La articulación vertical de la ciudad de Mendoza

Fil: Rodríguez de González, Mónica B.

Functional supramolecular tetrathiafulvalene-based films with mixed valences states

Tetrathiafulvalene molecules substituted with a carboxylic acid group (TTFCOOH) were bound as redox-active moieties into a poly(4-vinyl pyridine) (P4VP) skeleton through non-covalent interactions (hydrogen bonds). The aspect of the resulting P4VP-TTFCOOH films showed a uniform and smooth morphology. Moreover, the redox function of TTFCOOH in P4VP-TTFCOOH was demonstrated using tetrachloroauric acid, iron(III) perchlorate and iodine vapors as doping agents. The oxidized states of TTFCOOH as well as the mixed valance state TTFCOOH0-TTFCOOH+• were generated in a controlled manner in solid state, resulting in an organic film capable of charge transport. The charge transport along the organic donor molecules hydrogen bonded to the polymer matrix was demonstrated employing Electrostatic Force Microscopy (EFM)Postprint (author's final draft

1/fα1/f^\alpha noise and integrable systems

An innovative test for detecting quantum chaos based on the analysis of the spectral fluctuations regarded as a time series has been recently proposed. According to this test, the fluctuations of a fully chaotic system should exhibit 1/f noise, whereas for an integrable system this noise should obey the 1/f^2 power law. In this letter, we show that there is a family of well-known integrable systems, namely spin chains of Haldane-Shastry type, whose spectral fluctuations decay instead as 1/f^4. We present a simple theoretical justification of this fact, and propose an alternative characterization of quantum chaos versus integrability formulated directly in terms of the power spectrum of the spacings of the unfolded spectrum.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, RevTe

Testing for alpha-1 antitrypsin in COPD in outpatient respiratory clinics in Spain: A multilevel, cross-sectional analysis of the EPOCONSUL study

Background Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) is the most common hereditary disorder in adults, but is under-recognized. In Spain, the number of patients diagnosed with AATD is much lower than expected according to epidemiologic studies. The objectives of this study were to assess the frequency and determinants of testing serum α1-antitrypsin (AAT) levels in COPD patients, and to describe factors associated with testing. Methods EPOCONSUL is a cross-sectional clinical audit, recruiting consecutive COPD cases over one year. The study evaluated serum AAT level determination in COPD patients and associations between individual, disease-related, and hospital characteristics. Results A total of 4,405 clinical records for COPD patients from 57 Spanish hospitals were evaluated. Only 995 (22.5%) patients had serum AAT tested on some occasion. A number of patient characteristics (being male [OR 0.5, p < 0.001], ≤55 years old [OR 2.38, p<0.001], BMI≤21 kg/m2 [OR 1.71, p<0.001], FEV1(%)<50% [OR 1.35, p<0.001], chronic bronchitis [OR 0.79, p < 0.001], Charlson index ≥ 3 [OR 0.66, p < 0.001], or history or symptoms of asthma [OR 1.32, p<0.001]), and management at a specialized COPD outpatient clinic [OR 2.73,p<0.001] were identified as factors independently associated with ever testing COPD patients for AATD. Overall, 114 COPD patients (11.5% of those tested) had AATD. Of them, 26 (22.8%) patients had severe deficiency. Patients with AATD were younger, with a low pack-year index, and were more likely to have emphysema (p<0.05). Conclusion Testing of AAT blood levels in COPD patients treated at outpatient respiratory clinics in Spain is infrequent. However, when tested, AATD (based on the serum AAT levels ≤100 mg/dL) is detected in one in five COPD patients. Efforts to optimize AATD case detection in COPD are needed.SEPA