2,722 research outputs found
Estimating the number of change-points in a two-dimensional segmentation model without penalization
In computational biology, numerous recent studies have been dedicated to the
analysis of the chromatin structure within the cell by two-dimensional
segmentation methods. Motivated by this application, we consider the problem of
retrieving the diagonal blocks in a matrix of observations. The theoretical
properties of the least-squares estimators of both the boundaries and the
number of blocks proposed by L\'evy-Leduc et al. [2014] are investigated. More
precisely, the contribution of the paper is to establish the consistency of
these estimators. A surprising consequence of our results is that, contrary to
the onedimensional case, a penalty is not needed for retrieving the true number
of diagonal blocks. Finally, the results are illustrated on synthetic data.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figure
A novel approach for estimating functions in the multivariate setting based on an adaptive knot selection for B-splines with an application to a chemical system used in geoscience
In this paper, we will outline a novel data-driven method for estimating
functions in a multivariate nonparametric regression model based on an adaptive
knot selection for B-splines. The underlying idea of our approach for selecting
knots is to apply the generalized lasso, since the knots of the B-spline basis
can be seen as changes in the derivatives of the function to be estimated. This
method was then extended to functions depending on several variables by
processing each dimension independently, thus reducing the problem to a
univariate setting. The regularization parameters were chosen by means of a
criterion based on EBIC. The nonparametric estimator was obtained using a
multivariate B-spline regression with the corresponding selected knots. Our
procedure was validated through numerical experiments by varying the number of
observations and the level of noise to investigate its robustness. The
influence of observation sampling was also assessed and our method was applied
to a chemical system commonly used in geoscience. For each different framework
considered in this paper, our approach performed better than state-of-the-art
methods. Our completely data-driven method is implemented in the glober R
package which will soon be available on the Comprehensive R Archive Network
(CRAN).Comment: 29 pages, 29 figure
From laser cooling to aging: a unified Levy flight description
Intriguing phenomena such as subrecoil laser cooling of atoms, or aging
phenomenon in glasses, have in common that the systems considered do not reach
a steady-state during the experiments, although the experimental time scales
are very large compared to the microscopic ones. We revisit some standard
models describing these phenomena, and reformulate them in a unified framework
in terms of lifetimes of the microscopic states of the system. A universal
dynamical mechanism emerges, leading to a generic time-dependent distribution
of lifetimes, independently of the physical situation considered.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures; accepted for publication in American Journal of
Physic
Fostering collective intelligence education
New educational models are necessary to update learning environments to the digitally shared communication and information. Collective intelligence is an emerging field that already has a significant impact in many areas and will have great implications in education, not only from the side of new methodologies but also as a challenge for education. This paper proposes an approach to a collective intelligence model of teaching using Internet to combine two strategies: idea management and real time assessment in the class. A digital tool named Fabricius has been created supporting these two elements to foster the collaboration and engagement of students in the learning process. As a result of the research we propose a list of KPI trying to measure individual and collective performance. We are conscious that this is just a first approach to define which aspects of a class following a course can be qualified and quantified.Postprint (published version
Extremely Large and Anisotropic Upper Critical Field and the Ferromagnetic Instability in UCoGe
Magnetoresistivity measurements with fine tuning of the field direction on
high quality single crystals of the ferromagnetic superconductor UCoGe show
anomalous anisotropy of the upper critical field H_c2. H_c2 for H // b-axis
(H_c2^b) in the orthorhombic crystal structure is strongly enhanced with
decreasing temperature with an S-shape and reaches nearly 20 T at 0 K. The
temperature dependence of H_c2^a shows upward curvature with a low temperature
value exceeding 30 T, while H_c2^c at 0 K is very small (~ 0.6 T). Contrary to
conventional ferromagnets, the decrease of the Curie temperature with
increasing field for H // b-axis marked by an enhancement of the effective mass
of the conduction electrons appears to be the origin of the S-shaped H_c2^b
curve. These results indicate that the field-induced ferromagnetic instability
or magnetic quantum criticality reinforces superconductivity.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in J. Phys. Soc. Jp
Modulating the phase transition temperature of giant magnetocaloric thin films by ion irradiation
Magnetic refrigeration based on the magnetocaloric effect at room temperature
is one of the most attractive alternative to the current gas
compression/expansion method routinely employed. Nevertheless, in giant
magnetocaloric materials, optimal refrigeration is restricted to the narrow
temperature window of the phase transition (Tc). In this work, we present the
possibility of varying this transition temperature into a same giant
magnetocaloric material by ion irradiation. We demonstrate that the transition
temperature of iron rhodium thin films can be tuned by the bombardment of ions
of Ne 5+ with varying fluences up to 10 14 ions cm --2 , leading to optimal
refrigeration over a large 270--380 K temperature window. The Tc modification
is found to be due to the ion-induced disorder and to the density of new
point-like defects. The variation of the phase transition temperature with the
number of incident ions opens new perspectives in the conception of devices
using giant magnetocaloric materials
High-Field Superconductivity at an Electronic Topological Transition in URhGe
The emergence of superconductivity at high magnetic fields in URhGe is
regarded as a paradigm for new state formation approaching a quantum critical
point. Until now, a divergence of the quasiparticle mass at the metamagnetic
transition was considered essential for superconductivity to survive at
magnetic fields above 30 tesla. Here we report the observation of quantum
oscillations in URhGe revealing a tiny pocket of heavy quasiparticles that
shrinks continuously with increasing magnetic field, and finally disappears at
a topological Fermi surface transition close to or at the metamagnetic field.
The quasiparticle mass decreases and remains finite, implying that the Fermi
velocity vanishes due to the collapse of the Fermi wavevector. This offers a
novel explanation for the re-emergence of superconductivity at extreme magnetic
fields and makes URhGe the first proven example of a material where magnetic
field-tuning of the Fermi surface, rather than quantum criticality alone,
governs quantum phase formation.Comment: A revised version has been accepted for publication in Nature Physic
B\"acklund transformation for non-relativistic Chern-Simons vortices
A B\"acklund transformation yielding the static non-relativistic Chern-Simons
vortices of Jackiw and Pi is presented.Comment: 7 pages plain Te
Phase space measure concentration for an ideal gas
We point out that a special case of an ideal gas exhibits concentration of
the volume of its phase space, which is a sphere, around its equator in the
thermodynamic limit. The rate of approach to the thermodynamic limit is
determined. Our argument relies on the spherical isoperimetric inequality of
L\'{e}vy and Gromov.Comment: 15 pages, No figures, Accepted by Modern Physics Letters
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