Paul Sabatier University

About: Paul Sabatier University is a education organization based out in Toulouse, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Adipose tissue. The organization has 15431 authors who have published 23386 publications receiving 858364 citations.

The XMM-Newton serendipitous survey. V. The Second XMM-Newton serendipitous source catalogue

Abstract: Aims. Pointed observations with XMM-Newton provide the basis for creating catalogues of X-ray sources detected serendipitously in each field. This paper describes the creation and characteristics of the 2XMM catalogue. Methods. The 2XMM catalogue has been compiled from a new processing of the XMM-Newton EPIC camera data. The main features of the processing pipeline are described in detail. Results. The catalogue, the largest ever made at X-ray wavelengths, contains 246 897 detections drawn from 3491 public XMM-Newton observations over a 7-year interval, which relate to 191 870 unique sources. The catalogue fields cover a sky area of more than 500 deg(2). The non-overlapping sky area is similar to 360 deg(2) (similar to 1% of the sky) as many regions of the sky are observed more than once by XMM-Newton. The catalogue probes a large sky area at the flux limit where the bulk of the objects that contribute to the X-ray background lie and provides a major resource for generating large, well-defined X-ray selected source samples, studying the X-ray source population and identifying rare object types. The main characteristics of the catalogue are presented, including its photometric and astrometric properties

Beyond DNA: integrating inclusive inheritance into an extended theory of evolution

Abstract: Many biologists are calling for an 'extended evolutionary synthesis' that would 'modernize the modern synthesis' of evolution. Biological information is typically considered as being transmitted across generations by the DNA sequence alone, but accumulating evidence indicates that both genetic and non-genetic inheritance, and the interactions between them, have important effects on evolutionary outcomes. We review the evidence for such effects of epigenetic, ecological and cultural inheritance and parental effects, and outline methods that quantify the relative contributions of genetic and non-genetic heritability to the transmission of phenotypic variation across generations. These issues have implications for diverse areas, from the question of missing heritability in human complex-trait genetics to the basis of major evolutionary transitions.

Structure detection and statistical adaptive speckle filtering in SAR images

Abstract: Current speckle filters attempt to restore the radar reflectivity using only the multiplicative speckle noise assumption. The best known filters, namely the Frost, Lee or Kuan niters are adaptive filters based on the local statistics, computed in a fixed square window. In this way, the speckle is reduced as a function of the heterogeneity measured by the local coefficient of variation. When the radar reflectivity undergoes significant variations due to the presence of strong scatterers or structural features (edges or lines) in the processing window, such speckle filtering is less effective. In this paper it is shown that the filtering process can be controlled both by the coefficient of variation and by various geometrical ratio detectors. Through shape adaptive windowing, these detectors allow the use of large window sizes for better speckle reduction while preserving spatial resolution and structural features. The backscattered intensity is modelled as K-distributed within speckled targets and...

A brief history of stigmergy

Abstract: Stigmergy is a class of mechanisms that mediate animal-animal interactions. Its introduction in 1959 by Pierre-Paul Grasse made it possible to explain what had been until then considered paradoxical observations: In an insect society individuals work as if they were alone while their collective activities appear to be coordinated. In this article we describe the history of stigmergy in the context of social insects and discuss the general properties of two distinct stigmergic mechanisms: quantitative stigmergy and qualitative stigmergy.