The experimental realization and an algorithm for analysing the pressure dependence of the molecular order parameter of specific structural moieties in (bio)macromolecular fibres are described. By employing a diamond anvil cell (DAC) the polarization-dependent IR-transmission and in parallel, using an integrated microscope, the macroscopic orientation of the fibres is determined. This enables o...

The field-induced phase transitions in FeBr2-type crystal under hydrostatic pressure have been determined in terms of Landau's theory, with the paramagnetic phase described by a unitary or a non-unitary group. The sets of low-temperature symmetry groups implied by these two descriptions partly overlap.

Experiments have shown that when a horizontal cylinder rotates around the vertical axis in a granular medium, the drag force in the stationary regime becomes independent of the depth, in contradiction with the frictional picture stipulating that the drag should be proportional to the hydrostatic pressure. The goal of this study is to understand the origin of this depth independence of the granu...

A thorough understanding of protein structure and stability requires that we elucidate the molecular basis for the effects of both temperature and pressure on protein conformational transitions. While temperature effects are relatively well understood and the change in heat capacity upon unfolding has been reasonably well parameterized, the state of understanding of pressure effects is much les...

Underground pipelines are widely applied in the so-called lifeline engineerings. It shows according to seismic surveys that the damage from soil liquefaction to underground pipelines was the most serious, whose failures were mainly in the form of pipeline uplifting. In the present study, dynamic centrifuge model tests were conducted to study the uplifting behaviors of shallow-buried pipeline su...

Skeletal support systems are essential for support, movement, muscular antagonism, and locomotion. Crustaceans shed their rigid exoskeleton at each molt yet are still capable of forceful movement. We hypothesize that the soft water-inflated body of newly molted crabs may rely on a hydrostatic skeleton, similar to that of worms and polyps. We measured internal hydrostatic pressure and the force ...

The ternary semiconductor CuYS2 is studied by using the first-principles methods in the density functional theory (DFT) framework. The structural, electronic, optical and elastic properties were calculated at the ambient and elevated hydrostatic pressures. The compound was shown to have an indirect band gap of about 1.342/1.389 eV (in the generalized gradient and local density approximations, r...

The temperature dependence of the static dielectric susceptibility of a system with strongly coupled fluctuating dipoles is calculated within a self-consistent mean fluctuation field approximation. Results are qualitatively in good agreement with a quantum paraelectric SrTiO(3) in the low temperature regime. We identify this system as a gapped quantum paraelectric and suggest a possible experim...