Autoionization mediated by electron transfer

Electron-electron coincidence spectra of Ar-Kr clusters after photoionization have been measured. An electron with the kinetic energy range from 0 to approximately 1 eV is found in coincidence with the Ar 3s cluster photoelectron. The low kinetic energy electron can be attributed to an Ar + Kr+ + Kr+ final state which forms after electron transfer mediated decay. This autoionization mechanism results from a concerted transition involving three different atoms in a van der Waals cluster; it was predicted theoretically, but hitherto not observed.     

An energy-entropy-consistent time stepping scheme for finite thermo-viscoelasticity

This paper presents a time integrator, which is based on a time discrete spatially weak finite element formulation, but fulfills the same balance laws as the underlying (five) differential equations. Namely, in addition to the balances of linear and angular momentum as well as entropy, also the balances of total energy and LYAPUNOV function are fulfilled. The spatially weak formulation is obtained by integration by parts. Where the resulting virtual stress power term is well-known, the virtual entropy production by conduction of heat is less known. The time discretisation is based on the midpoint rule and non-standard time discrete differential operators. This time integrator is a further development of the TC integrator of I. ROMERO. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The hydrological response of heavy clay grassland soils to rainfall in south‐west England using δ2H

Stable isotopes of water have been previously used in catchment studies to separate rain‐event water from pre‐event groundwater. However, there are a lack of studies at the smaller scale looking at the separation of event water from pre‐event water. This is particularly relevant for heavy clay soil systems through which the movement of water is uncertain but is thought to be rainwater‐dominated. The data presented here were collected at a rural site in the south‐west of England. The historic rainfall at the site was isotopically varied but similar to the global meteoric water line, with annual weighted means of ?37‰ for δ²H and ?5.7‰ for δ¹⁸O and with no seasonal variation. Drainage was sampled from the inter‐flow (surface runoff + lateral through‐flow) and drain‐flow (55 cm deep mole drains) pathways of two 1 ha lysimeters during two rainfall events, which had δ²H values of ?68‰ and ?92‰, respectively. The δ²H values of the lysimeter drainage water suggest that there was no contribution of event water during the first, small discharge (Q) event; however, the second larger event did show isotopic variation in δ²H values negatively related to Q indicating that rainwater was contributing to Q. A hydrograph separation indicated that only 49–58% of the inter‐flow and 18–25% of the drain‐flow consisted of event water. This was surprising given that these soil types are considered retentive of soil water. More work is needed on heavy clay soils to understand better the nature of water movement from these systems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predicting olfactory receptor neuron responses from odorant structure

Background  

Olfactory receptors work at the interface between the chemical world of volatile molecules and the perception of scent in the brain. Their main purpose is to translate chemical space into information that can be processed by neural circuits. Assuming that these receptors have evolved to cope with this task, the analysis of their coding strategy promises to yield valuable insight in how to encode chemical information in an efficient way.     

An efficient furan synthesis using heterogeneous catalysis

A wide variety of 3-alkyne-1,2-diols have been found to undergo exceptionally clean 5-endo-dig cyclisations followed by dehydration at ambient temperature to give the corresponding furans in essentially quantitative yields when exposed to 10 mol % of 10% w/w silver(I) nitrate absorbed on silica gel.