Alexis Aron, ingénieur sidérurgiste.

en ligne sur le site de Cairn : http://www.cairn.info/revue-archives-juives-2011-1.htmNational audienceNotice biographique longu

The writings of Belgian engineer Arthur Vierendeel (1852-1940): homo universalis or contemporary propagandist?

During the last decade of the nineteenth century, Belgian engineer and professor Arthur Vierendeel - mostly known for the Vierendeel, a frame without diagonal rigidifying elements - published a series of books in which he expounded his views on the use of steel in architecture and engineering. Vierendeel described the structural possibilities of constructing in iron, and also theorized how this ‘new’ material should capture its own architectural style. Structural aesthetics is derived from rivets, proportions, tie rods, columns and covering strips whereas auxiliary aesthetics can be created through adding ceramics, other metals and decorative painting. Formal issues had to surpass structural considerations, or in Vierendeel’s words: “Pour les constructions métalliques les dimensions doivent être déterminées à priori par des considérations esthétiques et qu’après seulement il y a lieu de recourir à la formule mathématique.

Cyclic redundancy check-based detection algorithms for automatic identification system signals received by satellite.

This paper addresses the problem of demodulating signals transmitted in the automatic identification system. The main characteristics of such signals consist of two points: (i) they are modulated using a trellis-coded modulation, more precisely a Gaussian minimum shift keying modulation; and (ii) they are submitted to a bit stuffing procedure, which makes more difficult the detection of the transmitted information bits. This paper presents several demodulation algorithms developed in different contexts: mono-user and multi-user transmissions, and known/unknown phase shift. The proposed receiver uses the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) present in the automatic identification system signals for error correction and not for error detection only. By using this CRC, a particular Viterbi algorithm, on the basis of a so-called extended trellis, is developed. This trellis is defined by extended states composed of a trellis code state and a CRC state. Moreover, specific conditional transitions are defined to take into account the possible presence of stuffing bits. The algorithms proposed in the multi-user scenario present a small increase of computation complexity with respect to the mono-user algorithms. Some performance results are presented for several scenarios in the context of the automatic identification system and compared with those of existing techniques developed in similar scenarios

Detection of multiplicative noise in stationary random processes using second- and higher order statistics

This paper addresses the problem of detecting the presence of colored multiplicative noise, when the information process can be modeled as a parametric ARMA process. For the case of zero-mean multiplicative noise, a cumulant based suboptimal detector is studied. This detector tests the nullity of a specific cumulant slice. A second detector is developed when the multiplicative noise is nonzero mean. This detector consists of filtering the data by an estimated AR filter. Cumulants of the residual data are then shown to be well suited to the detection problem. Theoretical expressions for the asymptotic probability of detection are given. Simulation-derived finite-sample ROC curves are shown for different sets of model parameters

Classification of chirp signals using hierarchical bayesian learning and MCMC methods

This paper addresses the problem of classifying chirp signals using hierarchical Bayesian learning together with Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. Bayesian learning consists of estimating the distribution of the observed data conditional on each class from a set of training samples. Unfortunately, this estimation requires to evaluate intractable multidimensional integrals. This paper studies an original implementation of hierarchical Bayesian learning that estimates the class conditional probability densities using MCMC methods. The performance of this implementation is first studied via an academic example for which the class conditional densities are known. The problem of classifying chirp signals is then addressed by using a similar hierarchical Bayesian learning implementation based on a Metropolis-within-Gibbs algorithm

Euphemistic lexicon and phrases in the field of employment and occupation

The use of euphemisms is a linguistic strategy common to all languages. Here, we examine euphemistic words and expressions in French referring to the field of employment. Arising as a result of the influence of globalisation, the concepts studied in this semantic field are: unemployment, job insecurity, poverty and dismissal. Assistante de caisse instead of caissière, dossier de règlement d’emploi instead of licenciement, conducteur d’autobus instead of chauffeur and deman­deur d’emploi instead of chômeur are just some examples of this type of linguistic transgression used to mitigate or even camouflage the truth. Our findings suggest that the euphemism is an autonomous figure of speech, which together with the metaphor and periphrasis, serves to attenuate the effects of taboo, above all in relation to the social and professional status of individuals. L’euphémisme est une stratégie langagière à laquelle on a recours depuis toujours et dans toutes les langues. Nous examinons dans cet article le lexique et les expressions euphémistiques dans le domaine de l’emploi en français. Les concepts étudiés dans ce champ sémantique, nés grâce à l’influence de la mondialisation, sont : le chômage, la précarité, la pauvreté et le licenciement. Assistante de caisse au lieu de caissière, dossier de règlement d’emploi au lieu de licenciement, conducteur d’autobus au lieu de chauffeur ou demandeur d’emploi au lieu de chômeur ne sont que quelques échantillons de ce type de transgressions du langage censées atténuer ou même cacher la réalité. Les conclusions montrent que l’euphémisme est une figure rhétorique autonome qui, avec la métaphore et les périphrases, sert à mitiger les effets du tabou, surtout en ce qui a trait à la condition sociale et professionnelle des individus

Les Ponts et Chaussées français et les pays balkaniques pendant la seconde moitié du XIXe et au début du XXe siècle: les cas de la Roumanie, de la Serbie et de la Bulgarie

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