Interactions Between Lignin and Cellulose in Organic Liquid and Saline Density Gradient Columns

Despite significant differences in their densities, lignin and carbohydrates associate so strongly, even in physical mixtures, that no separation takes place in liquid density gradient columns. Ball-milled cellulose, lignin, and wood exhibit much higher densities in salt gradients than in organic liquid gradients indicating penetration of the saline solutions into voids or "free volume" in the polymers that are inaccessible to organic liquids

Reentrant vortex lattice transformation in four-fold symmetric superconductors

The physics behind the rhombic$\to$square$\to$rhombic flux line lattice transformation in increasing fields is clarified on the basis of Eilenberger theory. We demonstrate that this reentrance observed in LuNi$_2$B$_2$C is due to intrinsic competition between superconducting gap and Fermi surface anisotropies. The calculations reproduce not only it but also predict yet not found lock-in transition to a square lattice with different orientation in higher field. In view of physical origin given, this sequence of transitions is rather generic to occur in four-fold symmetric superconductors.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures,submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Changes in the Racial Composition of Phytophthora sojae in Australia Between 1979 and 1996

Surveys of commercial soybean fields, disease nurseries, and trial plots of soybean were conducted throughout eastern Australia between 1979 and 1996, and 694 isolates of Phytophthora sojae were collected and classified into races. Fourteen races, 1, 2, 4, 10, 15, and 25, and eight new races, 46 to 53, were identified, but only races 1, 4, 15, 25, 46, and 53 were found in commercial fields. Races 1 and 15 were the only races found in commercial fields in the soybean-growing areas of Australia up until 1989, with race 1 being the dominant race. Race 4 was found in central New South Wales in 1989 on cultivars with the Rps1a gene, and it is now the dominant race in central and southern New South Wales. Races 46 and 53 have only been found once, in southern New South Wales, and race 25 was identified in the same region in 1994 on a cultivar with the Rps1k gene. Only races 1 and 15 have been found in the northern soybean-growing regions, with the latter dominating, which coincides with the widespread use of cultivars with the Rps2 gene. Changes in the race structure of the P. sojae population from commercial fields in Australia follow the deployment of specific resistance genes

RoboCup 2D Soccer Simulation League: Evaluation Challenges

We summarise the results of RoboCup 2D Soccer Simulation League in 2016 (Leipzig), including the main competition and the evaluation round. The evaluation round held in Leipzig confirmed the strength of RoboCup-2015 champion (WrightEagle, i.e. WE2015) in the League, with only eventual finalists of 2016 competition capable of defeating WE2015. An extended, post-Leipzig, round-robin tournament which included the top 8 teams of 2016, as well as WE2015, with over 1000 games played for each pair, placed WE2015 third behind the champion team (Gliders2016) and the runner-up (HELIOS2016). This establishes WE2015 as a stable benchmark for the 2D Simulation League. We then contrast two ranking methods and suggest two options for future evaluation challenges. The first one, "The Champions Simulation League", is proposed to include 6 previous champions, directly competing against each other in a round-robin tournament, with the view to systematically trace the advancements in the League. The second proposal, "The Global Challenge", is aimed to increase the realism of the environmental conditions during the simulated games, by simulating specific features of different participating countries.Comment: 12 pages, RoboCup-2017, Nagoya, Japan, July 201

GRS 1758–258: RXTE Monitoring of a Rare Persistent Hard State Black Hole

GRS 1758–258 is the least studied of the three persistent black hole X-ray binaries in our Galaxy. It is also one of only two known black hole candidates, including all black hole transients, which shows a decrease of its 3-10 keV flux when entering the thermally dominated soft state, rather than an increase.We present the spectral evolution of GRS 1758–258 from RXTE-PCA observations spanning a time of about 11 years from 1996 to 2007. During this time, seven dim soft states are detected. We also consider INTEGRAL monitoring observations of the source and compare the long-term behavior to that of the bright persistent black hole X-ray binary Cygnus X-1. We discuss the observed state transitions in the light of physical scenarios for black hole transitions

The Impact of the German Minimum Wage on Individual Wages and Monthly Earnings

This paper evaluates the short-run impact of the introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany on the hourly wages and monthly earnings of workers targeted by the reform. We first provide detailed descriptive evidence of changes to the wage structure in particular at the bottom of the distribution and distinguish between trends for regularly employed and marginally employed workers. In the causal analysis, we then employ a differential trend adjusted difference-in-differences (DTADD) strategy to identify the extent to which these changes in wages and earnings can be attributed to the minimum wage introduction. We find that the minimum wage introduction can account for hourly wage growth in the order of roughly 6.5 % or €0.45/hour and an increase in monthly earnings of 6.6 % or €53/month. Despite finding wage growth at the bottom of the distribution, the paper documents widespread non-compliance with the mandated wage floor of €8.50/hour

Case study: ENVRI science demonstrators with D4Science

Whenever a community of practice starts developing an IT solution for its use case(s) it has to face the issue of carefully selecting “the platform” to use. Such a platform should match the requirements and the overall settings resulting from the specific application context (including legacy technologies and solutions to be integrated and reused, costs of adoption and operation, easiness in acquir- ing skills and competencies). There is no one-size-fits-all solution that is suitable for all application context, and this is particularly true for scientific communities and their cases because of the wide heterogeneity characterising them. However, there is a large consensus that solutions from scratch are inefficient and services that facilitate the development and maintenance of scientific community-specific solutions do exist. This chapter describes how a set of diverse communities of practice efficiently developed their science demonstrators (on analysing and pro- ducing user-defined atmosphere data products, greenhouse gases fluxes, particle formation, mosquito diseases) by leveraging the services offered by the D4Science infrastructure. It shows that the D4Science design decisions aiming at streamlin- ing implementations are effective. The chapter discusses the added value injected in the science demonstrators and resulting from the reuse of D4Science services, especially regarding Open Science practices and overall quality of service