Film mulch has gradually been popularized to increase water availability to crops for improving and stabilizing agricultural production in the semiarid areas of Northwest China. To find more sustainable and economic film mulch methods for alleviating drought stress in semiarid region, it is necessary to test optimum planting methods in same cultivation conditions. A field experiment was conduct...

background and objective: edible, biodegradable films, by acting as barriers to control the transfer of moisture, oxygen, lipids, and flavours, can prevent quality deterioration and increase the shelf life of food products. on the other hand, regarding edible film capacity in transferring food additives, extending shelf-life of food products could be considered. so by adding antimicrobial-antio...

The electrical double layer surrounding solid particles suspended in water is assumed to be due to a difference in the concentration of the oppositely charged ions of an electrolyte in the enveloping film (i.e. the film of water which adheres to and moves with the particle in an electrical field) and the opposite film. This difference in concentration is generally ascribed to a preferential ads...

The electrical double layer surrounding solid particles suspended in water is assumed to be due to a difference in the concentration of the oppositely charged ions of an electrolyte in the enveloping film (i.e. the film of water which adheres to and moves with the particle in an electrical field) and the opposite film. This difference in concentration is generally ascribed to a preferential ads...

We demonstrate a water-immersible thin film lead zirconate titanate, Pb(Zr,Ti)O3, [PZT] actuator, without special passivation layer, towards in-vivo or in-vitro scanning probe microscope (SPM) measurements of living cells in water or biological fluids. In order to be water-immersible, the electrodes need to be electrically insulated and the piezoelectric layer needs to be protected against dire...

The skin is a barrier membrane that separates environments with profoundly different water contents. The barrier properties are assured by the outer layer of the skin, the stratum corneum (SC), which controls the transepidermal water loss. The SC acts as a responding membrane, since its hydration and permeability vary with the boundary condition, which is the activity of water at the outer surf...

The structure of thin-film water on a BaF(2)(111) surface under ambient conditions was studied using x-ray absorption spectroscopy from ambient to supercooled temperatures at relative humidity up to 95%. No hexagonal ice-like structure was observed in spite of the expected templating effect of the lattice-matched (111) surface. The oxygen K-edge x-ray absorption spectrum of liquid thin-film wat...

A model describing the electric double layers in clay-electrolyte systems containing particles with different surface charge densities was developed and used to calculate the film thickness of water present in a clay paste. The average water film thicknesses (-18/~) calculated by considering the clay to contain 9 groups of particles of different charge densities did not differ from those calcul...

Superhydrophobic surfaces are characterized by their peculiarities, such as water-repellent, anti-icing, and freezing-delay properties. Wetting dynamics of deposited water drops on cooling hydrophobic surfaces, which directly affects the aforementioned properties, has not been studied thoroughly. Here, water drops are cooled on different hydrophobic surfaces in a controlled environment. During ...

We have developed a hygromorphic metal oxide actuator using an electrochemical method to produce a superhydrophilic freestanding nano-capillary forest of titanium oxide with a high aspect ratio (~80). This metal oxide film has an inhomogeneous initial gap at the top and bottom surfaces between the tubes due to flexure during fabrication. The actuation mechanism is as follows. First, when a drop...