Ultra-narrow and widely tunable Mn^(2+) Emission from Single Nanocrystals of ZnS-CdS alloy

Extensively studied Mn-doped semiconductor nanocrystals have invariably exhibited photoluminescence (PL) over a narrow energy window of width <= 149 meV in the orange-red region and a surprisingly large spectral width (>= 180 meV), contrary to its presumed atomic-like origin. Carrying out emission measurements on individual single nanocrystals and supported by ab initio calculations, we show that Mn PL emission, in fact, can (i) vary over a much wider range (~ 370 meV) covering the deep green-deep red region and (ii) exhibit widths substantially lower (~ 60-75 meV) than reported so far, opening newer application possibilities and requiring a fundamental shift in our perception of the emission from Mn-doped semiconductor nanocrystals.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Plant Metabolomics: An Emerging Technology for Crop Improvement

The astounding ability of plants to make smart decisions in response to environment is evident. As they have evolved a long list of complex and unique processes that involve photosynthesis, totipotency, long-distance signaling, and ability to restore structural and metabolic memory, recognition, and communication via emission of the selected class of volatiles. In recent years, use of metabolite profiling techniques in detection, unambiguous identification, quantification, and rapid analysis of the minute quantity of cellular micromolecules has increased considerably. Metabolomics is key to understand the chemical footprints during different phases of growth and development of plants. To feed the ever-increasing population with limited inputs and in a rapidly changing environment is the biggest challenges that the world agriculture faces today. To achieve the project genetic gains, the breeding strategies employing marker-assisted selection for high-yielding varieties and identifying germplasm resistant to abiotic and biotic stresses are already in vogue. Henceforth, new approaches are needed to discover and deploy agronomically important gene/s that can help crops better withstand weather extremes and growing pest prevalence worldwide. In this context, metabolic engineering technology looks viable option, with immense potential to deliver the future crops

Bioremediation of crude oil contaminated tea plantation soil using two Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains AS 03 and NA 108

Crude oil contamination of soil is a major concern for tea industry in Assam, India. Crude oil is a persistent organic contaminant which alters soil physical and biochemical characteristics and makes tea plants more susceptible against crude oil contamination. Therefore, two native bacterial strains designated as AS 03 and NA 108 having crude oil degradation ability was isolated from crude oil contaminated soil. Isolates were evaluated for reduction of crude oil phytotoxicity and soil bioremediation. Biochemical and 16s ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) analysis confirmed that the bacterial strains belong to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Under in vitro evaluation, it was found that both the strain could tolerate crude oil up to 40% (v/v). However, structural changes including morphology, difference in number of colonies were found in the presence of hydrocarbon in both AS 03 and NA 108. Also, an improvement in growth of bacterized tea plants was observed compared to non-bacterized plants grown in crude oil contaminated soil. The cumulative increment in height was 5 to 42%, compared to non-bacterized plants and with significantly higher root and shoot dry biomass accumulation. Soil treatment with both AS 03 and NA 108 improved soil quality including organic carbon, conductivity, pH and degradation of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) of the contaminated soil. These findings suggest that the tested bacteria can be exploited for bioremediation of crude oil contaminated soil in the geographical region of Assam.Keywords: Pseudomonas, tea plant, total petroleum hydrocarbon, crude oilAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(19), pp. 2600-261

Nonlinearities in Conservative Growth Equations

Using the dynamic renormalization group (DRG) technique, we analyze general nonlinearities in a conservative nonlinear growth equation with non-conserved gaussian white noise. We show that they fall in two classes only: the Edwards-Wilkinson and Lai-Das Sarma types, by explicitly computing the associated amputated two and three point functions at the first order in perturbation parameter(s). We further generalize this analysis to higher order nonlinearities and also suggest a physically meaningful geometric interpretation of the same.Comment: REVTEX, will appear in Phys Rev E Rapid Comm. February 1996, .ps figure file available upon request to [email protected]

Electric and magnetic polarizabilities of hexagonal Ln2CuTiO6 (Ln=Y, Dy, Ho, Er and Yb)

We investigated the rare-earth transition metal oxide series, Ln2CuTiO6 (Ln=Y, Dy, Ho, Er and Yb), crystallizing in the hexagonal structure with non-centrosymmetric P63cm space group for possible occurrences of multiferroic properties. Our results show that while these compounds, except Ln=Y, exhibit a low temperature antiferromagnetic transition due to the ordering of the rare-earth moments, the expected ferroelectric transition is frustrated by the large size difference between Cu and Ti at the B-site. Interestingly, this leads these compounds to attain a rare and unique combination of desirable paraelectric properties with high dielectric constants, low losses and weak temperature and frequency dependencies. First-principles calculations establish these exceptional properties result from a combination of two effects. A significant difference in the MO5 polyhedral sizes for M = Cu and M = Ti suppress the expected co-operative tilt pattern of these polyhedra, required for the ferroelectric transition, leading to relatively large values of the dielectric constant for every compound investigated in this series. Additionally, it is shown that the majority contribution to the dielectric constant arises from intermediate-frequency polar vibrational modes, making it relatively stable against any temperature variation. Changes in the temperature stability of the dielectric constant amongst different members of this series are shown to arise from changes in relative contributions from soft polar modes.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B (21 pages, 2 Table, 8 Figures

Оценивание финансово-экономической безопасности предприятий молокоперерабатывающей отрасли

The essence of the concept “financial and economic security of the enterprise” is covered. Methodological approaches to the enterprise financial and economic security evaluation are considered, enabling the method of index numberrating score of the enterprise financial and economic security to be found. Dynamics of milk anddairy production in Ukraine has been studied. Ukrainian regions leading in liquid processed milk production have been identified. Dynamics of milk and dairy production per man has been analyzed which allowed to find out the annual increase in demand per man. Integrated index of the dairy enterprise financial and economic security has been evaluated. As a result, the ways to increase the managerial efficiency of financial and economic security of the following enterprises:PJSC "Dubnomoloko", PJSC "Kupyans'ki milk canning plant", PJSC the "Yagotyns'ki creamery", PJSC the "Pervomais'ki milk canning plant" are offered.У статті розкрито сутність поняття фінансово-економічної безпеки підприємства. Розглянуто методичні підходи щодо оцінювання фінансово-економічної безпеки підприємства, що дозволило виявити підхід рейтингової оцінки показника фінансово-економічної безпеки підприємства. Досліджено динаміку виробництва молока та молочних продуктів України. Виявити області України, які є лідерами з виробництва молока рідкого обробленого. Проаналізовано динаміку виробництва молока та молочних продуктів на одну особу, що дозволило встановити щорічне зростання попиту на одну особу. Визначено підприємства молокопереробної галузі. Проведено оцінку інтегрального показника фінансово-економічної безпеки підприємств молокопереробної галузі. За результатами оцінки запропоновано шляхи підвищення ефективності управління фінансово-економічної безпеки таких підприємств, як: ПАТ «Дубномолоко», ПАТ «Куп’янський молочноконсервний комбінат», ПАТ «Яготинський маслозавод», ПАТ «Первомайський молочноконсервний комбінат».В статье раскрыто сущность понятия финансово-экономическая безопасность предприятия. Рассмотрено методические подходы относительно оценивания финансово-экономической безопасности предприятия, что позволило выявить поход рейтинговой оценки показателя финансово-экономической безопасности предприятия. Исследовано динамику производства молока и молочных продуктов Украины. Выявлены области Украины, которые являются лидерами по производству молока жидкого обработанного. Проанализировано динамику производства молока и молочных продуктов на одного человека, что позволило установить ежегодный рост спроса на одного человека. Определены предприятия молокоперерабатывающей отрасли. Проведена оценка интегрального показателя финансово-экономической безопасности предприятий молокоперерабатывающей отрасли. По результатам оценки предложены пути повышения эффективности управления финансово-экономической безопасности таких предприятий, как: ПАО «Дубномолоко», ПАО «Купянский молочноконсервный комбинат», ПАО «Яготинский маслозавод», ПАО «Первомайский молочноконсервный комбинат»

Population and fertility by age and sex for 195 countries and territories, 1950–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background: Population estimates underpin demographic and epidemiological research and are used to track progress on numerous international indicators of health and development. To date, internationally available estimates of population and fertility, although useful, have not been produced with transparent and replicable methods and do not use standardised estimates of mortality. We present single-calendar year and single-year of age estimates of fertility and population by sex with standardised and replicable methods. Methods: We estimated population in 195 locations by single year of age and single calendar year from 1950 to 2017 with standardised and replicable methods. We based the estimates on the demographic balancing equation, with inputs of fertility, mortality, population, and migration data. Fertility data came from 7817 location-years of vital registration data, 429 surveys reporting complete birth histories, and 977 surveys and censuses reporting summary birth histories. We estimated age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs; the annual number of livebirths to women of a specified age group per 1000 women in that age group) by use of spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression and used the ASFRs to estimate total fertility rates (TFRs; the average number of children a woman would bear if she survived through the end of the reproductive age span [age 10–54 years] and experienced at each age a particular set of ASFRs observed in the year of interest). Because of sparse data, fertility at ages 10–14 years and 50–54 years was estimated from data on fertility in women aged 15–19 years and 45–49 years, through use of linear regression. Age-specific mortality data came from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 estimates. Data on population came from 1257 censuses and 761 population registry location-years and were adjusted for underenumeration and age misreporting with standard demographic methods. Migration was estimated with the GBD Bayesian demographic balancing model, after incorporating information about refugee migration into the model prior. Final population estimates used the cohort-component method of population projection, with inputs of fertility, mortality, and migration data. Population uncertainty was estimated by use of out-of-sample predictive validity testing. With these data, we estimated the trends in population by age and sex and in fertility by age between 1950 and 2017 in 195 countries and territories. Findings: From 1950 to 2017, TFRs decreased by 49\ub74% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 46\ub74–52\ub70). The TFR decreased from 4\ub77 livebirths (4\ub75–4\ub79) to 2\ub74 livebirths (2\ub72–2\ub75), and the ASFR of mothers aged 10–19 years decreased from 37 livebirths (34–40) to 22 livebirths (19–24) per 1000 women. Despite reductions in the TFR, the global population has been increasing by an average of 83\ub78 million people per year since 1985. The global population increased by 197\ub72% (193\ub73–200\ub78) since 1950, from 2\ub76 billion (2\ub75–2\ub76) to 7\ub76 billion (7\ub74–7\ub79) people in 2017; much of this increase was in the proportion of the global population in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The global annual rate of population growth increased between 1950 and 1964, when it peaked at 2\ub70%; this rate then remained nearly constant until 1970 and then decreased to 1\ub71% in 2017. Population growth rates in the southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania GBD super-region decreased from 2\ub75% in 1963 to 0\ub77% in 2017, whereas in sub-Saharan Africa, population growth rates were almost at the highest reported levels ever in 2017, when they were at 2\ub77%. The global average age increased from 26\ub76 years in 1950 to 32\ub71 years in 2017, and the proportion of the population that is of working age (age 15–64 years) increased from 59\ub79% to 65\ub73%. At the national level, the TFR decreased in all countries and territories between 1950 and 2017; in 2017, TFRs ranged from a low of 1\ub70 livebirths (95% UI 0\ub79–1\ub72) in Cyprus to a high of 7\ub71 livebirths (6\ub78–7\ub74) in Niger. The TFR under age 25 years (TFU25; number of livebirths expected by age 25 years for a hypothetical woman who survived the age group and was exposed to current ASFRs) in 2017 ranged from 0\ub708 livebirths (0\ub707–0\ub709) in South Korea to 2\ub74 livebirths (2\ub72–2\ub76) in Niger, and the TFR over age 30 years (TFO30; number of livebirths expected for a hypothetical woman ageing from 30 to 54 years who survived the age group and was exposed to current ASFRs) ranged from a low of 0\ub73 livebirths (0\ub73–0\ub74) in Puerto Rico to a high of 3\ub71 livebirths (3\ub70–3\ub72) in Niger. TFO30 was higher than TFU25 in 145 countries and territories in 2017. 33 countries had a negative population growth rate from 2010 to 2017, most of which were located in central, eastern, and western Europe, whereas population growth rates of more than 2\ub70% were seen in 33 of 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2017, less than 65% of the national population was of working age in 12 of 34 high-income countries, and less than 50% of the national population was of working age in Mali, Chad, and Niger. Interpretation: Population trends create demographic dividends and headwinds (ie, economic benefits and detriments) that affect national economies and determine national planning needs. Although TFRs are decreasing, the global population continues to grow as mortality declines, with diverse patterns at the national level and across age groups. To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide transparent and replicable estimates of population and fertility, which can be used to inform decision making and to monitor progress. Funding: Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation