Why are so many Nepali women killing themselves? A review of key issues

Background: For decades the maternal mortality in Nepal was the lead cause of death among women, with great improvements in the maternal mortality ratio in the twentieth century the second most common cause has become more prominent. Suicide is now one of the leading causes of death for women of a reproductive age in Nepal. This scoping review brings together the key available literature to identify the causes of suicide among women in Nepal. Methods: Published and unpublished studies and the grey literature published on women and suicide related to Nepal between 2000 and 2014 were searched and included in this review. Results: This review suggested a number of explanations for the high rate of suicide among women including: partner violence, alcoholism and polygamy, the culture of silence, early age marriage and prolonged child bearing and dependency on men for financial security. Conclusion: This paper highlights some challenges and suggests ways forward in the improvement of mental health in Nepal

The cryptographic power of misaligned reference frames

Suppose that Alice and Bob define their coordinate axes differently, and the change of reference frame between them is given by a probability distribution mu over SO(3). We show that this uncertainty of reference frame is of no use for bit commitment when mu is uniformly distributed over a (sub)group of SO(3), but other choices of mu can give rise to a partially or even asymptotically secure bit commitment.Comment: 4 pages Latex; v2 has a new referenc

FUSE Spectra of the Black Hole Binary LMC X-3

Far-ultraviolet spectra of LMC X-3 were taken covering photometric phases 0.47 to 0.74 in the 1.7-day orbital period of the black-hole binary (phase zero being superior conjunction of the X-ray source). The continuum is faint and flat, but appears to vary significantly during the observations. Concurrent RXTE/ASM observations show the system was in its most luminous X-ray state during the FUSE observations. The FUV spectrum contains strong terrestrial airglow emission lines, while the only stellar lines clearly present are emissions from the O VI resonance doublet. Their flux does not change significantly during the FUSE observations. These lines are modelled as two asymmetrical profiles, including the local ISM absorptions due to C II and possibly O VI. Velocity variations of O VI emission are consistent with the orbital velocity of the black hole and provide a new constraint on its mass.Comment: 12 pages including 1 table, 4 diagrams To appear in A

Investigating the Effect of a Visual Search Task for Simulator-Based Driver Training

Novice drivers tend to direct their gaze to the road ahead and not scan the environment properly. This study investigated the training effectiveness of a visual search task in a driving simulator, aimed at increasing young drivers\u27 spread of visual search. Two groups of inexperienced drivers were instructed to drive as accurately as possible in the center of the right lane in a self-paced driving task of four 6-min sessions in a rural environment. While driving, one group performed a visual search task, consisting of detecting and fixating on visual stimuli in the peripheral area. The stimuli were purple dots that faded in slowly and disappeared when fixated by the participant. After training, both groups drove a transfer session in an urban environment, in which various hazardous situations occurred. Results showed that both groups improved their lane keeping performance, whereas the training group became more proficient in the visual search task. However, in the transfer session no group differences were detected. In conclusion, despite improvements in visual search performance during a relatively short training period, the visual search training did not detectibly influence the spread of visual search of novice drivers during a post training transfer session

A generalized quantum microcanonical ensemble

We discuss a generalized quantum microcanonical ensemble. It describes isolated systems that are not necessarily in an eigenstate of the Hamilton operator. Statistical averages are obtained by a combination of a time average and a maximum entropy argument to resolve the lack of knowledge about initial conditions. As a result, statistical averages of linear observables coincide with values obtained in the canonical ensemble. Non-canonical averages can be obtained by taking into account conserved quantities which are non-linear functions of the microstate.Comment: improved version, new titl

3-D multiobservable probabilistic inversion for the compositional and thermal structure of the lithosphere and upper mantle: III. Thermochemical tomography in the Western-Central U.S.

Acknowledgments We are indebted to F. Darbyshire and J. von Hunen for useful comments on earlier versions of this work. This manuscript benefited from thorough and constructive reviews by W. Levandowski and an anonymous reviewer. We also thank J. Connolly, M. Sambridge, B. Kennett, S. Lebedev, B. Shan, U. Faul, and M. Qashqai for insightful discussions about, and contributions to, some of the concepts presented in this paper. The work of J.C.A. has been supported by two Australian Research Council Discovery grants (DP120102372 and DP110104145). Seismic data are from the IRIS DMS. D.L.S. acknowledges support from NSF grant EAR-135866. This is contribution 848 from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems (http://www.ccfs.mq.edu.au) and 1106 in the GEMOC Key Centre (http://www.gemoc.mq.edu.au).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Heat kernel estimates and spectral properties of a pseudorelativistic operator with magnetic field

Based on the Mehler heat kernel of the Schroedinger operator for a free electron in a constant magnetic field an estimate for the kernel of E_A is derived, where E_A represents the kinetic energy of a Dirac electron within the pseudorelativistic no-pair Brown-Ravenhall model. This estimate is used to provide the bottom of the essential spectrum for the two-particle Brown-Ravenhall operator, describing the motion of the electrons in a central Coulomb field and a constant magnetic field, if the central charge is restricted to Z below or equal 86

Optical Scattering Lengths in Large Liquid-Scintillator Neutrino Detectors

For liquid-scintillator neutrino detectors of kiloton scale, the transparency of the organic solvent is of central importance. The present paper reports on laboratory measurements of the optical scattering lengths of the organic solvents PXE, LAB, and Dodecane which are under discussion for next-generation experiments like SNO+, Hanohano, or LENA. Results comprise the wavelength range from 415 to 440nm. The contributions from Rayleigh and Mie scattering as well as from absorption/re-emission processes are discussed. Based on the present results, LAB seems to be the preferred solvent for a large-volume detector.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication by Rev. Scient. Instr