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A ripe strawberry looks red to our eyes in sunlight and in the green light of a forest, although the spectrum of light reflected from its surface differs dramatically. This is caused by two effects: colour constancy and our ability to learn relative colour cues - the ripe strawberry remains relatively 'redder' than an unripe green strawberry. While colour constancy - the ability to recognize colou
Background Late blight (caused by Phytophthora infestans) is a devastating potato disease that has been found to occur earlier in the season over the last decades in Fennoscandia. Up until now the reasons for this change have not been investigated. Possible explanations for this change are climate alterations, changes in potato production or changes in pathogen biology, such as increased fitness o
Bacterial centromeres-also called parS, are cis-acting DNA sequences which, together with the proteins ParA and ParB, are involved in the segregation of chromosomes and plasmids. The specific binding of ParB to parS nucleates the assembly of a large ParB/DNA complex from which ParA-the motor protein, segregates the sister replicons. Closely related families of partition systems, called Bsr, were i
The hydrogen bond (H bond) is one of the most important interactions that form the foundation of secondary and tertiary protein structure. Beyond holding protein structures together, H bonds are also intimately involved in solvent coordination, ligand binding, and enzyme catalysis. The H bond by definition involves the light atom, H, and it is very difficult to study directly, especially with X-ra
Mechanical behavior of the shear connections has a significant influence on both the load-carrying capacity and the bending stiffness of timber-concrete composite (TCC) beams. All the studies reported so far have concentrated on the performance of TCC connections in mature concrete. The performance of shear connections for TCC beams at early concrete ages, however, has not been investigated yet. T
The excellent performance of metal foams is well-recognized in the thermal and energy fields. This paper presents an investigation on the convective heat transfer and thermal performance of microchannel heat sinks with different structures of metal foams, such as Y-shaped, metal foam attached to fins, combined metal foams. The inlet Reynolds number is ranging from 170 to 554 and the porosity of th
In the current study, the effects of the nonlocally generated long sea surface waves (swells) on the power production of a 2 × 2 wind farm are investigated by using large-eddy simulations (LES) and actuator-line method (ALM). The short sea waves are modeled as a roughness height, while the wave-induced stress accounting for swell effects is added as an external source term to the momentum equation
The EU Commission highlights evaluations as important for improving common policies. But do evaluations actually contribute? This paper examines whether this has been the case for the EU Rural Development Programmes (RDPs). We investigate 1) to what extent evaluations have influenced the design of national programmes and 2) if they have affected the Rural Development Regulation on which national p
In Torfs et al. (2017) a new unified framework to model settling tanks in water resource recovery facilities was proposed providing a set of partial differential equations (PDEs) modelling different settling unit processes in wastewater treatment such as primary and secondary settling tanks (PSTs and SSTs). The extension to a multi-class framework to deal with the distributed properties of the set
An algorithm for high-performance path tracking for robot manipulators in the presence of model uncertainties and actuator constraints is presented. The path to be tracked is assumed given, and the nominal trajectories are computed using, for example, well-known algorithms for time-optimal path tracking. For online path tracking, the nominal, feedforward trajectories are combined with feedback in
In the present study, the electrical conductivity of the soil solution (σp) was predicted using a linear model in which the bulk soilelectrical conductivity (σb) effect on the apparent dielectric permittivity (εs) was considered. The performance of the proposed model wasevaluated by measurements with a dielectric sensor (the WET sensor) in four porous media at four different levels of electrical c
Climate change poses an unprecedented challenge to agriculture. While growers have always struggled with year-to-year variation in climate – early rains or unusually hot summers – climate change provides a major directional shift in mean climate. Across the globe, growing regions are warming and plants are shifting in both time and space. Current and future shifts pose a major challenge to researc
Improving our understanding of biological motors, both to fully comprehend their activities in vital processes, and to exploit their impressive abilities for use in bionanotechnology, is highly desirable. One means of understanding these systems is through the production of synthetic molecular motors. We demonstrate the use of orthogonal coiled-coil dimers (including both parallel and antiparallel
We investigate the concentration-controlled formation of clusters in β-lactoglobulin (BLG) protein solutions combining structural and dynamical scattering techniques. The static structure factor from small-angle X-ray scattering as well as de-Gennes narrowing in the nanosecond diffusion function D(q) from neutron spin echo spectroscopy support a picture of cluster formation. Using neutron backscat
Due to the complexity of built environment, urban design patterns considerably affect the microclimate and outdoor thermal comfort in a given urban morphology. Variables such as building heights and orientations, spaces between buildings, plot coverage alter solar access, wind speed and direction at street level. To improve microclimate and comfort conditions urban design elements including vegeta
We study the surface diffusion and alloying of Sb into GaAs nanowires (NWs) with controlled axial stacking of wurtzite (Wz) and zinc blende (Zb) crystal phases. Using atomically resolved scanning tunneling microscopy, we find that Sb preferentially incorporates into the surface layer of the {110}-terminated Zb segments rather than the {1120}-terminated Wz segments. Density functional theory calcul
Aims: To assess the agreement between the Ross treadmill method and the Åstrand ergometer cycle method, and the repeatability of each method. Methodology: Twenty healthy people aged 22.5 ± 2.2 years were tested on two different days, each day with both methods with a pause of 30 min between the tests. The tests were executed in the reverse order the following test day. Major findings: There was no
Identification of pathogenic microorganisms by traditional methods is slow and cumbersome. Therefore, the focus today is on developing new and quicker analytical methods. In this study, a Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensor with a microcontact imprinted sensor chip was developed for detecting Salmonella paratyphi. For this purpose, the stamps of the target microorganism were prepared and then,
Most chemistry, including chemistry where relativistic effects are important, occurs in an environment, and in many cases, this environment has a significant effect on the chemistry. In nonrelativistic quantum chemistry, a lot of progress has been achieved with respect to including environments such as a solvent or protein in the calculations, and now is the time to extend the possibilities for al
