Critical comparison of electrode models in density functional theory based quantum transport calculations

We study the performance of two different electrode models in quantum transport calculations based on density functional theory: Parametrized Bethe lattices and quasi-one dimensional wires or nanowires. A detailed account of implementation details in both cases is given. From the systematic study of nanocontacts made of representative metallic elements, we can conclude that parametrized electrode models represent an excellent compromise between computational cost and electronic structure definition as long as the aim is to compare with experiments where the precise atomic structure of the electrodes is not relevant or defined with precision. The results obtained using parametrized Bethe lattices are essentially similar to the ones obtained with quasi one dimensional electrodes for large enough sections of these, adding a natural smearing to the transmission curves that mimics the true nature of polycrystalline electrodes. The latter are more demanding from the computational point of view, but present the advantage of expanding the range of applicability of transport calculations to situations where the electrodes have a well-defined atomic structure, as is case for carbon nanotubes, graphene nanoribbons or semiconducting nanowires. All the analysis is done with the help of codes developed by the authors which can be found in the quantum transport toolbox Alacant and are publicly available.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure

Incremento de la productividad mediante la mejora de procesos del área posventa, empresa Concesionaria H&S S.A.C. Chimbote, 2019

El presente trabajo se implementó en la empresa Concesionaria H&S S.A.C, dedicada a la comercialización, mantenimiento y reparación de vehículos automotores menores, en la cual se tuvo como objetivo principal el determinar el incremento de la productividad mediante la mejora de procesos del área posventa en Concesionaria H&S S.A.C. El tipo de investigación fue cuasiexperimental y su diseño experimental con pre prueba y post prueba. La población estuvo compuesta por la productividad de la empresa y la muestra por la productividad de los meses marzo, abril y mayo del año 2019, la cual se obtuvo a través de un muestreo no probabilístico; se utilizó técnicas de recolección de datos tales como: encuesta, entrevista, observación directa, entre otras y técnicas de análisis de datos. El diagnóstico se realizó con el instrumento Lluvia de ideas, Ishikawa, Pareto, Estudio de tiempos, DAP, entre otros; obteniendo que las causas vitales del tiempo de mantenimiento de motocicletas son: la ausencia de herramientas especiales, gerencia no invierte en herramienta adicionales; cotización de los mecánicos mal definida, la poca capacitación del personal y la inadecuada metodología de fallas, dado esto se determinó la productividad pre prueba del segundo trimestre del año 2019, que comprende a los valores de los meses abril, mayo y junio; donde la productividad promedio de mano de obra fue de 10.08 servicios de mantenimiento / semana – hombre, la eficiencia promedio fue 50.30% y por último la eficacia 100% para los tres meses, una vez implementado los indicadores objeto de estudio y los valores promedio para los meses setiembre, octubre y noviembre de la productividad de mano de obra fue de 21.31 servicios de mantenimiento / semana - hombre, la eficiencia promedio fue 68.57% y la eficacia fue 100% para los tres meses mencionados. Además, como consecuencia positiva la mejora de procesos logro reducir el tiempo estándar de 151.67 minutos a 121.00 minutos y tener una variación porcentual en los tiempos de elementos asociados a la propuesta de la capacitación de 22.87%. En conclusión, se demostró que, mediante la mejora de procesos se incrementó los indicadores de la productividad

Tunable resonators for quantum circuits

We have designed, fabricated and measured high-Q $\lambda/2$ coplanar waveguide microwave resonators whose resonance frequency is made tunable with magnetic field by inserting a DC-SQUID array (including 1 or 7 SQUIDs) inside. Their tunability range is 30% of the zero field frequency. Their quality factor reaches up to 3$\times10^4$. We present a model based on thermal fluctuations that accounts for the dependance of the quality factor with magnetic field.Comment: subm. to JLTP (Proc. of LTD12 conference

Acute or chronic effects of cannabinoids on spontaneous or pharmacologically induced yawning in rats

Abstract Yawning is a reflex or event that is not fully understood. It is controlled by many neurotransmitters and neuropeptides and can be induced pharmacologically by cholinergic or dopaminergic agonists. Amongst their many actions, cannabinoids acting on cannabinoid (CB 1 or CB 2 ) receptors can alter cholinergic and/or dopaminergic activity. This study examined the effects of D -THC. However, a high frequency of spontaneous yawning was observed 7 days after D 8 -THC discontinuation. These results suggest that cannabinoid agonists inhibited yawning induced by cholinergic or dopaminergic agonists. In addition, the increased frequency of spontaneous yawning following cessation of chronic administration of a cannabinoid agonist may be of importance as a withdrawal sign for these drugs.

Laser-Beam-Patterned Topological Insulating States on Thin Semiconducting MoS2

Identifying the two-dimensional (2D) topological insulating (TI) state in new materials and its control are crucial aspects towards the development of voltage-controlled spintronic devices with low-power dissipation. Members of the 2D transition metal dichalcogenides have been recently predicted and experimentally reported as a new class of 2D TI materials, but in most cases edge conduction seems fragile and limited to the monolayer phase fabricated on specified substrates. Here, we realize the controlled patterning of the 1T′ phase embedded into the 2H phase of thin semiconducting molybdenum-disulfide by laser beam irradiation. Integer fractions of the quantum of resistance, the dependence on laser-irradiation conditions, magnetic field, and temperature, as well as the bulk gap observation by scanning tunneling spectroscopy and theoretical calculations indicate the presence of the quantum spin Hall phase in our patterned 1T′ phasesThe work carried out at Aoyama Gakuin University was partly supported by a grant for private universities and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (JP15K13277) awarded by MEXT. The work at the University of Tokyo was partly supported by Grantin-Aid for Scientific Research (JP17K05492, JP18H04218 and JP19H00652). J. J. P. and S. P. acknowledge Spanish MINECO through Grant No. FIS2016-80434-P, the Fundación Ramón Areces, the María de Maeztu Program for Units of Excellence in R&D (MDM-2014- 0377), the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid through NANOMAGCOST Program, and the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under Grant Agreement No. 604391 Graphene Flagship. S. P. acknowledges the computer resources and assistance provided by the Centro de Computación Científica of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. S. P. was also supported by the VILLUM FONDEN via the Center of Excellence for Dirac Materials (Grant No. 11744). D. M. and E. G.-M. gratefully acknowledge support from the Graphene Flagship Graphene Core2 Contract No. 785219. E. G.-M also acknowledges IJCI-2017-32297 from Spanish MINECO/AE

FosB mRNA Expression in Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes in Drug Addicted Patients

FosB gene heterodimerizes with Jun family proteins to form activator protein 1 (AP-1) complexes that bind to AP-1 sites in responsive genes to regulate transcription in all cells. The genic expression of FosB seems to be modified after long time exposure to drugs of abuse and these changes may be involved in craving and addicted behavior. This study investigated the FosB mRNA expression in peripheral blood lymphocytes of drug addicted patients using real-time PCR approach. Thus, patients with crack-cocaine use disorder (CUD, n = 10), alcohol use disorder (AUD, n = 12), and healthy non-addicted subjects (CONT, n = 12) were assessed. FosB mRNA expression was reduced by 1.15-fold in CUD and 2.17-fold in AUD when compared to CONT. Hedge’s effect size gs over log FosB/Act was of 0.66 for CUD and of 0.30 for AUD when compared to controls. This study showed that FosB mRNA expression was detected in lymphocytes from peripheral blood for the first time, and it was less expressed in drug addicted patients. This molecular technique may constitute a potential peripheral marker for substance use disorder

E,Z-Stereodivergent synthesis of N-tosyl α,β-dehydroamino esters via a Mukaiyama-Michael addition

The stereodivergent synthesis of N-tosyl α,β-dehydroamino esters via a Mukaiyama-Michael addition is reported. The reaction of silylketene acetals with N-tosylimines derived from β,γ-unsaturated α-keto esters in dichloromethane provided the corresponding (Z)-α,β-dehydroamino esters while the (E)-isomers were obtained when the reaction was carried out in the presence of 10 mol% copper(II) triflate

Novel Arenavirus, Zambia

To investigate arenavirus in Zambia, we characterized virus from the kidneys of 5 arenavirus RNA–positive rodents (Mastomys natalensis) among 263 captured. Full-genome sequences of the viruses suggested that they were new strains similar to Lassa virus–related arenaviruses. Analyzing samples from additional rodents and other species can elucidate epizootiologic aspects of arenaviruses

Multiple Sessions of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Reduced Craving and Relapses for Alcohol Use: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial in Alcohol Use Disorder

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive brain stimulation technique, has been studied as an adjunctive therapeutic agent for alcohol dependence. In a previous study, we showed that five consecutive sessions of tDCS applied bilaterally over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) reduced relapse to the use of alcohol in alcohol use disorder (AUD) outpatients. However, no changes on craving scores were observed. In the present study, we investigated if an extended number of sessions of the same intervention would reduce craving and relapses for alcohol use in AUD inpatients.Methods: Thus, a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled, clinical trial with parallel arms was conducted (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02091284). AUD patients from two private and one public clinics for treatment of drug dependence were randomly allocated to two groups: real tDCS (5 × 7 cm2, 2 mA, for 20 min, cathodal over the left dlPFC, and anodal over the right dlPFC) and sham-tDCS. Real or sham-tDCS was applied once a day, every other day, in a total of 10 sessions. Craving was monitored by a 5-item obsessive compulsive drinking scale once a week (one time before, three times during and once after brain stimulation) over about 5 weeks.Results: Craving scores progressively decreased over five measurements in both groups but were significantly reduced only in the real tDCS group after treatment. Corrected Hedges' within-group (initial and final) effect sizes of craving scores were of 0.3 for the sham-tDCS and of 1.1 for the real tDCS group. Effect size was 3-fold larger in the real tDCS group. In addition, the between-group analysis on craving score difference was nearly significant, and the effect size was 0.58, in favor for a larger effect in the real tDCS group when compared to sham-tDCS. Furthermore, in a 3-months follow-up after intervention, 72.2% of sham-tDCS group relapsed to the alcohol use whereas 72.7% of tDCS group were abstinent.Conclusions: Multiple sessions of bilateral prefrontal tDCS were well tolerated with no significant adverse events. Thus, extended repetitive bilateral tDCS over the dlPFC is a promising adjunctive clinical tool that could be used to reduce alcohol craving and relapses and facilitate alcoholism cessation

A first-principles approach to electrical transport in atomic-scale nanostructures

We present a first-principles numerical implementation of Landauer formalism for electrical transport in nanostructures characterized down to the atomic level. The novelty and interest of our method lies essentially on two facts. First of all, it makes use of the versatile Gaussian98 code, which is widely used within the quantum chemistry community. Secondly, it incorporates the semi-infinite electrodes in a very generic and efficient way by means of Bethe lattices. We name this method the Gaussian Embedded Cluster Method (GECM). In order to make contact with other proposed implementations, we illustrate our technique by calculating the conductance in some well-studied systems such as metallic (Al and Au) nanocontacts and C-atom chains connected to metallic (Al and Au) electrodes. In the case of Al nanocontacts the conductance turns out to be quite dependent on the detailed atomic arrangement. On the contrary, the conductance in Au nanocontacts presents quite universal features. In the case of C chains, where the self-consistency guarantees the local charge transfer and the correct alignment of the molecular and electrode levels, we find that the conductance oscillates with the number of atoms in the chain regardless of the type of electrode. However, for short chains and Al electrodes the even-odd periodicity is reversed at equilibrium bond distances.Comment: 14 pages, two-column format, submitted to PR