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Image-based research in mesophotic and deep environments of the Mediterranean Sea has significantly increased during the past decades. So far, this research has been focused on the ecology of key structuring organisms such as scleractinians, antipatharians, gorgonians or large demosponges. However, the ecology of true soft corals has barely been studied and is still in a very preliminary stage. To overcome this situation, soft coral assemblages in shelf and slope environments of the Menorca Channel (Western Mediterranean Sea) have been studied through the quantitative analysis of 85 video transect recorded over 38500 m2. Highest soft coral diversity was encountered on the shelf edge, resembling deep Mediterranean gorgonian patterns. Three soft coral assemblages, segregated by depth, substrate, and slope were identified: two monospecific ones composed by Nidalia studeri and Alcyonium palmatum, respectively and a multispecific one composed by Paralcyonium spinulosum, Alcyonium sp., Chironephthya mediterranea and Daniela koreni. The evaluated species presented average densities within the same range as other deep Mediterranean anthozoans ranging from 1 to 9 col.·m−2. However, N. studeri and P. spinulosum punctually formed dense monospecific aggregations, reaching maximum densities of 49 col.·m−2 and 60 col.·m−2 respectively. Both species monopolized vast extensions of the continental shelf and shelf edge. The identification and ecological characterization of these assemblages brings new insight about deep Mediterranean anthozoan communities, and provides baseline for future management plans in the study area.

This paper refers to the European project Erasmus + ELEF (European Learning Environment Formats for Citizenship and Democracy, Reference number 580426). The aim of this project is to develop, implement, evaluate and replicate democratic and innovative learning environments (good practices) in both educational institutions and informal and community learning environments. In this context, over the course of a year, a number of experiences considered relevant have been selected, which constitute the sample of this research on good practices. This contribution presents the educational programme “Youth Parliament”. This is a project with a long history and whose main objective is to train responsible citizens, with the collaboration of various educational agents. The evaluation carried out by the Secondary Education teachers in training on the potentialities and limitations of the programme is shown, based on the experiences carried out in the participating educational centres during the academic year 2016-2017.

The paper examines the challenges of curricular reforms aimed at updating Postgraduate study programmes of Ukrainian higher educational institutions in terms of specific innovative content and methodologies. By applying statistical methods to the data acquired from questioning first-year and second-year PhD students, the concept of PhD students’ training (comprising formal, content-based and methodological aspects) has been reconstructed from the point of view of its key beneficiaries. The research results show that the majority of postgraduate students consider research and innovation activities as an important part of their future professional activity; the level of innovative research training in Postgraduate Education is rated as higher than average, while their own level is viewed as average. The paper outlines main forms of research and innovation activities in which the students participated as well as difficulties which they encountered. As a result of the quantitative analysis, the author presents the rating of the most important modules, which should be included in the curriculum of Postgraduate studies (Foreign Language for Specific Purposes, Methodology of Scientific Research, Methods of Mathematical Statistics, Academic Writing and Academic Integrity, Critical Thinking Basics, Innovation basics, Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer, Project Activity Basics). The paper also outlines the most effective, in students’ opinion, forms and methods of innovative research training in the process of Postgraduate Studies, including preparation of scientific publications to be submitted to international journals; workshop conducting, organisation of thematic meetings with successful scientists and entrepreneurs; on-the-job training in leading research centres; participation in interdisciplinary discussion workshops; participation in youth contests of innovative ideas and projects; participation in scientific research conferences and workshops; realisation

To present the first real-time a posteriori error-driven adaptive finite element approach for realtime simulation and to demonstrate the method on a needle insertion problem. Methods: We use corotational elasticity and a frictional needle/tissue interaction model. The problem is solved using finite elements within SOFA. The refinement strategy relies upon a hexahedron-based finite element method, combined with a posteriori error estimation driven local h-refinement, for simulating soft tissue deformation. Results: We control the local and global error level in the mechanical fields (e.g. displacement or stresses) during the simulation. We show the convergence of the algorithm on academic examples, and demonstrate its practical usability on a percutaneous procedure involving needle insertion in a liver. For the latter case, we compare the force displacement curves obtained from the proposed adaptive algorithm with that obtained from a uniform refinement approach. Conclusions: Error control guarantees that a tolerable error level is not exceeded during the simulations. Local mesh refinement accelerates simulations. Significance: Our work provides a first step to discriminate between discretization error and modeling error by providing a robust quantification of discretization error during simulations.

Objective: To present the first real-time a posteriori error-driven adaptive finite element approach for real-time simulation and to demonstrate the method on a needle insertion problem. Methods: We use corotational elasticity and a frictional needle/tissue interaction model based on friction. The problem is solved using finite elements within SOFA. The refinement strategy relies upon a hexahedron-based finite element method, combined with a posteriori error estimation driven local $h$-refinement, for simulating soft tissue deformation. Results: We control the local and global error level in the mechanical fields (e.g. displacement or stresses) during the simulation. We show the convergence of the algorithm on academic examples, and demonstrate its practical usability on a percutaneous procedure involving needle insertion in a liver. For the latter case, we compare the force displacement curves obtained from the proposed adaptive algorithm with that obtained from a uniform refinement approach. Conclusions: Error control guarantees that a tolerable error level is not exceeded during the simulations. Local mesh refinement accelerates simulations. Significance: Our work provides a first step to discriminate between discretization error and modeling error by providing a robust quantification of discretization error during simulations.

After sixty years of predominance in the western countries, both the objective of economic growth and its core measure, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), have been questioned. It no longer seems consistent to maintain growth as a societal goal and to keep GDP as the major reference for socioeconomic policies. Numerous alternative indicators have been suggested. These new indicators potentially constitute a great opportunity for change: it is now broadly accepted that what we measure affects what we do. We go a step further, claiming that the way we measure it is just as crucial: indicators intrinsically carry axiological and normative conceptions, embedded in the specific way they are built. As indicators are increasingly being used for shaping political ends, light should be shed on these underlying conceptions. Our analysis of the Adjusted Net Savings (ANS, the sustainability indicator proposed by the World Bank) attempts to illustrate these normative underpinnings, often obscured by technical concerns around the numbers. By systematically deconstructing the ANS, from its conceptual framework to its sub-dimensions, we shed light on the singular and debatable – productivist – conception of ‘sustainability’ (in its human and ecological aspects) encompassed in the ANS. This exercise aims to provide an insight into the societal values embedded in such indicators, which can strongly influence decision-making.

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) help drivers to perform complex driving tasks and to avoid or mitigate dangerous situations. The vehicle senses the external world using sensors and then builds and updates an internal model of the environment configuration. Vehicle perception consists of establishing the spatial and temporal relationships between the vehicle and the static and moving obstacles in the environment. Vehicle perception is composed of two main tasks: simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) deals with modelling static parts; and detection and tracking moving objects (DATMO) is responsible for modelling moving parts of the environment. The perception output is used to reason and decide which driving actions are the best for specific driving situations. In order to perform a good reasoning and control, the system has to correctly model the surrounding environment. The accurate detection and classification of moving objects is a critical aspect of a moving object tracking system. Therefore, many sensors are part of a common intelligent vehicle system. Multiple sensor fusion has been a topic of research since long; the reason is the need to combine information from different views of the environment to obtain a more accurate model. This is achieved by combining redundant and complementary measurements of the environment. Fusion can be performed at different levels inside the perception task. Classification of moving objects is needed to determine the possible behaviour of the objects surrounding the vehicle, and it is usually performed at tracking level. Knowledge about the class of moving objects at detection level can help to improve their tracking, reason about their behaviour, and decide what to do according to their nature. Most of the current perception solutions consider classification information only as aggregate information for the final perception output. Also, the management of incomplete information is an important issue in these pe

International audience, Immersive environments that approximate natural interaction with physical 3D objects are designed to increase the user’s sense of presence and improve performance by allowing users to transfer existing skills and expertise from real to virtual environments. However, limitations of current Virtual Reality technologies, e.g., low-fidelity real-time physics simulations and tracking problems, make it difficult to ascertain the full potential of finger-based 3D manipulation techniques. This paper decomposes 3D object manipulation into the component movements, taking into account both physical constraints and mechanics. We fabricate five physical devices that simulate these movements in a measurable way under experimental conditions. We then implement the devices in an immersive environment and conduct an experiment to evaluate direct finger-based against ray-based object manipulation. The key contribution of this work is the careful design and creation of physical and virtual devices to study physics-based 3D object manipulation in a rigorous manner in both real and virtual setups.

We consider the problem of embedding a low-dimensional set, M, from an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, H, to a finite-dimensional space. Defining appropriate random linear projections, we propose two constructions of linear maps that have the restricted isometry property (RIP) on the secant set of M with high probability. The first one is optimal in the sense that it only needs a number of projections essentially proportional to the intrinsic dimension of M to satisfy the RIP. The second one, which is based on a variable density sampling technique, is computationally more efficient, while potentially requiring more measurements.

We introduce a new class of "filtered" schemes for some first order non-linear Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations. The work follows recent ideas of Froese and Oberman (SIAM J. Numer. Anal., Vol 51, pp.423-444, 2013). The proposed schemes are not monotone but still satisfy some -monotone property. Convergence results and precise error estimates are given, of the order of √ ∆x where ∆x is the mesh size. The framework allows to construct finite difference discretizations that are easy to implement, high–order in the domains where the solution is smooth, and provably convergent, together with error estimates. Numerical tests on several examples are given to validate the approach, also showing how the filtered technique can be applied to stabilize an otherwise unstable high–order scheme.

International audience, The current study concerns the Assembly/Disassembly (A/D) process. Despite the latest improvements, the creation of a fully realistic VE is still challenging because of the complexity of the physical processes involved and the current limitations of the available VR technology. In this context, the main purpose of this research is to improve the A/D process simulation by proposing a new method and associated tools, as well as a better integration with haptic devices. To this end, the first objective, regarding the software application, is to develop and evaluate the impact of a mobility module based on predefined kinematic constraints between the assembly components, able to guide user’s movements when performing A/D operations simulation. This can be achieved through the intelligent management of the assembly components relative mobilities in contact situations. The second objective, regarding the hardware aspects, is to determine if the described approach, along with a new moderate cost haptic system, could represent an interesting solution for industrial use. In this sense, a comparison between the A/D simulation qualities provided by two commercial haptic devices (basic equipment with 3 DoF force feedback versus an expensive system with 6 DoF force feedback) was performed and it is presented in this paper. Conclusions were drawn after series of tests conducted by a target group composed of 20 people with engineering background.

International audience, The traditional method for proving program termination consists in inferring a ranking function. In many cases (i.e. programs with unbounded non-determinism), a single ranking function over natural numbers is not sufficient. Hence, we propose a new abstract domain to automatically infer ranking functions over ordinals. We extend an existing domain for piecewise-defined natural-valued ranking functions to polynomials in ω, where the polynomial coefficients are natural-valued functions of the program variables. The abstract domain is parametric in the choice of the state partitioning inducing the piecewise-definition and the type of functions used as polynomial coefficients. To our knowledge this is the first abstract domain able to reason about ordinals. Handling ordinals leads to a powerful approach for proving termination of imperative programs, which in particular allows us to take a first step in the direction of proving termination under fairness constraints and proving liveness properties of (sequential and) concurrent programs.

ServPPIN is a research project focusing on the role of public and private services in growth and welfare and the particular role of public-private innovation networks (PPINs). Service public-private innovation networks (ServPPINs) are a new phenomenon across the EU. These collaborative alliances between public and private sector organisations bring together and develop complementarities and synergies between the different types of knowledge, technologies, competences, and services that each partner specialises in. The main objectives of the project were to identify the linkages between services, economic and social growth, and to understand the contribution of service innovations in the current economy and society, as well as any differences that may exist between the public and private sectors. This requires an understanding how public-private sector interactions function in the context of services, and how they can be better managed by private and public sector policy-makers to increase performance and welfare. It also requires an understanding of the characteristics of public-private service networks that induce innovation, and therefore growth, employment and welfare. The theoretical and empirical fieldwork has involved cross-country and cross-sector empirical analysis. To define the service innovation and service public-private innovation networks concept, and to guide the interface between theory and empirical research, the project has developed an analytical framework for studying multiinstitutional networks. The empirical research has followed a three-pronged approach at macro-, meso- and micro- economic levels including case studies covering the major service sectors of health, transport, tourism and knowledge intensive services. The key findings of the project are: 1. Services are essential sources for growth which provide new value-added . There are different patterns of services development across the enlarged EU, and the variety of service economies mod

International audience, The sixth to eleventh centuries are a crucial formative period for Jewish communities in Byzantium and Latin Europe: this is also a period for which sources are scarce and about which historians have often had to speculate on the basis of scant evidence. The legal sources studied in this volume provide a relative wealth of textual material concerning Jews, and for certain areas and periods are the principal sources. While this makes them particularly valuable, it also makes their interpretation difficult, given the lack of corroborative sources. The scholars whose work has been brought together in this volume shed light on this key period of the history of Jews and of Jewish-Christian relations, focusing on key sources of the period: Byzantine imperial law, the canons of church councils, papal bulls, royal legislation from the Visigoths or Carolingians, inscriptions, and narrative sources in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The picture that emerges from these studies is variegated. Some scholars, following Bernhard Blumenkranz, have depicted this period as one of relative tolerance towards Jews and Judaism; others have stressed the intolerance shown at key intervals by ecclesiastical authors, church councils and monarchs. Yet perhaps more than revealing general tendencies towards “tolerance” or “intolerance”, these studies bring to light the ways in which law in medieval societies serves a variety of purposes: from providing a theologically-based rationale for social tolerance, to attempting to regulate and restrict inter-religious contact, to using anti-Jewish rhetoric to assert the authority or legitimacy of one party of the Christian elite over and against another. This volume makes an im- portant contribution not only to the history of medieval Jewish-Christian relations, but also to research on the uses and functions of law in medieval societies.

International audience, — In this paper, we introduce PyLayers a new open source radio simulator built to tackle indoor localization problem. PyLayers has been designed to simulate complete dynamic scenarios including the realistic movement of persons inside a building, the transmission channel estimation for multiple radio access technologies and the position estimation relying on location-dependent parameters originated from the simulated OSI physical layer. The channel is estimated by using a fast graph-based ray tracing method. From these simulated data, location dependent parameters, such as received power or time of arrival, can be deduced. The realistic movement of persons into the building layout is modeled with a virtual forces approach. The simulated data can be directly used with one of the built-in localization algorithms or be exported to various standards extensions. Finally, the accuracies of both the channel estimation and the localization are compared to measurements and show a good match.

International audience, The CONNECT European project that started in February 2009 aims at dropping the interoperability barrier faced by today's distributed systems. It does so by adopting a revolutionary approach to the seamless networking of digital systems, that is, synthesizing on the fly the connectors via which networked systems communicate. CONNECT investigates formal foundations for connectors together with associated automated support for learning, reasoning about and adapting the interaction behavior of networked systems.

International audience, Service Oriented Computing (SOC) is a programming paradigm aiming at characterising Service Networks. Services are entities waiting for clients requests and they often result from the composition of many services. We address here the problem of statically guaranteeing security of open services, i.e. services with unknown components. Security constraints are expressed by local policies that service components must obey. We present here a type and effect system that safely over-approximates, in the form of history expressions, the possible run-time behaviour of open services, collecting partial information on the behaviours of their components. From a history expression, we then extract a plan that drives executions that never rise security violations. Finally, we show how partial plans satisfying security requirements can be put together to obtain a safe orchestration plan.

International audience, In this paper, localization based on Received Signal Strength (RSS) is investigated assuming a path loss log normal shadowing model. On the one hand, indirect RSS-based estimation schemes are investigated; these schemes are based on two steps of estimation: estimation of ranges from RSS and then estimation of position using weighted least square approximation. We show that the performances of this type of schemes depend on the used estimator in the first step.We suggest that typical median estimator must be replaced by maximum likelihood estimator (mode) to enhance the positioning accuracy. On the other hand, a new direct RSS-based estimation scheme of position is proposed; Monte Carlo simulations show that the new estimator performs better than indirect estimators and can be reliable in future hybrid localization systems.

International audience, This paper concerns the study, the development and the synthesis of mechanisms for guaranteeing the security of complex systems, i.e., systems composed by several interacting components. A complex system under analysis is described as an open system, i.e., a system in which an unspecified component (a component whose behaviour is not fixed in advance) interacts with the known part of the system. Within this formal approach, we propose techniques that aim to synthesize controller programs able to guarantee that, for all possible behaviours of the unspecified component, the system should work properly, e.g., it should be able to satisfy a certain property. For performing this task, we first need to identify the set of necessary and sufficient conditions that the unspecified component has to satisfy in order to ensure that the whole system is secure. Hence, by exploiting satisfiability procedures for temporal logic, we automatically synthesize an appropriate controller program that forces the unspecified component to meet these conditions. This will ensure the security of the whole system.

International audience, This paper investigates sucient conditions for the convergence to zero of the trajectories of linear switched systems. We provide a collection of results that use weak dwell-time, dwell-time, strong dwell-time, permanent and persistent activation hypothesis. The obtained results are shown to be tight by counterexample. Finally, we apply our result to the three-cell converter.

International audience

The attached archives contain: 1) simulation scripts (written in Python) 2) presentation slides 3) related algorithmic contest tasks (some of the distributed techniques presented in the paper are inspired from geometric algorithms and data structures), International audience, In this paper we consider the problem of efficiently constructing in a fully distributed manner multicast trees which are embedded into P2P overlays using virtual geometric node coordinates. We consider two objectives: to minimize the number of messages required for constructing a multicast tree by using the geometric properties of the P2P overlay, and to construct stable multicast trees when the lifetime durations of the peers are known.