Magnetism and Electronic Correlations in Quasi-One-Dimensional Compounds

In this contribution on the celebration of the 80th birthday anniversary of Prof. Ricardo Ferreira, we present a brief survey on the magnetism of quasi-one-dimensional compounds. This has been a research area of intense activity particularly since the first experimental announcements of magnetism in organic and organometallic polymers in the mid 80s. We review experimental and theoretical achievements on the field, featuring chain systems of correlated electrons in a special AB2 unit cell structure present in inorganic and organic compounds

Effect of dairy effluents pre-treatment on N2O emissions and N-organic degradation after soil application

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas that plays a key role in climatic forcing contributing to the greenhouse effect by about 4 %, and also contributes to stratospheric ozone depletion. Cattle slurries are commonly applied to agricultural soils, inducing an increase of soil nitrous oxide emissions. Therefore, many procedures were developed for slurry pre-treatment in order to improve soil slurry application and reduce nitrogen losses, namely N2O emissions. The aim of this work was to compare N2O emissions and the kinetic of N organic degradation from treated and untreated cattle-slurry after its incorporation in agricultural soils

Separação de sólidos e nutrientes com PAM e bentonite em chorumes bovinos

A separação de sólidos do chorume e a aplicação de agentes floculantes à fracção líquida obtida constituem processos de tratamento deste efluente pecuário que permitem a obtenção de materiais com características distintas que ampliam as opções de utilização e de gestão do chorume. A redução do teor de sólidos e nutrientes na fracção sobrenadante apresenta vantagens em termos de odores, armazenamento, tratamento, aplicação aos solos e irrigação. Este trabalho teve como objectivo avaliar a utilização dos agentes floculantes poliacrilamida (PAM) e bentonite na remoção de sólidos e nutrientes da fracção líquida do chorume de explorações de bovinicultura leiteira. O trabalho experimental decorreu em Vila do Conde durante 2004, numa exploração de bovinicultura leiteira intensiva. O chorume bruto foi sujeito a separação mecânica de sólidos. Posteriormente a fracção líquida obtida foi bombeada para recipientes, e definiram-se 3 tratamentos com 2 repetições: controlo, adição de 200 mg L -1 de PAM e adição de 2 g L -1 de bentonite. Após a aplicação dos floculantes foram recolhidas amostras às fracções sobrenadante e sedimentada nos tempos 0, 2, 4, 20 e 30 horas. Essas amostras foram analisadas relativamente à concentração de N Kjeldahl, P e K totais, N-NH4 + , P solúvel em água, C orgânico solúvel em água, valor de pH e %MS. A separação mecânica do chorume bruto conduziu a uma eficiência de remoção pela fracção sólida obtida de 22, 25, 44 e 21%, respectivamente, dos teores de N Kjeldahl, P total, P solúvel em água e MS. Quanto à capacidade de remoção dos floculantes, a aplicação de PAM conduziu à eficiência de remoção da fracção sobrenadante de 46, 40, 65, 57 e 40%, respectivamente para o N Kjeldahl, P e K totais, P solúvel em água e MS; e a aplicação de bentonite a remoções de 19, 21, 11, 16 e 12%

Conservation of Orbital Angular Momentum in Stimulated Down-Conversion

We report on an experiment demonstrating the conservation of orbital angular momentum in stimulated down-conversion. The orbital angular momentum is not transferred to the individual beams of the spontaneous down-conversion, but it is conserved when twin photons are taken individually. We observe the conservation law for an individual beam of the down-conversion through cavity-free stimulated emission.Comment: Submitted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Influence of two nitrification inhibitors (DCD and DMPP) on annual ryegrass yield and soil mineral N dynamics after incorporation with cattle slurry

Nitrogen (N) losses through nitrate leaching, occurring after slurry spreading, can be reduced by the use of nitrification inhibitors (NIs) such as dicyandiamide (DCD) and 3,4-dimethyl pyrazole phosphate (DMPP). In the present work, the effects of DCD and DMPP, applied at two rates with cattle slurry, on soil mineral N profiles, annual ryegrass yield, and N uptake were compared under similar pedoclimatic conditions. Both NIs delayed the nitrate formation in soil; however, DMPP ensured that the soil mineral N was predominantly in the ammonium form rather than in the nitrate form for about 100 days, whereas with DCD such effect was observed only during the first 40 days after sowing. Furthermore, the use of NIs led to an increase of the drymatter (DM) yields in a range of 32–54% and of the forage N removal in a range of 34–68% relative to the slurry-only (SO) treatment (without NIs). A DM yield of 8698 kg ha21 was obtained with the DMPP applied at the greater rate against only 7444 kg ha21 obtained with the greater rate of DCD (4767 kg ha21 in the SO treatment). Therefore, it can be concluded that DMPP is more efficient as an NI than DCD when combined with cattle slurr

3-3-1 exotic quark search at CERN LEPII-LHC

The 3-3-1 electroweak model is the simplest chiral extension of the standard model which predicts single and double charged bileptons and exotic quarks carrying -4/3 and 5/3 units of the positron charge. In this paper we study the possibilities of the production and decay of one of these exotic quarks at CERN LEPII-LHC collider. For typical vector bilepton, exotic quark masses and mixing angles we obtained between 20 and 750 events per year. Angular distributions are also presented.Comment: 5 pages, RevTex 3.1, 9 eps figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Manejo de campos de produção de sementes de Brachiaria humidicola "comum?": I - efeito de doses de nitrogênio1.

As baixas produtividades obtidas em áreas de produção de sementes de Brachiaria humidicola ?comum?, uma gramínea tropical usada como pastagem cultivada, são causadas por associação do curto período de retenção das sementes nas inflorescências e do marcante sincronismo da emergência das inflorescências. Em conseqüência, o período de disponibilidade das sementes puras à colheita é pequeno. O escalonamento da produção de sementes entre e dentro de campos permitiria estender os períodos de colheita e de uso de equipamentos em sistemas comerciais de produção dessas sementes. Neste trabalho foram avaliados os efeitos de doses de N para estender o período de colheita. Foram avaliadas cinco doses de N (0, 25, 50, 75 e 100 kg ha-1de N) aplicadas em cobertura na forma de uréia, no início da estação chuvosa do ano 2.000. Amostras de sementes foram colhidas após 66, 69 e 72 dias da aplicação do N. Os efeitos dos tratamentos foram estimados em termos de produtividade potencial de sementes puras e germináveis e de vários componentes da produção de sementes. A época de maior disponibilidade de sementes puras à colheita e o período da disponibilidade variaram em função da dose de N. A maior produtividade potencial (295 kg ha-1) foi obtida com 75 kg ha-1de N. A máxima produtividade resultante da aplicação de 50 kg ha-1de N foi 16% menor e foi alcançada quatro dias mais tarde. Apesar dos efeitos sobre a disponibilização à colheita haverem ocorrido à custa de redução da produtividade, o uso de diferentes doses de N pode contribuir à redução de riscos e de custos na produção de sementes dessa espécie

Controlling a resonant transmission across the δ′\delta'-potential: the inverse problem

Recently, the non-zero transmission of a quantum particle through the one-dimensional singular potential given in the form of the derivative of Dirac's delta function, $\lambda \delta'(x)$, with $\lambda \in \R$, being a potential strength constant, has been discussed by several authors. The transmission occurs at certain discrete values of $\lambda$ forming a resonance set ${\lambda_n}_{n=1}^\infty$. For $\lambda \notin {\lambda_n}_{n=1}^\infty$ this potential has been shown to be a perfectly reflecting wall. However, this resonant transmission takes place only in the case when the regularization of the distribution $\delta'(x)$ is constructed in a specific way. Otherwise, the $\delta'$-potential is fully non-transparent. Moreover, when the transmission is non-zero, the structure of a resonant set depends on a regularizing sequence $\Delta'_\varepsilon(x)$ that tends to $\delta'(x)$ in the sense of distributions as $\varepsilon \to 0$. Therefore, from a practical point of view, it would be interesting to have an inverse solution, i.e. for a given $\bar{\lambda} \in \R$ to construct such a regularizing sequence $\Delta'_\varepsilon(x)$ that the $\delta'$-potential at this value is transparent. If such a procedure is possible, then this value $\bar{\lambda}$ has to belong to a corresponding resonance set. The present paper is devoted to solving this problem and, as a result, the family of regularizing sequences is constructed by tuning adjustable parameters in the equations that provide a resonance transmission across the $\delta'$-potential.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures. Corrections to the published version added; http://iopscience.iop.org/1751-8121/44/37/37530

Fluorescence and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for early cancer detection using a new strategy towards the development of a miniaturized system

This paper describes the design of a miniature, cost-effective spectroscopy system for assessing tissue biochemical and morphological information using a few wavelengths. This instrument will integrate thin-film optical filters and silicon photodiodes, avoiding the use of a spectrograph and optical fibers. The components in the set-up design are described. The feasibility of using only 16 wavelengths to accurately extract tissue properties is confirmed on physical tissue models. Also, the suitable spectral performance of several optical filters for the selection of these wavelengths is demonstrated. The small size of this device will enable implementation in an endoscopic capsule.This research was supported by the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology and the MIT|Portugal Program (SFRH/BD/38978/2007