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Confinement-controlled phase behavior of charged colloids under gravity
We investigate the structure of sedimented charged colloidal suspensions under gravitational confinement. Inside a sealed glass sample cell, particles dispersed in a medium accumulate near the upper or the bottom planar wall and form quasi-2D colloidal layers. By adjusting the medium composition and particle electrostatic interactions, we systematically vary the gravitational Peclet number and the dimensionless screening parameter. Using light microscopy imaging, we study the structural development of the sedimented layers at different initial particle concentrations. Our results suggest a complex phase behavior where strong confinement and charge screening regimes favor the formation of ordered triangular lattices stacked in layer sequences, characteristic of face-centered cubic crystal planes. On the contrary, systems with weak confinement present disordered fluid phases. For intermediate parameters, we experimentally identify a coexistence region of triangular and rhombic phases. This study provides an experimental framework for predicting structural transitions in gravitationally confined soft-matter systems.
The emergence of human influence on the ozone layer by the 1960s
The Antarctic ozone hole was first reported in 1985, and small ozone losses at the global scale were also observed in the late 1980s. The combination of field and laboratory measurements, together with modeling, quickly established anthropogenic chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as the cause of both the Antarctic and global ozone depletion. However, when, where, and why the earliest ozone depletion could have been detected has not been determined. Here, we conduct a thought experiment to investigate when human-induced ozone depletion could have first been detectable, assuming the availability of accurate stratospheric ozone observations from 1950 onward. We find that human-caused ozone depletion was likely identifiable as early as 1957 in the tropical upper stratosphere. This region’s low internal variability enables the earliest detection of the anthropogenic signal, even though tropical ozone losses in the upper stratosphere were smaller than those in higher-latitude regions. Our results highlight the key role of considering both internal variability (“noise”) and the forced response (“signal”) in detection studies. Further, while CFCs are widely recognized as the primary drivers of current ozone depletion, we find that early ozone loss was primarily caused by human-made carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 ), used mainly as a solvent. These findings suggest that a clear human influence on the stratospheric ozone layer began nearly 70 y ago, even before substantial emissions of CFCs from spray cans or air conditioning.
Research on hierarchical energy management strategies for connected automated range-extended electric vehicle based on pre-deceleration
Cross-domain edge AI framework for unified threat intelligence in smart grid-EV- VANET ecosystems using lightweight federated learning
AFD-Net: a robust exchange rate forecasting framework integrating frequency-domain decomposition and attention mechanisms with linear modeling
Mechanical and hydraulic properties of fractured Bentheim sandstone at different laboratory-simulated depths
Abstract Understanding how rock properties change with depth is crucial for a variety of geoengineering applications. Even rocks that are homogenous at both micro and macro scales, such as Bentheim sandstone, lose this characteristic once fractured. While recent studies have shown how concomitant changes in stress, temperature and pore pressure affects the evolution of intact sample permeability at depths, an equivalent study on fractured material is missing. Therefore, by combining a multi-methodological approach consisting of rock deformation experiments simulating depth conditions up to 4 km, thin section analysis and fluid composition analysis of water samples, the evolution of permeability of fractured Bentheim sandstone is investigated in this study. Results suggests that fine particles produced by the fracturing and the movements along these fractures play a crucial role in permeability evolution. When these particles are removed, the fracture constitutes a preferential pathway and, together with the chemical processes occurring on the rock–fluid system, lead to a 3–7 times reduction in permeability followed by a complete recovery of it after a simulated burial and exhumation path. On the contrary, when these particles are still present within the fracture zone, they impede fluid flow. This causes a slightly reduction of permeability during the burial path followed by almost constant values of permeability throughout the exhumation path. These findings provide crucial information for georeservoir applications and the transfer of results from laboratory experiments to in situ conditions for a correct prediction of hydraulic properties.
Tuning intrinsic water permeation barriers in nanoporous graphene via systematic pore-edge modification: a first-principles study
Comprehensive knowledge of PMTCT among reproductive-age women in eight sub-Saharan African countries using multilevel analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys
A study on the curves of scaling behavior of fractal cities
Sustainable fluorescence quenching approach for betahistine analysis: greenness evaluation
Physarum-based approach to distributed optimal transport on graphs
A health ecological model study of subjective cognitive decline among hypertensive patients in rural Shanxi, China
StyleGAN3-T: an alias-free generative framework for synthetic plant disease image augmentation and recognition
Dissecting flowering time and flower color in Carum carvi utilizing a long-read draft genome and a GBS-based QTL mapping
Abstract Caraway ( Carum carvi L.) is a major essential oil crop with biennial and annual flowering types. As basic research resource, we developed a draft genome assembly using long-read ONT sequencing and provide a structural and functional gene annotation for an annual caraway inbred line. To elucidate the genetic control of flowering, a genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) was conducted for an F 2 population (N = 187) generating 731 strictly filtered SNPs. A linkage map was constructed spanning 663 cM across 10 linkage groups with in total 634 (full map) or 259 (thinned map) SNPs. Contrary to its dominance in F 1 , annual flowering occurred in only 36% of F 2 plants under late sowing conditions. Furthermore, the annual F 2 plants exhibited delayed flowering compared to the annual parent. QTL analysis identified five significant QTLs for (adjusted) flowering time (LG02, LG03, LG05, LG08 and LG10) explaining 6.1% to 10.5% (in total 42.7%) of phenotypic variance. The results support a polygenic predominately additive model for flowering induction in caraway. In addition, two QTLs for flower color (LG01, LG10) were detected explaining 10.9% and 26.0% of phenotypic variance, respectively. This study provides a comprehensive genomic resource for caraway, bridging the gap between traditional breeding and molecular improvement.
Late Pleistocene Clovis atlatl hunting fails a chronological modeling test
Late Pleistocene North American foragers assigned to the Clovis culture have long been assumed to have hunted megafauna with the atlatl, which would have provided several advantages. Yet, we chronologically modeled radiocarbon ages from preserved Holocene atlatls and show that Clovis atlatl use is not supported. If Clovis hunters did not use atlatl technology, then its emergence in the Americas during the early Holocene represents a case of technological convergent evolution analogous to atlatls in Late Pleistocene Europe. A further implication is if Clovis hunters used spears, javelins, or bow technology then models concerning megafaunal hunting need to be rethought given the distinct effectiveness, hunting risk, and tactics associated with these weapons.
Neuro-fuzzy adaptive model predictive control for enhanced voltage stability in transmission systems
Discovery of a novel sulfur-oxidizing endosymbiont (Ca. Vesicomyosocius atacamensis) associated with a newly described Archivesica species from the Atacama Trench
Abstract Here we report the microbiome composition and lipid (molecular and isotopic) profile of gills from Archivesica sp. Atacama., a new species of deep-sea bivalve family Vesicomyidae collected at 2839 m depth on the eastern slope of the Atacama Trench. Metabarcoding unveiled that 99.44% of the microbial ASVs (Amplicon Sequence Variant) obtained from this bivalve’s gills belonged to Ca. Vesicomyosocius sp. atacamensis, a bacterium closely related to symbionts of other vesicomycoids based on the 16 S rRNA phylogeny (a putative chemoautotrophic sulfide-oxidizing bacterium Form I RubisCO). Additional ASVs included microbes from taxa known for their ability to oxidize sulfur. Consistent with the microbiome composition, the analysis of lipid biomarkers in the gills revealed a high abundance of C 16:1ω7 and C 18:1ω7 fatty acids, well-known markers of sulfide-oxidizing (thiotrophic) bacterial metabolisms. The δ¹³C values of the bivalve’s bulk gills (-35.5‰) and of individual fatty acids (-40.0 to -46.5‰) were typical of bivalves hosting thiotrophic endosymbionts utilizing form I RubisCO for carbon fixation. In addition, nearby sediments showed a significant presence of terminal branched ( iso / anteiso C 13 -C 17 ), mid branched (10Me-C 16 and 10Me-C 18 ) and cyclopropyl (Cy 17 and Cy 19 ) fatty acids, coherent with sulfate-reducing bacterial (SRB) communities found by metabarcoding. These findings confirm that thiotrophic symbiosis provides energy for the new deep-sea Archivesica bivalve reported here.