Exact-exchange density-functional theory for quasi-two-dimensional electron gases

A simple exact-exchange density-functional method for a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas with variable density is presented. An analytical expression for the exact-exchange potential with only one occupied subband is provided, without approximations. When more subbands are occupied the exact-exchange potential is obtained numerically. The theory shows that, in contradiction with LDA, the exact-exchange potential exhibits discontinuities and the system suffers a zero-temperature first-order transition each time a subband is occupied. Results suggesting that the translational symmetry might be spontaneously broken at zero temperature are presented. An extension of the theory to finite temperatures allows to describe a drop in the intersubband spacing in good quantitative agreement with recent experiments.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Bounds on the Number of Measurements for Reliable Compressive Classification

This paper studies the classification of high-dimensional Gaussian signals from low-dimensional noisy, linear measurements. In particular, it provides upper bounds (sufficient conditions) on the number of measurements required to drive the probability of misclassification to zero in the low-noise regime, both for random measurements and designed ones. Such bounds reveal two important operational regimes that are a function of the characteristics of the source: 1) when the number of classes is less than or equal to the dimension of the space spanned by signals in each class, reliable classification is possible in the low-noise regime by using a one-vs-all measurement design; 2) when the dimension of the spaces spanned by signals in each class is lower than the number of classes, reliable classification is guaranteed in the low-noise regime by using a simple random measurement design. Simulation results both with synthetic and real data show that our analysis is sharp, in the sense that it is able to gauge the number of measurements required to drive the misclassification probability to zero in the low-noise regime.This work was supported by Royal Society International Exchanges Scheme IE120996. The work of H. Reboredo was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal, under Doctoral Grant SFRH/BD/81543/2011. ˆ The work of F. Renna was carried out in part when he was in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering of University College London, and was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant 655282. The work of R. Calderbank was supported in part by AFOSR under Award FA 9550-13-1-0076. The work of M. R. D. Rodrigues was supported by the EPSRC under Research Grant EP/K033166/1

The tolerance of eucalyptus globulus to soil contamination with arsenic

UID/FIS/04559/2020The contamination of abandoned mining areas is a problem worldwide that needs urgent attention. Phytoremediation emerges as a successful method to extract different contaminants from the soil. In this context, Eucalyptus globulus plants growing in soils artificial contaminated with arsenic (As) were used to access its phytoremediation capabilities. The effects of As on photosynthetic performance were monitored through different physiological parameters, whereas the uptake and translocation of As and the putative effects on calcium, iron, potassium, and zinc levels on plants were evaluated by X-ray fluorescence analysis. Root system is the major accumulator organ, while the translocation to the above-ground organs is poor. In the end of the experiment, the root biomass of plants treated with 200 μg As mL−1 is 27% and 49.7% lower than equivalent biomass from plants treated with 100 μg As mL−1 and control plants, respectively. Each plant can accumulate 8.19 and 8.91 mg As after a 6-month period, when submitted to 100 As and 200 As, respectively. It seems to exist an antagonistic effect of As on Zn root uptake by E. globulus. In general, the tested concentrations do not influence negatively plant metabolism, indicating that this species is suitable for plantation in contaminated areas.publishersversionpublishe

Desenvolvimento de um pão à base de farinha de castanha, com adição de alfarroba ou chícharo: Viabilidade nutricional

O Consumidor é cada vez mais exigente e procura novas formulações alimentares em busca de sabores diferentes aos habituais, para “fugir” à rotina do dia-a-dia. O pão é um produto alimentar muito bem aceite pelo consumidor, mas nem sempre satisfaz em termos nutricionais as necessidades de uma dieta saudável. Neste projeto, desenvolveram-se várias formulações de pão em que os ingredientes base foram a farinha de trigo e a de castanha. No sentido de enriquecer os produtos finais, adicionou-se ainda alfarroba ou chícharo, para conferir novas propriedades nutricionais e também novos sabores. Para a quantificação dos minerais recorreuse a técnica de Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF) (em atmosfera de hélio). Os resultados são discutidos em função dos perfis mineralógicos das diferentes formulações bem como dos valores resultantes de uma análise sensorial hedónica de aceitação.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Laser-wakefield accelerators for medical phase contrast imaging : Monte Carlo simulations and experimental studies

X-ray phase contrast imaging (X-PCi) is a very promising method of dramatically enhancing the contrast of X-ray images of microscopic weakly absorbing objects and soft tissue, which may lead to significant advancement in medical imaging with high-resolution and low-dose. The interest in X-PCi is giving rise to a demand for effective simulation methods. Monte Carlo codes have been proved a valuable tool for studying X-PCi including coherent effects. The laser-plasma wakefield accelerators (LWFA) is a very compact particle accelerator that uses plasma as an accelerating medium. Accelerating gradient in excess of 1 GV/cm can be obtained, which makes them over a thousand times more compact than conventional accelerators. LWFA are also sources of brilliant betatron radiation, which are promising for applications including medical imaging. We present a study that explores the potential of LWFA-based betatron sources for medical X-PCi and investigate its resolution limit using numerical simulations based on the FLUKA Monte Carlo code, and present preliminary experimental result

Elemental composition of algae-based supplements by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence

The aim of this study is to evaluate the elemental composition of fifteen algae-based supplements commonly sold in the Portuguese market, by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence. Despite the fact that the majority of Kelp samples were a good source of iodine, the levels observed might well contribute to an excess in the human body, which can cause dysfunction of the thyroid gland. Furthermore, the presence of lead in Sea spaghetti, Arame, Hijiki and Wakame caused a considerable risk to public health vis a vis possible ingestion of a high daily dose. Regarding arsenic, great variability was observed in all the samples with concentrations equal to or above 60 μg/g in the case of Arame, KelpJ and Hijiki. Although algae mainly accumulate organic arsenic, some also contain high levels of its inorganic form, as is commonly pointed out for Hijiki. Thus, regular ingestion of these supplements must also take into account the mentioned facts. There is no doubt that these supplements are also good sources of other nutrients, but the lack of accurate regulations and control should alert consumers to avoid indiscriminate use of these types of productsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A pseudopotential study of electron-hole excitations in colloidal, free-standing InAs quantum dots

Excitonic spectra are calculated for free-standing, surface passivated InAs quantum dots using atomic pseudopotentials for the single-particle states and screened Coulomb interactions for the two-body terms. We present an analysis of the single particle states involved in each excitation in terms of their angular momenta and Bloch-wave parentage. We find that (i) in agreement with other pseudopotential studies of CdSe and InP quantum dots, but in contrast to k.p calculations, dot states wavefunction exhibit strong odd-even angular momentum envelope function mixing (e.g. $s$ with $p$) and large valence-conduction coupling. (ii) While the pseudopotential approach produced very good agreement with experiment for free-standing, colloidal CdSe and InP dots, and for self-assembled (GaAs-embedded) InAs dots, here the predicted spectrum does {\em not} agree well with the measured (ensemble average over dot sizes) spectra. (1) Our calculated excitonic gap is larger than the PL measure one, and (2) while the spacing between the lowest excitons is reproduced, the spacings between higher excitons is not fit well. Discrepancy (1) could result from surface states emission. As for (2), agreement is improved when account is taken of the finite size distribution in the experimental data. (iii) We find that the single particle gap scales as $R^{-1.01}$ (not $R^{-2}$), that the screened (unscreened) electron-hole Coulomb interaction scales as $R^{-1.79}$ ($R^{-0.7}$), and that the eccitonic gap sclaes as $R^{-0.9}$. These scaling laws are different from those expected from simple models.Comment: 12 postscript figure

Update of electronic tagging data and methodologies for Atlantic bluefin tuna in order to plan future tagging activities

This document presents the current electronic tagging information available for management strategy evaluation. This information also allows to identify gaps, in sizes and geographical areas, that should be taken into account to plan future tagging activities. It also describes the status of current electronic tag databases, advantages and disadvantages of electronic tags used on Atlantic bluefin tuna and outlines the technological advances that will allow the use of different types of tags (pop-up satellite archival, archival internal and acoustic tags) to improve the description of movements of this species. The conclusions section summarizes the progress needed to develop the use of electronic tagging on Atlantic bluefin tuna

Superimposed impacts of enhanced [CO2] and high temperature on the photosynthetic metabolism of C. arabica and C. canephora genotypes.

Summary: Coffee crop has been predicted to become threatened by future climate changes and global warming conditions. Yet, the long-term effects of elevated [CO2] on this plant remain to be fully elucidated. In this context, this work aims at linking coffee biochemical responses to environmental changes of [CO2] and temperature on genotypes from the two major producing species, using the photosynthetic metabolism as probe to evaluate the plant acclimation ability. Potted plants from C. arabica cv. IPR 108 and of C. canephora cv. Conilon Clone 153 were grown under environmental controlled conditions, either at 380 or 700 ?L CO2 L-1 air, for 1 year, without water, nutrient or root development restrictions. After that the temperature was gradually increased from 25/20 ºC (day/night) up to 42/34 ºC. The effects of elevated [CO2] and enhanced temperature on the photosynthetic structures were assessed through the characterization of the lipid components of chloroplast membranes, whereas the leaf metabolic performance was evaluated through the thylakoid electron transport rates (involving both photosystem (PS) I and II), and the activities of enzymes (ribulose 1,5-biphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase and ribulose 5-phosphate kinase), as well as through stable isotopes of C and N. The activities of respiratory enzymes (NADH-dependent malate dehydrogenase and pyruvate kinase) were also analyzed. The results pointed for a higher functional status along the experiment in the plants grown under elevated [CO2], with special relevance at 37 and 42ºC in IPR108. These results could be related to the qualitative changes of the membrane lipid matrix that might have helped to preserve suitable membrane fluidity for the membrane bound events (e.g., thylakoid electron transport). The PSs and enzyme data reflect an enhancement of the energetic metabolism (both photosynthesis and respiration), mostly, until 31 ºC for IPR108 and 37 ºC for CL153 at normal [CO2]. Yet, under enhanced [CO2] it was found an increase in the temperature (to 37 ºC) at which maximal values of some parameters in IPR108 (MDH, PSs activities, RuBisCO) were observed, concomitantly with the maintenance of high performance in other parameters when compared to the 380 plants. Under the highest temperature (42 ºC) the enzymes were the most sensitive point, displaying the strongest reductions, irrespective of genotype and [CO2] treatments. The temperature promoted changes in leaf ?13C, irrespective of genotype and [CO2], reflecting a decrease in WUE with heat. The changes in ?15N values may indicate different limitation steps of N assimilation, requiring further investigation. It was concluded that the coffee plants grown under elevated [CO2] apparently showed a better endurance to high temperatures, what is quite relevant in a context of predicted climate changes and global warming scenarios

Implications on Mineral Elements, Sugars and Fatty Acids Accumulation in Tissues

Funding Information: This work received funding from PDR2020-101-030734 and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT), Portugal, through the research units UIDB/04035/2020 (GeoBioTec), UIDB/00239/2020 (CEF) and UID/FIS/04559/2020 (LIBPhys) from the FCT/MCTES/PIDDAC. This work was further supported by the grant of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) UI/BD/150718/2020. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.Following an agronomic approach for the Ca enrichment of Rocha pears, this study aimed to assess the interactions between mineral nutrients in fruit tissues at harvest and after storage for 5 months and to characterize the implications on the profile of sugars and fatty acids (FA). A total of seven foliar sprays (with concentrations of 0.1–0.6 kg·ha−1 Ca(NO3)2 and 0.8–8 kg·ha−1 CaCl2) were applied to pear trees. After harvest, the fruits were stored for 5 months, in environmentally controlled chambers, and the mineral contents in five regions (on the equatorial section) of the fruits were assessed, while the sugar and FA content were quantified. For both dates, all foliar sprayed treatments, at different extends, increased Ca content in the center and near the epidermis of Rocha pear fruits and the levels of K, Mn, Fe, Zn and Cu also varied. At harvest, the Ca treatments did not affect the levels of sucrose, glucose, fructose and sorbitol and, after storage, their concentrations remained higher in Ca-treated fruits. Additionally, the tendency of the relative proportions of FA was C18:2 > C18:1 > C16:0 > C18:3 > C18:0 > chains inferior to 16 C ( C16:0 > C18:3 > C18:0 > C18:1 > chains inferior to 16 C (<16:0). It is concluded that the heterogeneous distribution of Ca in the tissues of Rocha pear fruits results from its absorption in the peel after Ca(NO3)2 and CaCl2 sprays and from the xylemic flux in the core prior to maturity. Additionally, the hydrolysis of complex polysaccharides affects the contents of simpler sugars during maturation, ripening and senescence, while storage decreases the amount of total fatty acids (TFA), but the double bond index (DBI) indicate that cell membrane fluidity remains unaffected.publishersversionpublishe