The Economic Case for Landscape Restoration in Latin America

Degraded lands—lands that have lost some degree of their natural productivity through human activity—account for over 20 percent of forest and agricultural lands in Latin America and the Caribbean. Some 300 million hectares of the region's forests are considered degraded, and about 350 million hectares are now classified as deforested. The agriculture and forestry sectors are growing and exerting great pressure on natural areas. With the region expected to play an increasingly important role in global food security, this pressure will continue to ratchet up. In addition, land degradation is a major driver in greenhouse gas emissions in the region. Forest and landscape restoration can offer a solution to these increasing pressures

Performance of HIRLAM in a semiarid heterogeneous region: evaluation of the land surface and boundary layer description using EFEDA observations

Observations from the European Field Experiment in a Desertification-threatened Area (EFEDA) are used to evaluate the performance of the radiation, land surface, and boundary layer description of the numerical weather prediction (NWP) system High-Resolution Limited Area Model (HIRLAM) in semiarid conditions. Model analysis and 6-h forecast data of the fully coupled three-dimensional model are compared with the comprehensive dataset of a case study representing a sample of 22 days of anticyclonic conditions. Distributed micrometeorological surface stations, radiosondes, flux aircraft, and airborne lidar provide a unique validation dataset of the diurnal cycle of surface and boundary layer processes. The model surface, soil, and boundary layer are found to be too moist and slightly too cold during most of the diurnal cycle. The model radiation and surface energy budgets are biased toward more humid conditions. Model shortcomings are identified essentially in four areas. These are the moisture data assimilation, the land-use and soil classification with its associated physiographic database, the aerosol parameterization in the radiation code, and the boundary layer vertical resolution and entrainment description. Practical steps for immediate improvement of the model performance are proposed. They focus on the use of a land-use and soil classification and physiographic database adapted to Mediterranean landscapes, in combination with the inclusion of aerosol parameters in the radiation scheme, that account for the typically higher aerosol load of arid and semiarid environments.The EFEDA 1991 field phase was cofunded by the European Commission under its Environment Program (Grant EV5VCT93- 0271)

Analysis of Shot Noise at Finite Temperatures in Fractional Quantum Hall Edge States

We investigate shot noise at {\it finite temperatures} induced by the quasi-particle tunneling between fractional quantum Hall (FQH) edge states. The resulting Fano factor has the peak structure at a certain bias voltage. Such a structure indicates that quasi-particles are weakly {\it glued} due to thermal fluctuation. We show that the effect makes it possible to probe the difference of statistics between $\nu=1/5,{}2/5$ FQH states where quasi-particles have the same unit charge.Finally we propose a way to indirectly obtain statistical angle in hierarchical FQH states.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Thermal Giant Graviton with Non-commutative Dipole Field

Using the type II near-extremal 3D-branes solution we apply the T-duality and smeared twist to construct the supergravity backgrounds which dual to the 4D finite temperature non-commutative dipole field theories. We first consider the zero-temperature system in which, depending on the property of dipole vectors it may be N=2, N=1 or N=0 theory. We investigate the rotating D3-brane configurations moving on the spactimes and show that, for the cases of N=2 and N =1 the rotating D3-brane could be blowed up to the stable spherical configuration which is called as giant graviton and has a less energy than the point-like graviton. The giant graviton configuration is stable only if its angular momentum was less than a critical value of $P_c$ which is an increasing function of the dipole strength. For the case of non-supersymmetric theory, however, the spherical configuration has a larger energy than the point-like graviton. We also find that the dipole field always render the dual giant graviton to be more stable than the point-like graviton. The relation of dual giant graviton energy with its angular momentum, which in the AdS/CFT correspondence being the operator anomalous dimension is obtained. We furthermore show that the temperature does not change the property of the giant graviton, while it will render the dual giant graviton to be unstable.Comment: Latex 20 pages, add comments about BPS bound below (3.8

Diffractive optics for spectral control of the supercontinuum generated in sapphire with femtosecond pulses

We propose the use of kinoform diffractive lenses to focus near infrared femtosecond pulses in sapphire crystals for supercontinuum generation. It is shown that a strongly peaked structure appears in the blue region of the supercontinuum spectra. The central wavelength of this peak can be easily controlled by simply changing the lens-crystal distance. Moreover, when compared with the supercontinuum generated with a refractive lens in analogous conditions, the spectral extension of the so-generated continuum is larger. Our results were corroborated for sapphire plates with different thicknesses as well as in other transparent dielectrics such as fused silica.Support from Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) through the Consolider Program SAUUL CSD2007-00013, research projects FIS2009-09522 and FIS2010-15746, and from Junta de Castilla y León through the Program for Groups of Excellence (GR27). CR and RBV acknowledge MICINN for support through grants BES-2007-17415 and AP2007-00202, respectively. GMV and OMY gratefully acknowledge partial financial support from Convenio UJI-Bancaixa under the project P1-1B2010-26.We also acknowledge support from the Centro de Láseres Pulsados (CLPU) (Salamanca, Spain

Repeat anterior cruciate ligament injury and return to sport in Australian soccer players after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with hamstring tendon autograft

Background: Soccer is the most commonly played team sport in the world and a high-risk sport for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and subsequent ACL reconstruction (ACLR). Purpose: To assess the rate of further ACL injury in patients who have undergone ACLR with hamstring tendon autograft after soccer injuries in Australia and to determine factors associated with repeat ACL injury and return to soccer. Study Design: Case-control study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: From a prospectively collected database, a series of 1000 consecutive ACLRs using hamstring autografts performed in soccer players were identified. Patients were surveyed at a minimum 5 years after reconstruction, including details of further ACL injuries to either knee, return to soccer or other sports, and psychological readiness per the Anterior Cruciate Ligament Return to Sport after Injury (ACL-RSI) scale. Results: Of the 862 participants reviewed, ACL graft rupture occurred in 85 (10%) and contralateral ACL rupture in 68 (8%) within 5 years after the reconstruction. The 5-year ACL graft survivorship was 94% for females and 88% for males. The survivorship of the contralateral ACL was 92% for males and 90% for females. When compared with those aged \u3e25 years, the odds of ACL graft rupture was increased by 4 to 5 times in those aged 19 to 25 years and 3 to 7 times in those ≤18 years. Further ACL injury to the graft or contralateral knee occurred in 44% of males aged ≤18 years. Risk factors for further ACL injury were younger age at time of surgery, male sex, and return to soccer. Graft diameter did not influence ACL graft rupture rates, and 70% of patients returned to soccer after ACLR. The mean ACL-RSI score was 59, and patients who reported more fear of reinjury on this scale were less likely to have returned to soccer. Conclusion: The prevalence of ACL graft rupture (10%) and contralateral ACL rupture (8%) was near equivalent over 5 years in this large cohort of mostly recreational Australian soccer players. ACLR with hamstring autograft is a reliable procedure, allowing 70% of patients to return to soccer in this high-risk population. Risk factors for further ACL injury are progressively younger age at time of surgery, male sex, and return to soccer. Graft diameter was not a factor in ACL graft rupture, indicating that other factors, particularly age, are of primary importance

Accounts overdue : natural resource depreciation in Costa Rica

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Giants On Deformed Backgrounds

We study giant graviton probes in the framework of the three--parameter deformation of the AdS_5 x S^5 background. We examine both the case when the brane expands in the deformed part of the geometry and the case when it blows up into AdS. Performing a detailed analysis of small fluctuations around the giants, the configurations turn out to be stable. Our results hold even for the supersymmetric Lunin-Maldacena deformation.Comment: LaTex, 28 pages, uses JHEP3; v2: minor corrections, references added; v3: final version accepted for publication in JHE

Fractional quantum Hall effect in a quantum point contact at filling fraction 5/2

Recent theories suggest that the excitations of certain quantum Hall states may have exotic braiding statistics which could be used to build topological quantum gates. This has prompted an experimental push to study such states using confined geometries where the statistics can be tested. We study the transport properties of quantum point contacts (QPCs) fabricated on a GaAs/AlGaAs two dimensional electron gas that exhibits well-developed fractional quantum Hall effect, including at bulk filling fraction 5/2. We find that a plateau at effective QPC filling factor 5/2 is identifiable in point contacts with lithographic widths of 1.2 microns and 0.8 microns, but not 0.5 microns. We study the temperature and dc-current-bias dependence of the 5/2 plateau in the QPC, as well as neighboring fractional and integer plateaus in the QPC while keeping the bulk at filling factor 3. Transport near QPC filling factor 5/2 is consistent with a picture of chiral Luttinger liquid edge-states with inter-edge tunneling, suggesting that an incompressible state at 5/2 forms in this confined geometry

Invasion speeds for structured populations in fluctuating environments

We live in a time where climate models predict future increases in environmental variability and biological invasions are becoming increasingly frequent. A key to developing effective responses to biological invasions in increasingly variable environments will be estimates of their rates of spatial spread and the associated uncertainty of these estimates. Using stochastic, stage-structured, integro-difference equation models, we show analytically that invasion speeds are asymptotically normally distributed with a variance that decreases in time. We apply our methods to a simple juvenile-adult model with stochastic variation in reproduction and an illustrative example with published data for the perennial herb, \emph{Calathea ovandensis}. These examples buttressed by additional analysis reveal that increased variability in vital rates simultaneously slow down invasions yet generate greater uncertainty about rates of spatial spread. Moreover, while temporal autocorrelations in vital rates inflate variability in invasion speeds, the effect of these autocorrelations on the average invasion speed can be positive or negative depending on life history traits and how well vital rates ``remember'' the past