B 1Σu+B\,^1\Sigma^{+}_{u} and EF 1Σg+EF\,^{1}\Sigma^{+}_{g} level energies of D2_{2}

Accurate absolute level energies of the $B\,^1\Sigma^{+}_{u}$, $v=0-8, N$ and $EF\,^{1}\Sigma^{+}_{g}$, $v=0-21, N$ rovibrational quantum states of molecular deuterium are derived by combining results from a Doppler-free two-photon laser excitation study on several lines in the $EF\,{}^{1}\Sigma_{g}^{+}-X\,{}^{1}\Sigma_{g}^{+}$ (0,0) band, with results from a Fourier-transform spectroscopic emission study on a low-pressure hydrogen discharge. Level energy uncertainties as low as 0.0005 cm$^{-1}$ are obtained for some low-lying $E\,^{1}\Sigma^{+}_{g}$ inner-well rovibrational levels, while uncertainties for higher-lying rovibrational levels and those of the $F\,^{1}\Sigma^{+}_{g}$ outer-well states are nominally 0.005 cm$^{-1}$. Level energies of $B\,^1\Sigma^{+}_{u}$ rovibrational levels, for $v \leq 8$ and $N \leq 10$ are determined at an accuracy of 0.001 cm$^{-1}$. Computed wavelengths of D$_2$ Lyman transitions in the $B\,^1\Sigma^{+}_{u}-X\,^{1}\Sigma^{+}_{g}$ ($v,0$) bands are also tabulated for future applications.Comment: appears in Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy (2014

New record of <i>Carapus dubius</i> (Carapidae) off Madagascar?

When checking the identification of the Carapidae in the MNHN collection (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris) a specimen of Eurypleuron owasianum (Matsubara, 1953) (MNHN 1992-0914) caught off Madagascar (20°S, 42°30’E) was found to be incorrectly identified. The specimen is vey close to Carapus dubius (Putnam, 1874), which is known from the Eastern Pacific (Markle and Olney, 1990)

Reclaiming human machine nature

Extending and modifying his domain of life by artifact production is one of the main characteristics of humankind. From the first hominid, who used a wood stick or a stone for extending his upper limbs and augmenting his gesture strength, to current systems engineers who used technologies for augmenting human cognition, perception and action, extending human body capabilities remains a big issue. From more than fifty years cybernetics, computer and cognitive sciences have imposed only one reductionist model of human machine systems: cognitive systems. Inspired by philosophy, behaviorist psychology and the information treatment metaphor, the cognitive system paradigm requires a function view and a functional analysis in human systems design process. According that design approach, human have been reduced to his metaphysical and functional properties in a new dualism. Human body requirements have been left to physical ergonomics or "physiology". With multidisciplinary convergence, the issues of "human-machine" systems and "human artifacts" evolve. The loss of biological and social boundaries between human organisms and interactive and informational physical artifact questions the current engineering methods and ergonomic design of cognitive systems. New developpment of human machine systems for intensive care, human space activities or bio-engineering sytems requires grounding human systems design on a renewed epistemological framework for future human systems model and evidence based "bio-engineering". In that context, reclaiming human factors, augmented human and human machine nature is a necessityComment: Published in HCI International 2014, Heraklion : Greece (2014

Beyond inverse Ising model: structure of the analytical solution for a class of inverse problems

I consider the problem of deriving couplings of a statistical model from measured correlations, a task which generalizes the well-known inverse Ising problem. After reminding that such problem can be mapped on the one of expressing the entropy of a system as a function of its corresponding observables, I show the conditions under which this can be done without resorting to iterative algorithms. I find that inverse problems are local (the inverse Fisher information is sparse) whenever the corresponding models have a factorized form, and the entropy can be split in a sum of small cluster contributions. I illustrate these ideas through two examples (the Ising model on a tree and the one-dimensional periodic chain with arbitrary order interaction) and support the results with numerical simulations. The extension of these methods to more general scenarios is finally discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Crystal structures of a copper(II) and the isotypic nickel(II) and palladium(II) complexes of the ligand (E)-1-[(2,4,6-tri­bromo­phen­yl)diazen­yl]naphthalen-2-ol

In the copper(II) complex, bis­{(E)-1-[(2,4,6-tri­bromo­phen­yl)diazen­yl]naph­thalen-2- olato}copper(II), [Cu(C₁₆H₈Br₃N₂O)₂], (I), the metal cation is coord­inated by two N atoms and two O atoms from two bidentate (E)-1-[(2,4,6-tri­bromo­phen­yl)diazen­yl]naphthalen-2-olate ligands, forming a slightly distorted square-planar environment. In one of the ligands, the tri­bromo­benzene ring is inclined to the naphthalene ring system by 37.4 (5)°, creating a weak intra­molecular Cu...Br inter­action [3.134 (2) Å], while in the other ligand, the tri­bromo­benzene ring is inclined to the naphthalene ring system by 72.1 (6)°. In the isotypic nickel(II) and palladium(II) complexes, namely bis­{(E)-1-[(2,4,6-tri­bromo­phen­yl)diazen­ yl]naphthalen-2-olato}nickel(II), [Ni(C₁₆H₈Br₃N₂O)₂], (II), and bis­{(E)-1- [(2,4,6-tri­bromo­phen­yl)diazen­yl]naphthalen-2-olato}palladium(II), [Pd(C₁₆H₈Br₃N₂O)₂], (III), respectively, the metal atoms are located on centres of inversion, hence the metal coordination spheres have perfect square-planar geometries. The tri­bromo­benzene rings are inclined to the naphthalene ring systems by 80.79 (18)° in (II) and by 80.8 (3)° in (III). In the crystal of (I), mol­ecules are linked by C-H...Br hydrogen bonds, forming chains along [010]. The chains are linked by C-H...Pi inter­actions, forming sheets parallel to (011). In the crystals of (II) and (III), mol­ecules are linked by C-H...Pi inter­actions, forming slabs parallel to (10-1). For the copper(II) complex (I), a region of disordered electron density was corrected for using the SQUEEZE routine in PLATON [Spek (2015). Acta Cryst. C71, 9-18]. The formula mass and unit-cell characteristics of the disordered solvent mol­ecules were not taken into account during refinement

Clan structure analysis and new physics signals in pp collisions at LHC

The study of possible new physics signals in global event properties in pp collisions in full phase space and in rapidity intervals accessible at LHC is presented. The main characteristic is the presence of an elbow structure in final charged particle MD's in addition to the shoulder observed at lower c.m. energies.Comment: 9 pages, talk given at Focus on Multiplicity (Bari, Italy, June 2004

Reverse Engineering Gene Networks with ANN: Variability in Network Inference Algorithms

Motivation :Reconstructing the topology of a gene regulatory network is one of the key tasks in systems biology. Despite of the wide variety of proposed methods, very little work has been dedicated to the assessment of their stability properties. Here we present a methodical comparison of the performance of a novel method (RegnANN) for gene network inference based on multilayer perceptrons with three reference algorithms (ARACNE, CLR, KELLER), focussing our analysis on the prediction variability induced by both the network intrinsic structure and the available data. Results: The extensive evaluation on both synthetic data and a selection of gene modules of "Escherichia coli" indicates that all the algorithms suffer of instability and variability issues with regards to the reconstruction of the topology of the network. This instability makes objectively very hard the task of establishing which method performs best. Nevertheless, RegnANN shows MCC scores that compare very favorably with all the other inference methods tested. Availability: The software for the RegnANN inference algorithm is distributed under GPL3 and it is available at the corresponding author home page (http://mpba.fbk.eu/grimaldi/regnann-supmat

On Using High-Definition Body Worn Cameras for Face Recognition from a Distance

Recognition of human faces from a distance is highly desirable for law-enforcement. This paper evaluates the use of low-cost, high-definition (HD) body worn video cameras for face recognition from a distance. A comparison of HD vs. Standard-definition (SD) video for face recognition from a distance is presented. HD and SD videos of 20 subjects were acquired in different conditions and at varying distances. The evaluation uses three benchmark algorithms: Eigenfaces, Fisherfaces and Wavelet Transforms. The study indicates when gallery and probe images consist of faces captured from a distance, HD video result in better recognition accuracy, compared to SD video. This scenario resembles real-life conditions of video surveillance and law-enforcement activities. However, at a close range, face data obtained from SD video result in similar, if not better recognition accuracy than using HD face data of the same range