Judentum im Wandel. Eine Diskurs- und Wissensgemeinschaft

Das Jahr 2016 wird im Bewusstsein der Schweizer Juden und Jüdinnen als Jubiläum der Emanzipation vor 150 Jahren gefeiert. 1866 wurde den Juden durch eine Volksabstimmung die freie Niederlassung in der ganzen Schweiz gewährt. 1874 folgte im Rahmen einer Verfassungsrevision auch die Gewährung der allgemeinen Kultusfreiheit. Ein Blick in die Geschichte des Schweizer Judentums verweist auch auf dessen Gegenwart, die von vielerlei Facetten und Identitäten und einem Wandel der Traditionen geprägt ist

Testing the isotropy of high energy cosmic rays using spherical needlets

For many decades, ultrahigh energy charged particles of unknown origin that can be observed from the ground have been a puzzle for particle physicists and astrophysicists. As an attempt to discriminate among several possible production scenarios, astrophysicists try to test the statistical isotropy of the directions of arrival of these cosmic rays. At the highest energies, they are supposed to point toward their sources with good accuracy. However, the observations are so rare that testing the distribution of such samples of directional data on the sphere is nontrivial. In this paper, we choose a nonparametric framework that makes weak hypotheses on the alternative distributions and allows in turn to detect various and possibly unexpected forms of anisotropy. We explore two particular procedures. Both are derived from fitting the empirical distribution with wavelet expansions of densities. We use the wavelet frame introduced by [SIAM J. Math. Anal. 38 (2006b) 574-594 (electronic)], the so-called needlets. The expansions are truncated at scale indices no larger than some ${J^{\star}}$, and the $L^p$ distances between those estimates and the null density are computed. One family of tests (called Multiple) is based on the idea of testing the distance from the null for each choice of $J=1,\ldots,{J^{\star}}$, whereas the so-called PlugIn approach is based on the single full ${J^{\star}}$ expansion, but with thresholded wavelet coefficients. We describe the practical implementation of these two procedures and compare them to other methods in the literature. As alternatives to isotropy, we consider both very simple toy models and more realistic nonisotropic models based on Physics-inspired simulations. The Monte Carlo study shows good performance of the Multiple test, even at moderate sample size, for a wide sample of alternative hypotheses and for different choices of the parameter ${J^{\star}}$. On the 69 most energetic events published by the Pierre Auger Collaboration, the needlet-based procedures suggest statistical evidence for anisotropy. Using several values for the parameters of the methods, our procedures yield $p$-values below 1%, but with uncontrolled multiplicity issues. The flexibility of this method and the possibility to modify it to take into account a large variety of extensions of the problem make it an interesting option for future investigation of the origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/12-AOAS619 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

The spatial selection of heterogeneous firms

The aim of this paper is to study the spatial selection of firms once it is recognized that heterogeneous firms typically choose different locations in respond to market integration of regions having different sizes. Specifically, we show that decreasing trade costs leads to the gradual agglomeration of efficient firms in the large region because these firms are able to survive in a more competitive environment. In contrast, high-cost firms seek protection against competition from the efficient firms by establishing themselves in the small region. However, when the spatial separation of markets ceases to be a sufficient protection against competition from the low-cost firms, high-cost firms also choose to set up in the larger market where they have access to a bigger pool of consumers. This leads to the following prediction: the relationship between economic integration and interregional productivity differences first increases and then decreases with market integration.Firm heterogeneity, Spatial selection, Trade liberalization

A statistical approach for array CGH data analysis

BACKGROUND: Microarray-CGH experiments are used to detect and map chromosomal imbalances, by hybridizing targets of genomic DNA from a test and a reference sample to sequences immobilized on a slide. These probes are genomic DNA sequences (BACs) that are mapped on the genome. The signal has a spatial coherence that can be handled by specific statistical tools. Segmentation methods seem to be a natural framework for this purpose. A CGH profile can be viewed as a succession of segments that represent homogeneous regions in the genome whose BACs share the same relative copy number on average. We model a CGH profile by a random Gaussian process whose distribution parameters are affected by abrupt changes at unknown coordinates. Two major problems arise : to determine which parameters are affected by the abrupt changes (the mean and the variance, or the mean only), and the selection of the number of segments in the profile. RESULTS: We demonstrate that existing methods for estimating the number of segments are not well adapted in the case of array CGH data, and we propose an adaptive criterion that detects previously mapped chromosomal aberrations. The performances of this method are discussed based on simulations and publicly available data sets. Then we discuss the choice of modeling for array CGH data and show that the model with a homogeneous variance is adapted to this context. CONCLUSIONS: Array CGH data analysis is an emerging field that needs appropriate statistical tools. Process segmentation and model selection provide a theoretical framework that allows precise biological interpretations. Adaptive methods for model selection give promising results concerning the estimation of the number of altered regions on the genome

No trade, one-way or two-way trade?

We study how the level of trade costs and the intensity of competition can explain the existence of two-way, one-way or no trade within the same industry. As trade costs decrease from very high to very low values, the economy moves from autarky to a regime of two-way trade, through a regime of one-way trade from the larger to the smaller country. Trade is less likely when the economy gets more competitive. Finally once capital is mobile across countries, the market delivers an outcome in which capital is too much concentrated in the large country.Trade regime, Country asymmetry, Capital mobility

Les ressources exploitées par les élèves pour agir dans un format pédagogique en atelier : Une étude empirique lors de leçons de musculation en Education Physique et Sportive

Cette étude s’intéresse aux ressources situationnelles que les élèves utilisent lors de leçons d’éducation physique en musculation conçues dans un format pédagogique en ateliers, en explorant les liens entre l’arrangement spatial des ateliers, la nature des objets matériels présents dans chaque atelier et les interactions entre les élèves. Elle a été conduite selon le cadre théorique et méthodologique du « cours d’action ». Deux types de données ont été recueillis : (a) des données d’enregistrement audio et vidéo des élèves en classe et (b) des données de verbalisations lors d’entretiens d’autoconfrontation. Les résultats révèlent chez les élèves réalisant les exercices (a) l’existence de quatre préoccupations typiques dirigées vers des ateliers distants associées à trois actions typiques dans l’activité des élèves, et (b) des relations entre ces actions typiques et le type d’appareil de musculation présent dans l’atelier. Ces résultats accréditent l’idée de la classe comme un système éco-social.This study focused on student interactions during resistance-training lessons in Physical Education classes organized according to the educational workshop format, and contributes to empirical studies investigating the relationships between the spatial arrangement of the workshops, the material objects present in each workshop, and the student interactions to determine the situational resources that the students used for acting in this educational format. It was carried out within the theoretical and methodological framework of the “course of action”. Two categories of data were collected: (a) classroom audio and video recordings during lessons and (b) individual self-confrontation interviews. Our results regarding the “weight-trainers” demonstrated (a) four typical concerns directed toward other workshops that were expressed according to three typical modes and (b) relationships between these typical modes and the type of weight machine in the workshop. The results support the concept of the class as an ecosocial system

A mixture model for random graphs

{The Erdos-Rényi model of a network is simple and possesses many explicit expressions for average and asymptotic properties, but it does not fit well to real-word networks. The vertices of these networks are often structured in \textit{prior} unknown clusters (functionally related proteins or social communities) with different connectivity properties. We define a generalization of the Erdos-Rényi model called ERMG for Erdos-Rényi Mixtures for Graphs. This new model is based on mixture distributions. We give some of its properties, an algorithm to estimate its parameters and apply this method to uncover the modular structure of a network of enzymatic reactions