Les fournisseurs de mains d’oeuvres maritimes et le droit de l’Union européenne

To optimize their operating costs, many shipowners resort to manning agencies, intermediaries between them and the cosmopolitan crew of their ships, sailing, usually on the open registers advocating «absolute minimum» in social matters. This economic model based on the search for a lowering of the social cost on board ships must now reckon with the entry into force of the 2006 Maritime Labour Convention («MLC 2006»), which requires Member States to respect new obligations as to control of companies subleasing employees. Partly incorporated in the Community system, this new international social regulation nevertheless illustrates the difficulties of the European Union to develop a common response to widespread international practice of social dumping at sea. If the principle of social responsibility of States with regard to manning agencies is enshrined in the MLC 2006, the absence of Community regulation of this activity leaves the control of maritime labour companies to the sole discretion of the more diligent States in social matters

Positioning a coarse-calibrated camera with respect to an unknown object by 2D 1/2 visual servoing

International audienceIn this paper we propose a new vision-based robot control approach halfway between the classical position-based and image-based visual servoings. It allows to avoid their respective disadvantages. The homography between some planar feature points extracted from two images (corresponding to the current and desired camera poses) is computed at each iteration. Then, an approximate partial-pose, where the translational term is known only up to a scale factor, is deduced, from which can be designed a closed-loop control law controlling the six camera d.o.f.. Contrarily to the position-based visual servoing, our scheme does not need any geometric 3D model of the object. Furthermore and contrarily to the image-based visual servoing, our approach ensures the convergence of the control law in all the task space

Experimental Evaluation of Autonomous Driving Based on Visual Memory and Image Based Visual Servoing

International audienceIn this paper, the performance of a topological metric visual-path-following framework is investigated in different environments. The framework relies on a monocular camera as the only sensing modality. The path is represented as a series of refer- ence images such that each neighboring pair contains a number of common landmarks. Local 3-D geometries are reconstructed between the neighboring reference images to achieve fast feature prediction. This condition allows recovery from tracking failures. During navigation, the robot is controlled using image-based vi- sual servoing. The focus of this paper is on the results from a num- ber of experiments that were conducted in different environments, lighting conditions, and seasons. The experiments with a robot car show that the framework is robust to moving objects and moderate illumination changes. It is also shown that the system is capable of online path learning

A framework for scalable vision-only navigation

International audienceThis paper presents a monocular vision framework enabling feature-oriented appearance-based navigation in large outdoor environ- ments containing other moving ob jects. The framework is based on a hybrid topological-geometrical environment representation, constructed from a learning sequence acquired during a robot motion under hu- man control. The framework achieves the desired navigation functional- ity without requiring a global geometrical consistency of the underlying environment representation. The main advantages with respect to con- ventional alternatives are unlimited scalability, real-time mapping and effortless dealing with interconnected environments once the loops have been properly detected. The framework has been validated in demanding, cluttered and interconnected environments, under different imaging con- ditions. The experiments have been performed on many long sequences acquired from moving cars, as well as in real-time large-scale navigation trials relying exclusively on a single perspective camera. The obtained results imply that a globally consistent geometric environment model is not mandatory for successful vision-based outdoor navigation

Synthesis of Novel Polyhydroxylated Tetrahydropyranopyrroles

The stereoselective access to original polyhydroxylated tetrahydropyranopyrroles is described. The key steps involve an ­inverse-demand Diels-Alder reaction and a ring contraction of a ­pyridazine heterocycle

On-board and Ground Visual Pose Estimation Techniques for UAV Control

In this paper, two techniques to control UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), based on visual information are presented. The first one is based on the detection and tracking of planar structures from an on-board camera, while the second one is based on the detection and 3D reconstruction of the position of the UAV based on an external camera system. Both strategies are tested with a VTOL (Vertical take-off and landing) UAV, and results show good behavior of the visual systems (precision in the estimation and frame rate) when estimating the helicopter¿s position and using the extracted information to control the UAV

Dichlorodioxomolybdenum(VI) complexes bearing oxygen-donor ligands as olefin epoxidation catalysts

Treatment of the solvent adduct [MoO2Cl2(THF)2] with either 2 equivalents of N,N-dimethylbenzamide (DMB) or 1 equivalent of N,N'-diethyloxamide (DEO) gave the dioxomolybdenum(vi) complexes [MoO2Cl2(DMB)2] () and [MoO2Cl2(DEO)] (). The molecular structures of and were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Both complexes present a distorted octahedral geometry and adopt the cis-oxo, trans-Cl, cis-L configuration typical of complexes of the type [MoO2X2(L)n], with either the monodentate DMB or bidentate DEO oxygen-donor ligands occupying the equatorial positions trans to the oxo groups. The complexes were applied as homogeneous catalysts for the epoxidation of olefins, namely cis-cyclooctene (Cy), 1-octene, trans-2-octene, α-pinene and (R)-(+)-limonene, using tert-butylhydroperoxide (TBHP) as oxidant. In the epoxidation of Cy at 55 °C, the desired epoxide was the only product and turnover frequencies in the range of ca. 3150-3200 mol molMo(-1) h(-1) could be reached. The catalytic production of cyclooctene oxide was investigated in detail, varying either the reaction temperature or the cosolvent. Complexes and were also applied in liquid-liquid biphasic catalytic epoxidation reactions by using an ionic liquid of the type [C4mim][X] (C4mim = 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium; X = NTf2, BF4 or PF6] as a solvent to immobilise the metal catalysts. Recycling for multiple catalytic runs was achieved without loss of activity

White matter changes in microstructure associated with a maladaptive response to stress in rats

In today's society, every individual is subjected to stressful stimuli with different intensities and duration. This exposure can be a key trigger in several mental illnesses greatly affecting one's quality of life. Yet not all subjects respond equally to the same stimulus and some are able to better adapt to them delaying the onset of its negative consequences. The neural specificities of this adaptation can be essential to understand the true dynamics of stress as well as to design new approaches to reduce its consequences. In the current work, we employed ex vivo high field diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to uncover the differences in white matter properties in the entire brain between Fisher 344 (F344) and Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats, known to present different responses to stress, and to examine the effects of a 2-week repeated inescapable stress paradigm. We applied a tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis approach to a total of 25 animals. After exposure to stress, SD rats were found to have lower values of corticosterone when compared with F344 rats. Overall, stress was found to lead to an overall increase in fractional anisotropy (FA), on top of a reduction in mean and radial diffusivity (MD and RD) in several white matter bundles of the brain. No effect of strain on the white matter diffusion properties was observed. The strain-by-stress interaction revealed an effect on SD rats in MD, RD and axial diffusivity (AD), with lower diffusion metric levels on stressed animals. These effects were localized on the left side of the brain on the external capsule, corpus callosum, deep cerebral white matter, anterior commissure, endopiriform nucleus, dorsal hippocampus and amygdala fibers. The results possibly reveal an adaptation of the SD strain to the stressful stimuli through synaptic and structural plasticity processes, possibly reflecting learning processes.We thank Neurospin (high field MRI center CEA Saclay) for providing its support for MRI acquisition. JB was supported by grants from Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM) and Groupe Pasteur Mutualité (GPM). This work was supported by a grant from ANR (SIGMA). This work was performed on a platform of France Life Imaging (FLI) network partly funded by the grant ANR-11-INBS-0006. This work and RM were supported by a fellowship of the project FCT-ANR/NEU-OSD/0258/2012 founded by FCT/MEC (www.fct.pt) and by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER). AC was supported by a grant from the Fondation NRJ.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio