War or Dance? Blind Spots and the Locus of our Fears

War is the ultimate expression of polarization. It instantly invokes in all of us the binary divide of life and death. Being supportive of the victims of aggression is a humane mandate. At the same time, the active engagement in the binary logic of war prevents us from recognizing the systemic and violent nature of modern international relations. If we intend to end violent conflicts among humans, a deeper perspective is required. Hopefully, this could contribute to paving the way for a truly Pluriversal World to emerge before it is too late

On the pulsating instability of two-dimensional flames

We consider a well-known thermo-diffusive model for the propagation of a premixed, adiabatic flame front in the large-activation-energy limit. That model depends only on one nondimensional parameter β, the reduced Lewis number. Near the pulsating instability limit, as β↓β0= 32/3, we obtain an asymptotic model for the evolution of a quasi-planar flame front, via a multi-scale analysis. The asymptotic model consists of two complex Ginzburg–Landau equations and a real Burgers equation, coupled by non-local terms. The model is used to analyse the nonlinear stability of the flame front

Global Stability of a Premixed Reaction Zone (Time-Dependent Liñan’s Problem)

Global stability properties of a premixed, three-dimensional reaction zone are considered. In the nonadiabatic case (i.e., when there is a heat exchange between the reaction zone and the burned gases) there is a unique, spatially one-dimensional steady state that is shown to be unstable (respectively, asymptotically stable) if the reaction zone is cooled (respectively, heated) by the burned mixture. In the adiabatic case, there is a unique (up to spatial translations) steady state that is shown to be stable. In addition, the large-time asymptotic behavior of the solution is analyzed to obtain sufficient conditions on the initial data for stabilization. Previous partial numerical results on linear stability of one-dimensional reaction zones are thereby confirmed and extended

Water-in-oil emulsions separation using an ultrasonic standing wave coalescence chamber.

The offshore extraction of crude oil produces stable water in oil emulsion. To separate this emulsion into oil and water phases, the oil/water interfacial film is commonly destroyed by the addition of chemical demulsifiers. The use of an ultrasonic standing wave force field could be an alternative to reduce the dosage of chemical demulsifiers in the coalescence process. In this work, an ultrasonic separator of water in crude oil emulsions is investigated through the use of a high frequency ultrasonic standing wave coalescence chamber. The coalescing chamber uses the acoustic radiation force to induce the coalescence of water droplets at the pressure nodes of a standing wave field. Due to temperature fluctuations, the excitation frequency is controlled to maintain the resonance in the coalescence chamber and the voltage amplitude is controlled to deliver a given acoustic power. Experimental tests using standardized emulsions of water in oil were carried out in a laboratory processing plant. The effects of ultrasound application, flow rate, initial water content, demulsifier dosage and chamber inlet temperature were analyzed. The results show that the use of the acoustic radiation force improves the emulsion separation in all the conditions analyzed, when compared with the gravitational separation technique

Procalcitonin and C-reactive protein as early markers of anastomotic leak after laparoscopic colorectal surgery within an enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) program

Background: C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) have been described as good predictors of anastomotic leak after colorectal surgery, obtaining the highest diagnostic accuracy on the 5th postoperative day. However, if an enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) program is performed, early predictors are needed in order to ensure a safe and early discharge. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of CRP, PCT, and white blood cell (WBC) count determined on first postoperative days, in predicting septic complications, especially anastomotic leak, after laparoscopic colorectal surgery performed within an ERAS program. Methods: We conducted a prospective study including 134 patients who underwent laparoscopic colorectal surgery within an ERAS program between 2015 and 2017. The primary endpoint investigated was anastomotic leak. CRP, PCT, and WBC count were determined in the blood sample extracted on postoperative day 1 (POD 1), POD 2 and POD 3. Results: Anastomotic leak (AL) was detected in 6 patients (4.5%). Serum levels of CRP and PCT, but not WBC, determined on POD 1, POD 2, and POD 3 were significantly higher in patients who had AL in the postoperative course. Using ROC analysis, the best AUC of the CRP and PCT levels was on POD 3 (0.837 and 0.947, respectively). A CRP cutoff level at 163 mg/l yielded 85% sensitivity, 80% specificity, and 99% negative predictive value (NPV). A PCT cutoff level at 2.5 ng/ml achieved 85% sensitivity, 95% specificity, 44% positive predictive value, and 99% NPV. Conclusions: CRP and PCT are relevant markers for detecting postoperative AL after laparoscopic colorectal surgery. Furthermore, they can ensure an early discharge with a low probability of AL when an ERAS program is performed

Dynamics of a hyperbolic system that applies at the onset of the oscillatory instability

A real hyperbolic system is considered that applies near the onset of the oscillatory instability in large spatial domains. The validity of that system requires that some intermediate scales (large compared with the basic wavelength of the unstable modes but small compared with the size of the system) remain inhibited; that condition is analysed in some detail. The dynamics associated with the hyperbolic system is fully analysed to conclude that it is very simple if the coefficient of the cross-nonlinearity is such that , while the system exhibits increasing complexity (including period-doubling sequences, quasiperiodic transitions, crises) as the bifurcation parameter grows if ; if then the system behaves subcritically. Our results are seen to compare well, both qualitatively and quantitatively, with the experimentally obtained ones for the oscillatory instability of straight rolls in pure Rayleigh - Bénard convection

Global stability properties of a hyperbolic system arising in pattern formation

Global stability properties of a hyperbolic system arising in pattern formatio

Finite size effects near the onset of the oscillatory instability

A system of two complex Ginzburg - Landau equations is considered that applies at the onset of the oscillatory instability in spatial domains whose size is large (but finite) in one direction; the dependent variables are the slowly modulated complex amplitudes of two counterpropagating wavetrains. In order to obtain a well posed problem, four boundary conditions must be imposed at the boundaries. Two of them were already known, and the other two are first derived in this paper. In the generic case when the group velocity is of order unity, the resulting problem has terms that are not of the same order of magnitude. This fact allows us to consider two distinguished limits and to derive two associated (simpler) sub-models, that are briefly discussed. Our results predict quite a rich variety of complex dynamics that is due to both the modulational instability and finite size effects

The influence of semantic and phonological factors on syntactic decisions: An event-related brain potential study

During language production and comprehension, information about a word's syntactic properties is sometimes needed. While the decision about the grammatical gender of a word requires access to syntactic knowledge, it has also been hypothesized that semantic (i.e., biological gender) or phonological information (i.e., sound regularities) may influence this decision. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured while native speakers of German processed written words that were or were not semantically and/or phonologically marked for gender. Behavioral and ERP results showed that participants were faster in making a gender decision when words were semantically and/or phonologically gender marked than when this was not the case, although the phonological effects were less clear. In conclusion, our data provide evidence that even though participants performed a grammatical gender decision, this task can be influenced by semantic and phonological factors