Spatial variability of soil properties and soil erodibility in the Alqueva reservoir watershed

The aim of this work is to investigate how the spatial variability of soil properties and soil erodibility (K factor) were affected by the changes in land use allowed by irrigation with water from a reservoir in a semiarid area. To this end, three areas representative of different land uses (agroforestry grassland, lucerne crop and olive orchard) were studied within a 900 ha farm. The interrelationships between variables were analyzed by multivariate techniques and extrapolated using geostatistics. The results confirmed differences between land uses for all properties analyzed, which was explained mainly by the existence of diverse management practices (tillage, fertilization and irrigation), vegetation cover and local soil characteristics. Soil organic matter, clay and nitrogen content decreased significantly, while the K factor increased with intensive cultivation. The HJ-Biplot methodology was used to represent the variation of soil erodibility properties grouped in land uses. Native grassland was the least correlated with the other land uses. The K factor demonstrated high correlation mainly with very fine sand and silt. The maps produced with geostatistics were crucial to understand the current spatial variability in the Alqueva region. Facing the intensification of land-use conversion, a sustainable management is needed to introduce protective measures to control soil erosion

Evaporative cooling in a radio-frequency trap

A theoretical investigation for implementing a scheme of forced evaporative cooling in radio-frequency (rf) adiabatic potentials is presented. Supposing the atoms to be trapped by a rf field RF1, the cooling procedure is facilitated using a second rf source RF2. This second rf field produces a controlled coupling between the spin states dressed by RF1. The evaporation is then possible in a pulsed or continuous mode. In the pulsed case, atoms with a given energy are transferred into untrapped dressed states by abruptly switching off the interaction. In the continuous case, it is possible for energetic atoms to adiabatically follow the doubly-dressed states and escape out of the trap. Our results also show that when the frequencies of the fields RF1 and RF2 are separated by at least the Rabi frequency associated with RF1, additional evaporation zones appear which can make this process more efficient.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure

Auger electron spectroscopy study of oxidation of a PdCr alloy used for high-temperature sensors

A Pd-13 wt. percent Cr solid solution is a promising high-temperature strain gage alloy. In bulk form it has a number of properties that are desirable in a resistance strain gage material, such as a linear electrical resistance versus temperature curve to 1000 C and stable electrical resistance in air at 1000 C. However, unprotected fine wire gages fabricated from this alloy perform well only to 600 C. At higher temperatures severe oxidation degrades their electrical performance. In this work Auger electron spectroscopy was used to study the oxidation chemistry of the alloy wires and ribbons. Results indicate that the oxidation is caused by a complex mechanism that is not yet fully understood. As expected, during oxidation, a layer of chromium oxide is formed. This layer, however, forms beneath a layer of metallic palladium. The results of this study have increased the understanding of the oxidation mechanism of Pd-13 wt. percent Cr

Effect of nonadiabatic switching of dynamic perturbations in 1d Fermi systems

We study a two-dimensional fermionic QFT used to model 1D strongly correlated electrons in the presence of a time-dependent impurity that drives the system out of equilibrium. In contrast to previous investigations, we consider a dynamic barrier switched on at a finite time. We compute the total energy density (TED) of the system and establish two well defined regimes in terms of the relationship between the frequency of the time-dependent perturbation $\Omega$ and the electron energy $\omega$. Finally, we derive a relaxation time $t_{R}$ such that for times shorter than $t_{R}$ the finite-time switching process is relevant.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. Changed title. Added comments on backscattering. Added result for electrical current. Version accepted in PR

Brownian Motion in Robertson-Walker Space-Times from electromagnetic Vacuum Fluctuations

We consider classical particles coupled to the quantized electromagnetic field in the background of a spatially flat Robertson-Walker universe. We find that these particles typically undergo Brownian motion and acquire a non-zero mean squared velocity which depends upon the scale factor of the universe. This Brownian motion can be interpreted as due to non-cancellation of anti-correlated vacuum fluctuations in the time dependent background space-time. We consider several types of coupling to the electromagnetic field, including particles with net electric charge, a magnetic dipole moment, and electric polarizability. We also investigate several different model scale factors.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figure

Non-perturbative approach to backscattering off a dynamical impurity in 1D Fermi systems

We investigate the problem of backscattering off a time-dependent impurity in a one-dimensional electron gas. By combining the Schwinger-Keldysh method with an adiabatic approximation in order to deal with the corresponding out of equilibrium Dirac equation, we compute the total energy density (TED) of the system. We show how the free fermion TED is distorted by the backscattering amplitude and the geometry of the impurity.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, RevTex4. Appendix and some text added. Results and conclusions did not change. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Functional bosonization with time dependent perturbations

We extend a path-integral approach to bosonization previously developed in the framework of equilibrium Quantum Field Theories, to the case in which time-dependent interactions are taken into account. In particular we consider a non covariant version of the Thirring model in the presence of a dynamic barrier at zero temperature. By using the Closed Time Path (Schwinger-Keldysh) formalism, we compute the Green's function and the Total Energy Density of the system. Since our model contains the Tomonaga Luttinger model as a particular case, we make contact with recent results on non-equilibrium electronic systems.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

A current differential line protection using a synchronous reference frame approach

This paper presents a new approach for a current differential protection of the transmission lines. This approach is based on the Park transformation or ABC-dqo transformation. Using the ABC-dqo transformation the three phase quantities are transformed into a synchronous rotating reference frame. In this way, the line currents of the three phase system are measured and transformed into three dc components. So, immunity to problems such as sampling misalignment and time delay of the communication channel will be improved. Several test results are presented in order to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach

High-Risk Corneal Graft Rejection in the Setting of Previous Corneal Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV)-1 Infection

Acknowledgments The authors thank M. Robertson and R. Fordyce for technical support during the duration of the study. The work performed in Aberdeen was supported by grant from Action Medical Research UK (SP4328; London, England, UK), NHS Grampian Endowment grant (12/49; Aberdeen, Scotland, UK), and Saving Sight in Grampian (Charity No.SC002938; Aberdeen, Scotland, UK). The work performed in Pittsburgh was supported by a Fight for Sight Post-Doctoral Award (JEK; New York, NY, USA); unrestricted grants from the Western Pennsylvania Medical Eye Bank Foundation (Pittsburgh, PA, USA), Research to Prevent Blindness (New York, NY, USA), and the Eye and Ear Foundation of Pittsburgh (RLH; Pittsburgh, PA, USA); and National Institutes of Health Grants P30EY08098 (RLH; Bethesda, MD, USA) and EY10359 (RLH).Peer reviewedPublisher PD