Crystalline structure of the manganites solid solution RE(Me,Mn)O3, (RE=Gd,Er; Me=Ni,Co)

Las propiedades estructurales de las soluciones sólidas RE(Me,Mn)O3, RE=Gd,Er, Me=Ni,Co, han sido estudiadas por difracción de rayos X, (DRX) y medidas eléctricas. Las fases se sintetizaron por reacción en estado sólido entre los óxidos componentes. La incorporación de los cationes Ni2+ y Co2+,3+ en la red en lugar de Mn lleva a cambios en los parámetros de red y en la simetría de la perovskita, GdMnO3 o del compuesto hexagonal ErMnO3 respectivamente. Las transiciones de fase dependen de la cantidad de Mn3+ sustituido, y por tanto de la debilitación del efecto co-operativo Jahn-Teller. Las soluciones sólidas basadas en GdMnO3 cambian de perovskita tipo O’ a perovskita tipo O. Esta transición ocurre para una menor cantidad de Ni que para Co como sustituyentes. Las soluciones basadas en ErMnO3 muestran un comportamiento algo diferente: la incorporación induce cambios desde la estructura hexagonal a una estructura tipo perovskita en la forma O, para cantidades de ~20 at% Ni y para ~30 at% Co. La influencia del factor estérico en las transiciones observadas parece jugar un papel secundario frente a la desaparición progresiva de los cationes Jahn-Teller Mn3+Peer reviewe

Incremento de la producción maderera en un contexto de despoblación rural

Comunicación presentada no Congreso Técnico-Científico sobre Desagrarización e Sostibilidade Rural na Euro-Rexión Galicia- Norte de Portugal. Lugo, 27, 28 e 29 de setembro 2006Se presentan las actuaciones planificadas en un monte vecinal para incrementar su producción maderable. Diversos condicionantes limitan las posibles intervenciones: el carácter colectivo de la propiedad, un entorno rural fuertemente desertizado, la baja aptitud del medio para la producción maderera, el importante esfuerzo inversor inicial para repoblar extensas áreas rasas o la incertidumbre acerca del éxito de las inversiones dado el alto riesgo de incendio. Asumiendo esto se propone dividir el monte en dos cuarteles productores de madera de pino de calidad, dejando parte del monte con uso protector. La repoblación de rasos será escalonada para evitar una inversión inicial elevada e inviable. Asimismo, la repoblación por etapas permitirá lograr a largo plazo un predio donde coexistan masas de todas las edades del ciclo productivo, lo que contribuirá a regularizar la magnitud y periodicidad de las cortas, con la consiguiente percepción de rentas de forma continuada en el tiempo

Interaction Network and Niche Analysis of Natural Enemy Communities and their Host Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) in fragments of Cerrado and Atlantic Forest

Natural enemies are important components of solitary bee communities that nest in preexisting cavities because they act as a relevant mortality factor and can regulate population growth. Despite this, the natural enemy-host interaction remains poorly investigated. This research aimed to determine the composition of the community, the structure of the interaction network, and niche overlap and breadth of natural enemy species in areas of Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) and Semideciduous seasonal forest (Atlantic Forest) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Trap-nests made of black cardboard and bamboo canes were provided in the field and inspected monthly in each area, from August 2001 to July 2003 at Cerrado and from June 2006 to May 2008 at the Semideciduous seasonal forest.  A modular structure in the interaction network was observed for both areas with the populations of natural enemies showing high degrees of specialization. This structure confers higher stability against disturbances than less specialized webs since these adversities must spread more slowly through the network. The niche analysis showed low degrees of overlap for both, trophic and temporal, among the natural enemy populations

MICROSTRUCTURAL EFFECTS ON THE PHASE TRANSITIONS AND THE THERMAL EVOLUTION OF ELASTIC AND PIEZOELECTRIC PROPERTIES IN HIGHLY DENSE, SUBMICRON-STRUCTURED NaNbO3 CERAMICS

The dielectric, piezoelectric and elastic coefficients, as well as the electromechanical coupling factors, of NaNbO3 submicron-structured ceramics have been obtained by an automatic iterative method from impedance measurements at resonance. Poled thin disks were measured from room temperature up to the depoling one, close to 300ºC. Dielectric thermal behaviour was determined also for unpoled ceramics up to the highest phase transition temperature. Ceramics were processed by hot-pressing from mechanically activated precursors. Microstructural effects on the properties are discussed. The suppression of the classical maximum in dielectric permittivity in unpoled ceramics at the phase transition at 370ºC was found when a bimodal distribution of grain sizes, in which a population of average grain size of 110 nm in between much coarser grains is observed. The appearance of a phase transition at 150ºC took place when Na vacancies are minimized. The occurrence of a non-centrosymmetric, ferroelectric phase, in the unpoled ceramic from room temperature to ~300ºC, highly polarisable resulting in high ferro-piezoelectric properties was also observed in the ceramic which presents grain size below 160 nm. Maximum values of kp=14%, d31=-8.7•10-12 C•N-1 and Np=3772 Hz•m at room temperature, and kp=18%, d31=-25.4•10-12 C•N-1 and Np=3722 Hz•m at 295ºC were achieved in the best processing conditions of the ceramics.Peer reviewe

Low trophic niche overlap among trap-nesting bee species (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) in a semideciduous forest fragment

International audienceAbstractBees are important components of mutualistic interactions with plants, playing a key role as pollinators of both wild and crop plants. In this context, studies on the plants visited by bees are important to determining conservation strategies. We investigated the use of floral resources by the trap-nesting bee species sampled in a semideciduous forest fragment. Trap nests were set in the forest fragment in three different zones: forest edge, 250 m away from the edge and 500 m away from the forest edge. Pollen analysis of the residual pollen content removed from the nests of 12 bee species revealed a total of 63 pollen types from 16 botanical families. The bee community showed specialized populations with no overlap in diet. Within the community, the diet overlap was higher in closely related species, the two Tetrapedia species and the two Centris (Heterocentris) species, than in the other sampled species. Although the studied bee community is composed of widespread bee species, our data showed a low niche overlap among them, suggesting the occurrence of food niche partitioning at our study site. The asymmetry in the period of nesting activities and floral preferences among the bee species are factors that might have contributed to the low niche overlap observed

Burn severity and land-use legacy influence bird abundance in the Atlantic-Mediterranean biogeographic transition

Fire regimes in mountain landscapes of southern Europe have been shifting from their baselines due to rural abandonment and fire exclusion policies. Understanding the effects of fire on biodiversity is paramount to implement adequate management. Herein, we evaluated the relative role of burn severity and heterogeneity on bird abundance in an abandoned mountain range located in the biogeographic transition between the Eurosiberian and Mediterranean region (the Natural Park ‘Baixa Limia–Serra do Xurés’). We surveyed the bird community in 206 census plots distributed across the Natural Park, both inside and outside areas affected by wildfires over the last 11 years (from 2010 to 2020). We used satellite images of Sentinel 2 and Landsat missions to quantify the burn severity and heterogeneity of each fire within each surveyed plot. We also accounted for the past land use (forestry or agropastoral use) by using a land cover information for year 2010 derived from satellite image classification. We recorded 1735 contacts from 28 bird species. Our models, fitted by using GLMs with Poisson error distribution (pseudo-R2-average of 0.22 ± 0.13), showed that up to 71% of the modeled species were linearly correlated with at least one attribute of the fire regime. The spatiotemporal variation in burnt area and severity were relevant factors for explaining the local abundance of our target species (39% of the species; Akaike weights >0.75). We also found a quadratic effect of at least one fire regime attribute on bird abundance for 60% of the modeled species. The past land use, and its legacy after 10 years, was critical to understand the role of fire (Akaike weights >0.75). Our findings confirm the importance of incorporating remotely sensed indicators of burn severity into the toolkit of decision makers to accurately anticipate the response of birds to fire managementS

CoSb3-based skutterudite nanocomposites prepared by cold sintering process with enhanced thermoelectric properties

We show here for the first time the use of a cold sintering process (CSP) to sinter CoSb3-based thermoelectric materials. CSP at 150 {\deg}C for 90 min under a uniaxial pressure of 750 MPa yields pieces with a relative density of 86 %, which is increased to around 92 % after a post-annealing at temperatures > 500 {\deg}C in Ar atmosphere. The reported CSP produces Te doped-CoSb3 nanocomposites with similar morphological and structural characteristics to the starting nanopowders obtained by ball milling in air atmosphere. The post-thermal treatment induces grain coalescence and grain growth, crystallite size growth as well as compositional changes in the nanocomposite, decreasing the amount of the main phase, CoSb3, and increasing the weight of secondary phase, CoSb2, up to a 30 wt% at 600 {\deg}C. Remarkably, the average valence for the Co, Sb and Te absorbing atoms is neither transformed by the sintering process nor by the subsequent heat treatment. The functional response of the sintered thermoelectric nanocomposites exhibits a maximum figure of merit of 0.12(3) at room temperature for the nanocomposites sintered by CSP with a subsequent post-annealing at 500 {\deg}C. This is mainly due to its low thermal conductivity in comparison with similar powders sintered by other approaches, and it is explained by the morphological and structural properties. These findings represent an attractive alternative for obtaining efficient thermoelectric skutterudites by a scalable and cost-effective route

Tailoring the thermoelectric properties of Skutterudites by nanocomposites

Póster presentado en la 34th Annual International Conference on Thermoelectrics (ICT) y en la 13th European Conference on Thermoelectrics(ECT), celebradas en Dresden del 28 de junio al 2 de julio de 2015.Skutterudites have attracted great attention for their promising potential on thermoelectric applications, such as harvesting the heat generated in industrial processes and automotive operations. To improve their thermoelectric figure of merit ,emphasis has gone into modifying the band structure through doping to enhance the Power Factor and reducing thermal conductivity through increasing phonon scattering by filling and in-situ nanocomposites formation.Depending on the nature of the nanoinclusions and the proportion in the matrix, it is possible to tailor the thermoelectric properties. In this work, different concentrations of oxides were included in a one-step synthesis mechanism, obtaining the Skutterudite phase with nanoinclusions and therefore, achieving lower thermal conductivities than those reported in literature.Peer Reviewe

Efeitos do tamanho da semente sobre a germinação, o vigor e a produção do milho (Zea mays L.)

The effects of seed size on germination, vigor and yield of corn (Zea mays L.) were studied by means of laboratory tests and a field experiment. The following tests were performed: first count of germination, rapid aging and ammonium chloride test. The effect on yield was determinated by means of a randomized block design field experiment. Analysis and interpretation of results showed that seed size had no influence on germination, vigor and yield.A influência do tamanho de sementes de milho (Zea mays L.) sobre a germinação, o vigor e a produção de grãos foi estudada mediante a instalação de testes de laboratório e de um ensaio de campo. Em laboratório foram conduzidos testes de germinação, primeira contagem de germinação, envelhecimento rápido e cloreto de amônio. No campo foram determinados a porcentagem de emergência das plântulas, "stand final", número e peso das espigas. As análises dos dados e as interpretações dos resultados permitiram concluir que o tamanho das sementes não influenciou a germinação, o vigor e a produção

Parasitemia Levels in Trypanosoma cruzi Infection in Spain, an Area Where the Disease Is Not Endemic: Trends by Different Molecular Approaches

Trypanosoma cruzi infection has expanded globally through human migration. In Spain, the mother-to-child route is the mode of transmission contributing to autochthonous Chagas disease (CD); however, most people acquired the infection in their country of origin and were diagnosed in the chronic phase (imported chronic CD). In this context, we assessed the quantitative potential of the Loopamp Trypanosoma cruzi detection kit (Sat-TcLAMP) based on satellite DNA (Sat-DNA) to determine parasitemia levels compared to those detected by real-time quantitative PCRs (qPCRs) targeting Sat-DNA (Sat-qPCR) and kinetoplast DNA minicircles (kDNA-qPCR). This study included 173 specimens from 39 autochthonous congenital and 116 imported chronic CD cases diagnosed in Spain. kDNA-qPCR showed higher sensitivity than Sat-qPCR and Sat-TcLAMP. According to all quantitative approaches, parasitemia levels were significantly higher in congenital infection than in chronic CD (1 × 10-1 to 5 × 105 versus >1 × 10-1 to 6 × 103 parasite equivalents/mL, respectively [P < 0.001]). Sat-TcLAMP, Sat-qPCR, and kDNA-qPCR results were equivalent at high levels of parasitemia (P = 0.381). Discrepancies were significant for low levels of parasitemia and older individuals. Differences between Sat-TcLAMP and Sat-qPCR were not qualitatively significant, but estimations of parasitemia using Sat-TcLAMP were closer to those by kDNA-qPCR. Parasitemia changes were assessed in 6 individual cases in follow-up, in which trends showed similar patterns by all quantitative approaches. At high levels of parasitemia, Sat-TcLAMP, Sat-qPCR, and kDNA-qPCR worked similarly, but significant differences were found for the low levels characteristic of late chronic CD. A suitable harmonization strategy needs to be developed for low-level parasitemia detection using Sat-DNA- and kDNA-based tests. IMPORTANCE: Currently, molecular equipment has been introduced into many health care centers, even in low-income countries. PCR, qPCR, and loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) are becoming more accessible for the diagnosis of neglected infectious diseases. Chagas disease (CD) is spreading worldwide, and in countries where the disease is not endemic, such as Spain, the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi is transmitted from mother to child (congenital CD). Here, we explore why LAMP, aimed at detecting T. cruzi parasite DNA, is a reliable option for the diagnosis of congenital CD and the early detection of reactivation in chronic infection. When the parasite load is high, LAMP is equivalent to any qPCR. In addition, the estimations of T. cruzi parasitemia in patients living in Spain, a country where the disease is not endemic, resemble natural evolution in areas of endemicity. If molecular tests are introduced into the diagnostic algorithm for congenital infection, early diagnosis and timely treatment would be accomplished, so the interruption of vertical transmission can be an achievable goal.This research was supported by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), Geneva, Switzerland (WO klob-0003), and the Surveillance Program of Chagas Disease of the National Centre for Microbiology (CNM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII). CNM-ISCIII research team is supported by Fundación Mundo Sano, Spain (MVP 237/19). The ISGlobal research team is supported by the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca AGAUR) (2017 SGR 00924). ISGlobal is a member of the Centres de Recerca de Catalunya (CERCA) Programme, Government of Catalonia (Spain).S