The mathematics of ageing:

Age is a crucial variable in social sciences and particularly in population dynamics. In this paper, we link methods from formal demography and Operations Research to investigate age-structured models to study the greying of academia. As scientific productivity is usually found to decrease at advanced ages, there was a vivid discussion on the ageing among tenured professors and faculty staff of universities. We investigate population ageing in academia from two perspectives. First, we propose a two-state optimal control model to explain the substantial variations of scientific production over the life cycle of researchers. We identify conditions under which typical hump-shaped age-specific patterns of scientific production turn out to be optimal for individual researchers. The second part of the paper deals with the dynamics of the age structure of scientific institutions. Similar to the university professors, many European learned societies experienced a rapid ageing of their member population, where they face the dilemma that keeping young, i.e. electing young entrants, has the drawback of reducing the replacement rate of members. It turns out that electing a mix of young and old members delivers the optimal solution of the problem, i.e. guaranteeing a young age structure, while ensuring a high recruitment rate

On the Matthew effect in research careers: Abnormality on the boundary

The observation that a socioeconomic agent with a high reputation gets a disproportionately higher recognition for the same work than an agent with lower reputation is typical in career development and wealth. This phenomenon, which is known as Matthew effect in the literature, leads to an increasing inequality over time. The present paper employs an optimal control model to study the implications of the Matthew effect on the optimal efforts of a scientist into reputation. The solution of the model exhibits, for suffiently low effort costs, a new type of unstable equilibrium at which effort is at its upper bound. This equilibrium, which we denote as Stalling Equilibrium, serves as a threshold level separating success and failure in academia. In addition we show that at the Stalling Equilibrium the solution can be abnormal. We provide a clear economic interpretation for this solution characteristic

Entanglement entropy of fermions in any dimension and the Widom conjecture

We show that entanglement entropy of free fermions scales faster then area law, as opposed to the scaling $L^{d-1}$ for the harmonic lattice, for example. We also suggest and provide evidence in support of an explicit formula for the entanglement entropy of free fermions in any dimension $d$, $S\sim c(\partial\Gamma,\partial\Omega)\cdot L^{d-1}\log L$ as the size of a subsystem $L\to\infty$, where $\partial\Gamma$ is the Fermi surface and $\partial\Omega$ is the boundary of the region in real space. The expression for the constant $c(\partial\Gamma,\partial\Omega)$ is based on a conjecture due to H. Widom. We prove that a similar expression holds for the particle number fluctuations and use it to prove a two sided estimates on the entropy $S$.Comment: Final versio

On the Matthew effect on Individual Investments into Skills in Arts, Sports and Science

The paper describes the process of capital accumulation subject to the following characteristics: (i) convex returns to (human) capital; (ii) the need to self _nance the investment. This set up is applicable to explain some peculiarities in arts, sports and science, inter alia, the \Matthew effect" coined in Merton (1968) to explain why prominent researchers get disproportional credit for their work. The potential young artist's (or sportsman's or even scientist's) optimal strategies include quitting, or continuing and even expanding one's human capital in a profession. Both outcomes are separated by a threshold level in human capital. In addition, it can be optimal to stay in business although consumption falls and stays at the subsistence level (we call this outcome a \Sisyphus point")

Quantum theta functions and Gabor frames for modulation spaces

Representations of the celebrated Heisenberg commutation relations in quantum mechanics and their exponentiated versions form the starting point for a number of basic constructions, both in mathematics and mathematical physics (geometric quantization, quantum tori, classical and quantum theta functions) and signal analysis (Gabor analysis). In this paper we try to bridge the two communities, represented by the two co--authors: that of noncommutative geometry and that of signal analysis. After providing a brief comparative dictionary of the two languages, we will show e.g. that the Janssen representation of Gabor frames with generalized Gaussians as Gabor atoms yields in a natural way quantum theta functions, and that the Rieffel scalar product and associativity relations underlie both the functional equations for quantum thetas and the Fundamental Identity of Gabor analysis.Comment: 38 pages, typos corrected, MSC class change

A Guide to Localized Frames and Applications to Galerkin-like Representations of Operators

This chapter offers a detailed survey on intrinsically localized frames and the corresponding matrix representation of operators. We re-investigate the properties of localized frames and the associated Banach spaces in full detail. We investigate the representation of operators using localized frames in a Galerkin-type scheme. We show how the boundedness and the invertibility of matrices and operators are linked and give some sufficient and necessary conditions for the boundedness of operators between the associated Banach spaces.Comment: 32 page

Fertilization and early embryology: Use of lasers in assisted fertilization and hatching

The erbium-yttrium-aluminium-garnet (Er: YAG) laser has been applied to micromanipulation in humans. It was used in the fertilization process for both subzonal insemination (SUZI) and for partial zona dissection (PZD). Laser-assisted micromanipulation achieved significantly higher fertilization rates (34.8%) when compared to mechanical SUZI (16.1%), but use of the laser did not improve the PZD results (laser 14.8% versus mechanical 14%). The Er: YAG laser was used to assist hatching. In the mouse it significantly improved the hatching rate (80 versus 29.3%) 110 h after administration of human chorionic gonadotrophin. This technique was applied in two different centres to patients with previous in-vitro fertilization (IVF) failures. The implantation rate per embryo (14.4% laser-assisted hatching versus 6% control group) and the pregnancy rate per transfer (40 versus 16.2%) were improve

Optimal scientific production over the life cycle

The paper develops an optimization model of the career of a scientist. Recognizing that research efforts and networking get more efficient if the scientist is more knowledgeable, history dependent solutions are developed. We give a theoretical underpinning of the four different research patterns detected in Way et al. (2017, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). If the scientist does not bother about his reputation at the end of his career, we show that a sufficient education level is needed for the scientist to develop a typical research pattern where productivity increases in the beginning of his career, while it declines towards retirement. If the education level is not sufficient, a fading research pattern will result where productivity declines over time. On the other hand, when the scientist appreciates to have a good reputation at the end of his career, sufficient education will result in increasing productivity over the career lifetime, preventing a midlife slump

The optimal lockdown intensity for COVID-19

One of the principal ways nations are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic is by lockingdown portions of their economies to reduce infectious spread. This is expensive in terms oflost jobs, lost economic productivity, and lost freedoms. So it is of interest to ask: What isthe optimal intensity with which to lockdown, and how should that intensity vary dynamicallyover the course of an epidemic? This paper explores such questions with an optimal controlmodel that recognizes the particular risks when infection rates surge beyond the healthcaresystem's capacity to deliver appropriate care. The analysis shows that four broad strategies canbe optimal, ranging from brief lockdowns that only \smooth the curve" to sustained lockdownsthat prevent infections from spiking beyond the healthcare system's capacity. Within this model,it can be optimal to have two separate periods of locking down, so returning to a lockdown afterinitial restrictions have been lifted is not necessarily a sign of failure. Relatively small changesin judgments about how to balance health and economic harms can alter dramatically whichstrategy is optimal. Indeed, there are constellations of parameters for which two or even three ofthese distinct strategies can all be optimal for the same set of initial conditions; these correspondto so-called triple Skiba points. The performance of trajectories can be highly nonlinear in thestate variables, such that for various times t, the optimal unemployment rate could be low,medium, or high, but not anywhere in between. These complex dynamics emerge naturally from modeling the COVID-19 epidemic and suggest a degree of humility in policy debates.Even people who share a common understanding of the problem's economics and epidemiologycan prefer dramatically di_erent policies. Conversely, favoring very di_erent policies is notevidence that there are fundamental disagreements

Improved osteogenic vector for non-viral gene therapy

Therapeutic compensation of deficient bone regeneration is a challenging task and a topic of on-going search for novel treatment strategies. One promising approach for improvement involves non-viral gene delivery using the bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) gene to provide transient, local and sustained expression of the growth factor. However, since efficiency of non-viral gene delivery is low, this study focused on the improvement of a BMP-2 gene expression system, aiming for compensation of poor transfection efficiency. First, the native BMP-2 gene sequence was modified by codon optimisation and altered by inserting a highly truncated artificial intron (96 bp). Transfection of multiple cell lines and rat adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells with plasmids harbouring the improved BMP-2 sequence led to a several fold increased expression rate and subsequent osteogenic differentiation. Additionally, comparing expression kinetics of elongation factor 1 alpha (EF1α) promoter with a state of the art CMV promoter revealed significantly higher BMP-2 expression when under the influence of the EF1α promoter. Results obtained by quantification of bone markers as well as osteogenic assays showed reduced sensitivity to promoter silencing effects of the EF1α promoter in rat adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Finally, screening of several protein secretion signals using either luciferase or BMP-2 as reporter protein revealed no superior candidates for potential replacement of the native BMP-2 secretion signal. Taken together, by enhancing the exogenous BMP-2 expression system, low transfection efficiencies in therapeutic applications can be compensated, making safe non-viral systems even more suitable for tissue regeneration approaches