4,126 research outputs found
Sexual and reproductive health issues facing Southeast Asian beer promoters: a qualitative pilot study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Southeast Asia, hundreds of thousands of young rural women migrate from their villages to the larger cities in search of work. Many find employment with beer companies or in the clubs where beer is sold, promoting the sale of beer. Previous research suggests these young migrants are in a highly vulnerable position. This paper will describe the findings of an October 2009 meeting to develop a research agenda on the sexual and reproductive health of beer promoters and a subsequent pilot study of focus groups with beer promoters to review this agenda.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Participants of the research meeting representing beer promoters, academics, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government and the beer industry from Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam collaborated in the development of three key research themes. The themes were verified in focus group discussions with beer promoters organized by local research partners in all four countries. The focus group participants were asked what they felt were the key sexual and reproductive health issues facing them in a non-directive and unstructured manner, and then asked to comment more specifically on the research priorities developed at the meeting. The focus groups were recorded digitally, transcribed, and translated into English. The data were analyzed by coding for common themes and then developing matrices to compare themes between groups.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The participants of the meeting identified three key research themes: occupational health (including harassment and violence, working conditions, and fair pay), gender and social norms (focusing on the impact of power relations between the genders on women's health), and reproductive health (knowledge and access to reproductive health care services). The participants in the focus groups in all four countries agreed that these were key priorities for them, though the emphasis on the most important issues varied between groups of women. Sexual harassment in the workplace and challenges in accessing reproductive health care services because of the barriers of cost, shyness, and stigmatizing attitudes of health care providers were common problems for many of the women.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>There is a need for regional research and programming for beer promotion women in Southeast Asia focusing on the three research themes of occupational health, gender norms and reproductive health. Such research and programs could provide important benefits for many beer promotion women who currently face significant risks to their sexual and reproductive health.</p
Signatures of four-particle correlations associated with exciton-carrier interactions in coherent spectroscopy on bulk GaAs
Transient four-wave mixing studies of bulk GaAs under conditions of broad
bandwidth excitation of primarily interband transitions have enabled
four-particle correlations tied to degenerate (exciton-exciton) and
nondegenerate (exciton-carrier) interactions to be studied. Real
two-dimensional Fourier-transform spectroscopy (2DFTS) spectra reveal a complex
response at the heavy-hole exciton emission energy that varies with the
absorption energy, ranging from dispersive on the diagonal, through absorptive
for low-energy interband transitions to dispersive with the opposite sign for
interband transitions high above band gap. Simulations using a multilevel model
augmented by many-body effects provide excellent agreement with the 2DFTS
experiments and indicate that excitation-induced dephasing (EID) and
excitation-induced shift (EIS) affect degenerate and nondegenerate interactions
equivalently, with stronger exciton-carrier coupling relative to
exciton-exciton coupling by approximately an order of magnitude. These
simulations also indicate that EID effects are three times stronger than EIS in
contributing to the coherent response of the semiconductor
Polynomials, Riemann surfaces, and reconstructing missing-energy events
We consider the problem of reconstructing energies, momenta, and masses in
collider events with missing energy, along with the complications introduced by
combinatorial ambiguities and measurement errors. Typically, one reconstructs
more than one value and we show how the wrong values may be correlated with the
right ones. The problem has a natural formulation in terms of the theory of
Riemann surfaces. We discuss examples including top quark decays in the
Standard Model (relevant for top quark mass measurements and tests of spin
correlation), cascade decays in models of new physics containing dark matter
candidates, decays of third-generation leptoquarks in composite models of
electroweak symmetry breaking, and Higgs boson decay into two tau leptons.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures; version accepted for publication, with
discussion of Higgs to tau tau deca
Correlation entropy of synaptic input-output dynamics
The responses of synapses in the neocortex show highly stochastic and
nonlinear behavior. The microscopic dynamics underlying this behavior, and its
computational consequences during natural patterns of synaptic input, are not
explained by conventional macroscopic models of deterministic ensemble mean
dynamics. Here, we introduce the correlation entropy of the synaptic
input-output map as a measure of synaptic reliability which explicitly includes
the microscopic dynamics. Applying this to experimental data, we find that
cortical synapses show a low-dimensional chaos driven by the natural input
pattern.Comment: 7 pages, 6 Figures (7 figure files
Topological properties and fractal analysis of recurrence network constructed from fractional Brownian motions
Many studies have shown that we can gain additional information on time
series by investigating their accompanying complex networks. In this work, we
investigate the fundamental topological and fractal properties of recurrence
networks constructed from fractional Brownian motions (FBMs). First, our
results indicate that the constructed recurrence networks have exponential
degree distributions; the relationship between and of recurrence networks decreases with the Hurst
index of the associated FBMs, and their dependence approximately satisfies
the linear formula . Moreover, our numerical results of
multifractal analysis show that the multifractality exists in these recurrence
networks, and the multifractality of these networks becomes stronger at first
and then weaker when the Hurst index of the associated time series becomes
larger from 0.4 to 0.95. In particular, the recurrence network with the Hurst
index possess the strongest multifractality. In addition, the
dependence relationships of the average information dimension on the Hurst index can also be
fitted well with linear functions. Our results strongly suggest that the
recurrence network inherits the basic characteristic and the fractal nature of
the associated FBM series.Comment: 25 pages, 1 table, 15 figures. accepted by Phys. Rev.
The Modified Weighted Slab Technique: Models and Results
In an attempt to understand the source and propagation of galactic cosmic
rays we have employed the Modified Weighted Slab technique along with recent
values of the relevant cross sections to compute primary to secondary ratios
including B/C and Sub-Fe/Fe for different galactic propagation models. The
models that we have considered are the disk-halo diffusion model, the dynamical
halo wind model, the turbulent diffusion model and a model with minimal
reacceleration. The modified weighted slab technique will be briefly discussed
and a more detailed description of the models will be given. We will also
discuss the impact that the various models have on the problem of anisotropy at
high energy and discuss what properties of a particular model bear on this
issue.Comment: LaTeX - AASTEX format, Submitted to ApJ, 8 figures, 20 page
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