Agricultural and Finance Intervention Increased Dietary Intake and Weight of Children Living in HIV-Affected Households in Western Kenya.

We tested whether a multisectoral household agricultural and finance intervention increased the dietary intake and improved the nutritional status of HIV-affected children. Two hospitals in rural Kenya were randomly assigned to be either the intervention or the control arm. The intervention comprised a human-powered water pump, microfinance loan for farm commodities, and training in sustainable farming practices and financial management. In each arm, 100 children (0-59 mo of age) were enrolled from households with HIV-infected adults 18-49 y old. Children were assessed beginning in April 2012 and every 3 mo for 1 y for dietary intake and anthropometry. Children in the intervention arm had a larger increase in weight (β: 0.025 kg/mo, P = 0.030), overall frequency of food consumption (β: 0.610 times · wk-1 · mo-1, P = 0.048), and intakes of staples (β: 0.222, P = 0.024), fruits and vegetables (β: 0.425, P = 0.005), meat (β: 0.074, P < 0.001), and fat (β: 0.057, P = 0.041). Livelihood interventions have potential to improve the nutrition of HIV-affected children. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01548599

Relation between geometric phases of entangled bi-partite systems and their subsystems

This paper focuses on the geometric phase of entangled states of bi-partite systems under bi-local unitary evolution. We investigate the relation between the geometric phase of the system and those of the subsystems. It is shown that (1) the geometric phase of cyclic entangled states with non-degenerate eigenvalues can always be decomposed into a sum of weighted non-modular pure state phases pertaining to the separable components of the Schmidt decomposition, though the same cannot be said in the non-cyclic case, and (2) the geometric phase of the mixed state of one subsystem is generally different from that of the entangled state even by keeping the other subsystem fixed, but the two phases are the same when the evolution operator satisfies conditions where each component in the Schmidt decomposition is parallel transported

Geometric interpretation of the Pancharatnam connection and non-cyclic polarization changes

If the state of polarization of a monochromatic light beam is changed in a cyclical manner, the beam acquires-in addition to the usual dynamic phase-a geometric phase. This geometric or Pancharatnam-Berry phase equals half the solid angle of the contour traced out on the Poincaré sphere. We show that such a geometric interpretation also exists for the Pancharatnam connection, the criterion according to which two beams with different polarization states are said to be in phase. This interpretation offers what is to our knowledge a new and intuitive method to calculate the geometric phase that accompanies non-cyclic polarization changes. © 2010 Optical Society of America

Thermoelectric studies of KxFe2-ySe2: weakly correlated superconductor

We report thermal transport measurement of KxFe2-ySe2 superconducting single crystal. Significant peak anomaly in thermal conductivity is observed at nearly TC/2 indicating a large phonon mean-free-path in the superconducting state. The zero-temperature extrapolated thermoelectric power is smaller than the value in typical strongly correlated superconductors, implying large normalized Fermi temperature. In contrast to other iron superconductors, thermoelectric power in our sample does not exhibit significant anomalies. These findings indicate that KxFe2-ySe2 is a weakly or intermediately correlated superconductor without significant Fermi surface nesting.Comment: Revised version, 5 pages, 5 figures, Will appear in Physical Review

Diagnosing Disaster Resilience of Communities as Complex Socioecological Systems

Global environmental change, growing anthropogenic influence, and increasing globalization of society have made it clear that disaster vulnerability and resilience of communities cannot be understood without knowledge of the broader social-ecological system in which they are embedded. Inspired by iterative multiscale analysis employed by the Resilience Alliance, the related Social-Ecological Systems Framework initially designed by Elinor Ostrom, and the Sustainable Livelihood Framework, we developed a multi-tier framework for conceptualizing communities as multiscale social-ecological systems. We use the framework to diagnose and analyze community resilience to disasters, as a form of disturbance to social-ecological systems, with feedbacks from the local to the global scale. We highlight the cross-scale influences and feedback on communities that exist from lower (e.g., household) to higher (e.g., regional, national) scales. The framework is then applied to real-world community resilience assessment in Nepal and China, to illustrate how key components of socio-ecological systems, including natural hazards, natural and man-made environment, and community capacities can be delineated and analyzed

A common live-attenuated avian herpesvirus vaccine expresses a very potent oncogene

Vaccines play a crucial role in the protection of animals and humans from deadly pathogens. The first vaccine that also protected against cancer was developed against the highly oncogenic herpesvirus Marek’s disease virus (MDV). MDV infects chickens and causes severe immunosuppression, neurological signs, and fatal lymphomas, a process that requires the viral oncogene, meq. The most frequently used Marek’s disease vaccine is the live-attenuated CVI988/Rispens (CVI) strain, which efficiently protects chickens and prevents tumorigenesis. Intriguingly, CVI expresses at least two isoforms of meq; however, it remains unknown to what extent these isoforms contribute to virus attenuation. In this study, we individually examined the contribution of the two CVI-meq isoforms to the attenuation of the vaccine. We inserted the respective isoforms into a very virulent MDV (strain RB-1B), thereby replacing its original meq gene. Surprisingly, we could demonstrate that the longer isoform of meq strongly enhanced virus-induced pathogenesis and tumorigenesis, indicating that other mutations in the CVI genome contribute to virus attenuation. On the contrary, the shorter isoform completely abrogated pathogenesis, demonstrating that changes in the meq gene can indeed play a key role in virus attenuation. Taken together, our study provides important evidence on attenuation of one of the most frequently used veterinary vaccines worldwide