On simple arrangements of lines and pseudo-lines in P^2 and R^2 with the maximum number of triangles

We give some new advances in the research of the maximum number of triangles that we may obtain in a simple arrangements of n lines or pseudo-lines.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Quantum teleportation and nonlocality: the puzzling predictions of entanglement are coming of age

The academic research into entanglement nicely illustrates the interplay between fundamental science and applications, and the need to foster both aspects to advance either one. For instance, the possibility to distribute entangled photons over tens or even hundreds of kilometers is fascinating because it confirms the quantum predictions over large distances, while quantum theory is often presented to apply to the very small (see Figure 1). On the other hand, entanglement enables quantum key distribution (QKD) [1]. This most advanced application of quantum information processing allows one to distribute cryptographic keys in a provably secure manner. For this, one merely has to measure the two halves of an entangled pair of photons. Surprisingly, and being of both fundamental and practical interest, the use of entanglement removes even the necessity for trusting most equipment used for the measurements [5]. Furthermore, entanglement serves as a resource for quantum teleportation (see Figure 2) [1]. In turn, this provides a tool for extending quantum key distribution to arbitrarily large distances and building large-scale networks that connect future quantum computers and atomic clocks [6]. In the following, we describe the counter-intuitive properties of entangled particles as well as a few recent experiments that address fundamental and applied aspects of quantum teleportation. While a lot of work is being done using different quantum systems, including trapped ions, color centers in diamond, quantum dots, and superconducting circuits, we will restrict ourselves to experiments involving photons due to their suitability for building future quantum networks.Comment: This paper is intended to be published in the 2015 fourth issue of Europhysics News as a "Feature Article

Detecting wheels

A \emph{wheel} is a graph made of a cycle of length at least~4 together with a vertex that has at least three neighbors in the cycle. We prove that the problem whose instance is a graph $G$ and whose question is "does $G$ contains a wheel as an induced subgraph" is NP-complete. We also settle the complexity of several similar problems

Price Dynamics in Japan (1981-2001): A Structural Analysis of Mechanisms in the Goods and Labor Markets

This paper aims to provide an alternative framework to previous studies of deflation in Japan. We focus on the real dimension of the price dynamics and propose an imperfect competition model, which describes a rent economy, where the formation of prices can be separated into the markup (level of the rent in the goods market) and the unit labor cost (distribution of the rent in the labor market). We use a panel industry dataset to analyze the impact of institutional and structural factors on the heterogeneous price dynamics of 10 manufacturing sectors. Although the evolution of unit labor costs seems to be the driving force of price dynamics in the manufacturing industry, our structural analysis leads to consider the importance of the increasingly competitive environment, as captured by rising import penetration. Along with the decline of bargaining power of the workforce, this is at the origin of the deflationary pressures that characterized the Japanese economy during the Lost Decade.Deflation, Japanese Economy, Wage Bargaining, Markup, Deregulation, Panel Threshold Regression

Sectoral Price Dynamics in Japan: A Threshold Approach

This paper focuses on the real – as opposed to the monetary – side of the economy to explain price dynamics in Japan between 1981 and 2001. We use a panel industry dataset to examine the impact of institutional and structural factors on the heterogeneous price dynamics in 10 manufacturing sectors. Although the evolution of unit labor costs may seem to be the driving force of these price dynamics, our analysis underlines the importance of the increasingly competitive environment, as captured by rising import penetration. Along with the decline of bargaining power of the workforce, this is a key factor underlying the deflationary pressures that characterized Japanese manufacturing industries in the 1990s.Price Dynamics, Panel Threshold Regression, Japanese Economy.

A Comparative Study of Ranking-based Semantics for Abstract Argumentation

Argumentation is a process of evaluating and comparing a set of arguments. A way to compare them consists in using a ranking-based semantics which rank-order arguments from the most to the least acceptable ones. Recently, a number of such semantics have been proposed independently, often associated with some desirable properties. However, there is no comparative study which takes a broader perspective. This is what we propose in this work. We provide a general comparison of all these semantics with respect to the proposed properties. That allows to underline the differences of behavior between the existing semantics.Comment: Proceedings of the 30th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-2016), Feb 2016, Phoenix, United State