Can government-allocated land contribute to food security? Intrahousehold analysis of West Bengal’s Microplot allocation program

Secure land rights are a critical, but often overlooked, factor in achieving household food security and improved nutritional status in rural areas of developing countries. This study evaluates the impact of India’s land-allocation and registration program in West Bengal, a program that targets poor populations and promotes the inclusion of women’s names on land titles. We use mixed methods data collected between 2010 and 2012 to examine the program’s selection of beneficiaries and a set of outcomes that are expected to lay the foundation for future food security, as well as short-term food security indicators. Our results indicate that the program’s implementation at the block level allowed for considerable variation in the processes used to select beneficiaries, to demarcate plots, to distribute titles and to provide infrastructure support. Although we were unable to detect statistically significant program effects on current house hold food security, we find that the land-allocation and registration program has had an impact on a range of outcomes that are expected to lead to future food security: beneficiary households report stronger security, and they are more likely to take loans for agricultural purposes, to invest in agricultural improvements, and to involve women when making decisions related to food and agriculture. These effects vary with plot size—larger plots lead to larger benefits —and depend on whose names are included on the land documents; the effects are larger if women’s names are recorded on the land titles

Optical properties and electronic structure of β′−NiAl

The optical constants and their temperature derivatives have been determined for β′−NiAl from absorption and thermoreflectance measurements in the energy range of 0.2-4.4 eV. The results are interpreted using the self-consistent energy bands of Moruzzi, Williams, and Gelatt. By comparing a calculated joint density of states with ε2, the imaginary part of the dielectric function, good overall agreement is found between theory and experiment. In contrast to earlier analyses, it is found that the 2.5-eV peak in ε2 is primarily due to direct interband transitions terminating near the Fermi surface. This new interpretation of the 2.5-eV feature is discussed in relation to previously reported concentration effects and the rigid-band model

Renormalization-Scale-Invariant PQCD Predictions for R_e+e- and the Bjorken Sum Rule at Next-to-Leading Order

We discuss application of the physical QCD effective charge $\alpha_V$, defined via the heavy-quark potential, in perturbative calculations at next-to-leading order. When coupled with the Brodsky-Lepage-Mackenzie prescription for fixing the renormalization scales, the resulting series are automatically and naturally scale and scheme independent, and represent unambiguous predictions of perturbative QCD. We consider in detail such commensurate scale relations for the $e^+e^-$ annihilation ratio $R_{e^+e^-}$ and the Bjorken sum rule. In both cases the improved predictions are in excellent agreement with experiment.Comment: 13 Latex pages with 5 figures; to be published in Physical Review

Relating Physical Observables in QCD without Scale-Scheme Ambiguity

We discuss the St\"uckelberg-Peterman extended renormalization group equations in perturbative QCD, which express the invariance of physical observables under renormalization-scale and scheme-parameter transformations. We introduce a universal coupling function that covers all possible choices of scale and scheme. Any perturbative series in QCD is shown to be equivalent to a particular point in this function. This function can be computed from a set of first-order differential equations involving the extended beta functions. We propose the use of these evolution equations instead of perturbative series for numerical evaluation of physical observables. This formalism is free of scale-scheme ambiguity and allows a reliable error analysis of higher-order corrections. It also provides a precise definition for $\Lambda_{\overline{\rm MS}}$ as the pole in the associated 't Hooft scheme. A concrete application to $R(e^+e^- \to {\rm hadrons})$ is presented.Comment: Plain TEX, 4 figures (available upon request), 22 pages, DOE/ER/40322-17

Renormalization-Group Improvement of Effective Actions Beyond Summation of Leading Logarithms

Invariance of the effective action under changes of the renormalization scale $\mu$ leads to relations between those (presumably calculated) terms independent of $\mu$ at a given order of perturbation theory and those higher order terms dependent on logarithms of $\mu$. This relationship leads to differential equations for a sequence of functions, the solutions of which give closed form expressions for the sum of all leading logs, next to leading logs and subsequent subleading logarithmic contributions to the effective action. The renormalization group is thus shown to provide information about a model beyond the scale dependence of the model's couplings and masses. This procedure is illustrated using the $\phi_6^3$ model and Yang-Mills theory. In the latter instance, it is also shown by using a modified summation procedure that the $\mu$ dependence of the effective action resides solely in a multiplicative factor of $g^2 (\mu)$ (the running coupling). This approach is also shown to lead to a novel expansion for the running coupling in terms of the one-loop coupling that does not require an order-by-order redefinition of the scale factor $\Lambda_{QCD}$. Finally, logarithmic contributions of the instanton size to the effective action of an SU(2) gauge theory are summed, allowing a determination of the asymptotic dependence on the instanton size $\rho$ as $\rho$ goes to infinity to all orders in the SU(2) coupling constant.Comment: latex2e, 30 pages, 2 eps figures embedded in mansucript. v2 corrects several minor errors in equation

Bisphenol A Is Released from Used Polycarbonate Animal Cages into Water at Room Temperature

doi:10.1289/ehp.5993Bisphenol A (BPA) is a monomer with estrogenic activity that is used in the production of food packaging, dental sealants, polycarbonate plastic, and many other products. The monomer has previously been reported to hydrolyze and leach from these products under high heat and alkaline conditions, and the amount of leaching increases as a function of use. We examined whether new and used polycarbonate animal cages passively release bioactive levels of BPA into water at room temperature and neutral pH. Purified water was incubated at room temperature in new polycarbonate and polysulfone cages and used (discolored) polycarbonate cages, as well as control (glass and used polypropylene) containers. The resulting water samples were characterized with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and tested for estrogenic activity using an MCF-7 human breast cancer cell proliferation assay. Significant estrogenic activity, identifiable as BPA by GC/MS (up to 310 µg/L), was released from used polycarbonate animal cages. Detectable levels of BPA were released from new polycarbonate cages (up to 0.3 µg/L) as well as new polysulfone cages (1.5 µg/L), whereas no BPA was detected in water incubated in glass and used polypropylene cages. Finally, BPA exposure as a result of being housed in used polycarbonate cages produced a 16% increase in uterine weight in prepubertal female mice relative to females housed in used polypropylene cages, although the difference was not statistically significant. Our findings suggest that laboratory animals maintained in polycarbonate and polysulfone cages are exposed to BPA via leaching, with exposure reaching the highest levels in old cages.Support during the preparation of this manuscript was provided by grants from the National Institutes of Health (CA50354) and the University of Missouri (VMFC0018) to W.V.W., NIH (ES08293 and ES11283) to F.v.S., and the U.S.G.S

Theory for Metal Hydrides with Switchable Optical Properties

Recently it has been discovered that lanthanum, yttrium, and other metal hydride films show dramatic changes in the optical properties at the metal-insulator transition. Such changes on a high energy scale suggest the electronic structure is best described by a local model based on negatively charged hydrogen (H$^-$) ions. We develop a many-body theory for the strong correlation in a H$^-$ ion lattice. The metal hydride is described by a large $U$-limit of an Anderson lattice model. We use lanthanum hydride as a prototype of these compounds, and find LaH$_3$ is an insulator with a substantial gap consistent with experiments. It may be viewed either as a Kondo insulator or a band insulator due to strong electron correlation. A H vacancy state in LaH$_3$ is found to be highly localized due to the strong bonding between the electron orbitals of hydrogen and metal atoms. Unlike the impurity states in the usual semiconductors, there is only weak internal optical transitions within the vacancy. The metal-insulator transition takes place in a band of these vacancy states.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figures and 6 tables. Submitted to PR

Exact solutions of closed string theory

We review explicitly known exact $D=4$ solutions with Minkowski signature in closed bosonic string theory. Classical string solutions with space-time interpretation are represented by conformal sigma models. Two large (intersecting) classes of solutions are described by gauged WZW models and `chiral null models' (models with conserved chiral null current). The latter class includes plane-wave type backgrounds (admitting a covariantly constant null Killing vector) and backgrounds with two null Killing vectors (e.g., fundamental string solution). $D>4$ chiral null models describe some exact $D=4$ solutions with electromagnetic fields, for example, extreme electric black holes, charged fundamental strings and their generalisations. In addition, there exists a class of conformal models representing axially symmetric stationary magnetic flux tube backgrounds (including, in particular, the dilatonic Melvin solution). In contrast to spherically symmetric chiral null models for which the corresponding conformal field theory is not known explicitly, the magnetic flux tube models (together with some non-semisimple WZW models) are among the first examples of solvable unitary conformal string models with non-trivial $D=4$ curved space-time interpretation. For these models one is able to express the quantum hamiltonian in terms of free fields and to find explicitly the physical spectrum and string partition function.Comment: 50 pages, harvma

Biological measurement beyond the quantum limit

Quantum noise places a fundamental limit on the per photon sensitivity attainable in optical measurements. This limit is of particular importance in biological measurements, where the optical power must be constrained to avoid damage to the specimen. By using non-classically correlated light, we demonstrated that the quantum limit can be surpassed in biological measurements. Quantum enhanced microrheology was performed within yeast cells by tracking naturally occurring lipid granules with sensitivity 2.4 dB beyond the quantum noise limit. The viscoelastic properties of the cytoplasm could thereby be determined with a 64% improved measurement rate. This demonstration paves the way to apply quantum resources broadly in a biological context

Solution of the Kwiecinski evolution equations for unintegrated parton distributions using the Mellin transform

The Kwiecinski equations for the QCD evolution of the unintegrated parton distributions in the transverse-coordinate space (b) are analyzed with the help of the Mellin-transform method. The equations are solved numerically in the general case, as well as in a small-b expansion which converges fast for b Lambda_QCD sufficiently small. We also discuss the asymptotic limit of large bQ and show that the distributions generated by the evolution decrease with b according to a power law. Numerical results are presented for the pion distributions with a simple valence-like initial condition at the low scale, following from chiral large-N_c quark models. We use two models: the Spectral Quark Model and the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. Formal aspects of the equations, such as the analytic form of the b-dependent anomalous dimensions, their analytic structure, as well as the limits of unintegrated parton densities at x -> 0, x -> 1, and at large b, are discussed in detail. The effect of spreading of the transverse momentum with the increasing scale is confirmed, with growing asymptotically as Q^2 alpha(Q^2). Approximate formulas for for each parton species is given, which may be used in practical applications.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, RevTe