Dynamical Recurrence and the Quantum Control of Coupled Oscillators

Controllability-the possibility of performing any target dynamics by applying a set of available operations-is a fundamental requirement for the practical use of any physical system. For finite-dimensional systems, such as spin systems, precise criteria to establish controllability, such as the so-called rank criterion, are well known. However, most physical systems require a description in terms of an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space whose controllability properties are poorly understood. Here, we investigate infinite-dimensional bosonic quantum systems-encompassing quantum light, ensembles of bosonic atoms, motional degrees of freedom of ions, and nanomechanical oscillators-governed by quadratic Hamiltonians (such that their evolution is analogous to coupled harmonic oscillators). After having highlighted the intimate connection between controllability and recurrence in the Hilbert space, we prove that, for coupled oscillators, a simple extra condition has to be fulfilled to extend the rank criterion to infinite-dimensional quadratic systems. Further, we present a useful application of our finding, by proving indirect controllability of a chain of harmonic oscillators

The Role of Neuropeptides in Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Review

There is a growing evidence that neuropeptides may be involved in the pathophysiology of suicidal behavior. A critical review of the literature was conducted to investigate the association between neuropeptides and suicidal behavior. Only articles from peer-reviewed journals were selected for the inclusion in the present review. Twenty-six articles were assessed for eligibility but only 22 studies were included. Most studies have documented an association between suicidality and some neuropeptides such as corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), VGF, cholecystokinin, substance P, and neuropeptide Y (NPY), which have been demonstrated to act as key neuromodulators of emotional processing. Significant differences in neuropeptides levels have been found in those who have attempted or completed suicide compared with healthy controls or those dying from other causes. Despite cross-sectional associations between neuropeptides levels and suicidal behavior, causality may not be inferred. The implications of the mentioned studies were discussed in this review paper

Aprendizagem matemática nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental

Orientadora: Profª Drª Ettiène GuériosDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação. Defesa: Curitiba, 31/08/2015Inclui referências : f. 100-102Resumo: Trata-se de pesquisa qualitativa com objetivo de investigar dificuldades na aprendizagem de matemática nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental. Foi realizada em uma escola pública de ensino fundamental do município de Curitiba. Os sujeitos envolvidos eram alunos de uma turma de quarto ano (2013) e que foram acompanhados no quinto ano (2014). Na coleta dos dados foram utilizados dois instrumentos. O primeiro composto por 19 contas armadas das quatro operações aritméticas elementares, organizadas em duas listas de exercícios, a primeira com dez contas e a segunda com 9, aplicadas em 2013 e em 2014 para identificar dificuldades que os alunos apresentavam pela análise dos seus erros, acertos e tentativas de resolução de cálculos com contas armadas. E o segundo, uma atividade com enunciados de seis problemas matemáticos envolvendo 06 operações das 19 constantes no instrumento anterior e aplicado aos mesmos alunos do 5º ano em 2014 para identificar se em contexto de Resolução de Problema os alunos identificariam o conhecimento matemático que resolve os problemas, se utilizariam os algoritmos correspondentes e se os resolveriam conceitual ou mecanicamente. A estratégia metodológica foi analisar os erros e considerar os acertos e processos resolutivos de cada uma das intervenções e, a seguir comparar erros e acertos entre operações das listas de exercício com contas armadas e as mesmas em resoluções de problemas. As análises foram construídas tendo como base os estudos de Pinto (2000) e Cury (2008). Foi possível a partir dos resultados da pesquisa constatar que as dificuldades na aprendizagem das operações aritméticas elementares dos alunos do 4º e do 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental estavam centradas em dois eixos que são os procedimentos algorítmicos e a compreensão conceitual acerca dessas operações e dos conceitos que lhes são inerentes. Grande parte dos erros cometidos pelos alunos foi devido a não compreensão do algoritmo, especialmente nas operações onde várias informações e processos precisam ser considerados ao mesmo tempo. Palavras chave: dificuldades em cálculos matemáticos, anos iniciais,erros em matemática, dificuldades de aprendizagem matemática.Abstract: This is qualitative research in order to investigate problems in mathematics learning in the early years of elementary school. It was conducted in a primary school of public school in the city of Curitiba. The subjects involved were students in a class of fourth year (2013) and were followed in the fifth year (2014). In data collection were used two instruments. The first consists of 19 armed accounts of the four basic arithmetic operations, organized into two lists of exercises, the first ten accounts and the second with 9, applied in 2013 and 2014 to identify difficulties that students had the analysis of their mistakes, adjustments and calculations resolution attempts with armed accounts. And the second, an activity set out six mathematical problems involving 06 operations of 19 set in the previous instrument and applied to the same students of the 5th year in 2014 to identify in the context of Problem Solving students identify mathematical knowledge to solve problems , would use the corresponding algorithms and solve the conceptual or mechanically. The methodological strategy was to analyze the mistakes and consider the successes and resolute processes of each of the interventions, and then compare successes and failures of operations of exercise lists with armed accounts and the same problems resolutions. The analyzes were constructed based on the studies Pinto (2000) and Cury (2008). It was possible from the search results to see that the difficulties in learning basic arithmetic operations of the students of the 4th and 5th year of elementary school were centered on two axes which are the algorithmic procedures and conceptual understanding of these operations and concepts They attached to them. Much of the mistakes made by students was due to not understanding the algorithm, especially in operations where various information and processes need to be considered at the same time. Key-words: difficulties in mathematics, early years, math errors, mathematical learning difficulties

The reachable set of single-mode quadratic Hamiltonians

The question of open-loop control in the Gaussian regime may be cast by asking which Gaussian unitary transformations are reachable by turning on and off a given set of quadratic Hamiltonians. For compact groups, including finite dimensional unitary groups, the well known Lie algebra rank criterion provides a sufficient and necessary condition for the reachable set to cover the whole group. Because of the non-compact nature of the symplectic group, which corresponds to Gaussian unitary transformations, this criterion turns out to be still necessary but not sufficient for Gaussian systems. If the control Hamiltonians are unstable, in a sense made rigorous in the main text, the peculiar situation may arise where the rank criterion is satisfied and yet not all symplectic transformations are reachable. Here, we address this situation for one degree of freedom and study the properties of the reachable set under unstable control Hamiltonians. First, we provide a partial analytical characterisation of the reachable set and prove that no orthogonal (`energy-preserving' or `passive' in the literature) symplectic operations may be reached with such controls. Then, we apply numerical optimal control algorithms to demonstrate a complete characterisation of the set in specific cases.Comment: 12 page

Holding: o planejamento jurídico e econômico do patrimônio e da sucessão familiar

The business world is full of complex and innovative situations. Given this, many entrepreneurs look for ways to adapt to the various standards imposed by civil and commercial regulations. In this context, the need arose to create a company that would guide and grant continuity to the firm’s objectives, as a way to protect the assets acquired over decades. To this end, observing the needs of the market and foreseeing a bigger legal protection, companies called Holdings emerged, whose purpose is to promote the best path and direction of the constituted goods, by entrepreneurs and companies. The main objective of these companies is to provide, in a legal manner, the protection of assets, through an organized succession planning, with the administrative guarantee and continuity of business, safeguarding their assets. The purpose of this research is to reflect and propose alternatives for the creation of holdings, according to the individual needs of each company, through succession and patrimonial planning, in order to guarantee the continuity and rights of their heirs. This study used the deductive/descriptive method, in view of the growing concern of many companies to maintain the continuity of their objectives, as well as for individuals to protect and safeguard their assets from endless and stressful future discussions. Therefore, the technique of bibliographic and documentary research was used to understand the importance of creating a family holding in a company.O mundo empresarial é repleto de situações complexas e inovadoras. Diante disso, muitos empresários buscam meios para se adequar às diversas normas impostas pela regulamentação civil e comercial. Nesse contexto nasceu a necessidade de criação de uma empresa, que orientasse e desse sequência aos objetivos da firma, como forma de proteção dos bens conquistados no decorrer de décadas. Para tanto, observando as necessidades do mercado e vislumbrando uma maior proteção jurídica surgiram empresas denominadas de Holdings, que possuem como desígnio a promoção do melhor caminho e direcionamento dos bens constituídos, por empresários e empresas. Essas, por sua vez, possuem como objetivo principal propiciar, de forma legal, a proteção dos bens, por intermédio de um planejamento sucessório, organizado, com a garantia administrativa e a continuidade dos negócios, salvaguardando o patrimônio delas. O objetivo da presente pesquisa é refletir e propor alternativas para a criação de holdings, de acordo com a necessidade individual de cada empresa, através de um planejamento sucessório e patrimonial, a fim de que se possa garantir a continuidade e os direitos de seus herdeiros. A esse estudo se utilizou o método dedutivo/descritivo, tendo em vista a crescente preocupação de muitas empresas manter a continuidade dos objetivos a que se propuseram, bem como às pessoas físicas de proteger e resguardar os bens patrimoniais de futuras discussões intermináveis e desgastantes. Para tanto, se utilizou a técnica de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, para a compreensão da importância da criação de uma holding familiar, numa empresa

Low-gluten, nontransgenic wheat engineered with CRISPR/Cas9

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disorder triggered in genetically predisposed individuals by the ingestion of gluten proteins from wheat, barley and rye. The a-gliadin gene family of wheat contains four highly stimulatory peptides, of which the 33-mer is the main immunodominant peptide in patients with coeliac. We designed two sgRNAs to target a conserved region adjacent to the coding sequence for the 33-mer in the a-gliadin genes. Twenty-one mutant lines were generated, all showing strong reduction in a-gliadins. Up to 35 different genes were mutated in one of the lines of the 45 different genes identified in the wild type, while immunoreactivity was reduced by 85%. Transgene-free lines were identified, and no off-target mutations have been detected in any of the potential targets. The low-gluten, transgene-free wheat lines described here could be used to produce low-gluten foodstuff and serve as source material to introgress this trait into elite wheat varieties.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad AGL2013-48946-C3-1-R ; AGL2016-80566-

Effect of Pristine Graphene on Methylammonium Lead Iodide Films and Implications on Solar Cell Performance

The relatively low stability of solar cells based on hybrid halide perovskites is the main issue to be solved for the implementation in real life of these extraordinary materials. Degradation is accelerated by temperature, moisture, oxygen, and light and mediated by halide easy hopping. The approach here is to incorporate pristine graphene, which is hydrophobic and impermeable to gases and likely limits ionic diffusion while maintaining adequate electronic conductivity. Low concentrations of few-layer graphene platelets (up to 24 × 10–3 wt %) were incorporated to MAPbI3 films for a detailed structural, optical, and transport study whose results are then used to fabricate solar cells with graphene-doped active layers. The lowest graphene content delays the degradation of films with time and light irradiation and leads to enhanced photovoltaic performance and stability of the solar cells, with relative improvement over devices without graphene of 15% in the power conversion efficiency, PCE. A higher graphene content further stabilizes the perovskite films but is detrimental for in-operation devices. A trade-off between the possible sealing effect of the perovskite grains by graphene, that limits ionic diffusion, and the reduction of the crystalline domain size that reduces electronic transport, and, especially, the detected increase of film porosity, that facilitates the access to atmospheric gases, is proposed to be at the origin of the observed trends. This work demonstrated how the synergy between these materials can help to develop cost-effective routes to overcome the stability barrier of metal halide perovskites, introducing active layer design strategies that allow commercialization to take off.We acknowledge financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under Projects PID2020-115514RB-I00 (C.C.), MAT2015-65356-C3-2-R (A.A), and PID2019-107314RB-I00 (I.M-S). This work was partially supported by European Research Council (ERC) via Consolidator Grant (724424-No-LIMIT) (I.M-S), AYUDA PUENTE 2020 URJC (C.C.). Associated Lab LABCADIO belonging to Community of Madrid, CM, net laboratories ref 351 is also acknowledged (C.C.). T.S.R. acknowledges funding from CM and European Social Fund (ESF) under the Talento fellowship 2017-T2/IND-5586 and project F660 financed by CM and Rey Juan Carlos University under action 1, “Encouragement of Young Phd students investigation". C.R-O. acknowledges funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under a FPI predoctoral contract (PRE2019-088433)

The aqueous Triton X-100 – dodecyltrimethylammonium bromidemicellar mixed system. Experimental results and thermodynamic analysis

The micellization process of the aqueous mixed system triton X-100 (TX100) – dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB) has been studied with a battery of techniques: surface tension, static and dynamic light scattering and ion-selective electrodes. Results have been also analysed with two thermodynamic procedures: the Regular Solution Theory or Rubingh's model and the recently developed Equation Oriented Mixed Micellization Model (EOMMM). For α DTAB ≤ 0.40 (α DTAB : total molar fraction of the system without considering the water), the micelles are predominantly TX100 with scarce solubilized DTA + ions, with TX100 acting as a nearly ideal solvent. In the range 0.50 ≤ α DTAB ≤ 0.75, it seems that none of the components acts as a solvent. Above α DTAB ≈ 0.75 there are noticeable changes in the size and electrophoretic mobility of the micelles. These phenomena have been interpreted in the light of the thermodynamic results and literature on some TX100-ionic surfactant mixtures. The case under study is an almost ideal but very asymmetric mixed surfactants system, what is very interesting in view of the very different nature and structures of the components.Fil: Serafini, Patricio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Fernández Leyes, Marcos Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Sánchez Morales, Jhon Freddy. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Pereyra, Romina Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Schulz, Erica Patricia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Durand, Guillermo Andrés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Schulz, Pablo Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Química del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química. Instituto de Química del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Ritacco, Hernán Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; Argentin

Time-evolution of nonlinear optomechanical systems: Interplay of mechanical squeezing and non-Gaussianity

We solve the time evolution of a nonlinear optomechanical Hamiltonian with arbitrary time-dependent mechanical displacement, mechanical single-mode squeezing and a time-dependent optomechanical coupling up to the solution of two second-order differential equations. The solution is based on identifying a minimal and finite Lie algebra that generates the time-evolution of the system. This reduces the problem to considering a finite set of coupled ordinary differential equations of real functions. To demonstrate the applicability of our method, we compute the degree of non-Gaussianity of the time-evolved state of the system by means of a measure based on the relative entropy of the non-Gaussian state and its closest Gaussian reference state. We find that the addition of a constant mechanical squeezing term to the standard optomechanical Hamiltonian generally decreases the overall non-Gaussian character of the state. For sinusoidally modulated squeezing, the two second-order differential equations mentioned above take the form of the Mathieu equation. We derive perturbative solutions for a small squeezing amplitude at parametric resonance and show that they correspond to the rotating-wave approximation at times larger than the scale set by the mechanical frequency. We find that the non-Gaussianity of the state increases with both time and the squeezing parameter in this specific regime.Comment: 41 pages, 4 figure

BioMet®Tools: from modeling and simulation to product design and development

BioMet®Tools is a set of software applications developed for the biometrical characterization of voice in different fields as voice quality evaluation in laryngology, speech therapy and rehabilitation, education of the singing voice, forensic voice analysis in court, emotional detection in voice, secure access to facilities and services, etc. Initially it was conceived as plain research code to estimate the glottal source from voice and obtain the biomechanical parameters of the vocal folds from the spectral density of the estimate. This code grew to what is now the Glottex®Engine package (G®E). Further demands from users in medical and forensic fields instantiated the development of different Graphic User Interfaces (GUI’s) to encapsulate user interaction with the G®E. This required the personalized design of different GUI’s handling the same G®E. In this way development costs and time could be saved. The development model is described in detail leading to commercial production and distribution. Study cases from its application to the field of laryngology and speech therapy are given and discussed