52,972 research outputs found
Assessing the Efficiency of Mother-to-Child HIV Prevention in Low- and Middle-Income Countries using Data Envelopment Analysis
AIDS is one of the most significant health care problems worldwide. Due to the difficulty and costs involved in treating HIV, preventing infection is of paramount importance in controlling the AIDS epidemic. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to establish international comparisons on the efficiency implementation of HIV prevention programmes. To this effect we use data from 52 low- and middle-income countries regarding the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Our results indicate that there is a remarkable variation in efficiency of prevention services across nations, suggesting that a better use of resources could lead to more and improved services, and ultimately, prevent the infection of thousands of children. These results also demonstrate the potential strategic role of DEA for the efficient and effective planning of scarce resources to fight the epidemic.HIV Prevention; DEA; Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission.
K X-Ray Energies and Transition Probabilities for He-, Li- and Be-like Praseodymium ions
Theoretical transition energies and probabilities for He-, Li- and Be-like
Praseodymium ions are calculated in the framework of the multi-configuration
Dirac-Fock method (MCDF), including QED corrections. These calculated values
are compared to recent experimental data obtained in the Livermore SuperEBIT
electron beam ion trap facility
Manipulation of the dynamics of many-body systems via quantum control methods
We investigate how dynamical decoupling methods may be used to manipulate the
time evolution of quantum many-body systems. These methods consist of sequences
of external control operations designed to induce a desired dynamics. The
systems considered for the analysis are one-dimensional spin-1/2 models, which,
according to the parameters of the Hamiltonian, may be in the integrable or
non-integrable limits, and in the gapped or gapless phases. We show that an
appropriate control sequence may lead a chaotic chain to evolve as an
integrable chain and a system in the gapless phase to behave as a system in the
gapped phase. A key ingredient for the control schemes developed here is the
possibility to use, in the same sequence, different time intervals between
control operations.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
On Lorentz violation in scattering at finite temperature
Small violation of Lorentz and CPT symmetries may emerge in models unifying
gravity with other forces of nature. An extension of the standard model with
all possible terms that violate Lorentz and CPT symmetries are included. Here a
CPT-even non-minimal coupling term is added to the covariant derivative. This
leads to a new interaction term that breaks the Lorentz symmetry. Our main
objective is to calculate the cross section for the
scattering in order to
investigate any violation of Lorentz and/or CPT symmetry at finite temperature.
Thermo Field Dynamics formalism is used to consider finite temperature effects.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in PL
A Cartan-Eilenberg approach to Homotopical Algebra
In this paper we propose an approach to homotopical algebra where the basic
ingredient is a category with two classes of distinguished morphisms: strong
and weak equivalences. These data determine the cofibrant objects by an
extension property analogous to the classical lifting property of projective
modules. We define a Cartan-Eilenberg category as a category with strong and
weak equivalences such that there is an equivalence between its localization
with respect to weak equivalences and the localised category of cofibrant
objets with respect to strong equivalences. This equivalence allows us to
extend the classical theory of derived additive functors to this non additive
setting. The main examples include Quillen model categories and functor
categories with a triple, in the last case we find examples in which the class
of strong equivalences is not determined by a homotopy relation. Among other
applications, we prove the existence of filtered minimal models for \emph{cdg}
algebras over a zero-characteristic field and we formulate an acyclic models
theorem for non additive functors
New expression for the K-shell ionization
A new expression for the total K-shell ionization cross section by electron
impact based on the relativistic extension of the binary encounter Bethe (RBEB)
model, valid from ionization threshold up to relativistic energies, is
proposed. The new MRBEB expression is used to calculate the K-shell ionization
cross sections by electron impact for the selenium atom. Comparison with all,
to our knowledge, available experimental data shows good agreement
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