The competitive advantage of nations: an application to academia

Within the field of bibliometrics, there is sustained interest in how nations “compete” in terms of academic disciplines, and what determinants explain why countries may have a specific advantage in one discipline over another. However, this literature has not, to date, presented a comprehensive structured model that could be used in the interpretation of a country’s research profile and academic output. In this paper, we use frameworks from international business and economics to present such a model. Our study makes four major contributions. First, we include a very wide range of countries and disciplines, explicitly including the Social Sciences, which unfortunately are excluded in most bibliometrics studies. Second, we apply theories of revealed comparative advantage and the competitive advantage of nations to academic disciplines. Third, we cluster our 34 countries into five different groups that have distinct combinations of revealed comparative advantage in five major disciplines. Finally, based on our empirical work and prior literature, we present an academic diamond that details factors likely to explain a country’s research profile and competitiveness in certain disciplines

Socialisations langagières, tension identitaires et investissement

This study aims to explore the relationships that can be established between identity tensions affecting a learner of French in an alloglotte context, its investment in the appropriation of the language and the contacts that can be established with the target language, the latter constituting a necessary mediation for a successful appropria tion. The empirical analysis is based on data concerning an Austrian living in French-speaking Switzerland and taking courses in an academic context

Electron Transport in Hybrid Ferromagnetic/Superconducting Nanostructures

We observe large amplitude changes in the resistance of ferromagnetic (F) wires at the onset of superconductivity of adjacent superconductors (S). New sharp peaks of large amplitude are found in the magnetoresistance of the F-wires. We discuss a new mechanism for the long-range superconducting proximity effect in F/S nanostructures based on the analysis of the topologies of actual Fermi-surfaces in ferromagnetic metals.Comment: 7 pages in LaTeX, 5 eps figures. Submitted to the Proceedings of MS200

Scaling of spontaneous rotation with temperature and plasma current in tokamaks

Using theoretical arguments, a simple scaling law for the size of the intrinsic rotation observed in tokamaks in the absence of momentum injection is found: the velocity generated in the core of a tokamak must be proportional to the ion temperature difference in the core divided by the plasma current, independent of the size of the device. The constant of proportionality is of the order of $10\,\mathrm{km \cdot s^{-1} \cdot MA \cdot keV^{-1}}$. When the intrinsic rotation profile is hollow, i.e. it is counter-current in the core of the tokamak and co-current in the edge, the scaling law presented in this Letter fits the data remarkably well for several tokamaks of vastly different size and heated by different mechanisms.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Nanoengineered magnetic-field-induced superconductivity

The perpendicular critical fields of a superconducting film have been strongly enhanced by using a nanoengineered lattice of magnetic dots (dipoles) on top of the film. Magnetic-field-induced superconductivity is observed in these hybrid superconductor / ferromagnet systems due to the compensation of the applied field between the dots by the stray field of the dipole array. By switching between different magnetic states of the nanoengineered field compensator, the critical parameters of the superconductor can be effectively controlled.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Sur les arthromyodysplasies chez le veau

Giroud A., Gueguen L. Sur les arthromyodysplasies chez le veau. In: Bulletin de l'Académie Vétérinaire de France tome 126 n°10, 1973. pp. 443-446

Superconducting crossed correlations in ferromagnets: implications for thermodynamics and quantum transport

It is demonstrated that non local Cooper pairs can propagate in ferromagnetic electrodes having an opposite spin orientation. In the presence of such crossed correlations, the superconducting gap is found to depend explicitly on the relative orientation of the ferromagnetic electrodes. Non local Cooper pairs can in principle be probed with dc-transport. With two ferromagnetic electrodes, we propose a ``quantum switch'' that can be used to detect correlated pairs of electrons. With three or more ferromagnetic electrodes, the Cooper pair-like state is a linear superposition of Cooper pairs which could be detected in dc-transport. The effect also induces an enhancement of the ferromagnetic proximity effect on the basis of crossed superconducting correlations propagating along domain walls.Comment: 4 pages, RevTe

Enhancement of the Josephson current by magnetic field in superconducting tunnel structures with paramagnetic spacer

The dc Josephson critical current of a (S/M)IS tunnel structure in a parallel magnetic field has been investigated (here S is a superconductor, S/M is the proximity coupled S and paramagnet M bilayer and I is an insulating barrier). We consider the case when, due to the Hund's rule, in the M metal the effective molecular interaction aligns spins of the conducting electrons antiparallel to localized spins of magnetic ions. It is predicted that for tunnel structures under consideration there are the conditions when the destructive action of the internal and the applied magnetic fields on Cooper pairs is weakened and the increase of the applied magnetic field causes the field-induced enhancement of the tunnel critical current. The experimental realization of this interesting effect of the interplay between superconductivity and magnetism is also discussed.Comment: 5 pages 3 figure