ALBERT

Description: The Miocene expansion of C4 plants (mainly tropical grasses) between 8 and 4 million years (Ma) remains an enigma since regional differences in the timing of the expansion rules out decreased CO2 (pCO2) as a dominant forcing [e.g. Tipple and Pagani, 2007. The early origins of terrestrial C4 photosynthesis. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 35, 435–461]. Other environmental factors, such as low-latitude aridity and seasonality have been proposed to explain the low tree versus grass ratio found in savannahs and tropical grasslands of the world, but conclusive evidence is missing. Here we use pollen and stable carbon (δ13C) and hydrogen (δD) isotope ratios of terrestrial plant wax from a South Atlantic sediment core (ODP Site 1085) to reconstruct Miocene to Pliocene changes of vegetation and rainfall regime of western southern Africa. Our results reveal changes in the relative amount of precipitation and indicate a shift of the main moisture source from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean during the onset of a major aridification 8 Ma ago. We emphasize the importance of declining precipitation during the expansion of C4 and CAM (mainly succulent) vegetation in South Africa. We suggest that the C4 plant expansion resulted from an increased equator-pole temperature gradient caused by the initiation of strong Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation following the shoaling of the Central American Seaway during the Late Miocene.

Description: Linear Pottery Culture (LBK) are investigated. These are interpreted as resulting from a combination of internal socio-economic processes as well as external environmental parameters. Resilience theory is helpful in understanding periods of increased vulnerability and inherent trends to social complexity. Cycles and threshold levels also help to understand why societies experience periods of increasing fragility and subsequent decline. Results are based on the correlation of a typology and dendrochronology-based archaeological chronology for western LBK and various palaeoclimatic proxy-data. The 14C-production curve is taken as an indicator for solar activity fluctuations, and an age model for laminated sediments as an indicator for rainfall fluctuations. We currently consider this correlation as agreeably robust; however future finedating may result in slight shifts within the archaeological chronology. According to the applied age model, the simple farming societies of the LBK (5600e4900 cal BC) in west-central Europe were not immediately and devastatingly affected by most climate fluctuations. Yet, they might have been one destabilising component within broader processes. However, periods of decreased or irregularly spaced rainfall are contemporaneous to periods of population decline, while periods of increased rainfall may have favoured population growth. Towards the end of the 6th millennium cal BC, the final years of LBK in western Central Europe are contemporaneous to a general trend to less rainfall punctuated by short-term increases in precipitation. During this climatically highly volatile period LBK reaches its highest population rates and at the same time experiences a period of warfare. Thereafter population rates decline and LBK gradually vanishes from the archaeological record, being replaced by Middle Neolithic societies.

Description: Co-injection of a conservative tracer during the geological sequestration of CO2 can imprint a marker to the injected gas that can be easily recognized during soil gas surveys in case of CO2 leakage from the reservoir toward the surface. In this work, an ultra-trace detection method, based on gas chromatography with electron capture detection for analyzing perfluorocarbon tracers (PFTs) in soil gas samples was optimized. Three totally fluorinated cycloalcane compounds consisting of five and six atom carbon rings were selected for this purpose. We evaluated the feasibility of collecting PFTs on adsorbent tube packed with a commercial graphitized carbon black (Carbotrap™ 100) sampling 2 L of soil gas. The sorbent tubes were then analyzed by using a two-stage thermal desorption process. The developed method allows to quickly determine these compounds at very low fL/L level, method identification limits ranged from 1.3 to 5.8 fL/L. Moreover, it shows good precision, evaluated by within-day and between-day studies. A preliminary survey of the PFT soil gas background concentrations, conducted by analyzing some soil gas samples collected in two different areas in Central Italy and in the Po Plain, ascertained the PFT background concentration lower than MIL.

Description: Published

Description: 60-64

Description: 2.4. TTC - Laboratori di geochimica dei fluidi

Description: JCR Journal

Description: partially_open

Description: Repeating volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes, taking place at Mt. Etna during 1999–2009,were detected and analyzed to investigate their behavior. We found 735 families amounting to 2479 VT earthquakes, representing ~38% of all the analyzed VT earthquakes. The number of VT earthquakes making up the families ranges from 2 to 23. Over 70% of the families comprise 2 or 3 VT earthquakes and only 20 families by more than 10 events. The occurrence lifetime is also highly variable ranging from some minutes to ten years. In particular, more than half of the families have a lifetime shorter than 0.5 day and only ~10% longer than 1 year. On the basis of these results, most of the detected families were considered “burst-type”, i.e., show swarm-like occurrence, and hence their origin cannot be explained by a temporally constant tectonic loading. Indeed, since the analyzed earthquakes take place in a volcanic area, the rocks are affected not only by tectonic stresses related to the fairly steady regional stress field but also by local stresses, caused by the volcano, such as magma batch intrusions/ movements and gravitational loading.We focused on the five groups of families characterized by the longest repeatability over time, namely high number of events and long lifetime, located in the north-eastern, eastern and southern flanks of the volcano. Unlike the first four groups, which similarly to most of the detected families show swarm-like VT occurrences, group “v”, located in the north-eastern sector, exhibits a more “tectonic” behavior with the events making up such a group spread over almost the entire analyzed period. It is clear how both occurrence and slip rates do not remain constant but vary over time, and such changes are time-related to the occurrence of the 2002–2003 eruption. Finally, by FPFIT algorithm a good agreement between directions identified by nodal planes and the earthquake epicentral distribution was generally found.

Description: Published

Description: 1223 – 1236

Description: 1.4. TTC - Sorveglianza sismologica delle aree vulcaniche attive

Description: JCR Journal

Description: restricted

Description: The Geochemical Monitoring System II (GMSII)prototype was designed, assembled, tested and installed at the Acqua Difesa test site, near Belpasso (Catania).

Description: Published

Description: 273-306

Description: 1.5. TTC - Sorveglianza dell'attività eruttiva dei vulcani

Description: JCR Journal

Description: restricted

Description: Syngenetically frozen deposits that are fine-grained and ice-rich are widely distributed in lowlands of northeastern Siberia, Alaska and northwestern Canada. These late Pleistocene sediments are specific to this region summarized as Beringia, and have been termed 'Ice Complex' or 'Yedoma' in Siberia, and 'muck' in North America. Silt is their dominant material, but they also include abundant organic matter preserved in permafrost since the time of deposition. Vegetation and faunal reconstructions indicate that the sediments aggraded largely under a cryoxeric environment characterized by graminoid and forb-rich vegetation that supported a grazing megafauna population during the Pleistocene.

Description: Abstract Research investigating the genetic basis of physiological responses has significantly broadened our understanding of the mechanisms underlying organismic response to environmental change. However, genomic data are currently available for few taxa only, thus excluding physiological model species from this approach. In this study we report the transcriptome of the model organism Hyas araneus from Spitsbergen (Arctic). We generated 20,479 transcripts, using the 454 {GS} {FLX} sequencing technology in combination with an Illumina HiSeq sequencing approach. Annotation by Blastx revealed 7159 blast hits in the {NCBI} non-redundant protein database. The comparison between the spider crab H. araneus transcriptome and {EST} libraries of the European lobster Homarus americanus and the porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes yielded 3229/2581 sequences with a significant hit, respectively. The clustering by the Markov Clustering Algorithm (MCL) revealed a common core of 1710 clusters present in all three species and 5903 unique clusters for H. araneus. The combined sequencing approaches generated transcripts that will greatly expand the limited genomic data available for crustaceans. We introduce the {MCL} clustering for transcriptome comparisons as a simple approach to estimate similarities between transcriptomic libraries of different size and quality and to analyze homologies within the selected group of species. In particular, we identified a large variety of reverse transcriptase (RT) sequences not only in the H. araneus transcriptome and other decapod crustaceans, but also sea urchin, supporting the hypothesis of a heritable, anti-viral immunity and the proposed viral fragment integration by host-derived {RTs} in marine invertebrates.

Description: Coastal upwelling ecosystems are areas of high productivity and strong outgassing, where most gases, such as N2O and CH4, are produced in subsurface waters by anaerobic metabolisms. We describe seasonal CH4 variation as well as potential mechanisms producing CH4 in surface waters of the central Chile upwelling ecosystem (36°S). Surface waters were always supersaturated in CH4 (from 125% up to 550%), showing a clear seasonal signal triggered by wind driven upwelling processes (austral spring– summer period), that matched with the periods of high chlorophyll-a and dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) levels. Methane cycling experiments, with/without the addition of dimethylsulfide (including 13C-DMS) and acetylene (a nonspecific inhibitor of CH4 oxidation) along with monthly measurements of CH4, DMSP and other oceanographic variables revealed that DMS can be a CH4 precursor. Net CH4 cycling rates (control) fluctuated between -0.64 and 1.44 nmol L-1 d-1. After the addition of acetylene, CH4 cycling rates almost duplicated relative to the control, suggesting a strong methanotrophic activity. With a spike of DMS, the net CH4 cycling rate significantly increased relative to the acetylene and control treatment. Additionally, the d13C values of CH4 at the end of the incubations (after addition of 13C enriched-DMS) were changed, reaching -32‰ PDB compared to natural values between -44‰ and -46‰ PDB. These findings indicate that, in spite of the strong CH4 consumption by methanotrophs, this upwelling area is an important source of CH4 to the atmosphere. The effluxes are derived partially from in situ surface production and seem to be related to DMSP/DMS metabolism.

Description: Abstract Radiocarbon and uranium-thorium dating results are presented from a genus of calcitic Antarctic cold-water octocorals (family Coralliidae), which were collected from the Marie Byrd Seamounts in the Amundsen Sea (Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean) and which to date have not been investigated geochemically. The geochronological results are set in context with solution and laser ablation-based element/Ca ratios (Li, B, Mg, Mn, Sr, Ba, U, Th). Octocoral radiocarbon ages on living corals are in excellent agreement with modern ambient deep-water �14C, while multiple samples of individual fossil coral specimens yielded reproducible radiocarbon ages. Provided that local radiocarbon reservoir ages can be derived for a given time, fossil Amundsen Sea octocorals should be reliably dateable by means of radiocarbon. In contrast to the encouraging radiocarbon findings, the uranium-series data are more difficult to interpret. The uranium concentration of these calcitic octocorals is an order of magnitude lower than in the aragonitic hexacorals that are conventionally used for geochronological investigations. While modern and Late Holocene octocorals yield initial δ234U in good agreement with modern seawater, our results reveal preferential inward diffusion of dissolved alpha-recoiled 234U and its impact on fossil coral δ234U. Besides alpha-recoil related 234U diffusion, high-resolution sampling of two fossil octocorals further demonstrates that diagenetic uranium mobility has offset apparent coral U-series ages. Combined with the preferential alpha-recoil 234U diffusion, this process has prevented fossil octocorals from preserving a closed system U-series calendar age for longer than a few thousand years. Moreover, several corals investigated contain significant initial thorium, which cannot be adequately corrected for because of an apparently variable initial 232Th/230Th. Our results demonstrate that calcitic cold-water corals are unsuitable for reliable U-series dating. Mg/Ca ratios within single octocoral specimens are internally strikingly homogeneous, and appear promising in terms of their response to ambient temperature. Magnesium/lithium ratios are significantly higher than usually observed in other deep marine calcifiers and for many of our studied corals are remarkably close to seawater compositions. Although this family of octocorals is unsuitable for glacial deep-water �14C reconstructions, our findings highlight some important differences between hexacoral (aragonitic) and octocoral (calcitic) biomineralisation. Calcitic octocorals could still be useful for trace element and some isotopic studies, such as reconstruction of ambient deep water neodymium isotope composition or pH, via boron isotopic measurements.

Description: The AND-1B drill core (1285 m-long) was recovered, inside the ANDRILL (ANtarctic geological DRILLing) Program, during the austral summer of 2006/07 from beneath the floating McMurdo Ice Shelf. Drilling recovered a stratigraphic succession of alternating diamictites, diatomites and volcaniclastic sediments spanning about the last 14 Ma. A core portion between 350 and 480 mbsf, including a 80 m-thick diatomite interval recording the early Pliocene warming event, was investigated in term of opal biogenic content and element geochemistry. Across the diatomite interval, in spite of the lithological uniformity, a fluctuating biogenic opal profile mirrors the δ18O record, testifying a decrease in productivity when temperature drops as a consequence of small glacial fluctuations. The comparison of biogenic opal data with Chaetoceros spp. abundances from Konfirst et al. (2012) documents alternations between periods of high primary productivity in stratified surface waters and of enhanced terrigenous input in ice-free conditions. Cluster analysis discriminates elements associated to terrigenous input from those subject to biogenic control. Further separation in sub-cluster was interpreted in term of different element response to changes in provenance but also to depositional/early diagenetic conditions at the seafloor. Whilst K and Ti are related to different sediment sources confirming previous studies from the same interval, V, Zn and, to a lesser extent, Fe, document reducing/anoxic conditions during the diatomites deposition (in particular in 400–460 mbsf interval). Mg, Sr and Mn contents are related to authigenic carbonate precipitation whilst Ba is interested by nonsteady-state processes leading to local peaks of barium below the sulphate-rich/sulphate-poor pore water boundary where generally the low degree of barite saturation is responsible for Ba remobilization. Such alteration in depositional dynamics, responsible of the precipitation of an oxygen-depleted barium phase, was probably induced by change in sedimentation rate and/or in palaeoenvironmental conditions.

Description: In recent years, a novel proxy for the past occurrence of Arctic sea ice has been proposed that is based on the variable marine sedimentary abundance of an organic geochemical lipid derived from sea ice diatoms in the spring. This lipid, termed IP25 (Ice Proxy with 25 carbon atoms), is a highly branched isoprenoid mono-unsaturated alkene that appears to be sufficiently stable in sediments to permit meaningful palaeo sea ice reconstructions to be carried out over short- to long-term timescales. Since the first proposed use of IP25 as a proxy for palaeo sea ice by Belt et al. (2007), a number of laboratories have measured this biomarker in Arctic sediments and it is anticipated that research activity in this area will increase further in the future. The content of this review is divided into a number of sections. Firstly, we describe the scientific basis for the IP25 proxy and its initial discovery in Arctic sea ice, sedimenting particles and sediments. Secondly, we summarise the relatively few studies that have, to date, concentrated on examining the factors that influence the production and fate of IP25 and we identify some areas of future research that need to be addressed in order to improve our understanding of IP25 data obtained from sedimentary analyses. What is clear at this stage, however, it that the presence of IP25 in Arctic marine sediments appears to represent a proxy measure of past seasonal sea ice rather than permanent or multi-year ice conditions. Thirdly, we highlight the importance of rigorous analytical identification and quantification of IP25, especially if measurements of this biomarker are going to be used for quantitative sea ice reconstructions, rather than qualitative analyses alone (presence/absence). Fourthly, we review some recent attempts to make the interpretations of IP25 biomarker data more detailed and quantitative by combining sedimentary abundances with those of phytoplankton- and other sea ice-derived biomarkers. Thus, the bases for the so-called PIP25 and DIP25 indices are described, together with an overview of potential limitations, concluding that investigations into the use of these indices needs further research before their full potential can be realised. In the final section, we provide a summary of IP25-based palaeo sea ice reconstruction case studies performed to date. These case studies cover different Arctic regions and timescales spanning decades to tens of thousands of years.

Description: Cratons with their thick lithospheric roots can influence the thermal structure, and thus the convective flow, in the surrounding mantle. As mantle temperatures are hard to measure directly, depth variations in the mantle transition zone (MTZ) discontinuities are often employed as a proxy. Here, we use a large new data set of P-receiver functions to map the 410 km and 660 km discontinuities beneath the western edge of the East European Craton and adjacent Phanerozoic Europe across the most fundamental lithospheric boundary in Europe, the Trans-European Suture Zone (TESZ). We observe significantly shorter travel times for conversions from both MTZ discontinuities within the craton, caused by the high velocities of the cratonic root. By contrast, the differential travel time across the MTZ is normal to only slightly raised. This implies that any insulating effect of the cratonic keel does not reach the MTZ. In contrast to earlier observations in Siberia, we do not find any trace of a discontinuity at 520 km depth, which indicates a rather dry MTZ beneath the western edge of the craton. Within most of covered Phanerozoic Europe, the MTZ differential travel time is remarkably uniform and in agreement with standard Earth models. No widespread thermal effects of the various episodes of Caledonian and Variscan subduction that took place during the amalgamation of the continent remain. Only more recent tectonic events, related to Alpine subduction and Quarternary volcanism in the Eifel area, can be traced. While the East European craton shows no distinct imprint into the MTZ, we discover the signature of the TESZ in the MTZ in the form of a linear region of about 350 km width with a 1.5 s increase in differential travel time, which could either be caused by high water content or decreased temperature. Taking into account results of recent S-wave tomographies, raised water content in the MTZ cannot be the main cause for this observation. Accordingly, we explain the increase, equivalent to a 15 km thicker MTZ, by a temperature decrease of about 80 K. We discuss two alternative models for this temperature reduction, either a remnant of subduction or an indication of downwelling due to small-scale, edge-driven convection caused by the contrast in lithospheric thickness across the TESZ. Any subducted lithosphere found in the MTZ at this location is unlikely to be related to Variscan subduction along the TESZ, though, as Eurasia has moved significantly northward since the Variscan orogeny.

Description: We use a 27 year long time series of repeated transient tracer observations to investigate the evolution of the ventilation timescales and the related content of anthropogenic carbon(Cant) in deep and bottom water in the Weddell Sea. This time series consists of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) observations from 1984 to 2008 together with first combined CFC and sulphurhexafluoride (SF6) measurements from 2010/2011 along the Prime Meridian in the Antarctic Ocean and across the Weddell Sea. Applying the Transit Time Distribution (TTD) method we find that all deep water masses in the Weddell Sea have been continually growing older and getting less ventilated during the last 27years. The decline of the ventilation rate of Weddell Sea Bottom Water (WSBW) and Weddell Sea Deep Water (WSDW) along the Prime Meridian is in the order of 15–21%; the Warm Deep Water (WDW) ventilation rate declined much faster by 33%. About 88–94% of the age increase in WSBW near its source regions (1.8–2.4 years per year) is explained by the age increase of WDW (4.5 years per year). As a consequence of the aging, the Cant increase in the deep and bottom water formed in the Weddell Sea slowed down by 14–21% over the period of observations.

Description: A high input of lithogenic sediment from glaciers was assumed to be responsible for high Fe and Mn contents in the Antarctic soft shell clam Laternula elliptica at King George Island. Indeed, withdrawal experiments indicated a strong influence of environmental Fe concentrations on Fe contents in bivalve hemolymph, but no significant differences in hemolymph and tissue concentrations were found among two sites of high and lower input of lithogenic debris. Comparing Fe and Mn concentrations of porewater, bottom water, and hemolymph from sampling sites, Mn appears to be assimilated as dissolved species, whereas Fe apparently precipitates as ferrihydrite within the oxic sediment or bottom water layer prior to assimilation by the bivalve. Hence, we attribute the high variability of Fe and Mn accumulation in tissues of L. elliptica around Antarctica to differences in the geochemical environment of the sediment and the resulting Fe and Mn flux across the benthic boundary.

Description: Coral recruitment was assessed in highly diverse and economically important Spermonde Archipelago, a reef system subjected to land-based sources of siltation/pollution and destructive fishing, over a period of 2 years. Recruitment on settlement tiles reached up to 705 spat m�2 yr�1 and was strongest in the dry season (July–October), except off-shore, where larvae settled earlier. Pocilloporidae dominated nearshore, while a more diverse community of Acroporidae, Poritidae and others settled in the less polluted mid-shelf and off-shore reefs. Non-coral fouling community appeared to hardly influence initial coral settlement on the tiles, although, this does not necessarily infer low coral post-settlement mortality, which may be enhanced at the near- and off-shore reefs as indicated by increased abundances of potential space competitors on natural substrate. Blast fishing showed no local reduction in coral recruitment and live hard coral cover increased in oligotrophic reefs, indicating potential for coral recovery, if managed effectively.

Description: © The Author(s), 2013. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 123 (2013): 322–337, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2013.06.011.

Description: Despite the importance of diatoms in regulating climate and the existence of large opal-containing sediments in key air-ocean exchange areas, most geochemical proxy records are based on carbonates. Among them, Boron (B) content and isotopic composition have been widely used to reconstruct pH from foraminifera and coral fossils. We assessed the possibility of a pH/CO2 seawater concentration control on B content in diatom opal to determine whether or not frustule B concentrations could be used as a pH proxy or to clarify algae physiological responses to acidifying pH. We cultured two well-studied diatom species, Thalassiosira pseudonana and Thalassiosira weissflogii at varying pH conditions and determined Si and C quotas. Frustule B content was measured by both laser-ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS/ion probe). For both species, frustules grown at higher pH have higher B contents and higher Si requirements per fixed C. If this trend is representative of diatom silicification in a future more acidic ocean, it could contribute to changes in the efficiency of diatom ballasting and C export, as well as changes in the contribution of diatoms relative to other phytoplankton groups in Si-limited regions. If B enters the cell through the same transporter employed for HCO3− uptake, an increased HCO3− requirement with decreasing CO2 concentrations (higher pH), and higher B(OH)4/HCO3− ratios would explain the observed increase in frustule B content with increasing pH. The mechanism of B transport from the site of uptake to the site of silica deposition is unknown, but may occur via silicon transport vesicles, in which B(OH)4− may be imported for B detoxification and/or as part of a pH regulation strategy either though Na-dependent B(OH)4−/Cl− antiport or B(OH)4−/H+ antiport. B deposition in the silica matrix may occur via substitution of a B(OH)4− for a negatively charged SiO− formed during silicification. With the current analytical precision, B content of frustules is unlikely to resolve ocean pH with a precision of paleoceanographic interest. However, if frustule B content was controlled mainly by HCO3− uptake for photosynthesis, which appears to show a threshold behavior, then measurements of B content might reveal the varying importance of active HCO3− acquisition mechanisms of diatoms in the past.

Description: This work was funded by the European Community under the project ERC-STG-240222-PACE.

Description: Climatic hazards, such as severe droughts and floods, affect extensive areas across monsoon Asia and can have profound impacts on the populations of that region. The area surrounding Indonesia, including large portions of the eastern Indian Ocean and Java Sea, plays a key role in the global climate system because of the enormous heat and moisture exchange that occurs between the ocean and atmosphere there. Here, we evaluate the influence of rainfall variability on multiple tree-ring parameters of teak (Tectona grandis) trees growing in a lowland rain forest in Central Java (Indonesia). We assess the potential of, annually resolved, tree-ring width, stable carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope records to improve our understanding of the Asian monsoon variability. Climate response analysis with regional, monthly rainfall data reveals that all three tree-ring parameters are significantly correlated to rainfall, albeit during different monsoon seasons. Precipitation in the beginning of the rainy season (Sep–Nov) is important for tree-ring width, confirming previous studies. Compared to ring width, the stable isotope records possess a higher degree of common signal, especially during portions of the peak rainy season (δ13C: Dec–May; δ18O: Nov–Feb) and are negatively correlated to rainfall. In addition, tree-ring δ18O also responds positively to peak dry season rainfall, although the δ18O rainy season signal is stronger and more time-stable. The correlations of opposite sign reflect the distinct seasonal contrast of the δ18O signatures in rainfall (18OPre) during the dry (18O-enriched rain) and rainy (18O-depleted rain) seasons. This difference in 18OPre signal reflects the combination of two signals in the annual tree-ring δ18O record. Highly resolved intra-annual δ18O isotope analyses suggest that the signals of dry and rainy season can be distinguished clearly. Thereby reconstructions can improve our understanding of variations and trends of the hydrological cycle over the Indonesian archipelago.

Description: This study presents a reconstruction of the Late Holocene climate in Kamchatka based on chironomid remains from a 332 cm long composite sediment core recovered from Dvuyurtochnoe Lake (Two-Yurts Lake, TYL) in central Kamchatka. The oldest recovered sediments date to about 4500 cal years BP. Chironomid head capsules from TYL reflect a rich and diverse fauna. An unknown morphotype of Tanytarsini, Tanytarsus type klein, was found in the lake sediments. Our analysis reveals four chironomid assemblage zones reflecting four different climatic periods in the Late Holocene. Between 4500 and 4000 cal years BP, the chironomid composition indicates a high lake level, well-oxygenated lake water conditions and close to modern temperatures (w13 �C). From 4000 to 1000 cal years BP, two consecutive warm intervals were recorded, with the highest reconstructed temperature reaching 16.8 �C between 3700 and 2800 cal years BP. Cooling trend, started around 1100 cal years BP led to low temperatures during the last stage of the Holocene. Comparison with other regional studies has shown that termination of cooling at the beginning of late Holocene is relatively synchronous in central Kamchatka, South Kurile, Bering and Japanese Islands and take place around 3700 cal years BP. From ca 3700 cal years BP to the last millennium, a newly strengthened climate continentality accompanied by general warming trend with minor cool excursions led to apparent spatial heterogeneity of climatic patterns in the region. Some timing differences in climatic changes reconstructed from chironomid record of TYL sediments and late Holocene events reconstructed from other sites and other proxies might be linked to differences in local forcing mechanisms or caused by the different degree of dating precision, the different temporal resolution, and the different sensitive responses of climate proxies to the climate variations. Further high-resolution stratigraphic studies in this region are needed to understand the spatially complex pattern of climate change in Holocene in Kamchatka and the surrounding region. �

Description: J. Tuma, O. Lyutakov, I. Huttel, P. Slepicka, and V. Svorcik Thin poly(methylmethacrylate) films doped by or covalently attached to disperse Red 1 acrylate (DR1) were patterned by laser scanning and simultaneous sample movement in confocal microscope. In both cases, periodical structure due to Marangoni effect is created. Modified polymers surfaces were analy ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 093104 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: L. Kilanski, K. Szalowski, R. Szymczak, M. Gorska, E. Dynowska et al. We present the studies of electrical transport and magnetic interactions in ZnMnGeAs crystals with low Mn content 0

Description: G. Y. Gao, Z. B. Yang, W. Huang, H. Z. Zeng, Y. Wang et al. Epitaxial Mn-doped BiFeO (MBFO) thin films were grown on GaAs (001) substrate with SrTiO (STO) buffer layer by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction results demonstrate that the films show pure (00l) orientation, and MBFO (100)//STO(100), whereas STO (100)//GaAs (110). Piezoresponse force micro ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 094106 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Yanan Huang, Bangchuan Zhao, Shuai Lin, Wenhai Song, and Yuping Sun The effects of Ir doping on the low-temperature thermal and electrical transport properties of CaCoIrO (0

Description: P. Orlandi In this paper, it is demonstrated by DNS of turbulent rough channels that a proportionality between u-tilde| (the wall-normal Reynolds stress u-tilde= at the top of the roughness elements) and the roughness function does exist. This observation confirmed by experiments allows the derivation of a sim ... [Phys. Fluids 25, 110813 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Alessandra Adrover We investigate the effects of secondary (transverse) flows on convection-dominated dispersion of pressure driven, open column laminar flow in a conduit with rectangular cross-section. We show that secondary flows significantly reduce dispersion (enhancing transverse diffusion) in Taylor-Aris regime ... [Phys. Fluids 25, 093601 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Michael E. Mueller and Heinz Pitsch An integrated kinetics-based Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach for soot evolution in turbulent reacting flows is applied to the simulation of a Pratt & Whitney aircraft gas turbine combustor, and the results are analyzed to provide insights into the complex interactions of the hydrodynamics, mixi ... [Phys. Fluids 25, 110812 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: D. M. Valiev, V. Bychkov, V. Akkerman, L.-E. Eriksson, and C. K. Law The present paper addresses the phenomenon of spontaneous acceleration of a premixed flame front propagating in micro-channels, with subsequent deflagration-to-detonation transition. It has recently been shown experimentally [M. Wu, M. Burke, S. Son, and R. Yetter, Proc. Combust. Inst. 31, 2429 (200 ... [Phys. Fluids 25, 096101 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Young-Min Shin and Michael Church A deflecting mode cavity is the integral element for six-dimensional phase-space beam control in bunch compressors and emittance transformers at high energy beam test facilities. RF performance of a high-Q device is, however, highly sensitive to operational conditions, in particular in a cryo-coolin ... [Phys. Plasmas 20, 093101 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Marcus Weinwurm, Simon N. Bland, and Jeremy P. Chittenden Properties of degenerate hydrogen and deuterium (D) at pressures of the order of terapascals are of key interest to Planetary Science and Inertial Confinement Fusion. In order to recreate these conditions in the laboratory, we present a scheme, where a metal liner drives a cylindrically convergent q ... [Phys. Plasmas 20, 092701 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Jaetae Seo, Sangram Raut, Mahmoud Abdel-Fattah, Quinton Rice, Bagher Tabibi et al. Time-resolved and temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy of ternary compound copper indium disulfide (CuInS, or CIS) core materials, CIS/ZnS coreshells, and quaternary compound ZnCuInS (ZnCIS) revealed their optical properties with spectral, temporal, and thermal characteristics, ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 094310 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: D. H. Feng, X. Q. Pan, X. Li, T. Q. Jia, and Z. R. Sun We report experiments of coherent acoustic phonon generations and detections using a two-color femtosecond pump-probe technique in [001] and [110] oriented ZnTe single crystals. The above-bandgap pump excitation initiates strain waves to yield coherent acoustic phonons. The generation and propagatio ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 093513 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Kun Gao, S. Prucnal, W. Skorupa, M. Helm, and Shengqiang Zhou GaAs and GaAs based materials have outstanding optoelectronic properties and are widely used as light emitting media in devices. Many approaches have been applied to GaAs to generate luminescence at 0.88, 1.30, and 1.55 [mu]m which are transmission windows of optical fibers. In this paper, we presen ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 093511 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Xinliang Gao, Quanming Lu, Xin Tao, Yufei Hao, and Shui Wang Alfven waves with a finite amplitude are found to be unstable to a parametric decay in low beta plasmas. In this paper, the parametric decay of a circularly polarized Alfven wave in a proton-electron-alpha plasma system is investigated with one-dimensional (1-D) hybrid simulations. In cases without ... [Phys. Plasmas 20, 092106 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Brian M. Haines, Fernando F. Grinstein, Leslie WelserSherrill, James R. Fincke, and Forrest W. Doss We perform an ensemble of simulations of a laser-driven shear experiment [L. Welser-Sherrill et al., Two laser-driven mix experiments to study reshock and shear, High Energy Density Phys. J. 9(3), 496499 (2013)] in the strong-shock high energy-density regime to better understand material mixing driv ... [Phys. Plasmas 20, 092301 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Anthony Ballandras, Guy Weber, Christian Paulin, Jean-Pierre Bellat, and Maud Rotger The adsorption of trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene, and p-xylene on a MFI (Mobile-FIve) zeolite is studied using in situ FTIR spectroscopy at 298 K. Spectra of self-supported zeolites in contact with increasing pressures of pure gas were recorded at equilibrium in the mid-infrared domain. Analys ... [J. Chem. Phys. 139, 091103 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Y. Zheng (郑轶) , L. N. Su (苏鲁宁) , M. Liu (刘梦) , B. C. Liu (刘必成) , Z. W. Shen (沈忠伟) et al. In typical laser-driven proton acceleration experiments Thomson parabola proton spectrometers are used to measure the proton spectra with very small acceptance angle in specific directions. Stacks composed of CR-39 nuclear track detectors, imaging plates, or radiochromic films are used to measure th ... [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 096103 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: E. K. Michailidou, M. J. Assael, M. L. Huber, and R. A. Perkins This paper contains new, representative reference equations for the viscosity of n-hexane. The equations are based in part upon a body of experimental data that has been critically assessed for internal consistency and for agreement with theory whenever possible. The correlations are valid from the ... [J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data 42, 033104 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Hong-Biao Zhang, Lin Yang, and San-Xing Guo We construct so(3) algebra associated with the Morse potential and show that these operators obey so(3) commutation relations. A so(3) algebraic method is proposed in order to obtain the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Morse potential. This method exhibits that Cartan operator J, the lowering ... [J. Math. Phys. 54, 092104 (2013)] published Fri Sep 6, 2013.

Description: Publication date: Available online 7 September 2013 Source: FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Veronika Temml , Susanne Kuehnl , Daniela Schuster , Stefan Schwaiger , Hermann Stuppner , Dietmar Fuchs Mediterranean Carthamus tinctorius (Safflower) is used for treatment of inflammatory conditions and neuropsychiatric disorders. Recently C. tinctorius lignans arctigenin and trachelogenin but not matairesinol were described to interfere with the activity of tryptophan-degrading enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro . We examined a potential direct influence of compounds on IDO enzyme activity applying computational calculations based on 3D geometry of the compounds. The interaction pattern analysis and force field-based minimization was performed within LigandScout 3.03, the docking simulation with MOE 2011.10 using the X-ray crystal structure of IDO. Results confirm the possibility of an intense interaction of arctigenin and trachelogenin with the binding site of the enzyme, while matairesinol had no such effect.

Description: Publication date: Available online 7 September 2013 Source: FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Mitsuru Ishikawa , Jun Shiota , Yuta Ishibashi , Tomoyuki Hakamata , Shizuku Shoji , Mamoru Fukuchi , Masaaki Tsuda , Tomoaki Shirao , Yuko Sekino , Toshihisa Ohtsuka , Jay M. Baraban , Akiko Tabuchi Megakaryoblastic leukemia 1 (MKL1) is a member of the MKL family of serum response factor (SRF) coactivators. Here we have identified three rat MKL1 transcripts: two are homologues of mouse MKL1 transcripts, full-length MKL1 (FLMKL1) and basic, SAP, and coiled-coil domains (BSAC), the third is a novel transcript, M KL1- elo ngated d erivative of y ield (MELODY). These rat MKL1 transcripts are differentially expressed in a wide variety of tissues with highest levels in testis and brain. During brain development, these transcripts display differential patterns of expression. The FLMKL1 transcript encodes two isoforms that utilize distinct translation start sites. The longer form possesses three actin-binding RPXXXEL (RPEL) motifs and the shorter form, MKL1met only has two RPEL motifs. All four rat MKL1 isoforms, FLMKL1, BSAC, MKL1met and MELODY increased SRF-mediated transcription, but not CREB-mediated transcription. Accordingly, the differential expression of MKL1 isoforms may help fine-tune gene expression during brain development.

Description: H. Perez, T. Cordova-Fraga, S. Lopez-Briones, J. C. Martinez-Espinosa, E. F. Rosas et al. A device's instrumentation for magnetic stimulation on human lymphocytes is presented. This is a new procedure to stimulate growing cells with ferrofluid in vortices of magnetic field. The stimulation of magnetic vortices was provided at five different frequencies, from 100 to 2500 Hz and intensitie ... [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 094701 (2013)] published Mon Sep 9, 2013.

Description: Kui Wang, Jianchun Jiang, Zhan Si, and Xinyu Liang A solid acid catalyst SO/TiO/La was prepared via sol-gel method using tetrabutyl titanate as TiO precursor. The catalyst simultaneously catalyzed esterification and transesterification resulting in the synthesis of biodiesel from waste cooking oil with high content of free fatty acids as feedstock. ... [J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 5, 052001 (2013)] published Mon Sep 9, 2013.

Description: Hanping Hu, Jun Xu, Xiang Xia, Shaobin Wu, Yanlong Liu et al. A singular resonance is discovered in investigating the features of high-frequency photoacoustic (PA) effect with multilayers. Theoretical analysis of its formation is carried out and reveals that it is a result of interaction between the resonance of gas-heat and that of solid-heat, while they happ ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 104902 (2013)] published Tue Sep 10, 2013.

Description: Punam Silwal, Ludi Miao, Jin Hu, Leonard Spinu, Dae Ho Kim et al. We present the thickness dependent structural, magnetic, and transport properties of transparent conducting spinel NiCoO thin films on MgAlO (001) substrates. The structural examination of the films reveals that the epitaxial stain is independent of the films' thickness. Electric and magnetic measur ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 103704 (2013)] published Tue Sep 10, 2013.

Description: Junbo Guo, Zhanghua Gan, Zhihong Lu, Jing Liu, Jingjing Xi et al. Low visible light absorption and high charge carrier recombination rate are two main disadvantages of TiO as a photocatalyst which severely limit its practical applications. To overcome the problems, Fe mono-doped and (Fe+Mo) co-doped TiO were synthesized and studied. It was found that (Fe+Mo) co-do ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 104903 (2013)] published Tue Sep 10, 2013.

Description: L. Li, A. Nikiforov, Q. Xiong, N. Britun, R. Snyders et al. Recently, plasma jet systems found numerous applications in the field of biomedicine and treatment of temperature-sensitive materials. OH radicals are one of the main active species produced by these plasmas. Present study deals with the investigation of RF atmospheric pressure plasma jet in terms o ... [Phys. Plasmas 20, 093502 (2013)] published Tue Sep 10, 2013.

Description: H. Comişel, D. Verscharen, Y. Narita, and U. Motschmann We present a method for studying the evolution of plasma turbulence by tracking dispersion relations in the energy spectrum in the wavenumber-frequency domain. We apply hybrid plasma simulations in a simplified two-dimensional geometry to demonstrate our method and its applicability to plasma turbul ... [Phys. Plasmas 20, 090701 (2013)] published Tue Sep 10, 2013.

Description: Yi Zhang, Hayaki Murata, Yoshimi Hatsukade, and Saburo Tanaka We introduce a method to improve the detection sensitivity for the magnetization M of superparamagnetic nanoparticles (MNP). The M response of MNP to an applied magnetic field H (MH characteristics) could be divided into a linear region and a saturation region, which are separated at a transition po ... [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 094702 (2013)] published Tue Sep 10, 2013.

Description: J. M. Gao, Y. Liu, W. Li, J. Lu, Y. B. Dong et al. An infrared imaging bolometer diagnostic has been developed recently for the HL-2A tokamak to measure the temporal and spatial distribution of plasma radiation. The three-dimensional tomography, reduced to a two-dimensional problem by the assumption of plasma radiation toroidal symmetry, has been pe ... [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 093503 (2013)] published Tue Sep 10, 2013.

Description: G. C. Schmidt, D. Hoft, M. Bhuie, K. Haase, M. Bellmann et al. The influence of post-press treatment on the modification of printed source/drain electrodes made of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) with ethylene glycol is presented. Beside changes of the geometry and the conductivity of these mass printed structures, the work f ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 113302 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Hideki Gotoh, Haruki Sanada, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, and Tetsuomi Sogawa The distinctive effects of coherent phonons (groups of phase-matched phonons) on exciton states are reported by using single dot photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy in semiconductor quantum dots (QDs). Coherent phonons that were induced with titanium thin metal films close to QDs by irradiating ultr ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 112104 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: O. V. Bilousov, H. Geaney, J. J. Carvajal, V. Z. Zubialevich, P. J. Parbrook et al. Porous GaN layers are grown on silicon from gold or platinum catalyst seed layers, and self-catalyzed on epitaxial GaN films on sapphire. Using a Mg-based precursor, we demonstrate p-type doping of the porous GaN. Electrical measurements for p-type GaN on Si show Ohmic and Schottky behavior from gol ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 112103 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Roberto Rosati and Fausto Rossi In spite of their intrinsic validity limits, a number of Boltzmann-like simulation schemes are extensively employed in the investigation of semiconductor nanomaterials and nanodevices. Such modeling strategies, based on the neglect of carrier phase coherence, are definitely unable to describe space- ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 113105 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Publication date: Available online 11 September 2013 Source: FEBS Open Bio Author(s): Gisele Castro , Maria Fernanda C. Areias , Lais Weissmann , Paula G.F. Quaresma , Carlos K. Katashima , Mario J.A. Saad , Patricia O. Prada Insulin acts in the hypothalamus, decreasing food intake (FI) by the IR/PI3K/Akt pathway. This pathway is impaired in obese animals and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and low-grade inflammation are possible mechanisms involved in this impairment. Here, we highlighted the amygdala as an important brain region for FI regulation in response to insulin. This regulation was dependent on PI3K/AKT pathway similar to the hypothalamus. Insulin was able to decrease neuropeptide Y (NPY) and increase oxytocin mRNA levels in the amygdala via PI3K, which may contribute to hypophagia. Additionally, obese rats did not reduce FI in response to insulin and AKT phosphorylation was decreased in the amygdala, suggesting insulin resistance. Insulin resistance was associated with ER stress and low-grade inflammation in this brain region. The inhibition of ER stress with PBA reverses insulin action/signaling, decreases NPY and increases oxytocin mRNA levels in the amygdala from obese rats, suggesting that ER stress is probably one of the mechanisms that induce insulin resistance in the amygdala.

Description: Mohammad Arif Ishtiaque Shuvo, Tzu-Liang (Bill) Tseng, Md. Ashiqur Rahaman Khan, Hasanul Karim, Philip Morton et al. The study of electrochemical super-capacitors has become one of the most attractive topics in both academia and industry as energy storage devices because of their high power density, long life cycles, and high charge/discharge efficiency. Recently, there has been increasing interest in the developm ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 104306 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Atreyee Banerjee, Suman Chakrabarty, and Sarika Maitra Bhattacharyya In this work we explore the interplay between crystallization and glass transition in different binary mixtures by changing their inter-species interaction length and also the composition. We find that only those systems which form bcc crystal in the equimolar mixture and whose global structure for ... [J. Chem. Phys. 139, 104501 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: S. Vigne, S. Delprat, M. Chaker, and J. Margot It is found that in specific Cl plasma conditions, using a nickel hard mask over calcium barium niobate, CBN (a material particularly difficult to etch) significantly improves both sidewall angles and etching selectivity. This mask hardening is due to the competition between NiCl growth and etching ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 103303 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: S. Agnello, D. Di Francesca, A. Alessi, G. Iovino, M. Cannas et al. The O content and emission properties in silica nanoparticles after thermal treatments in oxygen rich atmosphere have been investigated by Raman and photoluminescence measurements. The nanoparticles have different sizes with average diameter ranging from 7 up to 40 nm. It is found that O concentrati ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 104305 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: S. Maidul Haque, A. Biswas, Debarati Bhattacharya, R. B. Tokas, D. Bhattacharyya et al. Using an indigenously built r.f. magnetron sputtering system, several single layer Ti and Ni films have been deposited at varying deposition conditions. All the samples have been characterized by Grazing Incidence X-ray Reflectivity (GIXR) and Atomic Force Microscopy to estimate their thickness, den ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 103508 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Larisa V. Arapkina and Vladimir A. Yuryev Structural models of growing Ge hut clusterspyramids and wedgesare proposed on the basis of data of recent STM investigations of nucleation and growth of Ge huts on the Si(001) surface in the process of molecular beam epitaxy. It is shown that extension of a hut base along directions goes non-unifo ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 104304 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Jorg Schormann, Pascal Hille, Markus Schafer, Jan Mussener, Pascal Becker et al. Germanium doping of GaN nanowires grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on Si(111) substrates is studied. Time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry measurements reveal a constant Ge-concentration along the growth axis. A linear relationship between the applied Ge-flux and the resultin ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 103505 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Younes Achaoui, Vincent Laude, Sarah Benchabane, and Abdelkrim Khelif The propagation of surface acoustic waves in two-dimensional phononic crystals of pillars on a surface is investigated experimentally for hexagonal and honeycomb lattice symmetries. A random array of pillars is also compared to the periodic phononic crystals. Taking into account that the geometrical ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 104503 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Yating Chai, Howard C. Wikle, Zhenyu Wang, Shin Horikawa, Steve Best et al. The real-time, in-situ bacteria detection on food surfaces was achieved by using a magnetoelastic biosensor combined with a surface-scanning coil detector. This paper focuses on the coil design for signal optimization. The coil was used to excite the sensor's vibration and detect its resonant freque ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 104504 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Frederik Westergaard Osterberg, Anders Dahl Henriksen, Giovanni Rizzi, and Mikkel Fougt Hansen Abstract not available. [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 106101 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Tomas Zimmermann and Jiri VaniCek We analyze how the choice of the sampling weight affects efficiency of the Monte Carlo evaluation of classical time autocorrelation functions. Assuming uncorrelated sampling or sampling with constant correlation length, we propose a sampling weight for which the number of trajectories needed for con ... [J. Chem. Phys. 139, 104105 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Y. V. Kalyuzhnyi and P. T. Cummings We propose a second-order thermodynamic perturbation theory for a hard-sphere patchy colloidal model with two doubly bondable patches of type A and B. AB bonding results in the formation of a three-dimensional network of the particles and AA and BB bonding promotes chain formation. The theory is app ... [J. Chem. Phys. 139, 104905 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: N. Aizawa, Z. Kuznetsova, and F. Toppan Inequivalent [script N]=2 supersymmetrizations of the [script-l]-conformal Galilei algebra in d-spatial dimensions are constructed from the chiral (2, 2) and the real (1, 2, 1) basic supermultiplets of the [script N]=2 supersymmetry. For non-negative integer and half-integer [script-l], both superal ... [J. Math. Phys. 54, 093506 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: P. J. Saenz, P. Valluri, K. Sefiane, G. Karapetsas, and O. K. Matar A shallow planar layer of liquid bounded from above by gas is set into motion via the thermocapillary effect resulting from a thermal gradient applied along its interface. Depending on the physical properties of the liquid and the strength of the gradient, the system is prone to departure from its e ... [Phys. Fluids 25, 094101 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Alireza Paknezhad and Davoud Dorranian This article studies the nonlinear Raman shifted third harmonic backscattering of an intense extraordinary laser wave through a homogenous transversely magnetized cold plasma. Due to the relativistic nonlinearity, the plasma dynamic is modified in the presence of transversely magnetic field, and thi ... [Phys. Plasmas 20, 092108 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: X. Xia and K. Mohseni Several previous experimental and theoretical studies have shown that a leading edge vortex (LEV) on an airfoil or wing can provide lift enhancement. In this paper, unsteady two-dimensional (2D) potential flow theory is employed to model the flow field of a pitching flat plate wing. A multi-vortices ... [Phys. Fluids 25, 091901 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: H. B. Zhuo, X. H. Yang, C. T. Zhou, Y. Y. Ma, X. H. Li et al. The effect of resistivity gradient on laser-driven electron transport and ion acceleration is investigated using collisional particle-in-cell simulation. The study is motivated by recent proton acceleration experiments [Gizzi et al., Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 14, 011301 (2011)], which showed signif ... [Phys. Plasmas 20, 093103 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Qing Zang, C. L. Hsieh, Junyu Zhao, Hui Chen, and Fengjuan Li The detector circuit is the core component of filter polychromator which is used for scattering light analysis in Thomson scattering diagnostic, and is responsible for the precision and stability of a system. High signal-to-noise and stability are primary requirements for the diagnostic. Recently, a ... [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 093504 (2013)] published Wed Sep 11, 2013.

Description: Junku Liu, Qunqing Li, Mengxin Ren, Lihui Zhang, Mo Chen et al. Charging of insulating substrates is a common problem during Electron Beam lithography (EBL), which deflects the beam and distorts the pattern. A homogeneous, electrically conductive, and transparent graphene layer is used as a discharge layer for EBL processes on insulating substrates. The EBL reso ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 113107 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: M. Vyshnepolsky, C. Klein, F. Klasing, A. Hanisch-Blicharski, and M. Horn-von Hoegen Using spot profile analysis low energy electron diffraction, we studied the growth mode and strain state of ultra-thin epitaxial BiSe(111) films grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Si(111). The first layer grows as complete quintuple layer and covers the Si substrate before the next layer nucleates. ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 111909 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: N. Ortega, Ashok Kumar, Oscar Resto, O. A. Maslova, Yu. I. Yuzyuk et al. Epitaxial strain is one of the major factors influencing physical properties of artificial superlattice (SL) structures. One way to control the local stress in epitaxial films is altering the lattice parameters by doping. Superlattices of BT/BaSrTiO (BT/BST) with x = (0, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 1) ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 104102 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: B. Brennan, R. V. Galatage, K. Thomas, E. Pelucchi, P. K. Hurley et al. InAlAs has the potential to be used as a barrier layer in buried channel quantum well field effect transistor devices due to favorable lattice-matching and carrier confinement properties with InGaAs. Field effect device structures of this nature may also require a high-k oxide deposited on the InAlA ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 104103 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: Pooja Srivastava, B. J. Nagare, Dilip G. Kanhere, and Prasenjit Sen First-principles electronic structure calculations are performed for the pure and Co-doped PbPdO using plane wave density functional method using different exchange-correlation functionals. These calculations indicate the 25% Co-doped PbPdO to be a spin gapless semiconductor, as proposed earlier [X. ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 103709 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: M. N. Shneider and M. Pekker A non-thermal mechanism of weak microwave field impact on a nerve fiber is proposed. It is shown that in the range of about 30300 GHz, there are strongly pronounced resonances associated with the excitation of ultrasonic vibrations in the membrane as a result of interaction with electromagnetic radi ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 104701 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: K. Simeonidis, C. Martinez-Boubeta, Ll. Balcells, C. Monty, G. Stavropoulos et al. Magnetic hyperthermia, an alternative anticancer modality, is influenced by the composition, size, magnetic properties, and degree of aggregation of the corresponding nanoparticle heating agents. Here, we attempt to evaluate the AC magnetic field heating response of Fe-based nanoparticles prepared b ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 103904 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: Souheil Mouetsi and Abdelillah El Hdiy The 1/f noise is investigated in an epitaxial AlGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure in the temperature range of [4300 K]. The sample is biased at very low voltage to avoid velocity saturation at low temperature. Hooge parameters are determined at very low frequency assuming the absence of correlation b ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 104507 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: V. R. Singh, V. K. Verma, K. Ishigami, G. Shibata, Y. Yamazaki et al. BiFeO (BFO) shows both ferroelectricity and magnetic ordering at room temperature, but its ferromagnetic component, which is due to spin canting, is negligible. Substitution of transition-metal atoms such as Co for Fe is known to enhance the ferromagnetic component in BFO. In order to reveal the ori ... [J. Appl. Phys. 114, 103905 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: N. Kotsina, S. Kaziannis, S. Danakas, and C. Kosmidis We report on the selective ionization of oriented nitrous oxide (NO) molecules in gas phase by the use of an intense asymmetric two-color omega/2omega 40 fs laser field. By means of a time-of-flight mass spectrometer the induced NO mass spectra have been recorded as a function of the relative phase ... [J. Chem. Phys. 139, 104313 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: Bryan Nichols and Vitaly A. Rassolov The electron correlation energy in a chemical system is defined as a difference between the energy of an exact energy for a given Hamiltonian, and a mean-field, or single determinant, approximation to it. A promising way to model electron correlation is through the expectation value of a linear two- ... [J. Chem. Phys. 139, 104111 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: Scott Habershon We introduce a new approach for calculating quantum time-correlation functions and time-dependent expectation values in many-body thermal systems; both electronically adiabatic and non-adiabatic cases can be treated. Our approach uses a path integral simulation to sample an initial thermal density m ... [J. Chem. Phys. 139, 104107 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: Gustavo E. Scuseria, Thomas M. Henderson, and Ireneusz W. Bulik We establish a formal connection between the particle-particle (pp) random phase approximation (RPA) and the ladder channel of the coupled cluster doubles (CCD) equations. The relationship between RPA and CCD is best understood within a Bogoliubov quasiparticle (qp) RPA formalism. This work is a fol ... [J. Chem. Phys. 139, 104113 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: Liangguo He, Chengliang Pan, Hongbo Wang, and Zhihua Feng We develop a novel approach to match harmonics and vibration modes based on the mechanism of multiple tuning fork structure (MTFS), through which it is promising to realize arbitrary periodical vibrations in the resonant state. A prototype three-layer MTFS with first three harmonics is presented to ... [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 096104 (2013)] published Thu Sep 12, 2013.

Description: Yue Lin, Yong Zhang, Zhiqiang Liu, Liqin Su, Jihong Zhang et al. Abstract not available. [Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 119902 (2013)] published Fri Sep 13, 2013.

Description: D. Haasmann and S. Dimitrijev Based on the insight that the Fermi level in a metaloxidesemiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) channel is set in the conduction band, due to the quantum confinement of the channel electrons, this letter provides an experimental demonstration that the near-interface traps responsible for deg ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 113506 (2013)] published Fri Sep 13, 2013.

Description: Akira Nagaoka, Hideto Miyake, Tomoyasu Taniyama, Koichi Kakimoto, and Kenji Yoshino Temperature dependent Hall effect measurements from 20 to 300 K have been performed on the quaternary compounds CuZnSnS (CZTS) single crystals. The conductivity mechanisms can be described by a two-path system using Mott variable range hopping and typical thermal activation conduction. The center le ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 112107 (2013)] published Fri Sep 13, 2013.

Description: Manesh Gopinadhan, Zhen Shao, Yanhui Liu, Sundeep Mukherjee, Ryan C. Sekol et al. We explore finite size effects in the crystallization of a bulk metallic glass with nm-scale dimensions. Nanorods of PtCuNiP are produced by thermoplastic extrusion of supercooled liquid through a nanoporous template. The nanorods exhibit remarkable differences in their crystallization behavior abov ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 111912 (2013)] published Fri Sep 13, 2013.

Description: A. Bojovschi, J. Scott, and K. Ghorbani An investigation of the interaction between guided electromagnetic waves and carbon fibre reinforced polymer waveguide short circuits is presented. To determine the electromagnetic response of the composite waveguide short circuit, its anisotropic characteristics are considered. The reflection coeff ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 111910 (2013)] published Fri Sep 13, 2013.

Description: E. Pagounis, R. Chulist, T. Lippmann, M. Laufenberg, and W. Skrotzki Mechanical and synchrotron diffraction experiments were performed to investigate the temperature dependent structural changes in a Ni-Mn-Ga single crystal. The initial sample exhibits a mixture of seven-layered (7M) and non-modulated (NM) martensites at room temperature. Compression along resulted ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 111911 (2013)] published Fri Sep 13, 2013.

Description: Publication date: Available online 12 September 2013 Source: Cell Reports Author(s): Debra A. Mayes , Tilat A. Rizvi , Haley Titus-Mitchell , Rachel Oberst , Georgianne M. Ciraolo , Charles V. Vorhees , Andrew P. Robinson , Stephen D. Miller , Jose A. Cancelas , Anat O. Stemmer-Rachamimov , Nancy Ratner Patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) and Costello syndrome Rasopathy have behavioral deficits. In NF1 patients, these may correlate with white matter enlargement and aberrant myelin. To model these features, we induced Nf1 loss or HRas hyperactivation in mouse oligodendrocytes. Enlarged brain white matter tracts correlated with myelin decompaction, downregulation of claudin-11, and mislocalization of connexin-32. Surprisingly, non-cell-autonomous defects in perivascular astrocytes and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) developed, implicating a soluble mediator. Nitric oxide (NO) can disrupt tight junctions and gap junctions, and NO and NO synthases (NOS1–NOS3) were upregulated in mutant white matter. Treating mice with the NOS inhibitor NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester or the antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine corrected cellular phenotypes. CNP-HRasG12V mice also displayed locomotor hyperactivity, which could be rescued by antioxidant treatment. We conclude that Nf1/Ras regulates oligodendrocyte NOS and that dysregulated NO signaling in oligodendrocytes can alter the surrounding vasculature. The data suggest that antioxidants may improve some behavioral deficits in Rasopathy patients. Graphical abstract Teaser In this study, Ratner and colleagues show that altering intracellular signaling in oligodendrocytes affects brain astrocytes and blood vessels that together make up the blood-brain barrier. Increasing oligodendrocyte Ras-GTP, mimicking neurofibromatosis type 1 and Costello syndrome, disrupted astrocyte and endothelial cell tight junctions and gap junctions and caused a leaky blood-brain barrier. Exposure to a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor or an antioxidant reversed cellular phenotypes and behavioral hyperactivity. Thus, oligodendrocytes contribute to brain homeostasis, and antioxidant therapy may be beneficial when homeostasis is disrupted.