The ALVIS Format for Linguistically Annotated Documents

The paper describes the ALVIS annotation format designed for the indexing of large collections of documents in topic-specific search engines. This paper is exemplified on the biological domain and on MedLine abstracts, as developing a specialized search engine for biologists is one of the ALVIS case studies. The ALVIS principle for linguistic annotations is based on existing works and standard propositions. We made the choice of stand-off annotations rather than inserted mark-up. Annotations are encoded as XML elements which form the linguistic subsection of the document record

Disparités et ambiguïté de l’accès aux ressources biologiques en Guyane française

Le territoire de la Guyane possède la particularité d’être la seule région française (sans compter les Territoires d’Outre-mer) où vivent des populations autochtones possédant encore de nombreux savoirs locaux liés à la nature avec des savoir-faire associés. Faisant de la France à la fois un utilisateur potentiel de ressources génétiques mais aussi un fournisseur de ces mêmes ressources et de connaissances traditionnelles associées (CTA), la Guyane française tient une place particulière. Nous nous proposons ici de discuter de la mise en place de l’accès et partage des avantages (APA) en Guyane, mais surtout de montrer le positionnement des différents acteurs (politiques, scientifiques, industriels et populations locales amérindiennes) sur ce sujet. Nous insisterons plus particulièrement sur l’ambigüité de l’accès aux ressources biologiques chez les peuples amérindiens de la région de l’Oyapock, dans l’est de la Guyane française.French Guiana is a French overseas territory that has the particularity to be the only French region (stricto sensu) where indigenous people are still living. These people are holders of traditional ecological knowledge and due to their presence and the rich biodiversity of the Amazonian forest, France is not only a potential user of genetic resources, but also a provider of the latter, along with associated traditional knowledge (ATK). It gives a special importance to French Guiana. We propose here to explain how the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) processes will be put in place in French Guiana and how the local actors (politicians, scientists, industrialists or Amerindians) are positioning themselves. We will insist on the ambiguity and the difficulties for the Amerindians of the Oyapock region (eastern French Guiana) to access the biological resources

Mode III cleavage of a coin-shaped titanium implant in bone: effect of friction and crack propagation

International audienceEndosseous cementless implants are widely used in orthopaedic, maxillofacial and oral surgery. However, failures are still observed and remain difficult to anticipate as remodelling phenomena at the bone-implant interface are poorly understood. The assessment of the biomechanical strength of the bone-implant interface may improve the understanding of the osseointegration process. An experimental approach based on a mode III cleavage mechanical device aims at understanding the behavior of a planar bone-implant interface submitted to torsional loading. To do so, coin-shaped titanium implants were inserted on the tibiae of a New Zealand White rabbit for seven weeks. After sacrifice, mode III cleavage experiments were performed on bone samples. An analytical model was developed to understand the debonding process of the bone-implant interface. The model allowed to assess the values of different parameters related to bone tissue at the vicinity of the implant with the additional assumption that bone adhesion occurs over around 70% of the implant surface, which is confirmed by microscopy images. The approach allows to estimate different quantities related to the bone-implant interface such as: torsional stiffness (around 20.5 N.m.rad-1), shear modulus (around 240 MPa), maximal torsional loading (around 0.056 N.m), mode III fracture energy (around 77.5 N.m-1) and stress intensity factor (0.27 MPa.m1/2). This study paves the way for the use of mode III cleavage testing for the investigation of torsional loading strength of the bone-implant interface, which might help for the development and optimization of implant biomaterial, surface treatment and medical treatment investigations

Validation of Convex Optimization Algorithms and Credible Implementation for Model Predictive Control

Advanced real-time embedded algorithms are growing in complexity and length, related to the growth in autonomy, which allows vehicles to plan paths of their own. However, this promise cannot happen without proper attention to the considerably stronger operational constraints that real time, safety-critical applications must meet. This paper discusses the formal verification for optimization algorithms with a particular emphasis on receding-horizon controllers. Following a brief historical overview, a prototype autocoder for embedded convex optimization algorithms is discussed. Options for encoding code properties and proofs, and their applicability and limitations is detailed as well

Verified Implementations for Secure and Verifiable Computation

Formal verification of the security of software systems is gradually moving from the traditional focus on idealized models, to the more ambitious goal of producing verified implementations. This trend is also present in recent work targeting the verification of cryptographic software, but the reach of existing tools has so far been limited to cryptographic primitives, such as RSA-OAEP encryption, or standalone protocols, such as SSH. This paper presents a scalable approach to formally verifying implementations of higher-level cryptographic systems, directly in the computational model. We consider circuit-based cloud-oriented cryptographic protocols for secure and verifiable computation over encrypted data. Our examples share as central component Yao\u27s celebrated transformation of a boolean circuit into an equivalent garbled form that can be evaluated securely in an untrusted environment. We leverage the foundations of garbled circuits set forth by Bellare, Hoang, and Rogaway (CCS 2012, ASIACRYPT 2012) to build verified implementations of garbling schemes, a verified implementation of Yao\u27s secure function evaluation protocol, and a verified (albeit partial) implementation of the verifiable computation protocol by Gennaro, Gentry, and Parno (CRYPTO 2010). The implementations are formally verified using EasyCrypt, a tool-assisted framework for building high-confidence cryptographic proofs, and critically rely on two novel features: a module and theory system that supports compositional reasoning, and a code extraction mechanism for generating implementations from formalizations

WISEA J083011.95+283716.0: A Missing Link Planetary-mass Object

We present the discovery of WISEA J083011.95+283716.0, the first Y-dwarf candidate identified through the "Backyard Worlds: Planet 9" citizen science project. We identified this object as a red, fast-moving source with a faint W2 detection in multiepoch AllWISE and unWISE images. We have characterized this object with Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescope's (HST) follow-up imaging. With mid-infrared detections in Spitzer's ch1 and ch2 bands and flux upper limits in HST F105W and F125W filters, we find that this object is both very faint and has extremely red colors (ch1 − ch2 = 3.25 ± 0.23 mag, F125W − ch2 ≥ 9.36 mag), consistent with a T_(eff) ~ 300 K source, as estimated from the known Y-dwarf population. A preliminary parallax provides a distance of 11.1_(-1.5)^(+2.0) pc, leading to a slightly warmer temperature of ~350 K. The extreme faintness and red HST and Spitzer colors of this object suggest that it may be a link between the broader Y-dwarf population and the coldest known brown dwarf WISE J0855−0714, and may highlight our limited knowledge of the true spread of Y-dwarf colors. We also present four additional "Backyard Worlds: Planet 9" late-T brown dwarf discoveries within 30 pc

Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes, NM-400, NM-401, NM-402, NM-403: Characterisation and Physico-Chemical Properties

In 2011 the JRC launched a Repository for Representative Test Materials that supports both EU and international research projects, and especially the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials' (WPMN) exploratory testing programme "Testing a Representative set of Manufactured Nanomaterials" for the development and collection of data on characterisation, toxicological and ecotoxicological properties, as well as risk assessment and safety evaluation of nanomaterials. The JRC Repository responds to a need for availability of nanomaterial from a single production batch to enhance the comparability of results between different research laboratories and projects. The present report presents the physico-chemical characterisation of the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) from the JRC Repository: NM-400, NM-401, NM-402 and NM-403. NM-400 was selected as principal material for the OECD WPMN testing programme. They are produced by catalytic chemical vapour deposition. Each of these NMs originates from one respective batch of commercially manufactured MWCNT. They are nanostructured, i.e. they consist of more than one graphene layer stacked on each other and rolled together as concentric tubes. The MWCNT NMs may be used as a representative material in the measurement and testing with regard to hazard identification, risk and exposure assessment studies. The results are based on studies by several European laboratories participating to the NANOGENOTOX Joint Action.JRC.I.4-Nanobioscience