Will Geographical Indications Supply Excessive Quality?

Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing,

Effect of reinforcing submicron SiC particles on the wear of electrolytic NiP coatings Part 2: Bi-directional sliding

As-plated and heat-treated electrodeposited NiP and composite NiP-SiC coatings were investigated in bi-directional ball-on-disc sliding tests. All tests were performed under gross slip conditions. Heat treatment decreases the wear volume loss during fretting in ambient air for all coatings investigated. Heat-treated NiP coating has a lower wear volume loss compared to composite NiP-SiC coatings for all sliding tests. The wear rate at the bi-directional sliding test was found to be lower relative to the wear rate at uni-directional sliding test

Atmospheric Calorimetry above 1019^{19} eV: Shooting Lasers at the Pierre Auger Cosmic-Ray Observatory

The Pierre Auger Cosmic-Ray Observatory uses the earth's atmosphere as a calorimeter to measure extensive air-showers created by particles of astrophysical origin. Some of these particles carry joules of energy. At these extreme energies, test beams are not available in the conventional sense. Yet understanding the energy response of the observatory is important. For example, the propagation distance of the highest energy cosmic-rays through the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) is predicted to be strong function of energy. This paper will discuss recently reported results from the observatory and the use of calibrated pulsed UV laser "test-beams" that simulate the optical signatures of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. The status of the much larger 200,000 km$^3$ companion detector planned for the northern hemisphere will also be outlined.Comment: 6 pages, 11 figures XIII International Conference on Calorimetry in High Energy Physic

The Alignment of the Magnetic Field and Collimated Outflows in Star-forming Regions: the Case of NGC 2071

The magnetic field is believed to play a crucial role in the process of star formation. From the support it provides during the initial collapse of molecular clouds to the creation of strong collimated jets responsible for large mass losses, current theories predict its importance in many different stages during the formation of stars. Here we report on observational evidence which tests one aspect that can be inferred from these theories: the alignment between the local magnetic field and collimated bipolar outflows in such environments. There is good evidence of an alignment in the case of NGC 2071.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Impact of ocean warming on sustainable fisheries management informs the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries

Acknowledgements Serpetti N., Heymans J.J., and Burrows M.T. were funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under the Marine Ecosystems Research Programme (MERP) (grant No. NE/L003279/1). Baudron A. and Fernandes, P.G. were founded by Horizon 2020 European research projects MareFrame (grant No. 613571) and ClimeFish (grant No. 677039). Payne, B.L. was founded by the Natural Environment Research Council and Department for Environment under the ‘Velocity of Climate Change’ (grant No. NE/J024082/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The insect pathogen Serratia marcescens Db10 uses a hybrid non-ribosomal peptide synthetase-polyketide synthase to produce the antibiotic althiomycin

There is a continuing need to discover new bioactive natural products, such as antibiotics, in genetically-amenable micro-organisms. We observed that the enteric insect pathogen, Serratia marcescens Db10, produced a diffusible compound that inhibited the growth of Bacillis subtilis and Staphyloccocus aureus. Mapping the genetic locus required for this activity revealed a putative natural product biosynthetic gene cluster, further defined to a six-gene operon named alb1-alb6. Bioinformatic analysis of the proteins encoded by alb1-6 predicted a hybrid non-ribosomal peptide synthetase-polyketide synthase (NRPS-PKS) assembly line (Alb4/5/6), tailoring enzymes (Alb2/3) and an export/resistance protein (Alb1), and suggested that the machinery assembled althiomycin or a related molecule. Althiomycin is a ribosome-inhibiting antibiotic whose biosynthetic machinery had been elusive for decades. Chromatographic and spectroscopic analyses confirmed that wild type S. marcescens produced althiomycin and that production was eliminated on disruption of the alb gene cluster. Construction of mutants with in-frame deletions of specific alb genes demonstrated that Alb2-Alb5 were essential for althiomycin production, whereas Alb6 was required for maximal production of the antibiotic. A phosphopantetheinyl transferase enzyme required for althiomycin biosynthesis was also identified. Expression of Alb1, a predicted major facilitator superfamily efflux pump, conferred althiomycin resistance on another, sensitive, strain of S. marcescens. This is the first report of althiomycin production outside of the Myxobacteria or Streptomyces and paves the way for future exploitation of the biosynthetic machinery, since S. marcescens represents a convenient and tractable producing organism

Effect of reinforcing submicron SiC particles on the wear of electrolytic NiP coatings Part 1. Uni-directional sliding

As-plated and annealed NiP coatings and composite NiP-SiC coatings were investigated in uni-directional ball-on-disc sliding tests. Abrasive wear was noticed in the case of composite NiP coatings containing submicron SiC particles, whereas in NiP coatings oxidational wear was active. The addition of submicron SiC particles not only increases the hardness of these electrolytic coatings but also hinders the formation of an oxide film in the sliding wear track. As a consequence, the wear loss on as-plated NiP coatings is not markedly reduced by the addition of SiC particles. On the contrary, a heat treatment at 420 °C for 1 h decreases the wear loss on both pure NiP and composite NiP-SiC coatings. During that heat treatment, Ni3P precipitates are formed in the NiP matrix and owing to this fact, the hardness of both pure NiP and composite NiP-SiC coatings increases. However, the heat treatment of composite NiP-SiC coatings induces the sensitivity for crack formation in the NiP matrix around these SiC particles. As a result, the pull out of SiC particles in the wear track occurs easily during sliding, and the wear loss of composite NiP-SiC coatings remains above the wear loss on NiP coatings

High-density correlation energy expansion of the one-dimensional uniform electron gas

We show that the expression of the high-density (i.e small-$r_s$) correlation energy per electron for the one-dimensional uniform electron gas can be obtained by conventional perturbation theory and is of the form \Ec(r_s) = -\pi^2/360 + 0.00845 r_s + ..., where $r_s$ is the average radius of an electron. Combining these new results with the low-density correlation energy expansion, we propose a local-density approximation correlation functional, which deviates by a maximum of 0.1 millihartree compared to the benchmark DMC calculations.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in J. Chem. Phy

Lattice gas with ``interaction potential''

We present an extension of a simple automaton model to incorporate non-local interactions extending over a spatial range in lattice gases. {}From the viewpoint of Statistical Mechanics, the lattice gas with interaction range may serve as a prototype for non-ideal gas behavior. {}From the density fluctuations correlation function, we obtain a quantity which is identified as a potential of mean force. Equilibrium and transport properties are computed theoretically and by numerical simulations to establish the validity of the model at macroscopic scale.Comment: 12 pages LaTeX, figures available on demand ([email protected]