Commercial scale economic evaluation of post-harvest cane cleaning to maximise the returns to the supply chain.

This project examined three cane supply treatments; Commercial harvesting, Low Loss harvesting and Low Loss Harvesting plus cleaning; to determine if post-harvest cane cleaning offered benefits over harvesting alone. As a basic concept, it was expected that reducing harvester extractor fan speed would reduce cane loss, resulting in increased CCS yield but also increased trash content, and that the post-harvest cane cleaning operation would remove the additional trash, maintaining the higher CCS yield. To facilitate this project, a mobile cane cleaner (MCC) was purchased from Norris ECT by SRA. The MCC was leased by the project from SRA. Major modifications to the cleaning chamber of the NorrisECT 180 mobile cane cleaner (MCC 180) were necessary. The MCC was a prototype machine not suitable for commercial use. The results did support the expectation of higher CCS yield with lower extractor fan speed, but much of the higher yield measured by low loss harvesting was lost after post-harvest cane cleaning. Economic analysis quantified harvesting costs and the resulting product income. In an experiment on Rajinder Singh’s farm, the treatment with post-harvest cane cleaning was found to be less economically attractive than the normal harvesting treatment, even with the lower transport cost in getting cane to Mossman Mill, a distance of 95 km. The project did not measure an increase in CCS yield from the low loss harvesting plus cane cleaning treatment to improve upon sugar income

Geothermal energy in a sustainable built environment

Geothermal energy is usually perceived to be about gushing geysers and bubbling mud pools and limited to only the small volcanically active parts of the Earth’s surface. Nothing could be further from the truth. Geothermal energy is in fact an incredible store of energy found in all parts of the world which is beginning to be understood and used for our sustainable future. There are two basic forms of this energy. One form (sometimes referred to as hot dry rocks or enhanced geothermal systems), makes use of the heat (>200°C) in the rocks at depths of up to about 5 kms to produce electricity from extracted (but returnable) hot water. There are several locations around the world where “proof of concept” stage has been or about to be reached suggesting that within the next few years, these systems may be providing a significant proportion of our base-load electricity. The other form makes use of the heat (and the cooling potential) of the soils and rocks within the upper few tens of metres from the surface to heat and cool buildings. It involves the circulation of a fluid through pipes built into building foundations or in specifically drilled boreholes, and back to the surface where heat stored in the fluid is extracted by a heat pump, and used to heat a building. The cooled fluid is reinjected into the ground loops to heat up again to complete the cycle. In cooling mode, the system is reversed with heat taken out of the building transferred to the fluid which is injected underground to dump the extra heat to the ground. The cooled fluid then returns to the heat pump to receive more heat. There are many thousands of these systems installed around the world but many counties have been slow to pick up on their enormous potential. The paper explains how these systems work and looks at some of the issues which require attention in the near future for geothermal energy to become a truly sustainable, renewable and most importantly, continuous, energy source

Isotopic Scaling of Heavy Projectile Residues from the collisions of 25 MeV/nucleon 86Kr with 124Sn, 112Sn and 64Ni, 58Ni

The scaling of the yields of heavy projectile residues from the reactions of 25 MeV/nucleon 86Kr projectiles with 124Sn,112Sn and 64Ni, 58Nitargets is studied. Isotopically resolved yield distributions of projectile fragments in the range Z=10-36 from these reaction pairs were measured with the MARS recoil separator in the angular range 2.7-5.3 degrees. The velocities of the residues, monotonically decreasing with Z down to Z~26-28, are employed to characterize the excitation energy. The yield ratios R21(N,Z) for each pair of systems are found to exhibit isotopic scaling (isoscaling), namely, an exponential dependence on the fragment atomic number Z and neutron number N. The isoscaling is found to occur in the residue Z range corresponding to the maximum observed excitation energies. The corresponding isoscaling parameters are alpha=0.43 and beta=-0.50 for the Kr+Sn system and alpha=0.27 and beta=-0.34 for the Kr+Ni system. For the Kr+Sn system, for which the experimental angular acceptance range lies inside the grazing angle, isoscaling was found to occur for Z<26 and N<34. For heavier fragments from Kr+Sn, the parameters vary monotonically, alpha decreasing with Z and beta increasing with N. This variation is found to be related to the evolution towards isospin equilibration and, as such, it can serve as a tracer of the N/Z equilibration process. The present heavy-residue data extend the observation of isotopic scaling from the intermediate mass fragment region to the heavy-residue region. Such high-resolution mass spectrometric data can provide important information on the role of isospin in peripheral and mid-peripheral collisions, complementary to that accessible from modern large-acceptance multidetector devices.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Heavy Residue Isoscaling as a Probe of the Process of N/Z Equilibration

The isotopic and isobaric scaling behavior of the yield ratios of heavy projectile residues from the collisions of 25 MeV/nucleon 86Kr projectiles on 124Sn and 112Sn targets is investigated and shown to provide information on the process of N/Z equilibration occurring between the projectile and the target. The logarithmic slopes $\alpha$ and $\beta^{'}$ of the residue yield ratios with respect to residue neutron number N and neutron excess N--Z are obtained as a function of the atomic number Z and mass number A, respectively, whereas excitation energies are deduced from velocities. The relation of the isoscaling parameters $\alpha$ and $\beta^{'}$ with the N/Z of the primary (excited) projectile fragments is employed to gain access to the degree of N/Z equilibration prior to fragmentation as a function of excitation energy. A monotonic relation between the N/Z difference of fragmenting quasiprojectiles and their excitation energy is obtained indicating that N/Z equilibrium is approached at the highest observed excitation energies. Simulations with a deep-inelastic transfer model are in overall agreement with the isoscaling conclusions. The present residue isoscaling approach to N/Z equilibration offers an attractive tool of isospin and reaction dynamics studies in collisions involving beams of stable or rare isotopes.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Iberian late-Variscan granitoids: Some considerations on crustal sources and the significance of “mantle extraction ages

A suite of post-tectonic granitoids (mostly peraluminous, broadly I-type granodiorites and monzogranites) and mafic rocks from NWIberia with crystallization ages between ca. 309 and 290 Ma has been investigated for Sm–Nd isotopes and inherited zircon content in order to constrain the nature of their source rocks. εNd values (at 300 Ma) vary from −0.2 to −5.9 and TDM values range from 1.01 to 1.58 Ga. Inherited (xenocrystic) zircons yielded ages ranging from 458 to 676 Ma, with 90% of data between 490 and 646 Ma, corresponding to Neoproterozoic(mostly Ediacaran), Cambrian andOrdovician ages. Only three highlydiscordant analyses yielded ages older than 650 Ma. Based on the data reported herein and relevant data fromthe literaturewe contend that post-tectonic granitoids of the Iberian Variscan Belt (with exception of the scarce anatectic S-type granitoids) were derived mostly from metaigneous lower crustal sources which in turn were ultimately derived from a subcontinental lithospheric mantle enriched between ca. 0.9 and 1.1 Ga. I-type granitoids and mantle-derived mafic rocks both underwent varying degrees of contamination by ametasedimentary lower crust depleted in pre-650 Ma zircon (through previousmelting episodes) with a time-integrated Sm–Nd evolution different to that of the metaigneous lower crust. Participation of this metasedimentary crust in the genesis of these granitoids may account for Nd isotopic variability and Nd model ages well in excess of 1.2 Ga

Finding Faint Intermediate-mass Black Holes in the Radio Band

We discuss the prospects for detecting faint intermediate-mass black holes, such as those predicted to exist in the cores of globular clusters and dwarf spheroidal galaxies. We briefly summarize the difficulties of stellar dynamical searches, then show that recently discovered relations between black hole mass, X-ray luminosity and radio luminosity imply that in most cases, these black holes should be more easily detected in the radio than in the X-rays. Finally, we show upper limits from some radio observations of globular clusters, and discuss the possibility that the radio source in the core of the Ursa Minor dwarf spheroidal galaxy might be a $\sim 10,000-100,000 M_\odot$ black hole.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, to appear in From X-ray Binaries to Quasars: Black Hole Accretion on All Mass Scales, ed. T. J. Maccarone, R. P. Fender, and L. C. Ho (Dordrecht: Kluwer

Magnetic susceptibilities of diluted magnetic semiconductors and anomalous Hall-voltage noise

The carrier spin and impurity spin densities in diluted magnetic semiconductors are considered using a semiclassical approach. Equations of motions for the spin densities and the carrier spin current density in the paramagnetic phase are derived, exhibiting their coupled diffusive dynamics. The dynamical spin susceptibilities are obtained from these equations. The theory holds for p-type and n-type semiconductors doped with magnetic ions of arbitrary spin quantum number. Spin-orbit coupling in the valence band is shown to lead to anisotropic spin diffusion and to a suppression of the Curie temperature in p-type materials. As an application we derive the Hall-voltage noise in the paramagnetic phase. This quantity is critically enhanced close to the Curie temperature due to the contribution from the anomalous Hall effect.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure include

Strange Quark Contributions to Parity-Violating Asymmetries in the Forward G0 Electron-Proton Scattering Experiment

We have measured parity-violating asymmetries in elastic electron-proton scattering over the range of momentum transfers 0.12 < Q^2 < 1.0 GeV^2. These asymmetries, arising from interference of the electromagnetic and neutral weak interactions, are sensitive to strange quark contributions to the currents of the proton. The measurements were made at JLab using a toroidal spectrometer to detect the recoiling protons from a liquid hydrogen target. The results indicate non-zero, Q^2 dependent, strange quark contributions and provide new information beyond that obtained in previous experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure