Circular 66

Phosphorus (P) along with nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) comprise the three macronutrients most frequently added as fertilizer for growing plants. In Alaska soils, P is often the second most limiting nutrient after N. A proper supply of plant-available P is important for root development and plant growth. To supply P to growing crops, the soil not only must contain enough P, but it must be in a form which is available for utilization by the plant. The status of P in the soil has an important influence on fertilization practices. Agricultural soils of Alaska vary considerably, not only in their total content of P and its distribution (form it occurs in), but also in the characteristics for sorption or fixation of P (Ping and Michaelson, 1986). Forms of P in the soil will affect its availability. The P-sorption character of soils will affect P fertilizer reactions in the soil and thus influence the amount of P fertilizer necessary and carry-over effects of applied P. It is essential that P soil tests and their interpretation be tailored for soils with similar P reactions. A useful P soil test must be based on both correlation of test values to plant growth and to field calibration of soil test values with yield

Characteristics and Fertility Status of Soils and Minesoils in Selected Areas of Usibelli Coal Mine, Healy, Alaska

Alaska has been proven to contain not only bountiful oil and gas reserves. but also vast coal fields occurring from the southcentral coastline to the Interior and the Arctic zone to the north. Because of concerns for stable sources of energy, particularly by the energy-short, industrial nations of the Orient, more exploration and stripmining for coal can be expected in the near future. Therefore, it is important to know the consequences of large-area soil disturbances tn the subarctic and bow the effects of man's reclamation efforts and natural processes combine in reestablishing vegetative community. The culmination or synthesis of these processes is soil development and is of great importance in successful stripmine reclamation. The Usibelli Coal Mine Company in the Healy coal field, located in Interior Alaska. commenced stripmining in 1943. Its operation has been continuous, moving from area to area, for the last 40 years. Stripmining requires the excavation of overburden and subsequent redeposition, therefore the Healy operation has exposed minespoils from different strata on various topography. In 1972, the Usibelli Coal Mine company initiated a reclamation program and, over the ensuing l0 years, has seeded and fertilized over 2000 acres. Nevertheless, there remain barren areas and areas undergoing natural revegetation. Additionally, experimental trials in seeding and fertilization were started in 1980. Large areas of intact native plant communities adjoin the mined areas. The company property provides opportunities to study the processes of soil formation under different sets of conditions. The objectives of this study were to (1) characterize the soils on the mine lease area for baseline data, (2) to characterize the mine soils with various history, (3) to study the process of soil formation under different sets of conditions, and (4) to evaluate the nutrient levels of both soil and minesoils to form a basis for establishing soil-handling requirements to promote reclamation practices.This study was supported by funds from the U.S. Department of Energy (AM06-76RL02229) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Hatch project. Our appreciation to Drs. W.M. Mitchell. G.A. Mitchell. and F. Wooding of the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. and Mr. J.P. Moore of USDA Son Conservation Service for reviewing the manuscript and offering many useful suggestions. Our appreciation also to Dr. Milton A. Wiltse of Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. Department of Natural Resources for access to the X-ray diffractometer and technical advice. Special thanks to the Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. for logistic and technical assistance tn carrying out this study

Dynamics of a quantum quench in an ultra-cold atomic BCS superfluid

We study dynamics of an ultra-cold atomic BCS superfluid driven towards the BCS superfluid-Fermi liquid quantum critical point by a gradual decrease of the pairing interaction. We analyze how the BCS superfluid falls out of equilibrium and show that the non-equilibrium gap and Cooper pair size reflect critical properties of the transition. We observe three stages of evolution: adiabatic where the Cooper pair size is inversely proportional to the equilibrium gap, weakly non-equilibrium where it is inversely proportional to the non-equilibrium gap, and strongly non-equilibrium where it decouples from both equilibrium and non-equilibrium gap. These phenomena should stimulate future experimental characterization of non-equilibrium ultra-cold atomic BCS superfluids.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in PR

Stripes, Non-Fermi-Liquid Behavior, and Two-Component Transport in the High-Tc Cuprates

Non-Fermi-liquid features of the high-Tc cuprates, and specifically the systematic behavior of the resistivity, Hall constant, and thermoelectric power, are shown to result from an electronic structure based on "large-U" and "small-U" orbitals, and the resulting striped structure.Comment: 3 pages including 3 figures, Late

Right-Handed Neutrinos and T-Violating, P-Conserving Interactions

We show that experimental probes of the P-conserving, T-violating triple correlation in polarized neutron or nuclear $\beta$-decay provide a unique probe of possible T-violation at the TeV scale in the presence of right-handed neutrinos. In contrast to other possible sources of semileptonic T-violation involving only left-handed neutrinos, those involving right-handed neutrinos are relatively unconstrained by present limits on the permanent electric dipole moments of the electron, neutral atoms, and the neutron. On the other hand, LHC results for $pp\to e+$ missing transverse energy imply that an order of magnitude of improvement in $D$-coefficient sensitivity would be needed for discovery. Finally, we discuss the interplay with the scale of neutrino mass and naturalness considerations.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Manual for extending the laser specklegram technique to strain analysis of rotating components

The theory, techniques, and equipment necessary for extending laser speckle techniques to analyze stresses in rotating blades are described. Details for setting up the equipment, for timing the events, for data recording, and for data analysis are discussed. Finite element techniques are investigated for analysis of speckle data. Advantages and limitations of the finite element analysis for the speckle data are discussed. The finite element program is listed