933 research outputs found
The role of legumes in the sustainable intensification of African smallholder agriculture: Lessons learnt and challenges for the future.
Grain legumes play a key role in smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), in relation to food and nutrition security and income generation. Moreover, because of their N2-fixation capacity, such legumes can also have a positive influence on soil fertility. Notwithstanding many decades of research on the agronomy of grain legumes, their N2-fixation capacity, and their contribution to overall system productivity, several issues remain to be resolved to realize fully the benefits of grain legumes. In this paper we highlight major lessons learnt and expose key knowledge gaps in relation to grain legumes and their contributions to farming system productivity. The symbiosis between legumes and rhizobia forms the basis for its benefits and biological N2-fixation (BNF) relies as much on the legume genotype as on the rhizobial strains. As such, breeding grain legumes for BNF deserves considerably more attention. Even promiscuous varieties usually respond to inoculation, and as African soils contain a huge pool of unexploited biodiversity with potential to contribute elite rhizobial strains, strain selection should go hand-in-hand with legume breeding for N2-fixation. Although inoculated strains can outcompete indigenous strains, our understanding of what constitutes a good competitor is rudimentary, as well as which factors affect the persistence of inoculated rhizobia, which in its turn determines whether a farmer needs to re-inoculate each and every season. Although it is commonly assumed that indigenous rhizobia are better adapted to local conditions than elite strains used in inoculants, there is little evidence that this is the case. The problems of delivering inoculants to smallholders through poorly-developed supply chains in Africa necessitates inoculants based on sterile carriers with long shelf life. Other factors critical for a well-functioning symbiosis are also central to the overall productivity of grain legumes. Good agronomic practices, including the use of phosphorus (P)-containing fertilizer, improve legume yields though responses to inputs are usually very variable. In some situations, a considerable proportion of soils show no response of legumes to applied inputs, often referred to as non-responsive soils. Understanding the causes underlying this phenomenon is limited and hinders the uptake of legume agronomy practices. Grain legumes also contribute to the productivity of farming systems, although such effects are commonly greater in rotational than in intercropping systems. While most cropping systems allow for the integration of legumes, intercropped legumes provide only marginal benefits to associated crops. Important rotational benefits have been shown for most grain legumes though those with the highest N accumulation and lowest N harvest index appear to demonstrate higher residual benefits. N balance estimates often results in contradictory observations, mostly caused by the lack of understanding of belowground contributions of legumes to the N balance. Lastly, the ultimate condition for increased uptake of grain legumes by smallholder farmers lies in the understanding of how legume technologies and management practices can be tailored to the enormous diversity of agroecologies, farming systems, and smallholder farms in SSA. In conclusion, while research on grain legumes has revealed a number of important insights that will guide realization of the full potential of such legumes to the sustainable intensification of smallholder farming systems in SSA, many research challenges remain to be addressed to realize the full potential of BNF in these systems.</p
Topological Expansion and Exponential Asymptotics in 1D Quantum Mechanics
Borel summable semiclassical expansions in 1D quantum mechanics are
considered. These are the Borel summable expansions of fundamental solutions
and of quantities constructed with their help. An expansion, called
topological,is constructed for the corresponding Borel functions. Its main
property is to order the singularity structure of the Borel plane in a
hierarchical way by an increasing complexity of this structure starting from
the analytic one. This allows us to study the Borel plane singularity structure
in a systematic way. Examples of such structures are considered for linear,
harmonic and anharmonic potentials. Together with the best approximation
provided by the semiclassical series the exponentially small contribution
completing the approximation are considered. A natural method of constructing
such an exponential asymptotics relied on the Borel plane singularity
structures provided by the topological expansion is developed. The method is
used to form the semiclassical series including exponential contributions for
the energy levels of the anharmonic oscillator.Comment: 46 pages, 22 EPS figure
No Ending Point in The Bragg-to-Vortex Glass Phase Transition Line at Low Temperatures
We have measured the magnetic hysteresis loops and the magnetic relaxation
for (Bi-2212) single crystals which exhibit the
second magnetization peak effect. Although no second peak effect is observed
below 20 K in the measurement with fast field sweeping rate, it is found that
the second peak effect will appear again after long time relaxation or in a
measurement with very slow field sweeping rate at 16 K. It is anticipated that
the peak effect will appear at very low temperatures (approaching zero K) when
the relaxation time is long enough. We attribute this phenomenon to the profile
of the interior magnetic field and conclude that the phase transition line of
Bragg glass to vortex glass has no ending point at low temperatures.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Effect of electron irradiation on vortex dynamics in YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-x} single crystals
We report on drastic change of vortex dynamics with increase of quenched
disorder: for rather weak disorder we found a single vortex creep regime, which
we attribute to a Bragg-glass phase, while for enhanced disorder we found an
increase of both the depinning current and activation energy with magnetic
field, which we attribute to entangled vortex phase. We also found that
introduction of additional defects always increases the depinning current, but
it increases activation energy only for elastic vortex creep, while it
decreases activation energy for plastic vortex creep.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submited to Phys. Rev.
Hysteretic behavior of the vortex lattice at the onset of the second peak for HgBaCuO superconductor
By means of local Hall probe ac and dc permeability measurements we
investigated the phase diagram of vortex matter for the HgBaCuO superconductor in the regime near the critical temperature. The second peak
line, , in contrast to what is usually assumed, doesn't terminate
at the critical temperature. Our local ac permeability measurements revealed
pronounced hysteretic behavior and thermomagnetic history effects near the
onset of the second peak, giving evidence for a phase transition of vortex
matter from an ordered qausilattice state to a disordered glass
Habitat filtering determines spatial variation of macroinvertebrate community traits in northern headwater streams
Although our knowledge of the spatial distribution of stream organisms has been increasing rapidly in the last decades, there is still little consensus about trait-based variability of macroinvertebrate communities within and between catchments in near-pristine systems. Our aim was to examine the taxonomic and trait based stability vs. variability of stream macroinvertebrates in three high-latitude catchments in Finland. The collected taxa were assigned to unique trait combinations (UTCs) using biological traits. We found that only a single or a highly limited number of taxa formed a single UTC, suggesting a low degree of redundancy. Our analyses revealed significant differences in the environmental conditions of the streams among the three catchments. Linear models, rarefaction curves and beta-diversity measures showed that the catchments differed in both alpha and beta diversity. Taxon- and trait-based multivariate analyses also indicated that the three catchments were significantly different in terms of macroinvertebrate communities. All these findings suggest that habitat filtering, i.e., environmental differences among catchments, determines the variability of macroinvertebrate communities, thereby contributing to the significant biological differences among the catchments. The main implications of our study is that the sensitivity of trait-based analyses to natural environmental variation should be carefully incorporated in the assessment of environmental degradation, and that further studies are needed for a deeper understanding of trait-based community patterns across near-pristine streams
Consistency, variability, and predictability of on-farm nutrient responses in four grain legumes across east and west Africa
Open Access Article; Published online: 26 May 2023Grain legumes are key components of sustainable production systems in sub-Saharan Africa, but wide-spread nutrient deficiencies severely restrict yields. Whereas legumes can meet a large part of their nitrogen (N) requirement through symbiosis with N2-fixing bacteria, elements such as phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and secondary and micronutrients may still be limiting and require supplementation. Responses to P are generally strong but variable, while evidence for other nutrients tends to show weak or highly localised effects. Here we present the results of a joint statistical analysis of a series of on-farm nutrient addition trials, implemented across four legumes in four countries over two years. Linear mixed models were used to quantify both mean nutrient responses and their variability, followed by a random forest analysis to determine the extent to which such variability can be explained or predicted by geographic, environmental or farm survey data. Legume response to P was indeed variable, but consistently positive and we predicted application to be profitable for 67% of farms in any given year, based on prevailing input costs and grain prices. Other nutrients did not show significant mean effects, but considerable response variation was found. This response heterogeneity was mostly associated with local or temporary factors and could not be explained or predicted by spatial, biophysical or management factors. An exception was K response, which displayed appreciable spatial variation that could be partly accounted for by spatial and environmental covariables. While of apparent relevance for targeted recommendations, the minor amplitude of expected response, the large proportion of unexplained variation and the unreliability of the predicted spatial patterns suggests that such data-driven targeting is unlikely to be effective with current data
Instabilities and disorder-driven first-order transition of the vortex lattice
Transport studies in a Corbino disk geometry suggest that the Bragg glass
phase undergoes a first-order transition into a disordered solid. This
transition shows a sharp reentrant behavior at low fields. In contrast, in the
conventional strip configuration, the phase transition is obscured by the
injection of the disordered vortices through the sample edges, which results in
the commonly observed vortex instabilities and smearing of the peak effect in
NbSe2 crystals. These features are found to be absent in the Corbino geometry,
in which the circulating vortices do not cross the sample edges.Comment: 12 pages 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review
Letter
First Measurement of pi e -> pi e gamma Pion Virtual Compton Scattering
Pion Virtual Compton Scattering (VCS) via the reaction pi e --> pi e gamma
was observed in the Fermilab E781 SELEX experiment. SELEX used a 600 GeV/c pi-
beam incident on target atomic electrons, detecting the incident pi- and the
final state pi-, electron and gamma. Theoretical predictions based on chiral
perturbation theory are incorporated into a Monte Carlo simulation of the
experiment and are compared to the data. The number of reconstructed events (9)
and their distribution with respect to the kinematic variables (for the
kinematic region studied) are in reasonable accord with the predictions. The
corresponding pi- VCS experimental cross section is sigma=38.8+-13 nb, in
agreement with the theoretical expectation sigma=34.7 nb.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables, 25 references, SELEX home page is
http://fn781a.fnal.gov/, revised July 21, 2002 in response to journal referee
Comment
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