Temperature dependence on phase evolution in the BaTiO3 polytypes studied using ab initio calculations

Identifying the forces that drive a temperature-induced phase transition is always challenging in the prospect of the first-principles methods. Herein, we perform a first-principles study of the temperature effects on structural, energetic, electronic, and vibrational properties of four BaTiO₃ polymorphs using quasi-harmonic approximations. Study of the stability between these four phases, which we break into contributions arising from the vibration of the lattice, electronic structure, and volume expansion/contraction, is helpful to confirm the sequence of phase transitions as cubic → tetragonal → orthorhombic → rhombohedral, as well as its transition temperatures. A general mechanism was proposed based on the combination between structural distortions at [TiO₆] clusters, vibrational characteristics, and electronic structure. These findings confirm the power of quasi-harmonic approximations to disclose the main fingerprints associated with both thermic and mechanical phase transitions, serving as a guide for further theoretical studies.     

Integrability of the Rucklidge system

We study the Darboux and the analytic integrability of the Rucklidge system.     

Evaluation of Kefir as a New Anodic Biocatalyst Consortium for Microbial Fuel Cell

Kefir, a combined consortium of bacteria and yeast encapsulated by a polymeric matrix of exopolysaccharides, was used as anodic biocatalyst in a two-chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC). Fermentation was followed during 72 h and polarization curves were obtained from linear sweep voltammetry. The effect of methylene blue as charge-transfer mediator in the kefir metabolism was evaluated. UV/Vis spectrophotometry and cyclic voltammetry were applied to evaluate the redox state of the mediator and to characterize the electrochemical activity, whereas current interruption was used for internal resistance determination. Aiming to establish a relationship between the microbial development inside the anodic chamber with the generated power in the MFC, total titratable acidity, pH, viscosity, carbohydrate assimilation, and microbial counting were assayed. The kefir-based MFC demonstrated a maximum power density of 54 mW m^?2 after 24 h fermentation, revealing the potential use of kefir as a biocatalyst for microbial fuel cells.     

On the order of the automorphism group of foliations

Let be a holomorphic foliation with ample canonical bundle on a smooth projective surface X. We obtain an upper bound on the order of its automorphism group which depends only on and provided this group is finite. Here, and are the canonical bundles of and X, respectively.     

Asymmetrical hippocampal connectivity in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy: evidence from resting state fMRI

Background

Recent studies have shown that the human right-hemispheric auditory cortex is particularly sensitive to reduction in sound quality, with an increase in distortion resulting in an amplification of the auditory N1m response measured in the magnetoencephalography (MEG). Here, we examined whether this sensitivity is specific to the processing of acoustic properties of speech or whether it can be observed also in the processing of sounds with a simple spectral structure. We degraded speech stimuli (vowel /a/), complex non-speech stimuli (a composite of five sinusoidals), and sinusoidal tones by decreasing the amplitude resolution of the signal waveform. The amplitude resolution was impoverished by reducing the number of bits to represent the signal samples. Auditory evoked magnetic fields (AEFs) were measured in the left and right hemisphere of sixteen healthy subjects.

Results

We found that the AEF amplitudes increased significantly with stimulus distortion for all stimulus types, which indicates that the right-hemispheric N1m sensitivity is not related exclusively to degradation of acoustic properties of speech. In addition, the P1m and P2m responses were amplified with increasing distortion similarly in both hemispheres. The AEF latencies were not systematically affected by the distortion.

Conclusions

We propose that the increased activity of AEFs reflects cortical processing of acoustic properties common to both speech and non-speech stimuli. More specifically, the enhancement is most likely caused by spectral changes brought about by the decrease of amplitude resolution, in particular the introduction of periodic, signal-dependent distortion to the original sound. Converging evidence suggests that the observed AEF amplification could reflect cortical sensitivity to periodic sounds.     

A deduction of the Golden Spiral equation via powers of the Golden Ratio ϕ

This paper presents an interesting deduction of the Golden Spiral equation in a suitable polar coordinate system. For this purpose, the concepts of Golden Ratio and Golden Rectangle, and a significant result for the calculation of powers of the Golden Ratio ? using terms of the Fibonacci sequence are mentioned. Finally, various geometrical considerations that help us deduce the sought equation are presented.     

Application of ACC method to synchronous luminiscence: determination of alpha-tocopherol and alpha-tocopheryl acetate in beverages

A new method based on the Q parameter, that permits the determination of the C(compound A)/C(compound B) ratio without preparing calibration graphs of the two compounds, is proposed. This method has been applied to signals obtained by synchronous luminiscence. Simultaneous determination of alpha-tocopherol and alpha-tocopheryl acetate in beverages using synchronous fluorescence has been carried out. To isolate the compounds from samples, liquid extraction with n-hexane as the organic phase was employed. The presence of interferences was tested using the apparent content curves (ACC) method and the C(alpha-tocopherol)/C(alpha-tocopheryl acetate) ratio was calculated using the Q parameter. The reproducibility and detection limit for the determination of alpha-tocopherol and alpha-tocopheryl acetate were 6.6% and 0.016 mg/L and 1.8% and 0.017 mg/L, respectively.