Electronic states and transport properties in the Kronig-Penney model with correlated compositional and structural disorder

We study the structure of the electronic states and the transport properties of a Kronig-Penney model with weak compositional and structural disorder. Using a perturbative approach we obtain an analytical expression for the localisation length which is valid for disorder with arbitrary correlations. We show how to generate disorder with self- and cross-correlations and we analyse both the known delocalisation effects of the long-range self-correlations and new effects produced by cross-correlations. We finally discuss how both kinds of correlations alter the transport properties in Kronig-Penney models of finite size.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure

Sustainable forest management of miombo woodlands in Niassa National Reserve, northern Mozambique: a multidisciplinary approach of fire resistance analysis.

Poster presented at XIII World Forestry Congress. Buenos Aires (Argentina). 18 - 23 Oct 2009

Delocalization in harmonic chains with long-range correlated random masses

We study the nature of collective excitations in harmonic chains with masses exhibiting long-range correlated disorder with power spectrum proportional to $1/k^{\alpha}$, where $k$ is the wave-vector of the modulations on the random masses landscape. Using a transfer matrix method and exact diagonalization, we compute the localization length and participation ratio of eigenmodes within the band of allowed energies. We find extended vibrational modes in the low-energy region for $\alpha > 1$. In order to study the time evolution of an initially localized energy input, we calculate the second moment $M_2(t)$ of the energy spatial distribution. We show that $M_2(t)$, besides being dependent of the specific initial excitation and exhibiting an anomalous diffusion for weakly correlated disorder, assumes a ballistic spread in the regime $\alpha>1$ due to the presence of extended vibrational modes.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figure

Anomalous properties of the Kronig-Penney model with compositional and structural disorder

We study the localization properties of the eigenstates in the Kronig-Penney model with weak compositional and structural disorder. The main result is an expression for the localization length that is valid for any kind of self- and inter-correlations of the two types of disorder. We show that the interplay between compositional and structural disorder can result in anomalous localization.Comment: 11 pages, no figur

Soybean oil transesterification for biodiesel production with micro-structured calcium oxide (CaO) from natural waste materials as a heterogeneous catalyst

In this study, micro-structured calcium oxide obtained from the calcination (850 degrees C for 3 h) of Gallus gallus domesticus (chicken) eggshells was used as a catalyst in the transesterification of soybean oil. This catalyst was characterized by Scanning Electron Spectroscopy (SEM) methods. The structure of the obtained CaO showed several agglomerates of white granular solids with a non-regular and unsymmetrical shape. In terms of calcium oxide catalytic activity, three different catalyst loadings (1%wt, 3%wt, and 5%wt) were tested for the same reaction conditions, resulting in transesterification yields of 77.27%wt, 84.53%wt, and 85.83%wt respectively. The results were compared to the current literature, and whilst they were lower, they were promising, allowing us to conclude that the tendency of yield improvement for this reaction, when the size range of catalyst particles is to be reduced to a nano scale, can be verified.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Delocalization and spin-wave dynamics in ferromagnetic chains with long-range correlated random exchange

We study the one-dimensional quantum Heisenberg ferromagnet with exchange couplings exhibiting long-range correlated disorder with power spectrum proportional to $1/k^{\alpha}$, where $k$ is the wave-vector of the modulations on the random coupling landscape. By using renormalization group, integration of the equations of motion and exact diagonalization, we compute the spin-wave localization length and the mean-square displacement of the wave-packet. We find that, associated with the emergence of extended spin-waves in the low-energy region for $\alpha > 1$, the wave-packet mean-square displacement changes from a long-time super-diffusive behavior for $\alpha <1$ to a long-time ballistic behavior for $\alpha > 1$. At the vicinity of $\alpha =1$, the mobility edge separating the extended and localized phases is shown to scale with the degree of correlation as $E_c\propto (\alpha -1)^{1/3}$.Comment: PRB to appea

Height-based equations as screening tools for elevated blood pressure in the SAYCARE study

This study evaluated the accuracy of four height-based equations: blood pressure to height ratio (BPHR), modified BPHR (MBPHR), new modified BPHR (NMBPHR), and height-based equations (HBE) for screening elevated BP in children and adolescents in the SAYCARE study. We measured height and BP of 829 children and adolescents from seven South American cities. Receiving operating curves were used to assess formula performance to diagnose elevated BP in comparison to the 2017 clinical guideline. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values (PPV, NPV) were calculated for the four screening formulas. The diagnostic agreement was evaluated with the kappa coefficient. The HBE equation showed the maximum sensitivity (100%) in children, both for boys and girls, and showed the best performance results, with a very high NPV (>99%) and high PPV (>60%) except for female children (53.8%). In adolescents, the highest sensitivity (100%) was achieved with the NMBPHR for both sexes. Kappa coefficients indicated that HBE had the highest agreement with the gold standard diagnostic method (between 0.70 and 0.75), except for female children (0.57). Simplified methods are friendlier than the percentile gold standard tables. The HBE equation showed better performance than the other formulas in this Latin American pediatric population

MUNCH - Automated Reasoner for Sets and Multisets

This system description provides an overview of the MUNCH reasoner for sets and multisets. MUNCH takes as the input a formula in a logic that supports expressions about sets, multisets, and integers. Constraints over collections and integers are connected using the cardinality operator. Our logic is a fragment of logics of popular interactive theorem provers, and MUNCH is the first fully automated reasoner for this logic. MUNCH reduces input formulas to equisatisfiable linear integer arithmetic formulas. MUNCH reasoner is publicly available. It is implemented in the Scala programming language and currently uses the SMT solver Z3 to solve the generated integer linear arithmetic constraints