Electromechanical Oscillations in Hydro-Dominant Power Systems: An Application to the Colombian Power System

Power system modeling that captures the dynamic behavior of the different components interacting in an electric grid is useful in understanding some observed phenomena that have not been easy to reproduce by simulation. Therefore, this thesis focuses on the modeling of hydro-dominant power system to study the origin of some very low frequency oscillations (VLFOs) that have not been explained or reproduced; for example, VLFOs in the Colombian Power System have been detected in the 0.05Hz range and their origin have not been clarified. Within this work modeling guidelines for hydro-electric power plants to capture the effects of the hydraulic coupling of turbines, their control strategies, and nonlinearities in the controls and actuators will be developed. This level of modeling will enable to reproduce oscillatory observation by simulation as the ones in the Colombian system for further analysis. Finally, robust control is proposed to damp oscillatory modes to account the effect of the dynamic behavior of coupled systems and nonlinearities in their controls

Understanding Japanese consumer behaviour and cultural relevance of gift giving

This study examines the consumer in the Japanese market and the importance of gift-giving in Japanese culture as a first-order social practice. Cultural connectedness and relevance represents an area of importance for the marketing of retail products, particularly related to gift-giving. The interviewing of 25 participants was used to study the Japanese consumer and their purchase behaviours for gift-giving. The exploration of the social, cultural and economic constructs in Japan shows specific patterns found which are unique to the Japanese consumer. The emergence of new categories of consumers appearing in Japan through globalization and shifting mindsets influenced by western culture, as well as recent social and economic conditions, contribute to the evolution of the business market

Noncommutative Effects in the Black Hole Evaporation in Two Dimensions

We discuss some possible implications of a two-dimensional toy model for black hole evaporation in noncommutative field theory. While the noncommutativity we consider does not affect gravity, it can play an important role in the dynamics of massless and Hermitian scalar fields in the event horizon of a Schwarzschild black hole. We find that noncommutativity will affect the flux of outgoing particles and the nature of its UV/IR divergences. Moreover, we show that the noncommutative interaction does not affect Leahy's and Unruh's interpretation of thermal ingoing and outgoing fluxes in the black hole evaporation process. Thus, the noncommutative interaction still destroys the thermal nature of fluxes. In the process, some nonlocal implications of the noncommutativity are discussed.Comment: 33+1 pages, 3 eps figures, typos corrected, references added, figure 3 corrected, modifications in sections 4 and 6, version published in Phys. Rev.

Faint laser quantum key distribution: Eavesdropping exploiting multiphoton pulses

The technological possibilities of a realistic eavesdropper are discussed. Two eavesdropping strategies taking profit of multiphoton pulses in faint laser QKD are presented. We conclude that, as long as storage of Qubits is technically impossible, faint laser QKD is not limited by this security issue, but mostly by the detector noise.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Fear from the heart: sensitivity to fear stimuli depends on individual heartbeats

Cognitions and emotions can be influenced by bodily physiology. Here, we investigated whether the processing of brief fear stimuli is selectively gated by their timing in relation to individual heartbeats. Emotional and neutral faces were presented to human volunteers at cardiac systole, when ejection of blood from the heart causes arterial baroreceptors to signal centrally the strength and timing of each heartbeat, and at diastole, the period between heartbeats when baroreceptors are quiescent. Participants performed behavioral and neuroimaging tasks to determine whether these interoceptive signals influence the detection of emotional stimuli at the threshold of conscious awareness and alter judgments of emotionality of fearful and neutral faces. Our results show that fearful faces were detected more easily and were rated as more intense at systole than at diastole. Correspondingly, amygdala responses were greater to fearful faces presented at systole relative to diastole. These novel findings highlight a major channel by which short-term interoceptive fluctuations enhance perceptual and evaluative processes specifically related to the processing of fear and threat and counter the view that baroreceptor afferent signaling is always inhibitory to sensory perception

Neural correlates of fear: insights from neuroimaging

Fear anticipates a challenge to one's well-being and is a reaction to the risk of harm. The expression of fear in the individual is a constellation of physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and experiential responses. Fear indicates risk and will guide adaptive behavior, yet fear is also fundamental to the symptomatology of most psychiatric disorders. Neuroimaging studies of normal and abnormal fear in humans extend knowledge gained from animal experiments. Neuroimaging permits the empirical evaluation of theory (emotions as response tendencies, mental states, and valence and arousal dimensions), and improves our understanding of the mechanisms of how fear is controlled by both cognitive processes and bodily states. Within the human brain, fear engages a set of regions that include insula and anterior cingulate cortices, the amygdala, and dorsal brain-stem centers, such as periaqueductal gray matter. This same fear matrix is also implicated in attentional orienting, mental planning, interoceptive mapping, bodily feelings, novelty and motivational learning, behavioral prioritization, and the control of autonomic arousal. The stereotyped expression of fear can thus be viewed as a special construction from combinations of these processes. An important motivator for understanding neural fear mechanisms is the debilitating clinical expression of anxiety. Neuroimaging studies of anxiety patients highlight the role of learning and memory in pathological fear. Posttraumatic stress disorder is further distinguished by impairment in cognitive control and contextual memory. These processes ultimately need to be targeted for symptomatic recovery. Neuroscientific knowledge of fear has broader relevance to understanding human and societal behavior. As yet, only some of the insights into fear, anxiety, and avoidance at the individual level extrapolate to groups and populations and can be meaningfully applied to economics, prejudice, and politics. Fear is ultimately a contagious social emotion