Is Sustainable Development of Deserts Feasible?

Hot deserts that presently cover about one-fifth of the land area of our planet are rapidly devouring more and more arable lands mostly due to anthropogenic causes. We propose an interdisciplinary approach to revitalizing and commercializing hot deserts, which is based on systems thinking and Russian and NASA space technology experience in designing life-support systems for long-duration flights. We formulate ten principles for the design of sustainable life support systems in deserts, which can make the development of the deserts feasible. It is discussed how the principles can be employed to design and operate desert’s eco-industrial parks with greenhouses in which the transpired and evaporated moisture is collected and condensed. The potential benefits of setting up the eco-industrial parks in deserts include the slowdown and eventual reversal of the desertification trend, the migration of many industrial production facilities from mild-climate regions to deserts, the increased availability of potable water and food in deserts, the development of poor African countries, and the emergence of new investment markets

Experimental Test of an Event-Based Corpuscular Model Modification as an Alternative to Quantum Mechanics

We present the first experimental test that distinguishes between an event-based corpuscular model (EBCM) [H. De Raedt et al.: J. Comput. Theor. Nanosci. 8 (2011) 1052] of the interaction of photons with matter and quantum mechanics. The test looks at the interference that results as a single photon passes through a Mach-Zehnder interferometer [H. De Raedt et al.: J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 74 (2005) 16]. The experimental results, obtained with a low-noise single-photon source [G. Brida et al.: Opt. Expr. 19 (2011) 1484], agree with the predictions of standard quantum mechanics with a reduced $\chi^2$ of 0.98 and falsify the EBCM with a reduced $\chi^2$ of greater than 20

Improved implementation of nonclassicality test for a single particle

Recently a test of nonclassicality for a single qubit was proposed [R. Alicki and N. Van Ryn, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 41, 062001 (2008)]. We present an optimized experimental realization of this test leading to a 46 standard deviation violation of classicality. This factor of 5 improvement over our previous result was achieved by moving from the infrared to the visible where we can take advantage of higher efficiency and lower noise photon detectors.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Toward a warmer Arctic Ocean: Spreading of the early 21st century Atlantic Water warm anomaly along the Eurasian Basin margins

We document through the analysis of 2002–2005 observational data the recent Atlantic Water (AW) warming along the Siberian continental margin due to several AW warm impulses that penetrated into the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait in 1999–2000. The AW temperature record from our long-term monitoring site in the northern Laptev Sea shows several events of rapid AW temperature increase totaling 0.8°C in February–August 2004. We hypothesize the along-margin spreading of this warmer anomaly has disrupted the downstream thermal equilibrium of the late 1990s to earlier 2000s. The anomaly mean velocity of 2.4–2.5 ± 0.2 cm/s was obtained on the basis of travel time required between the northern Laptev Sea and two anomaly fronts delineated over the Eurasian flank of the Lomonosov Ridge by comparing the 2005 snapshot along-margin data with the AW pre-1990 mean. The magnitude of delineated anomalies exceeds the level of pre-1990 mean along-margin cooling and rises above the level of noise attributed to shifting of the AW jet across the basin margins. The anomaly mean velocity estimation is confirmed by comparing mooring-derived AW temperature time series from 2002 to 2005 with the downstream along-margin AW temperature distribution from 2005. Our mooring current meter data corroborate these estimations

Analytical method for parameterizing the random profile components of nanosurfaces imaged by atomic force microscopy

The functional properties of many technological surfaces in biotechnology, electronics, and mechanical engineering depend to a large degree on the individual features of their nanoscale surface texture, which in turn are a function of the surface manufacturing process. Among these features, the surface irregularities and self-similarity structures at different spatial scales, especially in the range of 1 to 100 nm, are of high importance because they greatly affect the surface interaction forces acting at a nanoscale distance. An analytical method for parameterizing the surface irregularities and their correlations in nanosurfaces imaged by atomic force microscopy (AFM) is proposed. In this method, flicker noise spectroscopy - a statistical physics approach - is used to develop six nanometrological parameters characterizing the high-frequency contributions of jump- and spike-like irregularities into the surface texture. These contributions reflect the stochastic processes of anomalous diffusion and inertial effects, respectively, in the process of surface manufacturing. The AFM images of the texture of corrosion-resistant magnetite coatings formed on low-carbon steel in hot nitrate solutions with coating growth promoters at different temperatures are analyzed. It is shown that the parameters characterizing surface spikiness are able to quantify the effect of process temperature on the corrosion resistance of the coatings. It is suggested that these parameters can be used for predicting and characterizing the corrosion-resistant properties of magnetite coatings.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; to be published in Analys

Seasonal variability in Atlantic water off Spitsbergen

A combination of 2-year-long mooring-based measurements and snapshot conductivity–temperature–depth (CTD) observations at the continental slope off Spitsbergen (81°30′N, 31°00′E) is used to demonstrate a significant hydrographic seasonal signal in Atlantic Water (AW) that propagates along the Eurasian continental slope in the Arctic Ocean. At the mooring position this seasonal signal dominates, contributing up to 50% of the total variance. Annual temperature maximum in the upper ocean (above 215 m) is reached in mid-November, when the ocean in the area is normally covered by ice. Distinct division into ‘summer’ (warmer and saltier) and ‘winter’ (colder and fresher) AW types is revealed there. Estimated temperature difference between the ‘summer’ and ‘winter’ waters is 1.2 °C, which implies that the range of seasonal heat content variations is of the same order of magnitude as the mean local AW heat content, suggesting an important role of seasonal changes in the intensity of the upward heat flux from AW. Although the current meter observations are only 1-year long, they hint at a persistent, highly barotropic current with little or no seasonal signal attached