230 research outputs found
Study of the trace metal ion influence on the turnover of soil organic matter in cultivated contaminated soils
The role of metals in the behaviour of soil organic matter (SOM) is not well documented. Therefore, we investigated the influence of metals (Pb, Zn, Cu and Cd) on the dynamic of SOM in contaminated soils where maize (C4 plant) replaced C3 cultures. Three pseudogley brown leached soil profiles under maize with a decreasing gradient in metals concentrations were sampled. On size fractions, stable carbon isotopic ratio (d13C), metals, organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations were measured in function of depth. The determined sequence for the amount of C4 organic matter in the bulk fractions: M3 (0.9) > M2 (0.4) > M1 (0.3) is in agreement with a significant influence of metals on the SOM turnover. New C4 SOM, mainly present in the labile coarser fractions and less contaminated by metals than the stabilised C3 SOM of the clay fraction, is more easily degraded by microorganism
Minimal chordal sense of direction and circulant graphs
A sense of direction is an edge labeling on graphs that follows a globally
consistent scheme and is known to considerably reduce the complexity of several
distributed problems. In this paper, we study a particular instance of sense of
direction, called a chordal sense of direction (CSD). In special, we identify
the class of k-regular graphs that admit a CSD with exactly k labels (a minimal
CSD). We prove that connected graphs in this class are Hamiltonian and that the
class is equivalent to that of circulant graphs, presenting an efficient
(polynomial-time) way of recognizing it when the graphs' degree k is fixed
Nanoscale Equilibrium Crystal Shapes
The finite size and interface effects on equilibrium crystal shape (ECS) have
been investigated for the case of a surface free energy density including step
stiffness and inverse-square step-step interactions. Explicitly including the
curvature of a crystallite leads to an extra boundary condition in the solution
of the crystal shape, yielding a family of crystal shapes, governed by a shape
parameter c. The total crystallite free energy, including interface energy, is
minimized for c=0, yielding in all cases the traditional PT shape (z x3/2).
Solutions of the crystal shape for c≠0 are presented and discussed in the
context of meta-stable states due to the energy barrier for nucleation.
Explicit scaled relationships for the ECS and meta-stable states in terms of
the measurable step parameters and the interfacial energy are presented.Comment: 35 page
Idealness of k-wise intersecting families
A clutter is k-wise intersecting if every k members have a common element, yet no element belongs to all members. We conjecture that, for some integer k â„ 4, every k-wise intersecting clutter is non-ideal. As evidence for our conjecture, we prove it for k = 4 for the class of binary clutters. Two key ingredients for our proof are Jaegerâs 8-flow theorem for graphs, and Seymourâs characterization of the binary matroids with the sums of circuits property. As further evidence for our conjecture, we also note that it follows from an unpublished conjecture of Seymour from 1975. We also discuss connections to the chromatic number of a clutter, projective geometries over the two-element field, uniform cycle covers in graphs, and quarter-integral packings of value two in ideal clutters
Using the Wigner-Ibach Surmise to Analyze Terrace-Width Distributions: History, User's Guide, and Advances
A history is given of the applications of the simple expression generalized
from the surmise by Wigner and also by Ibach to extract the strength of the
interaction between steps on a vicinal surface, via the terrace width
distribution (TWD). A concise guide for use with experiments and a summary of
some recent extensions are provided.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, reformatted (with revtex) version of refereed
paper for special issue of Applied Physics A entitled "From Surface Science
to Device Physics", in honor of the retirements of Prof. H. Ibach and Prof.
H. L\"ut
Secondary contact and admixture between independently invading populations of the Western corn rootworm, diabrotica virgifera virgifera in Europe
The western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is one of the most destructive pests of corn in North America and is currently invading Europe. The two major invasive outbreaks of rootworm in Europe have occurred, in North-West Italy and in Central and South-Eastern Europe. These two outbreaks originated from independent introductions from North America. Secondary contact probably occurred in North Italy between these two outbreaks, in 2008. We used 13 microsatellite markers to conduct a population genetics study, to demonstrate that this geographic contact resulted in a zone of admixture in the Italian region of Veneto. We show that i) genetic variation is greater in the contact zone than in the parental outbreaks; ii) several signs of admixture were detected in some Venetian samples, in a Bayesian analysis of the population structure and in an approximate Bayesian computation analysis of historical scenarios and, finally, iii) allelic frequency clines were observed at microsatellite loci. The contact between the invasive outbreaks in North-West Italy and Central and South-Eastern Europe resulted in a zone of admixture, with particular characteristics. The evolutionary implications of the existence of a zone of admixture in Northern Italy and their possible impact on the invasion success of the western corn rootworm are discussed
Vicinal silicon surfaces: from step density wave to faceting
This paper investigates faceting mechanisms induced by electromigration in
the regime where atomic steps are transparent. For this purpose we study
several vicinal orientations by means of in-situ (optical diffraction,
electronic microscopy) as well as ex-situ (AFM, microprofilometry)
visualization techniques. The data show that faceting proceeds in two stages.
The first stage is short and leads to the appearance of a step density wave,
with a wavelength roughly independent of the surface orientation. The second
stage is much slower, and leads to the formation of a hill-and-valley
structure, the period of which depends on the initial surface orientation. A
simple continuum model enables us to point out why the wavelength of the step
density wave does not depend on the microscale details of the surface. The
final wavelength is controlled by the competition between elastic step-step
interaction and facet edge energy cost. Finally, the surface stress angular
dependence is shown to emerge as a coarsed-grained picture from the step model.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figure
Measuring the surface stress polar dependence
While measurements of the polar dependence of the surface free energy are
easily available, measurements of the whole polar dependence of the surface
stress of a crystal do not exist. In this paper is presented a new procedure
that allows, for the first time, the experimental determination of the surface
stress polar dependence of a crystal. For this purpose (1) electromigration is
used to control the kinetic faceting of surface orientations that belong to the
equilibrium shape of the crystal and (2) for each destabilised surface, the
period of faceting as well as the crystallographic angles of the appearing
facets are measured by AFM. The so-obtained data lead to a set of equations
whose mathematical solution, compatible with physical constraints, gives access
to the surface stress polar dependence of the whole crystal and thus to a
better understanding of surface stress properties.Comment: 8 pages, 6 Figure
Influence of environmental parameters on movements and habitat utilization of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Madagascar breeding ground
© The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Royal Society Open Science 3 (2016): 160616, doi:10.1098/rsos.160616.Assessing the movement patterns and key habitat features of breeding humpback whales is a prerequisite for the conservation management of this philopatric species. To investigate the interactions between humpback whale movements and environmental conditions off Madagascar, we deployed 25 satellite tags in the northeast and southwest coast of Madagascar. For each recorded position, we collated estimates of environmental variables and computed two behavioural metrics: behavioural state of âtransitingâ (consistent/directional) versus âlocalizedâ (variable/non-directional), and active swimming speed (i.e. speed relative to the current). On coastal habitats (i.e. bathymetryâ<â200âm and in adjacent areas), females showed localized behaviour in deep waters (191â±â20âm) and at large distances (14â±â0.6âkm) from shore, suggesting that their breeding habitat extends beyond the shallowest waters available close to the coastline. Males' active swimming speed decreased in shallow waters, but environmental parameters did not influence their likelihood to exhibit localized movements, which was probably dominated by social factors instead. In oceanic habitats, both males and females showed localized behaviours in shallow waters and favoured high chlorophyll-a concentrations. Active swimming speed accounts for a large proportion of observed movement speed; however, breeding humpback whales probably exploit prevailing ocean currents to maximize displacement. This study provides evidence that coastal areas, generally subject to strong human pressure, remain the core habitat of humpback whales off Madagascar. Our results expand the knowledge of humpback whale habitat use in oceanic habitat and response to variability of environmental factors such as oceanic current and chlorophyll level.Funding was provided by Total Foundation to NeuroPSI, and by individuals and foundations to the WCS Ocean Giants Program
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