Deriving reliable fundamental parameters of PMS-rich star clusters affected by differential reddening

We present an approach that improves the search for reliable astrophysical parameters (e.g. age, mass, and distance) of differentially-reddened, pre-main sequence-rich star clusters. It involves simulating conditions related to the early-cluster phases, in particular the differential and foreground reddenings, and internal age spread. Given the loose constraints imposed by these factors, the derivation of parameters based only on photometry may be uncertain, especially for the poorly-populated clusters. We consider a wide range of cluster {\em (i)} mass and {\em (ii)} age, and different values of {\em (iii)} distance modulus, {\em (iv)} differential and {\em (v)} foreground reddenings. Photometric errors and their relation with magnitude are also taken into account. We also investigate how the presence of unresolved binaries affect the derived parameters. For each set of {\em (i)} - {\em (v)} we build the corresponding model Hess diagram, and compute the root mean squared residual with respect to the observed Hess diagram. The parameters that produce the minimum residuals between model and observed Hess diagrams are searched by exploring the full parameter space of {\em (i)} - {\em (v)} by means of {\em brute force}, which may be time consuming but efficient. Control tests show that an adequate convergence is achieved allowing for solutions with residuals 10% higher than the absolute minimum. Compared to a colour-magnitude diagram containing only single stars, the presence of 100% of unresolved binaries has little effect on cluster age, foreground and differential reddenings; significant differences show up in the cluster mass and distance from the Sun. Our approach shows to be successful in minimising the subjectiveness when deriving fundamental parameters of young star clusters.Comment: Accepted by MNRA

Cold fission as cluster decay with dissipation

For cold (neutronless) fission we consider an analytical model of quantum tunneling with dissipation through a barrier U(q) evaluated with a M3Y nucleon-nucleon force. We calculate the tunneling spectrum, i.e., the fission rate as a function of the total kinetic energy of the fragments. The theoretical results are compared with the experimental data obtained for the fine structure of two cold fission modes of 252Cf: 148Ba+104Mo and 146Ba+106Mo. Taking into account the dissipative coupling of the potential function U(q) and of the momentum p with all the other neglected coordinates, we obtain a remarkable agreement with the experimental data. We conclude that the cold fission process is a spontaneous decay with a spectrum determined by the shape of the barrier and an amplitude depending on the strength of the dissipative coupling

Yoga en España. Proceso de regulación profesional

El desarrollo de nuevas espiritualidades va acompañado de emergentes movimientos físicopsico-espirituales que han tenido un claro impacto en ámbitos distintos, pero especialmente en el de la salud y el bienestar debido a su intensa proliferación. Cada día es más frecuente encontrar enfermeros/as que ofrecen yoga a sus pacientes, médicos/as que recomiendan mindfulnes (meditación), etc. El uso de las llamadas Medicinas Alternativas y Complementarias (MAC) ocupa un lugar cada vez más destacado en nuestra sociedad. Se trata de una realidad ya bien visible en los conocidos centros, escuelas, consultas particulares, etc. de terapias alternativas. La proliferación de todos estos espacios terapéuticos camina de la mano de la necesidad de una regulación institucional tanto para el reconocimiento de profesionales que operan en este campo como para su formación. España, hoy es protagonista de un importante avance en materia jurídica en la regulación de la Instrucción en Yoga a raíz de los Reales Decretos publicados en los últimos años, así como de los procesos de acreditación y de habilitación de los profesores de yoga en el caso catalán. En este artículo vamos a ver como se está realizando dicho proceso, mostrando los interrogantes que se han generado, los acuerdos y las discrepancias entre el sector y la administración, así como dentro del propio sector. New approaches to spirituality go hand in hand with emerging physical, psychological and spiritual movements that have had a clear impact on many areas, and in particular on health and well-being. It is increasingly common to find nurses teaching yoga or doctors prescribing mindfulness. Use of socalled Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is becoming mainstream. Health centres, medical practices and even schools are offering a growing number of alternative therapies, resulting in the need for effective legal regulation of these activities, both in terms of professional recognition and training. In Spain, recent legislation represents a significant breakthrough in the regulation of yoga instruction, while in Catalonia legislation has been passed on licencing processes and the training of yoga teachers. This article focuses on these processes, raising some key unanswered questions, points of contact and divergence between governments and this services sector, and substantive differences among stakeholders themselves

Generalized Hurst exponent and multifractal function of original and translated texts mapped into frequency and length time series

A nonlinear dynamics approach can be used in order to quantify complexity in written texts. As a first step, a one-dimensional system is examined : two written texts by one author (Lewis Carroll) are considered, together with one translation, into an artificial language, i.e. Esperanto are mapped into time series. Their corresponding shuffled versions are used for obtaining a "base line". Two different one-dimensional time series are used here: (i) one based on word lengths (LTS), (ii) the other on word frequencies (FTS). It is shown that the generalized Hurst exponent $h(q)$ and the derived $f(\alpha)$ curves of the original and translated texts show marked differences. The original "texts" are far from giving a parabolic $f(\alpha)$ function, - in contrast to the shuffled texts. Moreover, the Esperanto text has more extreme values. This suggests cascade model-like, with multiscale time asymmetric features as finally written texts. A discussion of the difference and complementarity of mapping into a LTS or FTS is presented. The FTS $f(\alpha)$ curves are more opened than the LTS onesComment: preprint for PRE; 2 columns; 10 pages; 6 (multifigures); 3 Tables; 70 reference

Conjuring the spirit of multilateralism: Histories of crisis management during the ‘great credit crash’

In recent years critical scholars have emphasised how the recollection of past events as traumas can both constrain and widen the political possibilities of a present. This article builds on such research by suggesting that the management of contemporary financial crises is reliant on a ritual work of repetition, wherein prior ‘crisis’ episodes are called upon to identify and authorise specific sites and modes of crisis management. In order to develop this argument, I focus on how past crises figure within the public pronouncements of four key policymaking organisations during the financial instability of 2007-2009. I find that while the Great Depression does enable these organisations to reaffirm old ways of managing crises, both it and the more recent Asian crisis are also made to disclose new truths about the evolution of multilateralism as a form of governance. In so doing, I argue, these historical narratives reveal how the management of global financial crisis depends upon a kind of ‘magic trick’. Rather than a strictly rational, historical process of problem solving, contemporary crises are instead negotiated through a contingent and self-referential conjuring of crisis-histories

Bouncing Universes with Varying Constants

We investigate the behaviour of exact closed bouncing Friedmann universes in theories with varying constants. We show that the simplest BSBM varying-alpha theory leads to a bouncing universe. The value of alpha increases monotonically, remaining approximately constant during most of each cycle, but increasing significantly around each bounce. When dissipation is introduced we show that in each new cycle the universe expands for longer and to a larger size. We find a similar effect for closed bouncing universes in Brans-Dicke theory, where $G$ also varies monotonically in time from cycle to cycle. Similar behaviour occurs also in varying speed of light theories

Yoga jam: remixing Kirtan in the Art of Living

Yoga Jam are a group of musicians in the United Kingdom who are active members of the Art of Living, a transnational Hindu-derived meditation group. Yoga Jam organize events—also referred to as yoga raves and yoga remixes—that combine Hindu devotional songs (bhajans) and chants (mantras) with modern Western popular musical genres, such as soul, rock, and particularly electronic dance music. This hybrid music is often played in a clublike setting, and dancing is interspersed with yoga and meditation. Yoga jams are creative fusions of what at first sight seem to be two incompatible phenomena—modern electronic dance music culture and ancient yogic traditions. However, yoga jams make sense if the Durkheimian distinction between the sacred and the profane is challenged, and if tradition and modernity are not understood as existing in a sort of inverse relationship. This paper argues that yoga raves are authenticated through the somatic experience of the modern popular cultural phenomenon of clubbing combined with therapeutic yoga practices and validated by identifying this experience with a reimagined Vedic tradition

Immortality of the soul as an intuitive idea: towards a psychological explanation of the origins of afterlife beliefs

This study tried to investigate if intuitive ideas about the continuation of the Self after death determine the way people represent the state of being dead, and, in this way, investigate possible psychological origins of afterlife beliefs, which constitute a recurrent cultural phenomenon. A semi-structured interview and a self-report questionnaire were used to obtain information on the experience of imagining oneself as dead and the representation of the dead-I of young adults. he results suggest that (1) there is a tendency to imagine the state of being dead as a continuation of the I, even in the absence of explicit afterlife beliefs; (2) perceptual, emotional, epistemic and desire experiences are associated to the dead-I; (3) the representation of the dead-I seems to be determined by an interaction between cognitive processes related to self-awareness and theory of mind, and the cultural afterlife beliefs explicitly learned. A previous alternative hypothesis, suggesting that simulation constraints were responsible for the emergence of non-reflective afterlife concepts (Bering, 2002, 2006) is not completely supported by our results. he data presented here suggest that immortality of the soul might be an intuitive religious concept, connected to the experience of the Self and to the implicit theorization that the experienced Self is independent from the body. Future studies should focus on the collection of cross-cultural and developmental data