Vortex patterns in a fast rotating Bose-Einstein condensate

For a fast rotating condensate in a harmonic trap, we investigate the structure of the vortex lattice using wave functions minimizing the Gross Pitaveskii energy in the Lowest Landau Level. We find that the minimizer of the energy in the rotating frame has a distorted vortex lattice for which we plot the typical distribution. We compute analytically the energy of an infinite regular lattice and of a class of distorted lattices. We find the optimal distortion and relate it to the decay of the wave function. Finally, we generalize our method to other trapping potentials

Embeddings of SL(2,Z) into the Cremona group

Geometric and dynamic properties of embeddings of SL(2,Z) into the Cremona group are studied. Infinitely many non-conjugate embeddings which preserve the type (i.e. which send elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic elements onto elements of the same type) are provided. The existence of infinitely many non-conjugate elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic embeddings is also shown. In particular, a group G of automorphisms of a smooth surface S obtained by blowing-up 10 points of the complex projective plane is given. The group G is isomorphic to SL(2,Z), preserves an elliptic curve and all its elements of infinite order are hyperbolic.Comment: to appear in Transformation Group

Optimizing flow rates in a queueing network with side constraints

Network Analysis;operations research

Serological studies on heat-induced interactions of α-lactalbumin and milk proteins

The heat denaturation of α-lactalbumin (α-la) in NaCl and KCl solutions, milk ultrafiltrate and milk was studied using the method of micro complement fixation. It was established that this protein was very resistant to heat denaturation and that it was more stable in milk ultrafiltrate than in the other media studied at temperatures up to 70 °C. Of the various milk proteins added to α-la, only β-lactoglobulin (β-lg) formed a heat-induced complex with this protein. This complex was identical in milk ultrafiltrate or in milk and depended on the molar ratio between both proteins; it was not modified by any other milk proteins. The binding of a-la to β-lg changed the ability of the latter protein to bind κ-casei

A calorimetric study of the thermal denaturation of whey proteins in simulated milk ultrafiltrate

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to study thermal transitions of the following whey proteins and enzymes in milk ultrafiltrate solution: β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin, serum albumin, γ-globulin, apo- and Fe-lactoferrin, lysozyme, ribonuclease, α-chymotrypsin and xanthine oxidase. Denaturation enthalpies (ΔHD), denaturation temperatures (TD) and the half width of the denaturation peaks in DSC thermograms (ΔT½D) were determined and the degree of renaturation was estimated by rescanning previously denatured samples. A fair correlation between the results obtained by DSC and other more classical methods was found in general. However, for some proteins (α-lactalbumin, lysozyme, ribonuclease and xanthine oxidase), which have so far been considered relatively thermostable, calorimetry reveals conformational changes starting at temperatures as low as about 45 °C. In these cases thermostability observed after heat treatment of milk should be interpreted in terms of renaturation and not of high temperatures of denaturatio

Why Family Farms Are Increasingly Using Wage Labour?

In many developed countries, the share of wage employment out of the total agricultural labour force has been increasing for the last ten years. Using data from French agricultural censuses, we present an analysis of the factors that influence households' decisions about whether to work on the family farm or to work outside, and about the use of wage labour. Studying how the effects of these factors have varied between 1988 and 2000 enables us to highlight the different mechanisms that have led to an increase in permanent wage employment during that period. In particular, we show that family labour and permanent wage labour have become nearly equivalent in 2000, whereas that was not the case in 1988.agricultural employees, farms, family labour, Labor and Human Capital, C34, C35, J22, J43,

The EnerGEO Platform of Integrated Assessment (PIA): Environmental assessment of scenarios as a web service

With the International Energy Agency estimating that global energy demand will increase between 40 and 50 percent by 2030 (compared to 2003), scientists and policymakers are concerned about the sustainability of the current energy system and what environmental pressures might result from the development of future energy systems. EnerGEO is an ongoing FP7 Project (2009-2013) which assesses the current and future impact of energy use on the environment by linking environmental observation systems with the processes involved in exploiting energy resources. The idea of this European project is to determine how low carbon scenarios, and in particular scenarios with a high share of renewable electricity, affect emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases (GHG) and contribute to mitigation of negative energy system impacts on human health and ecosystems. A Platform of Integrated Assessment (PIA) has been elaborated to provide impact results for a selection of scenarios via a set of models (large-scale energy models, Life Cycle Assessment models, ...). This PIA is currently available through a web service. The concept of the PIA is detailed and to illustrate its interest, a set of results is given with the use of the simulation mode of the European version of GAINS for a selection of scenarios

Comparing Results of Concurrent and Retrospective Designs in a Hospital Utilization Review

Hospital utilization reviews are performed on the basis of lists of explicit criteria, such as the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol, both concurrently and retrospectively, in an increasing number of settings as part of efforts to improve the performance of hospitals and to reduce health care costs. Retrospective data collection has advantages in terms of expenses and ease of sampling, but relies on the quality of medical records. We report on a comparison between concurrent and retrospective data collection performed simultaneously and independently by two reviewers on the same hospital stays in the regional St-Loup Hospital. Results suggest that retrospective data collection produces higher rates of inappropriate hospital utilization, due to a limited number of criteria that are recorded concurrently, but are not found in the retrospective reading of medical records. These results should encourage a further investigation of the comparability between concurrent and retrospective designs in other settings. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserve