Duality between Ahlfors-Liouville and Khas'minskii properties for nonlinear equations

In recent years, the study of the interplay between (fully) non-linear potential theory and geometry received important new impulse. The purpose of this work is to move a step further in this direction by investigating appropriate versions of parabolicity and maximum principles at infinity for large classes of non-linear (sub)equations $F$ on manifolds. The main goal is to show a unifying duality between such properties and the existence of suitable $F$-subharmonic exhaustions, called Khas'minskii potentials, which is new even for most of the "standard" operators arising from geometry, and improves on partial results in the literature. Applications include new characterizations of the classical maximum principles at infinity (Ekeland, Omori-Yau and their weak versions by Pigola-Rigoli-Setti) and of conservation properties for stochastic processes (martingale completeness). Applications to the theory of submanifolds and Riemannian submersions are also discussed.Comment: 67 pages. Final versio

The Impact of Paternity Leave on Long-term Father Involvement

Using Norwegian registry data we investigate how paternity leave affects fathers’ long-term earnings. In 1993 Norway introduced a paternity quota of the paid parental leave. We estimate a difference-in-differences model which exploits differences in fathers' exposure to the paternity quota. Our analysis suggests that four weeks paternity leave during the child’s first year decreases fathers’ future earnings by 2.1 percent. Importantly, this effect persists up until our last point of observation when the child is five years old. The earnings effect is consistent with increased long-term father involvement, as fathers shift time and effort from market to home production. In an investigation of Norwegian time use data we find additional evidence for this hypothesis.father involvement, household production, parental leave

A general theorem on the divergence of vortex beams

The propagation and divergence properties of beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) play a crucial role in many applications. Here we present a general study on the divergence of optical beams with OAM. We show that the mean absolute value of the OAM imposes a lower bound on the value of the beam divergence. We discuss our results for two different definitions of the divergence, the so called rms or encircled-energy. The bound on the rms divergence can be expressed as a generalized uncertainty principle, with applications in long-range communication, microscopy and 2D quantum systems.Comment: RevTex, published versio

A Map-Reduce Parallel Approach to Automatic Synthesis of Control Software

Many Control Systems are indeed Software Based Control Systems, i.e. control systems whose controller consists of control software running on a microcontroller device. This motivates investigation on Formal Model Based Design approaches for automatic synthesis of control software. Available algorithms and tools (e.g., QKS) may require weeks or even months of computation to synthesize control software for large-size systems. This motivates search for parallel algorithms for control software synthesis. In this paper, we present a Map-Reduce style parallel algorithm for control software synthesis when the controlled system (plant) is modeled as discrete time linear hybrid system. Furthermore we present an MPI-based implementation PQKS of our algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first parallel approach for control software synthesis. We experimentally show effectiveness of PQKS on two classical control synthesis problems: the inverted pendulum and the multi-input buck DC/DC converter. Experiments show that PQKS efficiency is above 65%. As an example, PQKS requires about 16 hours to complete the synthesis of control software for the pendulum on a cluster with 60 processors, instead of the 25 days needed by the sequential algorithm in QKS.Comment: To be submitted to TACAS 2013. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1207.4474, arXiv:1207.409

A constitutive model for simple shear of dense frictional suspensions

Discrete particle simulations are used to study the shear rheology of dense, stabilized, frictional particulate suspensions in a viscous liquid, toward development of a constitutive model for steady shear flows at arbitrary stress. These suspensions undergo increasingly strong continuous shear thickening (CST) as solid volume fraction $\phi$ increases above a critical volume fraction, and discontinuous shear thickening (DST) is observed for a range of $\phi$. When studied at controlled stress, the DST behavior is associated with non-monotonic flow curves of the steady-state stress as a function of shear rate. Recent studies have related shear thickening to a transition between mostly lubricated to predominantly frictional contacts with the increase in stress. In this study, the behavior is simulated over a wide range of the dimensionless parameters $(\phi,\tilde{\sigma}$, and $\mu)$, with $\tilde{\sigma} = \sigma/\sigma_0$ the dimensionless shear stress and $\mu$ the coefficient of interparticle friction: the dimensional stress is $\sigma$, and $\sigma_0 \propto F_0/ a^2$, where $F_0$ is the magnitude of repulsive force at contact and $a$ is the particle radius. The data have been used to populate the model of the lubricated-to-frictional rheology of Wyart and Cates [Phys. Rev. Lett.{\bf 112}, 098302 (2014)], which is based on the concept of two viscosity divergences or \textquotedblleft jamming\textquotedblright\ points at volume fraction $\phi_{\rm J}^0 = \phi_{\rm rcp}$ (random close packing) for the low-stress lubricated state, and at $\phi_{\rm J} (\mu) < \phi_{\rm J}^0$ for any nonzero $\mu$ in the frictional state; a generalization provides the normal stress response as well as the shear stress. A flow state map of this material is developed based on the simulation results.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Eigenvalue estimates for submanifolds of warped product spaces

We give lower bounds for the fundamental tone of open sets in minimal submanifolds immersed into warped product spaces of type $N^n \times_f Q^q$, where $f \in C^\infty(N)$. We also study the essential spectrum of these minimal submanifolds.Comment: 17 page

Effect of training and familiarity on responsiveness to human cues in domestic dogs (<i>Canis familiaris</i>)

Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) seem to possess an evolved competency to follow human-given cues, often out-performing their wild progenitor the wolf (Canis lupus) on cue-following tasks. However, domestication may not be solely responsible for the socio-cognitive skills of dogs, with ontogenetic experience also playing a role. This research evaluated the effects of intensive training on cue-following behaviour using an unreinforced object-choice paradigm. The responses of dogs that were trained to competitive levels were compared to those of pet dogs with only basic training, and dogs living in an animal shelter that demonstrated no or only rudimentary following of basic commands. Using a cue-following task where three types of cues were presented by familiar and unfamiliar human partners, the number of cues followed by each training group were recorded. All dogs found cues where gesture was combined with a congruent head and eye movement easier to follow than either gesture or eye gaze alone. Whether the cue-giver was familiar or not had a significant effect on number of cues followed in homed dogs, and the performance of shelter dogs was comparable to the other groups when faced with an unfamiliar cue-giver. Contrary to predictions, level of training did not improve performance on the cue-following task. This work does provide support for the presence of an evolved adaptation to exploit social cues provided by humans that can be augmented by familiarity with the cue giver. However, additional joint activity as experienced in an intensive training regime does not seem to increase accuracy in following human-given cues