Alcohol approach tendencies in heavy drinkers: comparison of effects in a relevant stimulus-response compatibility task and an approach/avoidance Simon task

Several recent studies suggest that alcohol-related cues elicit automatic approach tendencies in heavy drinkers. A variety of tasks have been used to demonstrate these effects, including Relevant Stimulus-Response Compatibility (R-SRC) tasks and variants of Simon tasks. Previous work with normative stimuli suggests that the R-SRC task may be more sensitive than Simon tasks because the activation of approach tendencies may depend on encoding of the stimuli as alcohol-related, which occurs in the R-SRC task but not in Simon tasks. Our aim was to directly compare these tasks for the first time in the context of alcohol use. We administered alcohol versions of an R-SRC task and a Simon task to 62 social drinkers, who were designated as heavy or light drinkers based on a median split of their weekly alcohol consumption. Results indicated that, compared to light drinkers, heavy drinkers were faster to approach, rather than avoid, alcohol-related pictures in the R-SRC task but not in the Simon task. Theoretical implications and methodological issues are discussed

The Simon and Simon-Mars Tensors for Stationary Einstein-Maxwell Fields

Modulo conventional scale factors, the Simon and Simon-Mars tensors are defined for stationary vacuum spacetimes so that their equality follows from the Bianchi identities of the second kind. In the nonvacuum case one can absorb additional source terms into a redefinition of the Simon tensor so that this equality is maintained. Among the electrovacuum class of solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell equations, the expression for the Simon tensor in the Kerr-Newman-Taub-NUT spacetime in terms of the Ernst potential is formally the same as in the vacuum case (modulo a scale factor), and its vanishing guarantees the simultaneous alignment of the principal null directions of the Weyl tensor, the Papapetrou field associated with the timelike Killing vector field, the electromagnetic field of the spacetime and even the Killing-Yano tensor.Comment: 12 pages, Latex IOP article class, no figure

Reflections on Simon Hantaï: Daniel Buren in conversation with Daniel Sturgis, Varennes-Jarcy, 23 September 2014

This essay, in the form of a conversation between Daniel Buren and Daniel Sturgis, reflects upon Daniel Buren’s friendship and respect for the work of Simon Hantaï. Daniel Buren talks of his introduction to Simon Hantaï’s work, and how Hantaï influenced not only himself but also other artists from his generation and in particular Michel Parmentier. Daniel Buren also looks critically at the Simon Hantaï retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in 2013, which he felt did not fully capture the radical qualities that first drew him to Hantaï paintings and installations

Random Graphs Associated to some Discrete and Continuous Time Preferential Attachment Models

We give a common description of Simon, Barab\'asi--Albert, II-PA and Price growth models, by introducing suitable random graph processes with preferential attachment mechanisms. Through the II-PA model, we prove the conditions for which the asymptotic degree distribution of the Barab\'asi--Albert model coincides with the asymptotic in-degree distribution of the Simon model. Furthermore, we show that when the number of vertices in the Simon model (with parameter $\alpha$) goes to infinity, a portion of them behave as a Yule model with parameters $(\lambda,\beta) = (1-\alpha,1)$, and through this relation we explain why asymptotic properties of a random vertex in Simon model, coincide with the asymptotic properties of a random genus in Yule model. As a by-product of our analysis, we prove the explicit expression of the in-degree distribution for the II-PA model, given without proof in \cite{Newman2005}. References to traditional and recent applications of the these models are also discussed

Assessing Pauling's Wide-Ranging Life

Book Review of ‘Linus Pauling in his own words’ edited by Barbara Marinacci, Simon & Schuster,1995, "Linus Pauling: A Life in Science and Politics," by Ted Goertzel and Ben Goertzel, Basic Books, 1995, "Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling," by Thomas Hager, Simon & Schuster, 1995