2,920 research outputs found
Can online civic education induce democratic citizenship? Experimental evidence from a new democracy
How can democratic values and behavior be induced in new democracies? We designed and tested three original civic education interventions to answer this question, using Tunisia as a case study. Participants were recruited through Facebook and Instagram where they were randomly assigned to either one of three treatment groups or a placebo. Two treatments were derived from prospect theory, emphasizing the gains of a democratic system, or the losses of an autocratic system. A third treatment, derived from self-efficacy theory, provided practical information regarding participation in the upcoming 2019 elections. Our findings suggest that online civic education has a considerable effect on democratic citizenship, including a significant reduction in authoritarian nostalgia and increasing intended political behavior. We further find differences between the three treatments, with the loss and gain treatments having overall more consistent impact than self-efficacy, though the latter frame has notable effects on political efficacy and registration
Forward Analysis and Model Checking for Trace Bounded WSTS
We investigate a subclass of well-structured transition systems (WSTS), the
bounded---in the sense of Ginsburg and Spanier (Trans. AMS 1964)---complete
deterministic ones, which we claim provide an adequate basis for the study of
forward analyses as developed by Finkel and Goubault-Larrecq (Logic. Meth.
Comput. Sci. 2012). Indeed, we prove that, unlike other conditions considered
previously for the termination of forward analysis, boundedness is decidable.
Boundedness turns out to be a valuable restriction for WSTS verification, as we
show that it further allows to decide all -regular properties on the
set of infinite traces of the system
A New Algebraization of the Lame Equation
We develop a new way of writing the Lame Hamiltonian in Lie-algebraic form.
This yields, in a natural way, an explicit formula for both the Lame
polynomials and the classical non-meromorphic Lame functions in terms of
Chebyshev polynomials and of a certain family of weakly orthogonal polynomialsComment: Latex2e with AMS-LaTeX and cite packages; 32 page
Solutions for the General, Confluent and Biconfluent Heun equations and their connection with Abel equations
In a recent paper, the canonical forms of a new multi-parameter class of Abel
differential equations, so-called AIR, all of whose members can be mapped into
Riccati equations, were shown to be related to the differential equations for
the hypergeometric 2F1, 1F1 and 0F1 functions. In this paper, a connection
between the AIR canonical forms and the Heun General (GHE), Confluent (CHE) and
Biconfluent (BHE) equations is presented. This connection fixes the value of
one of the Heun parameters, expresses another one in terms of those remaining,
and provides closed form solutions in terms of pFq functions for the resulting
GHE, CHE and BHE, respectively depending on four, three and two irreducible
parameters. This connection also turns evident what is the relation between the
Heun parameters such that the solutions admit Liouvillian form, and suggests a
mechanism for relating linear equations with N and N-1 singularities through
the canonical forms of a non-linear equation of one order less.Comment: Original version submitted to Journal of Physics A: 16 pages, related
to math.GM/0002059 and math-ph/0402040. Revised version according to
referee's comments: 23 pages. Sign corrected (June/17) in formula (79).
Second revised version (July/25): 25 pages. See also
http://lie.uwaterloo.ca/odetools.ht
Concurrent application of tretinoin (retinoic acid) partially protects against corticosteroid-induced epidermal atrophy
Cutaneous atrophy arising from prolonged use of potent topical corticosteroids has long been a concern. Thus, it would be advantageous to find an agent which protects against atrophy produced by corticosteroids but at the same time does not impair their anti-inflammatory effects. Recent work shows that topical all- trans retinoic acid (tretinoin) prevents skin atrophy in mice treated with topical corticosteroids, but such studies have not been performed in humans. We performed an 8-week clinical, histological and biochemical study to test the ability of tretinoin to enhance efficacy and inhibit atrophogenicity of topical corticosteroids, when used in the treatment of psoriasis. In each of 20 psoriasis patients, one plaque, and its perilesional skin, was treated once daily with betamethasone dipropionate and tretinoin 0 1 , and one plaque, and its perilesional skin, treated with once daily betamethasone dipropionate and tretinoin vehicle. There was no difference in the speed or degree of improvement in plaques treated with either the topical corticosteroid tretinoin combination or with corticosteroid alone. Light microscopy revealed a 19 reduction in epidermal thickness, in corticosteroid-treated perilesional skin, as compared with a slight (1 ) increase in corticosteroid tretinoin-treated perilesional areas (P 0.067). Western blot analysis showed a 55 reduction in procollagen I aminopropeptide in perilesional skin treated with corticosteroid alone, as compared with a 45 reduction in corticosteroid tretinoin-treated perilesional skin. These data indicate that the addition of tretinoin does not impair the efficacy of a topical corticosteroid, in the treatment of psoriasis, and partially ameliorates epidermal atrophy produced by the topical corticosteroid.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75727/1/j.1365-2133.1996.d01-933.x.pd
Minimal size of a barchan dune
Barchans are dunes of high mobility which have a crescent shape and propagate
under conditions of unidirectional wind. However, sand dunes only appear above
a critical size, which scales with the saturation distance of the sand flux [P.
Hersen, S. Douady, and B. Andreotti, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf{89,}} 264301 (2002);
B. Andreotti, P. Claudin, and S. Douady, Eur. Phys. J. B {\bf{28,}} 321 (2002);
G. Sauermann, K. Kroy, and H. J. Herrmann, Phys. Rev. E {\bf{64,}} 31305
(2001)]. It has been suggested by P. Hersen, S. Douady, and B. Andreotti, Phys.
Rev. Lett. {\bf{89,}} 264301 (2002) that this flux fetch distance is itself
constant. Indeed, this could not explain the proto size of barchan dunes, which
often occur in coastal areas of high litoral drift, and the scale of dunes on
Mars. In the present work, we show from three dimensional calculations of sand
transport that the size and the shape of the minimal barchan dune depend on the
wind friction speed and the sand flux on the area between dunes in a field. Our
results explain the common appearance of barchans a few tens of centimeter high
which are observed along coasts. Furthermore, we find that the rate at which
grains enter saltation on Mars is one order of magnitude higher than on Earth,
and is relevant to correctly obtain the minimal dune size on Mars.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
Calogero-Moser models with noncommutative spin interactions
We construct integrable generalizations of the elliptic
Calogero-Sutherland-Moser model of particles with spin, involving
noncommutative spin interactions. The spin coupling potential is a modular
function and, generically, breaks the global spin symmetry of the model down to
a product of U(1) phase symmetries. Previously known models are recovered as
special cases.Comment: Version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
On the families of orthogonal polynomials associated to the Razavy potential
We show that there are two different families of (weakly) orthogonal
polynomials associated to the quasi-exactly solvable Razavy potential V(x)=(\z
\cosh 2x-M)^2 (\z>0, ). One of these families encompasses the
four sets of orthogonal polynomials recently found by Khare and Mandal, while
the other one is new. These results are extended to the related periodic
potential U(x)=-(\z \cos 2x -M)^2, for which we also construct two different
families of weakly orthogonal polynomials. We prove that either of these two
families yields the ground state (when is odd) and the lowest lying gaps in
the energy spectrum of the latter periodic potential up to and including the
gap and having the same parity as . Moreover, we show
that the algebraic eigenfunctions obtained in this way are the well-known
finite solutions of the Whittaker--Hill (or Hill's three-term) periodic
differential equation. Thus, the foregoing results provide a Lie-algebraic
justification of the fact that the Whittaker--Hill equation (unlike, for
instance, Mathieu's equation) admits finite solutions.Comment: Typeset in LaTeX2e using amsmath, amssymb, epic, epsfig, float (24
pages, 1 figure
Phase Transition in a Random Fragmentation Problem with Applications to Computer Science
We study a fragmentation problem where an initial object of size x is broken
into m random pieces provided x>x_0 where x_0 is an atomic cut-off.
Subsequently the fragmentation process continues for each of those daughter
pieces whose sizes are bigger than x_0. The process stops when all the
fragments have sizes smaller than x_0. We show that the fluctuation of the
total number of splitting events, characterized by the variance, generically
undergoes a nontrivial phase transition as one tunes the branching number m
through a critical value m=m_c. For m<m_c, the fluctuations are Gaussian where
as for m>m_c they are anomalously large and non-Gaussian. We apply this general
result to analyze two different search algorithms in computer science.Comment: 5 pages RevTeX, 3 figures (.eps
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