Environmentally Friendly Thermoelectric Materials: High Performance from Inorganic Components with Low Toxicity and Abundance in the Earth

This review article gives an overview of the recent research directions in eco-friendly, non-toxic, and earth-abundant thermoelectric materials. It covers materials such as sulfides, tetrahedrites, earth-abundant oxides, silicides, copper iodine, Half-Heusler intermetallic compounds, nitrides, and other environmentally friendly thermoelectrics. In all cases, their history, structure, general characteristics, thermoelectric properties, synthesis methods, and related thermoelectric applications are compiled. It is also shown that they are starting to be an excellent alternative for producing cost-effective, sustainable, and non-toxic thermoelectric generators. This review does not try to include all possible materials, but to show that there are high zT thermoelectric materials that are starting to be an excellent alternative for producing cost-effective, sustainable, and non-toxic thermoelectric generators.O.C.-C. and M.M.-G. would like to acknowledge financial support from MAT2017-86450-C4-3-R and the 2D_MESES project from CSIC, and J.R.A., from RTI2018-099794-B-I100

SiGe quantum dots for fast hole spin Rabi oscillations

We report on hole g-factor measurements in three terminal SiGe self-assembled quantum dot devices with a top gate electrode positioned very close to the nanostructure. Measurements of both the perpendicular as well as the parallel g-factor reveal significant changes for a small modulation of the top gate voltage. From the observed modulations we estimate that, for realistic experimental conditions, hole spins can be electrically manipulated with Rabi frequencies in the order of 100MHz. This work emphasises the potential of hole-based nano-devices for efficient spin manipulation by means of the g-tensor modulation technique

Potential Role of Nuclear Factor κB in Diabetic Cardiomyopathy

Diabetic cardiomyopathy entails the cardiac injury induced by diabetes independently of any vascular disease or hypertension. Some transcription factors have been proposed to control the gene program involved in the setting and development of related processes. Nuclear factor-kappa B is a pleiotropic transcription factor associated to the regulation of many heart diseases. However, the nuclear factor-kappa B role in diabetic cardiomyopathy is under investigation. In this paper, we review the nuclear factor-kappa B pathway and its role in several processes that have been linked to diabetic cardiomyopathy, such as oxidative stress, inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, fibrosis, hypertrophy and apoptosis

A proteomic approach to the myocardium of hypertensive-diabetic rats

Comunicaciones a congreso

Inhibition of eukaryotic cell-free protein synthesis by thionins from wheat endosperm

Thionins are polypeptide toxins of about 5000 molecular weight, present in the endosperms of many Gramineae, which modify membrane permeability and inhibit macromolecular synthesis in cultured mammalian cells. Evidence is presented that they inhibit in vitro protein synthesis at micromolar concentrations in cell-free systems derived from wheat germ or from rabbit reticulocytes. Inhibition seems to occur by direct binding of mRNA by the toxin, as judged by the ability of thionins to mediate retention of RNA in nitrocellulose filters and by the dependence of inhibitory concentrations on the amount of exogenous RNA added to the wheat-germ translation system. Commercial preparations of wheat-germ have been found to include some endosperm contamination (up to 15%), which may result in at least partially inhibitory concentrations of the toxin in the cell-free extracts

La Paz de Utrecht y su impacto en el mundo atlántico. Una aproximación a partir del caso del Río de la Plata

At the beginning of the 18th century the War of the Spanish Succession (1700-1715) constitutes a conflict of central importance and the signature of the Utrecht Treaties, that put an end to it, had consequences of international significance. This work presents an issue that has been scantily studied: the impact of the war process and the consequences of the Treaties in the region of the Río de la Plata.A comienzos del siglo XVIII la guerra de Sucesión española (1700-1715) constituye un conflicto de central importancia y la firma de los tratados de Utrecht, que le ponen fin, tiene consecuencias de alcance internacional. En este trabajo se aborda un aspecto que ha sido escasamente estudiado: el impacto del proceso bélico y las consecuencias de los tratados que le pusieron fin en la región del Río de la Plat

Electronic plasma diffusion with radiation reaction force and time-dependent electric field

In this work the explicit solution of the electronic plasma diffusion with radiation reaction force, under the action of an exponential decay external electric field is given. The electron dynamics is described by a classical generalized Langevin equation characterized by an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck-type friction memory kernel, with an effective memory time which accounts for the effective thermal interaction between the electron and its surroundings (thermal collisions between electrons + radiation reaction force). The incident electric field exerts an electric force on the electron, which in turn can induce an additional damping to the braking radiation force, allowing a delay in the electron characteristic time. This fact allows that the effective memory time be finite and positive, and as a consequence, obtaining physically admissible solutions of the stochastic Abraham-Lorentz-like equation. It is shown that the diffusion process is quasi-Markovian which includes the radiation effects.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure