Counting solutions from finite samplings

We formulate the solution counting problem within the framework of inverse Ising problem and use fast belief propagation equations to estimate the entropy whose value provides an estimate on the true one. We test this idea on both diluted models (random 2-SAT and 3-SAT problems) and fully-connected model (binary perceptron), and show that when the constraint density is small, this estimate can be very close to the true value. The information stored by the salamander retina under the natural movie stimuli can also be estimated and our result is consistent with that obtained by Monte Carlo method. Of particular significance is sizes of other metastable states for this real neuronal network are predicted.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures and 1 table, further discussions adde

Study of Interesting Solidification Phenomena on the Ground and in Space (MEPHISTO)

Real-time Seebeck voltage variations in a Sn-Bi melt during directional solidification in the MEPHISTO spaceflight experiment flown on the USMP-3 mission, have been correlated with well-characterized thruster firings and an Orbiter Main System (OMS) burn. The Seebeck voltage measurement is related to the response of the instantaneous average melt composition at the melt-crystal interface. This allowed us to make a direct comparison of numerical simulations with the experimentally obtained Seebeck signals. Based on the results of preflight and real-time computations, several well-defined thruster firing events were programmed to occur at specific times during the experiment. In particular, we simulated the effects of the thruster firings on melt and crystal composition in a directionally solidifying Sn-Bi alloy. The relative accelerations produced by the firings were simulated by impulsive accelerations of the same magnitude, duration and orientation as the requested firings. A comparison of the simulation results with the Seebeck signal indicates that there is a good agreement between the two. This unique opportunity allows us to make the first quantitative characterization of actual g-jitter effects on an actual crystal growth experiment and to calibrate our models of g-jitter effects on crystal growth

Mass transport phenomena in microgravity: Preliminary results of the first MEPHISTO flight experiment

The MEPHISTO space program is the result of a cooperative effort that involves the French nuclear and space agencies (Commissariat a l'energie atomique, CEA - Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, CNES) and the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The scientific studies and apparatus development were funded in the frame of the GRAMME agreement between CEA and CNES, the flight costs being taken in charge by NASA. Six flight opportunities are scheduled, with alternating French and American principal investigators. It is the purpose of this paper to briefly present MEPHISTO along with the preliminary results obtained during its first flight on USMP-1 in October 1992

Impact on Chilean hospitals following the 2015 Illapel earthquake

In a post-disaster environment, hospitals play a critical role in healthcare services continuities to the population while effectively coping with eventual losses of functionality. These losses come from physical damage to the facility, loss of utility lifelines, failure in supply chains, and reduction of personnel. However, data describing the detailed performance of hospitals during past earthquakes are scarce. Consequently, following the 2015 Mw 8.3 Illapel earthquake in central Chile, an exhaustive field campaign was carried out in the Coquimbo region to collect substantial perishable data to describe physical damage to hospitals and functionality losses. This study presents first the baseline information obtained in nine surveyed government hospitals, including size, location and type of infrastructure. Then, the seismic impact was analyzed and classified to show the main physical structural and non-structural damage, lifeline interruptions, losses in hospital units, and variations in flow of patients and staff. Transfers, discharges and evacuations of patients that occurred after the event were also reported. We found that the earthquake did not affect strongly the healthcare service despite the fact that most of the structural and non-structural damage was localized in the largest regional hospital. The archival nature of the data collected may deepen our understanding of the post-earthquake healthcare system performance, which is very useful in improving disaster preparation and overall resilience

The PELskin project: part II—investigating the physical coupling between flexible filaments in an oscillating flow

The fluid-structure interaction mechanisms of a coating composed of flexible flaps immersed in a periodically oscillating channel flow is here studied by means of numerical simulation, employing the Euler-Bernoulli equations to account for the flexibility of the structures. A set of passively actuated flaps have previously been demonstrated to deliver favourable aerodynamic impact when attached to a bluff body undergoing periodic vortex shedding. As such, the present configuration is identified to provide a useful test-bed to better understand this mechanism, thought to be linked to experimentally observed travelling waves. Having previously validated and elucidated the flow mechanism in Paper 1 of this series, we hereby undertake a more detailed analysis of spectra obtained for different natural frequency of structures and different configurations, in order to better characterize the mechanisms involved in the organized motion of the structures. Herein, this wave-like behaviour, observed at the tips of flexible structures via interaction with the fluid flow, is characterized by examining the time history of the filaments motion and the corresponding effects on the fluid flow, in terms of dynamics and frequency of the fluid velocity. Results indicate that the wave motion behaviour is associated with the formation of vortices in the gaps between the flaps, which itself are a function of the structural resistance to the cross flow. In addition, formation of vortices upstream of the leading and downstream of the trailing flap is seen, which interact with the formation of the shear-layer on top of the row. This leads to a phase shift in the wave-type motion along the row that resembles the observation in the cylinder case

A hybrid recursive regularized lattice Boltzmann model with overset grids for rotating geometries

Simulating rotating geometries in fluid flows for industrial applications remains a challenging task for general fluid solvers and in particular for the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) due to inherent stability and accuracy problems. This work proposes an original method based on the widely used overset grids (or Chimera grids) while being integrated with a recent and optimized LBM collision operator, the hybrid recursive regularized model (HRR). The overset grids are used to actualize the rotating geometries where both the rotating and fixed meshes exist simultaneously. In the rotating mesh, the fictitious forces generated from its non-inertial rotating reference frame are taken into account by using a second order discrete forcing term. The fixed and rotating grids communicate with each other through the interpolation of the macroscopic variables. Meanwhile, the HRR collision model is selected to enhance the stability and accuracy properties of the LBM simulations by filtering out redundant higher order non-equilibrium tensors. The robustness of the overset HRR algorithm is assessed on different configurations, undergoing mid-to-high Reynolds number flows, and the method successfully demonstrates its robustness while exhibiting the second order accuracy

Western equatorial African forest-savanna mosaics: a legacy of late Holocene climatic change?

Past vegetation and climate changes reconstructed using two pollen records from Lakes Maridor and Nguène, located in the coastal savannas and inland rainforest of Gabon, respectively, provide new insights into the environmental history of western equatorial African rainforests during the last 4500 cal yr BP. These pollen records indicate that the coastal savannas of western equatorial Africa did not exist during the mid-Holocene and instead the region was covered by evergreen rainforests. From ca. 4000 cal yr BP a progressive decline of inland evergreen rainforest, accompanied by the expansion of semi-deciduous rainforest, occurred synchronously with grassland colonisation in the coastal region of Gabon. The contraction of moist evergreen rainforest and the establishment of coastal savannas in Gabon suggest decreasing humidity from ca. 4000 cal yr BP. The marked reduction in evergreen rainforest and subsequent savanna expansion was followed from 2700 cal yr BP by the colonization of secondary forests dominated by the palm, <i>Elaeis guineensis</i>, and the shrub, <i>Alchornea cordifolia</i> (Euphorbiaceae). A return to wetter climatic conditions from about 1400 cal yr BP led to the renewed spread of evergreen rainforest inland, whereas a forest-savanna mosaic still persists in the coastal region. There is no evidence to suggest that the major environmental changes observed were driven by human impact

Representation de connaissances dynamiques dans SHERPA

On decrit un modele de representation des connaissances developpe dans le cadre du projet Sherpa. L'objectif du projet est de definir, mettre en oeuvre et experimenter un systeme de representation de connaissances dynamiques base sur un modele a objets. Sherpa est un projet commun Imag et Inria. Les racines du modele se trouvent en intelligence artificielle, dans le domaine des bases de donnees orientees-objet et en CAO. Le modele presente ici integre en effet des concepts issus des langages de frames, des langages orientes-objets et repond a certains besoins d'applications qui doivent gerer des objets evolutifs. On presente les concepts de base du modele, puis la semantique et la mise en oeuvre de l'heritage. On decrit ensuite la notion de relation semantique entre objets. On evoque enfin la gestion d'objets evolutifs