Optically Based Charge Injection System for Ionization Detectors

An optically coupled charge injection system for ionization based radiation detectors which allows a test charge to be injected without the creation of ground loops has been developed. An ionization like signal from an external source is brought into the detector through an optical fiber and injected into the electrodes by means of a photodiode. As an application example, crosstalk measurements on a liquid Argon electromagnetic calorimeter readout electrodes were performed

A Comparative Analysis of Soil Loss Tolerance and Productivity of the Olive Groves in the Protected Designation of Origin(PDO) Areas Norte Alentejano (Portugal) and Estepa (Andalusia, Spain)

Olive groves are Mediterranean systems that occupy more than 2.5 M ha in Spain and 0.352 M ha in Portugal. Assuming the differences between both countries in terms of olive grove regulation and considering their multifunctionality, it is useful to implement agronomic indices to estimate their sustainability. The Soil Loss Tolerance Index (SLTI) and the Soil Productivity Index (SPI) are two such indices. We calculated both indices in the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Norte Alentejano (Portugal). The SLTI index was adapted considering specific variables of the analysed olive groves (i.e., SLTIog). The values obtained were compared with those previously estimated for PDO Estepa (Spain). The negative impacts of erosion and the underlying agricultural practices on the sustainability of olive groves became evident, resulting in decreased soil productivity at the regional level. The SLTIog index showed higher values for crops, being a more realistic tool to analyse sustainability. A higher soil loss tolerance was detected for integrated groves in the PDO Norte Alentejano than for PDO Estepa due to the shorter age of olive cultivation in Portugal, with incipient soil impacts. These indices provide information on the degree of soil erosion, allowing farmers and decision-makers to apply practices to maximise the sustainability of olive groves.To the University Complutense of Madrid, for awarding the lead author a short-term fellowship through which this research could be carried out. To MED-Universidade de Évora (Portugal), for providing to the main author with the opportunity to jointly perform field work and analytical tasks in Portugal. The time devoted by J.M.-R. and T.P.-C. to retrieve and treat the data and to write and revise the article has received partial funding from the following sources: (a) FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology (Portugal) under the Project UIDB/05183/2020; (b) SUSTAINOLIVE research project (https://sustainolive.eu/?lang=en [accessed on: 29 March 2021]), funded by the PRIMA EU program. Lastly, we thank María Aurora Rodríguez Sousa for her support and advice

Methodological approach to spatial analysis of agricultural pest dispersal in olive landscapes

The effectiveness of a Geographical Information Systems cost-distance tool for detecting landscape permeability in relation to the movement of pests in olive landscapes was established. The simplification of agricultural systems is linked to an increased incidence of pests on crops. Therefore, it is important to understand the impact of different land uses surrounding olive groves on pests. In this work, we analysed the effect of the structure of the olive landscape on the movement of two main olive pests—the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera: Tephritidae) and the olive moth, Prays oleae (Bernard) (Lepidopetera: Praydidae). We applied linear mixed effects models to analyse the relationship between pest abundance and cost-distance, using different hypotheses to evaluate those land uses that are favourable or unfavourable for the movement of these pests. The results show that this methodology is effective in detecting possible unfavourable land uses with a barrier effect, such as woodland and artificial land uses, and favourable land uses with a corridor effect such as olive groves. Whether other land uses, such as scrubland or riverbanks, act as a barrier or corridor depends on the pest and its life cycle stage. The effect that different land uses have in maintaining low levels of pest populations and ensuring the long-term sustainability of these agricultural systems are discussed. The implications of landscape permeability for the physical structure of the landscape and the dispersal of organisms, and the potential of that landscape to impact the continuous flow of natural processes are also addressed

Examining potential environmental consequences of climate change and other driving forces on the sustainability of spanish olive groves under a socio-ecological approach

Olive groves form characteristic Mediterranean socio-ecological landscapes, occupying more than 5 M ha; 2.5 M ha in Spain. In recent decades, traditional extensive management of olive groves has shifted to an intensive regime, with some cases of abandonment. These situations triggered negative environmental and economic externalities that led farmers to adopt increasingly multifunctional management models. From a transdisciplinary perspective, the current state of Spanish olive groves was analyzed, assessing their vulnerability to climate change as one of the main threats to their sustainability. Based on our findings and assuming that by 2050, in the Mediterranean, there will be an increase in temperature of 0.8–2.3 ◦C and a decrease in rainfall of up to 200 mm per year, a displacement of the distribution area of olive groves is expected towards zones of lower temperature and higher moisture. The predicted climatic conditions would increase evapotranspiration of vegetation and atmospheric CO2 emissions. Moreover, climate change will reduce the chill accumulation in olive groves, altering its flowering, fructification and crop yields. Thus, it is necessary to adopt management models that promote olive grove resilience in face of climate change, ensuring their socio-ecological sustainability

Radiation hardness studies of a 130 nm Silicon Germanium BiCMOS technology with a dedicated ASIC

We present the radiation hardness studies on the bipolar devices of the 130 nm 8WL Silicon Germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS technology from IBM. This technology has been proposed as one of the candidates for the Front-End (FE) readout chip of the upgraded Inner Detector (ID) and the Liquid Argon Calorimeter (LAr) of the ATLAS Upgrade experiment. After neutron irradiations, devices remain at acceptable performances at the maximum radiation levels expected in the Si tracker and LAr calorimeter

Characterization of an Ionization Readout Tile for nEXO

A new design for the anode of a time projection chamber, consisting of a charge-detecting "tile", is investigated for use in large scale liquid xenon detectors. The tile is produced by depositing 60 orthogonal metal charge-collecting strips, 3~mm wide, on a 10~\si{\cm} $\times$ 10~\si{\cm} fused-silica wafer. These charge tiles may be employed by large detectors, such as the proposed tonne-scale nEXO experiment to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay. Modular by design, an array of tiles can cover a sizable area. The width of each strip is small compared to the size of the tile, so a Frisch grid is not required. A grid-less, tiled anode design is beneficial for an experiment such as nEXO, where a wire tensioning support structure and Frisch grid might contribute radioactive backgrounds and would have to be designed to accommodate cycling to cryogenic temperatures. The segmented anode also reduces some degeneracies in signal reconstruction that arise in large-area crossed-wire time projection chambers. A prototype tile was tested in a cell containing liquid xenon. Very good agreement is achieved between the measured ionization spectrum of a $^{207}$Bi source and simulations that include the microphysics of recombination in xenon and a detailed modeling of the electrostatic field of the detector. An energy resolution $\sigma/E$=5.5\% is observed at 570~\si{keV}, comparable to the best intrinsic ionization-only resolution reported in literature for liquid xenon at 936~V/\si{cm}.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, as publishe

Sensitivity and discovery potential of the proposed nEXO experiment to neutrinoless double beta decay

The next-generation Enriched Xenon Observatory (nEXO) is a proposed experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay in $^{136}$Xe with a target half-life sensitivity of approximately $10^{28}$ years using $5\times10^3$ kg of isotopically enriched liquid-xenon in a time projection chamber. This improvement of two orders of magnitude in sensitivity over current limits is obtained by a significant increase of the $^{136}$Xe mass, the monolithic and homogeneous configuration of the active medium, and the multi-parameter measurements of the interactions enabled by the time projection chamber. The detector concept and anticipated performance are presented based upon demonstrated realizable background rates.Comment: v2 as publishe