19 research outputs found
Exploring high-end climate change scenarios for flood protection of the Netherlands
This international scientific assessment has been carried out at the request of the Dutch Delta Committee. The "Deltacommissie" requested that the assessment explore the high-end climate change scenarios for flood protection of the Netherlands. It is a state-ofâthe art scientific assessment of the upper bound values and longer term projections (for sea level rise up to 2200) of climate induced sea level rise, changing storm surge conditions and peak discharge of river Rhine. It comprises a review of recent studies, model projections and expert opinions of more than 20 leading climate scientists from different countries around the North Sea, Australia and the US
Generation of entangled states of two atoms inside a leaky cavity
An in-depth theoretical study is carried out to examine the
quasi-deterministic entanglement of two atoms inside a leaky cavity. Two
-type three-level atoms, initially in their ground states, may become
maximally entangled through the interaction with a single photon. By working
out an exact analytic solution, we show that the probability of success depends
crucially on the spectral function of the injected photon. With a cavity
photon, one can generate a maximally entangled state with a certain probability
that is always less than 50%. However, for an injected photon with a narrower
spectral width, this probability can be significantly increased. In particular,
we discover situations in which entanglement can be achieved in a single trial
with an almost unit probability
Monascus ruber as cell factory for lactic acid production at low pH
A Monascus ruber strain was isolated that was able to grow on mineral medium at high sugar concentrations and 175 g/l lactic acid at pH 2.8. Its genome and transcriptomes were sequenced and annotated. Genes encoding lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were introduced to accomplish lactic acid production and two genes encoding pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) were knocked out to subdue ethanol formation. The strain preferred lactic acid to glucose as carbon source, which hampered glucose consumption and therefore also lactic acid production. Lactic acid consumption was stopped by knocking out 4 cytochrome-dependent LDH (CLDH) genes, and evolutionary engineering was used to increase the glucose consumption rate. Application of this strain in a fed-batch fermentation resulted in a maximum lactic acid titer of 190 g/l at pH 3.8 and 129 g/l at pH 2.8, respectively 1.7 and 2.2 times higher than reported in literature before. Yield and productivity were on par with the best strains described in literature for lactic acid production at low pH