887 research outputs found
Velocity profiles in shear-banding wormlike micelles
Using Dynamic Light Scattering in heterodyne mode, we measure velocity
profiles in a much studied system of wormlike micelles (CPCl/NaSal) known to
exhibit both shear-banding and stress plateau behavior. Our data provide
evidence for the simplest shear-banding scenario, according to which the
effective viscosity drop in the system is due to the nucleation and growth of a
highly sheared band in the gap, whose thickness linearly increases with the
imposed shear rate. We discuss various details of the velocity profiles in all
the regions of the flow curve and emphasize on the complex, non-Newtonian
nature of the flow in the highly sheared band.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
A transient network of telechelic polymers and microspheres : structure and rheology
We study the structure and dynamics of a transient network composed of
droplets of microemulsion connected by telechelic polymers. The polymer induces
a bridging attraction between droplets without changing their shape. A
viscoelastic behaviour is induced in the initially liquid solution,
characterised in the linear regime by a stretched exponential stress
relaxation. We analyse this relaxation in the light of classical theories of
transient networks. The role of the elastic reorganisations in the deformed
network is emphasized. In the non linear regime, a fast relaxation dynamics is
followed by a second one having the same rate as in the linear regime. This
behaviour, under step strain experiments, should induce a non monotonic
behaviour in the elastic component of the stress under constant shear rate.
However, we obtain in this case a singularity in the flow curve very different
from the one observed in other systems, that we interpret in terms of fracture
behaviour.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Cohomological tautness for Riemannian foliations
In this paper we present some new results on the tautness of Riemannian
foliations in their historical context. The first part of the paper gives a
short history of the problem. For a closed manifold, the tautness of a
Riemannian foliation can be characterized cohomologically. We extend this
cohomological characterization to a class of foliations which includes the
foliated strata of any singular Riemannian foliation of a closed manifold
The galaxy environment in GAMA G3C groups using the Kilo Degree Survey Data Release 3
We aim to investigate the galaxy environment in GAMA Galaxy Groups Catalogue
(G3C) using a volume-limited galaxy sample from the Kilo Degree Survey Data
Release 3. The k-Nearest Neighbour technique is adapted to take into account
the probability density functions (PDFs) of photometric redshifts in our
calculations. This algorithm was tested on simulated KiDS tiles, showing its
capability of recovering the relation between galaxy colour, luminosity and
local environment. The characterization of the galaxy environment in G3C groups
shows systematically steeper density contrasts for more massive groups. The red
galaxy fraction gradients in these groups is evident for most of group mass
bins. The density contrast of red galaxies is systematically higher at group
centers when compared to blue galaxy ones. In addition, distinct group center
definitions are used to show that our results are insensitive to center
definitions. These results confirm the galaxy evolution scenario which
environmental mechanisms are responsible for a slow quenching process as
galaxies fall into groups and clusters, resulting in a smooth observed colour
gradients in galaxy systems.Comment: 14 pages, Accepted to MNRA
âEverything Will Be Fineâ: A Study on the Relationship between Employeesâ Perception of Sustainable HRM Practices and Positive Organizational Behavior during COVID19
Sustainable human resource management practices represent one of the main organizational
strategy to survive and to prosper within the fast-moving current scenario. According to this view,
sustainability is strictly linked to the consideration of the unique and distinctive value that each
human resource means for organizations. The recent COVID19 pandemic is having a serious
impact on organizations and on their employees, it is profoundly changing the working modalities,
mainly introducing smart working practices that were showed to have significant consequences on
workersâ wellbeing. This study aims to investigate employeesâ perception of sustainable HRM in
the frame of the COVID19 emergency, exploring if and to what extent perceptions of involvement
and organizational support together with individual coping strategies associated with organizational
change could influence positive organizational behaviors, namely organizational engagement and
extra-role behavior. The research involved 549 participants who completed a self-report online
questionnaire encompassing psycho-social measures of the abovementioned variables. Results
confirmed the important role played by sustainable HRM practices both for the capitalization of
human resources and of organizational performance in a time of great uncertainty and global crisis.
Implications for theory and HRM practice development were also discussed
Entropic phase separation of linked beads
We study theoretically a model system of a transient network of microemulsion
droplets connected by telechelic polymers and explain recent experimental
findings. Despite the absence of any specific interactions between either the
droplets or polymer chains, we predict that as the number of polymers per drop
is increased, the system undergoes a first order phase separation into a dense,
highly connected phase, in equilibrium with dilute droplets, decorated by
polymer loops. The phase transition is purely entropic and is driven by the
interplay between the translational entropy of the drops and the
configurational entropy of the polymer connections between them. Because it is
dominated by entropic effects, the phase separation mechanism of the system is
extremely robust and does not depend on the particlular physical realization of
the network. The discussed model applies as well to other polymer linked
particle aggregates, such as nano-particles connected with short DNA linkers
Does the end justify the means? The role of organizational communication among workâfromâhome employees during the covidâ19 pandemic
During the first months of 2020, the world, and Italy at an early stage, went through the Covidâ19 emergency that had a great impact on individual and collective health, but also on working processes. The mandatory remote working and the constant use of technology for employees raised different implications related to technostress and psychoâphysical disorders. This study aimed to detect, in such a period of crisis and changes, the role of organizational communication considering the mediating role of both technostress and selfâefficacy, with psychoâphysical disorders as outcome. The research involved 530 workers working from home. A Structural Equations Model was estimated, revealing that organizational communication is positively associated with selfâefficacy and negatively with technostress and psychoâphysical disorders. As mediators, technostress is positively associated with psychoâphysical disorders, whereas selfâefficacy is negatively associated. As regards mediated effects, results showed negative associations between organizational communication and psychoâphysical disorders through both technostress and selfâefficacy. This study highlighted the potential protective role of organizational communication that could buffer the effect of technostress and enhance a personal resource, selfâefficacy, which is functional to the reduction of psychoâphysical disorders. This study contributed to literature underlying the role of communication in the current crisis and consequent reorganization of the working processes
Influence of surfactants on the structure of titanium oxide gels : experiments and simulations
We report here on experimental and numerical studies of the influence of
surfactants on mineral gel synthesis. The modification of the gel structure
when the ratios water-precursor and water-surfactant vary is brought to the
fore by fractal dimension measures. A property of {\em polydispersity of the
initial hydrolysis} is proposed to explain these results, and is successfuly
tested through numerical experiments of three dimensional chemically limited
aggregation.Comment: 12 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses RevTe
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