The Stokes Phenomenon and Some Applications

Multisummation provides a transparent description of Stokes matrices which is reviewed here together with some applications. Examples of moduli spaces for Stokes matrices are computed and discussed. A moduli space for a third Painlev\'e equation is made explicit. It is shown that the monodromy identity, relating the topological monodromy and Stokes matrices, is useful for some quantum differential equations and for confluent generalized hypergeometric equations

A theory of structural model validity in simulation.

During the last decennia, the practice of simulation has become increasingly popular among many system analysts, model builders and general scientists for the purpose of studying complex systems that surpass the operability of analytical solution techniques. As a consequence of the pragmatic orientation of simulation, a vital stage for a successful application is the issue of validating a constructed simulation model. Employing the model as an effective instrument for assessing the benefit of structural changes or for predicting future observations makes validation an essential part of any productive simulation study. The diversity of the employment field of simulation however brings about that there exists an irrefutable level of ambiguity concerning the principal subject of this validation process. Further, the literature has come up with a plethora of ad hoc validation techniques that have mostly been inherited from standard statistical analysis. It lies within the aim of this paper to reflect on the issue of validation in simulation and to present the reader with a topological parallelism of the classical philosophical polarity of objectivism versus relativism. First, we will position validation in relation to verification and accreditation and elaborate on the prime actors in validation, i.e. a conceptual model, a formal model and behaviour. Next, we will formally derive a topological interpretation of structural validation for both objectivists and relativists. As will be seen, recent advances in the domain of fuzzy topology allow for a valuable metaphor of a relativistic attitude towards modelling and structural validation. Finally, we will discuss several general types of modelling errors that may occur and examine their repercussion on the natural topological spaces of objectivists and relativists. We end this paper with a formal, topological oriented definition of structural model validity for both objectivists and relativists. The paper is concluded with summarising the most important findings and giving a direction for future research.Model; Simulation; Theory; Scientists; Processes; Statistical analysis;

Active dynamics and spatially coherent motion in chromosomes subject to enzymatic force dipoles

Inspired by recent experiments on chromosomal dynamics, we introduce an exactly solvable model for the interaction between a flexible polymer and a set of motor-like enzymes. The enzymes can bind and unbind to specific sites of the polymer and when bound produce a dipolar force on two neighboring monomers. We study the resulting non-equilibrium dynamics of the polymer and find that the motion of the monomers has several properties that were observed experimentally for chromosomal loci: a subdiffusive mean squared displacement and the appearance of regions of correlated motion. We also determine the velocity autocorrelation of the monomers and find that the underlying stochastic process is not fractional Brownian motion. Finally, we show that the active forces swell the polymer by an amount that becomes constant for large polymers

Cyclic thermogravimetry of TBC systems

The previously developed cyclic thermogravimetry analysis (CTGA) method is applied to the cyclic oxidation at 1100 °C of ZrO2–Y2O3/NiPtAl or NiCoCrAlYTa/single crystal nickel-base AM3 superalloy TBC systems. Cyclic thermogravimetry with fast heating and cooling and high accuracy in mass measurement allows to measure oxidation kinetics of the bond coating and also to detect and quantify the occurrence of the top coating cracking and spalling. The resulting data could be used later on, for time of life modelling of TBC systems

Different sensitivities of two optical magnetometers realized in the same experimental arrangement

In this article, operation of optical magnetometers detecting static (DC) and oscillating (AC) magnetic fields is studied and comparison of the devices is performed. To facilitate the comparison, the analysis is carried out in the same experimental setup, exploiting nonlinear magneto-optical rotation. In such a system, a control over static-field magnitude or oscillating-field frequency provides detection of strength of the DC or AC fields. Polarization rotation is investigated for various light intensities and AC-field amplitudes, which allows to determine optimum sensitivity to both fields. With the results, we demonstrate that under optimal conditions the AC magnetometer is about ten times more sensitive than its DC counterpart, which originates from different response of the atoms to the fields. Bandwidth of the magnetometers is also analyzed, revealing its different dependence on the light power. Particularly, we demonstrate that bandwidth of the AC magnetometer can be significantly increased without strong deterioration of the magnetometer sensitivity. This behavior, combined with the ability to tune the resonance frequency of the AC magnetometer, provide means for ultra-sensitive measurements of the AC field in a broad but spectrally-limited range, where detrimental role of static-field instability is significantly reduced.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Mumford curves and Mumford groups in positive characteristic

A Mumford group is a discontinuous subgroup $\Gamma$ of PGL(2,K), where K denotes a non archimedean valued field, such that the quotient by $\Gamma$ is a curve of genus 0. As abstract group $\Gamma$ is an amalgam of a finite tree of finite groups. For K of positive characteristic the large collection of amalgams having two or three branch points is classified. Using these data Mumford curves with a large group of automorphisms are discovered. A long combinatorial proof, involving the classification of the finite simple groups, is needed for establishing an upper bound for the order of the group of automorphisms of a Mumford curve. Orbifolds in the category of rigid spaces are introduced. For the projective line the relations with Mumford groups and singular stratified bundles are studied. This paper is a sequel to our paper "Discontinuous subgroups of PGL(2,K)" published in Journ. of Alg. (2004). Part of it clarifies, corrects and extends work of G.~Cornelissen, F.~Kato and K.~Kontogeorgis.Comment: 62 page

It takes time: the long-term effect of gender quota

We have estimated the changes in parties' behaviour following the introduction of quota regulations in Belgium. We expected to find a curvilinear effect: shortly after the introduction, women candidates would be worse off due to, amongst others, reluctance of the party elite to support women in the electoral contest. But after some time, their situation would improve-we hypothesise-either because parties become more convinced of women's qualities or because of strategic considerations. Our results do show an initial setback followed by a modest increase, but this increase takes longer than we initially assumed. © 2013 © 2013 McDougall Trust, London.status: publishe