592 research outputs found
Unravelling the size distribution of social groups with information theory on complex networks
The minimization of Fisher's information (MFI) approach of Frieden et al.
[Phys. Rev. E {\bf 60} 48 (1999)] is applied to the study of size distributions
in social groups on the basis of a recently established analogy between scale
invariant systems and classical gases [arXiv:0908.0504]. Going beyond the ideal
gas scenario is seen to be tantamount to simulating the interactions taking
place in a network's competitive cluster growth process. We find a scaling rule
that allows to classify the final cluster-size distributions using only one
parameter that we call the competitiveness. Empirical city-size distributions
and electoral results can be thus reproduced and classified according to this
competitiveness, which also allows to correctly predict well-established
assessments such as the "six-degrees of separation", which is shown here to be
a direct consequence of the maximum number of stable social relationships that
one person can maintain, known as Dunbar's number. Finally, we show that scaled
city-size distributions of large countries follow the same universal
distribution
Killing-Yano tensors and some applications
The role of Killing and Killing-Yano tensors for studying the geodesic motion
of the particle and the superparticle in a curved background is reviewed.
Additionally the Papadopoulos list [74] for Killing-Yano tensors in G
structures is reproduced by studying the torsion types these structures admit.
The Papadopoulos list deals with groups G appearing in the Berger
classification, and we enlarge the list by considering additional G structures
which are not of the Berger type. Possible applications of these results in the
study of supersymmetric particle actions and in the AdS/CFT correspondence are
outlined.Comment: 36 pages, no figure
Evidence for the Gompertz Curve in the Income Distribution of Brazil 1978-2005
This work presents an empirical study of the evolution of the personal income
distribution in Brazil. Yearly samples available from 1978 to 2005 were studied
and evidence was found that the complementary cumulative distribution of
personal income for 99% of the economically less favorable population is well
represented by a Gompertz curve of the form , where
is the normalized individual income. The complementary cumulative
distribution of the remaining 1% richest part of the population is well
represented by a Pareto power law distribution . This
result means that similarly to other countries, Brazil's income distribution is
characterized by a well defined two class system. The parameters , ,
, were determined by a mixture of boundary conditions,
normalization and fitting methods for every year in the time span of this
study. Since the Gompertz curve is characteristic of growth models, its
presence here suggests that these patterns in income distribution could be a
consequence of the growth dynamics of the underlying economic system. In
addition, we found out that the percentage share of both the Gompertzian and
Paretian components relative to the total income shows an approximate cycling
pattern with periods of about 4 years and whose maximum and minimum peaks in
each component alternate at about every 2 years. This finding suggests that the
growth dynamics of Brazil's economic system might possibly follow a
Goodwin-type class model dynamics based on the application of the
Lotka-Volterra equation to economic growth and cycle.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables. LaTeX. Accepted for publication in
"The European Physical Journal B
Sputum inflammatory cells from patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma have decreased inflammasome gene expression
Deficits in inflammasomes, a key element of innate immunity, confer increased susceptibility to infection. We report that sputum cells from asthmatics have decreased expression of inflammasome factors, consistent with reports of increased infection risk in asthmatics
Neuropsychological constraints to human data production on a global scale
Which are the factors underlying human information production on a global
level? In order to gain an insight into this question we study a corpus of
252-633 Million publicly available data files on the Internet corresponding to
an overall storage volume of 284-675 Terabytes. Analyzing the file size
distribution for several distinct data types we find indications that the
neuropsychological capacity of the human brain to process and record
information may constitute the dominant limiting factor for the overall growth
of globally stored information, with real-world economic constraints having
only a negligible influence. This supposition draws support from the
observation that the files size distributions follow a power law for data
without a time component, like images, and a log-normal distribution for
multimedia files, for which time is a defining qualia.Comment: to be published in: European Physical Journal
Variational Principle underlying Scale Invariant Social Systems
MaxEnt's variational principle, in conjunction with Shannon's logarithmic
information measure, yields only exponential functional forms in
straightforward fashion. In this communication we show how to overcome this
limitation via the incorporation, into the variational process, of suitable
dynamical information. As a consequence, we are able to formulate a somewhat
generalized Shannonian Maximum Entropy approach which provides a unifying
"thermodynamic-like" explanation for the scale-invariant phenomena observed in
social contexts, as city-population distributions. We confirm the MaxEnt
predictions by means of numerical experiments with random walkers, and compare
them with some empirical data
A probabilistic model for gene content evolution with duplication, loss, and horizontal transfer
We introduce a Markov model for the evolution of a gene family along a
phylogeny. The model includes parameters for the rates of horizontal gene
transfer, gene duplication, and gene loss, in addition to branch lengths in the
phylogeny. The likelihood for the changes in the size of a gene family across
different organisms can be calculated in O(N+hM^2) time and O(N+M^2) space,
where N is the number of organisms, is the height of the phylogeny, and M
is the sum of family sizes. We apply the model to the evolution of gene content
in Preoteobacteria using the gene families in the COG (Clusters of Orthologous
Groups) database
Ground state at high density
Weak limits as the density tends to infinity of classical ground states of
integrable pair potentials are shown to minimize the mean-field energy
functional. By studying the latter we derive global properties of high-density
ground state configurations in bounded domains and in infinite space. Our main
result is a theorem stating that for interactions having a strictly positive
Fourier transform the distribution of particles tends to be uniform as the
density increases, while high-density ground states show some pattern if the
Fourier transform is partially negative. The latter confirms the conclusion of
earlier studies by Vlasov (1945), Kirzhnits and Nepomnyashchii (1971), and
Likos et al. (2007). Other results include the proof that there is no Bravais
lattice among high-density ground states of interactions whose Fourier
transform has a negative part and the potential diverges or has a cusp at zero.
We also show that in the ground state configurations of the penetrable sphere
model particles are superposed on the sites of a close-packed lattice.Comment: Note adde
Requirements of leaf wetness and temperature for infection of groundnut by rust
Experiments are described to quantify the effects of temp. and duration of leaf wetness on infection of groundnut by Puccinia arachidis. After inoculation, a min. period of leaf wetness, m, was necessary for infection. When leaf wetness duration was >m, lesion density increased with increasing wetness duration to an asymptote, Dmax. The principal effects of temp. were on m and Dmax. The value of m decreased linearly from 6 h, as temp. increased from 15 to 25°C and increased slightly at temp. >25°. Dmax increased with temp. from zero at 8° to a max. at 22°, and decreased to zero again at c. 30°. The experimental results were used to produce a set of curves relating an infection index to leaf wetness duration at different temp. The implications for infection of groundnut crops are discussed in relation to the climate at Patancheru in southern India
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