Convergence to equilibrium for intermittent symplectic maps

We investigate a class of area preserving non-uniformly hyperbolic maps of the two torus. First we establish some results on the regularity of the invariant foliations, then we use this knowledge to estimate the rate of mixing.Comment: LaTeX, 23 page

European Futures. The Politics and Practice of Research Policies in the European Union.

Over the past decades, research policies have gained an increasing importance in the overall strategy of the European Union. Early programmes date back to the late 1970s, but in recent years the promotion and funding of scientific research have become a central field of European governance within the wider policy drive towards the making of a ‘knowledge-economy’ in Europe. These developments are not only relevant to better understanding the process of European integration, but they also constitute an important chapter in the history of modern science. Today, EU framework programmes, the main instrument for research support at the European level, are arguably the biggest research funding scheme in the world. Moreover, European policies have introduced innovative practices of scientific collaboration and a new culture of research, which has contributed to key changes in the social and organisational dimension of science. This sociological work examines these issues at two interrelated levels of analysis. First, it explores the emergence and development of Community research policies, in the changing political, cultural and economic context from the 1970s to the present, with a focus on the main narratives that have sustained and legitimised policy choices. Particular attention is paid to the life sciences and biotechnology as a research area where important issues of European governance and political culture emerged and were negotiated. Second, it aims to gain an understanding of the ways in which policy strategies have worked out in the actual practice of scientific cooperation. To do so, the second part of the thesis discusses the results of a micro-sociological study of two transnational networks in stem cell research, funded by the European Union under the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006)

Protecting Europe from diseases: from the international sanitary conferences to the ECDC.

In the past few decades there has been increased integration of communicable disease policies in Europe. The historical roots of this process date back to the mid-nineteenth century, when national authorities realized that the cross-boundary spread of diseases cannot be only a matter of national governance but requires common agreements and regulations. In the early 1950s the structuring of the World Health Organization in regional offices further contributed to the definition of Europe as a unit for risk assessments and international health cooperation. More recently the consolidation of the European Union has provided new institutional bases for shaping communicable disease policies at the supranational level. This article reviews these different attempts to protect the European space from diseases. It is argued that changing modes of communicable disease control not only have reflected shifts in public health priorities and institutional contexts but have also been important loci where different understandings of Europe and European political identity emerged and were negotiated. Against this background the article then examines past achievements and future challenges of the current European framework and discusses implications for the wider process of European integration

The making of evidence-informed health policy in Cambodia: knowledge, institutions, and processes

Introduction: In global health discussions, there have been widespread calls for health policy and programme implementation to be informed by the best available evidence. However, recommendations in the literature on knowledge translation are often decontextualized, with little attention to the local systems of institutions, structures, and practices which can direct the production of evidence and shape whether or how it informs health decisions. This article explores these issues in the country setting of Cambodia, where the Ministry of Health has explicitly championed the language of evidence-based approaches to policy and planning. Methods: Research for this paper combined multiple sources and material, including indepth interviews with key informants in Phnom Penh and the analysis of documentary material and publications. Data collection and analysis focused on two key domains in evidence advisory systems: domestic capacities to generate health-policy relevant evidence and institutional mechanisms to monitor, evaluate, and incorporate evidence in the policy process. Results: We identified a number of structural arrangements that may increasingly work to facilitate the supply of health-related data and information, and their use to inform policy and planning. However, other trends and features appear to be more problematic, including gaps between research and public health priorities in the country, the fragmented nature of research activities and information systems, the lack of a national policy to support and guide the production and use of evidence for health policy, and challenges to the use of evidence for inter-sectoral policy making. Conclusions: In Cambodia, as in other low- and middle-income countries, continued investments to increase the supply and quality of health data and information are needed, but greater attention should be paid to the enabling institutional environment to ensure relevance of health research products and effective knowledge management

Sharing public health data and information across borders: lessons from Southeast Asia.

BACKGROUND: The importance of data and information sharing for the prevention and control of infectious diseases has long been recognised. In recent years, public health emergencies such as avian influenza, drug-resistant malaria, and Ebola have brought renewed attention to the need for effective communication channels between health authorities, particularly in regional contexts where neighbouring countries share common health threats. However, little empirical research has been conducted to date to explore the range of factors that may affect the transfer, exchange, and use of public health data and expertise across borders, especially in developing contexts. METHODS: To explore these issues, 60 interviews were conducted with domestic and international stakeholders in Cambodia and Vietnam, selected amongst those who were involved in regional public health programmes and networks. Data analysis was structured around three categories mapped across the dataset: (1) the nature of shared data and information; (2) the nature of communication channels; and (3) how information flow may be affected by the local, regional, and global system of rules and arrangements. RESULTS: There has been a great intensification in the circulation of data, information, and expertise across borders in Southeast Asia. However, findings from this study document ways in which the movement of data and information from production sites to other places can be challenging due to different standards and practices, language barriers, different national structures and rules that govern the circulation of health information inside and outside countries, imbalances in capacities and power, and sustainability of financing arrangements. CONCLUSIONS: Our study highlights the complex socio-technical nature of data and information sharing, suggesting that best practices require significant involvement of an independent third-party brokering organisation or office, which can redress imbalances between country partners at different levels in the data sharing process, create meaningful communication channels and make the most of shared information and data sets

Hyperbolic billiards with nearly flat focusing boundaries. I

The standard Wojtkowski-Markarian-Donnay-Bunimovich technique for the hyperbolicity of focusing or mixed billiards in the plane requires the diameter of a billiard table to be of the same order as the largest ray of curvature along the focusing boundary. This is due to the physical principle that is used in the proofs, the so-called defocusing mechanism of geometrical optics. In this paper we construct examples of hyperbolic billiards with a focusing boundary component of arbitrarily small curvature whose diameter is bounded by a constant independent of that curvature. Our proof employs a nonstardard cone bundle that does not solely use the familiar dispersing and defocusing mechanisms.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

Building Resilient Health Systems: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges to health systems worldwide, overwhelming health facilities and placing enormous pressure on the health workforce. In the third round of the World Health Organization’s ‘global pulse’ survey on continuity of essential health services during the pandemic, 92% of 129 participating countries reported critical bottlenecks to scaling up access to COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines and equipment. In addition, widespread disruptions to emergency services and primary care have been documented in many areas, including maternal and child health, care for the elderly and global health issues such as HIV and tuberculosis. These disruptions could reverse years of progress in fragile and low-income contexts as scarce staff are diverted from routine services and funds are re-allocated to support COVID-19 activities

Recurrence and higher ergodic properties for quenched random Lorentz tubes in dimension bigger than two

We consider the billiard dynamics in a non-compact set of R^d that is constructed as a bi-infinite chain of translated copies of the same d-dimensional polytope. A random configuration of semi-dispersing scatterers is placed in each copy. The ensemble of dynamical systems thus defined, one for each global realization of the scatterers, is called `quenched random Lorentz tube'. Under some fairly general conditions, we prove that every system in the ensemble is hyperbolic and almost every system is recurrent, ergodic, and enjoys some higher chaotic properties.Comment: Final version for J. Stat. Phys., 18 pages, 4 figure

Modelling swelling effects in real espresso extraction using a 1-dimensional coarse-grained model

Swelling of coffee particle is difficult to measure and control, but it could have significant effects on espresso extraction. In this article, we incorporate a particle-level swelling model to a one dimensional bed-level extraction model to investigate the effects of swelling on extraction. Realistic geometric parameters and brewing parameters are used. A small degree of swelling is assumed to be present (≈3.6% in size). Our simulation results show that swelling only slightly affects the yield and the strength if the flow rate is fixed. However, when the pressure drop is fixed swelling will considerably enhance the strength at both fixed brewing time and fixed brewing mass. The finer the coffee particles the more pronounced the enhancement. By tuning the partition coefficient, the one-dimensional extraction model is shown to be able to capture very well the extraction kinetics of a fixing-flow-rate espresso machine in low beverage mass regime (Mc<30g). Our results suggest that better yield and strength control can be achieved by fixing the flow rate in an espresso machine. Moreover, it is indicated that when properly incorporated with relevant physical effects, numerical extraction simulations can be used to predict the extraction kinetics of espresso machine and guide their design and production

Mapping emerging trends and South–South cooperation in regional knowledge networks: A bibliometric analysis of avian influenza research in Southeast Asia

This paper maps emerging trends and South-South cooperation in regional knowledge networks through a bibliometric analysis of avian influenza research in Southeast Asia, between 2004 and 2019. The findings indicate that a substantial research output involving researchers and organisations in the region was generated. However, wide disparities between countries existed, both in terms of output and participation in the regional network, which was largely driven by non-regional actors. A more proactive involvement of institutions for regional cooperation such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would increase local ownership, sustainability and redress imbalances in the regional research system