Magnetism and Electronic Correlations in Quasi-One-Dimensional Compounds

In this contribution on the celebration of the 80th birthday anniversary of Prof. Ricardo Ferreira, we present a brief survey on the magnetism of quasi-one-dimensional compounds. This has been a research area of intense activity particularly since the first experimental announcements of magnetism in organic and organometallic polymers in the mid 80s. We review experimental and theoretical achievements on the field, featuring chain systems of correlated electrons in a special AB2 unit cell structure present in inorganic and organic compounds

Quantum Properties of a Which-Way Detector

We explore quantum properties of a which-way detector using three versions of an idealized two slit arrangements. Firstly we derive complementarity relations for the detector; secondly we show how the "experiment" may be altered in such a way that using single position measurement on the screen we can obtain quantum erasure. Finally we show how to construct a superposition of "wave" and "particle" components

Spatio-temporal variations in the urban rhythm: the travelling waves of crime

This is the final version. Available from EDP Sciences via the DOI in this record.In the last decades, the notion that cities are in a state of equilibrium with a centralised organisation has given place to the viewpoint of cities in disequilibrium and organised from bottom to up. In this perspective, cities are evolving systems that exhibit emergent phenomena built from local decisions. While urban evolution promotes the emergence of positive social phenomena such as the formation of innovation hubs and the increase in cultural diversity, it also yields negative phenomena such as increases in criminal activity. Yet, we are still far from understanding the driving mechanisms of these phenomena. In particular, approaches to analyse urban phenomena are limited in scope by neglecting both temporal non-stationarity and spatial heterogeneity. In the case of criminal activity, we know for more than one century that crime peaks during specific times of the year, but the literature still fails to characterise the mobility of crime. Here we develop an approach to describe the spatial, temporal, and periodic variations in urban quantities. With crime data from 12 cities, we characterise how the periodicity of crime varies spatially across the city over time. We confirm one-year criminal cycles and show that this periodicity occurs unevenly across the city. These ‘waves of crime’ keep travelling across the city: while cities have a stable number of regions with a circannual period, the regions exhibit non-stationary series. Our findings support the concept of cities in a constant change, influencing urban phenomena—in agreement with the notion of cities not in equilibrium.Leibniz AssociationArmy Research OfficeScience Without Borders program (CAPES, Brazil

Uncovering the social interaction network in swarm intelligence algorithms

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Swarm intelligence is the collective behavior emerging in systems with locally interacting components. Because of their self-organization capabilities, swarm-based systems show essential properties for handling real-world problems, such as robustness, scalability, and flexibility. Yet, we fail to understand why swarm-based algorithms work well, and neither can we compare the various approaches in the literature. The absence of a common framework capable of characterizing these several swarm-based algorithms, transcending their particularities, has led to a stream of publications inspired by different aspects of nature without a systematic comparison over existing approaches. Here we address this gap by introducing a network-based framework—the swarm interaction network—to examine computational swarm-based systems via the optics of the social dynamics. We investigate the structure of social interaction in four swarm-based algorithms, showing that our approach enables researchers to study distinct algorithms from a common viewpoint. We also provide an in-depth case study of the Particle Swarm Optimization, revealing that different communication schemes tune the social interaction in the swarm, controlling the swarm search mode. With the swarm interaction network, researchers can study swarm algorithms as systems, removing the algorithm particularities from the analyses while focusing on the structure of the swarm social interaction

Crescimento de bananeira "Grande Naine" sob diferentes lâminas de irrigação.

A banana é uma das frutas mais consumidas no mundo, e a sua produção se concentra em países de clima tropical. Apesar de ser um dos maiores produtores mundiais, o Brasil apresenta baixa produtividade média, quando comparado com outros países como Guatemala e Costa Rica (FAO, 2007). O baixo rendimento constatado nas regiões produtoras de banana evidencia a necessidade de ajustes tecnológicos e de manejo da cultura nas diversas áreas do conhecimento. Uma das tecnologias mais relevantes demandadas para esta cultura, diz respeito à irrigação, já que ela é muito sensível ao déficit hídrico e seu potencial produtivo depende de uma apreciável taxa de transpiração e boa uniformidade de distribuição de água durante o seu ciclo produtivo, não sendo fácil encontrar condições ecológicas naturais que satisfaçam todas as suas exigências (FIGUEIREDO, et al. 2006).pdf 180

Dados de produtividade de bananeira "Grande Naine" sob diferentes lâminas de irrigação.

A bananeira é uma das culturas mais exploradas nos países de clima tropical. Nos últimos tempos a área plantada vem crescendo, principalmente na região nordeste do Brasil. Segundo o IBGE (2010) a área plantada encontra-se em 562.102 ha e safra prevista para 2010 de 7.473.722 kg da fruta e rendimento médio de 14.053 Kg/ha considerado baixo em relação às produtividades alcançadas em cultivos irrigados: 47,6 t.ha-1 (COELHO et. al. 2006). Essa baixa produtividade ocorre devido a fatores ligados ao manejo da cultura, mas, principalmente porque grande parte da banana é produzida em condições de sequeiro e a cultura, sensível ao déficit, depende fundamentalmente da adequada disponibilidade de água no solo para obtenção de colheitas rentáveis.pdf 180