Climate-Related Risks and Management Issues Facing Agriculture in the Southeast: Interviews with Extension Professionals

To explore Extension professionals\u27 perceptions of the potential impact of climate variability and climate change on agriculture and to identify the top climate-related issues facing farmers, we conducted interviews with agricultural Extension personnel from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Of those interviewed, 92% believed climate change will affect agriculture a moderate amount or a great deal. Qualitative analyses revealed that the Extension professionals considered scarcity of water resources, temperature fluctuations, pest and disease pressures, forecast challenges, seasonal variability, and adaptation strategies as among the most important climate-related issues affecting agriculture in the Southeast

From Resistance to Receptiveness: Farmer Willingness to Participate in Extension Discussions About Climate Variability and Climate Change

Identifying what Extension professionals believe are the critical elements of a communication strategy that is most likely to encourage agricultural producers to participate in discussions of climate variability and climate change is pivotal to providing timely solutions to issues facing farmers. The current study involved interviews with 50 Extension professionals from four southeastern states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina) who were engaged in ongoing work related to climate and agriculture. Respondents were asked to assess how best to engage farmers in conversations related to climate variability and climate change. Qualitative analysis showed that Extension professionals recommended avoiding content related to politics, attribution of climate change to human causes, and telling farmers what to do. Respondents recommended emphasizing adaptation strategies, climate variability over climate change, evidence that climate change exists, and the financial benefits for farmers. In addition, Extension professionals proposed several delivery methods they thought would be most effective with farmers, including delivery tailored to the characteristics of the audience, a positive overall tone, and an understanding that engagement should be viewed as a long-term process based on building relationships with farmers. The findings suggest that farmers are a potentially receptive audience on climate issues when properly approached

Profitability, Engaging Delivery, and Trust: How Extension Professionals Can Optimize Farmer Adoption of Climate-related Adaptation Strategies

This study examined Extension professionals’ perspectives on how to optimize the chances that farmers will adopt climate adaptation strategies designed to minimize risks associated with climate variability and climate change. In-depth interviews were conducted with Extension professionals in four southeastern states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina). Responses were coded and analyzed, resulting in three recommendations. First, focus on profitability and issues of immediate concern to farmers. Second, use engaging delivery methods, especially field trials conducted under realistic conditions. Third, build trust with farmers, primarily by focusing on research-based information. This study has practical implications for how Extension professionals should approach the work of addressing climate issues in agriculture

Crystal-field effects in Er 3 + - and Yb 3 + -doped hexagonal NaYF 4 nanoparticles

Since the up-conversion phenomenon in rare-earths (REs) doped NaYF4 is strongly affected by the crystal electric field (CF), determining the CF parameters, wave functions, and scheme of the energy levels of the RE J multiplets could be crucial to improve and tune the up-conversion efficiency. In this work, the temperature and magnetic field dependent magnetization of NaY1−x[Er(Yb)]xF4 hexagonal nanoparticles (NPs) is reported. The data were best fit using the appropriated CF Hamiltonian for the J=15/2(J=7/2) ground state multiplet of Er3+(Yb3+) ions. The B02, B04, B06, and B66 CF parameters were considered in the Hamiltonian for RE ions located at the hexagonal C3h point symmetry site of the NaYF4 host lattice. These results allowed us to predict an overall CF splitting of ∼214 (∼356 ) for Er3+(Yb3+) and the wave functions and their energy levels for the J=15/2 (J=7/2) ground state multiplet which are in good agreement with the low temperature electron spin resonance experiments. Besides, our measurements allowed us to calculate all the excited CF J multiplets that yield to a good estimation of the up-conversion light emission linewidth. The nonlinear optical light emission of the studied NaY1−x[Er(Yb)]xF4 hexagonal NPs was also compared with the most efficient up-conversion codoped NaY1−x−yErxY by F4 hexagonal NPs.Fil: García Flores, A. F.. Universidade Federal do ABC; BrasilFil: Matias, J.S.. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Garcia, D. J.. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Martínez, E. D.. Instituto de Física “Gleb Wataghin”, Unicamp; BrasilFil: Cornaglia de la Cruz, Pablo Sebastian. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Lesseux, G.G.. Instituto de Física “Gleb Wataghin”, Unicamp; BrasilFil: Ribeiro, R. A.. Universidade Federal do ABC; BrasilFil: Urbano, R. R.. Instituto de Física “Gleb Wataghin”, Unicamp; BrasilFil: Rettori, C.. Instituto de Física “Gleb Wataghin”, Unicamp; Brasil. Universidade Federal do ABC; Brasi

Binary classification of spoken words with passive elastic metastructures

Many electronic devices spend most of their time waiting for a wake-up event: pacemakers waiting for an anomalous heartbeat, security systems on alert to detect an intruder, smartphones listening for the user to say a wake-up phrase. These devices continuously convert physical signals into electrical currents that are then analyzed on a digital computer -- leading to power consumption even when no event is taking place. Solving this problem requires the ability to passively distinguish relevant from irrelevant events (e.g. tell a wake-up phrase from a regular conversation). Here, we experimentally demonstrate an elastic metastructure, consisting of a network of coupled silicon resonators, that passively discriminates between pairs of spoken words -- solving the wake-up problem for scenarios where only two classes of events are possible. This passive speech recognition is demonstrated on a dataset from speakers with significant gender and accent diversity. The geometry of the metastructure is determined during the design process, in which the network of resonators ('mechanical neurones') learns to selectively respond to spoken words. Training is facilitated by a machine learning model that reduces the number of computationally expensive three-dimensional elastic wave simulations. By embedding event detection in the structural dynamics, mechanical neural networks thus enable novel classes of always-on smart devices with no standby power consumption.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Potential ecological and socio-economic effects of a novel megaherbivore introduction: the hippopotamus in Colombia

Introduced species can have strong ecological, social and economic effects on their non-native environment. Introductions of megafaunal species are rare and may contribute to rewilding efforts, but they may also have pronounced socio-ecological effects because of their scale of influence. A recent introduction of the hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius into Colombia is a novel introduction of a megaherbivore onto a new continent, and raises questions about the future dynamics of the socio-ecological system into which it has been introduced. Here we synthesize current knowledge about the Colombian hippopotamus population, review the literature on the species to predict potential ecological and socio-economic effects of this introduction, and make recommendations for future study. Hippopotamuses can have high population growth rates (7–11%) and, on the current trajectory, we predict there could be 400–800 individuals in Colombia by 2050. The hippopotamus is an ecosystem engineer that can have profound effects on terrestrial and aquatic environments and could therefore affect the native biodiversity of the Magdalena River basin. Hippopotamuses are also aggressive and may pose a threat to the many inhabitants of the region who rely upon the Magdalena River for their livelihoods, although the species could provide economic benefits through tourism. Further research is needed to quantify the current and future size and distribution of this hippopotamus population and to predict the likely ecological, social and economic effects. This knowledge must be balanced with consideration of social and cultural concerns to develop appropriate management strategies for this novel introduction

Structure of the mantle beneath the Alboran basin from magnetotelluric soundings

We present results of marine MT acquisition in the Alboran sea that also incorporates previously acquired land MT from southern Spain into our analysis. The marine data show complex MT response functions with strong distortion due to seafloor topography and the coastline, but inclusion of high resolution topography and bathymetry and a seismically defined sediment unit into a 3D inversion model has allowed us to image the structure in the underlying mantle. The resulting resistivity model is broadly consistent with a geodynamic scenario that includes subduction of an eastward trending plate beneath Gibraltar, which plunges nearly vertically beneath the Alboran. Our model contains three primary features of interest: a resistive body beneath the central Alboran, which extends to a depth of ~150 km. At this depth, the mantle resistivity decreases to values of ~100 Ohm-m, slightly higher than those seen in typical asthenosphere at the same depth. This transition suggests a change in slab properties with depth, perhaps reflecting a change in the nature of the seafloor subducted in the past. Two conductive features in our model suggest the presence of fluids released by the subducting slab or a small amount of partial melt in the upper mantle (or both). Of these, the one in the center of the Alboran basin, in the uppermost-mantle (20-30km depth) beneath Neogene volcanics and west of the termination of the Nekkor Fault, is consistent with geochemical models, which infer highly thinned lithosphere and shallow melting in order to explain the petrology of seafloor volcanics

Magnetostriction reveals orthorhombic distortion in tetragonal Gd compounds

We report detailed thermal expansion and magnetostriction experiments on GdCoIn5 and GdRh(In1-xCdx)5 (x=0 and 0.025) single-crystal samples that show a sudden change in the dilation at a field Bâ for temperatures below the Néel transition temperature TN. We present a first-principles model including crystal-field effects, dipolar and exchange interactions, and the dependence of the latter with lattice distortions in order to fully account for the magnetostriction and magnetic susceptibility data. The mean-field solution of the model shows that a transition between metastable states occurs at the field Bâ. It also indicates that two degenerate phases should coexist at temperatures below TN, which may explain the lack of observation, in high-resolution x-ray experiments, of an orthorhombic distortion at the Néel transition, even though the experimentally determined magnetic structure breaks the tetragonal symmetry and the magnetoelastic coupling from our model is significant. These conclusions could be extended to other tetragonal Gd-based compounds that present the same phenomenology.Fil: Betancourth Giraldo, Diana Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Correa, Víctor Félix. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Facio, Jorge Ismael. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Fernández, J.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; ArgentinaFil: Vildosola, Veronica Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; ArgentinaFil: Lora Serrano, R.. Universidade Federal de Uberlandia; Brasil. University of New South Wales; AustraliaFil: Cadogan, J.M.. University of New South Wales; AustraliaFil: Aligia, Armando Ángel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Cornaglia de la Cruz, Pablo Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; ArgentinaFil: Garcia, Daniel Julio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentin

Observation of a phononic quadrupole topological insulator

The modern theory of charge polarization in solids is based on a generalization of Berry’s phase. The possibility of the quantization of this phase arising from parallel transport in momentum space is essential to our understanding of systems with topological band structures. Although based on the concept of charge polarization, this same theory can also be used to characterize the Bloch bands of neutral bosonic systems such as photonic or phononic crystals. The theory of this quantized polarization has recently been extended from the dipole moment to higher multipole moments. In particular, a two-dimensional quantized quadrupole insulator is predicted to have gapped yet topological one-dimensional edge modes, which stabilize zero-dimensional in-gap corner states. However, such a state of matter has not previously been observed experimentally. Here we report measurements of a phononic quadrupole topological insulator. We experimentally characterize the bulk, edge and corner physics of a mechanical metamaterial (a material with tailored mechanical properties) and find the predicted gapped edge and in-gap corner states. We corroborate our findings by comparing the mechanical properties of a topologically non-trivial system to samples in other phases that are predicted by the quadrupole theory. These topological corner states are an important stepping stone to the experimental realization of topologically protected wave guides in higher dimensions, and thereby open up a new path for the design of metamaterials