Mean Field Games and Applications.

This text is inspired from a “Cours Bachelier” held in January 2009 and taught by Jean-Michel Lasry. This course was based upon the articles of the three authors and upon unpublished materials they developed. Proofs were not presented during the conferences and are now available. So are some issues that were only rapidly tackled during class.Mean Field Games;

Large investor trading impacts on volatility

International audienc

Bronchial thermoplasty : a new therapeutic option for the treatment of severe, uncontrolled asthma in adults

Bronchial thermoplasty is a young yet promising treatment for severe asthma whose benefit for long-term asthma control outweighs the short-term risk of deterioration and hospitalisation in the days following the treatment. It is an innovative treatment whose clinical efficacy and safety are beginning to be better understood. Since this is a device-based therapy, the overall evaluation of risk-benefit is unlike that of pharmaceutical products; safety aspects, regulatory requirements, study design and effect size assessment may be unfamiliar. The mechanisms of action and optimal patient selection need to be addressed in further rigorous clinical and scientific studies. Bronchial thermoplasty fits in perfectly with the movement to expand personalised medicine in the field of chronic airway disorders. This is a device-based complimentary asthma treatment that must be supported and developed in order to meet the unmet needs of modern severe asthma management. The mechanisms of action and the type of patients that benefit from bronchial thermoplasty are the most important challenges for bronchial thermoplasty in the future

Comparative Effects on Plants of Caribou/Reindeer, Moose and White-tailed Deer Herbivory

We reviewed the literature reporting negative or positive effects on vegetation of herbivory by caribou/reindeer, moose, and white-tailed deer in light of the hypothesis of exploitation ecosystems (EEH), which predicts that most of the negative impacts will occur in areas where wolves were extirpated. We were able to list 197 plant taxa negatively affected by the three cervid species, as opposed to 24 that benefited from their herbivory. The plant taxa negatively affected by caribou/reindeer (19), moose (37), and white-tailed deer (141) comprised 5%, 9%, and 11% of vascular plants present in their respective ranges. Each cervid affected mostly species eaten during the growing season: lichens and woody species for caribou/reindeer, woody species and aquatics for moose, and herbs and woody species for white-tailed deer. White-tailed deer were the only deer reported to feed on threatened or endangered plants. Studies related to damage caused by caribou/reindeer were scarce and often concerned lichens. Most reports for moose and white-tailed deer came from areas where wolves were absent or rare. Among the three cervids, white-tailed deer might damage the most vegetation because of its smaller size and preference for herbs.À la lumière de l'hypothèse de l'exploitation des écosystèmes (EEH), nous avons examiné les publications qui mentionnent les effets négatifs ou positifs, sur la végétation, du broutement du caribou/renne, de l'orignal et du cerf de Virginie. Cette hypothèse prédit que les impacts négatifs se concentrent dans des endroits où le loup a été éliminé. Nous avons pu énumérer 197 taxons végétaux affectés négativement par les trois cervidés, contre 24 qui profitaient du broutement. Le nombre de taxons végétaux affectés négativement par le broutement du caribou/renne (19), de l'orignal (37) et du cerf de Virginie (141) représentait respectivement 5, 9 et 11 p. cent des plantes vasculaires situées dans les aires de répartition spécifiques des animaux. Chaque cervidé affectait surtout les espèces consommées durant la saison de croissance végétale: lichens et plantes ligneuses pour le caribou/renne, plantes ligneuses et aquatiques pour l'orignal, et plantes herbacées et ligneuses pour le cerf de Virginie. Selon les rapports, ce dernier était le seul cerf qui broutait des plantes menacées ou en voie de disparition. Les études rapportant des dommages causés par le caribou/renne étaient rares et traitaient souvent des lichens. La plupart des rapports sur l'orignal et le cerf de Virginie couvraient des zones où le loup était rare ou absent. Des trois cervidés, celui qui causerait le plus de dommages à la végétation est le cerf de Virginie, en raison de sa taille plus petite et de sa préférence pour les plantes herbacées

ABC random forests for Bayesian parameter inference

This preprint has been reviewed and recommended by Peer Community In Evolutionary Biology (http://dx.doi.org/10.24072/pci.evolbiol.100036). Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) has grown into a standard methodology that manages Bayesian inference for models associated with intractable likelihood functions. Most ABC implementations require the preliminary selection of a vector of informative statistics summarizing raw data. Furthermore, in almost all existing implementations, the tolerance level that separates acceptance from rejection of simulated parameter values needs to be calibrated. We propose to conduct likelihood-free Bayesian inferences about parameters with no prior selection of the relevant components of the summary statistics and bypassing the derivation of the associated tolerance level. The approach relies on the random forest methodology of Breiman (2001) applied in a (non parametric) regression setting. We advocate the derivation of a new random forest for each component of the parameter vector of interest. When compared with earlier ABC solutions, this method offers significant gains in terms of robustness to the choice of the summary statistics, does not depend on any type of tolerance level, and is a good trade-off in term of quality of point estimator precision and credible interval estimations for a given computing time. We illustrate the performance of our methodological proposal and compare it with earlier ABC methods on a Normal toy example and a population genetics example dealing with human population evolution. All methods designed here have been incorporated in the R package abcrf (version 1.7) available on CRAN.Comment: Main text: 24 pages, 6 figures Supplementary Information: 14 pages, 5 figure