A confluence of new technology and the right to water: Experience and potential from South Africa's constitution and commons

South Africa's groundbreaking constitution explicitly confers a right of access to sufficient water (section 27). But the country is officially 'water-stressed' and around 10 % of the population still has no access to on-site or off-site piped or tap water. It is evident that a disconnect exists between this right and the reality for many; however the reasons for the continuation of such discrepancies are not always clear. While barriers to sufficient water are myriad, one significant factor contributing to insufficient and unpredictable access to water is the high percentage of broken water pumps. Previous studies have reported that between 20 and 50 % of all hand operated water pumps installed on the African continent are broken, or out of use. Monitoring and maintenance of pumps, which in South Africa is the responsibility of local municipalities is often ineffective, in part due to the distances between municipal centres and rural communities and the consequent costs of site visits, as well as breakdowns within the local bureaucratic system. The emergence of new telemetry tools that can remotely monitor water applications constitutes a novel and cost-efficient alternative to undertaking regular sites visits. Sustainable, appropriate, low-cost telemetry systems are emerging that could be used to monitor the operational performance of water pumps, or a wide range of other field parameters, and to communicate this information swiftly and cheaply to water service providers, using SMS messages. Data on the performance of water pumps could also be made available to the public online. This is an example of how ICT can be used for water resources management and environmental regulation, as well as in the governance of socio-economic rights: helping to optimize water allocation by improving communication and strengthening accountability. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

The Vector Analyzing Power in Elastic Electron-Nucleus Scattering

The vector analyzing power A_n is calculated for elastic electron scattering from a variety of spin zero nuclei at energies from 14 MeV to 3 GeV. Time reversal symmetry insures that A_n vanish in first Born approximation. Therefore A_n depends on Coulomb distortions and can be large for scattering from heavy nuclei. The vector analyzing power is a potential source of systematic error for parity violation experiments. We find that A_n=-0.361 ppm for the kinematics of the Parity Radius Experiment (PREX) involving 850 MeV electrons scattering at six degrees from 208Pb. This is comparable to the parity violating asymmetry. However for HAPPEX He involving 3 GeV electrons scattering on 4He we find that A_n is very small.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Breakdown of counterflow superfluidity in a disordered quantum Hall bilayer

We present a theory for the regime of coherent interlayer tunneling in a disordered quantum Hall bilayer at total filling factor one, allowing for the effect of static vortices. We find that the system consists of domains of polarized superfluid phase. Injected currents introduce phase slips between the polarized domains which are pinned by disorder. We present a model of saturated tunneling domains that predicts a critical current for the breakdown of coherent tunneling that is extensive in the system size. This theory is supported by numerical results from a disordered phase model in two dimensions. We also discuss how our picture might be used to interpret experiments in the counterflow geometry and in two-terminal measurements.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Product renovation and shared ownership: sustainable routes to satisfying the world's growing demand for goods

It has been estimated that by 2030 the number of people who are wealthy enough to be considered as middle class consumers will have tripled. This will have a dramatic impact on the demands for primary materials and energy. Much work has been carried out on sustainable ways of meeting the World’s energy demands and some work has been carried out on the sustainable production and consumption of goods. It has been estimated that with improvements in design and manufacturing it is possible to reduce the primary material requirements by 30% to produce the current demand for goods. Whilst this is a crucial step on the production side, there will still be a doubling of primary material requirements by the end of the century because of an absolute rise in demand for goods and services. It is therefore clear that the consumption of products must also be explored. This is a key areas of research for the UK INDEMAND centre, which is investigating ways of reducing the UK’s industrial energy demand and demand for energy intensive materials. Our ongoing work shows that two strategies would result in considerable reductions in the demand for primary materials: product longevity and using goods more intensively (which may requires increased durability). Product longevity and durability are not new ideas, but ones that can be applied across a raft of goods as methods of reducing the consumption of materials. With long life products there is a potential risk of outdated design and obsolescence, consequently there is a need to ensure upgradability and adaptability are incorporated at the design stage. If products last longer, then the production of new products can be diverted to emerging markets rather than the market for replacement goods. There are many goods which are only used occasionally; these goods do not normally wear out. The total demand for such could be drastically reduced if they were shared with other people. Sharing of goods has traditionally been conducted between friends or by hiring equipment. The use of modern communication systems and social media could enable the development of sharing co-ops and swap spaces that will increase the utilisation of goods and hence reduce the demand for new goods. This could also increase access to a range of goods for those on low incomes. From a series of workshops it has been found that the principal challenges are sociological rather than technological. This paper contains a discussion of these challenges and explores possible futures where these two strategies have been adopted. In addition, the barriers and opportunities that these strategies offer for consumers and businesses are identified, and areas where government policy could be instigated to bring about change are highlighted

Fragmentation pathways of [Re₂(μ-OR)₃(CO)₆]– (R = H, Me) and ligand exchange reactions with oxygen donor ligands, investigated by electrospray mass spectrometry

The rhenium hydroxy and methoxy carbonyl complexes [Re₂(μOR)₃(CO)₆]⁻ (R = H or Me) have been studied by negative-ion electrospray mass spectrometry (ESMS). The complexes undergo facile exchange reactions with protic compounds, including alcohols and phenols. With dimethyl malonate, ester hydrolysis occurs giving carboxylate-containing complexes, and with H₂O₂ or ButOOH, oxidation to ReO₄⁻occurs. The feasibility and extent of these reactions can conveniently, rapidly, and unambiguously be determined by electrospray mass spectrometry, and is dependent on the acidity and steric bulk of the protic compound. The results also suggest that the complexes can be used as versatile starting materials for the synthesis of a wide range of analogous [Re₂(μ-OR)₃(CO)₆]⁻ complexes by simple reaction with an excess of the appropriate alcohol. By varying the applied cone voltage the fragmentation pathways have been investigated; the hydroxy complex undergoes dehydration followed by CO loss, whereas for the methoxy complex -hydride elimination (and CO loss) is observed, with confirmation provided by deuterium labelling studies. Under ESMS conditions, the neutral complexes [Re₂(μ-OR)₂(μ-dppf )(CO)₆] [R = H or Me; dppf = 1,1 -bis(diphenylphosphino)ferrocene] undergo substantial solvolysis and hydrolysis to give mainly mononuclear species; simple parent ions (e.g. [M + H]⁺) are not formed in appreciable abundance, probably due to the lack of an efficient ionisation pathway

A multi-data source surveillance system to detect a bioterrorism attack during the G8 summit in Scotland

In 18 weeks, Health Protection Scotland (HPS) deployed a syndromic surveillance system to early-detect natural or intentional disease outbreaks during the G8 Summit 2005 at Gleneagles, Scotland. The system integrated clinical and non-clinical datasets. Clinical datasets included Accident and Emergency (A and E) syndromes, and General Practice (GPs) codes grouped into syndromes. Non-clinical data included telephone calls to a nurse helpline, laboratory test orders, and hotel staff absenteeism. A cumulative sum-based detection algorithm and a log-linear regression model identified signals in the data. The system had a fax-based track for real-time identification of unusual presentations. Ninety-five signals were triggered by the detection algorithms and four forms were faxed to HPS. Thirteen signals were investigated. The system successfully complemented a traditional surveillance system in identifying a small cluster of gastroenteritis among the police force and triggered interventions to prevent further cases

Nuclear magnetic resonance probes for the Kondo scenario for the 0.7 feature in semiconductor quantum point contact devices

We propose a probe based on nuclear relaxation and Knight shift measurements for the Kondo scenario for the "0.7 feature" in semiconductor quantum point contact (QPC) devices. We show that the presence of a bound electron in the QPC would lead to a much higher rate of nuclear relaxation compared to nuclear relaxation through exchange of spin with conduction electrons. Furthermore, we show that the temperature dependence of this nuclear relaxation is very non-monotonic as opposed to the linear-T relaxation from coupling with conduction electrons. We present a qualitative analysis for the additional relaxation due to nuclear spin diffusion (NSD) and study the extent to which NSD affects the range of validity of our method. The conclusion is that nuclear relaxation, in combination with Knight shift measurements, can be used to verify whether the 0.7 feature is indeed due to the presence of a bound electron in the QPC.Comment: Published version. Appears in a Special Section on the 0.7 Feature and Interactions in One-Dimensional Systems. 16 page

Non-equilibrium dynamics in quantum field theory at high density: the tsunami

The dynamics of a dense relativistic quantum fluid out of thermodynamic equilibrium is studied in the framework of the Phi^4 scalar field theory in the large N limit. The time evolution of a particle distribution in momentum space (the tsunami) is computed. The effective mass felt by the particles in such a high density medium equals the tree level mass plus the expectation value of the squared field. The case of negative tree level squared mass is particularly interesting. In such case dynamical symmetry restoration as well as dynamical symmetry breaking can happen. Furthermore, the symmetry may stay broken with vanishing asymptotic squared mass showing the presence of out of equilibrium Goldstone bosons. We study these phenomena and identify the set of initial conditions that lead to each case. We compute the equation of state which turns to depend on the initial state. Although the system does not thermalize, the equation of state for asymptotically broken symmetry is of radiation type. We compute the correlation functions at equal times. The two point correlator for late times is the sum of different terms. One stems from the initial particle distribution. Another term accounts for the out of equilibrium Goldstone bosons created by spinodal unstabilities when the symmetry is asymptotically broken.Both terms are of the order of the inverse of the coupling for distances where causal signals can connect the two points. The contribution of the out of equilibrium Goldstones exhibits scaling behaviour in a generalized sense.Comment: LaTex, 49 pages, 15 .ps figure