Cation distribution in manganese cobaltite spinels Co3−xMnxO4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) determined by thermal analysis

Thermogravimetric analysis was used in order to study the reduction in air of submicronic powders of Co3−x Mn x O4 spinels, with 0 ≤ x ≤ 1. For x = 0 (i.e. Co3O4), cation reduction occurred in a single step. It involved the CoIII ions at the octahedral sites, which were reduced to Co2+ on producing CoO. For 0 < x ≤ 1, the reduction occurred in two stages at increasing temperature with increasing amounts of manganese. The first step corresponded to the reduction of octahedral CoIII ions and the second was attributed to the reduction of octahedral Mn4+ ions to Mn3+. From the individual weight losses and the electrical neutrality of the lattice, the CoIII and Mn4+ ion concentrations were calculated. The distribution of cobalt and manganese ions present on each crystallographic site of the spinel was determined. In contrast to most previous studies that took into account either CoIII and Mn3+ or Co2+, CoIII and Mn4+ only, our thermal analysis study showed that Co2+/CoIII and Mn3+/Mn4+ pairs occupy the octahedral sites. These results were used to explain the resistivity measurements carried out on dense ceramics prepared from our powders sintered at low temperature (700–750 °C) in a Spark Plasma Sintering apparatus

Quality management and contractual incompleteness: grape procurement for high-end wines in Argentina

International audienceSourcing grapes from independent growers for use in top quality wines sold on the international market is a major organisational challenge for corporate wineries. Our paper adds to the small existing literature addressing these coordination issues in the New World wine sector, by going deeper into the specifics of the contracts, as well as the "transaction cost economising" argument. Based on a case-study carried out in the Argentine province of Mendoza, this article presents an in-depth analysis of the technical process, in order to identify the contractual hazards posed by asset specificity, measurement costs, and non-contractible actions. Drawing on contract completion and dual sourcing literature, it analyses the contractual and non contractual mechanisms (price incentives, grower monitoring, allocation of decision rights to the winery, role of backward integration into production) used to govern such grape transactions. Through our analysis, we were able to arrive at four main conclusions. Firstly, most agreements are still verbal, with the exception of occasional written contracts, limited to a few legal provisions. It became clear to us that this approach to forging agreements is not always adequate in managing the inherently complex interactions between grape varieties, soil, farming practices and wine-making processes in high-end wine production. Secondly, extensive decision rights are allocated to wineries, to deal with incompleteness. These are key decisions to be taken during the cropping and harvesting process. Thirdly, pricing is generally kept flexible, with grape prices negotiated ex-post. This means that trade imbalances tend to be resolved in the long term. Winegrowers also benefit from financial rewards to compensate for allocations. Finally, any potential opportunistic behaviour by wineries with regards to asset specificity (in particular yield limitation) and allocation of rights is kept at bay by mechanisms such as winery reputations and credit third-party guaranty. This type of behaviour by growers is similarly deterred through monitoring and vineyard ownership on the part of the wineries

The boundary Riemann solver coming from the real vanishing viscosity approximation

We study a family of initial boundary value problems associated to mixed hyperbolic-parabolic systems: v^{\epsilon} _t + A (v^{\epsilon}, \epsilon v^{\epsilon}_x ) v^{\epsilon}_x = \epsilon B (v^{\epsilon} ) v^{\epsilon}_{xx} The conservative case is, in particular, included in the previous formulation. We suppose that the solutions $v^{\epsilon}$ to these problems converge to a unique limit. Also, it is assumed smallness of the total variation and other technical hypotheses and it is provided a complete characterization of the limit. The most interesting points are the following two. First, the boundary characteristic case is considered, i.e. one eigenvalue of $A$ can be $0$. Second, we take into account the possibility that $B$ is not invertible. To deal with this case, we take as hypotheses conditions that were introduced by Kawashima and Shizuta relying on physically meaningful examples. We also introduce a new condition of block linear degeneracy. We prove that, if it is not satisfied, then pathological behaviours may occur.Comment: 84 pages, 6 figures. Text changes in Sections 1 and 3.2.3. Added Section 3.1.2. Minor changes in other section

Joint evolution of multiple social traits: a kin selection analysis

General models of the evolution of cooperation, altruism and other social behaviours have focused almost entirely on single traits, whereas it is clear that social traits commonly interact. We develop a general kin-selection framework for the evolution of social behaviours in multiple dimensions. We show that whenever there are interactions among social traits new behaviours can emerge that are not predicted by one-dimensional analyses. For example, a prohibitively costly cooperative trait can ultimately be favoured owing to initial evolution in other (cheaper) social traits that in turn change the cost-benefit ratio of the original trait. To understand these behaviours, we use a two-dimensional stability criterion that can be viewed as an extension of Hamilton's rule. Our principal example is the social dilemma posed by, first, the construction and, second, the exploitation of a shared public good. We find that, contrary to the separate one-dimensional analyses, evolutionary feedback between the two traits can cause an increase in the equilibrium level of selfish exploitation with increasing relatedness, while both social (production plus exploitation) and asocial (neither) strategies can be locally stable. Our results demonstrate the importance of emergent stability properties of multidimensional social dilemmas, as one-dimensional stability in all component dimensions can conceal multidimensional instability

An aperture masking mode for the MICADO instrument

MICADO is a near-IR camera for the Europea ELT, featuring an extended field (75" diameter) for imaging, and also spectrographic and high contrast imaging capabilities. It has been chosen by ESO as one of the two first-light instruments. Although it is ultimately aimed at being fed by the MCAO module called MAORY, MICADO will come with an internal SCAO system that will be complementary to it and will deliver a high performance on axis correction, suitable for coronagraphic and pupil masking applications. The basis of the pupil masking approach is to ensure the stability of the optical transfer function, even in the case of residual errors after AO correction (due to non common path errors and quasi-static aberrations). Preliminary designs of pupil masks are presented. Trade-offs and technical choices, especially regarding redundancy and pupil tracking, are explained.Comment: SPIE 2014 Proceeding -- Montrea

Random copying in space

Random copying is a simple model for population dynamics in the absence of selection, and has been applied to both biological and cultural evolution. In this work, we investigate the effect that spatial structure has on the dynamics. We focus in particular on how a measure of the diversity in the population changes over time. We show that even when the vast majority of a population's history may be well-described by a spatially-unstructured model, spatial structure may nevertheless affect the expected level of diversity seen at a local scale. We demonstrate this phenomenon explicitly by examining the random copying process on small-world networks, and use our results to comment on the use of simple random-copying models in an empirical context.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures. Based on invited talk at AHRC CECD Conference on "Cultural Evolution in Spatially Structured Populations" at UCL, September 2010. To appear in ACS - Advances in Complex System

Environmental factors influence both abundance and genetic diversity in a widespread bird species.

Genetic diversity is one of the key evolutionary variables that correlate with population size, being of critical importance for population viability and the persistence of species. Genetic diversity can also have important ecological consequences within populations, and in turn, ecological factors may drive patterns of genetic diversity. However, the relationship between the genetic diversity of a population and how this interacts with ecological processes has so far only been investigated in a few studies. Here, we investigate the link between ecological factors, local population size, and allelic diversity, using a field study of a common bird species, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus). We studied sparrows outside the breeding season in a confined small valley dominated by dispersed farms and small-scale agriculture in southern France. Population surveys at 36 locations revealed that sparrows were more abundant in locations with high food availability. We then captured and genotyped 891 house sparrows at 10 microsatellite loci from a subset of these locations (N = 12). Population genetic analyses revealed weak genetic structure, where each locality represented a distinct substructure within the study area. We found that food availability was the main factor among others tested to influence the genetic structure between locations. These results suggest that ecological factors can have strong impacts on both population size per se and intrapopulation genetic variation even at a small scale. On a more general level, our data indicate that a patchy environment and low dispersal rate can result in fine-scale patterns of genetic diversity. Given the importance of genetic diversity for population viability, combining ecological and genetic data can help to identify factors limiting population size and determine the conservation potential of populations

Imaging the symmetry breaking of molecular orbitals in carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes have attracted considerable interest for their unique electronic properties. They are fascinating candidates for fundamental studies of one dimensional materials as well as for future molecular electronics applications. The molecular orbitals of nanotubes are of particular importance as they govern the transport properties and the chemical reactivity of the system. Here we show for the first time a complete experimental investigation of molecular orbitals of single wall carbon nanotubes using atomically resolved scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Local conductance measurements show spectacular carbon-carbon bond asymmetry at the Van Hove singularities for both semiconducting and metallic tubes, demonstrating the symmetry breaking of molecular orbitals in nanotubes. Whatever the tube, only two types of complementary orbitals are alternatively observed. An analytical tight-binding model describing the interference patterns of ? orbitals confirmed by ab initio calculations, perfectly reproduces the experimental results

Wolbachia in the Culex pipiens group mosquitoes: introgression and superinfection.

Wolbachia bacteria in mosquitoes induce cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), where sperm from Wolbachia-infected males can produce inviable progeny. The wPip strain in the Culex pipiens group of mosquitoes produces a complexity of CI crossing types. Several factors are thought to be capable of influencing the expression of CI including Wolbachia strain type and host genotype. In this study, the unidirectional CI that occurs between 2 C. pipiens complex laboratory strains, Col and Mol, was further investigated by nuclear genotype introgression. The unidirectional CI between Col and Mol was not found to be influenced by host genetic background, in contrast to a previous introgression study carried out using bidirectionally incompatible C. pipiens group strains. A line containing both wPip strain variants superinfection was also generated by embryonic cytoplasmic transfer. The same crossing type as the parental Col strain was observed in the superinfected line. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction demonstrated a low density of the injected wPipMol variant in the superinfected line after 18 generations, which was considered likely to be responsible for the crossing patterns observed. The Wolbachia density was also shown to be lower in the parental Mol strain males compared with Col strain males, and no inverse relationship between WO phage and Wolbachia density could be detected