An analysis of the impact of modularization and standardization of vehicles electronics architecture on the automotive industry

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-120).The growing use of electronics in automobiles designs and their dependency on it, has increased the level of complexity of the car-system and created new challenges. But at the same time, it has created new opportunities and the potential to reduce complexity through modularization. This represents a new architectural paradigm for OEMs and suppliers. This thesis suggests an approach to this new era of automobiles designs. It looks at the effect of modularization and the advent of electronics on the supply chain in other industries. It evaluates the risks of value migration in the automotive industry and studies the mechanisms of such migrations through several interviews, financial data research, systems functional decomposition and system dynamics analysis. Electronics, along with software and control algorithms, enable an encapsulation of functionalities by creating higher levels of abstraction. While early vehicles had an all-mechanical interface between operator and actuation, electronics has allowed the separation of the processing of signals coming from the operator, the control/functionality infusion, the transfer of information and the transfer of energy. Thus, what was once integral has now the potential to be modular.(cont.) Such a separation increases the modularizability of the automobile's architecture and gives it an opportunity to get closer to a lower bound "essential complexity" floor. While integrality helps prevent knowledge from fleeing away, it limits the ability to profit from various design options. When outsourcing for a modular architecture, those exclusive functionalities that actually bring value ought to be retained in-house. In particular, outsourcing software is usually not a desirable option. Software modules are likely to remain intrinsically integral for a long time to come. OEMs should thus look at expanding their software expertise in order to eliminate any dependency to an outside source for software, because it is likely a dependency on knowledge. Suppliers, who have already taken on a greater system integration responsibility, should look outside the traditional mechanical systems box. Automotive systems today involve electric, electronics and software engineering. To gain the necessary expertise in those domains, suppliers may have to perform strategic mergers & acquisitions. The role of system engineering is what OEMs ought to focus on if they want to avoid seeing value migrate to their suppliers. The emergence of value is the fruit of architecting.(cont.) New open standards should be regarded as opportunities to become more aggressive systems architects. Open standards also allow to reduce cost, in particular by creating economies of scale and scope. However, reducing cost without creating value is the beginning of a downward spiral. Modularization and standardization have created a dynamic reaction in the industry whereby the nature of the boundaries between firms is changing and value is created and redistributed. In order to capture that value, a player has to focus on the design process, the architecting of products, rather than on the products themselves. The role of system architect in the automotive industry has evolved and now requires expertise in the field of software development, testing and integration.Christophe L. Gaillard.S.M

Genome-wide association analysis identifies three new susceptibility loci for childhood body mass index

A large number of genetic loci are associated with adult body mass index. However, the genetics of childhood body mass index are largely unknown. We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of childhood body mass index, using sex-and age-adjusted standard deviation scores. We included 35 668 children from 20 studies in the discovery phase and 11 873 children from 13 studies in the replication phase. In total, 15 loci reached genome-wide significance (P-value &lt;5 x 10(-8)) in the joint discovery and replication analysis, of which 12 are previously identified loci in or close to ADCY3, GNPDA2, TMEM18, SEC16B, FAIM2, FTO, TFAP2B, TNNI3K, MC4R, GPR61, LMX1B and OLFM4 associated with adult body mass index or childhood obesity. We identified three novel loci: rs13253111 near ELP3, rs8092503 near RAB27B and rs13387838 near ADAM23. Per additional risk allele, body mass index increased 0.04 Standard Deviation Score (SDS) [Standard Error (SE) 0.007], 0.05 SDS (SE 0.008) and 0.14 SDS (SE 0.025), for rs13253111, rs8092503 and rs13387838, respectively. A genetic risk score combining all 15 SNPs showed that each additional average risk allele was associated with a 0.073 SDS (SE 0.011, P-value = 3.12 x 10(-10)) increase in childhood body mass index in a population of 1955 children. This risk score explained 2% of the variance in childhood body mass index. This study highlights the shared genetic background between childhood and adult body mass index and adds three novel loci. These loci likely represent age-related differences in strength of the associations with body mass index.</p

SNiPlay: a web-based tool for detection, management and analysis of SNPs. Application to grapevine diversity projects

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>High-throughput re-sequencing, new genotyping technologies and the availability of reference genomes allow the extensive characterization of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion/deletion events (indels) in many plant species. The rapidly increasing amount of re-sequencing and genotyping data generated by large-scale genetic diversity projects requires the development of integrated bioinformatics tools able to efficiently manage, analyze, and combine these genetic data with genome structure and external data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this context, we developed SNiPlay, a flexible, user-friendly and integrative web-based tool dedicated to polymorphism discovery and analysis. It integrates:</p> <p>1) a pipeline, freely accessible through the internet, combining existing softwares with new tools to detect SNPs and to compute different types of statistical indices and graphical layouts for SNP data. From standard sequence alignments, genotyping data or Sanger sequencing traces given as input, SNiPlay detects SNPs and indels events and outputs submission files for the design of Illumina's SNP chips. Subsequently, it sends sequences and genotyping data into a series of modules in charge of various processes: physical mapping to a reference genome, annotation (genomic position, intron/exon location, synonymous/non-synonymous substitutions), SNP frequency determination in user-defined groups, haplotype reconstruction and network, linkage disequilibrium evaluation, and diversity analysis (Pi, Watterson's Theta, Tajima's D).</p> <p>Furthermore, the pipeline allows the use of external data (such as phenotype, geographic origin, taxa, stratification) to define groups and compare statistical indices.</p> <p>2) a database storing polymorphisms, genotyping data and grapevine sequences released by public and private projects. It allows the user to retrieve SNPs using various filters (such as genomic position, missing data, polymorphism type, allele frequency), to compare SNP patterns between populations, and to export genotyping data or sequences in various formats.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our experiments on grapevine genetic projects showed that SNiPlay allows geneticists to rapidly obtain advanced results in several key research areas of plant genetic diversity. Both the management and treatment of large amounts of SNP data are rendered considerably easier for end-users through automation and integration. Current developments are taking into account new advances in high-throughput technologies.</p> <p>SNiPlay is available at: <url>http://sniplay.cirad.fr/</url>.</p

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Lacunary Müntz spaces: isomorphisms and Carleson embeddings

In this paper we prove that M p Λ is almost isometric to p in the canonical way when Λ is lacunary with a large ratio. On the other hand, our approach can be used to study also the Carleson measures for Müntz spaces M p Λ when Λ is lacunary. We give some necessary and some sufficient conditions to ensure that a Carleson embedding is bounded or compact. In the hilbertian case, the membership to Schatten classes is also studied. When Λ behaves like a geometric sequence the results are sharp, and we get some characterizations

Site funéraire des tattes (Saint-Pierre-en-Faucigny, Haute-Savoie).

Début novembre 2016, à l’occasion de travaux de réseau, des ossements humains ont été mis au jour par une entreprise à Saint-Pierre-en-Faucigny au lieu-dit des Tattes. Cette découverte fortuite a été l’occasion, en accord avec le Service Régional de l’Archéologie et la commune, de réaliser une fouille préventive de sauvetage afin d’étudier et de préserver un ensemble inédit. Située au cœur du pays rochois, à 5 km à l’est de La Roche-sur-Foron et à moins de 4 km au sud-ouest de Bonneville, l’agglomération de Saint-Pierre-en-Faucigny, logé le long du Borne, culmine à 474 mètres d’altitude sur un des principaux axes de circulation de la vallée de l’Arve.Cette petite commune, née de la réunification des paroisses de Saint-Maurice et de Saint-Pierre est avant tout connu pour son important rôle économique et territorial durant le bas Moyen Âge au travers des châtellenies genevoises de Cornillon puis de Rumilly-sous-Cornillon respectivement représentées par des châteaux portant le même nom. Toutefois, malgré ce rôle de premier ordre, l’histoire plus ancienne de la commune est très mal connue si ce n’est par des découvertes isolées dont leurs seules approches ne permettent pas de dresser un historique abouti de Saint-Pierre. Aussi, des tombes en coffre de dalles sont repérées en 1942 près de l’église actuelle et une petite occupation de l’âge du bronze est découverte en périphérie de la commune lors d’un diagnostic archéologique dans les années 2000. Notre intervention a consisté à suivre les travaux de réseau afin de surveiller l’apparition d’autres vestiges ainsi qu’à fouiller l’espace où étaient apparus les sépultures. Aussi, la surveillance de travaux s’est concentrée sur deux tranchées orthogonales creusées sur le chemin communal impasse des Tattes. Ces dernières se sont révélées négatives et n’ont pas engendré de fouilles archéologiques. A contrario, la zone de fouille fine s’est montrée riche en vestiges. Nous avons alors pu mettre au jour une partie d’un bâtiment représenté par une portion de mur ainsi qu’un sol dallé partiellement conservé. Sous celui-ci étaient présentes dix sépultures en coffre de dalles de molasse qui n’ont pu être que partiellement fouillées de par l’emprise des travaux et donc de la fouille archéologique. Une étude anthropologique et des analyses radiocarbone ont été menées sur l’ensemble. Ainsi, les tombes mélangent sépultures primaires et réduction et un total de dix-huit individus a pu être identifié. Tous les âges et les sexes sont représentés avec néanmoins une particularité puisque quatre individus présentent des déformations crâniennes volontaires. Cependant, les datations radiocarbone effectuées nous indiquent une période comprise entre la fin du Vie siècle et le VIIIe siècle avec une prédominance pour le milieu du VIIe siècle. Nous ne pouvons donc rattacher cette population au peuple burgonde à qui l’on attribue traditionnellement cette pratique. Le mobilier retrouvé pose également question puisque son étude a montré qu’il s’agissait d’objet appartenant, au plus tard, au VIe siècle. Des questions subsistent donc encore quant à cette occupation à Saint-Pierre-en-Faucigny.Les résultats de cette campagne de sauvetage sont pour le moins intéressants puisqu’ils démontrent une occupation assez ancienne du territoire de l’agglomération entre les VIe et VIIIe siècles. De plus, ils ouvrent à nouveau un certain nombre de questions avec notamment le cas des crânes déformés. Pratique burgonde ou déformations occasionnelles liées aux usages (berceau, port de coiffes…) ? La surveillance archéologique de cette commune permettra probablement, à l’avenir, de connaître et de caractériser mieux l’implantation humaine des périodes anciennes

Les méthodes projectives : variations expérimentales de deux dimensions anthropologiques et leurs applications à l'épreuve du village imaginaire

Villerbu Loïc M., Gaillard Bernard, Bouchard Claude. Les méthodes projectives : variations expérimentales de deux dimensions anthropologiques et leurs applications à l'épreuve du village imaginaire. In: Bulletin de psychologie, tome 52 n°439, 1999. Le test du village. pp. 71-76