University of Lorraine

About: University of Lorraine is a education organization based out in Nancy, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Nonlinear system. The organization has 11942 authors who have published 25010 publications receiving 425227 citations. The organization is also known as: Lorraine University.

The Bacterial and Fungal Diversity of an Aged PAH- and Heavy Metal-Contaminated Soil is Affected by Plant Cover and Edaphic Parameters

Abstract: Industrial wasteland soils with aged PAH and heavy metal contaminations are environments where pollutant toxicity has been maintained for decades. Although the communities may be well adapted to the presence of stressors, knowledge about microbial diversity in such soils is scarce. Soil microbial community dynamics can be driven by the presence of plants, but the impact of plant development on selection or diversification of microorganisms in these soils has not been established yet. To test these hypotheses, aged-contaminated soil samples from a field trial were collected. Plots planted with alfalfa were compared to bare soil plots, and bacterial and fungal diversity and abundance were assessed after 2 and 6 years. Using pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene and ITS amplicons, we showed that the bacterial community was dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes and was characterized by low Acidobacteria abundance, while the fungal community was mainly represented by members of the Ascomycota. The short-term toxic impact of pollutants usually reduces the microbial diversity, yet in our samples bacterial and fungal species richness and diversity was high suggesting that the community structure and diversity adapted to the contaminated soil over decades. The presence of plants induced higher bacterial and fungal diversity than in bare soil. It also increased the relative abundance of bacterial members of the Actinomycetales, Rhizobiales, and Xanthomonadales orders and of most fungal orders. Multivariate analysis showed correlations between microbial community structure and heavy metal and PAH concentrations over time, but also with edaphic parameters (C/N, pH, phosphorus, and nitrogen concentrations).

Quantum Crystallography: Current Developments and Future Perspectives

Abstract: Crystallography and quantum mechanics have always been tightly connected because reliable quantum mechanical models are needed to determine crystal structures. Due to this natural synergy, nowadays accurate distributions of electrons in space can be obtained from diffraction and scattering experiments. In the original definition of quantum crystallography (QCr) given by Massa, Karle and Huang, direct extraction of wavefunctions or density matrices from measured intensities of reflections or, conversely, ad hoc quantum mechanical calculations to enhance the accuracy of the crystallographic refinement are implicated. Nevertheless, many other active and emerging research areas involving quantum mechanics and scattering experiments are not covered by the original definition although they enable to observe and explain quantum phenomena as accurately and successfully as the original strategies. Therefore, we give an overview over current research that is related to a broader notion of QCr, and discuss options how QCr can evolve to become a complete and independent domain of natural sciences. The goal of this paper is to initiate discussions around QCr, but not to find a final definition of the field.

The sensitizing effects of NO2 and NO on methane low temperature oxidation in a jet stirred reactor

Abstract: The oxidation of neat methane (CH 4 ) and CH 4 doped with NO 2 or NO in argon has been investigated in a jet-stirred reactor at 107 kPa, temperatures between 650 and 1200 K, with a fixed residence time of 1.5 s, and for different equivalence ratios (Φ), ranging from fuel-lean to fuel-rich conditions. Four different diagnostics have been used: gas chromatography (GC), chemiluminescence NO x analyzer, continuous wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy (cw-CRDS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). In the case of the oxidation of neat methane, the onset temperature for CH 4 oxidation was above 1025 K, while it is shifted to 825 K with the addition of NO 2 or NO, independently of equivalence ratio, indicating that the addition of NO 2 or NO highly promotes CH 4 oxidation. The consumption rate of CH 4 exhibits a similar trend with the presence of both NO 2 and NO. The amount of produced HCN has been quantified and a search for HONO and CH 3 NO 2 species has been attempted. A detailed kinetic mechanism, derived from POLIMI kinetic framework, has been used to interpret the experimental data with a good agreement between experimental data and model predictions. Reaction rate and sensitivity analysis have been conducted to illustrate the kinetic regimes. The fact that the addition of NO or NO 2 seems to have similar effects on promoting CH 4 oxidation can be explained by the fact that both species are involved in a reaction cycle interchanging them and whose result is 2CH 3 + O 2 = 2CH 2 O + 2H. Additionally, the direct participation of NO 2 in the NO 2 + CH 2 O = HONO + HCO reaction has a notable accelerating effect on methane oxidation.

The statistical mechanics of the coagulation–diffusion process with a stochastic reset

Abstract: The effects of a stochastic reset, to its initial configuration, is studied in the exactly solvable one-dimensional coagulation–diffusion process. A finite resetting rate leads to a modified non-equilibrium stationary state. If, in addition, the input of particles at a fixed given rate is admitted, then a competition between the resetting and the input rates leads to a non-trivial behaviour of the particle-density in the stationary state. From the exact inter-particle probability distribution, a simple physical picture emerges: the reset mainly changes the behaviour at larger distance scales, while at smaller length scales, the non-trivial correlation of the model without a reset dominate.

Theory of metascreen-based acoustic passive phased array

Abstract: The metascreen-based acoustic passive phased array provides a new degree of freedom for manipulating acoustic waves due to their fascinating properties, such as a fully shifting phase, keeping impedance matching, and holding subwavelength spatial resolution. We develop acoustic theories to analyze the transmission/reflection spectra and the refracted pressure fields of a metascreen composed of elements with four Helmholtz resonators (HRs) in series and a straight pipe. We find that these properties are also valid under oblique incidence with large angles, with the underlying physics stemming from the hybrid resonances between the HRs and the straight pipe. By imposing the desired phase profiles, the refracted fields can be tailored in an anomalous yet controllable manner. In particular, two types of negative refraction are exhibited, based on two distinct mechanisms: one is formed from classical diffraction theory and the other is dominated by the periodicity of the metascreen. Positive (normal) and negative refractions can be converted by simply changing the incident angle, with the coexistence of two types of refraction in a certain range of incident angles.