Renormalization Group Flow for Noncommutative Fermi Liquids

Some recent studies of the AdS/CFT correspondence for condensed matter systems involve the Fermi liquid theory as a boundary field theory. Adding B-flux to the boundary D-branes leads in a certain limit to the noncommutative Fermi liquid, which calls for a field theory description of its critical behavior. As a preliminary step to more general consideration, the modification of the Landau's Fermi liquid theory due to noncommutativity of spatial coordinates is studied in this paper. We carry out the renormalization of interactions at tree level and one loop in a weakly coupled fermion system in two spatial dimensions. Channels ZS, ZS' and BCS are discussed in detail. It is shown that while the Gaussian fixed point remains unchanged, the BCS instability is modified due to the space non-commutativity.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures, section 3.2 and conclusions were change

Twisted Covariant Noncommutative Self-dual Gravity

A twisted covariant formulation of noncommutative self-dual gravity is presented. The formulation for constructing twisted noncommutative Yang-Mills theories is used. It is shown that the noncommutative torsion is solved at any order of the $\theta$-expansion in terms of the tetrad and some extra fields of the theory. In the process the first order expansion in $\theta$ for the Pleba\'nski action is explicitly obtained.Comment: 23+1 pages, no figures, corrected typos, references and Appendix B is adde

Antimicrobial activity of the fiber produced by “pochote” Ceiba aesculifolia subsp. parvifolia

Background: The cotton-like fiber from the fruit of Pochote (Ceiba aesculifolia subsp. parvifolia) can be applied to wounds for healing purposes. As microorganisms can infect wounds and hamper the wound healing process, the aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial activity and chemical composition of the methanolic extract of Pochote fiber.Materials and Methods: The methanolic extract was tested against bacteria and fungi. For bacteria, the Kirby-Baüer disc diffusion and broth dilution methods were employed to determine the MIC and MBC. In addition, bactericidal kinetic curves were generated. The antifungal activity was determined by the radial diffusion method. The antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, and the flavonoid content were determined. Bioassay guided fractionation was also performed.Results: The methanolic extract showed activity against Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio cholerae (cc). The tested V. cholerae strains were the most sensitive strains, and exhibited a clear CFU size reduction from the bactericidal kinetic curves. The methanolic extract had activity against T. mentagrophytes and R. lilacina. The antioxidant activity (SC50= 36.42 μg/mL) was related to the total phenolic (74.4 mg eAG/g) and flavonoid content (21.982 mg (eQ)/g). The bioassay guided fractionation results suggested that the antimicrobial properties of the extract may act through synergism because the total extract had higher activity against bacteria compared to the collected fractions.Conclusion: This study scientifically validates the application of the fruit fiber from Pochote as a part of a traditional medicine approach to alleviate infections caused by bacteria and fungi.Keywords: antimicrobial, Ceiba, Bombacaceae, fruit fib

Multidimensional integration of RDF datasets

Data providers have been uploading RDF datasets on the web to aid researchers and analysts in finding insights. These datasets, made available by different data providers, contain common characteristics that enable their integration. However, since each provider has their own data dictionary, identifying common concepts is not trivial and we require costly and complex entity resolution and transformation rules to perform such integration. In this paper, we propose a novel method, that given a set of independent RDF datasets, provides a multidimensional interpretation of these datasets and integrates them based on a common multidimensional space (if any) identified. To do so, our method first identifies potential dimensional and factual data on the input datasets and performs entity resolution to merge common dimensional and factual concepts. As a result, we generate a common multidimensional space and identify each input dataset as a cuboid of the resulting lattice. With such output, we are able to exploit open data with OLAP operators in a richer fashion than dealing with them separately.This research has been funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Information Technologies for Business Intelligence-Doctoral College (IT4BI-DC) program.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Long-range pollution transport during the MILAGRO-2006 campaign: a case study of a major Mexico City outflow event using free-floating altitude-controlled balloons

One of the major objectives of the Megacities Initiative: Local And Global Research Observations (MILAGRO-2006) campaign was to investigate the long-range transport of polluted Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) outflow and determine its downwind impacts on air quality and climate. Six research aircraft, including the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) C-130, made extensive chemical, aerosol, and radiation measurements above MCMA and more than 1000 km downwind in order to characterize the evolution of the outflow as it aged and dispersed over the Mesa Alta, Sierra Madre Oriental, Coastal Plain, and Gulf of Mexico. As part of this effort, free-floating Controlled-Meteorological (CMET) balloons, commanded to change altitude via satellite, made repeated profile measurements of winds and state variables within the advecting outflow. In this paper, we present an analysis of the data from two CMET balloons that were launched near Mexico City on the afternoon of 18 March 2006 and floated downwind with the MCMA pollution for nearly 30 h. The repeating profile measurements show the evolving structure of the outflow in considerable detail: its stability and stratification, interaction with other air masses, mixing episodes, and dispersion into the regional background. Air parcel trajectories, computed directly from the balloon wind profiles, show three transport pathways on 18–19 March: (a) high-altitude advection of the top of the MCMA mixed layer, (b) mid-level outflow over the Sierra Madre Oriental followed by decoupling and isolated transport over the Gulf of Mexico, and (c) low-level outflow with entrainment into a cleaner northwesterly jet above the Coastal Plain. The C-130 aircraft intercepted the balloon-based trajectories three times on 19 March, once along each of these pathways; in all three cases, peaks in urban tracer concentrations and LIDAR backscatter are consistent with MCMA pollution. In comparison with the transport models used in the campaign, the balloon-based trajectories appear to shear the outflow far more uniformly and decouple it from the surface, thus forming a thin but expansive polluted layer over the Gulf of Mexico that is well aligned with the aircraft observations. These results provide critical context for the extensive aircraft measurements made during the 18–19 March MCMA outflow event and may have broader implications for modelling and understanding long-range transport

Generally covariant state-dependent diffusion

Statistical invariance of Wiener increments under SO(n) rotations provides a notion of gauge transformation of state-dependent Brownian motion. We show that the stochastic dynamics of non gauge-invariant systems is not unambiguously defined. They typically do not relax to equilibrium steady states even in the absence of extenal forces. Assuming both coordinate covariance and gauge invariance, we derive a second-order Langevin equation with state-dependent diffusion matrix and vanishing environmental forces. It differs from previous proposals but nevertheless entails the Einstein relation, a Maxwellian conditional steady state for the velocities, and the equipartition theorem. The over-damping limit leads to a stochastic differential equation in state space that cannot be interpreted as a pure differential (Ito, Stratonovich or else). At odds with the latter interpretations, the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation admits an equilibrium steady state; a detailed comparison with other theories of state-dependent diffusion is carried out. We propose this as a theory of diffusion in a heat bath with varying temperature. Besides equilibrium, a crucial experimental signature is the non-uniform steady spatial distribution.Comment: 24 page

Dietary, Cultural, and Pathogens-Related Selective Pressures Shaped Differential Adaptive Evolution among Native Mexican Populations

Native American genetic ancestry has been remarkably implicated with increased risk of diverse health issues in several Mexican populations, especially in relation to the dramatic changes in environmental, dietary, and cultural settings they have recently undergone. In particular, the effects of these ecological transitions and Westernization of lifestyles have been investigated so far predominantly on Mestizo individuals. Nevertheless, indigenous groups, rather than admixed Mexicans, have plausibly retained the highest proportions of genetic components shaped by natural selection in response to the ancient milieu experienced by Mexican ancestors during their pre-Columbian evolutionary history. These formerly adaptive variants have the potential to represent the genetic determinants of some biological traits that are peculiar to Mexican people, as well as a reservoir of loci with possible biomedical relevance. To test such a hypothesis, we used genome-wide genotype data to infer the unique adaptive evolution of Native Mexican groups selected as reasonable descendants of the main pre-Columbian Mexican civilizations. A combination of haplotype-based and gene-network analyses enabled us to detect genomic signatures ascribable to polygenic adaptive traits plausibly evolved by the main genetic clusters of Mexican indigenous populations to cope with local environmental and/or cultural conditions. Some of these adaptations were found to play a role in modulating the susceptibility/resistance of these groups to certain pathological conditions, thus providing new evidence that diverse selective pressures have contributed to shape the current biological and disease-risk patterns of present-day Native and Mestizo Mexican populations

Evaluación de la seguridad, eficacia/efectividad y eficiencia de la teleconsulta en atención primaria, y de los aspectos organizativos, éticos, sociales y legales ligados a su uso

Atenció primària; Teleconsulta; AvaluacióAtención primaria; Teleconsulta; EvaluaciónPrimary care; Teleconsultation; EvaluationL'atenció primària de salut actualment s’enfronta a una limitació en recursos, sobretot econòmics i de força de treball. A més, la pandèmia pel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) ha posat de manifest més que mai la importància de poder atendre pacients de manera remota (a distància). La teleconsulta (entesa com la comunicació a distància entre professional de la salut i pacient, bé de forma síncrona a través de videotrucada, trucada telefònica o missatgeria instantània, o bé de forma asíncrona a través de correu electrònic en plataformes segures, eConsulta o similar) es planteja com una possible eina que podria ajudar a estalviar recursos econòmics i de disponibilitat de temps a tots els actors que formen part de la cadena de valor, mantenir o millorar la qualitat de l’atenció (resultats en salut) i l’experiència de l’usuari, i garantir la futura viabilitat dels serveis d’atenció primària.La atención primaria de salud se enfrenta actualmente a una limitación en recursos, sobre todo económicos y de fuerza de trabajo. Además, la pandemia por el coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID19) ha puesto de manifiesto más que nunca la importancia de poder atender a pacientes de forma remota (a distancia). La teleconsulta (entendida como la comunicación a distancia entre profesional de la salud y paciente, bien de forma síncrona a través de videollamada, llamada telefónica o mensajería instantánea, bien de forma asíncrona a través de correo electrónico en plataformas seguras, eConsulta o similar) se plantea como una posible herramienta que podría ayudar a ahorrar recursos económicos y de disponibilidad de tiempo a todos los actores que forman parte de la cadena de valor, manteniendo o mejorando la calidad de la atención (resultados en salud) y la experiencia del usuario, y garantizando la viabilidad futura de los servicios de atención primaria.Primary healthcare is currently facing a restriction of available resources, especially in terms of finances and workforce. In addition, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has highlighted more than ever the importance of being able to care for patients remotely. Teleconsultation (understood as remote communication between health professional and patient, either synchronously via video call, telephone call or instant messaging, or asynchronously via email on secure platforms, eConsultation or similar) is seen as a possible tool that could help save financial resources and time availability for all the actors involved in the value chain, maintaining or improving the quality of care (health outcomes) and the user experience, and guaranteeing the future viability of primary care services

Properties of biopolymer dispersions and films used as carriers of the biocontrol agent Candida sake CPA-1

[EN] The use of biocontrol agents (BCA) for controlling plant diseases is an alternative to reduce the use of pesticides. Their performance can be improved when applied in combination with coatings. Films and coatings formulated from different biopolymers were characterized as to their barrier and optical properties to analyse their impact on fruit when applied as carriers of the BCA Candida sake CPA-1. The properties of the film-forming dispersions were more affected by the type of polymer than by the incorporation of surfactants. Sodium caseinate formed the thickest coatings, but these were very thin in every case, which led to there being no predicted relevant effect on the gas exchanges of the fruit. The cell viability in the films was good during film drying, especially in the case of protein films; however, it decreased after storage.The authors are grateful to the Spanish Government for the financial support through project RTA2012-00067-0O2 and to the Conselleria d'Educacio of the Generalitat Valenciana, (Spain) for A. Marin's PhD grant (VALi+d 2013). The authors are also thankful to IRTA group, headed by Dra. Neus Teixido, for their assistance in the microbiological study.Marín-Gozalbo, A.; Atarés Huerta, LM.; Cháfer Nácher, MT.; Chiralt, A. (2017). Properties of biopolymer dispersions and films used as carriers of the biocontrol agent Candida sake CPA-1. LWT - Food Science and Technology. 79:60-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2017.01.024S60697

Analysis of the growth of Chetumal grass established in a tropical climate

Objective: To evaluate the growth of Chetumal grass (Urochloa humidicola CIAT 679), in order to determine the optimal moment for the first harvest. Design/Methodology/Approach: A completely randomized experimental block design, with measurements repeated over time, and three repetitions was used. Morphological composition (MC), growth rate (GR), plant height (PH), intercepted radiation (IR), leaf:stem ratio (L:S), leaf:no-leaf ratio (L:NL), and aerial biomass (AB) —as well as leaf biomass (LB), stem biomass (SB), dead material (DM), net growth (NG), and total biomass (TB)— were evaluated every fifteen days, except for the two first samplings, which were carried out on a monthly basis. Data were analyzed using the GLM procedure of the SAS software and Tukey’s mean comparison test (α£0.05). Results: The morphological composition (MC) of the Chetumal grass was statistically different (p<0.05), during the different growth ages. The maximum accumulation of total biomass (TB) (13,324 kg DM ha-1), leaf biomass (LB) (2,569 kg DM ha-1), and growth rate (GR) (99 kg DM ha-1 d-1) was reached at 135 DAS. On that day, the prairie reached a 68 cm plant height (PH) and 100% intercepted radiation (IR). The L:S ratio decreased from 1.62 to 0.31, while L:NL ratio changed from 1.62 to 0.22. Study Limitations/Implications: The Brachiaria humidicola cv. Chetumal grass reached its highest potential during the rainy season. Findings/Conclusions: The first cut of the Urochloa humidicola cv. Chetumal grass can be carried out at 135 DAS, when the highest accumulation of total biomass (TB), leaf biomass (LB), and growth rate (GR) is recorded