Long-lived oscillatory incoherent electron dynamics in molecules: trans-polyacetylene oligomers

We identify an intriguing feature of the electron-vibrational dynamics of molecular systems via a computational examination of \emph{trans}-polyacetylene oligomers. Here, via the vibronic interactions, the decay of an electron in the conduction band resonantly excites an electron in the valence band, and vice versa, leading to oscillatory exchange of electronic population between two distinct electronic states that lives for up to tens of picoseconds. The oscillatory structure is reminiscent of beating patterns between quantum states and is strongly suggestive of the presence of long-lived molecular electronic coherence. Significantly, however, a detailed analysis of the electronic coherence properties shows that the oscillatory structure arises from a purely incoherent process. These results were obtained by propagating the coupled dynamics of electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom in a mixed quantum-classical study of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger Hamiltonian for polyacetylene. The incoherent process is shown to occur between degenerate electronic states with distinct electronic configurations that are indirectly coupled via a third auxiliary state by the vibronic interactions. A discussion of how to construct electronic superposition states in molecules that are truly robust to decoherence is also presented

Mathematical open problems in Projected Entangled Pair States

Projected Entangled Pair States (PEPS) are used in practice as an efficient parametrization of the set of ground states of quantum many body systems. The aim of this paper is to present, for a broad mathematical audience, some mathematical questions about PEPS.Comment: Notes associated to the Santal\'o Lecture 2017, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), minor typos correcte

Estudio de corpus de las oraciones de relativo en el inglés australiano de los siglos XVIII y XIX

Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Filología, leída el 18-01-2022This study aims at analysing relative clauses in Australian English from 1788 to 1900 and the possible influence which 18th and 19th century grammarians had on the first settlers and, lately, on the Australian inhabitants. The main objective is to analyse the different relativization strategies, that is, case-marked wh- relatives, the invariable that,and the gap relativizer zero, and the effect of prescriptive grammars, which could be seen on the medium, written or oral, and the formality of the context. These two factors may result in the use of any of the strategies previously described either by following normative principles or by slowly distancing from such precepts, which might contribute to an endonormative innovation from a linguistic exonormative reality based on British English. Additionally, this investigation could determine to what extent the text category and the medium may affect the distribution of relatives, the syntactic functions which they realize, the placement of the preposition when complementing a preposition, and the typology, that is, restrictive or non-restrictive. In conclusion, this research will contribute to a detailed analysis which allows, on the one hand, to learn about some aspects of early Australian English and, on the other hand, a diachronic view of this specific variety or a future contrastive analysis with other varieties of English...El presente estudio se centra en las oraciones de relativo en el inglés australiano desde1788 a 1900 y la posible influencia de las gramáticas prescriptivas en los primeros pobladores y, posteriormente, en los habitantes de Australia. El principal objetivo es el análisis de las diferentes estrategias de relativización, a saber, los pronombres de relativo introducidos por wh, el invariable that y el relativo omitido zero, y la repercusión de las gramáticas prescriptivas del siglo XVIII, que podría verse reflejada, por un lado, en el medio, es decir, escrito o hablado, y por otro lado, en la formalidad del contexto. Estos dos factores podrían suponer el uso de cada una de las estrategias bien siguiendo las normas dictadas en las gramáticas o mostrando cierto distanciamiento de tales preceptos, que podría dar paso a su vez a una innovación endonormativa desde una realidad lingüística exonormativa basada en el inglés británico. Adicionalmente, este análisis puede determinar hasta qué punto la categoría textual y el medio pueden afectar a la distribución de los relativos, las funciones sintácticas que desempeñan, la colocación de la preposición en el caso de tratarse de un complemento de la misma y la tipología, es decir, si la oración es especificativa o explicativa. En definitiva, este estudio pretende contribuir a un análisis detallado que permitirá, por un lado, conocer la base lingüística del inglés australiano y, por otro, un estudio diacrónico de la propia variedad o un futuro análisis contrastivo con otras variantes del inglés...Fac. de FilologíaTRUEunpu

La defensa y promoción de la libertad religiosa por la Administración norteamericana (2000-2007). Parte I: U.S. Department of Justice

La tutela de la libertad religiosa en el derecho norteamericano había sido presentada, hasta este momento, casi exclusivamente en sede jurisprudencial y legislativa. Ahora bien, el 50 aniversario de la creación de la 'División de los Derechos Civiles' en el Ministerio de Justicia norteamericano y el reciente anuncio de un nuevo proyecto en defensa de la primera de las libertades por su Ministro representan una buena ocasión para dar a conocer los esfuerzos personales y materiales de la Administración norteamericana en la protección de la libertad religiosa. Los principales campos de intervención han tenido lugar en los sectores de la educación, del trabajo, de la vivienda, del acceso a instalaciones abiertas al público y de titularidad pública, de la regulación del suelo, de los derechos de los internos en ciertas instituciones y, finalmente, de las actividades criminales contra personas y bienes religiosos. Y pueden contarse entre sus principales medidas adoptadas: la creación en el año 2002 de una oficina dedicada a luchar contra la discriminación religiosa dependiente de la 'División de Derechos Civiles'; diversas publicaciones para dar a conocer los esfuerzos del Ministerio de Justicia y para informar a los ciudadanos de sus derechos en esta materia; y la puesta en marcha, en el mes de febrero, de un amplio proyecto a fin de canalizar las diversas actuaciones. En conclusión, la Administración norteamericana parece firmemente comprometida en asegurar el pacífico disfrute del derecho de libertad religiosa dentro de sus fronteras. Esto es lo que permite su intervención en defensa de la primera de las libertades en el orden internacional a través del Departamento de Estado. Nos ocuparemos de ello en la segunda parte de este artículo. ------ The commentaries in Europe about Religious Liberty in the United States are principally jurisprudential and legislative studies. Now, it's necessary to offer an analysis of the work realized by the American Administration. This year 2007 represents an excellent opportunity to do it. In effect, the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) commemorates the 50th Anniversary of its Civil Rights Division and the Attorney General Gonzales announced -on February 20, 2007- a new Department of Justice initiative to protect religous liberty: 'The First Freedom Project'. This Department is charged with enforcing a wide range of civil rights statutes designed to protect religious liberty: laws in education, employment, housing, credit, public facilities, public accommodations, zoning laws, religious rights of persons in state institutions, and federal crime suffered by a person or a place of worship based on religion. To protect religious liberty, the USDOJ has taken several initiatives: for the first time this Department established a 'Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination' in 2002; the USDOJ provides a number of publications about religious liberty; and a new project is beginning in this year. In conclusion, the USDOJ seems firmly decided to protect this first freedom in the United States. These domestic efforts authorize the international fight in defense of the religious liberty by the United States Department of State. The second part of this study will analyze this question

The «Enemy’s Criminal Law»: From current theory to the repressive practice of the Francoist «New State»

El objetivo de este artículo es descartar las críticas de contenido moral que se le han hecho al llamado «Derecho penal del enemigo» por los supuestos lazos con el «decisionismo soberano» de entreguerras. Sin entrar en el debate entre juristas acerca de si es «Derecho» legítimo o no lo es, se va a defender la idoneidad del uso de la categoría jakobsiana para caracterizar el Derecho penal totalitario, en este caso el Derecho penal del primer franquismo. A modo de aproximación, se van a enumerar algunas de las técnicas punitivas de la dictadura desde los elementos que definen hoy al Derecho penal del enemigo, con el objetivo de defender la utilidad del concepto como categoría comparable, no solamente con el presente, sino entre los distintos -ismos históricos.The aim of this paper is to discard the moral content criticism that has been made to the so-called «The Enemy’s Criminal Law » given its alleged bonds with the interwar’s «Sovereign Decisionism». Rather than entering the debate amongst jurists about whether it is legitimate Law, the suitability of using the jakobsian category will be put forward to characterize totalitarian Criminal Law, in this particular case, early Francoism Criminal law. To start with, some of Franco’s dictatorship punitive techniques will be revised beginning with the elements that nowadays define ‘the Enemy’s Criminal Law in order to defend the usefulness of the concept as a comparable category, not only with today's, but with other historical -isms

A permissive function of phosphoinositide 3-kinase in Ras activation mediated by inhibition of GTPase-activating proteins

AbstractThe activation status of the guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-binding protein Ras is dictated by the relative intensities of two opposing reactions: the formation of active Ras–GTP complexes, promoted by guanine-nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs), and their conversion to inactive Ras–GDP as a result of the deactivating action of GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs). The relevance of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) to these processes is still unclear. We have investigated the regulation of Ras activation by PI 3-kinase in the myelomonocytic U937 cell line. These cells exhibited basal levels of Ras—GTP, which were suppressed by two PI 3-kinase inhibitors and a dominant-negative PI 3-kinase. In addition, PI 3-kinase inhibition aborted Ras activation by all stimuli tested, including foetal calf serum (FCS) and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (TPA). Significantly, TPA does not activate PI 3-kinase in U937 cells, indicating that PI 3-kinase has a permissive rather than an intermediary role in Ras activation. Investigation of the mechanism of PI 3-kinase action revealed that inhibition of PI 3-kinase does not affect nucleotide exchange on Ras but abrogates Ras–GTP accumulation through an increase in GAP activity. These findings establish blockage of GAP action as the mechanism underlying a permissive function of PI 3-kinase in Ras activation

Why do we smile? On the determinants of the implied volatility function.

We report simple regressions and Granger causality tests in order to understand the pattern of implied volatilities across exercise prices. We employ all calls and puts transacted between 16:00 and 16:45 on the Spanish IBEX-35 index from January 1994 to April 1996. Transaction costs, proxied by the bid–ask spread, seem to be a key determinant of the curvature of the volatility smile. Moreover, time to expiration, the uncertainty associated with the market and the relative market momentum are also important variables in explaining the smile.Smiles; Bid–ask spread; Volatility; Causality;

La última aplicación de la doctrina norteamerica del «strict scrutiny» en el derecho de la libertad religiosa: González V. o Centro espiritista

In its last term 2005-2006, the United States Supreme Court (USSC) decided its first case regarding religious freedom under the Roberts Court on February 21, 2006. The USSC (Gonzales v. o Centro Espirita) applied again the doctrine of the strict scrutiny (Sherbert-Yoder), and affirmed the federal application of the RFRA '93. This controversy did not enter in the USSC's contradictions on the free exercise of religion. Thus, we have to wait a new USSC's decision that affirms the strict scrutiny (Sherbert) or the neutrality standard (Smith), overrulling one or another precedent and defining the doctrine of «free exercise exemptions». But, the «free exercise exemptions», are a legal or a constitutional..

Smiles, Bid-ask Spreads and Option pricing.

Given the evidence provided by Longstaff (1995), and Peña, Rubio and Serna (1999) a serious candidate to explain the pronounced pattern of volatility estimates across exercise prices might be related to liquidity costs. Using all calls and puts transacted between 16:00 and 16:45 on the Spanish IBEX‐35 index futures from January 1994 to October 1998 we extend previous papers to study the influence of liquidity costs, as proxied by the relative bid‐ask spread, on the pricing of options. Surprisingly, alternative parametric option pricing models incorporating the bid‐ask spread seem to perform poorly relative to Black‐Scholes.smiles; bid-ask spread; implied volatility function; option pricing;