The fast response of volcano-seismic activity to intense precipitation: Triggering of primary volcanic activity by rainfall at Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat

One-minute resolution time series of rainfall and seismic data from the Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat are analysed to explore the mechanism of external forcing of volcanic eruptions by rainfall over three years of activity. The real-time seismic amplitude (RSAM) shows a narrow, statistically significant, peak within 30 min after the start of intense rainfall events, and a much broader peak with a lag of 6?40 h. The classified seismic events indicate that the volcanic response to rainfall begins at the surface and gradually penetrates deeper into the dome, as there is an increase in the pseudo-magnitude of: surface rockfall events (including pyroclastic flows) with lags from the first 30 min to 40 h, long-period rockfalls (from shallow degassing) at lags of 4 and 14 h, and long-period and hybrid events (source depth approximately 1 km) with lags at 14 and 24 h after the start of rainfall events. There was no rainfall-related change in deeper, volcano-tectonic activity. There was no change in the frequency of any type of classified event, indicating that the rainfall acts to modulate existing, internal processes, rather than generating new events itself. These robust results are due to many (229) different rainfall events, and not just to a few, large magnitude cases. The rainfalltriggered volcanic activity examined here is consistent with a model of fast, shallow interactions with rainfall at the dome surface, after which, a deeper dome collapse follows

From Heterogeneous expectations to exchange rate dynamic:

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how heterogeneous behaviors of agents influence the exchange rates dynamic in the short and long terms. We examine how agents use the information and which kind of information, in order to take theirs decisions to form an expectation of the exchange rate. We investigate a methodology based on interactive agents simulations, following the Santa Fe Artificial Stock Market. Each trader is modeled as an autonomous, interactive agent and the aggregation of their behavior results in foreign exchange market dynamic. Genetic algorithm is the tool used to compute agents, and the simulated market tends to replicate the real EUR/USD exchange rate market. We consider six kinds of agents with pure behavior: fundamentalists, positive feedback traders and negative ones, naive traders, news traders (positive and negative). To reproduce stylized facts of the exchange rates dynamic, we conclude that the key factor is the correct proportion of each agents type, whiteout any need of mimetic behaviors, adaptive agents or pure noisy agentsexchange rates dynamic, heterogeneous interactive agents behaviour, genetic algorithm, learning process

Poverty as a situation of disability: Social workers’ reticence to back active solidarity income beneficiaries’ requests for disabled adults allowance

AbstractSocial service support for beneficiaries of the French RSA (minimum income scheme) is based on reducing their problems to a series of situations blocking their “plans to return to employment”. These situations are defined in practice by the specific “programs” toward which professional may orient beneficiaries. This notion is quite close to that of “situation of disability”, as it is used in social conceptions of disability. It is the support for a specific handicapology, rooted in a representation of social service work in rupture with the traditional notion of support for disabled persons, those unfit for work. It is characterized particularly by a refusal to sort beneficiaries into overarching categories, and a change in the meaning given to people's material and cultural destitution, which is not treated as a consequence of unemployment or as a disability, but as a disabling situation responsible for their withdrawal from the employment market. These professional norms are manifest in a strong resistance when beneficiaries express the desire to seek AAH (disabled adult allowance). This reticence is explained by the simultaneous transformations of both the administrative division of social support work and the social trajectories of the social workers charged with this work. AAH requests place professionals in a paradoxical situation: their general role to support people in their administrative procedures comes into contradiction with their mission to “support toward employment”, which they find radically incompatible with the posture of assistance implied by the recognition of even a partial unfitness for work

Universality of the best determined terms method

summary:The properties are studied of the best determined terms method with respect to an a priori decomposition $R(T)$. The universal approximation to the normal solution of the first kind Fredholm integral equation is found

Razvoj emocionalnih vrijednosti studenata stručnih studija Veleučilišta u Varaždinu The development of emotional values among students of Polytechnic of Varaždin

Cilj/Svrha: Emocije utječu na razvoj životnih situacija, na donošenje odluka, na razvijanje komunikacije. Razvijanje svjesnosti o postojanju i upravljanju emocijama, ali i o važnosti empatije i motiviranja samog sebe, jedna je od najvažnijih zadaća svakog čovjeka, a posebno medicinskih djelatnika koja će na taj način pridonijeti podizanju kvalitete medicinske skrbi i stvaranju povjerenja između pacijenta i zdravstvenog radnika. Potaknuti nedostatkom emocionalne inteligencije kod medicinskih sestara, obavili smo istraživanje kojemu je svrha bila prikazati razvijenost emocionalne inteligencije studenata studija sestrinstva u usporedbi s ostalim stručnim studijima Veleučilišta u Varaždinu. Metode: Podaci za istraživanje prikupljeni su s pomoću originalnog anketnog upitnika koji je proveden na internetskim stranicama Veleučilišta u Varaždinu tijekom mjeseca travnja 2013. godine. Anketni upitnik ispravno je ispunilo 110 studenata stručnog studija sestrinstva i 65 studenata ostalih studija Veleučilišta u Varaždinu. Razlike su analizirane na razini ukupnog rezultata, uspoređujući obje skupine ispitanika. Rezultati: Iznalazi se iznimno visoka svjesnost vlastitih osjećaja, samosvijest, kod obje skupine ispitanika. Dokazano je visoko razumijevanje vlastitih osjećaja i uzroka javljanja određene emocije u objema skupinama ispitanih studenata. Samim time nije potvrđena hipoteza kako su samosvijest i emocionalna inteligencija razvijeniji kod studenata Stručnog studija sestrinstva. Rezultati tvrdnje, koja se odnosila na motiviranost, kao komponentu emocionalne inteligencije, dali su najniže rezultate aritmetičke sredine odgovora u svih 8 tvrdnji navedenih u upitniku te je motivacija najmanje razvijena komponenta emocionalne inteligencije ispitana anketnim upitnikom kod studenata. Rasprava: Emocionalna inteligencija iznimno je važna u svakodnevnom životu. Stoga je bitno razviti emocionalne kompetencije: mosvladavanje, samosvjesnost, motiviranost, empatiju i socijalne vještine. Upravo te vještine nužne su u radu medicinske sestre

Capital and Punishment: Resource Scarcity Increases Endorsement of the Death Penalty

Faced with punishing severe offenders, why do some prefer imprisonment whereas others impose death? Previous research exploring death penalty attitudes has primarily focused on individual and cultural factors. Adopting a functional perspective, we propose that environmental features may also shape our punishment strategies. Individuals are attuned to the availability of resources within their environments. Due to heightened concerns with the costliness of repeated offending, we hypothesize that individuals tend toward elimination-focused punishments during times of perceived scarcity. Using global and United States data sets (studies 1 and 2), we find that indicators of resource scarcity predict the presence of capital punishment. In two experiments (studies 3 and 4), we find that activating concerns about scarcity causes people to increase their endorsement for capital punishment, and this effect is statistically mediated by a reduced willingness to risk repeated offenses. Perceived resource scarcity shapes our punishment preferences, with important policy implications

The curriculum review process: A powerful learning opportunity

We describe the value and learnings that came from participating in a curriculum review and adoption process