Microwave (EPR) measurements of the penetration depth measurements of high-Tc superconductors

The use is discussed of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) as a quick and easily accessible method for measuring the London penetration depth, lambda for the high T sub c superconductors. The method uses the broadening of the EPR signal, due to the emergence of the magnetic flux lattice, of a free radical adsorbed on the surface of the sample. The second moment, of the EPR signal below T sub c is fitted to the Brandt equation for a simple triangular lattice. The precision of this method compares quite favorably with those of the more standard methods such as micro sup(+)SR, neutron scattering, and magnetic susceptibility

Strengthening coherence between social protection and productive interventions – The case of Lesotho

Social protection has been recognized as a key strategy to address poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion in Lesotho. As a result, the Government, with support from UNICEF and the European Union, developed the Child Grants Programme (CGP), which provides unconditional cash transfers to poor and vulnerable households registered in the National Information System for Social Assistance (NISSA). The quantitative impact evaluation presented in this report seeks to document the welfare and economic impacts of CGP and SPRINGS on direct beneficiaries and assess whether combining the cash transfers with a package of rural development interventions can create positive synergies at both individual and household level, especially in relation to income generating activities and nutrition. This paper is being published in the context of a partnership between FAO, IFAD and the Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES) and its Centro de Estudios en Desarrollo Económico (CEDE) based in Bogotá, Colombia

Catching them young: an assessment of hygiene knowledge in government school children in Delhi

Children are recognised as change agents in hygiene promotion. Though numerous efforts are being made to sensitise them on the importance of hygiene it is necessary to gauge their current understanding. For the 2015 Global Handwashing Day, WaterAid India and Society for All Round Development (SARD) conducted quizzes to reinforce the importance of hygiene within schools and recognise children as school health ambassadors and nurture them as change agents between their schools and communities. The quiz helped us analyse the current understanding of the school children on different aspects of hygiene and design targeted interventions needed to further their understanding on the subject. Based on the analysis of the responses of the children to the quiz questionnaire we found that the children from different age groups, classes and gender had different levels of understanding on various aspects of hygiene

Body Area Networks in a Medical Environment

There has been a great deal of development in the area of fitness / Activity Trackers which are now capable of measuring many useful human conditions e.g. heart rate. This paper investigates if the technology is suitable for use in a medical environment and in particular what systems would need to be introduced to supports it. The concept of an Intelligent Bed is introduced and a possible solution is provided. Due to the deployment in sensitive areas the issues of performance and reliability are addressed

Snake Bite Complicated By Bacterial Meningitis

Background: Neurotoxic snake bite envenomation is a common life threatening medical emergency in India, especially in the rural areas. Case Presentation: We report a case of a neurotoxic snake envenomation presenting with abdominal pain and neuromuscular paralysis, which developed bacterial meningitis during her stay in the hospital. Possibly, secondary to the snake bite, a very rare incidence. Conclusion: Our case is a step towards the direction pointing to the rare possibility of bacterial meningitis complicating snake bites which needs further research

Enhanced Room Temperature Coefficient of Resistance and Magneto-resistance of Ag-added La0.7Ca0.3-xBaxMnO3 Composites

In this paper we report an enhanced temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) close to room temperature in La0.7Ca0.3-xBaxMnO3 + Agy (x = 0.10, 0.15 and y = 0.0 to 0.40) (LCBMO+Ag) composite manganites. The observed enhancement of TCR is attributed to the grain growth and opening of new conducting channels in the composites. Ag addition has also been found to enhance intra-granular magneto-resistance. Inter-granular MR, however, is seen to decrease with Ag addition. The enhanced TCR and MR at / near room temperature open up the possibility of the use of such materials as infrared bolometric and magnetic field sensors respectively.Comment: 22 pages of Text + Figs:comments/suggestions([email protected]

Data Sources for Improving Estimates of the Global Burden of Injuries: Call for Contributors

Kavi Bhalla and colleagues invite individuals and organizations to provide local injury data sources to help inform estimates of the global burden of injuries

Colossal magnetocapacitance and scale-invariant dielectric response in phase-separated manganites

Thin films of strongly-correlated electron materials (SCEM) are often grown epitaxially on planar substrates and typically have anisotropic properties that are usually not captured by edge-mounted four-terminal electrical measurements, which are primarily sensitive to in-plane conduction paths. Accordingly, the correlated interactions in the out-of-plane (perpendicular) direction cannot be measured but only inferred. We address this shortcoming and show here an experimental technique in which the SCEM under study, in our case a 600 Angstrom-thick (La1-yPry)0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (LPCMO) film, serves as the base electrode in a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) trilayer capacitor structure. This unconventional arrangement allows for simultaneous determination of colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) associated with dc transport parallel to the film substrate and colossal magnetocapacitance (CMC) associated with ac transport in the perpendicular direction. We distinguish two distinct strain-related direction-dependent insulator-metal (IM) transitions and use Cole-Cole plots to establish a heretofore unobserved collapse of the dielectric response onto a universal scale-invariant power-law dependence over a large range of frequency, temperature and magnetic field.Comment: 32 pages, 4 figures, Supplementary section included, Submitted to Nature Physic

Presence of glucose, xylose, and glycerol fermenting bacteria in the deep biosphere of the former Homestake gold mine, South Dakota

Eight fermentative bacterial strains were isolated from mixed enrichment cultures of a composite soil sample collected at 1.34 km depth from the former Homestake gold mine in Lead, SD, USA. Phylogenetic analysis of their 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that these isolates were affiliated with the phylum Firmicutes belonging to genera Bacillus and Clostridium. Batch fermentation studies demonstrated that isolates had the ability to ferment glucose, xylose, or glycerol to industrially valuable products such as ethanol and 1,3-propanediol (PDO). Ethanol was detected as the major fermentation end product in glucose-fermenting cultures at pH 10 with yields of 0.205–0.304 g of ethanol/g of glucose. While a xylose-fermenting strain yielded 0.189 g of ethanol/g of xylose and 0.585 g of acetic acid/g of xylose at the end of fermentation. At pH 7, glycerol-fermenting isolates produced PDO (0.323–0.458 g of PDO/g of glycerol) and ethanol (0.284–0.350 g of ethanol/g of glycerol) as major end products while acetic acid and succinic acid were identified as minor by-products in fermentation broths. These results suggest that the deep biosphere of the former Homestake gold mine harbors bacterial strains which could be used in bio-based production of ethanol and PDO