12,963 research outputs found
Can FAO's measure of chronic undernourishment be strengthened?
In its Sixth World Food Survey released at the 1996 World Food Summit, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported that 841 million people in developing countries are chronically undernourished. This number and its country- and regional-level disaggregations have proved tremendously useful to countless aid agencies and researchers. In the context of a recent wave of new nationally-representative household food consumption and expenditure data, this paper examines the estimation methodology underlying this food insecurity indicator, which relies on national aggregate measures of food availability and distribution. The paper finds that the measure is methodologically biased toward national food availability and does not fully account for the effects of poverty—the most widespread cause of food insecurity in developing countries. The implications of this bias for use of the indicator in cross-country comparisons of food insecurity and for tracking changes in it over time are drawn out. The paper concludes by arguing that the time has come to review the potential for employing the new household survey data for strengthening the empirical foundations of the FAO's measure of chronic undernourishment.Food security Measurement Methodology. ,Food consumption Statistics. ,
Validation of CTmax Protocols Using Cased and Uncased \u3ci\u3ePycnopsyche Guttifer\u3c/i\u3e (Trichoptera: Limnephilidae) Larvae
The critical thermal maximum (CTmax) of a northern Lower Michigan population of Pycnopsyche guttifer was determined using four rates of temperature increase (0.10, 0.33, 0.50, and 0.70oC per minute), and two case states (intact and removed). Across all temperature increase rates, larvae removed from their cases had a significantly lower mean CTmax than those remaining in their cases, suggesting that the case can increase the larva’s ability to tolerate thermal stress, possibly due to respiratory advantages. Regardless of case state, mean CTmax was significantly lower at the 0.10oC per minute increase rate than the other three rates, likely due to increased exposure time. Our results indicate that CTmax studies done using 0.33–0.70oC per minute increase protocols would be comparable with each other, but not with studies using an increase rate of 0.10oC per minute
Magnetic properties of the Anderson model: a local moment approach
We develop a local moment approach to static properties of the symmetric
Anderson model in the presence of a magnetic field, focussing in particular on
the strong coupling Kondo regime. The approach is innately simple and
physically transparent; but is found to give good agreement, for essentially
all field strengths, with exact results for the Wilson ratio, impurity
magnetization, spin susceptibility and related properties.Comment: 7 pages, 3 postscript figues. Latex 2e using the epl.cls Europhysics
Letters macro packag
Pre-design study for a modern four-bladed rotor for the Rotor System Research Aircraft (RSRA)
Various candidate rotor systems were compared in an effort to select a modern four-bladed rotor for the RSRA. The YAH-64 rotor system was chosen as the candidate rotor system for further development for the RSRA. The process used to select the rotor system, studies conducted to mate the rotor with the RSRA and provide parametric variability, and the development plan which would be used to implement these studies are presented. Drawings are included
Spectral scaling and quantum critical behaviour in the pseudogap Anderson model
The pseudogap Anderson impurity model provides a classic example of an
essentially local quantum phase transition. Here we study its single-particle
dynamics in the vicinity of the symmetric quantum critical point (QCP)
separating generalized Fermi liquid and local moment phases, via the local
moment approach. Both phases are shown to be characterized by a low-energy
scale that vanishes at the QCP; and the universal scaling spectra, on all
energy scales, are obtained analytically. The spectrum precisely at the QCP is
also obtained; its form showing clearly the non-Fermi liquid, interacting
nature of the fixed point.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
Single-particle dynamics of the Anderson model: a two-self-energy description within the numerical renormalization group approach
Single-particle dynamics of the Anderson impurity model are studied using
both the numerical renormalization group (NRG) method and the local moment
approach (LMA). It is shown that a 'two-self-energy' description of dynamics
inherent to the LMA, as well as a conventional 'single-self-energy'
description, arise within NRG; each yielding correctly the same local
single-particle spectrum. Explicit NRG results are obtained for the broken
symmetry spectral constituents arising in a two-self-energy description, and
the total spectrum. These are also compared to analytical results obtained from
the LMA as implemented in practice. Very good agreement between the two is
found, essentially on all relevant energy scales from the high-energy Hubbard
satellites to the low-energy Kondo resonance.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
A spin-dependent local moment approach to the Anderson impurity model
We present an extension of the local moment approach to the Anderson impurity
model with spin-dependent hybridization. By employing the two-self-energy
description, as originally proposed by Logan and co-workers, we applied the
symmetry restoration condition for the case with spin-dependent hybridization.
Self-consistent ground states were determined through variational minimization
of the ground state energy. The results obtained with our spin-dependent local
moment approach applied to a quantum dot system coupled to ferromagnetic leads
are in good agreement with those obtained from previous work using numerical
renormalization group calculations
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