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In order to deal with climate change and variability, many cities around the world have developed strategies to promote sustainable urban development (the “green agenda”), and in more recent years, urban resilience and adaptation (the “blue agenda”). In the past couple of decades, “eco-districts” have become an increasingly popular urban strategy for furthering the green agenda, the Ecoquartier Program in France being one prominent example that aims at producing districts that are ecological, sustainable and innovative. But what about the blue agenda? This discussion paper explores to what extent France's Ecoquartier Program helps to facilitate the integration of resilience, adaptation, disaster preparedness and risk reduction. It describes the evolution of the Ecoquartier Program, the various requests for proposal, the Ecoquartier Label, and design teams' responses to show the gradual incorporation and promotion of these concepts. It also uses an example of a certified and recognized ecoquartier project in Paris, the Clichy-Batignolles ecoquartier, to highlight the convergence of the green and blue agendas towards a “turquoise agenda”. Finally, it discusses how the Ecoquartier Program could help contribute to resilient city-making at the national scale.

This paper is concerned with the existence of an eigenvalue for a p(x)-biharmonic Kirchhoff problem with Navier boundary condition. Under some suitable conditions, we establish that any λ > 0 is an eigenvalue . The proofs combine variational methods with energy estimates. The main results of this paper improve and generalize the previous one introduced by Kefi and Radulescu (Atti Accad. Naz. Lincei Cl. Sci. Fis. Mat. Natur. 29 (2018), 439-463).

International audience; In this paper, my aim is to show how edifying it can be to adhere to the concept of resilience proffered by C. S. Holling in order to better understand the complexity in which urban environments evolve. To do so, I study here the example of the Parisian street network during the Medieval and Early Modern periods. I show to what extent this network as well as the type of shops along certain streets remained stable over the long term, while also demonstrating that changes were indeed very frequent when one considers the buildings themselves. This apparent paradox can be explained by complex interactions that resilience can help to explore. I show in the third part of this paper that identifying the system of resiliency that produces stability in the Parisian street network leads to an understanding of the socioeconomic mechanisms behind the observations made at different levels.; Dans cet article, je souhaite montrer combien il peut être heuristique de rester proche du concept de résilience tel qu'il a été défini par C. S. Holling, lorsque l'on souhaite comprendre la complexité de l'évolution des paysages urbains. Pour ce faire, j'étudie ici le cas du réseau de rues parisiennes durant l'époque médiévale et moderne. Je montre dans quelle mesure ce réseau reste stable sur le long terme tout comme l'est le type d'activités que l'on pratique dans ces rues, alors que dans le même temps, les changements sont très fréquents à l'échelle des bâtiments. Cet apparent paradoxe s'explique par de complexes interactions que le concept de résilience peut aider à explorer. Je montre en effet dans la dernière partie de cet article que chercher le système résilient, qui aboutit à la stabilité du réseau de rues parisien, aide à comprendre quels sont les mécanismes socio-économiques qui sont à l'origine des observations réalisées. Je pose ainsi l'hypothèse que la stabilité du réseau viaire parisien est, entre autres, une conséquence de la résilience du système productif et commercial aux périodes médiévale et moderne : le client achète les produits qu'il souhaite au boutiquier, qui est très souvent impliqué dans leur fabrication et qui peut donc adapter sa marchandise aux désirs des clients. Les rues sont les lieux des échanges commerciaux. Tant que ces deniers se déroulent de la même manière, le réseau des rues a de fortes chances de rester stable.

International audience; Companies trying to build new solutions using blockchain are confronted with a plethora of available concurrent technologies that have many control knobs which require fine-tuning by experts. Exiting studies that build decision models for blockchain adoption or selection lack an automated way to use non-functional requirements to provide recommendations. This article, extended from previous works, introduces BLADE (BLockchain Automated DEcision Engine), a decision support tool for blockchain to better take into account high level requirements and preferences for recommendations. From documentations, white papers and academic papers, a knowledge base of blockchain solutions is constructed. This allows BLADE to execute an automated multi-criteria decision process giving the most relevant solution based on requirements and preferences, extracted from the ISO 25010 software quality standard. An implementation of this tool is performed within a web platform allowing the easy capture of user requirements and preferences for recommendation. Finally, the proposed approach is validated on a supply chain management case study. This study is a first step in order to design a solution allowing the design and implementation of end-to-end blockchain applications. While still limited in scope, BLADE will include more blockchain alternatives and more flexible requirements inputs in future work.; Les entreprises souhaitant déployer des solutions basées sur la blockchain sont confrontées à une pléthore de technologies concurrentes ayant chacun un grand nombre de paramètres propres devant être ajustés par un expert. Les études existantes proposant des modèles de décision pour blockchain ne proposent pas de solution pour le choix des paramètres assurant la mise en oeuvre automatique des exigences non-fonctionnelles. Cet article, version étendue de précédents travaux, présente BLADE (BLockchain Automated DEcision Engine), un outil d'aide à la décision pour blockchain permettant de mieux prendre en compte les exigences de haut niveau et préférences. Tout d'abord, une base de connaissances de solutions blockchain est construite à partir de documentations, de livres blancs et de travaux de recherche académiques. Celle-ci permet à BLADE d'exécuter un processus de décision multicritère automatisé donnant la solution la plus pertinente à partir d'exigences et préférences, extraites de la norme de qualité logicielle ISO 25010. L'implémentation de cet outil est ensuite réalisée au sein d'une plateforme web permettant la saisie aisée des exigences et des préférences de l'utilisateur. Enfin, l'approche proposée est validée grâce à un cas d'étude de gestion de chaîne logistique. Cette étude est une première étape afin de concevoir une solution permettant la conception et l'implémentation d'applications blockchain de bout-en-bout.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology with a huge potential for a very wide applicability. “IoT can be defined as an intelligent pervasive environment, based on a continuing proliferation of intelligent networks, wireless sensors and a massive data centers; the basic idea of IoT is that, virtually every small or large physical thing in this world can be a computer connected to the Internet. There are many fields of research on IoT technology with a wide number of application domains”. In this paper, we had interested to smart systems based on IoT technology. We have proposed a new smart multitenant solution based on IoT and cloud computing technologies which push classic systems (agricultural, healthcare or industrial) to be connected, and enhanced with a system offering a Web Application (Dashboard) to monitor, supervise and control an important number of objects (machine or human) geographically separated. In this paper, we propose an IoT based generic solution for smart systems and we have implemented and tested it on two study cases (Agriculture, industy).

This paper first argues that the driving force behind the aggregation of human settlement, throughout the centuries, has been the ever-increasing need for collective problem solving. Villages and cities have emerged in ‘dissipative flow structures' in which organization (information processing capacity) spread out from cities into their hinterland, enabing energy and other resources to increasingly flow into cities to meet the needs of the population. Information processing is thus the driver of urbanization, and energy is the constraint. With the Industrial Revolution, the growth of such dissipative flow structures accelerated very rapidly due to the fact that fossil energy became available and lifted the constraint. Hence the urban explosion of the last couple of centuries. In the second part of the paper, some of the potential consequences of this explosion are discussed. First, whether the ever accelerating increase of global urbanization will continue or not, and then what might be the consequences of that acceleration for urban planning and architecture, emphasizing that cities need to become pro-active rather than re-active. They need to start designing for change rather than responding to it. In a final section we discuss some of the risks to urbanization that are posed by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Revolution, and conclude with a suggestion how, in developed countries, information technology might reverse the trend to increasing concentration of the population in cities, whereas for the moment, this is not likely to be the case in developing countries.

This paper provides technical and conceptual information on a swarm art project called Sleep Paintings. The project consists of a series of colour images generated by an ant-based clustering algorithm operating with sleep data sets extracted from electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. The algorithm was originally proposed for clustering and classification and is described by a simple set of equations that model the local behavior of artificial ants (data samples) in a way that, when travelling on a heterogeneous 2-dimensional lattice of vectors, they form clusters of similar data samples, while changing the vectors of the environmental lattice. The 2-dimensional colored abstract sketches of human sleep described in the paper result from the visualization of the lattice.

This paper presents a new generalization of the Genocchi numbers and the Genocchi theorem. As consequences, we obtain some important families of integer-valued polynomials those are closely related to the Bernoulli polynomials. Denoting by ${(B_n)}_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ the sequence of the Bernoulli numbers and by ${(B_n(X))}_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ the sequence of the Bernoulli polynomials, we especially obtain that for any natural number $n$, the reciprocal polynomial of the polynomial $\big(B_n(X) - B_n\big)$ is integer-valued., Comment: 12 pages

Main objective of the present paper is to prove solvability of the Dirichlet, Neumann and Mixed boundary value problems for an anisotropic Laplace-Beltrami equation on a hypersurface $$${C}$$$ with the Lipschitz boundary $$${\Gamma=∂C}$$$ in the classical $$${𝕎^1(C)}$$$ space setting.

An evolutionary game is usually identified by a smooth (possibly nonlinear) payoff function. In this paper, we propose a model of evolutionary game in which the nonlinear payoff functions are defined by the Ricker models. Namely, in the proposed model, the biological fitness of the pure strategy will increase according to the Ricker model. Motivated by some models of economics of transportation and communication networks, in order to observe the evolutionary bifurcation diagram, we also control the nonlinear payoff functions in two different regimes: positive and negative. One of the interesting feature of the model is that if we switch the controlling parameter from positive to negative regime then the set of local evolutionarily stable strategies (ESSs) changes from one set to another one. We also study the dynamics and stability analysis of the discrete-time replicator equation governed by the proposed nonlinear payoff function. In the long-run time, the following scenario can be observed: (i) in the positive regime, the active dominating pure strategies will outcompete other strategies and only they will survive forever; (ii) in the negative regime, all active pure strategies will coexist together and they will survive forever.

This paper is devoted to the study of the nonhomogeneous problem $$$ -div (a(|\nabla u|)\nabla u)+a(| u|)u=\lambda V(x)|u|^{m(x)-2}u-\mu g(x,u) \mbox{ in} \ \Omega, \ u=0 \mbox{ on} \ \partial\Omega ,$$$ where $$$\Omega$$$ is a bounded smooth domain in $$$\mathbb{R}^N,\lambda, \mu$$$ are positive real numbers, $$$V(x)$$$ is a potential, $$$ m: \overline{ \Omega} \to (1, \infty)$$$ is a continuous function, $$$a$$$ is mapping such that $$$ \varphi(|t|)t$$$ is increasing homeomorphism from ℝ to ℝ and $$$g: \overline{\Omega}\times ℝ \to ℝ$$$ is a continuous function. We establish there main results with various assumptions, the first one asserts that any $$$\lambda$$$0> is an eigenvalue of our problem. The second Theorem states the existence of a constant $$$\lambda^{*}$$$ such that every $$$\lambda \in (0,\lambda^{*})$$$ is an eigenvalue of the problem. While the third Theorem claims the existence of a constant $$$\lambda^{**}$$$ such that every $$$\lambda \in [\lambda^{**},\infty)$$$ is an eigenvalue of the problem. Our approach relies on adequate variational methods in Orlicz-Sobolev spaces.

In this paper, we consider the following inhomogeneous nonlinear Schrodinger equation (INLS) $$$i\partial_t u + \Delta u + \mu$$$ |$$$x$$$|$$$^{-b}$$$|$$$u$$$|$$$^\alpha u = 0, \quad (t,x)\in ℝ \times ℝ^d$$$ with $$$b, \alpha$$$ > 0. First, we revisit the local well-posedness in $$$H^1(ℝ^d)$$$ for (INLS) of Guzman [Nonlinear Anal. Real World Appl. 37 (2017), 249-286] and give an improvement of this result in the two and three spatial dimensional cases. Second, we study the decay of global solutions for the defocusing (INLS), i.e. $$$\mu=-1$$$ when 0 < $$$\alpha$$$ < $$$\alpha^\star$$$ where $$$\alpha^\star = \frac{4-2b}{d-2}$$$ for $$$d\geq 3$$$, and $$$\alpha^\star = \infty$$$ for $$$d=1, 2$$$ by assuming that the initial data belongs to the weighted $$$L^2$$$ space $$$\Sigma =\{u \in H^1(ℝ^d) :$$$ |$$$x$$$|$$$ u \in L^2(ℝ^d) \}$$$. Finally, we combine the local theory and the decaying property to show the scattering in $$$\Sigma$$$ for the defocusing (INLS) in the case $$$\alpha_\star$$$ < $$$\alpha$$$ < $$$\alpha^\star$$$, where $$$\alpha_\star = \frac{4-2b}{d}$$$.

The aim of this paper is to construct invariant regions of a generalized m-component reaction-diffusion system with tridiagonal symmetric Toeplitz diffusion matrix and nonhomogeneous boundary conditions and polynomial growth for the nonlinear reaction terms. Using the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the diffusion matrix and the parabolicity conditions. So we prove the global existence of solutions using Lyapunov functional.

International audience; This paper describes the advances in the TEEC project (Technologies Éducatives pour l’Enseignement en Contexte, in English: Educational technologies for teaching in context). This multidisciplinary project is at the intersection between context in learning and educational technologies. It aims at developing and experimenting a context effects-based pedagogical model involving learners and teachers from multiple geographical contexts, collaborating on common subjects with local specificities. The project also has for objective the development of digital tools to assist and participate in the elaboration of the pedagogical projects such as a context modeller and calculator (Mazcalc), an authoring system for learning scenarios and a context aware intelligent tutoring system. The elaboration and the analyses of experiments, as well as the design and the development of tools include research in multiple fields such as Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, Artificial intelligence, Instructional Design, Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Science Education and Contextualization. Finally, the research activity relies on the Design Based Research methodology (DBR) that allows the articulation of the project between all those disciplines and stakeholders.

The design of a Stirling machine requires the understanding of the processes that govern their operation to predict the optimum operating parameters of the machine. The modified simple model using the geometrical parameters of the FEMTO-ST engine model is applied in this paper to investigate the trend of losses with respect to operating frequency and charging pressure. The variation of pressure drops across the regenerator and heat exchangers have been investigated as functions of operating frequency and charging pressure in order to predict the extent of fluid friction losses. The share of different power and heat losses as well as their effects on cooling performance have been evaluated at the different operating frequencies and charging pressures. The share of fluid friction loss and loss due to regenerator imperfection increase with rotational speed and charging pressure.

Resilience is a highly controversial scientific concept that has been widely disseminated in international policies and frameworks. However, operationalizing resilience remains problematic. This paper aims to understand how local actors, in this case cities, implement the resilience imperative. We analyze 82 resilience strategies produced by the cities that have joined the 100 Resilient Cities network, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. We show that, on the one hand, resilience is not a given baseline that guides urban policies, but a local construction adapted to the specificities and characteristics of each city. Resilience is place-based designed in a performative way, as local actors grasp it and give it content. On the other hand, rather than specific objectives, we argue that resilience provides a method for both recognizing vulnerability and transforming security governance, thereby changing the risk and threat management regime.

The concept of resilience, first introduced in 1973, has become a major conceptual tool in the environmental sciences, and more recently in the study of socio-environmental systems. In archaeology, however, it has not yet found as wide a use. This paper introduces and explains the concept, emphasizes its relationship to the Complex Systems paradigm and presents an example of its application to transformations observed in the field. Its most useful application in archaeology is the study of the long term (centuries or millennia) where the dynamics are slow but persistent. In such cases, it enables a relational and dynamic description of history and the emergence of novelty.

In this paper, it is shown that, if R is a ∗-ring containing a nontrivial self adjoint idempotent which admits a ∗-Lie higher derivable mapping L={Ln}n∈N, then there exists an element ZX,Y (depending on X and Y) in the center Z(R) such that Ln(X+Y)=Ln(X)+Ln(Y)+ZX,Y.

In this paper, using sub-supersolution argument, we prove some existence results on positive solution for a class of nonlocal elliptic systems with multiple parameters in bounded domains.

This paper presents a novel in situ measurement method of the total heat transfer coefficient on a building wall. The device developed is based on harmonic thermal load of the wall surface. In situ tests of the method were performed in a steady environment as well as in off-equilibrium conditions (generated using electrical heaters). The heat transfer coefficient was estimated to 7.5 and 9 W.m−2.K−1 respectively. A parametric analysis allows determining the optimum operating conditions. The results obtained were in good agreement with standard values found in the literature. Measurement uncertainties were evaluated and a simple analytical model of the device was also developed.

In this paper we shall find some sufficient conditions for a uniqueness polynomial to be a strong uniqueness polynomial, as this type of problem was never investigated by researchers earlier. We also exhibit some examples to substantiate our theorems.

Safety issues in nuclear power plant involve complex turbulent bubbly flows. To predict the behavior of these flows, the two-fluid approach is often used. Nevertheless, this model has been developed for the simulation of small spherical bubbles, considered as a dispersed field. To deal with bubbles with a large range of sizes, a multifield approach based on this two-fluid model has been proposed. A special treatment, called the Large Bubble Model (LBMo), has been implemented and coupled to the dispersed model. However, only laminar and isothermal flows were considered in previous papers. Thus, here, Large Eddy Simulations (LES) are investigated to model turbulence effects. For this purpose, the two-fluid model equations are filtered to highlight the specific subgrid terms. Then, an a priori LES study using filtered Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) results is detailed. This analysis allows classifying these terms according to their relative weight and then concentrating the modelling efforts on the predominant ones. Five different turbulence models are compared. These results are finally used to perform true LES on a turbulent two-phase flow. Moreover, in order to tackle non-isothermal flows occurring in industrial studies, a new heat transfer model is implemented and validated to deal with phase change at large interfaces using the Large Bubble Model.

Austin-Moore hemiarthroplasty had been critically utilized for aged patients with femoral neck fractures. However, this implant became no longer favorable when increasing life activity. A multiobjective shape optimization has been integrated to improve its performance. The resulting configuration is called Improved Austin-Moore (IAM) model. Probabilistic analysis is very important when the input data are random, that leads to stochastic results. In this paper, a probabilistic analysis is applied to solid and IAM stems implanted in a proximal femur in order to show their advantages. This way it is possible to control the biomechanical effects of the implanted femur to determine its performance. The applied loads are generated randomly using Monte Carlo Simulations (MCS). MSC sampling technique is applied and the different von-Mises stresses of the layers (bone and metal) are selected as performance indicators. Two simple 2D implant-bone models of the solid and IAM designs are studied with a target reliability index equals to  3 t , which corresponds to a high level of confidence (reliability) 99.87%. The major finding of this article is that the skewness values of all output parameters of the IAM stem are positive which means that the majority of the maximum von-Mises stress values are closer to their minimum values than those associated with the solid stem. In addition, the sensitivity analysis shows that the input parameters for the IAM stem are more effective on the output parameters relative to those associated with the solid stem. The IAM stem shows a high interdependence (correlation) between the input and output parameters when comparing with the solid stem. Since this study is carried out considering loading uncertainty, the geometry can affect the load transfer. Therefore, a correlation study between the input parameters is carried out and showed significant coefficient values for the IAM stem relative to the solid one. The results show that the IAM stem is much more advantageous than the solid stem.

Crowdsourcing have been widely deployed to cover some challenges in digital humanities, like in the transcription of old handwritten documents. Such approach is especially useful to tackle existing limits in automatic handwriting recognition techniques. Crowdsourcing allows workers to help experts in extraction and classification of information, when the workload is daunting. Yet, it yields some specific challenges related to the quality of produced data. In this paper, we discuss data quality in a research project called CIRESFI which aims at transcribing Italian Comedy financial archives through the RECITAL web platform. We finally propose some leads to tackle these issues.

In the present paper, we introduce an efficient method for the estimation in the multidimensional case. The key idea is based on a good assessment of the error without using confidence intervals. The consistency of the proposed estimate is established. Consequently, we discuss the estimation in statistical tests corresponding to parametric context, and prove that this kind of estimators ensures the optimality of statistical tests. We partially extend the scope of our study to some processes. In order to examine the performance of our methodology, finite sample results are performed. This work completes and extends in nontrivial way the results obtained by Lounis (2017).

Digital games have become considerable and influential cultural transmitters throughout the past years. As social sciences had grasped the importance of this medium as an object of study, the field of archaeology has increasingly taken notice of the digital leisure worlds of millions of players. Studying games as artefacts or archaeological sites have been therefore pioneering research programmes by scholars like Andrew Reinhard in order to test the boundaries of the archaeological framework, as also to generate important insight on our society by applying archaeological methodology on digital games. The aim of this paper is to discuss the possible role of archaeology in its conjunction with video games and tries to establish a critical perspective towards the enthusiastic first wave of the archaeology of video games.

Lean is an approach that aims to eliminate waste in production activities. Recognised by companies, this approach yields significant gains in the short term. However, at medium and long term, these results have limitations. Our research work is focused on overcoming these limitations. So we studied the performance model adopted by the managers of Lean companies and the mental representations that underlie this model. In this paper, we support our research on a case study based on interviews with companies applying Lean approach and having met the mentioned limits. We then propose a new Lean performance model that attempts to overcome such limitations. This model is based on the vision that production operators contribute to the performance of the company through the creation and deployment of relevant operating modes during their work in Lean context. We also propose a modelling framework that allows to represent the impact of this new Lean performance model on the decision making in a Lean production system., Le Lean est une démarche qui vise à éliminer des gaspillages au sein des activités de production. Plébiscitée par les entreprises, cette démarche permet d’obtenir des gains importants sur le court terme. Cependant, à moyen et long terme, ces résultats présentent des limites. Nos travaux de recherche visent à pallier ces limites. Pour cela, nous nous intéressons au modèle de performance adopté par les « décideurs » des entreprises Lean ainsi qu’aux représentations mentales qui sous-tendent ce modèle. Dans cet article, nous appuyons notre recherche sur une enquête auprès d’entreprises pratiquant la démarche Lean et ayant rencontré les limites évoquées, afin de comprendre ces limites. Nous proposons alors un nouveau modèle de performance Lean qui vise à pallier ces limites. Ce modèle est construit sur la vision que les opérateurs de production contribuent à la performance de l’entreprise par la création et le déploiement de modes opératoires pertinents au cours de leur activité de travail en contexte Lean. Nous proposons ensuite un cadre de modélisation qui permette de représenter les impacts de ce nouveau modèle de performance Lean sur la prise de décision d’un système de production Lean.

In this paper is reported how the Brownian motion of colloids (beads) immersed in a liquid can be affected by the local properties of the fluid and how, in turn, it can alter them. Near- critical binary mixtures are known to exhibit important concentration fluctuations when nearing their liquid-liquid critical point (CP). Photon-beating spectroscopy measurements show that colloids immersed in such a critical mixture of isobutyric acid and water exhibit a slow-down of their Brownian motion due to the fluctuation-induced critical enhancement of viscosity. However, as the mixture temperature is brought close to the CP temperature, the fluctuations lifetime becomes large enough such that the fluctuations can be in turn strongly deformed by the shear flow around the colloids. Mean-field behavior, where the influence of fluctuations can be ignored, follows. Viscosity does not increase anymore and colloids motion ceases to slow down.

Aerodynamics is defined as the science of handling a fluid that is often the air interacting with a structure. When simulating the flow over airfoils, transition from laminar to turbulent flow plays an important role in determining the flow features and in quantifying the airfoil performance such as lift and drag. These fluidic flows are subjected to viscous stresses and inertia which produces disordered fluctuations, so turbulence affects the behavior of the aerodynamic flow as well as the structure interacting with the fluid in a range of high Reynolds, indeed, it is obliged to control these turbulent flows in this area in order to give a good design of the structure. Several models of turbulence have been developed to facilitate the calculation of characteristic quantities to optimize the simulation of turbulent flows in aerodynamics. In this paper, we carried out a validation of a numerical simulation of a 3D transonic flow over the ONERA M6 wing for which the numerical results, performed using ANSYS/FLUENT©, will be compared with experimental data and NASA CFD results consisting on the pressure coefficient (Cp) along the upper and lower wing surfaces. The flow was obtained by solving the steady-state governing equations of continuity and momentum conservation combined with one of five turbulence models (Spalart-Allmaras (S-A), standard k-e, k-e RNG, standard k-ω and k-ω SST) aiming to the validation of these models through the comparison of the predictions and the free field experimental measurements for the selected wing.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) incorporates mathematical relations and algorithms to analyze and solve the problems regarding fluid flow. CFD analysis of an airfoil produces results such as lift and drag forces which determines the ability of an airfoil. In this paper a transonic flow will be modelled over a NACA 0012 airfoil for which experimental data has been published, so that a comparison can be made. The flow to be considered is compressible and turbulent and the solver used is the density based implicit solver, which gives good results for high speed compressible flows. The results show that the predicted lift, drag and pressure coefficients are in good agreement with experimental data.

In this paper, we study extensions of the RBDO of the piezoelectric engines with travelling wave taking into account the dynamic contact between the different components (stator and rotor). Generally, the life of these engines is limited by important abrasion of the different components. So, the notion of random variables and the risk of failure must be integrated in the mechanical analysis to ensure the good working of the system. The numerical treatment of the dynamic contact inside the motor is presented with the good choice of relaxation factors. The RBDO is often formulated as a minimization of the initial structural cost under constraints imposed on the values of elemental reliability indices corresponding to various limit states. The classical RBDO leads to high computing time and weak convergence, but a hybrid method has been proposed to overcame these two drawbacks. The efficiency of the hybrid method has been demonstrated on static and dynamic cases with extension to the variability of the probabilistic model. We propose two methods: the dynamic hybrid method and the frequencies hybrid method as extension of the improved hybrid method presented in further works.

This article presents and evaluates a novel contextual approach called the Cooperating Context Method that can serve to synthesize complete narratives that are interesting and make sense to the human reader/listener. Exis-ting context-driven approaches are generally designed to facilitate the situational awareness of a tactical agent that ope-rates in an interactive world environment (whether physical or virtual). Such agents are generally tasked with making de-cisions in pursuit of their objectives and/or in light of the environment and the actions of other entities in the environment. In effect, these agents live mainly in the present and/or to a much lesser degree, can remember things from the past; they only relate to the future in terms of making plans to achieve their objectives, if any. These existing context-centric ap-proaches are not useful for the creation of a narrative which, by definition, is neither in the past nor the present, but rather in an artificial time frame that covers an arbitrarily long time period. CCM was designed and built to overcome the limita-tions found in other contextual approaches with respect to automated narrative generation. CCM begins to build the nar-rative by examining the current situation to create a list of tasks that are relevant to the situation being faced by the agent. Through a series of algorithms, the list of contexts that are able to perform these tasks is narrowed down to two lists of high priority and low priority contexts, while removing those other contexts deemed irrelevant to the current needs. The set of contexts best suited to manage the tasks are selected and the contextual knowledge is utilized to address the rele-vant tasks. All along this process, the contexts activated and actions taken by all agents (i.e., the characters in the story) are recorded and become part of the emerging narrative. Potential applications of CCM and its ability to build complete narratives include automated story generation, building scenarios for first person shooter video games, and creating si-mulated scenarios for tactical training in first-responder operations and in military operations. The application described in this paper is for automated generation of children's stories. Extensive testing of CCM revealed that it performs as it was intended.

This paper aims at presenting a logical framework capable of expressing epistemological contextualism. Epistemological contextualism relies upon the possibility of an indexical interpretation of the knowledge operator, according to which the truth conditions of knowledge attributions exhibit a contextual variability in such a way that knowledge in one context does not entail knowledge in every context. By means of a notion of epistemic context defined on the basis of the notion of context developed by McCarthy and Buvaˇc in artificial intelligence, I show how an indexical interpretation of the knowledge operator can be formally modeled through a natural deduction system that enables classical reasoning among contexts governed by different concepts of knowledge.

In this paper, a comparative study between the use of spin on glass and gas phase Zn diffusion of the p++ source of InGaAs TFETs was performed. The use of Zn gas phase doping at the source reduces the tunneling length which results in an enhancement of ION, higher transistor efficiency and intrinsic voltage gain at lower voltages. The main parameters of gas-phased-diffused In0.53Ga0.47As nTFETs with gate stacks composed by 3 nm or 2 nm HfO2 on top of 1 nm Al2O3 have been analyzed. The resulting equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) was about 0.8 nm and 1.0 nm, respectively. The lower EOT improves the electrostatic coupling, resulting in a lower SS (sub 60 mV/dec at room temperature) leading to a higher gm/IDS in weak conduction. TCAD simulations have shown that the ambipolar effect is significant for higher VDS, degrading SS and consequently gm/IDS in the weak conduction regime, also shifting the gm/IDS peak to higher VGS direction due to the increase of IOFF. The AV peak is strongly degraded by an increase of the temperature due to the increase of the trap-assisted-tunneling (TAT) and Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) generation mechanisms. For higher VGS the AV is lower, and at the same time less sensitive to temperature variations, which is a favorable regime for temperature-dependent analog operation.

This paper review the device and circuit performance of co-optimized n- and p-type tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs) integrated on the same InAs/Al0.05Ga0.95Sb platform, using a full-quantum ballistic simulator. Based on 3D full-quantum simulations, the investigated devices feature steep subthreshold slopes and relatively high ON-state currents, and are combined to realize an inverter. Benchmarking against aggressively scaled CMOS logic based on multigate architectures highlights the potential of the proposed TFET implementations to perform up to 10× and 100× faster for IOFF = 5nA/um and 10 pA/um, respectively, at very low supply voltage VDD = 0.25V, for equal levels of static power dissipation. Afterwards, a simulation study on the impact of interface traps and strain on the I–V characteristics is carried out, in order to capture the effect of interface/border traps on the device electrostatics. The effect of an experimental Dit distribution of a high-k gate stack on InAs is investigated. Unfortunately, traps induce a significant reduction of the ON-state current. However, it turns out that localized strain at the source/channel heterojunction caused by lattice mismatch is able to induce a performance enhancement for the n-type TFET, with respect to the ideal device, even in the presence of traps. On the contrary, for the p-type one, a current degradation  18% is observed.

In this paper a two-dimensional analytical Tunnel-FET model is revised. It is used to evaluate performance enhancing measures for the TFET regarding device geometry and physical effects. The usage of hetero-junctions is discussed and a way to suppress the ambipolar behavior of the TFET is shown. In focus of this work are the emerging variability issues with this new type of device. Random-dopant-fluctuations (rdf) have a major influence on the device performance. This effect is analyzed and compared with rdf effects in a MOSFET device. The drawn conclusions lead to a re-evaluation of performance limiting aspects of fabricated TFET devices.

In this paper we report on our progress with SiGe gate-normal / line tunneling FETs, highlighting recent advancements by the example of three transistor concepts. We demonstrate the unique characteristics shared by these transistors, such as the on-current proportionality to the source-gate-channel overlap area and explain the obstacles imposed by fringing fields leading to parasitic tunneling at the edges of the tunneling area. Our experimental results show that adding counter doping to the channel provides an efficient means to mitigate penalties to the subthreshold swing caused by parasitic tunneling paths and additionally helps to improve the on-current and Ion/Ioff-ratio. Moreover, we point out the dependence of the superlinear onset on the tunneling transmission probability with a focus on the doping profile at the tunneling junction. We consider the role of traps on the subthreshold swing within the scope of temperature dependent electrical measurements. Furthermore, we show that by avoiding ion implantation and hence crystal defects as much as possible, smaller minimum subthreshold swings can be reached. At last, taking the experience acquired on the three transistors concepts into consideration, we propose an advanced TFET concept.

As part of the Tunisian-Italian archaeological joint mission to the Sahara, a research project (survey and excavation) has focused since 2015 on the study of the funerary archaeology of the prehistoric and historical communities of southern Tunisia. The surveyed area, located along the southern and eastern edges of Chott el Jerid (governorate of Kebili), was selected, after scrutinizing the information collected by the “Service Geographique de l'Armee Francaise” during the early 20th century about the funerary structures. In this paper, we present two main archaeological funerary contexts and the methodology applied for the photogrammetric documentation of the architectural features of the structures. Then we present the post-processing of the point clouds carried out to obtain a complete data-set for the remote analysis of the excavation sequence of each tumulus. By adopting a multi-scalar approach, from GIS remote analysis to photogrammetric documentation of individual funerary structures, we have tried to optimize the chances of fieldwork activity, taking into consideration whilst so doing the contingencies due to the fluctuating socio-political situation that characterizes some countries of North Africa in recent years.

This programmatic paper is an attempt to connect some worries in the philosophy of language with some traditional views in artificial intelligence. After a short introduction to the notion of context in philosophy (§1), starting from the inventor of mathematical logic, Gottlob Frege, I list three debates in the philosophy of language where the solution is strongly undecided: §2 treats the debate between holism and molecularism; §3 describes the debate on the boundaries between semantics and pragmatics; §4 hints at a solution of the debate between explicit and implicit view of incomplete descriptions. These debates may be considered case studies on what is happening to the notion of context in philosophy in the first two decades of XXI century; they push us to look for a unifying framework in which to frame those worries: I propose to shift the attention towards a representation of the basic abilities required to navigate across contexts (§5). In the conclusion, I use some suggestions from computer sciences as a contribution towards a better definition of what is meant by “pragmatic competence”, strictly connected to the philosophical enterprise (§6).

Every day, the US government creates and consumes significant amounts of data. Federal agencies are finally riding the wave of Big Data Analytics for solving problems such as improving citizen service. Domestic tranquility, customer satisfaction, transparency, and providing quality service are among the many critical goals that most government agencies aim to achieve through citizen service. Federal, State, County, and City governments are constantly challenged by the overwhelming number of service requests from citizens, organizations, scholars, the media, and many other entities. Governments, however, are constantly facing accountability issues that can call into question their role and efficiency. This paper, through the use of data science and context, introduces a novel engine that could be used at any federal agency to improve citizen service, evaluate performance metrics, and provide pointers to enhance satisfaction rates. The model used in the engine (called iGPS) is deployed through a number of real-world citizen's complaints datasets. Insightful and actionable data visualizations are introduced to federal employees depending on their context. - The goal is to aid them in decision-making. The model is tested for the first time (through six governmental datasets from 46 agencies), machine learning models are developed, visualizations are built, the system is deployed at the US government, and experimental results are recorded and presented.

This paper describes the application of optimization and probabilistic methods to a hollow stem design implanted in a proximal femur. The objective is to introduce a hollow stem as a robust tool for fixation. Introducing the hollow stem and taking advantage of shape optimization with objectives in stresses, the regions where stresses shielding exists can be reduced as a conclusion. Probabilistic methods allow variations in factors which control the hole fixation of the implanted femur (the input parameters) to be taken into account in determining its performance. The probabilistic analysis is applied on the resulting hollow stem to simulate the variation factors of the bone ingrowth into holes. The fixation values are generated randomly using Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). Monte Carlo sampling techniques were applied and the maximum stress in the cancellous bone was chosen as a performance indicator. A simple 2D implant-bone study of solid and hollow stem designs is carried out with a high level of confidence 99.9% taking into account statistical uncertainties.

The paper discusses both theory and practice in the application of the Italian domestic law, which has applied since 2006 to any kind of public new construction or to the modification of existing structures. The author argues, based on two of his own projects, BREBEMI and EMPTYSCAPES, that there are both shortcomings and new opportunities within Planning Led Archaeology. Projects from the last decade, in Italy and elsewhere, have demonstrated the potential effectiveness of new approaches to pre-development evaluation in the operation of the current legal and scientific framework that may make it possible to overcome some severe limitations in current practice.

This paper presents and discusses how context is being used to model intelligent human activity – specifically, tactical actions. Tactical behavior involves selection and execution of courses of action that address the current needs of the agent. The discussion centers about the work done in the author's research laboratory that addresses tactical behavior by an agent. A limited discussion about the works of others is also included. Two points of view are discussed vis-a-vis the tactical behavior of an agent: a) from the point of view of a performer of an action (the doer), and b) from the standpoint of one who directs others (agents or humans) to perform the actions (a manager, commander or coach). Additionally, the role that can be played by context in machine learning of tactical behavior is also discussed. This particularly focuses on learning from observation of human performance, known as LfO. LfO has been found to be an effective way for learning agents to learn how to perform certain tasks that are performed by a human and whose actions are observed (i.e., recorded in a time-stamped trace of what actions were taken when).

Avant d'etre deployes sur le terrain, les differentes solutions constituant le reseau de collecte de l'Internet des Objets (Device-Layer - Internet of Things) doivent etre evaluees en termes de performances, de passage a l'echelle et de reproductibilite. Dans cet article, nous presentons notre plateforme de test, concue pour permettre d'atteindre ces differents objectifs. Cette plateforme, basee sur toute une famille de noeuds, est presentee ainsi que des exemples d'exploitation de ses capacites. In order to be able to deploy the various solutions for the Device Layer of the Internet of Things, these proposals must be evaluated in terms of performance, scalability and repeatability. This paper introduces our test platform which was designed to be able to support these types of tests. We describe the wireless nodes which make up the test platform and present a selection of use cases.

Business Process Management (BPM) is the art and science of monitoring how the work is performed within an organization to ensure consistent results and opportunities for improvement. One important research topic on BPM relates to the issue of flexibility. Unplanned conditions may occur at any time during process execution. In dynamic environments, changes must be performed more frequently and systematically and considering not only pre-established rules, but also contextual information. The literature indicates context as a source of information that should be considered in the modeling of business processes in order to contribute to their flexibility when in the execution phase. In this paper, we present the results from our studies about context in the whole cycle of BPM. The goal is to describe an approach that comprises solutions for modeling, gathering, using and evolving context in a BPM oriented environment.

The paper presents the current status of research on context modeling and management that emerges from several real-world applications since 25 years. We now have a robust conceptual framework and its implementation as a piece of software called Contextual-Graphs (CxG) platform. The context modeling and management were limited to few relevant aspects of context in each application. Working on several applications imposed to develop a robust conceptual framework and software that are independent of applications. The CxG formalism is the syntax and the domain models are the semantics. The CxG formalism relies on four elements (action, contextual element, activity and executive structure of independent activities) and about 200 models were developed as contextual graphs. This success comes from the fact that the CxG formalism is used for modeling human behaviors during task realization, not task models. The robustness of the CxG formalism offers challenging perspectives in crucial domains like weak-signal management in emergency rooms or crisis or security problems.

In engineering, under complex nonlinear constraints, the majority of design problems are generally multiobjective. For multi-objective problems, the computing effort can often rise significantly through the number of objectives and constraints evaluations. Metaheuristics are nowadays seen as powerful algorithms to deal with multiobjective optimization problems. In this paper, we using Backtracking Search Algorithm (BSA) as a tool to solve multiobjective optimization problems in structures, named (BSAMO). A well known benchmark multi-objective problem has been chosen from the literature to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method, applicability of the method for structural problems has been tested through a truss problem and promising results were obtained. The numerical results show not only the effectiveness and the best performance of BSAMO compared to NSGA-II, but also its rapidity and efficiency.

In Part II of the overview of structural reliability analysis methods, the category of sampling methods is reviewed. The basic Monte Carlo simulation is the foundation for sampling methods of reliability analysis. Sampling methods can evaluate the failure probability defined by both explicit and implicit performance function. With sufficient number of samples, simulation methods can give accurate results. However, for complex problem the computational cost is expensive. Thus, based on variance reduction techniques, some variants of basic Monte Carlo simulation method are proposed to reduce the computational cost. Monte Carlo simulation and its variants, including importance sampling, adaptive sampling, Latin hypercube sampling, directional simulation, and subset simulation, are presented and summarized in this paper.

International audience; In this paper, we suggest a new version of PSO algorithm, that allows the amelioration of its performance by introducing its parallelization associated to the concept of evolutionary neighborhood. The main objective of our approach is to overcome to the two essential disadvantages of PSO: high running time and premature convergence. The proposed algorithm was tested in order to improve the performance and reliability of mechanical structures; more precisely on the electricity pylon example; the objective is to maximize resistance to load while reducing material usage and cost. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective and outperforms basic PSO in terms of solution quality, accuracy, constraint handling, and time consuming.; Reconnue pendant plusieurs années comme une métaheuristique stochastique performante dans la résolution des problèmes d’optimisation difficiles, la méthode d’optimisation par essaim particulaire « PSO » présente cependant des points faibles : le temps de calcul considérable et la convergence prématurée. Plusieurs études ont été menées pour trouver le jeu de paramètres qui conduit à de bonnes performances de l’algorithme. Dans ce papier, nous proposons une version de l’algorithme PSO, permettant d’améliorer ses performances en introduisant sa parallélisation associée à la notion du voisinage évolutif. L’algorithme proposé a été testé afin d’améliorer la performance et la fiabilité des structures mécaniques « le problème de transport d’électricité » ; plus précisément l‘optimisation de la durée de vie du pylône d’une ligne de transport d’électricité ; l’objectif est de maximiser la résistance à la charge tout en réduisant le coût « la minimisation de l’utilisation des matériaux ». Dans nos expérimentations, les tests effectués sur le programme ont donné des résultats satisfaisants du modèle parallèle par rapport au modèle séquentiel.