Recuperação de pastagens degradadas no Acre.

Atualmente, a degradação das pastagens é um dos maiores problemas da pecuária no Acre, causando queda da capacidade de suporte das propriedades, elevação dos custos de produção de carne e leite, descapitalização dos produtores e aumento da pressão por novos desmatamentos. A situação parece ser mais grave no estado de Roraima, onde predominam solos de baixa fertilidade natural e onde o progresso tecnológico da atividade pecuária tem avançado mais lentamente. A falta de adubação de manutenção, com o conseqüente declínio da fertilidade do solo, e a superlotação das pastagens (excesso de gado) foram as causas de degradação de importância mais generalizada na região. No Acre, cujos solos são predominantemente de baixa permeabilidade e com maior estoque de nutrientes do que os demais Estados da Região, a principal causa de degradação apontada foi a síndrome da morte do capim-braquiarão, gramínea mais plantada no Estado, seguida da superlotação, causa de degradação importante, principalmente, nas pequenas e médias propriedades. O fogo como instrumento de ?limpeza? (controle de invasoras) das pastagens continua sendo um importante fator de degradação das pastagens cultivadas na região, principalmente entre os pequenos produtores

Satellite Galaxies and Fossil Groups in the Millennium Simulation

We use a semianalytic galaxy catalogue constructed from the Millennium Simulation to study the satellites of isolated galaxies in the LCDM cosmogony. This sample (~80,000$ bright primaries, surrounded by ~178,000 satellites) allows the characterization, with minimal statistical uncertainty, of the dynamical properties of satellite/primary galaxy systems in a LCDM universe. We find that, overall, the satellite population traces the dark matter rather well: its spatial distribution and kinematics may be approximated by an NFW profile with a mildly anisotropic velocity distribution. Their spatial distribution is also mildly anisotropic, with a well-defined ``anti-Holmberg'' effect that reflects the misalignment between the major axis and angular momentum of the host halo. The isolation criteria for our primaries picks not only galaxies in sparse environments, but also a number of primaries at the centre of ''fossil'' groups. We find that the abundance and luminosity function of these unusual systems are in reasonable agreement with the few available observational constraints. We recover the expected L_{host} \sigma_{sat}^3 relation for LCDM models for truly-isolated primaries. Less strict primary selection, however, leads to substantial modification of the scaling relation. Our analysis also highlights a number of difficulties afflicting studies that rely on blind stacking of satellite systems to constrain the mean halo mass of the primary galaxies.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, MNRAS in press. Accepted version with minor changes. Version with high resolution figures available at: http://www.astro.uvic.ca/~lsales/SatPapers/SatPapers.htm

Possible mechanism for achieving glass-like thermal conductivities in crystals with off-center atoms

In the filled Ga/Ge clathrate, Eu and Sr are off-center in site 2 but Ba is on-center. All three filler atoms (Ba,Eu,Sr) have low temperature Einstein modes; yet only for the Eu and Sr systems is there a large dip in the thermal conductivity, attributed to the Einstein modes. No dip is observed for Ba. Here we argue that it is the off-center displacement that is crucial for understanding this unexplained difference in behavior. It enhances the coupling between the "rattler" motion and the lattice phonons for the Eu and Sr systems, and turns on/off another scattering mechanism (for 1K < T < 20K) produced by the presence/absence of off-center sites. The random occupation of different off-center sites produces a high density of symmetry-breaking defects which scatters phonons. It may also be important for improving our understanding of other glassy systems.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure (2 parts) -- v2: intro broadened; strengthened arguments regarding need for additional phonon scattering mechanis

Micro-bias and macro-performance

We use agent-based modeling to investigate the effect of conservatism and partisanship on the efficiency with which large populations solve the density classification task--a paradigmatic problem for information aggregation and consensus building. We find that conservative agents enhance the populations' ability to efficiently solve the density classification task despite large levels of noise in the system. In contrast, we find that the presence of even a small fraction of partisans holding the minority position will result in deadlock or a consensus on an incorrect answer. Our results provide a possible explanation for the emergence of conservatism and suggest that even low levels of partisanship can lead to significant social costs.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Thermal and electrical transport in the spin density wave antiferromagnet CaFe4_{4}As3_{3}

We present here measurements of the thermopower, thermal conductivity, and electrical resistivity of the newly reported compound CaFe4As3. Evidence is presented from specific heat and electrical resistivity measurements that a substantial fraction of the Fermi surface survives the onset of spin density wave (SDW) order at the Neel temperature TN=88 K, and its subsequent commensurate lockin transition at T2=26.4 K. The specific heat below T2 consists of a normal metallic component from the ungapped parts of the Fermi surface, and a Bardeen-Cooper- Schrieffer (BCS) component that represents the SDW gapping of the Fermi surface. A large Kadowaki-Woods ratio is found at low temperatures, showing that the ground state of CaFe4As3 is a strongly interacting Fermi liquid. The thermal conductivity of CaFe4As3 is an order of magnitude smaller than those of conventional metals at all temperatures, due to a strong phonon scattering. The thermoelectric power displays a sign change from positive to negative indicating that a partial gap forms at the Fermi level with the onset of commensurate spin density wave order at T2=26.4 K. The small value of the thermopower and the enhancements of the resistivity due to gap formation and strong quasiparticle interactions offset the low value of the thermal conductivity, yielding only a modest value for the thermoelectric figure of merit Z < 5x10^-6 1/K in CaFe4As3. The results of ab initio electronic structure calculations are reported, confirming that the sign change in the thermopower at T2 is reflected by a sign change in the slope of the density of states at the Fermi level. Values for the quasiparticle renormalization are derived from measurements of the specific heat and thermopower, indicating that as T->0, CaFe4As3 is among the most strongly correlated of the known Fe-based pnictide and chalcogenide systems.Comment: 8 pages with 5 figure

Pressure effects on the transport coefficients of Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2

We report the temperature dependence of the resistivity and thermoelectric power under hydrostatic pressure of the itinerant antiferromagnet BaFe2As2 and the electron-doped superconductor Ba(Fe0.9Co0.1)2As2. We observe a hole-like contribution to the thermopower below the structural-magnetic transition in the parent compound that is suppressed in magnitude and temperature with pressure. Pressure increases the contribution of electrons to transport in both the doped and undoped compound. In the 10% Co-doped sample, we used a two-band model for thermopower to estimate the carrier concentrations and determine the effect of pressure on the band structure

Estilosantes Campo Grande: leguminosa forrageira recomendada para solos arenosos do Acre.

Esta publicação apresenta as principais características do estilosantes Campo Grande, descreve o seu desempenho e adaptação às condições edafoclimáticas e aos sistemas produtivos do Acre, e traz as principais recomendações disponibilizadas pela pesquisa para o seu plantio e manejo em pastos consorciados com gramíneas forrageiras.bitstream/item/29003/1/Circular-tec.-55.pd

Anisotropic thermal expansion of Fe1.06Te and FeTe0.5Se0.5 single crystals

Heat capacity and anisotropic thermal expansion was measured for Fe1.06Te and FeTe0.5Se0.5 single crystals. Previously reported phase transitions are clearly seen in both measurements. In both cases the thermal expansion is anisotropic. The uniaxial pressure derivatives of the superconducting transition temperature in FeTe0.5Se0.5 inferred from the Ehrenfest relation have opposite signs for in-plane and c-axis pressures. Whereas the Gruneisen parameters for both materials are similar and only weakly temperature-dependent above ~ 80 K, at low temperatures (in the magnetically ordered phase) the magnetic contribution to the Gruneisen parameter in Fe1.06Te is significantly larger than electron and phonon contributions combined

Análise comparativa entre sondas multiparamétricas para avaliação da qualidade da água para fins agroambientais.

Perante a situação atual de degradação dos corpos hídricos, principalmente nas áreas mais populosas do país, fica evidente a necessidade de um monitoramento eficaz da qualidade das águas dos rios, lagos e outros, que no presente estudo está conectado aos impactos das atividades antrópicas, com destaque às agropecuárias na qualidade da água. Neste sentido, as sondas multiparamétricas tem grande aplicação, uma vez que podem ser instaladas em campo permitindo um monitoramento contínuo e eficaz, poupando-se tempo e recursos. Visando contribuir na identificação da sonda mais adequada para o tipo de monitoramento que se pretende e recursos disponíveis, foi proposto o presente estudo, que tem por objetivo fazer um levantamento e análise comparativa das sondas multiparamétricas para avaliação da qualidade da água disponíveis no mercado. Destaca-se que há uma escassez de trabalhos publicados na literatura que façam este tipo de análise. Especificamente foi feita uma análise comparativa para as principais sondas disponíveis no mercado em relação à quantidade de parâmetros que analisam, o seu custo-benefício, as oportunidades de assistências técnicas no Brasil em relação a cada uma delas, a capacidade de comunicação não só com programas específicos, mas também com Dataloggers (coletores de dados), alimentação energética das sondas, a facilidade de manutenção e calibração, dentre outros fatores. Os resultados mostram os parâmetros mais usados no monitoramento da qualidade da água, as vantagens e desvantagens em se utilizar sondas multiparamétricas e os principais cuidados que se devem tomar quando se está utilizando estas sondas.SIAGRO 2014