5,158 research outputs found
Model of mobile agents for sexual interactions networks
We present a novel model to simulate real social networks of complex
interactions, based in a granular system of colliding particles (agents). The
network is build by keeping track of the collisions and evolves in time with
correlations which emerge due to the mobility of the agents. Therefore,
statistical features are a consequence only of local collisions among its
individual agents. Agent dynamics is realized by an event-driven algorithm of
collisions where energy is gained as opposed to granular systems which have
dissipation. The model reproduces empirical data from networks of sexual
interactions, not previously obtained with other approaches.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure
Rogue waves and entropy consumption
Based on data from the Japan Sea and the North Sea the occurrence of rogue
waves is analyzed by a scale dependent stochastic approach, which interlinks
fluctuations of waves for different spacings. With this approach we are able to
determine a stochastic cascade process, which provides information of the
general multipoint statistics. Furthermore the evolution of single trajectories
in scale, which characterize wave height fluctuations in the surroundings of a
chosen location, can be determined. The explicit knowledge of the stochastic
process enables to assign entropy values to all wave events. We show that for
these entropies the integral fluctuation theorem, a basic law of
non-equilibrium thermodynamics, is valid. This implies that positive and
negative entropy events must occur. Extreme events like rogue waves are
characterized as negative entropy events. The statistics of these entropy
fluctuations changes with the wave state, thus for the Japan Sea the statistics
of the entropies has a more pronounced tail for negative entropy values,
indicating a higher probability of rogue waves.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Moral reasoning and homosexuality: the acceptability of arguments about lesbian and gay issues
In the political arena, lesbian and gay issues have typically been contested on grounds of human rights, but with variable success. Using a moral developmental framework, the purpose of this study was to explore preferences for different types of moral arguments when thinking about moral dilemmas around lesbian and gay issues. The analysis presented here comprised data collected from 545 students at UK universities, who completed a questionnaire, part of which comprised a moral dilemma task. Findings of the study showed that respondents do not apply moral reasoning consistently, and do not (clearly) favour human rights reasoning when thinking about lesbian and gay issues. Respondents tended to favour reasoning supporting existing social structures and frameworks, therefore this study highlights the importance of structural change in effecting widespread attitude change in relation to lesbian and gay rights issues. The implications of the findings for moral education are also discussed.</p
Coherence in scale-free networks of chaotic maps
We study fully synchronized states in scale-free networks of chaotic logistic
maps as a function of both dynamical and topological parameters. Three
different network topologies are considered: (i) random scale-free topology,
(ii) deterministic pseudo-fractal scale-free network, and (iii) Apollonian
network. For the random scale-free topology we find a coupling strength
threshold beyond which full synchronization is attained. This threshold scales
as , where is the outgoing connectivity and depends on the
local nonlinearity. For deterministic scale-free networks coherence is observed
only when the coupling strength is proportional to the neighbor connectivity.
We show that the transition to coherence is of first-order and study the role
of the most connected nodes in the collective dynamics of oscillators in
scale-free networks.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
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