Universality in metallic nanocohesion: a quantum chaos approach

Convergent semiclassical trace formulae for the density of states and cohesive force of a narrow constriction in an electron gas, whose classical motion is either chaotic or integrable, are derived. It is shown that mode quantization in a metallic point contact or nanowire leads to universal oscillations in its cohesive force: the amplitude of the oscillations depends only on a dimensionless quantum parameter describing the crossover from chaotic to integrable motion, and is of order 1 nano-Newton, in agreement with recent experiments. Interestingly, quantum tunneling is shown to be described quantitatively in terms of the instability of the classical periodic orbits.Comment: corrects spelling of one author name on abstract page (paper is unchanged

Force, charge, and conductance of an ideal metallic nanowire

The conducting and mechanical properties of a metallic nanowire formed at the junction between two macroscopic metallic electrodes are investigated. Both two- and three-dimensional wires with a W(ide)-N(arrow)-W(ide) geometry are modelled in the free-electron approximation with hard-wall boundary conditions. Tunneling and quantum-size effects are treated exactly using the scattering matrix formalism. Oscillations of order E_F/lambda_F in the tensile force are found when the wire is stretched to the breaking point, which are synchronized with quantized jumps in the conductance. The force and conductance are shown to be essentially independent of the width of the wide sections (electrodes). The exact results are compared with an adiabatic approximation; the later is found to overestimate the effects of tunneling, but still gives qualitatively reasonable results for nanowires of length L>>lambda_F, even for this abrupt geometry. In addition to the force and conductance, the net charge of the nanowire is calculated and the effects of screening are included within linear response theory. Mesoscopic charge fluctuations of order e are predicted which are strongly correlated with the mesoscopic force fluctuations. The local density of states at the Fermi energy exhibits nontrivial behavior which is correlated with fine structure in the force and conductance, showing the importance of treating the whole wire as a mesoscopic system rather than treating only the narrow part.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

MIBiG 3.0: a community-driven effort to annotate experimentally validated biosynthetic gene clusters

Microbial Biotechnolog

La renovación de la palabra en el bicentenario de la Argentina : los colores de la mirada lingüística

El libro reúne trabajos en los que se exponen resultados de investigaciones presentadas por investigadores de Argentina, Chile, Brasil, España, Italia y Alemania en el XII Congreso de la Sociedad Argentina de Lingüística (SAL), Bicentenario: la renovación de la palabra, realizado en Mendoza, Argentina, entre el 6 y el 9 de abril de 2010. Las temáticas abordadas en los 167 capítulos muestran las grandes líneas de investigación que se desarrollan fundamentalmente en nuestro país, pero también en los otros países mencionados arriba, y señalan además las áreas que recién se inician, con poca tradición en nuestro país y que deberían fomentarse. Los trabajos aquí publicados se enmarcan dentro de las siguientes disciplinas y/o campos de investigación: Fonología, Sintaxis, Semántica y Pragmática, Lingüística Cognitiva, Análisis del Discurso, Psicolingüística, Adquisición de la Lengua, Sociolingüística y Dialectología, Didáctica de la lengua, Lingüística Aplicada, Lingüística Computacional, Historia de la Lengua y la Lingüística, Lenguas Aborígenes, Filosofía del Lenguaje, Lexicología y Terminología

Study by XPS and UV-visible and DRIFT spectroscopes of electropolymerized films of substituted Ni(II)-p-phenylporphyrins and -phthalocyanines

6 pags, 7 figs, 5 tabsFilms of nickel tetrasulfophthalocyanine and -p-phenylporphyrin (NiTSPc and NiTSPP, respectively) were obtained by repetitive cyclic voltammetry (RCV) of the 1 mM complex in aqueous solution, while films of the water-insoluble nickel tetraaminophthalocyanine and -p-phenylporphyrin (NiTAPc and NiTAPP, respectively) had to be obtained by RCV of the 1 mM complex in organic solvents. Glassy carbon (GC), ITO, or platinum electrodes were used as substrates. The modified electrodes were characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and UV-visible, infrared, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. The CVs of the sulfo films showed the characteristic peaks of the Ni(II)/Ni(III) process, whereas the CVs of the amino films did not, very small Ni(II)/Ni(III) peaks appearing only after activation by RCV. Upon oxidation to Ni(III) both sulfo films changed from transparent to dark violet. The IR spectra of the polyNiTSPP and the polyNiTSPc films showed bands at 3628 cm-1 and 3500 cm -1, respectively, which could be due to interstitial water molecules occluded during the polymerization. The Ni 2p XP spectra indicate that the magnetic character of the Ni(II) ions in NiTSPP is dramatically changed by the polymerization, from diamagnetic in the monomer to paramagnetic in the polymeric film, indicating the formation of Ni-O-Ni bridges or of clusters of Ni(OH) 2. On the contrary, the Ni 2p XP spectra of the unactivated NiTAPP film, in which the Ni(II)/Ni(III) process was absent, showed only diamagnetic Ni(II). Therefore, it is concluded that only paramagnetic Ni(II) ions can be electrooxidized to Ni(III). © 2008 American Chemical Society.The authors appreciate the financial support of DICYT-USACh and FONDECYT 1070290, as well as the CSIC (Spain)-USACh (Chile) joint program

Electro-oxidation of chlorophenols at glassy carbon electrodes modified with polyNi(II)complexes

9 pags, 10 figs, 1 tabThe effect of the ligand macrocycle (phenylporphyrin (PP) or phthalocyanine (Pc)) and of the ligand substituent ({single bond}NH2 or {single bond}SO3 -) on the catalytic activity for the electro-oxidation in a pH 11 buffer electrolyte of 2- and 4-chlorophenol (2-CP and 4-CP), 2,4- and 2,6-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP and 2,6-DCP), 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP), and pentachlorophenol (PCP) at glassy carbon electrodes modified with electropolymerized Ni(II) macrocycles was studied. The polyphenolic residue deposited at the electrode surface was characterized by cyclic voltammetry, impedance measurements, ex situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). A band of aliphatic C{double bond, long}O stretching in the IR spectrum of the fouling film produced by potential cycling in 2,4,6-TCP indicated that the aromatic ring had been broken, yielding ketones, aldehydes and/or carboxylic acids. The sulphonated Ni(II) polymers, which showed the Ni(III)/Ni(II) process in the CV, had XP spectra typical of paramagnetic Ni(II), indicating that they contained Ni(OH)2 clusters. On the contrary, the CVs of the amino Ni(II) did not show the Ni(III)/Ni(II) process at all, this process appearing only after previous activation by potential cycling, and only to a small extent. As was to be expected, the XP spectra of activated amino films corresponded to diamagnetic Ni(II), showing that the concentration of Ni(OH)2 clusters was very small. The amino films were less active than the sulpho films for the oxidation of chlorophenols, in agreement with the lower concentration of Ni(OH)2 clusters in the former films. For all electrodes the highest activity was observed for 2,4,6-TCP, since its oxidation yields a phenolic residue which is much more porous than those produced by the other CPs. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Financial support from FONDECYT-CONICYT-Chile, Grant1070290, is gratefully acknowledge

Evaluation of Multi-Agent Systems: proposal and validation of a metric plan

In the MAS evaluation research field there are still few works devoted to evaluating systems’ efficacy, and none of these aimed to measure the adequacy of the MAS in terms of rationality, autonomy, reactivity and environment adaptability. A reliable evaluation method should be general enough to estimate the success of the multi-agent paradigm in different domains, measuring the performances of each single agent and then of the entire MAS. Moreover, it should be able to relate these measures to the environment complexity, that embodies the complexity of the problem solved by the MAS. In this paper a method for evaluating static multi-agent systems is presented and its validation described. The main novelties of the method are that it allows the MAS to be evaluated in the context of the environment in which it will operate, and its adequacy to the environment to be judged from the viewpoints of both the designer, wishful to measure the quality of the designed MAS, and the evaluator, wishful to verify the adequacy of several MASs in a specific context. A validation of the method is described, carried out by evaluating two MASs: the GeCo-Automotive system and a Multi-Agent Tourism Recommender system