A New Implicit Method for Surface Segmentation by Minimal Paths in 3D Images

We introduce a novel implicit approach for single-object segmentation in 3D images. The boundary surface of this object is assumed to contain two known curves (the constraining curves), given by an expert. The aim of our method is to find the wanted surface by exploiting as much as possible the information given in the supplied curves and in the image. As for active surfaces, we use a cost potential that penalizes image regions of low interest (most likely areas of low gradient or too far from the surface to be extracted). In order to avoid local minima, we introduce a new partial differential equation and use its solution for segmentation. We show that the zero level set of this solution contains the constraining curves as well as a set of paths joining them. We present a fast implementation that has been successfully applied to 3D medical and synthetic images.     

Isolated singularities of some semilinear elliptic equations

Let Ω be an open subset of $\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{<mi\; mathvariant="italic"\; is="true">N</mi>}}$, N ? 3, containing 0. We consider the solutions of ?Δu(x) + g(u(x)) = f(x) in Ω-{0}, where g is nondecreasing and f is bounded and we study the possible singularities at 0: when u(x) = o(|x|^{1 ? N}) we prove that u is isotropic near 0 and show that either it is a C¹ function in Ω (removable singularity) or |x|^{N ? 2}u(x) → c, c ≠ 0 (weak singularity) or |x|^{N ? 2} |u(x) |→ + ∞ (strong singularity). We also characterize the g's for which solutions with a weak singularity exist and improve a previous removability result of H. Brézis and L. Véron (Arch. Rational Mech. Anal.23 (1979), 153–166).     

Metamorphosis of images in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces

Metamorphosis is a method for diffeomorphic matching of shapes, with many potential applications for anatomical shape comparison in medical imagery, a problem which is central to the field of computational anatomy. An important tool for the practical application of metamorphosis is a numerical method based on shooting from the initial momentum, as this would enable the use of statistical methods based on this momentum, as well as the estimation of templates from hyper-templates using morphing. In this paper we introduce a shooting method, in the particular case of morphing images that lie in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS). We derive the relevant shooting equations from a Lagrangian frame of reference, present the details of the numerical approach, and illustrate the method through morphing of some simple images.     

Sur la R-équivalence de torseurs sous un groupe fini

We give criteria for R-equivalence of torsors under finite constant group schemes over a field. In particular, using bitorsors, we obtain a Galois dévissage result which formalises and generalises a theorem of Philippe Gille in the case of local fields; for instance, Gille's theorem is shown to extend to higher local fields.     

Propriété de Liouville et équation de Poisson pour le laplacien généralisé de Dunkl

Let Δ_k be the Dunkl generalized Laplacian associated to a root system R of $\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{N}}$ and a non-negative function k defined on R and invariant by the Weyl group. In this Note, we show that this differential-difference operator on $\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{N}}$ satisfies the Liouville property, then we solve the Poisson equation Δ_ku=?f by using a generalized Fourier analysis method. To cite this article: L. Gallardo, L. Godefroy, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 337 (2003).     

Liouvillian first integrals for the planar Lotka-Volterra system

We complete the classication of all Lotka-Volterra systemsx=x(ax+by+c),y=y(Ax+By+C), having a Liouvillian first integral. In our classification we take into account the first integrals coming from the existence of exponential factors.     

The cutoff phenomenon for randomized riffle shuffles

We study the cutoff phenomenon for generalized riffle shuffles where, at each step, the deck of cards is cut into a random number of packs of multinomial sizes which are then riffled together. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2008     

An oracle based method to compute a coupled equilibrium in a model of international climate policy

This paper proposes a computational game-theoretic model for the international negotiations that should take place at the end of the period covered by the Kyoto protocol. These negotiations could lead to a self-enforcing agreement on a burden sharing scheme given the necessary global emissions limit that will be imposed when the real extent of climate change is known. The model assumes a non-cooperative behavior of the parties except for the fact that they will be collectively committed to reach a target on total cumulative emissions by the year 2050. The concept of normalized equilibrium, introduced by J.B. Rosen for concave games with coupled constraints, is used to characterize a family of dynamic equilibrium solutions in an m-player game where the agents are (groups of) countries and the payoffs are the welfare gains obtained from a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. The model deals with the uncertainty about climate sensitivity by computing an S-adapted equilibrium. These equilibria are computed using an oracle-based method permitting an implicit definition of the payoffs to the different players, obtained through simulations performed with the global CGE model GEMINI-E3. Partly supported by GICC (French Ministry of Ecology), TOCSIN (EU-044287) and the Swiss-NSF NCCR-Climate program of the Swiss NSF. For helpful comments and discussions, we thank A. Bernard, P. Thalmann, and the anonymous referee.     

On the spatially homogeneous landau equation for hard potentials part ii : h-theorem and applications

We find a lower bound for the entropy dissipation of the spatially homogeneous Landau equation with hard potentials in terms of the entropy itself. We deduce from this explicit estimates on the speed of convergence towards equilibrium for the solution of this equation. In the case of so-called overmaxwellian potentials, the convergence is exponential. We also compute a lower bound for the spectral gap of the associated linear operator in this setting.