Coherent State Description of the Ground State in the Tavis-Cummings Model and its Quantum Phase Transitions

Quantum phase transitions and observables of interest of the ground state in the Tavis-Cummings model are analyzed, for any number of atoms, by using a tensorial product of coherent states. It is found that this "trial" state constitutes a very good approximation to the exact quantum solution, in that it globally reproduces the expectation values of the matter and field observables. These include the population and dipole moments of the two-level atoms and the squeezing parameter. Agreement in the field-matter entanglement and in the fidelity measures, of interest in quantum information theory, is also found.The analysis is carried out in all three regions defined by the separatrix which gives rise to the quantum phase transitions. It is argued that this agreement is due to the gaussian structure of the probability distributions of the constant of motion and the number of photons. The expectation values of the ground state observables are given in analytic form, and the change of the ground state structure of the system when the separatrix is crossed is also studied.Comment: 38 pages, 16 figure

Identification of the water stress level in olive trees during pit hardening using the trunk growth rate indicator.

Water scarcity is generating an increasing interest in deficit irrigation scheduling. The trunk diameter fluctuations are daily cycles that have been suggested as tools for irrigation scheduling. The trunk growth rate (TGR) was suggested as the best indicator for olive trees during pit hardening. The aim of this work is to clarify how the TGR could be used to identify water stress levels. The experiment was performed during the 2017 season, in a commercial, super-high-density orchard in Carmona (Seville, Spain). Four different irrigation treatments were performed according to midday stem water potential values and TGR. The data obtained were very variable and both indicators presented a wide range of water status throughout the season. The maximum trunk diameter data clearly showed the pattern of the trees water status but the comparison between treatments and the identification of the water stress level was not possible. The average TGR was linked to the midday stem water potential, but with a minimum amount of data. Irrigation scheduling based on the average TGR was difficult because of the great increases in some daily TGR values. For clarity, the pool of data was grouped by midday stem water potential. These water stress levels were characterized using the weekly frequency of TGR values. The increase of water stress reduced the frequency of values between -0.1 and 0.3mm day-1 from 60% to less than 25%. Moderate water stress levels increased the percentage of values lower than -0.3mm day-1 from 7% to 37%. The most severe water stress conditions increased the TGR values between -0.3 and -0.1mm day-1 from 16% up to 22%.IRNASINSTITUTO DE LA GRASACSI

Determination of 2-, 3-, 4-methylpentanoic and cyclohexanecarboxylic acids in wine: development of a selective method based on solid phase extraction and gas chromatography-negative chemical ionization mass spectrometry and its application to different wines and alcoholic beverages

A method to analyse 2-methylpentanoic, 3-methylpentanoic and 4-methylpentanoic acids as well as cyclohexanecarboxylic acid has been developed and applied to wine and other alcoholic beverages. Selective isolation with solid phase extraction, derivatization with 2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl bromide at room temperature for 30 minutes, and further analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in negative chemical ionization mode provides detection limits between 0.4 and 2.4 ng/L. Good linearity up to 3.6 µg/L, satisfactory reproducibility (RSD < 10%) and signal recovery of around 100% represent a robust method of analysis. Concentration data of these analytes in wine and other alcoholic beverages are reported for the first time. The levels found ranged from the method detection limits to 2630 ng/L, 2040 ng/L and 3810 ng/L for 2-, 3- and 4- methylpentanoic acids, respectively, and to 1780 ng/L for cyclohexanecarboxylic acid. There are significant differences depending on the type of wine or beverage. Distilled beverages, beer and aged wines have higher contents in methylpentanoic and cyclohexanecarboxylic acids

Titanato de circonio: estabilidad termodinámica y expansión térmica

El titanato de circonio es un compuesto muy usado en aplicaciones electrocerámicas, aunque también se han descrito aplicaciones en el campo de la catálisis y de los sensores. Dada la anisotropía en la expansión térmica cristalográfica de este compuesto, podría ser planteado como constituyente de componentes estructurales. En general, para asegurar la integridad estructural y la homogeneidad microestructural de una pieza cerámica, es preciso utilizar velocidades de enfriamiento desde la temperatura de fabricación relativamente bajas. Este requerimiento tiene una importancia fundamental en el titanato de circonio, ya que pequeñas variaciones en la composición y en la velocidad de enfriamiento, producen variaciones significativas tanto en la distribución de fases como en la expansión térmica. En este trabajo se revisan los trabajos existentes sobre la estabilidad del titanato de circonio dentro de los sistemas ZrO2-TiO2 y ZrO2-TiO2-Y2O3. Se describen las principales discrepancias acerca de las fases compatibles existentes en la bibliografía actual y se discute el posible origen de estas discrepancias. Asimismo, se revisan los datos existentes sobre la expansión térmica cristalográfica de este compuesto.Peer reviewe

Analysis of Deterioration in a Plasma Focus Device

Indexación: Scopus.The Plasma Focus (PF) is a kind of dense transient plasmas in with high-pulsed voltage. To produce devices for eld application it is necessary to obtain PF equipment able to operate for a long period of time. Thus, a reliability analysis is indispensable. In this work a reliability analysis program for plasma focus devices is presented. The program considers a criticality analysis using Failure Modes and Effects Criticality Analysis (FMECA) to identify the most important failure modes of the system. Said failure modes are studied operating the Plasma Focus for many cycles, obtaining from them the characteristic curves of V(t) and İ(t). Feature Extraction (FE) techniques are applied to obtain a list of parameters that correlate to the degrading process. Furthermore, Machine Learning tools are used to learn from the obtained data, linking the changes in these parameters during its life cycle to the decay of the system in hope for future implementation of a predictive maintenance system and a reference for data analysis and prediction in PFs. The study was applied to a portable plasma focus device operated at 2 joules of stored energy. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.The work is supported by IAEA CRP contract 20370 and by grant ACT-1115, CONICYT, Chile.https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1043/1/01204

Beneficial and Deleterious Effects of Neutrophil Extracellular Traps on Infection

Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) are the most abundant leukocytes in the blood and are considered as the first line of innate immune defence against infectious diseases. However, PMN cells have a crucial function in both innate and adaptive immune responses. Neutrophils have several mechanisms to control pathogens, and one of them is their capability to form neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) that may control infection. NETs have the capacity to trap microorganisms, kill them, or avoid their dissemination. The aim of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive review on NETs, the cells that produce them, and some of the mechanisms involved in their formation, their role in the immune response, and the pros and cons of NETs, focusing mainly on infectious diseases

Phase evolution in reaction sintered zirconium titanate based materials

11 páginas, 17 figuras.-- El pdf del artículo es la versión post-print.Zirconium titanate materials are proposed for structural components for which fully reacted and relatively large pieces are required. In this work the phase evolution in slip cast compacts constituted by equimolar mixtures of TiO2 and ZrO2 stabilized with 3 mol% of Y2O3 at high temperature is studied, to establish the basis to design suitable thermal treatments for ZrO2(Y2O3)–TiO2 materials. The temperatures at which the processes involved in the reaction sintering occurred were identified by constant heating rate experiments. Phase and microstructure analyses have been performed on specimens treated at the identified temperatures and air quenched. Then the adequate temperature range to get fully reacted and dense materials has been deduced. Materials treated at 1500 ◦C to 2 h were constituted by Zr5Ti7O24 as major phase, a solid solution of TiO2 and Y2O3 in c-ZrO2 as secondary phase and a ZrO2–TiO2–Y2O3 non-stoichiometric compound with pyrochlore structure as minor phase. Pyrochlore was demonstrated to be a metastable phase at 1500 ◦C.This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science under contracts MEC MAT2006- 13480 C02-01 and MAT2007-64486 C07-02. E. López-López acknowledges to Community of Madrid (Spain) and European Social Fund for economical support by CPI/0552/2007 contract.Peer reviewe

The application of terrestrial laser scanner and SfM photogrammetry in measuring erosion and deposition processes in two opposite slopes in a humid Badlands area (Central Spanish Pyrenees)

Erosion and deposition processes in badland areas are usually estimated using traditional observations of topographic changes, measured by erosion pins or profile metres (invasive techniques). In recent times, remote-sensing techniques (non-invasive) have been routinely applied in geomorphology studies, especially in erosion studies. These techniques provide the opportunity to build high-resolution topographic models at centimetre accuracy. By comparing different 3-D point clouds of the same area, obtained at different time intervals, the variations in the terrain and temporal dynamics can be analysed. The aim of this study is to assess and compare the functioning of terrestrial laser scanner (TLS, RIEGL LPM-321) and structure-from-motion photogrammetry (SfM) techniques (Camera FUJIFILM, Finepix x100 and software PhotoScan by AgiSoft) to evaluate erosion and deposition processes in two opposite slopes in a humid badlands area in the central Spanish Pyrenees. Results showed that TLS data sets and SfM photogrammetry techniques provide new opportunities in geomorphological erosion studies. The data we recorded over 1 year demonstrated that north-facing slopes experienced more intense and faster changing geomorphological dynamics than south-facing slopes as well as the highest erosion rates. Different seasonal processes were observed, with the highest topographic differences observed during winter periods and the high-intensity rainfalls in summer. While TLS provided the highest accuracy models, SfM photogrammetry was still a faster methodology in the field and precise at short distances. Both techniques present advantages and disadvantages, and do not require direct contact with the soil and thus prevent the usual surface disturbance of traditional and invasive methods

Evolución en la enseñanza de la ciencia: una introducción para maestros

PDF de 41 páginas con gráficos y figuras a color. M.ª José Gómez Díaz es Coordinadora de El CSIC en la Escuela. VACC-CSIC José María López Sancho es Director de El CSIC en la Escuela. IFF-CSIC Esteban Moreno Gómez es director de los recursos WEB del programa El CSIC en la Escuela.Exponemos brevemente las últimas líneas de investigación centradas en cuestionarios de evaluación diagnóstica referentes a la NOS (Nature of Science). Utilizamos esta exposición para meditar acerca de las líneas fundamentales que definen la verdadera naturaleza de la ciencia que debemos aprender y transmitir a nuestros alumnos de acuerdo con sus características. El concepto de NOS se deriva de la forma en la que los científicos construyen el conocimiento científico y en sus características. Nosotros iremos un paso más allá en cuanto a abstracción: nos apoyamos en el modelo de conocimiento de Piaget que, como veremos, coincide exactamente con el esquema introducido por Kuhn para explicar la construcción del conocimiento de las comunidades científicas.Peer reviewe