The response of whole-plant water-use efficiency, termed transpiration efficiency (TE), to variation in soil fertility was assessed in a tropical pioneer tree, Ficus insipida Willd. Measurements of stable isotope ratios (delta(13)C, delta(18)O, delta(15)N), elemental concentrations (C, N, P), plant growth, instantaneous leaf gas exchange, and whole-plant water use were used to analyse the mecha...

The thermoelectric (TE) performance of materials is determined by the figure of merit ZT=σS/κ, where σ denotes the electrical conductivity, S the Seebeck coefficient and κ the thermal conductivity. Large improvements in ZT have recently been reported in nanoscale materials due to drastic reduction in κ. Despite this improvement, however, ZT still remains too low for allowing large scale TE depl...

Miniaturization of efficient thermoelectric (TE) devices has long been hindered by the weak mechanical strength and insufficient heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency zone-melted (ZM) ingots. Here, we successfully prepared a robust high-performance p-type Bi0.4Sb1.6Te3.72 bulk alloy combining an ultrafast thermal explosion reaction with spark plasma sintering (TER-SPS) process. It is observ...

Tropoelastin (TE), the soluble precursor of insoluble elastin fibers, is produced in minimal amounts in adults. Burn injuries result in inflexible collagen-rich scars because of lack of elastin fiber formation. We studied the feasibility of using recombinant human tropoelastin to enable elastin fiber production in burn and surgical scars to improve skin flexibility. In a swine hypertrophic burn...

BACKGROUND Gene carriers based on lipids or polymers-rather than on engineered viruses-constitute the latest technique for delivering genes into cells for gene therapy. Cationic liposome-DNA (CL-DNA) complexes have emerged as leading nonviral vectors in worldwide gene therapy clinical trials. To arrive at therapeutic dosages, however, their efficiency requires substantial further improvement. ...

Ice coring of temperate and polythermal glaciers demonstrates some limitations of most electromechanical (EM) and thermal electric (TE) drills. Most TE drills are heavy, require a heavy power system, work slowly and cannot operate in boreholes going through the cold–temperate ice transition. Antifreeze thermal electric drills (ATED) are capable of operating in polar ice caps, polythermal and te...

At anticipated high electron temperatures in ITER, the effects of electron thermal motion on phase measurements made by the toroidal interferometer/polarimeter (TIP) and poloidal polarimeter (PoPola) diagnostics will be significant and must be precisely treated or the measurement accuracy will fail to meet the specified requirements for ITER operation. We calculate electron thermal corrections ...

A suspended, planar multistage micro thermoelectric (TE) cooler is designed using thermal network model to cool MEMS devices. Though the planar (two-dimensional) design is compatible with MEMS fabrication, its cooling performance is reduced compared to that of a pyramid (three-dimensional) design, due to a mechanically indispensable thin dielectric substrate (SiO2) and technical limit on TE fil...

Thermolysis of the single source precursor (Et2Bi)2Te in DIPB at 80 °C yielded phase-pure Bi4Te3 nanoparticles, while mixtures of Bi4Te3 and elemental Bi were formed at higher temperatures. In contrast, cubic Bi2Te particles were obtained by thermal decomposition of Et2BiTeEt in DIPB. Moreover, a dual source approach (hot injection method) using the reaction of Te(SiEt3)2 and Bi(NMe2)3 was appl...

The general picture established so far for the links between superconductivity and magnetic ordering in iron chalcogenide Fe1+y(Te(1-x)Sex) is that the substitution of Se for Te directly drives the system from the antiferromagnetic end into the superconducting regime. Here, we report on the observation of a ferromagnetic component that developed together with the superconducting transition in F...