pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
Multi-sensor background subtraction by fusing multiple region-based probabilistic classifiers

In the recent years, the computer vision community has shown great interest on depth-based applications thanks to the performance and flexibility of the new generation of RGB-D imagery. In this paper, we present an efficient background subtraction algorithm based on the fusion of multiple region-based classifiers that processes depth and color data provided by RGB-D cameras. Foreground objects are detected by combining a region-based foreground prediction (based on depth data) with different background models (based on a Mixture of Gaussian algorithm) providing color and depth descriptions of the scene at pixel and region level. The information given by these modules is fused in a mixture of experts fashion to improve the foreground detection accuracy. The main contributions of the paper are the region-based models of both background and foreground, built from the depth and color data. The obtained results using different database sequences demonstrate that the proposed approach leads to a higher detection accuracy with respect to existing state-of-the-art techniques
Hybrid inflation with Planck scale fields

Observable B-mode polarization in the CMBR would point to a high scale of inflation and large field excursions during the inflationary era. Non-compact string moduli spaces are a suggestive setting for these phenomena. Although they are unlikely to be described by weak coupling models, effective field theories compatible with known features of cosmology do exist. These models can be viewed as generalizations to a large field regime of hybrid inflation. We note close parallels to small and large field axion models. This paper outlines the requirements for successful modular inflation, and gives examples of effective field theories which satisfy them. The required tunings are readily characterized. These models can also be thought of as models of chaotic inflation, in a way we describe. In the modular framework, one would expect that any would-be Peccei-Quinn symmetry would likely be badly broken during inflation, and the axion would have Hubble scale mass; in this situation, isocurvature fluctuations would be suppressed and the initial misalignment angle would be fixed, rather than being a random variable
Discovery potential for T ′ → tZ in the trilepton channel at the LHC

The LHC discovery potential of heavy top partners decaying into a top quark and a Z boson is studied in the trilepton channel at s = 13 $$ \sqrt{s}=13 $$ TeV in the single production mode. The clean multilepton final state allows to strongly reduce the background contaminations and to reconstruct the T ′ mass. We show that a simple cut-and-count analysis probes the parameter space of a simplified model as efficiently as a dedicated multivariate analysis. The trilepton signature finally turns out to be as sensitive in the low T ′ mass region as the complementary channel with a fully hadronic top quark, and more sensitive in the large mass domain. The reinterpretation in terms of the top- Z -quark anomalous coupling is shown
Modeling CO2 electrolysis in solid oxide electrolysis cell

A modified Butler-Volmer equation for the reduction of CO2 by considering multi-step single-electron transfer reactions is presented. Exchange current density formulations free from arbitrary order dependency on the partial pressures of reactants and products are proposed for Ni and Pt surfaces. Button cell simulations are performed for Ni-YSZ/YSZ/LSM, Pt-YSZ/YSZ/Pt, and Pt/YSZ/Pt systems using two different electrochemical models, and simulation results are compared against experimental observations. The first electrochemical model considers charge transfer reactions occurring at the interface between the electrode and dense electrolyte, and the second model considers the charge transfer reactions occurring throughout the thickness of the cermet electrode. Single-channel simulations are further performed to asses the O2 production capacity of CO2 electrolysis syste
(+/-)Methanodibenzodiazocine tethered [C-H](delta+) functional site: Study towards benzoin condensation and Baylis-Hillman reactions

New heterocyclic ring systems consisting of (+/-) methanodibenzodiazocine and imidazolium/ benzimidazolium salts were synthesized in very good yield. Subsequently, these halide salts were subjected to the anion exchange reaction with KPF6 to yield the corresponding azolium salts in excellent yield. The possible applications of these newly prepared salts were investigated in homogeneous catalysis. Remarkable changes in the catalytic activity were observed by varying the bulkiness of N-substituent at imidazole. Catalytic activity of these newly prepared salts was tested for the benzoin condensation reaction. Exclusive formation of benzoin products were observed in good yield. Similarly, the dimerization of cyclohexen-1-one to Baylis-Hillman type product, 2-(3-oxocyclohexyl)-2-cyclohexen-1-one was studied
Rupture Process of the April 18, 1906 California Earthquake from near-field Tsunami Waveform Inversion

The April 18, 1906 M8 California earthquake generated a small local tsunami that was recorded in the near-field by the Presidio, San Francisco tide-gage, located near the Golden Gate. We investigate the causative, tsunamigenic seismic source by forward modeling and nonlinear inversion of the Presidio marigram. We use existing seismological and geological observations to fix the fault system geometry and the surface slip on the onland portions of the San Andreas fault (SAF). We perform  synthetic inversions to show that the single, near-field marigram constrains the main features of the rupture on the portion of the SAF system offshore of the Golden Gate. Finally we perform nonlinear inversions for the slip distribution and the timing of the rupture of the 1906 earthquake. 
Our results, in agreement with previous studies, identify a dilatational step-over and show a bi-lateral rupture, possibly originating or propagated through the step-over region. We find that little or no co-seismic slip on normal faults in the step-over region is required to fit the marigram, and we obtain adequate fits when allowing delays in the source initiation times of up to 3 minutes on the various fault segments. We constrain slip to be of about 5-6 meters for the onshore portion of the SAF to the northwest of the Golden Gate, in agreement with 1906 surface observations of fault offset. Our results favour the hypothesis of a vertical dip for a currently aseismic SAF to the southeast of the Golden Gate, under the San Francisco Peninsula
Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of the Conventional Façade SOS Natura and the Natural Water Tank Façade

The construction industry produces great environmental impacts to the planet. In order to tackle this problem, the European Union has put into effect Regulation No 305/2011, which compels the construction products manufacturers to carry out environmental performance studies of these products and thus make public the impact they cause on the environment. The aim of this research is to make known the environmental impacts of the SOS Natura Conventional Façade (CF) solution, obtained within the research project "SOS Natura, Vegetal Architectural Solutions" developed by the Department of Construction and Technology in Architecture of the School of Architecture of the Technical University of Madrid (Spain). In addition, we report an environmental comparative with the Natural Water Tank Façade (NWTF), studied previously by the same work group and included in the same research project.We present as well an uncertainty analysis for both façades. Following the study conducted we conclude that the NWTF profile has a slightly better environmental behaviour when compared to the CF profile for the entire life cycle in most of the impact categories analysed in this study. However it should also be noted that, in detail and at stage level, the NWTF presents a higher environmental impact than the CF
Genetics of skin color variation in Europeans: genome-wide association studies with functional follow-up

In the International Visible Trait Genetics (VisiGen) Consortium, we investigated the genetics of human skin color by combining a series of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in a total of 17,262 Europeans with functional follow-up of discovered loci. Our GWAS provide the first genome-wide significant evidence for chromosome 20q11.22 harboring the ASIP gene being explicitly associated with skin color in Europeans. In addition, genomic loci at 5p13.2 (SLC45A2), 6p25.3 (IRF4), 15q13.1 (HERC2/OCA2), and 16q24.3 (MC1R) were confirmed to be involved in skin coloration in Europeans. In follow-up gene expression and regulation studies of 22 genes in 20q11.22, we highlighted two novel genes EIF2S2 and GSS, serving as competing functional candidates in this region and providing future research lines. A genetically inferred skin color score obtained from the 9 top-associated SNPs from 9 genes in 940 worldwide samples (HGDP-CEPH) showed a clear gradual pattern in Western Eurasians similar to the distribution of physical skin color, suggesting the used 9 SNPs as suitable markers for DNA prediction of skin color in Europeans and neighboring populations, relevant in future forensic and anthropological investigations
Progress in Geant4 Electromagnetic Physics Modelling and Validation

International audienceIn this work we report on recent improvements in the electromagnetic (EM) physics models of Geant4 and new validations of EM physics. Improvements have been made in models of the photoelectric effect, Compton scattering, gamma conversion to electron and muon pairs, fluctuations of energy loss, multiple scattering, synchrotron radiation, and high energy positron annihilation. The results of these developments are included in the new Geant4 version 10.1 and in patches to previous versions 9.6 and 10.0 that are planned to be used for production for run-2 at LHC. The Geant4 validation suite for EM physics has been extended and new validation results are shown in this work. In particular, the effect of gamma-nuclear interactions on EM shower shape at LHC energies is discussed
LOW AND INTERMEDIATE ENERGY HEAVY ION COLLISIONS IN THE SEMI-CLASSICAL MICROSCOPIC DESCRIPTION

It is shown how peripheral and central heavy-ion collisions can be described by Landau-Vlasov dynamics. For peripheral collisions at intermediate energies, mass-mass correlations, ejectile mean energies and angular distributions are obtained and compared with fragmentation data. For central collisions, one shows that the collision term destroys the TDHF property of transparency at low impact parameters for collisions close from the Coulomb barrier. Above 20 MeV/u incomplete fusion is described with associated linear momentum transfer and nuclear deformations. One exhibits how coupling to the continuum is obtained in Vlasov and Landau-Vlasov dynamics. Coulomb interaction being taken into account, we present also results concerning the isospin transfer and the excitation of the isovector dipole mode near and well above the Coulomb barrier. Some perspectives to further studies of physical observables are finally drawn
Recycling effect of germanium on ECR ion source

After running for three weeks with a 76Ge beam provided by the ECR-4 ion source at GANILwe have investigated the recycling effect of an SF6 plasma. The initial beam was produced bythe classical method, using germanium dioxide in our micro-oven and helium as support gas.The overall ionization efficiency was measured and found to be around 3%. Without theoven, and using SF6 instead of helium, the ECR-4 ion source has been able to produce a verystable beam during a two-week period. The intensity of 76Ge13+ (enrichment 88%) wasincreased to 40 eμA, and the overall ionization efficiency reached 40%.The oven method of production, the recycling effect and perspectives are described in thispaper
Spatiotemporal evolution of surface creep in the Parkfield region of the San Andreas Fault (1993-2004) from synthetic aperture radar.

International audienceThe Parkfield section of the San Andreas Fault (SAF) is defined as a transitional portion of the fault between slip-release behavior types in the creeping section of the SAF to the northwest and the apparently locked section to the southeast. The Parkfield section is characterized by complex frictional fault behavior because it represents a transition zone from aseismic creep to stick-slip regime. At least six historic earthquakes of Mw ~6 have occurred in this area in 1881, 1901, 1922, 1934, 1966, and 2004. It was observed in the 2004 Mw 6.0 Parkfield earthquake that ~70% of the total (coseismic and postseismic) moment release occurred aseismically. To understand the SAF behavior in this area, it is of particular interest to measure and analyze, not only the spatial evolution of the surface displacement in this area, but also its evolution over time. Using radar data acquired by the European Space Agency's European Remote Sensing (ERS1-2) satellites, we constructed descending interferograms and retrieved time series of surface displacements along the central SAF for the decade preceding the 2004 Parkfield earthquake. We focus on characterizing the space and time evolution of surface creep in the Parkfield and Cholame sections. The spatial pattern of the interseismic displacement rate indicates that tectonic strain was not uniformly distributed along the strike of the fault between 1993 and 2004. Our data indicate not only a decrease in the creep rate from the Parkfield section to south of Highway-46 from 1.4 ±0.3 cm/y to 0.6 ±0.3 cm/y, but also a small but significant creep-rate increase in the Cholame section to 0.2 ±0.1 cm/y. The evidence for episodic creep in the Cholame section of the SAF south-east of Parkfield is in contrast with previously published interpretations of GPS and trilateration data. The Cholame section of the SAF merits close monitoring because it was likely the nucleation site of the 1857 Fort Tejón earthquake and because it has shown recent evidence of deep slow slip as revealed by deep tremors
Bektashism in Albania: Political history of a Religious Movement

Revised Reprint. Original published in: _Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions_, vol. 7 (1), 2006, pp. 83-107, doi:10.1080/14690760500477919. Book-length Reprint with permission by Taylors & Francis Ltd., LondonInternational audienceHeterodox mystics and heretics of any kind become sometimes dangerous and other times reliable, depending on political situations, as was the case with the Bektashis. The system of beliefs and practices related to Bektashism seems to have corresponded to a kind of liberation theology, whereas the structure of Bektashi groups corresponded more or less to the type of religious organization conventionally known as charismatic groups. It becomes understandable therefore that their spiritual tendency could at times connect with and meet social, cultural and national perspectives. In turn, when members of the previously persecuted religious minority will acquire a degree of religious and political respectability within society at large, the doctrines of heterodoxy and liberation theology fade into the background. In the end, the heirs of the heterodox promoters of spiritual reform and social movement turn into followers and faithful defenders of a legitimate authority. They become the spokespeople for an institutionalized orthodoxy whose support is sought by the political regime
A decade of application of the Choquet and Sugeno integrals in multi-criteria decision aid

International audienceThe main advances regarding the use of the Choquet and Sugeno integrals in multi-criteria decision aid over the last decade are reviewed. They concern mainly a bipolar extension of both the Choquet integral and the Sugeno integral, interesting particular submodels, new learning techniques, a better interpretation of the models and a better use of the Choquet integral in multi-criteria decision aid. Parallel to these theoretical works, the Choquet integral has been applied to many new fields, and several softwares and libraries dedicated to this model have been developed
Q-branch linewidths of N2 perturbed by H2: experiments and quantum calculations from an ab initio potential.

International audienceIn this work the authors present an experimental and theoretical study about the Q-branch lines' broadening coefficients of N2 perturbed by H2. Experimental values for these parameters have been obtained at 440 and 580 K, and quantum calculations have been performed using a new ab initio potential energy surface, obtained by quantum chemistry methods. The results of these calculations are compared to experimental data obtained previously at 77 and 298 K [L. Gomez et al., Mol. Phys. 104, 1869 (2006)] and to the present measurements. A satisfactory agreement is obtained for the whole range of temperatures used in the experiments
Beyond the Stern Review: Lessons from a risky venture at the limits of the cost–benefit analysis

International audienceThis paper argues that debates amongst economists triggered by the Stern Review are partly relevant, focusing on key parameters translating real ethical issues, and partly misplaced in that they do not consider enough other determinants of climate change damages: i) the specifications of the utility function used for the assessments (preference for the environment, preference for smooth growth paths), ii) the interplay between uncertainty and the sequentiality of the decision, and iii) whether the growth engines behind the integrated assessment models can account for transient disequilibrium and sub-optimality. We derive some suggestions for any future research agenda in integrated assessment modelling, whatever the position of the analysts about the relevance of the intertemporal optimisation framework and the Bayesian approach to uncertainty in the climate affair
Complexity issues in Vertex-Colored Graph Pattern Matching

International audienceSearching for motifs in graphs has become a crucial problem in the analysis of biological networks. In the context of metabolic network analysis, Lacroix et al [V. Lacroix, C.G. Fernandes and M.-F. Sagot, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 3 (2006), no. 4, 360368 ] introduced the NP-hard general problem of nding occurrences of motifs in vertexcolored graphs, where a motif M is a multiset of colors and an occurrence of M in a vertex-colored graph G, called the target graph, is a subset of vertices that induces a connected graph and the multiset of colors induces by this subset is exactly the motif. Pursuing the line of research pioneered by Lacroix et al. and aiming at dealing with approximate solutions, we consider in this paper the above-mentioned problem in two of its natural optimization forms, referred hereafter as the Min- CC and the Maximum Motif problems. The Min CC problem seeks for an occurrence of a motif M in a vertex-colored graph G that induces a minimum number of connected components whereas the Maximum Motif problem is concerned with nding a maximum cardinality submotif M0 M that occurs as a connected motif in G. We prove the Min-CC problem to be APX-hard even in the extremal case where the motif is a set and the target graph is a path. We complement this result by giving a polynomial-time algorithm in case the motif is built upon a xed number of colors and the target graph is a path. Also, extending [M. Fellows, G. Fertin, D. Hermelin, and S. Vialette, Proc. 34th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4596, Springer, 2007, pp. 340351 ], we prove the Min-CC problem to be xed-parameter tractable when parameterized by the size of the motif, and we give a faster algorithm in case the target graph is a tree. Furthermore, we prove the Min-CC problem for trees not to be approximable within ratio c log n for some constant c > 0, where n is the order of the target graph, and to be W[2]-hard when parameterized by the number of connected components in the occurrence of the motif. Finally, we give an exact exponential-time algorithm for the Min-CC problem in case the target graph is a tree. We prove that the Maximum Motif problem is APX-hard even in the case where the target graph is a tree of maximum degree 3, the motif is actually a set and each color occurs at most twice in the tree. Next, we strengthen this result by proving that the problem is not approximable within factor 2log n, for any constant < 1, unless NP DTIME(2poly log n). We complement these results by presenting two xed-parameter algorithms for the problem, where the parameter is the size of the solution. Finally, we give exact exponential-time algorithms for this problem
Modelling DNA at the mesoscale: a challenge for nonlinear science?

Invited paper, in the series "Open Problems" of NonlinearityInternational audienceWhen it is viewed at the scale of a base pair, DNA appears as a nonlinear lattice. Modelling its properties is a fascinating goal. The detailed experiments that can be performed on this system impose constraints on the models and can be used as a guide to improve them. There are nevertheless many open problems, particularly to describe DNA at the scale of a few tens of base pairs, which is relevant for many biological phenomena
A parallel matheuristic for the technician routing and scheduling problem

International audienceThe Technician Routing and Scheduling Problem (TRSP) consists in routing staff to serve requests for service, taking into account time windows, skills, tools, and spare parts. Typical applications include maintenance operations and staff routing in telecoms, public utilities, and in the health care industry. In this paper, we present a formal definition of the TRSP, discuss its relation with the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW), and review related research. From a methodological perspective, we describe a matheuristic composed of a constructive heuristic, a parallel Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (pALNS), and a mathematical programming based post-optimization procedure that successfully tackles the TRSP. We validate the matheuristic on the Solomon VRPTW instances, where we achieve an average gap of 0.23%, and matched 44 out of 55 optimal solutions. Finally, we illustrate how the matheuristic successfully solves a set of TRSP instances extended from the Solomon benchmark
Crack Tip Equation of Motion in Dynamic Gradient Damage Models

International audienceWe propose in this contribution to investigate the link between the dynamic gradient damage model and the classical Griffith's theory of dynamic fracture during the crack propagation phase. To achieve this main objective, we first rigorously reformulate two-dimensional linear elastic dynamic fracture problems using variational methods and shape derivative techniques. The classical equation of motion governing a smoothly propagating crack tip follows by considering variations of a space-time action integral. We then give a variationally consistent framework of the dynamic gradient damage model. Owing to the analogies between the variational ingredients of these two models and under some basic assumptions concerning the damage band structuration, one obtains a generalized Griffith criterion which governs the crack tip evolution within the non-local damage model. Assuming further that the internal length is small compared to the dimension of the body, the previous criterion leads to the classical Griffith's law through a separation of scales between the outer linear elastic domain and the inner damage process zone