Conserved quantities in non-abelian monopole fields

Van Holten's covariant Hamiltonian framework is used to find conserved quantities for an isospin-carrying particle in a non-Abelian monopole-like field. For a Wu-Yang monopole we find the most general scalar potential such that the combined system admits a conserved Runge-Lenz vector. It generalizes the fine-tuned inverse-square plus Coulomb potential, found before by McIntosh and Cisneros, and by Zwanziger, for a charged particle in the field of a Dirac monopole. Following Feh\'er, the result is interpreted as describing motion in the asymptotic field of a self-dual Prasad-Sommerfield monopole. In the effective non-Abelian field for nuclear motion in a diatomic molecule due to Moody, Shapere and Wilczek, a conserved angular momentum is constructed, despite the non-conservation of the electric charge. No Runge-Lenz vector has been found.Comment: 8 pages, RevTex no figures. An error corrected and a new Section adde

New cassava germplasm for food and nutritional security in central Africa

Open Access Journal; Published online: 01 Apr 2021Cassava is a key food security crop in Central Africa, but its production depends largely on the use of local farmers’ varieties characterized by inherently low yield which is compounded by generally high susceptibility to various growth and yield-limiting pests and diseases. Improved cassava genotypes have demonstrated the potential to substantially improve cassava’s contribution to food security and the development of the cassava industry and the improvement of nutrition status elsewhere in Western Africa. Eleven improved cassava genotypes were compared with a local landrace (LMR) used as a check under field conditions over two years in eight locations, grouped in four agro-ecologies in Cameroon. Pest and disease abundance/incidence and damage severity were evaluated. At harvest, root yield and carotenoid content were measured. Best linear unbiased predictors showed the lowest breeding value for LMR with the cassava mosaic virus disease (+ 66.40 ± 2.42) compared with 1.00 ± 0.02% for the most susceptible improved genotype. Two genotypes (I010040-27 and I011797) stood out for having higher predicted fresh root yield means which were at least 16 times greater compared with LMR. Predicted total carotenoid content was the highest (+ 5.04 ± 0.17) for improved genotype I070593 compared with LMR which showed the lowest (− 3.90 ± 0.06%) and could contribute to the alleviation of vitamin A deficiency from cassava-based food systems. Diffusion of high-yielding and nutritious genotypes could alleviate food and nutritional security in Central Africa

Social Perceptions of Forest Ecosystem Services in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The forests of the Albertine Rift are known for their high biodiversity and the important ecosystem services they provide to millions of inhabitants. However, their conservation and the maintenance of ecosystem service delivery is a challenge, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Our research investigates how livelihood strategy and ethnicity affects local perceptions of forest ecosystem services. We collected data through 25 focus-group discussions in villages from distinct ethnic groups, including farmers (Tembo, Shi, and Nyindu) and hunter-gatherers (Twa). Twa identify more food-provisioning services and rank bush meat and honey as the most important. They also show stronger place attachment to the forest than the farmers, who value other ecosystem services, but all rank microclimate regulation as the most important. Our findings help assess ecosystem services trade-offs, highlight the important impacts of restricted access to forests resources for Twa, and point to the need for developing alternative livelihood strategies for these communities

Reconfigurable photo-induced doping of two-dimensional van der Waals semiconductors using different photon energies

Few-layer molybdenum ditelluride and tungsten diselenide field-effect transistors can be reversibly doped with different carrier types and concentrations using pulses of ultraviolet and visible light, allowing reconfigurable complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor circuits to be created. Two-dimensional semiconductors have a range of electronic and optical properties that can be used in the development of advanced electronic devices. However, unlike conventional silicon semiconductors, simple doping methods to monolithically assemble n- and p-type channels on a single two-dimensional semiconductor are lacking, which makes the fabrication of integrated circuitry challenging. Here we report the reversible photo-induced doping of few-layer molybdenum ditelluride and tungsten diselenide, where the channel polarity can be reconfigured from n-type to p-type, and vice versa, with laser light at different frequencies. This reconfigurable doping is attributed to selective light-lattice interactions, such as the formation of tellurium self-interstitial defects under ultraviolet illumination and the incorporation of substitutional oxygen in tellurium and molybdenum vacancies under visible illumination. Using this approach, we create a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) device on a single channel, where the circuit functions can be dynamically reset from a CMOS inverter to a CMOS switch using pulses of different light frequencies.11Nsciescopu