320 research outputs found
Community exposure and vulnerability to water quality and availability: a case study in the mining-affected Pazña Municipality, Lake Poopó Basin, Bolivian Altiplano
This is the final version of the article. Available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.Assessing water sources for drinking and irrigation along with community vulnerability, especially in developing and rural regions, is important for reducing risk posed by poor water quality and limited water availability and accessibility. We present a case study of rural mining-agricultural communities in the Lake Poopó Basin, one of the poorest regions on the Bolivian Altiplano. Here, relatively low rainfall, high evaporation, salinization and unregulated mining activity have contributed to environmental degradation and water issues, which is a situation facing many Altiplano communities. Social data from 72 households and chemical water quality data from 27 surface water and groundwater sites obtained between August 2013 and July 2014 were used to develop locally relevant vulnerability assessment methodologies and ratings with respect to water availability and quality, and Chemical Water Quality Hazard Ratings to assess water quality status. Levels of natural and mining-related contamination in many waters (CWQHR ≥ 6; 78% of assessed sites) mean that effective remediation would be challenging and require substantial investment. Although waters of fair to good chemical quality (CWQHR ≤ 5; 22% of assessed sites) do exist, treatment may still be required depending on use, and access issues remain problematic. There is a need to comply with water quality legislation, improve and maintain basic water supply and storage infrastructure, build and operate water and wastewater treatment plants, and adequately and safely contain and treat mine waste. This study serves as a framework that could be used elsewhere for assessing and mitigating water contamination and availability affecting vulnerable populations.This project was funded by the University College London (UCL) Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction and the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) under the initiative of water risk and its management in Bolivia’s Altiplano development strategy, which was led by Stephen Edwards. The Natural Environment Research Council Probability, Uncertainty and Risk in the Environment grant PA13-010 (risk visualisation and quantification for enhanced disaster risk reduction) to Stephen Edwards informed the approach to and outputs from the project
Controlled Growth of a Line Defect in Graphene and Implications for Gate-Tunable Valley Filtering
Atomically precise tailoring of graphene can enable unusual transport
pathways and new nanometer-scale functional devices. Here we describe a recipe
for the controlled production of highly regular "5-5-8" line defects in
graphene by means of simultaneous electron irradiation and Joule heating by
applied electric current. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy
reveals individual steps of the growth process. Extending earlier theoretical
work suggesting valley-discriminating capabilities of a graphene 5-5-8 line
defect, we perform first-principles calculations of transport and find a strong
energy dependence of valley polarization of the charge carriers across the
defect. These findings inspire us to propose a compact electrostatically gated
"valley valve" device, a critical component for valleytronics
Boron Nitride Monolayer: A Strain-Tunable Nanosensor
The influence of triaxial in-plane strain on the electronic properties of a
hexagonal boron-nitride sheet is investigated using density functional theory.
Different from graphene, the triaxial strain localizes the molecular orbitals
of the boron-nitride flake in its center depending on the direction of the
applied strain. The proposed technique for localizing the molecular orbitals
that are close to the Fermi level in the center of boron nitride flakes can be
used to actualize engineered nanosensors, for instance, to selectively detect
gas molecules. We show that the central part of the strained flake adsorbs
polar molecules more strongly as compared with an unstrained sheet.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure
Graphite and Hexagonal Boron-Nitride Possess the Same Interlayer Distance. Why?
Graphite and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) are two prominent members of the
family of layered materials possessing a hexagonal lattice. While graphite has
non-polar homo-nuclear C-C intra-layer bonds, h-BN presents highly polar B-N
bonds resulting in different optimal stacking modes of the two materials in
bulk form. Furthermore, the static polarizabilities of the constituent atoms
considerably differ from each other suggesting large differences in the
dispersive component of the interlayer bonding. Despite these major differences
both materials present practically identical interlayer distances. To
understand this finding, a comparative study of the nature of the interlayer
bonding in both materials is presented. A full lattice sum of the interactions
between the partially charged atomic centers in h-BN results in vanishingly
small monopolar electrostatic contributions to the interlayer binding energy.
Higher order electrostatic multipoles, exchange, and short-range correlation
contributions are found to be very similar in both materials and to almost
completely cancel out by the Pauli repulsions at physically relevant interlayer
distances resulting in a marginal effective contribution to the interlayer
binding. Further analysis of the dispersive energy term reveals that despite
the large differences in the individual atomic polarizabilities the
hetero-atomic B-N C6 coefficient is very similar to the homo-atomic C-C
coefficient in the hexagonal bulk form resulting in very similar dispersive
contribution to the interlayer binding. The overall binding energy curves of
both materials are thus very similar predicting practically the same interlayer
distance and very similar binding energies.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, 2 table
Embodying the Spirit(s): Pentecostal Demonology and Deliverance Discourse in Ethiopia
The article explores Pentecostal embodiment practices and concepts with regard to Holy Spirit baptism and demon possession. The studied material is connected to a specific and highly controversial debate in Ethiopian Pentecostalism, which revolves around the possibility of demon possession in born-again and Spirit-filled Christians. This debate runs through much of Ethiopian Pentecostal history and ultimately is concerned with whether or how Christians can host conflicting spiritual forces, in light of the strong dualism between God and evil in Pentecostal cosmology. The article shows that the embodiment of spirits and/or the Holy Spirit is related to theological concepts of the self, because these concepts define what may or may not be discerned in certain bodily manifestations. Moreover, the article contends that this debate thrives on a certain ambiguity in spirit embodiment, which invites the discernment of spiritual experts and thereby becomes a resource of power
A Multi-Level Optimization Algorithm and a Ship Design Application
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97130/1/AIAA2012-5555.pd
Five-year mortality in a cohort of people with schizophrenia in Ethiopia
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Schizophrenia is associated with a two to three fold excess mortality. Both natural and unnatural causes were reported. However, there is dearth of evidence from low and middle income (LAMIC) countries, particularly in Africa. To our knowledge this is the first community based report from Africa.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We followed a cohort of 307 (82.1% males) patients with schizophrenia for five years in Butajira, rural Ethiopia. Mortality was recorded using broad rating schedule as well as verbal autopsy. Standardized Mortality Ratio (SMR) was calculated using the mortality in the demographic and surveillance site as a reference.</p> <p>Result</p> <p>Thirty eight (12.4%) patients, 34 men (11.1%) and 4 women (1.3%), died during the five-year follow up period. The mean age (SD) of the deceased for both sexes was 35 (7.35). The difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.69). It was 35.3 (7.4) for men and 32.3 (6.8) for women. The most common cause of death was infection, 18/38 (47.4%) followed by severe malnutrition, 5/38 (13.2%) and suicide 4/38 (10.5%). The overall SMR was 5.98 (95% CI = 4.09 to7.87). Rural residents had lower mortality with adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 0.30 (95% CI = 0.12-0.69) but insidious onset and antipsychotic treatment for less than 50% of the follow up period were associated with higher mortality, adjusted HR 2.37 (95% CI = 1.04-5. 41) and 2.66(1.054-6.72) respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The alarmingly high mortality observed in this patient population is of major concern. Most patients died from potentially treatable conditions. Improving medical and psychiatric care as well as provision of basic needs is recommended.</p
Algorithm Engineering in Robust Optimization
Robust optimization is a young and emerging field of research having received
a considerable increase of interest over the last decade. In this paper, we
argue that the the algorithm engineering methodology fits very well to the
field of robust optimization and yields a rewarding new perspective on both the
current state of research and open research directions.
To this end we go through the algorithm engineering cycle of design and
analysis of concepts, development and implementation of algorithms, and
theoretical and experimental evaluation. We show that many ideas of algorithm
engineering have already been applied in publications on robust optimization.
Most work on robust optimization is devoted to analysis of the concepts and the
development of algorithms, some papers deal with the evaluation of a particular
concept in case studies, and work on comparison of concepts just starts. What
is still a drawback in many papers on robustness is the missing link to include
the results of the experiments again in the design
Spin-valley locking, bulk quantum Hall effect and chiral surface state in a noncentrosymmetric Dirac semimetal BaMnSb
Spin-valley locking in the band structure of monolayers of MoS and other
group-VI dichalcogenides has attracted enormous interest, since it offers
potential for valleytronic and optoelectronic applications. Such an exotic
electronic state has sparsely been seen in bulk materials. Here, we report
spin-valley locking in a bulk Dirac semimetal BaMnSb. We find valley and
spin are inherently coupled for both valence and conduction bands in this
material. This is revealed by comprehensive studies using first principle
calculations, tight-binding and effective model analyses, angle-resolved
photoemission spectroscopy and quantum transport measurements. Moreover, this
material also exhibits a stacked quantum Hall effect. The spin-valley
degeneracy extracted from the plateau height of quantized Hall resistivity is
close to 2. This result, together with the observed Landau level spin
splitting, further confirms the spin-valley locking picture. In the extreme
quantum limit, we have also observed a two-dimensional chiral metal at the side
surface, which represents a novel topological quantum liquid. These findings
establish BaMnSb as a rare platform for exploring coupled spin and valley
physics in bulk single crystals and accessing 3D interacting topological
states.Comment: Updated acknowledgemen
DEXi-Dairy: an ex post multicriteria tool to assess the sustainability of dairy production systems in various European regions
Growing awareness of global challenges and increasing pressures on the farming sector, including the urgent requirement to rapidly cut greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, emphasize the need for sustainable production, which is particularly relevant for dairy production systems. Comparing dairy production systems across the three sustainability dimensions is a considerable challenge, notably due to the heterogeneity of production conditions in Europe. To overcome this, we developed an ex post multicriteria assessment tool that adopts a holistic approach across the three sustainability dimensions. This tool is based on the DEXi framework, which associates a hierarchical decision model with an expert perspective and follows a tree shaped structure; thus, we called it the DEXi-Dairy tool. For each dimension of sustainability, qualitative attributes were defined and organized in themes, sub-themes, and indicators. Their choice was guided by three objectives: (i) better describe main challenges faced by European dairy production systems, (ii) point out synergies and trade-offs across sustainability dimensions, and (iii) contribute to the identification of GHG mitigation strategies at the farm level. Qualitative scales for each theme, sub-theme, and indicator were defined together with weighting factors used to aggregate each level of the tree. Based on selected indicators, a list of farm data requirements was developed to populate the sustainability tree. The model was then tested on seven case study farms distributed across Europe. DEXi-Dairy presents a qualitative method that allows for the comparison of different inputs and the evaluation of the three sustainability dimensions in an integrated manner. By assessing synergies and trade-offs across sustainability dimensions, DEXi-Dairy is able to reflect the heterogeneity of dairy production systems. Results indicate that, while trade-offs occasionally exist among respective selected sub-themes, certain farming systems tend to achieve a higher sustainability score than others and hence could serve as benchmarks for further analyses
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