Critical Steps of Plasmodium falciparum Ookinete Maturation

The egress and fertilization of Plasmodium gametes and development of a motile ookinete are the first crucial steps that mediate the successful transmission of the malaria parasites from humans to the Anopheles vector. However, limited information exists about the cell biology and regulation of this process. Technical impediments in the establishment of in vitro conditions for ookinete maturation in Plasmodium falciparum and other human malaria parasites further constrain a detailed characterization of ookinete maturation. Here, using fluorescence microscopy and immunolabeling, we compared P. falciparum ookinete maturation in Anopheles coluzzii mosquitoes in vivo and in cell culture in vitro. Our results identified two critical steps in ookinete maturation that are regulated by distinct mosquito factors, thereby highlighting the role of the mosquito environment in the transmission efficiency of malaria parasites

Bound states in the continuum: localization of Dirac-like fermions

We report the formation of bound states in the continuum for Dirac-like fermions in structures composed by a trilayer graphene flake connected to nanoribbon leads. The existence of this kind of localized states can be proved by combining local density of states and electronic conductance calculations. By applying a gate voltage, the bound states couple to the continuum, yielding a maximum in the electronic transmission. This feature can be exploited to identify bound states in the continuum in graphene-based structures.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Desigualdades en los sistemas educativos en la Educación Infantil

Treball Final de Grau en Mestre o Mestra d'Educació Infantil. Codi: MI1040. Curs acadèmic: 2016/2017Este trabajo tiene como objetivo realizar un estudio sobre las desigualdades en los sistemas educativos europeos en la etapa de infantil. Su metodología se basa en búsquedas bibliográficas relacionadas con el tema de las desigualdades en los sistemas educativos de los países a comparar (España, Grecia, Alemania y Finlandia). Con estas búsquedas se pretende comparar los elementos más destacados dentro de cada sistema educativo. Para llevar a cabo estas búsquedas se han utilizado diversas fuentes, como libros, artículos de revistas de educación y materiales extraídos de la red. La parte principal de este trabajo corresponde a la descripción de la educación infantil en España y otros países de Europa como Grecia, Alemania y Finlandia, para observar las desigualdades que presentan y así, poder compararlas. A continuación, se resumen las desigualdades observadas en los distintos sistemas educativos, centrándonos en el inicio de la educación infantil, la obligatoriedad de esta, la escolarización y la financiación. Finalmente, se presentan las conclusiones. Ningún modelo educativo por sí solo puede ser más o menos efectivo sobre otro sistema.

Documentation and Data Management Strategies for Frank Lloyd Wright\u27s Taliesin West

Managers of historic sites must address issues of visitation, conservation, documentation, recording, and educational programs as part of their responsibilities on a daily basis. As a result, vast amounts of data in varying formats have to be organized to satisfy both current and future needs. Due to the absence of a universal preservation management methodology, often the best methods and most useful software for the needs of the site are difficult to identify, expensive to deploy, have a questionable long-term service life and have difficulty addressing the wide range of factors at play on a historic site. Data that is collected is often not processed to a level where it can have long term usefulness resulting in swollen servers that contain vast amounts of data that can be difficult to isolate for a given need. In house solutions often are conceived out of necessity, typically are unique to a given site and often result in data that serves only a narrow range of functions. Adding to this complex web, sites are often dependent on outside forces to help with the collection process. Still, different parties can often arrive at different solutions, even when focusing on the same resource, resulting in the redundancy of labor and data. Focusing on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West office space, as a case study, this thesis attempts to evaluate and compare past and current data collection methods used by both Taliesin, as well as outside parties, in an effort to identify a common foundation on which a Building Information Modeling (BIM) platform could be constructed. The modern use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) has great potential for historic sites, but the high costs and steep learning curves associated with the leading BIM software significantly reduces the likelihood that they will find solid traction in the management of historic sites in the near future. As a result, an additional goal is to identify a cost-effective digital methodology that employs BIM style management, which can address several current issues. These includes 1) helping to reduce data collection redundancy, 2) offering a resource that can meet the wide range of needs of the Taliesin management team on both a day-to-day, as well as a long term basis, and 3) offering solutions to meet the needs of outside parties without having to radically modify or redo existing data

Electron-phonon coupling in 122 Fe pnictides analyzed by femtosecond time-resolved photoemission

Based on results from femtosecond time-resolved photoemission, we compare three different methods for determination of the electron-phonon coupling constant {\lambda} in Eu and Ba-based 122 FeAs compounds. We find good agreement between all three methods, which reveal a small {\lambda} < 0.2. This makes simple electron-phonon mediated superconductivity unlikely in these compounds.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Quantum critical behavior of electrons at the edge of charge order

We consider quantum critical points (QCP) in which quantum fluctuations associated with charge rather than magnetic order induce unconventional metallic properties. Based on finite-T calculations on a two-dimensional extended Hubbard model we show how the coherence scale T* characteristic of Fermi liquid behavior of the homogeneous metal vanishes at the onset of charge order. A strong effective mass enhancement reminiscent of heavy fermion behavior indicates the possible destruction of quasiparticles at the QCP. Experimental probes on quarter-filled layered organic materials are proposed for unveiling the behavior of electrons across the quantum critical region.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

NGC 5694: another foster son of the Galactic Halo

We present the results of the analysis of high-resolution spectra obtained with UVES-FLAMES@VLT for six red giant branch stars in the outer-halo metal-poor ([Fe/H]I=-1.98 and [Fe/H]II=-1.83) Galactic globular cluster NGC 5694, which has been suggested as a possible incomer by Lee et al. (2006) based on the anomalous chemical composition of a single cluster giant. We obtain accurate abundances for a large number of elements and we find that: (a) the six target stars have the same chemical composition within the uncertainties, except for Na and Al; (b) the average cluster abundance of \alpha\ elements (with the only exception of Si) is nearly solar, at odds with typical halo stars and globular clusters of similar metallicity; (c) Y, Ba, La and Eu abundances are also significantly lower than in Galactic field stars and star clusters of similar metallicity. Hence we confirm the Lee et al. classification of NGC 5694 as a cluster of extra-galactic origin. We provide the first insight on the Na-O and Mg-Al anti-correlations in this cluster: all the considered stars have very similar abundance ratios for these elements, except one that has significantly lower [Na/Fe] and [Al/Fe] ratios, suggesting that some degree of early self-enrichment has occurred also in this cluster.Comment: Accepted for publication by MNRAS. 15 pages, 8 figures, 4 table

A proposal for scheduling and delivery orders under VMI environment

[ENG] Vendor managed inventory (VMI) is a widely applied stock management method in SCM in which the inventory is controlled, planned and managed by the supplier, on behalf of the organization which consumes the product, based on an expected demand and on previously agreed inventory levels. Thus, is the supplier who, according to the customer inventory levels, generates a purchase order defining quantities and delivery dates. As a general rule, when such a stock management system is introduced, the objectives are diverse. One of the most important is to avoid excessive inventory levels in the different elements of the supply chain and the Bullwhip effect caused by demand variability. In addition, it is reasonable to expect a reduction of the administrative costs, due for instance to duplicity of administrative errors in the transmission of information. In the case described in this paper, the company QMC was able to identify the opportunity to improve some specific aspects on its operations management, relating to the products that as “vendor” would manage through VMI

On Certain Kähler Quotients of Quaternionic Kähler Manifolds

We prove that, given a certain isometric action of a two-dimensional Abelian group A on a quaternionic Kähler manifold M which preserves a submanifold N ⊂ M, the quotient M′ =N/A has a natural Kähler structure. We verify that the assumptions on the group action and on the submanifold N ⊂ M are satisfied for a large class of examples obtained from the supergravity c-map. In particular, we find that all quaternionic Kähler manifolds M in the image of the c-map admit an integrable complex structure compatible with the quaternionic structure, such that N ⊂ M is a complex submanifold. Finally, we discuss how the existence of the Kähler structure on M′ is required by the consistency of spontaneous $${\mathcal{N} = 2}$$ to $${\mathcal{N} = 1}$$ supersymmetry breakin