Microcanonical Approach to the Simulation of First-Order Phase Transitions

A generalization of the microcanonical ensemble suggests a simple strategy for the simulation of first order phase transitions. At variance with flat-histogram methods, there is no iterative parameters optimization, nor long waits for tunneling between the ordered and the disordered phases. We test the method in the standard benchmark: the Q-states Potts model (Q=10 in 2 dimensions and Q=4 in 3 dimensions), where we develop a cluster algorithm. We obtain accurate results for systems with more than one million of spins, outperforming flat-histogram methods that handle up to tens of thousands of spins.Comment: 4 pages, 3 postscript figure

Age and sex distribution of adult asthma admission : a study of the five-year cumulative prevalence

The objective of this study is to describe the age and sex distribution of adult patients (ages 15-59) in Malta, admitted because of severe acute asthma. The study was designed using a retrospective review of all acute adult asthma admissions to determine the 5-year cumulative prevalence of acute asthma admission from 1989 to 1993 to St. Luke’s Hospital, the only acute medical facility serving the whole of the island of Malta. The results of this study showed that the female predominance in adult asthma admission rates reflects a larger number of female patients who require hospital admission rather than higher admission rates per person in females as compared to males.peer-reviewe

Between Scylla and Charybdis: Environmental governance and illegibility in the American West

In The Odyssey, Odysseus and his crew must navigate the Strait of Messina between two great hazards: the six-headed monster Scylla on one side, and the whirlpool Charybdis on the other. This conceit here guides a critical engagement with scientific knowledge and state power, grounded in the positionality and practices of government agents charged with the management of controversial species and processes in the American West. Based in ethnographic and archival research on wolf-livestock conflict and public lands grazing in Central Idaho, I relate how agents with the U.S. Forest Service and Idaho Department of Fish and Game navigate conditions not of their own choosing. Sailing the “choppy seas” of complex systems and multiple-use mandates, with the “whirlpool” of cuts to capacity on one side and the “monster” of political controversy and litigation on the other, agents appear to collect less or more ambiguous information on their charges, resulting in a partial “blindness” or illegibility. Although a rational adaptation to unrealistic expectations, this ignorance is not bliss but rather symptom and source of dysfunction, limiting agents’ ability to carry out monitoring, collaboration, and effectively conduct on-the-ground management. Understanding patterns of illegibility requires that we attend both to broader contextual pressures and situated motivations. In so doing, we might account for the seeming disconnect between agencies’ stated aims and practices, complicate traditional assumptions of evidence-based scientific management and analyses of bureaucratic rationality and state power, and make sense of the apparent dysfunction around environmental governance in the American West today

Optimal non-linear monetary policy rules

We propose a simply yet flexible framework for the analysis of optimal monetary policy rules that produces the type of non-linear responses derived in the literature as special cases. Perhaps more importantly, our framework suggests a richer set of nonlinear responses than have been considered yet and thus may prompt further work in this area

The Perverse Response of Interest Rates

We argue that an increase in aggregate demand can lead to a reduction in the interest rate. This apparently perverse optimal response of interest rates can occur when the Phillips curve is non-linear. In that case, an increase in aggregate demand tends to increase inflation and output but also to change the weight on inflation in the optimal monetary policy rule. Although the first two effects tend to increase interest rates, the latter effect can imply lower interest rates. If this effect dominates, interest rates can fall

Targets, Zones and Asymmetries: A Flexible Nonlinear model of Recent UK Monetary Policy

We estimate a flexible model of the behaviour of UK monetary policymakers in the era of inflation targeting based on a new representation of policymaker’s preferences. This enables us to address a range of issues that are beyond the scope of the existing literature. We find a complex relationship between interest rates and inflation: interest rates are passive when inflation is close to the target but there is an increasingly vigorous response as inflation deviates further from the target. We also find that the response to the output gap is linear and find no evidence of a nonlinear Phillips curve

THE LAND-GRANT UNIVERSITY IN THE 21st CENTURY

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,