73 research outputs found
Global land use implications of biofuels: State of the art conference and workshop on modelling global land use implications in the environmental assessment of biofuels
Background, Aims and Scope On 4¿5 June 2007, an international conference was held in Copenhagen. It provided an interdisciplinary forum where economists and geographers met with LCA experts to discuss the challenges of modelling the ultimate land use changes caused by an increased demand for biofuels. Main Features The main feature of the conference was the cross-breeding of experience from the different approaches to land use modelling: The field of LCA could especially benefit from economic modelling in the identification of marginal crop production and the resulting expansion of the global agricultural area. Furthermore, the field of geography offers insights in the complexity behind new land cultivation and practical examples of where this is seen to occur on a regional scale. Results Results presented at the conference showed that the magnitude and location of land use changes caused by biofuels demand depend on where the demand arises. For instance, mandatory blending in the EU will increase land use both within and outside of Europe, especially in South America. A key learning for the LCA society was that the response to a change in demand for a given crop is not presented by a single crop supplier or a single country, but rather by responses from a variety of suppliers of several different crops in several countries. Discussion The intensification potential of current and future crop and biomass production was widely discussed. It was generally agreed that some parts of the third world hold large potentials for intensification, which are not realised due to a number of barriers resulting in so-called yield gaps. Conclusions Modelling the global land use implications of biofuels requires an interdisciplinary approach optimally integrating economic, geographical, biophysical, social and possibly other aspects in the modelling. This interdisciplinary approach is necessary but also difficult due to different perspectives and mindsets in the different disciplines. Recommendations and Perspectives The concept of a location dependent marginal land use composite should be introduced in LCA of biofuels and it should be acknowledged that the typical LCA assumption of linear substitution is not necessarily valid. Moreover, fertiliser restrictions/accessibility should be included in land use modelling and the relation between crop demand and intensification should be further explored. In addition, environmental impacts of land use intensification should be included in LCA, the powerful concept of land use curves should be further improved, and so should the modelling of diminishing returns in crop production
Residual entropy and spin gap in a one-dimensional analog of the pyrochlore antiferromagnet
We show that the low-energy sector of the S=1/2, antiferromagnetic Heisenberg
model on a one-dimensional lattice of coupled tetrahedra consists of 2^N
replica of the spectrum of the dimerized Heisenberg chain, where N is the
number of tetrahedra.
This provides a proof of the following properties: i) there is a residual
ground-state entropy per spin equal to 2^{1/4}; ii) there is a singlet-triplet
gap as long as the coupling between the tetrahedra is smaller than the internal
one. These properties are compared to available results on the pyrochlore
lattice.Comment: 4 pages with 3 figure
Twisting biomaterials around your little finger: environmental impacts of bio-based wrappings
Green's function approach to the magnetic properties of the kagome antiferromagnet
The Heisenberg antiferromagnet is studied on the kagom\'e lattice by
using a Green's function method based on an appropriate decoupling of the
equations of motion. Thermodynamic properties as well as spin-spin correlation
functions are obtained and characterize this system as a two-dimensional
quantum spin liquid. Spin-spin correlation functions decay exponentially with
distance down to low temperature and the calculated missing entropy at T=0 is
found to be . Within the present scheme, the specific heat exhibits
a single peak structure and a dependence at low temperature.Comment: 6 (two-column revtex4) pages, 5 ps figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Orbital liquid in three dimensional Mott insulator:
We present a theory of spin and orbital states in Mott insulator .
The spin-orbital superexchange interaction between ions in cubic
crystal suffers from a pathological degeneracy of orbital states at classical
level. Quantum effects remove this degeneracy and result in the formation of
the coherent ground state, in which the orbital moment of level is
fully quenched. We find a finite gap for orbital excitations. Such a disordered
state of local degrees of freedom on unfrustrated, simple cubic lattice is
highly unusual. Orbital liquid state naturally explains observed anomalies of
.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Accounting for nutrition-related health impacts in food life cycle assessment: insights from an expert workshop
\ua9 The Author(s) 2024.Sub-optimal dietary patterns make major contributions to the Global Burden of Disease and are among the most pressing issues affecting human health. Consequently, they are key to consider when assessing the human health and other environmental impacts of foods and diets within life cycle assessments. The UN Environment Life Cycle Initiative convened a task force on nutrition-related human health impacts as part of the Global Life Cycle Impact Assessment Method (GLAM) project. The health impacts of dietary patterns can be expressed in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), in line with reporting human health impacts of other impact categories within the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) framework. The task force held a workshop with nutrition experts to receive guidance in its process to develop a consensus-based impact assessment framework for addressing nutrition-related health impacts in LCIA. The workshop aimed to (1) evaluate the general assessment framework, (2) discuss scientific questions for quantifying human health impacts from nutrition for food items and diets, and (3) provide initial guidance for further development. The proposed framework based on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) risk ratios was regarded as a good starting point to assess the relative health risks of the general population, provided that the dietary context is considered and several limitations, such as incomplete disease coverage, are acknowledged. The experts advised against a potentially misleading use of adult-derived dietary risk factors for children. To improve global coverage of the GLAM framework, it is important to consider a wider range of dietary patterns. The experts also recommended using a metric complementary to DALYs, such as nutrient adequacy, also considering, e.g., vitamin A and iron, to complement the assessment
Magneto-thermodynamics of the spin-1/2 Kagome antiferromagnet
In this paper, we use a new hybrid method to compute the thermodynamic
behavior of the spin-1/2 Kagome antiferromagnet under the influence of a large
external magnetic field. We find a T^2 low-temperature behavior and a very low
sensitivity of the specific heat to a strong external magnetic field. We
display clear evidence that this low temperature magneto-thermal effect is
associated to the existence of low-lying fluctuating singlets, but also that
the whole picture (T^2 behavior of Cv and thermally activated spin
susceptibility) implies contribution of both non magnetic and magnetic
excitations. Comparison with experiments is made.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX 2.09 and RevTeX with 3 figures embedded in the text.
Version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Magnetization of coupled spin clusters in Ladder Geometry
In this paper, we construct a class of spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic (AFM)
two-chain ladder models consisting of blocks of n-spin tetrahedral clusters
alternating with two-spin rungs. For n=4 and 6 and in extended parameter
regimes, the exact ground state of the ladder is shown to be a product of the
ground states of the rungs and the n-spin blocks, in both zero and finite
magnetic fields. In the latter case, magnetization/site (m) versus magenetic
field (h) plot exhibits well-defined magnetization plateaus.Comment: 9 pages, latex, 6 figures, To be published in Phys. Rev.
Transition to Long Range Magnetic Order in the Highly Frustrated Insulating Pyrochlore Antiferromagnet Gd_2Ti_2O_7
Experimental evidence from measurements of the a.c. and d.c. susceptibility,
and heat capacity data show that the pyrochlore structure oxide, Gd_2Ti_2O_7,
exhibits short range order that starts developing at 30K, as well as long range
magnetic order at K. The Curie-Weiss temperature, =
-9.6K, is largely due to exchange interactions. Deviations from the Curie-Weiss
law occur below 10K while magnetic heat capacity contributions are found
at temperatures above 20K. A sharp maximum in the heat capacity at K
signals a transition to a long range ordered state, with the magnetic specific
accounting for only 50% of the magnetic entropy. The heat capacity above
the phase transition can be modeled by assuming that a distribution of random
fields acts on the ground state for Gd. There is no
frequency dependence to the a.c. susceptibility in either the short range or
long range ordered regimes, hence suggesting the absence of any spin-glassy
behavior. Mean field theoretical calculations show that no long range ordered
ground state exists for the conditions of nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic
exchange and long range dipolar couplings. At the mean-field level, long range
order at various commensurate or incommensurate wave vectors is found only upon
inclusion of exchange interactions beyond nearest-neighbor exchange and dipolar
coupling. The properties of Gd$_2Ti_2O_7 are compared with other geometrically
frustrated antiferromagnets such as the Gd_3Ga_5O_{12} gadolinium gallium
garnet, RE_2Ti_2O_7 pyrochlores where RE = Tb, Ho and Tm, and Heisenberg-type
pyrochlore such as Y_2Mo_2O_7, Tb_2Mo_2O_7, and spinels such as ZnFe_2O_4Comment: Letter, 6 POSTSCRIPT figures included. (NOTE: Figure 5 is not
included --) To appear in Physical Review B. Contact:
[email protected]
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