Monte Carlo simulations of copolymers at homopolymer interfaces: Interfacial structure as a function of the copolymer density

By means of extensive Monte Carlo simulations of the bond fluctuation model, we study the effect of adding AB diblock copolymers on the properties of an interface between demixed homopolymer phases. The parameters are chosen such that the homopolymers are strongly segregated, and the whole range of copolymer concentrations in the two phase coexistence region is scanned. We compare the ``mushroom'' regime, in which copolymers are diluted and do not interact with each other, with the ``wet brush'' regime, where copolymers overlap and stretch, but are still swollen by the homopolymers. A ``dry brush'' regime is never entered for our choice of chain lengths. ``Intrinsic'' profiles are calculated using a block analysis method introduced by us in earlier work. We discuss density profiles, orientational profiles and contact number profiles. In general, the features of the profiles are similar at all copolymer concentrations, however, the profiles in the concentrated regime are much broader than in the dilute regime. The results compare well with self-consistent field calculations.Comment: to appear in J. Chem. Phy

Organic Farming Research Support and Research Priorities in the European Union

Support for Organic Farming focused research has increased significantly in successive EU research funding frameworks. This is in line with constantly increasing consumer demand for organic foods over the last 20 years, which has accelerated again over the last 2 years in many European countries, including new member states. Under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), the expected new increase of funds for organic farming could significantly decrease, even below the levels made available under the 5th Framework Programme (FP5). Most of the project topics listed focus on the development of methods for economic analyses of Organic Farming and/or follow a very “reductionist” one problem - one potential solution approach. On the other side, as there is no clear instruments to establish priorities in research programmes at European level. The IFOAM EU Group has developed a consultation process to set organic farming sector priorities, which could be used as a model to set research priorities in the future. This paper also presents a first assessment of the EU support to organic farming research, reviewing main achievements in organic food production systems research and proposing some changes in the current 7th Framework Programme

Chemical ordering and composition fluctuations at the (001) surface of the Fe-Ni Invar alloy

We report on a study of (001) oriented fcc Fe-Ni alloy surfaces which combines first-principles calculations and low-temperature STM experiments. Density functional theory calculations show that Fe-Ni alloy surfaces are buckled with the Fe atoms slightly shifted outwards and the Ni atoms inwards. This is consistent with the observation that the atoms in the surface layer can be chemically distinguished in the STM image: brighter spots (corrugation maxima with increased apparent height) indicate iron atoms, darker ones nickel atoms. This chemical contrast reveals a c2x2 chemical order (50% Fe) with frequent Fe-rich defects on Invar alloy surface. The calculations also indicate that subsurface composition fluctuations may additionally modulate the apparent height of the surface atoms. The STM images show that this effect is pronounced compared to the surfaces of other disordered alloys, which suggests that some chemical order and corresponding concentration fluctuations exist also in the subsurface layers of Invar alloy. In addition, detailed electronic structure calculations allow us to identify the nature of a distinct peak below the Fermi level observed in the tunneling spectra. This peak corresponds to a surface resonance band which is particularly pronounced in iron-rich surface regions and provides a second type of chemical contrast with less spatial resolution but one that is essentially independent of the subsurface composition.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Consistent SDNs through Network State Fuzzing

The conventional wisdom is that a software-defined network (SDN) operates under the premise that the logically centralized control plane has an accurate representation of the actual data plane state. Nevertheless, bugs, misconfigurations, faults or attacks can introduce inconsistencies that undermine correct operation. Previous work in this area, however, lacks a holistic methodology to tackle this problem and thus, addresses only certain parts of the problem. Yet, the consistency of the overall system is only as good as its least consistent part. Motivated by an analogy of network consistency checking with program testing, we propose to add active probe-based network state fuzzing to our consistency check repertoire. Hereby, our system, PAZZ, combines production traffic with active probes to continuously test if the actual forwarding path and decision elements (on the data plane) correspond to the expected ones (on the control plane). Our insight is that active traffic covers the inconsistency cases beyond the ones identified by passive traffic. PAZZ prototype was built and evaluated on topologies of varying scale and complexity. Our results show that PAZZ requires minimal network resources to detect persistent data plane faults through fuzzing and localize them quickly

Device for in-situ cleaving of hard crystals

Cleaving crystals in a vacuum chamber is a simple method for obtaining atomically flat and clean surfaces for materials that have a preferential cleaving plane. Most in-situ cleavers use parallel cutting edges that are applied from two sides on the sample. We found in ambient experiments that diagonal cutting pliers, where the cleavage force is introduced in a single point instead of a line work very well also for hard materials. Here, we incorporate the diagonal cutting plier principle in a design compatible with ultra-high vacuum requirements. We show optical microscopy (mm scale) and atomic force microscopy (atomic scale) images of NiO(001) surfaces cleaved with this device.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures Submitted to Review of Scientific Instruments (2005

Thermal Fluctuations in a Lamellar Phase of a Binary Amphiphile-Solvent Mixture: A Molecular Dynamics Study

We investigate thermal fluctuations in a smectic A phase of an amphiphile-solvent mixture with molecular dynamics simulations. We use an idealized model system, where solvent particles are represented by simple beads, and amphiphiles by bead-and-spring tetramers. At a solvent bead fraction of 20 % and sufficiently low temperature, the amphiphiles self-assemble into a highly oriented lamellar phase. Our study aims at comparing the structure of this phase with the predictions of the elastic theory of thermally fluctuating fluid membrane stacks [Lei et al., J. Phys. II 5, 1155 (1995)]. We suggest a method which permits to calculate the bending rigidity and compressibility modulus of the lamellar stack from the simulation data. The simulation results are in reasonable agreement with the theory