The mechanisms by which the eggs of the Antarctic notothenioid fishes avoid freezing are not fully understood. Zona pellucida proteins (ZPs) are constituents of the chorion which forms a protective matrix surrounding the egg. Here we report occurrence of freezing temperature-related gene expansion and acquisition of unusual ice melting-promoting (IMP) activity in a family of Antarctic nototheni...

We present a general approach to growing ZnO nanowires on arbitrary, high melting point (above 970 degrees C) substrates using the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mechanism. Our approach utilizes the melting point reduction of sufficiently small (5 nm diameter) Au particles to provide a liquid catalyst without substrate interaction. Using this size-dependent melting effect, we demonstrate catal...

The melting curve of hydrogen was computed for pressures up to 200 GPa, using molecular dynamics. The inter- and intramolecular interactions were described by the reactive force field (ReaxFF) model. The model describes the pressure-volume equation of state solid hydrogen in good agreement with experiment up to pressures over 150 GPa, however the corresponding equation of state for liquid devia...

In quantum solids composed of fermion particles, such as helium-3 and electrons, the low-temperature physics is governed by spin exchanges, according to the Thouless theory. We present path integral Monte Carlo calculations of ring exchange energies on ‘clean’ two-dimensional crystals of both helium-3 and electrons. We see a remarkable similarity of the results for these two ‘opposite’ systems....

Recently, CuZr-based bulk metallic glass (BMG) composites reinforced by the TRIP (transformation-induced plasticity) effect have been explored in attempt to accomplish an optimal of trade-off between strength and ductility. However, the design of such BMG composites with advanced mechanical properties still remains a big challenge for materials engineering. In this work, we proposed a technique...

J. Burja, F. Tehovnik, F. Vode, B. Arh, Institute of Metals and Technology, Ljubljana, Slovenia In this chromium slags that form during melting of chromium alloyed steels are examined. During melting and oxidation of these steel grades a considerable amount of chromium is lost, and gained back with slag reduction. Laboratory experiments were performed to study the mechanism of chromium oxide re...

For electrical conductance in polycrystalline metallic films and wires, the reflection coefficient of electrons at grain boundaries is explored and found to be proportional to the square root of the melting points of metals. As validated by available experimental results, this exploration enables classical models to take an essential role in theoretically predicting the electrical conductance o...

We present a phenomenological dynamical model describing the force induced melting as responsible for the DNA overstretching transition. The denaturation mechanism is developed under the framework of the mesoscopic one-dimensional Peyrard-Bishop-Dauxois (PBD) picture which models the melting features of a polymer chain by means of a Morse potential and the stacking interaction. We find a good a...

We find that the potential energy distribution of atoms in clusters can consistently explain many important phenomena related to the phase changes of clusters, such as the nonmonotonic variation of melting temperature with size, the dependence of melting, boiling, and sublimation temperatures on the interatomic potentials, the existence of a surface-melted phase, and the absence of a premelting...

Recently, local melting of the particle surfaces confirmed the formation of spark and plasma during spark plasma sintering, which explains the rapid densification mechanism via liquid. A model for rapid densification of flash sintered ceramics by liquid film capillary was presented, where liquid film forms by local melting at the particle contacts, due to Joule heating followed by thermal runaw...