ParisTech

About: ParisTech is a education organization based out in Paris, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Finite element method & Residual stress. The organization has 1888 authors who have published 1965 publications receiving 55532 citations. The organization is also known as: Paris Institute of Technology & ParisTech Développement.

A Situated Approach of Roles and Participation in Open Source Software Communities

Abstract: Our research aims at understanding the various forms of participation in Open Source Software (OSS) design, seen as distributed design in online spaces of actions - discussion, implementation and boundary between these spaces. We propose a methodology - based on situated analyses of a formal design process used in the Python project- to identify the distribution of actual roles (implementation, interactive, group and design oriented) performed by participants into and between the spaces (defining boundary spaces). This notion of roles is grounded in collaborative design activities performed online by participants. This way, our findings complete the core-periphery model of participation in OSS. Concerning the distribution of roles between spaces, we reveal a map of participation in OSS: the majority of participants are pure discussants but all participants in the implementation spaces do also act in the discussion space and only few participants act at boundary spaces. Concerning the distribution of roles between participants in the discussion space, we reveal that interactions are structured by a central hub (occupied by key-participants) and that, whereas design-oriented roles are spread among all participants, group-oriented roles are performed by one or two participants in the respective spaces and at their boundary. Finally, combination of roles reveals five individual profiles performed by participants. Our approach could be extended to other design situations to explore relationships between forms of participation- in particular those revealing use-oriented contributions- performance, and quality of the design product. Finally, it could be a basis for specifying tools to monitor and manage community activity for both research issues and support of online community.

Fast Langevin based algorithm for MCMC in high dimensions

Abstract: We introduce new Gaussian proposals to improve the efficiency of the standard Hastings-Metropolis algorithm in Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, used for the sampling from a target distribution in large dimension $d$. The improved complexity is $\mathcal{O}(d^{1/5})$ compared to the complexity $\mathcal{O}(d^{1/3})$ of the standard approach. We prove an asymptotic diffusion limit theorem and show that the relative efficiency of the algorithm can be characterised by its overall acceptance rate (with asymptotical value 0.704), independently of the target distribution. Numerical experiments confirm our theoretical findings.

Deciphering the Neuronal Circuitry Controlling Local Blood Flow in the Cerebral Cortex with Optogenetics in PV::Cre Transgenic Mice.

Abstract: Although it is know since more than a century that neuronal activity is coupled to blood supply regulation, the underlying pathways remains to be identified. In the brain, neuronal activation triggers a local increase of cerebral blood flow (CBF) that is controlled by the neurogliovascular unit composed of terminals of neurons, astrocytes, and blood vessel muscles. It is generally accepted that the regulation of the neurogliovascular unit is adjusted to local metabolic demand by local circuits. Today experimental data led us to realize that the regulatory mechanisms are more complex and that a neuronal system within the brain is devoted to the control of local brain-blood flow. Recent optogenetic experiments combined with functional magnetic resonance imaging have revealed that light stimulation of neurons expressing the calcium binding protein parvalbumin (PV) is associated with positive blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal in the corresponding barrel field but also with negative BOLD in the surrounding deeper area. Here, we demonstrate that in acute brain slices, channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) based photostimulation of PV containing neurons gives rise to an effective contraction of penetrating arterioles. These results support the neurogenic hypothesis of a complex distributed nervous system controlling the CBF.