Magnetic susceptibility of insulators from first principles

We present an {\it ab initio} approach for the computation of the magnetic susceptibility $\chi$ of insulators. The approach is applied to compute $\chi$ in diamond and in solid neon using density functional theory in the local density approximation, obtaining good agreement with experimental data. In solid neon, we predict an observable dependence of $\chi$ upon pressure.Comment: Revtex, to appear in Physical Review Lette

Morphology evolution of thermally annealed polycrystalline thin films

Investigation of the morphology evolution of annealed polycrystalline Au(111) films by atomic force microscopy and x-ray diffraction leads to a continuous model that correlates such an evolution to local interactions between grains triggering different mechanisms of stress accommodation (grain zipping and shear strain) and relaxation (gap filling and grain rotation). The model takes into consideration findings concerning the in-plane reorientation of the grains during the coalescence to provide a comprehensive picture of the grain-size dependence of the interactions (underlying the origin of the growth stress in polycrystalline systems); and in particular it sheds light on the postcoalescence compressive stress as a consequence of the kinetic limitations for the reorientation of larger surface structuresThis paper was supported by the projects F1-54173 (bilateral program CSIC-Conacyt) 200960I182 (CSIC), and CCG10-UAM/MAT-5537 (DGUI-Comunidad de Madrid and Universidad Aut´onoma deMadrid). A.G.G. acknowledges the financial support of the MICINN Spanish Ministry under the project ESP2006-14282-C02-0

Cobalt Metal-Organic Framework based on two dinuclear secondary building units for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution

The synthesis of a new microporous metal-organic framework (MOF) based on two secondary building units, with dinuclear cobalt centers, has been developed. The employment of a well-defined cobalt cluster results in an unusual topology of the Co2-MOF, where one of the cobalt centers has three open coordination positions, which has no precedent in MOF materials based on cobalt. Adsorption isotherms have revealed that Co2-MOF is in the range of best CO2 adsorbents among the carbon materials, with very high CO2/CH4 selectivity. On the other hand, dispersion of Co2-MOF in an alcoholic solution of Nafion gives rise to a composite (Co2-MOF@Nafion) with great resistance to hydrolysis in aqueous media and good adherence to graphite electrodes. In fact, it exhibits high electrocatalytic activity and robustness for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), with a turnover frequency number value superior to those reported for similar electrocatalysts. Overall, this work has provided the basis for the rational design of new cobalt OER catalysts and related materials employing well-defined metal clusters as directing agents of the MOF structure

Crowding of Polymer Coils and Demixing in Nanoparticle-Polymer Mixtures

The Asakura-Oosawa-Vrij (AOV) model of colloid-polymer mixtures idealizes nonadsorbing polymers as effective spheres that are fixed in size and impenetrable to hard particles. Real polymer coils, however, are intrinsically polydisperse in size (radius of gyration) and may be penetrated by smaller particles. Crowding by nanoparticles can affect the size distribution of polymer coils, thereby modifying effective depletion interactions and thermodynamic stability. To analyse the influence of crowding on polymer conformations and demixing phase behaviour, we adapt the AOV model to mixtures of nanoparticles and ideal, penetrable polymer coils that can vary in size. We perform Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations, including trial nanoparticle-polymer overlaps and variations in radius of gyration. Results are compared with predictions of free-volume theory. Simulation and theory consistently predict that ideal polymers are compressed by nanoparticles and that compressibility and penetrability stabilise nanoparticle-polymer mixtures.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

The Asakura-Oosawa model in the protein limit: the role of many-body interactions

We study the Asakura-Oosawa model in the "protein limit", where the penetrable sphere radius $R_{AO}$ is much greater than the hard sphere radius $R_c$. The phase behaviour and structure calculated with a full many-body treatment show important qualitative differences when compared to a description based on pair potentials alone. The overall effect of the many-body interactions is repulsive.Comment: 9 pages and 11 figures, submitted to J. Phys.: Condensed Matter, special issue "Effective many-body interactions and correlations in soft matter

Progress in Detection and Projection of Climate Change in Spain since the 2010 CLIVAR-Spain regional climate change assessment report

The Iberian Peninsula region offers a challenging benchmark for climate variability studies for several reasons. It exhibits a wide variety of climatic regimes, ranging from wet Atlantic climates with annual precipitation around 2000 mm, to extensive semiarid regions with severe hydrological stress, to even cold alpine environments in some isolated areas

Arsenolite: a quasi-hydrostatic solid pressure transmitting medium

This study reports the experimental characterization of the hydrostatic properties of arsenolite (As4O6), a molecular solid which is one of the softest minerals in the absence of hydrogen bonding. The high compressibility of arsenolite and its stability up to 15GPa have been proved by x-ray diffraction measurements, and the progressive loss of hydrostaticity with increasing pressure up to 20GPa has been monitored by ruby photoluminescence. Arsenolite has been found to exhibit hydrostatic behavior up to 2.5GPa and a quasi-hydrostatic behavior up to 10GPa at room temperature. This result opens the way to explore other molecular solids as possible quasi-hydrostatic pressure-transmitting media. The validity of arsenolite as an insulating, stable, non-penetrating and quasi-hydrostatic medium is explored by the study of the x-ray diffraction of zeolite ITQ-29 at high pressure.This work has been performed with financial support from Spanish MINECO under projects MAT2013-46649-C4-2/3-P and MAT2015-71070-REDC. JAS acknowledges the 'Ramon y Cajal' fellowship program for financial support. We also thank D Calatayud, J J Garcia, T M Godoy, A Zapata, and A Cuenca for fruitful discussions. The authors thank ALBA light source for beam allocation at beamline MSPD. JLJ and FR acknowledge financial support through the SEV-2012-0267, Consolider Ingenio 2010-Multicat (CSD-2009-0050) and MAT2015-71842-P (MINECO/FEDER) projects.Sans-Tresserras, JÁ.; Manjón, FJ.; Popescu, C.; Muñoz, A.; Rodríguez-Hernández, P.; Jordá, JL.; Rey Garcia, F. (2016). Arsenolite: a quasi-hydrostatic solid pressure transmitting medium. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. 28(47):475403-1-475403-7. doi:10.1088/0953-8984/28/47/475403S475403-1475403-7284

Recent advances in Pichia pastoris as host for heterologous expression system for lipases : a review

The production of heterologous lipases is one of the most promising strategies to increase the productivity of the bioprocesses and to reduce costs, with the final objective that more industrial lipase applications could be implemented. In this chapter, an overview of the new success in synthetic biology, with traditional molecular genetic techniques and bioprocess engineering in the last 5 years in the cell factory Pichia pastoris, the most promising host system for heterologous lipase production, is presented. The goals get on heterologous Candida antarctica, Rhizopus oryzae, and Candida rugosa lipases, three of the most common lipases used in biocatalysis, are showed. Finally, new cell factories producing heterologous lipases are presented

On the chronological structure of the solutrean in Southern Iberia

The Solutrean techno-complex has gained particular significance over time for representing a clear demographic and techno-typological deviation from the developments occurred during the course of the Upper Paleolithic in Western Europe. Some of Solutrean's most relevant features are the diversity and techno-typological characteristics of the lithic armatures. These have been recurrently used as pivotal elements in numerous Solutrean-related debates, including the chronological organization of the techno-complex across Iberia and Southwestern France. In Southern Iberia, patterns of presence and/or absence of specific point types in stratified sequences tend to validate the classical ordering of the techno-complex into Lower, Middle and Upper phases, although some evidence, namely radiocarbon determinations, have not always been corroborative. Here we present the first comprehensive analysis of the currently available radiocarbon data for the Solutrean in Southern Iberia. We use a Bayesian statistical approach from 13 stratified sequences to compare the duration, and the start and end moments of each classic Solutrean phase across sites. We conclude that, based on the current data, the traditional organization of the Solutrean cannot be unquestionably confirmed for Southern Iberia, calling into doubt the status of the classically defined type-fossils as precise temporal markers.Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia [PTDC/HAH/64184/2006, PTDC/HIS-ARQ/117540/2010, SFRH/BD/65527/2009, SFRH/BPD/96277/2013]; National Geographic Society [8045-06]; Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research [8290

Mean ergodic multiplication operators on weighted spaces of continuous functions

[EN] Multiplication operators on weighted Banach spaces and locally convex spaces of continuous functions have been thoroughly studied. In this note, we characterize when continuous multiplication operators on a weighted Banach space and on a weighted inductive limit of Banach spaces of continuous functions are power bounded, mean ergodic or uniformly mean ergodic. The behaviour of the operator on weighted inductive limits depends on the properties of the defining sequence of weights and it differs from the Banach space case.The research of Bonet was partially supported by Project Prometeo/2017/102 of the Generalitat Valenciana. The authors authors were also partially supported by MINECO Project MTM2016-76647-P. Rodriguez also thanks the support of the Grant PAID-01-16 of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Bonet Solves, JA.; Jorda Mora, E.; Rodríguez-Arenas, A. (2018). Mean ergodic multiplication operators on weighted spaces of continuous functions. Mediterranean Journal of Mathematics. 15(3):1:108-11:108. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00009-018-1150-8S1:10811:108153Bierstedt, K.D.: An introduction to locally convex inductive limits, Functional analysis and its applications (Nice, 1986), 35–133, ICPAM Lecture Notes. World Sci. Publishing, Singapore (1988)Bierstedt, K.D.: A survey of some results and open problems in weighted inductive limits and projective description for spaces of holomorphic functions. Bull. Soc. Roy. Sci. Liège 70(4–6), 167–182 (2001)Bierstedt, K.D., Bonet, J.: Some recent results on VC(X). In: Advances in the theory of Fréchet spaces (Istanbul, 1988), NATO Adv. Sci. Inst. Ser. C Math. Phys. Sci., vol. 287, pp. 181–194. Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht (1989)Bierstedt, K.D., Bonet, J.: Completeness of the (LB)-spaces VC(X). Arch. Math. (Basel) 56(3), 281–285 (1991)Bierstedt, K.D., Bonet, J.: Some aspects of the modern theory of Fréchet spaces. Rev. R. Acad. Cienc. Exactas Fís. Nat. Ser. A Mat 97(2), 159–188 (2003)Bierstedt, K.D., Meise, R., Summers, W.H.: A projective description of weighted inductive limits. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 272(1), 107–160 (1982)Bierstedt, K.D., Meise, R., Summers, W.H.: Köthe sets and Köthe sequence spaces. In: Functional analysis, holomorphy and approximation theory, Rio de Janeiro, pp. 27–91 (1980)Bonet, J., Ricker, W.J.: Mean ergodicity of multiplication operators in weighted spaces of holomorphic functions. Arch. Math. 92, 428–437 (2009)Klilou, M., Oubbi, L.: Multiplication operators on generalized weighted spaces of continuous functions. Mediterr. J. Math. 13(5), 3265–3280 (2016)Krengel, U.: Ergodic Theorems. de Gruyter, Berlin (1985)Lin, M.: On the uniform ergodic theorem. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 43, 2 (1974)Lotz, H.P.: Uniform convergence of operators on $$L^\infty$$ L ∞ and similar spaces. Math. Z. 190, 207–220 (1985)Manhas, J.S.: Compact multiplication operators on weighted spaces of vector-valued continuous functions. Rocky Mt. J. Math. 34(3), 1047–1057 (2004)Manhas, J.S.: Compact and weakly compact multiplication operators on weighted spaces of vector-valued continuous functions. Acta Sci. Math. (Szeged) 70(1–2), 361–372 (2004)Manhas, J.S., Singh, R.K.: Compact and weakly compact weighted composition operators on weighted spaces of continuous functions. Integral Equ. Oper. Theory 29(1), 63–69 (1997)Meise, R., Vogt, D.: Introduction to Functional Analysis. The Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, New York (1997)Oubbi, L.: Multiplication operators on weighted spaces of continuous functions. Port. Math. (N.S.) 59(1), 111–124 (2002)Oubbi, L.: Weighted composition operators on non-locally convex weighted spaces. Rocky Mt. J. Math. 35(6), 2065–2087 (2005)Singh, R.K., Manhas, J.S.: Multiplication operators on weighted spaces of vector-valued continuous functions. J. Austral. Math. Soc. Ser. A 50(1), 98–107 (1991)Singh, R.K., Manhas, J.S.: Composition operators on function spaces. North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam (1993)Singh, R.K., Manhas, J.S.: Operators and dynamical systems on weighted function spaces. Math. Nachr. 169, 279–285 (1994)Wilanski, A.: Topology for Analysis. Ginn, Waltham (1970)Yosida, K.: Functional Analysis. Springer, Berlin (1980