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Livelihood diversification and the expansion of artisanal mining in rural Tanzania: drivers and policy implications
This paper provides an extended analysis of livelihood diversification in rural Tanzania, with special emphasis on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). Over the past decade, this sector of industry, which is labour-intensive and comprises an array of rudimentary and semi-mechanized operations, has become an indispensable economic activity throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, providing employment to a host of redundant public sector workers, retrenched large-scale mine labourers and poor farmers. In many of the region’s rural areas, it is overtaking subsistence agriculture as the primary industry. Such a pattern appears
to be unfolding within the Morogoro and Mbeya regions of southern Tanzania, where findings from recent research suggest that a growing number of smallholder farmers are turning to ASM for employment and financial support. It is imperative that national rural development programmes take this trend into account and provide support to these people
Comparison of Training, Anthropometric, Physiological and Psychological Variables of Ultra-Endurance Cyclists and Runners
AbstractWe compared training, anthropometric, physiological and psychological characteristics between 14 cyclists, participants in a 24-hour mountain bike race and 12 runners, participants in a 7-day running ultra-marathon. Methods: Questionnaires and physiological measurements. Results: The differences in ages between cyclists and runners were significant (p << 0.01). The pre-race minus post-race differences (Δ) in body mass (from 76.5 ± 13.1kg to 72.0 ± 12.0kg) and (Δ) in value of hematocrit (6.1 ± 3.5%) were significant only in runners. The post-race minus pre-race difference (Δ) in the rating of perceived exertion was significant in both groups
Dexamethasone and long-term outcome in adults with bacterial meningitis
This follow-up study of the European Dexamethasone Study was designed to examine the potential harmful effect of adjunctive dexamethasone treatment on long-term neuropsychological outcome in adults with bacterial meningitis. METHODS: Neurological, audiological, and neuropsychological examinations were performed in adults who survived pneumococcal or meningococcal meningitis. RESULTS: Eighty-seven of 99 (88%) eligible patients were included in the follow-up study; 46 (53%) were treated with dexamethasone and 41 (47%) with placebo. Median time between meningitis and testing was 99 months. Neuropsychological evaluation showed no significant differences between patients treated with dexamethasone and placebo. The proportions of patients with persisting neurological sequelae or hearing loss were similar in the dexamethasone and placebo groups. The overall rate of cognitive dysfunction did not differ significantly between patients and control subjects; however, patients after pneumococcal meningitis had a higher rate of cognitive dysfunction (21 vs 6%; p = 0.05) and experienced more impairment of everyday functioning due to physical problems (p = 0.05) than those after meningococcal meningitis. INTERPRETATION: Treatment with adjunctive dexamethasone is not associated with an increased risk for long-term cognitive impairment. Adults who survive pneumococcal meningitis are at significant risk for long-term neuropsychological abnormalities
BCS to Bose Crossover in Anisotropic Superconductors
In this work we use functional integral techniques to examine the nearest
neighbour attractive Hubbard model on a quasi-2D lattice. It is a simple
phenomenological model for the high-Tc cuprates that allows both extended
(non-local) s- and d-wave singlet superconductivity as well as mixed symmetry
states. The Hartree-Gor'kov mean field theory of the model has a finite
temperature phase diagram which shows a transition from pure s-wave to pure
d-wave superconductivity, via a mixed symmetry s+id state, as a function of
doping. Including Gaussian fluctuations we examine the crossover from
weak-coupling BCS superconductivity to the strong-coupling Bose-Einstein
condensation of composite s- or d-wave bosons and comment on the origin and
symmetry of the pseudogap.Comment: 20 pages inc. 13 figure
First Measurement of the Tensor Structure Function of the Deuteron
The \Hermes experiment has investigated the tensor spin structure of the
deuteron using the 27.6 GeV/c positron beam of \Hera. The use of a tensor
polarized deuteron gas target with only a negligible residual vector
polarization enabled the first measurement of the tensor asymmetry \At and
the tensor structure function \bd for average values of the Bj{\o}rken
variable and of the squared four-momentum transfer . The quantities \At and \bd are found to be
non-zero. The rise of \bd for decreasing values of can be interpreted to
originate from the same mechanism that leads to nuclear shadowing in
unpolarized scattering
Real-Time Contrast Enhancement to Improve Speech Recognition
An algorithm that operates in real-time to enhance the salient features of speech is described and its efficacy is evaluated. The Contrast Enhancement (CE) algorithm implements dynamic compressive gain and lateral inhibitory sidebands across channels in a modified winner-take-all circuit, which together produce a form of suppression that sharpens the dynamic spectrum. Normal-hearing listeners identified spectrally smeared consonants (VCVs) and vowels (hVds) in quiet and in noise. Consonant and vowel identification, especially in noise, were improved by the processing. The amount of improvement did not depend on the degree of spectral smearing or talker characteristics. For consonants, when results were analyzed according to phonetic feature, the most consistent improvement was for place of articulation. This is encouraging for hearing aid applications because confusions between consonants differing in place are a persistent problem for listeners with sensorineural hearing loss
Double hadron leptoproduction in the nuclear medium
First measurement of double-hadron production in deep-inelastic scattering
has been measured with the HERMES spectrometer at HERA using a 27.6 GeV
positron beam with deuterium, nitrogen, krypton and xenon targets. The
influence of the nuclear medium on the ratio of double-hadron to single-hadron
yields has been investigated. Nuclear effects are clearly observed but with
substantially smaller magnitude and reduced -dependence compared to
previously measured single-hadron multiplicity ratios. The data are in fair
agreement with models based on partonic or pre-hadronic energy loss, while they
seem to rule out a pure absorptive treatment of the final state interactions.
Thus, the double-hadron ratio provides an additional tool for studying
modifications of hadronization in nuclear matter
Subleading-twist effects in single-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering on a longitudinally polarized hydrogen target
Single-spin asymmetries in the semi-inclusive production of charged pions in
deep-inelastic scattering from transversely and longitudinally polarized proton
targets are combined to evaluate the subleading-twist contribution to the
longitudinal case. This contribution is significantly positive for (\pi^+)
mesons and dominates the asymmetries on a longitudinally polarized target
previously measured by \hermes. The subleading-twist contribution for (\pi^-)
mesons is found to be small
The design of a project to assess bilateral versus unilateral hearing aid fitting
Binaural hearing provides advantages over monaural in several ways, particularly in difficult listening situations. For a person with bilateral hearing loss, the bilateral fitting of hearing aids thus seems like a natural choice. However, surprisingly few studies have been reported in which the additional benefit of bilateral versus unilateral hearing aid use has been investigated based on real-life experiences. Therefore, a project has been designed to address this issue and to find tools to identify people for whom the drawbacks would outweigh the advantages of bilateral fitting. A project following this design is likely to provide reliable evidence concerning differences in benefit between unilateral and bilateral fitting of hearing aids by evaluating correlations between entrance data and outcome measures and final preferences
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