Raster Scanning of Bathymetric Plotting Sheets

Raster scanning of the Service hydrographique et océanographique de la Marine (SHOM)'s bathymetric plotting sheets provides neural networks' with an excellent opportunity to confirm their strong capability compared with traditional computer methods in recognizing hand-written characters. This article describes the various stages necessary and comments on the first results obtained with recently acquired software referred to as RETINE

Renaissance of Cartography in Equatorial Guinea

This Note refers to the different steps followed to build hydrographic capability in Equatorial Guinea. Acknowledging the intense maritime traffic in the area, the modernization of the precarious cartographic situation was a must and it was transformed in an Equatorial Guinea government challenge and ambition. France, an International Hydrographic Organization Member State, conducted hydrographic surveys and other operations with its Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOM) and resurrected the cartographic activities opening an opportunity for a national sustainable hydrographic development to allow Equatorial Guinea to comply with international regulations aimed at providing information, products and services to ensure safety to navigation. It is just the start and some initiatives are still to progress.Esta Nota se refiere a las diferentes etapas seguidas para crear capacidad hidrografica en Guinea Ecuatorial. Siendo consciente del intenso trafico maritime en el area, la modernizacion de la precaria situacion cartografica constituyo un hecho y se transformo en un desafio y ambision del gobierno de Guinea Ecuatorial. Francia, un Estado Miembro de la Organizacion Hidrografica Internacional, llevo a cabo levantamientos hidrograficos y otras operaciones con su Servicio hidrografico y Oceanografico de la Marina (SHOM) y resucito las actividades cartograficas, abriendo una oportunidad para un desarrollo sustentable de la hidrografia en Guinea Ecuatorial a fin de cumplir con las normas internacionales tendientes a proporcionar informacion, productos y servicios que procuren seguridad de la navegacion. Es solo el comienzo y aun se debe progresar otras inicitivas.Cette note se réfère aux différentes étapes suivies pour la création de capacités hydrographiques en Guinée équatoriale. Compte tenu de l’intense trafic maritime de la zone, la modernisation de la situation cartographique précaire qui était indispensable est aujourd’hui devenue un défi et une ambition du gouvernement de Guinée équatoriale. La France, Etat membre de l’Organisation hydrographique internationale, a exécuté des levés hydrographiques et d’autres opérations dans le cadre de son Service hydrographique et océanographique de la Marine (SHOM) et a ressuscité les activités hydrographiques, ouvrant ainsi la voie à la possibilité d’un développement hydrographique national durable pour que la Guinée équatoriale puisse se conformer aux règles internationales visant à fournir des informations, des produits et des services en vue d’assurer la sécurité de la navigation. Ce n’est là qu’un début et d’autres initiatives doivent encore être prises

A Technical Method on Calculating the Length of Coastline for Comparison Purposes

A quick web search illustrates the wide variation in the quoted lengths of the coastline of a unique State, with ratios from 1 to 100 and in some examples, even more. This illustrates the need for a common measuring method. The length of a coastline, for the purpose of compari-son between States, can be calculated according to the guidance and specifications described in this paper.This specification describes a harmonized approach to determining the length of a coastline. It may only be relevant for comparison purposes and should not to be regarded as definitive nor suitable for all purposes. Based on official ENC datasets, the advantage of this method is that it gives comparable results that can be easily verified

LITTO D- A Seamless Digital Terrain Model

The French National Geographic Institute (IGN) and the French Naval Hydrographie and Oceanographic Office (SHOM) were tasked by the Prime Minister to combine efforts to produce a seamless, precise topographic and bathymetric model, of the entire French coast. The Litto3D project was then created to meet more than one hundred requirements expressed by coastal managers and by users of geo-referenced data. An initial laser survey was conducted in the Golfe du Morbihan, Brittany and was used to generate a precise DTM. This experiment enabled SHOM and IGN to develop a methodology applicable everywhere and by everyone.El Primer Ministro encomendô al Instituto Geogrâfico Francés (IGN) y al Servicio Hidrogrâfico y Oceanogrâfico de la Marina Francesa (SHOM) la tarea de combinar sus esfuerzos para producir un modelo topogrâfico y batimétrico uniforme y preciso de la totalidad de la costa francesa. Fue creado enfonces el proyecto “Litto3D", para satisfacer mas de un centenar de requerimientos expresados por los administradores costeros y por los usuarios de datos geo-referenciados. Se efectuô un levantamiento inicial por laser en el “Golfe du Morbihan", en Bretaha, que fue utilizado para generar un DTM preciso. Este experimento permitiô al SHOM y al IGN desarrollar una metodologia aplicable en todas partes y por cada persona.L'Institut géographique nationale (IGN) et le Service hydrographique et océanographique de la marine française (SHOM) ont été chargés par le Premier Ministre de mettre en commun leurs efforts pour produire un modèle continu, à topographie et bathymétrie de précision, de l’ensemble des côtes de la France. Le projet Litto3D a donc été mis sur pied afin de répondre à plus d'une centaine de demandes formulées par des gestionnaires côtiers et par les utilisateurs de données géo-référenciées. Un premier levé laser a été effectué dans le golfe du Morbihan, en Bretagne, et a servi à produire des DTM précis. Cette expérience a permis au SHOM et à l'IGN de mettre au point une méthodologie appliquée partout et par tout le monde

Timing verification of automotive communication architectures using quantile estimation

Early stage timing verification on CAN traditionally relies on simulation and schedulability analysis, also known as worst-case response time (WCRT) analysis. Despite recent progresses, the latter technique remains pessimistic espe cially in complex networking architectures with gateways and heterogeneous communication stacks. Indeed, there are practical cases where no exact WCRT analysis is available, and merely upper bounds on the response times can be derived, on the basis of which unnecessary conservative design choices may be made. Simulation, on the other hand, does not provide any guarantees per se and, in the context of critical networks, should only be used along with an adequate methodology. In this paper, we argue for the use of quantiles of the response time distribution as performance metrics providing an adjustable trade-off between safety and resource usage optimization. We discuss how the exact value of the quantile to consider should be chosen with regard to the criticality of the frames, and illustrate the approach on two typical automotive use -cases

Previous experience of spontaneous or elective abortion and risk for posttraumatic stress and depression during subsequent pregnancy

Background : Few studies have considered whether elective and/or spontaneous abortion (EAB/SAB) may be risk factors for mental health sequelae in subsequent pregnancy. This paper examines the impact of EAB/SAB on mental health during subsequent pregnancy in a sample of women involved in a larger prospective study of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) across the childbearing year (n=1,581). Methods : Women expecting their first baby completed standardized telephone assessments including demographics, trauma history, PTSD, depression, and pregnancy wantedness, and religiosity. Results : Fourteen percent (n=221) experienced a prior elective abortion (EAB), 13.1% (n=206) experienced a prior spontaneous abortion (SAB), and 1.4% (n=22) experienced both. Of those women who experienced either an EAB or SAB, 13.9% (n=220) appraised the EAB or SAB experience as having been “a hard time” (i.e., potentially traumatic) and 32.6% (n=132) rated it as their index trauma (i.e., their worst or second worst lifetime exposure). Among the subset of 405 women with prior EAB or SAB, the rate of PTSD during the subsequent pregnancy was 12.6% (n−51), the rate of depression was 16.8% (n=68), and 5.4% (n−22) met criteria for both disorders. Conclusions : History of sexual trauma predicted appraising the experience of EAB or SAB as “a hard time.” Wanting to be pregnant sooner was predictive of appraising the experience of EAB or SAB as the worst or second worst (index) trauma. EAB or SAB was appraised as less traumatic than sexual or medical trauma exposures and conveyed relatively lower risk for PTSD. The patterns of predictors for depression were similar. Depression and Anxiety, 2010.© 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77965/1/20714_ftp.pd

What can inactivity (in its various forms) reveal about affective states in non-human animals? A review

Captive/domestic animals are often described as inactive, with the implicit or explicit implication that this high level of inactivity is a welfare problem. Conversely, not being inactive enough may also indicate or cause poor welfare. In humans, too much inactivity can certainly be associated with either negative or positive affective states. In non-human animals, however, the affective states associated with elevated or suppressed levels of inactivity are still not well understood. Part of the complexity is due to the fact that there are many different forms of inactivity, each likely associated with very different affective states. This paper has two aims. One is to identify specific forms of inactivity that can be used as indicators of specific affective states in animals. The other is to identify issues that need to be resolved before we could validly use the remaining, not yet validated forms of inactivity as indicators of affective state. We briefly discuss how inactivity is defined and assessed in the literature, and then how inactivity in its various forms relates to affective (either negative or positive) states in animals, basing our reasoning on linguistic reports of affective states collected from humans displaying inactivity phenotypically similar to that displayed by animals in similar situations, and, when possible, on pharmacological validation. Specific forms of inactivity expressed in response to perceived threats (freezing, tonic immobility, and hiding) appear to be, to date, the best-validated indicators of specific affective states in animals. We also identify a number of specific forms of inactivity likely to reflect either negative (associated with ill-heath, boredom-like, and depression-like conditions), or positive states (e.g. ‘sun-basking’, post-consummatory inactivity), although further research is warranted before we could use those forms as indicators of the affective states. We further discuss the relationship between increased inactivity and affective states by presenting misleading situations likely to yield wrong conclusions. We conclude that more attention should be paid to inactivity in animal welfare studies: specific forms of inactivity identified in this paper are, or have the potential to be, useful indicators of affective (welfare) states in animals

Maternal high-fat diet prevents developmental programming by early-life stress

Anxiety disorders and depression are well-documented in subjects exposed to adverse childhood events. Recently, maternal obesity and/or maternal consumption of high-fat diets (HFD) have been also proposed as risk factors for offspring mental health. Here using an animal model in rats, we explored the combinatorial effects of a maternal HFD (40% of energy from fat without impact on maternal weight; during gestation and lactation) and maternal separation (MS) in offspring. In the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of pups, MS led to changes in the expression of several genes such as Bdnf (brain derived neurotrophic factor), 5HT-r1a (serotonin receptor 1a) and Rest4 (neuron-restrictive silencer element, repressor element 1, silencing transcription factor (Rest), splicing variant 4). Surprisingly, perinatal HFD strongly attenuated the developmental alterations induced by MS. Furthermore, maternal HFD totally prevented the endophenotypes (anxiety, spatial memory, social behavior, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis response to stress, hippocampal neurogenesis and visceral pain) associated with MS at adulthood. Finally, we also demonstrated that HFD intake reduced anxiety and enhanced maternal care in stressed dams. Overall, our data suggest that a HFD restricted to gestation and lactation, which did not lead to overweight in dams, had limited effects in unstressed offspring, highlighting the role of maternal obesity, rather than fat exposure per se, on brain vulnerability during development.Environnement psychosocial précoce, empreintes biologiques et épigénétiques et état de santé à l'âge adult

Études comportementales et neuroendocriniennes d'un modèle animal de l'état de stress post-traumatique (influence du stress prénatal)

L'état de stress post-traumatique (ESPT) est un syndrome psychiatrique susceptible de se développer chez certains sujets suite à un évènement traumatique. Le sexe féminin et les expériences stressantes précoces sont des facteurs de vulnérabilité à cette maladie. Le but de ce travail était de valider un modèle animal d'ESPT chez le rat sur le plan comportemental et neuroendocrinien, en prenant en compte deux facteurs de vulnérabilité : le facteur sexe et le stress précoce. La procédure aversive que nous avons utilisée consiste en un choc électrique suivi de rappels contextuels. Cette procédure provoque des modifications comportementales et neuroendocriniennes à long terme chez les rats. Ces changements sont modulés par le genre et le stress précoce (stress de contention répété de la mère lors de la dernière semaine de gestation). La procédure aversive provoque une hyporéponse de l'axe corticotrope chez les femelles sans affecter la réponse des mâles. Le stress maternel induit chez la descendance une persistance des altérations hormonales liées au choc et module les altérations comportementales après la procédure aversive. De plus, la procédure aversive et le stress prénatal diminuent les performances mnésiques lors du vieillissement. Ce travail montre que l'exposition à stress unique et intense engendre des altérations biocomportementales tout au long de la vie de l'animal. De plus, ce travail suggère l'importance de la prise en compte de l'environnement précoce dans l'étude de la vulnérabilité à certains pathologies psychiatriques de l'adulte.LILLE1-BU (590092102) / SudocSudocFranceF