Color superconductivity: Continuity of quark and hadron matter, the role of the strange quark mass, and perturbative results

We summarize some recent results on the structure of QCD at very high baryon density.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in the proceedings of Quark Matter 9

L’épargne salariale est-elle un complément d’épargne retraite adapté ?.

Cet article examine les effets des plans d’épargne salariale sur l’épargne retraite volontaire. Nous construisons un modèle dynamique de maximisation d’utilité, pour déterminer les équations de demande de l’épargne salariale d’une part et de l’épargne classique d’autre part. Trois paramètres influencent la constitution d’un complément d’épargne retraite : le niveau de retraite anticipé par les ménages, les conditions de blocage de leur épargne salariale et le montant de leur endettement. Toute réforme autorisant un déblocage anticipé de l’épargne salariale pour relancer la consommation doit tenir compte de ces trois paramètres,au risque de ne pas conduire aux résultats escomptés.Epargne;

Integrating Self: A Story About a Tomato

Tomato is a two-dimensional, animated, short film about the interaction between a farmer and a tomato plant. Through conceptually-driven technique, the film intends to relate the emphasis of tactility and self-reflection in animation to the care of a plant that could provide a valuable fruit. Using digital tools, like Adobe Animate, Photoshop, After Effects, and Premiere, as well as material identification techniques, I created the film as an exhibition of a method designed to integrate hand-crafted elements into digital workflow

Bank Employee Incentives and Stock Purchase Plans Participation

International audienceWe investigate which factors influence 44,649 employees' decision to invest in a top retail banking group in France. We have two objectives: (i) to explore factors associated with the amount invested in the plan, and (ii) to explore whether these factors have same associations with the probability of investing more than the incentive pay i.e. being an active investor. Specifically, we focus on four parameters that have been shown to affect participation: liquidity constraints, imperfect knowledge of the plan, asset choice, and transaction costs. We confirm Engelhardt and Madrian (Natl Tax J 57:385–406, 2004) assumptions according to which such factors contribute to explain non-participation. We show that ESPP contributors have very specific and unobserved motivations, as shown with the positive correlations between error terms in the two steps of investment decisions. The existence of unobservable investment motives can be explained by a lower risk aversion, a higher time preference, or a strong willingness to participate to corporate governance

Evidence for In-Medium Changes of Four-Quark Condensates

Utilizing the QCD sum rule approach to the behavior of the omega meson in nuclear matter we derive evidence for in-medium changes of particular four-quark condensates from the recent CB-TAPS experiment for the reaction gamma + A -> A' + omega (-> pi0 gamma) with A = Nb and LH2.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett., 4 page

Thermalization of Nuclear Matter in Heavy-Ion Collisions at Fermi-Energies

We analyze the time evolution of the kinetic properties of nuclear matter produced in heavy-ion collisions at Fermi energies. The collision system is simulated using Constrained Molecular Dynamics (CoMD) transport calculations whose output is the isospin, position, and momentum of the nucleons. Focusing on central 35$\,$A$\cdot$MeV $^{40}$Ca+$^{40}$Ca collisions we utilize this information to extract localized momentum distributions in volume elements of 8$\,$fm$^3$ and time steps of 5$\,$fm/$c$. We then parameterize the single-particle momentum distributions with thermally motivated fit functions in the local rest frame of each cell. While the transverse-momentum distributions are well reproduced by thermal ones, the longitudinal ones carry a marked imprint of the initial nuclear motion which we capture by introducing a centroid motion into our fit functions. In particular, we find that Fermi distributions yield significantly better fits than Boltzmann ones, a consequence of the Pauli blocking implemented in CoMD. From the fits we extract the time dependence of the thermodynamic and collective properties of the excited nuclear medium. We find that the transverse temperature gradually rises to about 6$\,$MeV, which is accompanied by a dissipation of the initial centroid motion of the incoming nuclei which vanishes at about 100$\,$fm/$c$ after initial impact. We are therefore able to track the transition of beam energy into random kinetic energy for nucleons, suggesting a three-dimensional equilibration of energy in the late stages of the collision.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

Pregnant Employees, Working Mothers and the Workplace - Legislation, Social Change and Where We are Today

Accordingly, the focus of this Article is on the legal and social evolution resulting from the Civil Rights Act\u27s prohibition of sex-based discrimination- and, in particular, pregnancy-related discrimination - in the workplace. Section II of this Article details the reluctance with which courts and employers initially extended workplace rights to women. Sections III and IV discuss Title VII\u27s prohibition against sex discrimination and initial court hesitation to interpret that prohibition to include employees discriminated against on the basis of pregnancy. Sections V and VI provide an overview of federal and Ohio law granting pregnancy-related rights to women, including the PDA, the Family Medical Leave Act and Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4112. Section VII of this Article examines problematic pregnancy-related workplace perceptions, including how the modern woman\u27s entry and acceptance into the workplace remains complicated by traditional notions of proper female roles. Finally, this Article asks whether stereotypical perceptions of what characteristics comprise the ideal worker (e.g., office face-time ) continue to feed negative perceptions of working mothers, slow their workplace advancement and ultimately contribute to many mothers\u27 decisions to simply opt-out of their careers. Section VIII contains suggestions for legislative and corporate policy changes that speak to modern realities regarding pregnancy discrimination, specifically, and female workplace advancement, more generally

Couple relationships and health: the role of the individual's and the partner's education

A positive correlation between couple relationships and health is well established. However, recent studies indicate that the beneficial effects of couple relationships on health vary substantially according to the characteristics of the relationship and of the partners involved. The present paper examines to what extent partnership effects on physical and mental health differ based on the individual’s education, the partner's education and educational homogamy between partners. Our database is the German Socio-Economic Panel for the period of 2002 to 2016. Based on fixed effects analysis, our results show that a highly educated partner is more beneficial for mental and physical health than a partner with low education. In contrast, the effects of partnerships on health do not depend on whether the partners have same or different educational levels. The results also indicate that partnership effects on health depend on mate choice and on the potential to find a highly educated partner. Education-specific partnership effects on mental health are more prevalent for women, and effects on physical health are more prevalent for men.Ein positiver Zusammenhang zwischen Partnerschaft und Gesundheit ist lange bekannt. Neuere Studien zeigen jedoch, dass die Gesundheitseffekte von Paarbeziehungen von den Eigenschaften der Beziehung und den Eigenschaften der Partner abhängen. Der Beitrag untersucht, ob und inwieweit die Einflüsse einer Paarbeziehung auf die physische und die mentale Gesundheit vom Bildungsniveau des Individuums, dem seines Partners und von der Bildungshomogamie abhängen. Mithilfe von Fixed-Effects-Modellen werden Daten des Sozioökonomischen Panels (SOEP, Wellen 2002-2016) analysiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass ein Partner mit hoher Bildung der mentalen und physischen Gesundheit förderlicher ist als ein Partner mit niedriger Bildung. Die Gesundheitseffekte von Paarbeziehungen sind jedoch unabhängig vom Ausmaß der Bildungshomogamie bzw. -heterogamie. Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass die Gesundheitseffekte einer Partnerschaft von den Chancen abhängen, einen hoch gebildeten Partner zu finden. Die bildungsabhängigen Partnerschaftseffekte auf die mentale Gesundheit sind stärker bei Frauen ausgeprägt, bildungsabhängige Partnerschaftseffekte auf die physische Gesundheit finden sich dagegen eher bei Männern

Changes in Gait and Texting Ability During Progressively Difficult Gait Tasks

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(5): 743-753, 2017. To investigate the effects of a cell phone texting task on an individual’s ability to perform three ambulation-based tasks, each with different and progressively more difficult demands. 36 participants (24 male/12 female, average age 23.4) performed: a Timed Up & Go (TUG), stair ambulation (STAIR), and tandem gait (TAN). Participants completed each gait-based task under four conditions: as a practice, while holding their cellular device (baseline), while texting a message, and while reading a message. Statistically significant differences were found within the following variables: 1) mean time to complete a gait task increased through the conditions (Baseline, Texting, Reading), 2) mean number of gait deviations increased while texting during TAN condition in comparison to baseline, 3) mean characters per second became less only in the STAIR task, 4) mean number of texting errors per second increased only in the TAN task. The reduction of gait speed, from baseline to texting, were similar to each other (average 2.46 sec) despite the difficulty of the task (TUG, STAIR, TAN). Results of this study reaffirm that texting while walking produces slower gait. However, the degree that gait slows does not appear proportional to the level of difficulty of gait task. Comparatively, more challenging gait tasks resulted in increases in both path deviations, texting errors and decreases texting speed. These findings suggest that increased dual-task demands result in decreased efficiency in both texting and walking performance