Threats to Soil Quality in Europe

During the recent years, there has been a surge of concern and attention in Europe to soil degradation processes. One of the most innovative aspects of the newly proposed Soil Thematic Strategy for the EU is the recognition of the multifunctionality of soils. This report is summarizing the reserch results on the fields of soil degradation and soil quality reserach. Chapters of the report include: Preface Characterisation of soil degradation risk: an overview Soil quality in the European Union Main threats to soil quality in Europe The Natural Susceptibility on European Soils to Compaction Soil Erosion: a main threats to the soils in Europe Soil Erosion risk assessment in the alpine area according to the IPCC scenarios An example of the threat of wind erosion using DSM techniques Updated map of salt affected soils in the European Union A framework to estimate the distribution of heavy metals in European Soils Application of Soil Organic Carbon Status Indicators for policy-decision making in the EU Main threats on soil biodiversity: The case of agricultural activities impacts on soil microarthropods Implications of soil threats on agricultural areas in Europe MEUSIS, a Multi-Scale European Soil Information System (MEUSIS): novel ways to derive soil indicators through UpscalingJRC.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Soil Quality and Sustainability Evaluation - an Integrated Approach to Support Soil-Related Policies in the European Union - A JRC Position Paper

In the context of the policies of the European Union the purposes of soil quality descriptions can be on the one hand represented by the performed functions of the soil, which correspond to the land use goals. With the consideration of soil dynamics through responses to human or natural impacts on the other hand, a complex approach is achieved that gives a solid ground to evaluate and relate the quality of soil according to the requirements of sustainability. Therefore functions and responses are considered in our soil quality perception with special regards to major degradation threats, which are in the focus of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection in the European Union. Concept and definitions in the soil quality domain (soil quality, soil threath index, soil sustainability index etc.) are given in the report. The report provides a framework for soil quality and sustainability evaluation, that can be applied in variouse planning and decision making procedures.JRC.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Can magnetic fields be detected during the inspiral of binary neutron stars?

Using accurate and fully general-relativistic simulations we assess the effect that magnetic fields have on the gravitational-wave emission produced during the inspiral and merger of magnetized neutron stars. In particular, we show that magnetic fields have an impact after the merger, because they are amplified by a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, but also during the inspiral, most likely because the magnetic tension reduces the stellar tidal deformation for extremely large initial magnetic fields, B_0>~10^{17}G. We quantify the influence of magnetic fields by computing the overlap, O, between the waveforms produced during the inspiral by magnetized and unmagnetized binaries. We find that for any realistic magnetic field strength B_0<~10^{14}G the overlap during the inspiral is O>~0.999 and is quite insensitive to the mass of the neutron stars. Only for unrealistically large magnetic fields like B_0~10^{17}G the overlap does decrease noticeably, becoming at our resolutions O<~0.76/0.67 for stars with baryon masses M_b~1.4/1.6 Msun, respectively. Because neutron stars are expected to merge with magnetic fields ~10^{8}-10^{10}G and because present detectors are sensitive to O<~0.995, we conclude that it is very unlikely that the present detectors will be able to discern the presence of magnetic fields during the inspiral of neutron stars.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Small changes to text and figures. Matches version to appear on MNRAS Letter

On certain sums concerning the gcd’s and lcm’s of k positive integers

We use elementary arguments to prove results on the order of magnitude of certain sums concerning the gcd’s and lcm’s of k positive integers, where k ≥ 2 is fixed. We refine and generalize an asymptotic formula of Bordell`es (2007), and extend certain related results of Hilberdink and T´oth (2016). We also formulate some conjectures and open problems

Soils of the European Union

This report make a detailed summary of the soil resources of the EU. Contents: Acknowledgements 2 1. Introduction 3 2. Materials and methods 4 2.1 Soil Geographical Database of Eurasia at scale 1:1,000,000 (SGDBE) 4 2.2 Nomenclature of soil types 6 2.3 Map legend and representation 6 3. Soils of the European Union: an overview 8 4. Spatial distribution of the major soils in the European Union 11 4.1 Acrisols 11 4.2 Albeluvisols 13 4.3 Andosols 15 4.4 Anthrosols 17 4.5 Arenosols 19 4.6 Calcisols 21 4.7 Cambisols 23 4.8 Chernozems 25 4.9 Fluvisols 27 4.10 Gleysols 29 4.11 Gypsisols 31 4.12 Histosols 33 4.13 Kastanozems 35 4.14 Leptosols 37 4.15 Luvisols 39 4.16 Phaeozems 41 4.17 Planosol 43 4.18 Podzols 45 4.19 Regosols 47 4.20 Solonchaks 49 4.21 Solonetz 51 4.22 Umbrisols 53 4.23 Vertisols 55 5. Concluding remarks 57 References 58 Appendix 1. 59 Appendix 2. 62JRC.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Solar wind modeling with the Alfven Wave Solar atmosphere Model driven by HMI-based Near-Real-Time maps by the National Solar Observatory

We explore model performance for the Alfven Wave Solar atmosphere Model (AWSoM) with near-real-time (NRT) synoptic maps of the photospheric vector magnetic field. These maps, produced by assimilating data from the Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), use a different method developed at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) to provide a near contemporaneous source of data to drive numerical models. Here, we apply these NSO-HMI-NRT maps to simulate three Carrington rotations (CRs): 2107-2108 (centered on 2011/03/07 20:12 CME event), 2123 (integer CR) and 2218--2219 (centered on 2019/07/2 solar eclipse), which together cover a wide range of activity level for solar cycle 24. We show simulation results, which reproduce both extreme ultraviolet emission (EUV) from the low corona while simultaneously matching in situ observations at 1 au as well as quantify the total unsigned open magnetic flux from these maps

Single-antiplatelet regimen in ruptured cerebral blood blister and dissecting aneurysms treated with flow-diverter stent reconstruction

BackgroundFlow diversion treatment of ruptured cerebral aneurysms remains challenging due to the need for double-antiplatelet therapy. We report our experience with flow-diverter stent (FDS) reconstruction with single-antiplatelet therapy of ruptured cerebral blood blister and dissecting aneurysms.MethodsIn this case series we performed a retrospective analysis of all patients with ruptured cerebral aneurysms who were treated with a phosphoryl-bonded FDS between 2019 and 2022 in a single center. Periprocedurally, all patients received weight-adapted eptifibatide IV and heparin IV. After 6–24 hours, eptifibatide was switched to oral prasugrel as monotherapy. We analyzed the rate of bleeding complications, thromboembolic events, occlusion rate and clinical outcome.ResultsNine patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage were treated, eight within 24 hours of symptom onset. Seven patients were treated with one FDS and two patients received two FDS in a telescopic fashion. Two aneurysms were additionally coil embolized. Fatal re-rupture occurred in one case; eight patients survived and had no adverse events associated with the FDS. Six patients showed complete occlusion of the aneurysm after 3 months (n=2) and 1 year (n=4), respectively. Two patients showed subtotal occlusion of the aneurysm at the last follow-up after 3 months and 6 months, respectively. Favorable clinical outcome was achieved in five patients.ConclusionsPeri-interventional single-antiplatelet therapy with eptifibatide followed by prasugrel was sufficient to prevent thromboembolic events and reduce re-bleeding using an anti-thrombogenic FDS. FDS with single-antiplatelet therapy might be a viable option for ruptured blood blister and dissecting cerebral aneurysms

Optically addressable spin defects coupled to bound states in the continuum metasurfaces

Van der Waals (vdW) materials, including hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), are layered crystalline solids with appealing properties for investigating light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. hBN has emerged as a versatile building block for nanophotonic structures, and the recent identification of native optically addressable spin defects has opened up exciting possibilities in quantum technologies. However, these defects exhibit relatively low quantum efficiencies and a broad emission spectrum, limiting potential applications. Optical metasurfaces present a novel approach to boost light emission efficiency, offering remarkable control over light-matter coupling at the sub-wavelength regime. Here, we propose and realise a monolithic scalable integration between intrinsic spin defects in hBN metasurfaces and high quality (Q) factor resonances leveraging quasi-bound states in the continuum (qBICs). Coupling between spin defect ensembles and qBIC resonances delivers a 25-fold increase in photoluminescence intensity, accompanied by spectral narrowing to below 4 nm linewidth facilitated by Q factors exceeding $10^2$. Our findings demonstrate a new class of spin based metasurfaces and pave the way towards vdW-based nanophotonic devices with enhanced efficiency and sensitivity for quantum applications in imaging, sensing, and light emission.Comment: 13 pages, 4 Figures + 4 Supplementary Figure