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In this paper, we propose a method for coarse camera pose computation which is robust to viewing conditions and does not require a detailed model of the scene. This method meets the growing need of easy deployment of robotics or augmented reality applications in any environments, especially those for which no accurate 3D model nor huge amount of ground truth data are available. It exploits the ability of deep learning techniques to reliably detect objects regardless of viewing conditions. Previous works have also shown that abstracting the geometry of a scene of objects by an ellipsoid cloud allows to compute the camera pose accurately enough for various application needs. Though promising, these approaches use the ellipses fitted to the detection bounding boxes as an approximation of the imaged objects. In this paper, we go one step further and propose a learning-based method which detects improved elliptic approximations of objects which are coherent with the 3D ellipsoid in terms of perspective projection. Experiments prove that the accuracy of the computed pose significantly increases thanks to our method and is more robust to the variability of the boundaries of the detection boxes. This is achieved with very little effort in terms of training data acquisition -- a few hundred calibrated images of which only three need manual object annotation. Code and models are released at https://github.com/zinsmatt/3D-Aware-Ellipses-for-Visual-Localization., Comment: Presented at 3DV 2020. Code and models released at https://github.com/zinsmatt/3D-Aware-Ellipses-for-Visual-Localization

The digital battle has become the most important factor of economic and social development. In fact, there is no doubt on the fact that establishing E-government systems can improve the quality of government services and enhance the citizens’ life. However, E-government projects cannot be successful if they are not adapted to the specific cultural and social needs of the final users. Taking into consideration the high illiteracy rate within the Moroccan population, we conducted our research in order to design an E-government portal for the old city of Fez that is accessible by the majority of the citizens especially those who are illiterate. The objective of this research is exploring the different architectures, scenarios and technologies for designing an E-government portal that is usable and accessible by all Fez citizens whether they are literate or illiterate. Hence, the concrete output of this project is a usable graphical user interface accessible to both literate and illiterate people in order for them to interact with the static content and to use the online transactions. In the process of achieving our goal, we had to discover and create design principles and to test them with real users. To achieve our goal we had to pay particular attention to the following points: • Considering the two existing types of illiteracy: literal illiteracy and digital illiteracy. • Designing the GUI so that it is not dedicated mainly to illiterate people: literate people too should be able to use the e-government system without frustration. • Since it is the first portal targeting illiterate users in Morocco, we were interested also in building conventions on the type of symbols to be used. In fact, the main two assumptions behind this project are: • Effective electronic service delivery has to enable citizens to access government services in a new and more effective way than the traditional ways. • Government services have to be presented to citizens in a usable format and in a human centred manner. In that way, we can express the goals that are aimed to be achieved by this project as being: • Improving knowledge about how illiterate citizens in Morocco can interact with E- government services. • Developing a methodology and architecture for e-government application development that fulfils the needs of Arabic developing countries. • Demonstrating the ability of Moroccan illiterate citizens to interact with e-government portals that uses new technologies. This paper describes and justifies the chosen methodology, architecture and tools that were applied in order to develop Fez e-government portal’s graphical user interface. The results of the designed graphical user interface’ s testing are presented and discussed in order to assess the project’s success., Revue Marocaine des Sciences de Management, No 7 (2017)

In the Crown of Aragon, where usury was permitted through regulation, especially in Catalonia and Mallorca, brokers were not all Jews who were usually seen as being the specialists in monetary transactions. Jews were certainly over-represented in trade but it is also now known that they could hold a wide variety of jobs. There are in fact few traders or lenders among the Jewish community from the 14th century, such roles tending instead to belong to members of urban and intellectual elites. This paper compares two social networks: that of Pons de Gualba, bishop of Barcelona, and that of Bartomeu de Mans, magistrate/provost of Vilafranca del Pénedes, who had links with Berenger de Finestres, a money-changer of Barcelona. The networks of these two eminent men were interlinked, in the sense that the roles played by Jews and Christians in the trading process were neither strictly segregated nor exactly the same, the precise distribution of these roles depending on the subtlest of nuances in terms of how the members of the two religions related to each other. The trade associations of Jews and Christians were different, as were the insults used to deprecate rivals. It is thus not that trade took no account of religion but rather that religious difference could be used as a means to colour the expression of the normal love-hate relationships between men who were involved in the business of trade. Dans les pays de la Couronne d’Aragon où l’usure est réglementée, donc autorisée, spécialement en Catalogne et à Majorque, les courtiers ne sont pas nécessairement ou seulement des juifs appréciés pour leurs qualités de « passeurs ». Nous savions déjà que les juifs, certes surreprésentés dans le commerce, exercent des activités très variées, à l’instar des chrétiens et que l’entreprise et le crédit restent au XIVe siècle l’apanage d’un groupe de plus en plus réduit, membre des élites urbaines et intellectuelles. Deux réseaux d’affaires sont comparés : celui de Pons de Gualba, qui fut évêque de Barcelone, et celui de Bartomeu de Mans, viguier à Vilafranca del Pénedes, associé à Berenger de Finestres, changeur barcelonais. Malgré l’imbrication des réseaux dominés par d’éminents personnages et malgré la proximité des entrepreneurs juifs et chrétiens et l’exercice de rôles comparables par les membres de religions différentes, la position des uns et des autres dans un réseau précis introduit des nuances subtiles, l’emploi des juifs et des chrétiens n’y est pas interchangeable alors qu’il l’est dans la société, les structures d’association choisies diffèrent, de même que les moyens employés pour attaquer et insulter un concurrent. Nous n’observons pas l’échange sans la religion mais un jeu de positions qui utilise la différence religieuse pour exprimer très normalement le bon amour ou la haine que se portent les hommes d’affaires.

This paper provides a general method for analysing the sentiments expressed in the language of judicial rulings. We apply natural language processing tools to the text of US appellate court opinions to extrapolate judges' sentiments (positive/good vs. negative/bad) towards a number of target social groups. We explore descriptively how these sentiments vary over time and across types of judges. In addition, we provide a method for using random assignment of judges in an instrumental variables framework to estimate causal effects of judges' sentiments. In an empirical application, we show that more positive sentiment influences future judges by increasing the likelihood of reversal but also increasing the number of forward citations., Economica, 89 (354)

This systematic review aims to compare conventional corticotomy with minimally-invasive protocols (MIP). Electronic database, in MEDLINE and CENTRAL, and hand search were performed. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and randomized split-mouth designed studies (RSMSs) were selected for inclusion, reporting either the use of a corticotomy procedure or a MIP. The main outcomes were the rate/velocity of tooth movement, type of tooth movement observed, loss of anchorage, periodontal indexes, inflammatory mediators, root resorption, patient's pain experience, impact on the quality of life, and satisfaction. Twenty-two papers were included for the qualitative synthesis, from which ten RCTs and twelve RSMSs. Eighteen of them compared a conventional orthodontic treatment without and with a surgical adjunctive procedure, two with conventional corticotomy and sixteen with a MIP (piezocision, micro-osteoperforations (MOPs) or interseptal bone reduction). Four trials compared a surgical procedure to another one. Corticotomy, piezocision and MOPs are likely to accelerate tooth movement, in decreasing order. Pain is reported to be higher in experimental groups only on the first day after surgery. Patient satisfaction is high after surgical procedures. Loss of anchorage, periodontal indexes, or root resorption occurrence show no differences between groups. Corticotomy stands as the gold-standard procedure for surgically-assisted orthodontics, but piezocision appears as a good compromise solution as well as MOPs, in a lesser extent. MIP are known to accelerate tooth movement only during the first three months.

International audience; Scattering of coherent light from a disordered material produces a complex distribution of intensity known as a speckle pattern. Speckle patterns are not as random as they appear at first glance. Their statistical properties exhibit universal features, as already recognized in the first paper on laser speckle. The existence of short-range and long-range spatial correlations in speckles has been shown to be fundamental in wave physics. It has also led to the emergence of novel approaches for imaging through scattering media.