Search results for "STABILITY"
showing 10 items of 3085 documents
Environmental and ontogenetic constraints on developmental stability in the spatangoid sea urchin Echinocardium (Echinoidea).
2006
13 pages; International audience; Spatangoid irregular sea urchins are detritivorous benthic organisms particularly prone to variations of environment, and their mode of growth and plate morphology make them an appropriate model to assess the effects of environmental variations. Two populations of Echinocardium flavescens were sampled in two sites of the Norwegian coast characterized by contrasted environmental conditions. Different morphological descriptors (plate areas, interlandmarks distances, overall size, and shape of the posterior ambulacra) were used to appraise interindividual variations, and fluctuating asymmetry. The comparisons were carried out using classical fluctuating asymme…
Fluids of hard ellipsoids: Phase diagram including a nematic instability from Percus-Yevick theory
1999
An important aspect of molecular fluids is the relation between orientation and translation parts of the two-particle correlations. Especially the detailed knowledge of the influence of orientation correlations is needed to explain and calculate in detail the occurrence of a nematic phase. The simplest model system which shows both orientation and translation correlations is a system of hard ellipsoids. We investigate an isotropic fluid formed of hard ellipsoids with Percus-Yevick theory. Solving the Percus-Yevick equations self-consistently in the high density regime gives a clear criterion for a nematic instability. We calculate in detail the equilibrium phase diagram for a fluid of hard …
Instability of the faecal microbiota in diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome
2013
The irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder with a largely unknown aetiology and a wide range of symptoms. Most cross-sectional studies carried out so far suggest subtle alterations in the structure of the intestinal microbiota that are barely reproduced, partly because of the high inter-subject variation in the community composition and disorder-specific features. We performed a longitudinal study to explore the within-subject variation in the faecal microbiota in two patients with IBS classified into the diarrhoea subtype and the healthy spouse of one of them. Faecal communities were monitored over 6-8 weeks and analysed through metagenomic and metatranscr…
Halloysite nanotubes for efficient loading, stabilization and controlled release of insulin
2018
Hypothesis: Oral insulin administration is not actually effective due to insulin rapid degradation, inactivation and digestion by proteolytic enzymes which results in low bioavailability. Moreover insulin is poorly permeable and lack of lipophilicity. These limits can be overcome by the loading of protein in some nanostructured carrier such as halloysite nanotubes (HNTs). Experiments: Herein we propose an easy strategy to obtain HNT hybrid materials for the delivery of insulin. We report a detailed description on the thermal behavior and stability of insulin loaded and released from the HNTs hybrid by the combination of several techniques. Findings: Release experiments of insulin from the H…
Thermodynamic approach of supercontinuum generation
2009
International audience; This paper is aimed at providing an overview on recent theoretical and experimental works in which a thermodynamic description of the incoherent regime of supercontinuum generation has been formulated. On the basis of the wave turbulence theory, we show that this highly nonlinear and quasi-continuous-wave regime of supercontinuum generation is characterized by two different phenomena. (i) A process of optical wave thermalization ruled by the four-wave mixing effects: The spectral broadening inherent to supercontinuum generation is shown to result from the natural tendency of the optical field to reach its thermodynamic equilibrium state, i. e., the state of maximum n…
Pressure-induced phase transformation in zircon-type orthovanadate SmVO4from experiment and theory
2016
The compression behavior of zircon-type samarium orthovanadate, SmVO4, has been investigated using synchrotron-based powder x-ray diffraction and ab-initio calculations up to 21 GPa. The results indicate the instability of ambient zircon phase at around 6 GPa, which transforms to a high-density scheelite-type phase. The high-pressure phase remains stable up to 21 GPa, the highest pressure reached in the present investigations. On pressure release, the scheelite phase is recovered. Crystal structure of high-pressure phase and equations of state (EOS) for the zircon- and scheelite-type phases have been determined. Various compressibilities such as bulk, axial and bond, estimated from the expe…
In situ high-pressure synchrotron X-ray diffraction study of the structural stability in NdVO4 and LaVO4
2014
Abstract Room-temperature angle-dispersive X-ray diffraction measurements on zircon-type NdVO 4 and monazite-type LaVO 4 were performed in a diamond-anvil cell up to 12 GPa. In NdVO 4 , we found evidence for a non-reversible pressure-induced structural phase transition from zircon to a monazite-type structure at 6.5 GPa. Monazite-type LaVO 4 also exhibits a phase transition but at 8.6 GPa. In this case the transition is reversible and isomorphic. In both compounds the pressure induced transitions involve a large volume collapse. Finally, the equations of state and axial compressibilities for the low-pressure phases are also determined.
Structural properties of magnesium stearate pseudopolymorphs: effect of temperature.
2003
A thorough review of the relevant literature reveals that the interaction between water vapour and magnesium stearate, in contrast to many other metal soaps, is not properly understood. The structural modifications associated with the up-take or loss of water of vegetable-derived commercial magnesium stearate powders exposed to humid air or vacuum at room temperature are investigated using standard powder X-ray diffractometry. It is found that in such conditions magnesium stearate reacts reversibly with the vapour phase with structural consequences very similar to the high temperature transition between the crystalline and rotator phases of other anhydrous metal soaps. When temperature is i…
An Ultrahigh CO2-Loaded Silicalite-1 Zeolite: Structural Stability and Physical Properties at High Pressures and Temperatures
2018
[EN] We report the formation of an ultrahigh CO2-loaded pure-SiO2, silicalite-1 structure at high pressure (0.7 GPa) from the interaction of empty zeolite and fluid CO, medium. The CO2-filled structure was characterized in situ by means of synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction. Rietveld refinements and Fourier recycling allowed the location of 16 guest carbon dioxide molecules per unit cell within the straight and sinusoidal channels of the porous framework to be analyzed. The complete filling of pores by CO, molecules favors structural stability under compression, avoiding pressure-induced amorphization below 20 GPa, and significantly reduces the compressibility of the system compared to th…
Addressing optical pixel bits in a slab of dense optical material via intrinsic optical bistability
2007
It is well known that dense materials with local-field effects can show "intrinsic" optical bistability when they are directly irradiated by a light beam. This has been shown theoretically in a number of works and also experimentally in several cases, in gas media and also in doped solid-state materials where nonlinearities based on standard local-field effects can be reinforced with other ion interaction effects. Although from the point of view of applications nonlinearities stronger than those found so far would be desirable, the fact that no optical resonator is needed to achieve bistability makes these materials potentially interesting for applications in optical information storage and…