Search results for "Metastable"
showing 8 items of 18 documents
Collapsibility of metastable sand by non-conventional oedometer tests
2018
The stability of foundations soils could represent a clear and present threat for the conservation of even well preserved buildings, particularly for Architectural heritage conservation and land art heritage. A dramatic case is the presence of collapsible metastable sands as foundation soils, as it occurs in the sacral complex Valle dei Templi in Agrigento. This site listed by UNESCO, stands on a crest of a calcarenite cuesta, overlaying a layer of these sands. When the collapsible sand is dry, the structure is strong enough to bond the sand particles together. When the sand becomes wet, a de-structuration mechanism occurs and the soil’s strength is compromised. This paper has a twofold aim…
Unsaturated sand in the stability of the cuesta of the Temple of Hera (Agrigento)
2013
In the Valle dei Templi in Agrigento seven Doric temples stand lengthwise the crest of a rigid calcarenite cuesta over a layer of carbonate sand which lies along a thick stratum of clays. The environment is highly prone to landslides since topplings of calcarenite blocks often occur. The rock slopes are moving back and the slope edge draw near to the foundation of the Temple of Hera Lacinia contributing to increase their perilous condition. To assess the role of unsaturated sands in the instability processes, after the compositional and textural analysis of the material, direct shear tests and oedometer tests have been carried out on sand samples initially at the natural state, with low or …
New trends in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics: classical and quantum systems
2020
The main aim of this special issue is to report recent advances and new trends in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics of classical and quantum systems, from both theoretical and experimental points of view, within an interdisciplinary context. In particular, the nonlinear relaxation processes in the dynamics of out-of-equilibrium systems and the role of the metastability and environmental noise will be overviewed. Three main areas of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics will be covered: slow relaxation phenomena and dissipative dynamics; long-range interactions and classical systems; quantum systems. New trends such as quantum thermodynamics and novel types of quantum phase transitions occ…
Escape Times in Fluctuating Metastable Potential and Acceleration of Diffusion in Periodic Fluctuating Potentials
2004
The problems of escape from metastable state in randomly flipping potential and of diffusion in fast fluctuating periodic potentials are considered. For the overdamped Brownian particle moving in a piecewise linear dichotomously fluctuating metastable potential we obtain the mean first-passage time (MFPT) as a function of the potential parameters, the noise intensity and the mean rate of switchings of the dichotomous noise. We find noise enhanced stability (NES) phenomenon in the system investigated and the parameter region of the fluctuating potential where the effect can be observed. For the diffusion of the overdamped Brownian particle in a fast fluctuating symmetric periodic potential w…
Methylation status of VTRNA2-1/nc886 is stable across populations, monozygotic twin pairs and in majority of tissues.
2022
Aims & methods: The aim of this study was to characterize the methylation level of a polymorphically imprinted gene, VTRNA2-1/nc886, in human populations and somatic tissues.48 datasets, consisting of more than 30 tissues and >30,000 individuals, were used. Results: nc886 methylation status is associated with twin status and ethnic background, but the variation between populations is limited. Monozygotic twin pairs present concordant methylation, whereas similar to 30% of dizygotic twin pairs present discordant methylation in the nc886 locus. The methylation levels of nc886 are uniform across somatic tissues, except in cerebellum and skeletal muscle. Conclusion: The nc886 imprint may be est…
Quantum dynamics of the oxygen isotopic exchange : lifetimes of metastable states of the ozone intermediate complex
2021
This thesis aims to describe the ozone dynamics during the isotopic exchange reactions of oxygen of type xO + yO zO (xO yO zO)* xO yO + zO, where x, y and z are the atomic masses of the stable oxygen isotopes (16, 17, 18). Firstly, we analyze several methods of accurate description of the atom interactions and numerical schemes to obtain the observables for the collision. Then, in a full-quantum hyperspherical formalism, we study the actual dynamics of the reactive process O + O2 -> O3* -> O2 + O. The metastable ozone created can then either decompose into oxygen by the inverse reaction, or relax into stable ozone by exchanging energy with the environment, typically N2 or O2 molecules. Thes…
Solubility-Driven Isolation of a Metastable Nonagold Cluster with Body-Centered Cubic Structure.
2020
The conventional synthetic methodology of atomically precise gold nanoclusters using reduction in solutions offers only thermodynamically most stable nanoclusters. We report herein a solubility‐driven isolation strategy to access the synthesis of a metastable gold cluster. The cluster, with the composition of [Au 9 (PPh 3 ) 8 ] + ( 1 ), displays an unusual, nearly perfect body‐centered‐cubic (bcc) structure. As revealed by ESI‐MS and UV/Vis measurement, the cluster is metastable in solution and converts to the well‐known [Au 11 (PPh 3 ) 8 Cl 2 ] + ( 2 ) within just 90 min. DFT calculations revealed that while both 1 and 2 are eight‐electron superatoms, there is a driving force to convert 1 …
Enhancing Metastability by Dissipation and Driving in an Asymmetric Bistable Quantum System.
2018
The stabilizing effect of quantum fluctuations on the escape process and the relaxation dynamics from a quantum metastable state are investigated. Specifically, the quantum dynamics of a multilevel bistable system coupled to a bosonic Ohmic thermal bath in strong dissipation regime is analyzed. The study is performed by a non-perturbative method based on the real-time path integral approach of the Feynman-Vernon influence functional. We consider a strongly asymmetric double well potential with and without a monochromatic external driving, and with an out-of-equilibrium initial condition. In the absence of driving we observe a nonmonotonic behavior of the escape time from the metastable regi…