Transform of Riccati equation of constant coefficients through fractional procedure

We use a particular fractional generalization of the ordinary differential equations that we apply to the Riccati equation of constant coefficients. By this means the latter is transformed into a modified Riccati equation with the free term expressed as a power of the independent variable which is of the same order as the order of the applied fractional derivative. We provide the solutions of the modified equation and employ the results for the case of the cosmological Riccati equation of FRW barotropic cosmologies that has been recently introduced by FaraoniComment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Pleba\'nski-Demia\'nski-like solutions in metric-affine gravity

We consider a (non--Riemannian) metric--affine gravity theory, in particular its nonmetricity--torsion sector ``isomorphic'' to the Einstein--Maxwell theory. We map certain Einstein--Maxwell electrovacuum solutions to it, namely the Pleba\'nski--Demia\'nski class of Petrov type D metrics.Comment: 12 pages of a LaTeX-fil

Early childhood development through an integrated program : evidence from the Philippines

More attention and resources have been devoted in recent years to early childhood development (ECD) in low- and middle-income countries. Rigorous studies on the effectiveness of ECD-related programs for improving children's development in various dimensions in the developing world are scant. The authors evaluate an important ECD initiative of the Philippine government using longitudinal data collected over three years on a cohort of 6,693 children age 0-4 years at baseline in two"treatment"regions and a"control"region that did not receive the intervention. The initiative includes a wide range of health, nutrition, early education, and social services programs. The authors estimate its impact by using"intent-to-treat"difference-in-difference propensity score matching estimators to control for a variety of observed characteristics measured at the municipality, barangay, household, and child level and unobserved fixed characteristics, with differential impacts by age of children and duration of exposure to the program. There has been a significant improvement in the cognitive, social, motor, and language development, and in short-term nutritional status of children who reside in ECD program areas compared to those in non-program areas, particularly for those under age four at the end of the evaluation period. The proportions of children below age four with worms and diarrhea also have been lowered significantly in program compared to non-program areas, but there are effects in the opposite direction for older children so the overall impact on these two indicators is mixed.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Early Childhood Development,Youth and Governance,Primary Education,Educational Sciences

Semiclassical approximation to supersymmetric quantum gravity

We develop a semiclassical approximation scheme for the constraint equations of supersymmetric canonical quantum gravity. This is achieved by a Born-Oppenheimer type of expansion, in analogy to the case of the usual Wheeler-DeWitt equation. The formalism is only consistent if the states at each order depend on the gravitino field. We recover at consecutive orders the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, the functional Schrodinger equation, and quantum gravitational correction terms to this Schrodinger equation. In particular, the following consequences are found: (i) the Hamilton-Jacobi equation and therefore the background spacetime must involve the gravitino, (ii) a (many fingered) local time parameter has to be present on $SuperRiem \Sigma$ (the space of all possible tetrad and gravitino fields), (iii) quantum supersymmetric gravitational corrections affect the evolution of the very early universe. The physical meaning of these equations and results, in particular the similarities to and differences from the pure bosonic case, are discussed.Comment: 34 pages, clarifications added, typos correcte

Marie Anne Paulze Lavoisier: unha descoñecida científica

[RESUMO] A contribución das mulleres á creación científica ao longo da historia da Humanidade non parece importante se consideramos o pouco que aparecen nos libros de texto; deste xeito, o alumnado non advertirá a existencia de mulleres que fixeron ou elaboraron leis ou teorías nas ciencias. Personaxes como: Hipatia de Alejandría, Hildegarda de Birgen, Caroline Herschel, María Cunitz, Marie Orr Evershed, Augusta Ada Byron, María Montagu, María Agnesi, Sophía Germain, Sonya Kovalevski, María Goeppter Mayer, Rosalin Franklin, Lise Meitner,..., son descoñecidas do gran público. Incluso aquelas que resultan ser coñecidas, como Irene ou Marie Curie, tampouco foron dabondo valoradas. Para recuperar estas mulleres científicas do silencio e do esquecemento e facelas visibles debemos sacar á luz as súas achegas. Este é o caso da protagonista da nosa comunicación. Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, que nos libros aparece como a esposa de Lavoisier, pero non como unha persoa con coñecementos científicos profundos como esperamos amosar. Presentamos as súas no mundo da química, que practicaba xunto ao seu home, e a todos cantos científicos formaban o chamado grupo do Arsenal

Ψ=We±Φ\rm \Psi= W e^{\pm \Phi} quantum cosmological solutions for Class A Bianchi Models

We find solutions for quantum Class A Bianchi models of the form $\rm \Psi=W e^{\pm \Phi}$ generalizing the results obtained by Moncrief and Ryan in standard quantum cosmology. For the II and IX Bianchi models there are other solutions $\rm \tilde\Phi_2$, $\rm \tilde\Phi_9$ to the Hamilton-Jacobi equation for which $\rm \Psi$ is necessarely zero, in contrast with solutions found in supersymmetric quantum cosmology.Comment: 15 pages, Late

Supersymmetric minisuperspace with non-vanishing fermion number

The Lagrangean of $N=1$ supergravity is dimensionally reduced to one (time-like) dimension assuming spatial homogeneity of any Bianchi type within class A of the classification of Ellis and McCallum. The algebra of the supersymmetry generators, the Lorentz generators, the diffeomorphism generators and the Hamiltonian generator is determined and found to close. In contrast to earlier work, infinitely many physical states with non-vanishing even fermion number are found to exist in these models, indicating that minisuperspace models in supergravity may be just as useful as in pure gravity.Comment: 4 page