368 research outputs found
Regional reserve pooling arrangements
Recently, several emerging market countries in East Asia and Latin America have initiated intra-regional reserve pooling mechanisms. This is puzzling from a traditional risk-diversification perspective, because country-level shocks are more correlated within rather than across regions. This paper provides a novel rationale for intra-regional pooling: if non-contingent reserve assets can be used to support production during a crisis, then a country's reserve accumulation decision affects not only its own production and consumption, but also its trading partners. If consumption through terms of trade effects. These terms of trade adjustments can be fully internalized only by a reserve pool among trading partners. If trade linkages are stronger within rather than across regions, then intra-regional reserve pooling may dominate inter-regional pooling, even if shocks are more correlated within regions.
Understanding the degeneracies in NOA data
The combined analysis of disappearance and appearance data
of NOA experiment leads to three nearly degenerate solutions. This
degeneracy can be understood in terms of deviations in appearance
signal, caused by unknown effects, with respect to the signal expected for a
reference set of oscillations parameters. We define the reference set to be
vacuum oscillations in the limit of maximal and no CP-violation.
We then calculate the deviations induced in the appearance signal event
rate by three unknown effects: (a) matter effects, due to normal or inverted
hierarchy (b) octant effects, due to being in higher or lower
octant and (c) CP-violation, whether or . We find that the deviation caused by each of these effects is the
same for NOA. The observed number of events in NOA is
equivalent to the increase caused by one of the effects. Therefore, the
observed number of appearance events of NOA is the net result of
the increase caused by two of the unknown effects and the decrease caused by
the third. Thus we get the three degenerate solutions. We also find that
further data by NOA can not distinguish between these degenerate solutions
but addition of one year of neutrino run of DUNE can make a distinction between
all three solutions. The distinction between the two NH solutions and the IH
solution becomes possible because of the larger matter effect in DUNE. The
distinction between the two NH solutions with different octants is a result of
the synergy between the anti-neutrino data of NOA and the neutrino data of
DUNE.Comment: Published version v2; with minor changes to v
Tensions between the appearance data of T2K and NOvA
The long baseline neutrino experiments, T2K and NOvA, have taken significant
amount of data in each of the four channels: (a) disappearance, (b)
disappearance (c) appearance and (d)
appearance. There is a mild tension between the disappearance and the
appearance data sets of T2K. A more serious tension exists between the
appearance data of T2K and the appearance data of NOvA.
This tension is significant enough that T2K rules out the best-fit point of
NOvA at confidence level whereas NOvA rules out T2K best-fit point at
confidence level. We explain the reason why these tensions arise. We
also do a combined fit of T2K and NOvA data and comment on the results of this
fit.Comment: matches the published versio
Sugar Mill Effluent Induced Histological Changes in Heart of Channa Punctatus
Sugar mill effluents are not so toxic like pesticides, but they contain many organic and inorganic reactive compounds which can affect the life of the organisms. These reactive compounds accumulate and retard physiological activities in human beings also. Histological biomarkers can be indicators of the effects on organisms of various anthropogenic pollutants on organisms and are a reflection of the overall health of the entire population of that ecosystem. The alterations in cells and tissues of fish are recurrently used biomarkers in many studies as such changes occur in all the invertebrates and vertebrates inhabiting aquatic basins. Histological biomarkers embody tissue lesions arising as a result of previous or current exposure of the organism to one or more toxins. In other words, it can be stated that these compounds act as a slow poison. Keeping these points in view, the effect of sugar mill effluent is observed on histology of heart of freshwater fish Channa punctatus
Effectiveness of Solvent Vapor Annealing over Thermal Annealing on the Photovoltaic Performance of Non-Fullerene Acceptor Based BHJ Solar Cells
We explore two small molecules containing arms of dicyano-n-hexylrhodanine and diathiafulvalene wings terminated with benzothiadiazole linker, denoted as BAF-4CN and BAF-2HDT, respectively, as small molecule non-fullerene acceptors (SMNFAs) in organic solar cells. The proposed materials are mixed with a low band gap polymer donor PTB7-Th having broad absorption in the range of 400–750 nm to form solution-processed bulk heterojunctions (BHJs). The photoluminescence (PL) measurements show that both donor and acceptor can quench each other’s PL effectively, implying that not only electrons are transferred from PTB7-Th → SMNFAs but also holes are transferred from SMNFAs → PTB7-Th for efficient photocurrent generation. Furthermore, solvent vapor annealing (SVA) processing is shown to yield a more balanced hole and electron mobility and thus suppresses the trap-assisted recombination significantly. With this dual charge transfer enabled via fine-tuning of end-groups and SVA treatment, power conversion efficiency of approximately 10% is achieved, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed approach
Options for Active Case Detection of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Endemic Districts of India, Nepal and Bangladesh, Comparing Yield, Feasibility and Costs
For the elimination of any infectious disease (i.e., reduction of the burden of a serious public health problem to a minor problem which can be managed by the general health services) the right mix of public health tools has to be identified for the early detection and successful treatment of new cases as well as effective vector control (in the case of vector borne diseases) at affordable costs. The paper provides a powerful example of evidence building for cost-effective early case detection in the visceral leishmaniasis elimination initiative of Bangladesh, India and Nepal. It compares the camp approach (mobile teams testing in chronic fever camps for spleen enlargement and rapid diagnostic tests) with the index case approach (screening for new cases in the neighbourhood of reported visceral leishmaniasis patients) and the incentive based approach (where basic health workers receive an allowance for detecting a new case) using subsequent house-to-house screening for the identification of the real number of un-detected cases. By applying a mix of different study methods and an itinerate research process to identify the most effective, feasible and affordable case detection method, under different environmental conditions, recommendations could be developed which help governments in shaping their visceral leishmaniasis elimination strategy
Insecticide Susceptibility of Phlebotomus argentipes in Visceral Leishmaniasis Endemic Districts in India and Nepal
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also know as kala azar, is one of the major public health concerns India, Nepal and Bangladesh. In the Indian subcontinent, VL is caused by Leishmania donovani which is transmitted by Phlebotomus argentipes. To date, Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) campaigns have been unable to control the disease. Vector resistance to the insecticides used has been postulated as one of the possible reasons explaining this failure. A number of studies in the region have shown a variable degree of resistance to DDT in areas where this insecticide has been widely used for IRS (mainly India). However there is no coordinated and standardized program to monitor resistance to insecticides in the region. In this study we tested P. argentipes susceptibility to DDT and deltamethrin in VL endemic villages in India and Nepal. The results confirmed the DDT resistance in India and in a border village of Nepal. P. argentipes from both countries were in general susceptible to deltamethrin, an insecticide used in some long lasting insecticidal nets
Associations Between Eight Earth Observation-Derived Climate Variables and Enteropathogen Infection : An Independent Participant Data Meta-Analysis of Surveillance Studies With Broad Spectrum Nucleic Acid Diagnostics
Diarrheal disease, still a major cause of childhood illness, is caused by numerous, diverse infectious microorganisms, which are differentially sensitive to environmental conditions. Enteropathogen-specific impacts of climate remain underexplored. Results from 15 studies that diagnosed enteropathogens in 64,788 stool samples from 20,760 children in 19 countries were combined. Infection status for 10 common enteropathogens-adenovirus, astrovirus, norovirus, rotavirus, sapovirus, Campylobacter, ETEC, Shigella, Cryptosporidium and Giardia-was matched by date with hydrometeorological variables from a global Earth observation dataset-precipitation and runoff volume, humidity, soil moisture, solar radiation, air pressure, temperature, and wind speed. Models were fitted for each pathogen, accounting for lags, nonlinearity, confounders, and threshold effects. Different variables showed complex, non-linear associations with infection risk varying in magnitude and direction depending on pathogen species. Rotavirus infection decreased markedly following increasing 7-day average temperatures-a relative risk of 0.76 (95% confidence interval: 0.69-0.85) above 28 degrees C-while ETEC risk increased by almost half, 1.43 (1.36-1.50), in the 20-35 degrees C range. Risk for all pathogens was highest following soil moistures in the upper range. Humidity was associated with increases in bacterial infections and decreases in most viral infections. Several virus species' risk increased following lower-than-average rainfall, while rotavirus and ETEC increased with heavier runoff. Temperature, soil moisture, and humidity are particularly influential parameters across all enteropathogens, likely impacting pathogen survival outside the host. Precipitation and runoff have divergent associations with different enteric viruses. These effects may engender shifts in the relative burden of diarrhea-causing agents as the global climate changes. Plain Language Summary Diarrheal disease is a big health problem for children. It can be caused by different bugs, which can be caught more easily in certain weather conditions, though not much is understood about this because the climate varies so much from one place to the next. This study combined data from many different countries where diarrhea-causing bugs were diagnosed in children's stool. Satellites recorded what the weather was like on the day each sample was collected. Rotavirus is easiest to catch in cold weather and when water washes over the ground after rain. Dry weather also makes it and other viruses easy to catch. Bacteria spread best when the air is warm and humid, and the soil moist, though one type of E. coli can also be spread in rainwater. Climate change will make dry places drier, wet places wetter and everywhere warmer. This might lead to more diarrhea caused by bacteria and less by viruses in some places, though places with moist soil might see more of every kind of bug.Peer reviewe
A comparative evaluation of the performance of commercially available rapid immunochromatographic tests for the diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis in Bangladesh
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