870 research outputs found
Creative connectivity project â A network based approach to understand correlations between interdisciplinary group dynamics and creative performance
Creativity, technology and innovation are fundamental driving forces that often trigger behavioural and cultural changes in our societies. Several studies on creative collaborations emphasise the interconnection between the creation of innovation and interdisciplinarity. Studying the interdisciplinary processes through which innovation is generated is thus of fundamental importance. The Creative Connectivity project investigates the links between group dynamics and interdisciplinary creative processes in the attempt to identify the emergence of meaningful behavioural patterns. Taking the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) programme at the Royal College of Art as a case study, the research addresses the need to develop a more rigorous understanding of the creation of innovation fostered by diversity, a risk-taking culture and acceptance of failure. A novel approach combining data science and network theory has been developed to monitor, quantify and analyse specific dynamics of interdisciplinary groups of students at the IDE programme. The focus was to investigate the network contribution to the performance of a team in an environment that is naturally interdisciplinary by using data respectively from a bespoke developed web application and a conversation activity monitoring system. Initial findings have shown the potential of this approach to unveiling the hidden mechanisms behind creativity and the production of innovation through interdisciplinary approaches. The results of this research could be of interest for universities, research centres, start-ups incubators, and policymakers who want to foster creativity and trigger innovative processes
Interacting Discovery Processes on Complex Networks
Innovation is the driving force of human progress. Recent urn models reproduce well the dynamics through which the discovery of a novelty may trigger further ones, in an expanding space of opportunities, but neglect the effects of social interactions. Here we focus on the mechanisms of collective exploration and we propose a model in which many urns, representing different explorers, are coupled through the links of a social network and exploit opportunities coming from their contacts. We study different network structures showing, both analytically and numerically, that the pace of discovery of an explorer depends on its centrality in the social network. Our model sheds light on the role that social structures play in discovery processes
Sea floor bedforms and their influence on slope accommodation (2019)
We sincerely thank Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) Investigação PetrolĂfera Limitada, and specifically David Hajovsky and Scott Opdyke, that kindly provided the dataset and allowed us to show these results. We would also like to thank Schlumberger for providing academic licenses of their software (Petrel). We are grateful to Associate Editor Kei Ogata for his support, and we sincerely thank reviewers Daniele Casalbore and Kamaldeen Omosanya for their comments and suggestions that significantly improved the quality of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin
Multilayer modeling of adoption dynamics in energy demand management.
Due to the emergence of new technologies, the whole electricity system is undergoing transformations on a scale and pace never observed before. The decentralization of energy resources and the smart grid have forced utility services to rethink their relationships with customers. Demand response (DR) seeks to adjust the demand for power instead of adjusting the supply. However, DR business models rely on customer participation and can only be effective when large numbers of customers in close geographic vicinity, e.g., connected to the same transformer, opt in. Here, we introduce a model for the dynamics of service adoption on a two-layer multiplex network: the layer of social interactions among customers and the power-grid layer connecting the households. While the adoption process-based on peer-to-peer communication-runs on the social layer, the time-dependent recovery rate of the nodes depends on the states of their neighbors on the power-grid layer, making an infected node surrounded by infectious ones less keen to recover. Numerical simulations of the model on synthetic and real-world networks show that a strong local influence of the customers' actions leads to a discontinuous transition where either none or all the nodes in the network are infected, depending on the infection rate and social pressure to adopt. We find that clusters of early adopters act as points of high local pressure, helping maintaining adopters, and facilitating the eventual adoption of all nodes. This suggests direct marketing strategies on how to efficiently establish and maintain new technologies such as DR schemes
Simplicial models of social contagion
Complex networks have been successfully used to describe the spread of
diseases in populations of interacting individuals. Conversely, pairwise
interactions are often not enough to characterize social contagion processes
such as opinion formation or the adoption of novelties, where complex
mechanisms of influence and reinforcement are at work. Here we introduce a
higher-order model of social contagion in which a social system is represented
by a simplicial complex and contagion can occur through interactions in groups
of different sizes. Numerical simulations of the model on both empirical and
synthetic simplicial complexes highlight the emergence of novel phenomena such
as a discontinuous transition induced by higher-order interactions. We show
analytically that the transition is discontinuous and that a bistable region
appears where healthy and endemic states co-exist. Our results help explain why
critical masses are required to initiate social changes and contribute to the
understanding of higher-order interactions in complex systems.Comment: 32 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Supplementary Informatio
Casimir forces and non-Newtonian gravitation
The search for non-relativistic deviations from Newtonian gravitation can
lead to new phenomena signalling the unification of gravity with the other
fundamental interactions. Various recent theoretical frameworks indicate a
possible window for non-Newtonian forces with gravitational coupling strength
in the micrometre range. The major expected background in the same range is
attributable to the Casimir force or variants of it if dielectric materials,
rather than conducting ones, are considered. Here we review the measurements of
the Casimir force performed so far in the micrometre range and how they
determine constraints on non-Newtonian gravitation, also discussing the
dominant sources of false signals. We also propose a geometry-independent
parameterization of all data in terms of the measurement of the constant c. Any
Casimir force measurement should lead, once all corrections are taken into
account, to a determination of the constant c which, in order to assess the
accuracy of the measurement, can be compared with its more precise value known
through microscopic measurements. Although the last decade of experiments has
resulted in solid demonstrations of the Casimir force, the situation is not
conclusive with respect to being able to discover new physics. Future
experiments and novel phenomenological analysis will be necessary to discover
non-Newtonian forces or to push the window for their possible existence into
regions of the parameter space which theoretically appear unnatural.Comment: Also available at http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1367-2630/8/10/23
Prospects for at CERN in NA62
The NA62 experiment will begin taking data in 2015. Its primary purpose is a
10% measurement of the branching ratio of the ultrarare kaon decay , using the decay in flight of kaons in an unseparated
beam with momentum 75 GeV/c.The detector and analysis technique are described
here.Comment: 8 pages for proceedings of 50 Years of CP
Production and detection of relic gravitons in quintessential inflationary models
A large class of quintessential inflationary models, recently proposed by
Peebles and Vilenkin, leads to post-inflationary phases whose effective
equation of state is stiffer than radiation. The expected gravitational waves
logarithmic energy spectra are tilted towards high frequencies and
characterized by two parameters: the inflationary curvature scale at which the
transition to the stiff phase occurs and the number of (non conformally
coupled) scalar degrees of freedom whose decay into fermions triggers the onset
of a gravitational reheating of the Universe. Depending upon the parameters of
the model and upon the different inflationary dynamics (prior to the onset of
the stiff evolution) the relic gravitons energy density can be much more
sizeable than in standard inflationary models, for frequencies larger than 1
Hz. We estimate the required sensitivity for detection of the predicted
spectral amplitude and show that the allowed region of our parameter space
leads to a signal smaller (by one 1.5 orders of magnitude) than the advanced
LIGO sensitivity at a frequency of 0.1 KHz. The maximal signal, in our context,
is expected in the GHz region where the energy density of relic gravitons in
critical units (i.e. ) is of the order of , roughly
eight orders of magnitude larger than in ordinary inflationary models. Smaller
detectors (not necessarily interferometers) can be relevant for detection
purposes in the GHz frequency window. We suggest/speculate that future
measurements through microwave cavities can offer interesting perspectives.Comment: 24 pages in Revtex style, 7 figure
Precise mirror alignment and basic performance of the RICH detector of the NA62 experiment at CERN
The Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector is crucial for the identification of
charged particles in the NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS. The detector
commissioning was completed in 2016 by the precise alignment of mirrors using
reconstructed tracks. The alignment procedure and measurement of the basic
performance are described. Ring radius resolution, ring centre resolution,
single hit resolution and mean number of hits per ring are evaluated for
positron tracks. The contribution of the residual mirror misalignment to the
performance is calculated.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
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