Visualization of magnesium and rubidium ion hydration in sulfocationite using quantum chemical calculation

Based on the data of ab initio calculation of the structure of (RSO3)2Mg (H2O)18 and (RSO3Rb)2(H2O)16 clusters, which simulate the structure of swollen sulfostyrene ion exchangers in the corresponding ionic forms and a water cluster of comparable size, the numbers of water molecules directly bound to cations and their coordination numbers, including the oxygen atoms of the sulfonic groups linked to the cation, were calculated. It is shown that the first molecular layer around the magnesium ion is formed from water molecules with the highest binding energy with the cluster, and around the rubidium ion – from the molecules of the nearest environment with the lowest binding energies. This is explained by the fact that the transfer of water molecules from its volume to magnesium hydrate is energetically favorable, but not to rubidium hydrate. Therefore, the magnesium ion builds its hydrate mainly from water molecules with the highest binding energy in order to obtain the greatest energy gain, and the rubidium ion – from molecules with the lowest energy, which provides the smallest energy loss.

Forecasting Energy Needs with Logistics

The logistic function is used to forecast energy consumed worldwide and oil production in the U.S. The logistic substitution model is used to describe the energy mix since 1965 presenting a picture significantly different from the one covering the previous 100 years. In the new picture coal gently gains on oil and hydroelectric gains on natural gas even if it is three times smaller. Finally, renewables—wind, geothermal, solar, biomass, and waste—grow exclusively on the expense of nuclear, and are poised to overtake it by the late 2030s. By mid-21st century, coal, oil, and natural gas still remain the main players of comparable size. Hydroelectric has almost doubled in size. The only significant substitution is that of renewables having replaced nuclear albeit remaining at less than a ¼ the size of the other three energy sources. U.S. oil produced by fracking is forecasted to cease by mid-21st century, while oil produced by traditional methods should continue on its slowly declining trend. US oil production is likely to represent less than 1% of the oil consumed worldwide by mid-21st century.

Hamlet of ʽAin el-Gedida in Dakhla Oasis

This article discusses archaeological and documentary evidence from the late Roman settlement of ʽAin el-Gedida (located in the Dakhla Oasis of Upper Egypt), with a particular focus on the site’s likely identification as an epoikion, i.e., a small rural center associated with the management of a large agricultural estate. ʽAin el-Gedida was first excavated by an Egyptian mission in 1993–1995 and immediately raised interest among scholars working in the oasis, with the site being preliminarily identified either as a rural village or a monastic settlement. More recent excavations and study seasons, conducted (from 2006 to 2010) by a Columbia University (then New York University) mission directed by Roger Bagnall, has allowed investigators to gather a substantial amount of new data. This evidence, published in 2018 and more recently in 2020, supports the likely identification of ʽAin el-Gedida as an epoikion over other types of settlements. In this article, the data from ʽAin el-Gedida are discussed in light of what is known from documentary sources about epoikia, as well as modern Egyptian ezab. Worthy of note is that not many other agricultural hamlets of a comparable size have been extensively excavated and published thus far. It is also remarkable that, while written evidence on epoikia abounds, the site of ʽAin el-Gedida may provide the first available archaeological evidence for this type of settlement; therefore, it may offer new and useful data on the layout and organization of epoikia in late antique Egypt.

Comparing Alternative Jet Fuel Dependencies Between Combustors of Different Size and Mixing Approaches

Analyses used to reveal fuel dependencies on lean blow out and ignition at specific operating conditions in specific combustors show inconsistent trends with each other. Such variety is however consistent with the occurrence of transitions between the governing physical phenomena as the ratios between evaporation, mixing, or chemical time scales with their respective residence times also vary with specific operating conditions and combustor geometry. It is demonstrated here that the fuel dependencies on LBO in a large, single-cup, swirl-stabilized, rich-quench-lean combustor varies with operating conditions such that a feature importance match is attained to fuel dependencies observed in a much smaller combustor at one end of the tested range, while a qualitative match to fuel dependencies observed in a lean, premixed, swirler-stabilized combustor of comparable size at the other end of the tested range. The same reference combustor, when tested at cold conditions, is shown to exhibit similar fuel dependencies on ignition performance as the much smaller combustor, when tested at both cold and warm conditions. The practical significance of these findings is that a reference rig, such as the Referee Rig, can capture fuel performance trends of proprietary industry combustors by tailoring the inlet air and fuel temperatures of the tests. It is, therefore, a trustworthy surrogate for screening and evaluating sustainable aviation fuel candidates, reducing the dependency on proprietary industrial combustors for this purpose, thereby increasing transparency within the evaluation process while also expediting the process and reducing cost and fuel volume.

LGAAP: Leishmaniinae Genome Assembly and Annotation Pipeline

We present the LGAAP computational pipeline, which was successfully used to assemble six genomes of the parasite subfamily Leishmaniinae to chromosome-scale completeness from a combination of long- and short-read sequencing data. LGAAP is open source, and we suggest that it may easily be ported for assembly of any genome of comparable size (∼35 Mb).

Unique and universal dew-repellency of nanocones

Surface structuring provides a broad range of water-repellent materials known for their ability to reflect millimetre-sized raindrops. Dispelling water at the considerably reduced scale of fog or dew, however, constitutes a significant challenge, owing to the comparable size of droplets and structures. Nonetheless, a surface comprising nanocones was recently reported to exhibit strong anti-fogging behaviour, unlike pillars of the same size. To elucidate the origin of these differences, we systematically compare families of nanotexture that transition from pillars to sharp cones. Through environmental electron microscopy and modelling, we show that microdroplets condensing on sharp cones adopt a highly non-adhesive state, even at radii as low as 1.5 µm, contrasting with the behaviour on pillars where pinning results in impedance of droplet ejection. We establish the antifogging abilities to be universal over the range of our cone geometries, which speaks to the unique character of the nanocone geometry to repel dew. Truncated cones are finally shown to provide both pinning and a high degree of hydrophobicity, opposing characteristics that lead to a different, yet efficient, mechanism of dew ejection that relies on multiple coalescences.

A simple ATAC-seq protocol for population epigenetics

We describe here a protocol for the generation of sequence-ready libraries for population epigenomics studies, and the analysis of alignment results. We show that the protocol can be used to monitor chromatin structure changes in populations when exposed to environmental cues. The protocol is a streamlined version of the Assay for transposase accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq) that provides a positive display of accessible, presumably euchromatic regions. The protocol is straightforward and can be used with small individuals such as daphnia and schistosome worms, and probably many other biological samples of comparable size (~10,000 cells), and it requires little molecular biology handling expertise.

Video-rate imaging of sub-10 nm plasmonic nanoparticles in cellular medium free of background scattering

Plasmonic nanoparticles (e.g gold, silver) have attracted extensive attentions in biological sensing and imaging as promising nanoprobes. Practical biomedical applications demand small gold nanoparticles with comparable size to quantum dots...

Wideband Circularly Polarized Antenna Based on a Non-Uniform Metasurface

This paper presents a non-uniform metasurface (MS)-based circularly polarized (CP) antenna that is able to perform with a wideband operation characteristic. A squared patch with truncated corners was chosen as a radiating CP source. Then, unlike the conventional CP MS antennas with a uniform MS, the proposed design employed a non-uniform MS placed above the driven patch. Apart from increasing the impedance bandwidth, the non-uniform MS was also capable of generating two additional CP bands in the high-frequency region, which contributed to significantly increasing the antenna’s overall performance. For demonstration, an antenna prototype was fabricated and experimentally tested. The measured operating bandwidth of the fabricated antenna was about 30% and the broadside gain within this band was around 6.6 dBic. Compared to the other reported CP MS antennas in the open literature, the proposed design has the advantages of very wideband operation with a comparable size and gain.

Feeding management before gastrointestinal studies in pigs

Pigs are used to model humans in gastrointestinal (GI) studies because of their comparable size, physiology and behaviour: both are monogastric omnivores. A porcine surgical model for testing novel, tethered ultrasound capsule endoscopes (USCE) requires a clean, motile small intestine. Recommendations for human GI tract preparation before the mechanically similar process of video capsule endoscopy describe using oral purgatives, while high-carbohydrate drinks are recommended before colorectal surgery. Reports of the GI preparation of pigs exist but lack technical details, that is, administration, efficacy and side effects. This report details feeding a high-energy liquid diet to 11 female pigs undergoing surgery and USCE which was readily accepted and easily administered, and which produced a clean, motile small intestine and caused no detectable physiological/behavioural abnormalities.