Search results for "scm"
showing 10 items of 35 documents
Coping with the climate: cuticular hydrocarbon acclimation of ants under constant and fluctuating conditions
2018
International audience; Terrestrial arthropods achieve waterproofing by a layer of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs). At the same time, CHCs also serve as communication signals. To maintain waterproofing under different climate conditions, insects adjust the chemical composition of their CHC layer, but this may affect the communication via CHCs. The detailed acclimatory changes of CHCs and how these influence their physical properties are still unknown. Here, we studied acclimation in two closely related ant species with distinct CHC profiles, Myrmica rubra and Myrmica ruginodis, in response to constant or fluctuating temperature and humidity regimes. We measured how acclimation affected CHC co…
Communication versus waterproofing: the physics of insect cuticular hydrocarbons
2019
Understanding the evolution of complex traits is among the major challenges in biology. One such trait is the cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) layer in insects. It protects against desiccation and provides communication signals, especially in social insects. CHC composition is highly diverse within and across species. To understand the adaptive value of this chemical diversity, we must understand how it affects biological functionality. So far, CHCs received ample research attention, but their physical properties were little studied. We argue that these properties determine their biological functionality, and are vital to understand how CHC composition affects their adaptive value. We investigat…
Preventing early age chloride migration into low-carbon concrete
2019
The use of substituting cementitious materials (SCMs) to produce low-carbon concrete is escalating. This contributes to reducing the anthropogenic emission of CO2, and to reduce harmful temperature gradients during cement hydration in massive structures. Mature low-carbon concretes are known to perform well on both strength and durability. However, the maturity process is slow compared to that of standard concrete. Structures made from low-carbon concrete are subject to penetration of agents like chloride at early age, accelerating degrading processes. Chloride penetration is a major problem especially to infrastructure, due to seawater proximity and the use of de-icing agents. Solutions fo…
Quantum-well states in ultrathin Ag(111) films deposited onto H-passivated Si(111)-(1x1) surfaces
2002
Ag(111) films were deposited at room temperature onto H-passivated Si(111)-(1x1) substrates, and subsequently annealed at 300 C. An abrupt non-reactive Ag/Si interface is formed, and very uniform non-strained Ag(111) films of 6-12 monolayers have been grown. Angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy has been used to study the valence band electronic properties of these films. Well-defined Ag sp quantum-well states (QWS) have been observed at discrete energies between 0.5-2eV below the Fermi level, and their dispersions have been measured along the GammaK, GammaMM'and GammaL symmetry directions. QWS show a parabolic bidimensional dispersion, with in-plane effective mass of 0.38-0.50mo, along…
From the LCA of food products to the environmental assessment of protected crops districts: A case-study in the south of Italy
2010
In the present study, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to evaluate the energy consumption and environmental burdens associated with the production of protected crops in an agricultural district in the Mediterranean region. In this study, LCA was used as a ‘support tool’, to address local policies for sustainable production and consumption patterns, and to create a ‘knowledge base’ for environmental assessment of an extended agricultural production area. The proposed approach combines organisation-specific tools, such as Environmental Management Systems and Environmental Product Declarations, with the environmental management of the district. Questionnaires were distribute…
Shape transitions of giant liposomes induced by an anisotropic spontaneous curvature
2000
International audience; We explore how a magnetic field breaks the symmetry of an initially spherical giant liposome filled with a magnetic colloid. The condition of rotational symmetry along the field axis leads either to a prolate or to an oblate ellipsoid. We demonstrate that an electrostatic interaction between the nanoparticles and the membrane triggers the shape transition. PACS numbers: 75.
Customer Relationships Management in Organizations
2013
Abstract In recent years, the market for on-demand CRM applications suffered especially in the segment of small and medium companies because of the concerns about the cost and the complexity of on request implementations. CRM on demand is a good choice for companies that want to implement standard processes that can use data structures “out of box” with little or not at all internal IT support and does not require complex or real-time integration with back office systems. However, on-demand CRM software is not always as simple as vendors want us to believe. Customizing can be problematic and interface tools of CRM vendors can not provide desired levels of integration. Implementing a hosted …
The cage elasticity and under-field structure of concentrated magnetic colloids probed by small angle X-ray scattering
2013
International audience; In the present study we probe the bulk modulus and the structure of concentrated magnetic fluids by small angle X-ray scattering. The electrostatically stabilized nanoparticles experience a repulsive interparticle potential modulated by dipolar magnetic interactions. On the interparticle distance length scale, we show that nanoparticles are trapped under-field in oblate cages formed by their first neighbours. We propose a theoretical model of magnetostriction for the field-induced deformation of the cage. This model captures the anisotropic features of the experimentally observed scattering pattern on the local scale in these strongly interacting colloidal dispersions
Kinetics of doublet formation in bicomponent magnetic suspensions: The role of the magnetic permeability anisotropy
2017
Micron-sized particles (microbeads) dispersed in a suspension of magnetic nanoparticles, i.e., ferrofluids, can be assembled into different types of structures upon application of an externalmagnetic field. This paper is devoted to theoretical modeling of a relative motion of a pair of microbeads (either soft ferromagnetic or diamagnetic) in the ferrofluid under the action of applied uniform magnetic field which induces magnetic moments in the microbeads making them attracting to each other. The model is based on a point-dipole approximation for the magnetic interactions between microbeads mediated by the ferrofluid; however, the ferrofluid is considered to possess an anisotropic magnetic p…
Static Properties of a Simulated Supercooled Polymer Melt: Structure Factors, Monomer Distributions Relative to the Center of Mass, and Triple Correl…
2004
We analyze structural and conformational properties in a simulated bead-spring model of a non-entangled, supercooled polymer melt. We explore the statics of the model via various structure factors, involving not only the monomers, but also the center of mass (CM). We find that the conformation of the chains and the CM-CM structure factor, which is well described by a recently proposed approximation [Krakoviack et al., Europhys. Lett. 58, 53 (2002)], remain essentially unchanged on cooling toward the critical glass transition temperature of mode-coupling theory. Spatial correlations between monomers on different chains, however, depend on temperature, albeit smoothly. This implies that the g…