1,180 research outputs found
Ethical approaches to family planning in Africa
Africa has historically provided the geographical flashpoint of ethical issues relating to family planning programs. Until recently in Sub-Saharan Africa, advocacy of family planning by non-Africans was unacceptable and by Africans politically inadvisable. This has changed in the 1980s. The health rationale for family planning is backed by strong evidence, especially in Africa, where infant and maternal mortality and morbidity rates are high. Population growth in many African countries impedes development, which cannot keep up with needs. Earlier attempts to offer family planning aid were often politically inept and endangered the needed partnership between donor and developing countries. Theoretical arguments and abstract demographic projections are less persuasive than carefully designed programs geared to the health and well-being of communitities that help plan them. Increased cooperation between donor and developing countries has helped resolve some of the ethical difficulties that beset family planning programs. This report summarizes many of the practical, ethical and cultural considerations in making family planning aid acceptable.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Adolescent Health,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Gender and Health,Early Child and Children's Health
Microscopic Current Dynamics in Nanoscale Junctions
So far transport properties of nanoscale contacts have been mostly studied
within the static scattering approach. The electron dynamics and the transient
behavior of current flow, however, remain poorly understood. We present a
numerical study of microscopic current flow dynamics in nanoscale quantum point
contacts. We employ an approach that combines a microcanonical picture of
transport with time-dependent density-functional theory. We carry out atomic
and jellium model calculations to show that the time evolution of the current
flow exhibits several noteworthy features, such as nonlaminarity and edge flow.
We attribute these features to the interaction of the electron fluid with the
ionic lattice, to the existence of pressure gradients in the fluid, and to the
transient dynamical formation of surface charges at the nanocontact-electrode
interfaces. Our results suggest that quantum transport systems exhibit
hydrodynamical characteristics which resemble those of a classical liquid.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Evolution of interfaces and expansion in width
Interfaces in a model with a single, real nonconserved order parameter and
purely dissipative evolution equation are considered. We show that a systematic
perturbative approach, called the expansion in width and developed for curved
domain walls, can be generalized to the interfaces. Procedure for calculating
curvature corrections is described. We also derive formulas for local velocity
and local surface tension of the interface. As an example, evolution of
spherical interfaces is discussed, including an estimate of critical size of
small droplets.Comment: Discussion of stability of the interface is added, and the numerical
estimates of width and velocity of the interface in the liquid crystal
example are corrected. 25 pages, Latex2
Long-term moderate calorie restriction inhibits inflammation without impairing cell-mediated immunity: A randomized controlled trial in non-obese humans
Calorie restriction (CR) inhibits inflammation and slows aging in many animal species, but in rodents housed in pathogen-free facilities, CR impairs immunity against certain pathogens. However, little is known about the effects of long-term moderate CR on immune function in humans. In this multi-center, randomized clinical trial to determine CR's effect on inflammation and cell-mediated immunity, 218 healthy non-obese adults (20-50 y), were assigned 25% CR (n=143) or an ad-libitum (AL) diet (n=75), and outcomes tested at baseline, 12, and 24 months of CR. CR induced a 10.4% weight loss over the 2-y period. Relative to AL group, CR reduced circulating inflammatory markers, including total WBC and lymphocyte counts, ICAM-1 and leptin. Serum CRP and TNF-α concentrations were about 40% and 50% lower in CR group, respectively. CR had no effect on the delayed-type hypersensitivity skin response or antibody response to vaccines, nor did it cause difference in clinically significant infections. In conclusion, long-term moderate CR without malnutrition induces a significant and persistent inhibition of inflammation without impairing key in vivo indicators of cell-mediated immunity. Given the established role of these pro-inflammatory molecules in the pathogenesis of multiple chronic diseases, these CR-induced adaptations suggest a shift toward a healthy phenotype
Calculation of quantum discord for qubit-qudit or N qubits
Quantum discord, a kind of quantum correlation, is defined as the difference
between quantum mutual information and classical correlation in a bipartite
system. It has been discussed so far for small systems with only a few
independent parameters. We extend here to a much broader class of states when
the second party is of arbitrary dimension d, so long as the first, measured,
party is a qubit. We present two formulae to calculate quantum discord, the
first relating to the original entropic definition and the second to a recently
proposed geometric distance measure which leads to an analytical formulation.
The tracing over the qubit in the entropic calculation is reduced to a very
simple prescription. And, when the d-dimensional system is a so-called X state,
the density matrix having non-zero elements only along the diagonal and
anti-diagonal so as to appear visually like the letter X, the entropic
calculation can be carried out analytically. Such states of the full bipartite
qubit-qudit system may be named "extended X states", whose density matrix is
built of four block matrices, each visually appearing as an X. The optimization
involved in the entropic calculation is generally over two parameters, reducing
to one for many cases, and avoided altogether for an overwhelmingly large set
of density matrices as our numerical investigations demonstrate. Our results
also apply to states of a N-qubit system, where "extended X states" consist of
(2^(N+2) - 1) states, larger in number than the (2^(N+1) - 1) of X states of N
qubits. While these are still smaller than the total number (2^(2N) - 1) of
states of N qubits, the number of parameters involved is nevertheless large. In
the case of N = 2, they encompass the entire 15-dimensional parameter space,
that is, the extended X states for N = 2 represent the full qubit-qubit system.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur
Combined Description of Scattering and Annihilation With A Hadronic Model
A model for the nucleon-antinucleon interaction is presented which is based
on meson-baryon dynamics. The elastic part is the -parity transform of the
Bonn potential. Annihilation into two mesons is described in terms of
microscopic baryon-exchange processes including all possible combinations of
. The remaining
annihilation part is taken into account by a phenomenological energy- and state
independent optical potential of Gaussian form. The model enables a
simultaneous description of nucleon-antinucleon scattering and annihilation
phenomena with fair quality.Comment: revised version, REVTEX, 9 pages, 10 figures available from this URL
ftp://ikp113.ikp.kfa-juelich.de/pub/kph140/nucl-th.9411014.u
Influence of the substrate-induced strain and irradiation disorder on the Peierls transition in TTF-TCNQ microdomains
The influence of the combined effects of substrate-induced strain, finite
size and electron irradiation-induced defects have been studied on individual
micron-sized domains of the organic charge transfer compound
tetrathiafulvalene-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TTF-TCNQ) by temperature-dependent
conductivity and current-voltage measurements. The individual domains have been
isolated by focused ion beam etching and electrically contacted by focused ion
and electron beam induced deposition of metallic contacts. The
temperature-dependent conductivity follows a variable range hopping behavior
which shows a crossover of the exponent as the Peierls transition is
approached. The low temperature behavior is analyzed within the segmented rod
model of Fogler, Teber and Shklowskii, as originally developed for a
charge-ordered quasi one-dimensional electron crystal. The results are compared
with data obtained on as-grown and electron irradiated epitaxial TTF-TCNQ thin
films of the two-domain type
Biomarker Discovery in Serum from Patients with Carotid Atherosclerosis
www.karger.com/cee This is an Open Access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License (www.karger.com/OA-license), applicable to the online version of the article only. Distribution for non-commercial purposes only
Highly Conducting pi-Conjugated Molecular Junctions Covalently Bonded to Gold Electrodes
We measure electronic conductance through single conjugated molecules bonded
to Au metal electrodes with direct Au-C covalent bonds using the scanning
tunneling microscope based break-junction technique. We start with molecules
terminated with trimethyltin end groups that cleave off in situ resulting in
formation of a direct covalent sigma bond between the carbon backbone and the
gold metal electrodes. The molecular carbon backbone used in this study consist
of a conjugated pi-system that has one terminal methylene group on each end,
which bonds to the electrodes, achieving large electronic coupling of the
electrodes to the pi-system. The junctions formed with the prototypical example
of 1,4-dimethylenebenzene show a conductance approaching one conductance
quantum (G0 = 2e2/h). Junctions formed with methylene terminated oligophenyls
with two to four phenyl units show a hundred-fold increase in conductance
compared with junctions formed with amine-linked oligophenyls. The conduction
mechanism for these longer oligophenyls is tunneling as they exhibit an
exponential dependence of conductance with oligomer length. In addition,
density functional theory based calculations for the Au-xylylene-Au junction
show near-resonant transmission with a cross-over to tunneling for the longer
oligomers.Comment: Accepted to the Journal of the American Chemical Society as a
Communication
Amine-Gold Linked Single-Molecule Junctions: Experiment and Theory
The measured conductance distribution for single molecule benzenediamine-gold
junctions, based on 59,000 individual conductance traces recorded while
breaking a gold point contact in solution, has a clear peak at 0.0064 G
with a width of 40%. Conductance calculations based on density functional
theory (DFT) for 15 distinct junction geometries show a similar spread.
Differences in local structure have a limited influence on conductance because
the amine-Au bonding motif is well-defined and flexible. The average calculated
conductance (0.046 G) is seven times larger than experiment, suggesting
the importance of many-electron corrections beyond DFT
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