69 research outputs found
Nitrogen Use Efficiency of Specialized Dairy Farms in Flanders: Evolution and Future Goals
Efficient use of nutrients is one of the major aims of eco-efficient and sustainable agricultural production systems. We determined the nitrogen use efficiency of a representative set of specialised dairy farms in Flanders, between 1989-1990 and 2000-2001 and set achievable eco-efficiency targets for sustainability
New superconducting phases in field-induced organic superconductor lambda-(BETS)2FeCl4
We derive the parallel upper critical field, Hc2, as a function of the
temperature T in quasi-2D organic compound lambda-(BETS)2FeCl4, accounting for
the formation of the nonuniform LOFF state. To further check the 2D LOFF model
we propose to study the Hc2(T) curve at low T in tilted fields, where the
vortex state is described by the high Landau level functions characterized by
the index n. We predict a cascade of first order transitions between vortex
phases with different n, between phases with different types of the symmetry at
given n and the change of the superconducting transition from the second order
to the first order as FeCl4 ions are replaced partly by GaCl4 ions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to be published in PR
Reduction of Pauli paramagnetic pair-breaking effect in antiferromagnetic superconductors
Antiferromagnetic superconductors in a magnetic field are studied. We examine
a mechanism which significantly reduces the Pauli paramagnetic pair-breaking
effect. The mechanism is realized even in the presence of the orbital
pair-breaking effect. We illustrate it using a three-dimensional model with an
intercalated magnetic subsystem. The upper critical field is calculated for
various parameters. It is shown that the upper critical field can reach several
times the pure Pauli paramagnetic limit. The possible relevance to the large
upper critical field observed in the heavy fermion antiferromagnetic
superconductor CePt_3Si discovered recently is briefly discussed. We try to
understand the large upper critical field in the compound CePt_3Si and
field-induced superconductivity in the compound CePb_3 within a unified
framework.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, revtex4, minor correction
Enhancement of the Josephson current by magnetic field in superconducting tunnel structures with paramagnetic spacer
The dc Josephson critical current of a (S/M)IS tunnel structure in a parallel
magnetic field has been investigated (here S is a superconductor, S/M is the
proximity coupled S and paramagnet M bilayer and I is an insulating barrier).
We consider the case when, due to the Hund's rule, in the M metal the effective
molecular interaction aligns spins of the conducting electrons antiparallel to
localized spins of magnetic ions. It is predicted that for tunnel structures
under consideration there are the conditions when the destructive action of the
internal and the applied magnetic fields on Cooper pairs is weakened and the
increase of the applied magnetic field causes the field-induced enhancement of
the tunnel critical current. The experimental realization of this interesting
effect of the interplay between superconductivity and magnetism is also
discussed.Comment: 5 pages 3 figure
Enhancement of the upper critical field and a field-induced superconductivity in antiferromagnetic conductors
We propose a mechanism by which the paramagnetic pair-breaking effect is
largely reduced in superconductors with coexisting antiferromagnetic long-
range and short-range orders. The mechanism is an extension of the Jaccarino
and Peter mechanism to antiferromagnetic conductors, but the resultant phase
diagram is quite different. In order to illustrate the mechanism, we examine a
model which consists of mobile electrons and antiferromagnetically correlated
localized spins with Kondo coupling between them. It is found that for weak
Kondo coupling, the superconductivity occurs over an extraordinarily wide
region of the magnetic field including zero field. The critical field exceeds
the Chandrasekhar and Clogston limit, but there is no lower limit in contrast
to the Jaccarino and Peter mechanism. On the other hand, for strong Kondo
coupling, both the low-field superconductivity and a field-induced
superconductivity occur. Possibilities in hybrid ruthenate cuprate
superconductors and some organic superconductors are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, revtex.sty, to be published in J.Phys.Soc.Jpn.
Vol.71, No.3 (2002
Ferromagnetism and Superconductivity in Uranium Compounds
Recent advances on ferromagnetic superconductors, UGe2, URhGe and UCoGe are
presented. The superconductivity (SC) peacefully coexists with the
ferromagnetism (FM), forming the spin-triplet state of Cooper pairs. The
striking new phenomena, such as SC reinforced by the magnetic field, are
associated with Ising-type ferromagnetic fluctuations. A variety of
ferromagnetic ordered moments between UGe2, URhGe and UCoGe affords to
understand the relation between FM, tricriticality and SC.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn.
as a review article of Special Topics of "Recent developments in
superconductivity
Recommended from our members
A large ozone-circulation feedback and its implications for global warming assessments.
State-of-the-art climate models now include more climate processes which are simulated at higher spatial resolution than ever1. Nevertheless, some processes, such as atmospheric chemical feedbacks, are still computationally expensive and are often ignored in climate simulations1,2. Here we present evidence that how stratospheric ozone is represented in climate models can have a first order impact on estimates of effective climate sensitivity. Using a comprehensive atmosphere-ocean chemistry-climate model, we find an increase in global mean surface warming of around 1°C (~20%) after 75 years when ozone is prescribed at pre-industrial levels compared with when it is allowed to evolve self-consistently in response to an abrupt 4×CO2 forcing. The difference is primarily attributed to changes in longwave radiative feedbacks associated with circulation-driven decreases in tropical lower stratospheric ozone and related stratospheric water vapour and cirrus cloud changes. This has important implications for global model intercomparison studies1,2 in which participating models often use simplified treatments of atmospheric composition changes that are neither consistent with the specified greenhouse gas forcing scenario nor with the associated atmospheric circulation feedbacks3-5.We thank the European Research Council for funding through the ACCI project,
project number 267760. The model development was part of the QESM-ESM project
supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) under contract
numbers RH/H10/19 and R8/H12/124. We acknowledge use of the MONSooN
system, a collaborative facility supplied under the Joint Weather and Climate
Research Programme, which is a strategic partnership between the UK Met Office
and NERC. A.C.M. acknowledges support from an AXA Postdoctoral Research
Fellowship.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing at http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n1/full/nclimate2451.html
A Participatory Approach to Assessing the Climate-Smartness of Agricultural Interventions: The Lushoto Case
The concept of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is gaining momentum across the globe. However, it is not specific on what should be covered under its three pillars—productivity, resilience and mitigation. Consequently, CSA encompasses many different agricultural practices/technologies, making it difficult to prioritise CSA objectives. Firstly, there is a lack of clear and workable criteria as well as methods for assessing the climate-smartness of interventions. Secondly, little information exists about the impact of the various interventions already promoted as CSA, especially in the developing world. Finally, CSA prioritisation does not take into account stakeholders’ perspectives to ensure that the interventions are applicable, suitable and of high adoption-potential. Here, we describe a new participatory protocol for assessing the climate-smartness of agricultural interventions in smallholder practices. This identifies farm-level indicators (and indices) for the food security and adaptation pillars of CSA. It also supports the participatory scoring of indicators, enabling baseline and future assessments of climate-smartness to be made. The protocol was tested among 72 farmers implementing a variety of CSA interventions in the climate-smart village of Lushoto, Tanzania. Farmers especially valued interventions that improved soil fertility and structure, reduced surface runoff, and reclaimed degraded land due to the positive impacts on yield and off-season crop agriculture. Mostly, the CSA interventions increased animal production, food production, consumption and income. The protocol is easy to adapt to different regions and farming systems and allows for the better prioritisation of interventions. But we recommend that CSA is adopted as part of a monitoring, evaluation and learning process
Novel participatory indicators of sustainability reveal weaknesses of maize cropping in Benin
- …