30 research outputs found
A comparative theoretical study on core-hole excitation spectra of azafullerene and its derivatives
Grazing during the grassland greenup period promotes plant species richness in alpine grassland in winter pastures
Although grazing is the most common use of grassland, the ecological
function of grassland far exceeds its productivity. Therefore, the protection
of plant diversity is of the utmost importance and cannot be ignored. Existing
research on the effect of grazing on grassland mainly focuses on grazing
intensity and the type of livestock, but the consequences of the timing of the
grazing on the vegetation community remains unclear. We investigated plant
community characteristics of winter pastures in alpine meadow with different
grazing termination times (grazing before and during the grassland greenup
periods) in Maqu County, eastern QTP. The results showed that vegetation
height, coverage, aboveground biomass and Graminoid biomass were lower
in grassland when grazing happened during the greenup period compared
to grassland where grazing was terminated before the greenup period.
However, the total plant species richness and forbs richness were higher in
grassland with grazing during the greenup period compared to grassland
without grazing during the greenup period. Our structural equation modeling
reveals a potential indirect implication for the total plant species richness and
forbs richness of winter pastures mainly through a decrease in the vegetation
coverage and grass biomass abundance. Our findings imply that grazing
during the grassland greenup period may facilitate the maintenance of plant
diversity in winter pastures. These findings have important implications for
grassland ecosystem functioning and for the conservation of plant diversity.https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-sciencedm2022Mammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog
Coarse-Grained Model for Water Involving a Virtual Site
In this work, we propose a new coarse-grained
(CG) model for water
by combining the features of two popular CG water models (BMW and
MARTINI models) as well as by adopting a topology similar to that
of the TIP4P water model. In this CG model, a CG unit, representing
four real water molecules, consists of a virtual site, two positively
charged particles, and a van der Waals (vdW) interaction center. Distance
constraint is applied to the bonds formed between the vdW interaction
center and the positively charged particles. The virtual site, which
carries a negative charge, is determined by the locations of the two
positively charged particles and the vdW interaction center. For the
new CG model of water, we coined the name āCAVSā (charge
is attached to a virtual site) due to the involvment of the virtual
site. After being tested in molecular dynamic (MD) simulations of
bulk water at various time steps, under different temperatures and
in different salt (NaCl) concentrations, the CAVS model offers encouraging
predictions for some bulk properties of water (such as density, dielectric
constant, etc.) when compared to experimental ones
A comparative theoretical study on core-hole excitation spectra of azafullerene and its derivatives
Probing flexible conformations in molecular junctions by inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy
The probe of flexible molecular conformation is crucial for the electric application of molecular systems. We have developed a theoretical procedure to analyze the couplings of molecular local vibrations with the electron transportation process, which enables us to evaluate the structural fingerprints of some vibrational modes in the inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS). Based on a model molecule of Bis-(4-mercaptophenyl)-ether with a flexible center angle, we have revealed and validated a simple mathematical relationship between IETS signals and molecular angles. Our results might open a route to quantitatively measure key geometrical parameters of molecular junctions, which helps to achieve precise control of molecular devices
Atom-Pair Catalysts Supported by NDoped Graphene for the Nitrogen Reduction Reaction: dBand Center-Based Descriptor
Microscopic Insight into the Activation of O<sub>2</sub> by Au Nanoparticles on ZnO(101) Support
We
carry out density functional theory calculations to cast insight
on the microscopic mechanism of the activation of O<sub>2</sub> by
Au<sub>7</sub> cluster on ZnO(101)-O support. The excellent catalytic
activity of Au/ZnO catalyst was ascribed to the distribution of polarized
surface charge associated with interface structure. It is found the
stoichiometric ZnO(101)-O easily adsorbs and dissociates O<sub>2</sub> to form very stable oxygen-saturated surface. For Au<sub>7</sub> on stoichiometric ZnO(101)-O surface, the two Au atoms neighboring
to O could accumulate positive charges, which then upshift the d-band
centers toward the Fermi level. These favor the adsorption and dissociation
of O<sub>2</sub>, providing two Au activation sites. In contrast,
for the Au<sub>7</sub> on the oxygen-saturated ZnO(101)-O, all Au
atoms become neighboring to O and consequently provide seven activation
sites. The workfunction difference between the Au<sub>7</sub> and
support induces effective polarized surface charges, substantially
promoting O<sub>2</sub> adsorption and dissociation both dynamically
and thermodynamically. Further analysis on the effect of different
Au positions demonstrates the polarized charge as the microscopic
driving force for catalysis. These results would help design of better
metal/oxide catalysts by providing important implications for the
role of atomic and electronic structures