Scientific Publications of the University of Toulouse II Le Mirail
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A phase-based mechanism of attentional selection in the auditory system
No full textPerceptual targets are often easier to detect and process if they occur at a predictable time. This perceptual benefit of temporal predictability suggests that neural resources are allocated to specific moments predicted to be most informative, or away from those predicted to be distracting. The sensitivity to sensory information changes with the phase of neural oscillations. An alignment of oscillatory phase according to the predicted time and relevance of expected events has therefore been proposed as a mechanism underlying attentional selection. This hypothesis predicts that opposite phases are aligned to relevant and distracting events so that the former are amplified and the latter suppressed, but such an effect remained to be demonstrated. We presented 25 human participants with acoustic stimuli that occurred at a predictable or unpredictable time during a pitch-discrimination task. Temporal predictability did not only lead to faster reaction times, but it also aligned the phase of beta oscillations in the electroencephalogram (EEG) in anticipation of the stimulus. Crucially, the aligned phase was opposite, depending on whether the stimulus was relevant or a distractor for the task. Single-trial deviations from the mean aligned phases slowed down behavioural responses, demonstrating functional significance of the observed neural effects. All effects occurred in the absence of rhythmic stimulation, an important but rarely tested criterion to rule out spurious phase alignment from preceding events in a stimulus sequence. We therefore conclude that the alignment of oscillatory phase underlies the selection of sensory information in time. We speculate that beta oscillations allocate neural resources in networks comprising auditory and sensorimotor regions to the expected time of auditory information, facilitating behavioural responses to upcoming events
Rapport d’opération de fouilles programmées 2024, Troisième année de la première autorisation triennale. La grotte des Jonquilles (Caniac-du-causse, Lot), Un nouveau site Mésolithique dans le Haut-Quercy
No full textÉtudier les relations pour comprendre des enjeux implicites : le cas de la publication de fanfictions dans un environnement numérique
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Systematic Analysis of the Links Between Obsolescence–Shortage and Reliability–Maintainability–Availability
No full textInternational audienceComponent obsolescence and shortages impact virtually all systems, particularly those with extended lifespans, such as aircrafts or trains. Obsolescence (i.e. state of being outdated) and shortage (i.e. lack of components) are distinct yet interconnected challenges and despite their inevitability, systems must maintain acceptable performance levels over extended periods. In this research, the term 'shortage' encapsulates the broader concepts of Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS). This study investigates the impacts of obsolescence and shortages on maintainability, reliability, and availability. Existing scientific literature frequently overlooks this influence when calculating associated indicators, often relegating it to a marginal factor despite its potential significant impact. The aim is to underscore the criticality of incorporating obsolescence and shortage considerations into operational availability assessments. This argument stems from two key factors: the accelerating pace of obsolescence and shortages driven by rapid technological advancements, evolving needs, logistical disruptions, or global conflicts, and the inherent risks associated with overestimating operational availability. This study encompasses both the system design-development phase and the operational phase. It examines the relevant concepts and their interrelationships through the lens of international standards and established scientific literature. Furthermore, an industrial case study from a major automotive supplier, focusing on one of its production lines, serves to illustrate partially these relationships. The paper concludes by presenting the study's findings and outlining potential avenues for future research in this domain
Corps
No full texthttps://selp.eu/CorpsN.. Sarkozy, en dénonçant de manière récurrente les corps intermédiaires a attiré l'attention sur celui-ci et donné une fréquence lexicale inusitée à ce terme, qui était tombé en désuétude. Plus globalement, le lexème corps a une longue histoire en français, comme dans le lexique politique.Le terme corps remonte au même étymon indo-européen °krp-que groupe, et entre en 881 dans la langue française par emprunt au latin corpus 1 . Sa structuration sémantique est la suivante :1. corps, cadavre, 2. chair du corps (métonymie du contenant pour le contenu), 3. individu (métonymie de la partie pour le tout), 4. ensemble d'objets ou d'individus.</div
Print Exposure and Reading Development in the French Educational Context: A Systematic Review
No full textThis systematic review examines the impact of print exposure on reading development within the French education system and its implications for international research. Motivated by France's declining performance in international reading assessments, the review synthesizes evidence on how different forms of print exposure-ranging from home literacy environments to educational interventions-contribute to literacy outcomes. It critically evaluates print exposure measures, ranging from self-reports to print exposure checklists, and considers their predictive validity and conceptual clarity. Consistent with international findings, the review confirms that print exposure, and more broadly the home literacy environment, supports literacy development. However, its role appears more limited in France compared to other OECD countries. This may be attributed to the strong effects of socioeconomic factors on students' performance, particularly pronounced in France, and the centralized educational system, where literacy instruction is primarily school-driven, potentially reducing parental involvement. Building on these insights, we propose an integrative framework to refine the conceptualization of print exposure by distinguishing it from related constructs. Specifically, we suggest separating direct measures of print exposure from distal indicators like the number of books at home, which often overlap with socioeconomic variables. We also advocate for the inclusion of other potentially relevant variables, such as play experiences and oral parent-child interactions. To improve parsimony and robustness, we propose that future research adopt a nested incremental approach to identify a minimal set of variables that maximize both predictive power and reliability
Scheduling Data Transfer with Priorities and Interruptions for Space Missions
No full textInternational audienceIn the context of space missions, an efficient data transfer strategy is crucial to avoid onboard buffer overflow. In many missions, such as the ESA's Rosetta mission, the data produced by each instrument is temporarily stored in a dedicated buffer and then dumped to Earth during downlink windows under a limited bandwidth. Previous work has considered the overlapping Memory Dumping Problem (oMDP), which consists in assigning transfer priorities to the memory buffers and minimize the peaks memory usage. The oMDP is NP-hard and has been tackled using heuristic methods that demonstrated their efficiency on real instances. In this paper, we consider additional decisions in the memory dumping plans that are implementable in practice: data transfer from each buffer can be interrupted after a given time, once per downlink window, preventing it from dumping data until the next window. The new problem is called oMDPi (oMDP with interruptions). We obtain several structural properties and complexity results, showing in particular that oMDPi is NP-hard for at least two windows. While the complexity status of the single window oMDPi remains open, we propose a polynomial-time heuristic to solve it. We propose a hybrid heuristic to solve the general oMDPi, embedding a flow relaxation and the single window heuristic. The results on both real and realistic generated instances show that our heuristic achieves a significant reduction of memory peaks in a reasonable time compared to previous works, making the new policy attractive for future space missions
Post-mortem lung biopsies in fatal Covid-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome: a prospective cohort study of 169 patients (HISTOCOVID)
No full textInternational audienceAbstract Background Refractory acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is the leading cause of death in patients with Covid-19. Large studies of lung pathology in patients who died of Covid-19-ARDS may help to understand the mechanisms of death and to guide further research. Methods This prospective multicentre cohort study included 338 post-mortem, percutaneous, lung biopsies from 169 patients who died of Covid-19-ARDS between 22/04/2020 and 08/03/2021 in 26 intensive care units in France. The biopsies were done at the bedside by the intensivist immediately after death, using a 14G needle and following anatomical landmarks. A pathologist examined all biopsies, describing all elementary lesions and establishing a final histopathological diagnosis. Results Lung parenchyma was evaluable in 155/169 (92%) patients. Early, proliferative-phase diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) was the most common finding (39%), followed by late proliferative-phase DAD (32%) and exudative-phase DAD (18%); fibrotic-phase DAD was present in three (2%) patients. Organising pneumonia (OP) and acute fibrinous and organising pneumonia (AFOP) were evidenced in 21 (13%) and 16 (9%) patients, respectively. Unclassified interstitial lesions were seen in 33 (21%) patients. Microthrombi were uncommon (6%). Conclusions DAD was the most common pathological pattern, whereas collagen fibrosis and microthrombi were rare. A quarter of patients had evidence of OP or AFOP. This substantial prevalence of corticosteroid-sensitive patterns suggests that selected patients with refractory Covid-19-ARDS might benefit from higher doses or longer courses of corticosteroids. Trial registration. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04675281. Registered 19 December 2020
