An integrated dynamical modeling perspective for infrastructure resilience

International audienceThis paper considers a dynamical way to connect resilience outcomes and processes by nesting process-based approaches inside a controlled dynamical system under resource constraints. To illustrate this, we use a dynamical model of electric power generation to show the complementary aspects of outcome, resources, and process-based approaches for analyzing infrastructure resilience. The results of this stylized model show that adaptation is the most influential process and that for monitoring to be efficient it must account for associated costs. Beyond these specific results, we suggest that nesting outcome- and process-based approaches within a dynamical controlled framework can be very useful and complementary for infrastructure managers and designers tasked with effectively allocating resources for enhancing system resilience

Using GIS to integrate old and new archaeological data from Stone Age deposits in Karonga, Malawi

The Karonga District of northern Malawi has an extensive Stone Age archaeological record, primarily represented by stone artefacts that occur in both superficial and buried contexts. Work conducted in the 1960s provided initial documentation of this record. Some of this was presented in summary form in a small number of publications. However, most data were restricted to unpublished field notes, maps, and other static or largely inaccessible formats. GIS has been an essential tool for bringing together these diverse datasets in a digital format to facilitate integration of new research and promote reinvestigation of old sites. Examples from both the regional and site scale demonstrate how old data have been combined with recent survey and excavation data to document, analyse, interpret, and archive current knowledge about the rich Stone Age record of northern Malawi. A significant result from this approach has been the suggested reinterpretation of the Mwanganda’s Village Site

Illiquid Capital: Are Conservation Easement Payments Reinvested in Farms?

Agricultural conservation easements have positive externalities but few studies examine the supply-side. This paper explores whether easements may also overcome a credit-market failure, as banks may not be lending based on the full developed value of land. Original survey data test our research hypotheses and show profitable owners and nonoperators to be using easement payments to extract capital from their land by using the preservation programs as a bank. The results also show that the unprofitable owners and operators are reinvesting in their agricultural enterprises. Both results are consistent with an underlying credit-market failure, and the latter suggests that easements may provide indirect efficiency enhancement. The results suggest an integration of policies on agricultural finance and land preservation might lead to improved efficiency

Dynamics of Weyl Scale Invariant non-BPS p=3 Branes

In this paper a Weyl scale invariant $p=3$ brane scenario is introduced, with the brane embedded in a higher dimensional bulk space with $N=1, 5D$ Super--Weyl symmetry. Its action, which describes its long wave oscillation modes into the ambient superspace and breaks the target symmetry down to the lower dimensional Weyl W(1,3) symmetry, is constructed by the approach of coset method.Comment: 12 pages, modified versio

Spacetime Virasoro algebra from strings on zero radius AdS_3

We study bosonic string theory in the light-cone gauge on AdS_3 spacetime with zero radius of curvature (in string units) R/\sqrt{\alpha^\prime}=0. We find that the worldsheet theory admits an infinite number of conserved quantities which are naturally interpreted as spacetime charges and which form a representation of (two commuting copies of) a Virasoro algebra. Near the boundary of AdS_3 these charges are found to be isomorphic to the infinite set of asymptotic Killing vectors of AdS_3 found originally by Brown and Henneaux. In addition to the spacetime Virasoro algebra, there is a worldsheet Virasoro algebra that generates diffeomorphisms of the spatial coordinate of the string worldsheet. We find that if the worldsheet Virasoro algebra has a central extension then the spacetime Virasoro algebra acquires a central extension via a mechanism similar to that encountered in the context of the SL(2,R) WZW model.Our observations are consistent with a recently proposed duality between bosonic strings on zero radius AdS_d+1 and free field theory in d dimensions.Comment: 23 pages, uses JHEP.cls. References adde

Tick size and price diffusion

A tick size is the smallest increment of a security price. It is clear that at the shortest time scale on which individual orders are placed the tick size has a major role which affects where limit orders can be placed, the bid-ask spread, etc. This is the realm of market microstructure and there is a vast literature on the role of tick size on market microstructure. However, tick size can also affect price properties at longer time scales, and relatively less is known about the effect of tick size on the statistical properties of prices. The present paper is divided in two parts. In the first we review the effect of tick size change on the market microstructure and the diffusion properties of prices. The second part presents original results obtained by investigating the tick size changes occurring at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). We show that tick size change has three effects on price diffusion. First, as already shown in the literature, tick size affects price return distribution at an aggregate time scale. Second, reducing the tick size typically leads to an increase of volatility clustering. We give a possible mechanistic explanation for this effect, but clearly more investigation is needed to understand the origin of this relation. Third, we explicitly show that the ability of the subordination hypothesis in explaining fat tails of returns and volatility clustering is strongly dependent on tick size. While for large tick sizes the subordination hypothesis has significant explanatory power, for small tick sizes we show that subordination is not the main driver of these two important stylized facts of financial market.Comment: To be published in the "Proceedings of Econophys-Kolkata V International Workshop on "Econophysics of Order-driven Markets" March 9-13, 2010, The New Economic Windows series of Springer-Verlag Italia

Geodesics and Geodesic Deviation in static Charged Black Holes

The radial motion along null geodesics in static charged black hole space-times, in particular, the Reissner-Nordstr\"om and stringy charged black holes are studied. We analyzed the properties of the effective potential. The circular photon orbits in these space-times are investigated. We found that the radius of circular photon orbits in both charged black holes are different and differ from that given in Schwarzschild space-time. We studied the physical effects of the gravitational field between two test particles in stringy charged black hole and compared the results with that given in Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, small changes, figures and references added, conclusions changed. A improved, version accepted in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Exploring the extent to which fluctuations in ice‐rafted debris reflect mass changes in the source ice sheet : a model–observation comparison using the last British–Irish Ice Sheet

The British and Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) was highly dynamic during the Late Quaternary, with considerable regional differences in the timing and extent of its change. This was reflected in equally variable offshore ice‐rafted debris (IRD) records. Here we reconcile these two records using the FRUGAL intermediate complexity iceberg–climate model, with varying BIIS catchment‐level iceberg fluxes, to simulate change in IRD origin and magnitude along the western European margin at 1000‐year time steps during the height of the last BIIS glaciation (31–6 ka bp). This modelled IRD variability is compared with existing IRD records from the deep ocean at five cores along this margin. There is general agreement of the temporal and spatial IRD variability between observations and model through this period. The Porcupine Bank off northwestern Ireland was confirmed by the modelling as a major dividing line between sites possessing exclusively northern or southern source regions for offshore IRD. During Heinrich events 1 and 2, the cores show evidence of a proportion of North American IRD, more particularly to the south of the British Isles. Modelling supports this southern bias for likely Heinrich impact, but also suggests North American IRD will only reach the British margin in unusual circumstances