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While research on adolescent smoking is extensive, little attention has been given to smoking behaviors among rural middle-aged and older adults. This study examines the role of personal networks and sociodemographic factors in predicting smoking status in a rural Romanian community. Using a link-tracing sampling method, we gathered data from 76 participants out of 83 in Leresti, Arges County. Face-to-face interviews collected sociodemographic data and network information, including smoking status and relational dynamics. We applied multilevel logistic regression models to predict smoking behaviors (current smokers, former smokers, and non-smokers) based on individual characteristics and network influences. Results indicate that social networks significantly influence smoking behaviors. For current smokers, having a smoking family member greatly increased the odds of smoking (OR = 2.51, 95% CI: 1.62, 3.91, p < 0.001). Similarly, non-smoking family members increased the likelihood of being a non-smoker (OR = 1.64, 95% CI: 1.04, 2.61, p < 0.05). Women were less likely to smoke, highlighting sex differences in behavior. These findings emphasize the critical role of social networks in shaping smoking habits, advocating for targeted interventions in rural areas., Comment: 27 pages; 1 figure; 6 tables

Stimuli-responsive macromolecules display large conformational changes during their dynamics, sometimes switching states, and are an integral property for the development of soft functional materials. Here, we introduce a mean-field dynamical density functional theory (DDFT) for a model of responsive colloids (RCs) to study the nonequilibrium dynamics of a colloidal dispersion in time-dependent external fields, with a focus on the coupling of translational and conformational dynamics during their relaxation. Specifically, we consider soft Gaussian particles with a bimodal size distribution between two confining walls with time-dependent (switching-on and off) external gravitational and osmotic fields. We find a rich relaxation behavior of the systems in excellent agreement with particle-based Brownian dynamics (BD) computer simulations. In particular, we find time-asymmetric relaxations of integrated observables (wall pressures, mean size, liquid center-of-mass) for activation/deactivation of external potentials, respectively, which are tuneable by the ratio of translational and conformational diffusion time scales. Our work paves thus the way for studying the nonequilibrium relaxation dynamics of complex soft matter with multiple degrees of freedom and hierarchical relaxations., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures

We use Homodyne Dynamic Light Scattering (HDLS) with a dual-laser beam setup to investigate the drift velocities of colloidal particles immersed in a solvent exposed to thermally-induced convection. Our investigation reveals the appearance of oscillations of a well-defined frequency in the intensity autocorrelation function, which are linked to the particle drift velocities. In addition to this non-equilibrium oscillations, we report an enhanced decay of the intensity correlation function attributable to the loss of correlation as particles depart from the scattering volume due to prevailing convective flow. A pivotal discovery of our research is the identification of a specific temperature gradient threshold, beyond which pronounced velocity fluctuations ensue as a consequence of the establishment of a non-stationary flow within the measurement cell. The experimental results, obtained for different colloidal systems, are corroborated by a theoretical model and thoroughly validated with fluid dynamics simulations and Brownian dynamics simulations, yielding excellent agreement with the experimental data, and providing a robust and complete explanation of the observed phenomena. This study presents an insight in the field of non-equilibrium particle dynamics, offering a reliable method to study complex behaviors in convective systems through advanced HDLS techniques and multidisciplinary simulations., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

Managing transition plans is one of the major problems of people with cognitive disabilities. Therefore, finding an automated way to generate such plans would be a helpful tool for this community. In this paper we have specifically proposed and compared different alternative ways to merge plans formed by sequences of actions of unknown similarities between goals and actions executed by several operator agents which cooperate between them applying such actions over some passive elements (node agents) that require additional executions of another plan after some time of use. Such ignorance of the similarities between plan actions and goals would justify the use of a distributed recommendation system that would provide an useful plan to be applied for a certain goal to a given operator agent, generated from the known results of previous executions of different plans by other operator agents. Here we provide the general framework of execution (agent system), and the different merging algorithms applied to this problem. The proposed agent system would act as an useful cognitive assistant for people with intelectual disabilities such as autism.

The transport of biomolecules, drugs, or reactants encapsulated inside stimuli-responsive polymer networks in aqueous media is fundamental for many material and environmental science applications, including drug delivery, biosensing, catalysis, nanofiltration, water purification, and desalination. The transport is particularly complex in dense polymer media, such as collapsed hydrogels, where the molecules strongly interact with the polymer network and diffuse via a hopping mechanism. In this study, we employ Dynamical Density Functional Theory (DDFT) to investigate the non-equilibrium release kinetics of non-ionic subnanometer-sized molecules initially uploaded inside collapsed microgel particles. The theory is consistent with previous molecular dynamics simulations of collapsed poly($N$-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) polymer matrices, accommodating molecules of varying shapes and sizes. We found that, despite the intricate physico-chemical properties involved in the released process, the kinetics is predominantly dictated by two material parameters: the diffusion coefficient of the molecules inside the microgel ($D^*$) and the interaction free energy of the molecules with the microgel ($\Delta G$). Our results reveal two distinct limiting regimes: For large, slowly diffusing molecules weakly attracted to the polymer network, the release is primarily driven by diffusion, with a release time that scales as $\tau_{1/2} \sim 1/D^*$. Conversely, for small molecules strongly attracted to the polymer network, the release time is dominated by the interaction, scaling as $\tau_{1/2} \sim \exp(-\Delta G/k_{\textrm{B}} T)$. Our DDFT calculations are directly compared with an analytical equation for the half-release time, demonstrating excellent quantitative agreement. This equation represents a valuable tool for predicting release kinetics of non-ionic molecules from collapsed microgels., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures

The extent to which individuals commit to their partner for life has important implications. This paper develops a lifecycle collective model of the household, through which it characterizes behavior in three prominent alternative types of commitment: full, limited, and no commitment. We propose a test that distinguishes between all three types based on how contemporaneous and historical news affect household behavior. Our test permits heterogeneity in the degree of commitment across households. Using recent data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we reject full and no commitment, while we find strong evidence for limited commitment.

A mixed function is a real analytic map $f\colon \mathbb{C}^n \to \mathbb{C}$ in the complex variables $z_1,\dots,z_n$ and their conjugates $\bar{z}_1,\dots,\bar{z}_n$. In this article we define an integer valued index for vector fields $v$ with isolated singularity at $\mathbf{0}$ on real analytic varieties $V_f:=f^{-1}(0)$ defined by mixed functions $f$ with isolated critical point at $\mathbf{0}$. We call this index the mixed GSV-index and it generalizes the classical GSV-index defined by Gomez-Mont, Seade and Verjovsky, i.e., if the function $f$ is holomorphic, then the mixed GSV-index coincides with the GSV-index. Furthermore, the mixed GSV-index is a lifting to $\mathbb{Z}$ of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$-valued real GSV-index defined by Aguilar, Seade and Verjovsky. As applications we prove that the mixed GSV-index is equal to the Poincar\'e-Hopf index of $v$ on a Milnor fiber. If $f$ also satisfies the strong Milnor condition, i.e., for every $\epsilon>0$ (small enough) the map $\frac{f}{\|f\|}\colon \mathbb{S}_\epsilon \setminus L_f \to \mathbb{S}^1$ is a fiber bundle, we prove that the mixed GSV-index is equal to the curvatura integra of $f$ defined by Cisneros-Molina, Grulha and Seade based on the curvatura integra defined by Kervaire.

Let $L$ be a compact oriented $3$-manifold and $\rho\colon\pi_1(L)\to \mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{C})$ a representation. Evaluating the Cheeger-Chern-Simons class $\widehat{c}_{\rho,k}\in H^{2k-1}(L;\mathbb{C}/\mathbb{Z})$ of $\rho$ at $\nu\in H_{2k-1}(L;\mathbb{Z})$ we get characteristic numbers that we call the $k$-th CCS-numbers of $\rho$. We prove that if $\rho$ is a topologically trivial representation, the 2-nd CCS-number $\widehat{c}_{\rho,2}([L])$ of the fundamental class $[L]$ of $L$ is given by the invariant $\tilde{\xi}_\rho(D)$ of the Dirac operator $D$ of $L$ twisted by $\rho$ defined by Atiyah, Patodi and Singer. If $L$ is a rational homology sphere, we also give a formula for $\widehat{c}_{\rho,2}([L])$ of any representation $\rho$ in terms of $\tilde{\xi}(D)$. Given a topologically trivial representation $\rho\colon\pi_1(L)\to\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{C})$ we construct an element $\langle L,\rho\rangle$ in the $3$-rd algebraic K-theory group $K_3(\mathbb{C})$ of the complex numbers. For a finite subgroup $\Gamma$ of $\mathrm{SU(2)}$ and its irreducible representations, we compute the 1-st and 2-nd CCS-numbers. With this, we recover the spectrum of all rational double point singularities. Motivated by this result, we define the topological spectrum of rational surface singularities and Gorenstein singularities. Given a normal surface singularity $(X,x)$ with link a rational homology sphere $L$, we show how to compute the invariant $\tilde{\xi}_\rho(D)$ for the Dirac operator of $L$ using either a resolution or a smoothing of $(X,x)$.

The recent announcement of a purported breakthrough result in inertial nuclear fusion at NIF (Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, USA) has aroused a tide of media and public interest. The excitement has been generalized to the whole field of research in fusion energy with, in its wake, announcements of an imminent advent of the cure for the energetic crisis and the aggravating influence in the climate change associated to the fossil fuels. This opinion article is intended to show that such expectations are not founded on sound scientific bases and that there is a long way until the practical production of electricity from nuclear fusion is achieved, if ever. -- El reciente anuncio de un supuestamente trascendental resultado en fusi\'on nuclear inercial en NIF (Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, EEUU de Norteam\'erica) ha desatado un enorme inter\'es en el p\'ublico y los medios de comunicaci\'on. El entusiasmo se ha trasladado a todo el campo de la investigaci\'on en fusi\'on para la producci\'on de energ\'ia con, a su estela, anuncios de la llegada inminente de la soluci\'on a la crisis energ\'etica y al efecto agravante del cambio clim\'atico asociado a los combustibles f\'osiles. Este art\'iculo de opini\'on pretende poner de manifiesto que tales expectativas no est\'an fundadas en bases cient\'ificas s\'olidas y que hay un largo camino por recorrer hasta que se logre, a niveles pr\'acticos, la producci\'on de electricidad a partir de la fusi\'on nuclear, si se consigue alguna vez., Comment: 11 pages, in Spanish language

The second workshop on the HEP Analysis Ecosystem took place 23-25 May 2022 at IJCLab in Orsay, to look at progress and continuing challenges in scaling up HEP analysis to meet the needs of HL-LHC and DUNE, as well as the very pressing needs of LHC Run 3 analysis. The workshop was themed around six particular topics, which were felt to capture key questions, opportunities and challenges. Each topic arranged a plenary session introduction, often with speakers summarising the state-of-the art and the next steps for analysis. This was then followed by parallel sessions, which were much more discussion focused, and where attendees could grapple with the challenges and propose solutions that could be tried. Where there was significant overlap between topics, a joint discussion between them was arranged. In the weeks following the workshop the session conveners wrote this document, which is a summary of the main discussions, the key points raised and the conclusions and outcomes. The document was circulated amongst the participants for comments before being finalised here.

The stochastic spectral expansion method offers a simple framework for calculations in de Sitter spacetimes. We show how to extend its reach to metastable vacuum states, both in the case when the potential is bounded from below, and when it is unbounded from below and therefore no stable vacuum state exists. In both cases, the decay rate of the metastable vacuum is given by the lowest non-zero eigenvalue associated to the Fokker-Planck equation. We show how the corresponding eigenfunction determines the field probability distribution which can be used to compute correlation functions and other observables in the metastable vacuum state., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

We investigate the decay rate of a false vacuum state in de Sitter space at high Hubble rates, using two methods: the Hawking-Moss instanton method which is fully quantum mechanical but relies on the saddle-point approximation, and the Starobinsky-Yokoyama stochastic approach which is non-perturbative but does not include quantum effects. We use the flux-over-population method to compute the Hawking-Moss decay rate at one-loop order, and demonstrate that in its domain of validity, it is reproduced by the stochastic calculation using the one-loop constraint effective potential. This suggests that the stochastic approach together with the constraint effective potential can be used to accurately describe vacuum decay beyond the saddle-point approximation., Comment: 7 pages, double column

In this article, the authors discuss the problem of forensic authentication of digital audio recordings. Although forensic audio has been addressed in several articles, the existing approaches are focused on analog magnetic recordings, which are less prevalent because of the large amount of digital recorders available on the market (optical, solid state, hard disks, etc.). An approach based on digital signal processing that consists of spread spectrum techniques for speech watermarking is presented. This approach presents the advantage that the authentication is based on the signal itself rather than the recording format. Thus, it is valid for usual recording devices in police-controlled telephone intercepts. In addition, our proposal allows for the introduction of relevant information such as the recording date and time and all the relevant data (this is not always possible with classical systems). Our experimental results reveal that the speech watermarking procedure does not interfere in a significant way with the posterior forensic speaker identification., Comment: 15 pages

Deep learning is providing very positive results in areas related to conversational interfaces, such as speech recognition, but its potential benefit for dialog management has still not been fully studied. In this paper, we perform an assessment of different configurations for deep-learned dialog management with three dialog corpora from different application domains and varying in size, dimensionality and possible system responses. Our results have allowed us to identify several aspects that can have an impact on accuracy, including the approaches used for feature extraction, input representation, context consideration and the hyper-parameters of the deep neural networks employed.

We introduce the GAMBIT Universal Model Machine (GUM), a tool for automatically generating code for the global fitting software framework GAMBIT, based on Lagrangian-level inputs. GUM accepts models written symbolically in FeynRules and SARAH formats, and can use either tool along with MadGraph and CalcHEP to generate GAMBIT model, collider, dark matter, decay and spectrum code, as well as GAMBIT interfaces to corresponding versions of SPheno, micrOMEGAs, Pythia and Vevacious (C++). In this paper we describe the features, methods, usage, pathways, assumptions and current limitations of GUM. We also give a fully worked example, consisting of the addition of a Majorana fermion simplified dark matter model with a scalar mediator to GAMBIT via GUM, and carry out a corresponding fit., Comment: 32 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables