Livelihood Risk from HIV in Semi-Arid Tropics of Rural Andhra Pradesh

This paper discusses the livelihood dynamics in the fragile landscape of the semi-arid tropics (SAT) of Andhra Pradesh. SAT is home to the poorest of the poor who live in conditions of persistent drought, subsistence agriculture and poor access to markets. This paper is a case study focusing particularly on labour migration, its role in influencing the health risk behaviour of migrants and in the spread of the HIV epidemic among SAT rural households. The most vulnerable population in these drought prone regions are the migrant labourers, and their vulnerability is influenced by three major factors—the vulnerability and unstable productivity in the degraded and marginal landscape, the caste system that has traditionally kept them backward and vulnerable, and experiences in the external environment to which they migrate. This study is based on a theoretical framework, whereby livelihood risks lead to health risks, particularly HIV infection—outlines the process that causes a further deterioration of the household and the occurrence of cyclical health risk. The paper calls for a multisectoral approach to tackle the issue of migrant vulnerability, and for interventions with a more migrant-need sensitive approach.

Livelihood Risk from HIV in Semi-Arid Tropics of Rural Andhra Pradesh

This paper discusses the livelihood dynamics in the fragile landscape of the semi arid tropics (SAT) of Andhra Pradesh. SAT is home to the poorest of the poor who live in conditions of persistent drought, subsistence agriculture and poor access to markets. This paper is a case study focusing particularly on labour migration, its role in influencing the health risk behaviour of migrants and in the spread of the HIV epidemic among SAT rural households. The most vulnerable population in these drought prone regions are the migrant labourers, and their vulnerability is influenced by three major factors?the vulnerability and unstable productivity in the degraded and marginal landscape, the caste system that has traditionally kept them backward and vulnerable, and experiences in the external environment to which they migrate. This study?based on a theoretical framework, whereby livelihood risks lead to health risks, particularly HIV infection?outlines the process that causes a further deterioration of the household and the occurrence of cyclical health risk. The paper calls for a multisectoral approach to tackle the issue of migrant vulnerability, and for interventions with a more migrant-need sensitive approach.labour migration, HIV risk behaviour, agriculture, health, semi-arid tropics

High count rate {\gamma}-ray spectroscopy with LaBr3:Ce scintillation detectors

The applicability of LaBr3:Ce detectors for high count rate {\gamma}-ray spectroscopy is investigated. A 3"x3" LaBr3:Ce detector is used in a test setup with radioactive sources to study the dependence of energy resolution and photo peak efficiency on the overall count rate in the detector. Digitized traces were recorded using a 500 MHz FADC and analysed with digital signal processing methods. In addition to standard techniques a pile-up correction method is applied to the data in order to further improve the high-rate capabilities and to reduce the losses in efficiency due to signal pile-up. It is shown, that {\gamma}-ray spectroscopy can be performed with high resolution at count rates even above 1 MHz and that the performance can be enhanced in the region between 500 kHz and 10 MHz by using pile-up correction techniques

The Effect of Ion Implanting on Hydrogen Entry into Metals

The effectiveness of platinum ion implanting in mitigating hydrogen entry into 4340 steel is measured and quantified. Data are presented to compare the extent of hydrogen absorption by the substrate during electrolytic hydrogen charging of platinum ion-implanted and unimplanted 4340 steel substrates. Several implanting conditions were used in processing the samples, and the surface-limited mass-transfer coefficient was calculated for each case and used to quantify the effectiveness of each treatment in reducing hydrogen absorption. It is shown that the underlying mechanism for reducing hydrogen absorption by platinum ion-implanted substrates is the catalytic effect of platinum that favors hydrogen evolution at the steel\u27s surface over hydrogen absorption by the metal. Although scattering experiments with low energy helium ions suggest that the platinum content in the first monolayer of platinum-implanted steels is small, the ability of Pt to catalyze the hydrogen evolution reaction is still strong enough to significantly reduce the quantity of hydrogen that enters the metal

Theoretical calculations of the primary defects induced by pions and protons in SiC

In the present work, the bulk degradation of SiC in hadron (pion and proton) fields, in the energy range between 100 MeV and 10 GeV, is characterised theoretically by means of the concentration of primary defects per unit fluence. The results are compared to the similar ones corresponding to diamond, silicon and GaAs.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, in press to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A v2 - modified title, and major revision

Statistical approach for unpolarized fragmentation functions for the octet baryons

A statistical model for the parton distributions in the nucleon has proven its efficiency in the analysis of deep inelastic scattering data, so we propose to extend this approach to the description of unpolarized fragmentation functions for the octet baryons. The characteristics of the model are determined by using some data on the inclusive production of proton and $\Lambda$ in unpolarized deep inelastic scattering and a next-to-leading analysis of the available experimental data on the production of unpolarized octet baryons in $e^+e^-$ annihilation. Our results show that both parton distributions and fragmentation functions are compatible with the statistical approach, in terms of a few free parameters, whose interpretation will be discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 7 eps figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Kinetics of photoinduced ordering in azo-dye films: two-state and diffusion models

We study the kinetics of photoinduced ordering in the azo-dye SD1 photoaligning layers and present the results of modeling performed using two different phenomenological approaches. A phenomenological two state model is deduced from the master equation for an ensemble of two-level molecular systems. Using an alternative approach, we formulate the two-dimensional (2D) diffusion model as the free energy Fokker-Planck equation simplified for the limiting regime of purely in-plane reorientation. The models are employed to interpret the irradiation time dependence of the absorption order parameters extracted from the available experimental data by using the exact solution to the light transmission problem for a biaxially anisotropic absorbing layer. The transient photoinduced structures are found to be biaxially anisotropic whereas the photosteady and the initial states are uniaxial.Comment: revtex4, 34 pages, 9 figure

MHz Unidirectional Rotation of Molecular Rotary Motors

A combination of cryogenic UV-vis and CD spectroscopy and transient absorption spectroscopy at ambient temperature is used to study a new class of unidirectional rotary molecular motors. Stabilization of unstable intermediates is achieved below 95 K in propane solution for the structure with the fastest rotation rate, and below this temperature measurements on the rate limiting step in the rotation cycle can be performed to obtain activation parameters. The results are compared to measurements at ambient temperature using transient absorption spectroscopy, which show that behavior of these motors is similar over the full temperature range investigated, thereby allowing a maximum rotation rate of 3 MHz at room temperature under suitable irradiation conditions

Congestion Aware Priority-based Routing using On-Chip Memory for NoC Architecture

Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) involves an array of programmable logic blocks and configurable interconnects which allows users to establish digital circuits and specialized functionality. The Network on Chip (NoC) is a router-based packet-switching network among System on Chip (SoC) modules. However, the node processes incoming data, routes operations, and transmits it to the next node before storing the output in a buffer to avoid congestion. This approach, though effective in managing data flow, increases both area and power consumption. To overcome this problem, the Congestion Aware Priority-based Routing using On-Chip Memory (CAPROCM) is proposed to minimize area and power consumption by removing crossbar switches and Input/Output (I/O) buffers. Initially, the priority encoder determines the priority of the packet and encodes the priority information to an arbiter. The arbiter ensures that the packet with a high priority is processed first. Then, the XY routing process is generated to evaluate the routing path based on the packet’s address. Level-Encoded Dual-Rail (LEDR) is utilized for transferring data and ensures error correction and detection. CAPROCM is evaluated with Look Up Table (LUT), Flip Flop (FF), I/O, Global Buffer (BUFG), Bonded Input/ Output Block (Bonded IOB), Slice registers, and Power. While compared to the existing methods like NoC-based hardware-software co-design model, the proposed CAPROCM achieves better power consumption of 0.324 W for Virtex-7 XC7VX690-3 FPGA device

Exact norm-conserving stochastic time-dependent Hartree-Fock

We derive an exact single-body decomposition of the time-dependent Schroedinger equation for N pairwise-interacting fermions. Each fermion obeys a stochastic time-dependent norm-preserving wave equation. As a first test of the method we calculate the low energy spectrum of Helium. An extension of the method to bosons is outlined.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX fil