5,539 research outputs found
Thermal conductance of metallic atomic-size contacts: Phonon transport and Wiedemann-Franz law
Motivated by recent experiments [Science 355, 6330 (2017); Nat. Nanotechnol.
12, 430 (2017)], we present here an extensive theoretical analysis of the
thermal conductance of atomic-size contacts made of three different metals,
namely gold (Au), platinum (Pt) and aluminum (Al)
The worldwide costs of marine protected areas
Declines in marine harvests, wildlife, and habitats have prompted calls at both the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and the 2003 World Parks Congress for the establishment of a global system of marine protected areas (MPAs). MPAs that restrict fishing and other human activities conserve habitats and populations and, by exporting biomass, may sustain or increase yields of nearby fisheries. Here we provide an estimate of the costs of a global MPA network, based on a survey of the running costs of 83 MPAs worldwide. Annual running costs per unit area spanned six orders of magnitude, and were higher in MPAs that were smaller, closer to coasts, and in high-cost, developed countries. Models extrapolating these findings suggest that a global MPA network meeting the World Parks Congress target of conserving 20–30% of the world’s seas might cost between 19 billion annually to run and would probably create around one million jobs. Although substantial, gross network costs are less than current government expenditures on harmful subsidies to industrial fisheries. They also ignore potential private gains from improved fisheries and tourism and are dwarfed by likely social gains from increasing the sustainability of fisheries and securing vital ecosystem services
XTH acts at the microfibril-matrix interface during cell elongation
Sulphorhodamine-labelled oligosaccharides of xyloglucan are incorporated into the cell wall of Arabidopsis and tobacco roots, and of cultured Nicotiana tabacum cells by the transglucosylase (XET) action of XTHs. In the cell wall of diffusely growing cells, the subcellular pattern of XET action revealed a 'fibrillar' pattern, different from the xyloglucan localization. The fibrillar fluorescence pattern had no net orientation in spherical cultured cells. It changed to transverse to the long axis when the cells started to elongate, a feature mirroring the rearrangements of cortical microtubules and the accompanying cellulose deposition. Interference with the polymerization of microtubules and with cellulose deposition inhibited this strong and 'fibrillar'-organized XET-action, whereas interference with actin-polymerization only decreased the intensity of enzyme action. Epidermal cells of a mutant with reduced cellulose synthesis also had low XET action. Root hairs (tip-growing cells) exhibited high XET-action over all their length, but lacked the specific parallel pattern. In both diffuse- and tip-growing cell types extraction of the incorporated fluorescent xyloglucans by a xyloglucan-specific endoglucanase reduced the fluorescence, but the 'fibrillar' appearance in diffuse growing cells was not eliminated. These results show that XTHs act on the xyloglucans attached to cellulose microfibrils. After incorporation of the fluorescent oligosaccharides, the xyloglucans decorate the cellulose microfibrils and become inaccessible to hydrolytic enzymes
Molecular dynamics study of the thermopower of Ag, Au, and Pt nanocontacts
Using molecular dynamics simulations of many junction stretching processes we
analyze the thermopower of silver (Ag), gold (Au), and platinum (Pt) atomic
contacts. In all cases we observe that the thermopower vanishes on average
within the standard deviation and that its fluctuations increase for decreasing
minimum cross-section of the junctions. However, we find a suppression of the
fluctuations of the thermopower for the s-valent metals Ag and Au, when the
conductance originates from a single, perfectly transmitting channel. Essential
features of the experimental results for Au, Ag, and copper (Cu) of Ludoph and
van Ruitenbeek [Phys. Rev. B 59, 12290 (1999)], as yet unaddressed by atomistic
studies, can hence be explained by considering the atomic and electronic
structure at the disordered narrowest constriction of the contacts. For the
multivalent metal Pt our calculations predict the fluctuations of the
thermopower to be larger by one order of magnitude as compared to Ag and Au,
and suppressions of the fluctuations as a function of the conductance are
absent.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
Conduction Channels of One-Atom Zinc Contacts
We have determined the transmission coefficients of atomic-sized Zn contacts
using a new type of breakjunction which contains a whisker as a central bridge.
We find that in the last conductance plateau the transport is unexpectedly
dominated by a well-transmitting single conduction channel. We explain the
experimental findings with the help of a tight-binding model which shows that
in an one-atom Zn contact the current proceeds through the 4s and 4p orbitals
of the central atom.Comment: revtex4, 5 pages, 5 figure
Ab initio study of charge transport through single oxygen molecules in atomic aluminum contacts
We present ab initio calculations of transport properties of atomic-sized
aluminum contacts in the presence of oxygen. The experimental situation is
modeled by considering a single oxygen atom (O) or one of the molecules O2 and
O3 bridging the gap between electrodes forming ideal, atomically sharp
pyramids. The transport characteristics are computed for these geometries with
increasing distances between the leads, simulating the opening of a break
junction. To facilitate comparison with experiments further, the vibrational
modes of the oxygen connected to the electrodes are studied. It is found that
in the contact regime the change of transport properties due to the presence of
oxygen is strong and should be detectable in experiments. All three types of
oxygen exhibit a comparable behavior in their vibrational frequencies and
conductances, which are well below the conductance of pure aluminum atomic
contacts. The conductance decreases for an increasing number of oxygen atoms.
In the tunneling regime the conductance decays exponentially with distance and
the decay length depends on whether or not oxygen is present in the junction.
This fact may provide a way to identify the presence of a gas molecule in
metallic atomic contacts.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures; added appendi
The effect of cereal type and enzyme supplementation on carcass characteristics, volatile fatty acids and intestinal microflora and boar taint in entire male pigs
A 2 × 2 factorial experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of cereal type (barley v. oat) and exogenous enzyme supplementation (with or without) on intestinal fermentation, and on indole and skatole levels in the intestinal content and the adipose tissue in finisher boars. The experimental treatments were as follows: (i) barley-based diet, (ii) barley-based diet with enzyme supplement, (iii) oat-based diet and (iv) oat-based diet with enzyme supplement. The enzyme supplement contained endo-1,3(4)-β-glucanase (EC 3.2.1.6) and endo-1,4-β-xylanase (EC 3.2.1.8). The animals were fed ad libitum for 45 days from 76.0 to 113.6 kg live weight. Feeding barley-based diets led to higher (P 0.05) between the experimental treatments. Pigs offered the barley-based diets had lower (P < 0.001) indole concentrations in the adipose tissue compared with those fed the oat-based diet. In conclusion, barley-based diets were more efficient than oat-based diets in limiting concentrations of indole in the adipose tissu
Performances, meat quality and boar taint of castrates and entire male pigs fed a standard and a raw potato starch-enriched diet
In Europe there is increasing concern about the common practice of surgical castration of piglets without anaesthesia. One possible alternative to completely avoid castration is entire male pig production. Thus, the objective of the study was to compare the growth performance, carcass characteristics, organ weights, meat quality traits, fat score and boar taint compounds in the adipose tissue of group-penned entire male pigs and castrates. Furthermore, the effect of raw potato starch (RPS) fed for 7 days prior to slaughter was determined. Pigs (n = 36) were blocked by BW into 12 blocks (3 littermates/block) and assigned to three experimental groups: surgical castrates (C); entire males (EM); and entire males offered RPS (30 g RPS/100 g diet) for 7 days prior to slaughter (EM+). Pigs had ad libitum access to the feed from 22 to 107 kg, individual feed intake was recorded daily and BW once a week. Entire males grew slower (EM: 771, EM+: 776 v. C: 830 g/day; P 0.05) differ among experimental groups but the adipose tissue was more unsaturated in entire males than in C as indicated by the higher fat scores (EM: 69.1, EM+: 67.2 v. C: 63.6; P < 0.01). Feeding RPS reduced (P = 0.04) the skatole tissue concentrations (expressed in μg/g lipid) in EM+ (0.22) compared to EM (0.85), whereas androstenone and indole levels were not (P 0.60) affected (EM: 1.7 and 0.10, EM+: 2.0 and 0.09, respectively). Although the current results confirmed the high efficiency of entire males compared to castrates, the observed high androstenone levels represent a major challenge to implement entire males productio
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