Saint Vincent de Paul and the Mission of the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics: Why Companies Should Care About Poverty

The mission of DePaul University’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics (IBPE) is “to encourage ethical deliberation among decision makers by stirring the moral conscience, encouraging moral imagination, and developing models for moral decision-making in business.” In 2006, it added an element: “to inspire companies to address poverty reduction both globally and locally through for-profit initiatives.” The authors make the following assertions: “(1) the poor do not lack resources; (2) poverty alleviation is an evolving, dynamic process; (3) poverty often results from patterns of exclusion; and (4) many feasible approaches to poverty reduction have been and can be created through commerce.” The thinking behind this is explained and illustrated with specific cases. Connections between these propositions and Vincent de Paul’s legacy are made explicit

Andronov-Hopf Bifurcations in Planar, Piecewise-Smooth, Continuous Flows

An equilibrium of a planar, piecewise-$C^1$, continuous system of differential equations that crosses a curve of discontinuity of the Jacobian of its vector field can undergo a number of discontinuous or border-crossing bifurcations. Here we prove that if the eigenvalues of the Jacobian limit to $\lambda_L \pm {\rm i} \omega_L$ on one side of the discontinuity and $-\lambda_R \pm {\rm i} \omega_R$ on the other, with $\lambda_L, \lambda_R >0$, and the quantity $\Lambda = \lambda_L / \omega_L -\lambda_R / \omega_R$ is nonzero, then a periodic orbit is created or destroyed as the equilibrium crosses the discontinuity. This bifurcation is analogous to the classical Andronov-Hopf bifurcation, and is supercritical if $\Lambda < 0$ and subcritical if $\Lambda >0$.Comment: laTex, 18 pages, 8 figure

A large-scale survey for variable stars in M33

We have started a survey of M 33 in order to find variable stars and Cepheids in particular. We have obtained more than 30 epochs of g'r'i' data with the CFHT and the one-square-degree camera MegaCam. We present first results from this survey, including the search for variable objects and a basic characterization of the various groups of variable stars.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the "Nonlinear stellar hydrodynamics", conference in honor of Robert Buchler's 65th birthday, July 2007, Pari

A Study of Single-Particle Parity-Nonconserving Nuclear Matrix Elements

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478

Tunneling times with covariant measurements

We consider the time delay of massive, non-relativistic, one-dimensional particles due to a tunneling potential. In this setting the well-known Hartman effect asserts that often the sub-ensemble of particles going through the tunnel seems to cross the tunnel region instantaneously. An obstacle to the utilization of this effect for getting faster signals is the exponential damping by the tunnel, so there seems to be a trade-off between speedup and intensity. In this paper we prove that this trade-off is never in favor of faster signals: the probability for a signal to reach its destination before some deadline is always reduced by the tunnel, for arbitrary incoming states, arbitrary positive and compactly supported tunnel potentials, and arbitrary detectors. More specifically, we show this for several different ways to define ``the same incoming state'' and ''the same detector'' when comparing the settings with and without tunnel potential. The arrival time measurements are expressed in the time-covariant approach, but we also allow the detection to be a localization measurement at a later time.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

On a universal photonic tunnelling time

We consider photonic tunnelling through evanescent regions and obtain general analytic expressions for the transit (phase) time $\tau$ (in the opaque barrier limit) in order to study the recently proposed ``universality'' property according to which $\tau$ is given by the reciprocal of the photon frequency. We consider different physical phenomena (corresponding to performed experiments) and show that such a property is only an approximation. In particular we find that the ``correction'' factor is a constant term for total internal reflection and quarter-wave photonic bandgap, while it is frequency-dependent in the case of undersized waveguide and distributed Bragg reflector. The comparison of our predictions with the experimental results shows quite a good agreement with observations and reveals the range of applicability of the approximated ``universality'' property.Comment: RevTeX, 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; subsection added with a new experiment analyzed, some other minor change

Searching for star-planet magnetic interaction in CoRoT observations

Close-in massive planets interact with their host stars through tidal and magnetic mechanisms. In this paper, we review circumstantial evidence for star-planet interaction as revealed by the photospheric magnetic activity in some of the CoRoT planet-hosting stars, notably CoRoT-2, CoRoT-4, and CoRoT-6. The phenomena are discussed in the general framework of activity-induced features in stars accompanied by hot Jupiters. The theoretical mechanisms proposed to explain the activity enhancements possibly related with hot Jupiter are also briefly reviewed with an emphasis on the possible effects at photospheric level. The unique advantages of CoRoT and Kepler observations to test these models are pointed out.Comment: Invited review paper accepted by Astrophysics and Space Science, 13 pages, 5 figure

Magnetic Field Generation in Stars

Enormous progress has been made on observing stellar magnetism in stars from the main sequence through to compact objects. Recent data have thrown into sharper relief the vexed question of the origin of stellar magnetic fields, which remains one of the main unanswered questions in astrophysics. In this chapter we review recent work in this area of research. In particular, we look at the fossil field hypothesis which links magnetism in compact stars to magnetism in main sequence and pre-main sequence stars and we consider why its feasibility has now been questioned particularly in the context of highly magnetic white dwarfs. We also review the fossil versus dynamo debate in the context of neutron stars and the roles played by key physical processes such as buoyancy, helicity, and superfluid turbulence,in the generation and stability of neutron star fields. Independent information on the internal magnetic field of neutron stars will come from future gravitational wave detections. Thus we maybe at the dawn of a new era of exciting discoveries in compact star magnetism driven by the opening of a new, non-electromagnetic observational window. We also review recent advances in the theory and computation of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence as it applies to stellar magnetism and dynamo theory. These advances offer insight into the action of stellar dynamos as well as processes whichcontrol the diffusive magnetic flux transport in stars.Comment: 41 pages, 7 figures. Invited review chapter on on magnetic field generation in stars to appear in Space Science Reviews, Springe

The ANTARES Telescope Neutrino Alert System

The ANTARES telescope has the capability to detect neutrinos produced in astrophysical transient sources. Potential sources include gamma-ray bursts, core collapse supernovae, and flaring active galactic nuclei. To enhance the sensitivity of ANTARES to such sources, a new detection method based on coincident observations of neutrinos and optical signals has been developed. A fast online muon track reconstruction is used to trigger a network of small automatic optical telescopes. Such alerts are generated for special events, such as two or more neutrinos, coincident in time and direction, or single neutrinos of very high energy.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures submitted to Astroparticle Physic

FGF receptor genes and breast cancer susceptibility: results from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium

Background:Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women. Genome-wide association studies have identified FGFR2 as a breast cancer susceptibility gene. Common variation in other fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors might also modify risk. We tested this hypothesis by studying genotyped single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and imputed SNPs in FGFR1, FGFR3, FGFR4 and FGFRL1 in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. Methods:Data were combined from 49 studies, including 53 835 cases and 50 156 controls, of which 89 050 (46 450 cases and 42 600 controls) were of European ancestry, 12 893 (6269 cases and 6624 controls) of Asian and 2048 (1116 cases and 932 controls) of African ancestry. Associations with risk of breast cancer, overall and by disease sub-type, were assessed using unconditional logistic regression. Results:Little evidence of association with breast cancer risk was observed for SNPs in the FGF receptor genes. The strongest evidence in European women was for rs743682 in FGFR3; the estimated per-allele odds ratio was 1.05 (95 confidence interval=1.02-1.09, P=0.0020), which is substantially lower than that observed for SNPs in FGFR2. Conclusion:Our results suggest that common variants in the other FGF receptors are not associated with risk of breast cancer to the degree observed for FGFR2. © 2014 Cancer Research UK