475 research outputs found
Hydro-political assessment of water governance from the top-down and review of literature on local level institutions and practices in the Volta Basin
Water resource management / Governance / River basin development / Water law / Colonialism / Institutions / Social participation / Women / Water use
Terahertz Time-Domain Magnetospectroscopy of a High-Mobility Two-Dimensional Electron Gas
We have observed cyclotron resonance in a high-mobility GaAs/AlGaAs
two-dimensional electron gas by using the techniques of terahertz time-domain
spectroscopy combined with magnetic fields. From this, we calculate the real
and imaginary parts of the diagonal elements of the magnetoconductivity tensor,
which in turn allows us to extract the concentration, effective mass, and
scattering time of the electrons in the sample. We demonstrate the utility of
ultrafast terahertz spectroscopy, which can recover the true linewidth of
cyclotron resonance in a high-mobility () sample without being affected by the saturation effect.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Fault Tolerance Middleware for a Multi-Core System
Fault Tolerance Middleware (FTM) provides a framework to run on a dedicated core of a multi-core system and handles detection of single-event upsets (SEUs), and the responses to those SEUs, occurring in an application running on multiple cores of the processor. This software was written expressly for a multi-core system and can support different kinds of fault strategies, such as introspection, algorithm-based fault tolerance (ABFT), and triple modular redundancy (TMR). It focuses on providing fault tolerance for the application code, and represents the first step in a plan to eventually include fault tolerance in message passing and the FTM itself. In the multi-core system, the FTM resides on a single, dedicated core, separate from the cores used by the application. This is done in order to isolate the FTM from application faults and to allow it to swap out any application core for a substitute. The structure of the FTM consists of an interface to a fault tolerant strategy module, a responder module, a fault manager module, an error factory, and an error mapper that determines the severity of the error. In the present reference implementation, the only fault tolerant strategy implemented is introspection. The introspection code waits for an application node to send an error notification to it. It then uses the error factory to create an error object, and at this time, a severity level is assigned to the error. The introspection code uses its built-in knowledge base to generate a recommended response to the error. Responses might include ignoring the error, logging it, rolling back the application to a previously saved checkpoint, swapping in a new node to replace a bad one, or restarting the application. The original error and recommended response are passed to the top-level fault manager module, which invokes the response. The responder module also notifies the introspection module of the generated response. This provides additional information to the introspection module that it can use in generating its next response. For example, if the responder triggers an application rollback and errors are still occurring, the introspection module may decide to recommend an application restart
Phase space geometry and slow dynamics
We describe a non-Arrhenius mechanism for slowing down of dynamics that is
inherent to the high dimensionality of the phase space. We show that such a
mechanism is at work both in a family of mean-field spin-glass models without
any domain structure and in the case of ferromagnetic domain growth. The
marginality of spin-glass dynamics, as well as the existence of a `quasi
equilibrium regime' can be understood within this scenario. We discuss the
question of ergodicity in an out-of equilibrium situation.Comment: 23 pages, ReVTeX3.0, 6 uuencoded postscript figures appende
Generalized stochastic Schroedinger equations for state vector collapse
A number of authors have proposed stochastic versions of the Schr\"odinger
equation, either as effective evolution equations for open quantum systems or
as alternative theories with an intrinsic collapse mechanism. We discuss here
two directions for generalization of these equations. First, we study a general
class of norm preserving stochastic evolution equations, and show that even
after making several specializations, there is an infinity of possible
stochastic Schr\"odinger equations for which state vector collapse is provable.
Second, we explore the problem of formulating a relativistic stochastic
Schr\"odinger equation, using a manifestly covariant equation for a quantum
field system based on the interaction picture of Tomonaga and Schwinger. The
stochastic noise term in this equation can couple to any local scalar density
that commutes with the interaction energy density, and leads to collapse onto
spatially localized eigenstates. However, as found in a similar model by
Pearle, the equation predicts an infinite rate of energy nonconservation
proportional to , arising from the local double commutator in
the drift term.Comment: 24 pages Plain TeX. Minor changes, some new references. To appear in
Journal of Physics
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa covering about
274,000 square kilometers. It is bordered by the Republic of Mali on the
north and west; by Cote d’Ivoire on the Southwest; by Ghana, Togo, and
Benin on the South; and by Niger on the east. The country has a dry tropical
climate with two contrasting seasons. The rainy season generally lasts from
May to October, but its duration decreases progressively from the southwest,
amounting to only three months in the northern part of the country.
Agriculture accounts for 40 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP)
and 60 percent of the total exports of Burkina Faso. Its cropped area is 3.5–
4.0 million hectares, representing about 13 percent of the country’s total area
and one-third of the arable land. Rainfed agriculture dominates, with largely
rudimentary agricultural techniques prevailing among small-scale farmers.
Crop production is more diversified in the Sudanian zone (in the southwest),
with a variety of roots and tubers (yams, sweet potatoes, and cocoyams), fruits
(mangoes, bananas, and citrus fruits), cashews, and sugarcane. The major cash
crops are cotton, groundnuts, cowpeas, and sesame..
Environmental contaminants as etiologic factors for diabetes.
For both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus, the rates have been increasing in the United States and elsewhere; rates vary widely by country, and genetic factors account for less than half of new cases. These observations suggest environmental factors cause both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Occupational exposures have been associated with increased risk of diabetes. In addition, recent data suggest that toxic substances in the environment, other than infectious agents or exposures that stimulate an immune response, are associated with the occurrence of these diseases. We reviewed the epidemiologic data that addressed whether environmental contaminants might cause type 1 or type 2 diabetes. For type 1 diabetes, higher intake of nitrates, nitrites, and N-nitroso compounds, as well as higher serum levels of polychlorinated biphenyls have been associated with increased risk. Overall, however, the data were limited or inconsistent. With respect to type 2 diabetes, data on arsenic and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin relative to risk were suggestive of a direct association but were inconclusive. The occupational data suggested that more data on exposure to N-nitroso compounds, arsenic, dioxins, talc, and straight oil machining fluids in relation to diabetes would be useful. Although environmental factors other than contaminants may account for the majority of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, the etiologic role of several contaminants and occupational exposures deserves further study
DBI Inflation in the Tip Region of a Warped Throat
Previous work on DBI inflation, which achieves inflation through the motion
of a brane as it moves through a warped throat compactification, has
focused on the region far from the tip of the throat. Since reheating and other
observable effects typically occur near the tip, a more detailed study of this
region is required. To investigate these effects we consider a generalized warp
throat where the warp factor becomes nearly constant near the tip. We find that
it is possible to obtain 60 or more e-folds in the constant region, however
large non-gaussianities are typically produced due to the small sound speed of
fluctuations. For a particular well-studied throat, the Klebanov-Strassler
solution, we find that inflation near the tip may be generic and it is
difficult to satisfy current bounds on non-gaussianity, but other throat
solutions may evade these difficulties.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figure. v1. references added, typos corrected v2.
clarifications mad
Clinical Epidemiology of Malaria in the Highlands of Western Kenya
Malaria in the highlands of Kenya is traditionally regarded as unstable and limited by low temperature. Brief warm periods may facilitate malaria transmission and are therefore able to generate epidemic conditions in immunologically naive human populations living at high altitudes. The adult:child ratio (ACR) of malaria admissions is a simple tool we have used to assess the degree of functional immunity in the catchment population of a health facility. Examples of ACR are collected from inpatient admission data at facilities with a range of malaria endemicities in Kenya. Two decades of inpatient malaria admission data from three health facilities in a high-altitude area of western Kenya do not support the canonical view of unstable transmission. The malaria of the region is best described as seasonal and meso-endemic. We discuss the implications for malaria control options in the Kenyan highlands
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