Uniform Transnational Assessment of the Environmental Indices from the Romanian Catchment Area of the Tisa River

The uniform transnational assessment of the environmental indices in the catchment area of the Tisa river aims at rehabilitating, protecting and conserving the environmental systems, as well as creating a commonly strategic demarche concerning a sustainable spatial development, based on integrated intersectorial approaches of environmental issues, viewed in their territorial dimension. The information necessary in underlining the current situation in the Romanian catchment area of the Tisa has been structured according to the following categories of analysed indices: sources of surface waters, resources of drinkable water and water supply resources, the risk of not reaching the environmental objectives, significant sources of water pollution (punctual sources of pollution, diffuse sources of pollution, significant hydromorphic pressure), the quality of water, significant sources of air pollution, soils affected by agricultural and industrial activities, nature protection and waste management

Oblique stacking of three-dimensional dome islands in Ge/Si multilayers

The organization of Ge "dome" islands in Ge/Si multilayers has been investigated by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. Ge domes are found to spontaneously arrange in oblique stacks, replicating at a well-defined angle from one bilayer to the next. The formation of oblique island stacks is governed by a complex interplay of surface strain, generated by the already buried islands, and surface curvature, caused by the inherent tendency of large domes to carve out material from the surrounding planar substrate. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics

Critical Exponents of the Chiral Potts Model from Conformal Field Theory

The $Z_N$-invariant chiral Potts model is considered as a perturbation of a $Z_N$ conformal field theory. In the self-dual case the renormalization group equations become simple, and yield critical exponents and anisotropic scaling which agree with exact results for the super-integrable lattice models. Although the continuum theory is not Lorentz invariant, it respects a novel type of space-time symmetry which allows for the observed spontaneous breaking of translational symmetry in the ground state. The continuum theory is shown to possess an infinite number of conserved charges on the self-dual line, which remain conserved when the theory is perturbed by the energy operator.Comment: 15 page

Replicating Nanostructures on Silicon by Low Energy Ion Beams

We report on a nanoscale patterning method on Si substrates using self-assembled metal islands and low-energy ion-beam irradiation. The Si nanostructures produced on the Si substrate have a one-to-one correspondence with the self-assembled metal (Ag, Au, Pt) nanoislands initially grown on the substrate. The surface morphology and the structure of the irradiated surface were studied by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). TEM images of ion-beam irradiated samples show the formation of sawtooth-like structures on Si. Removing metal islands and the ion-beam induced amorphous Si by etching, we obtain a crystalline nanostructure of Si. The smallest structures emit red light when exposed to a UV light. The size of the nanostructures on Si is governed by the size of the self-assembled metal nanoparticles grown on the substrate for this replica nanopatterning. The method can easily be extended for tuning the size of the Si nanostructures by the proper choice of the metal nanoparticles and the ion energy in ion-irradiation. It is suggested that off-normal irradiation can also be used for tuning the size of the nanostructures.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, regular paper submitted to Nanotechnolog

Fermentability of whole oat flour, PeriTec flour and bran by Lactobacillus plantarum

4 páginas, 2 tablas, 1 figuraWhole oat flour obtained by hammer milling was fermented with Lactobacillus plantarum along with white flour and bran in order to compare the suitability of these substrates for the production of a probiotic beverage. The three substrates show a viable cell concentration at the end of fermentation above the minimum required in a probiotic product. The highest cell concentration was observed in white flour (9.16 Log10 CFU/mL) and the lowest in the bran sample (8.17 Log10 CFU/mL)Peer reviewe