Relaxation behaviour at the spin-flop phase transition in the quasi-1D antiferromagnet CsMnCl3·2H2O

The low-frequency relaxation behaviour of the linear-chain antiferromagnet CsMnCl3·2H2O at the spin-flop transition has been determined from dynamic susceptibility measurements on a single crystal placed in direct contact with liquid helium. The experiments were performed between 1.4 and 4.2 K in the frequency range 0.1 Hz–3.0 kHz with a frequency-sweeping SQUID susceptometer. Below Tλ = 2.17 K, the relaxation rate τ−1 manifests an exponential temperature dependence, τ−1 = ω0e−E/kT, where E/k = 3.19±0.04 K is approximately equal to the magnitude of the intrachain exchange interaction constant Ja/k. Above Tλ the apparent deviation from the exponential behaviour has been explained satisfactorily by using the thermal conduction model of relaxation. The field-dependent factor ω0 is directly proportional to the ratio of the adiabatic χs to the isothermal χT susceptibilities

Women and gender participation in the fisheries sector in Lake Victoria

Role of women, Fisheries, GENDER, Lake Victoria,

Macroeconomic Policy Reform and Economic Growth in Zambia

The paper discusses the role that government policies and macroeconomic reforms played in influencing economic growth in Zambia during the period 1964-2013. The study identifies two economic systems that guided the implementation of policies and reforms in Zambia. The first relates to a command-driven economy, where economic growth patterns were influenced by nationalist ideologies and administrative controls. The second relates to a market-driven economy where economic growth patterns were influenced by market-oriented fundamentals with some degree of administrative controls. The study concludes that economic policies and reforms were instrumental in influencing the performance of major macroeconomic drivers of economic growth in Zambia such as the accumulation of physical capital, human capital development, international trade, real exchange rate determination and inflation

Public Debt and Economic Growth Nexus in the Euro Area: A Dynamic Panel ARDL Approach

This study investigates the relationship between public debt and economic growth using panel data from 10 European Countries. Using a panel ARDL approach, the results show that public debt, government consumption, and the real exchange rate are negatively associated with economic growth both in the short- and long-run. Furthermore, investment and the real interest rate were found to be positively associated with economic growth both in the short- and long-run. Inflation and trade openness were found to have mixed results: both were negatively associated with economic growth in the long run while in the short run the relationship was positive and consistent across groups with a few exceptions. Second, the study results also showed that debt is nonlinear at the 70% threshold only in the long-run while in the short run the results were consistently negative and across groups. The study results have significant policy implications for the Stability and Growth Pact of the Euro area. It is recommended that member states should ensure fiscal sustainability by balancing their fiscal budgets to effectively reduce the accumulation of public debt as well as implementing structural reforms that will improve the efficiency of investment as well as macroeconomic stability.JEL Codes - C23, F34, F43, H63, N1

Exogenous and Endogenous Growth Models: a Critical Review

The main divisions of the theoretical economic growth literature that we study today include exogenous and endogenous growth models that have transitioned through a number of notions and criticisms. Proponents of exogenous growth models argue that technological progress is the key determinant of long-run economic growth as well as international productivity differences. Within the endogenous growth models, there are two notions that are propagated. The first postulates that capital used for innovative purposes can exhibit increasing returns to scale and thus account for the international productivity differences we observe today. The key determinants include knowledge, human capital, and research and development. The second argues that factors that affect the efficiency of capital, and hence cause capital flight, can also explain international productivity differences. These factors that affect the efficiency of capital include government spending, inflation, real exchange rates, and real interest rates. Our study results reveal that there is still no agreement on the dominant theoretical economic growth model amongst economists that can fully account for international productivity differences. We conclude that the future of theoretical economic growth is far from over and more work needs to be done to develop more practical structural economic growth models

Performance Evaluation of AOP/Biological Hybrid System for Treatment of Recalcitrant Organic Compounds

Process water from nuclear fuel recovery unit operations contains a variety of toxic organic compounds. The use of decontamination reagents such as CCl4 together with phenolic tar results in wastewater with a high content of chlorophenols. In this study, the extent of dehalogenation of toxic aromatic compounds was evaluated using a photolytic advanced oxidation process (AOP) followed by biodegradation in the second stage. A hard-to-degrade toxic pollutant, 4-chlorophenol (4-CP), was used to represent a variety of recalcitrant aromatic pollutants in effluent from the nuclear industry. A UV-assisted AOP/bioreactor system demonstrated a great potential in treatment of nuclear process wastewater and this was indicated by high removal efficiency (>98%) under various 4-CP concentrations. Adding hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as a liquid catalyst further improved biodegradation rate but the effect was limited by the scavenging of OH• radicals under high concentrations of H2O2