Structural and electrical properties of indium oxide thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition in oxygen ambient

We report results of structural, optical and electrical transport studies of indium oxide (IO) thin films grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) under various oxygen gas pressures and using different substrates at 350° C. We find that the morphology and electrical resistivity of these films which are highly transparent changes drastically as Opressure increases into mbar range, irrespective of substrate. A systematic increase in resistivity, coming mainly from a drop in the electron concentration, is observed as oxygen pressure varies from 0.0004 to 1 mbar. This could permit modulation of IO thin–films’ electrical parameters by more than three orders of magnitude suggesting that PLD grown films could be an attractive material for optoelectronic applications.We acknowledge support from grants MAT2012-38213-C02-01 and MAT2012-38213-C02-02, and MAT2015-686760-02-1-P and MAT2015-686760-02-2-P from the Ministerio de Economía y Competividad of Spain. These grants are co-funded by ERDF of European Union. Additional support from Diputación General de Aragón (DGA-CAMRADS) is also acknowledged.Peer Reviewe

Role of A-site cations in the metal-insulator transition in Pr0.5Ca0.5CoO3−γ (γ≈0)

6 páginas, 4 figuras, 1 tabla.-- PACS number(s): 71.30.+h, 61.05.fm, 75.30.Kz, 75.47.DeRemarkable structural changes take place during the metal to insulator first-order transition in Pr0.50Ca0.50CoO3: a contraction of the unit-cell volume, the bending of the Co-O-Co bond angle, and a decrease in (Pr,Ca)-O bond distance. However, the Co-O bond length and the volume of the CoO6 octahedra remain almost unaltered during the transition. In view of these data and the absence of transition in (Nd2/3La1/3)0.5Ca0.5CoO3, we review the current spin-state transition picture, emphasizing that an active role is played by the A-site Pr cations that could be related with the effect of Pr in 123 superconducting cuprates.Financial support from MICINN (Spanish government) under Projects No. MAT2006-11080-C02-02 and No. NANOSELECT CSD2007-00041, Generalitat de Catalunya (Grant No. 2005-GRQ-00509) and FAME European Network of Excellence is acknowledged.Peer reviewe

Characterization of competing distortions in YFe2O4

We report the structural changes of three YFe2O4-δ (δ<0.1) specimens using high resolution synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction between 80 and 300 K. All samples adopt a rhombohedral cell at room temperature (space group R3m). This cell becomes unstable for the three samples on cooling, and the oxygen-poor specimen (δ∼0.1) shows a single transition at 240 K. The nearly stoichiometric (δ≤0.03) compounds exhibit two structural transitions with decreasing temperature at about 240 and 200 K. Each transition is revealed by an anomaly in the heat capacity measurements and a jump in the electric resistivity. Below 240 K, a strong splitting of some diffraction peaks is accompanied by the occurrence of superstructure peaks that follow the propagation vector k=(1/7,-2/7,9/7). The cell symmetry is then triclinic, and the structural transition is characterized by an expansion of the c axis coupled to a contraction of the other two lattice parameters. There are 49 nonequivalent sites for Fe atoms with a maximum charge disproportionation of ∼0.5e-. Upon cooling at 200 K, the previous superstructure peaks begin to vanish, and finally they are replaced by a new set of superstructure peaks following the propagation vector k=(1/4,1/2,1/4) with respect to the rhombohedral cell. The transition is also reflected in sudden changes in the lattice parameters that seem to smooth the changes observed in the previous transition. The new cell is also triclinic, and there are 48 nonequivalent Fe sites with a maximum charge disproportionation of ∼0.7e-. Both phases coexist in a wide temperature range because this second transition is not completed at 80 K. A symmetry mode analysis indicates a complicated pattern for the charge distribution in the Fe sublattice of both distorted structures but clearly discard any bimodal distribution of only two types of Fe cations. Therefore, the sharp jumps in the electric resistivity at the phase transitions are clearly correlated with two different structural changes. Finally, the oxygen stoichiometry seems to be a key factor in the stabilization of the different distorted structures.We are thankful for financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) (Projects No. MAT2012-38213-C02-1-2 and No. MAT2015-68760-C2-1-2, cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund [ERDF] allocated by the European Union) and Diputacion General de Aragón (DGA, project E69).Peer Reviewe

Evidence of large magneto-dielectric effect coupled to a metamagnetic transition in Yb2CoMnO6

The double perovskite Yb2CoMnO6 has been synthesized with an almost perfect checkerboard arrangement of Co2+ and Mn4+ cations in the B-sublattice of the perovskite cell. It presents an anomaly in the electric capacitance and a strong magneto-dielectric effect at about 40 K whose interplay with the microscopic magnetic behavior has been investigated by means of neutron diffraction, magnetization, pyroelectric, and relative dielectric permittivity measurements. We show that the onset of an E-type antiferromagnetic ordering of Co2+ and Mn4+ moments monitored by neutron diffraction provokes the noticeable jump of the relative dielectric permittivity (∼9%) at about 40 K. It is also shown that this jump can be totally suppressed by application of a magnetic field of μ0H = 5 T. Neutron experiments and magnetic measurements confirm that such a suppression leading to a significant magneto-dielectric effect is driven by a metamagnetic phase transition from the peculiar E-type ordering of 3d moments into a collinear ferromagnetic order. Pyroelectric current measurements do not show any spontaneous electric polarization, so the large dielectric anomaly at zero field cannot be ascribed to a ferroelectric ordering.We thank financial support from the Spanish MINECO (Project Nos. MAT2012-38213-C02-01 and MAT2012-38213-C02-02, cofunded by ERDF from EU) and Diputacion General de Aragon (DGA-CAMRADS). One of us (J.A.R.-V.) acknowledges CSIC for a JAEdoc contract.Peer Reviewe

Magnetoelectric and structural properties of Y2CoMnO6: The role of antisite defects

We have carried out an investigation on the magnetoelectric properties of the presumed multiferroic Y2CoMnO6 with different degrees of Co/Mn atomic ordering. The magnetic ground state was studied by neutron diffraction, showing a collinear ferromagnetic (FM) ordering of Co and Mn moments with a small antiferromagnetic canting. No superstructure peaks from an E-type magnetic structure were detected in our measurements. Magnetic measurements reveal FM transitions with pinned magnetic domains. The degree of Co/Mn ordering affects the Curie temperature only a little, but has strong effects on the magnetic hysteresis loops, and the FM moment signal at high field increases with increasing such order. The loops display steps at critical fields whose number and extent depends on each specimen. The most ordered sample exhibits the greatest steps ascribed to the alignment of magnetic domains separated by antiphase boundaries. All samples are insulators exhibiting low dielectric loss and dielectric constants at low temperature. On warming, they show a step increase in the real dielectric permittivity accompanied by peaks in the dielectric loss typical of thermally activated hopping processes. At room temperature, the huge values of the dielectric constant reveal the presence of Maxwell-Wagner depletion layers. Pyroelectric measurements reveal a high polarization at low temperature for these compounds that increases with increasing the Co/Mn ordering. There is no correlation between the magnetic transition and the onset of pyroelectric current. No significant changes are observed in the pyroelectric effect measured under an external magnetic field, so magnetoelectric coupling is negligible. This paper identifies the pyroelectric current as thermally stimulated depolarization current ascribed to the reorientation of defect dipoles with activation energy of about 0.05 eV. Therefore, no ferroelectric transition occurs in these compounds, discarding the existence of intrinsic magnetoelectric multiferroicity.For financial support we thank the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) (Projects No. MAT2012-38213-C02-01 and -02 and No. MAT2015-68760-C1-1 and -2-P, cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund [ERDF] from the European Union) and Diputación General de Aragón (DGA, project E-69). J.A. Rodríguez-Velamazan acknowledges CSIC for the JAEdoc contract.Peer Reviewe

Magnetocapacitance effect and magnetoelectric coupling in type-II multiferroic HoFeWO6

We have investigated the multiferroicity and magnetoelectric (ME) coupling in HoFeWO6. With a noncentrosymmetric polar structure (space group Pna21) at room temperature, this compound shows an onset of electric polarization with an antiferromagnetic ordering at the Néel temperature (TN ) of 17.8 K. The magnetic properties of the polycrystalline samples were studied by DC and AC magnetization and heat capacity measurements. The metamagnetic behavior at low temperatures was found to be directly related to the dielectric properties of the compound. In particular, field-dependent measurements of capacitance show a magnetocapacitance (MC) effect with double-hysteresis loop behavior in direct correspondence with the magnetization. Our x-ray diffraction results show the Pna21 structure down to 8 K and suggest the absence of a structural phase transition across TN . Soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy and soft x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements at the Fe L2,3 and Ho M4,5 edges revealed the oxidation state of Fe and Ho cations to be 3+. Fe L2,3 XMCD further shows that Fe3+ cations are antiferromagnetically ordered in a noncollinear fashion with spins arranged 90◦ with respect to each other. Our findings show that HoFeWO6 is a type-II multiferroic exhibiting a MC effect. The observed MC effect and the change in polarization by the magnetic field, as well as their direct correspondence with magnetization, further support the strong ME coupling in this compound.The work at University of Houston (UH) is supported by U. S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grants FA9550-15-1-0236 and FA9550-20-1-0068, the T. L. L. Temple Foundation, the John J. and Rebecca Moores Endowment, and the State of Texas through the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston. The XRD patterns were collected at the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center at Taiwan. The synchrotron XAS/XMCD experiments were performed at the BOREAS beamline of the ALBA Synchrotron Light Facility in collaboration with ALBA staff. Computational resources were provided by the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) [55] supported by the National Science Foundation (ACI-1548562) and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the Office of Science, U. S. Department of Energy, under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Additional support for this work was provided through resources of the uHPC cluster managed by UH and acquired through NSF Award 1531814. The authors acknowledge the use of the Maxwell/Opuntia/Sabine Cluster and the advanced support from the Research Computing Data Core at UH. The work at National Sun Yat-Sen University was partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under Grant No. MOST 109-2112-M-110-019.Peer reviewe

Preferències dels estudiants en relació al tema d’estudi del TFG de Farmàcia (UB)

Podeu consultar la Vuitena trobada de professorat de Ciències de la Salut completa a: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/66524El TFG del grau de farmàcia UB es porta a terme en el marc d’un àmbit docent principal i integra coneixements de com a mínim, dos àmbits docents addicionals atès la seva funció integradora. En el moment de definir les directrius i organització de l’assignatura, es van establir a la Facultat de Farmàcia 27 àmbits docents. Tanmateix, les característiques del TFG quan a tipus de projectes o estudis es van establir inicialment en base a tres opcions..

Dietary diversity and nutritional adequacy among an older Spanish population with metabolic syndrome in the PREDIMED-Plus study: a cross-sectional analysis

Dietary guidelines emphasize the importance of a varied diet to provide an adequate nutrient intake. However, an older age is often associated with consumption of monotonous diets that can be nutritionally inadequate, increasing the risk for the development or progression of diet-related chronic diseases, such as metabolic syndrome (MetS). To assess the association between dietary diversity (DD) and nutrient intake adequacy and to identify demographic variables associated with DD, we cross-sectionally analyzed baseline data from the PREDIMED-Plus trial: 6587 Spanish adults aged 55-75 years, with overweight/obesity who also had MetS. An energy-adjusted dietary diversity score (DDS) was calculated using a 143-item validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Nutrient inadequacy was defined as an intake below 2/3 of the dietary reference intake (DRI) forat least four of 17 nutrients proposed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between DDS and the risk of nutritionally inadequate intakes. In the higher DDS quartile there were more women and less current smokers. Compared with subjects in the highest DDS quartile, those in the lowest DDS quartile had a higher risk of inadequate nutrient intake: odds ratio (OR) = 28.56 (95% confidence interval (CI) 20.80-39.21). When we estimated food varietyfor each of the food groups, participants in the lowest quartile had a higher risk of inadequate nutrient intake for the groups of vegetables, OR = 14.03 (95% CI 10.55-18.65), fruits OR = 11.62 (95% CI 6.81-19.81), dairy products OR = 6.54 (95% CI 4.64-9.22) and protein foods OR = 6.60 (95% CI 1.96-22.24). As DDS decreased, the risk of inadequate nutrients intake rose. Given the impact of nutrient intake adequacy on the prevention of non-communicable diseases, health policies should focus on the promotion of a healthy varied diet, specifically promoting the intake of vegetables and fruit among population groups with lower DDS such as men, smokers or widow(er)s

Effect of a Nutritional and Behavioral Intervention on Energy-Reduced Mediterranean Diet Adherence Among Patients With Metabolic Syndrome: Interim Analysis of the PREDIMED-Plus Randomized Clinical Trial

Key PointsQuestionWhat is the effect of a nutritional and behavioral intervention focused on encouraging an energy-reduced Mediterranean diet and physical activity on the dietary pattern of participants after 12 months? FindingsIn this preliminary analysis of an ongoing randomized clinical trial involving 6874 participants, an intervention focused on encouraging an energy-reduced Mediterranean diet and promoting physical activity, compared with advice to follow an energy-unrestricted Mediterranean diet, resulted in a significant increase in a measure of diet adherence, the 17-item energy-reduced Mediterranean diet score, at 12 months (4.7 points vs 2.5 points; score range, 0-17; minimal clinically important difference, 1 point). MeaningA nutritional and behavioral intervention focused on encouraging an energy-reduced Mediterranean diet and physical activity led to a significant improvement in a measure of diet adherence at 12 months. Further evaluation of the effects on long-term cardiovascular and other health outcomes is needed. ImportanceHigh-quality dietary patterns may help prevent chronic disease, but limited data exist from randomized trials about the effects of nutritional and behavioral interventions on dietary changes. ObjectiveTo assess the effect of a nutritional and physical activity education program on dietary quality. Design, Setting, and ParticipantsPreliminary exploratory interim analysis of an ongoing randomized trial. In 23 research centers in Spain, 6874 men and women aged 55 to 75 years with metabolic syndrome and no cardiovascular disease were enrolled in the trial between September 2013 and December 2016, with final data collection in March 2019. InterventionsParticipants were randomized to an intervention group that encouraged an energy-reduced Mediterranean diet, promoted physical activity, and provided behavioral support (n=3406) or to a control group that encouraged an energy-unrestricted Mediterranean diet (n=3468). All participants received allotments of extra-virgin olive oil (1 L/mo) and nuts (125 g/mo) for free. Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe primary outcome was 12-month change in adherence based on the energy-reduced Mediterranean diet (er-MedDiet) score (range, 0-17; higher scores indicate greater adherence; minimal clinically important difference, 1 point). ResultsAmong 6874 randomized participants (mean [SD] age, 65.0 [4.9] years; 3406 [52%] men), 6583 (96%) completed the 12-month follow-up and were included in the main analysis. The mean (SD) er-MedDiet score was 8.5 (2.6) at baseline and 13.2 (2.7) at 12 months in the intervention group (increase, 4.7 [95% CI, 4.6-4.8]) and 8.6 (2.7) at baseline and 11.1 (2.8) at 12 months in the control group (increase, 2.5 [95% CI, 2.3-2.6]) (between-group difference, 2.2 [95% CI, 2.1-2.4]; P<.001). Conclusions and RelevanceIn this preliminary analysis of an ongoing trial, an intervention that encouraged an energy-reduced Mediterranean diet and physical activity, compared with advice to follow an energy-unrestricted Mediterranean diet, resulted in a significantly greater increase in diet adherence after 12 months. Further evaluation of long-term cardiovascular effects is needed. Trial Registrationisrctn.com Identifier: ISRCTN89898870 This preliminary exploratory analysis of the ongoing PREDIMED-Plus randomized trial reports dietary adherence among Spanish community-dwelling participants with metabolic syndrome randomized to an energy-reduced Mediterranean diet, physical activity, and behavioral support vs an energy-unrestricted Mediterranean diet alone

The Effect of Physical Activity and High Body Mass Index on Health-Related Quality of Life in Individuals with Metabolic Syndrome

[EN] The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between the level of physical activity (PA) and the degree of obesity with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in individuals with metabolic syndrome (MetS) who participated in the Predimed-Plus study. A total of 6875 subjects between 55 and 75 years of age with MetS were selected and randomized in 23 Spanish centers. Subjects were classified according to categories of body mass index (BMI). PA was measured with the validated Registre Gironi del Cor (REGICOR) questionnaire and subjects were classified according to their PA level (light, moderate, vigorous) and the HRQoL was measured with the validated short-form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire. By using the ANOVA model, we found a positive and statistically significant association between the level of PA and the HRQoL (aggregated physical and mental dimensions p < 0.001), but a negative association with higher BMI in aggregated physical dimensions p < 0.001. Furthermore, women obtained lower scores compared with men, more five points in all fields of SF-36. Therefore, it is essential to promote PA and body weight control from primary care consultations to improve HRQoL, paying special attention to the differences that sex incurs.SIThe Predimed-Plus trial was supported by the Spanish government’s official funding agency for biomedical research, ISCIII, through the Fondo de Investigación para la Salud (FIS), which is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (three coordinated FIS projects led by Jordi Salas-Salvadó and Josep Vidal, including the following projects: PI13/00673, PI13/00492, PI13/00272, PI13/01123, PI13/00462, PI13/00233, PI13/02184, PI13/00728, PI13/01090, PI13/01056, PI14/01722, PI14/0147, PI14/00636, PI14/00972, PI14/00618, PI14/00696, PI14/01206, PI14/01919, PI14/00853, PI14/01374, PI16/00473, PI16/00662, PI16/01873, PI16/01094, PI16/00501, PI16/00533, PI16/00381, PI16/00366, PI16/01522, PI16/01120, PI17/00764, PI17/01183, PI17/00855, PI17/01347, PI17/00525, PI17/01827, PI17/00532, PI17/00215, PI17/01441, PI17/00508, PI17/01732, PI17/00926, PI19/00957, PI19/00386, PI19/00309, PI19/01032, PI19/00576, PI19/00017, PI19/01226, PI19/00781, PI19/01560, PI19/01,332), the Special Action Project entitled: Implementación y evaluación de una intervención intensiva sobre la actividad física Cohorte PREDIMED-PLUS grant to Jordi Salas-Salvadó, the European Research Council (Advanced Research Grant 2013–2018; 340918) grant to Miguel Ángel Martínez-Gonzalez, the Recercaixa grant to Jordi Salas-Salvadó (2013ACUP00194), grants from the Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (PI0458/2013; PS0358/2016; PI0137/2018), the PROMETEO/2017/017 grant from the Generalitat Valenciana, the SEMERGEN grant and FEDER funds (CB06/03 and CB12/03), Olga Castaner is funded by the JR17/00,022 grant, ISCIII. Christopher Papandreou is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship granted by the Autonomous Government of Catalonia (PERIS 2016–2020 Incorporació de Científics i Tecnòlegs, SLT002/0016/00,428). María Rosa Bernal-Lopez was supported by “Miguel Servet Type I” program (CP15/00028) from the ISCIII-Madrid (Spain), cofinanced by the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional-FEDER, Ignacio M.Giménez-Alba is supported by a FPU predoctoral contract (reference FPU18/01703) from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spain