Part-of relations, functionality and dependence

International audienceThat language hosts a multiplicity of part-whole relations is largely accepted, but no complete formal account is currently available. We first show how most distinctions between part-whole relations can be explained by considering the ontological categories of the arguments. We then focus on "component-integral whole" (CIW), a most important but formally little-studied relation. The analysis of the functional concepts involved leads us to introduce lexical categories and to characterize a notion of functional dependence. On this basis, four cases of CIW are distinguished and formally defined. The contrastive acceptability of determinative compound nouns shows the linguistic relevance of these distinctions. Lastly, we show how the definitions provide a simple solution to the elusive issue of variable transitivity patterns

Inverse Problem for a Curved Quantum Guide

International audienceIn this paper, we consider the Dirichlet Laplacian operator −∆ on a curved quantum guide in R n (n = 2, 3) with an asymptotically straight reference curve. We give uniqueness results for the inverse problem associated to the reconstruction of the curvature by using either observations of spectral data or a boot-strapping method. keywords: Inverse Problem, Quantum Guide, Curvatur

A three-level approach to the semantics of space

This paper proposes some formal tools for representing the semantic content of French expressions referring to space. These tools consist of first, a relational –or qualitative– geometry encompassing topology, distance notions and projective geometry, as well as temporal notions, thus constituting a rather complete theory of naive space-time; and second, several formalisms to deal with functional aspects of entities such as intrinsic orientation, internal structure and categorizing; more generally, it is claimed that a representation in three levels (geometric, functional and pragmatic) is required to account for spatial expressions' semantics. To analyze the semantics of some of these expressions, this work systematically looks for valid reasoning schemata involving them; this approach also enables the testing of the proposed formal system as well as the evaluation of the definitions obtained for the studied lexemes

La chronobiologie et la Brain Gym

Ce mémoire professionnel tisse des liens entre les rythmes biologiques de l’enfant, la Brain Gym et l’école, plus particulièrement le degré 3H. Son objectif est de voir, dans le cadre d’un projet, si les exercices de Brain Gym aident les élèves à utiliser leurs capacités d’attention et de vigilance aux périodes indiquées par la chronobiologie comme étant non appropriées à l’apprentissage. Dans un premier temps, les connaissances de la science qu’est la chronobiologie et particulièrement les rythmes biologiques sont présentées. Ensuite, la Brain Gym et ses exercices, inventés en Amérique par le couple Dennison, seront détaillés. Alors que la chronobiologie donne des informations sur les rythmes de vie des êtres humains et leurs impacts à l’école, les créateurs de la Brain Gym expliquent l’utilité de leurs exercices pour la scolarité. Pour évaluer les effets du projet de Brain Gym, des données seront récoltées dans plusieurs classes de 3ème Harmos à l’aide de questionnaires à choix multiples. Finalement, dans l’analyse, les données récoltées sont triées et fusionnées sous forme de diagrammes, afin d’être mises en lien avec la problématique. Le but étant de voir l’impact des exercices en lien avec la chronobiologie et les capacités d’attention et de vigilance des élèves

An inverse spectral problem for a schrodinger operator with unbounded potential

In this paper, we prove a uniqueness theorem for the potential $V(x)$ of the following Schrödinger operator H=-\Delta +q(\vert x \vert)+V(x) \mbox{ in } \mathbb{R}^2, where $q(\vert x \vert)$ is a known increasing radial potential satisfying $\lim_{\vert x \vert \rightarrow + \infty}q(\vert x \vert)= +\infty$ and $V(x)$ is a bounded potential

La représentation formelle des concepts spatiaux dans la langue

In this chapter, we assume that systematically studying spatial markers semantics in language provides a means to reveal fundamental properties and concepts characterizing conceptual representations of space. We propose a formal system accounting for the properties highlighted by the linguistic analysis, and we use these tools for representing the semantic content of several spatial relations of French. The first part presents a semantic analysis of the expression of space in French aiming at describing the constraints that formal representations have to take into account. In the second part, after presenting the structure of our formal system, we set out its components. A commonsense geometry is sketched out and several functional and pragmatic spatial concepts are formalized. We take a special attention in showing that these concepts are well suited to representing the semantic content of several prepositions of French ('sur' (on), 'dans' (in), 'devant' (in front of), 'au-dessus' (above)), and in illustrating the inferential adequacy of these representations