Paris West University Nanterre La Défense

About: Paris West University Nanterre La Défense is a education organization based out in Paris, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Finite element method. The organization has 895 authors who have published 1430 publications receiving 21712 citations.

Construction d’un problème public autour du dopage et reconnaissance d’une spécialité médicale

Abstract: Resume Cet article retrace le mouvement de constitution d'une specialite professionnelle (la medecine du sport), appuye sur l'animation d'un espace deliberatif autour du dopage et sur la mise en forme de cette categorie. L'itineraire de cette notion est retrace sur une periode s'etendant entre 1955 et 1999, ce qui permet de mettre en evidence des problematisations successives de la question du dopage, portees par des medecins ayant des profils et des activites differencies. Progressivement les objectifs de la medecine appliquee au sport evoluent. Initialement l'optique curative domine, opposant fermement celebration des vertus de la pratique sportive et condamnation du dopage. Puis un nouveau domaine de competences medicales s'ouvre avec la preparation biologique de la performance, qui est presentee comme une alternative au dopage tout en rendant les frontieres avec celui-ci plus incertaines. Ensuite les positions medicales se polarisent : d'un cote emerge une science de l'entrainement appuyee sur la physiologie de l'effort, qui permet d'intensifier la pratique sportive tout en l'optimisant par des periodes de repos ; de l'autre des cliniciens plus proches de la vie quotidienne des sportifs comprennent les contraintes d'un renouvellement incessant des performances et manifestent de l'empathie vis-a-vis de la prise de « produits » dans une optique curative. Finalement la legitimation de la medecine du sport comme specialite professionnelle s'appuie sur une double relation : l'une, evidente, opposant dopage et sante, l'autre, aberrante d'un point de vue sanitaire mais tout autant admise, associant sport intensif et sante.

Intrinsic Cramér–Rao Bounds for Scatter and Shape Matrices Estimation in CES Distributions

Abstract: Scatter matrix and its normalized counterpart, referred to as shape matrix, are key parameters in multivariate statistical signal processing, as they generalize the concept of covariance matrix in the widely used Complex Elliptically Symmetric distributions. Following the framework of [1] , intrinsic Cramer–Rao bounds are derived for the problem of scatter and shape matrices estimation with samples following a Complex Elliptically Symmetric distribution. The Fisher Information Metric and its associated Riemannian distance (namely, CES-Fisher) on the manifold of Hermitian positive definite matrices are derived. Based on these results, intrinsic Cramer–Rao bounds on the considered problems are then expressed for three different distances (Euclidean, natural Riemannian, and CES-Fisher). These contributions are therefore a generalization of Theorems 4 and 5 of [1] to a wider class of distributions and metrics for both scatter and shape matrices.

Bernard Mandeville's heir: Adam Smith or Jean Jacques Rousseau on the possibility of economic analysis

Abstract: In this paper I argue that Bernard Mandeville, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith are confronted to the same question: how to explain values from a naturalistic origin of morality. An in-depth analysis of their theories of human nature and market society will show that Rousseau is further from Mandeville's analysis than Smith acknowledged, and it is Smith who will in fact take important elements from Mandeville to build his own theoretical system and, thereby, follow the path of economic analysis beyond moral considerations.

Expectations for discourse genre identification: a prosodic study.

Abstract: Speech can be divided into discourse genres based on the contextual environment it occurs in (e.g. political speech, sport commentary speech, etc.). The present study investigated whether listeners can distinguish between speech from different discourse genres on the basis of acoustic prosodic cues only 1 . In a perception experiment with delexicalized speech 70 listeners with varying experience in French (native speakers, nonnative speakers, and non-speakers) were asked to identify four different types of discourse genres (church service, political, journal, and sport commentary). Results revealed a fair identification ability with a significant increase in performance with increasing experience in French. Identification confusion was used to cluster discourse genres according to their perceptual similarity. The possible application of the results for the evaluation of speaking style speech synthesis will be discussed. Index Terms : discourse genre, speaking style, prosody, perception, speech synthesis.