1,844 research outputs found
Community water management and agricultural extension services: effects, impacts and perceptions in the coastal zone of Bangladesh
The coastal region of Bangladesh is prone to natural disasters and these events are expected to worsen as a result of climate change. Combined with anthropogenic factors, these events challenge livelihood opportunities, especially crop production. Waterlogging, tidal activity and the lack of proper drainage facilities are major constraints to agricultural production in these areas.
The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) tested, at pilot scale, the combination of innovative agricultural technologies with improved water management to overcome these challenges.
This report assesses this intervention by observing the effects, measuring the short-term impacts and understanding the perceptions. The results highlight the need to integrate the interventions into the local context, and acknowledge that institutions and markets need to mature to harness the benefits from innovations. It also underlines the potential of multi-scale interventions combining plot-level and farmer-led innovations, community management and rehabilitation of large schemes
Electrical noise properties in aging materials
The electric thermal noise has been measured in two aging materials, a
colloidal suspension (Laponite) and a polymer (polycarbonate), presenting very
slow relaxation towards equilibrium. The measurements have been performed
during the transition from a fluid-like to a solid-like state for the gel and
after a quench for the polymer. For both materials we have observed that the
electric noise is characterized by a strong intermittency, which induces a
large violation of the Fluctuation Dissipation Theorem (FDT) during the aging
time, and may persist for several hours at low frequency. The statistics of
these intermittent signals and their dependance on the quench speed for the
polymer or on sample concentration for the gel are studied. The results are in
a qualitative agreement with recent models of aging, that predict an
intermittent dynamics.Comment: SPIE Proceeding Journa
Long term frequency stability analysis of the GPS NAVSTAR 6 Cesium clock
Time domain measurements, taken between the NAVSTAR 6 Spacecraft Vehicle (SV) and the Vandenberg Global Positioning System (GPS) Monitor Site, by a pseudo random noise receiver, were collected over an extended period of time and analyzed to estimate the long term frequency stability of the NAVSTAR 6 onboard frequency standard, referenced to the Vandenberg MS frequency standard. The technique employed separates the clock offset from the composite signal by first applying corrections for equipment delays, ionospheric delay, tropospheric delay, Earth rotation and the relativistic effect. The data are edited and smoothed using the predicted SV ephemeris to calculate the geometric delay. Then all available passes from each of the four GPS monitor stations, are collected at 1-week intervals and used to calculate the NAVSTAR orbital elements. The procedure is then completed by subtracting the corrections and the geometric delay, using the final orbital elements, from the composite signal, thus leaving the clock offset and random error
Dynamical Behavior of a Squid Ring Coupled to a Quantized Electromagnetic Field
In this paper we investigate the dynamical behavior of a SQUID ring coupled
to a quantized single-mode electromagnetic field. We have calculated the
eigenstates of the combined fully quantum mechanical SQUID-field system.
Interesting phenomena occur when the energy difference between the usual
symmetric and anti-symmetric SQUID states equals the field energy . We find the
low-energy lying entangled stationary states of the system and demonstrate that
its dynamics is dominated by coherent Rabi oscillations.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. to be published on International Journal of
Modern Physics
Off equilibrium fluctuations in a polymer glass
The fluctuation-dissipation relation (FDR) is measured on the dielectric
properties a polymer glass (polycarbonate). It is observed that the fluctuation
dissipation theorem is strongly violated for a quench from above to below the
glass transition temperature. The amplitude and the persistence time of this
violation are decreasing functions of frequency. Around it may persist
for several hours. The origin of this violation is a highly intermittent
dynamics characterized by large fluctuations a strongly non-Gaussian
statistics. The intermittent dynamics depends on the quenching rate and it
disappears after slow quenches. The relevance of these results for recent
models of aging are discussed.Comment: submitted to Physica
Submicrosecond comparisons of time standards via the Navigation Technology Satellites (NTS)
An interim demonstration was performed of the time transfer capability of the NAVSTAR GPS system using a single NTS satellite. Measurements of time difference (pseudo-range) are made from the NTS tracking network and at the participating observatories. The NTS network measurements are used to compute the NTS orbit trajectory. The central NTS tracking station has a time link to the Naval Observatory UTC (USNO,MC1) master clock. Measurements are used with the NTS receiver at the remote observatory, the time transfer value UTC (USNO,MC1)-UTC (REMOTE, VIA NTS) is calculated. Intercomparisons were computed using predicted values of satellite clock offset and ephemeus
Intermittent origin of the large violations of the fluctuation dissipation relations in an aging polymer glass
The fluctuation-dissipation relation (FDR) is measured on the dielectric
properties of a polymer glass (polycarbonate)in the range . It
is found that after a quench below the glass transition temperature the
fluctuation dissipation theorem is strongly violated. The amplitude and the
persistence time of this violation are decreasing functions of frequency. At
frequencies larger than 1Hz it persists for about . The origin of this
violation is a highly intermittent dynamics characterized by large
fluctuations. The relevance of these results for recent models of aging
dynamics are discussed.Comment: to be published in Europhysics Letter
Intermittency of glassy relaxation and the emergence of a non-equilibrium spontaneous measure in the aging regime
We consider heat exchange processes between non-equilibrium aging systems (in
their activated regime) and the thermal bath in contact. We discuss a scenario
where two different heat exchange processes concur in the overall heat
dissipation: a stimulated fast process determined by the temperature of the
bath and a spontaneous intermittent process determined by the fact that the
system has been prepared in a non-equilibrium state. The latter is described by
a probability distribution function (PDF) that has an exponential tail of width
given by a parameter , and satisfies a fluctuation theorem (FT)
governed by that parameter. The value of is proportional to the
so-called effective temperature, thereby providing a practical way to
experimentally measure it by analyzing the PDF of intermittent events.Comment: Latex file, 8 pages + 5 postscript figure
Low frequency Raman studies of multi-wall carbon nanotubes: experiments and theory
In this paper, we investigate the low frequency Raman spectra of multi-wall
carbon nanotubes (MWNT) prepared by the electric arc method. Low frequency
Raman modes are unambiguously identified on purified samples thanks to the
small internal diameter of the MWNT. We propose a model to describe these
modes. They originate from the radial breathing vibrations of the individual
walls coupled through the Van der Waals interaction between adjacent concentric
walls. The intensity of the modes is described in the framework of bond
polarization theory. Using this model and the structural characteristics of the
nanotubes obtained from transmission electron microscopy allows to simulate the
experimental low frequency Raman spectra with an excellent agreement. It
suggests that Raman spectroscopy can be as useful regarding the
characterization of MWNT as it is in the case of single-wall nanotubes.Comment: 4 pages, 2 eps fig., 2 jpeg fig., RevTex, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Thermal noise properties of two aging materials
In this lecture we review several aspects of the thermal noise properties in
two aging materials: a polymer and a colloidal glass.
The measurements have been performed after a quench for the polymer and
during the transition from a fluid-like to a solid-like state for the gel. Two
kind of noise has been measured: the electrical noise and the mechanical noise.
For both materials we have observed that the electric noise is characterized
by a strong intermittency, which induces a large violation of the Fluctuation
Dissipation Theorem (FDT) during the aging time, and may persist for several
hours at low frequency. The statistics of these intermittent signals and their
dependance on the quench speed for the polymer or on sample concentration for
the gel are studied. The results are in a qualitative agreement with recent
models of aging, that predict an intermittent dynamics. For the mechanical
noise the results are unclear. In the polymer the mechanical thermal noise is
still intermittent whereas for the gel the violation of FDT, if it exists, is
extremely small.Comment: to be published in the Proceedings of the XIX Sitges Conference on
''Jammming, Yielding and Irreversible Deformation in Condensed Matter'',
M.-C.Miguel and M. Rubi eds.,Springer Verlag, Berli
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