We present the first determination of the energy-dependent amplitudes of N⁎ resonances extracted from their decay in KΛ pairs in p+p→pK+Λ reactions. A combined Partial Wave Analysis of seven data ...samples with exclusively reconstructed p+p→pK+Λ events measured by the COSY-TOF, DISTO, FOPI and HADES Collaborations in fixed target experiments at kinetic energies between 2.14 to 3.5 GeV is used to determine the amplitude of the resonant and non-resonant contributions into the associated strangeness final state. The contribution of seven N⁎ resonances with masses between 1650 MeV/c2 and 1900 MeV/c2 for an excess energy between 0 and 600 MeV has been considered. The Σ–p cusp and final state interactions for the p–Λ channel are also included as coherent contributions in the PWA. The N⁎ contribution is found to be dominant with respect to the phase space emission of the pKΛ+ final state at all energies demonstrating the important role played by both N⁎ and interference effects in hadron–hadron collisions.
•Influence of grain boundaries on deep level transient spectra.•Diffusion of carriers over grain boundary barriers as an origin of capacitance transients.•Effective mobility in thin film solar cells.
...In this work, we explore the hypothesis that the N1 peak in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells is caused by secondary barriers. We indicate, through numerical modelling of the corresponding Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) signal, that these barriers may be located at grain boundaries. Moreover, the proper reconstruction of the N1 signal using the double-barrier model requires an assumption that corresponding capacitance transients are due to the diffusion limited transport of holes over grain boundaries. Only then we were able to achieve sufficiently small values of the saturation current for realistic values of material parameters. We show that the position of the N1 DLTS peak and its activation energy depends on the effective density and the effective mobility of holes which can be calculated based on grain size and the properties of grain boundaries. This interpretation opens a room for the explanation of the unusual properties of the N1 signal in CIGS solar cells.
Biological invasions cause biodiversity erosion on a global scale. Invasive species spreading beyond their natural range compete with native fauna for food and space, push native species to ...suboptimal habitats, impairing their behaviour and thus limiting their occurrence. Freshwater ecosystems are especially vulnerable to biological invasions and their ecological and economic impacts. The invasive Asian clams (Corbicula spp.), due to their opportunistic life style, can occur at densities of thousands ind. m−2. They act as ecosystem engineers transforming bottom substrata through accumulation of shells. Our goal was to determine the effect of substratum modification by living Corbicula and their shells on substratum choice and behaviour of Unio tumidus and Anodonta anatina, two European freshwater mussel species of the highly imperilled Unionidae family. We assessed their substratum selection in pairwise choice tests (pure sand vs. sand modified by living Corbicula or their shells, sand modified by shells vs. living Corbicula). Next, we tested locomotion and burrowing of unionids on pure substratum and substrata modified by Corbicula. Unionids avoided sand modified by living Corbicula and their empty shells, not distinguishing between these two types of substratum modification. In the presence of Corbicula, their burrowing was shallower or it took them longer to obtain the same depth as in the pure sand. Additionally, on sand modified by Corbicula shells, we observed a locomotion increase (U. tumidus) or slowing down (A. anatina). Our research showed a novel mechanism of negative impact of Corbicula on unionids, consisting in pushing them away from their optimal habitats. This may contribute to their habitat loss and future declines in invaded ecosystems.
Display omitted
•Impact of Corbicula on European unionids: U. tumidus (Ut) and A. anatina (Aa)•Sand modification by Corbicula negatively affected unionids•Unionids avoided sand modified by Corbicula and their shells•Unionids burrowed less in sand with living Corbicula and their shells•Locomotion of Ut increased and that of Aa slowed down in sand with Corbicula
Infaunal freshwater mussels are highly threatened and declining worldwide. One of the potential threats to mussels consists of biological invasions. We intended to investigate the habitat overlap and ...behavioural differences between native (Unio pictorum, Unio tumidus, Anodonta anatina, Anodonta cygnea) and invasive (Asian Sinanodonta woodiana) unionid bivalves to determine potential sources of competition. Furthermore, we investigated differences between S. woodiana from the established population in artificially heated waters and from the recent population in a natural thermal regime. We used pairwise choice tests on mud, medium, coarse and very coarse sand, mixture of medium and coarse sand, fine, medium and coarse gravel, and observed mussel locomotion and burrowing in preferred and non-preferred substrata. All species generally preferred fine-grained materials. The widest preference range was exhibited by S. woodiana (both populations), whereas A. cygnea was the most selective. The preferences of the cold-water population of S. woodiana were shifted towards coarser materials compared to conspecifics from the heated waters, and highly overlapped with the preferences of the native species. Anodonta cygnea most often moved horizontally and spent the shortest time deeply burrowed. Both Unio species were deeply burrowed for the largest amount of time and the horizontal locomotion of U. tumidus was the lowest among the test species. Sinanodonta woodiana, especially from the heated water population, exhibited relatively weak locomotion (compared to A. cygnea) and burrowing (compared to Unio spp. and A. anatina). Deep burrowing was more common on fine-grained materials. Our results suggest that the native mussels can be threatened by S. woodiana due to their overlapping habitat preferences, potentially hindering habitat separation. However, mobile native mussels may be capable of migrating and avoiding competition. Accumulating knowledge of the biology and ecology of freshwater mussels could contribute to the creation and improvement of conservation plans to protect these threatened animals.
Display omitted
•Habitat overlap, locomotion and burrowing of invasive and native European Unionidae•Invasive S. woodiana has wider substratum preferences overlapping with natives.•S. woodiana is less mobile and burrows less often compared to native species.•Native mussels are likely to co-occur and face competition of spreading S. woodiana.•S. woodiana from cold and heated waters differs in habitat preferences and burrowing.
Deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements on multilayer devices can be influenced by secondary barriers. Our starting point is a simple model used in the literature for simulations of ...DLTS signals induced by such barriers: the structure is represented by two diodes connected back-to-back and separated by a neutral region. Although the calculations confirm that capacitance transients can occur in multilayer structures without defects, we find that the quantitative modeling of corresponding DLTS peaks resembling the N1 signal in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells requires unphysical input parameters. Therefore, we carefully analyze the assumptions of the model and investigate the limits of its applicability. We look into details of the formation of a DLTS signal and unveil the connection between observed kinetics, capacitance-voltage profiles, and the shape of DLTS peaks. We show that the signals originating from secondary barriers exhibit a logarithmic dependence on the pulse duration which can mimic a response from extended defects. We also verify the validity of the criterion existing in the literature allowing to distinguish signals coming from a back contact and deep defects and show that it can be used only in very specific situations.
In this paper platinum (Pt) doped tungsten trioxide (WO3) layers have been investigated. The structures were prepared in the standard thick film technology. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was ...used for the microstructure analysis of the gas sensitive layers. The work function was examined by using a scanning Kelvin probe (SKP). The Kelvin probe is a non-contact and non-destructive method to provide work function measurements and surface analysis. This tool is very sensitive to any surface potential changes of the investigated material. The measurements preformed by using the SKP shows that the screen printed WO3 layers were very homogenous and no significant defects are present. The Pt dopants added to the gas sensitive layer created small clusters on the surface of the WO3 grains. The presence of those additives changes the potential barrier between the metal oxide crystals and caused a decrease of the sensing layer conductance at low dopants concentration, until the exceed of the percolation threshold. Moreover, due to the introduction of additives a change in the activation energy was observed which has influence on the sensor parameters and resulted in increase of the sensitivity to isopropyl alcohol.
Mermithid parasitoids are well known to infect spiders; however, their impact on hosts and their taxonomic identity are still poorly analyzed. We present the first record of a mermithid nematode ...infection in the spider genera Piratula (Lycosidae) and Coelotes (Agelenidae), and in the species Alopecosa pulverulenta and Pardosa paludicola (Lycosidae). We describe the maldevelopment of the spiders’ female genitalia induced by the parasitoid and summarize data on the impact of nematode parasitoids on spider development and behaviour. Phylogenetic analysis, based on the 18S rDNA, showed that spider parasitoidism arose independently in different branches of the phylogenetic tree of the family Mermithidae.
Mixed eight-node (hexahedron) solid-shell elements based on the standard or partial version of the three-field Hu–Washizu (HW) functionals are developed for Green strain. Three
reduced ...representations
of the assumed stress/strain fields are selected. They improve effectiveness, yet retaining good accuracy and convergence properties. At the outset, the standard HW functional and the assumed stress/strain representations of the 3D solid element B8-15P (Weissman in Int J Numer Methods Eng 39:2337–2361, 1996) are used to derive a solid-shell element with 51 parameters. To eliminate locking, the ANS method is applied to the thickness strain (Betsch and Stein in Commun Numer Methods Eng 11:899–909, 1995) and to the transverse shear strain (Dvorkin and Bathe in Eng Comput 1:77–88, 1984). It is a correct element which, however, yields too large displacements for coarse meshes and trapezoidal through-thickness shapes. To improve the above formulation, the
ζ
-independent
reduced representations
of the assumed stress/ strain fields are selected and the transformations to Cartesian components are modified. The thickness strain is enhanced by the EAS method. The element with 35 parameters is derived from the standard/enhanced HW functional, but, to further reduce the assumed fields, partial/enhanced HW functionals are constructed from the 3D potential energy by applying the Lagrange multiplier method only to selected strain components. In the element with 27 parameters, this is applied to the constant in-plane strain and to the transverse shear strain while in the element with 19 parameters, to the constant in-plane strain only.Two other modifications are implemented to enhance the behavior of these elements: (A) the skew coordinates are used in the
reduced representations
of the in-plane stress/strain (Wisniewski and Turska in Int J Numer Methods Eng 90:506–536, 2012), and (B) the
Residual Bending Flexibility
correction of the transverse shear stiffness (MacNeal in Comput Struct 8(2):175–183, 1978) is adapted. Finally, the performance of the proposed solid-shell HW elements is demonstrated on several linear and non-linear examples for the linear elastic material and the hyper-elastic material. The proposed elements are compared to each other and to the best existing elements of this class.
Background
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) reduces tremor, rigidity, and akinesia. According to the literature, the dentato-rubro-thalamic tract (DRTt) is verified ...target for DBS in essential tremor; however, its role in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease is only vaguely described. The aim of our study was to identify the relationship between symptom alleviation in PD patients and the distance of the DBS electrode electric field (EF) to the DRTt.
Methods
A single-center retrospective analysis of patients (
N
= 30) with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) who underwent DBS between November 2018 and January 2020 was performed. DRTt and STN were visualized using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and tractography protocol of magnetic resonance (MR). The EF was calculated and compared with STN and course of DRTt. Evaluation of patients before and after surgery was performed with use of UPDRS-III scale. The association between distance from EF to DRTt and clinical outcomes was examined. To confirm the anatomical variation between DRTt and STN observed in tractography, white matter dissection was performed with the Klingler technique on ten human brains.
Results
Patients with EF overlapping STN and DRTt benefited from significant motor symptoms improvement. Anatomical findings confirmed the presence of population differences in variability of the DRTt course and were consistent with the DRTt visualized by MR.
Conclusions
DRTt proximity to STN, the main target in PD DBS surgery, confirmed by DWI with tractography protocol of MR combined with proper predefined stimulation parameters may improve efficacy of DBS-STN.
PDF
