Brillouin Cooling

We analyze how to exploit Brillouin scattering for the purpose of cooling opto-mechanical devices and present a quantum-mechanical theory for Brillouin cooling. Our analysis shows that significant cooling ratios can be obtained with standard experimental parameters. A further improvement of cooling efficiency is possible by increasing the dissipation of the optical anti-Stokes resonance.Comment: 4 pages 3 figure

The Potential of Provincial Taxation

The four provinces in Pakistan rely on a number of major and minor taxes. Motor Vehicles Taxes (MV) are the most important source of revenue in the category. Other taxes, such as tax on professions, trades and callings and sales tax on services, have remained underutilized and sources of revenue. After the 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2010, there is renewed interest in levying sales tax on services. Sindh has already established the Sindh Revenue Authority and Punjab is slated to follow suit. In this chapter, a discussion of these taxes is presented as an analysis of the current tax structures and issues in tax policy and administration. The chapter closes with a discussion of reform of provincial taxes with an emphasis on clarifying incentives for provincial revenue mobilization

Why growth equals power - and why it shouldn't : constructing visions of China

When discussing the success of China's transition from socialism, there is a tendency to focus on growth figures as an indication of performance. Whilst these figures are indeed impressive, we should not confuse growth with development and assume that the former necessarily automatically generates the latter. Much has been done to reduce poverty in China, but the task is not as complete as some observers would suggest; particularly in terms of access to health, education and welfare, and also in dealing with relative (rather than absolute) depravation and poverty. Visions of China have been constructed that exaggerate Chinese development and power in the global system partly to serve political interests, but partly due to the failure to consider the relationship between growth and development, partly due to the failure to disaggregate who gets what in China, and partly due to the persistence of inter-national conceptions of globalised production, trade, and financial flows

Irrigation and tillage effects on soil nitrous oxide emissions in maize monoculture

Irrigation and soil management can impact soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. Flood and sprinkler irrigation systems together with conventional tillage are the main practices used in the high yielding maize systems in Mediterranean Spain. The objective of this field work was to quantify the effect of the irrigation system (i.e., flood, F; and sprinkler, S) and the soil tillage system (i.e., conventional tillage, CT; no‐tillage maintaining the maize stover, NTr; and no‐tillage removing the maize stover, NT) on the N2O emissions from the soil during 3 yr (2015, 2016, and 2017). S irrigation, with mean values of 1.35 kg N2O‐N ha−1 yr−1 throughout the 3 yr, obtained 42% lower N2O emissions than F irrigation. On average of the three growing seasons, yield‐scaled N2O emissions by grain yield and by grain N uptake in F irrigation were two‐fold higher than in S irrigation. Moreover, in one out of three growing seasons (2017), no‐tillage systems (i.e., NTr and NT) showed greater yield‐scaled N2O emissions compared with CT. The higher maize grain yield with the S irrigation compared to F irrigation, as well as the lower N2O emissions reported under S irrigation resulted in the reduction of the yield‐scaled N2O emissions. Our findings highlight the role of sprinkler irrigation decreasing N2O emissions in comparison to flood irrigation in Mediterranean agroecosystemsComisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología. Grant Number: AGL2013‐49062‐C4‐4‐R; Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación. Grant Numbers: AGL2015‐68881‐REDT, FJCI‐2014‐19570, IJCI‐2016‐27784, PhD fellowship BES‐2014‐06917

Quality of care for pregnant women and newborns—the WHO vision

In 2015, as we review progress towards Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), despite significant progress in reduction of mortality, we still have unacceptably high numbers of maternal and newborn deaths globally. Efforts over the past decade to reduce adverse outcomes for pregnant women and newborns have been directed at increasing skilled birth attendance.1,2 This has resulted in higher rates of births in health facilities in all regions.3 The proportion of deliveries reportedly attended by skilled health personnel in developing countries rose from 56% in 1990 to 68% in 2012.4 With increasing utilisation of health services, a higher proportion of avoidable maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity have moved to health facilities. In this context, poor quality of care (QoC) in many facilities becomes a paramount roadblock in our quest to end preventable mortality and morbidity

When separation is not the answer : breastfeeding mothers and infants affected by COVID-19

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has provided detailed guidance on the care of infants of women who are a person under investigation (PUI) or confirmed to have COVID-19, which supports immediate postpartum mother-infant contact and breastfeeding with appropriate respiratory precautions. Although many countries have followed WHO guidance, others have implemented infection prevention and control policies (IPC) that impose varying levels of postpartum separation and discourage or prohibit breastfeeding or provision of expressed breastmilk. These policies aim to protect infants from the potential harm of infection from their mothers, yet they may fail to fully account for the impact of separation. Global COVID-19 data are suggestive of potentially lower susceptibility and a typically milder course of disease among children, although the potential for severe disease in infancy remains. Separation causes cumulative harms, including disrupting breastfeeding and limiting its protection against infectious disease, which has disproportionate impacts on vulnerable infants. Separation also presumes the replaceability of breastfeeding – a risk that is magnified in emergencies. Moreover, separation does not ensure lower viral exposure during hospitalizations and post-discharge, and contributes to the burden on overwhelmed health systems. Finally, separation magnifies maternal health consequences of insufficient breastfeeding and compounds trauma in communities who have experienced long-standing inequities and violence, including family separation. Taken together, separating PUI/confirmed SARS-CoV-2 positive mothers and their infants may lead to excess preventable illnesses and deaths among infants and women around the world. Health services must consider the short-and-long-term impacts of separating mothers and infants in their policies. This article is protected by copyright

Snowmass White Paper: Prospects of CP-violation measurements with the Higgs boson at future experiments

The search for CP violation in interactions of the Higgs boson with either fermions or bosons provides attractive reference measurements in the Particle Physics Community Planning Exercise (a.k.a. "Snowmass"). Benchmark measurements of CP violation provide a limited and well-defined set of parameters that could be tested at the proton, electron-positron, photon, and muon colliders, and compared to those achieved through study of virtual effects in electric dipole moment measurements. We review the current status of these CP-sensitive studies and provide projections to future measurements.Comment: Snowmass White Paper. 23 pages, 6 figure