6,897 research outputs found
Assessing the ecological soundness of organic and conventional agriculture by means of life cycle assessment (LCA) - a case study of leek production
Purpose – Sustainable agriculture implies the ability of agro-ecosystems to remain productive in the long-term. It is not easy to point out unambiguously whether or not current production systems meet this sustainability demand. A priori thinking would suggest that organic crops are environmentally favourable, but may ignore the effect of reduced productivity, which shifts the potential impact to other parts of the food provision system. The purpose of this paper is to assess the ecological sustainability of conventional and organic leek production by means of life cycle assessment (LCA).
Design/methodology/approach – A cradle-to-farm gate LCA is applied, based on real farm data from two research centres. For a consistent comparison, two functional units (FU) were defined: 1ha and 1?kg of leek production.
Findings – Assessed on an area basis, organic farming shows a more favourable environmental profile. These overall benefits are strongly reduced when the lower yields are taken into account. Related to organic farming it is therefore important that solutions are found to substantially increase the yields without increasing the environmental burden. Related to conventional farming, important potential for environmental improvements are in optimising the farm nutrient flows, reducing pesticide use and increasing its self-supporting capacity.
Research limitations/implications – The research is a cradle-to-farm gate LCA, future research can be expanded to comprise all phases from cradle-to-grave to get an idea of the total sustainability of our present food consumption patterns. The research is also limited to the case of leek production. Future research can apply the methodology to other crops.
Originality/value – To date, there is still lack of clear evidence of the added value of organic farming compared to conventional farming on environmental basis. Few studies have compared organic and conventional food production by means of LCA. This paper addresses these issues
The Hanle and Zeeman Effects in Solar Spicules: A Novel Diagnostic Window on Chromospheric Magnetism
An attractive diagnostic tool for investigating the magnetism of the solar
chromosphere is the observation and theoretical modeling of the Hanle and
Zeeman effects in spicules, as shown in this letter for the first time. Here we
report on spectropolarimetric observations of solar chromospheric spicules in
the He I 10830 \AA multiplet and on their theoretical modeling accounting for
radiative transfer effects. We find that the magnetic field in the observed
(quiet Sun) spicular material at a height of about 2000 km above the visible
solar surface has a strength of the order of 10 G and is inclined by
approximately with respect to the local vertical direction. Our
empirical finding based on full Stokes-vector spectropolarimetry should be
taken into account in future magnetohydrodynamical simulations of spicules.Comment: 12 pages and 2 figure
Recent Advances in Chromospheric and Coronal Polarization Diagnostics
I review some recent advances in methods to diagnose polarized radiation with
which we may hope to explore the magnetism of the solar chromosphere and
corona. These methods are based on the remarkable signatures that the
radiatively induced quantum coherences produce in the emergent spectral line
polarization and on the joint action of the Hanle and Zeeman effects. Some
applications to spicules, prominences, active region filaments, emerging flux
regions and the quiet chromosphere are discussed.Comment: Review paper to appear in "Magnetic Coupling between the Interior and
the Atmosphere of the Sun", eds. S. S. Hasan and R. J. Rutten, Astrophysics
and Space Science Proceedings, Springer-Verlag, 200
The Zeeman effect in the G band
We investigate the possibility of measuring magnetic field strength in G-band
bright points through the analysis of Zeeman polarization in molecular CH
lines. To this end we solve the equations of polarized radiative transfer in
the G band through a standard plane-parallel model of the solar atmosphere with
an imposed magnetic field, and through a more realistic snapshot from a
simulation of solar magneto-convection. This region of the spectrum is crowded
with many atomic and molecular lines. Nevertheless, we find several instances
of isolated groups of CH lines that are predicted to produce a measurable
Stokes V signal in the presence of magnetic fields. In part this is possible
because the effective Land\'{e} factors of lines in the stronger main branch of
the CH A--X transition tend to zero rather quickly for
increasing total angular momentum , resulting in a Stokes spectrum of
the G band that is less crowded than the corresponding Stokes spectrum. We
indicate that, by contrast, the effective Land\'{e} factors of the and
satellite sub-branches of this transition tend to for increasing .
However, these lines are in general considerably weaker, and do not contribute
significantly to the polarization signal. In one wavelength location near 430.4
nm the overlap of several magnetically sensitive and non-sensitive CH lines is
predicted to result in a single-lobed Stokes profile, raising the
possibility of high spatial-resolution narrow-band polarimetric imaging. In the
magneto-convection snapshot we find circular polarization signals of the order
of 1% prompting us to conclude that measuring magnetic field strength in
small-scale elements through the Zeeman effect in CH lines is a realistic
prospect.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures. To be published in the Astrophysical Journa
Cosmological perturbations from inhomogeneous preheating and multi-field trapping
We consider inhomogeneous preheating in a multi-field trapping model. The
curvature perturbation is generated by inhomogeneous preheating which induces
multi-field trapping at the enhanced symmetric point (ESP), and results in
fluctuation in the number of e-foldings. Instead of considering simple
reheating after preheating, we consider a scenario of shoulder inflation
induced by the trapping. The fluctuation in the number of e-foldings is
generated during this weak inflationary period, when the additional light
scalar field is trapped at the local maximum of its potential. The situation
may look similar to locked or thermal inflation or even to hybrid inflation,
but we will show that the present mechanism of generating the curvature
perturbation is very different from these others. Unlike the conventional
trapped inflationary scenario, we do not make the assumption that an ESP
appears at some unstable point on the inflaton potential. This assumption is
crucial in the original scenario, but it is not important in the multi-field
model. We also discuss inhomogeneous preheating at late-time oscillation, in
which the magnitude of the curvature fluctuation can be enhanced to accommodate
low inflationary scale.Comment: 18pages, 2 figures, to appear in JHE
Interação de locais e capacidades combinatórias de linhagens de milho em cruzamento dialélicos.
Neste trabalho foram utilizados 45 hibridos simples provenientes de cruzamentos dialelicos entre 10 linhagens de milho considerados de elite pelo Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Milho e Sorgo. Esses hibridos foram estudados em ensaios em blocos casualizados, com quatro repeticoes, e instalados em dois municipios (locais) do estado de Minas Gerais (Sete Lagoas e Capinopolis), no ano agricola de 1976/77. Foi analisado apenas a producao de graos por parcela. Esses ensaios foram analisados individualmente e de forma conjunta. Com a finalidade de verificar a influencia dos locais sobre os parametros geneticos, testou-se a interacao das capacidades combinatorias com locais. Esse estudo indicou maior inconsistencia da capacidade geral de combinacao em ambientes diferentes, quando comparados com a capacidade especifica de combinacao
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