10,665 research outputs found
Polyelectrolyte-colloid complexes: polarizability and effective interaction
We theoretically study the polarizability and the interactions of neutral
complexes consisting of a semi-flexible polyelectrolyte adsorbed onto an
oppositely charged spherical colloid. In the systems we studied, the bending
energy of the chain is small compared to the Coulomb energy and the chains are
always adsorbed on the colloid. We observe that the polarizability is large for
short chains and small electrical fields and shows a non-monotonic behavior
with the chain length at fixed charge density. The polarizability has a maximum
for a chain length equal to half of the circumference of the colloid. For long
chains we recover the polarizability of a classical conducting sphere. For
short chains, the existence of a permanent dipole moment of the complexes leads
to a van der Waal's-type long-range attraction between them. This attractive
interaction vanishes for long chains (i.e., larger than the colloidal size),
where the permanent dipole moment is negligible. For short distances the
complexes interact with a deep short-ranged attraction which is due to
energetic bridging for short chains and entropic bridging for long chains.
Exceeding a critical chain length eventually leads to a pure repulsion. This
shows that the stabilization of colloidal suspensions by polyelectrolyte
adsorption is strongly dependent on the chain size relative to the colloidal
size: for long chains the suspensions are always stable (only repulsive forces
between the particles), while for mid-sized and short chains there is
attraction between the complexes and a salting-out can occur.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figure
Effects of rotation on the evolution and asteroseismic properties of red giants
The influence of rotation on the properties of red giants is studied in the
context of the asteroseismic modelling of these stars. While red giants exhibit
low surface rotational velocities, we find that the rotational history of the
star has a large impact on its properties during the red giant phase. In
particular, for stars massive enough to ignite He burning in non-degenerate
conditions, rotational mixing induces a significant increase of the stellar
luminosity and shifts the location of the core helium burning phase to a higher
luminosity in the HR diagram. This of course results in a change of the seismic
properties of red giants at the same evolutionary state. As a consequence the
inclusion of rotation significantly changes the fundamental parameters of a red
giant star as determined by performing an asteroseismic calibration. In
particular rotation decreases the derived stellar mass and increases the age.
Depending on the rotation law assumed in the convective envelope and on the
initial velocity of the star, non-negligible values of rotational splitting can
be reached, which may complicate the observation and identification of
non-radial oscillation modes for red giants exhibiting moderate surface
rotational velocities. By comparing the effects of rotation and overshooting,
we find that the main-sequence widening and the increase of the H-burning
lifetime induced by rotation (Vini=150 km/s) are well reproduced by
non-rotating models with an overshooting parameter of 0.1, while the increase
of luminosity during the post-main sequence evolution is better reproduced by
non-rotating models with overshooting parameters twice as large. This is due to
the fact that rotation not only increases the size of the convective core but
also changes the chemical composition of the radiative zone.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Analysis of the velocity field of granular hopper flow
We report the analysis of radial characteristics of the flow of granular
material through a conical hopper. The discharge is simulated for various
orifice sizes and hopper opening angles. Velocity profiles are measured along
two radial lines from the hopper cone vertex: along the main axis of the cone
and along its wall. An approximate power law dependence on the distance from
the orifice is observed for both profiles, although differences between them
can be noted. In order to quantify these differences, we propose a Local Mass
Flow index that is a promising tool in the direction of a more reliable
classification of the flow regimes in hoppers
Counterion density profiles at charged flexible membranes
Counterion distributions at charged soft membranes are studied using
perturbative analytical and simulation methods in both weak coupling
(mean-field or Poisson-Boltzmann) and strong coupling limits. The softer the
membrane, the more smeared out the counterion density profile becomes and
counterions pentrate through the mean-membrane surface location, in agreement
with anomalous scattering results. Membrane-charge repulsion leads to a
short-scale roughening of the membrane.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Leadership and turnover intentions in a public hospital: The mediating effect of organisational commitment and moderating effect by activity department
This research aimed to study the effect of leadership (transformational and transactional) on turnover intentions and whether this relationship is mediated by organisational commitment and moderated by the department of activity. To this end, it was hypothesized that: (1) leadership has a negative and significant association with turnover intentions; (2) leadership has a positive and significant association with affective organisational commitment; (3) organisational commitment has a negative and significant association with turnover intentions; (4) organisational commitment has a mediating effect on the relationship between leadership and turnover intentions; (5) the department to which the employee belongs has a moderating effect on the relationship between leadership and organisational turnover intentions. The sample consists of 477 participants working at the Hospital Professor Doutor Fernando Fonseca (HFF) in Portugal, performing their functions in several departments. This is a quantitative, correlational, and cross-sectional study. The results indicate that transformational leadership has a negative and significant effect on turnover intentions and a positive and significant effect on affective and normative commitment. Transactional leadership negatively and significantly affects all three components of organisational commitment. Affective and normative commitment has a negative and significant effect on turnover intentions. Calculative commitment has a positive and significant effect on turnover intentions. Affective commitment and calculative commitment have a partial mediating effect on the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational turnover intentions. The department to which the employee belongs does not have a moderating effect on the relationship between leadership and turnover intentions. It has been proven that leadership plays an extremely important role in the smooth running of this hospiinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Charged inclusion in nematic liquid crystals
We present a general theory of liquid crystals under inhomogeneous electric
field in a Ginzburg-Landau scheme. The molecular orientation can be deformed by
electric field when the dielectric tensor is orientation-dependent. We then
investigate the influence of a charged particle on the orientation order in a
nematic state. The director is aligned either along or perpendicular to the
local electric field around the charge, depending on the sign of the dielectric
anisotropy. The deformation becomes stronger with increasing the ratio ,
where is the charge and is the radius of the particle. Numerical
analysis shows the presence of defects around the particle for large .
They are nanometer-scale defects for microscopic ions. If the dielectric
anisotropy is positive, a Saturn ring defect appears. If it is negative, a pair
of point defects appear apart from the particle surface, each being connected
to the surface by a disclination line segment.Comment: 12 figure
Obtenção de adultos e aspectos biológicos da broca-do-mamoeiro, Pseudopiazurus obesus (GOHEMAN, 1838) (Coleoptera: Curculionidade).
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