Updated Trends in Child Maltreatment, 2013.

New national data for 2013 show continued declines in child maltreatment, after a one year discontinuity (2012) in which some rates briefly increased. But from 2012 to 2013, sexual abuse declined 4%, physical abuse declined 3%, child maltreatment fatalities declined 7% and overall substantiated child maltreatment declined 1%. Neglect by contrast rose 1%

Updated trends in Child Maltreatment, 2012.

National statistics from 2012 showed increases in some forms of child maltreatment for the first time in many years. While overall substantiated child maltreatment was flat from 2011 to 2012, there was a 2% rise in sexual abuse and a 5% rise in physical abuse. Neglect declined 3%, but child maltreatment fatalities rose 4% from 1557 to 1620

Relativistic stars in f(R) gravity, and absence thereof

Several f(R) modified gravity models have been proposed which realize the correct cosmological evolution and satisfy solar system and laboratory tests. Although nonrelativistic stellar configurations can be constructed, we argue that relativistic stars cannot be present in such f(R) theories. This problem appears due to the dynamics of the effective scalar degree of freedom in the strong gravity regime. Our claim thus raises doubts on the viability of f(R) models.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, v2: references added, minor corrections, version accepted for publication in PR

Can the standard international business cycle model explain the relation between trade and comovement?

Recent empirical research finds that pairs of countries with stronger trade linkages tend to have more highly correlated business cycles. We assess whether the standard international business cycle framework can replicate this intuitive result. We employ a three-country model with transportation costs. We simulate the effects of increased goods market integration under two asset market structures: complete markets and international financial autarky. Our main finding is that under both asset market structures the model can generate stronger correlations for pairs of countries that trade more, but the increased correlation falls far short of the empirical findings. Even when we control for the fact that most country pairs are small with respect to the rest of the world, the model continues to fall short. We also conduct additional simulations that allow for increased trade with the third country or increased TFP shock comovement to affect the country pair’s business cycle comovement. These simulations are helpful in highlighting channels that could narrow the gap between the empirical findings and the predictions of the model.Business cycles ; International trade

Dissipation-induced pure Gaussian state

This paper provides some necessary and sufficient conditions for a generalMarkovian Gaussian master equation to have a unique pure steady state. The conditions are described by simple matrix equations; thus the so-called environment engineering problem for pure-Gaussian-state preparation can be straightforwardly dealt with in the linear algebraic framework. In fact, based on one of those conditions, for an arbitrary given pure Gaussian state,we obtain a complete parametrization of the Gaussian master equation having that state as a unique steady state; this leads to a systematic procedure for engineering a desired dissipative system.We demonstrate some examples including Gaussian cluster states.Comment: 8 page

Triviality and vacuum stability bounds in the three-loop neutrino mass model

We study theoretical constraints on the parameter space under the conditions from vacuum stability and triviality in the three-loop radiative seesaw model with TeV-scale right-handed neutrinos which are odd under the $Z_2$ parity. In this model, some of the neutrino Yukawa coupling constants can be of the order of one. Requirement of strongly first order phase transition for successful electroweak baryogenes is also prefers order-one coupling constants in the scalar sector. Hence, it is important to clarify whether this model satisfies those theoretical conditions up to a given cutoff scale. It is found that the model can be consistent up to the scale above 10 TeV in the parameter region where the neutrino data, the lepton flavor violation data, the thermal relic abundance of dark matter as well as the requirement from the strongly first order phase transition are satisfied.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figure

Curvature effect on nuclear pasta: Is it helpful for gyroid appearance?

In supernova cores and neutron star crusts, nuclei are thought to deform to rodlike and slablike shapes, which are often called nuclear pasta. We study the equilibrium properties of the nuclear pasta by using a liquid drop model with curvature corrections. It is confirmed that the curvature effect acts to lower the transition densities between different shapes. We also examine the gyroid structure, which was recently suggested as a different type of nuclear pasta by analogy with the polymer systems. The gyroid structure investigated in this paper is approximately formulated as an extension of the periodic minimal surface whose mean curvature vanishes. In contrast to our expectations, we find from the present approximate formulation that the curvature corrections act to slightly disfavor the appearance of the gyroid structure. By comparing the energy corrections in the gyroid phase and the hypothetical phases composed of d-dimensional spheres, where d is a general dimensionality, we show that the gyroid is unlikely to belong to a family of the generalized dimensional spheres.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure