Noncyclic geometric phase for neutrino oscillation

We provide explicit formulae for the noncyclic geometric phases or Pancharatnam phases of neutrino oscillations. Since Pancharatnam phase is a generalization of the Berry phase, our results generalize the previous findings for Berry phase in a recent paper [Phys. Lett. B, 466 (1999) 262]. Unlike the Berry phase, the noncyclic geometric phase offers distinctive advantage in terms of measurement and prediction. In particular, for three-flavor mixing, our explicit formula offers an alternative means of determining the CP-violating phase. Our results can also be extended easily to explore geometric phase associated with neutron-antineutron oscillations

Support system based on GIS and weighted sum method for drawing up of land suitability map for agriculture. Application to durum wheat cultivation in the area of Mleta (Algeria)

Due to constant decrease in farmlands, it is important to identify the best lands for sustainable agriculture (productive and profitable agriculture that protects the environment and that is socially equitable). This requirement has resulted in the development of land suitability maps for agriculture by combining a range of factors. Spatial analysis approaches, based on the concepts of the weighted sum, combined with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) offer the opportunity to efficiently produce these land suitability maps. The functions of the weighted sum make it possible to assign numerical weights, to distinguish between positive and negative criteria and to rank alternatives. A spatial decision support system has been developed for establishing the land suitability map for agriculture. It incorporates a version of the weighted sum method SAW (Simple Additive Weighting), applicable to the vector data model, in ArcGIS within the GIS program package environment. This approach has been tested on the area of Mleta (Algeria) to assess the land suitability for durum wheat agriculture. The parameters and the classification system used in this work are inspired from the FAO. The coherence of results confirms the system effectiveness

Promoting Small-Scale Biofuel Production: A Qualitative GIS-OWA Methodology for Land Suitability Analysis of Winter Rapeseed

Biofuels could be a possible solution to promote agricultural development in rural areas by increasing farm income. Different studies suggest that all problems linked to large-scale biofuel production can be overcome by promoting small-scale production, particularly of rapeseed straight vegetable oil (SVO) used as self-supply agricultural biofuel, specially if the rapeseed is cultivated in crop rotation systems with minimum tillage practices. However, an ex-ante analysis would be very important to explore the feasibility of rapeseed production, via the evaluation of land use suitability. As land planning issues are complex problems with multiple decision makers and criteria, we propose a spatial multi-criteria analysis model for supporting decision makers in the site selection process for winter rapeseed production. The methodology applied is the Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) extended by means of fuzzy linguistic quantifiers. The results have shown as the proposed methodology is more flexible compared to the other MCA methods, in particular for the possibility to make the choice in qualitative rather than quantitative terms, enabling the decision-maker to explore different decision strategies or scenarios, thus facilitating a better understanding of alternative land use suitability models