Innovation, Credit Constraints and National Banking Systems: A Comparison of Developing Nations

International audienc

Linear magneto-viscoelastic model based on magnetic permeability components for anisotropic magnetorheological elastomers

International audienceThe storage modulus variation of anisotropic magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) induced by an external magnetic field was modelled in the frequency domain. This involves synthesising five anisotropic MREs with different particle content and measuring its dynamic and magnetic properties. Dynamic properties were measured using a rheometer equipped with a magnetorheological cell and the magnetic permeability of each sample was measured with a vibrating sample magnetometer. Scanning Electron Microscope images were used to determine particle distribution. A four parameter fractional derivative model was used to describe MRE viscoelasticity in the absence of magnetic field and the fitting error was not larger than 1%. Magneto-induced modulus was also studied and two different models were analysed, the one of Jolly et al. (Smart Mater Struct;5:607 (1999)) and the other one of López-López et al. (J Rheol. 56:1209 (2012)). The first model underestimated the influence of the magnetic field for low particle contents while at high ones it overestimated the magnetic field effect, up to 13%. However, in the second model magnetic permeability values were used, and the error between the model prediction and experimental data did not exceed 7%. Hence, a new linear magneto-viscoelastic model was proposed in frequency domain for anisotropic MREs based on López-López et al. model, which predicts the effect of magnetic field on the dynamic shear modulus in function of particle content and frequency

A Reduced-Order Discontinuous Galerkin Method Based on POD for Electromagnetic Simulation

International audienceThis paper is concerned with the design of a reduced-order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method based on the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method for electromagnetic simulation. A centered flux approximation for surface integral and a second-order leap-frog scheme for advancing in time are applied in the classical DG method. The POD basis is created by the eigensystem of the correlation matrix, which is generated by the snapshot matrix whose columns are the snapshot vectors extracted from the high-fidelity DG simulation. The POD discontinuous Galerkin time-domain formulation with lower dimension and sufficiently high accuracy is established by applying a Galerkin projection for the semidiscrete DG scheme. The overall goal is to reduce the computational cost while maintaining an acceptable level of accuracy. Numerical experiments for electromagnetic problems illustrate the performance of the proposed reduction method

An implicit hybridized discontinuous Galerkin method for the 3D time-domain Maxwell equations

International audienceWe present a time-implicit hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) method for numerically solving the system of three-dimensional (3D) time-domain Maxwell equations. This method can be seen as a fully implicit variant of classical so-called DGTD (Discontinuous Galerkin Time-Domain) methods that have been extensively studied during the last 10 years for the simulation of time-domain electromagnetic wave propagation. The proposed method has been implemented for dealing with general 3D problems discretized using unstructured tetrahedral meshes. We provide numerical results aiming at assessing its numerical convergence properties by considering a model problem on one hand, and its performance when applied to more realistic problems. We also include some performance comparisons with a centered flux time-implicit DGTD method

Computer-Aided Formal Proofs about Dendritic Integration within a Neuron

International audienceThis article is threefold: (i) we define the first formal framework able to model dendritic integration within biological neurons, (ii) we show how we can turn continuous time into discrete time consistently and (iii) we show how a Lustre model checker can automatically perform proofs about neuron input/output behavioursowing to our framework.Our innovative formal framework is a carefully defined trade-off between abstraction and biological relevance in order to facilitate proofs. This framework is hybrid: inputs entering the synapses as well as the soma output are discrete signals made of spikes but, inside the dendrites, we combine signals quantitatively using real numbers. The soma potential is inevitably specified as a differential equation to keep a biologically accurate modelling of signal accumulation. This prevents from performing simple formal proofs. This has been our motivation to discretize time. Owing to this discretization, we are able to encode our neuron models in Lustre. Lustre is a particularly well suited flow-based language for our purpose. We also encode in Lustre a property of input/output equivalence between neurons in such a way that the model checker Kind2 is able to automatically handle the proof

Thioautotrophic ectosymbiosis in Pseudovorticella sp., a peritrich ciliate species colonizing wood falls in marine mangrove

International audienceCiliates represent a diversified group of protists known to establish symbioses with prokaryotic microorganisms. They are mainly phagotrophs and symbiotic relationships with bacteria can give them an important advantage in chemosynthetic environments. The aim of this study is to describe the thiotrophic association that occurs between the peritrich ciliate Pseudovorticella sp. and potential sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. Investigations at microscopic scale (LM, SEM, TEM) showed ectosymbiotic bacteria covering the surface of the body of Pseudovorticella sp. According to 16S rDNA phylogenetic analysis, these ectosymbiotic bacteria belong to-proteobacteria and are phylogenetically close to the symbiont of the recently described Zoothamnium ignavum, which inhabits shallow-water wood falls. FISH experiments, using symbiont specific probes, clearly indicate that these ectosymbiotic bacteria are also ingested into food vacuoles. Electron lucent granules observed in TEM in the cytoplasm of the ectosymbiotic bacteria have been identified as sulfur granules by Raman microspectrometry analyses. Raman microspec-trometry analyses confirmed the thiotrophic nature of this relationship already suggested by the results obtained by TEM and phylogeny. A complete sulfur map was then performed to investigate the sulfur distribution in the zooid. Results show that the relationship between this protist and its bacterial partner is a thiotrophic ectosymbiosis

A Model-checking Approach to Reduce Spiking Neural Networks

International audienceIn this paper we formalize Boolean Probabilistic Leaky Integrate and Fire Neural Networks as Discrete-Time Markov Chains using the language PRISM. In our models, the probability for neurons to emit spikes is driven by the difference between their membrane potential and their firing threshold. The potential value of each neuron is computed taking into account both the current input signals and the past potential value. Taking advantage of this modeling, we propose a novel algorithm which aims at reducing the number of neurons and synaptical connections of a given network. The reduction preserves the desired dynamical behavior of the network, which is formalized by means of temporal logic formulas and verified thanks to the PRISM model checker

What sets the central structure of dark matter haloes?

International audienceDark matter (DM) haloes forming near the thermal cut-off scale of the density perturbations are unique, since they are the smallest objects and form through monolithic gravitational collapse, while larger haloes contrastingly have experienced mergers. While standard cold dark matter (CDM) simulations readily produce haloes that follow the universal Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) density profile with an inner slope, $\rho \propto r^{-\alpha}$, with $\alpha=1$, recent simulations have found that when the free-streaming cut-off expected for the CDM model is resolved, the resulting haloes follow nearly power-law density profiles of $\alpha\sim1.5$. In this paper, we study the formation of density cusps in haloes using idealized $N$-body simulations of the collapse of proto-haloes. When the proto-halo profile is initially cored due to particle free-streaming at high redshift, we universally find $\sim r^{-1.5}$ profiles irrespective of the proto-halo profile slope outside the core and large-scale non-spherical perturbations. Quite in contrast, when the proto-halo has a power-law profile, then we obtain profiles compatible with the NFW shape when the density slope of the proto-halo patch is shallower than a critical value, $\alpha_{\rm ini} \sim 0.3$, while the final slope can be steeper for \alpha_{\rm ini}\ga 0.3. We further demonstrate that the $r^{-1.5}$ profiles are sensitive to small scale noise, which gradually drives them towards an inner slope of $-1$, where they become resilient to such perturbations. We demonstrate that the $r^{-1.5}$ solutions are in hydrostatic equilibrium, largely consistent with a simple analytic model, and provide arguments that angular momentum appears to determine the inner slope

Is the Driving Behaviour of Young Novices and Young Experienced Drivers under Alcohol Linked to Their Perceived Effort and Alertness? In: Stanton N. (eds) Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation. AHFE 2017

The aim is to evaluate effort and alertness perception and objective driving performance of young drivers depending on Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) and driving experience. Young novice and young experienced drivers participated in three simulated driving sessions (BACs of 0.0, 0.2 and 0.5 g/L). They had to drive during 45 min. on a simulated highway road. After each driving session, they responded to the Thayer scale and to an adaptation of the NASA-TLX. Results showed that young experienced drivers estimated to make less effort and had better driving performance than young novice drivers. Estimated alertness level was the lowest and speed variation was the highest with BAC 0.5 g/l. It also existed an interaction effect between perceived effort and alcohol and between alertness and alcohol on driving performance. In summary, alcohol degrades driving performance, and especially when the effort is high, alertness is low and drivers lack experience

Progenitors of low-luminosity Type II-Plateau supernovae

International audienceThe progenitors of low-luminosity Type II-Plateau supernovae (SNe II-P) are believed to be red supergiant (RSG) stars, but there is much disparity in the literature concerning their mass at core collapse and therefore on the main sequence. Here, we model the SN radiation arising from the low-energy explosion of RSG stars of 12, 25, and 27 M$_{\odot}$ on the main sequence and formed through single star evolution. Despite the narrow range in ejecta kinetic energy (2.5$-$4.2$\times$10$^{50}$ erg) in our model set, the SN observables from our three models are significantly distinct, reflecting the differences in progenitor structure (e.g., surface radius, H-rich envelope mass, He-core mass). Our higher mass RSG stars give rise to Type II SNe that tend to have bluer colors at early times, a shorter photospheric phase, and a faster declining $V$-band light curve (LC) more typical of Type II-linear SNe, in conflict with the LC plateau observed for low-luminosity SNe II. The complete fallback of the CO core in the low-energy explosions of our high mass RSG stars prevents the ejection of any ${}^{56}$Ni (nor any core O or Si), in contrast to low-luminosity SNe II-P, which eject at least 0.001 M$_{\odot}$ of ${}^{56}$Ni. In contrast to observations, type II SN models from higher mass RSGs tend to show an H$\alpha$ absorption that remains broad at late times (due to a larger velocity at the base of the H-rich envelope). In agreement with the analyses of pre-explosion photometry, we conclude that low-luminosity SNe II-P likely arise from low-mass rather than high-mass RSG stars