Quark matter influence on observational properties of compact stars

Densities in compact stars may be such that quarks are no longer confined in hadrons, but instead behave as weakly interacting particles. In this regime perturbative calculations are possible. Yet, due to high pressures and an attractive channel in the strong force, condensation of quarks in a superfluid state is likely. This can have interesting consequences for magnetic fields, especially in relation to the discovery of slow-period free precession in a compact star. In this proceedings there will be a discussion of the mass-radius relations of compact stars made from quark matter and magnetic field behaviour in compact stars with a quark matter core.Comment: 4 pages, 2 images. To be published in the proceedings of SEWM 2008, Nucl. Phys. A, in prin

The Lifting Properties of A-Homotopy Theory

In classical homotopy theory, two spaces are homotopy equivalent if one space can be continuously deformed into the other. This theory, however, does not respect the discrete nature of graphs. For this reason, a discrete homotopy theory that recognizes the difference between the vertices and edges of a graph was invented, called A-homotopy theory [1-5]. In classical homotopy theory, covering spaces and lifting properties are often used to compute the fundamental group of the circle. In this paper, we develop the lifting properties for A-homotopy theory. Using a covering graph and these lifting properties, we compute the fundamental group of the 5-cycle , giving an alternate approach to [4].Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures, updated version. Minor changes to the introduction and clarification that the computation of the fundamental group of the 5-cycle originally appeared in [4]. Title changed from "Computing A-Homotopy Groups Using Coverings and Lifting Properties" to "The Lifting Properties of A-Homotopy Theory

Collaborative research and sharing data ahead of paper publication: A case study of De Montfort University’s Dr. Fabio Caraffini

Figshare data• By sharing his high-resolution, multispectral images prior to a paper publication on DMU Figshare, Fabio and his colleagues are building public engagement with their research. • Storing large amounts of data in DMU Figshare allows Fabio and his colleagues to link to that data in a paper, which they would have otherwise just had to describe in the body of the paper

An analysis of national research systems (III): towards a composite indicator measuring research interactions

Interactions in research are multifaceted and need not go in the same direction. For example, higher overall mobility of researchers in science & technology need not go hand in hand with more collaboration as measured by co-publication and co-patent data. Concerning public-private research interactions, we see that mobility and collaboration do go hand in hand. In other words, the extent to which different kind of interactions (mobility versus collaboration) follow the same trend seems to depend on the dimension along which such interactions take place. Here, different kinds of cross-institutional interactions follow the same pattern. Although different kinds of international research interactions present a similar picture, we need to take into account that smaller (larger) national research systems are generally more (less) internationally oriented. Overall, we conclude that for constructing a composite indicator on interactions in research and innovation it is important (i) to take the nature and direction of interactions in research and innovation duly into account and (ii) to acquire more data that is well-specified to measure research interactions. The research was conducted on behalf of DG RTD within the framework of the “Composites_4_IU”project.JRC.G.3 - Econometrics and applied statistic

Diversity and the technological impact of inventive activity: Evidence for EU regions

Diversity is considered key to research, innovation and growth. However, throughout the literature, the exact meaning of the notion of diversity is often left in the midst. What is more, whilst the relation between diversity and productivity growth by now has been extensively addressed, still few empirical studies exist that address the relationship between diversity and innovation directly. To fill in this gap in the literature, this paper offers an empirical analysis of the relationship between technological diversity and the impact of innovation at the EU regional level whilst including different measures of diversity oriented at different levels of technological detail. Using EPO patent data, first, a set of different measures related to diversity is created exploiting the hierarchical structure of patent classes of the International Patent Classification (IPC). Second, the impact of innovation is captured by two citation-based indicators. Whilst the count of (field-normalized) citations is used to proxy the quality of innovation in terms of average impact, the number of highly cited patents is used as a proxy for top-quality innovation in terms of research excellence. Concerning the average impact of innovation, we clearly observe an advantage of specializing in innovation activities in few and related technological sectors. Localization economies can operate not only at low levels of aggregation, but also at a very high level, depending on the classification scheme. Results for research excellence are similar, with two main differences though. First, the impact of evenness on research excellence is non-monotonic in the level of aggregation and can be significant also for a very high level of aggregation. Second, while localization has positive impact on research excellence at the lowest level of aggregation similarly to average quality, a negative impact is found for all the other levels. The main conclusion of this paper holds that related specialization (conceived in terms of either similarity or related variety) and localization have a positive effect on the impact of EU regional innovation the more technological detail is taken into account. Our results then first and foremost stress the importance of taking into account (i) the relations among different technologies and (ii) the appropriate level of technological detail along which relations among technologies play out. As related specialization has a positive effect on technological impact, policymakers could consider either one of two policy options in order to boost the impact of innovation in Europe. One option concerns steering related specialization and localization at a coarse-grained technological level further as to increase the impact of innovation. If related diversification and not related specialization is considered to be a viable policy option in Europe, then the reward system of innovation should be drastically revised

Diversity and the technological impact of inventive activity: evidence for EU regions

Diversity has been considered as a prerequisite for turning prevailing technological trajectories into new and unexpected directions. However, little evidence exists on the exact nature of the more direct relationship between diversity and the impact of technologies. One main contribution of this paper is therefore to investigate the relationship between technological diversity and the impact of inventions across EU regions. Using EPO patent data, a set of measures is created considering different notions of diversity and different levels of technological aggregation, as allowed by the hierarchical structure of the International Patent Classification (IPC). The technological impact of inventions is captured by two citation-based indicators measuring an average and a high impact. For both measures we find that diversity is typically detrimental, or at best neutral, for the impact of new technologies, except when a very fine-grained technological detail is taken into account. However, in the latter case, nearly opposite results are found, namely, positive effects from related variety and, particularly for high technological impact, from combination of relatively distant technologies. Therefore, an important contribution of this paper is to show that these effects are very sensitive to the aggregation level used, and hence that policymakers should gain a very detailed understanding about the relations among technologies before implementing either specialization or diversification strategies.JRC.DDG.01-Econometrics and applied statistic

The EU Regional Human Development Index

This report follows from a project entitled “Regional Human Development” on request of the Directorate-General Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) of the European Commission. The objective of the project was to develop indicators that are capable of measuring patterns and trends in human development across the regions of the EU member states. The main contribution of this report lies in a proposal for conceptualizing and measuring human development at the European regional level across multiple years using. The results of the EU-RHDI show a clear north-west/south-east divide across EU regions when it comes to the overall index. Within countries differences exist as to regional performance in human development. In general, capital city regions seem to outperform non-capital city regions within countries. This is readily seen across regions in eastern EU member states where the large intra-country differences in scores are largely driven by the capital city outperforming other regions by a length. Zooming in on the results of the individual dimensions, we find in general that the EU is especially characterized by a west/east divide. In health, southern regions are often outperforming northern regions. However, southern regions’ relative good performance in health contrasts sharply with their underperformance in income and especially knowledge.JRC.DDG.01 - Econometrics and applied statistic

An analysis of national research systems (II): Efficiency in the production of research excellence

The main contribution of this project lies in the assessment of the efficiency of national research systems in achieving excellent research performances. The efficiency assessment is not only restricted to the production of research excellence in general, but is disentangled by type of research field, distinguishing between science and technology. This distinction provides a helpful tool for policy makers in assessing the discrepancy of efficiency in both science and technology excellence within and across countries. In our conceptual framework, a national research system’s efficiency can be defined as the extent to which a country is able to transform research assets into excellent research. We conducted efficiency analyses on three main model specifications in which we relate the amount of resource assets (public, private, total R&D expenditure) to the performance on excellent research. In our empirical analysis of efficiency, we report on two methodologies: output/input ratios (partial measures of efficiency) and robust production frontiers (complete and robust measures, order-m and order-alpha method, as developed by Daraio and Simar (2007a). Various conclusions are drawn based on these analyses.JRC.G.3-Econometrics and applied statistic

Using the Medical Research Council framework for the development and evaluation of complex interventions in a theory-based infant feeding intervention to prevent childhood obesity:The baby milk intervention and trial

Introduction. We describe our experience of using the Medical Research Council framework on complex interventions to guide the development and evaluation of an intervention to prevent obesity by modifying infant feeding behaviours. Methods. We reviewed the epidemiological evidence on early life risk factors for obesity and interventions to prevent obesity in this age group. The review suggested prevention of excess weight gain in bottle-fed babies and appropriate weaning as intervention targets; hence we undertook systematic reviews to further our understanding of these behaviours. We chose theory and behaviour change techniques that demonstrated evidence of effectiveness in altering dietary behaviours. We subsequently developed intervention materials and evaluation tools and conducted qualitative studies with mothers (intervention recipients) and healthcare professionals (intervention deliverers) to refine them. We developed a questionnaire to assess maternal attitudes and feeding practices to understand the mechanism of any intervention effects. Conclusions. In addition to informing development of our specific intervention and evaluation materials, use of the Medical Research Council framework has helped to build a generalisable evidence base for early life nutritional interventions. However, the process is resource intensive and prolonged, and this should be taken into account by public health research funders. This trial is registered with ISRTCN: 20814693 Baby Milk Trial