Lack of a Will or of a Way? Taking a Capability Approach for Analysing Disability Policy Shortcomings and Ensuring Programme Impact in Afghanistan

The present paper attempts to analyse some of the shortcomings that have impeded efforts in the field of disability in Afghanistan. After an overview of recent disability initiatives, this article presents elements that have contributed to the limited impact. The context of a Conflict Affected Fragile State (CAFS) makes particularly intricate the development of state-capacity as well as the delivery of basic services for the population. To overcome identified gaps, it is argued that Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach (CA) constitutes a relevant framework for designing disability policy and implementation. While the definition of human development has evolved considerably over the past decade, the translation of this change often remains at the theoretical level, without any visible impact on the policy-making process and in terms of well-being. We argue that one reason for this gap is the paucity of knowledge, and the insufficient focus placed on enhancing the agency of vulnerable groups. Through the example of the National Disability Survey in Afghanistan (NDSA) the paper discusses the need for scientific based knowledge and the challenges of a research initiative based on the Capability Approach to inform policy design and implementation: design of research tools and methodology for analysing disability issues

Poverty, vulnerability, and provision of healthcare in Afghanistan

This paper presents findings on conditions of healthcare delivery in Afghanistan. There is an ongoing debate about barriers to healthcare in low-income as well as fragile states. In 2002, the Government of Afghanistan established a Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS), contracting primary healthcare delivery to non-state providers. The priority was to give access to the most vulnerable groups: women, children, disabled persons, and the poorest households. In 2005, we conducted a nationwide survey, and using a logistic regression model, investigated provider choice. We also measured associations between perceived availability and usefulness of healthcare providers. Our results indicate that the implementation of the package has partially reached its goal: to target the most vulnerable. The pattern of use of healthcare provider suggests that disabled people, female-headed households, and poorest households visited health centres more often (during the year preceding the survey interview). But these vulnerable groups faced more difficulties while using health centres, hospitals as well as private providers and their outof-pocket expenditure was higher than other groups. In the model of provider choice, time to travel reduces the likelihood for all Afghans of choosing health centres and hospitals. We situate these findings in the larger context of current debates regarding healthcare delivery for vulnerable populations in fragile state environments. The ‘scalingup process’ is faced with several issues that jeopardize the objective of equitable access: cost of care, coverage of remote areas, and competition from profit-orientated providers. To overcome these structural barriers, we suggest reinforcing processes of transparency, accountability and participation

A practical perspective on the potential of rechargeable Mg batteries

Emerging energy storage systems based on abundant and cost-effective materials are key to overcome the global energy and climate crisis of the 21st century. Rechargeable Magnesium Batteries (RMB), based on Earth-abundant magnesium, can provide a cheap and environmentally responsible alternative to the benchmark Li-ion technology, especially for large energy storage applications. Currently, RMB technology is the subject of intense research efforts at laboratory scale. However, these emerging approaches must be placed in a real-world perspective to ensure that they satisfy key technological requirements. In an attempt to bridge the gap between laboratory advancements and industrial development demands, herein, we report the first non-aqueous multilayer RMB pouch cell prototypes and propose a roadmap for a new advanced RMB chemistry. Through this work, we aim to show the great unrealized potential of RMBs.This work was funded by European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the FET Proactive call with grant agreement no 824066 via the “E-MAGIC” project

A practical perspective on the potential of rechargeable Mg batteries

Emerging energy storage systems based on abundant and cost-effective materials are key to overcome the global energy and climate crisis of the 21st century. Rechargeable Magnesium Batteries (RMB), based on Earth-abundant magnesium, can provide a cheap and environmentally responsible alternative to the benchmark Li-ion technology, especially for large energy storage applications. Currently, RMB technology is the subject of intense research efforts at laboratory scale. However, these emerging approaches must be placed in a real-world perspective to ensure that they satisfy key technological requirements. In an attempt to bridge the gap between laboratory advancements and industrial development demands, herein, we report the first non-aqueous multilayer RMB pouch cell prototypes and propose a roadmap for a new advanced RMB chemistry. Through this work, we aim to show the great unrealized potential of RMBs

The CHORUS neutrino oscillation search experiment

The CHORUS experiment has successfully finished run I (320~000 recorded \numu\ CC in 94/95) and performed half of run II (225~000 \numu\ CC in 96). The analysis chain was exercised on a small data sample for the muonic \tdecay\ search using for the first time fully automatic emulsion scanning. This pilot analysis, resulting in a limit \sintth \leq 3 \cdot 10^{-2}, confirms that the CHORUS proposal sensitivity (\sintth \leq 3 \cdot 10^{-4}) is within reach in two years

Design, Performance, and Calibration of CMS Hadron-Barrel Calorimeter Wedges

Extensive measurements have been made with pions, electrons and muons on four production wedges of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) hadron barrel (HB) calorimeter in the H2 beam line at CERN with particle momenta varying from 20 to 300 GeV/c. Data were taken both with and without a prototype electromagnetic lead tungstate crystal calorimeter (EB) in front of the hadron calorimeter. The time structure of the events was measured with the full chain of preproduction front-end electronics running at 34 MHz. Moving-wire radioactive source data were also collected for all scintillator layers in the HB. These measurements set the absolute calibration of the HB prior to first pp collisions to approximately 4%

Energy Response and Longitudinal Shower Profiles Measured in CMS HCAL and Comparison With Geant4

The response of the CMS combined electromagnetic and hadron calorimeter to beams of pions with momenta in the range 5-300 GeV/c has been measured in the H2 test beam at CERN. The raw response with the electromagnetic compartment calibrated to electrons and the hadron compartment calibrated to 300 GeV pions may be represented by sigma = (1.2) sqrt{E} oplus (0.095) E. The fraction of energy visible in the calorimeter ranges from 0.72 at 5 GeV to 0.95 at 300 GeV, indicating a substantial nonlinearity. The intrinsic electron to hadron ratios are fit as a function of energy and found to be in the range 1.3-2.7 for the electromagnetic compartment and 1.4-1.8 for the hadronic compartment. The fits are used to correct the non-linearity of the e pi response to 5% over the entire measured range resulting in a substantially improved resolution at low energy. Longitudinal shower profile have been measured in detail and compared to Geant4 models, LHEP-3.7 and QGSP-2.8. At energies below 30 GeV, the data, LHEP and QGSP are in agreement. Above 30 GeV, LHEP gives a more accurate simulation of the longitudinal shower profile