399 research outputs found
Post-1995 French cinema: return of the social, return of the political?
A key trend in post-1995 French cinema has been the return of the social. Analysing this trend, this article seeks to evaluate its politic impact. Using HervĂ© Le Rouxâs Reprise (1997) and AgnĂšs Vardaâs Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000) as key meta-texts, it suggests that the current wave of politically engaged cinema needs to be approached in new ways that recognise how films trace the impact of a politically unmediated, ârawâ real on groups or individuals. It further suggests that the withdrawal of political mediation gives the films an essential ambiguity and a melodramatic quality that, rather than mere clichĂ©, may be a privileged way to engage with the violence of the real. Film is now not so much in the van but dans le bain of a diverse socio-political stirring
Interval Slopes as Numerical Abstract Domain for Floating-Point Variables
The design of embedded control systems is mainly done with model-based tools
such as Matlab/Simulink. Numerical simulation is the central technique of
development and verification of such tools. Floating-point arithmetic, that is
well-known to only provide approximated results, is omnipresent in this
activity. In order to validate the behaviors of numerical simulations using
abstract interpretation-based static analysis, we present, theoretically and
with experiments, a new partially relational abstract domain dedicated to
floating-point variables. It comes from interval expansion of non-linear
functions using slopes and it is able to mimic all the behaviors of the
floating-point arithmetic. Hence it is adapted to prove the absence of run-time
errors or to analyze the numerical precision of embedded control systems
The secondary eclipses of WASP-19b as seen by the ASTEP 400 telescope from Antarctica
The ASTEP (Antarctica Search for Transiting ExoPlanets) program was
originally aimed at probing the quality of the Dome C, Antarctica for the
discovery and characterization of exoplanets by photometry. In the first year
of operation of the 40 cm ASTEP 400 telescope (austral winter 2010), we
targeted the known transiting planet WASP-19b in order to try to detect its
secondary transits in the visible. This is made possible by the excellent
sub-millimagnitude precision of the binned data. The WASP-19 system was
observed during 24 nights in May 2010. The photometric variability level due to
starspots is about 1.8% (peak-to-peak), in line with the SuperWASP data from
2007 (1.4%) and larger than in 2008 (0.07%). We find a rotation period of
WASP-19 of 10.7 +/- 0.5 days, in agreement with the SuperWASP determination of
10.5 +/- 0.2 days. Theoretical models show that this can only be explained if
tidal dissipation in the star is weak, i.e. the tidal dissipation factor Q'star
> 3.10^7. Separately, we find evidence for a secondary eclipse of depth 390 +/-
190 ppm with a 2.0 sigma significance, a phase consistent with a circular orbit
and a 3% false positive probability. Given the wavelength range of the
observations (420 to 950 nm), the secondary transit depth translates into a day
side brightness temperature of 2690(-220/+150) K, in line with measurements in
the z' and K bands. The day side emission observed in the visible could be due
either to thermal emission of an extremely hot day side with very little
redistribution of heat to the night side, or to direct reflection of stellar
light with a maximum geometrical albedo Ag=0.27 +/- 0.13. We also report a
low-frequency oscillation well in phase at the planet orbital period, but with
a lower-limit amplitude that could not be attributed to the planet phase alone,
and possibly contaminated with residual lightcurve trends.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 13 pages, 13
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Interaction between dislocation and coherent twin boundary by quasicontinuum model
The interaction between lattice dislocations and Coherent Twin Boundary ÎŁ3{111} of copper has been studied using Quasi-Continuum method. The coherent twin boundary provides high barrier to slip transmission. The dislocation pile-up modifies the stress field at its intersection with the grain boundary. A different reaction process compared with the case of single dislocations is noticed. One observes the nucleation of a Lomer-type dislocation with Burgers vector of Âœ and its glide on the (100) cube plane in the adjacent grain. This phenomenon has been observed with Transmission Electron Microscopy at room temperature and in other Molecular Dynamics simulations. We also show a novel interaction mechanism between Lomer-type dislocation and Coherent Twin Boundary. This interaction process leaves a dislocation with a Burgers vector coincident with the complete lattice shift of the Coherent Twin Boundary. Quantitative estimation of critical stress for various transmission phenomena is performed by using irial stress. Such information can be used as input for Discrete Dislocation Dynamics model
Zinc-gallium oxynitride powders: effect of the oxide precursor synthesis route
International audienceZinc-gallium oxynitride powders (ZnGaON) were synthesized by nitridation of ZnGa2O4 oxide precursor obtained by polymeric precursors (PP) and solid state reaction (SSR) methods and the influence of the synthesis route of ZnGa2O4 on the final compound ZnGaON was investigated. Crystalline single phase ZnGa2O4 was obtained at 1100 oC / 12 h by SSR and at 600 oC / 2 h by PP with different grain sizes and specific surface areas according to the synthesis route. After nitridation, ZnGaON oxynitrides with a GaN wĂŒrtzite-type structure were obtained in both cases, however at lower temperatures for PP samples. The microstructure and the specific surface area were strongly dependent on the oxide synthesis method and on the nitridation temperature (42 m2g-1 and 5 m2g-1 for PP and SSR oxides treated at 700 °C, respectively). The composition analyses showed a strong loss of Zn for the PP samples, favored by the increase of ammonolysis temperature and by the higher specific surface area
Nitrogen hydrides in interstellar gas: Herschel/HIFI observations towards G10.6-0.4 (W31C)
The HIFI instrument on board the Herschel Space Observatory has been used to
observe interstellar nitrogen hydrides along the sight-line towards G10.6-0.4
in order to improve our understanding of the interstellar chemistry of
nitrogen. We report observations of absorption in NH N=1-0, J=2-1 and ortho-NH2
1_1,1-0_0,0. We also observed ortho-NH3 1_0-0_0, and 2_0-1_0, para-NH3 2_1-1_1,
and searched unsuccessfully for NH+. All detections show emission and
absorption associated directly with the hot-core source itself as well as
absorption by foreground material over a wide range of velocities. All spectra
show similar, non-saturated, absorption features, which we attribute to diffuse
molecular gas. Total column densities over the velocity range 11-54 km/s are
estimated. The similar profiles suggest fairly uniform abundances relative to
hydrogen, approximately 6*10^-9, 3*10^-9, and 3*10^-9 for NH, NH2, and NH3,
respectively. These abundances are discussed with reference to models of
gas-phase and surface chemistry.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 online pages with 2 figures. Accepted for
publication in A&A July 6 (Herschel/HIFI special issue
Detection of emotions in Parkinson's disease using higher order spectral features from brain's electrical activity
Non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) involving cognition and emotion have been progressively receiving more attention in recent times. Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, being an activity of central nervous system, can reflect the underlying true emotional state of a person. This paper presents a computational framework for classifying PD patients compared to healthy controls (HC) using emotional information from the brain's electrical activity
Questioning the rise of gelatinous zooplankton in the World's oceans
During the past several decades, high numbers of gelatinous zooplankton species have been reported in many estuarine and coastal ecosystems. Coupled with media-driven public perception, a paradigm has evolved in which the global ocean ecosystems are thought to be heading toward being dominated by ânuisanceâ jellyfish. We question this current paradigm by presenting a broad overview of gelatinous zooplankton in a historicalcontext to develop the hypothesis that population changes reflect the human-mediated alteration of global ocean ecosystems. To this end, we synthesize information related to the evolutionary context of contemporary gelatinous zooplankton blooms, the human frame of reference forchanges in gelatinous zooplankton populations, and whether sufficient data are available to have established the paradigm. We conclude that the current paradigm in which it is believed that there has been a global increase in gelatinous zooplankton is unsubstantiated, and we develop a strategy for addressing the critical questions about long-term, human-related changes in the sea as they relate to gelatinous zooplankton blooms
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