94 research outputs found
Exponential Decay of Correlations for Strongly Coupled Toom Probabilistic Cellular Automata
We investigate the low-noise regime of a large class of probabilistic
cellular automata, including the North-East-Center model of Toom. They are
defined as stochastic perturbations of cellular automata belonging to the
category of monotonic binary tessellations and possessing a property of
erosion. We prove, for a set of initial conditions, exponential convergence of
the induced processes toward an extremal invariant measure with a highly
predominant spin value. We also show that this invariant measure presents
exponential decay of correlations in space and in time and is therefore
strongly mixing.Comment: 21 pages, 0 figure, revised version including a generalization to a
larger class of models, structure of the arguments unchanged, minor changes
suggested by reviewers, added reference
Determinants of immediate price impacts at the trade level in an emerging order-driven market
The common wisdom argues that, in general, large trades cause large price
changes, while small trades cause small price changes. However, for extremely
large price changes, the trade size and news play a minor role, while the
liquidity (especially price gaps on the limit order book) is a more influencing
factor. Hence, there might be other influencing factors of immediate price
impacts of trades. In this paper, through mechanical analysis of price
variations before and after a trade of arbitrary size, we identify that the
trade size, the bid-ask spread, the price gaps and the outstanding volumes at
the bid and ask sides of the limit order book have impacts on the changes of
prices. We propose two regression models to investigate the influences of these
microscopic factors on the price impact of buyer-initiated partially filled
trades, seller-initiated partially filled trades, buyer-initiated filled
trades, and seller-initiated filled trades. We find that they have
quantitatively similar explanation powers and these factors can account for up
to 44% of the price impacts. Large trade sizes, wide bid-ask spreads, high
liquidity at the same side and low liquidity at the opposite side will cause a
large price impact. We also find that the liquidity at the opposite side has a
more influencing impact than the liquidity at the same side. Our results shed
new lights on the determinants of immediate price impacts.Comment: 21 IOP tex pages including 5 figures and 5 tables. Accepted for
publication in New Journal of Physic
Maternal stress during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes of children during the first 2 years of life
AIM:
A growing body of literature documents associations between maternal stress in pregnancy and child development, but findings across studies are often inconsistent. The aim of this study was to estimate the association between exposure to different kinds of prenatal stress and child psychomotor development.
METHODS:
The study population consisted of 372 mother-child pairs from Polish Mother and Child Cohort. The analysis was restricted to the women who worked at least 1 month during pregnancy period. Maternal psychological stress during pregnancy was assessed based on: the Subjective Work Characteristics Questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale and Social Readjustment Rating Scale. The level of satisfaction with family functioning and support was evaluated by APGAR Family Scale. Child psychomotor development was assessed at the 12th and 24th months of age by Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development.
RESULTS:
Negative impact on child cognitive development at the age of two was observed for the Perceived Stress Scale (β = -0.8; P = 0.01) and the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (β = -0.4; P = 0.03) after adjusting for the variety of confounders. Occupational stress, as well as satisfaction with family functioning, was not significantly associated with child psychomotor development (P > 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS:
The study supports the findings that prenatal exposure to maternal stress is significantly associated with decreased child cognitive functions. In order to further understand and quantify the effects of prenatal stress on child neurodevelopment further studies are needed. This will be important for developing interventions that provide more assistance to pregnant women, including emotional support or help to manage psychological stress
Analytical solution of a generalized Penna model
In 1995 T.J.Penna introduced a simple model of biological aging. A modified
Penna model has been demonstrated to exhibit behaviour of real-life systems
including catastrophic senescence in salmon and a mortality plateau at advanced
ages. We present a general steady-state, analytic solution to the Penna model,
able to deal with arbitrary birth and survivability functions. This solution is
employed to solve standard variant Penna models studied by simulation.
Different Verhulst factors regulating both the birth rate and external death
rate are considered.Comment: 6 figure
Magnetic order in the Ising model with parallel dynamics
It is discussed how the equilibrium properties of the Ising model are
described by an Hamiltonian with an antiferromagnetic low temperature behavior
if only an heat bath dynamics, with the characteristics of a Probabilistic
Cellular Automaton, is assumed to determine the temporal evolution of the
system.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
The Heumann-Hotzel model for aging revisited
Since its proposition in 1995, the Heumann-Hotzel model has remained as an
obscure model of biological aging. The main arguments used against it were its
apparent inability to describe populations with many age intervals and its
failure to prevent a population extinction when only deleterious mutations are
present. We find that with a simple and minor change in the model these
difficulties can be surmounted. Our numerical simulations show a plethora of
interesting features: the catastrophic senescence, the Gompertz law and that
postponing the reproduction increases the survival probability, as has already
been experimentally confirmed for the Drosophila fly.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Protection of pregnant women at work in Switzerland: implementation and experiences of maternity protection legislation
Objectives. Like most industrialized countries, Switzerland has introduced legislation to protect the health of pregnant workers and their unborn children from workplace hazards. This study aims to assess legislation’s degree of implementation in the French-speaking part of Switzerland and understand the barriers to and resources supporting its implementation.
Methods. Data were collected using mixed methods: (1) an online questionnaire send to 333 gynecologist-obstetricians (GOs) and 637 midwives; (2) exploratory semi-structured interviews with 5 workers who had had a pregnancy in the last 5 years.
Results. Questionnaire response rates were 32% for GOs and 54% for midwives. Data showed that several aspects of the implementation of maternity protection policies could be improved. Where patients encounter workplace hazards, GOs and midwives estimated that they only received a risk assessment from the employer in about 5% and 2% of cases, respectively. Preventive leave is underprescribed: 32% of GOs reported that they “often” or “always” prescribed preventive leave in cases involving occupational hazards; 58% of GOs reported that they “often” or “always” prescribed sick leave instead.
Interviews with workers identified several barriers to the implementation of protective policies in workplaces: a lack of information about protective measures and pregnancy rights; organizational problems triggered by job and schedule adjustments; and discrepancies between some safety measures and their personal needs.
Conclusions. Results demonstrate the need to improve the implementation and appropriateness of maternity protection legislation in Switzerland. More research is required to identify the factors affecting its implementation
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