Probability Distribution Function of the Order Parameter: Mixing Fields and Universality

We briefly review the use of the order parameter probability distribution function as a useful tool to obtain the critical properties of statistical mechanical models using computer Monte Carlo simulations. Some simple discrete spin magnetic systems on a lattice, such as Ising, general spin-$S$ Blume-Capel and Baxter-Wu, $Q$-state Potts, among other models, will be considered as examples. The importance and the necessity of the role of mixing fields in asymmetric magnetic models will be discussed in more detail, as well as the corresponding distributions of the extensive conjugate variables.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication (Computer Physics Communications

Current Perspectives on Awareness Information to Support Real-Time Communication

Abstract-Sharing awareness information to help remote people establish real-time communication has been a research area for the past couple decades. Much of the work so far has focused on sharing awareness for communication availability in the work setting. Yet several recent trends suggest the need to reconsider the contexts and assumptions around awareness research. Increasing deployment of communication technology in homes and the blurring of home and work boundaries means that more communication interactions involve the home. The popularity of mobile smartphones adds the mobile context and the sensor capabilities integrated into mobile devices. Given the broadened scope of where and how communication occurs and the importance of being able to smoothly negotiate starting and ending conversations, there is an opportunity to reconsider awareness research in today's environment. We identify current challenges and opportunities in awareness research from perspectives beyond focusing just on the workplace to include technologies and use practices in the home and mobile contexts. Keywords-awareness; availability; presence; awareness; computer-mediated communication; workplace; home; mobile I. RECONSIDERING AWARENESS INFORMATION For the past couple decades, research on presence and awareness has explored how to help people time and negotiate their attempts to establish communication over distance. Yet during the course of those years, much of the technology and use practice landscape has changed in ways that have a direct impact on how people use and interpret awareness information. The increased use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in the home adds a distinctly different context in which to establish communication. The growing popularity of mobile smartphones not only adds a mobile context for establishing communication, but also offers new sensing capabilities that increases the amount of awareness information available. In light of these recent developments, we identify several important dimensions for reconsidering awareness information to support real-time communication. A. Awareness in the Workplace Context Much of the prior awareness research has focused on workbased communication, typically in the office setting of a work environment. For example, the early Media Space work Hudson et al. [4] conducted an Experience Sampling Method study to identify what are the strongest indicators for availability in the workplace. They concluded that the presence of speech (i.e., that a person was already engaged in conversation with someone else) was strongly correlated with being unavailable for new interaction. Sophisticated models for predicting presence and availability based on on-line calendar and computer activity information that is readily available have also been developed in the work context [5], [6]. More recently, Dugan et al. Sharing awareness in the workplace can leverage many resources and conditions that are typical of a work environment. The traditionally higher performance computin

The Odyssey of Dental Anxiety: From Prehistory to the Present. A Narrative Review

Dental anxiety (DA) can be considered as a universal phenomenon with a high prevalence worldwide; DA and pain are also the main causes for medical emergencies in the dental office, so their prevention is an essential part of patient safety and overall quality of care. Being DA and its consequences closely related to the fight-or-flight reaction, it seems reasonable to argue that the odyssey of DA began way back in the distant past, and has since probably evolved in parallel with the development of fight-or-flight reactions, implicit memory and knowledge, and ultimately consciousness. Basic emotions are related to survival functions in an inseparable psychosomatic unity that enable an immediate response to critical situations rather than generating knowledge, which is why many anxious patients are unaware of the cause of their anxiety. Archeological findings suggest that humans have been surprisingly skillful and knowledgeable since prehistory. Neanderthals used medicinal plants; and relics of dental tools bear witness to a kind of Neolithic proto-dentistry. In the two millennia BC, Egyptian and Greek physicians used both plants (such as papaver somniferum) and incubation (a forerunner of modern hypnosis, e.g., in the sleep temples dedicated to Asclepius) in the attempt to provide some form of therapy and painless surgery, whereas modern scientific medicine strongly understated the role of subjectivity and mind-body approaches until recently. DA has a wide range of causes and its management is far from being a matter of identifying the ideal sedative drug. A patient's proper management must include assessing his/her dental anxiety, ensuring good communications, and providing information (iatrosedation), effective local anesthesia, hypnosis, and/or a wise use of sedative drugs where necessary. Any weak link in this chain can cause avoidable suffering, mistrust, and emergencies, as well as having lifelong psychological consequences. Iatrosedation and hypnosis are no less relevant than drugs and should be considered as primary tools for the management of DA. Unlike pharmacological sedation, they allow to help patients cope with the dental procedure and also overcome their anxiety: achieving the latter may enable them to face future dental care autonomously, whereas pharmacological sedation can only afford a transient respite

Un traité manuscrit d’astronomie populaire en arabe, xvie siècle

Une copie réalisée au xxe siècle d’un traité d’astronomie attribué à un certain ‘Abd Allâh b. ‘Umar Bâ Makhrama (m. en1565), a pu être obtenue dans la ville de Ghayl Bâ Wazîr, dans le Sud du Yémen. Il est consacré à la mesure du temps durant la journée, selon la longueur des ombres portées. La ville de Ghayl Bâ Wazîr se situe à l’intérieur des terres, entre al-Mukallâ, capitale de la province du Hadramawt, et le port d’al-Shihr. Le terme « ghayl », apparaissant dans le nom de la ville, soulig..

The spirit of cooperation in Yemeni agricultural practices

Social implications of water distribution in the ancient oasis of Ma’rib It is unnecessary to repeat here the obvious about the massive infrastructure of the so-called great dam of Ma’rib and its sluice gates, the obvious having been stated so many times before. Instead, I would like to draw attention to some implications that these physical constructions had for the farming communities. The dam was, of course, not a dam in the strict sense, designed to store water in an artificial lake. Rath..

The Challenge of Authenticating Scientific Objects in Museum Collections: Exposing the Forgery of a Moroccan Astrolabe Allegedly Dated 1845 CE

The astrolabe is an instrument designed to measure the altitude of celestial bodies in order to tell time by day or by night. An astrolabe in the Royal Ontario Museum’s collections was acquired at auction in 1988. According to the auction catalogue, it was made in Morocco, dated 1845. Years later, in preparation for a university course on the history of science, this writer’s scrutiny of the astrolabe’s inscribed features and physical condition suggested that it was a forgery. The paper explains the reasoning behind the judgement of falsehood