The role of order and disorder in thermal and material sciences part 1: Heat and society

The notion of heat is thoroughly analyzed and its historical links are searched particularly with relation to both the Greek philosophy (Milesians, Pythagoreans, atomists, etc.) and in the present day thermal physics. Fluctuation, spontaneity and chaos are discussed. Thermodynamics is reviewed in the relation to both the traditional development and the modern description of disequilibria (open systems). Effect of dissipation is shown often to provide new, self-organized structures. Exploitation of fire and its conscious use as a manufacturing power are analyzed in terms of generalized engines to act in the sense of the information transducers

Properties of Starch Based Foams Made by Thermal Pressure Forming

Packaging materials based on expanded polystyrene can be substituted by biodegradable foam, manufactured by direct or indirect electrical heating of a potato starch suspension in a closed mold. This paper deals with an experimental evaluation of selected properties of potato starch and starch foam related to this technology: density, specific heat capacity and specific electrical conductivity of a water suspension of potato starch within the temperature range up to 100 °C, and mass fraction from 5 to 65 %. The electric conductivity and heat capacity changes were observed during direct ohmic heating of a starch suspension between electrodes in a closed cell (feeding voltage 100 V, frequency 50 Hz). Specific electric conductivity increases with temperature, with the exception of the gelatinization region at 60 to 70 °C, and decreases with increasing concentration of starch (the temperature and concentration dependencies were approximated using the Lorentz equation). Direct ohmic heating is restricted by a significant decrease in effective electrical conductivity above a temperature of 100 °C, when evaporated steam worsens the contact with the electrodes. Experiments show that when direct ohmic heating is not combined with indirect contact heating, only 20 % of the water can be evaporated from manufactured samples and the starch foam is not fully formed. This is manifested by only a slight expansion of the heated sample. Only the indirect contact heating from the walls of the mold, with the wall temperature above 180 °C, forms a fixed porous structure (expansion of about 300 %) and a crust, ensuring suitable mechanical and thermal insulation properties of the manufactured product. The effective thermal conductivity of the foamed product (sandwich plates with a porous core and a compact crust) was determined by the heated wire method, while the porosity of the foam and the thickness of the crust were evaluated by image analysis of colored cross sections of manufactured samples. While the porosity is almost constant, the thickness of the crust is approximately proportional to the thickness of the plate

Environmental npp related risk assessment and its communication to the public

Тези авторів присвячені екологічній оцінці ризиків, пов'язаних з АЕС та її зв'язок з громадськіст

Unraveling the temperature dependence of the yield strength in single-crystal tungsten using atomistically-informed crystal plasticity calculations

We use a physically-based crystal plasticity model to predict the yield strength of body-centered cubic (bcc) tungsten single crystals subjected to uniaxial loading. Our model captures the thermally-activated character of screw dislocation motion and full non-Schmid effects, both of which are known to play a critical role in bcc plasticity. The model uses atomistic calculations as the sole source of constitutive information, with no parameter fitting of any kind to experimental data. Our results are in excellent agreement with experimental measurements of the yield stress as a function of temperature for a number of loading orientations. The validated methodology is then employed to calculate the temperature and strain-rate dependence of the yield strength for 231 crystallographic orientations within the standard stereographic triangle. We extract the strain-rate sensitivity of W crystals at different temperatures, and finish with the calculation of yield surfaces under biaxial loading conditions that can be used to define effective yield criteria for engineering design models

Another building block in the plant cell wall: Barley xyloglucan xyloglucosyl transferases link covalently xyloglucan and anionic oligosaccharides derived from pectin

Published online 16 August 2020.We report on the homo‐ and hetero‐transglycosylation activities of the HvXET3 and HvXET4 xyloglucan xyloglucosyl transferases (XET; EC 2.4.1.207) from barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), and the visualisation of these activities in young barley roots using Alexa Fluor 488‐labelled oligosaccharides. We discover that these isozymes catalyse the transglycosylation reactions with the chemically defined donor and acceptor substrates, specifically with the xyloglucan donor and the penta‐galacturonide [α(1‐4)GalAp]5 acceptor – the homogalacturonan (pectin) fragment. This activity is supported by 3D molecular models of HvXET3 and HvXET4 with the docked XXXG donor and [α(1‐4)GalAp]5 acceptor substrates at the ‐4 to +5 subsites in the active sites. Comparative sequence analyses of barley isoforms and seed‐localised TmXET6.3 from nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus L.) permitted the engineering of mutants of TmXET6.3 that could catalyse the hetero‐transglycosylation reaction with the xyloglucan/[α(1‐4)GalAp]5 substrate pair, while wild‐type TmXET6.3 lacked this activity. Expression data obtained by real‐time quantitative PCR of HvXET transcripts and a clustered heatmap of expression profiles of the gene family revealed that HvXET3 and HvXET6 co‐expressed but did not share the monophyletic origin. Conversely, HvXET3 and HvXET4 shared this relationship, when we examined the evolutionary history of 419 glycoside hydrolase 16 family members, spanning monocots, eudicots, and a basal Angiosperm. The discovered hetero‐transglycosylation activity in HvXET3 and HvXET4 with the xyloglucan/[α(1‐4)GalAp]5 substrate pair is discussed against the background of roles of xyloglucan‐pectin heteropolymers and how they may participate in spatial patterns of cell wall formation and re‐modelling, and affect the structural features of walls.Barbora Stratilová, Sergej Šesták, Jozef Mravec, Soňa Garajová, Zuzana Pakanová, Kristína Vadinová, Danica Kučerová, Stanislav Kozmon, Julian G. Schwerdt, Neil Shirley Eva Stratilová and Maria Hrmov

Macroscopic non-equilibrium thermodynamics in dynamic calorimetry

What is really measured in dynamic calorimetric experiments is still an open question. This paper is devoted to this question, which can be usefully envisaged by means of macroscopic non-equilibrium thermodynamics. From the pioneer work of De Donder on chemical reactions and with other authors along the 20th century, the question is tackled under an historical point of view. A special attention is paid about the notions of frequency dependent complex heat capacity and entropy production due to irreversible processes occurring during an experiment. This phenomenological approach based on thermodynamics, not widely spread in the literature of calorimetry, could open significant perspectives on the study of macro-systems undergoing physico-chemical transformations probed by dynamic calorimetry.Comment: review article (21 pages