Inequality and risk aversion in health and income: an empirical analysis using hypothetical scenarios with losses

Four kinds of distributional preferences are explored: inequality aversion in health, inequality aversion in income, risk aversion in health, and risk aversion in income. Face to face interviews of a representative sample of the general public are undertaken using hypothetical scenarios involving losses in either health or income. Whilst in health risk aversion is stronger than inequality aversion, in the income context we cannot reject that attitudes to inequality aversion and risk aversion are the same. When we compare across contexts we find that inequality aversion and risk aversion are both stronger in income than they each are in health

Is more health always better? Exploring public preferences that violate monotonicity

Abásolo and Tsuchiya (2004a) report on an empirical study to elicit public preferences regarding the efficiency-equality trade-off in health, where the majority of respondents violated monotonicity. The procedure used has been subject to criticisms regarding potential biases in the results. The aim of this paper is to analyse whether violation of monotonicity remains when a revised questionnaire is used. We test: whether monotonicity is violated when we allow for inequality neutral preferences and also if we allow for preferences that would reject any option which gives no health gain to one group; whether those who violate monotonicity actually have non-monotonic or Rawlsian preferences; whether the titration sequence of the original questionnaire may have biased the results; whether monotonicity is violated when an alternative question is administered. Finally, we also test for symmetry of preferences. The results confirm the evidence of the previous study regarding violation of monotonicity

Stability of superfluid Fermi gases in optical lattices

Critical velocities of superfluid Fermi gases in optical lattices are theoretically investigated across the BCS-BEC crossover. We calculate the excitation spectra in the presence of a superfluid flow in one- and two-dimensional optical lattices. It is found that the spectrum of low-lying Anderson-Bogoliubov (AB) mode exhibits a roton-like structure in the short-wavelength region due to the strong charge density wave fluctuations, and with increasing the superfluid velocity one of the roton-like minima reaches zero before the single-particle spectrum does. This means that superfluid Fermi gases in optical lattices are destabilized due to spontaneous emission of the roton-like AB mode instead of due to Cooper pair breaking.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, conference proceeding for ISQM-TOKYO'0

A mathematical formalism for the Kondo effect in WZW branes

In this paper, we show how to adapt our rigorous mathematical formalism for closed/open conformal field theory so that it captures the known physical theory of branes in the WZW model. This includes a mathematically precise approach to the Kondo effect, which is an example of evolution of one conformally invariant boundary condition into another through boundary conditions which can break conformal invariance, and a proposed mathematical statement of the Kondo effect conjecture. We also review some of the known physical results on WZW boundary conditions from a mathematical perspective.Comment: Added explanations of the settings and main result

Spin imbalance effect on Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrel state

We study spin imbalance effects on the Larkin-Ovchinikov-Fulde-Ferrel (LOFF) state relevant for superconductors under a strong magnetic field and spin polarized ultracold Fermi gas. We obtain the exact solution for the condensates with arbitrary spin imbalance and the fermion spectrum perturbatively in the presence of small spin imbalance. We also obtain fermion zero mode exactly without perturbation.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; v2 slightly improved, typos fixed, published versio

Introduction to research topic – binocular rivalry: a gateway to studying consciousness

In 1593, Neapolitan polymath Giambattista della Porta publicly lamented that he was unable to improve his impressive productivity (he had published in areas as diverse as cryptography, hydraulics, pharmacology, optics, and classic fiction). Della Porta was trying to read two books simultaneously by placing both volumes side-by-side, and using each eye independently. To his great surprise, his setup allowed him to only read one book at a time. This discovery arguably marks the first written account of binocular rivalry (Wade, 2000) – a perceptual phenomenon that more than 400 years later still both serves to intrigue as well as to illuminate the limits of scientific knowledge. At first glance, binocular rivalry is an oddball. In every day vision, our eyes receive largely matching views of the world. The brain combines the two images into a cohesive scene, and concurrently, perception is stable. However, when showing two very different images (such as two different books) to each eye, the brain resolves the conflict by adopting a “diplomatic” strategy. Rather than mixing the views of the two eyes into an insensible visual percept, observers perceive a dynamically changing series of perceptual snapshots, with one eye’s view dominating for a few seconds before being replaced by its rival from the other eye. With prolonged viewing of a rivalrous stimulus, one inevitably experiences a sequence of subjective perceptual reversals, separated by random time intervals, and this process continues for as long as the sensory conflict is present

Investigation of environmental change pattern in Japan

The author has identified the following significant results. A detailed land use classification for a large urban area of Tokyo was made using MSS digital data. It was found that residential, commercial, industrial, and wooded areas and grasslands can be successfully classified. A mesoscale vortex associated with large ocean current, Kuroshio, which is a rare phenomenon, was recognized visually through the analysis of MSS data. It was found that this vortex affects the effluent patterns of rivers. Lava flowing from Sakurajima Volcano was clearly classified for three major erruptions (1779, 1914, and 1946) using MSS data

A Capture Scenario for Globular Cluster Omega Centauri

We explore an accretion origin for Omega Cen by N-body modeling of the orbital decay and disruption of a Milky-Way dwarf satellite. This work is focused on studying a particular satellite model that aims to reproduce the present orbit of Omega Cen, as recently determined from absolute proper motions. The model satellite is launched from 58 kpc from the Galactic Center, on a radial, low-inclination orbit. We find that a capture scenario can produce an Omega Cen-like object with the current low-energy orbit of the cluster. Our best model is a nucleated galaxy with a Hernquist density profile that has a mass of 8 10**8 Msun, and a half-mass radius of 1.4 kpc.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted by ApJ