1,160 research outputs found
Expectations or Guarantees? I Want It All! A crossroad between games and MDPs
When reasoning about the strategic capabilities of an agent, it is important
to consider the nature of its adversaries. In the particular context of
controller synthesis for quantitative specifications, the usual problem is to
devise a strategy for a reactive system which yields some desired performance,
taking into account the possible impact of the environment of the system. There
are at least two ways to look at this environment. In the classical analysis of
two-player quantitative games, the environment is purely antagonistic and the
problem is to provide strict performance guarantees. In Markov decision
processes, the environment is seen as purely stochastic: the aim is then to
optimize the expected payoff, with no guarantee on individual outcomes.
In this expository work, we report on recent results introducing the beyond
worst-case synthesis problem, which is to construct strategies that guarantee
some quantitative requirement in the worst-case while providing an higher
expected value against a particular stochastic model of the environment given
as input. This problem is relevant to produce system controllers that provide
nice expected performance in the everyday situation while ensuring a strict
(but relaxed) performance threshold even in the event of very bad (while
unlikely) circumstances. It has been studied for both the mean-payoff and the
shortest path quantitative measures.Comment: In Proceedings SR 2014, arXiv:1404.041
Is air pollution a risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis?
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory debilitating disease triggered by a complex interaction involving genetic and environmental factors. Active smoking and occupational exposures such as silica increase its risk, suggesting that initial inflammation and generation of rheumatoid arthritis-related autoantibodies in the lungs may precede the clinical disease. This hypothesis paved the way to epidemiological studies investigating air pollution as a potential determinant of rheumatoid arthritis. Studies designed for epidemiology of rheumatoid arthritis found a link between traffic, a surrogate of air pollution, and this disease. Furthermore, a small case-control study recently found an association between wood smoke exposure and anticyclic citrullinated protein/peptide antibody in sera of patients presenting wood-smoke-related chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, reports addressing impact of specific pollutants on rheumatoid arthritis incidence and severity across populations are somewhat conflicting. In addition to the link reported between other systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases and particulate matters/gaseous pollutants, experimental observation of exacerbated rheumatoid arthritis incidence and severity in mice models of collagen-induced arthritis after diesel exhaust particles exposure as well as hypovitaminosis D-related autoimmunity can help understand the role of air pollution in rheumatoid arthritis. All these considerations highlight the necessity to extend high quality epidemiological researches investigating different sources of atmospheric pollution across populations and particularly in low-and-middle countries, in order to further explore the biological plausibility of air pollution's effect in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. This should be attempted to better inform policies aiming to reduce the burden of rheumatoid arthritis
Thermal stability analysis of the fine structure of solar prominences
The linear thermal stability of a 2D periodic structure (alternatively hot and cold) in a uniform magnetic field is analyzed. The energy equation includes wave heating (assumed proportional to density), radiative cooling and both conduction parallel and orthogonal to magnetic lines. The equilibrium is perturbed at constant gas pressure. With parallel conduction only, it is found to be unstable when the length scale 1// is greater than 45 Mn. In that case, orthogonal conduction becomes important and stabilizes the structure when the length scale is smaller than 5 km. On the other hand, when the length scale is greater than 5 km, the thermal equilibrium is unstable, and the corresponding time scale is about 10,000 s: this result may be compared to observations showing that the lifetime of the fine structure of solar prominences is about one hour; consequently, our computations suggest that the size of the unresolved threads could be of the order of 10 km only
Do finite size neutrally buoyant particles cluster?
We investigate the preferential concentration of particles which are
neutrally buoyant but with a diameter significantly larger than the dissipation
scale of the carrier flow. Such particles are known not to behave as flow
tracers (Qureshi et al., Phys. Re. Lett. 2007) but whether they do cluster or
not remains an open question. For this purpose, we take advantage of a new
turbulence generating apparatus, the Lagrangian Exploration Module which
produces homogeneous and isotropic turbulence in a closed water flow. The flow
is seeded with neutrally buoyant particles with diameter 700\mum, corresponding
to 4.4 to 17 times the turbulent dissipation scale when the rotation frequency
of the impellers driving the flow goes from 2 Hz to 12 Hz, and spanning a range
of Stokes numbers from 1.6 to 24.2. The spatial structuration of these
inclusions is then investigated by a Voronoi tesselation analysis, as recently
proposed by Monchaux et al. (Phys. Fluids 2010), from images of particle
concentration field taken in a laser sheet at the center of the flow. No matter
the rotating frequency and subsequently the Reynolds and Stokes numbers, the
particles are found not to cluster. The Stokes number by itself is therefore
shown to be an insufficient indicator of the clustering trend in particles
laden flows
Acceleration statistics of finite-sized particles in turbulent flow: the role of Faxen forces
The dynamics of particles in turbulence when the particle-size is larger than
the dissipative scale of the carrier flow is studied. Recent experiments have
highlighted signatures of particles finiteness on their statistical properties,
namely a decrease of their acceleration variance, an increase of correlation
times -at increasing the particles size- and an independence of the probability
density function of the acceleration once normalized to their variance. These
effects are not captured by point particle models. By means of a detailed
comparison between numerical simulations and experimental data, we show that a
more accurate model is obtained once Faxen corrections are included.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Large spheres motion in a non homogeneous turbulent flow
We investigate the dynamics of very large particles freely advected in a
turbulent von Karman flow. Contrary to other experiments for which the particle
dynamics is generally studied near the geometrical center of the flow, we track
the particles in the whole experiment volume. We observe a strong influence of
the mean structure of the flow that generates an unexpected large-scale
sampling effect for the larger particles studied; contrary to neutrally buoyant
particles of smaller yet finite sizes that exhibit no preferential
concentration in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence (Fiabane et al., Phys.
Rev. E 86(3), 2012). We find that particles whose diameter approaches the flow
integral length scale explore the von Karman flow non-uniformly, with a higher
probability to move in the vicinity of two tori situated near the poloidal
neutral lines. This preferential sampling is quite robust with respect to
changes of any varied parameters: Reynolds number, particle density and
particle surface roughness
Quantifying the sustainability of Bitcoin and Blockchain
Purpose. We develop new quantitative methods to estimate the level of speculation and
long-term sustainability of Bitcoin and Blockchain.
Design/Methodology/Approach. We explore the practical application of speculative
bubble models to cryptocurrencies. We then show how the approach can be extended to
provide estimated brand values using data from Google Trends.
Findings. We con�rm previous �ndings of speculative bubbles in cryptocurrency markets.
Relatedly, Google searches for cryptocurrencies seem to be primarily driven by recent price
rises. Overall results are su�cient to question the long-term sustainability of Bitcoin with
the suggestion that Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Ripple may all enjoy technical advantages
relative to Bitcoin. Our results also demonstrate that Blockchain has a distinct value and
identity beyond cryptocurrencies { providing foundational support for the second generation
of academic work on Blockchain. However, a relatively low estimated long-term growth rate
suggests that the bene�ts of Blockchain may take a long time to be fully realised.
Originality/value. We contribute to an emerging academic literature on Blockchain and to
a more established literature exploring the use of Google data within business analytics. Our
original contribution is to quantify the business value of Blockchain and related technologies
using Google Trends
Intervertebral disc characterization by shear wave elastography: an in-vitro preliminary study
Patient-specific numerical simulation of the spine is a useful tool both in clinic and research. While geometrical personalization of the spine is no more an issue, thanks to recent technological advances, non-invasive personalization of soft tissue’s mechanical properties remains a challenge. Ultrasound elastography is a relatively recent measurement technique allowing the evaluation of soft tissue’s elastic modulus through the measurement of shear wave speed (SWS). The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of elastographic measurements in intervertebral disc (IVD). An in-vitro approach was chosen to test the hypothesis that SWS can be used to evaluate IVD mechanical properties and to assess measurement repeatability. Eleven oxtail IVDs were tested in compression to determine their stiffness and apparent elastic modulus at rest and at 400 N. Elastographic measurements were performed in these two conditions and compared to these mechanical parameters. The protocol was repeated six times to determine elastographic measurement repeatability. Average SWS over all samples was 5.3 ± 1.0 m/s, with a repeatability of 7 % at rest and 4.6 % at 400 N; stiffness and apparent elastic modulus were 266.3 ± 70.5 N/mm and 5.4 ± 1.1 MPa at rest, respectively, while at 400 N they were 781.0 ± 153.8 N/mm and 13.2 ± 2.4 MPa. Correlations were found between elastographic measurements and IVD mechanical properties; these preliminary results are promising for further in-vivo application.The authors are grateful to the ParisTech BiomecAM chair program on subject-specific musculoskeletal modelling for funding (with the support of Proteor, ParisTech and Yves Cotrel Foundations)
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