Friday, December 19, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Monday, November 03, 2008
Raisonnement hypothétique et temps multiforme discret dans les systèmes de production: étude et implémentation
Résumé / Abstract
La caractérisation incomplète que l'on n'a du monde externe dans les systèmes experts temps réel nécessite un raisonnement de type révocable, des déductions antérieures pouvant être remises en cause pour rester cohérent avec les nouvelles informations. Le système déductif doit alors être doté d'un système de maintien de la cohérence. A l'opposé des approches existantes qui voient ces deux systèmes dissociés, nous avons choisi d'étendre le langage des règles d'un système de production de type OPS en y intégrant un maintien de la cohérence de type ATMS. Cette approche «langage» nous a permis d'introduire des variables d'environnement, ceux-ci devenant alors manipulables explicitement depuis les règles à l'aide d'un jeu de primitives qui leur est dédié. Cette extension du pouvoir d'expression, outre les contradictions, a enrichi la structure de contrôle en permettant le recours à l'indirection et en ouvrant la voie à la focalisation dans certains mondes. Une négation explicite, ne reposant pas sur l'hypothèse du monde clos, a été introduite et avec laquelle les informations négatives ont le même statut que les informations positives. Nous avons illustré les capacités du langage par un certain nombre d'exemples d'école. Du point de vue de l'implémentation, nous avons introduit une structure d'encodage booléen des environnements qui permet d'exprimer la dépendance entre hypothèses et pour lequel une preuve de décomposition unique a été établie. Enfin nous avons continué dans la démarche suivie pour l'implémentation de l'algorithme de pattern matching duquel on était parti, c'est-à-dire une procéduralisation totale qui conduit à une véritable compilation des règles. Un autre thème a été abordé dans la thèse et concerne plus spécifiquement le temps réel. Il s'agit d'introduire le temps multiforme discret de la programmation synchrone dans les systèmes de production. Toujours dans une approche langage, nous proposons une extension d'un système de production de type OPS permettant la synchronisation des déductions avec des horloges. Ces horloges sont n'importe quel fait de l'application pour laquelle il représente une unité de temps. L'implémentation est détaillée et le coureur d'Esterel vient illustrer cette nouvelle fonctionnalitéMonday, October 20, 2008
Soffrir
Étymologie
Du latin classique sufferre : "supporter, endurer", ou "se soutenir, se maintenir".
Ancienne langue
- Comme son étymon, ce verbe peut signifier en ancien français "supporter, endurer avec fermeté (ce qui est pénible moralement ou physiquement)". En construction pronominale, se souffrir de signifie "se passer de", et se souffrir signifie "patienter".
- Il peut aussi avoir le sens de "subir une chose douloureuse, désagréable", d'où le sens de l'expression souffrir quelqu'un, "tolérer sa présence".
- En contexte militaire, ce verbe peut aussi avoir le sens plus concret de "soutenir (une bataille)", d'où l'expression souffrir quelqu'un, "résister à quelqu'un dans un combat".
- Ce verbe est aussi employé dans diverses expressions :
- souffrir le droit : "se laisse juger" ;
- souffrir + proposition infinitive : "permettre que" ;
- souffrir quelque chose à quelqu'un : "accorder quelque chose à quelqu'un".
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Internet use 'good for the brain'
For middle aged and older people at least, using the internet helps boost brain power, research suggests.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7667610.stm
A University of California Los Angeles team found searching the web stimulates centres in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning.
The researchers say this might even help to counter-act the age-related physiological changes that cause the brain to slow down.
The study features in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
A simple, everyday task like searching the web appears to enhance brain circuitry in older adults Professor Gary Small University of California Los Angeles |
As the brain ages, a number of changes occur, including shrinkage and reductions in cell activity, which can impact on performance.
It has long been thought that activities which keep the brain active, such as crossword puzzles, may help minimise the impact - and the latest study suggests that surfing the web can be added to the list.
Web use stimulates much more activity in the same brain |
Lead researcher Professor Gary Small said: "The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults.
"Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function."
The latest study was based on 24 volunteers aged between 55 and 76. Half were experienced internet users, the rest were not.
Compared with reading
Each volunteer underwent a brain scan while performing web searches and book-reading tasks.
Both types of task produced evidence of significant activity in regions of the brain controlling language, reading, memory and visual abilities.
However, the web search task produced significant additional activity in separate areas of the brain which control decision-making and complex reasoning - but only in those who were experienced web users.
Brain activity in web newcomers: similar for reading and internet use |
The researchers said that compared with simple reading, the internet's wealth of choices requires that people make decisions about what to click on in order to get the relevant information.
However, they suggested that newcomers to the web had not quite grasped the strategies needed to successfully carry out a web search.
Professor Smith said: "A simple, everyday task like searching the web appears to enhance brain circuitry in older adults, demonstrating that our brains are sensitive and can continue to learn as we grow older."
Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said: "These fascinating findings add to previous research suggesting that middle-aged and older people can reduce their risk of dementia by taking part in regular mentally stimulating activities.
"Older web users - 'silver surfers' - are doing precisely this.
"Frequent social interactions, regular exercise and maintaining a balanced diet can also reduce dementia risk."
Dr Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society, said: "Use it or lose it may well be a positive message to keep people active but there is very little real evidence that keeping the brain exercised with puzzles, games or other activities can promote cognitive health and reduce the risk of dementia."
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Dig pinpoints Stonehenge origins
By James Morgan Science reporter, BBC News |
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
The excavation is documented in a BBC Timewatch special
Archaeologists have pinpointed the construction of Stonehenge to 2300BC - a key step to discovering how and why the mysterious edifice was built.
The radiocarbon date is said to be the most accurate yet and means the ring's original bluestones were put up 300 years later than previously thought.
The dating is the major finding from an excavation inside the henge by Profs Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright.
The duo found evidence suggesting Stonehenge was a centre of healing.
Others have argued that the monument was a shrine to worship ancestors, or a calendar to mark the solstices.
A documentary following the progress of the recent dig has been recorded by the BBC Timewatch series. It will be broadcast on Saturday 27 September.
Date demand
For centuries, archaeologists have marvelled at the construction of Stonehenge, which lies on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
Mineral analysis indicates that the original circle of bluestones was transported to the plain from a site 240km (150 miles) away, in the Preseli hills, South Wales.
This extraordinary feat suggests the stones were thought to harbour great powers.
Professors Darvill and Wainwright believe that Stonehenge was a centre of healing - a "Neolithic Lourdes", to which the sick and injured travelled from far and wide, to be healed by the powers of the bluestones.
They note that "an abnormal number" of the corpses found in tombs nearby Stonehenge display signs of serious physical injury and disease.
And analysis of teeth recovered from graves show that "around half" of the corpses were from people who were "not native to the Stonehenge area".
"Stonehenge would attract not only people who were unwell, but people who were capable of [healing] them," said Professor Darvill, of Bournemouth University.
"Therefore, in a sense, Stonehenge becomes 'the A & E' of southern England."
Modern techniques
But without a reliable carbon date for the construction of Stonehenge, it has been difficult to establish this, or any other, theory.
Until now, the consensus view for the date of the first stone circle was anywhere between 2600BC and 2400BC.
To cement the date once and for all, Professors Darvill and Wainwright were granted permission by English Heritage to excavate a patch of earth just 2.5m x 3.5m, in between the two circles of giant sarsen stones.
The dig unearthed about 100 pieces of organic material from the original bluestone sockets, now buried under the monument. Of these, 14 were selected to be sent for modern carbon dating, at Oxford University.
The result - 2300BC - is the most reliable date yet for the erection of the first bluestones.
Strictly speaking, the result was rounded down to "between 2400BC and 2200BC" - but 2300BC is taken as the average.
An even more precise date will be produced in the coming months.
"It's an incredible feeling, a dream come true," said Professor Wainwright, formerly chief archaeologist at English Heritage.
"We told the world we were going to date Stonehenge. That was a risk, but I was always confident," said Professor Darvill.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
The archaeologists reveal the first accurate carbon date for Stonehenge
Intriguingly, the date range ties in closely with the date for the burial of the so-called "Amesbury Archer", whose tomb was discovered three miles from Stonehenge.
Some archaeologists believe the Archer is the key to understanding why Stonehenge was built.
Analyses of his corpse and artefacts from his grave indicate he was a wealthy and powerful man, with knowledge of metal working, who had travelled to Salisbury from Alpine Europe, for reasons unknown.
Post mortem examinations show that he suffered from both a serious knee injury and a potentially fatal dental problem, leading Darvill and Wainwright to conclude that the Archer came to Stonehenge to be healed.
But without an accurate date for Stonehenge, it was not even clear whether the temple existed while the Archer was alive.
His remains have been dated between 2500BC and 2300BC - within the same period that the first stone circle was erected.
"It's quite extraordinary that the date of the Amesbury Archer is identical with our new date for the bluestones of Stonehenge," said Professor Darvill.
"These two things happening within living memory of each other for sure is something very, very important."
Earliest occupation
Professor Wainwright added: "Was the Amesbury Archer, as some have suggested, the person responsible for the building of Stonehenge? I think the answer to that is almost certainly 'no'.
"But did he travel there to be healed? Did he limp, or was he carried, all the way from Switzerland to Wiltshire, because he had heard of the miraculous healing properties of Stonehenge? 'Yes, absolutely'.
"Tim and I are quite convinced that people went to Stonehenge to get well. But Stonehenge probably had more than one purpose, so I have no problem with other people's interpretations."
Among other key finds, the team uncovered organic material that indicates people inhabited the Stonehenge site as long ago as 7200BC - more than 3,500 years earlier than anything previously known.
They also found that bluestone chippings outnumbered sarsen stone chippings by three to one - which Wainwright takes to be a sign of their value.
"It could be that people were flaking off pieces of bluestone, in order to create little bits to take away... as lucky amulets," he said.
The duo are preparing to publish an academic report of their excavation, and will announce their findings to their peers next month, in a lecture at London's Society of Antiquaries.
Ongoing debate
Experts on Stonehenge said the new date was a major milestone in understanding Britain's most famous monument.
Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick, of Wessex Archaeology, said: "This is a great result - a very important one.
"The date of Stonehenge had been blowing in the wind. But this anchors it. It helps us to be secure about the chronology of events.
"The theory that it was a centre of healing is certainly a plausible one, but I don't think we can rule out the other main competing theory - that the temple was a meeting point between the land of the living and the dead.
"I am not yet persuaded that the Amesbury Archer came to Stonehenge to be healed. I favour the interpretation that he was one of the earliest metal workers, who travelled to the area to make a living from his skills.
"In any case, it is still not clear if his burial predated Stonehenge."
Dave Batchelor, Stonehenge curator at English Heritage, said: "We are pleased that the professors' precision in targeting that small area of turf and their rigorous standards in archaeological excavations have produced such a rich collection of physical evidence.
"We are looking forward to seeing the results of the full analysis, but from what we understand so far, we believe they have added valuable information to the chronology of Stonehenge."
The BBC Timewatch special is broadcast on BBC Two at 2005 BST on Saturday 27 September
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7625145.stm
Published: 2008/09/21 23:01:34 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Black hole star mystery 'solved'
Astronomers have shed light on how stars can form around a massive black hole, defying conventional wisdom.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7574255.stm
Scientists have long puzzled over how stars develop in so extreme conditions.
Molecular clouds - the normal birth places of stars - would be ripped apart by the immense gravity, a team explains in Science magazine.
But the researchers say that stars can form from elliptical discs - the relics of giant gas clouds torn apart by encounters with black holes.
They made the discovery after developing computer simulations of giant gas clouds being sucked into black holes like water spiralling down a plughole.
"These simulations show that young stars can form in the neighbourhood of supermassive black holes as long as there is a reasonable supply of massive clouds of gas from further out in the galaxy," said co-author Ian Bonnell from St Andrews University, UK.
Ripped apart
Their findings are in accordance with actual observations in our Milky Way galaxy that indicate the presence of a massive black hole, surrounded by huge stars with eccentric orbits.
The simulations, performed on a supercomputer - and taking over a year of computing time - followed the evolution of two separate giant gas clouds up to 100,000 times the mass of the Sun, as they fell towards the supermassive black hole.
The simulations show how the clouds are pulled apart by the immense gravitational pull of the black hole.
The disrupted clouds form into spiral patterns as they orbit the black hole; the spiral patterns remove motion energy from gas that passes close to the black hole and transfers it to gas that passes further out.
This allows part of the cloud to be captured by the black hole while the rest escapes.
In these conditions, only high mass stars are able to form and these stars inherit the eccentric orbits from the elliptical disc.
These results match the two primary properties of the young stars in the centre of our galaxy: their high mass and their eccentric orbits around the supermassive black hole.
"That the stars currently present around the galaxy's supermassive black hole have relatively short lifetimes of [about] 10 million years, which suggests that this process is likely to be repetitive," Professor Bonnell explained.
"Such a steady supply of stars into the vicinity of the black hole, and a diet of gas directly accreted by the black hole, may help us understand the origin of supermassive black holes in our and other galaxies in the Universe."Friday, August 22, 2008
Conserver éternellement les arbres remarquables est chose impossible.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
What is collective intelligence and what will we do about it? Thomas W. Malone, Director MIT Center for Collective Intelligence
Edited transcript of remarks at the official launch of the
MIT Center for Collective Intelligence
October 13, 2006
It now falls to me, at this point in the program, to give you an overview of what collective intelligence is, in the first place, and what we’d like to do about it. The working definition of collective intelligence that we’re using is that collective intelligence is groups of individuals doing things collectively that seem intelligent [Q.: mais comment se reconnaissent-ils?].
Now, if you think about it that way, collective intelligence has existed for a very long time. Families, companies, and countries are all groups of individual people doing things that at least sometimes seem intelligent. Beehives and ant colonies are examples of groups of insects doing things like finding food sources that seem intelligent. And we could even view a single human brain as a collection of individual neurons or parts of the brain that collectively act intelligently.
But in the last few years we’ve seen some very interesting examples of new kinds of collective intelligence:
- Google, for instance, takes the collective knowledge created by millions of people making websites for other purposes and harnesses that collective knowledge--using some very clever algorithms and sophisticated technology--to produce amazingly intelligent answers to the questions we type in.
- Wikipidia, at another extreme, uses much less sophisticated technology but some very clever organizational principles and motivational techniques to get thousands of people all over the world to volunteer their time to create an amazing on-line collection of knowledge.
- In just a few minutes, you’ll hear from Alph Bigham the CEO of a company called Innocentive [est-ce vraiement innocent ?] which lets companies with difficult research problems harness the collective intelligence of thousands of scientists in a network all over the world to help solve those problems.
- A lot of companies today--Hewlett Packard, Eli Lilly, Google and others--are now beginning to use things called prediction markets [mais qui paie quoi à qui et comment ?] where people buy and sell predictions about future events (like sales of their products) in ways that leads to more accurate predictions in many cases than traditional market research or polling or other techniques.
Now, I think these examples are just the beginning. With new information technologies—especially the Internet—it is now possible to harness the intelligence of huge numbers of people, connected in very different ways and on a much larger scale than has ever been possible before. In order to take advantage of these possibilities, however, we need to understand what the possibilities are in a much deeper way than we do so far.
So, I think the time has come make collective intelligence a topic of serious academic study. And that is our goal in the Center for Collective Intelligence.
The key question we’re using to organize our work is: How can people and computers be connected so that collectively they act more intelligently than any individual, group, or computer has ever done before?
In order to answer that question, I think at least three types of research are needed. The first is just collecting examples or case studies [Malone : mais tu ne change jamais de méthode ?]. I think there are going to be a lot of natural experiments going on in the next few years, people trying lots of interesting things--with or without us. But I think that we can help the world learn from its experience with all these natural experiments by systematically describing and collecting examples of interesting cases of collective intelligence.
For instance, Eric von Hippel, in the Sloan School, has done some very interesting case studies of how the collective body of users of a product is often a better source of innovation for a company’s products than the company’s own researchers [Ndr : y-avait-t-il vraiement besoin de faire une étude ???]. This kind of case study research is common in business schools, but it is certainly not the only kind of research we need to do.
Another kind of research we need to do is something that is more typical in an engineering school. That is to create new examples of the phenomena we want to study. If you’re an aeronautical engineer, for instance, you wouldn’t just study birds and flying insects, you’d also want to create some flying machines and study how they work. In our case, that means we want to create some new examples of collective intelligence and study how they work.
For instance, Mark Klein in the Center for Collective Intelligence is leading a group of people in a nascent project that hopes to harness the collective intelligence of thousands of people around the world to help deal with the problems of global climate change [& l'Opus Dei ? Qu'en fait-on ?]. We have some specific technical ideas about how to combine computer simulation techniques with online ways of representing issues and positions and arguments that we think may be helpful in this process.
In the process of creating new examples, we hope to advance the state of the art and to learn new design principles not just for the technologies, by the way [BTW], but also for the human, the organizational, the social, and the motivational systems that are needed for these systems to work effectively.
But case studies and creating new examples are not the only things we need to do. I think we also need to do systematic studies and experiments. For instance, in some cases, we’ll find examples of things that work well but we won’t know why from just a case study. So we need to do systematic experiments to help figure those things out. This is the kind of research that would be more often done in a school of science or a school of social science. For example, Sandy Pentland (in the Media Lab), Drazen Prelec (in the Sloan School), and Josh Tennenbaum (in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences department) are all doing different laboratory experiments about different ways of helping groups make predictions more effectively [c'est joli la diversité !].
But these three things--case studies, new examples, and systematic experiments--are not the only things we need to do. We also need new theories to help tie all these things together [ça devient compliqué ...]. I think that is especially important in the case of collective intelligence because there’s now a lot of hype and prejudice going around about collective intelligence [de qui parle-t-il ?].
On the one hand, there are people who think that collective intelligence is magic, and if you just add it, it’ll make everything wonderful. For instance, there is a book called The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki who--by the way--does not believe what I just said. But many people who’ve heard about his book do believe it. They think that just doing things “collectively” will make everything great.
On the other hand, there are people who are prejudiced against the very notion of collectiveness and decentralization. Very recently for instance, there have been a number of people who’ve looked at the success of Wikipedia and pointed out ways in which is not perfect. And then, based on that, they have argued that nothing without central control can ever be successful.
Now, I think both of these extremes are equally wrong. Sometimes collective intelligence is good; sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. A very important part of our goal is to help put a more solid scientific foundation under the claims in this area.
Fortunately, we don’t have to start from scratch [scratch] in doing that. There’s already a lot of good work that has been done in many fields, including psychology, organization theory, artificial intelligence, brain science and others. Part of what we want to do is to help organize the work that has already been done.
But even if we had already organized all of the results of all of the previous research, there would still a lot to learn. New technologies are now making it possible to organize groups in very new ways, in ways that have never been possible before in the history of humanity. And no one yet understands how to take advantage of these possibilities.
We certainly don’t have all the answers yet; we’re just beginning to ask the questions [ça c'est prudentiellement bien prudent, bravo!]. We hope we can make a contribution just by helping to frame the questions better [je suis d'accord : le plus important c'est de poser les bonnes questions ... c'est déjà fini la lecture ...]. We’re pretty [pretty] sure we can have a lot of fun trying. And we hope that in the long run the work we do in this center will help contribute to scientific understanding in many different disciplines and help us understand new and better ways to organize businesses, to conduct science, to run governments, and--perhaps most importantly--to help solve the problems we face as society and as a planet.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
L’Albatros
Souvent, pour s’amuser, les hommes d’équipage
Prennent des albatros, vastes oiseaux des mers,
Qui suivent, indolents compagnons de voyage,
Le navire glissant sur les gouffres amers.
À peine les ont-ils déposés sur les planches,
Que ces rois de l’azur, maladroits et honteux,
Laissent piteusement leurs grandes ailes blanches
Comme des avirons traîner à côté d’eux.
Ce voyageur ailé, comme il est gauche et veule !
Lui, naguère si beau, qu’il est comique et laid !
L’un agace son bec avec un brûle-gueule,
L’autre mime, en boitant, l’infirme qui volait !
Le Poète est semblable au prince des nuées
Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l’archer ;
Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées,
Ses ailes de géant l’empêchent de marcher.
Charles Baudelaire
Les fleurs du mal
Friday, July 18, 2008
L'origine della Luce
A gh'è ülìt del tèp perchè la se calmès e la troès la pàs in fì a' de'nnamuràs e de fà crès i fiùr con töcc i sò culùr ! La lüs la s'è cambiàda in cèl come öna fàta che'impìa e smòrza zò ol sul come ü falò, de nöcc, la lüna e i stèle coi dìcc facc a fiamèle ! La lüs lè töta amùr, la te dà èta e fiàt e òia a' de campà, la te fà sèmper fèsta perchè l'è'nnamuràda de töcc ì'nnamuràcc !
La lüs l'è sèmper bèla in cèl e sö la tèra e quando la sberlüs la dìs "sò mè l'amùr che scòlda töcc i nì e che fà crès i fiùr ! " La lüs l'è verità, ghe scàpa gna ü pensèr col bè e col màl che s'fà la ghe fà ciàr a töcc de dèt e fò de cà per chi la öl dovrà ! La lüs l'è sèmper giöstra a'sè la par sbagliàda a chi ghe ulta i spale perchè la ghe fà ombra e i sèra i öcc per vèt apèna chèl che i crèt !
La lüs la fà pensà a Chèl che l'à 'nventàda perchè l'è apèna Lü che l'pöl amò smorsàla isce' come là fàcc ai tèp che l'l'à mpiàda ! Ma quando 'l Creatùr l'ismorserà sta lüs, la sarà prònta l'òtra, piö bèla e amò piö fòrta, chèla che l'à decìs de dàm in paradìs !
don Guilio Gabanelli
Saturday, April 19, 2008
ON AIME LE PRINCIPE !
Sur cette photo, prise par des observateurs britanniques, on voit nettement des militaires chinois recevoir de leurs officiers des tenues de moines. L'hypothèse de la participation de faux moines dans le déclenchement des actes de violence à Lhassa avait déjà circulé ... . Plusieurs témoignages étaient parvenus dans ce sens. Cette fois, les faits semblent avérés....
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Olanda: sì al sesso libero nei parchi
Una bozza di regolamento messa a punto dagli esperti della polizia dei Paesi Bassi - che dovrebbe entrare in vigore dopo l’estate - parla chiaro: appartarsi in un giardino pubblico e lasciarsi andare a libere effusioni, dal petting al rapporto sessuale completo, d’ora in poi non dovrà più essere considerato un comportamento perseguibile. Basta che siano seguite alcune semplici regole: rispettare gli orari, appartandosi solo dal tardo pomeriggio in poi; piazzare la coperta lontano dall’area giochi riservata ai bambini; gettare i preservativi e l’eventuale sigaretta negli appositi cestini.
La polizia invita dunque tutte le più grandi città d’Olanda - da Rotterdam a L’Aja a Utrecht - a seguire l’esempio di Amsterdam, dove già il libero sesso in alcuni parchi pubblici è permesso. Di fronte a coppie o più persone che si appartano - si legge nella bozza di regolamento inviata alle principali amministrazioni comunali - «i pubblici ufficiali non devono nella maniera più assoluta disturbare le attività, fintanto che non arrechino disturbo agli altri». Azioni «correttive» da parte degli agenti potranno essere prese «solo in presenza di comportamenti offensivi visibili da pubblico passaggio».