Deformations of Lie brackets and representations up to homotopy

We show that representations up to homotopy can be differentiated in a functorial way. A van Est type isomorphism theorem is established and used to prove a conjecture of Crainic and Moerdijk on deformations of Lie brackets.Comment: 28 page

Conservation of geometric structures for non-homogeneous inviscid incompressible fluids

We obtain a result about propagation of geometric properties for solutions of the non-homogeneous incompressible Euler system in any dimension $N\geq2$. In particular, we investigate conservation of striated and conormal regularity, which is a natural way of generalizing the 2-D structure of vortex patches. The results we get are only local in time, even in the dimension N=2; however, we provide an explicit lower bound for the lifespan of the solution. In the case of physical dimension N=2 or 3, we investigate also propagation of H\"older regularity in the interior of a bounded domain

A continuum-tree-valued Markov process

We present a construction of a L\'evy continuum random tree (CRT) associated with a super-critical continuous state branching process using the so-called exploration process and a Girsanov's theorem. We also extend the pruning procedure to this super-critical case. Let $\psi$ be a critical branching mechanism. We set $\psi_\theta(\cdot)=\psi(\cdot+\theta)-\psi(\theta)$. Let $\Theta=(\theta_\infty,+\infty)$ or $\Theta=[\theta_\infty,+\infty)$ be the set of values of $\theta$ for which $\psi_\theta$ is a branching mechanism. The pruning procedure allows to construct a decreasing L\'evy-CRT-valued Markov process (\ct_\theta,\theta\in\Theta), such that $\mathcal{T}_\theta$ has branching mechanism $\psi_\theta$. It is sub-critical if $\theta>0$ and super-critical if $\theta<0$. We then consider the explosion time $A$ of the CRT: the smaller (negative) time $\theta$ for which $\mathcal{T}_\theta$ has finite mass. We describe the law of $A$ as well as the distribution of the CRT just after this explosion time. The CRT just after explosion can be seen as a CRT conditioned not to be extinct which is pruned with an independent intensity related to $A$. We also study the evolution of the CRT-valued process after the explosion time. This extends results from Aldous and Pitman on Galton-Watson trees. For the particular case of the quadratic branching mechanism, we show that after explosion the total mass of the CRT behaves like the inverse of a stable subordinator with index 1/2. This result is related to the size of the tagged fragment for the fragmentation of Aldous' CRT

Fast learning rates in statistical inference through aggregation

We develop minimax optimal risk bounds for the general learning task consisting in predicting as well as the best function in a reference set $\mathcal{G}$ up to the smallest possible additive term, called the convergence rate. When the reference set is finite and when $n$ denotes the size of the training data, we provide minimax convergence rates of the form $C(\frac{\log|\mathcal{G}|}{n})^v$ with tight evaluation of the positive constant $C$ and with exact $0<v\le1$, the latter value depending on the convexity of the loss function and on the level of noise in the output distribution. The risk upper bounds are based on a sequential randomized algorithm, which at each step concentrates on functions having both low risk and low variance with respect to the previous step prediction function. Our analysis puts forward the links between the probabilistic and worst-case viewpoints, and allows to obtain risk bounds unachievable with the standard statistical learning approach. One of the key ideas of this work is to use probabilistic inequalities with respect to appropriate (Gibbs) distributions on the prediction function space instead of using them with respect to the distribution generating the data. The risk lower bounds are based on refinements of the Assouad lemma taking particularly into account the properties of the loss function. Our key example to illustrate the upper and lower bounds is to consider the $L_q$-regression setting for which an exhaustive analysis of the convergence rates is given while $q$ ranges in $[1;+\infty[$.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/08-AOS623 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Convergence in law in the second Wiener/Wigner chaos

Let L be the class of limiting laws associated with sequences in the second Wiener chaos. We exhibit a large subset L_0 of L satisfying that, for any F_infinity in L_0, the convergence of only a finite number of cumulants suffices to imply the convergence in law of any sequence in the second Wiener chaos to F_infinity. This result is in the spirit of the seminal paper by Nualart and Peccati, in which the authors discovered the surprising fact that convergence in law for sequences of multiple Wiener-It\^o integrals to the Gaussian is equivalent to convergence of just the fourth cumulant. Also, we offer analogues of this result in the case of free Brownian motion and double Wigner integrals, in the context of free probability.Comment: 14 pages. This version corrects an error which, unfortunately, appears in the published version in EC

Land Tenure System: Women’s Access to Land in a Cosmopolitan Context

Land tenure is a concept that looks at how people gain access to land and how they make use of it. In various African societies, there are cases where women's land ownership is complicated by the gender ideology that women should not own property, particularly land and housing. Women who own property tend to be stereotyped as self-assertive and unruly, and therefore not marriage worthy. This study utilized primary data and combined quantitative and qualitative methods in analyzing the data collected. Focused group discussions (FGDs) were also organized as a source of qualitative information to support the quantitative data. Findings from the research are that there is an increase in net registration of titles to land by males over the period, compared to a reduction in females registering titles. There is a gender difference in the number of plots owned by males and females. Males owned more plots of land as compared to females. While the majority of male respondents directly negotiated for their land purchases, it was more usual for females to use male intermediaries in an effort to prevent being duped by predominantly male land sellers. Recommendation from the study is that equal inheritance rights to land should be guaranteed to both men and women

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Our second nature : between technological control and self control

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