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Data are everywhere. Voluntarily or not, they are given by the user to different companies or institutions. Improvement in computing power allows now to use more efficiently these huge quantities of data. It stimulated the creation of different applications and one of them is related to healthcare technologies and well-being. This habilitation describes the work that have been done these last years on human behavior analysis and activity recognition, from different sensors, to propose applications such as rehabilitation, health and well-being evaluation, profiling of person to adapt the automation of the environment, and also activity estimation from smartphone and video sensors. Organized in three different parts, this habilitation focuses first on the analysis of automation of the human body and the measurement of some movements. With this, solutions allowing the evaluation of the person and offering real-time feedbacks (to correct a posture or a movement) are drawn. The second part focuses on the recognition of the person and of his actions, with application for instance to early recognition of actions. In this part are investigated incremental and on-line classification techniques to improve the recognition rates but also to reduce the constraints in learning stage. Finally, the last part presents the recognition of activities in smart homes, with a final application to create user profiles in automated habitations.; Les données sont de nos jours présentes partout, qu’elles soient volontairement ou invo- lontairement cédées par un utilisateur. L’augmentation des puissances de calcul permet de traiter ces données plus en profondeur et plus efficacement, ce qui a poussé différentes applications à utiliser fortement le traitement de données pour offrir un service plus important aux usagers. Parmi les utilisations de ces données, les technologies pour la santé et le bien-être sont une thématique qui se développe de plus en plus ces dernières années et qui est un champ de recherche actif. Cette habilitation décrit dix années de recherche sur l’analyse de comportement et d’activité d’une personne, à partir de différents capteurs, afin de proposer des applications allant de l’aide à la rééducation ou l’évaluation de la santé d’une personne, à l’adaptation des automatismes dans un habitat en fonction de la volonté de l’habitant, en passant par la reconnaissance d’activités par smartphone ou par caméra vidéo. Organi- sés en trois parties, ces travaux se concentrent d’abord sur l’analyse des automatismes de la personne et la mesure de certains de ses mouvements. Avec ceci, des solutions permettant l’évaluation de la personne ou permettant de faire un retour sensoriel à celle-ci (afin de lui permettre de se corriger) se dessinent. La seconde partie se concentre sur la recon- naissance de la personne et de ses actions, avec des applications notamment sur la reconnaissance précoce d’actions. Dans cette partie sont également investiguées des techniques de classification incrémentales et en ligne afin d’améliorer les taux de reconnaissance et les contraintes d’apprentissages. Enfin, la dernière partie présente la reconnaissance d’activités dans un habitat intelligent, avec comme application finale la possibilité de créer des profils utilisateurs dans ces habitats.

Routine farm management can involve painful and stressful procedures that cause negative affective states and may have long-lasting consequences. Despite a growing interest in animal welfare and affective states, few studies have explored whether housing conditions and routine farm procedures induce long-lasting negative affective states such as negative mood. The first aim of this thesis was to develop methodologies to explore whether dairy cattle show evidence of negative mood in response to common stressful conditions. For this, I first used an adapted judgment bias test to assess changes in mood following hot-iron disbudding. My results suggested that calves experience anhedonia (i.e. the reduced ability to experience pleasure) after hot-iron disbudding. Thus, I designed tests aiming to assess whether calves display anhedonia-like responses after experiencing hot-iron disbudding, regrouping and post-partum stressors including cow-calf separation. My results showed that cattle display signs of negative mood (i.e. negative judgment bias and anhedonia) in response to stressful routine farm procedures. The second aim of this thesis was to explore why individuals show strong variation in how they cope with stressors. For instance, I explored whether individual variation in expectations would predict higher vulnerability to stressors. Negative expectations (i.e. pessimism) may lead to negative perceptions, stronger responses, poor coping strategies (avoidance-based coping strategies), and poor recovery from stressors. My results show that stable differences in pessimism exist in non-weaned dairy calves and that more pessimistic animals perceive and respond more negatively to stressors. I conclude that the study of mood-related changes and individual differences help better understand how living conditions affect farm animal welfare.

This thesis was done in collaboration with Sorbonne University as part of a double degree Cotutelle. During development, cell differentiation frequently occurs upon signaling from concentration or activity gradients of molecules called morphogens. These molecules control in a dose-dependent manner the expression of sets of target genes that determine cell identity. A simple paradigm to study morphogens is the Bicoid gradient, which determines antero-posterior patterning in fruit fly embryos. The Bicoid transcription factor allows the rapid step-like expression of its major target gene hunchback, expressed only in the anterior half of the embryo. The general goal of my thesis was to understand how the information contained in the Bicoid morphogen gradient is rapidly interpreted to provide the precise expression pattern of its target. Using the MS2 system to fluorescently tag specific RNA in living embryos, we were able to show that the ongoing transcription process at the hunchback promoter is bursty and likely functions according to a two-state model. At each nuclear interphase, transcription is first observed in the anterior and it rapidly spreads towards the posterior, as expected for a Bicoid dose-dependent activation process. Surprisingly, it takes only 3 minutes from the first hints of transcription at the anterior to reach steady state with the setting of a sharp expression border in the middle of the embryo. Using modeling taking into account this very fast dynamics, we show that the presence of only 6 Bicoid binding sites (known number of sites in the hunchback promoter) in the promoter, is not sufficient to explain the establishment of a sharp expression border in such a short time. Thus, either more Bicoid binding sites or inputs from other transcription factors could help reconcile the model to the data. To better understand the role of transcription factors other than Bicoid in this process, I used a two-pronged strategy involving synthetic MS2 reporters combined with the analysis of the hunchback MS2 reporter in various mutant backgrounds. I show that the pioneer factor Zelda and the Hunchback protein itself are also critical for hunchback expression, maternal Hunchback acting at nuclear cycle 11-12, while zygotic Hunchback is acting later at nuclear cycle 13-14. The synthetic reporter approach indicate that in contrast to Hunchback and Caudal, Bicoid is able to activate transcription on its own when bound to the promoter. However, the presence of 6 Bicoid binding sites only leads to stochastic activation of the target loci. Interestingly, the binding of Hunchback to the Bicoid-dependent promoter reduces this stochasticity while Caudal might act as a posterior repressor gradient. Confronting these experimental data to theoretical models is ongoing and should allow to better understand the role of transcription factors, other than Bicoid, in hunchback expression at the mechanistic level. Thesis Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Have you ever wondered how a single cell can become a full grown organism? Well it starts when an egg and sperm fuse together. As time passes this single cell divides over and over again until an organism is formed. During this developmental process, somehow the cells know exactly where they are and what they need to become so that they form the organism. However, we don’t fully understand this process and this is what we hope to answer with our research: How do the cells know where they are and what they need to become during development? We study this process in the fruit fly. Although fruit flies might not look a lot like us, during early embryonic development we are quite similar, so we can try to answer these questions in fruit flies and what we find might be relevant to other organisms like us. During development, the first element that an embryo needs to know is the orientation of its body, where the head and tail, the left and right and the back and front of the body will be. We concentrate on studying how the head to tail axis, which we call the anterior-posterior axis, is formed. To know where the head is going to be, the embryo releases proteins called morphogens that broadcast instructions to other genes so that cells know where they are and what they should become. We study a morphogen called Bicoid. Its concentration is high in the anterior, the region that will become the head of the embryo, and lower as you move towards the posterior where the tail will form. Bicoid activates a gene called hunchback, which ends up dividing the embryo in two large parts, the top and the bottom. However, Bicoid’s message fades away during each cell division and needs to be read again at the beginning of each new nuclear cycle. So how is the message read and how long does this process take? This last question is particularly critical during the period of very fast cell division. My thesis tries to answer this question. We found out that it takes 3 minutes for a nuclei to read the Bicoid concentration, activate hunchback and express it correctly. However, in contrast to what was believed before, or namely, that only Bicoid was involved in this process, we found out that other players are involved in helping relay this message. This way hunchback can accurately divide the body in two parts exactly in the middle and without mistake in such a short period of time.

Be stars are main-sequence stars and a specific subclass of B type stars with the unique characteristic of showing HI Balmer emission lines in their optical spectra that originates from a circumstellar disk around the star. Over the past 50 years, the Galactic Be star $\\omega$ CMa has exhibited quasi-regular outbursts, every 8 years or so, when the star brightens by about half a magnitude in the V-band. During these outbursts a new disk is formed during the first 3-4 years, and then dissipates in the following 4-6 years. We have access to a rich dataset (including photometry, polarimetry, interferometry and spectroscopy) of $\\omega$ CMa since March 1964 covering several outbursts and quiescence phases. Thus, nature has provided us the perfect experiment to study how Be star disks grow and dissipate. There is an increasing body of evidence that suggests that Be disks are well described by the Viscous Decretion Disk (VDD) model according to which the formation and structure of the disk depend on the kinematic viscosity of the gas. However, most observational tests of the VDD to-date were done for systems that do not display strong temporal variability. We use the rich dataset available for $\\omega$ CMa to perform the first in-depth test of the VDD scenario in a system with strong temporal variability. We use the radiative transfer code HDUST to analyze and interpret the observational dataset. From this analysis we (1) obtain a realistic physical model of the circumstellar environment; (2) measure the viscosity parameter of the gas, both during the formation and dissipation phases of the disk; (3) obtain a reliable estimate of the stellar mass and angular momentum loss rates during outburst. Our simulations offer a good description of the photometric variability, which suggests that the VDD model adequately describes the structural evolution of the disk. Furthermore, our analysis allowed us to determine the viscosity parameter $\\alpha$, as well as the net mass and angular momentum (AM) loss rates. We find that $\\alpha$ is variable, ranging from 0.1 to 1.0, not only from cycle to cycle but also within a given cycle. Additionally, build-up phases have larger values of $\\alpha$ than the dissipation phases. We also find that, contrary to what is generally assumed, during dissipation the outward AM flux is not necessarily zero, meaning that $\\omega$ CMa does not experience a true quiescence but, instead, switches between a high AM loss rate state to a low AM loss rate one during which the disk quickly assumes an overall lower density but never zero. We confront the average AM loss rate with predictions from stellar evolution models for fast-rotating stars, and find that our measurements are smaller by more than one order of magnitude. The model developed using the V-band photometry as a constraint was applied to several other observables. Overall, the results of this multi-technique study were very positive, with a good match for multi-band photometry, polarization, and most spectroscopic characteristics. This is a very relevant result, as it proves that a model that was constructed from constraints only from the very inner part of the disk (the $V$-band light curve), could be extended to the whole disk and to other physical processes. Estrelas Be são um subtipo específico de estrelas de sequência principal de tipo espectral B. Elas possuem características únicas tais como a presença de linhas de emissão em seu espectro, que se originam de um disco circunstelar. Nos últimos 50 anos, a estrela Be galáctica CMa exibiu erupções quasi-regulares, a cada 8 anos aproximadamente, onde a estrela torna-se mais brilhante na banda V. Nestas erupções um novo disco se forma nos primeiros 3-4 anos e depois dissipa-se nos 4-6 anos seguintes. Temos acesso a uma base de dados rica (incluindo fotometria, polarimetria, interferometria e espectroscopia) de CMa desde março de 1964, que cobre vários ciclos de erupções e quiescências. Assim, a natureza nos proveu um experimento perfeito para estudar como discos de estrelas Be crescem e dissipam-se. Há um corpo de evidências cada vez maior que sugerem que os discos de estrela Be são bem descritos pelo modelo de decréscimo viscoso (VDD), segundo o qual a formação e estrutura do disco depende da viscosidade cinemática do gás. Entretanto, a maioria dos testes conduzidos com o VDD até o momento foram feitos para sistemas que não mostram forte variabilidade temporal. Usamos a rica base de dados de CMa para conduzir o primeiro teste aprofundado do VDD em um sistema fortemente variável. Usamos o código de transporte radiativo HDUST para analisar e interpretar os dados. Desta análise obtemos (1) um modelo fisicamente realista do ambiente circunstelar, (2) a viscosidade do gás, e (3) uma estimativa confiável das taxas de perda de massa e momento angular durante os eventos de formação do disco. Nossas simulações conseguem reproduzir a variabilidade fotométrica muito bem, o que sugere que o modelo VDD descreve corretamente a evolução estrutural do disco. Mostramos que o parâmetro de viscosidade é variável, com valores entre 0.1 e 1. Adicionalmente, as fases de construção do disco têm valores de viscosidade maior. Contrariamente ao que se acredita, mostramos que durante a dissipação a taxa de perda de momento angular não é necessariamente nula, o que implica que CMa não experimenta uma quiescência verdadeira, mas alterna entre uma fase de alta taxa de perda de momento angular (erupção) e uma fase de baixa taxa (quiescência). Confrontamos as taxas de perda de momento angular com as preditas pelos modelos evolutivos de Genebra, e encontramos que nossas taxas são mais que 10 vezes menores que as taxas de previstas pelos modelos. O modelo desenvolvido para reproduzir a curva de luz na banda V foi aplicado a vários outros observáveis. De forma geral, os resultados deste estudo multi-técnica foram muito positivos, com uma boa concordância com a fotometria multi-banda, polarização, e a maioria das características espectrais. Este é um resultado muito relevante, pois prova que um modelo que foi construído apenas a partir de vínculos para a interna do disco (a curva de luz na banda V), pode ser estendido para todo o disco e também outros processos físicos.

Introdução e Hipótese: A MMP-2 é uma protease importante para a gênese e a manutenção da hipertrofia cardíaca durante a hipertensão arterial. Além do meio extracelular, a MMP-2 pode ser ativada em cardiomiócitos e degradar proteínas do sarcômero e/ou citoesqueleto, e assim contribuir para a disfunção cardíaca observada na fase crônica da hipertensão arterial. A hipótese deste trabalho é que a MMP-2 degrada troponina I e distrofina durante a hipertensão arterial crônica e isto culmina na transição cardíaca de hipertrofia concêntrica para excêntrica. Materiais e Métodos: Ratos Wistar foram submetidos à cirurgia dois rins-um clipe (2R-1C) ou Sham e mantidos por 16 semanas. Os animais foram tratados com veículo (água) ou doxiciclina (inibidor de MMPs,15mg/kg/dia) a partir da 10ª semana até o fim do protocolo experimental. Pletismografia de cauda e ecocardiograma foram feitos antes, durante e na 16ª semana de hipertensão renovascular. O ventrículo esquerdo foi coletado para as seguintes análises: zimografia em gel e in situ, western blot, imunofluorescência, coloração por hematoxilina e eosina e Picrosirius Red, microscopia confocal e espectrometria de massas. Experimentos com cultura de cardiomiócitos foram feitos para avaliar a ativação intracelular de MMP-2 por estresse oxidativo. Os resultados foram analisados por ANOVA de duas vias ou teste t nãopareado. Este trabalho foi aprovado pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa Animal (023/2015-1). Resultados e Discussão: Todos os ratos 2R-1C apresentaram aumento da pressão arterial sistólica quando comparados aos controles e a doxiciclina não a diminuiu. Cerca de 25% dos ratos 2R-1C apresentaram hipertrofia cardíaca excêntrica (grupo E-LVH). Os demais apresentaram hipertrofia cardíaca concêntrica (grupo CLVH). A doxiciclina reduziu a porcentagem de transição de hipertrofia concêntrica para excêntrica. Ambos os grupos, C-LVH e E-LVH, apresentaram hipertrofia de cardiomiócitos e a doxiciclina a reverteu. E-LVH foi o único grupo que apresentou maior deposição de colágeno no ventrículo esquerdo. A atividade da MMP-2 aumentou no ventrículo esquerdo dos ratos C- e E-LVH quando comparados aos controles e a doxiciclina a diminuiu. O estresse oxidativo parece ativar a MMP-2 por S-glutatiolação no interior dos cardiomiócitos. A MMP-2 e a troponina I se colocalizam no ventrículo esquerdo de ratos controle. Isso foi associado a um aumento na degradação de troponina I no grupo E-LVH quando comparado a C-LVH. Foram encontrados cerca de dez locais de clivagem para MMP-2 na distrofina de rato e, além de distrofina e MMP-2 se colocalizarem, uma redução na distrofina foi observada no grupo E-LVH quando comparado aos controles e o tratamento com doxiciclina parece prevenir essa perda. Conclusão: A hipertensão arterial promoveu aumento da atividade de MMP-2 no ventrículo esquerdo e isto foi relacionado à degradação de troponina I e distrofina, o que contribuiu para a transição de hipertrofia cardíaca concêntrica para excêntrica na hipertensão arterial crônica. Introduction and Hypothesis: MMP-2 is an important protease for the genesis and maintenance of cardiac hypertrophy during arterial hypertension. In addition to its extracellular actions, MMP-2 is activated within cardiomyocytes and degrade sarcomere and/or cytoskeletal proteins, thus contributing to the cardiac dysfunction in the chronic phase of arterial hypertension. The hypothesis of this work is that MMP-2 degrades troponin I and dystrophin during chronic arterial hypertension and this contributes to the transition from concentric to eccentric cardiac hypertrophy. Materials and Methods: Male Wistar rats were two kidney-one clip (2K-1C) or Sham operated and were maintained for 16 weeks. Animals were treated with vehicle (water) or doxycycline (MMP inhibitor, 15 mg/kg/day) from the 10th week until the end of the experimental protocol. Tail-cuff plethysmography and echocardiogram were performed before, during and at 16 weeks of renovascular hypertension. The left ventricle was collected for the following analyzes: gel and in situ zymography, western blot, immunofluorescence, hematoxylin and eosin and Picrosirius Red staining, confocal microscopy and mass spectrometry. Experiments with cardiomyocytes were also performed to evaluate the intracellular activation of MMP-2 by oxidative stress. Results were analyzed by two-way ANOVA or unpaired t test. This work was approved by the Animal Research Ethics Committee (023/2015-1). Results and Discussion: All 2K-1C rats had an increase in the systolic blood pressure when compared to controls and doxycycline did not decrease it. About 25% of 2K-1C rats had eccentric cardiac hypertrophy (E-LVH group). The others had concentric cardiac hypertrophy (C-LVH group). Doxycycline reduced the percentage of transition from concentric to eccentric hypertrophy. Both C-LVH and E-LVH groups had cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and doxycycline reverted it. E-LVH was the only group that showed higher collagen deposition in the left ventricle. MMP-2 activity increased in the left ventricle of C- and E-LVH rats when compared to controls and doxycycline decreased it. Oxidative stress seems to activate MMP-2 by S-glutathiolation within the cardiomyocytes. MMP-2 and troponin I are co-localized in the left ventricle of Sham rats. This was associated with an increase in troponin I degradation in the E-LVH group when compared to C-LVH. Furthermore, about ten cleavage sites for MMP-2 in rat dystrophin were found and, in addition to dystrophin and MMP-2 are co-localized into cardiomyocytes, a reduction in dystrophin levels was observed in the E-LVH group when compared to controls and doxycicline seems to prevent it. Conclusion: Renovascular hypertension causes an increase in MMP-2 activity in the left ventricle and this is related to troponin I and dystrophin proteolysis, which contributes to the transition from concentric to eccentric cardiac hypertrophy in chronic arterial hypertension.

This thesis is part of a geographical reflection on rural recompositions at work in Nicaragua. It examines the impact of spatial mobility on the socio-economic practices, strategies and reproduction of families. More generally, it questions the future of agriculture and rural societies. Through the concept of a multi-localized family system, the thesis analyses how family living spaces are constructed in geographical dispersion from the maintenance of social ties in distance and time. The objective is to understand how these links, and the set of arrangements that are played out at the level of the nuclear or extended family, are a resource in rural livelihood strategies and trajectories. The study area is the Río Negro valley in northern Nicaragua, located on the periphery of the country's development axes. In this rural region subject to strong agro-climatic constraints, populations diversify their system of activity, by practicing circular local and border mobility, or by migrating to more distant destinations in Europe or the Americas. To document these dynamics, the research is based on a plural methodology of data collection combining interviews, life stories, participating observations, reconstructions of family trajectories in the context of multi-sited surveys, aimed at following families in their places of residence and activity across several countries (Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Spain, United States). The thesis finally proposes a bottom geography, which gives a primordial place to practices and representations, to lived experiences and life trajectories, as well as the strategies and intentionalities of individuals and their families in their relationship to space. The dynamics of the original local space are thus thought in their links to the elsewhere. The thesis reveals the strength of the remote family link in the daily strategies of populations, the flexibility of family organizations with shifting contours and, ultimately, the central role of the social resource. At the same time, it highlights a differentiation of families in their ways of dealing with space, due to unequal access to different resources (migratory, economic, physical, social) and an asymmetry in intra-family social relations. The thesis also raises the crucial question of the high social cost of multi-localized family systems, linked to the challenge of crossing borders, the difficult conditions of employment at destination, or the separation and absence that dispersion induces in today's world.; Cette thèse s’inscrit dans une réflexion géographique sur les recompositions rurales à l’œuvre au Nicaragua. Elle interroge les incidences des mobilités spatiales sur les pratiques, les stratégies et la reproduction socio-économiques des familles. Plus généralement, elle questionne le devenir des agricultures et des sociétés rurales. À travers le concept de système familial multi-localisé, la thèse analyse la manière dont les espaces de vie familiaux se construisent dans la dispersion géographique à partir du maintien des liens sociaux dans la distance et le temps. L’objectif est de comprendre comment ces liens, et l’ensemble des arrangements qui se jouent à l’échelle de la famille nucléaire ou élargie, font ressource dans les stratégies et les trajectoires de moyens d’existence des ruraux. La région d’étude est la vallée du Río Negro, au nord du Nicaragua, située en périphérie des axes de développement du pays. Dans cette région rurale soumise à de fortes contraintes agro-climatiques, les populations diversifient leur système d’activité, en pratiquant des mobilités circulaires de proximité et frontalières, ou en migrant vers des destinations plus lointaines, en Europe ou dans les Amériques. Pour documenter ces dynamiques, la recherche se fonde sur une méthodologie plurielle de collecte de données croisant entretiens, récits de vie, observations participantes, reconstitutions des trajectoires familiales, dans le cadre d’enquêtes multi-situées, visant à suivre les familles dans leurs lieux de résidence et d’activité à travers plusieurs pays (Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Espagne, États-Unis). La thèse propose au final une géographie par le bas, qui accorde une place primordiale aux pratiques et aux représentations, aux expériences vécues et aux trajectoires de vie, ainsi qu’aux stratégies et aux intentionnalités des individus et de leurs familles dans leur rapport à l’espace. Les dynamiques de l’espace local d’origine sont ainsi pensées dans leurs liens à l’ailleurs. La thèse met à jour la force du lien familial à distance dans les stratégies quotidiennes des populations, la flexibilité des organisations familiales aux contours mouvants et, au final, le rôle central de la ressource sociale. Dans le même temps, elle met en évidence une différenciation des familles dans leurs manières de faire avec l’espace, du fait d’une inégalité d’accès aux différentes ressources (migratoires, économiques, physiques, sociales) et d’une asymétrie des rapports sociaux intra-familiaux. La thèse pose également la question cruciale du coût social élevé des systèmes familiaux multi-localisés, lié à l’épreuve du franchissement des frontières, aux difficiles conditions d’emploi à destination, ou encore à la séparation et à l’absence qu’induit la dispersion au sein du monde d’aujourd’hui.

Geographically, Indonesia is prone to natural disasters both geological and hydro-meteorological disasters. Large-scale natural disasters resulting in the community have to evacuate. All this time, people carry most items they think will be required in the evacuation by using bags. Based on research through discussions and questionnaires in mind that the bags are used by the public is not ergonomic and effective when used as a bag of disaster preparedness. Currently, disaster preparedness bags have been found in online shopping sites like Amazon, but still found a few things necessary for improve. Therefore, in this study conducted disaster preparedness bag design by considering the ergonomic aspects and be able to load all the needs required during the evacuation 1x24 hours. This design is done by Morphological Chart Method by conducting the stages; concept development, alternative development plans, and the assessment and determination of the best design alternatives with the help of speakers from disaster agencies, including BPBDs city of Padang, PMI West Sumatra Province, and KOGAMI (Tsunami Alert Community) as well as speakers from the field of convection bags. This research result in the design of disaster preparedness bags already consider some aspects of ergonomics among others the size of bags that use anthropometric data, the comfort of the back board design and the main rope bag, the placement of goods in bags that wear barriers in order to facilitate the taking or placing of goods, and heavy bags under the restrictions adopted by the ILO. Another aspect to consider is the bag sufficient capacity to accommodate the need for 1x24 hours of the evacuation according to Buku Saku Tanggap Tangkas BNPB 2017. Estimated price of this disaster preparedness bag is Rp 202.100,- per unit. Keywords: Disaster Preparedness Bag, Evacuation, Morphological Chart Method