Isovector properties of the Gogny interaction

We analyse the properties of the Gogny interaction in homogeneous matter, with special emphasis on the isovector sector. We provide analytical expressions for both the single-particle and the bulk properties of symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter. We perform an extensive analysis of these properties using 11 parametrizations extracted from the literature. We find that most Gogny interactions have low values for the slope of the symmetry energy, outside the range of empirically extracted values. As a test of extreme isospin dependence, we also study the mass-radius relations implied by the different Gogny equations of state. Our results call for a more careful fitting procedure of the isovector properties of Gogny functionals.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, 1 table. Final published version, typos correcte

Linkages between Market Participation and Productivity: Results from a Multi-Country Farm Household Sample

We build upon international trade literature to analyze the direction of causality between market participation and productivity. Cross-country household data from Tanzania, Vietnam and Guatemala are used in a 2SLS approach with market participation and productivity as endogenous variables. Results indicate that households with higher productivity tend to participate in agricultural markets regardless of market access factors. In contrast, having better market access does not necessarily lead to higher productivity. This finding suggests that investments in market access infrastructure provide minimal, if any, improvements in agricultural productivity; whereas programs targeted at enhancements in farm structure and capital have the potential to increase both productivity and market participation.International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Productivity Analysis,

Agricultural Prices and Income Distribution among Farmers: A Whole-Household, Multi-Country, Multi-Year Analysis

Recent studies have emphasized that the poorest farmers are often net buyers of key commodities and therefore harmed by rising prices. We use LSMS data from Tanzania, Vietnam and Guatemala to test the degree of net purchases or sales by income level. We find that poorer farmers may be net buyers of individual crops, but only the poorest are net buyers of all crops. More generally, net sales among poor farmers are low. We conclude that agricultural price changes have a diverse but limited influence on poor farmers’ welfare, because their farm sales tend to be offset by food purchases.market participation, poverty, inequality, multi-continent multicountry, Agricultural Finance,

Invariant manifolds and equilibrium states for non-uniformly hyperbolic horseshoes

In this paper we consider horseshoes containing an orbit of homoclinic tangency accumulated by periodic points. We prove a version of the Invariant Manifolds Theorem, construct finite Markov partitions and use them to prove the existence and uniqueness of equilibrium states associated to H\"older continuous potentials.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figure

The role of the Berry Phase in Dynamical Jahn-Teller Systems

The presence/absence of a Berry phase depends on the topology of the manifold of dynamical Jahn-Teller potential minima. We describe in detail the relation between these topological properties and the way the lowest two adiabatic potential surfaces get locally degenerate. We illustrate our arguments through spherical generalizations of the linear T x h and H x h cases, relevant for the physics of fullerene ions. Our analysis allows us to classify all the spherical Jahn-Teller systems with respect to the Berry phase. Its absence can, but does not necessarily, lead to a nondegenerate ground state.Comment: revtex 7 pages, 2 eps figures include

Quantum Monte Carlo study of the Ne atom and the Ne+ ion

We report all-electron and pseudopotential calculations of the ground-stateenergies of the neutral Ne atom and the Ne+ ion using the variational and diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (DMC) methods. We investigate different levels of Slater-Jastrow trial wave function: (i) using Hartree-Fock orbitals, (ii) using orbitals optimized within a Monte Carlo procedure in the presence of a Jastrow factor, and (iii) including backflow correlations in the wave function. Small reductions in the total energy are obtained by optimizing the orbitals, while more significant reductions are obtained by incorporating backflow correlations. We study the finite-time-step and fixed-node biases in the DMC energy and show that there is a strong tendency for these errors to cancel when the first ionization potential (IP) is calculated. DMC gives highly accurate values for the IP of Ne at all the levels of trial wave function that we have considered

Historias de vida e historias lingüísticas : una aproximación a las identidades

Este texto se presentó como comunicación al II Congreso Internacional de Etnografía y Educación: Migraciones y Ciudadanías. Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, 5-8 Septiembre 2008Desde una perspectiva etnográfica, a través de las historias de vida e historias lingüísticas de niños inmigrados, realizamos una aproximación a sus identidades, como parte constitutiva de la realidad escolar actual. Pretendemos conocer las situaciones de multiculturalidad y plurilingüismo, para formar identidades y contribuir al desarrollo de la convivencia en las escuelas, mediante una metodología interdisciplinar que combina las aportaciones de las Ciencias Sociales, Educativas y Lingüísticas. La aplicación de este estudio es principalmente de tipo educativo, para mejorar la formación inicial de los maestros. Esta comunicación forma parte de una investigación que se realiza en nuestro Departamento en la que, con un enfoque interdisciplinar, participan las áreas de conocimiento de Didáctica y Organización Escolar, Didáctica de la Lengua y Didáctica de las Ciencias Sociales. Adoptamos unas estrategias comunes para construir conocimiento, a fin de integrar las aportaciones procedentes de diversos ámbitos científicos, de manera globalizada y relacional (ALTAVA et al.,1999). Puesto que la realidad es compleja (MORIN, 1994) y que también lo es su conocimiento, asumimos que su aprendizaje requiere la convergencia de distintos clases de saberes procedentes de diferentes ámbitos científicos. En nuestro caso, realizamos aportaciones desde los campos disciplinares de la Lingüística, la Pedagogía y la Didáctica, y desde el conjunto de las Ciencias Sociales (Historia, Antropología, etc.). Nuestro objeto de estudio general es la situación escolar de los niños inmigrantes en la provincia de Castellón, las estrategias didácticas y organizativas que existen en la escuela respecto a la educación intercultural y al multilingüismo.Para lograrlo, en una perspectiva de indagación y acción, dicha investigación pretende dar respuesta a las situaciones de multiculturalidad y plurilingüismo en las escuelas actuales, dentro de la formación (inicial y permanente) de los maestros; todo ello bajo un planteamiento didáctico y académico de una mayor adaptación a la realidad y al proceso de armonización europeas en los programas y metodología docentes

Levy-Nearest-Neighbors Bak-Sneppen Model

We study a random neighbor version of the Bak-Sneppen model, where "nearest neighbors" are chosen according to a probability distribution decaying as a power-law of the distance from the active site, P(x) \sim |x-x_{ac }|^{-\omega}. All the exponents characterizing the self-organized critical state of this model depend on the exponent \omega. As \omega tends to 1 we recover the usual random nearest neighbor version of the model. The pattern of results obtained for a range of values of \omega is also compatible with the results of simulations of the original BS model in high dimensions. Moreover, our results suggest a critical dimension d_c=6 for the Bak-Sneppen model, in contrast with previous claims.Comment: To appear on Phys. Rev. E, Rapid Communication