Epidemic thresholds for bipartite networks

It is well known that sexually transmitted diseases (STD) spread across a network of human sexual contacts. This network is most often bipartite, as most STD are transmitted between men and women. Even though network models in epidemiology have quite a long history now, there are few general results about bipartite networks. One of them is the simple dependence, predicted using the mean field approximation, between the epidemic threshold and the average and variance of the degree distribution of the network. Here we show that going beyond thisapproximation can lead to qualitatively different results that are  supported by numerical simulations. One of the new features, that can be relevant for applications, is the existence of a critical value for the infectivity of each population, below which no epidemics can arise, regardless of the value of the infectivity of the other population.Fil: Hernandez, Damián G.. Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica. Gerencia del _rea de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina;Fil: Risau Gusman, Sebastian Luis. Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica. Gerencia del Area Investicaciones y Aplicaciones No Nucleares; Argentina

Analisis Faktor-faktor Eksternal Yang Mempengaruhi Keputusan Konsumen Dalam Memilih Belanja Di Assalaam Hypermarket

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of cultural, reference groups, family and social class factors, either partially or simultan to consumer decision in choosing shopping in Assalaam Hypermarket. The analytical tool used in this study were: Multiple linear regression test, Test t, Test F and The coefficient of determination (R2) or Adjusted R Square. The results of data analysis concludes that the cultural, reference groups, family and social class variables influence the purchasing decisions of consumers on Assalam Hypermarket, either partially or simultan, Cultural Variables become the dominant factor in the purchase decision. Suggestions that emerged in this study were The management should pay more attention to factors such as cultural community grows in accordance with decisions of private consumption, the reference group is able to provide encouragement to consume, the number of family members and their effects on individual consumption decisions, and social class potential segments that many make purchases at Assalam hypermarket and the manager also acan develop a plan of activities to encourage consumers to get used to make purchases at Assalam hypermarket. Keywords: Cultural, Reference Group, Family, Social Class, Consumer Decision Making

Statistical Mechanics of Soft Margin Classifiers

We study the typical learning properties of the recently introduced Soft Margin Classifiers (SMCs), learning realizable and unrealizable tasks, with the tools of Statistical Mechanics. We derive analytically the behaviour of the learning curves in the regime of very large training sets. We obtain exponential and power laws for the decay of the generalization error towards the asymptotic value, depending on the task and on general characteristics of the distribution of stabilities of the patterns to be learned. The optimal learning curves of the SMCs, which give the minimal generalization error, are obtained by tuning the coefficient controlling the trade-off between the error and the regularization terms in the cost function. If the task is realizable by the SMC, the optimal performance is better than that of a hard margin Support Vector Machine and is very close to that of a Bayesian classifier.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Temperature dependence of the dielectric permittivity of BaTiO3-CoFe2O4 ceramic composites

Two-phase ceramic composites of cobalt ferrite dispersed in a barium titanate matrix were prepared and their dielectric permittivity was characterized. A rounding of their dielectric constant near the ferroelectric transition temperature of the BaTiO3 phase was observed. A generalized brick-wall model, taking into account the BaTiO3 contribution, fitted with the Landau-Devonshire theory, and the CoFe2O4 permittivity, experimentally determined, was used in order to obtain their effective dielectric constant. The effective model was applied to the discussion and fitting of the temperature dependence of the dielectric permittivity of the composites. The Landau-Devonshire coefficients for the BaTiO3 phase were also obtained.This work has been financially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), through the project POCI/CTM/60181/2004

Levy ratchets with dichotomic random flashing

Additive symmetric L\'evy noise can induce directed transport of overdamped particles in a static asymmetric potential. We study, numerically and analytically, the effect of an additional dichotomous random flashing in such L\'evy ratchet system. For this purpose we analyze and solve the corresponding fractional Fokker-Planck equations and we check the results with Langevin simulations. We study the behavior of the current as function of the stability index of the L\'evy noise, the noise intensity and the flashing parameters. We find that flashing allows both to enhance and diminish in a broad range the static L\'evy ratchet current, depending on the frequencies and asymmetry of the multiplicative dichotomous noise, and on the additive L\'evy noise parameters. Our results thus extend those for dichotomous flashing ratchets with Gaussian noise to the case of broadly distributed noises.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Influence of Grain Size Dispersion on the Magnetic Properties of Nanogranular BaTiO3-CoFe2O4 Thin Films

Thin film nanogranular composites of cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) dispersed in a barium titanate (BaTiO3) matrix were deposited by laser ablation with different cobalt ferrite concentrations (x). Their structural and magnetic properties were characterized. The films were polycrystalline and composed by a mixture of tetragonal-BaTiO3 and CoFe2O4 with the cubic spinel structure. A slight (111) barium titanate phase orientation and (311) CoFe2O4 phase orientation were observed. The lattice parameter of the CoFe2O4 was always smaller than the bulk value indicating that the cobalt ferrite was under compressive stress. From atomic force microscopy a broad distribution of grain sizes was observed in the nanocomposites, with a significant amount of smaller grains (<40nm) from the CoFe2O4 phase. The magnetic measurements show an increase of the magnetic moment from the low concentration region where the magnetic grains are more isolated and their magnetic interaction is small, towards the bulk value for higher CoFe2O4 content in the films. A corresponding decrease of coercive field with increasing cobalt ferrite concentration was also observed, due to the higher inter-particle magnetic interaction (and reduced stress) of the agglomerated grains.This work has been financially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and FEDER, through the project POCI/CTM/60181/2004

Ground-state topology of the Edwards-Anderson +/-J spin glass model

In the Edwards-Anderson model of spin glasses with a bimodal distribution of bonds, the degeneracy of the ground state allows one to define a structure called backbone, which can be characterized by the rigid lattice (RL), consisting of the bonds that retain their frustration (or lack of it) in all ground states. In this work we have performed a detailed numerical study of the properties of the RL, both in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) lattices. Whereas in 3D we find strong evidence for percolation in the thermodynamic limit, in 2D our results indicate that the most probable scenario is that the RL does not percolate. On the other hand, both in 2D and 3D we find that frustration is very unevenly distributed. Frustration is much lower in the RL than in its complement. Using equilibrium simulations we observe that this property can be found even above the critical temperature. This leads us to propose that the RL should share many properties of ferromagnetic models, an idea that recently has also been proposed in other contexts. We also suggest a preliminary generalization of the definition of backbone for systems with continuous distributions of bonds, and we argue that the study of this structure could be useful for a better understanding of the low temperature phase of those frustrated models.Comment: 16 pages and 21 figure

The dynamics of opinion in hierarchical organizations

We study the mutual influence of authority and persuasion in the flow of opinion. Many social organizations are characterized by a hierarchical structure where the propagation of opinion is asymmetric. In the normal flow of opinion formation a high-rank agent uses its authority (or its persuasion when necessary) to impose its opinion on others. However, agents with no authority may only use the force of its persuasion to propagate their opinions. In this contribution we describe a simple model with no social mobility, where each agent belongs to a class in the hierarchy and has also a persuasion capability. The model is studied numerically for a three levels case, and analytically within a mean field approximation, with a very good agreement between the two approaches. The stratum where the dominant opinion arises from is strongly dependent on the percentage of agents in each hierarchy level, and we obtain a phase diagram identifying the relative frequency of prevailing opinions. We also find that the time evolution of the conflicting opinions polarizes after a short transient.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.