FINAL REPORT Skills and quality jobs in construction in the framework of the European Green Deal and the post Covid Recovery

Technical Report commissioned by the Just Transition Centre-International Trade Union Confederation and the European Federation of Building and Wood Workers. The aim is to inform the client-institutions to take action. Therefore, it is an *impact product*

Altering an extended phenotype reduces intraspecific male aggression and can maintain diversity in cichlid fish

Reduced male aggression towards different phenotypes generating negative frequency-dependent intrasexual selection has been suggested as a mechanism to facilitate the invasion and maintenance of novel phenotypes in a population. To date, the best empirical evidence for the phenomenon has been provided by laboratory studies on cichlid fish with different colour polymorphisms. Here we experimentally tested the hypothesis in a natural population of Lake Malawi cichlid fish, in which males build sand-castles (bowers) to attract females during seasonal leks. We predicted that if bower shape plays an important role in male aggressive interactions, aggression among conspecific males should decrease when their bower shape is altered. Accordingly, we allocated randomly chosen bowers in a Nyassachromis cf. microcephalus lek into three treatments: control, manipulated to a different shape, and simulated manipulation. We then measured male behaviours and bower shape before and after these treatments. We found that once bower shape was altered, males were involved in significantly fewer aggressive interactions with conspecific males than before manipulation. Mating success was not affected. Our results support the idea that an extended phenotype, such as bower shape, can be important in maintaining polymorphic populations. Specifically, reduced male conspecific aggression towards males with different extended phenotypes (here, bower shapes) may cause negative frequency-dependent selection, allowing the invasion and establishment of a new phenotype (bower builder). This could help our understanding of mechanisms of diversification within populations, and in particular, the overall diversification of bower shapes within Lake Malawi cichlids

Pseudogap and the specific heat of high TcT_c superconductors

The specific heat of a two dimensional repulsive Hubbard model with local interaction is investigated. We use the two-pole approximation which exhibits explicitly important correlations that are sources of the pseudogap anomaly. The interplay between the specific heat and the pseudogap is the main focus of the present work. Our self consistent numerical results show that above the occupation $n_T\approx 0.85$, the specific heat starts to decrease due to the presence of a pseudogap in the density of states. We have also observed a two peak structure in the specific heat. Such structure is robust with respect to the Coulomb interaction $U$ but it is significantly affected by the occupation $n_T$. A detailed study of the two peak structure is carried out in terms of the renormalized quasi-particle bands. The role of the second nearest neighbor hopping on the specific heat behavior and on the pseudogap, is extensively discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Solid State Communication

Specific heat of a non-local attractive Hubbard model

The specific heat of an attractive (interaction $G<0$) non-local Hubbard model is investigated. We use a two-pole approximation which leads to a set of correlation functions. In particular, the correlation function $\ $plays an important role as a source of anomalies in the normal state of the model. Our results show that for a giving range of$G$and$\delta$where$\delta=1-n_T$($n_T=n_{\uparrow}+n_{\downarrow}$), the specific heat as a function of the temperature presents a two peak structure. Nevertehelesss, the presence of a pseudogap on the anti-nodal points$(0,\pm\pi)$and$(\pm\pi,0)$ eliminates the two peak structure, the low temperature peak remaining. The effects of the second nearest neighbor hopping on the specific heat are also investigated.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Antiferromagnetic Ising spin glass competing with BCS pairing interaction in a transverse field

The competition among spin glass (SG), antiferromagnetism (AF) and local pairing superconductivity (PAIR) is studied in a two-sublattice fermionic Ising spin glass model with a local BCS pairing interaction in the presence of an applied magnetic transverse field $\Gamma$. In the present approach, spins in different sublattices interact with a Gaussian random coupling with an antiferromagnetic mean $J_0$ and standard deviation $J$. The problem is formulated in the path integral formalism in which spin operators are represented by bilinear combinations of Grassmann variables. The saddle-point Grand Canonical potential is obtained within the static approximation and the replica symmetric ansatz. The results are analysed in phase diagrams in which the AF and the SG phases can occur for small $g$ ($g$ is the strength of the local superconductor coupling written in units of $J$), while the PAIR phase appears as unique solution for large $g$. However, there is a complex line transition separating the PAIR phase from the others. It is second order at high temperature that ends in a tricritical point. The quantum fluctuations affect deeply the transition lines and the tricritical point due to the presence of $\Gamma$.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, accepted Eur. Phys. J.

An AGN Identification for 3EG J2006-2321

We present a multiwavelength analysis of the high-energy gamma-ray source 3EG J2006-2321. The flux of this source above 100 MeV is shown to be variable on time scales of days and months. Optical observations and careful examination of archived radio data indicate that its radio counterpart is PMN J2005-2310, a flat-spectrum radio quasar with a 5-GHz flux density of 260 mJy. Study of the $V=18.7$ optical counterpart indicates a redshift of 0.833 and variable linear polarization. No X-ray source has been detected near the position of PMN J2005-2310, but an X-ray upper limit is derived from ROSAT data. This upper limit provides for a spectral energy distribution with global characteristics similar to those of known gamma-ray blazars. Taken together, these data indicate that 3EG J2006-2321, listed as unidentified in the 3rd EGRET Catalog, is a member of the blazar class of AGN. The 5-GHz radio flux density of this blazar is the lowest of the 68 EGRET-detected AGN. The fact that EGRET has detected such a source has implications for unidentified EGRET sources, particularly those at high latitudes ($|b|>30^{\circ}$), many of which may be blazars.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures. To appear in ApJ v569 n1, 10 April 200