More Data and Appropriate Statistical Methods Needed to Fully Measure the Displacement Effects of Development Assistance for Health

Christopher Murray and colleagues provide a perspective on displacement due to development assistance for health, and argue for more data and better statistical methods to measure aid displacement

Finite voltage shot noise in normal-metal - superconductor junctions

We express the low-frequency shot noise in a disordered normal-metal - superconductor (NS) junction at finite (subgap) voltage in terms of the normal scattering amplitudes and the Andreev reflection amplitude. In the multichannel limit, the conductance exhibits resonances which are accompanied by an enhancement of the (differential) shot noise. In the study of multichannel single and double barrier junctions we discuss the noise properties of coherent transport at low versus high voltage with respect to the Andreev level spacing.Comment: 6 pages, Latex, 2 eps-figures, to be published in PRB, Appendix on Bogoliubov equation

Full Current Statistics in Diffusive Normal-Superconductor Structures

We study the current statistics in normal diffusive conductors in contact with a superconductor. Using an extension of the Keldysh Green's function method we are able to find the full distribution of charge transfers for all temperatures and voltages. For the non-Gaussian regime, we show that the equilibrium current fluctuations are enhanced by the presence of the superconductor. We predict an enhancement of the nonequilibrium current noise for temperatures below and voltages of the order of the Thouless energy E_Th=D/L^2. Our calculation fully accounts for the proximity effect in the normal metal and agrees with experimental data. We demonstrate that the calculation of the full current statistics is in fact simpler than a concrete calculation of the noise.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures (included

Поздравляем юбиляров!

23 февраля 2011 года исполнилось 75 лет со дня рождения главного инженера Днепродзержинской ГЭС — Кучерявого Владислава Семеновича.15 июня 2011 г. исполняется 70 лет ученому — гидроэнергетику, доктору технических наук, начальнику отдела расчетного обоснования ПАО "Укргидропроект", профессору, заведующему кафедрой гидротехнического строительства Харьковского государственного технического университета строительства и архитектуры Александру Исааковичу Вайнбергу

Developing a tool to measure health worker motivation in district hospitals in Kenya

BACKGROUND: We wanted to try to account for worker motivation as a key factor that might affect the success of an intervention to improve implementation of health worker practices in eight district hospitals in Kenya. In the absence of available tools, we therefore aimed to develop a tool that could enable a rapid measurement of motivation at baseline and at subsequent points during the 18-month intervention study. METHODS: After a literature review, a self-administered questionnaire was developed to assess the outcomes and determinants of motivation of Kenyan government hospital staff. The initial questionnaire included 23 questions (from seven underlying constructs) related to motivational outcomes that were then used to construct a simpler tool to measure motivation. Parallel qualitative work was undertaken to assess the relevance of the questions chosen and the face validity of the tool. RESULTS: Six hundred eighty-four health workers completed the questionnaires at baseline. Reliability analysis and factor analysis were used to produce the simplified motivational index, which consisted of 10 equally-weighted items from three underlying factors. Scores on the 10-item index were closely correlated with scores for the 23-item index, indicating that in future rapid assessments might be based on the 10 questions alone. The 10-item motivation index was also able to identify statistically significant differences in mean health worker motivation scores between the study hospitals (p<0.001). The parallel qualitative work in general supported these conclusions and contributed to our understanding of the three identified components of motivation. CONCLUSION: The 10-item score developed may be useful to monitor changes in motivation over time within our study or be used for more extensive rapid assessments of health worker motivation in Kenya

Ukuran Perusahaan, Winner/loser Stock, Debt to Equity Ratio, Dividend Payout Ratio Pengaruh Terhadap Perataan Laba

Income smoothing is an effort in controlling earnings management to increase or decrease the company\u27s earnings to reduce fluctuations in earnings. This study aimed to examine the effect of the firm size, winner/loser stock, debt to equity ratio, dividend payout ratio to income smoothing. The population in this study is a manufacturing company that is listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) in the period 2010-2013. The sample was selected using purposive sampling technique and acquired 29 manufacturing companies as sample with 116 observations. The analysis technique used in this study is a multiple regression analysis using SPSS.Results The investigations showed that the firm size and winner/loser stocks have significant influence on income smoothing, while debt to equity ratio and dividend payout ratio does not significantly affect income smoothing

Quasiclassical description of transport through superconducting contacts

We present a theoretical study of transport properties through superconducting contacts based on a new formulation of boundary conditions that mimics interfaces for the quasiclassical theory of superconductivity. These boundary conditions are based on a description of an interface in terms of a simple Hamiltonian. We show how this Hamiltonian description is incorporated into quasiclassical theory via a T-matrix equation by integrating out irrelevant energy scales right at the onset. The resulting boundary conditions reproduce results obtained by conventional quasiclassical boundary conditions, or by boundary conditions based on the scattering approach. This formalism is well suited for the analysis of magnetically active interfaces as well as for calculating time-dependent properties such as the current-voltage characteristics or as current fluctuations in junctions with arbitrary transmission and bias voltage. This approach is illustrated with the calculation of Josephson currents through a variety of superconducting junctions ranging from conventional to d-wave superconductors, and to the analysis of supercurrent through a ferromagnetic nanoparticle. The calculation of the current-voltage characteristics and of noise is applied to the case of a contact between two d-wave superconductors. In particular, we discuss the use of shot noise for the measurement of charge transferred in a multiple Andreev reflection in d-wave superconductors

Shot Noise through a Quantum Dot in the Kondo Regime

The shot noise in the current through a quantum dot is calculated as a function of voltage from the high-voltage, Coulomb blockaded regime to the low-voltage, Kondo regime. Using several complementary approaches, it is shown that the zero-frequency shot noise (scaled by the voltage) exhibits a non-monotonic dependence on voltage, with a peak around the Kondo temperature. Beyond giving a good estimate of the Kondo temperature, it is shown that the shot noise yields additional information on the effects of electronic correlations on the local density of states in the Kondo regime, unaccessible in traditional transport measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Water abundances in high-mass protostellar envelopes: Herschel observations with HIFI

We derive the dense core structure and the water abundance in four massive star-forming regions which may help understand the earliest stages of massive star formation. We present Herschel-HIFI observations of the para-H2O 1_11-0_00 and 2_02-1_11 and the para-H2-18O 1_11-0_00 transitions. The envelope contribution to the line profiles is separated from contributions by outflows and foreground clouds. The envelope contribution is modelled using Monte-Carlo radiative transfer codes for dust and molecular lines (MC3D and RATRAN), with the water abundance and the turbulent velocity width as free parameters. While the outflows are mostly seen in emission in high-J lines, envelopes are seen in absorption in ground-state lines, which are almost saturated. The derived water abundances range from 5E-10 to 4E-8 in the outer envelopes. We detect cold clouds surrounding the protostar envelope, thanks to the very high quality of the Herschel-HIFI data and the unique ability of water to probe them. Several foreground clouds are also detected along the line of sight. The low H2O abundances in massive dense cores are in accordance with the expectation that high densities and low temperatures lead to freeze-out of water on dust grains. The spread in abundance values is not clearly linked to physical properties of the sources.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication the 15/07/2010 by Astronomy&Astrophysics as a letter in the Herschel-HIFI special issu