217 research outputs found
Electronic structure of intentionally disordered AlAs/GaAs superlattices
We use realistic pseudopotentials and a plane-wave basis to study the
electronic structure of non-periodic, three-dimensional, 2000-atom
(AlAs)_n/(GaAs)_m (001) superlattices, where the individual layer thicknesses
n,m = {1,2,3} are randomly selected. We find that while the band gap of the
equivalent (n = m = 2) ordered superlattice is indirect, random fluctuations in
layer thicknesses lead to a direct gap in the planar Brillouin zone, strong
wavefunction localization along the growth direction, short radiative
lifetimes, and a significant band-gap reduction, in agreement with experiments
on such intentionally grown disordered superlattices.Comment: 10 pages, REVTeX and EPSF macros, 4 figures in postscript. e-mail to
[email protected]
Techniques to improve technological and sanitary quality
Agronomical ways for better quality and safety
Choice of cultivar is an efficient way to obtain higher grain quality. Intercropping legumes (grain or forage) improves weed competition and N availability for wheat crop or succeeding crop. Green manure can be an effective alternative to farmyard manure. Fertilization with readily available nitrogen improves yield and quality when water is available. Reduced tillage affects soil fertility and wheat yield but has little effects on grain quality.
Technological ways for better quality and safety
Milling process strongly influences flour characteristics. Stone milling improves nutritive value; characteristics remain very stable independent of the milling yield. Flour characteristics from roller milling appear very susceptible to the milling yield. Increasing the milling yield in the aim of enriching nutritional quality has a detrimental effect either on safety (DON) or on bread-making quality (bread volume)
Technological quality of organic wheat in Europe
The demand for high quality organic bread wheat is increasing. The quality level of organic wheat harvested in EU is mainly dependant on variety, environmental conditions and agronomic practices. In some countries, protein content and composition, influencing technological value, are equivalent to those produced under conventional practices. Beside agronomical techniques, technological processes can help to maintain a good quality. Pre-treatments before milling such as debranning were found to be efficient in reducing DON contamination. The project highlighted the necessity to redefine the methods to assess the quality of organic wheat
Longâterm farming systems and last crop sown shape the species and functional composition of the arable weed seedbank
Questions The assembly of arable weed communities is the result of local filtering by agricultural management and crop competition. Therefore, soil seedbanks can reflect the effects of longâterm cumulative field management and crop sequences on weed communities. Moreover, soil seedbanks provide strong estimates of future weed problems but also of potential arable plant diversity and associated ecological functions. For this, we evaluated the effects of different longâterm farming systems under the same crop rotation sequence on the abundance, diversity and community assembly of weed seedbank, as well as on the functional diversity and composition. Location DOK (biodynamic (D), bioorganic (O), conventional (K)) longâterm trial, Therwil, Switzerland. Methods The effects of longâterm contrasted farming systems (i.e., biodynamic, organic, conventional, mineral and unfertilised systems) and last crop sown (i.e., wheat and maize) were evaluated on different indicators of species and functional diversity and composition of the weed soil seedbank. Results The results showed significant influences of 40âyears of contrasted farming systems on the diversity and composition of the seedbank, with higher diversities being found in unfertilised and organic farming systems, but also higher abundances than those found under conventional systems. Organic farming also allowed higher functional richness, dispersion and redundancy. Different farming systems triggered shifts in species and functional assemblies. Conclusions The results highlight the importance of organic management for the maintenance of a diverse arable plant community and its functions. However, such results emphasize the need for appropriate yearly management to reduce the abundance of settled weediness and prevent affecting crop production. The farm management filtered community composition based on functional traits. Although the soil seedbank buffers the longâterm farming and crop sequence, the last crop sown and, thus, the yearly management were important determinants of seedbank composition
Estimating food ingredient compositions based on mandatory product labeling
Having a specific understanding of the actual ingredient composition of products helps to calculate additional nutritional information, such as containing fatty and amino acids, minerals and vitamins, as well as to determine its environmental impacts. Unfortunately, producers rarely provide information on how much of each ingredient is in a product. Food manufacturers are, however, required to declare their products in terms of a label comprising an ingredient list (in descending order) and Big7 nutrient values. In this paper, we propose an automated approach for estimating ingredient contents in food products. First, we parse product labels to extract declared ingredients. Next, we exert mathematical formulations on the assumption that the weighted sum of Big7 ingredients as available from food compositional tables should resemble the productâs declared overall Big7 composition. We apply mathematical optimization techniques to find the best fitting ingredient composition estimate. We apply the proposed method to a dataset of 1804 food products spanning 11 product categories. We find that 76% of these products could be analyzed by our approach, and a composition within the prescribed nutrient tolerances could be calculated, using 20% of the allowed tolerances per Big7 ingredient on average. The remaining 24% of the food products could still be estimated when relaxing one or multiple nutrient tolerances. A study with known ingredient compositions shows that estimates are within a 0.9% difference of productsâ actual recipes. Hence, the automated approach presented here allows for further analysis of large product quantities and provides possibilities for more intensive nutritional and ecological evaluations of food
Thriving when exhausted: The role of perceived transformational leadership
The role of leadership is especially important for employeesâ personal growth at work. In the
present two-wave study (time lag 3 months), we investigated the relationship between
teachersâ perceptions of the transformational leadership style of their school principal and
their thriving. Specifically, we examined the role of individualsâ energy resources (i.e.,
emotional exhaustion) in the relationships between perceived transformational leadership and
thriving, as well as two aspects of work performance (task mastery and proactivity). Findings
from 200 teachers revealed no direct relationship between perceived transformational
leadership and teachersâ thriving. However, as expected, teachersâ emotional exhaustion
moderated the relationship between perceived transformational leadership and thriving;
teachersâ perceptions of the transformational leadership style was associated with a decrease
in thriving when they reported moderate levels of emotional exhaustion. When teachers were
very low in emotional exhaustion, perceived transformational leadership was associated with
an increase in thriving. Moderated mediation analyses revealed significant indirect effects for
proactivity for lower and higher levels of emotional exhaustion. We discuss the implications
of the findings for theories of personal growth
Improving baking quality, nutritional value and safety of organic winter wheat / Améliorer la qualité technologique, nutritionnelle et sanitaire du blé biologique, Principaux leviers agronomiques et technologiques
The organic bread wheat market has been diversified over time through the emergence of different sale channels. Processors require organic bread wheat of higher quality and safety in order to meet the consumersâ demand. The overall objective of the AGTEC-Org project was to identify agronomical and technological ways to improve the performance of organic wheat and flour. The findings would
contribute to enhanced baking quality and nutritional value of organic flour, as well as prevention of mycotoxin contamination. The project involved 9 research centers or universities from 5 European countries for a total budget of about 1.5 million âŹ. More than 400 experimental treatments were analyzed from 23 agronomic trials and 4 lab-experiments on food technology. Choice of cultivar is an efficient way to obtain higher grain quality. Intercropping legumes (grain or forage) improves weed control and N availability for wheat crop or succeeding crop. Green manure can be an effective alternative to farmyard manure. Fertilization with organic fertilizers improves yield and quality when
water is available. Reduced tillage affects soil fertility and wheat yield but has little effects on grain quality.
Milling process strongly influences flour characteristics. Stone milling improves the nutritive value and flour characteristics remain very stable independently of the milling yield. However, stone milling slightly raises DON levels. Characteristics of flour produced by means of roller milling appear very dependent on milling yield, instead. Increasing milling yield with the aim of enriching nutritional quality has a detrimental effect on either safety (DON) or bread-making quality (bread volume). Debranning before milling has a very positive impact on flour safety by reducing its DON content by 50 %
Impacts of organic and conventional crop management on diversity and activity of free-living nitrogen fixing bacteria and total bacteria are subsidiary to temporal effects
A three year field study (2007-2009) of the diversity and numbers of the total and metabolically active free-living diazotophic bacteria and total bacterial communities in organic and conventionally managed agricultural soil was conducted at the Nafferton Factorial Systems Comparison (NFSC) study, in northeast England. The result demonstrated that there was no consistent effect of either organic or conventional soil management across the three years on the diversity or quantity of either diazotrophic or total bacterial communities. However, ordination analyses carried out on data from each individual year showed that factors associated with the different fertility management measures including availability of nitrogen species, organic carbon and pH, did exert significant effects on the structure of both diazotrophic and total bacterial communities. It appeared that the dominant drivers of qualitative and quantitative changes in both communities were annual and seasonal effects. Moreover, regression analyses showed activity of both communities was significantly affected by soil temperature and climatic conditions. The diazotrophic community showed no significant change in diversity across the three years, however, the total bacterial community significantly increased in diversity year on year. Diversity was always greatest during March for both diazotrophic and total bacterial communities. Quantitative analyses using qPCR of each community indicated that metabolically active diazotrophs were highest in year 1 but the population significantly declined in year 2 before recovering somewhat in the final year. The total bacterial population in contrast increased significantly each year. Seasonal effects were less consistent in this quantitative study
An integrative environmental pollen diversity assessment and its importance for the Sustainable Development Goals
Pollen is at once intimately part of the reproductive cycle of seed plants and simultaneously highly relevant for the environment (pollinators, vector for nutrients, or organisms), people (food safety and health), and climate (cloud condensation nuclei and climate reconstruction). We provide an interdisciplinary perspective on the many and connected roles of pollen to foster a better integration of the currently disparate fields of pollen research, which would benefit from the sharing of general knowledge, technical advancements, or data processing solutions. We propose a more interdisciplinary and holistic research approach that encompasses total environmental pollen diversity (ePD) (wind and animal and occasionally water distributed pollen) at multiple levels of diversity (genotypic, phenotypic, physiological, chemical, and functional) across space and time. This interdisciplinary approach holds the potential to contribute to pressing human issues, including addressing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, fostering social and political awareness of these tiny yet important and fascinating particles
Phonons and related properties of extended systems from density-functional perturbation theory
This article reviews the current status of lattice-dynamical calculations in
crystals, using density-functional perturbation theory, with emphasis on the
plane-wave pseudo-potential method. Several specialized topics are treated,
including the implementation for metals, the calculation of the response to
macroscopic electric fields and their relevance to long wave-length vibrations
in polar materials, the response to strain deformations, and higher-order
responses. The success of this methodology is demonstrated with a number of
applications existing in the literature.Comment: 52 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Review of Modern Physic
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