Quantum Materials Discovery by Combining Chemical and Physical Design Principles

Abstract: Exploratory quantum materials discovery remains crucial to progress in material science. Due to the grand challenges that we are facing in predicting these materials and their properties from scratch, chemical design principles remain a key ingredient for the discovery of new materials. Chemical heuristics, structure, bonding, as well as global and local symmetries are at the very foundation of materials properties. In this regard, in this research, we aim to identify functional materials by composition-structure-property understanding. Materials discovery consists of a subset of methods and design principles that go hand in hand until a desired material or property is realized. However, materials synthesis is still far from a rational design approach. Rather, materials, and especially metastable materials, have to be accessed and synthesized in an exploratory, laboratory-intensive fashion. At the same time, quantum materials discovery is a vibrant highly active field of research that has seen various leaps of progress in recent years, and that holds the promise for many more in the coming years. Here, we lay out how we are discovering new materials and new materials physics in our and other chemical physics, or physical chemistry research groups, and how chemistry and chemical synthesis play a crucial role in this process.

Incidencia del capital humano y la capacidad financiera en la productividad del agricultor en la provincia de Virú, 2018

El presente trabajo de investigación tuvo como objetivo principal analizar la incidencia del capital humano y la capacidad financiera en la productividad del agricultor de la provincia de Virú en el año 2018. El desarrollo se apoyó en base a un modelo Probit con datos del último Censo Nacional Agropecuario, realizado en el año 2018, para estudiar la productividad agrícola de los 54 encuestados del distrito de Virú. Las variables objetivo fueron la productividad, capacidad humana y capacidad financiera. Debido a los cambios de observaciones de un año a otro, la forma de medir la productividad es la media de la producción de los agricultores de la provincia de Virú en el año 2018, con una decisión binaria: 1, productivo (de la media para arriba); 0, improductivo (por debajo de la media). Mientras que el capital humano está compuesto por indicadores como: técnicas de cultivo, estudio de suelo, edad y sexo; y la capacidad financiera, medido por el acceso a crédito, residencia en la unidad agrícola y otros ingresos. Los resultados indican que la productividad del agricultor de Virú es negativa a medida que el productor agrícola se dedica a otras actividades comerciales o agrícolas en otras unidades agropecuarias, para obtener otros ingresos. De igual modo, la residencia del productor dentro de la unidad agropecuaria, también afecta negativamente a la productividad a partir de los 43 años. Por otro lado, encontramos que la diferencia en el uso y manejo de análisis de suelos es baja, en 1.012% para el aumento de la productividad. Otros factores como la edad, sexo y usar abono influyen significativamente en la productividad del agricultor.The main objective of this research was to analyze the incidence of human capital and financial capacity on the productivity of the farmer in the province of Viru in 2018. The development was based on a Probit model with data from the last National Agricultural Census, carried out in 2018, to study the agricultural productivity of the 54 respondents from the Viru district. The objective variables were productivity, human capacity and financial capacity. Due to the changes in observations from one year to another, the way to measure productivity is the average of the production of farmers in the province of Viru in 2018, with a binary decision: 1, productive (from the mean for up); 0, unproductive (below average). While human capital is made up of indicators such as: cultivation techniques, soil study, age and sex; and financial capacity, measured by access to credit, farm residency, and other income. The results indicate that the productivity of the farmer in Viru is negative as the agricultural producer engages in other commercial or agricultural activities, to get other income for them. Similarly, the producer residence inside the agricultural unit, also negatively affects the farmer productivity at the age of 43. On the other hand, we found that the difference in the use and management of soil analysis is low, at 1,012% for increased productivity. Other factors such as age, sex, and using fertilizer, significantly influence farmer productivity.Tesi

Creencias Sobre el Aprendizaje de Idiomas: Un estudio exploratorio sobre las creencias de los estudiantes de secundaria inferior en Noruega en relación con el aprendizaje de español como tercera lengua.

In the field of foreign and third language learning, beliefs, as one of the determining factors in the learning of lower secondary students in Norway, remain relatively unexplored. This study investigates the beliefs about Spanish learning of students from a lower secondary school in Norway, using the BALLI questionnaire (beliefs about language learning inventory) developed by Horwitz (1988). In addition to describing the beliefs of the students, the study explores the differences between the beliefs of the students of the 3 grades that make up the lower secondary school: 8th, 9th and 10th. A total of 87 students participated in this study in February 2021. Data was analyzed using 6-component factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha. The study consisted of 5 analysis factors related to the BALLI inventory. Factor 1: Difficulty learning the language. Factor 2: Ability to learn foreign languages. Factor 3: Nature of language learning. Factor 4: Communication and learning strategies. Factor 5: Motivation and expectations. In addition, as a contribution to the study, the researcher created and included one more factor to explore the beliefs of the students who, at the time of the application of the project, were learning Spanish through English, the second language of the students. Factor 6: Beliefs about learning Spanish through L2. Study participants appear to have a variety of beliefs. Similar responses were found in several factors, but also significant differences between the responses of the students of the 3 courses. This study contributes to the increasingly necessary exploration and understanding of the role of beliefs in language learning in secondary school students. Conducting additional studies in other groups of students, in other institutions in Norway, could allow a comparison 6 of results to help produce a clearer picture of the beliefs and expectations about language learning of students in secondary schools in the country.Spanish and Latin-American Studies - Master's ThesisSPLA350MAHF-SPLAMAHF-LÆF

Recorridos de Estudio y de Investigación (REI) co-disciplinares a la Física y la Matemática con profesores en formación en la Universidad

En este trabajo se presentan resultados de una investigación que desarrolla la Pedagogía de la Investigación y del Cuestionamiento del mundo (Chevallard, 2012) en la Universidad. Se propone un Recorrido de Estudio y de Investigación (REI) a partir de una pregunta que requiere estudiar física y matemática juntas. Se presentan aquí algunos resultados preliminares de las implementaciones del REI desarrolladas durante dos años consecutivos con estudiantes de Profesorado en Matemática de la Universidad. El desarrollo y el alcance del REI implementado, se describe utilizando los componentes del REI definidos por la Teoría Antropológica de lo Didáctico (TAD) de Chevallard (2012), y vinculando los mismos con las modificaciones necesarias para su viabilidad a partir de las funciones didácticas topogénesis, cronogénesis y mesogénesis. El análisis de estas funciones permite generar algunas conclusiones sobre la ecología de la pedagogía de la investigación en la Universidad.This work shows the results of a study which develops the Pedagogy of Research and Questioning the World (Chevallard, 2012) in the University. A Research and Study Course (RSC) on questions connected to Physics and Mathematics is carried out. We present preliminary results of the RSC developed pendant two consecutive years with Mathematics teacher students at University. The development and scope of the RSC in each group is described by using the RSC components as defined by Chevallard’s Anthropological Theory of Didactics (ATD) (2012), and linking the same ones with the modifications necessary for his viability, from the didactic functions topogenesis, mesogenesis and chronogenesis. The analysis of these functions allows generating some conclusions concerning the ecology of the pedagogy of research and questioning the world at university.Fil: Llanos, Viviana Carolina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Núcleo de Investigación En Educacion Ciencia y Tecnologia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Otero, Maria Rita. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Núcleo de Investigación En Educacion Ciencia y Tecnologia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Gazzola Bascougnet, María Paz. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Núcleo de Investigación En Educacion Ciencia y Tecnologia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Arlego, Marcelo Jose Fabian. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Núcleo de Investigación En Educacion Ciencia y Tecnologia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tandil; Argentin

CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF LIGNANS FROM ARAUCARIA ARAUCANA A NATIVE CONIFER OF CHILE AND EVALUATION OF THEIR CYTOTOXICITY AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES

ABSTRACT Araucaria araucana is a native conifer of Chile commonly called Araucaria. The knots of Araucaria are extremely hard wood and highly rot-resistant, they can be found in the forest decades after that the tree has dead and decomposed. Here we report the phytochemical characterization of different parts of the Araucaria as stemwood, branch and knots, founding a remarkable difference in the content of extractables in these parts, as well as the lignan composition, which is higher in knots than in branches or stemwood. Eudesmin was isolated and crystallized from organic extract of knots, its structure was determinate by NMR; moreover, secoisolariciresinol, lariciresinol and matairesinol were identified by GCMS and HPLC in contrast to standards, and quantified in stemwood, branch and knots. The results showed that secoisolariciresinol is the main lignan with 45.77 mg g−1, followed by eudesmin with 22.68 mg g−1, lariciresinol 4.57 mg g−1 and matairesinol with 1.19 mg g−1. The antioxidant activity in terms of DPPH assay showed that knotwood extract displays the higher activity, meanwhile that eudesmin did not displays activity in DPPH assay. The cytotoxic activity against SHSY5Y neuroblastoma and P3X myeloma cell lines, revelated a moderate activity of extracts, while eudesmin did not showed activity

Detecting Star Formation in Brightest Cluster Galaxies with GALEX

We present the results of GALEX observations of 17 cool core (CC) clusters of galaxies. We show that GALEX is easily capable of detecting star formation in brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) out to $z\ge 0.45$ and 50-100 kpc. In most of the CC clusters studied, we find significant UV luminosity excesses and colors that strongly suggest recent and/or current star formation. The BCGs are found to have blue UV colors in the center that become increasingly redder with radius, indicating that the UV signature of star formation is most easily detected in the central regions. Our findings show good agreement between UV star formation rates and estimates based on H$\alpha$ observations. IR observations coupled with our data indicate moderate-to-high dust attenuation. Comparisons between our UV results and the X-ray properties of our sample suggest clear correlations between UV excess, cluster entropy, and central cooling time, confirming that the star formation is directly and incontrovertibly related to the cooling gas.Comment: 39 pages, 11 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Figure quality reduced to comply with arXiv file size requirement

Addressing Modern Diagnostic Pathology for Patient-Derived Soft Tissue Sarcosphere Models in the Era of Functional Precision Oncology

Responses to therapy often cannot be exclusively predicted by molecular markers, thus evidencing a critical need to develop tools for better patient selection based on relations between tumor phenotype and genotype. Patient-derived cell models could help to better refine patient stratification procedures and lead to improved clinical management. So far, such ex vivo cell models have been used for addressing basic research questions and in preclinical studies. As they now enter the era of functional precision oncology, it is of utmost importance that they meet quality standards to fully represent the molecular and phenotypical architecture of patients' tumors. Well-characterized ex vivo models are imperative for rare cancer types with high patient heterogeneity and unknown driver mutations. Soft tissue sarcomas account for a very rare, heterogeneous group of malignancies that are challenging from a diagnostic standpoint and difficult to treat in a metastatic setting because of chemotherapy resistance and a lack of targeted treatment options. Functional drug screening in patient-derived cancer cell models is a more recent approach for discovering novel therapeutic candidate drugs. However, because of the rarity and heterogeneity of soft tissue sarcomas, the number of well-established and characterized sarcoma cell models is extremely limited. Within our hospital-based platform we establish high-fidelity patient-derived ex vivo cancer models from solid tumors for enabling functional precision oncology and addressing research questions to overcome this problem. We here present 5 novel, well-characterized, complex-karyotype ex vivo soft tissue sarcosphere models, which are effective tools to study molecular pathogenesis and identify the novel drug sensitivities of these genetically complex diseases. We addressed the quality standards that should be generally considered for the characterization of such ex vivo models. More broadly, we suggest a scalable platform to provide high-fidelity ex vivo models to the scientific community and enable functional precision oncology

Structural Phase Transition and Superconductivity in 2H-BaGaGe with Buckled Honeycomb Layers

We report on the structural and superconducting properties of the intermetallic compound BaGaGe. We find that this material undergoes a structural second-order phase transition from the distorted AlB$_2$-type structure (1H, $a$ = 4.3254(2) \r{A}, $c$ = 5.1078(3) \r{A}, P6/mmm) into the CaIn$_2$-type structure (2H, $a$ = 4.3087(3) \r{A}, $c$ = 10.2117(6) \r{A}, P6$_3$/mmc) at a transition temperature of $T_{\rm S}$ = 253 K. We find that the structural phase-transition corresponds to a coherent buckling of the honeycomb layers, which we can interpret as a disorder-to-order transition of the atoms located within this layer. We show that the 2H-BaGaGe phase becomes superconducting at a critical temperature of $T_{\rm c}$ = 2.1 K. The bulk nature of the superconductivity in 2H-BaGaGe is confirmed by means of specific heat measurements, where we determine a value of $\Delta C$/$\gamma T_{\rm c}$ = 1.59, which is close to the expected BCS value in the weak coupling limit

Diagnostico de las posibilidades de desarrollo de las PYMES manufactureras de la region del Maule

103 p.El estudio que presentamos a continuación, tiene como objetivo entregar una idea sobre las posibilidades de desarrollo de las pequeñas y medianas empresas manufactureras de la Región del Maule, en cuanto a tecnología y capacitación. El trabajo de campo, se realizo con las Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas Manufactureras de la Región del Maule, las cuales fueron clasificadas según código CIIU, en rubro Alimento, Textil, Maderera, Industria del Papel, Industria de Sustancias Químicas, Fabrica de Productos Minerales No Metálicos, Industria de Metálica Básica y rubro de Productos Metálicos. Entre los principales hallazgos del estudio, se encontró que en general los empresarios de la Región solo en un 17,78 % conoce los Instrumentos Públicos destinados a la capacitación del Recurso Humano, y solo el 34,69 % declara conocer aquellos instrumentos públicos destinados a fomentar las mejoras tecnológicas. No obstante, del total de las empresas solo el 13,15 % declara usar alguno de estos instrumentos. A grandes rasgos, se pudo observar que la mayor concentración de calificación del Recurso Humano se concentra en el 40,22 % que solo posee Educación Básica y en un 30,68 % que solo posee Educación Media. También se pudo observar la estrecha relación que existe en Inversión en Tecnología y nivel de ventas, ya que explica en promedio mas del 85 % del Volumen de Ventas

Technology and mobility in the middle atuel: archaeological record ofthe Los gallegos 1 site (San Rafael, Mendoza)

En el presente trabajo se evalúan las tendencias tecnológicas de los conjuntos líticos y cerámicos del sitio arqueológico Los Gallegos 1, localizado en el valle medio del río Atuel. El objetivo principal es explorar las estrategias de movilidad y modos de ocupación durante el Holoceno tardío final en la región de Monte, al sur de la provincia de Mendoza. Los resultados muestran que el sitio fue un campamento residencial donde se realizaron actividades múltiples. Las evidencias tecnológicas señalan una baja movilidad residencial de los grupos humanos que ocuparon este espacio hacia fines del Holoceno tardío (ca. 1082 años cal. AP), y que su emplazamiento priorizó la cercanía al curso de agua del río Atuel.In this work, we evaluate the technological trends of the lithic and ceramic assemblages of the Los Gallegos 1 archaeological site, located in the middle valley of the Atuel River basin. The main objective is to explore mobility strategies and occupation during the late Holocene in the Monte region in the south of Mendoza province. The results show that the site was a residential camp where multiple activities were carried out. Technological evidence indicates low residential mobility of the human groups that occupied this place towards the end of the late Holocene (ca. 1082years cal. AP), and where their location prioritized proximity to the Atuel RiverFil: Sugrañes, Nuria Andrea. Universidad Tecnologica Nacional. Facultad Reg.san Rafael. Instituto de Evolucion, Ecologia Historica y Ambiente. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Evolucion, Ecologia Historica y Ambiente.; ArgentinaFil: Pompei, María de la Paz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales; ArgentinaFil: Neme, Gustavo Adolfo. Universidad Tecnologica Nacional. Facultad Reg.san Rafael. Instituto de Evolucion, Ecologia Historica y Ambiente. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Evolucion, Ecologia Historica y Ambiente.; ArgentinaFil: Gil, Adolfo Fabian. Universidad Tecnologica Nacional. Facultad Reg.san Rafael. Instituto de Evolucion, Ecologia Historica y Ambiente. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Evolucion, Ecologia Historica y Ambiente.; Argentin