ emission. In fact, China has overtaken the U.S. as the biggest emitter of CO₂. In light of this energy-saving technology gets more important to implement. District heating is one of the solutions used with success in parts of China where heating is required. In this paper, an energy recovery technology has been examined for two climate zones in China namely a mechanical ventilation system using a flat-plate counter-flow heat exchanger. Beijing is located in a cold zone while Hong Kong is located in a zone with hot summers and mild winters. Cooling load calculations were conducted manually using the RTS - method developed by ASHRAE and heating load calculations were conducted for Beijing using Swedish guidelines stated in BBR. Further, the energy recovery unit (VM1) that was provided by Systemair AB was tested using a rig where different outdoor conditions were simulated. This data was then used to evaluate the potential for energy recovery in a model apartment located in the two zones. As expected, significant differences were obtained when comparing the performance for the two locations.</p><p> </p> / Redan avklarad

<p>Artificial intelligence (AI) is already a fundamental component of computer games. In this context is emotions a growing part in simulating real life. The proposed emotional state module, provides a way for the game agents to select an action in real-time virtual environments. The modules function has been tested with the open-source strategy game ORTS. This thesis proposes a new approach for the design of an interacting network, similar to a spreading activation system, of emotional states that keeps track of emotion intensities changing and interacting over time. The network of emotions can represent any number of persisting states, such as moods, emotions and drives. Any emotional signal can affect every state positively or negatively. The states' response to emotional signals are influenced by the other states represented in the network. The network is contained within an emotional state module. This interactions between emotions are not the focus of much research, neither is the representation model. The focus tend to be on the mechanisms eliciting emotions and on how to express the emotions.</p>

<!-- --> In the wake of the economic growth of the Chinese market the past couple of decades, the energy consumption has surged. One of the biggest consequences of the increased energy consumption is a massive increase in CO2 emission. In fact, China has overtaken the U.S. as the biggest emitter of CO2. In light of this energy-saving technology gets more important to implement. District heating is one of the solutions used with success in parts of China where heating is required. In this paper, an energy recovery technology has been examined for two climate zones in China namely a mechanical ventilation system using a flat-plate counter-flow heat exchanger. Beijing is located in a cold zone while Hong Kong is located in a zone with hot summers and mild winters. Cooling load calculations were conducted manually using the RTS - method developed by ASHRAE and heating load calculations were conducted for Beijing using Swedish guidelines stated in BBR. Further, the energy recovery unit (VM1) that was provided by Systemair AB was tested using a rig where different outdoor conditions were simulated. This data was then used to evaluate the potential for energy recovery in a model apartment located in the two zones. As expected, significant differences were obtained when comparing the performance for the two locations. / Redan avklarad