Effects of fish farm loading on sea grass Posidonia oceanica at Vrgada Island (Central Adriatic): a nitrogen stable isotope study

Analyses of nitrogen stable isotopes in the marine sea grass Posidonia oceanica were used to investigate the influence of fish farming on the coastal ecosystem of Vrgada Island in the Murter Sea, Central Adriatic. The results show a statistically significant 15N enrichment (up to 4.7 per thousand at p < 0.005) in P. oceanica leaf and shoot tissues from fish cage sites with respect to the unaffected offshore reference site of Lumbarda Reef Flat (Kornati Islands). Heavy nitrogen enrichment was also detected in other benthic organisms analysed during this study and is attributed to the absorption and assimilation of 15N-enriched fish farm derived nitrogen waste.     

Comparison of two cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet configurations in argon

The present study compares the operation of two cold atmospheric plasma jet (CAPJ) configurations: needle-to-cylinder electrode configuration (CAPJ I) and single high-voltage cylinder electrode around the quartz tube (CAPJ II). The CAPJs were operated in argon flowing through a quartz capillary with 0.5-mm inner diameter into the ambient air, and the plasma was generated by sinusoidal kHz frequency AC power supplies. The main emphasis of the study was on the mechanism of the initiation of ionization waves for these two configurations. For both CAPJs, there appeared several ionization waves during one half-period of the applied voltage waveform, and the number of ionization waves increased at higher voltage amplitudes. However, we discovered marked differences in the initiation of the ionization waves for two different CAPJ configuration. The applied voltage controlled the initiation of consecutive ionization waves, which propagated from the grounded electrode towards the tube orifice in CAPJ I. In the case of CAPJ II, certain time had to pass for the initiation of a new ionization wave, and subsequent ionization waves within the same half-period started at the tube orifice. In addition to the differences in the initiation of the ionization waves, we observed that the CAPJ I was ignited and sustained at lower voltages, while CAPJ II produced a longer plasma jet. The observed advantages and deficiencies of investigated CAPJ configurations point out their potential in different applications.     

Clifford Space as a Generalization of Spacetime: Prospects for QFT of Point Particles and Strings

The idea that spacetime has to be replaced by Clifford space (C-space) is explored. Quantum field theory (QFT) and string theory are generalized to C-space. It is shown how one can solve the cosmological constant problem and formulate string theory without central terms in the Virasoro algebra by exploiting the peculiar pseudo-Euclidean signature of C-space and the Jackiw definition of the vacuum state. As an introduction into the subject, a toy model of the harmonic oscillator in pseudo-Euclidean space is studied.     

Klein-Gordon-Wheeler-DeWitt-Schrödinger equation

We start from the Einstein-Hilbert action for the gravitational field in the presence of a “point particle” source, and cast the action into the corresponding phase space form. The dynamical variables of such a system satisfy the point particle mass shell constraint, the Hamilton and the momentum constraints of the canonical gravity. In the quantized theory, those constraints become operators that annihilate a state. A state can be represented by a wave functional Ψ that simultaneously satisfies the Klein-Gordon and the Wheeler-DeWitt-Schrödinger equation. The latter equation, besides the term due to gravity, also contains the Schrödinger like term, namely the derivative of Ψ with respect to time, that occurs because of the presence of the point particle. The particle?s time coordinate, X⁰, serves the role of time. Next, we generalize the system to p-branes, and find out that for a quantized spacetime filling brane there occurs an effective cosmological constant, proportional to the expectation value of the brane?s momentum, a degree of freedom that has two discrete values only, a positive and a negative one. This mechanism could be an explanation for the small cosmological constant that drives the accelerated expansion of the universe.     

Effects of fish farm loading on sea grass Posidonia oceanica at Vrgada Island (Central Adriatic): a nitrogen stable isotope study

Analyses of nitrogen stable isotopes in the marine sea grass Posidonia oceanica were used to investigate the influence of fish farming on the coastal ecosystem of Vrgada Island in the Murter Sea, Central Adriatic. The results show a statistically significant ¹⁵N enrichment (up to 4.7‰ at p?<?0.005) in P. oceanica leaf and shoot tissues from fish cage sites with respect to the unaffected offshore reference site of Lumbarda Reef Flat (Kornati Islands). Heavy nitrogen enrichment was also detected in other benthic organisms analysed during this study and is attributed to the absorption and assimilation of ¹⁵N-enriched fish farm derived nitrogen waste.     

Plasma-based preparation of polyaniline/graphene and polypyrrole/graphene composites for dye-sensitized solar cells as counter electrodes

This study presents the preparation of graphene (GR) nanocomposites with polyaniline (PANI) and polypyrrole (PPy) through the fast, versatile and environmentally friendly process of radio frequency (RF)-plasma polymerization. Morphological characterization of the nanocomposites is performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and shows that the PANI and PPy conducting polymers coated the GR surface. The surface properties of the GR nanocomposites are determined using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The prepared GR nanocomposites are then used as counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The conversion cell efficiencies for iodine-doped DSSC samples are found to be 0.086%, 5.41%, and 5.60% for I₂-PANI, I₂-PANI-GR and I₂-PPy-GR, respectively, while the corresponding undoped samples reaches power conversion efficiencies of 3.82%, 1.30%, and 0.077% for PPy-GR, PANI-GR and PANI, respectively. The incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) of iodine-doped composite-based DSSCs is significantly enhanced.     

Specific O₂⁻ generation in corona discharge for ion mobility spectrometry

This study deals with O₂⁻ generation in corona discharge (CD) in point to plane geometry for single flow ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) with gas outlet located behind the ionization source. We have designed CD of special geometry in order to achieve the high O₂⁻ yield. Using this ion source we have achieved in zero air conditions that up to 74% all negative ions were O₂⁻ or O₂⁻(H₂O). It has been demonstrated that the non-electronegative nitrogen positively influences the efficiency of O₂⁻ generation in O₂/N₂ mixtures. The reduced ion mobility of 2.27 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ has been measured for O₂⁻/O₂⁻(H₂O) ions in zero air. Additional ions detected in zero air (less than 200 ppb CO₂) using the mass spectrometric and IMS technique were, NO₂⁻, N₂O₂⁻ (2.37 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹), NO₃⁻, N₂O₃⁻ and N₂O₃⁻(H₂O). The CO₃⁻ and CO₄⁻ ions have been detected after the introduction of 5 ppm CO₂ into zero air.     

Adsorption of carboxymethyl cellulose on polymer surfaces: evidence of a specific interaction with cellulose

The adsorption of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), one of the most important cellulose derivatives, is crucial for many scientific investigations and industrial applications. Especially for surface modifications and functionalization of materials, the polymer is of interest. The adsorption properties of CMC are dependent not only on the solutions state, which can be influenced by the pH, temperature, and electrolyte concentration, but also on the chemical composition of the adsorbents. We therefore performed basic investigation studies on the interaction of CMC with a variety of polymer films. Thin films of cellulose, cellulose acetate, deacetylated cellulose acetate, polyethylene terephthalate, and cyclo olefin polymer were therefore prepared on sensors of a QCM-D (quartz crystal microbalance) and on silicon substrates. The films were characterized with respect to the thickness, wettability, and chemical composition. Subsequently, the interaction and deposition of CMC in a range of pH values without additional electrolyte were measured with the QCM-D method. A comparison of the QCM-D results showed that CMC is favorably deposited on pure cellulose films and deacetylated cellulose acetate at low pH values. Other hydrophilic surfaces such as silicon dioxide or polyvinyl alcohol coated surfaces did not adsorb CMC to a significant extent. Atomic force microcopy confirmed that the morphology of the adsorbed CMC layers differed depending on the substrate. On hydrophobic polymer films, CMC was deposited in the form of larger particles in lower amounts whereas hydrophilic cellulose substrates were to a high extent uniformly covered by adsorbed CMC. The chemical similarity of the CMC backbone seems to favor the irreversible adsorption of CMC when the molecule is almost uncharged at low pH values. A selectivity of the cellulose CMC interaction can therefore be assumed. All CMC treated polymer films exhibited an increased hydrophilicity, which confirmed their modification with the functional molecule.     

ProBiS-database: precalculated binding site similarities and local pairwise alignments of PDB structures

ProBiS-Database is a searchable repository of precalculated local structural alignments in proteins detected by the ProBiS algorithm in the Protein Data Bank. Identification of functionally important binding regions of the protein is facilitated by structural similarity scores mapped to the query protein structure. PDB structures that have been aligned with a query protein may be rapidly retrieved from the ProBiS-Database, which is thus able to generate hypotheses concerning the roles of uncharacterized proteins. Presented with uncharacterized protein structure, ProBiS-Database can discern relationships between such a query protein and other better known proteins in the PDB. Fast access and a user-friendly graphical interface promote easy exploration of this database of over 420 million local structural alignments. The ProBiS-Database is updated weekly and is freely available online at http://probis.cmm.ki.si/database.