Scented Sliders for Procedural Textures

International audienceProcedural textures often expose a set of parameters controlling their final appearance. This lets end users tune the final look and feel, typically through a set of sliders. However, it is difficult to predict the changes introduced by a given slider, especially as sliders interact in non-trivial ways. We augment the sliders controlling parameters with visual previews revealing the changes that will be introduced upon manipulation. These previews are constantly refreshed to reflect changes with respect to the current settings. The main challenge is to generate the visual sliders in a very limited pixel space and at an interactive rate. This is done by synthesizing the visual slider from a small set of patches ordered in accordance with the slider. These patches are chosen so as to reveal as much as possible the visual variations induced by the slider. The selection and ordering are achieved by using the seam-carving algorithm to carve patches with low visual impact. The obtained patches are then stitched together using patch-based texture synthesis to form the final visual slider

HA-Buffer: Coherent Hashing for single-pass A-buffer

Identifying all the surfaces projecting into a pixel has several important applications in Computer Graphics, such as transparency and CSG. These applications further require ordering, in each pixel, the surfaces by their distance to the viewer. In real-time rendering engines, this is often achieved by recording sorted lists of the fragments produced by the rasterization pipeline. The major challenge is that the number of fragments is not known in advance. This results in computational and memory overheads due to the necessary dynamic nature of the data-structure. Similarly, many fragments which are not useful for the final image--due to opacity accumulation for instance--have to be stored and sorted nonetheless, negatively impacting performance. This paper proposes a novel approach which records and simultaneously sorts all fragments in a single geometry pass. The storage overhead per fragment is typically lower than 8 bits per record, and no pointers are involved. Since fragments are progressively sorted in memory, it is possible to assess during rendering whether a new fragment is useful. Our approach combines advantages of previous approaches at similar levels of performance, and is implemented in a single fragment shader of 24 lines of GLSL.Plusieurs applications en synthèse d'image nécessitent le calcul de l'ensemble des surfaces visibles au travers d'un pixel. Citons le dessin correct de surfaces transparentes ainsi que le dessin de mod'eles CSG. Ces applications nécessite également de trier les surfaces, pour chaque pixel, selon leur distance au point de vue. Pour les applications en temps-réel, ce sont les fragments produits par l'étape de rasterisation qui sont triés et stockés en mémoire vidéo. Le nombre de ces fragments n'étant pas connu à l'avance, il est nécessaire d'utiliser de coûteuses techniques de gestion de la mémoire. De plus, tous les fragments sont traités même si une fraction non négligeable d'entre eux peut être inutile au dessin de l'image finale (grâce, par exemple, à l'accumulation de l'opacité de plusieurs surfaces combinées). Nous proposons une technique simple pour trier les fragments d'un même pixel au moment de leur rasterisation, sans utiliser de liste chainée (et donc de pointeur). Puisque la liste des fragments pour un pixel est toujours triée, il est possible de déterminer, au moment de sa rasterisation, si un fragment contribuera ou pas à l'image finale, et de le rejetter le cas échéant. La technique combine les avantages de plusieurs approches existantes pour un niveau de performance similaire. Elle a l'unique avantage d'étre très simple à coder : 24 lignes de GLSL

Combining ecosystem indicators and life cycle assessment for environmental assessment of demersal trawling in Tunisia

The approach consisted of conducting LCA and calculating ecosystem indicators to provide a complete assessment of trawling’s environmental impacts and the ecosystem characteristics associated with seafood production. The functional unit for the LCA was set to 1 t of landed seafood, and system boundaries included several operational stages related to demersal trawling. Several ecosystem indicators from EwE were calculated. Demersal trawling in the exploited ecosystem of the Gulf of Gabes (southern Tunisia) was used as a case study to illustrate the applicability of the approach. Several management plans were simulated and their influence on environmental performance was assessed. Ecospace, the spatial module of EwE, was used to simulate management scenarios: establishment of marine protected areas, extension of the biological rest period, and decrease in the number of demersal trawlers

Unsupervised physics-informed neural network in reaction-diffusion biology models (Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease cases) A preliminary study

We propose to explore the potential of physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) in solving a class of partial differential equations (PDEs) used to model the propagation of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. An unsupervised approach was privileged during the deep neural network training. Given the complexity of the underlying biological system, characterized by intricate feedback loops and limited availability of high-quality data, the aim of this study is to explore the potential of PINNs in solving PDEs. In addition to providing this exploratory assessment, we also aim to emphasize the principles of reproducibility and transparency in our approach, with a specific focus on ensuring the robustness and generalizability through the use of artificial intelligence. We will quantify the relevance of the PINN method with several linear and non-linear PDEs in relation to biology. However, it is important to note that the final solution is dependent on the initial conditions, chosen boundary conditions, and neural network architectures

The Biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea: Estimates, Patterns, and Threats

The Mediterranean Sea is a marine biodiversity hot spot. Here we combined an extensive literature analysis with expert opinions to update publicly available estimates of major taxa in this marine ecosystem and to revise and update several species lists. We also assessed overall spatial and temporal patterns of species diversity and identified major changes and threats. Our results listed approximately 17,000 marine species occurring in the Mediterra- nean Sea. However, our estimates of marine diversity are still incomplete as yet—undescribed species will be added in the future. Diversity for microbes is substantially underestimated, and the deep-sea areas and portions of the southern and eastern region are still poorly known. In addition, the invasion of alien species is a crucial factor that will continue to change the biodiversity of the Mediterranean, mainly in its eastern basin that can spread rapidly northwards and westwards due to the warming of the Mediterra- nean Sea. Spatial patterns showed a general decrease in biodiversity from northwestern to southeastern regions following a gradient of production, with some exceptions and caution due to gaps in our knowledge of the biota along the southern and eastern rims. Biodiversity was also generally higher in coastal areas and continental shelves, and decreases with depth. Temporal trends indicated that overexploitation and habitat loss have been the main human drivers of historical changes in biodiversity. At present, habitat loss and degradation, followed by fishing impacts, pollution, climate change, eutrophication, and the establishment of alien species are the most important threats and affect the greatest number of taxonomic groups. All these impacts are expected to grow in importance in the future, especially climate change and habitat degradation. The spatial identification of hot spots highlighted the ecological importance of most of the western Mediterranean shelves (and in particular, the Strait of Gibraltar and the adjacent Alboran Sea), western African coast, the Adriatic, and the Aegean Sea, which show high concentrations of endangered, threatened, or vulnerable species. The Levantine Basin, severely impacted by the invasion of species, is endangered as well.Comisión Europea Marie Curie Call FP7-PEOPLE-04/01/2007-IOFMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación GRACCIE C5D2007-00067Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CGL2008-05407-C03-03Generalitat de Catalunya 2009SRG665 y 2009SGR484Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CTM2007-6663

Coherent Parallel Hashing

International audienceRecent spatial hashing schemes hash millions of keys in parallel, compacting sparse spatial data in small hash tables while still allowing for fast access from the GPU. Unfortunately, available schemes suffer from two drawbacks: Multiple runs of the construction process are often required before success, and the random nature of the hash functions decreases access performance. We introduce a new parallel hashing scheme which reaches high load factor with a very low failure rate. In addition our scheme has the unique advantage to exploit coherence in the data and the access patterns for faster performance. Compared to existing approaches, it exhibits much greater locality of memory accesses and consistent execution paths within groups of threads. This is especially well suited to Computer Graphics applications, where spatial coherence is common. In absence of coherence our scheme performs similarly to previous methods, but does not suffer from construction failures. Our scheme is based on the Robin Hood scheme modified to quickly abort queries of keys that are not in the table, and to preserve coherence. We demonstrate our scheme on a variety of data sets. We analyze construction and access performance, as well as cache and threads behavior.Nous décrivons une nouvelle technique de construction de table de hachage en parallèle qui permet d'insérer plusieurs centaines de millions de clés par secondes dans des tables pleines à 99%. Cette technique rend possible un accès très rapide aux données quand l'ordre des requêtes est cohérent, ce qui la rend particulièrement adaptée aux applications de l'informatique graphique

New Gastropod Vectors and Tetrodotoxin Potential Expansion in Temperate Waters of the Atlantic Ocean

Tetrodotoxin is a potent low weight marine toxin found in warm waters, especially of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Intoxications are usually linked to the consumption of the puffer fish, although TTX was already detected in several different edible taxa. Benthic organisms such as mollusks and echinoderms, with different feeding habits, were collected monthly along the Portuguese coast from the summer of 2009 until the end of 2010. The extraction and analysis techniques were optimized and TTX and some analogues were detected for the first time in two intertidal gastropod species—Gibbula umbilicalis and Monodonta lineata by LC-MS/MS and UPLC-MS/MS. Although the levels are low, these findings suggest that monitoring of TTX and analogues in North Atlantic species should be implemented so as to detect potentially new toxin vectors and seasonal and/or geographical patterns

A comparative assessment of antifungal activity of essential oils of five medicinal plants from Tunisia

The leaf essential oil yields of clementine, cypress, rosemary, tea, and thyme were 0.22, 0.87, 1.46, 1.20, and 0.72%, respectively, based on the dry weight of the plant material. The leaf essential oils of rosemary, tea, and thyme contained the highest levels of oxygenated monoterpenes (60.14-91.70%). Rosemary and tea leaf essential oils were rich in 1,8-cineole (49.98% and 57.55%, respectively), and they have potent antifungal activity against Alternaria alternata strain (MIC = 5000 μg/ml). Thyme was rich in carvacrol (78.54%) and had a MIC of 6000 μg/ml against A. alternata strain. Clementine leaf essential oil was characterized by the predominance of monoterpene hydrocarbons (88.65%), and it possessed a weak antifungal activity against A. alternata (MIC = 8000 μg/ml). Cypress leaf essential oil was characterized by the predominance of oxygenated sesquiterpenes (60.67%), having an antifungal activity of 8000 μg/ml

Tracking Signals of Change in Mediterranean Fish Diversity Based on Local Ecological Knowledge

One of the expected effects of global change is increased variability in the abundance and distribution of living organisms, but information at the appropriate temporal and geographical scales is often lacking to observe these patterns. Here we use local knowledge as an alternative information source to study some emerging changes in Mediterranean fish diversity. A pilot study of thirty-two fishermen was conducted in 2009 from four Mediterranean locations along a south-north gradient. Semi-quantitative survey information on changes in species abundance was recorded by year and suggests that 59 fish species belonging to 35 families have experienced changes in their abundance. We distinguished species that increased from species that decreased or fluctuated. Multivariate analysis revealed significant differences between these three groups of species, as well as significant variation between the study locations. A trend for thermophilic taxa to increase was recorded at all the study locations. The Carangidae and the Sphyraenidae families typically were found to increase over time, while Scombridae and Clupeidae were generally identified as decreasing and Fistularidae and Scaridae appeared to fluctuate in abundance. Our initial findings strongly suggest the northward expansion of termophilic species whose occurrence in the northern Mediterranean has only been noted previously by occasional records in the scientific literature

Ochratoxin A Producing Species in the Genus Penicillium

Ochratoxin A (OTA) producing fungi are members of the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium. Nowadays, there are about 20 species accepted as OTA producers, which are distributed in three phylogenetically related but distinct groups of aspergilli of the subgenus Circumdati and only in two species of the subgenus Penicillium. At the moment, P. verrucosum and P. nordicum are the only OTA producing species accepted in the genus Penicillium. However, during the last century, OTA producers in this genus were classified as P. viridicatum for many years. At present, only some OTA producing species are known to be a potential source of OTA contamination of cereals and certain common foods and beverages such as bread, beer, coffee, dried fruits, grape juice and wine among others. Penicillium verrucosum is the major producer of OTA in cereals such as wheat and barley in temperate and cold climates. Penicillium verrucosum and P. nordicum can be recovered from some dry-cured meat products and some cheeses