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Publication Open Access An antibacterial surface coating composed of PAH/SiO2 nanostructurated films by layer by layer(Wiley, 2010) Urrutia Azcona, Aitor; Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Ruete Ibarrola, Leyre; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Fernández Valdivielso, Carlos; Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Institute of Smart Cities - ISCIn this work we propose a novel antibacterial coating composed of SiO2 and the polymer Poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH). The coating was fabricated by the technique Layer-by-Layer (LbL). This technique has already been used in previous works, and it has the advantage that it allows to control the construction of nanosized and well organized multilayer films. Here, the new nanotexturized LbL SiO2 surface acts as antibacterial agent. The fabricated coatings have been tested in bacterial cultures of genus Lactobacillus to observe their antibacterial properties. It has been demonstrated these PAH/SiO2 coating films have a very good antimicrobial behaviour against this type of bacteria.Publication Open Access An antibacterial submicron fiber mat with in situ synthesized silver nanoparticles(Wiley, 2012) Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Urrutia Azcona, Aitor; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Rodríguez, Yoany; Corres Sanz, Jesús María; Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2This work presents an alternative approachfor fabricating electrospun submicron highly hydrophilicfiber mats loaded with silver nanoparticles. These fiber matsshow a high efficient antibacterial behavior, very attractivefor applications like wound healing and skin regenerationprocesses. The fabrication method is divided in two steps.First, poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and b-cyclodextrin (b-CD)submicron fibers were electrospun and further stabilizedusing a thermal treatment, yielding stable hydrogel-likefibers with diameters ranging from 100 nm up to severalmicrons. In the second step, silver ions were loaded into thefibers and then reduced to silver nanoparticles in-situ. Theelectrospinning parameters were adjusted to achieve thedesired properties of the fiber mat (density, size) and after-wards, the characteristics of the silver nanoparticles(amount, size, aggregation) were tuned by controlling thesilver ion loading mechanism. Highly biocide surfaces wereachieved showing more than 99.99% of killing efficiency.The two-step process improves the reproducibility and tun-ability of the fiber mats. To our knowledge, this is the firsttime that stable hydrogel fibers with a highly biocide behav-ior have been fabricated using electrospinning.Publication Open Access Humidity sensor based on silver nanopartlcles embedded in a polymeric coating(Sciendo, 2012) Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Urrutia Azcona, Aitor; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Institute of Smart Cities - ISCIn this work, it is presented a novel optical fiber humidity sensor based on silver nanoparticle-loaded polymeric coatings built onto an optical fiber core. The polymeric film was fabricated using the Layer-by-Layer assembly technique. The silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM and UV-VIS spectroscopy. A Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) attenuation band is observed when the thickness of the coating increases, and showed a very good sensitivity to Relative Humidity (RH) variations, suitable for high performance applications such as human breathing monitoring.Publication Open Access Single-stage in situ synthesis of silver nanoparticles in antibacterial self-assembled overlays(Springerlink, 2012) Urrutia Azcona, Aitor; Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Ruete Ibarrola, Leyre; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2In this work, a novel single-stage process for in situ synthesis of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) using the layer-bylayer (LbL) technique is presented. The Ag NPs were formed into nanotextured coatings based on sequentially adsorbed poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and SiO2 NPs. Such highly porous surfaces have been used in the fabrication of highly efficient ion release films for applications such as antibacterial coatings. In this approach, the amino groups of the PAH acted as reducing agent and made possible the in situ formation of the Ag NPs. This reduction reaction occurred during the LbL process as the coating was assembled, without any further step after the fabrication and stabilization of the multilayer film. Biamminesilver nitrate was used as the Ag+ ion source during the LbL process and it was successfully reduced to Ag NPs. All coatings were tested with gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial cultures of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Lactobacillus delbrueckii showing an excellent antimicrobial behavior against these types of bacteria (more than 99.9% of killing efficiency in all cases).Publication Open Access Electric field alignment of multi-walled carbon nanotubes through curing of an epoxy matrix(Nanofun-Poly European Network of Excellence, 2012) Ramos, José A.; Esposito, Leandro; Kortaberria, Galder; Fernández-d'Arlas Bidegáin, Borja; Zalakain Iriazabal, Iñaki; Goyanes, Silvia; Mondragón, Iñaki; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2The electrical alignment of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in an epoxy resin was studied through curing using electrical measurements and optical microscopy. The epoxy system was composed by diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A and 4,4’-methylene bis-(3-chloro 2,6-diethylaniline). Long multi-walled carbon nanotubes were ultrasonically mixed with epoxy resin to form a 0.01 wt% MWCNT mixture. Samples were cured with alternating current electric fields applying different AC voltages. The electrical conductivity of the composite increased upon applied voltage as higher alignment of carbon nanotubes was achieved. The enhanced alignment was visualized by optical microscopy. Improvements in capacitance behaviour were also achieved with the highest value of current field.Publication Open Access Electrospun nanofiber mats for evanescent optical fiber sensors(Elsevier, 2013) Urrutia Azcona, Aitor; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Matías Maestro, Ignacio; Arregui San Martín, Francisco Javier; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate PublikoaIn this work, a study about the optical response of electrospun nanofiber (ENF) coatings for their use in evanescent optical fiber sensors is presented. Several types of ENF mats composed of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) were developed with different ENF diameters and densities. These ENF mats were deposited onto an optical fiber core in order to fabricate humidity evanescent optical fiber sensors. The devices were exposed to relative humidity (RH) variations from 30% RH to 95%RH. The transfer functions of the devices (transmitted optical power versus relative humidity) presented two well-differenced behaviors depending on the ENF diameter and the ENF mat density. The devices with lower ENF diameters and higher mat density showed an increase in the transmitted optical power when RH increased. On the contrary, the devices with higher ENF diameters and lower mat density showed a decrease in the transmitted optical power when RH increased. In addition to this, sensors with thinner ENF overlays, showed a higher sensitivity. In order to study the response time of these devices, the ENFs sensors were submitted to human breathing cycles and presented a response time around 340 ms (exhalation). In spite of the high RH conditions of this experiment, the devices showed a recovery time around 210 ms and a negligible hysteresis or drift with respect to the initial condition (inhalation).Publication Open Access Temporal evolution of brain cancer incidence in the municipalities of Navarre and the Basque Country, Spain(BioMed Central, 2015) Ugarte Martínez, María Dolores; Adin Urtasun, Aritz; Goicoa Mangado, Tomás; Casado, Itziar; Ardanaz, Eva; Larrañaga, Nerea; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua: proyecto 113 Res. 2186/2014Background: Brain cancer incidence rates in Spain are below the European’s average. However, there are two regions in the north of the country, Navarre and the Basque Country, ranked among the European regions with the highest incidence rates for both males and females. Our objective here was two-fold. Firstly, to describe the temporal evolution of the geographical pattern of brain cancer incidence in Navarre and the Basque Country, and secondly, to look for specific high risk areas (municipalities) within these two regions in the study period (1986–2008). Methods: A mixed Poisson model with two levels of spatial effects is used. The model also included two levels of spatial effects (municipalities and local health areas). Model fitting was carried out using penalized quasi-likelihood. High risk regions were detected using upper one-sided confidence intervals. Results: Results revealed a group of high risk areas surrounding Pamplona, the capital city of Navarre, and a few municipalities with significant high risks in the northern part of the region, specifically in the border between Navarre and the Basque Country (Gipuzkoa). The global temporal trend was found to be increasing. Differences were also observed among specific risk evolutions in certain municipalities. Conclusions: Brain cancer incidence in Navarre and the Basque Country (Spain) is still increasing with time. The number of high risk areas within those two regions is also increasing. Our study highlights the need of continuous surveillance of this cancer in the areas of high risk. However, due to the low percentage of cases explained by the known risk factors, primary prevention should be applied as a general recommendation in these populations.Publication Open Access The Pearcey integral in the highly oscillatory region(Elsevier, 2016) López García, José Luis; Pagola Martínez, Pedro Jesús; Matematika eta Informatika Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Ingeniería Matemática e Informática; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate PublikoaWe consider the Pearcey integral P(x, y) for large values of |y| and bounded values of |x|. The integrand of the Pearcey integral oscillates wildly in this region and the asymptotic saddle point analysis is complicated. Then we consider here the modified saddle point method introduced in [Lopez, Pérez and Pagola, 2009] [4]. With this method, the analysis is simpler and it is possible to derive a complete asymptotic expansion of P(x, y) for large |y|. The asymptotic analysis requires the study of three different regions for separately. In the three regions, the expansion is given in terms of inverse powers of y2/3 and the coefficients are elementary functions of x. The accuracy of the approximation is illustrated with some numerical experiments.Publication Open Access Thermal degradation of type I collagen from bones(Tech Science Press, 2016) Lambri, Melania Lucila; Giordano, E. D.; Bozzano, P. B.; Pérez de Landazábal Berganzo, José Ignacio; Recarte Callado, Vicente; Fisika; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Física; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate PublikoaThe denaturation processes of collagen in the temperature range between 450 K and 670 K are revealed through studies performed on cow rib bones by means of mechanical spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetry, scanning electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy. The conformational change of the collagen molecules from a triple helix structure to a random coil was found at around 510 K. It was determined that the transformation is developed through the viscous movement of fibrils with an activation energy of (127 ± 8) kJ/mol. The second stage of massive bulk deterioration of the collagen was found at around 600 K, which leads to the loss of the mechanical integrity of the bulk collagen. In addition, an easy-to-handle viscoelastic procedure for obtaining the activation energy of the denaturation process from mechanical spectroscopy studies was also shown.Publication Open Access Checking unimodality using isotonic regression: an application to breast cancer mortality rates(Springer, 2016) Rueda, Cristina; Ugarte Martínez, María Dolores; Militino, Ana F.; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Estadística e Investigación OperativaIn some diseases it is well-known that a unimodal mortality pattern exists. A clear example in developed countries is breast cancer, where mortality increased sharply until the nineties and then decreased. This clear unimodal pattern is not necessarily applicable to all regions within a country. In this paper, we develop statistical tools to check if the unimodality pattern persists within regions using order restricted inference. Break points as well as confidence intervals are also provided. In addition, a new test for checking monotonicity against unimodality is derived allowing to discriminate between a simple increasing pattern and an up-then-down response pattern. A comparison with the widely used joinpoint regression technique under unimodality is provided. We show that the joinpoint technique could fail when the underlying function is not piecewise linear. Results will be illustrated using age-specific breast cancer mortality data from Spain in the period 1975-2005.Publication Open Access Real elements and p-nilpotence of finite groups(Aracne, 2016) Ballester Bolinches, Adolfo; Esteban Romero, Ramón; Ezquerro Marín, Luis Miguel; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Estadística, Informática y MatemáticasOur first main result proves that every element of order 4 of a Sylow 2-subgroup S of a minimal non-2-nilpotent group G, is a real element of S. This allows to give a character-free proof of a theorem due to Isaacs and Navarro (see [9, Theorem B]). As an application, the authors show a common extension of the p-nilpotence criteria proved in [3] and [9].Publication Open Access Fiber optic sensors based on hybrid phenyl-silica xerogel films to detect n-hexane: determination of the isosteric enthalpy of adsorption(Beilstein-Institut, 2017) Echeverría Morrás, Jesús; Calleja, Ignacio; Moriones Jiménez, Paula; Garrido Segovia, Julián José; Kimika Aplikatua; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Química Aplicada; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua, 269/01/08We investigated the response of three fiber optic sensing elements prepared at pH 10 from phenyltriethoxysilane (PhTEOS) and tetraethylsilane (TEOS) mixtures with 30, 40, and 50% PhTEOS in the silicon precursor mixture. The sensing elements are referred to as Ph30, Ph40 and Ph50, respectively. The films were synthesized by the sol–gel method and affixed to the end of optical fibers by the dip-coating technique. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, N2 adsorption–desorption at 77 K and X-ray diffraction analysis were used to characterize the xerogels. At a given pressure of n-hexane, the response of each sensing element decreased with temperature, indicating an exothermic process that confirmed the role of adsorption in the overall performance of the sensing elements. The isosteric adsorption enthalpies were obtained from the calibration curves at different temperatures. The magnitude of the isosteric enthalpy of n-hexane increased with the relative response and reached a plateau that stabilized at approximately −31 kJ mol−1 for Ph40 and Ph50 and at approximately −37 kJ mol−1 for Ph30. This indicates that the adsorbate–adsorbent interaction was dominant at lower relative pressure and condensation of the adsorbate on the mesopores was dominant at higher relative pressure.Publication Open Access Mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR) for simultaneous determination of fat and protein content in meat of several animal species(Springer, 2017) Lozano Saiz, María; Rodríguez Ulibarri, Pablo; Echeverría Morrás, Jesús; Beruete Díaz, Miguel; Sorolla Ayza, Mario; Beriain Apesteguía, María José; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2The aim of this research was to study the application of MIR spectroscopy as an alternative to conventional methods to determine fat and protein content. Samples of the main species used to produce meat products were analyzed, showing all of them absorption bands at similar wavenumbers though with different intensity. Correlation analysis of absorption intensities showed that bands around 2925, 2854, and 1746 cm−1 are associated with fat content, whereas bands around 3288, 1657, and 1542 cm−1 are associated with proteins. During the validation process, prediction models of fat and protein content were successfully obtained withR2 0.9173 and 0.7534, respectively. Finally, a good result (R2 =0.8829) was obtained on the estimation of the lipid content when the information at only one wavenumber was used.Publication Open Access Stochastic spatio-temporal models for analysing NDVI distribution of GIMMS NDVI3g images(MDPI, 2017) Militino, Ana F.; Ugarte Martínez, María Dolores; Pérez Goya, Unai; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua: Project PI015, 2016The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is an important indicator for evaluating vegetation change, monitoring land surface fluxes or predicting crop models. Due to the great availability of images provided by different satellites in recent years, much attention has been devoted to testing trend changes with a time series of NDVI individual pixels. However, the spatial dependence inherent in these data is usually lost unless global scales are analyzed. In this paper, we propose incorporating both the spatial and the temporal dependence among pixels using a stochastic spatio-temporal model for estimating the NDVI distribution thoroughly. The stochastic model is a state-space model that uses meteorological data of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU TS3.10) as auxiliary information. The model will be estimated with the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. The result is a set of smoothed images providing an overall analysis of the NDVI distribution across space and time, where fluctuations generated by atmospheric disturbances, fire events, land-use/cover changes or engineering problems from image capture are treated as random fluctuations. The illustration is carried out with the third generation of NDVI images, termed NDVI3g, of the Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) in continental Spain. This data are taken in bymonthly periods from January 2011 to December 2013, but the model can be applied to many other variables, countries or regions with different resolutions.Publication Open Access Kinetic analysis and CFD simulations of the photocatalytic production of hydrogen in silicone microreactors from water-ethanol mixtures(Elsevier, 2017) Castedo, Alejandra; Uriz Doray, Irantzu; Soler, Lluís; Gandía Pascual, Luis; Llorca Piqué, Jordi; Kimika Aplikatua; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Química AplicadaSilicone microreactors containing microchannels of 500 μm width in a single or triple stack configuration have been manufactured, coated with an Au/TiO2 photocatalyst and tested for the photocatalytic production of hydrogen from water-ethanol gaseous mixtures under UV irradiation. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have revealed that the design of the distributing headers allowed for a homogeneous distribution of the gaseous stream within the channels of the microreactors. A rate equation for the photocatalytic reaction has been developed from the experimental results obtained with the single stack operated under different ethanol partial pressures, light irradiation intensities and contact times. The hydrogen photoproduction rate has been expressed in terms of a Langmuir-Hinshelwood-type equation that accurately describes the process considering that hydrogen is produced through the dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde. This equation incorporates an apparent rate constant (kapp) that has been found to be proportional to the intrinsic kinetic rate constant (k), and that depends on the light intensity (I) as follows: kapp = k·I0.65. A three-dimensional isothermal CFD model has been developed in which the previously obtained kinetic equation has been implemented. The model adequately describes the production of hydrogen of both the single and triple stacks. Moreover, the specific hydrogen productions (i.e. per gram of catalyst) are very close for both stacks thus suggesting that the scaling-up of the process could be accomplished by simply numbering-up. However, small deviations between the experimental and predicted hydrogen production suggest that a fraction of the radiation is absorbed by the microreactor components which should be taken into account for scaling-up purposes.Publication Open Access The effects of halogen substituents on the catalytic oxidation of benzylalcohols in the presence of dinuclear oxidovanadium(IV) complex(Elsevier, 2017) Bikas, Rahman; Shahmoradi, Elaheh; Noshiranzadeh, Nader; Emami, Marzieh; Reinoso, Santiago; Ciencias; Zientziak; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2A new dinuclear complex of oxidovanadium(IV), namely [(VO)2(HL)(l-O)] (1), has been synthesized by the reaction of VO(acac)2 with the heptadentate N4O3-donor Schiff base ligand, 2-(5-Bromo-2-hydroxyphenyl)-1,3-bis(2-(5-bromo-2-hydroxybenzylideneamino)ethyl)imidazolidine (H3L). The complex has been characterized by elemental analysis, spectroscopic methods and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The latter technique revealed that the vanadium ions have distorted octahedral geometry and are connected together by oxido and phenolic oxygen atoms. The bridging oxido ligand shares the equatorial positions of the two metal centers while the oxygen atom of the bridging phenol group connects the axial positions. The catalytic activity of this complex has been tested for the oxidation of some benzyl alcohol derivatives by using H2O2 as a green oxidant. In order to maximize the yields, the effects of various influential parameters in catalytic reactions such as the oxidant-to-substrate molar ratio, the temperature and the solvent, were studied. Moreover, the electronic and steric effects of halogen substituents on the phenyl group of the substrate were also explored by analyzing the oxidation of benzyl alcohol derivatives with F, Cl and Br atoms in the relative para-position (electronic effect), and of another set of substrates with a Cl substituent in relative ortho-, meta, and para-positions (steric effect). The results of these catalytic studies show that complex 1 catalyzes the oxidation of benzyl alcohol derivatives to the corresponding benzaldehydes with little amounts of the benzoic acid being detectable in the reaction mixture. Both the reaction conditions and the substituents on the phenyl group of the benzyl alcohols affect the selectivity and the activity of this catalytic system.Publication Open Access Convergent expansions of the incomplete gamma functions in terms of elementary functions(World Scientific Publishing, 2017) Bujanda Cirauqui, Blanca; López García, José Luis; Pagola Martínez, Pedro Jesús; Matematika eta Informatika Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Ingeniería Matemática e Informática; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate PublikoaWe consider the incomplete gamma function γ(a,z) for Ra>0 and z∈C. We derive several convergent expansions of z−aγ(a,z) in terms of exponentials and rational functions of z that hold uniformly in z with Rz bounded from below. These expansions, multiplied by ez, are expansions of ezz−aγ(a,z) uniformly convergent in z with Rz bounded from above. The expansions are accompanied by realistic error bounds.Publication Open Access Effect of the temperature in the mechanical properties of austenite, ferrite and sigma phases of duplex stainless steels using hardness, microhardness and nanoindentation techniques(MDPI, 2017) Argandoña Salinas, Gorka; Berlanga Labari, Carlos; Biezma Moraleda, María Victoria; Rivero Fuente, Pedro J.; Peña, Julio; Rodríguez Trías, Rafael; Mekanika, Energetika eta Materialen Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Ingeniería Mecánica, Energética y de MaterialesThe aim of this work is to study the hardness of the ferrite, austenite and sigma phases of a UNS S32760 superduplex stainless steel submitted to different thermal treatments, thus leading to different percentages of the mentioned phases. A comparative study has been performed in order to evaluate the resulting mechanical properties of these phases by using hardness, microhardness and nanoindentation techniques. In addition, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) have been also used to identify their presence and distribution. Finally, the experimental results have shown that the resulting hardness values were increased as a function of a longer heat treatment duration which it is associated to the formation of a higher percentage of the sigma phase. However, nanoindentation hardness measurements of this sigma phase showed lower values than expected, being a combination of two main factors, namely the complexity of the sigma phase structure as well as the surface finish (roughness).Publication Open Access Giant direct and inverse magnetocaloric effect linked to the same forward martensitic transformation(Springer Nature, 2017) Pérez de Landazábal Berganzo, José Ignacio; Recarte Callado, Vicente; Sánchez-Alarcos Gómez, Vicente; Beato López, Juan Jesús; Rodríguez Velamazán, José Alberto; Sánchez Marcos, J.; Gómez Polo, Cristina; Cesari, Eduard; Fisika; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; FísicaMetamagnetic shape memory alloys have aroused considerable attraction as potential magnetic refrigerants due to the large inverse magnetocaloric effect associated to the magnetic-field-induction of a reverse martensitic transformation (martensite to austenite). In some of these alloys, the austenite phase can be retained on cooling under high magnetic fields, being the retained phase metastable after field removing. Here, we report a giant direct magnetocaloric effect linked to the anomalous forward martensitic transformation (austenite to martensite) that the retained austenite undergoes on heating. Under moderate fields of 10 kOe, an estimated adiabatic temperature change of 9 K has been obtained, which is (in absolute value) almost twice that obtained in the conventional transformation under higher applied fields. The observation of a different sign on the temperature change associated to the same austenite to martensite transformation depending on whether it occurs on heating (retained) or on cooling is attributed to the predominance of the magnetic or the vibrational entropy terms, respectively.Publication Open Access A simplification of the stationary phase method: application to the Anger and Weber functions(Kent State University, 2017) López García, José Luis; Matematika eta Informatika Ingeniaritza; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Ingeniería Matemática e Informática; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate PublikoaThe main difficulty in the practical use of the stationary phase method in asymptotic expansions of integrals is originated by a change of variables. The coefficients of the asymptotic expansion are the coefficients of the Taylor expansion of a certain function implicitly defined by that change of variables. In general, this function is not explicitly known, and then the computation of those coefficients is cumbersome. Using the factorization of the exponential factor used in previous works of [Tricomi, 1950], [Erdélyi and Wyman, 1963], and [Dingle, 1973], we obtain a variant of the method that avoids that change of variables and simplifies the computations. On the one hand, the calculation of the coefficients of the asymptotic expansion is remarkably simpler and explicit. On the other hand, the asymptotic sequence is as simple as in the standard stationary phase method: inverse powers of the asymptotic variable. New asymptotic expansions of the Anger and Weber functions Jλx(x) and Eλx(x) for large positive x and real parameter λ 6= 0 are given as an illustration.