395 research outputs found
Paving the way for nationally appropriate mitigation actions in the agricultural sector
Key messages
- Nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) in the agricultural sector can be elements in the pathway to food security, green growth and sustainable development.
- NAMAs can provide additional resources for climate-smart agriculture, where multiple benefits, including adaptation benefits, are generated alongside mitigation.
- Mitigation and adaptation are often inseparable and complementary in meeting multiple goals.
- NAMAs and national adaptation programmes of action (NAPAs) could be aligned to maximize synergies and co- benefits.
- Land-based mitigation and adaptation measures should be integrated for implementation at subnational levels.
- NAMAs require a proactive approach by developing countries and should build on existing planning processes, tools, and technologies.
- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) should encourage and enable a country-driven process for mitigation in agriculture. Moreover, developed countries must follow through on their commitments made under the Copenhagen Accord and Cancun Agreements to support mitigation actions in developing countries
Trapping and coherent manipulation of a Rydberg atom on a microfabricated device: a proposal
We propose to apply atom-chip techniques to the trapping of a single atom in
a circular Rydberg state. The small size of microfabricated structures will
allow for trap geometries with microwave cut-off frequencies high enough to
inhibit the spontaneous emission of the Rydberg atom, paving the way to
complete control of both external and internal degrees of freedom over very
long times. Trapping is achieved using carefully designed electric fields,
created by a simple pattern of electrodes. We show that it is possible to
excite, and then trap, one and only one Rydberg atom from a cloud of ground
state atoms confined on a magnetic atom chip, itself integrated with the
Rydberg trap. Distinct internal states of the atom are simultaneously trapped,
providing us with a two-level system extremely attractive for atom-surface and
atom-atom interaction studies. We describe a method for reducing by three
orders of magnitude dephasing due to Stark shifts, induced by the trapping
field, of the internal transition frequency. This allows for, in combination
with spin-echo techniques, maintenance of an internal coherence over times in
the second range. This method operates via a controlled light shift rendering
the two internal states' Stark shifts almost identical. We thoroughly identify
and account for sources of imperfection in order to verify at each step the
realism of our proposal.Comment: Accepted in EPJ
Laser nanotraps and nanotweezers for cold atoms: 3D gradient dipole force trap in the vicinity of Scanning Near-field Optical Microscope tip
Using a two-dipole model of an optical near-field of Scanning Near-field
Optical Microscope tip, i. e. taking into account contributions of magnetic and
electric dipoles, we propose and analyze a new type of 3D optical nanotrap
found for certain relations between electric and magnetic dipoles. Electric
field attains a minimum value in vacuum in the vicinity of the tip and hence
such a trap is quite suitable for manipulations with cold atoms.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Caries risk assessment in school children using a reduced Cariogram model without saliva tests
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To investigate the caries predictive ability of a reduced Cariogram model without salivary tests in schoolchildren.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study group consisted of 392 school children, 10-11 years of age, who volunteered after informed consent. A caries risk assessment was made at baseline with aid of the computer-based Cariogram model and expressed as "the chance of avoiding caries" and the children were divided into five risk groups. The caries increment (ÎDMFS) was extracted from the dental records and bitewing radiographs after 2 years. The reduced Cariogram was processed by omitting the variables "salivary mutans streptococci", "secretion rate" and "buffer capacity" one by one and finally all three. Differences between the total and reduced models were expressed as area under the ROC-curve.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The baseline caries prevalence in the study population was 40% (mean DMFS 0.87 ± 1.35) and the mean 2-year caries increment was 0.51 ± 1.06. Both Cariogram models displayed a statistically relationship with caries development (p < 0.05); more caries was found among those assessed with high risk compared to those with low risk. The combined sensitivity and specificity decreased after exclusion of the salivary tests and a statistically significant reduction of the area under the ROC-curve was displayed compared with the total Cariogram (p < 0.05). Among the salivary variables, omission of the mutans streptococci enumeration impaired the predictive ability the most.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The accuracy of caries prediction in school children was significantly impaired when the Cariogram model was applied without enumeration of salivary tests.</p
Trapping cold atoms near carbon nanotubes: thermal spin flips and Casimir-Polder potential
We investigate the possibility to trap ultracold atoms near the outside of a
metallic carbon nanotube (CN) which we imagine to use as a miniaturized
current-carrying wire. We calculate atomic spin flip lifetimes and compare the
strength of the Casimir-Polder potential with the magnetic trapping potential.
Our analysis indicates that the Casimir-Polder force is the dominant loss
mechanism and we compute the minimum distance to the carbon nanotube at which
an atom can be trapped.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
Analysis of an atom laser based on the spatial control of the scattering length
In this paper we analyze atom lasers based on the spatial modulation of the
scattering length of a Bose-Einstein Condensate. We demonstrate, through
numerical simulations and approximate analytical methods, the controllable
emission of matter-wave bursts and study the dependence of the process on the
spatial dependence of the scattering length along the axis of emission. We also
study the role of an additional modulation of the scattering length in time.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Atomic diffraction from nanostructured optical potentials
We develop a versatile theoretical approach to the study of cold-atom
diffractive scattering from light-field gratings by combining calculations of
the optical near-field, generated by evanescent waves close to the surface of
periodic nanostructured arrays, together with advanced atom wavepacket
propagation on this optical potential.Comment: 8 figures, 10 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Highly anisotropic Bose-Einstein condensates: crossover to lower dimensionality
We develop a simple analytical model based on a variational method to explain
the properties of trapped cylindrically symmetric Bose-Einstein condensates
(BEC) of varying degrees of anisotropy well into regimes of effective one
dimension (1D) and effective two dimension (2D). Our results are accurate in
regimes where the Thomas-Fermi approximation breaks down and they are shown to
be in agreement with recent experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; significantly more new material added; title and
author-list changed due to changes in conten
Spatially-resolved potential measurement with ion crystals
We present a method to measure potentials over an extended region using
one-dimensional ion crystals in a radio frequency (RF) ion trap. The
equilibrium spacings of the ions within the crystal allow the determination of
the external forces acting at each point. From this the overall potential, and
also potentials due to specific trap features, are calculated. The method can
be used to probe potentials near proximal objects in real time, and can be
generalized to higher dimensions.Comment: 7 pages (double spaced), 3 figure
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