| 1. |
- Correa, D. F., et al.
(författare)
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Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates
- 2023
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Ingår i: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238. ; 32:1, s. 49-69
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis). Time period Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019. Major taxa studied Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) >= 9.55 cm. Location Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield. Methods We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes. Results Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests. Main conclusions The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Muscarella, Robert, et al.
(författare)
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The global abundance of tree palms
- 2020
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Ingår i: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238. ; 29:9, s. 1495-1514
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- AimPalms are an iconic, diverse and often abundant component of tropical ecosystems that provide many ecosystem services. Being monocots, tree palms are evolutionarily, morphologically and physiologically distinct from other trees, and these differences have important consequences for ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage) and in terms of responses to climate change. We quantified global patterns of tree palm relative abundance to help improve understanding of tropical forests and reduce uncertainty about these ecosystems under climate change.LocationTropical and subtropical moist forests.Time periodCurrent.Major taxa studiedPalms (Arecaceae).MethodsWe assembled a pantropical dataset of 2,548 forest plots (covering 1,191 ha) and quantified tree palm (i.e., ≥10 cm diameter at breast height) abundance relative to co‐occurring non‐palm trees. We compared the relative abundance of tree palms across biogeographical realms and tested for associations with palaeoclimate stability, current climate, edaphic conditions and metrics of forest structure.ResultsOn average, the relative abundance of tree palms was more than five times larger between Neotropical locations and other biogeographical realms. Tree palms were absent in most locations outside the Neotropics but present in >80% of Neotropical locations. The relative abundance of tree palms was more strongly associated with local conditions (e.g., higher mean annual precipitation, lower soil fertility, shallower water table and lower plot mean wood density) than metrics of long‐term climate stability. Life‐form diversity also influenced the patterns; palm assemblages outside the Neotropics comprise many non‐tree (e.g., climbing) palms. Finally, we show that tree palms can influence estimates of above‐ground biomass, but the magnitude and direction of the effect require additional work.ConclusionsTree palms are not only quintessentially tropical, but they are also overwhelmingly Neotropical. Future work to understand the contributions of tree palms to biomass estimates and carbon cycling will be particularly crucial in Neotropical forests.
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| 6. |
- Householder, John Ethan, et al.
(författare)
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One sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is dependent on river floodplains
- 2024
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Ingår i: NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION. - 2397-334X.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Amazonia's floodplain system is the largest and most biodiverse on Earth. Although forests are crucial to the ecological integrity of floodplains, our understanding of their species composition and how this may differ from surrounding forest types is still far too limited, particularly as changing inundation regimes begin to reshape floodplain tree communities and the critical ecosystem functions they underpin. Here we address this gap by taking a spatially explicit look at Amazonia-wide patterns of tree-species turnover and ecological specialization of the region's floodplain forests. We show that the majority of Amazonian tree species can inhabit floodplains, and about a sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is ecologically specialized on floodplains. The degree of specialization in floodplain communities is driven by regional flood patterns, with the most compositionally differentiated floodplain forests located centrally within the fluvial network and contingent on the most extraordinary flood magnitudes regionally. Our results provide a spatially explicit view of ecological specialization of floodplain forest communities and expose the need for whole-basin hydrological integrity to protect the Amazon's tree diversity and its function.
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| 7. |
- Luize, Bruno Garcia, et al.
(författare)
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Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities
- 2024
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Ingår i: JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY. - 0305-0270 .- 1365-2699.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim: Amazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across Amazonia, leading to a hypothesis, which we test, that lineages should not be strongly associated with either geographic regions or edaphic forest types. Location: Amazonia. Taxon: Angiosperms (Magnoliids; Monocots; Eudicots). Methods: Data for the abundance of 5082 tree species in 1989 plots were combined with a mega-phylogeny. We applied evolutionary ordination to assess how phylogenetic composition varies across Amazonia. We used variation partitioning and Moran's eigenvector maps (MEM) to test and quantify the separate and joint contributions of spatial and environmental variables to explain the phylogenetic composition of plots. We tested the indicator value of lineages for geographic regions and edaphic forest types and mapped associations onto the phylogeny. Results: In the terra firme and v & aacute;rzea forest types, the phylogenetic composition varies by geographic region, but the igap & oacute; and white-sand forest types retain a unique evolutionary signature regardless of region. Overall, we find that soil chemistry, climate and topography explain 24% of the variation in phylogenetic composition, with 79% of that variation being spatially structured (R-2 = 19% overall for combined spatial/environmental effects). The phylogenetic composition also shows substantial spatial patterns not related to the environmental variables we quantified (R-2 = 28%). A greater number of lineages were significant indicators of geographic regions than forest types. Main Conclusion: Numerous tree lineages, including some ancient ones (>66 Ma), show strong associations with geographic regions and edaphic forest types of Amazonia. This shows that specialization in specific edaphic environments has played a long-standing role in the evolutionary assembly of Amazonian forests. Furthermore, many lineages, even those that have dispersed across Amazonia, dominate within a specific region, likely because of phylogenetically conserved niches for environmental conditions that are prevalent within regions.
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| 8. |
- ter Steege, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora
- 2023
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Ingår i: COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY. - 2399-3642. ; 6:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by forest type, as predictor, our spatial model, to the best of our knowledge, provides the most accurate map of tree diversity in Amazonia to date, explaining approximately 70% of the tree diversity and species-richness. Large soil-forest combinations determine a significant percentage of the variation in tree species-richness and tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian forest-plots. We suggest that the size and fragmentation of these systems drive their large-scale diversity patterns and hence local diversity. A model not using location but cumulative water deficit, tree density, and temperature seasonality explains 47% of the tree species-richness in the terra-firme forest in Amazonia. Over large areas across Amazonia, residuals of this relationship are small and poorly spatially structured, suggesting that much of the residual variation may be local. The Guyana Shield area has consistently negative residuals, showing that this area has lower tree species-richness than expected by our models. We provide extensive plot meta-data, including tree density, tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness results and gridded maps at 0.1-degree resolution. A study mapping the tree species richness in Amazonian forests shows that soil type exerts a strong effect on species richness, probably caused by the areas of these forest types. Cumulative water deficit, tree density and temperature seasonality affect species richness at a regional scale.
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| 9. |
- Culina, Antica, et al.
(författare)
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Connecting the data landscape of long-term ecological studies : The SPI-Birds data hub
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Animal Ecology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-8790 .- 1365-2656. ; 90:9, s. 2147-2160
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The integration and synthesis of the data in different areas of science is drastically slowed and hindered by a lack of standards and networking programmes. Long-term studies of individually marked animals are not an exception. These studies are especially important as instrumental for understanding evolutionary and ecological processes in the wild. Furthermore, their number and global distribution provides a unique opportunity to assess the generality of patterns and to address broad-scale global issues (e.g. climate change). To solve data integration issues and enable a new scale of ecological and evolutionary research based on long-term studies of birds, we have created the SPI-Birds Network and Database ()-a large-scale initiative that connects data from, and researchers working on, studies of wild populations of individually recognizable (usually ringed) birds. Within year and a half since the establishment, SPI-Birds has recruited over 120 members, and currently hosts data on almost 1.5 million individual birds collected in 80 populations over 2,000 cumulative years, and counting. SPI-Birds acts as a data hub and a catalogue of studied populations. It prevents data loss, secures easy data finding, use and integration and thus facilitates collaboration and synthesis. We provide community-derived data and meta-data standards and improve data integrity guided by the principles of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR), and aligned with the existing metadata languages (e.g. ecological meta-data language). The encouraging community involvement stems from SPI-Bird's decentralized approach: research groups retain full control over data use and their way of data management, while SPI-Birds creates tailored pipelines to convert each unique data format into a standard format. We outline the lessons learned, so that other communities (e.g. those working on other taxa) can adapt our successful model. Creating community-specific hubs (such as ours, COMADRE for animal demography, etc.) will aid much-needed large-scale ecological data integration.
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| 10. |
- da Silva, E. R., et al.
(författare)
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Preliminary design, optimization and CFD analysis of an organic rankine cycle radial turbine rotor
- 2021
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Ingår i: Applied Thermal Engineering. - : Elsevier Ltd. - 1359-4311 .- 1873-5606. ; 195
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present study describes the development of a preliminary design of a rotor for a radial turbine operating in an organic Rankine cycle. An optimization algorithm is applied to the preliminary design in order to obtain a better configuration of the geometric parameters that provides good quantification of the efficiency in the turbine, a priori, since the application of optimization processes applied to three-dimensional problems consume a lot of computational resources. The strategy makes it possible to obtain an optimized geometry to obtain flow field analyzes by applying computational fluid dynamics techniques. The working fluid R236fa was used for comparison with the literature, as it presents a positive slope of the saturation curve, and thus it is possible to work with lower temperatures. The R245fa working fluid is more suitable to the operating conditions of the proposed cycle, allows an overpressure in the condenser and allows higher levels of system efficiency. The losses at the rotor nozzle were initially modeled using a mean line design approach. The preliminary design was implemented in a commercial code Matlab®, as well as the optimization algorithm, CRSA (Controlled Random Search Algorithm), and the real gas formulations were used based on the NIST REFPROP® database. The present study is presented under three work routes: i) Development of the preliminary design methodology for a radial turbine that operates with ORC producing 50 kW of power, in order to compare with other methodologies presented in the literature. The results were compared with results observed in the literature, and demonstrate agreement between the reference geometry and the thermodynamic parameters. The total-total efficiencies of the reference turbine designs were 76.23% (R236fa) and 79.28% (R245fa); ii) Optimization by CRSA of the preliminary design of a radial turbine developed on the basis of flow coefficient and load coefficient correlations. A three-dimensional analysis of the flow through the blade section using computational fluid dynamics was performed in the final optimized design to confirm the preliminary design and subsequently analyze its characteristics. The optimization focused on the R245fa working fluid. Although several optimized preliminary designs are available in the literature with efficiency levels of up to 90%, the preliminary design choices made will only be valid for machines operating with ideal gases, that is, exhaust gases typical of an air-breathing combustion engine. For machines operating with real gases, such as organic working fluids, the design options need to be rethought and a preliminary design optimization process must be introduced. As an important result observed, an efficiency of 82.4% was obtained in the final design of the radial turbine operating with R245fa after the optimization process.
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| 11. |
- Perez, R. V., et al.
(författare)
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Investigating fusion plasma instabilities in the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak using mega electron volt proton emissions
- 2014
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Ingår i: Review of Scientific Instruments. - : AIP Publishing. - 0034-6748 .- 1089-7623. ; 85:11, s. 11D701-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The proton detector (PD) measures 3 MeV proton yield distributions from deuterium-deuterium fusion reactions within the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST). The PD's compact four-channel system of collimated and individually oriented silicon detectors probes different regions of the plasma, detecting protons (with gyro radii large enough to be unconfined) leaving the plasma on curved trajectories during neutral beam injection. From first PD data obtained during plasma operation in 2013, proton production rates (up to several hundred kHz and 1 ms time resolution) during sawtooth events were compared to the corresponding MAST neutron camera data. Fitted proton emission profiles in the poloidal plane demonstrate the capabilities of this new system.
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
- Costantini, H., et al.
(författare)
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Recent results of the 14N(p,γ)15O measurement at LUNA
- 2005
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Ingår i: Nuclear Physics A. - : Elsevier BV. - 0375-9474 .- 1873-1554. ; 758:1-4 SPEC. ISS., s. 383C-386C
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The 14N(p, γ)15O reaction has been investigated by LUNA at the National Laboratory of Gran Sasso (LNGS) using two different techniques. The first study has been performed using a solid target and detecting the γ-rays coming from the single transitions with a HPGe detector in very close geometry to the target. In a second phase a windowless gas target sorrounded by a nearly 4π BGO summing crystal has been used and the total S-factor has been measured down to Eb = 80 keV. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 14. |
- Formicola, A, et al.
(författare)
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Astrophysical S-factor of 14N(p,γ)15O
- 2004
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Ingår i: Physics Letters B. - : Elsevier BV. - 0370-2693 .- 1873-2445. ; 591:1-2, s. 61-68
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report on a new measurement of the 14N(p,γ) 15O capture cross section at Ep=140 to 400 keV using the 400 kV LUNA accelerator facility at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS). The uncertainties have been reduced with respect to previous measurements and their analysis. We have analyzed the data using the R-matrix method and we find that the ground state transition accounts for about 15% of the total S-factor. The main contribution to the S-factor is given by the transition to the 6.79 MeV state. We find a total S(0)=1.7±0.2 keVb, in agreement with recent extrapolations. The result has important consequences for the solar neutrino spectrum as well as for the age of globular clusters. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 15. |
- Imbriani, G., et al.
(författare)
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S-factor of 14N(p,γ)15O at astrophysical energies
- 2005
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Ingår i: European Physical Journal A. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6001 .- 1434-601X. ; 25:3, s. 455-466
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The astrophysical S(E) factor of 14N(p,γ)15O has been measured for effective center-of-mass energies between E eff = 119 and 367 keV at the LUNA facility using TiN solid targets and Ge detectors. The data are in good agreement with previous and recent work at overlapping energies. R-matrix analysis reveals that due to the complex level structure of 15O the extrapolated S(0) value is model dependent and calls for additional experimental efforts to reduce the present uncertainty in S(0) to a level of a few percent as required by astrophysical calculations. © Società Italiana di Fisica / Springer-Verlag 2005.
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| 16. |
- Angulo, A. M., et al.
(författare)
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Design of a high-resolution Rayleigh-Taylor experiment with the Crystal Backlighter Imager on the National Ignition Facility
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Instrumentation. - 1748-0221. ; 17:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability affects a vast range of High Energy Density (HED) length scales, spanning from supernova explosions (1013 m) to inertial confinement fusion (10-6 m). In inertial confinement fusion, the RT instability is known to induce mixing or turbulent transition, which in turn cools the hot spot and hinders ignition. The fine-scale features of the RT instability, which are difficult to image in HED physics, may help determine if the system is mixing or is transitioning to turbulence. Earlier diagnostics lacked the spatial and temporal resolution necessary to diagnose the dynamics that occur along the RT structure. A recently developed diagnostic, the Crystal Backlighter Imager (CBI), [1,2] can now produce an x-ray radiograph capable of resolving the fine-scale features expected in these RT unstable systems. This paper describes an experimental design that adapts a well-characterized National Ignition Facility (NIF) platform to accommodate the CBI diagnostic. Simulations and synthetic radiographs highlight the resolution capabilities of the CBI in comparison to previous diagnostics. The improved resolution of the system can provide new observations to study the RT instability's involvement in mixing and the transition to turbulence in the HED regime.
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| 17. |
- Angulo Barrios, C., et al.
(författare)
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GaAs/AlGaAs buried-heterostructure laser diodes with semi-insulating GaInP:Fe regrowth
- 2001
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Ingår i: Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2001. CLEO/Pacific Rim 2001. The 4th Pacific Rim Conference on.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- GaAs/AlGaAs buried-heterostructure in-plane lasers and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers using GaInP:Fe as the burying layer have been fabricated and investigated. Regrowth of GaInP:Fe around etched laser mesas was achieved by hydride vapor phase epitaxy. The lasers exhibit good performance under CW operation and show promising high-speed characteristics.
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| 18. |
- Aparicio, Francisco, et al.
(författare)
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Incorporation of luminescent nanometric films in photonic crystals and devices for the development of photonic sensors
- 2010
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Dye molecules embedded in different matrices in the form of thin films are the basis of specific materials used for laser cavities, optical filters, optical gas sensors, etc. In the present communication we discuss a new methodology based on the remote microwave plasma assisted deposition of dye containing thin films that circumvent the above mentioned problems. It permits a tailored synthesis of optically active nanometric thin films containing dye molecules which are active as fluorescence emitters (i.e., coloured and fluorescent films). The principle of this new procedure is the partial polymerization of dye molecules that are evaporated over a substrate while exposed to a remote microwave Ar plasma. As a result of this process a polymeric thin film is produced in one step where some dye molecules keep intact their optical activity (although eventually, their optical response can be slightly modified by matrix effects). This methodology has been recently used for the deposition of novel plasma nanocomposites containing non-aggregated laser dyes to maximize the fluorescent emission of the materials and for the fabrication of optical NO2 sensing nanocomposites. To illustrate the possibilities of the technique we present here results for different fluorescent dye molecules, as perylene dyes, and several xanthene and oxazine derivative cationic dyes which are typically used as gain media in tuneable laser dyes. The luminescent, optical and sensing properties of these dye containing nanocomposites will be presented. These active optical layers are being developed for the fabrication of photonic sensor devices, optical filters and photonic chips (PHODYE EU Project). This is due to the full compatibility of the synthetic methodology with the present integrated microelectronic and optoelectronic technology. The possibilities for the fabrication of photonic devices integrating these active optical layers will be demonstrated. Especial attention will be paid to recent results about the incorporation of the luminescent films in photonic crystals and about the conformal growth of luminescent planar defects within artificial opals.
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| 19. |
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
- Do, A., et al.
(författare)
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High spatial resolution and contrast radiography of hydrodynamic instabilities at the National Ignition Facility
- 2022
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Ingår i: Physics of Plasmas. - : AIP Publishing. - 1070-664X .- 1089-7674. ; 29:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We are developing techniques for studying the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) and Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instabilities in a planar geometry at high-energy-densities at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). In particular, through the improvement of experimental imaging quality, we are progressing toward the study of the turbulent regime of the mixing regions in capsule implosion experiments for inertial confinement fusion, which requires few micrometers resolution. Using 60 NIF beams, a solid shock tube is driven launching a shock wave that crosses the interface between a dense and a light material pre-machined in the target to obtain sinusoidal ripples, which results in RM and RT instabilities that are imaged using the NIF Crystal Backlighter Imager. High-quality images were obtained with a mean resolution of 7 μm and improved contrast. While the obtained resolution does not allow the observation of the smallest scale of the "turbulent"energy spectrum, the generated image encompasses 63% of the total flow energy, a 50% improvement over previous studies, which is observed for the first time a roll-up feature in a high energy density-type RT experiment.
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| 22. |
- Fleury, Vanessa, et al.
(författare)
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Embarrassment and Shame in People With Parkinson's Disease : A New Tool for Self-Assessment
- 2020
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Neurology. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1664-2295. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Shame and embarrassment related to Parkinson's disease (PD) are rarely addressed in clinical practice nor studied in neuroscience research, partly because no specific tool exists to detect them in PD.Objective:To develop a self-applied assessment tool of shame and embarrassment specifically related to PD or its treatment, to promptly identify the presence and severity of these two emotions in PD.Methods: Identification and selection of relevant items were obtained from the collection of PD patients' opinions during support groups and interviews. Several further items were added following a literature review. Subsequently, a two-phase pilot study was performed for identification of ambiguous items and omissions, and to obtain preliminary data on acceptability, reliability, validity and relevance of the new scale (SPARK).Results: A total of 105 PD patients were enrolled in the study. Embarrassment was reported in 85% of patients, while shame was present in 26%. Fifteen percent of patients did not describe any shame or embarrassment. On average, the intensity of these two emotions was low with a marked floor effect in SPARK items and subscales. However, SPARK total score inter-individual variability was important (range 1-84 out of 99). Acceptability and quality of data were satisfactory with no floor or ceiling effects (2.9% each) or missing data. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.94 for total score and 0.73-0.87 for subscales. The scale correlated >= 0.60 with instruments measuring related constructs. Content validity was satisfactory. SPARK total score strongly correlated with impaired health-related quality of life (r(S)= 0.81), the propensity to feel embarrassed or ashamed (r(S)= 0.68 and 0.66, respectively), and anxiety (r(S)= 0.72) and depression (r(S)= 0.63) levels. Moderate to high correlations were observed between SPARK total score and apathy (r(S)= 0.46) and a more pronounced personality trait directed toward harm avoidance (r(S)= 0.46). No significant differences in SPARK scores were found by sex, education level, PD duration, Hoehn and Yahr stages or PD phenotype.Conclusion: Preliminary analysis of psychometric properties suggests that SPARK could be an acceptable and reliable instrument for assessing shame and embarrassment in PD. SPARK could help healthcare professionals to identify and characterize PD-induced shame and embarrassment.
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| 23. |
- Hurtado, P., et al.
(författare)
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Disentangling functional trait variation and covariation in epiphytic lichens along a continent-wide latitudinal gradient
- 2020
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : ROYAL SOC. - 0962-8452 .- 1471-2954. ; 287:1922
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Characterizing functional trait variation and covariation, and its drivers, is critical to understand the response of species to changing environmental conditions. Evolutionary and environmental factors determine how traits vary among and within species at multiple scales. However, disentangling their relative contribution is challenging and a comprehensive trait-environment framework addressing such questions is missing in lichens. We investigated the variation in nine traits related to photosynthetic performance, water use and nutrient acquisition applying phylogenetic comparative analyses in lichen epiphytic communities on beech across Europe. These poikilohydric organisms offer a valuable model owing to their inherent limitations to buffer contrasting environmental conditions. Photobiont type and growth form captured differences in certain physiological traits whose variation was largely determined by evolutionary processes (i.e. phylogenetic history), although the intraspecific component was non-negligible. Seasonal temperature fluctuations also had an impact on trait variation, while nitrogen content depended on photobiont type rather than nitrogen deposition. The inconsistency of trait covariation among and within species prevented establishing major resource use strategies in lichens. However, we did identify a general pattern related to the water-use strategy. Thus, to robustly unveil lichen responses under different climatic scenarios, it is necessary to incorporate both among and within-species trait variation and covariation.
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| 24. |
- Ljungberg, Wilma, et al.
(författare)
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Carbon Outwelling and Uptake Along a Tidal Glacier-Lagoon-Ocean Continuum
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR): Biogeosciences. - 2169-8953 .- 2169-8961. ; 129:e2023JG007895
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Tidewater glaciers are highly vulnerable to climate change due to warming from both atmospheric and seawater sources. Most tidewater glaciers are rapidly retreating, but little is known about how glacial melting modifies coastal biogeochemical cycles. Here, we investigate carbonate and nutrient dynamics and fluxes in an expanding proglacial tidal lagoon connected to Europe's largest glacier in Iceland (Vatnajökull). The lagoon N:P:Si ratios (2:1:30) imply a system deficient in nitrogen. The large variations in the freshwater endmembers highlighted the complexity of resolving sources and transformations. The lagoon acted as a sink of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC). Floating chamber incubations revealed a CO2 uptake of 26±15mmolm−2d−1. Lagoon waters near the glacier had a 170% higher CO2 uptake than near the lagoon mouth, likely driven by primary production stimulated by nitrogen-rich bottom water upwelling. The lateral DIC and total alkalinity (TA) flux rates (outwelling) from the lagoon to the ocean were −1.5±0.1 (export to ocean) and 23±5mmolm−2d−1 (import into the lagoon) respectively. All samples were undersaturated with respect to aragonite due to glacial meltwater dilution of TA and CO2 uptake. This implies dilution of oceanic alkalinity, lowering the nearshore buffering capacity against ocean acidification.
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| 25. |
- Moreno, Noelia, et al.
(författare)
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Rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus capsid, a versatile platform for foreign B-cell epitope display inducing protective humoral immune responses
- 2016
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2045-2322. ; 6:31844
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Virus-like particles (VLPs), comprised of viral structural proteins devoid of genetic material, are tunable nanoparticles that can be chemically or genetically engineered, to be used as platforms for multimeric display of foreign antigens. Here, we report the engineering of chimeric VLPs, derived from rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) for presentation of foreign B-cell antigens to the immune system. The RHDV capsid comprises 180 copies of a single capsid subunit (VP60). To evaluate the ability of chimeric RHDV VLPs to elicit protective humoral responses against foreign antigens, we tested two B-cell epitopes: a novel neutralizing B-cell epitope, derived from feline calicivirus capsid protein, and a well characterized B-cell epitope from the extracellular domain of influenza A virus M2 protein (M2e). We generated sets of chimeric RHDV VLPs by insertion of the foreign B-cell epitopes at three different locations within VP60 protein (which involved different levels of surface accessibility) and in different copy numbers per site. The immunogenic potential of the chimeric VLPs was analyzed in the mouse model. The results presented here indicated that chimeric RHDV VLPs elicit potent protective humoral responses against displayed foreign B-cell epitopes, demonstrated by both, in vitro neutralization and in vivo protection against a lethal challenge.
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