Correlation between Risk Aversion and Wealth distribution

Different models of capital exchange among economic agents have been proposed recently trying to explain the emergence of Pareto's wealth power law distribution. One important factor to be considered is the existence of risk aversion. In this paper we study a model where agents posses different levels of risk aversion, going from uniform to a random distribution. In all cases the risk aversion level for a given agent is constant during the simulation. While for a uniform and constant risk aversion the system self-organizes in a distribution that goes from an unfair ``one takes all'' distribution to a Gaussian one, a random risk aversion can produce distributions going from exponential to log-normal and power-law. Besides, interesting correlations between wealth and risk aversion are found.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Physica A, Proceedings of the VIII LAWNP, Salvador, Brazil, 200

Spinal degeneration is associated with lumbar multifidus morphology in secondary care patients with low back or leg pain

Associations between multifidus muscle morphology and degenerative pathologies have been implied in patients with non-specific low back pain, but it is unknown how these are influenced by pathology severity, number, or distribution. MRI measures of pure multifidus muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) were acquired from 522 patients presenting with low back and/or leg symptoms in an outpatient clinic. We explored cross-sectional associations between the presence, distribution, and/or severity of lumbar degenerative pathologies (individually and in aggregate) and muscle outcomes in multivariable analyses (beta coefficients [95% CI]). We identified associations between lower pure multifidus muscle CSA and disc degeneration (at two or more levels): − 4.51 [− 6.72; − 2.3], Modic 2 changes: − 4.06 [− 6.09; − 2.04], endplate defects: − 2.74 [− 4.58; − 0.91], facet arthrosis: − 4.02 [− 6.26; − 1.78], disc herniations: − 3.66 [− 5.8; − 1.52], and when > 5 pathologies were present: − 6.77 [− 9.76; − 3.77], with the last supporting a potential dose–response relationship between number of spinal pathologies and multifidus morphology. Our findings could hypothetically indicate that these spinal and muscle findings: (1) are part of the same degenerative process, (2) result from prior injury or other common antecedent events, or (3) have a directional relationship. Future longitudinal studies are needed to further examine the complex nature of these relationships

Decoherence by a nonlinear environment: canonical vs. microcanonical case

We compare decoherence induced in a simple quantum system (qubit) for two different initial states of the environment: canonical (fixed temperature) and microcanonical (fixed energy), for the general case of a fully interacting oscillator environment. We find that even a relatively compact oscillator bath (with the effective number of degrees of freedom of order 10), initially in a microcanonical state, will typically cause decoherence almost indistinguishable from that by a macroscopic, thermal environment, except possibly at singularities of the environment's specific heat (critical points). In the latter case, the precise magnitude of the difference between the canonical and microcanonical results depends on the critical behavior of the dissipative coefficient, characterizing the interaction of the qubit with the environment.Comment: 18 pages, revtex, 2 figures; minor textual changes, corrected typo in eq. (53) (v2); textual changes, mostly in the introduction (v3

Assessing lumbar paraspinal muscle cross-sectional area and fat composition with T1 versus T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging: Reliability and concurrent validity

Purpose Studies using magnetic resonance imaging to assess lumbar multifidus cross-sectional area frequently utilize T1 or T2-weighted sequences, but seldom provide the rationale for their sequence choice. However, technical considerations between their acquisition protocols could impact on the ability to assess lumbar multifidus anatomy or its fat/muscle distinction. Our objectives were to examine the concurrent validity of lumbar multifidus morphology measures of T2 compared to T1-weighted sequences, and to assess the reliability of repeated lumbar multifidus measures. Methods The lumbar multifidus total cross-sectional area of 45 patients was measured bilaterally at L4 and L5, with histogram analysis determining the muscle/fat threshold values per muscle. Images were later re-randomized and re-assessed for intra-rater reliability. Matched images were visually rated for consistency of outlining between both image sequences. Bland-Altman bias, limits of agreement, and plots were calculated for differences in total cross-sectional area and percentage fat between and within sequences, and intra-rater reliability analysed. Results T1-weighted total cross-sectional area measures were systematically larger than T2 (0.2 cm2), with limits of agreement <±10% at both spinal levels. For percentage fat, no systematic bias occurred, but limits of agreement approached ±15%. Visually, muscle outlining was consistent between sequences, with substantial mismatches occurring in <5% of cases. Intra-rater reliability was excellent (ICC: 0.981–0.998); with bias and limits of agreement less than 1% and ±5%, respectively. Conclusion Total cross-sectional area measures and outlining of muscle boundaries were consistent between sequences, and intra-rater reliability for total cross-sectional area and percentage fat was high indicating that either MRI sequence could be used interchangeably for this purpose. However, further studies comparing the accuracy of various methods for distinguishing fat from muscle are recommended

Nuclear Structure Calculations with Coupled Cluster Methods from Quantum Chemistry

We present several coupled-cluster calculations of ground and excited states of 4He and 16O employing methods from quantum chemistry. A comparison of coupled cluster results with the results of exact diagonalization of the hamiltonian in the same model space and other truncated shell-model calculations shows that the quantum chemistry inspired coupled cluster approximations provide an excellent description of ground and excited states of nuclei, with much less computational effort than traditional large-scale shell-model approaches. Unless truncations are made, for nuclei like 16O, full-fledged shell-model calculations with four or more major shells are not possible. However, these and even larger systems can be studied with the coupled cluster methods due to the polynomial rather than factorial scaling inherent in standard shell-model studies. This makes the coupled cluster approaches, developed in quantum chemistry, viable methods for describing weakly bound systems of interest for future nuclear facilities.Comment: 10 pages, Elsevier latex style, Invited contribution to INPC04 proceedings, to appear in Nuclear Physics

Effect of FET geometry on charge ordering of transition metal oxides

We examine the effect of an FET geometry on the charge ordering phase diagram of transition metal oxides using numerical simulations of a semiclassical model including long-range Coulomb fields, resulting in nanoscale pattern formation. We find that the phase diagram is unchanged for insulating layers thicker than approximately twice the magnetic correlation length. For very thin insulating layers, the onset of a charge clump phase is shifted to lower values of the strength of the magnetic dipolar interaction, and intermediate diagonal stripe and geometric phases can be suppressed. Our results indicate that, for sufficiently thick insulating layers, charge injection in an FET geometry can be used to experimentally probe the intrinsic charge ordering phases in these materials.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figure

On the warp drive space-time

In this paper the problem of the quantum stability of the two-dimensional warp drive spacetime moving with an apparent faster than light velocity is considered. We regard as a maximum extension beyond the event horizon of that spacetime its embedding in a three-dimensional Minkowskian space with the topology of the corresponding Misner space. It is obtained that the interior of the spaceship bubble becomes then a multiply connected nonchronal region with closed timelike curves and that the most natural vacuum allows quantum fluctuations which do not induce any divergent behaviour of the re-normalized stress-energy tensor, even on the event (Cauchy) chronology horizon. In such a case, the horizon encloses closed timelike curves only at scales close to the Planck length, so that the warp drive satisfies the Ford's negative energy-time inequality. Also found is a connection between the superluminal two-dimensional warp drive space and two-dimensional gravitational kinks. This connection allows us to generalize the considered Alcubierre metric to a standard, nonstatic metric which is only describable on two different coordinate patchesComment: 7 pages, minor comment on chronology protection added, RevTex, to appear in Phys. Rev.