1,048 research outputs found
Economic sustainability and risk efficiency of organic versus conventional cropping systems
Environmental, social and economic attributes are important for the sustainability of a farming system. Resilience is also important yet has seldom been directly considered in evaluations of economic sustainability. In economic terms, resilience has to do with the capacity of the farm business to survive various risks and other shocks. A whole-farm stochastic simulation model over a six-year planning horizon was used to analyse organic and conventional cropping systems using a model of a representative farm in Eastern Norway. The relative economic sustainability of alternative systems under changing assumptions about future technology and price regimes was examined in terms of financial survival to the end of the planning period. The same alternatives were also compared in terms of stochastic efficiency. The results illustrate possible confl icts between pursuit of risk efficiency and sustainability. The model developed could be useful in supporting farmers’ choices between farming systems as well as in helping policy makers to develop more sharply targeted policies
On the recombination in high-order harmonic generation in molecules
We show that the dependence of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) on the
molecular orientation can be understood within a theoretical treatment that
does not involve the strong field of the laser. The results for H_2 show
excellent agreement with time-dependent strong field calculations for model
molecules, and this motivates a prediction for the orientation dependence of
HHG from the N_2 3s_g valence orbital. For both molecules, we find that the
polarization of recombination photons is influenced by the molecular
orientation. The variations are particularly pronounced for the N_2 valence
orbital, which can be explained by the presence of atomic p-orbitals.Comment: 6 pages 7 figure
Applications of Magnetic PsiDO Techniques to Space-adiabatic Perturbation Theory
In this review, we show how advances in the theory of magnetic
pseudodifferential operators (magnetic DO) can be put to good use in
space-adiabatic perturbation theory (SAPT). As a particular example, we extend
results of [PST03] to a more general class of magnetic fields: we consider a
single particle moving in a periodic potential which is subjectd to a weak and
slowly-varying electromagnetic field. In addition to the semiclassical
parameter \eps \ll 1 which quantifies the separation of spatial scales, we
explore the influence of additional parameters that allow us to selectively
switch off the magnetic field.
We find that even in the case of magnetic fields with components in
, e. g. for constant magnetic fields, the results of
Panati, Spohn and Teufel hold, i.e. to each isolated family of Bloch bands,
there exists an associated almost invariant subspace of and an
effective hamiltonian which generates the dynamics within this almost invariant
subspace. In case of an isolated non-degenerate Bloch band, the full quantum
dynamics can be approximated by the hamiltonian flow associated to the
semiclassical equations of motion found in [PST03].Comment: 32 page
Magnetic calculus and semiclassical trace formulas
The aim of these notes is to show how the magnetic calculus developed in
\cite{MP, IMP1, IMP2, MPR, LMR} permits to give a new information on the nature
of the coefficients of the expansion of the trace of a function of the magnetic
Schr\"odinger operator whose existence was established in \cite{HR2}
Vibrational interference of Raman and high-harmonic generation pathways
Experiments have shown that the internal vibrational state of a molecule can
affect the intensity of high harmonic light generated from that molecule. This
paper presents a model which explains this modulation in terms of interference
between different vibrational states occurring during the high harmonic
process. In addition, a semiclassical model of the continuum electron
propagation is developed which connects with rigorous treatments of the
electron-ion scattering
Semiclassical two-step model for strong-field ionization
We present a semiclassical two-step model for strong-field ionization that
accounts for path interferences of tunnel-ionized electrons in the ionic
potential beyond perturbation theory. Within the framework of a classical
trajectory Monte-Carlo representation of the phase-space dynamics, the model
employs the semiclassical approximation to the phase of the full quantum
propagator in the exit channel. By comparison with the exact numerical solution
of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation for strong-field ionization of
hydrogen, we show that for suitable choices of the momentum distribution after
the first tunneling step, the model yields good quantitative agreement with the
full quantum simulation. The two-dimensional photoelectron momentum
distributions, the energy spectra, and the angular distributions are found to
be in good agreement with the corresponding quantum results. Specifically, the
model quantitatively reproduces the fan-like interference patterns in the
low-energy part of the two-dimensional momentum distributions as well as the
modulations in the photoelectron angular distributions.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figure
PON1 status does not influence cholinesterase activity in Egyptian agricultural workers exposed to chlorpyrifos.
Animal studies have shown that paraoxonase 1 (PON1) genotype can influence susceptibility to the organophosphorus pesticide chlorpyrifos (CPF). However, Monte Carlo analysis suggests that PON1 genotype may not affect CPF-related toxicity at low exposure conditions in humans. The current study sought to determine the influence of PON1 genotype on the activity of blood cholinesterase as well as the effect of CPF exposure on serum PON1 in workers occupationally exposed to CPF. Saliva, blood and urine were collected from agricultural workers (n=120) from Egypt's Menoufia Governorate to determine PON1 genotype, blood cholinesterase activity, serum PON1 activity towards chlorpyrifos-oxon (CPOase) and paraoxon (POase), and urinary levels of the CPF metabolite 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy). The PON1 55 (P≤0.05) but not the PON1 192 genotype had a significant effect on CPOase activity. However, both the PON1 55 (P≤0.05) and PON1 192 (P≤0.001) genotypes had a significant effect on POase activity. Workers had significantly inhibited AChE and BuChE after CPF application; however, neither CPOase activity nor POase activity was associated with ChE depression when adjusted for CPF exposure (as determined by urinary TCPy levels) and stratified by PON1 genotype. CPOase and POase activity were also generally unaffected by CPF exposure although there were alterations in activity within specific genotype groups. Together, these results suggest that workers retained the capacity to detoxify chlorpyrifos-oxon under the exposure conditions experienced by this study population regardless of PON1 genotype and activity and that effects of CPF exposure on PON1 activity are minimal
Pair-distribution functions of the two-dimensional electron gas
Based on its known exact properties and a new set of extensive fixed-node
reptation quantum Monte Carlo simulations (both with and without backflow
correlations, which in this case turn out to yield negligible improvements), we
propose a new analytical representation of (i) the spin-summed
pair-distribution function and (ii) the spin-resolved potential energy of the
ideal two-dimensional interacting electron gas for a wide range of electron
densities and spin polarization, plus (iii) the spin-resolved pair-distribution
function of the unpolarized gas. These formulae provide an accurate reference
for quantities previously not available in analytic form, and may be relevant
to semiconductor heterostructures, metal-insulator transitions and quantum dots
both directly, in terms of phase diagram and spin susceptibility, and
indirectly, as key ingredients for the construction of new two-dimensional spin
density functionals, beyond the local approximation.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures; misprints correcte
Molecular imaging using high-order harmonic generation and above-threshold ionization
Accurate molecular imaging via high-order harmonic generation relies on
comparing the harmonic emission from a molecule and an adequate reference
system. However, an ideal reference atom with the same ionization properties as
the molecule does not always exist. We show that for suitably designed, very
short laser pulses, a one-to-one mapping between high-order harmonic
frequencies and electron momenta in above-threshold ionization exists.
Comparing molecular and atomic momentum distributions then provides the
electron return amplitude in the molecule for every harmonic frequency. We show
that the method retrieves the molecular recombination transition moments highly
accurately, even with suboptimal reference atoms.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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