Electronic structure of the ferromagnetic superconductor UCoGe from first principles

The superconductor UCoGe is analyzed with electronic structure calculations using Linearized Augmented Plane Wave method based on Density Functional Theory. Ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic calculations with and without correlations (via LDA+U) were done. In this compound the Fermi level is situated in a region where the main contribution to DOS comes from the U-5f orbital. The magnetic moment is mainly due to the Co-3d orbital with a small contribution from the U-5f orbital. The possibility of fully non-collinear magnetism in this compound seems to be ruled out. These results are compared with the isostructural compound URhGe, in this case the magnetism comes mostly from the U-5f orbital

Recombination reduction on lead halide perovskite solar cells based on low temperature synthesized hierarchical TiO2 nanorods

Intensive research on the electron transport material (ETM) has been pursued to improve the efficiency of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and decrease their cost. More importantly, the role of the ETM layer is not yet fully understood, and research on new device architectures is still needed. Here, we report the use of three-dimensional (3D) TiO2 with a hierarchical architecture based on rutile nanorods (NR) as photoanode material for PSCs. The proposed hierarchical nanorod (HNR) films were synthesized by a two-step low temperature (180 °C) hydrothermal method, and consist of TiO2 nanorod trunks with optimal lengths of 540 nm and TiO2 nanobranches with lengths of 45 nm. Different device configurations were fabricated with TiO2 structures (compact layer, NR and HNR) and CH3NH3PbI3, using different synthetic routes, as the active material. PSCs based on HNR-CH3NH3PbI3 achieved the highest power conversion efficiency compared to PSCs with other TiO2 structures. This result can be ascribed mainly to lower charge recombination as determined by impedance spectroscopy. Furthermore, we have observed that the CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite deposited by the two-step route shows higher efficiency, surface coverage and infiltration within the structure of 3D HNR than the one-step CH3NH3PbI3−xClx perovskite.This work was supported by the Universitat Jaume I (project 12I361.01/1), the Spanish MINECO (project MAT2013-47192- C3-1-R), CONACYT-México (project CB-2010/153270) and UNAM (PAPIIT-IN1030

Impact of Sexualized Substance Use and Other Risk Practices on HCV Microelimination in gbMSM Living with HIV: Urgent Need for Targeted Strategies

In the original publication of the article, the article funding note was incorrectly published, the correct one should read as: This study has been funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III through the project ‘‘PI18/00583’’ and co-funded by European Regional Development Fund ‘‘A way to make Europe’’. This has been corrected in this paper. © The Author(s) 2022

The influence of Ga+^+-irradiation on the transport properties of mesoscopic conducting thin films

We studied the influence of 30keV Ga$^+$-ions -- commonly used in focused ion beam (FIB) devices -- on the transport properties of thin crystalline graphite flake, La$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$ and Co thin films. The changes of the electrical resistance were measured in-situ during irradiation and also the temperature and magnetic field dependence before and after irradiation. Our results show that the transport properties of these materials strongly change at Ga$^+$ fluences much below those used for patterning and ion beam induced deposition (IBID), limiting seriously the use of FIB when the intrinsic properties of the materials of interest are of importance. We present a method that can be used to protect the sample as well as to produce selectively irradiation-induced changes.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, will be published in Nanotechnology 201

Digging deeper into colonial palaeontological practices in modern day Mexico and Brazil

Scientific practices stemming from colonialism, whereby middle- and low-income countries supply data for high-income countries and the contributions of local expertise are devalued, are still prevalent today in the field of palaeontology. In response to these unjust practices, countries such as Mexico and Brazil adopted protective laws and regulations during the twentieth century to preserve their palaeontological heritage. However, scientific colonialism is still reflected in many publications describing fossil specimens recovered from these countries. Here, we present examples of ‘palaeontological colonialism’ from publications on Jurassic–Cretaceous fossils from NE Mexico and NE Brazil spanning the last three decades. Common issues that we identified in these publications are the absence of both fieldwork and export permit declarations and the lack of local experts among authorships. In Mexico, access to many fossil specimens is restricted on account of these specimens being housed in private collections, whereas a high number of studies on Brazilian fossils are based on specimens illegally reposited in foreign collections, particularly in Germany and Japan. Finally, we outline and discuss the wider academic and social impacts of these research practices, and propose exhaustive recommendations to scientists, journals, museums, research institutions and government and funding agencies in order to overcome these practices

Cell walls of the dimorphic fungal pathogens Sporothrix schenckii and Sporothrix brasiliensis exhibit bilaminate structures and sloughing of extensive and intact layers

This work was supported by the Fundação Carlos Chagas de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), grants E-26/202.974/2015 and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), grants 229755/2013-5, Brazil. LMLB is a senior research fellow of CNPq and Faperj. NG acknowledged support from the Wellcome Trust (Trust (097377, 101873, 200208) and MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (MR/N006364/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD