of knowledge and a book in Her lotus hands. Dedicated to the Lotus Feet of the revered Sadguru. This thesis presents a new active mask (AM) framework and an algorithm for segmenta-tion of digital images, particularly those of punctate patterns from fluorescence microscopy. Fluorescence microscopy has greatly

. We develop a new theoretical framework to analyze this extreme case and develop new algorithms for signal reconstruction from such coarsely quantized measurements. The 1-bit CS framework leads us to scenarios where it may be more appropriate to reduce bit-depth instead of sampling rate. We find

RECHERCHES Elastographie par ondes de cisaillement

in partial ful2llment of the requirements for the degree of

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We are surrounded by electronic devices that take advantage of wireless technologies, from our computer mice, which require little amounts of information, to our cellphones, which demand increasingly higher data rates. Until today, the coexistence of such a variety of services has been guaranteed by a fixed assignment of spectrum resources by regulatory agencies. This has resulted into a blind alley, as current wireless spectrum has become an expensive and a scarce resource. However, recent measurements in dense areas paint a very different picture: there is an actual underutilization of the spectrum by legacy sys-tems. Cognitive radio exhibits a tremendous promise for increasing the spectral efficiency for future wireless systems. Ideally, new secondary users would have a perfect panorama of the spectrum usage, and would opportunistically communicate over the available re-sources without degrading the primary systems. Yet in practice, monitoring the spectrum resources, detecting available resources for opportunistic communication, and transmit-ting over the resources are hard tasks. This thesis addresses the tasks of monitoring, de-

This report focuses on the evidence about the health.consequences of smoking for women, and is intended to serve.the public health and medical communities as 'a unified source of existing scientific research. The major issues about tobacco use and women's health are examined, including trends in consumption, biomedical evidence, and determinants of smoking ititiation, maintenance, and cessation. The biomedical aspects ofsmoking are presented in terms of mortality, morbiplity, cardiovasculaidiseases, cancer, pregnancy and infant,health,, Teptic ulcer disease, drug reactions and, interactions, food constituents, and responses to,diagnostic tests. The psychosocial and behavioraj. aspects, of smoking in women are discussed, along with the docffiented increases in- the risk of contracting lung cancer, heart,disease, or lung disease. The harmful effects of pregnant mothers smoking behaviors, are also docudented. Adhitionally, recent data are enumerated to indicate a trend of,decreasing tobacco usage among women in response to the warnings of the gavernMent, voluntary agencie, and physicrins. (Author /NRB)' DOCUMENT RESUME cc 015 465

I am grateful to Luc Segoufin who kindly accepted me to be his PhD student. He introduced me to the problem of query enumeration and encouraged me to look for the answers to all the questions that emerged during our collaboration. He was a truly great advisor, always supportive and available for discussions and advice. I would like to thank Arnaud Durand and Patrice Ossona de Mendez for accepting to review this thesis and for their constructive comments on the earlier versions of this manuscript. Many thanks to Nicole Bidoit and Victor Vianu for accepting to be in my jury. Special thanks go to my Parents, who directed me to follow the scientific path and where fully supportive at all times. Thanks to all the members of LSV – it was a pleasure working with You. I would like to thank the awesome people whom I have been working with in the same office on the 4th floor. Without all the nice riddles and the magnificent French lessons my time there wouldn’t be as chouette as it was. Big thanks go to my son Boris, who was kind enough to sleep through the whole nights, allowing his dad to actually write the thesis down.