Most metallurgical properties, e.g., dislocation propagation, precipitate formation, can only be fully understood atomistically but most phenomena and quantities of interest cannot measured experimentally. Accurate simulation methods are essential first-principles density functional theory (DFT) is prohibitively expensive while empirical interatomic potentials rarely sufficiently accurate for a...

The Esmoriz-Paramos is a lagoon of great ecological significance located on the Northwest coast of Portugal. The quality of water and sediment within this ecosystem has been gradually degraded due to the discharges of mostly untreated industrial waste and domestic sewage. Contaminants include heavy metals that can be taken up by fish from water, food, sediments, and suspended particulate materi...

Ceratophyllum demersum (homwort) was subjected to toxic concentrations of Al (3 and 9 mg l(-1)), Zn (3 and 9 mg l(-1)) and Cu (2.5 and 7 mg l(-1)) in culture solutions for 15 days. The higher dose of Al enhanced the chlorophyll content significantly (p<0.05) in the first 6 days of treatment while other treatments caused marked reductions. Nitrate reductase activity (NRA) was significantly reduc...

Exposure to heavy metals is the most important risk factor in the assessment of spermatogenesis. About 30-40 % cases of infertility are caused by the male factor, and most of them are due to the small quantity of spermatozoa or to inferior spermatozoa quality. The negative impact on sperm motility, morphology and concentration of such ...

Aluminum alloys show a low weight, relatively high specific strength, good corrosion resistance in neutral environments and high electric and thermal conductivity. It makes them of interest for production of various functional components in aerospace and automotive industry. Wrought alloys generally have good formability and they are processed by common technologies, such as extrusion, forging,...