NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Classification analytique des points fixes paraboliques de germes antiholomorphes et de leurs déploiements

We are interested in the dynamics in a neighbourhood of a fixed point of an antiholomorphic function of one variable. First, we want to describe and understand the space of orbits in a neighbourhood of a multiple fixed point, called a parabolic point, and to explore the geometric properties preserved by changes of coordinate. In particular, we solve the problem of analytical classification of parabolic fixed points. To solve this problem, we define a complete modulus of classification that allows to determine whether two germs of antiholomorphic diffeomorphisms are analytically conjugate in a neighbourhood of their parabolic fixed point. We also consider the applications of the modulus to different problems: i) extraction of an n-th antiholomorphic root, ii) existence of an invariant real analytical curve under the dynamics of a parabolic antiholomorphic germ, and iii) centraliser of a parabolic antiholomorphic germ. In the second part, we study generic unfoldings of a double fixed point, i.e. a parabolic point of codimension 1. The questions are similar in nature, namely to understand the space of orbits and the geometric properties of unfoldings. In order to classify generic unfoldings, the modulus of classification of the parabolic point is unfolded, thus providing the necessary and sufficient conditions to determine when two generic unfoldings are equivalent.

Keyphrases: classification, Discrete dynamical systems, Antiholomorphic functions, Parabolic fixed point, Unfoldings
Extended distribution effects for realistic appearance and light transport

Modern computer generated imagery strives to be ever more faithful to the physical reality around us, and one such key physical phenomenon is the notion of distribution effects. Distribution effects are a category of light transport behaviors characterized by their distributed nature across some given dimension(s). For instance, motion blur is a distribution effect across time, while depth of field introduces a physical aperture for the camera, thus adding two more dimensions. These effects are commonplace in film and real life, thus making them desirable to reproduce.  In this manuscript-based thesis, we present four papers which leverage, extend or inspire themselves from distribution effects. First, we propose a novel technique to render non-linear motion blur for real-time applications while conserving important scalability and efficiency characteristics. We leverage Bézier curves to approximate non-linear motion from just a few keyframes and rasterize synthesized geometry to replicate motion. Second, we present an algorithm to render glinty high-frequency materials illuminated by large environment maps. Using a combination of a compact half-vector histogram scheme and multiscale spherical harmonics, we can efficiently represent dense surface normals and render their interaction with large, filtered light sources. Third, we introduce a new method for rendering subsurface scattering by taking advantage of frequency analysis and dual-tree traversal. Computing screen-space subsurface light transport, we can quickly analyze signal frequency and determine efficient bandwidths which we then use to limit our traversal through a shading/illumination dual-tree. Finally, we show a novel real-time diffuse global illumination scheme using dynamically updated irradiance probes. Thanks to efficient spherical radiance distribution updates, we can update irradiance probes at runtime, taking into consideration dynamic objects and changing lighting, and combine it with a more robust filtered irradiance query, making dense irradiance probe grids tractable in real-time with minimal artifacts.

Keyphrases: distribution effects, light transport, subsurface scattering, real-time rendering
Adapting modeling environments to domain specific interactions

Software tools are being used by experts in a variety of domains. There are numerous software modeling environments tailored to a specific domain expertise. However, there is no consistent approach to generically synthesize a product line of such modeling environments that also take into account the user interaction and experience adapted to the domain. The focus of my thesis is the proposal of a solution to explicitly model user interfaces and interaction of modeling environments so that they can be tailored to the habits and preferences of domain experts. We extend current model-driven engineering techniques that synthesize graphical modeling environments to also take interaction models into account. The formal semantics of our language framework is based on statecharts. We define a development process for generating such modeling environments to maximize reuse through a novel statechart refinement technique.

Keyphrases: Domain Specific Modeling Languages, Human Computer Interaction, Modeling Environments, Statechart Refinement, Interfaces homme-machine
Transférer à Paris « tout ce qu'il y a de beau en Italie » : conquêtes matérielles au service de l'édification nationale (1796-1798)

During the victorious Italian Campaign (1796-1797) that took place during the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802), a significant number of precious objects were seized and transported to Paris, the new self-proclaimed epicentre of European culture and knowledge. The list of objects was long, varied, and prestigious. Agricultural tools, minerals, rare books, scientific treatises, seeds, musical scores, plant specimens, and above all, monuments from antiquity and Renaissance paintings, were amassed for the purpose of gracing the institutions of the French capital. On 9 and 10 Thermidor year VI (27th and 28th of July, 1798), the convoy was paraded through the streets of Paris in a celebration titled l’Entrée triomphale des objets de sciences et d’arts recueillis en Italie (the triumphal entry of objects of the sciences and arts collected in Italy).  En route to their new destination, the precious objects were subjected to the contingencies of the voyage. Buried in sealed and tarred crates marked with the official seal of the Republic and piled onto straw-filled carts, they journeyed over mountains, on roads, through ports, across seas, and down rivers, canals, streets and boulevards. Although the objects were hidden and kept far from areas traditionally studied by art history, they received wide coverage in newspapers that avidly chronicled the convoy’s adventures through volatile areas and rugged terrain. What is more, the journey took place against a backdrop of great social unrest and political crises, while the regime of the Directory (1795-1799) struggled to establish its legitimacy and the Counter-Revolution rose in the wake of the legislative elections.   Drawing on a theoretical framework bridging mobility studies, material studies, nationalism studies, and the history of emotions, this dissertation demonstrates that the transit between Rome and Paris became a narrative epic that outlined a French identity in search of unity. In fact, the objects’ transit from Italy became a lever of national edification that mobilized the themes that are the basis of patriotic sentiment, such as civilizational superiority, technical knowledge, and moral ascendancy. Three major moments will be studied: the seizure of the objects, their transportation, and the moment of celebration.

Keyphrases: French Revolution, Directory, Material culture, Scientific and artistic confiscations, Displacement of works of art, Political emotions, National narratives, Nation-building
(In)visibilité de la radioactivité dans l’art et la photographie du Japon après « Fukushima » : médiations et expositions

On the 11th March 2011 an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan triggering a catastrophic chain of events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that seeded fear and confusion in the population. In the face of the government’s hesitant handling of the crisis and of inadequate media coverage regarding the scale of the disaster, Japanese artists mobilized to create their own responses relating to the ongoing and invisible effects of the calamity. In the shadow of the catastrophe, haunted by traumatic events and by an encompassing radiophobia, these artists have come to question the limits of figurability and also to ask what art is capable of and what its role can be. This thesis examines the emergence of “post-Fukushima art,” a term coined to describe a new, more politicized impulse in Japanese art, one that strives to provide an iconography adequate to the nuclear disaster and to render radiation visible. The thesis explores the photographic works of three artists in particular, Arai Takashi, Kagaya Masamichi and Takeda Shimpei. The trio employ analogue photographic techniques – daguerreotype, autoradiography and radiography – as a means to document and expose traces of irradiation. Their art is viewed through the prism of varied (in)visibilities linked to the nuclear catastrophe and addresses issues such as mediation and exposure. Exposure is understood in multiple senses, including exposure of a photosensitive support to light (such as radioluminescence), exposure to radioactive material generated by the disaster and, drawing on the French term exposé, exposure in the sense of exhibition. Exhibitions involve exposing viewers to photographs that relate to the catastrophe. On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the triple disaster, the thesis outlines the continuing stakes involved in post-Fukushima art as an effort to remember the event. It contributes to broader efforts aimed at refocussing attention on the aftermath of the disaster, including the radioactive contamination it caused.

Keyphrases: Trace, Fukushima, Sociology of Art, Japanese photography, Nuclear catastrophe, Radioactivity, Takashi Arai, Shimpei Takeda, Masamichi Kagaya
L'art de saisir l'État : la défense de la culture de coca au Pérou et en Bolivie

The coca growing regions of Bolivia and Peru have been a focal point of drug control policies in these two countries since the 1970s. These regions are often portrayed as being subject to a weak, failed or even absent state, and under the control of criminal groups. Focusing on the Tropic of Cochabamba (Bolivia) and VRAEM (Peru) regions, the main national hotbeds of coca mostly destined for illicit markets, this research challenges this idea by showing that not only is the State present, but that it is also maintained and seized by rural coca-producing organizations. Based on an ethnographic survey, I study from the ground and in a comparative perspective the interplay between the illicit economy, social movements and the State itself. I show how agricultural and trade union federations use coca to build communal government practices, regional identities and frameworks to mobilize and obtain development policies meant to compensate for "narcotrafficking" or "narcoterrorism". The leaders of social organizations build their political leadership from the struggle and then place themselves as intermediaries with the State. Occupying administrative and elective functions allows them to channel more public resources to their native regions, to defend coca in institutions, and even to redraw the boundaries between legal and illegal activities. As such, coca cultivation and development policies become resources that constitute the moral economy of the growers. However, the views behind these political processes differ from one region to the other. In the Tropic of Cochabamba, it is a corporatist seizing process, inherent to the strong ties between the coca growers' unions, the MAS party in power until 2019, and the Bolivian state. This has allowed the unions to obtain public resources, rights, and the appointment of its intermediaries in exchange for support to the party and the government. In the VRAEM, the weak anchoring of political parties in Peruvian society enables agricultural federation leaders to seize the state through an entrepreneurial logic. They assert their own resources and relations, mostly outside their home region. The detour through these regions sheds light on the relations between the informal popular sectors and the State and broadens the scope of the study of social movements. The comparison thus offers a range of tools to apprehend the "art of seizing the state" through a sociology of organizations, unions and political parties.

Keyphrases: action collective, Social movements, State-society relations, Illicit economy, Moral economy, Development policy, Political ethnography
An alternative development model in Africa inspired by China?

This Ph.D. dissertation seeks to verify if an alternative development model inspired by China is emerging in Africa and if so, how and why it is diffused in some countries. This dissertation helps to fill a gap in the literature on the effect that China’s engagement in Africa has had regarding development model. I argue that countries with a developmental state, Marxist legacies and relatively weak colonial heritages tend to embrace more the alternative development model because the state, often authoritarian, is able to devise autonomous development, with special emphasis on infrastructure and industrialization. I theorize that the neoliberal state still under control of the former colonial master someway is less apt to take the model.  I assess my arguments on the intrinsic and external conditions facilitating the diffusion of the alternative development model through a comparison of Ethiopia and Senegal. Ethiopia is a country on the path of this development model in a voluntary and comprehensive way while Senegal adopts it in a moderate, if not minimal way. Later, the hypotheses are tested with more cases of African countries. This research is mainly based on the comparative method and process-tracing.  The first chapter is my theoretical framework and methodology. I present the alternative development model based on my observations and literature review in the second chapter. I expose two main case studies in chapter 3, followed by my explanation of the different situations of the two cases in chapter 4. In chapter 5, I make several more cases studies briefly with a regional vision and finally synthesize my research findings.

Keyphrases: Infrastructure, Development model, Developmental authoritarianism, Infrastructure, Africa, Ethiopia, Senegal, Neoliberalism, Chinese model, Marxist legacies, Colonial influence
L’intervention sociale axée sur les droits humains : une approche pour soutenir les femmes violentées en situation migratoire précaire

This research engages human rights-based practice in social interventions. In recent years, different people have started combining social work and human rights-based practice. These practices are put forward in various contexts with populations whose rights are violated (Albrithen and Androff, 2014; Berthold, 2015; Briskman et Cemlyn, 2005; Cemlyn, 2008; Engle Merry, 2006; Hessle, 2014; Ife, 2008; Mapp, 2014; Reichert, 2011). Abused women and individuals with precarious immigration status in Canada encounter barriers in the exercise of their human rights. Human rights-based interventions have the potential to foster the exercise of these rights for some of these people (see, for example, Critelli, 2010; Morgaine, 2009; Chammas, 2016).  Drawing on existing conceptual models, this research seeks to understand how the human rights-based approach is used in social intervention with abused women with precarious immigration status. It focuses on the study of four moments in the intervention: the evaluation and analysis of the situation, the planning of the intervention, the implementation of the intervention, and its evaluation.  To this end, an exploratory qualitative research was carried out. Interviews were conducted with 25 caseworkers with a pertinent experience of human rights-based intervention with abused women with precarious immigration status. These interviews enabled the gathering of information on the perception and practice of caseworkers regarding the human rights-based practice with this population. The content of these interviews was analyzed based on a model of professional practice developed by McPherson (2015) and theoretical propositions by Schmitz (2012) regarding human rights-based approaches.  This analysis paints a nuanced portrait of practice at each moment of the intervention. It identifies the elements of the chosen model that are present in the reported interventions, as well as the elements that are absent. The analysis highlights the limits of using this approach, as described by the caseworkers themselves, and put forward by the analysis of their discourse. This dissertation then suggests pathways for developing the understanding and use of this approach, where limits have been identified, in order to help caseworkers to respect, protect and promote the human rights of women living these particularly complex situations. Building on these analyses, this dissertation proposes a new model of professional human rights-based practice. This model is conceived as a guide for practice, and it is formulated in response to preoccupations identified by caseworkers. It highlights the place occupied by human rights principles in human rights-based practice, and it details the essential components of each moment of such an intervention.

Keyphrases: violence, Social intervention, Human rights, Women, Migration, Practice narrative, Content analysis
Processus décisionnel autour du projet de vie de permanence pour de jeunes enfants placés en milieu substitut : l’acteur, l’interaction et le contexte

In Quebec, the decision to place a child is considered an extraordinary measure. Based on the principle of keeping the child in the family, this decision must consider the goal of family reunification. When such reunification is not possible, practitioners must decide on the best way to direct the child's permanent plan to ensure continuity of care and stable relationships. Despite the importance of this process, we know very little about it.  Research on decision-making in child welfare has focused primarily on the study of individual decisions and the factors that determine them, in an essentially deductive approach aimed primarily towards controlling human error. However, decision-making in child protection is rarely carried out on an individual basis and decisions are not made in isolation. On the contrary, this process is collective, iterative and influenced by different contextual elements.  The aim of this thesis was to understand the complexity of the decision-making process around the clarification of the permanent plan and the choice of a permanent living environment as an alternative to reunification, particularly in the case of young children (0 to 5 years old). The two specific objectives were to describe how professionals interact in their routines to make decisions, and to identify how they interpret the institutional context in order to do so.  Based on an approach that combines Giddens's structuration theory and ethnomethodology, this study is the result of nine months of observation of advising committees and interviews with key actors (n=16). The results emphasize that this process is founded on a context of action that takes shape through the routines that actors produce in order to organize and understand their practice. They show clearly the interactive and collective nature of this process involving the participation of a diversity of actors with different roles. They also identify underlying elements that structure this process: the pivots of action and the institutional logics. Considering such elements together sometimes leads to tensions which reflect the complexity and the challenge it represents for practice.

Keyphrases: interaction, decision-making process, permanent plan, situated action, ethnomethodology
Entre aspirations et contraintes: analyses du vécu de l'allaitement maternel chez les primipares au prisme des inégalités sociales

This thesis examines diversity and inequalities in breastfeeding experiences. It seeks to: 1)  understand how mothers’ initial breastfeeding aspirations compare with their post-birth  realities; 2) explore how inequalities related to gender, “race”, class, and immigrant status  influence breastfeeding experiences from the perspective of both mothers and  breastfeeding professionals; and 3) capture how mothers articulate and make sense of their  diverse experiences .   In this study, four data collection techniques were used: longitudinal semi-structured  interviews with 20 first-time mothers conducted when they were pregnant and then  approximately six months after the birth of their child; documentary analysis of maternal  diaries; semi-structured interviews of 21 breastfeeding professionals; and observation  during prenatal classes and breastfeeding support sessions.   As the sample is composed of women attempting breastfeeding for the first time, many  women felt disillusioned by three types of discrepancies they felt between what they  imagined breastfeeding would be and the reality of their experiences: 1) between the initial  aspirations and recommendations of public health and medical literature; 2) between their  own expectations and their lived realities of breastfeeding; and 3) between the standardized  conceptions of successful breastfeeding experiences according to public health  recommendations and the concept of success as experienced by the women. Further, the  data from both mothers and breastfeeding professionals demonstrate that constraints on  breastfeeding are unevenly distributed and founded mainly on social relations such as sex,  gender, ethnicity, class, immigration, and race.   This study also discovered a tendency among breastfeeding professionals to pride  themselves on their ability to differentiate between their clientele on the basis of these  categories. While sometimes appropriate, these classifications tend to exaggerate the  homogeneity of subgroups, relying on and reproducing stereotypes. An important  implication of this is that such practices lead to substantial differences in the services  rendered by these professionals.   Overall, this thesis provides a better understanding of the ambivalence at the center of the  breastfeeding experience and the complex relationships mothers undertake with public  health recommendations, the promotion or encouragement of the act of breastfeeding and  breastfeeding professionals.

Keyphrases: Discriminations, social inequality, Breastfeeding, Intersectionality, Maternity, Public health, Discourse analysis, Discrimination, Gendered division of labor