Adjustment of Conventional PSE's Methodology for Economy in Transition

The conventional PSE's methodology doesn't provide adequate estimation of agricultural support for the economy in transition. In this paper we attempt to adjust PSE's methodology for Russian economy, and also coefficients' analysis and interpretations are adapted for transitional conditions. Investigation showed that the level of agricultural support in Russia is much lower than conventional methodology estimates.PSE, transition, adjusted methodology, Russia, agriculture, Political Economy,

Living with the Energy Crisis

Discusses measure that can be taken by homeowners to optimize energy conservation and efficiency; includes a seasonal checklist

Markets for Purchased Farm Inputs in Transitional Agriculture: Russia's Example

The common a priori persuasion is that agriculture suffers from decapitalization due to financial constraints faced by producers. This view is the basis for the national agricultural policy, which emphasizes reimbursement of input costs and substitutes government and quasi-government organizations for the missing market institutions. The article evaluates the availability of purchased farm inputs, the efficiency of their use, the main problems in the emergence of market institutions, and the impact of government policies. The analysis focuses on five groups of purchased inputs: farm machinery, fertilizers, fuel, seeds, and animal feed. The information sources include official statistics and data from two original surveys.Russian agriculture, transition economies, farm supply channels, government support programs, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, P230, Q180,

Illinois Lo-Cal House

The increasing scarcity of fuels makes it imperativeto include more energy conservation features in our housing. This circular describes the design, construction, and predicted performance of a house that uses approximately one-third of the energy needed to heat a house of the same size which is built to meet 1974 insulation standards (United States Department of Housing and Urban Development standards for houses located in areas having a heating season of between 4500 and 8000 degree-days). Because of its low-energy requirements for heating, the house has been called the "Illinois Lo-Cal House." If the Lo-Cal House is compared to the typical house of 1950, the savings are even more dramatic. The two features which account for the exceptional reduction are: 1) Superior insulation 2) Solar orientation Of the reduction, about 80% or more is due to the heavy insulation. The remaining reduction is due to the location of most of the windows in the south wall, where they act as solar collectors

On the Coexistence in RuSr2GdCu2O8 of Superconductivity and Ferromagnetism

We review the reasons that make superconductivity unlikely to arise in a ferromagnet. Then, in light of the report by Tallon and collaborators that RuSr2GdCu2O8 becomes superconducting at approximately 35 K which is well below the Curie temperature of 132 K, we consider whether the objections really apply to this compound. Our considerations are supported by local spin density calculations for this compound, which indeed indicate a ferromagnetic RuO2 layer. The Ru moment resides in t_2g orbitals but is characteristic of itinerant magnetism (and is sensitive to choice of exchange-correlation potential and to the atomic positions). Based on the small exchange splitting that is induced in the Cu-O layers, the system seems capable of supporting singlet superconductivity an FFLO-type order parameter and possibly a pi-phase alternation between layers. If instead the pairing is triplet in the RuO2 layers, it can be distinguished by a spin-polarized supercurrent. Either type of superconductivity seems to imply a spontaneous vortex phase if the magnetization is rotated out of the plane.Comment: 3 revtex pages, 2 embedded figures. In press, Proc. HTS99 Conf., Miami, 199

Orbital moment of a single Co atom on a Pt(111) surface - a view from correlated band theory

The orbital magnetic moment of a Co adatom on a Pt(111) surface is calculated in good agreement with experimental data making use of the LSDA+U method. It is shown that both electron correlation induced orbital polarization and structural relaxation play essential roles in orbital moment formation. The microscopic origins of the orbital moment enhancement are discussed

Heat Capacity of the Pressure-induced Superconductivity in Itinerant Ferromagnet UGe2_2

Recently co-existence of the ferromagnetism and superconductivity was reported in the high-pressure region (1.0-1.6 GPa) in UGe$_2$. We performed the heat capacity measurement on UGe$_2$ under high pressure. At 1.13 GPa, we found a peak corresponding to the superconducting transition. The superconducting temperature $T_{SC}$ and ${\it\Delta} C/(\gamma T_{SC})$ are 0.6 K and 0.25, respectively. The superconducting transition was also confirmed by the appearance of the Meissner effect in the {\it ac} susceptibility. From these results, we confirm a bulk nature of the superconductivity in UGe$_2$. The value of $C/T$ ($\sim$ 95 mJ/moleK$^2$) just above $T_{SC}$ at 1.15 GPa is as much as 3 times larger than that at ambient pressure, which indicates a large mass enhancement of quasiparticles under high pressure.Comment: submitted to the International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems 200

Coulomb Correlations and Magnetic Anisotropy in ordered L10L1_0 CoPt and FePt alloys

We present results of the magneto-crystalline anisotropy energy (MAE) calculations for chemically ordered $L1_0$ CoPt and FePt alloys taking into account the effects of strong electronic correlations and spin-orbit coupling. The local spin density + Hubbard U approximation (LSDA+U) is shown to provide a consistent picture of the magnetic ground state properties when intra-atomic Coulomb correlations are included for both 3$d$ and 5$d$ elements. Our results demonstrate significant and complex contribution of correlation effects to large MAE of these material.Comment: revised version; 4 pages, 2 figure