Simple and rapid CE-UV method for the assessment of trail pheromone compounds of leaf-cutting ants' venom glands

Leaf-cutting ants cause large losses in several crops around the world. In the ant species Atta sexdens, each colony comprises up to 5 million individuals. In order to keep a close connection among such a large number of individuals, an efficient chemical communication system is necessary. Among other different substances, these animals use alkylpyrazines to mark their trails and to guide ant workers from the nest to their sources of food. In this study, CE-UV was used to apply a method for qualitative analysis of venom gland components of leaf-cutting ants. Mobility of these compounds proved to be a function of the ionization capability of these bases as well as their volumes. Migration order was thoroughly explained in terms of such parameters. The best analysis conditions were achieved with a BGE composed by 0.8% formic acid plus 20% methanol in water, hydrodynamic injection, and application of external pressure. Such analysis conditions may be easily applied in CE-MS analyses as well. CE-UV analyses proved to be as adequate as GC to analyze such compounds due to system detectability (LD ? 0.005?mmol/L), separation efficiency (from 5.07×10(4) to 1.23×10(5) theoretical plates), and resolution (minimum of 2.35). In addition, analysis time was ca. 15 min, which shows another advantage of CE analysis when compared with GC. Although the analytes are found in concentrations as low as 50 ng/venom glands, four putative pyrazine ring moiety substances could be detected in real samples, due to sample stacking and use of a capillary with extended detection cell.     

Deformation induced semiconductor-metal transition in single wall carbon nanotubes probed by electric force microscopy

We report the direct experimental observation of the semiconductor-metal transition in single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) induced by compression with the tip of an atomic force microscope. This transition is probed via electric force microscopy by monitoring SWNT charge storage. Experimental data show that such charge storage is different for metallic and semiconducting SWNTs, with the latter presenting a strong dependence on the tip-SWNT force during injection. Ab initio calculations corroborate experimental observations and their interpretation.     

Thermoluminescence response of the larimar rocks

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the thermoluminescent (TL) response of a larimar, a variety of pectolite (NaCa₂Si₃O₈[OH]). It is a blue pectolite only found on the terrestrial crust of the province of Barahona, in the south-western region of the Dominican Republic. The larimar rock used in this study, presented a light-blue color with brown areas. X-ray powder diffractometry (XRD), showed that the light-blue portion of the rock is composed essentially by pectolite and the brown portion is composed by a mixture of minerals. Aliquots of 5 mg of light-blue portions were irradiated with gamma rays with doses from 10 to 10⁴ Gy and the TL glow curves were obtained from 50 to 400 °C. The glow curve showed a broad peak around 150 °C and a peak near 280 °C. Different pre-heat condition were used to remove the broad peak. The TL emission of the main peak appeared in the region of 580 nm. The TL response of the main peak showed a linear behavior up to 2500 Gy and a sub-linear behavior above this dose value. Studies of the 30 day fading effects in TL signal using a pre-heating temperature around 180 °C during 15 min were carried out and fading near 25% was observed.     

An analytic approach to the measurement of nestedness in bipartite networks

We present an index that measures the nestedness pattern of bipartite networks, a problem that arises in theoretical ecology. Our measure is derived using the sum of distances of the occupied elements in the incidence matrix of the network. This index quantifies directly the deviation of a given matrix from the nested pattern. In the simplest case the distance of the matrix element a_i,j is d_i,j=i+j, the Manhattan distance. A generic distance is obtained as d_i,j=(i^χ+j^χ)^1/χ. The nestedness index is defined by ν=1−τ, where τ is the “temperature” of the matrix. We construct the temperature index using two benchmarks: the distance of the complete nested matrix that corresponds to zero temperature and the distance of the average random matrix where the temperature is defined as one. We discuss an important feature of the problem: matrix occupancy ρ. We address this question using a metric index χ that adjusts for matrix occupancy.     

Kauffman Cellular Automata on Quasicrystal Topology

In this paper, we perform numerical simulations to study Kauffman cellular automata (KCA) on quasiperiod lattices. In particular, we investigate phase transition, magnetic entropy, and propagation speed of the damage on these lattices. Both the critical threshold parameter \(p_{c}\) and the critical exponents are estimated with good precision. In order to investigate the increase of statistical fluctuations and the onset of chaos in the critical region of the model, we have also defined a magnetic entropy to these systems. It is seen that the magnetic entropy behaves in a different way when one passes from the frozen regime (p < p_c) to the chaotic regime (p > p_c). For a further analysis, the robustness of the propagation of failures is checked by introducing a quenched site dilution probability q on the lattices. It is seen that the damage spreading is quite sensitive when a small fraction of the lattice sites are disconnected. A finite-size scaling analysis is employed to estimate the critical exponents. From these numerical estimates, we claim that on both pure (q =?0) and diluted (q =?0.05) quasiperiodic lattices, the KCA model belongs to the same universality class than on square lattices. Furthermore, with the aim of comparing the dynamical behavior between periodic and quasiperiodic systems, the propagation speed of the damage is also calculated for the square lattice assuming the same conditions. It is found that on square lattices the propagation speed of the damage obeys a power law as \(v\sim (p-p_{c})^{\alpha }\), whereas on quasiperiod lattices, it follows a logarithmic law as \(v \sim \ln (p-p_{c})^{\alpha }\).     

Characterization of electrodeposited Ni and Ni80Fe20 nanowires

In this work we use nanoporous alumina substrates as templates for the growth of Ni and Ni₈₀Fe₂₀ nanowires. Our membranes were obtained by a two-step anodization process of high-purity aluminum foils: first anodizations were performed at 40 V for 15 h in 0.3 M oxalic acid, at 2–6 °C; the second anodization was carried out using the same conditions for 30 min, resulting in pore lengths of ～1.3 μm. After the second anodization, the pore bottom barrier-layer was thinned, to allow the current to flow through electron tunneling. A pulsed electrodeposition method was then used to grow Ni and Ni₈₀Fe₂₀ nanowires. Transport characterization and isothermal magnetization measurements performed on the produced arrays are presented.     

Preservation of the Inndex of p-Adic Linear Operators Under Compact Perturbations

In this paper it is proved that the index of a Fredholm operator between $p$-adic Banach spaces is preserved under compact perturbations. A case of special interest is provided when the ground field is nonspherically complete. In this case the classical techniques are no longer valid and the relation between the kernels of a Fredholm operator and that of a small compact perturbation turn out to be in general much richer than in the complex context.     

Kinetic Parameters of Polyethylene Degradation by the Natural Zeolite Chabazite

High-density polyethylene (PE) was subjected to thermal degradation alone and in the presence of an ammonium-exchanged zeolite chabazite (CHA/PE). The processes were carried out in a reactor connected online to a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer in order to analyse the evolved products. Polymer degradation was also evaluated by thermogravimetry, from room temperature up to 800°C, under a dynamic nitrogen atmosphere, with multiple heating rates. From the TG curves, the activation energy relating to the degradation process was calculated by using the Flynn and Wall multiple heating rate kinetic model for pure PE and for CHA/PE. The exchanged chabazite exhibited good selectivity for the catalytic degradation of PE to low molecular mass hydrocarbons. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A finite element method for the axisymmetric three‐field Stokes system with a discontinuous pressure

A quadrilateral based velocity‐pressure‐extrastress tensor mixed finite element method for solving the three‐field Stokes system in the axisymmetric case is studied. The method derived from Fortin's Q₂ − P₁ velocity‐pressure element is to be used in connection with the standard Galerkin formulation. This makes it particularly suitable for the numerical simulation of viscoelastic flow. It is proven to be second‐order convergent in the natural weighted Sobolev norms, for the system under consideration. The crucial result that the method is uniformly stable is proven for the case of rectangular meshes. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 15: 739–763, 1999