A pilot study of a combined energy and water hub in The Gambia Waterlines

Many people across the developing world live ‘off-grid’ in terms of access to mains electricity, and therefore depend upon alternative power sources to recharge their mobile phones. These recharging facilities are typically located in shops/informal businesses, and often powered by a diesel generator or solar panel. Many of these rural communities are also served by local water infrastructure that has fallen into a state of disrepair. It has been reported that many individuals are prepared to pay a small regular fee to recharge their mobile phone, whilst their wider communities may often claim to lack sufficient funds to keep their water infrastructure maintained. This paper introduces a pilot study in Gambia that combines an off-grid recharging hub with a community water point. It is proposed that a proportion of the income generated by this enterprise could be retained and used to fund the on-going maintenance costs of the recharging hub and the local water infrastructure

A pilot study from The Gambia to improve access to water, energy, and mobile phones

Across Sub-Saharan Africa many communities lack reliable access to mains electricity, and therefore depend upon unconventional power sources to recharge their mobile phones. Many of these informal recharging centres are powered by a diesel generator or solar panel. Furthermore, many of these same communities are frequently served by broken water pumps. Previous reports indicate that many individuals are prepared to pay a small regular fee to recharge their mobile phone, whilst their local water point committee lacks sufficient funds to keep their water infrastructure maintained. This paper presents a novel funding strategy aimed at helping communities cover the maintenance costs of their local water supply. This premise was demonstrated using a pilot system in Gambia which combined a solar powered community water point with an off-grid smart battery rental hub for everyday electricity needs such as mobile phone charging. The paper presents preliminary field data from this site and explores the wider context surrounding the pilot system

Factors influencing publication choice: why faculty choose open access

BACKGROUND: In an attempt to identify motivating factors involved in decisions to publish in open access and open archives (OA) journals, individual interviews with biomedical faculty members at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) and Duke University, two major research universities, were conducted. The interviews focused on faculty identified as early adopters of OA/free full-text publishing. METHODS: Searches conducted in PubMed and PubMed Central identified faculty from the two institutions who have published works in OA/free full-text journals. The searches targeted authors with multiple OA citations during a specified 18 month period. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the most prolific OA authors at each university. Individual interviews attempted to determine whether the authors were aware they published in OA journals, why they chose to publish in OA journals, what factors influenced their publishing decisions, and their general attitude towards OA publishing models. RESULTS & DISCUSSION: Fourteen interviews were granted and completed. Respondents included a fairly even mix of Assistant, Associate and Full professors. Results indicate that when targeting biomedical faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke, speed of publication and copyright retention are unlikely motivating factors or incentives for the promotion of OA publishing. In addition, author fees required by some open access journals are unlikely barriers or disincentives. CONCLUSION: It appears that publication quality is of utmost importance when choosing publication venues in general, while free access and visibility are specifically noted incentives for selection of OA journals. Therefore, free public availability and increased exposure may not be strong enough incentives for authors to choose open access over more traditional and respected subscription based publications, unless the quality issue is also addressed

Quantum line bundles on noncommutative sphere

Noncommutative (NC) sphere is introduced as a quotient of the enveloping algebra of the Lie algebra su(2). Using the Cayley-Hamilton identities we introduce projective modules which are analogues of line bundles on the usual sphere (we call them quantum line bundles) and define a multiplicative structure in their family. Also, we compute a pairing between certain quantum line bundles and finite dimensional representations of the NC sphere in the spirit of the NC index theorem. A new approach to constructing the differential calculus on a NC sphere is suggested. The approach makes use of the projective modules in question and gives rise to a NC de Rham complex being a deformation of the classical one.Comment: LaTeX file, 15 pp, no figures. Some clarifying remarks are added at the beginning of section 2 and into section

Microwave Spectroscopy

Contains reports on four research projects

Digital technologies, legal design and the future of the legal profession

Legal Technology – or “Legal Tech” – is disrupting the traditional operations and self-understanding of the legal profession. This chapter introduces the central claim of this book, namely that these developments are having and will continue to have a disruptive effect on the work of lawyers and that adapting to this new operating environment is crucial for legal professionals remaining relevant in an increasingly technology-driven world. This introductory chapter outlines some of the main features of this on-going transformation process, introduces some of the pressures it is creating for lawyers, and provides short summaries of the chapters that comprise this collection.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Study of ionization signals in a TPC filled with a mixture of liquid Argon and Nitrogen

In this paper we report on the evidence for ionization track signals from cosmic ray muons and Compton electrons in a Time Projection Chamber (TPC) filled with liquid Argon and doped with different fractions of Nitrogen. This study has been conducted in view of the possible use of liquid Argon/Nitrogen TPCs for the detection of gamma rays in the resonant band of the Nitrogen absorbtion spectrum, a promising technology for security and medical applications.Comment: v2: minor content change and picture improvement

Declining trends in conception rates in recent birth cohorts of native Danish women: a possible role of deteriorating male reproductive health

Recent findings of poor semen quality among at least 20% of normal young men in Denmark prompted us to use unique Danish registers on births and induced abortions to evaluate a possible effect of the poor male fecundity on pregnancy rates among their presumed partners – the younger cohorts of women. We have analysed data from the Danish birth and abortion registries as well as the Danish registry for assisted reproduction (ART) and defined a total natural conception rate (TNCR), which is equal to fertility rate plus induced abortion rate minus ART conception rate. A unique personal identification number allowed the linkage of these databases. Our database included 706 270 native Danish women born between 1960 and 1980. We used projections to estimate the fertility of the later cohorts of women who had not yet finished their reproduction. We found that younger cohorts had progressively lower TNCR and that in terms of their total fertility rate, the declining TNCR is compensated by an increasing use of ART. Our hypothesis of an ongoing birth cohort-related decline in fecundity was also supported by our finding of increasing and substantial use of ART in the management of infertility of relatively young couples in the later cohorts. Furthermore, the lower rates of induced abortion among the younger birth cohorts, often viewed as a success of health education programs, may not be fully explained by improved use of contraception. It seems more likely that decreased fecundity because of widespread poor semen quality among younger cohorts of otherwise normal men may explain some of the observed decline in conception rates. This may imply increasing reproductive health problems and lower fertility in the future, which is difficult to reverse in the short term. The current and projected widespread use of ART in Denmark may be a sign of such an emerging public health problem