Sebastian Izquierdo on Universals

The paper deals with the theory of universals of Sebastian Izquierdo, a Spanish Jesuit author working in Rome, as he formulated and defended it in Disputation 17 of his major philosophical work The Lighthouse of Sciences, published in Lyon in 1659. Izquierdo’s discussion centers around three questions: What is universality? Is there some intellect-independent universality? What is the nature of the intellect-dependent universality? Izquierdo’s approach may be seen as a search for the third way between the realism of the Thomists and the Scotists and the nominalism of some Jesuits such as Pedro Hurtado de Mendoza

Convergence and divergence in living standards among regions of the enlarged European Union (1992-2006)

This paper examines regional convergence in living standards among 264 EU27 regions during1992-2006. The main contribution is the exploratory analysis, which inspects various aspects of regional dynamics such as convergence and divergence, polarization, the role of inter-national component, polarization, switching, and mobility of regions. Both the development of absolute and relative differentials in regional living standards is considered by applying several different techniques including some magnitude-free statistics. The results indicate that regional convergence in relative differentials was concurrent to widening of absolute gaps. Beyond the aggregate trends a significant extent of switching and mobility of individual regions has been detected.European Union, living standards, subjective judgements, real convergence, regional dynamics

Current noise spectrum of a quantum shuttle

We present a method for calculating the full current noise spectrum for the class of nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS) that can be described by a Markovian generalized master equation. As a specific example we apply the method to a quantum shuttle. The noise spectrum of the shuttle has peaks at integer multiples of the mechanical frequency, which is slightly renormalized. The renormalization explains a previously observed small deviation of the shuttle current compared to the expected value given by the product of the natural mechanical frequency and the electron charge. For a certain parameter range the quantum shuttle exhibits a coexistence regime, where the charges are transported by two different mechanisms: shuttling and sequential tunneling. In our previous studies we showed that characteristic features in the zero-frequency noise could be quantitatively understood as a slow switching process between the two current channels, and the present study shows that this interpretation holds also qualitatively at finite frequency.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, Contribution to FQMT04, Prague, July, 200

Chybné zapojení čerpadla v topném systému

The expert literature describes the adaptive mode of a pump as one possibility for the significant savings in electricity consumption for heating in residential buildings. However, there are examples where a project, based on the superficial knowledge of advertising leaflets leads to mistakes and does not save energy. The end user is mistaken that no better solution exists. One example of incorrect boiler project is rectified and calculation of electrical energy savings is made.V odborné veřejnosti a literatuře se popisuje autoadaptivní režim čerpadla jako jedna z možností výrazných úspor spotřeby elektrické energie na vytápění v obytných domech. Existují však příklady, kdy už v projektu, na základě povrchních znalostí z reklamních letáků, se vyskytují chybná zapojení, která úsporu elektrické energie nepřináší a konečný uživatel je v omylu, že nic lepšího v současnosti neexistuje. Na konkrétním příkladu chybného projektu kotelny je provedena náprava chybného zapojení a vyčíslena úspora elektrické enrgie

Loop exponent in DNA bubble dynamics

Dynamics of DNA bubbles are of interest for both statistical physics and biology. We present exact solutions to the Fokker-Planck equation governing bubble dynamics in the presence of a long-range entropic interaction. The complete meeting time and meeting position probability distributions are derived from the solutions. Probability distribution functions reflect the value of the loop exponent of the entropic interaction. Our results extend previous results which concentrated mainly on the tails of the probability distribution functions and open a way to determining the strength of the entropic interaction experimentally which has been a matter of recent discussions. Using numerical integration, we also discuss the influence of the finite size of a DNA chain on the bubble dynamics. Analogous results are obtained also for the case of subdiffusive dynamics of a DNA bubble in a heteropolymer, revealing highly universal asymptotics of meeting time and position probability functions.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, text identical to the published version; v3 - updated Ref. [47] and corrected Eqs. (3.6) and (3.10