On Gauss-Bonnet Curvatures

The $(2k)$-th Gauss-Bonnet curvature is a generalization to higher dimensions of the $(2k)$-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet integrand, it coincides with the usual scalar curvature for $k=1$. The Gauss-Bonnet curvatures are used in theoretical physics to describe gravity in higher dimensional space times where they are known as the Lagrangian of Lovelock gravity, Gauss-Bonnet Gravity and Lanczos gravity. In this paper we present various aspects of these curvature invariants and review their variational properties. In particular, we discuss natural generalizations of the Yamabe problem, Einstein metrics and minimal submanifolds.Comment: This is a contribution to the Proceedings of the 2007 Midwest Geometry Conference in honor of Thomas P. Branson, published in SIGMA (Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications) at http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA

Disease control with quality compost in pot and field trials

Quality compost can have a positive effect on soil fertility and plant growth and health. This positive effect is not only observable in the laboratory, but also by growers. Phytopathological problems could be solved with the use of compost. Durable success can only be obtained if a quality management is resolutely followed. Further research is needed to optimize the quality management of compost production and utilization. For example, very little is known about the long-term effect of the different composts on soil fertility and disease receptivity

Further studies on square-root boundaries for Bessel processes

We look at decompositions of perpetuities and apply that to the study of the distributions of hitting times of Bessel processes of two types of square root boundaries. These distributions are linked giving a new proof of some Mellin transforms results obtained by David M. DeLong and M. Yor. Several random factorizations and characterizations of the studied distributions are established

An Ontology-Based Method for Semantic Integration of Business Components

Building new business information systems from reusable components is today an approach widely adopted and used. Using this approach in analysis and design phases presents a great interest and requires the use of a particular class of components called Business Components (BC). Business Components are today developed by several manufacturers and are available in many repositories. However, reusing and integrating them in a new Information System requires detection and resolution of semantic conflicts. Moreover, most of integration and semantic conflict resolution systems rely on ontology alignment methods based on domain ontology. This work is positioned at the intersection of two research areas: Integration of reusable Business Components and alignment of ontologies for semantic conflict resolution. Our contribution concerns both the proposal of a BC integration solution based on ontologies alignment and a method for enriching the domain ontology used as a support for alignment.Comment: IEEE New Technologies of Distributed Systems (NOTERE), 2011 11th Annual International Conference; ISSN: 2162-1896 Print ISBN: 978-1-4577-0729-2 INSPEC Accession Number: 12122775 201

On exponential functionals, harmonic potential measures and undershoots of subordinators

We establish a link between the distribution of an exponential functional I and the undershoots of a subordinator, which is given in terms of the associated harmonic potential measure. This allows us to give a necessary and sufficient condition in terms of the L\'evy measure for the exponential functional to be multiplicative infinitely divisible. We then provide a formula for the moment generating function of an exponential functional $I$ and the so called remainder random variable $R$ associated to it. We provide a realization of the remainder random variable $R$ as an infinite product involving independent last position random variables of the subordinator. Some properties of harmonic measures are obtained and some examples are provided.Comment: 24 page