Carbonate in soil: a theoretical consideration on, and proposal for its fabric analysis. 2. Crystal tubes, intercalary crystals, K fabric.

The spatial arrangement (fabric) of carbonate in 7 different soils was studied to make a proposal for its fabric analysis. These soils, which have been developed in calcareous loess and marine deposits, are located in Afghanistan, the USSR, Germany and the Netherlands.In the first part of this study (Bal, 1975) the simple plasmic fabrics crystic, calcic and fibrous have been defined. Their distinction is primarly based on theoretical considerations of Brewer's concepts (Brewer, 1964).In this second part the morphology and genesis of carbonate crystal tubes and intercalary carbonate crystals is dealt with.Also K-fabric, the carbonate fabric introduced by Gile et al. (1965) is discussed and redefined. The fabrics crystic, calcic and fibrous are simple fabrics; the K-fabric, on the contrary, is principally a compound fabric. This means that K fabric is composed of one or more of these simple fabrics. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission

Carbonate in soil; a theoretical consideration on, and proposal for its fabric analysis. 1. Crystic, calcic and fibrous plasmic fabric.

The pedological features of seven soils formed in calcareous parent materials located in Afghanistan (serozem), USSR and Germany (chernozems), and in the Netherlands (marine deposits) are described. The distinction between the fabrics is based largely on Brewer's concept (1964). (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission

Kinetic Limit for Wave Propagation in a Random Medium

We study crystal dynamics in the harmonic approximation. The atomic masses are weakly disordered, in the sense that their deviation from uniformity is of order epsilon^(1/2). The dispersion relation is assumed to be a Morse function and to suppress crossed recollisions. We then prove that in the limit epsilon to 0 the disorder averaged Wigner function on the kinetic scale, time and space of order epsilon^(-1), is governed by a linear Boltzmann equation.Comment: 71 pages, 3 figure

Evaluation of sugar maple dieback in the Upper Great Lakes region and development of a forest health youth education program

Acer saccharum Marsh., is one of the most valuable trees in the northern hardwood forests. Severe dieback was recently reported by area foresters in the western Upper Great Lakes Region. Sugar Maple has had a history of dieback over the last 100 years throughout its range and different variables have been identified as being the predisposing and inciting factors in different regions at different times. Some of the most common factors attributed to previous maple dieback episodes were insect defoliation outbreaks, inadequate precipitation, poor soils, atmospheric deposition, fungal pathogens, poor management, or a combination of these. The current sugar maple dieback was evaluated to determine the etiology, severity, and change in dieback on both industry and public lands. A network of 120 sugar maple health evaluation plots was established in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan, northern Wisconsin, and eastern Minnesota and evaluated annually from 2009-2012. Mean sugar maple crown dieback between 2009-2012 was 12.4% (ranging from 0.8-75.5%) across the region. Overall, during the sampling period, mean dieback decreased by 5% but individual plots and trees continued to decline. Relationships were examined between sugar maple dieback and growth, habitat conditions, ownership, climate, soil, foliage nutrients, and the maple pathogen sapstreak. The only statistically significant factor was found to be a high level of forest floor impacts due to exotic earthworm activity. Sugar maple on soils with lower pH had less earthworm impacts, less dieback, and higher growth rates than those on soils more favorable to earthworms. Nutritional status of foliage and soil was correlated with dieback and growth suggesting perturbation of nutrient cycling may be predisposing or contributing to dieback. The previous winter\u27s snowfall totals, length of stay on the ground, and number of days with freezing temperatures had a significant positive relationship to sugar maple growth rates. Sapstreak disease, Ceratocystis virescens, may be contributing to dieback in some stands but was not related to the amount of dieback in the region. The ultimate goal of this research is to help forest managers in the Great Lakes Region prevent, anticipate, reduce, and/or salvage stands with dieback and loss in the future. An improved understanding of the complex etiology associated with sugar maple dieback in the Upper Great Lakes Region is necessary to make appropriate silvicultural decisions. Forest Health education helps increase awareness and proactive forest management in the face of changing forest ecosystems. Lessons are included to assist educators in incorporating forest health into standard biological disciplines at the secondary school curricula

Inverse Diffusion Theory of Photoacoustics

This paper analyzes the reconstruction of diffusion and absorption parameters in an elliptic equation from knowledge of internal data. In the application of photo-acoustics, the internal data are the amount of thermal energy deposited by high frequency radiation propagating inside a domain of interest. These data are obtained by solving an inverse wave equation, which is well-studied in the literature. We show that knowledge of two internal data based on well-chosen boundary conditions uniquely determines two constitutive parameters in diffusion and Schroedinger equations. Stability of the reconstruction is guaranteed under additional geometric constraints of strict convexity. No geometric constraints are necessary when $2n$ internal data for well-chosen boundary conditions are available, where $n$ is spatial dimension. The set of well-chosen boundary conditions is characterized in terms of appropriate complex geometrical optics (CGO) solutions.Comment: 24 page

Dynamics of parametric fluctuations induced by quasiparticle tunneling in superconducting flux qubits

We present experiments on the dynamics of a two-state parametric fluctuator in a superconducting flux qubit. In spectroscopic measurements, the fluctuator manifests itself as a doublet line. When the qubit is excited in resonance with one of the two doublet lines, the correlation of readout results exhibits an exponential time decay which provides a measure of the fluctuator transition rate. The rate increases with temperature in the interval 40 to 158 mK. Based on the magnitude of the transition rate and the doublet line splitting we conclude that the fluctuation is induced by quasiparticle tunneling. These results demonstrate the importance of considering quasiparticles as a source of decoherence in flux qubits.Comment: 12 pages, including supplementary informatio

An inceptisol formed in calcareous loess on the 'Dast-i-Esan Top' plain in North Afghanistan. Fabric, mineral and trace element analysis.

The calcixerollic xerochrept described has a low bulk density (1.1 g/cm3) which is attributed to faunal activity. The average mineral composition was 25% quartz, 20% CaCO3, 15% feldspars, 15% micas, 15% chlorites, 2-3% other minerals and 10% amorphous material and there was a clear relationship between minerals and particle size fractions. Trace element contents were 0.6, 11.0, 23.2, 49.1; 19.4, 75.9, 18.7 and 525 mg/kg for V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Sr and Ba, respectively. Sr and Ba contents were related to carbonate redistribution. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission

Phase Space Models for Stochastic Nonlinear Parabolic Waves: Wave Spread and Singularity

We derive several kinetic equations to model the large scale, low Fresnel number behavior of the nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation with a rapidly fluctuating random potential. There are three types of kinetic equations the longitudinal, the transverse and the longitudinal with friction. For these nonlinear kinetic equations we address two problems: the rate of dispersion and the singularity formation. For the problem of dispersion, we show that the kinetic equations of the longitudinal type produce the cubic-in-time law, that the transverse type produce the quadratic-in-time law and that the one with friction produces the linear-in-time law for the variance prior to any singularity. For the problem of singularity, we show that the singularity and blow-up conditions in the transverse case remain the same as those for the homogeneous NLS equation with critical or supercritical self-focusing nonlinearity, but they have changed in the longitudinal case and in the frictional case due to the evolution of the Hamiltonian