Our results suggest that a significant source of ice nucleating particles at Alert, Nunavut, during October and November, was likely ice-free snow-free land latitudes >50 °N.

The presence of nucleating agents in the hemolymph appears to be a characteristic feature of insects tolerant to freezing (10). Such nucleators have been found in the hemolymph of insects of several phylogenetic orders, i.e., Coleoptera (4, 8, 9, 1 l), Diptera (7), and Hymenoptera (5). The physiological function of these nucleators is suggested to be to induce a protective extracellular freezin...

Ice binding proteins (IBPs) are produced by various cold-adapted organisms to protect their body tissues against freeze damage. First discovered in Antarctic fish living in shallow waters, IBPs were later found in insects, microorganisms, and plants. Despite great structural diversity, all IBPs adhere to growing ice crystals, which is essential for their extensive repertoire of biological funct...

The synergistic effect of nucleating agents and plasticizers on the thermal and mechanical performance of PLA nanocomposites was investigated with the objective of increasing the crystallinity and balancing the stiffness and toughness of PLA mechanical properties. Calcium carbonate, halloysite nanotubes, talc and LAK (sulfates) were compared with each other as heterogeneous nucleating agents. B...

*Correspondence: Miroslav Slouf , Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Heyrovsky Sq. 2, 162 06 Prague 6, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] We introduce a dynamic sandwich method, which can be used for in situ observation and quantification of polymer crystallization nucleated by micro/nanoparticles. The method was applied on polyoxymethylene (P...