Compelled to do the right thing

We use a model of opinion formation to study the consequences of some mechanisms attempting to enforce the right behaviour in a society. We start from a model where the possible choices are not equivalent (such is the case when the agents decide to comply or not with a law) and where an imitation mechanism allow the agents to change their behaviour based on the influence of a group of partners. In addition, we consider the existence of two social constraints: a) an external authority, called monitor, that imposes the correct behaviour with infinite persuasion and b) an educated group of agents that act upon their fellows but never change their own opinion, i.e., they exhibit infinite adamancy. We determine the minimum number of monitors to induce an effective change in the behaviour of the social group, and the size of the educated group that produces the same effect. Also, we compare the results for the cases of random social interactions and agents placed on a network. We have verified that a small number of monitors are enough to change the behaviour of the society. This also happens with a relatively small educated group in the case of random interactions.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, submitted to EPJ

Comparisons for Esta-Task3: Cles and Cesam

We present the results of comparing three different implementations of the microscopic diffusion process in the stellar evolution codes CESAM and CLES. For each of these implementations we computed models of 1.0, 1.2 and 1.3 M$_{\odot}$. We analyse the differences in their internal structure at three selected evolutionary stages, as well as the variations of helium abundance and depth of the stellar convective envelope. The origin of these differences and their effects on the seismic properties of the models are also considered.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, Joint HELAS and CoRoT/ESTA Workshop on Solar/Stellar Models and Seismic Analysis Tools, Novembre, Porto 2007 To be published in EAS Publications Serie

Comparison of self-reported measures of alcohol-related dependence among young Swiss men: a study protocol for a cross-sectional controlled sample.

Short screenings of alcohol-related dependence are needed for population-based assessments. A clinical interview constitutes a reliable diagnosis often seen as gold standard, but it is costly and time consuming and as such, not suitable for population-based assessments. Therefore, self-reported questionnaires are needed (eg, alcohol use disorder (AUD) as in the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) 5), but their reliability is questionable. Recent studies called for more evidence-based measurements for population-based screening (eg, heavy alcohol use over time (HAU)). This study aims to test the reliability of different self-reported measures of alcohol use. Based on stratified random selection, 280 participants will be recruited from the French-speaking subgroup of the Swiss National Science Foundation-supported Cohort Study on Substance Use and Risk Factors (C-SURF). This cohort is a population-based sample of young Swiss men in their mid-20s (n=2668). The sample size calculation is based on a proportion non-inferiority test (alpha=5%, power=80%, margin of equivalence=10%, difference in sensitivity between self-reported AUD and HAU=5%, correlation between AUD and HAU=0.35, and drop-outs=15%). Assessment will include a clinical interview as the gold standard of alcohol-related dependence, self-reported alcohol measures (HAU, AUD and drinking patterns), biomarkers as gold standards of chronic excessive drinking, and health outcomes. To assess the validity of the self-reported alcohol measures, sensitivity analyses will be run. The associations between alcohol-related measures and health outcomes will be tested. A non-response analysis will be run using the previous waves of the C-SURF study using logistic regressions. The study protocol has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland (no. 2017-00776). The results will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international conferences

DC-DC switching converter based power distribution vs serial power distribution: EMC strategies

This paper presents a detailed and comparative analysis from the electromagnetic compatibility point of view of the proposed power distributions for the SLHC tracker up-grade. The main idea is to identify and quantify the noise sources, noise distribution at the system level and the sensitive areas in the front-end electronics corresponding to both proposed topologies: The DC-DC converter based power distribution and the serial power distribution. These studies will be used to define critical points on both systems to be studied and prototyped to ensure the correct integration of the system taking critically into account the electromagnetic compatibility. This analysis at the system level is crucial to ensure the final performance of the detector using non conventional power distributions, avoiding interference problems and excessive losses that can lead to catastrophic failures or expensive and un-practical solutions

Effect of band filling in the Kondo lattice: A mean-field approach

The usual Kondo-lattice, including an antiferromagnetic exchange interaction between nearest-neighboring localized spins, is treated here in a mean-field scheme that introduces two mean-field parameters: one associated with the local Kondo effect, and the other related to the magnetic correlations between localized spins. Phases with short-range magnetic correlations or coexistence between those and the Kondo effect are obtained. By varying the number of electrons in the conduction band, we notice that the Kondo effect tends to be suppressed away from half filling, while magnetic correlations can survive if the Heisenberg coupling is strong enough. An enhanced linear coefficient of the specific heat is obtained at low temperatures in the metallic state.Comment: 7 pages, ReVTeX two-column, 7 figure

X-ray spectra from convective photospheres of neutron stars

We present first results of modeling convective photospheres of neutron stars. We show that in photospheres composed of the light elements convection arises only at relatively low effective temperatures (< 3-5*10^4 K), whereas in the case of iron compositon it arises at < 3*10^ K. Convection changes the depth dependence of the photosphere temperature and the shapes of the emergent spectra. Thus, it should be taken into account for the proper interpretation of EUV/soft-X-ray observations of the thermal radiation from neutron stars

On the linear fractional self-attracting diffusion

In this paper, we introduce the linear fractional self-attracting diffusion driven by a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst index 1/2<H<1, which is analogous to the linear self-attracting diffusion. For 1-dimensional process we study its convergence and the corresponding weighted local time. For 2-dimensional process, as a related problem, we show that the renormalized self-intersection local time exists in L^2 if $\frac12<H<\frac3{4}$.Comment: 14 Pages. To appear in Journal of Theoretical Probabilit