Fixed Parameter Undecidability for Wang Tilesets

Deciding if a given set of Wang tiles admits a tiling of the plane is decidable if the number of Wang tiles (or the number of colors) is bounded, for a trivial reason, as there are only finitely many such tilesets. We prove however that the tiling problem remains undecidable if the difference between the number of tiles and the number of colors is bounded by 43. One of the main new tool is the concept of Wang bars, which are equivalently inflated Wang tiles or thin polyominoes.Comment: In Proceedings AUTOMATA&JAC 2012, arXiv:1208.249

Le modèle judiciaire libéral mis à l’épreuve : la surveillance des juges sous le Directoire

La justice du Directoire est principalement identifiée aux différentes violations infligées par le gouvernement afin de contrôler le pouvoir judiciaire et durcir la répression criminelle. Cette représentation est, en réalité, partiale. L’auteur tente de le prouver à travers l’analyse d’un aspect essentiel du système judiciaire directorial : la surveillance des juges. L’étude des normes et des pratiques montre que le mode de surveillance établi par le code des délits et des peines respecte la séparation des pouvoirs et privilégie une contrôle interne du corps judiciaire. Confronté à une surveillance qui lui échappe, le Directoire ne sera pas en mesure de la contester. Les raisons tiennent aux garanties posées par la législation, à plusieurs facteurs d’ordre conjoncturel et au refus du Corps législatif d’accroître les prérogatives du pouvoir exécutif. Face à de tels obstacles, le Directoire est contraint d’accepter l’indépendance constitutionnelle de la justice et les principes libéraux du code des délits et des peines, jusqu’à la fin du régime.Supervising the Judiciary during the Directory : a Liberal Legal Model Put to the Test Directory justice is mainly identified with the various violations inflicted on it by the government bent on controlling the judicial power and imposing tougher sanctions on crime. Such a representation is in reality one-sided. The author attempts to show this by analysing an essential aspect of the Directory judicature : the supervision of judges. The study of norms and practices reveals that the mode of supervision established by the Code of offences and penalties respected the separation of powers and favoured internal vetting by the judges themselves. Faced with a supervisory process beyond their control, the Directory were unable to challenge it. This was due to the checks posed by the legislation, to a number of circumstantial factors and to the refusal of the legislature to increase the prerogatives of the executive. Faced with these hurdles, the Directory were compelled to accept the constitutional independence of the judges and the liberal principles of the Code of offences and penalties until the end of the régime

Ordre public et poursuites criminelles sous le Directoire (1795-1799)

Au cours des premières années de la Révolution, les Constituants instaurent un nouveau modèle judiciaire. Ce dernier, que l’on peut qualifier de libéral, est destiné à réaliser la synthèse entre la nécessité de protéger les libertés et le devoir de maintenir l’ordre public. Cependant, dès 1790, certains députés contestent la capacité de la justice libérale à protéger la population face aux attaques des brigands et des criminels. Le laxisme des juges de paix et les « acquittements scandaleux » prononcés par les jurés populaires en sont tenus pour responsables. Les attaques persistent tout au long du Directoire et deviennent dominantes à partir du Consulat, au point de provoquer la suppression progressive de plusieurs garanties essentielles aux droits naturels des citoyens. À travers la problématique des poursuites criminelles menées sous le Directoire, nous avons tenté de comprendre le fondement et les implications des réformes consulaires et impériales qui provoquèrent la disparition du modèle judiciaire de la Révolution.During the first years of the Revolution, the Constituants developed a new judicial model. This model that one can call liberal aimed to combine the necessity of protecting liberties and the duty of maintaining public order. But from 1790 onwards, certain deputies disputed the capacity of liberal justice to protect the population from attacks by bandits and criminals. The indulgence of justices of the peace and “scandalous acquittals” rendered by citizen juries were held responsable for this problem. These criticisms persisted throughout the Directory and grew more pronounced beginning with the Consulat to the point of causing the progressive suppression of several guarantees essential to the natural rights of citizens. By studying criminal prosecution under the Directory, the author has tried to understand the nature of judicial reforms effected during the Consulate and Empire that would bring about the disappearance of the judicial model of the Revolution

Les origines de la statistique judiciaire sous la Révolution

On assimile généralement la création de la statistique judiciaire à l’avènement de l’Empire napoléonien. Pourtant, les premières formes d’une telle statistique existent déjà sous la décennie révolutionnaire. Elles sont produites régulièrement, dans le but de surveiller l’activité des magistrats et les infractions aux lois. Compte tenu de l’importance de ces objectifs, les régimes révolutionnaires successifs veilleront à perfectionner les techniques d’enregistrement des statistiques judiciaires.The creation of judicial statistics is normally associated with the advent of the Napoleonic Empire. Yet the practice of recording such statistics already existed during the Revolutionary decade. These statistics were collected regularly to check the work of magistrates as well as to record offences. Given the importance of these objectives, successive Revolutionary regimes continued to perfect the techniques of recording judicial statistics

Quantum well infrared photodetectors hardiness to the non ideality of the energy band profile

We report results on the effect of a non-sharp and disordered potential in Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors (QWIP). Scanning electronic transmission microscopy is used to measure the alloy profile of the structure which is shown to present a gradient of composition along the growth axis. Those measurements are used as inputs to quantify the effect on the detector performance (peak wavelength, spectral broadening and dark current). The influence of the random positioning of the doping is also studied. Finally we demonstrate that QWIP properties are quite robust with regard to the non ideality of the energy band profile

Interface roughness transport in THz quantum cascade detectors

Infrared Detectors based on a Quantum Cascade have been proposed to suppress the dark current which is identified as a limiting factor in Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors. Those detectors have been mostly designed for the 3-5um and 8-12um range of wavelength. For detector operating in the THz range a complete change of regime of transport is expected since the photon energy is lower than the Longitudinal Optical (LO) phonon energy. Using a two dimensional code of transport we have identified Interface Roughness (IR) as the key interaction in such a structure. We have used scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to evaluate the IR parameters (magnitude of the roughness and mean distance between defects) instead of the classical mobility measurements. Finally, we used these parameters to study their influence on the resistance of the device

La « bonne police » en France et dans le Royaume de Wurtemberg (XVIIIe-XIXe siècles). Étude d’une appropriation populaire de la loi et de l’ordre public

La « bonne police » ou Gute Policey est un thème majeur de l’historiographie de langue allemande. Elle est considérée à la fois comme une administration rationnelle du territoire en vue du « bien-être commun » et comme une autorégulation de l’ordre public. Notre contribution a pour objectif d’analyser les pratiques de « bonne police » à travers deux enjeux majeurs de la fin du XVIIIe siècle et de la première moitié du 19e siècle : la possibilité d’interpréter les lois tant par les magistrats que les « laïcs » et l’adhésion populaire qu’elles suscitent. A partir des espaces français et allemands, nous verrons que les processus circulatoires de la « bonne police » sous-tendent des réactions différentes de la part des populations, des demandes locales variées et des réponses parfois contradictoires des autorités centrales.Gute Policey or “Good Policy” is a major theme of German-language historiography. It stands for the rational administration of a territory aiming for the “common good”  along with the self-regulation of public order.Our contribution analyzes some practices of “Good Policy” through two major challenges in the end of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries: the possibility both for magistrates and “laypersons” to interpret the laws as well as the popular support to these laws.Beginning with French and German areas, this article shows how different reactions from the populations, various local requests, and sometimes contradictory responses from the central authorities underlay the circulatory processes of “Good Policy”.Die « Gute Policey » ist ein Hauptthema der deutschsprachigen Geschichtsschreibung. Sie wird gleichzeitig als vernünftige Verwaltung des Gebietes im Hinblick auf das « Gemeinwohl », als auch als Selbstregulierung der öffentlichen Ordnung angesehen. Dieser Beitrag analysiert die Praxis der « guten Polizei » anhand zweier wichtiger Herausforderungen des Ende des 18. und der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts: die Möglichkeit sowohl für Richter als auch für Laien die Gesetze zu interpretieren sowie die Unterstützung der Gesetze durch die Bevölkerung. Am Beispiel der französischen und deutschen Gebiete lässt sich erkennen, dass der Kreislauf-Prozess der « guten Polizei » unterschiedliche Reaktionen in der Bevölkerung, verschiedene lokale Forderungen und zum Teil widersprüchliche Antworten der zentralen Behörden hervorruft

The influence of context and culture on corporate responsibility expectations in South Africa

Our primary aim with this article is to explore the foundational role of context and culture on corporate responsibility expectations in South Africa. The secondary aim is to develop an assessment and analysis tool that captures adequately the influence of context and culture on corporate responsibility expectations, which may be adapted to study corporate responsibility issues between different contexts, cultures, business sectors, stakeholder groups, regions, nations, etc. Overall, this article contributes to the empirical study of corporate responsibility within international policy and business applications. To explore context and culture in a specific environment, we studied advanced, i.e. post-BA economics and management students in South Africa, who provided written essays on their corporate responsibility expectations. This data collection strategy allowed respondents to use their own words, logic, and understandings about the issues under investigation. We analyzed the data using content configuration analysis and multidimensional scaling within a Hermeneutic Content Analysis framework. The main findings are that our respondents bypass or transcend the mainstream academic literature on corporate responsibility. Their responses are more akin to the debates around sustainability. Economic and social development are the main spheres within which corporate responsibility is conceptualized among our South African advanced economics students, while environmental issues are mostly absent. The two spheres are related in that the dimensions that form the spheres are interconnected: the economic sphere is interdependently tied to social development. A finer analysis of the MDS structure reveals close ties between the respondents' expectations of the responsibilities of corporations, the historical context, and cultural dimensions prevalent in South Africa