Grounding symbols into perceptions

This paper deals with symbol formation, from a cognitive point of view, through a connectionist model. To give an idea of our aim, let us consider the metaphor of learning to play tennis. Two knowledge forms are involved:

- implicit knowledge, e.g. sensori-motor associations; this knowledge is subsymbolic

- explicit knowledge, e.g. a teacher giving verbal advice, which makes use of symbols.

Learned knowledge consists of a combination of subsymbolic and symbolic items. More than a juxtaposition, this combination involves grounding symbols into a subsymbolic substratum. This leads us to connectionist modelling which is considered as the common framework for both kinds of knowledge.     

Evaluation des performances du réseau en anneau AMBRE pour distribution d’abonnés

ambre is an integrated services digital loop-like network for public local communication. Each communication is a sequence of fixed-length packets separated by fixed-length silences. Performance evaluation is carried through in terms of access-time and transport delays with emphasis on inter packet delay fluctuations.     

Multimedia document retrieval using speech and speaker recognition

Speech and speaker recognition systems are rapidly being deployed in real-world applications. In this paper, we discuss the details of a system and its components for indexing and retrieving multimedia content derived from broadcast news sources. The audio analysis component calls for real-time speech recognition for converting the audio to text and concurrent speaker analysis consisting of the segmentation of audio into acoustically homogeneous sections followed by speaker identification. The output of these two simultaneous processes is used to abstract statistics to automatically build indexes for text-based and speaker-based retrieval without user intervention. The real power of multimedia document processing is the possibility of Boolean queries in the form of combined text- and speaker-based user queries. Retrieval for such queries entails combining the results of individual text and speaker based searches. The underlying techniques discussed here can easily be extended to other speech-centric applications and transactions.     

Tracking the dynamics of translation and absolute orientation of a sphere in a turbulent flow

We study the six-dimensional dynamics--position and orientation--of a large sphere advected by a turbulent flow. The movement of the sphere is recorded with two high-speed cameras. Its orientation is tracked using a novel, efficient algorithm; it is based on the identification of possible orientation "candidates" at each time step, with the dynamics later obtained from maximization of a likelihood function. Analysis of the resulting linear and angular velocities and accelerations reveal a surprising intermittency for an object whose size lies in the inertial range, close to the integral scale of the underlying turbulent flow.     

北方乡村生态屋设计实践

本论文给出在恶劣条件下,改善北方乡村居民居住质量、创造舒适与生态的人居环境的设计策略与技术手段,论文通过对当地传统民居与生态屋进行的同步测试、评估与比较分析,验证了生态屋生态技术的有效性,为北方乡村住宅建设的可持续发展指明了方向。     

New generation photon-counting cameras: algol and CPNG

Algol and Comptage de Photons Nouvelle Génération (CPNG) are new generation photon counting cameras developed for high angular resolution in the visible by means of optical aperture synthesis and speckle interferometry and for photon noise limited fast imaging of biological targets. They are intensified CCDs. They have been built to benefit from improvements in photonic commercial components, sensitivity, and personal computer workstations processing power. We present how we achieve optimal performances (sensitivity and spatiotemporal resolution) by the combination of proper optical and electronics design, and real-time elaborated data processing. The number of pixels is 532 x 516 and 1024(2) read at a frame rate of 262 and 100 Hz for CPNG and Algol, respectively. The dark current is very low: 5.5 x 10(-4) e(-) .pixel(-1). s(-1). The saturation flux is approximately 7 photon events /pixel/s. Quantum efficiencies reach up to 36% and 26% in the visible with the GaAsP photocathodes and in the red with the GaAs ones, respectively, thanks to the sensitivity of the photocathodes and to the photon centroiding algorithm; they are likely the highest values reported for intensified CCDs.     

Determination of the correlation between physical measurements of roughness, optical properties, and perception of frosted glass surfaces

Chemical frosting is used as a surface decorating method by many glass package producers. After immersion in an acid frosting bath, glass items present the desired frosted effect. The perception of this particular effect is due to the formation of a microscopic crystalline pattern on the glass surface, which scatters light passing through the glass surface. The chemical composition of the frosting bath influences these properties by modifying the surface roughness, the depth, and the average slopes of the crystalline pattern. Perception of the final aspect can be modified according to the chemical composition of the frosting bath. Different correlations between all these parameters exist and have been quantified.     

Pressure correction DRBEM solution for heat transfer and fluid flow in incompressible viscous fluids

The Dual Reciprocity Boundary Element Method (DRBEM) is used to solve incompressible laminar viscous fluid flows and heat transfer. The DRBEM is extended to develop a pressure correction scheme to solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The velocity field is then used as input to the DRBEM solution of the energy transport equation, thereby retaining the boundary only discretization feature of the BEM for the solution of this problem. Numerical results for the proposed DRBEM solution for laminar flow and heat transfer in a channel are obtained for several Reynolds numbers and compare well with previously published data.     

Related-Key Security for Pseudorandom Functions Beyond the Linear Barrier

Related-key attacks (RKAs) concern the security of cryptographic primitives in the situation where the key can be manipulated by the adversary. In the RKA setting, the adversary’s power is expressed through the class of related-key deriving (\(\mathrm {RKD}\)) functions which the adversary is restricted to using when modifying keys. Bellare and Kohno (EUROCRYPT 2003, volume 2656 of LNCS, Springer, Heidelberg, pp 491–506, 2003) first formalized RKAs and pinpointed the foundational problem of constructing RKA-secure pseudorandom functions (RKA-PRFs). To date there are few constructions for RKA-PRFs under standard assumptions, and it is a major open problem to construct RKA-PRFs for larger classes of \(\mathrm {RKD}\) functions. We make significant progress on this problem. We first show how to repair the framework for constructing RKA-PRF by Bellare and Cash (CRYPTO 2010, volume 6223 of LNCS, Springer, Heidelberg, pp 666–684, 2010) and extend it to handle the more challenging case of classes of \(\mathrm {RKD}\) functions that contain claws. We apply this extension to show that a variant of the Naor–Reingold function already considered by Bellare and Cash is an RKA-PRF for a class of affine \(\mathrm {RKD}\) functions under the Decisional Diffie–Hellman (DDH) assumption, albeit with a blowup that is exponential in the PRF input size. We then develop a second extension of the Bellare–Cash framework and use it to show that the same Naor–Reingold variant is actually an RKA-PRF for a class of degree d polynomial \(\mathrm {RKD}\) functions under the stronger decisional d-Diffie–Hellman inversion assumption. As a significant technical contribution, our proof of this result avoids the exponential-time security reduction that was inherent in the work of Bellare and Cash and in our first result. In particular, by setting \(d = 1\) (affine functions), we obtain a construction of RKA-secure PRF for affine relation based on the polynomial hardness of DDH.     

Treatment of domestic wastewater using the nutrient film technique (NFT) to produce horticultural roses

Removal of organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus was investigated in a pilot based on the nutrient film technique system used for horticultural production. Rosebushes producing commercial roses were set on an inclined impermeable surface over which a thin film of domestic wastewater flowed directly through the root matrix. The roses produced with wastewater as nutrient solution were qualitatively and quantitatively similar to those produced traditionally and can be marketable. In the presence of the rosebushes, the lowering of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD5) and suspended solids (SS) increased with their influent strengths in a linear fashion correlation. Whatever the pollutant load of the influent, within the range studied, the level of organic pollution required to allow the discharge of the effluent into water courses was reached after 24 h of treatment. At this time, the COD reached 39 +/- 13 mg L(-1), the BOD5 7 +/- 4 mg L(-1) and the SS 8 +/- 6 mg L(-1). The removal percentages were 89, 95 and 94, respectively, whereas without plants they were 55, 33 and 53, respectively. The rosebushes had a beneficial effect on the removal of phosphorus from 20% to 23% greater in their presence than without. In presence of plants, the nitrate was the principal form of nitrogen from 48 h of treatment whereas without rosebushes, nitrite represent more than 20% of initial nitrogen whatever the treatment duration. The root matrix served not only as a filter for the organic matter, but also provided a microhabitat suitable for nitrifying bacteria and heterotrophic micro-organisms, which responded rapidly to the pollutant load.