Sub-femtotesla scalar atomic magnetometer using multipass cells

Scalar atomic magnetometers have many attractive features but their sensitivity has been relatively poor. We describe a Rb scalar gradiometer using two multi-pass optical cells. We use a pump-probe measurement scheme to suppress spin-exchange relaxation and two probe pulses to find the spin precession zero crossing times with a resolution of 1 psec. We realize magnetic field sensitivity of 0.54 fT/Hz$^{1/2}$, which improves by an order of magnitude the best scalar magnetometer sensitivity and surpasses the quantum limit set by spin-exchange collisions for a scalar magnetometer with the same measurement volume operating in a continuous regime.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Alternatives aux intrants chimiques en culture bananière

Les producteurs de banane antillais sont engagés en partenariat avec l'Institut Technique Tropical et le CIRAD dans une démarche de réduction de l'emploi des intrants chimiques. Les innovations accompagnant cette démarche reposent principalement sur des techniques alternatives à la lutte chimique pour le contrôle des nématodes phyto-parasites et du charançon du bananier. Ces techniques font appel à l'intégration dans le système de culture de plantes de service afin de restaurer des mécanismes de régulation biologique des bio-agresseurs, à un contrôle de l'assainissement des parcelles par des tests biologiques, à l'utilisation de matériel végétal sain (vitroplants) pour la replantation des bananeraies et à la mise en place de pièges attractifs à phéromones pour la capture du charançon du bananier. Ces techniques sont intégrés dans des prototypes de systèmes de culture mis au point et testés en milieu réel dans le cadre d'une démarche de conception et d'évaluation participative impliquant les producteurs, les services techniques et la recherche. (Résumé d'auteur

TRANSATLANTIC TRADE AND INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP (TTIP): IMPACT AND CORRELATION ANALYSIS BASED ON TRADE AND INVESTMENT BETWEEN TURKEY AND EU, AND THE USA

The main objective of this study is to ascertain the importance and necessity of Turkey, based on trade and investment, in TTIP agreement as a partner country with both European Union (EU) and the USA. Here, it uses secondary data sources — Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) and Turkish Statistical Institute — from 2001 to 2016. To obtain vibrant findings, the study introduces two statistical analyses: correlation and regression. In addition, it elucidates descriptive analysis for comprehending the general trade and investment scenario. The results derived from correlation suggest that there is a strong positive correlation between Turkey’s total foreign trade and its export to and import from EU and the USA, Turkey’s total FDI and EU’s FDI in Turkey, as well as Turkey’s total FDI and the USA’s FDI in Turkey. In addition, a strong positive correlation has been found between Turkey’s total resident FDI in abroad and Turkey’s FDI in EU and the USA. On the other hand, the regression results indicate that Turkey’s trade and investment with EU and the USA have a significant impact on Turkey’s total foreign trade and investmen

Örgüte güvensizlik: kültürlerarası nitel bir çalışma (Distrust in organization: a qualitative cross-cultural study)

Bu çalışmada, örgüte güvensizliğin öncülleri ve bunların kültürlerarası farklılık gösterip göstermediği incelenmektedir. Türk (n = 19) ve Hollandalı (n = 19) beyaz yakalı çalışanlar ile yapılan yarı-yapılandırılmış görüşmeler sonucunda elde edilen bulgular, örgüte güvensizliğin çevresel, örgütsel ve kişisel değişkenlerden etkilenen bir kavram olduğuna işaret etmektedir. Bununla beraber, örgüte güvensizlik öncüllerinin çoğunun kişilerarası güvende olduğu gibi (Mayer ve ark., 1995) yetenek, iyi niyet ve dürüstlük olarak adlandırılan güvenilirlik etmenlerinin öncülleri olduğu görülmektedir. Ayrıca güvensizlik oluşumunda bu öncüllere atfedilen rollerin Türkiye ve Hollanda arasında hem benzerlik hem de farklılıklar gösterdiği dikkati çekmektedir

Descriptors of Posidonia oceanica meadows: Use and application

The conservation of the coastal marine environment requires the possession of information that enables the global quality of the environment to be evaluated reliably and relatively quickly. The use of biological indicators is often an appropriate method. Seagrasses in general, and Posidonia oceanica meadows in particular, are considered to be appropriate for biomonitoring because of their wide distribution, reasonable size, sedentary habit, easy collection and abundance and sensitivity to modifications of littoral zone. Reasoned management, on the scale of the whole Mediterranean basin, requires standardized methods of study, to be applied by both researchers and administrators, enabling comparable results to be obtained. This paper synthesises the existing methods applied to monitor P. oceanica meadows, identifies the most suitable techniques and suggests future research directions. From the results of a questionnaire, distributed to all the identified laboratories working on this topic, a list of the most commonly used descriptors was drawn up, together with the related research techniques (e.g. standardization, interest and limits, valuation of the results). It seems that the techniques used to study meadows are rather similar, but rarely identical, even though the various teams often refer to previously published works. This paper shows the interest of a practical guide that describes, in a standardized way, the most useful techniques enabling P. oceanica meadows to be used as an environmental descriptor. Indeed, it constitutes the first stage in the process. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Love as a Commitment Device : Evidence from a Cross-Cultural Study across 90 Countries

Given the ubiquitous nature of love, numerous theories have been proposed to explain its existence. One such theory refers to love as a commitment device, suggesting that romantic love evolved to foster commitment between partners and enhance their reproductive success. In the present study, we investigated this hypothesis using a large-scale sample of 86,310 individual responses collected across 90 countries. If romantic love is universally perceived as a force that fosters commitment between long-term partners, we expected that individuals likely to suffer greater losses from the termination of their relationships—including people of lower socioeconomic status, those with many children, and women—would place a higher value on romantic love compared to people with higher status, those with fewer children, and men. These predictions were supported. Additionally, we observed that individuals from countries with a higher (vs. lower) Human Development Index placed a greater level of importance on romantic love, suggesting that modernization might influence how romantic love is evaluated. On average, participants worldwide were unwilling to commit to a long-term romantic relationship without love, highlighting romantic love’s universal importance

A preliminary study on the role of personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases on self-reported health across countries

Objectives: Infectious diseases are often associated with decline in quality of life. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between personal history of communicable, i.e., infectious and parasitic diseases and self-rated health. Study design: Secondary analysis of a large dataset multi-country observational study. Methods: We used a four-pronged analysis approach to investigate whether personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases is related to self-reported health, measured with a single item. Results: Three of the four analyses found a small positive effect on self-reported health among those reporting a history of pathogen exposure. The meta-analysis found no support but large heterogeneity that was not reduced by two classifications of countries. Conclusion: Personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases does not reduce self-reported health across a global sample

Conservatism negatively predicts creativity: A study across 28 countries

Previous studies have found a negative relationship between creativity and conservatism. However, as these studies were mostly conducted on samples of homogeneous nationality, the generalizability of the effect across different cultures is unknown. We addressed this gap by conducting a study in 28 countries. Based on the notion that attitudes can be shaped by both environmental and ecological factors, we hypothesized that parasite stress can also affect creativity and thus, its potential effects should be controlled for. The results of multilevel analyses showed that, as expected, conservatism was a significant predictor of lower creativity, adjusting for economic status, age, sex, education level, subjective susceptibility to disease, and country-level parasite stress. In addition, most of the variability in creativity was due to individual rather than country-level variance. Our study provides evidence for a weak but significant negative link between conservatism and creativity at the individual level (? = −0.08, p < .001) and no such effect when country-level conservatism was considered. We present our hypotheses considering previous findings on the behavioral immune system in humans.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio