Multi-Level Pre-Correlation RFI Flagging for Real-Time Implementation on UniBoard

Because of the denser active use of the spectrum, and because of radio telescopes higher sensitivity, radio frequency interference (RFI) mitigation has become a sensitive topic for current and future radio telescope designs. Even if quite sophisticated approaches have been proposed in the recent years, the majority of RFI mitigation operational procedures are based on post-correlation corrupted data flagging. Moreover, given the huge amount of data delivered by current and next generation radio telescopes, all these RFI detection procedures have to be at least automatic and, if possible, real-time. In this paper, the implementation of a real-time pre-correlation RFI detection and flagging procedure into generic high-performance computing platforms based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) is described, simulated and tested. One of these boards, UniBoard, developed under a Joint Research Activity in the RadioNet FP7 European programme is based on eight FPGAs interconnected by a high speed transceiver mesh. It provides up to ~4 TMACs with Altera Stratix IV FPGA and 160 Gbps data rate for the input data stream. Considering the high in-out data rate in the pre-correlation stages, only real-time and go-through detectors (i.e. no iterative processing) can be implemented. In this paper, a real-time and adaptive detection scheme is described. An ongoing case study has been set up with the Electronic Multi-Beam Radio Astronomy Concept (EMBRACE) radio telescope facility at Nan\c{c}ay Observatory. The objective is to evaluate the performances of this concept in term of hardware complexity, detection efficiency and additional RFI metadata rate cost. The UniBoard implementation scheme is described.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figure

Spatial planning to the test of property rights in Switzerland : an innovative land management approach to coordinate spatial planning goals with property rights interests

In Switzerland, the land management regime is characterized by a liberal attitude towards the institution of property rights, which is guaranteed by the Constitution. Under the present Swiss constitutional arrangement, authorities (municipalities) are required to take into account landowners' interests when implementing their spatial planning policy. In other words, the institution of property rights cannot be restricted easily in order to implement zoning plans and planning projects. This situation causes many problems. One of them is the gap between the way land is really used by the landowners and the way land should be used based on zoning plans. In fact, zoning plans only describe how landowners should use their property. There is no sufficient provision for handling cases where the use is not in accordance with zoning plans. In particular, landowners may not be expropriated for a non-conforming use of the land. This situation often leads to the opening of new building areas in greenfields and urban sprawl, which is in contradiction with the goals set into the Federal Law on Spatial Planning. In order to identify legal strategies of intervention to solve the problem, our paper is structured into three main parts. Firstly, we make a short description of the Swiss land management regime. Then, we focus on an innovative land management approach designed to implement zoning plans in accordance with property rights. Finally, we present a case study that shows the usefulness of the presented land management approach in practice. We develop three main results. Firstly, the land management approach brings a mechanism to involve landowners in planning projects. Coordination principle between spatial planning goals and landowners' interests is the cornerstone of all the process. Secondly, the land use is improved both in terms of space and time. Finally, the institution of property rights is not challenged, since there is no expropriation and the market stays free

Land management and mobilization in Europe: regimes, policies and processes: a comparison framework applied to Gland, Switzerland

Peer Reviewe

Modélisation graphique probabiliste pour la maîtrise des risques, la fiabilité et la synthèse de lois de commande des systèmes complexes

Mes travaux de recherche sont menés au Centre de Recherche en Automatique de Nancy (CRAN), dans le département Ingénierie des Systèmes Eco-Techniques (ISET) sous la responsabilité de B. Iung et de A. Thomas et le département Contrôle - Identification - Diagnostic (CID) sous la responsabilité de D. Maquin et de G. Millerioux.L’objectif principal de mes recherches est de formaliser des méthodes de construction de modèles probabilistes représentant les bons fonctionnements et les dysfonctionnements d’un système industriel. Ces modèles ont pour but de permettre l’évaluation des objectifs de fonctionnement du système (exigences opérationnelles, performances) et les conséquences en termes de fiabilité et de maîtrise des risques (exigences de sûreté). Ceci nécessite de modéliser les impacts de l’environnement sur le système et sur ses performances, mais aussi l’impact des stratégies de commande et des stratégies de maintenance sur l’état de santé du système.Pour plus de détails.A travers les différents travaux de thèses et collaborations, j’ai exploité différents formalismes de modélisation probabilistes. Les apports majeurs de nos contributions se déclinent en 3 points :• La modélisation des conséquences fonctionnelles des défaillances, structurée à partir des connaissances métiers. Nous avons développés les principes de modélisation par Réseau Bayésien (RB) permettant de relier la fiabilité et les effets des états de dégradation des composants à l’architecture fonctionnelle du système. Les composants et les modes de défaillances sont alors décrits naturellement par des variables multi-états ce qui est difficile à modéliser par les méthodes classiques de sûreté de fonctionnement. Nous proposons de représenter le modèle selon différents niveaux d'abstraction en relation avec l’analyse fonctionnelle. La modélisation par un modèle probabiliste relationnel (PRM) permet de capitaliser la connaissance par la création des classes génériques instanciées sur un système avec le principe des composants pris sur étagère.• Une modélisation dynamique de la fiabilité des systèmes pris dans leur environnement. Nous avons contribué lors de notre collaboration avec Bayesia à la modélisation de la fiabilité des systèmes par Réseau Bayésien Dynamique (RBD). Un RBD permet, grâce à la factorisation de la loi jointe, une complexité inférieure à une Chaîne de Markov ainsi qu’un paramétrage plus facile. La collaboration avec Bayesia a permis l’intégration dans Bayesialab (outil de modélisation) de ces extensions et notamment l’utilisation de paramètres variables dans le temps élargissant la modélisation des RBD à des processus Markoviens non homogènes.• La synthèse de la loi de commande pour l’optimisation de la fiabilité du système. Nous travaillons sur l’intégration de la fiabilité dans les objectifs de commande des systèmes sous contrainte de défaillances ou de défauts. Nous posons aujourd’hui le problème dans un contexte général de commande. Nous proposons une structuration du système de commande intégrant des fonctions d’optimisation et des fonctions d’évaluation de grandeurs probabilistes liées à la fiabilité du système. Nos travaux récents sont focalisés sur l’intégration, dans la boucle d’optimisation de la commande, des facteurs issues d’une analyse de sensibilité de la fiabilité du système par rapport aux composants

Detecting short-term change and variation in health-related quality of life: within- and between-person factor structure of the SF-36 health survey.

BackgroundA major goal of much aging-related research and geriatric medicine is to identify early changes in health and functioning before serious limitations develop. To this end, regular collection of patient-reported outcome measure (PROMs) in a clinical setting may be useful to identify and monitor these changes. However, existing PROMs were not designed for repeated administration and are more commonly used as one-time screening tools; as such, their ability to detect variation and measurement properties when administered repeatedly remain unknown. In this study we evaluated the potential of the RAND SF-36 Health Survey as a repeated-use PROM by examining its measurement properties when modified for administration over multiple occasions.MethodsTo distinguish between-person (i.e., average) from within-person (i.e., occasion) levels, the SF-36 Health Survey was completed by a sample of older adults (N = 122, M age  = 66.28 years) daily for seven consecutive days. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to investigate the factor structure at both levels for two- and eight-factor solutions.ResultsMultilevel CFA models revealed that the correlated eight-factor solution provided better model fit than the two-factor solution at both the between-person and within-person levels. Overall model fit for the SF-36 Health Survey administered daily was not substantially different from standard survey administration, though both were below optimal levels as reported in the literature. However, individual subscales did demonstrate good reliability.ConclusionsMany of the subscales of the modified SF-36 for repeated daily assessment were found to be sufficiently reliable for use in repeated measurement designs incorporating PROMs, though the overall scale may not be optimal. We encourage future work to investigate the utility of the subscales in specific contexts, as well as the measurement properties of other existing PROMs when administered in a repeated measures design. The development and integration of new measures for this purpose may ultimately be necessary

Brownfields, from opportunities to development projects: constraints that stakeholders face in the redevelopment process

Peer Reviewe

Aesthetics and morality judgments share cortical neuroarchitecture

Philosophers have predominantly regarded morality and aesthetics judgments as fundamentally different. However, whether this claim is empirically founded has remained unclear. In a novel task, we measured brain activity of participants judging the aesthetic beauty of artwork or the moral goodness of actions depicted. To control for the content of judgments, participants assessed the age of the artworks and the speed of depicted actions. Univariate analyses revealed whole-brain corrected, content-controlled common activation for aesthetics and morality judgments in frontopolar, dorsomedial and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Temporoparietal cortex showed activation specific for morality judgments, occipital cortex for aesthetics judgments. Multivariate analyses revealed both common and distinct whole-brain corrected representations for morality and aesthetics judgments in temporoparietal and prefrontal regions. Overall, neural commonalities are more pronounced than predominant philosophical views would predict. They are compatible with minority accounts that stress commonalities between aesthetics and morality judgments, such as sentimentalism and a valuation framework