Circular dichroism and bilayer splitting in the normal state of underdoped (Pb,Bi)2_2Sr2_2(Cax_xY1−x_{1-x})Cu2_2O8+δ_{8+\delta} and overdoped (Pb,Bi)2_2Sr2_2CaCu2_2O8+δ_{8+\delta}

We report an ARPES investigation of the circular dichroism in the first Brillouin zone (BZ) of under- and overdoped Pb-Bi2212 samples. We show that the dichroism has opposite signs for bonding and antibonding components of the bilayer-split CuO-band and is antisymmetric with respect to reflections in both mirror planes parallel to the c-axis. Using this property of the energy and momentum intensity distributions we prove the existence of the bilayer splitting in the normal state of the underdoped compound and compare its value with the splitting in overdoped sample. In agreement with previous studies the magnitude of the interlayer coupling does not depend significantly on doping. We also discuss possible origins of the observed dichroism.Comment: 4 RevTex pages, 4 EPS figure

Responsible aquaculture and trophic level implications to global fish supply

Hunger and malnutrition remain among the most devastating problems facing the world’s poor and needy, and continue to dominate the health and well-being of the world’s poorest nations. Moreover, there are growing doubts as to the long-term sustainability of many existing food production systems, including capture fisheries and aquaculture, to meet the future increasing global demands.Of the different agricultural food production systems, aquaculture (the farming of aquatic animals and plants) is widely viewed as an important weapon in the global fight against malnutrition and poverty, particularly within developing countries where over 93% of global production is currently produced, providing in most instances an affordable and a much needed source of high quality animal protein, lipids, and other essential nutrients. The current article compares for the first time the development and growth of the aquaculture sector and capture fisheries by analyzing production by mean trophic level. Whereas marine capture fisheries have been feeding the world on high trophic level carnivorous fish species since mankind has been fishing the oceans, aquaculture production within developing countries has focused, by and large, on the production of lower trophic level species. However, like capture fisheries, aquaculture focus within economically developed countries has been essentially on the culture of high value-, high trophic level-carnivorous species. The long term sustainability of these production systems is questionable unless the industry can reduce its dependence upon capture fisheries for sourcing raw materials for feed formulation and seed inputs. In line with above, the article calls for the urgent need for all countries to adopt and adhere to the principles and guidelines for responsible aquaculture of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries

Excited state dynamics of Zn–salophen complexes

Zn-salophen complexes are a promising class of fluorescent chemosensors for nucleotides and nucleic acids. We have investigated, by means of steady state UV-Vis, ultrafast transient absorption, fluorescence emission and time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) the behavior of the excited states of a salicylidene tetradentate Schiff base (Sal), its Zn(II) coordination compound (Zn-Sal) and the effect of the interaction between Zn-Sal and adenosine diphosphate (ADP). TD-DFT shows that the deactivation of the excited state of Sal occurs through torsional motion, due to its rotatable bonds and twistable angles. Complexation with Zn(II) causes rigidity so that the geometry changes in the excited states with respect to the ground state structure are minimal. By addition of ADP to a freshly prepared Zn-Sal ethanol solution, a longer relaxation constant, in comparison to Zn-Sal, was measured, indicative of the interaction between Zn-Sal and ADP. After a few days, the Zn-Sal-ADP solution displayed the same static and dynamic behavior of a solution containing only the Sal ligand, demonstrating that the coordination of the ADP anion to Zn(II)leads to the demetallation of the Sal ligand. Fluorescence measurements also revealed an enhanced fluorescence at 375 nm following the addition of ADP to the solution, caused by the presence of 2,3-diamino naphthalene that is formed by demetallation and partial decomposition of the Sal ligand. The efficient fluorescence of this species at 375 nm could be selectively detected and used as a probe for the detection of ADP in solution.[GRAPHICS]

Endogenous biosynthesis of n-3 long-chain PUFA in Atlantic salmon

A more efficient utilisation of marine derived sources of dietary omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC PUFA) in cultured Atlantic salmon could, amongst other strategies, be facilitated by nutritional strategies that maximise endogenous n-3 LC PUFA synthesis. The objective of the current study was to quantify the extent of n-3 LC PUFA biosynthesis and the resultant effect on fillet nutritional quality in large, market size Atlantic salmon. Four diets were manufactured providing altered levels of dietary omega-3 substrate, namely 18:3n-3, and end-products, namely, 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3. After 283 days of feeding, fish grew to in excess of 3000g and no differences in growth performance or biometrical parameters were recorded. An analysis of fatty acid composition and in vivo metabolism revealed that post-smolt Atlantic salmon have the potential to endogenously produce n-3 LC PUFA when provided with a substantial amount of dietary omega-3 substrate. Moreover, the extent of endogenous production resulted in fillet levels of n-3 LC PUFA comparable to fish fed a diet with added fish oil. Another major finding was that the presence of abundant dietary omega-3 substrate with the addition of dietary omega-3 end-product (i.e. fish oil) had a positive effect on final fillet levels of n-3 LC PUFA. This was likely the result of the preferential β-oxidation of dietary C18 n-3 PUFA resulting in an apparent conservation of n-3 LC PUFA from catabolism. Ultimately, this study highlights the potential for endogenous synthesis of n-3 LC PUFA to, at least partially, support a substantial reduction, in the amount of dietary fish oil in diets for market sized Atlantic salmon reared in seawater

Injecting Electrons into CeO2 via Photoexcitation of Embedded Au Nanoparticles

The electron injection efficiency and the steady state absorptance at different photon energies for a composite system made of Au NPs embedded in a cerium oxide matrix are reported. Cerium oxide can be coupled with plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) to improve its catalytic properties by visible-light absorption. The present work is a study of the ultrafast dynamics of excited states induced by ultraviolet and visible-light excitation in Au NPs combined with cerium oxide, aimed at understanding the excitation pathways. The data, obtained by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy, show that the excitation of localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) in the Au NPs leads to an ultrafast injection of electrons into the empty 4f states of the surrounding cerium oxide. Within the first few picoseconds, the injected electrons couple with the lattice distortion forming a polaronic excited state, with similar properties to that formed after direct band gap excitation of the oxide. At sub-picosecond delay times, we observed relevant differences in the energetics and the time dynamics as compared to the case of band gap excitation of the oxide. Using different pump energies across the LSPR-related absorption band, the efficiency of the electron injection from the NPs into the oxide was found to be rather high, with a maximum above 30%. The injection efficiency has a different trend in energy as compared to the LSPR-related static optical absorptance, showing a significant decrease in low energies. This behavior is explained considering different deexcitation pathways with variable weight across the LSPR band. The results are important for the design of materials with high overall solar catalytic efficiency

The impact of dietary protein: lipid ratio on growth performance, fatty acid metabolism, product quality and waste output in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

A common strategy for aquafeed manufacturers has been the utilisation of relatively large amounts of terrestrial, both animal and plant, oil sources to produce diets with a high energy content. The provision of high fat diets is aimed at promoting the utilisation of energy from lipid, thus increasing the amount of dietary protein used for tissue synthesis. However, in recent years the cost of marine sourced dietary lipids has risen, at the same time, farming operations are under increasing pressure to limit environmental degradation associated with nitrogenous waste effluent. Currently there is limited information available regarding the environmental and economic impacts of an altered dietary protein: lipid ratio in diets for large Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) reared in seawater, presenting a potential impediment for nutritional based solutions. Accordingly the present study compared two isoenergetic diets with varied protein: lipid ratios via an assessment of growth, fatty acid utilisation, human nutritional quality, nitrogenous waste output and economic considerations. The trial diets were fed to the fish for the final 150 days of an on-farm grow-out period and resulted in minimal differences in fish growth, fatty acid utilisation and fillet quality. A decreased dietary protein: lipid ratio resulted in a more efficient protein utilisation both in terms of digestibility and assimilation into fish and, therefore, nitrogenous waste output was reduced. However, due to small differences in feed utilisation, the cost of fish production was numerically higher

Ultrafast Formation of Small Polarons and the Optical Gap in CeO2

The ultrafast dynamics of excited states in cerium oxide are investigated to access the early moments of polaron formation, which can influence the photocatalytic functionality of the material. UV transient absorbance spectra of photoexcited CeO2 exhibit a bleaching of the band edge absorbance induced by the pump and a photoinduced absorbance feature assigned to Ce 4f → Ce 5d transitions. A blue shift of the spectral response of the photoinduced absorbance signal in the first picosecond after the pump excitation is attributed to the dynamical formation of small polarons with a characteristic time of 330 fs. A further important result of our work is that the combined use of steady-state and ultrafast transient absorption allows us to propose a revised value for the optical gap for ceria (Eog = 4 eV), significantly larger than usually reported

The relative absorption of fatty acids in brown trout (Salmo trutta) fed a commercial extruded pellet coated with different lipid sources

The objective of the present study was to investigate the fatty acid absorption capabilities of brown trout (Salmo trut- ta) fed commercial extruded diets. Five commercial extruded pellets, different only in the lipid sources used for fat coat- ing, were tested on juvenile brown trout for 45 days. The trout were reared in fresh water at 14.6 ± 0.4° C and 7.7 ± 0.3 mg/l, temperature and dissolved oxygen, respectively. The tested lipid sources were fish oil, canola oil, oleine oil, swine fat and poultry fat. After the adaptation period faeces were collected by gently stripping from anaesthetized fish. Fatty acid analysis was performed on experimental diets and on collected faeces to evaluate the relative absorption capabilities of the trout digestive system with respect to each detected fatty acid. The use of the relative absorption efficiency (rAE) was opted to evaluate the intrinsic capability of each fatty acid to be absorbed. Brown trout showed a specific preferential order of absorption of the fatty acids, preferring shorter over longer chain fatty acids and prefer- ring the more unsaturated to the more saturated fatty acids. The fatty acid that showed the best relative absorbability was the C18:4n-3 (rAE = 5.14 ± 0.72), which has a fairly short carbon chain, but at the same time a high unsatura- tion level, followed by the C18:3n-3 (rAE = 3.38 ± 0.30). The fatty acid that showed the worst relative absorbability (rAE = 0.21 ± 0.02) was C24:1n-9

Altered levels of shorter vs long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in commercial diets for market-sized Atlantic salmon reared in seawater – Effects on fatty acid composition, metabolism and product quality

There is a growing trend of ‘replacing’ long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 LC PUFA) rich oils with C18 shorter-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid rich oils in Atlantic salmon aquafeed formulations. n-3 LC PUFA, including 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3, play contrasting physiological roles and are metabolised differently in comparison to C18 PUFA. Accordingly, the present study recorded the effect of replacing n-3 LC PUFA rich dietary fish oil with C18 n-3 PUFA rich camelina oil at two inclusion levels in commercial-like diets fed to market-sized Atlantic salmon. This assessment was achieved by an analysis of industry relevant production parameters including growth performance, fatty acid composition and metabolism, nutrient digestibility and consumer acceptance (liking and attribute analysis of fillet). The trial was conducted over the final 150 days of an on-farm grow-out period in seawater. The dietary replacement of n-3 LC PUFA with C18 n-3 PUFA resulted in a significant decrease in fillet n-3 LC PUFA and a poorer growth performance. However, in the absence of fish oil, the inclusion of camelina oil at high levels (40%) contributed to an improved n-6/n-3 ratio and partially ameliorated low dietary n-3 LC PUFA by providing added substrate for endogenous n-3 LC PUFA synthesis in comparison to a 20% camelina oil inclusion. Furthermore, consumer acceptance of Atlantic salmon was unaffected by the dietary addition of camelina oil