Soil fertility, fertilizer, and the maize green revolution in East Africa

This paper investigates the reasons for the low application of external fertilizers on farms in Kenya and Uganda. The analysis uses a large panel of household data with rich soil fertility data at the plot level. The authors control for maize seed selection and household effects by using a fixed-effects semi-parametric endogenous switching model. The results suggest that Kenyan maize farmers have applied inorganic fertilizer at the optimal level, corresponding to the high nitrogen-maize relative price, in one of the two survey years and also responded to the price change over time. In Uganda, even the low application of inorganic fertilizer is not profitable because of its high relative price. The authors conclude that policies that reduce the relative price of fertilizer could be effective in both countries, while the efficacy of policies based on improving farmers'knowledge about fertilizer use will be limited as long as the relative price of fertilizer remains high.Crops&Crop Management Systems,Climate Change and Agriculture,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Fertilizers,Food Security

Development of PVE Refrigeration Lubricants for R32

A New-PVE lubricant was developed for use with R32 refrigerant. R32 has been proposed as an alternative refrigerant for R410A refrigerant, to reduce global warming. In this report, we evaluated the relationship between the New-PVE lubricant and R32 and R410A refrigerants. The evaluation items were physical properties (miscibility, solubility, mixture viscosity and volumetric resistivity) and thermal stability and lubricity. In addition, a New-PVE was also developed to improve miscibility with R32 refrigerant

Evaluation of Friction and Wear on PVE Refrigeration Lubricants for HFC Refrigerants

For the prevention of global warming, it is important for home electric appliance to improve the energy saving performance. Air-conditioner is one of home electric appliances, and the improvement of energy consumption efficiency is being performed by various ways. Lubricant for air-conditioner is used to protect sliding surfaces of a compressor. The low friction coefficient lubricant is considered to improve the friction coefficient between rotor and vane of the rotary-type compressor. We evaluated the friction and the wear on PVE refrigeration lubricants for HFC refrigerants. The friction coefficient and wear were measured by using the hermetic type block-on-ring tester. The evaluation items were physical properties (miscibility, solubility, mixture viscosity and volumetric resistivity) and thermal stability

Neutrino-driven massive stellar explosions in 3D fostered by magnetic fields via turbulent α\alpha-effect

We investigate the influence of magnetic field amplification on the core-collapse supernovae in highly magnetized progenitors through three-dimensional simulations. By considering rotating models, we observe a strong correlation between the exponential growth of the magnetic field in the gain region and the initiation of shock revival, with a faster onset compared to the non-rotating model. We highlight that the mean magnetic field experiences exponential amplification as a result of $\alpha$-effect in the dynamo process, which works efficiently with the increasing kinetic helicity of the turbulence within the gain region. Our findings indicate that the significant amplification of the mean magnetic fields leads to the development of locally intense turbulent magnetic fields, particularly in the vicinity of the poles, thereby promoting the revival of the shock by neutrino heating.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to MNRAS Letter

Properties of lubricants for refrigeration system with the low GWP refrigerants

For the prevention of global warming, various low GWP refrigerants (R1234yf, R1234ze, R448A, R449A, R452A, R452B, R454B etc.) were proposed as the alternative to HFC refrigerants for refrigeration system. In this report, the combinations of the low GWP refrigerants and lubricants were evaluated. The evaluation items are physical properties (miscibility, solubility, viscosity, and electric property)and thermal stability

Disk-Driven Rotating Bipolar Outflow in Orion Source I

One of the outstanding problems in star-formation theory concerns the transfer of angular momentum such that mass can accrete onto a newly born young stellar object (YSO). From a theoretical standpoint, outflows and jets are predicted to play an essential role in angular momentum transfer and their rotation motions have been reported for both low- and high-mass YSOs. However, little quantitative discussion on outflow launching mechanisms have been presented for high-mass YSOs due to a lack of observational data. Here we present a clear signature of rotation in the bipolar outflow driven by Orion Source I, a high-mass YSO candidate, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). A rotational transition of silicon monoxide (Si18O) reveals a velocity gradient perpendicular to the outflow axis which is consistent with that of the circumstellar disk traced by a high-excitation water (H2O) line. The launching radii and outward velocity of the outflow are estimated to be >10 au and 10 km s-1, respectively. These parameters rule out a possibility that the observed outflow is produced by entrainment of a high-velocity jet, and that contribution from stellar-wind or X-wind which have smaller launching radii are significant in the case of Source I. Thus, present results provide a convincing evidence of a rotating outflow directly driven by the magneto-centrifugal disk wind launched by a high-mass YSO candidate.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures. Accepted version of the manuscript before editing by Nature Astronomy. Published version is available on the SharedIt link; http://rdcu.be/AfT