Periodic oscillators, isochronous centers and resonance

An oscillator is called isochronous if all motions have a common period. When the system is forced by a time-dependent perturbation with the same period the dynamics may change and the phenomenon of resonance can appear. In this context, resonance means that all solutions are unbounded. The theory of resonance is well known for the harmonic oscillator and we extend it to nonlinear isochronous oscillators.Comment: 28 page

Network analysis of exchange data: Interdependence drives crisis contagion

In this paper we detect the linear and nonlinear co-movements presented on the real exchange rate in a group of 28 developed and developing countries that have suffered currency and financial crises during 15 years. We have used the matrix of Pearson correlation and Phase Synchronous (PS) coefficients and an appropriate metric distance between pairs of countries in order to construct a topology and hierarchies by using the Minimum Spanning Tree (MST). In addition, we have calculated the MST cost and global correlation coefficients to observe the co-movements dynamics along the time sample. By comparing Pearson and phase synchronous information we address a new methodology that can uncover meaningful information on the contagion economic issue and, more generally, in the debate around interdependence and/or contagion among financial time series. Our results suggest some evidence of contagion in the Asian currency crises but this crisis contagion is due to previous and stable interdependence.econophysics, linear co-movements, phase synchronous co-movements, MST, interdependence and contagion

Economic growth and currency crisis: A real exchange rate entropic approach

We propose a country classification of economic growth currency crisis consequences based on the entropic analysis of the real exchange rate. We show that this ranking is highly correlated with the annual minimum rate of growth, a proxy used to quantify real currency crisis effects.currency crises; entropy; growth effects of currency crises

A Comparative Evaluation of Heart Rate Estimation Methods using Face Videos

This paper presents a comparative evaluation of methods for remote heart rate estimation using face videos, i.e., given a video sequence of the face as input, methods to process it to obtain a robust estimation of the subjects heart rate at each moment. Four alternatives from the literature are tested, three based in hand crafted approaches and one based on deep learning. The methods are compared using RGB videos from the COHFACE database. Experiments show that the learning-based method achieves much better accuracy than the hand crafted ones. The low error rate achieved by the learning based model makes possible its application in real scenarios, e.g. in medical or sports environments.Comment: Accepted in "IEEE International Workshop on Medical Computing (MediComp) 2020

Calibrating the Na\"ive Cornell Model with NRQCD

Along the years, the Cornell Model has been extraordinarily successful in describing hadronic phenomenology, in particular in physical situations for which an effective theory of the strong interactions such as NRQCD cannot be applied. As a consequence of its achievements, a relevant question is whether its model parameters can somehow be related to fundamental constants of QCD. We shall give a first answer in this article by comparing the predictions of both approaches. Building on results from a previous study on heavy meson spectroscopy, we calibrate the Cornell model employing NRQCD predictions for the lowest-lying bottomonium states up to N$^3$LO, in which the bottom mass is varied within a wide range. We find that the Cornell model mass parameter can be identified, within perturbative uncertainties, with the MSR mass at the scale $R = 1\,$GeV. This identification holds for any value of $\alpha_s$ or the bottom mass, and for all perturbative orders investigated. Furthermore, we show that: a) the "string tension" parameter is independent of the bottom mass, and b) the Coulomb strength $\kappa$ of the Cornell model can be related to the QCD strong coupling constant $\alpha_s$ at a characteristic non-relativistic scale. We also show how to remove the $u=1/2$ renormalon of the static QCD potential and sum-up large logs related to the renormalon subtraction by switching to the low-scale, short-distance MSR mass, and using R-evolution. Our R-improved expression for the static potential remains independent of the heavy quark mass value and agrees with lattice QCD results for values of the radius as large as $0.8\,$fm, and with the Cornell model potential at long distances. Finally we show that for moderate values of $r$, the R-improved NRQCD and Cornell static potentials are in head-on agreement.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, 3 table

Food Safety and Demand: Consumer Preferences for Imported Pork in Urban China

China’s transition into a developed economy is driving changes in consumer preferences and demand for foods. The objective of this study is to assess and measure consumers’ preferences for and attitudes toward imported pork in urban China. Estimated logit models based on a consumer survey conducted in 2008 reveal that individuals’ age, shopping location, and food safety concerns significantly influence their willingness to pay for U.S. pork. Factors affecting purchasing behavior of Western-style pork cuts versus traditional Chinese cuts are also evaluated. Consumers’ food safety concerns were linked to a previous lean-meat additive scare and a lack of confidence in the Chinese food inspection system.Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Livestock Production/Industries,

Charmonium resonances in the 3.9 GeV/c2c^2 energy region and the X(3915)/X(3930)X(3915)/X(3930) puzzle

An interesting controversy has emerged challenging the widely accepted nature of the $X(3915)$ and the $X(3930)$ resonances, which had initially been assigned to the $\chi_{c0}(2P)$ and $\chi_{c2}(2P)$ $c\bar c$ states, respectively. To unveil their inner structure, the properties of the $J^{PC}\!\!=\!0^{++}$ and $J^{PC}\!\!=\!2^{++}$ charmonium states in the energy region of these resonances are analyzed in the framework of a constituent quark model. Together with the bare $q\bar q$ states, threshold effects due to the opening of nearby meson-meson channels are included in a coupled-channels scheme calculation. We find that the structure of both states is dominantly molecular with a probability of bare $q\bar q$ states lower than $45\%$. Our results favor the hypothesis that $X(3915)$ and $X(3930)$ resonances arise as different decay mechanisms of the same $J^{PC}\!\!=\!2^{++}$ state. Moreover we found an explanation for the recently discovered $M=3860$ MeV$/c^2$ as a $J^{PC}\!\!=\!0^{++}$ $2P$ state and rediscovery the lost $Y(3940)$ as an additional state in the $J^{PC}\!\!=\!0^{++}$ family.Comment: 6 pages, 3 table