Informality, Trade Policies And Smuggling In West Africa

In West Africa, recorded intra-regional trade is small but informal cross-border trade (ICBT) is pervasive, despite regional integration schemes intended to promote official trade. We argue that ICBT must be understood in light of two features of West African national boundaries: divergent economic policies between neighboring countries and the ease with which informal operators can ship goods across borders. We focus on two ICBT clusters: Senegal–The Gambia and Nigeria–Benin–Togo. Nigeria and Senegal have protected their domestic industries with high import barriers, whereas Benin, Togo and The Gambia have maintained lower import taxation. These differential trade policies, together with high mobility of goods and people across borders, lead to widespread smuggling, with goods imported legally in low-tax countries and re-exported unofficially to countries with higher import duties

Fluctuation-induced interactions between dielectrics in general geometries

We study thermal Casimir and quantum non-retarded Lifshitz interactions between dielectrics in general geometries. We map the calculation of the classical partition function onto a determinant which we discretize and evaluate with the help of Cholesky factorization. The quantum partition function is treated by path integral quantization of a set of interacting dipoles and reduces to a product of determinants. We compare the approximations of pairwise additivity and proximity force with our numerical methods. We propose a ``factorization approximation'' which gives rather good numerical results in the geometries that we study

Сучасні підходи до питання ліквідації наслідків Чорнобильської катастрофи у віддалений період

У матеріалах наведено результати дослідження міграції радіонуклідів чорнобильського походження в біогеоценозах Волинського Полісся, зокрема лісових масивах, агроландшафтах, а також виявлення основних зон формування підвищеної радіоактивності на досліджуваних територіях

Circular photon drag effect in bulk tellurium

The circular photon drag effect is observed in a bulk semiconductor. The photocurrent caused by a transfer of both translational and angular momenta of light to charge carriers is detected in tellurium in the mid-infrared frequency range. Dependencies of the photocurrent on the light polarization and on the incidence angle agree with the symmetry analysis of the circular photon drag effect. Microscopic models of the effect are developed for both intra- and inter-subband optical absorption in the valence band of tellurium. The shift contribution to the circular photon drag current is calculated. An observed decrease of the circular photon drag current with increase of the photon energy is explained by the theory for inter-subband optical transitions. Theoretical estimates of the circular photon drag current agree with the experimental data.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Valley separation in graphene by polarized light

We show that the optical excitation of graphene with polarized light leads to the pure valley current where carriers in the valleys counterflow. The current in each valley originates from asymmetry of optical transitions and electron scattering by impurities owing to the warping of electron energy spectrum. The valley current has strong polarization dependence, its direction is opposite for normally incident beams of orthogonal linear polarizations. In undoped graphene on a substrate with high susceptibility, electron-electron scattering leads to an additional contribution to the valley current that can dominate.Comment: 4+ pages, 2 figure

Shot noise in superconducting junctions with weak link formed by Anderson impurity

A theory is developed to study shot noise in superconducting (SAS) and hybrid (SAN) junctions with singly occupied Anderson impurity (A) as a weak link. The zero-frequency DC component of the shot noise spectral density is calculated at zero temperature as a function of the bias at different Coulomb repulsion strengths U, and show a remarkable structure resulting from combination of electron-electron interaction and Andreev reflections.Comment: 4 two column pages including 4 .eps figure

UCN Upscattering rates in a molecular deuterium crystal

A calculation of ultra-cold neutron (UCN) upscattering rates in molecular deuterium solids has been carried out, taking into account intra-molecular exictations and phonons. The different moelcular species ortho-D2 (with even rotational quantum number J) and para-D2 (with odd J) exhibit significantly different UCN-phonon annihilation cross-sections. Para- to ortho-D2 conversion, furthermore, couples UCN to an energy bath of excited rotational states without mediating phonons. This anomalous upscattering mechanism restricts the UCN lifetime to 4.6 msec in a normal-D2 solid with 33% para content.Comment: 3 pages, one figur

Weak antilocalization in quantum wells in tilted magnetic fields

Weak antilocalization is studied in an InGaAs quantum well. Anomalous magnetoresistance is measured and described theoretically in fields perpendicular, tilted and parallel to the quantum well plane. Spin and phase relaxation times are found as functions of temperature and parallel field. It is demonstrated that spin dephasing is due to the Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction. The values of electron spin splittings and spin relaxation times are found in the wide range of 2D density. Application of in-plane field is shown to destroy weak antilocalization due to competition of Zeeman and microroughness effects. Their relative contributions are separated, and the values of the in-plane electron g-factor and characteristic size of interface imperfections are found.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Open questions on prominences from coordinated observations by IRIS, Hinode, SDO/AIA, THEMIS, and the Meudon/MSDP

Context. A large prominence was observed on September 24, 2013, for three hours (12:12 UT -15:12 UT) with the newly launched (June 2013) Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), THEMIS (Tenerife), the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), the Solar Dynamic Observatory Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA), and the Multichannel Subtractive Double Pass spectrograph (MSDP) in the Meudon Solar Tower. Aims. The aim of this work is to study the dynamics of the prominence fine structures in multiple wavelengths to understand their formation. Methods. The spectrographs IRIS and MSDP provided line profiles with a high cadence in Mg II and in Halpha lines. Results. The magnetic field is found to be globally horizontal with a relatively weak field strength (8-15 Gauss). The Ca II movie reveals turbulent-like motion that is not organized in specific parts of the prominence. On the other hand, the Mg II line profiles show multiple peaks well separated in wavelength. Each peak corresponds to a Gaussian profile, and not to a reversed profile as was expected by the present non-LTE radiative transfer modeling. Conclusions. Turbulent fields on top of the macroscopic horizontal component of the magnetic field supporting the prominence give rise to the complex dynamics of the plasma. The plasma with the high velocities (70 km/s to 100 km/s if we take into account the transverse velocities) may correspond to condensation of plasma along more or less horizontal threads of the arch-shape structure visible in 304 A. The steady flows (5 km/s) would correspond to a more quiescent plasma (cool and prominence-corona transition region) of the prominence packed into dips in horizontal magnetic field lines. The very weak secondary peaks in the Mg II profiles may reflect the turbulent nature of parts of the prominence.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figure