Surface sediments were collected from various locations of the Mandovi estuary and the Marmugoa harbour. Sediments were analysed for organic carbon (OC), total lipids, n-alkanes concentration and composition. Concentrations of OC, total lipids and n-alkanes varied spatially and ranged from 1 to 2.5%, 176 to 1413 microg/g dry weight (dw) sediments, and 0.8 to 3.2 microg/g dw sediments of the Man...

Plant cuticular n-alkanes have been successfully used as markers to estimate diet composition and intake of grazing herbivores. However, additional markers may be required under grazing conditions in botanically diverse vegetation. This study was conducted to describe the n-alkane profiles and the carbon isotope enrichment of n-alkanes of common plant species from the Mid Rift Valley rangelands...

In the long-chain n-alkane degrader Acinetobacter sp. strain M-1, two alkane hydroxylase complexes are switched by controlling the expression of two n-alkane hydroxylase-encoding genes in response to the chain length of n-alkanes, while rubredoxin and rubredoxin ruductase are encoded by a single gene and expressed constitutively.

A recent study of temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) measurements of small linear alkane molecules (n-alkanes, with formula C(N)H(2N+2)) from C(0001) deposited on Pt(111) shows a linear relationship of the desorption energy with increasing n-alkane chain length N. We here present a van der Waals density functional study of the desorption barrier energy of the ten smallest n-alkanes (of car...

The psychorotrophic Rhodococcus sp. strain Q15 was examined for its ability to degrade individual n-alkanes and diesel fuel at low temperatures, and its alkane catabolic pathway was investigated by biochemical and genetic techniques. At 0 and 5 degrees C, Q15 mineralized the short-chain alkanes dodecane and hexadecane to a greater extent than that observed for the long-chain alkanes octacosane ...

We compare the growth dynamics of the three n-alkanes C(36)H(74), C(40)H(82), and C(44)H(90) on SiO(2) using real-time and in situ energy-dispersive x-ray reflectivity. All molecules investigated align in an upright-standing orientation on the substrate and exhibit a transition from layer-by-layer growth to island growth after about 4 monolayers under the conditions employed. Simultaneous fits ...

In petrochemical analysis it is often not necessary to identify every compound in a sample. The boiling point distribution and group composition, e.g. aliphatic and aromatic groups or straight chain versus branched alkanes determine, to a large extent, the physical characteristics of fuels. The oxygenated group content of a fuel is another important parameter. It is believed that high oxygen co...