Le nom du monde est forêt

The study of Lancelot shows the theme of forest as very rich and coherent. The author does not consider the forest as a natural place, as a friendly or cruel nature, but as a place which is not made for the man, where he may be lost, a place where only God’s omnipotence allows him to stand harmless, if not without any risk. From the awe that it mises up, the forest is the place of all the perils, and this one where can be represented all those who threaten the knight in his own being of knight, of lover, of man, of Christian

Solid State NMR Study of the Mixing Degree Between Ginkgo Biloba Extract and a Soy-Lecithin-Phosphatidylserine in a Composite Prepared by the Phytosome® Method

Leaves extract of Ginkgo biloba, known in China since the most ancient times, has been widely used in the area of senile dementia thanks to its improving effects on cognitive function. A promising formulation of this botanical ingredient consists in a Ginkgo biloba-soy-lecithin-phosphatidylserine association obtained by the Phytosome® process. The precise assess- ment of the mixing degree between Ginkgo biloba and soy-lecithin-phosphatidylserine in this formulation is an important piece of information for understanding the reasons of its final performances. To this aim in the present study we carried out for the first time a Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance investigation on Ginkgo biloba-soy-lecithin-phosphatidylserine association, on its constituents and on a mechanical mixture. The analysis of different observables highlighted a very intimate mixing (domains of single components not larger than 60 nm) of Ginkgo biloba and soy-lecithin-phosphatidylserine in their association obtained by Phytosome® process, together with a slight modification of their molecular dynamics, not observed in the case of the mechanical mixture

Phonon scattering due to deep acceptors in semiconductors

We have measured the magnetothermal conductivity in GaAs(Mn) and Si(In) for temperatures between 1.4 K and 90 K at magnetic fields up to 8 T. In both cases the dopants are deep acceptors with binding energy much larger (110 meV and 165 meV respectively) than given by the effective mass theory (~ 35 meV). There is a double interest in such systems: First, an excited level 3 meV (4.2 meV) above the acceptor ground state has been concluded from ultrasonic measurements. Such an excited state might be connected with a Jahn-Teller effect of these deeper acceptors and should be seen by resonant phonon scattering in thermal conductivity. Second, an anomalous behavior of the magnetothermal conductivity has been found for shallowacceptors in Ge (but not in Si) making comparison with systems with different g-factors desirable. The g-factors of acceptors in GaAs are roughly three times, the g-factor of Si(In) about 0.6 times that of Si(B)

Detection and exploitation of white lupin (Lupinus albus L.) genetic variation for seed γ-conglutin content

The seed γ-conglutin protein fraction of white lupin has particular pharmacological interest, but its industrial production is hindered by low content in the seed. This study provides an unprecedented assessment of genotypic and environmental variation for seed content and production of γ-conglutin, exploring also the ability of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) to predict seed γ-conglutin content. Significant (P < 0.01) genetic variation for seed γ-conglutin content emerged among ten genotypes (cultivars or breeding lines) across three environments (range: 1.59-2.02 %) and five genotypes in other two environments (range: 1.47-1.80 %). Genotype variation was found also for seed protein content and γ-conglutin proportion on total protein, the latter trait having higher impact than the former on genotype variation for seed γ-conglutin content. The production of γ-conglutin per unit area was affected also by genotype yielding ability beside genotype seed γ-conglutin content. No genotype × environment interaction was detected for any γ-conglutin trait. NIRS-based prediction based on cross-validations was only moderately accurate for seed γ-conglutin content (R2 = 0.66), while being accurate for seed protein content (R2 = 0.95). In conclusion, breeding for higher seed γ-conglutin content is feasible using data from very few test sites and, to some extent, NIRS-based predictions

Unusually High Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotubes

Combining equilibrium and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations with accurate carbon potentials, we determine the thermal conductivity $\lambda$ of carbon nanotubes and its dependence on temperature. Our results suggest an unusually high value ${\lambda}{\approx}6,600$~W/m$\cdot$K for an isolated (10,10) nanotube at room temperature, comparable to the thermal conductivity of a hypothetical isolated graphene monolayer or diamond. Our results suggest that these high values of $\lambda$ are associated with the large phonon mean free paths in these systems; substantially lower values are predicted and observed for the basal plane of bulk graphite.Comment: 4 pages 3 figures (5 postscript files), submitted for publicatio

Paramagnetic NMR of phenolic oxime copper complexes : a joint experimental and density functional study

This work was supported by EaStCHEM and the School of Chemistry. The authors would like to thank the EPSRC for computational support through the Collaborative Computational Project on NMR Crystallography (CCP-NC), via EP/M022501/1 and EP/J501542/1. SEA would like to thank the Royal Society and Wolfson Foundation for a merit award. Work at the TU Berlin has been carried out within the EU Marie-Curie Initial Training Network “pNMR”.1H and 13C pNMR properties of bis(salicylaldoximato)copper(II) were studied in the solid state using magic-angle-spinning NMR spectroscopy and, for the isolated complex and selected oligomers, using density-functional theory at the PBE0-1/3 // PBE0-D3 level. Large paramagnetic shifts are observed, up to δ(1H) = 272 ppm and δ(13C) = 1006 ppm (at 298 K), which are rationalised through spin delocalisation from the metal onto the organic ligand and the resulting contact shifts arising from hyperfine coupling. The observed shift ranges are best reproduced computationally using exchange-correlation functionals with a high fraction of exact exchange (such as PBE0-1/3). Through a combination of experimental techniques and first-principles computation, a near-complete assignment of the observed signals is possible. Intermolecular effects on the pNMR shifts, modelled computationally in the dimers and trimers through effective decoupling between the local spins via A-tensor and total spin rescaling in the pNMR expression, are indicated to be small. Addition of electron-donating substituents and benzannelation of the organic ligand is predicted computationally to induce notable changes in the NMR signal pattern, suggesting that pNMR spectroscopy can be a sensitive probe for the spin distribution in paramagnetic phenolic oxime copper complexes.PostprintPeer reviewe

Proposed antimatter gravity measurement with an antihydrogen beam

The principle of the equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass is one of the cornerstones of general relativity. Considerable efforts have been made and are still being made to verify its validity. A quantum-mechanical formulation of gravity allows for non-Newtonian contributions to the force which might lead to a difference in the gravitational force on matter and antimatter. While it is widely expected that the gravitational interaction of matter and of antimatter should be identical, this assertion has never been tested experimentally. With the production of large amounts of cold antihydrogen at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator, such a test with neutral antimatter atoms has now become feasible. For this purpose, we have proposed to set up the AEGIS experiment at CERN/AD, whose primary goal will be the direct measurement of the Earth's gravitational acceleration on antihydrogen with a classical Moiré deflectometer. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved