Search results for " CYCLING"
showing 10 items of 94 documents
Applicability of solid state fast field cycling NMR relaxometry in understanding relaxation properties of leaves and leaf-litters
2011
Abstract Inversion recovery high field solid state (SS) 1H NMR spectroscopy and fast field cycling (FFC) NMR relaxometry have been applied on dried leaves and leaf-litters from a reafforestated area in central Sicily (Italy) in order to evaluate relaxation properties in both slow ( 1 ≪ ω 0 2 τ C 2 ) and fast ( 1 ≫ ω 0 2 τ C 2 ) motion regimes. Namely, SS 1H NMR spectroscopy (i.e. slow motion regime conditions) revealed that two relaxation components (a fast and a slow one) can be identified in all the leaves and leaf-litter samples. The fast component was assigned to small sized plant metabolites, whereas the slow one was attributed to slowly tumbling macropolymeric molecules. FFC NMR relax…
Standardizing the use of fast-field cycling NMR relaxometry for measuring hydrological connectivity inside the soil
2019
Hydrological connectivity inside the soil (HCS) is applied to study the effects of heterogeneities in complex environmental systems. It refers to both the spatial patterns inside the soil (i.e., structural connectivity [SC]) and the physical–chemical processes at a molecular level (i.e., functional connectivity [FC]). NMR relaxometry has been already applied to assess both SC and FC components of the HCS by defining SC and FC indexes. Here, fast-field cycling NMR relaxometry has been applied on a water suspended soil and a sediment to optimize the conditions to standardize the technique. Proton Larmor frequencies (ωL) from 0.01 to 25 MHz were used on samples suspended in three different rat…
Fast field cycling NMR relaxometry as a tool to monitor Parmigiano Reggiano cheese ripening.
2020
Abstract It is widely recognized that the longer the ageing, the more valuable Parmigiano Reggiano (PR) cheese becomes, due to the improvement of its sensorial and nutritional properties. Up to now, the evaluation of PR properties has been performed on samples mainly aged up to 40 months. For this reason, this study was aimed at collecting information about the chemical-physical characteristics of PR cheeses after ageing at 24, 48 and 84 months. The basic analyses on water amount, protein content and volatile organic compounds (VOC) revealed that PR ageing is associated to the decomposition of the organic components into smaller units. This drives water molecules closer to the aforementione…
Comparing different processing methods in apple slice drying. Part 2 solid-state Fast Field Cycling 1H-NMR relaxation properties, shrinkage and chang…
2019
The objective of this paper was to study the effects of different drying methods that are: microwave (MW), hot air (HA) and a combination of both (HY), on the 1H-NMR relaxation properties, shrinkage and volatile compounds of Golden Delicious apple slices. Fast field cycling NMR relaxometry reveals that the HA samples dried at different temperatures (65 and 75 °C) appear to contain less restrained water as compared to the sample obtained by MW heating at the same temperatures. In fact, the longitudinal relaxation rates (T1) of the water molecules in the HA dried slices resulted shorter than those measured for the MW dried samples, thereby revealing that in the MW slices, water molecules beha…
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance with Fast Field-Cycling Setup: A Valid Tool for Soil Quality Investigation
2020
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques are largely employed in several fields. As an example, NMR spectroscopy is used to provide structural and conformational information on pure systems, while affording quantitative evaluation on the number of nuclei in a given chemical environment. When dealing with relaxation, NMR allows understanding of molecular dynamics, i.e., the time evolution of molecular motions. The analysis of relaxation times conducted on complex liquid–liquid and solid–liquid mixtures is directly related to the nature of the interactions among the components of the mixture. In the present review paper, the peculiarities of low resolution fast field-cycling (FFC) NMR rela…
ChemInform Abstract: Environmental NMR: Fast-Field-Cycling Relaxometry
2016
Fast-field-cycling (FFC) NMR relaxometry deals with the variation of the spin–lattice relaxation times (T1) in a complex system, as the strength of the applied magnetic field is changed. Information about molecular dynamics can be achieved. Until now, only model theories for FFC NMR relaxometry have been developed for polymer and material sciences. Just a few applications have been performed in the environmental sciences. These mainly deal with soil porosity, rock permeability, biomass transformations, and natural organic matter dynamics. Further, FFC NMR relaxometry can also be applied to monitor the environmental fate of contaminants, to understand the dynamics of nutrients at the soil–pl…
Environmental NMR: Fast-field-cycling Relaxometry
1996
Fast-field-cycling (FFC) NMR relaxometry deals with the variation of the spin–lattice relaxation times (T1) in a complex system, as the strength of the applied magnetic field is changed. Information about molecular dynamics can be achieved. Until now, only model theories for FFC NMR relaxometry have been developed for polymer and material sciences. Just a few applications have been performed in the environmental sciences. These mainly deal with soil porosity, rock permeability, biomass transformations, and natural organic matter dynamics. Further, FFC NMR relaxometry can also be applied to monitor the environmental fate of contaminants, to understand the dynamics of nutrients at the soil–pl…
Sulfur cycling and methanogenesis primarily drive microbial colonization of the highly sulfidic Urania deep hypersaline basin
2009
Urania basin in the deep Mediterranean Sea houses a lake that is >100 m deep, devoid of oxygen, 6 times more saline than seawater, and has very high levels of methane and particularly sulfide (up to 16 mM), making it among the most sulfidic water bodies on Earth. Along the depth profile there are 2 chemoclines, a steep one with the overlying oxic seawater, and another between anoxic brines of different density, where gradients of salinity, electron donors and acceptors occur. To identify and differentiate the microbes and processes contributing to the turnover of organic matter and sulfide along the water column, these chemoclines were sampled at a high resolution. Bacterial cell numbers…
Changes in Physicochemical Properties of Biochar after Addition to Soil
2022
It is recognized that biochar undergoes changes when it is applied to soils. However, the mechanisms of biochar alterations are not fully understood yet. To this purpose, the present study is designed to investigate the transformations in the soil of two different biochars obtained from pyrolysis of fir-wood pellets. The production of the biochars differed for the dry and wet quenching procedures used to terminate the pyrolysis. Both biochars were applied to clay soil (26% sand, 6% silt, and 68% clay) placed into lysimeters. After water saturation and 15 days of equilibration, seeds of watercress (Lepidium sativum) were cultivated. After a further 7 weeks, the biochars were manually separat…
Leaf vs. epiphyte nitrogen uptake in a nutrient enriched Mediterranean seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) meadow
2012
Abstract In situ nitrogen uptake by leaves and epiphytes was studied in a Mediterranean seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) meadow impacted from a fish farm and a pristine meadow, using 15NH4 and 15NO3 as tracers. In the impacted meadow both leaves and epiphytes yielded higher N concentrations and showed higher specific N uptake, suggesting a linkage between N uptake and its accumulation. Epiphytes took up N faster than leaves in relation to their corresponding biomass, but when assessed per unit area, N uptake was higher in leaves. Leaf N uptake was negatively correlated with epiphyte N uptake. With increasing epiphyte load on leaves, N leaf uptake decreased while N epiphyte uptake increased, in…