2,131 research outputs found
Phosphorus status and cycling in native savanna and improved pastures on an acid low-P Colombian Oxisol
On acid low-phosphorus (P) Colombian Oxisols, improved pastures with acid-soil-tolerant grass and legume varieties have increased beef production by a factor of 10 to 15 with only modest P fertilizer inputs. This indicates that the efficiency of P fertilization could be greater than is commonly expected on such strongly P-sorbing soils. To understand the effect of improved pastures on P cycling and availability, we estimated P budgets, and characterized soil P by sequential fractionation, isotopic exchange and biological activity measurements on soil samples from unfertilized native savanna, and fertilized improved grass-only (Brachiaria decumbens cv. Basilisk) and grass-legume (B. decumbens + Pueraria phaseoloides, Kudzu) pastures established in 1978 on a medium-textured isohyperthermic, tropeptic haplustox. Comparison of calculated P budgets, based on inputs and exports, with total soil P contents showed that fertilization, as part of the improved pasture management, had resulted in a measurable increase of total P in the surface 0-20 cm soil layer of nearly 30 mg kg-1 or about 20% over the savanna level. Sequential soil P fractionation of different seasonal samplings indicated that grass-legume maintained higher organic and available inorganic P levels with less temporal variation than the two other types. The linkage of organic P and available P was also reflected in soil biological activity. Estimates of P in microbial biomass and phosphatase activity were significantly higher in grass-legume than grass-only and savanna. The improvement in soil P availability, as measured by solution P concentration, P sorption and exchangeable P, was much greater in grass-legume than in grass-only. With comparable fertilizer inputs and greater product exports, improved P availability in grass-legume cannot be due to differences in budgets but can be attributed to changes in the overall biological activity in the soil-plant system caused by the presence of legumes in the vegetation cover. Total C, organic P content and macrofaunal activity were all significantly higher in grass-legume soils. Greater turnover of organic litter in grass-legume may provide for steadier organic P inputs and, therefore, higher P cycling and availabilit
Global control and fast solid-state donor electron spin quantum computing
We propose a scheme for quantum information processing based on donor
electron spins in semiconductors, with an architecture complementary to the
original Kane proposal. We show that a naive implementation of electron spin
qubits provides only modest improvement over the Kane scheme, however through
the introduction of global gate control we are able to take full advantage of
the fast electron evolution timescales. We estimate that the latent clock speed
is 100-1000 times that of the nuclear spin quantum computer with the ratio
approaching the level.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure
Can we always get the entanglement entropy from the Kadanoff-Baym equations? The case of the T-matrix approximation
We study the time-dependent transmission of entanglement entropy through an
out-of-equilibrium model interacting device in a quantum transport set-up. The
dynamics is performed via the Kadanoff-Baym equations within many-body
perturbation theory. The double occupancy , needed to determine the entanglement entropy, is obtained from
the equations of motion of the single-particle Green's function. A remarkable
result of our calculations is that can become negative, thus not permitting to evaluate the
entanglement entropy. This is a shortcoming of approximate, and yet conserving,
many-body self-energies. Among the tested perturbation schemes, the -matrix
approximation stands out for two reasons: it compares well to exact results in
the low density regime and it always provides a non-negative . For the second part of this statement, we
give an analytical proof. Finally, the transmission of entanglement across the
device is diminished by interactions but can be amplified by a current flowing
through the system.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Learning from the early adopters: developing the digital practitioner
This paper explores how Sharpe and Beetham’s Digital Literacies Framework which was derived to model students’ digital literacies, can be applied to lecturers’ digital literacy practices. Data from a small-scale phenomenological study of higher education lecturers who used Web 2.0 in their teaching and learning practices are used to examine if this pyramid model represents their motivations for adopting technology-enhanced learning in their pedagogic practices. The paper argues that whilst Sharpe and Beetham’s model has utility in many regards, these lecturers were mainly motivated by the desire to achieve their pedagogic goals rather than by a desire to become a digital practitioner
Transport through an impurity tunnel coupled to a Si/SiGe quantum dot
Achieving controllable coupling of dopants in silicon is crucial for
operating donor-based qubit devices, but it is difficult because of the small
size of donor-bound electron wavefunctions. Here we report the characterization
of a quantum dot coupled to a localized electronic state, and we present
evidence of controllable coupling between the quantum dot and the localized
state. A set of measurements of transport through this device enable the
determination of the most likely location of the localized state, consistent
with an electronically active impurity in the quantum well near the edge of the
quantum dot. The experiments we report are consistent with a gate-voltage
controllable tunnel coupling, which is an important building block for hybrid
donor and gate-defined quantum dot devices.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
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