Zero-range Fermi gas along the BCS-BEC crossover

FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOFAPEG - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE GOIÁSProperties of the ground state of an unpolarized ultracold Fermi gas along the BCS-BEC crossover are investigated by the variational and diffusion Monte Carlo methods. We apply the Wigner-Bethe-Peierls boundary condition in our calculations to avoid any bias from using an interatomic potential with finite effective range. Properties for several values of the scattering length are studied in the range -8 <= 1/ak(F) <= 4, including the unitary limit. The contact parameters as a function of scattering length are obtained by fitting the pair distribution functions for particles with different spins. The energies and contact parameters are in very good agreement with experimental data reported in the literature.100515FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOFAPEG - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE GOIÁSFAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOFAPEG - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE GOIÁS2016/17612-7Sem informaçãoThe authors acknowledge financial support from the Brazilian agencies Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo project (Proc. No. 2016/17612-7). Part of the computations was performed at the Centro Nacional de Processamento de Alto Desempenho em Sao Paulo. R.P. acknowledges the Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Goias and the computer resources of the Laboratorio de Computacao Cientifica - Universidade Federal de Goias. K.E.S. was supported by NSF Grant No. PHY-1404405

Informatização de indicadores para uso em práticas de manejo sustentável da aquicultura.

Apesar da produção anual brasileira de pescado, a atividade ainda não representa o potencial esperado para o país em função de seus aspectos naturais favoráveis. Entretanto, a expansão aquicola deve atentar a práticas que minimizem seus impactos ambientais negativos, incluindo-se aqueles registrados nos ecossistemas aquáticos marinhos. A identificação de boas práticas de manejo e o desenvolvimento de recursos informatizados passíveis de rápida observação na propriedade toma-se fundamental à sustentabilidade ambiental da aquicultura. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo principal apresentar indicadores informatizados que favorecem tanto o monitoramento da qualidade da água por indicadores macroinvertebrado bentônicos,fundamentados em índices BMWP e ASPT, quanto a avaliação do manejo e produção de tilápia por meio de estimativas de biometria. Foram elaborados em linguagens HTML e PHP, em servidor Apache, como parte integrante do Aquisys

Social presence and dishonesty in retail

Self-service checkouts (SCOs) in retail can benefit consumers and retailers, providing control and autonomy to shoppers independent from staff, together with reduced queuing times. Recent research indicates that the absence of staff may provide the opportunity for consumers to behave dishonestly, consistent with a perceived lack of social presence. This study examined whether a social presence in the form of various instantiations of embodied, visual, humanlike SCO interface agents had an effect on opportunistic behaviour. Using a simulated SCO scenario, participants experienced various dilemmas in which they could financially benefit themselves undeservedly. We hypothesised that a humanlike social presence integrated within the checkout screen would receive more attention and result in fewer instances of dishonesty compared to a less humanlike agent. This was partially supported by the results. The findings contribute to the theoretical framework in social presence research. We concluded that companies adopting self-service technology may consider the implementation of social presence in technology applications to support ethical consumer behaviour, but that more research is required to explore the mixed findings in the current study.<br/

Decoherence, the measurement problem, and interpretations of quantum mechanics

Environment-induced decoherence and superselection have been a subject of intensive research over the past two decades, yet their implications for the foundational problems of quantum mechanics, most notably the quantum measurement problem, have remained a matter of great controversy. This paper is intended to clarify key features of the decoherence program, including its more recent results, and to investigate their application and consequences in the context of the main interpretive approaches of quantum mechanics.Comment: 41 pages. Final published versio

Timed inhibition of CDC7 increases CRISPR-Cas9 mediated templated repair.

Repair of double strand DNA breaks (DSBs) can result in gene disruption or gene modification via homology directed repair (HDR) from donor DNA. Altering cellular responses to DSBs may rebalance editing outcomes towards HDR and away from other repair outcomes. Here, we utilize a pooled CRISPR screen to define host cell involvement in HDR between a Cas9 DSB and a plasmid double stranded donor DNA (dsDonor). We find that the Fanconi Anemia (FA) pathway is required for dsDonor HDR and that other genes act to repress HDR. Small molecule inhibition of one of these repressors, CDC7, by XL413 and other inhibitors increases the efficiency of HDR by up to 3.5 fold in many contexts, including primary T cells. XL413 stimulates HDR during a reversible slowing of S-phase that is unexplored for Cas9-induced HDR. We anticipate that XL413 and other such rationally developed inhibitors will be useful tools for gene modification

Investigating Non-Thermal Plasma-Induced Precipitation in Hypersaline Waters

In the present study, non-thermal plasma (NTP) of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) was used to investigate the precipitation of salt from hypersaline waters obtained by evaporating seawater. A dripper was used to release drops of water over the NTP discharge between the droplet surface and a copper ring in a glass tub working as a DBD. Results showed that the precipitation rate of the NTP-treated solution was significantly higher than that of the untreated solution, with a larger number of small crystals formed, and multiple charged ions preferentially precipitated. These findings suggest that the external electric field from NTP aligns and weakens the hydration of ions, leading to the binding of dehydrated cations and anions, and inducing nucleation/precipitation. Additionally, the NTP discharge channels formed at the gas-liquid interface cause rapid dehydration of ions, which further induce nucleation and crystal formation. This could explain the preferential precipitation of small crystals containing multiple charged ions. Overall, the results demonstrate that NTP-DBD is a promising approach for efficient precipitation of salts from hypersaline waters

A nice surprise? Predictive processing and the active pursuit of novelty

Recent work in cognitive and computational neuroscience depicts human brains as devices that minimize prediction error signals: signals that encode the difference between actual and expected sensory stimulations. This raises a series of puzzles whose common theme concerns a potential misfit between this bedrock informationtheoretic vision and familiar facts about the attractions of the unexpected. We humans often seem to actively seek out surprising events, deliberately harvesting novel and exciting streams of sensory stimulation. Conversely, we often experience some wellexpected sensations as unpleasant and to-be-avoided. In this paper, I explore several core and variant forms of this puzzle, using them to display multiple interacting elements that together deliver a satisfying solution. That solution requires us to go beyond the discussion of simple information-theoretic imperatives (such as 'minimize long-term prediction error') and to recognize the essential role of species-specific prestructuring, epistemic foraging, and cultural practices in shaping the restless, curious, novelty-seeking human mind