Quantum Corrections to Unimodular Gravity

The problem of the cosmological constant appears in a new light in Unimodular Gravity. In particular, the zero momentum piece of the potential (that is, the constant piece independent of the matter fields) does not automatically produce a cosmological constant proportional to it. The aim of this paper is to give some details on a calculation showing that quantum corrections do not renormalize the classical value of this observable.Comment: 34 page

A Simulated Annealing Method to Cover Dynamic Load Balancing in Grid Environment

High-performance scheduling is critical to the achievement of application performance on the computational grid. New scheduling algorithms are in demand for addressing new concerns arising in the grid environment. One of the main phases of scheduling on a grid is related to the load balancing problem therefore having a high-performance method to deal with the load balancing problem is essential to obtain a satisfactory high-performance scheduling. This paper presents SAGE, a new high-performance method to cover the dynamic load balancing problem by means of a simulated annealing algorithm. Even though this problem has been addressed with several different approaches only one of these methods is related with simulated annealing algorithm. Preliminary results show that SAGE not only makes it possible to find a good solution to the problem (effectiveness) but also in a reasonable amount of time (efficiency)

Conformal and non Conformal Dilaton Gravity

The quantum dynamics of the gravitational field non-minimally coupled to an (also dynamical) scalar field is studied in the {\em broken phase}. For a particular value of the coupling the system is classically conformal, and can actually be understood as the group averaging of Einstein-Hilbert's action under conformal transformations. Conformal invariance implies a simple Ward identity asserting that the trace of the equation of motion for the graviton is the equation of motion of the scalar field. We perform an explicit one-loop computation to show that the DeWitt effective action is not UV divergent {\em on shell} and to find that the Weyl symmetry Ward identity is preserved {\em on shell} at that level. We also discuss the fate of this Ward identity at the two-loop level --under the assumption that the two-loop UV divergent part of the effective action can be retrieved from the Goroff-Sagnotti counterterm-- and show that its preservation in the renormalized theory requires the introduction of counterterms which exhibit a logarithmic dependence on the dilaton field.Comment: LateX, 50 pages. Several points clarified; references added. New section on Weyl invariant renormalisation adde

Book review Enda Walsh, The Walworth farce & The new electric ballroom. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2009

These two recent and acclaimed plays by Enda Walsh are meant to be a tandem billboard featuring a set of idiosyncratic issues, or as we may allow ourselves to call them, by now, “Walshian obsessions.” Namely, the vicious need to replay the darkest pitfalls of one’s own family past; the ritualistic, cyclic and punctilious nature of the paraphernalia and wording involved within this performative procedure; together with the exploration of its dubious range of loyalty to reality, and the limits of its transfigurative and therapeutic effects

The Doing of Telling on the Irish Stage: An Introduction and two Samples of Modern and Contemporary Story-Telling Performativity

[Abstract] Delivered on stage, featuring a protagonist role on stage, language feels in its natural element of performance and transfiguration, which are the very elements of theatre at its best. The fundamental idea of performance (change dealing to surmounting) symbiotically embraces in fact both the theatrical and the narrative process. Conflict and the overcoming of conflict constitute the ebb and flow of all drama, as well as of story-telling. The blending of both modes, doing and telling, resulting in the doing of telling on stage, characterises much of the Irish modern and contemporary theatre. This is not theatre propelled by action on stage, but theatre of language in performance, in which central dramatic tension stems from the multiple imbalance between life, story and self (Morrison, 1983: 1), “a drama between body and speech” (Puchner, 2002: 169). This paper approaches two examples of narrative performativity on twentieth-century Irish stage: Yeats’s seminal piece Purgatory (1938) and Tom Murphy’s unique Bailegangaire (1985)

An upper bound for the magnetic force gradient in graphite

Cervenka et al. have recently reported ferromagnetism along graphite steps. We present Magnetic Force microscopy (MFM) data showing that the signal along the steps is independent of an external magnetic field. Moreover, by combining Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) and MFM, we are able to separate the electrostatic and magnetic interactions along the steps obtaining an upper bound for the magnetic force gradient of about16 microN/m, a figure six times lower than the lowest theoretical bound reported by Cervenka et al. Our experiments suggest absence of MFM signal in graphite at room temperature.Comment: 14 pages, including supplemetary informatio

Routines in precision agriculture technology: an action research study

A crop management and precision agriculture software application facilitates the flow of information between disparate software/equipment and the network of individuals that work with them. A new generation of farmers are using precision technology to help them more efficiently manage their roplands. By measuring precisely the way their fields reflect and emit energy at visible and infrared wavelengths, precision farmers can monitor a wide range of variables that affect their crops,such as soil moisture, surface temperature, photosynthetic activity, and weed or pest infestations. Over thirty years have passed since Nelson and Winter put the concept of routines firmly at the center of the analysis of organizational and economic change. Taken as the central unit of analysis, routines would help understand energy and agriculture economy evolution

Dinamismo de las rutinas organizativas: action research in New Holland

La investigación que presentamos propone un modelo para entender, primero, las rutinas interorganizativas que existen entre la empresa matriz y las empresas concesionarias. Segundo, investigar cómo mejorarlas. Y tercero, cómo introducir nuevos modelos de relación de forma ágil

Los programas de formación como instrumento de la gestión de las rutinas inter-organizativas. El caso de la empresa Z y sus reparadores autorizados en el sector del automóvil.

En este trabajo partimos del hecho de que la formación en la empresa es uno de los mecanismos a través de los cuales las organizaciones pueden desarrollar su aprendizaje. Sin embargo, la formación no es equivalente al aprendizaje organizativo, pero que gestionada adecuadamente en el marco de las rutinas organizativas conduce al desarrollo de los diferentes equipos de personas y unidades