Characteristics of Child Labour and Their Health Problems: Findings from Rural Community of India

Background: Child labour is a big problem. Studies have indicated several problems of child labour. However, few studies have indicated the characteristics of child labour rural India. Objectives: This study has explored characteristics of child labour and their families in the rural community of eastern India and also identified their health problems. Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed to explore their characteristics in purposively selected areas in rural Howrah, India. Frequency table and bar-diagrams were used. Results: The study identified 72% boys and 28% girls as child labour. Majority of the children (67.9%) were labour because they wanted to help their parents. In 8.9% cases, they were forced to work by their parents. In 5.4% cases, they were orphans. Majority of the children were not satisfied (78.6%) with their job place and job status. Conclusions: Child labourers are not satisfied with their job. Their money is used in family. Parents are illiterate. Lack of effective education system and availability of functional schools are both causes and consequences of child labour. Due to illiteracy, working conditions for these children get worse as they are not even aware of the occupational benefits.

Spin-phonon decoherence in solid-state paramagnetic defects from first principles

Paramagnetic defects in diamond and hexagonal boron nitride possess a combination of spin and optical properties that make them prototypical solid-state qubits.Despite the coherence of these spin qubits being critically limited by spin-phonon relaxation,a full understanding of this process is not yet available.Here we apply ab initio spin dynamics simulations to this problem and quantitatively reproduce the experimental temperature dependence of spin relaxation time and spin coherence time.We demonstrate that low-frequency two-phonon modulations of the zero-field splitting are responsible for spin relaxation and decoherence,and point to the nature of vibrations in 2-dimensional materials as the culprit for their shorter coherence time.These results provide an interpretation to spin-phonon decoherence in solid-state paramagnetic defects,offer a strategy to correctly interpret experimental results,and pave the way for the accelerated design of spin qubits.

Metal-metal bonds in Zintl clusters:Synthesis,structure and bonding in[Fe_(2)Sn_(4)Bi_(8)]^(3-)and[Cr_(2)Sb_(12)]^(3-)

We report here the synthesis and characterization of two new members of the M2 E 12 family of endohe-dral Zintl clusters,[Fe_(2)Sn_(4)Bi_(8)]^(3-)and[Cr_(2)Sb_(12)]^(3-),both of which contain open-shell metal dimers encap-sulated inside a triple-decker cluster of main-group atoms.The 75-electron[Fe_(2)Sn_(4)Bi_(8)]^(3-)cluster has a D4h-symmetric structure,while[Cr_(2)Sb_(12)]^(3-),despite having the same 75-electron count,is strongly dis-torted to a geometry that resembles a CrSb_(8)crown capped by a CrSb_(4)unit.The structural differences between the two are driven by the increasing availability of 3d electron density in the earlier transi-tion metal,which leads,ultimately,to different electronic configurations in the two clusters.The trends precisely mirror those observed in the ME_(10)and ME_(12)families containing a single transition metal ion.