We discuss monopole core metastability in Alice electrodynamics. It is argued that in some part of the parameter space the spherically symmetric magnetic monopole is no longer the lowest energy configuration carrying a magnetic charge, and that a point monopole may well decay into an Alice loop carrying magnetic Cheshire charge. In view of an expected electric-magnetic duality, similar implicat...

In 2000 Italy replaced its traditional system of severance pay for public employees with a new system. Under the old regime, severance pay was proportional to the final salary before retirement; under the new regime it is proportional to lifetime earnings. This reform entails substantial losses for future generations of public employees, in the range of €20,000-30,000, depending on seniority. U...

Using a simple version of the model for the quantum measurement of a two level system, the contention of Aharonov, Anandan, and Vaidman that one must in certain circumstances give the wavefunction an ontological as well as an epistemological significance is examined. I decide that their argument that the wave function of a system can be measured on a single system fails to establish the key poi...

We consider the task of forecasting an infinite sequence of future observations based on some number of past observations, where the probability measure generating the observations is “suspected” to satisfy one or more of a set of incomplete models, i.e. convex sets in the space of probability measures. This setting is in some sense intermediate between the realizable setting where the probabil...

Influenza is a disease which returns every epidemic season in different degrees of severity, especially in high-risk groups. According to current data, 5–25% of the world population contract this disease and mortality because of influenza reaches 0.5–1 million people. However, this problem is still not dealt with appropriately and is even disregarded. In contrast to other viruses influenza cann...

We consider the problem (1) ⎧⎨ ⎩ −∆u = up + λu in B , u > 0 in B , u = 0 on ∂B, where B denotes the unit ball in RN , N ≥ 3, λ > 0 and p > 1. Merle and Peletier showed that for p > N+2 N−2 there is a unique value λ = λ∗ > 0 such that a radial singular solution exists. This value is the only one at which an unbounded sequence of classical solutions of (1) may accumulate. Here we prove that if ad...

The rivers are the main sources both of sediments and pollutants. Their irregular supply from different catchment areas controls the nature of terrigenous sedimentation and contamination of the Black Sea. The role of aerosols in the Black Sea has not yet been estimated. As a result of studies in the Black Sea pre-Caucasian zone, it is revealed that fluxes of sediments and pollutants display a w...

Four matrix-phase crystallographic directions of IN718 are investigated by in-situ tensile tests using neutron diffraction. The elastic diffraction constants for all directions measured are compared to theoretical values calculated by the Kröner model. The differences between the microscopic and the macroscopic material response are given. The accumulation of microstrains in the different cryst...