Clavier DUCK : Utilisation d'un système de déduction de mots pour faciliter la saisie de texte sur écran tactile pour les non-voyants

International audienceTouch screens rapidly and significantly replace physical keyboards on mobile devices. Hence, text entry is now dependent on software (or virtual) keyboards that are widely used by sighted people, but raise accessibility issues for visually impaired users. These users rely on tactile exploration with vocal feedback of the whole screen for entering text, which is time consuming. We designed a software keyboard that aims reducing tactile exploration and speeding up text entry for VI users. It relies on the selection of the first letter of a word and rapid and inaccurate typing of the remaining letters. It then proposes a list of words having the same first letter and a similar total distance between letters. The evaluation with twelve VI users showed that this keyboard is very efficient for words larger than five characters. It also helps preventing certain typing errors.L'utilisation des écrans tactiles et en particulier les claviers logiciels est extrêmement compliquée pour les non-voyants qui manquent de repères physiques sur ce type d'appareil. Nous proposons dans cet article une solution clavier logicielle qui propose une liste de mots pouvant correspondre au mot recherché à partir de frappes approximatives des utilisateurs non-voyants. Cette technique évite ainsi à l'utilisateur d'explorer le clavier en permanence pour trouver précisément les caractères à saisir. Une première évaluation nous permet de montrer que notre système est efficace pour les mots de plus de quatre caractères. Il permet aussi d'éviter certains types d'erreur de frappe. Mots Clés Saisie de texte ; déficience visuelle ; écran tactile ; dispositifs mobiles ; clavier logiciel ; système déductif

fMRI visualization of transient activations in the rat olfactory bulb using short odor stimulations

International audienceOdor-evoked activity in the olfactory bulb displays both spatial and temporal organization. The difficulty when assessing spatio-temporal dynamics of olfactory representation is to find a method that reconciles the appropriate resolution for both dimensions. Imaging methods based on optical recordings can reach high temporal and spatial resolution but are limited to the observation of the accessible dorsal surface. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) may be useful to overcome this limitation as it allows recording from the whole brain. In this study, we combined ultra fast imaging sequence and short stimulus duration to improve temporal resolution of odor-evoked BOLD responses. Short odor stimulations evoked high amplitude BOLD responses and patterns of activation were similar to those obtained in previous studies using longer stimulations. Moreover, short odor exposures prevented habituation processes. Analysis of the BOLD signal time course in the different areas of activation revealed that odorant response maps are not static entities but rather are temporally dynamic as reported by recent studies using optical imaging. These data demonstrated that fMRI is a non-invasive method which could represent a powerful tool to study not only the spatial dimension of odor representation but also the temporal dimension of information processing

Strain mapping at the nanoscale using precession electron diffraction in transmission electron microscope with off axis camera

International audiencePrecession electron diffraction is an efficient technique to measure strain in nanostructures by precessing the electron beam, while maintaining a few nanometre probe size. Here, we show that an advanced diffraction pattern treatment allows reproducible and precise strain measurements to be obtained using a default 512 x 512 DigiSTAR off-axis camera both in advanced or non-corrected transmission electron microscopes. This treatment consists in both projective geometry correction of diffraction pattern distortions and strain Delaunay triangulation based analysis. Precision in the strain measurement is improved and reached 2.7 x 10(-4) with a probe size approaching 4.2 nm in diameter. This method is applied to the study of the strain state in InGaAs quantum-well (QW) devices elaborated on Si substrate. Results show that the GaAs/Si mismatch does not induce in-plane strain fluctuations in the InGaAs QW region. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC

Modelling dependency networks to inform data structures in BIM and smart cities

The pervasive deployment of "smart city" and "smart building" projects in cities world-wide is driving innovation on many fronts including; technology, telematics, engineering and entrepreneurship. This paper focuses on the technical and engineering perspectives of BIM and smart cities, by extending building and urban morphology studies as to respond to the challenges posed by Big Data, and smart infrastructure. The proposed framework incorporates theoretical and modelling descriptions to verify how network-based models can act as the backbone skeletal representation of both building and urban complexity, and yet relate to environmental performance and smart infrastructure. The paper provides some empirical basis to support data information models through building dependency networks as to represent the relationships between different existing and smart infrastructure components. These dependency networks are thought to inform decisions on how to represent building and urban data sets in response to different social and environmental performance requirements, feeding that into void and solid descriptions of data maturity models. It is concluded that network-based models are fundamental to comprehend and represent the complexity of cities and inform urban design and public policy practices, in the design and operation phases of infrastructure projects

Validation and data characteristics of methane and nitrous oxide profiles observed by MIPAS and processed with Version 4.61 algorithm

The ENVISAT validation programme for the atmospheric instruments MIPAS, SCIAMACHY and GOMOS is based on a number of balloon-borne, aircraft, satellite and ground-based correlative measurements. In particular the activities of validation scientists were coordinated by ESA within the ENVISAT Stratospheric Aircraft and Balloon Campaign or ESABC. As part of a series of similar papers on other species [this issue] and in parallel to the contribution of the individual validation teams, the present paper provides a synthesis of comparisons performed between MIPAS CH4 and N2O profiles produced by the current ESA operational software (Instrument Processing Facility version 4.61 or IPF v4.61, full resolution MIPAS data covering the period 9 July 2002 to 26 March 2004) and correlative measurements obtained from balloon and aircraft experiments as well as from satellite sensors or from ground-based instruments. In the middle stratosphere, no significant bias is observed between MIPAS and correlative measurements, and MIPAS is providing a very consistent and global picture of the distribution of CH4 and N2O in this region. In average, the MIPAS CH4 values show a small positive bias in the lower stratosphere of about 5%. A similar situation is observed for N2O with a positive bias of 4%. In the lower stratosphere/upper troposphere (UT/LS) the individual used MIPAS data version 4.61 still exhibits some unphysical oscillations in individual CH4 and N2O profiles caused by the processing algorithm (with almost no regularization). Taking these problems into account, the MIPAS CH4 and N2O profiles are behaving as expected from the internal error estimation of IPF v4.61 and the estimated errors of the correlative measurements

Allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation after reduced intensity conditioning regimen for elderly patients (60 years and older) with hematologic malignancies using unrelated donors: a retrospective study for the French society for stem cell transplantation (SFGM-TC)

Peer reviewe

Hydro-climatic changes of wetlandscapes across the world

Assessments of ecosystem service and function losses of wetlandscapes (i.e., wetlands and their hydrological catchments) suffer from knowledge gaps regarding impacts of ongoing hydro-climatic change. This study investigates hydro-climatic changes during 1976–2015 in 25 wetlandscapes distributed across the world’s tropical, arid, temperate and cold climate zones. Results show that the wetlandscapes were subject to precipitation (P) and temperature (T) changes consistent with mean changes over the world’s land area. However, arid and cold wetlandscapes experienced higher T increases than their respective climate zone. Also, average P decreased in arid and cold wetlandscapes, contrarily to P of arid and cold climate zones, suggesting that these wetlandscapes are located in regions of elevated climate pressures. For most wetlandscapes with available runoff (R) data, the decreases were larger in R than in P, which was attributed to aggravation of climate change impacts by enhanced evapotranspiration losses, e.g. caused by land-use changes

Publisher Correction: Hydro-climatic changes of wetlandscapes across the world (Scientific Reports, (2021), 11, 1, (2754), 10.1038/s41598-021-81137-3)

In the original version of this Article, V. H. Rivera-Monroy was incorrectly affiliated with ‘Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, Calle 28 A No. 15-09, Bogotá, DC, 70803, Colombia’. The correct affiliation is listed below. Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, College of the Coast and Environment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA As a result, Affiliations 22–27 were incorrectly listed as Affiliations 21–26 respectively. The original Article has been corrected

Management of Myelodysplastic Syndrome Relapsing after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: A Study by the French Society of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cell Therapies

To find out prognostic factors and to investigate different therapeutic approaches, we report on 147 consecutive patients who relapsed after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) for myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Sixty-two patients underwent immunotherapy (IT group, second allo-HSCT or donor lymphocyte infusion), 39 received cytoreductive treatment alone (CRT group) and 46 were managed with palliative/supportive cares (PSC group). Two-year rates of overall survival (OS) were 32%, 6%, and 2% in the IT, CRT, and PSC groups, respectively (P < .001). In multivariate analysis, 4 factors adversely influenced 2-year rates of OS: history of acute graft-versus-host disease (hazard ratio [HR], 1.83; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26 to 2.67; P ¼ .002), relapse within 6 months (HR, 2.69; 95% CI, .82 to 3.98; P < .001), progression to acute myeloid leukemia (HR, 2.59; 95% CI, 1.75 to 3.83; P < .001), and platelet count < 50 G/L at relapse (HR, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.15 to 2.44; P ¼.007). A prognostic score based on those factors discriminated 2 risk groups with median OSs of 13.2 versus 2.4 months, respectively (P < .001). When propensity score, prognostic score, and treatment strategy were included in Cox model, immunotherapy was found to be an independent factor that favorably impacts OS (HR, .40; 95% CI, .26 to .63; P < .001). In conclusion, immunotherapy should be considered when possible for MDS patients relapsing after allo-HSCT

Characterization of pearl millet root architecture and anatomy reveals three types of lateral roots

Pearl millet plays an important role for food security in arid regions of Africa and India. Nevertheless, it is considered an orphan crop as it lags far behind other cereals in terms of genetic improvement efforts. Breeding pearl millet varieties with improved root traits promises to deliver benefits in water and nutrient acquisition. Here, we characterize of early pearl millet root system development using several different root phenotyping approaches that include rhizotrons and microCT. We report that early stage pearl millet root system development is characterized by a fast growing primary root that quickly colonizes deeper soil horizons. We also describe root anatomical studies that revealed 3 distinct types of lateral roots that form on both primary roots and crown roots. Finally, we detected significant variation for two root architectural traits in pearl millet inbred lines. This study provides the basis for subsequent genetic experiments to identify loci associated with interesting early root development traits in this important cereal