Functional characterization of generalized Langevin equations

We present an exact functional formalism to deal with linear Langevin equations with arbitrary memory kernels and driven by any noise structure characterized through its characteristic functional. No others hypothesis are assumed over the noise, neither the fluctuation dissipation theorem. We found that the characteristic functional of the linear process can be expressed in terms of noise's functional and the Green function of the deterministic (memory-like) dissipative dynamics. This object allow us to get a procedure to calculate all the Kolmogorov hierarchy of the non-Markov process. As examples we have characterized through the 1-time probability a noise-induced interplay between the dissipative dynamics and the structure of different noises. Conditions that lead to non-Gaussian statistics and distributions with long tails are analyzed. The introduction of arbitrary fluctuations in fractional Langevin equations have also been pointed out

Observing the evaporation transition in vibro-fluidized granular matter

By shaking a sand box the grains on the top start to jump giving the picture of evaporating a sand bulk, and a gaseous transition starts at the surface granular matter (GM) bed. Moreover the mixture of the grains in the whole bed starts to move in a cooperative way which is far away from a Brownian description. In a previous work we have shown that the key element to describe the statistics of this behavior is the exclusion of volume principle, whereby the system obeys a Fermi configurational approach. Even though the experiment involves an archetypal non-equilibrium system, we succeeded in defining a global temperature, as the quantity associated to the Lagrange parameter in a maximum entropic statistical description. In fact in order to close our approach we had to generalize the equipartition theorem for dissipative systems. Therefore we postulated, found and measured a fundamental dissipative parameter, written in terms of pumping and gravitational energies, linking the configurational entropy to the collective response for the expansion of the centre of mass (c.m.) of the granular bed. Here we present a kinetic approach to describe the experimental velocity distribution function (VDF) of this non-Maxwellian gas of macroscopic Fermi-like particles (mFp). The evaporation transition occurs mainly by jumping balls governed by the excluded volume principle. Surprisingly in the whole range of low temperatures that we measured this description reveals a lattice-gas, leading to a packing factor, which is independent of the external parameters. In addition we measure the mean free path, as a function of the driving frequency, and corroborate our prediction from the present kinetic theory.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted for publication September 1st, 200

FTIR-ATR detection method for emerging C3-plants-derivated adulterants in honey: Beet, dates, and carob syrups

The European Union Publications Office has recently presented a report on the European Union's coordinated action with the Joint Research Centre to determine certain fraudulent practices in the honey sector, in which it has been indicated that 74% of the samples analyzed, imported from China, and 93% of the samples analyzed, imported from Turkey, the two largest honey producers worldwide, presented at least one indicator of exogenous sugar or suspicion of being adulterated. This situation has revealed the critical state of the problem of honey adulteration worldwide and the need to develop analytical techniques for its detection. Even though the adulteration of honey is carried out in a general way with sweetened syrups derived from C4 plants, recent studies have indicated the emerging use of syrups derived from C3 plants for the adulteration of honey. This kind of adulteration makes it impossible to analyze its detection using official analysis techniques. In this work, we have developed a fast, simple, and economical method based on the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy technique, with attenuated total reflectance, for the qualitative, quantitative, and simultaneous determination of beetroot, date, and carob syrups, derived from of C3 plants; whose available bibliography is very scarce and analytically not very conclusive for its use by the authorities. The proposed method has been based on the establishment of the spectral differences between honey and the mentioned syrups at eight different points in the spectral region between 1200 and 900 cm-1 of the mid-infrared, characteristic of the vibrational modes of carbohydrates in honey, which allows the pre-discrimination of the presence or absence of the syrups studied, and their subsequent quantification, with precision levels lower than 2.0% of the relative standard deviation and relative errors lower than 2.0% (m/m).S

Fertilización nitrogenada para rendimiento objetivo de sorgo granífero en el Suroeste de la Provincia de Chaco, Argentina

Es reconocida y recomendada la incorporación del sorgo granífero a la rotación de cultivos por su contribución con el rastrojo al suelo, cobertura que brinda, en la época de barbecho, aporte de materia orgánica. Todo esto contribuye a disminuir la escorrentía. Se realizó un ensayo de fertilización nitrogenada en sorgo granífero, en siembra directa, en la Estación Experimental Agropecuaria INTA Las Breñas, 27º04´70´´ Sur y 61º03´30´´ Oeste con determinación de nitratos a la siembra para ajuste de dosis de nitrógeno en función de un rendimiento esperado (rendimiento objetivo). Se evaluaron 2 (dos) tratamientos de fertilización, 30 (T1) y 90 (T2) kg ha –1 de urea, con un contenido de 46 % de N, incorporada al costado de la línea de siembra en el estado V6 y un tratamiento testigo sin fertilizar (T0), para una producción objetivo de 8.000 kg grano x ha–1 en T1 y 10.000 kg grano x ha–1 en T2. Se utilizó un diseño en Bloques Completamente Aleatorizados con cuatro repeticiones. El cultivar fue Morgan 109, de ciclo intermedio, sembrado el 22 de enero de 2008, lográndose 100.000 plantas ha–1. Durante el ciclo del cultivo se controlaron las plagas condicionantes. La producción de granos del tratamiento T0 fue de 4.942,11 kg ha–1, del T1 7.345,86 kg ha–1 y del T2 8.518,89 kg ha–1, no existiendo diferencias significativas entre T1 y T2(p ≤ 0,05). El consumo de agua en el ciclo fue de 301,5 mm, el T0 tuvo una eficiencia en el uso del agua de 16,4 kg grano por mm agua–1 utilizada, el T1 24,4 kg grano por mm agua–1 y el T2 28,3 kg grano por mm de agua–1. La eficiencia del uso del fertilizante fue de 80,1 kg de grano por kg urea–1 utilizada para T1 y 39,7 kg de grano por kg urea–1 utilizada para T2. El rendimiento de granos, en función de las dosis de urea, respondió a una ecuación polinómica de 2º Orden Y= 0,673 x2 + 100,32 x + 4.942,1. Los datos obtenidos indican que fue posible incrementar los rendimientos de sorgo granífero a través de la fertilización nitrogenada en V6, utilizando la metodología de rendimiento objetivo bajo las condiciones de experimentación mencionadas a pesar de contar con suelos bien provistos en nitratos a la siembra

Drag Force in a Charged N=4 SYM Plasma

Following recent developments, we employ the AdS/CFT correspondence to determine the drag force exerted on an external quark that moves through an N=4 super-Yang-Mills plasma with a non-zero R-charge density (or, equivalently, a non-zero chemical potential). We find that the drag force is larger than in the case where the plasma is neutral, but the dependence on the charge is non-monotonic.Comment: 16 pages, 1 eps figure; v2: references added, typos fixed; v3: more general ansatz, new nontrivial solution obtained, nonmonotonicity of the drag force made explicit in new figure, version to appear in JHE

Long-term hydrological changes in northern Iberia (4.9–0.9 ky BP) from speleothem Mg/Ca ratios and cave monitoring (Ojo Guareña Karst Complex, Spain)

An absolute-dated stalagmite from Kaite Cave (Ojo Guareña Karst Complex, N Spain) provides a nearly continuous, high-resolution record of a proxy of regional precipitation patterns through the 4.9–0.9 ka BP interval. This record is based on the Mg/Ca ratio of the calcite and its variation through the stalagmite stratigraphy, which is interpreted to be primarily driven by changes in precipitation amount. The calibration of the proxy is supported by the present-day monitoring carried out in the cave for the last 10 years, which reveals a robust inverse relationship between the inter-annual/inter-decadal variability of rainfall and the Mg concentration of dripwaters and precipitating speleothems. The record of paleoprecipitation, based on 2400 Mg/Ca measurements, shows strong variability at inter-annual to inter-decadal scales, and more subtle but significant changes at secular to millennial scales. This long-term paleohydrological evolution outlines five successive intervals with consistent trends, which are bounded by abrupt shifts in the regional precipitation. These shifts took place at 4.65, 4.2, 2.6, and 1.3 ka BP. Significantly, the intervals of maximum precipitation of the whole record (around 4.9–4.65, 2.6–2.45, and 1.3–1.1 ka BP) can be related with episodes of minimum solar activity and correlated with cold climatic events elsewhere.Contribution to research projects 28 CGL2010-21499-BTE and CGL2013-43257-R of the Spanish R+D National Program 29 (MINECO) and research groups ‘‘Paleoclimatology and Global Change’’ and ‘‘Laser Induced 30 Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)’’ from the UCM (Spain).Peer reviewe

Association between bullying and major depressive disorder in a psychiatric consultation

Assess if there is a significant association between being bullied and presenting depressive symptoms. Materials and methods: In the March---October period of the present year, 8---16-year-old children and adolescents that attended psychiatric consultation for the first time in Dr. Eleuterio González Hospital were included in this study. Test Bull-S was used to determine the presence of bullying (Victim subtype); to evaluate depression 2 instruments were used according to age: Children’s Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R) for 8---12-year olds and the Birleson Depression Self-Rating Scale (DSRS) for 13---16-year olds. A total of 147 clinical patients were studied (73 women and 74 men). Data were captured in excel and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program was used for statistical analysis. Results: A very significant association was found between being bullied and presenting depression (X2 = .289, p = .0004). Conclusions: These data are in agreement with national and international studies, therefore, reinforcing the evidence of such association. This is why we suggest inquiring about bullying in children and adolescents whose chief complaint is depressive symptomatolog

Multielemental analysis of Antarctic soils using calibration free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a quick technique that allows the analysis of all types of samples without destroying them and with much reduced sample treatment. One of its many applications is the study of geological samples such as soils. Because of the complexity of the matrix, it is very difficult to find or manufacture standards for these types of samples. Therefore, a good alternative is to make use of a methodology, called Calibration Free (CF), where instead of using standards, the physical parameters of the plasma created by the interaction of the laser with the sample are studied and related to the elements and species that compose it. This methodology is followed to perform a multielemental quantitative analysis of soil samples from Antarctica. Two studies were made, differing in the optimization of the instrumental parameters in order to obtain the best possible spectra in the chosen spectral lines. In both cases, the signal to noise ratio (SNR) was used to evaluate the quality of the spectra, but in the second study a full factorial design 23 with center and axial points was developed to get better results. The choice of spectral lines was based on a series of criteria, being stricter in the second study. The samples were mainly composed of the following oxides: SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, CaO, MgO, Na2O, TiO and K2O. In the second study, it was also possible to determine the species present in lower concentrations: Mn, Cr, V, Sr, Zr, BA and Li. The results were compared with those provided by ICP-OES analysis, obtaining close values for most oxides, especially in the second study. For minority elements, the CF-LIBS and the ICP-OES results were within the same order of magnitude in all cases except the Cr case. These results show that CF-LIBS can be very useful in the characterization of complex samples from remote regions, such as Antarctic soils