Validating operational food insecurity indicators against a dynamic benchmark : evidence from Mali

The authors develop an explicitly forward-looking indicator of food insecurity that takes into account both current dietary inadequacy and vulnerability to dietary inadequacy in the future. Application of this measure to data from northern Mali shows that neglecting the future dimension of food insecurity causes serious underestimation of food insecurity in this area. The authors evaluate the performance, relative to their dynamic bemchmark, of three readily available alternative indicators: an agricultural production index, a dietary diversity index, and a coping strategy index. Despite the uneven performance of these indexes relative to the individual components of the dynamic food insecurity indicator developed in the paper, they all demonstrate strong associations with that indicator. This is a promising result, given the urgent demand for reliable indicators of food insecurity.Livestock&Animal Husbandry,Poverty Assessment,Food&Beverage Industry,Food&Nutrition Policy,Poverty Lines

Example of Disulfide Conformational Change in the Solid State: Preparation, Optical Properties, and X-ray Studies of a Cystamine-Based Iodoplombate Hybrid

A novel cystamine-based hybrid, namely, α-[NH3(CH2)2SS(CH2)2NH3PbI6]·2H3O (1a), was prepared under solvothermal conditions. Interestingly, 1a, which is built up from isolated PbI6 octahedra, can be easily changed into its polymorph, namely, β-[NH3(CH2)2S–S(CH2)2NH3PbI6]·2H3O (1b) only by heating it up to 45 °C. According to the results of X-ray diffraction analyses, the polymorphic phenomenon of 1a and 1b results from a conformational change in the helical diprotonated cystamine cation in the solid state. Both 1a and 1b crystallized in the orthorhombic Pna21 space group. The reversibility of this transformation is proved by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and second harmonic generation measurements

A Two-Dimensional MagnetoHydrodynamics Scheme for General Unstructured Grids

We report a new finite-difference scheme for two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations, with and without rotation, in unstructured grids with quadrilateral cells. The new scheme is implemented within the code VULCAN/2D, which already includes radiation-hydrodynamics in various approximations and can be used with arbitrarily moving meshes (ALE). The MHD scheme, which consists of cell-centered magnetic field variables, preserves the nodal finite difference representation of div(\bB) by construction, and therefore any initially divergence-free field remains divergence-free through the simulation. In this paper, we describe the new scheme in detail and present comparisons of VULCAN/2D results with those of the code ZEUS/2D for several one-dimensional and two-dimensional test problems. The code now enables two-dimensional simulations of the collapse and explosion of the rotating, magnetic cores of massive stars. Moreover, it can be used to simulate the very wide variety of astrophysical problems for which multi-D radiation-magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) is relevant.Comment: 22 pages, including 11 figures; Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal. Higher resolution figures available at http://zenith.as.arizona.edu/~burrows/mhd-code

Supersymmetric Galileons

Galileon theories are of considerable interest since they allow for stable violations of the null energy condition. Since such violations could have occurred during a high-energy regime in the history of our universe, we are motivated to study supersymmetric extensions of these theories. This is carried out in this paper, where we construct generic classes of N=1 supersymmetric Galileon Lagrangians. They are shown to admit non-equivalent stress-energy tensors and, hence, vacua manifesting differing conditions for violating the null energy condition. The temporal and spatial fluctuations of all component fields of the supermultiplet are analyzed and shown to be stable on a large number of such backgrounds. In the process, we uncover a surprising connection between conformal Galileon and ghost condensate theories, allowing for a deeper understanding of both types of theories.Comment: 41 pages, v2: added a referenc

The Infrared Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) for TMT: the atmospheric dispersion corrector

We present a conceptual design for the atmospheric dispersion corrector (ADC) for TMT's Infrared Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS). The severe requirements of this ADC are reviewed, as are limitations to observing caused by uncorrectable atmospheric effects. The requirement of residual dispersion less than 1 milliarcsecond can be met with certain glass combinations. The design decisions are discussed and the performance of the design ADC is described. Alternative options and their performance tradeoffs are also presented.Comment: SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation 201

In-depth analysis of the Naming Game dynamics: the homogeneous mixing case

Language emergence and evolution has recently gained growing attention through multi-agent models and mathematical frameworks to study their behavior. Here we investigate further the Naming Game, a model able to account for the emergence of a shared vocabulary of form-meaning associations through social/cultural learning. Due to the simplicity of both the structure of the agents and their interaction rules, the dynamics of this model can be analyzed in great detail using numerical simulations and analytical arguments. This paper first reviews some existing results and then presents a new overall understanding.Comment: 30 pages, 19 figures (few in reduced definition). In press in IJMP

Polymorphism of lead(ii) benzenethiolate: a noncentrosymmetric new allotropic form of Pb(SPh)2

Depending upon its conditions of crystallization, lead(II) benzenethiolate can exist in two forms: a low-temperature centrosymmetric phase α-Pb(SPh)2 which can be converted by heating into the noncentrosymmetric, 2nd order NLO strongly active and room temperature metastable β-Pb(SPh)2 phase, thus affording an example of transition towards noncentrosymmetry induced by a rise of temperature

Field-induced spin density wave in (TMTSF)2_2NO3_3

Interlayer magnetoresistance of the Bechgaard salt (TMTSF)$_2$NO$_3$ is investigated up to 50 teslas under pressures of a few kilobars. This compound, the Fermi surface of which is quasi two-dimensional at low temperature, is a semi metal under pressure. Nevertheless, a field-induced spin density wave is evidenced at 8.5 kbar above $\sim$ 20 T. This state is characterized by a drastically different spectrum of the quantum oscillations compared to the low pressure spin density wave state.Comment: to be published in Phys. Rev. B 71 (2005

Halpha-Derived Star-Formation Rates For Three z ~ 0.75 EDisCS Galaxy Clusters

We present Halpha-derived star-formation rates (SFRs) for three z ~ 0.75 galaxy clusters. Our 1 sigma flux limit corresponds to a star-formation rate of 0.10-0.24 solar mass per year, and our minimum reliable Halpha + [N II] rest-frame equivalent width is 10\AA. We show that Halpha narrowband imaging is an efficient method for measuring star formation in distant clusters. In two out of three clusters, we find that the fraction of star-forming galaxies increases with projected distance from the cluster center. We also find that the fraction of star-forming galaxies decreases with increasing local galaxy surface density in the same two clusters. We compare the median rate of star formation among star-forming cluster galaxies to a small sample of star-forming field galaxies from the literature and find that the median cluster SFRs are \~50% less than the median field SFR. We characterize cluster evolution in terms of the mass-normalized integrated cluster SFR and find that the z ~ 0.75 clusters have more SFR per cluster mass on average than the z <= 0.4 clusters from the literature. The interpretation of this result is complicated by the dependence of the mass-normalized SFR on cluster mass and the lack of sufficient overlap in the mass ranges covered by the low and high redshift samples. We find that the fraction and luminosities of the brightest starburst galaxies at z ~ 0.75 are consistent with their being progenitors of the post-starburst galaxies at z ~ 0.45 if the post-starburst phase lasts several (~5) times longer than the starburst phase.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 20 pages, 24 figure