Searches for sterile neutrinos with IceCube DeepCore

We show that study of the atmospheric neutrinos in the 10--100 GeV energy range by DeepCore sub-array of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory can substantially constrain the mixing of sterile neutrinos of mass $\sim 1$ eV with active neutrinos. In the scheme with one sterile neutrino we calculate $\nu_\mu-$ and $\bar{\nu}_\mu-$ oscillation probabilities as well as zenith angle distributions of $\nu_\mu^{CC}$ events in different energy intervals in DeepCore. The distributions depend on the mass hierarchy of active neutrinos. Therefore, in principle, the hierarchy can be identified, if $\nu_s$ exists. After a few years of exposure the DeepCore data will allow to exclude the mixing $|U_{\mu 4}|^2 \geq 0.02$ indicated by the LSND/MiniBooNE results. Combination of the DeepCore and high energy IceCube data will further improve sensitivity to $\nu_s$ mixing parameters.Comment: PDFLaTeX, 6 pages, 6 PDF figures, minor comments added, accepted in Phys. Rev.

An integrated framework to classify healthcare virtual communities

Healthcare (HC) strives to improve service quality through its cost-effective social computing strategy. However, sudden rise in the count of virtual community of practices (VCoPs) introduced many choices for physicians; As a result, it is not surprising to observe current literature reporting lack of study to investigate ideas integration within and between VCoPs. VCoPs need to be categorized for HC physicians so they will be able to pin-point effective a VC to attain assistance from. This paper is one of the first investigative studies, in HC sector, that proposed a framework to classify and pin-point appropriate VCoPs, for physicians, after it reviewed and analyzed traditional and up-to-date theoretical, empirical and case study literature in the area of social computing, knowledge management (KM) and VCoPs. The implementation of this framework pinpointed professional VCoPs as most appropriate for physicians based on strict requirements, i.e. closed physician communities holding many participants, which are older than 5 years with high boundary crossing. This framework is also a “one-size-fit-all” formula to build an organizational VCoP, utilizable by other business sectors

Does Women?s Status Matter for Food Security? Evidence from Bangladesh

Using data from a survey of Bangladeshi households, this paper investigates the link between female status and food security. Employing three different indicators of female status ? husband?s and wife?s assets brought at marriage, female share of household income and a composite index of women empowerment, the paper finds evidence of women?s status influencing food security. By raising the level of food security for some disadvantaged women?s groups female status is also found to be instrumental in mitigating the extent of gender-based within-household discrimination. The findings reveal that inferences drawn about food security by observing the changes in various non-food budget shares could be misleading or overemphasized.food security, women?s status, intra-household distribution, gender discrimination, Bangladesh

Domestic Violence Against Women: Its Determinants and Implications for Gender Resource Allocation

Using data from a survey of Bangladeshi households, this paper explores the determinants of domestic violence against women as well as its implications for the resources allocated to women. The findings reveal that higher education of women and that of their husbands, and better socioeconomic status of households are crucial in reducing the risk of violence, while, contrary to general perceptions, women?s involvement in income generating activities and participation in NGO programmes do not have any similar effects. When resources allocated to women with and without the experiences of domestic violence are compared, no statistically significant difference between the mean calories consumed by the two groups can be found. However, there is robust evidence of women subject to domestic violence receiving significantly lower calories from the preferred food items such as, fish, meat, eggs, drinks and dairy products. Furthermore, this group of women is allocated significantly lower amounts of household food and non-food expenses compared to their counterparts who do not report domestic violence against them.domestic violence, intra-household distribution, Bangladesh

Ismail Sirageldin (ed.). Research in Human Capital land Development. Vol. 1. Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press Inc. 1979. pp. xiii + 258.

Research in Human Capital land Development (RHCD) is a "Research Annual" which aims at investigating "the relationship between the development and utilization of human capital and the process of economic and social change" (p. vii). This series will consist of interdisciplinary studies which are typically longer than a journal article and shorter than a monograph and will be specifically addressed to "fertility, health, education and manpower, migration and the triangle of equity, distribution and efficiency" (p. vii). Edited by Professor Ismail Sirageldin, this first volume of RHCD has touched on most of these areas. Part I of this volume has three articles under the heading "Health and Fertility". Part II contains five articles under the title "Education and Manpower" and Part III has only one article on "Distribution and Equity

Improvement of Pineapple Production on Tropical Peat Through Fertilizer Use

Information on the agronomic characteristics and nutritional requirements of pineapple (cv. Gandul) is lacking in peat soil. Therefore, studies in the field at two sites (site 1 and site 2), glasshouse and laboratory were carried out to investigate the effects of N, P, K, Ca, Mg and Cu on growth, yield and quality of pineapple and to assess the loss of the applied nutrients through leaching. Six levels of each of N, P, K, Ca, Mg and Cu were studied separately at each site of the field in a RCB design with three replications. In the glasshouse, three levels of each of the above nutrients were studied with soils from both sites. Leaching studies using soil columns were conducted in the laboratory with two levels of each nutrient for a period of 3 0 days. Plant height and leaf number increased with age up to forcing time at both sites. D-leaf length and area were influenced with N application, while the leaf dry weight was influenced with Mg at site 2 . The leaf nutrient concentrations were influenced by N, P, Ca and Mg at site 1 and by N, P and K applications at site 2. Leaf nutrient concentrations increased up to six months of plant age and declined at forcing at both sites. The mean fruit weight of pineapple responded quadratically with N application at both sites and with Ca at site 1 and declined linearly with the increment of P at site 2. There was no significant effect of nutrients on fruit quality except for P on sugar content at site 1 . Fruit yield was positively correlated with leaf N concentrations at both sites and negatively correlated with Cu at site 1

TeV neutrinos from core collapse supernovae and hypernovae

A fraction of core collapse supernovae of type Ib/c are associated with Gamma-ray bursts, which are thought to produce highly relativistic jets. Recently, it has been hypothesized that a larger fraction of core collapse supernovae produce slower jets, which may contribute to the disruption and ejection of the supernova envelope, and explain the unusually energetic hypernovae. We explore the TeV neutrino signatures expected from such slower jets, and calculate the expected detection rates with upcoming Gigaton Cherenkov experiments. We conclude that individual jetted SNe may be detectable from nearby galaxies.Comment: 4 pages 2 figures. Modified from the published version. Errors in Eqs. 2, 3, 5 are corrected and predicted neutrino event rates are modified accordingly. The conclusions for the diffuse flux remain unchanged, and those for individual nearby sources are strengthene

Investigating IoT Middleware Platforms for Smart Application Development

With the growing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the data generated through these devices is also increasing. By 2030, it is been predicted that the number of IoT devices will exceed the number of human beings on earth. This gives rise to the requirement of middleware platform that can manage IoT devices, intelligently store and process gigantic data generated for building smart applications such as Smart Cities, Smart Healthcare, Smart Industry, and others. At present, market is overwhelming with the number of IoT middleware platforms with specific features. This raises one of the most serious and least discussed challenge for application developer to choose suitable platform for their application development. Across the literature, very little attempt is done in classifying or comparing IoT middleware platforms for the applications. This paper categorizes IoT platforms into four categories namely-publicly traded, open source, developer friendly and end-to-end connectivity. Some of the popular middleware platforms in each category are investigated based on general IoT architecture. Comparison of IoT middleware platforms in each category, based on basic, sensing, communication and application development features is presented. This study can be useful for IoT application developers to select the most appropriate platform according to their application requirement