Structural investigations on ϵ\epsilon-FeGe at high pressure and low temperature

The structural parameters of $\epsilon$-FeGe have been determined at ambient conditions using single crystal refinement. Powder diffraction have been carried out to determine structural properties and compressibility for pressures up to 30 GPa and temperatures as low as 82 K. The discontinuous change in the pressure dependence of the shortest Fe-Ge interatomic distance might be interpreted as a symmetry-conserving transition and seems to be related to a magnetic phase boundary line.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Superconductivity in SrFe_(2-x)Co_xAs_2: Internal Doping of the Iron Arsenide Layers

In the electron doped compounds SrFe_(2-x)Co_xAs_2 superconductivity with T_c up to 20 K is observed for 0.2 < x < 0.4. Results of structure determination, magnetic susceptibility, electrical resistivity, and specific heat are reported. The observation of bulk superconductivity in all thermodynamic properties -- despite strong disorder in the Fe-As layer -- favors an itinerant picture in contrast to the cuprates and renders a p- or d-wave scenario unlikely. DFT calculations find that the substitution of Fe by Co (x > 0.3) leads to the suppression of the magnetic ordering present in SrFe_2As_2 due to a rigid down-shift of the Fe-3d_(x^2-y^2) related band edge in the density of states.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Making Good Lawyers

Today, the criticism of law schools has become an industry. Detractors argue that legal education fails to effectively prepare students for the practice of law, that it is too theoretical and detached from the profession, that it dehumanizes and alienates students, too expensive and inapt in helping students develop a sense of professional identity, professional values, and professionalism. In this sea of criticisms it is hard to see the forest from the trees. “There is so much wrong with legal education today,” writes one commentator, “that it is hard to know where to begin.” This article argues that any reform agenda will fall short if it does not start by recognizing the dominant influence of the culture of autonomous self-interest in legal education. Law schools engage in a project of professional formation and instill a very particular brand of professional identity. They educate students to become autonomously self-interested lawyers who see their clients and themselves as pursuing self-interest as atomistic actors. As a result, they understand that their primary role is to serve as neutral partisans who promote the narrow self-interest of clients without regard to the interests of their families, neighbors, colleagues, or communities and to the exclusion of counseling clients on the implications of those interests. They view as marginal their roles as an officer of the legal system and as a public citizen and accordingly place a low priority on traditional professional values, such as the commitment to the public good, that conflict with their primary allegiance to autonomous self-interest. In this work of professional formation, law schools are reflecting the values and commitments of the autonomously self-interested culture that is dominant in the legal profession. Therefore, even if law schools sought to form a professional identity outside of the mold of autonomous self-interest, such a commitment would require much more than curricular reform. It would, at minimum, require the construction of a persuasive alternative understanding of the lawyer’s role. The article seeks to offer such an understanding grounded in a relational perspective on lawyers and clients. Part I offers workable definitions of professionalism and professional identity that enable an informed discussion of the formation of professional identity in and by law schools. Part II explores what and how legal education teaches students showing that both institutionally (at the law school level) and individually (at the law professor level) legal education is proactively engaged in the formation of a professional identity of autonomous self-interest. Part II further explains that its dominance in legal education notwithstanding, autonomous self-interest is but one, often unpersuasive, account of professionalism and professional identity. Part III turns to the competing vision of relationally self-interested professionalism and professional identity and develops an outline for legal education grounded in these conceptions. Because legal education reflects a deep commitment to the dominant culture of autonomous self-interest, it is unlikely that reform proposals that are inconsistent with that culture are likely to succeed in the near future. Yet proposing an alternative account of professional identity that exposes the assumptions of the dominant culture, explains their limitations, and develops a more persuasive understanding is a necessary step toward providing a workable framework for reformers committed to promoting professional values in the long term

Comissão Nacional da Verdade e a rede de comissões estaduais, municipais e setoriais: a trajetória do Brasil

These are preliminary surveys of the network of state, municipal and sectorial truth commissions, a peculiarity established in Brazil as a result of the creation of the National Truth Commission in late 2012, of which they are branches. The text tries to show that this network has contributed significantly to the achievement of the goals of the National Commission. Indeed, it has given the Commission the means of having a capillary action in a country of continental dimensions, uniting and organizing efforts in the search for documents and in the organization of hearings, political acts and technical visits to sites related to human rights violations in Brazil during the period the law that created it has established – particularly the military dictatorship, from 1964 to 1985.Trata-se de levantamento preliminar da rede de comissões estaduais, municipais e setoriais da verdade, uma peculiaridade instituída no Brasil em consequência e como desdobramento da criação da Comissão Nacional da Verdade – CNV, no final de 2012. O texto tenta demonstrar que essa rede contribuiu de forma significativa para o cumprimento do objetivo da comissão nacional, pois teria dado capilaridade de ação em um país de dimensões continentais, unindo e organizando o esforço na busca de documentos, na realização de audiências, de atos políticos e de visitas técnicas a locais relacionados com os graves crimes cometidos contra os direitos humanos no Brasil no período estabelecido pela lei que criou a Comissão Nacional da Verdade – CNV, sobretudo no período da ditadura militar, de 1964 a 1985

Synthesis, Crystal Structure Refinement, and Electrical Conductivity of Pb(8−x)Na2Smx(VO4)6O(x/2)

Solid solutions of Pb(8−x)Na2Smx(VO4)6O(x/2) were studied using X-ray diffraction analysis including Rietveld refinement and scanning electron microscopy and by measuring their electrical conductivity. Crystal structure of the solid solutions was refined and the solubility region 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.2 was determined for samarium substitution for lead under the scheme 2Pb2+ + ◻ → 2Sm3+ + O2-. The influence of degree of substitution on the electrical conductivity of solid solutions was established

Structure and bonding in TiNiSi type LaMgSnH intermetallic hydride

publishedVersio

Hydrogen induced structural phase transformation in ScNiSn-based intermetallic hydride characterized by experimental and computational studies

Understanding an interrelation between the structure, chemical composition and hydrogenation properties of intermetallic hydrides is crucial for the improvement of their hydrogen storage performance. Ability to form the hydrides and to tune the thermodynamics and kinetics of their interaction with hydrogen is related to their chemical composition. Some features of the metal–hydrogen interactions remain however poorly studied, including chemistry of Sc-containing hydrides. ZrNiAl-type ScNiSn-based intermetallic hydride has been probed in the present work using a broad range of experimental techniques including Synchrotron and Neutron Powder Diffraction, $^{119}$Sn Möessbauer Spectroscopy, hydrogenation at pressures reaching several kbar H$_2$ and hydrogen Thermal Desorption Spectroscopy studies. Computational DFT calculations have been furthermore performed. This allowed to establish the mechanism of the phase-structural transformation and electronic structure changes causing a unique contraction of the metal lattice of intermetallic alloy and the formation of the ...H-Ni-H-Ni… chains in the structure with H atoms carrying a partial negative charge. Such hydrogen absorption accompanied by a formation of a covalent Ni-H bonding and causing an unusual behavior contracts to the conventionally observed bonding mechanism of hydrogen in metals as based on the metallic bonding frequently accompanied by a jumping diffusion movement of the inserted H atoms – in contrast to the directional Metal-Hydrogen bonding observed in the present work. At high applied pressures ScNiSnH$_{0.83}$ orthorhombic TiNiSi type hydride is formed with H atoms filling Sc$_3$Ni tetrahedra. Finally, this study shows that scandium closely resembles the behavior of the heavy rare earth metal holmium