Search

Result-based payments are so-called agri-environment schemes in which farmers and land managers are paid for allowing or enhancing the presence of bird, butterfly, or flower species of particular biodiversity importance on their land, with the farmer receiving a payment corresponding to the result desired by the environmental authority. In Romania, Fundația ADEPT implemented a pilot scheme of result-based biodiversity payments to reward practical land management. The semi-structured questionnaires were conducted in the Pogany-Havas region and in the Târnava-Mare region in 2022-2023. At the same time, in 2021, the questionnaire was applied to Vicovul de Jos farmers who received agri-environmental payments based on actions from the Agency for Payments and Interventions for Agriculture (APIA). Farmers were asked questions capturing information on i) socio-demographic characteristics (year of birth, gender, last school graduated); ii) agricultural land, machinery, and costs; iii) views on PBR; iv) previous participation in agri-environment schemes; v) satisfaction with the pilot agri-environment scheme and vi) role of agri-environment schemes in biodiversity conservation. Following analysis of European and national result-based payment contracts, the common objective was to protect biodiversity. Romanian farmers mentioned that unclean pastures lead to biodiversity loss. They consider that this type of scheme requires less effort, time, and cost of production, but the income is lower than the traditional schemes. As a result, an important performance indicator of this scheme is the freedom of decision of the owner on the measures to be applied to achieve the desired result. Implementing payments for ecosystem services and biodiversity on a large scale requires overcoming two main obstacles: lack of indicator species and opposition from the authorities. The basic condition for the implementation of result-based payment schemes is that the legislative system allows for the voluntary commitment of owners to conservation objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different hybrid structures were obtained by coating magnetic nanoparticles of perovskite type manganite at optimal doping (La0.67Sr0.33MnO3,LSMO) with different quantities of polypyrrole (PPy). The amorphous layer of polypyrrole surrounding the crystalline magnetic core was observed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and analyzed by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements in near edge structure (XANES) techniques. By analyzing the magnetic behavior of the samples one can observe that the surface modification of magnetic nanoparticles by PPy results in an increase in the saturation magnetization of the composites. The process is ascribed to paired electrons transferred from the delocalized π states of the PPy into the outer disordered layers of the manganite. The analysis of pre-edge peak of the Mn K-edge XANES spectra in the case of PPy coated LSMO nanoparticles indicates that the charge transfer between polymer and nanoparticles is (directed) going to missing or distorted oxygen positions, hence increasing the 3d electrons' mobility and orbital hybridization between the neighboring manganese ion. As a consequence, within the surface layers of LSMO nanoparticles, both energy bands disrupted the structure, and the double exchange process between Mn ions was reestablished determining the saturation magnetizations and pre-edge features increase, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron states at the SiO2/4H–SiC interface have been investigated using capacitor structures and especially, the influence of excess nitrogen, introduced by ion implantation, at the interface is studied in detail. Implanted and nonimplanted n-type samples with an interfacial concentration of nitrogen of ∼1019 cm-3 and 1016 cm-3, respectively, were analyzed by capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements, performed at different temperatures and probe frequencies, and thermal dielectric relaxation current (TDRC) measurements performed in the temperature range of 35–295 K. Three main categories of electron states are disclosed, true interface states (Dit), fast near interface states (NIToxfast) and slow near interface states (NIToxslow). The density versus energy distributions of Dit and NIToxfast have been deduced from the TDRC data and they are shown to give a close quantitative agreement with the shape and frequency dependence of the C-V curves. Further, the amount of NIToxslow extracted from TDRC is demonstrated to be responsible for the parallel shifts and hysterezis effects occurring in the C-V characteristics. All three categories of electron states are reduced in concentration in the implanted samples. This holds particularly for NIToxfast with a peak at ∼0.1 eV below the conduction band edge of 4H–SiC that is suppressed by at least two orders of magnitude relative to the nonimplanted samples. The decrease for Dit is also substantial (a factor of ∼10) while the loss for NIToxslow is considerably smaller (only ∼30%). The results provide firm evidence that NIToxfast and NIToxslow do not originate from the same kind of defect center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoparticles of cobalt and nickel embedded in A1N matrix have been prepared by ion implantation or sputter deposition with average diameters ranging from 0.8 to 9 nm. The average magnetic moment per atom versus the average cluster diameter was measured either by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and/or by SQUID magnetometry. The resulting values are always smaller than the bulk ones. An interpretation is given in terms of an interaction between the atoms located at the cluster surface and the A1N matrix, leading to a magnetically dead layer about 0.1 nm thick. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]