Engineering of microfabricated ion traps and integration of advanced on-chip features

Atomic ions trapped in electromagnetic potentials have long been used for fundamental studies in quantum physics. Over the past two decades, trapped ions have been successfully used to implement technologies such as quantum computing, quantum simulation, atomic clocks, mass spectrometers and quantum sensors. Advanced fabrication techniques, taken from other established or emerging disciplines, are used to create new, reliable ion-trap devices aimed at large-scale integration and compatibility with commercial fabrication. This Technical Review covers the fundamentals of ion trapping before discussing the design of ion traps for the aforementioned applications. We overview the current microfabrication techniques and the various considerations behind the choice of materials and processes. Finally, we discuss current efforts to include advanced, on-chip features in next-generation ion traps

Compensatie van natuur.

Maatregelen voor compensatie van verloren gegane natuurwaarden zijn binnen milieu-effectrapportage een nog onbekend verschijnsel. Dat zal gaan veranderen nu er een compensatieregeling in de Wet Natuurbeheer is opgenome

Assessment of nitrogen and phosphorus flows in agricultural and urban systems in a small island under limited data availability

Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are two essential macronutrients required in agricultural production. Themajor share of this production relies on chemical fertilizer that requires energy and relies on limited resources(P). Since these nutrients are lost to the environment, there is a need to shift from this linear urban metabolismto a circularmetabolisminwhich N and P fromdomestic waste and wastewater are reused in agriculture. A firststep to facilitate a transition to more circular urban N and P management is to understand the flows of these resourcesin a coupled urban-agricultural system. For the first time this paper presents a Substance Flow Analysis(SFA) approach for the assessment of the coupled agricultural and urban systems under limited data availabilityin a small island. The developed SFA approach is used to identify intervention points that can provide N and Pstocks for agricultural production. The island of St. Eustatius, a small island in the Caribbean, was used as acase study. The model developed in this study consists of eight sub-systems: agricultural and natural lands,urban lands, crop production, animal production, market, household consumption, soakage pit and opendumplandfill. A total of 26 flows were identified and quantified for a period of one year (2013). The resultsshowed that the agricultural system is a significant source for N and P loss because of erosion/run-off andleaching. Moreover, urban sanitation systems contribute to deterioration of the island's ecosystem through Nand P losses fromdomesticwaste andwastewater by leaching and atmosphericemission. Proposed interventionsare the treatment of blackwater and greywater for the recovery of N and P. In conclusion, this study allows foridentification of potential N and P losses and proposes mitigation measures to improve nutrient managementin a small island contex

An integrated assessment of environmental, economic, social and technological parameters of source separated and conventional sanitation concepts : A contribution to sustainability analysis

Resource recovery and reuse from domestic wastewater has become an important subject for the current development of sanitation technologies and infrastructures. Different technologies are available and combined into sanitation concepts, with different performances. This study provides a methodological approach to evaluate the sustainability of these sanitation concepts with focus on resource recovery and reuse. St. Eustatius, a small tropical island in the Caribbean, was used as a case study for the evaluation. Three source separation-community-on-site and two combined sewerage island-scale concepts were selected and compared in terms of environmental (net energy use, nutrient recovery/reuse, BOD/COD, pathogens, and GHG emission, land use), economic (CAPEX and OPEX), social cultural (acceptance, required competences and education), and technological (flexibility/adaptability, reliability/continuity of service) indicators. The best performing concept, is the application of Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Bed (UASB) and Trickling Filter (TF) at island level for combined domestic wastewater treatment with subsequent reuse in agriculture. Its overall average normalised score across the four categories (i.e., average of average per category) is about 15% (0.85) higher than the values of the remaining systems and with a score of 0.73 (conventional activated sludge – centralised level), 0.77 (UASB-septic tank (ST)), 0.76 (UASB-TF - community level), and 0.75 (ST - household level). The higher score of the UASB-TF at community level is mainly due to much better performance in the environmental and economic categories. In conclusion, the case study provides a methodological approach that can support urban planning and decision-making in selecting more sustainable sanitation concepts, allowing resource recovery and reuse in small island context or in other contexts

Modeling urban expansion by using variable weights logistic cellular automata : a case study of Nanjing, China

Simulation models based on cellular automata (CA) are widely used for understanding and simulating complex urban expansion process. Among these models, logistic CA (LCA) is commonly adopted. However, the performance of LCA models is often limited because the fixed coefficients obtained from binary logistic regression do not reflect the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of transition rules. Therefore, we propose a variable weights LCA (VW-LCA) model with dynamic transition rules. The regression coefficients in this VW-LCA model are based on VW by incorporating a genetic algorithm in a conventional LCA. The VW-LCA model and the conventional LCA model were both used to simulate urban expansion in Nanjing, China. The models were calibrated with data for the period 2000–2007 and validated for the period 2007–2013. The results showed that the VW-LCA model performed better than the LCA model in terms of both visual inspection and key indicators. For example, kappa, accuracy of urban land and figure of merit for the simulation results of 2013 increased by 3.26%, 2.96% and 4.44%, respectively. The VW-LCA model performs relatively better compared with other improved LCA models that are suggested in literature

Urban Productive Landscapes: designing nature for re-acting Neoliberal City

none1noThis publication from Springer "Urban book Series" discusses the effects of Neo-Liberal policies on the transformations of architectural and urban practices and education in the transition from the era of “professionalism” to “post-professionalism.” Further, it develops a political and critical perspective on contemporary practices of architecture and urbanism, their implementation, political effects and social results.In the world of urbanism, architecture and landscape, new paradigms are currently change the way people think about or interact with economic crisis, quality of life and self-made practices. In a scenario where the scale and pace of market-driven urbanization and ephemeral landscapes of pop-up settlements are challenging the notion of permanence as a basic planning principle, the regeneration of the city in the 21th century aims to the definition of multi-level approaches associated with emergent socio-spatial challenges. Many of the most promising ideas in this field are that of the reformulation, reclamation and recycle of variable patterns of open spaces as real generators of urban life. This paper presents a theoretical framework, understanding how urban regeneration processes, through the "bottom up" redevelopment of residual spaces, can represent an attempt to reduce degradation of peri-urban fragile environments and to find environmentally compatible ways of increasing the definition of urban productive landscapes.mixedSommariva E.Sommariva, E