2,085 research outputs found
Another analytic view about quantifying social forces
Montroll had considered a Verhulst evolution approach for introducing a
notion he called "social force", to describe a jump in some economic output
when a new technology or product outcompetes a previous one. In fact,
Montroll's adaptation of Verhulst equation is more like an economic field
description than a "social force". The empirical Verhulst logistic function and
the Gompertz double exponential law are used here in order to present an
alternative view, within a similar mechanistic physics framework. As an
example, a "social force" modifying the rate in the number of temples
constructed by a religious movement, the Antoinist community, between 1910 and
1940 in Belgium is found and quantified. Practically, two temple inauguration
regimes are seen to exist over different time spans, separated by a gap
attributed to a specific "constraint", a taxation system, but allowing for a
different, smooth, evolution rather than a jump. The impulse force duration is
also emphasized as being better taken into account within the Gompertz
framework. Moreover, a "social force" can be as here, attributed to a change in
the limited need/capacity of some population, coupled to some external field,
in either Verhulst or Gompertz equation, rather than resulting from already
existing but competing goods as imagined by Montroll.Comment: 4 figures, 29 refs., 15 pages; prepared for Advances in Complex
System
A metaphor for adiabatic evolution to symmetry
In this paper we study a Hamiltonian system with a spatially asymmetric
potential. We are interested in the effects on the dynamics when the potential
becomes symmetric slowly in time. We focus on a highly simplified non-trivial
model problem (a metaphor) to be able to pursue explicit calculations as far as
possible. Using the techniques of averaging and adiabatic invariants, we are
able to study all bounded solutions, which reveals significant asymmetric
dynamics even when the asymmetric contributions to the potential have become
negligibly small.Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX 2e, 8 figures include
Evolution towards symmetry
The dynamics of timedependent evolution towards symmetry in Hamiltonian systems poses a dicult problem as the analysis has to be global in phasespace For one and two degrees of freedom systems this leads to the presence of one respectively two global adiabatic invariants and also the persistence of asymmetric features over a long tim
Bifurcation analysis of a normal form for excitable media: Are stable dynamical alternans on a ring possible?
We present a bifurcation analysis of a normal form for travelling waves in
one-dimensional excitable media. The normal form which has been recently
proposed on phenomenological grounds is given in form of a differential delay
equation. The normal form exhibits a symmetry preserving Hopf bifurcation which
may coalesce with a saddle-node in a Bogdanov-Takens point, and a symmetry
breaking spatially inhomogeneous pitchfork bifurcation. We study here the Hopf
bifurcation for the propagation of a single pulse in a ring by means of a
center manifold reduction, and for a wave train by means of a multiscale
analysis leading to a real Ginzburg-Landau equation as the corresponding
amplitude equation. Both, the center manifold reduction and the multiscale
analysis show that the Hopf bifurcation is always subcritical independent of
the parameters. This may have links to cardiac alternans which have so far been
believed to be stable oscillations emanating from a supercritical bifurcation.
We discuss the implications for cardiac alternans and revisit the instability
in some excitable media where the oscillations had been believed to be stable.
In particular, we show that our condition for the onset of the Hopf bifurcation
coincides with the well known restitution condition for cardiac alternans.Comment: to be published in Chao
Developmental course of psychopathology in youths with and without intellectual disabilities
Background: We aimed to describe similarities and differences in the developmental course of psychopathology between children with and without intellectual disabilities (ID). Method: Multilevel growth curve analysis was used to analyse the developmental course of psychopathology, using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), in two longitudinal multiple-birth-cohort samples of 6- to 18-year-old children with ID (N=978) and without ID (N=2,047) using three repeated measurements across a 6-year period. Results: Children with ID showed a higher level of problem behaviours across all ages compared to children without ID. A significant difference between the samples in the developmental courses was found for Aggressive Behaviour and Attention Problems, where children with ID showed a significantly larger decrease. Gender differences in the development of psychopathology were similar in both samples, except for Social Problems where males with ID showed a larger decrease in problem behaviour across time than females with ID and males and females without ID. Conclusion: Results indicate that children with ID continue to show a greater risk for psychopathology compared to typically developing children, although this higher risk is less pronounced at age 18 than it is at age 6 for Aggressive Behaviour. Contrary to our expectations, the developmental course of psychopathology in children with ID was quite similar from age 6 to 18 compared to children without ID. The normative developmental trajectories of psychopathology in children with ID, presented here, can serve as a yardstick against which development of childhood psychopathology can be detected as deviant. © 2007 The Authors Journal compilation © 2007 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health
Visualizing the logistic map with a microcontroller
The logistic map is one of the simplest nonlinear dynamical systems that
clearly exhibit the route to chaos. In this paper, we explored the evolution of
the logistic map using an open-source microcontroller connected to an array of
light emitting diodes (LEDs). We divided the one-dimensional interval
into ten equal parts, and associated and LED to each segment. Every time an
iteration took place a corresponding LED turned on indicating the value
returned by the logistic map. By changing some initial conditions of the
system, we observed the transition from order to chaos exhibited by the map.Comment: LaTeX, 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 listin
Telomere length declines with age, but relates to immune function independent of age in a wild passerine
Telomere length (TL) shortens with age but telomere dynamics can relate to fitness components independent of age. Immune function often relates to such fitness components and can also interact with telomeres. Studying the link between TL and immune function may therefore help us understand telomere-fitness associations. We assessed the relationships between erythrocyte TL and four immune indices (haptoglobin, natural antibodies (NAbs), complement activity (CA) and heterophil-lymphocyte (HL) ratio; n = 477-589), from known-aged individuals of a wild passerine (Malurus coronatus). As expected, we find that TL significantly declined with age. To verify whether associations between TL and immune function were independent of parallel age-related changes (e.g. immunosenescence), we statistically controlled for sampling age and used within-subject centring of TL to separate relationships within or between individuals. We found that TL positively predicted CA at the between-individual level (individuals with longer average TL had higher CA), but no other immune indices. By contrast, age predicted the levels of NAbs and HL ratio, allowing inference that respective associations between TL and age with immune indices are independent. Any links existing between TL and fitness are therefore unlikely to be strongly mediated by innate immune function, while TL and immune indices appear independent expressions of individual heterogeneity.</p
Stability of Naked Singularity arising in gravitational collapse of Type I matter fields
Considering gravitational collapse of Type I matter fields, we prove that,
given an arbitrary - mass function and a -
function (through the corresponding - metric function
), there exist infinitely many choices of energy distribution
function such that the `true' initial data () leads
the collapse to the formation of naked singularity. We further prove that the
occurrence of such a naked singularity is stable with respect to small changes
in the initial data. We remark that though the initial data leading to both
black hole and naked singularity form a "big" subset of the true initial data
set, their occurrence is not generic. The terms `stability' and `genericity'
are appropriately defined following the theory of dynamical systems. The
particular case of radial pressure has been illustrated in details
to get clear picture of how naked singularity is formed and how, it is stable
with respect to initial data.Comment: 16 pages, no figure, Latex, submitted to Praman
Ensemble averaged entanglement of two-particle states in Fock space
Recent results, extending the Schmidt decomposition theorem to wavefunctions
of identical particles, are reviewed. They are used to give a definition of
reduced density operators in the case of two identical particles. Next, a
method is discussed to calculate time averaged entanglement. It is applied to a
pair of identical electrons in an otherwise empty band of the Hubbard model,
and to a pair of bosons in the the Bose-Hubbard model with infinite range
hopping. The effect of degeneracy of the spectrum of the Hamiltonian on the
average entanglement is emphasised.Comment: 19 pages Latex, changed title, references added in the conclusion
La balantidiose du porc en République du Zaïre et son traitement par le niridazole (Ambilhar)
Parmi les divers produits essayés au Zaïre, contre la balantidiose porcine, le niridazole s'est révélé être d'une efficacité remarquable administré per os en une seule prise journalière et, à la dose de 25 à 40 mg/kg/j, il guérit cliniquement en deux jours de traitement, avec stérilisation des selles en 72 heures, et sans effets toxiques apparent
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