Vers un modèle quantique pour la méditation

We study the meditative states of human beings from the conceptual framework provided by the fractaquantum hypothesis : analogously to an atom, Man can from his ``quiet'' base state explores various states of higher energy as loving or mystical state. We then look what energy states are explored during meditation: is it the ``hyperfine'' structure of its base state? is there a love ecstatic state? a very high energy structure mystical state? On one hand we illustrate these hypothesis from the experience of a large part of mystical traditions such as Hinduism or Buddhism and on another hand from contemporary cognitive sciences. In addition, quantum mechanics indicates that any interaction between energy levels is mediated by a boson of exchange. So we aim to identify the nature of this boson linking the various human being energy levels

Adaptable Radiative Transfer Innovations for Submillimeter Telescopes (ARTIST)

Submillimeter observations are a key for answering many of the big questions in modern-day astrophysics, such as how stars and planets form, how galaxies evolve, and how material cycles through stars and the interstellar medium. With the upcoming large submillimeter facilities ALMA and Herschel a new window will open to study these questions. ARTIST is a project funded in context of the European ASTRONET program with the aim of developing a next generation model suite for comprehensive multi-dimensional radiative transfer calculations of the dust and line emission, as well as their polarization, to help interpret observations with these groundbreaking facilities.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; to appear in "IAU Symposium 270: Computational Star formation", Eds. J. Alves, B. Elmegreen, J. Girart, V. Trimbl

Power and limitations of the chloroplast trnL (UAA) intron for plant DNA barcoding

DNA barcoding should provide rapid, accurate and automatable species identifications by using a standardized DNA region as a tag. Based on sequences available in GenBank and sequences produced for this study, we evaluated the resolution power of the whole chloroplast trnL (UAA) intron (254–767 bp) and of a shorter fragment of this intron (the P6 loop, 10–143 bp) amplified with highly conserved primers. The main limitation of the whole trnL intron for DNA barcoding remains its relatively low resolution (67.3% of the species from GenBank unambiguously identified). The resolution of the P6 loop is lower (19.5% identified) but remains higher than those of existing alternative systems. The resolution is much higher in specific contexts such as species originating from a single ecosystem, or commonly eaten plants. Despite the relatively low resolution, the whole trnL intron and its P6 loop have many advantages: the primers are highly conserved, and the amplification system is very robust. The P6 loop can even be amplified when using highly degraded DNA from processed food or from permafrost samples, and has the potential to be extensively used in food industry, in forensic science, in diet analyses based on feces and in ancient DNA studies

From Single Aircraft to Communities: A Neutral Interpretation of Air Traffic Complexity Dynamics

Present air traffic complexity metrics are defined considering the interests of different management layers of ATM. These layers have different objectives which in practice compete to maximize their own goals, which leads to fragmented decision making. This fragmentation together with competing KPAs requires transparent and neutral air traffic information to pave the way for an explainable set of actions. In this paper, we introduce the concept of single aircraft complexity, to determine the contribution of each aircraft to the overall complexity of air traffic. Furthermore, we describe a methodology extending this concept to define complex communities, which are groups of interdependent aircraft that contribute the majority of the complexity in a certain airspace. In order to showcase the methodology, a tool that visualizes different outputs of the algorithm is developed. Through use-cases based on synthetic and real historical traffic, we first show that the algorithm can serve to formalize controller decisions as well as guide controllers to better decisions. Further, we investigate how the provided information can be used to increase transparency of the decision makers towards different airspace users, which serves also to increase fairness and equity. Lastly, a sensitivity analysis is conducted in order to systematically analyse how each input affects the methodology.Comment: 21 pages, 30 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Research Transportation Part

Identification of spatiotemporal interdependencies and complexity evolution in a multiple aircraft environment

To support future automated transitions among the ATM safety nets, this study elaborates identification of the complex traffic scenarios based on the concept of aerial ecosystems. As an extension of the TCAS operational domain and evolving from the separation management towards collision avoidance layer, the concept has been developed as a stepwise algorithm for identification of cooperative aircraft involved in the safety event – detected conflict, and negotiating their resolution trajectories before the ecosystem deadlock event occurs, in which at least one aircraft stays out of a conflict-free resolution. As a response to this threshold, the paper examines generation of both acceptable and candidate resolution trajectories, with respect to the original aircraft trajectories. The candidate trajectories are generated from a set of tactical waypoints and a return waypoint to the original trajectory. Described methodology has been practically implemented to one ecosystem scenario, characterizing its evolution in terms of the intrinsic complexity. By introducing the heading maneuver changes and delay in the resolution process, the results have shown how the scenario complexity is increasing, especially affected by the states of two aircraft in the initial conflict. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated an evolution in the amount of the acceptable and candidate trajectory solutions, for which the minimum complexity value is satisfied. A goal of the study was to explore the lateral resolutions capacity at certain moments and its timely decrement

Development and Emplacement of Ana Slide, Eivissa Channel, Western Mediterranean Sea

Submarine landslides can destroy seafloor infrastructures and generate devastating tsunamis. In spite of decades of research into the functioning of submarine landslides there are still numerous open questions, in particular how different phases of sliding influence each other. Here, we re-analyze Ana Slide—a relatively small (<1 km3) landslide offshore the Balearic Islands, which is unique in the published literature because it is completely imaged by high-resolution 3D reflection seismic data. Ana Slide comprises three domains: (a) a source area that is almost completely evacuated with evidence of headscarp retrogression, (b) an adjacent downslope translational domain representing a by-pass zone for the material that was mobilized in the source area, and (c) the deposit formed by the mobilized material, which accumulated downslope in a sink area and deformed slope sediment. Isochron maps show deep chaotic seismic units underneath the thickest deposits. We infer that the rapid deposition of the landslide material deformed the underlying sediments. A thin stratified sediment unit between three lobes suggests that Ana Slide evolved in two failure stages separated by several tens of thousands of years. This illustrates the problem of over-estimating the volume of mobilized material and under-estimating the complexity even of relatively simple slope failures without high-quality 3D reflection seismic data

Miniature switchable millimeter-wave BiCMOS low-noise amplifier at 120/140 GHz using an HBT switch

A 120-140 GHz frequency-switchable, very compact low-noise amplifier (LNA) fabricated in a 0.13 µm SiGe:C BiCMOS technology is proposed. A single radio-frequency (RF) switch composed of three parallel hetero junction bipolar transistors (HBTs) in a common-collector configuration and a multimodal three-line microstrip structure in the input matching network are used to obtain a LNA chip of miniaturized size. A systematic design procedure is applied to obtain a perfectly balanced gain and noise figure in both frequency states (120 GHz and 140 GHz). The measured gain and noise figure are 14.2/14.2 dB and 8.2/8.2 dB at 120/140 GHz respectively, in very good agreement with circuit/electromagnetic co-simulations. The LNA chip and core areas are 0.197 mm2 and 0.091 mm2, respectively, which supposes an area reduction of 23.4% and 15.2% compared to other LNAs reported in this frequency band. The experimental results validate the design procedure and its analysis. © 2019 by the authors

Analysing diet of small herbivores: the efficiency of DNA barcoding coupled with high-throughput pyrosequencing for deciphering the composition of complex plant mixtures

Background In order to understand the role of herbivores in trophic webs, it is essential to know what they feed on. Diet analysis is, however, a challenge in many small herbivores with a secretive life style. In this paper, we compare novel (high-throughput pyrosequencing) DNA barcoding technology for plant mixture with traditional microhistological method. We analysed stomach contents of two ecologically important subarctic vole species, Microtus oeconomus and Myodes rufocanus, with the two methods. DNA barcoding was conducted using the P6-loop of the chloroplast trnL (UAA) intron. Results Although the identified plant taxa in the diets matched relatively well between the two methods, DNA barcoding gave by far taxonomically more detailed results. Quantitative comparison of results was difficult, mainly due to low taxonomic resolution of the microhistological method, which also in part explained discrepancies between the methods. Other discrepancies were likely due to biases mostly in the microhistological analysis. Conclusion We conclude that DNA barcoding opens up for new possibilities in the study of plant-herbivore interactions, giving a detailed and relatively unbiased picture of food utilization of herbivores

Mixed methods, mixed tools : the use of computer software for integrated qualitative and quantitative analysis

We report on how two different software programs (Camtasia and EdEt) were used in the process of data conversion from qualitative to quantitative format. This process, known as quantitative translation of data, can be considered a specific kind of mixed methods analysis. We show the methodological and technical limits of the programs and the possibilities they offer for quantitative translation. We reflect on the role these software packages played in the different stages of data collection and data analysis of the studies described. Finally, we delve into the methodological and epistemological criticisms of the use of software for qualitative data analysis, concluding that they are meaningful warnings to avoid a misuse of software but do not apply when researchers adopt an interpretive approach in which they actively participate in the development and testing of categories