University of Oviedo

About: University of Oviedo is a education organization based out in Oviedo, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 13423 authors who have published 31649 publications receiving 844799 citations. The organization is also known as: Universidá d'Uviéu & Universidad de Oviedo.

Spin and molecular electronics in atomically generated orbital landscapes

Abstract: Ab initio computational methods for electronic transport in nanoscaled systems are an invaluable tool for the design of quantum devices. We have developed a flexible and efficient algorithm for evaluating I-V characteristics of atomic junctions, which integrates the nonequilibrium Green’s function method with density functional theory. This is currently implemented in the package SMEAGOL. The heart of SMEAGOL is our scheme for constructing the surface Green’s functions describing the current-voltage probes. It consists of a direct summation of both open and closed scattering channels together with a regularization procedure of the Hamiltonian and provides great improvements over standard recursive methods. In particular it allows us to tackle material systems with complicated electronic structures, such as magnetic transition metals. Here we present a detailed description of SMEAGOL together with an extensive range of applications relevant for the two burgeoning fields of spin and molecular electronics.

Description and performance of track and primary-vertex reconstruction with the CMS tracker

Abstract: A description is provided of the software algorithms developed for the CMS tracker both for reconstructing charged-particle trajectories in proton-proton interactions and for using the resulting tracks to estimate the positions of the LHC luminous region and individual primary-interaction vertices. Despite the very hostile environment at the LHC, the performance obtained with these algorithms is found to be excellent. For tt events under typical 2011 pileup conditions, the average track-reconstruction efficiency for promptly-produced charged particles with transverse momenta of p_T > 0.9GeV is 94% for pseudorapidities of |η| < 0.9 and 85% for 0.9 < |η| < 2.5. The inefficiency is caused mainly by hadrons that undergo nuclear interactions in the tracker material. For isolated muons, the corresponding efficiencies are essentially 100%. For isolated muons of p_T = 100GeV emitted at |η| < 1.4, the resolutions are approximately 2.8% in p_T, and respectively, 10μm and 30μm in the transverse and longitudinal impact parameters. The position resolution achieved for reconstructed primary vertices that correspond to interesting pp collisions is 10–12μm in each of the three spatial dimensions. The tracking and vertexing software is fast and flexible, and easily adaptable to other functions, such as fast tracking for the trigger, or dedicated tracking for electrons that takes into account bremsstrahlung.

The effects of brand associations on consumer response

Abstract: This paper studies the dimensions of brand image, focusing on the functions or value of the brand as perceived by consumers. In this way, four categories of functions are identified: guarantee, personal identification, social identification and status. By way of hypotheses, it has been proposed that these functions have a positive influence on the consumer’s willingness to recommend the brand, pay a price premium for it and accept brand extensions. The hypotheses have been tested in the Spanish sports shoes market and were partially supported. The results obtained confirm the convenience of analyzing brand associations separately and enable the ascertaining of the brand associations that are the most relevant in order to attain certain consumer responses.

Comparative and demographic analysis of orang-utan genomes.

Abstract: 'Orang-utan' is derived from a Malay term meaning 'man of the forest' and aptly describes the southeast Asian great apes native to Sumatra and Borneo. The orang-utan species, Pongo abelii (Sumatran) and Pongo pygmaeus (Bornean), are the most phylogenetically distant great apes from humans, thereby providing an informative perspective on hominid evolution. Here we present a Sumatran orang-utan draft genome assembly and short read sequence data from five Sumatran and five Bornean orang-utan genomes. Our analyses reveal that, compared to other primates, the orang-utan genome has many unique features. Structural evolution of the orang-utan genome has proceeded much more slowly than other great apes, evidenced by fewer rearrangements, less segmental duplication, a lower rate of gene family turnover and surprisingly quiescent Alu repeats, which have played a major role in restructuring other primate genomes. We also describe a primate polymorphic neocentromere, found in both Pongo species, emphasizing the gradual evolution of orang-utan genome structure. Orang-utans have extremely low energy usage for a eutherian mammal, far lower than their hominid relatives. Adding their genome to the repertoire of sequenced primates illuminates new signals of positive selection in several pathways including glycolipid metabolism. From the population perspective, both Pongo species are deeply diverse; however, Sumatran individuals possess greater diversity than their Bornean counterparts, and more species-specific variation. Our estimate of Bornean/Sumatran speciation time, 400,000 years ago, is more recent than most previous studies and underscores the complexity of the orang-utan speciation process. Despite a smaller modern census population size, the Sumatran effective population size (N(e)) expanded exponentially relative to the ancestral N(e) after the split, while Bornean N(e) declined over the same period. Overall, the resources and analyses presented here offer new opportunities in evolutionary genomics, insights into hominid biology, and an extensive database of variation for conservation efforts.

Planck early results - I. The Planck mission

Abstract: The European Space Agency's Planck satellite was launched on 14 May 2009, and has been surveying the sky stably and continuously since 13 August 2009. Its performance is well in line with expectations, and it will continue to gather scientific data until the end of its cryogenic lifetime. We give an overview of the history of Planck in its first year of operations, and describe some of the key performance aspects of the satellite. This paper is part of a package submitted in conjunction with Planck's Early Release Compact Source Catalogue, the first data product based on Planck to be released publicly. The package describes the scientific performance of the Planck payload, and presents results on a variety of astrophysical topics related to the sources included in the Catalogue, as well as selected topics on diffuse emission.