Malaria related knowledge, practices and behaviour of people in Nepal

Background & objectives: The information on malaria related knowledge, practices and behaviour of the people of Nepal living in malaria endemic areas are essential to develop behavioural change communication messages and for producing policy to prevent and control malaria in the country. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge, practices and behaviour of the people living in malaria endemic districts and relate with malaria control policy in Nepal. Methods: The paper utilizes data from a cross-sectional study of 1330 households conducted during December 2004 to April 2005 in rural areas of Jhapa, Kailali and Kanchanpur districts. The method used includes structured questionnaire and focus group discussions. Results: The results revealed that 40% respondents were illiterates. Eighty-six percent respondents have heard about malaria but only 50% responded fever with chills as the sign and symptom of malaria. Seventy-three percent responded that mosquito bite causes malaria transmission and 74% respondents considered that malaria is the fatal disease but very few have knowledge that the treatment of malaria in time can save life. More than 50% did not have information on availability of free treatment of malaria in Nepal. Still 16% were found consulting traditional healers for the treatment. The outside sleeping habit was found in almost one fourth of the population mainly in summer season indicating no knowledge about prevention of malaria. Although bednet use practice was higher, only 4% had knowledge on insecticide impregnated bednets and 23% of them practicing it. Issues regarding the proper and regular use of bednets, the quality of the bednet and use of free treatment provided by the government, since these districts are reporting high incidence of malaria.Interpretation & conclusion: Health education must be taken into account for communities in malaria endemic areas to produce desired outcomes in malaria control

Seasonal Variation of Calving in Murrah Buffalo in Bihar

The present study was carried out to estimate the seasonal variation of calving in Murrah buffaloes. The study was conducted in North West alluvial plain of Bihar (Chappra, Siwan and Samastipur), of India on 773 Murrah buffaloes, and these buffaloes were inseminated during June 2010 to December 2014 at BAIF's field Artificial Insemination centres which provide door-step artificial insemination service at village's level. The result indicated that the calving of Murrah buffaloes occurred throughout the year. In Chhapra maximum calving observed in August, i.e. 17% while 14% in October. September and November 13% each. Based on season majority of calving observed between July to January. In Samastipur maximum calving observed in August 16% while in September 14 % followed by November 13% and October month 11%. Based on season majority of calving observed between July to January months. In Samastipur maximum calving observed in August 16% while in September 14% followed by November 13% and October 11%. Based on season majority of calving found between July to January months. It could be concluded that Murrah buffaloes tend to calve more in the days with shorter photoperiod as compared to days with more extended photoperiod

Several small Josephson junctions in a Resonant Cavity: Deviation from the Dicke Model

We have studied quantum-mechanically a system of several small identical Josephson junctions in a lossless single-mode cavity for different initial states, under conditions such that the system is at resonance. This system is analogous to a collection of identical atoms in a cavity, which is described under appropriate conditions by the Dicke model. We find that our system can be well approximated by a reduced Hamiltonian consisting of two levels per junction. The reduced Hamiltonian is similar to the Dicke Hamiltonian, but contains an additional term resembling a dipole-dipole interaction between the junctions. This extra term arises when states outside the degenerate group are included via degenerate second-order (L\"{o}wdin) perturbation theory. As in the Dicke model, we find that, when N junctions are present in the cavity, the oscillation frequency due to the junction-cavity interaction is enhanced by $\sqrt{N}$. The corresponding decrease in the Rabi oscillation period may cause it to be smaller than the decoherence time due to dissipation, making these oscillations observable. Finally, we find that the frequency enhancement survives even if the junctions differ slightly from one another, as expected in a realistic system.Comment: 11 pages. To be published in Phys. Rev.

The functional role of biodiversity in ecosystems: incorporating trophic complexity

Understanding how biodiversity affects functioning of ecosystems requires integrating diversity within trophic levels (horizontal diversity) and across trophic levels (vertical diversity, including food chain length and omnivory). We review theoretical and experimental progress toward this goal. Generally, experiments show that biomass and resource use increase similarly with horizontal diversity of either producers or consumers. Among prey, higher diversity often increases resistance to predation, due to increased probability of including inedible species and reduced efficiency of specialist predators confronted with diverse prey. Among predators, changing diversity can cascade to affect plant biomass, but the strength and sign of this effect depend on the degree of omnivory and prey behaviour. Horizontal and vertical diversity also interact: adding a trophic level can qualitatively change diversity effects at adjacent levels. Multitrophic interactions produce a richer variety of diversity‐functioning relationships than the monotonic changes predicted for single trophic levels. This complexity depends on the degree of consumer dietary generalism, trade‐offs between competitive ability and resistance to predation, intraguild predation and openness to migration. Although complementarity and selection effects occur in both animals and plants, few studies have conclusively documented the mechanisms mediating diversity effects. Understanding how biodiversity affects functioning of complex ecosystems will benefit from integrating theory and experiments with simulations and network‐based approaches

A Statistical Study on Photospheric Magnetic Nonpotentiality of Active Regions and Its Relationship with Flares during Solar Cycles 22-23

A statistical study is carried out on the photospheric magnetic nonpotentiality in solar active regions and its relationship with associated flares. We select 2173 photospheric vector magnetograms from 1106 active regions observed by the Solar Magnetic Field Telescope at Huairou Solar Observing Station, National Astronomical Observatories of China, in the period of 1988-2008, which covers most of the 22nd and 23rd solar cycles. We have computed the mean planar magnetic shear angle (\bar{\Delta\phi}), mean shear angle of the vector magnetic field (\bar{\Delta\psi}), mean absolute vertical current density (\bar{|J_{z}|}), mean absolute current helicity density (\bar{|h_{c}|}), absolute twist parameter (|\alpha_{av}|), mean free magnetic energy density (\bar{\rho_{free}}), effective distance of the longitudinal magnetic field (d_{E}), and modified effective distance (d_{Em}) of each photospheric vector magnetogram. Parameters \bar{|h_{c}|}, \bar{\rho_{free}}, and d_{Em} show higher correlation with the evolution of the solar cycle. The Pearson linear correlation coefficients between these three parameters and the yearly mean sunspot number are all larger than 0.59. Parameters \bar{\Delta\phi}, \bar{\Delta\psi}, \bar{|J_{z}|}, |\alpha_{av}|, and d_{E} show only weak correlations with the solar cycle, though the nonpotentiality and the complexity of active regions are greater in the activity maximum periods than in the minimum periods. All of the eight parameters show positive correlations with the flare productivity of active regions, and the combination of different nonpotentiality parameters may be effective in predicting the flaring probability of active regions.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in Solar Physic

Test of the weak cosmic censorship conjecture with a charged scalar field and dyonic Kerr-Newman black holes

A thought experiment considered recently in the literature, in which it is investigated whether a dyonic Kerr-Newman black hole can be destroyed by overcharging or overspinning it past extremality by a massive complex scalar test field, is revisited. Another derivation of the result that this is not possible, i.e. the weak cosmic censorship is not violated in this thought experiment, is given. The derivation is based on conservation laws, on a null energy condition, and on specific properties of the metric and the electromagnetic field of dyonic Kerr-Newman black holes. The metric is kept fixed, whereas the dynamics of the electromagnetic field is taken into account. A detailed knowledge of the solutions of the equations of motion is not needed. The approximation in which the electromagnetic field is fixed is also considered, and a derivation for this case is also given. In addition, an older version of the thought experiment, in which a pointlike test particle is used, is revisited. The same result, namely the non-violation of the cosmic censorship, is rederived in a way which is simpler than in earlier works.Comment: 18 pages, LaTe

On universality of critical behavior in the focusing nonlinear Schr\uf6dinger equation, elliptic umbilic catastrophe and the Tritronqu\ue9e solution to the Painlev\ue9-I equation

We argue that the critical behavior near the point of "gradient catastrophe" of the solution to the Cauchy problem for the focusing nonlinear Schrodinger equation i epsilon Psi(t) + epsilon(2)/2 Psi(xx) + vertical bar Psi vertical bar(2)Psi = 0, epsilon << 1, with analytic initial data of the form Psi( x, 0; epsilon) = A(x)e(i/epsilon) (S(x)) is approximately described by a particular solution to the Painleve-I equation

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02