The Story of the Puerto Rican-Chicano Committee

The concept or idea for The Puerto Rican-Chicano Committee (PRCC) came from UB student Alberto O. Cappas, who also was the original founder of PODER, at the time known as the Puerto Rican Organization for Dignity, Elevation, and Responsibility

On Consistency Of Noncommutative Chern-Simons Theory

We consider the noncommutative extension of Chern-Simons theory. We show the the theory can be fully expanded in power series of the noncommutative parameter theta and that no non-analytical sector exists. The theory appears to be unstable under radiative corrections, but we show that the infinite set of instabilities, to all orders in \hbar and in theta, is confined to a BRS exact cocycle. We show also that the theory is anomaly free. The quantum theory cannot be written in terms of the Groenewald-Moyal star product, and hence doubts arise on the interpretation of the noncommutative nature of the underlying spacetime. Nonetheless, the deformed theory is well defined as a quantum field theory, and the beta function of the Chern-Simons coupling constant vanishes, as in the ordinary Chern-Simons theory.Comment: 17 page

A Novel Approach to the Cosmological Constant Problem

We propose a novel infinite-volume brane world scenario where we live on a non-inflating spherical 3-brane, whose radius is somewhat larger than the present Hubble size, embedded in higher dimensional bulk. Once we include higher curvature terms in the bulk, we find completely smooth solutions with the property that the 3-brane world-volume is non-inflating for a continuous range of positive values of the brane tension, that is, without fine-tuning. In particular, our solution, which is a near-BPS background with supersymmetry broken on the brane around TeV, is controlled by a single integration constant.Comment: 20 pages, revte

Curvature-driven coarsening in the two dimensional Potts model

We study the geometric properties of polymixtures after a sudden quench in temperature. We mimic these systems with the $q$-states Potts model on a square lattice with and without weak quenched disorder, and their evolution with Monte Carlo simulations with non-conserved order parameter. We analyze the distribution of hull enclosed areas for different initial conditions and compare our results with recent exact and numerical findings for $q=2$ (Ising) case. Our results demonstrate the memory of the presence or absence of long-range correlations in the initial state during the coarsening regime and exhibit super-universality properties.Comment: 12 pages, 16 figure

The hidden curriculum in medical teaching

Indexación: Web of Science; ScieloBackground: Medical education must ascribe to a curriculum but clinical teaching poses special difficulties that go beyond any programming attempt. Attitudes and skills learned during tutored clinical practice are called the "hidden curriculum". The figure and personal features of the teacher, his environment and the atmosphere that projects every particular medical school, are essential to shape the characteristics of the student. Paradoxically, it is almost impossible to measure the impact of this hidden curriculum. This article is a reflection on an issue that is acquiring special relevance in medical education.http://ref.scielo.org/x49wb

Cosmological parameter inference with Bayesian statistics

Bayesian statistics and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms have found their place in the field of Cosmology. They have become important mathematical and numerical tools, especially in parameter estimation and model comparison. In this paper, we review some fundamental concepts to understand Bayesian statistics and then introduce MCMC algorithms and samplers that allow us to perform the parameter inference procedure. We also introduce a general description of the standard cosmological model, known as the $\Lambda$CDM model, along with several alternatives, and current datasets coming from astrophysical and cosmological observations. Finally, with the tools acquired, we use an MCMC algorithm implemented in python to test several cosmological models and find out the combination of parameters that best describes the Universe.Comment: 30 pages, 17 figures, 5 tables; accepted for publication in Universe; references adde