text:
\section{\normalsize{Introduction}}
Understanding the interface properties of strongly correlated
electron systems placed into inhomogeneous environments on the
nanoscale combines the fields of strongly correlated electron
systems and nanotechnology. The interface properties of strongly
correlated systems will play an important role in determining the
properties of devices made from these materials. One of the
important interface properties is electronic charge
reconstruction~\cite{millis}. At nearly all types of
metal-semiconductor interfaces, a so called Schottky barrier
exhibits charge depletion in the doped semiconductor region close
to the interface. Because the Fermi energy in the metal differs
from that in the semiconductor, mobile carriers in the
semiconductor side of the barrier diffuse into the metal side
until a static equilibrium is reached. Recent experiments
conducted on strongly correlated materials have shown a similar
interface-induced charge reconstruction in inhomogeneous
nanostructures. Ohtomo and co-workers~\cite{Ohtomo} have
fabricated atomically precise digital heterostructures consisting
of a controllable number of planes of LaTiO$_3$ (a correlated
electron Mott-insulating material) separated by a controllable
number of planes of SrTiO$_3$ (a more conventional band-insulating
material). The experiment demonstrated an insulator-metal
crossover near the interface due to electronic charge
reconstruction. The insulating heterostructure developed
conducting channels near the interfaces for current parallel to
the planes. Okamoto and Millis~\cite{millis} found, through a
Hartree-Fock calculation, that the electronic charge
reconstruction leads to metallic behavior at the interface between
the two insulators. This is because the mismatch of chemical
potentials creates screened dipole interface charge
reconstructions that are conducting due to the excess or deficit
of charge. Varela and collaborators~\cite{Varela} have provided
evidence for extensive charge reconstruction from
manganite-cuprates heterostructures at a
YBa$_{2}$Cu$_3$O$_{7-x}$/La$_{0.67}$Ca$_{0.33}$MnO$_3$ interface,
which also exhibits a metal-insulator crossover near the
interface. From a theoretical standpoint, Nikoli$\acute{c}$,
Freericks and Miller~\cite{Freericks} developed a semiclassical
approach to the Potthoff-Nolting~\cite{Potthoff} algorithm to
create a dynamical mean-field theory description of electronic
charge reconstruction and applied it to
superconductor-insulator-normal metal-insulator-superconductor
Josephson junctions.

In this work, we investigate the electronic charge reconstruction
of a doped Mott-insulator, where the reconstruction can dope parts
of the system close to the insulating phase. Such a system may be
realized in high temperature superconducting grain boundaries,
where the electrically active grain boundary can lead to an
electronic charge reconstruction~\cite{mannhart}. We take a
semi-infinite ballistic-metal lead and couple it to another
semi-infinite ballistic-metal lead through a strongly correlated
barrier material of varying thickness. By adjusting the
interaction and the filling of the barrier material, we study
interface properties for different types of materials. Here we
emphasize the physics of the doped Mott-insulator.

The organization of this paper is as follows: in Sec. II, we
present a detailed derivation of the formalism and the numerical
algorithms used to calculate the charge reconstruction of
nanostructures. In Sec. III, we describe our numerical results. We
end with our conclusions in Sec. IV.

\section{\normalsize{Formalism}}
We apply the Potthoff-Nolting~\cite{Potthoff} approach to
multilayered nanostructures, which involve translationally
invariant $x-y$ planes stacked in the longitudinal $z$-direction.
We choose square lattice planes stacked along $z$ direction, so
the lattice sites are identical to those of a simple cubic
lattice. We have periodicity in the $x$ and $y$ directions, but we
allow inhomogeneity in the $z$-direction. All interactions are
also translationally invariant within each plane, but can change
from one plane to the next. The system is described by a spatially
inhomogeneous many-body problem. Potthoff and Nolting described
the idea of using a mixed basis for inhomogeneous DMFT: First,
Fourier transform the $x$ and $y$ coordinates to wavevectors $k_x$
and $k_y$ but keep the $z$-component in real space. Then for each
two-dimensional band energy, we have a quasi-one-dimensional
problem to solve, which has a tridiagonal representation in real
space, and can be solved with the so called quantum zipper
algorithm~\cite{zipper}.

Because of the translational invariance in each two-dimensional
plane, we can describe the intraplane hopping via a
two-dimensional bandstructure, which becomes

\begin{equation}
\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha}(\mathbf{k}_{x},\mathbf{k}_{y})=-2t^{\|}_{\alpha}[\cos(\mathbf{k}_{x})+\cos(\mathbf{k}_{y})],
\label{2}
\end{equation}
for a square lattice plane, where $t^{\|}_{\alpha}$ is the
nearest-neighbor intraplane hopping on the $\alpha$th plane and
($k_x,k_y,0$) is the two-dimensional wave vector.

For the interaction, we employ the Falicov-Kimball
model~\cite{Falicov} which involves an interaction between
conduction electrons with localized particles
(\textit{f}-electrons or charged ions) when the conduction
electron hops onto a site occupied by the localized particle. The
Falicov-Kimball model has a non-Fermi liquid ground state in the
metallic regime, because the electrons see static charge
scatterers, which always produce a finite scattering lifetime, so
there is no quasiparticle resonance, as seen in other strongly
correlated models like the Hubbard~\cite{Hubbard} and periodic
Anderson~\cite{Anderson} model. It also has a Mott-type
metal-insulator transition, that sets in when the correlation
strength is large enough and the total number of the particles
(localized plus delocalized) equals the number of lattice sites.
This is because the energy cost for double occupation becomes too
high if $U$ is large enough, and the system becomes an insulator;
the metal insulator transition can occur for systems without
particle-hole symmetry, unlike the single-band Hubbard model which
always has the Mott transition precisely at half
filling~\cite{Demchencko}. Our choice of using the Falicov-Kimball
model is pragmatic, since the DMFT can be easily solved for this
system and it describes interesting metal-insulator transitions of
strongly correlated materials. We expect the results in the
insulating phase to resemble other correlated insulators, since
the most important property of a correlated insulator is the size
of its gap. On the metallic side, the Falicov-Kimball model is
good for describing the crossover from ballistic to diffusive
transport in dirty metals, but it is unable to describe the
coherent quasiparticle formation, with a renormalized Fermi
energy, seen in pure models like the Hubbard model. We feel it is
nevertheless an interesting model to consider for examining
systems near a Mott transition (especially since any experimental
system will always have disorder, so the renormalized Fermi liquid
will also disappear close to the Mott transition due to this
disorder, and the actual metal-insulator transition may be closer
to the scenario of the Falicov-Kimball model). We consider
spinless electrons here, but spin can be included by introducing a
factor of 2 into some of the results; but note that it will modify
the self-consistency relation for the Coulomb potential energy,
which will not involve just a trivial change of the final
converged results (the Coulomb potential energy will be doubled in
magnitude, but that doubled value goes into the local chemical
potential for the next iteration of the algorithm). Introducing
spin also changes the filling condition for the Mott-transition.

The charge reconstruction at the interface leaves net charge on
each plane. So the Hamiltonian needs to be altered to include this
effect. We analyze this problem using a semiclassical
approach---the charge rearrangements are employed to determine
classical electric fields, electric potentials and potential
energies, which are then input into the Hamiltonian, that is
subsequently solved using quantum mechanics. We assume that the
electric charge is uniformly spaced over the plane. Then the
electric field is a constant, perpendicular to the plane. If the
net charge density on plane $\alpha$ is
$\rho_{\alpha}-\rho_{\alpha}^{bulk}$ and the permittivity is
$\epsilon_{\alpha}$, then the change in polarization at the
interface between the two dielectric planes induces an additional
polarization charge on the interface that leads to a discontinuous
jump in the electric field halfway between the two lattice planes.
The local field created by the $\alpha$th plane has magnitude
\begin{equation}
|E|=\frac{ea(\rho_\alpha-\rho^{bulk}_{\alpha})}{2\epsilon_{\alpha}},
\label{22}
\end{equation}
in which $a$ is the lattice spacing along $z$ direction. Once the
total fields at each plane are known, we integrate them to obtain
the electric potentials. The discontinuity in the electric field
occurs at the midpoint between the two lattice planes when there
is a change in permittivity.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[angle=-90,scale=0.3,clip=]{fig1.eps}
\caption{Geometry taken for the classical electrostatics problem.
We show a blow up of two planes, $\alpha$ and $\alpha+1$. Assuming
that the excess surface charge density on plane $\alpha$ is
$(\rho_{\alpha}-\rho^{bulk}_{\alpha})a = \sigma_{\alpha}$ and that
the permittivity is $\varepsilon_{\alpha}$ (and similarly for the
$\alpha+1$ plane), then the change in polarization at the
interface between the two dielectric planes induces a polarization
charge on the interface (denoted $\sigma_{pol}$) that leads to a
discontinuous jump in the electric field halfway between the two
lattice planes. Once all the fields are known, we integrate the
total field to get the electric potential. Note that the
discontinuity in the electric field occurs at the midpoint between
the two lattice planes.}
\end{figure}

Performing the integration yields the potential energy due to the
Coulomb interaction of the electronic charge reconstruction as
\begin{widetext}
\begin{equation}
V_{\beta}=-\sum_\alpha(\rho_\alpha-\rho^{bulk}_{\alpha})\times
\left \{ \begin{array}{lc}
  \sum_{\gamma=\alpha+1}^{\beta}\frac{1}{2}[e_{Schot}(\gamma)+e_{Schot}(\gamma-1)],&\beta>\alpha \\
  0,&\beta=\alpha \\
  \sum_{\gamma=\beta+1}^{\alpha}\frac{1}{2}[e_{Schot}(\gamma)+e_{Schot}(\gamma-1)],
&\beta<\alpha
\end{array}\right.
\label{23}
\end{equation}
\end{widetext}
where we define the symbol $e_{Schot}(\alpha)=e^2
a/2\epsilon_{\alpha}$, which is related to the screening length in
a particular medium. This parameter has the units of an energy
multiplied by an area; the product of $e_{Schot}$ with the local
DOS has the units of the inverse of a length, and this is what
determines the decay length of the charge profile. In our
calculations we will set $e_{Schot}$ to a particular value to fix
the screening length.

The Coulomb potential
energies are input into the Hamiltonian as follows: they are
treated by shifting the chemical potential
$\mu\longrightarrow\mu-V_{\alpha}$ on each plane, depending on
what the Coulomb potential energy is. The Falicov-Kimball
Hamiltonian with electronic charge reconstruction is then
\begin{eqnarray}
H&=&-\sum_{\alpha i\beta j}t_{\alpha i\beta j}c^{\dag}_{\alpha
i}c^{}_{\beta j}+\sum_{\alpha i}U_{\alpha i}c^{\dag}_{\alpha
i}c^{}_{\alpha i}f^{\dag}_{\alpha i}f^{}_{\alpha
i}\nonumber
\\&-&\sum_{\alpha i} (\mu+\Delta E_{F\alpha}-V_{\alpha}) c^{\dag}_{\alpha i}
c^{}_{\alpha i}, \label{1}
\end{eqnarray}
in which $\alpha$ and $\beta$ represent different planes and $i$
and $j$ represent lattice sites on the respective planes. The
chemical potential $\mu$ is fixed by the bulk value of the leads.
$\Delta E_{F\alpha}$ is the mismatch of the center of the bands
between the leads and the barrier ($\Delta E_{F\alpha}=0$ in the
leads). By adjusting the value of $\Delta E_{F\alpha}$, we control
the relative shift of the bands inside the multilayered
nanostructure; indeed, the electronic charge reconstruction occurs
because $\Delta E_f$ is adjusted to describe the chemical
potential mismatch between the two materials at some given
temperature. Note that $\Delta E_f$ is a fixed constant that does
not change with the temperature.

To analyze the many-body problem, we use a Green's function
technique. The imaginary-time Green's function, in real space, is
defined by
\begin{equation}
G_{\alpha i\beta j}(\tau)=-\langle T_{\tau} c_{\alpha
i}(\tau)c^{\dag}_{\beta j}(0) \rangle. \label{3}
\end{equation}
for imaginary time $\tau$. The notation $\langle \mathcal{O}
\rangle$ denotes ${\rm Tr} T_{\tau} \exp(-\beta[H-\mu N])
\mathcal{O}/\tilde{Z}$, where $\tilde{Z}$ is the partition
function $\tilde{Z}={\rm Tr} \exp(-\beta[H-\mu N])$. The operators are
expressed in the Heisenberg representation where
$\mathcal{O}(\tau)=\exp(\tau[H-\mu N])\mathcal{O}\exp(-\tau[H-\mu
N])$. The symbol $T_{\tau}$ denotes time ordering of the
operators, with earlier $\tau$ values appearing to the right and
$\beta$ is the inverse temperature, $\beta=1/T$. We will work with
the Matsubara frequency Green's functions, defined for imaginary
frequencies $i\omega_n=i \pi T(2n+1)$. These are determined by a
Fourier transformation
\begin{equation}
G_{\alpha i \beta j}(i\omega_n)=\int^{\beta}_{0} d\tau
e^{i\omega_{n}\tau} G_{\alpha i\beta j}(\tau). \label{4}
\end{equation}
We can write the equation of motion for the Green's function in
real space, which satisfies
\begin{eqnarray}
G^{-1}_{\alpha i\beta j}(i\omega_n)&=&(i\omega_n+\mu+\Delta
E_{F\alpha}-V_{\alpha})\delta_{\alpha i\beta
j}\nonumber\\&-&\Sigma_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n})\delta_{\alpha i\beta
j}+t_{\alpha i\beta j}. \label{5}
\end{eqnarray}
Now we go to a mixed basis, by Fourier transforming in the $x$ and
$y$ directions, to find
\begin{eqnarray}
G^{-1}_{\alpha
\beta}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})&=&[i\omega_{n}+(\mu+\Delta
E_{F\alpha}-V_{\alpha})-\Sigma_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n})\label{6}\\
&-&\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha}(\mathbf{k})]\delta_{\alpha
\beta} + t_{\alpha \alpha+1}\delta_{\alpha+1 \beta}+t_{\alpha
\alpha-1}\delta_{\alpha-1 \beta}, \nonumber
\end{eqnarray}
with $\Sigma_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n})$ the local self-energy for
plane $\alpha$ and $\mathbf{k}$ the two-dimensional planar
momentum. Finally, we use the identity
$\sum_{\gamma}G_{\alpha\gamma}({\bf k})G^{-1}_{\gamma\beta}({\bf k})
=\delta_{\alpha\beta}$ to arrive at the starting point for the recursive solution
to the problem,
\begin{eqnarray}
\delta_{\alpha \beta}&=&G_{\alpha
\beta}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})\nonumber\\
&\times&[i\omega_{n}+(\mu+\Delta
E_{F\beta}-V_{\beta})-\Sigma_{\beta}(i\omega_{n})-\epsilon^{\|}_{\beta}(\mathbf{k})]
\nonumber\\
&+&G_{\alpha \beta-1}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})t_{\beta-1
\beta}+G_{\alpha \beta+1}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})t_{\beta+1
\beta}. \label{7}
\end{eqnarray}
It turns out that there is a straightforward procedure to
determine $G_{\alpha \beta}$ from this equation of motion. It is
called the quantum zipper algorithm. We start with $\beta=\alpha$,
which can be used to find the Green's function via
\begin{widetext}
\begin{equation}
G_{\alpha
\alpha}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})=\frac{1}{i\omega_{n}+(\mu+\Delta
E_{F\alpha}-V_{\alpha})-\Sigma_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n})-\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha}(\mathbf{k})+\frac{G_{\alpha
\alpha-1}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})}{G_{\alpha
\alpha}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})} t_{\alpha-1
\alpha}+\frac{G_{\alpha
\alpha+1}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})}{G_{\alpha
\alpha}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})} t_{\alpha+1 \alpha}}. \label{8}
\end{equation}
Next, we consider the equations with $\beta\neq\alpha$, which can
be put into the form
\begin{equation}
-\frac{G_{\alpha \alpha-m+1}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})t_{\alpha-m+1
\alpha-m}}{G_{\alpha
\alpha-m}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})}=i\omega_{n}+(\mu+\Delta
E_{F\alpha-m}-V_{\alpha-m})-\Sigma_{\alpha-m}(i\omega_{n})-\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha-m}(\mathbf{k})
+\frac{G_{\alpha \alpha-m-1}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})t_{\alpha-m-1
\alpha-m}}{G_{\alpha \alpha-m}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})}, \label{9}
\end{equation}
\end{widetext}
for $m > 0$, with a similar result for the recurrence with $m<0$.
In these equations, we have used $\Sigma_\alpha$ to denote the
local self-energy $\Sigma_{\alpha\alpha}$ on plane $\alpha$. We
define the left function
\begin{equation}
L_{\alpha-m}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})=-\frac{G_{\alpha
\alpha-m+1}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})t_{\alpha-m+1
\alpha-m}}{G_{\alpha \alpha-m}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})} \label{10}
\end{equation}
and then determine the recurrence relation from Eq.~(\ref{9})
\begin{eqnarray}
L_{\alpha-m}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})=i\omega_{n}+(\mu+\Delta
E_{F\alpha-m}-V_{\alpha-m})-\nonumber\\\Sigma_{\alpha-m}(i\omega_{n})-\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha-m}(\mathbf{k})
-\frac{t_{\alpha-m \alpha-m-1}t_{\alpha-m-1
\alpha-m}}{L_{\alpha-m-1}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})}. \label{11}
\end{eqnarray}
We solve the recurrence relation by starting with the result for
$L_{-\infty}$, and then iterating Eq.~(\ref{11}) up to $m = 0$.
Since we must have a finite set of equations for an actual calculation, we
assume we have semi-infinite metallic leads, hence we can
determine $L_{-\infty}$ by substituting $L_{-\infty}$ into both
the left and right hand sides of Eq.~(\ref{11}) with $\Delta
E_{F\alpha}+V_{\alpha}=0$, which produces a quadratic equation for
$L_{-\infty}$ that is solved by
\begin{eqnarray}
&~&L_{-\infty}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})=\frac{i\omega_{n}+\mu-\Sigma_{-\infty}(i\omega_{n})-\epsilon^{\|}_{-\infty}(\mathbf{k})}{2}\nonumber\\
&\pm&\frac{\sqrt{[i\omega_{n}+\mu-\Sigma_{-\infty}(i\omega_{n})-\epsilon^{\|}_{-\infty}(\mathbf{k})]^{2}-4t^{2}_{-\infty}}}{2}.
\label{12}
\end{eqnarray}
This determines the left functions far from the interface. The
sign in Eq.~(\ref{12}) is chosen to yield an imaginary part less
than zero for $i\omega_{n}$ lying in the upper half plane, and
vice versa for $i\omega_{n}$ lying in the lower half plane. When
we are sufficiently far from the interface, the Green's functions
will be essentially the same as the bulk and hence the
$L_{\alpha}$ functions will equal $L_{-\infty}$. In our
calculations we allow $L_\alpha$ to differ from $L_{-\infty}$ only
for the thirty planes closest to the interface on either side of
the barrier. This means we start the recurrence relation in
Eq.~(\ref{11}) with $\alpha-m-1$ being the thirty first plane to
the left. Then all subsequent $L_{\alpha}$'s are allowed to vary
until we reach 31 planes to the right of the barrier, where we
assume $L_{\alpha}$ becomes a constant again. This approach is
accurate, when the system heals to its bulk values within those
thirty planes on either side of the interface. If this healing has
not occurred, then one needs to include more planes before one
terminates the problem with the semi-infinite bulk solution.

In a similar fashion, we define a right function and a recurrence
relation to the right, with the right function being
\begin{equation}
R_{\alpha+m}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})=-\frac{G_{\alpha
\alpha+m-1}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})t_{\alpha+m-1
\alpha+m}}{G_{\alpha \alpha+m}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})} \label{13}
\end{equation}
and the recurrence relation satisfying
\begin{eqnarray}
R_{\alpha+m}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})=i\omega_{n}+(\mu+\Delta
E_{F\alpha+m}-V_{\alpha+m})-\nonumber\\
\Sigma_{\alpha+m}(i\omega_{n})-\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha+m}(\mathbf{k})
-\frac{t_{\alpha+m \alpha+m+1}t_{\alpha+m+1
\alpha+m}}{R_{\alpha+m+1}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})}. \label{14}
\end{eqnarray}
We solve the right recurrence relation by starting with the result
for $R_{\infty}$, and then iterating Eq.~(\ref{14}) up to $m = 0$.
As before, we determine $R_{\infty}$ by substituting $R_{\infty}$
into both the left and right hand sides of Eq.~(\ref{14}), where
$\Delta E_{F\alpha}-V_{\alpha}=0$,
\begin{eqnarray}
&~&R_{\infty}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})=\frac{i\omega_{n}+\mu-\Sigma_{\infty}(i\omega_{n})-\epsilon^{\|}_{\infty}(\mathbf{k})}{2}\nonumber\\
&\pm&\frac{\sqrt{[i\omega_{n}+\mu-\Sigma_{\infty}(i\omega_{n})-\epsilon^{\|}_{\infty}(\mathbf{k})]^{2}-4t^{2}_{\infty}}}{2}.
\label{15}
\end{eqnarray}
The sign in Eq.~(\ref{15}) is chosen the same way as in Eq.~(\ref{12}).
In our calculations, we also assume that the right
function is equal to the value $R_{\infty}$ found in the bulk,
until we are within thirty planes of the first interface. Then we
allow those thirty planes to be self-consistently determined with
$R_{\alpha}$ possibly changing, and we include a similar thirty
planes on the left hand side of the last interface, terminating
with the bulk result to the left as well. Using the left and right
functions, we finally obtain the Green's function from
\begin{widetext}
\begin{equation}
G_{\alpha\alpha}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})=
\frac{1}{L_{\alpha}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})+R_{\alpha}(\mathbf{k},i\omega_{n})-[i\omega_{n}+(\mu+\Delta
E_{F\alpha}-V_{\alpha})-\Sigma_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n})-\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha}(\mathbf{k})]},
\label{16}
\end{equation}
\end{widetext}
where we used Eq.~(\ref{11}) and Eq.~(\ref{14}) in Eq.~(\ref{8}).
This technique for determining the mixed-basis Green's function is
called the quantum zipper algorithm~\cite{zipper}; it has been
modified here to treat the electronic charge reconstruction.

The local Green's function on each plane is then found by summing
over the two-dimensional momenta, which can be replaced by an
integral over the two-dimensional density of states (DOS) since
all the momentum dependence in the algorithm is in terms of
$\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha}$:
\begin{equation}
G_{\alpha \alpha}(i\omega_{n})=\int d\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha}
\rho^{2d}(\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha})G_{\alpha
\alpha}(\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha},i\omega_{n}), \label{17}
\end{equation}

with
\begin{equation}
\rho^{2d}(\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha})=\frac{1}{2\pi^{2}t^{\|}_{\alpha}a^{2}}K\left(
1-\sqrt{1-\frac{(\epsilon^{\|}_{\alpha})^{2}}{(4t^{\|}_{\alpha})^{2}}}\right),
\label{18}
\end{equation}
and $K(x)$ the complete elliptic integral of the first kind.

The DMFT algorithm starts with a self-energy on each plane, which
is usually chosen to be zero. Next, we use the quantum zipper
algorithm to find the local Green's function on each plane. This
step is the inhomogeneous nanostructure equivalent to the Hilbert
transform, which is used in bulk DMFT. Once the local Green's
function is known on each plane, we extract the local effective
medium via
\begin{equation}
G_{0\alpha}(i\omega_{n})^{-1}=G_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n})^{-1}+\Sigma_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n}),
\label{20}
\end{equation}
for each plane. Next, we need to solve the local impurity problem
for the given Hamiltonian on the $\alpha$th plane with the given
effective medium:
\begin{equation}
G_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n})=(1-w_{1})G_{0\alpha}(i\omega_{n})+\frac{w_{1}}{G_{0\alpha}(i\omega_{n})^{-1}-U_{\alpha}},
\label{impurity}
\end{equation}
with $w_{1}$ the $f$-electron density. This will produce a new
local Green's function for each plane, and then a new self-energy
for each plane via Eq.~(\ref{20}).

The electronic charge on each plane is calculated by summing the
Green's functions over all Fermionic Matsubara frequencies on the imaginary axis,
\begin{equation}
\rho_{\alpha}=\frac{1}{2}+T\sum_{n}G_\alpha (i\omega_n).
\label{21}
\end{equation}
Since $G_{\alpha}(i\omega_n)$ behaves like ${1}/{i\omega_n}$ at
large $n$, we regularize the summation by subtracting $T\sum_n
1/[i\omega_n-\mu+{\rm Re}\Sigma_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n_{\rm max}})]$
from $G_\alpha (i\omega_n)$ to speed up the convergence. ${\rm
Re}\Sigma_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n_{\rm max}})$ is the real part of the
self energy at the highest Matsubara frequency ($n_{\rm max}$) we
use in our calculation. Typically $n_{\rm max}$ satisfies $2\pi T
n_{\rm max}=30$. Since $T\sum_n\frac{1}{i\omega_n-\mu+{\rm
Re}\Sigma_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n_{\rm max}})}=\tanh\{\beta[\mu-{\rm
Re}\Sigma_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n_{\rm max}})]/2\}/2$, Eq.~(\ref{21})
becomes,
\begin{eqnarray}
\rho_{\alpha}&=&\frac{1}{2}+T\sum_{n}\left[G_\alpha
(i\omega_n)-\frac{1}{i\omega_n-\mu+{\rm
Re}\Sigma_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n_{\rm max}})}\right]
\nonumber\\
&+&\frac{1}{2}\tanh\left ( \frac{\beta[\mu-{\rm
Re}\Sigma_{\alpha}(i\omega_{n_{\rm max}})]}{2}\right ). \label{27}
\end{eqnarray}
Note that our regularization scheme requires that
$T\sum_{n}G_\alpha (i\omega_n)=\langle
c^{\dag}_{\alpha}(0)c_{\alpha}(0)-c_{\alpha}(0)c^{\dag}_{\alpha}(0)
\rangle/2$. Once the change in the charge density is known, we can
calculate the electrical potential $V_{\alpha}$ through
Eq.~(\ref{23}). This is then added to the chemical potential to
determine the electrochemical potential at each plane. Then we
iterate the DMFT algorithm with the new electrochemical potential
until the self-energy at every plane converges and the potentials
no longer change. The iterative equations need to be solved with
an averaging procedure to ensure stability of the solutions. If
the potentials are updated too quickly, then the system of
equations migrates to an unphysical fixed point, or limit cycle.
Typically, we use 0.99 of the old potential (or more) and 0.01 (or
less) of the new potential in each averaging step. It usually
takes more than a thousand iterations to reach the desired
convergence, but because our impurity solver is for the
Falicov-Kimball model, the calculations can still be completed
rapidly.

\section{\normalsize{NUMERICAL RESULTS}}
Previous work on the multilayered nanostructure at half filling
has shown interesting properties~\cite{Freericks}. For example, if
the barrier is metallic, the net charges
($\rho_{\alpha}-\rho^{bulk}_{\alpha}$) on every plane divided by
the amount of the band shift ($\triangle E_{f}$) exhibit scaling:
the curves of the charge reconstruction with different band shifts
essentially lay on top of each other with deviations only
occurring very close to the interface. While this effect is most
likely due to the flatness of the simple cubic lattice density of
states near the band center, the result was still rather striking
in the data.

In this contribution, our focus is on the doped Mott-insulating
phase. The doped Mott-insulator-metal interface is in many ways
similar to the Schottky barrier. The barriers are both insulating;
the doped carriers move to the interfaces as the result of the
band mismatch, causing depletion of carriers close to the
interface inside the barriers. However, the doped Mott-insulator
is of particular interest because the band gap and the small
amount of doped charges generate interesting physics that may be
useful for designing future devices~\cite{Macdonald}.

We reduce the number of parameters in our calculations by assuming
all of the hopping matrix elements are equal to $t$ for nearest
neighbors. While not required,  it allows us to reduce the number
of parameters that we vary in our calculations so that we can
focus on the physical properties with fewer calculations. The
hopping scale $t$ is used as our energy scale. As described above,
we include $30$ self consistent planes in the metallic leads to
the left and to the right of our barrier, which is varied between
$15$ and $30$ planes in our calculations. The screening length, as
determined by the parameter $e_{Schot}(\alpha)$, is about $2.2$
lattice spacings. We choose $e_{Schot}(\alpha)=0.4$ throughout the
device (in both the leads and the barrier). The band shift
$\triangle E_{f}$ can be divided into two parts, $E_{f}(T)$ and
$\mu^{bulk}_{barrier}(T)$. In the following analysis, we plot our
result with respect to $E_{f}(T)$, which is $\triangle
E_{f}-\mu^{bulk}_{barrier}(T)$. The reason for doing this is that if
we shift the band of the barrier to the amount of the bulk
chemical potential of the barrier, the chemical potentials of the
lead and the barrier should be automatically aligned with each
other. Shifting the band less than that ($E_{f}<0$), negative
charges should be attracted to the barrier in order to reach
equilibrium; more than that ($E_{f}>0$), positive charges should
be attracted to the barrier. (Note that because the local Green's functions
change near the interface, even if $E_f(T)=0$, there will always be a small
charge reconstruction in the general case.) At half filling, the curves are
particle-hole symmetric between positive and negative $E_{f}$. At
half filling, the bulk chemical potential is independent of the
temperature, so changing the temperature will not have effects on
the mismatch of the bands. At fillings other than half filling,
the chemical potential is dependent on temperature. So changing
temperature can have a similar effect as changing $E_{f}$. When
the temperature is low, the effect of different temperatures on
the charge reconstruction is small because of the large band gap
and also because the change in the bulk chemical potential is
small at low temperatures. In our calculation, we set $T=0.25$. If
we take a reasonable energy scale for our system, such as a
noninteracting bandwidth of 3~eV, then $t=0.25$~eV, and the
temperature corresponds to 750~K.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[angle=0,width=8.5cm,clip=]{fig2.eps}
\caption{Density of states of the central plane in the barrier
versus frequency for $U=12$, $w_1=0.75$, $E_f=0$ and
$\rho_{e}=0.251$. The temperature is $T=0.25$.
With strong interaction, the density of states
has a large gap between the bands. Note the size of the band gap
is roughly 5.0 and if the carriers are drawn from the band across
the gap, $|E_{F}|$ has to be larger than the size of the band
gap. This DOS is indistinguishable from the bulk DOS on this linear-scale
plot. The density of states does not change with $T$, except for the location
of the zero on the frequency axis, due to the temperature dependence of the
chemical potential (as $T\rightarrow 0$, the origin lies just slightly above the
lower band edge of the upper Hubbard band).} \label{dosofmott}
\end{figure}
We tune the Falicov-Kimball interaction in the barrier planes to
$U=12$, which lies well into the Mott-insulating regime. We set
the conduction electron filling at $0.251$ and the density of the
$f$-electron $w_1$ at $0.75$. Hence, we are considering a slightly
doped particle-hole asymmetric Mott insulator. The bulk DOS of the
barrier planes is shown in Fig.~\ref{dosofmott}. The integration
of the DOS over frequency in the lower band is 0.25 and the
integration of the DOS in the upper band is 0.75. Because of the
strong interaction, there is a gap with a size of roughly 5
between the lower band and the upper band.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[angle=0,width=8.5cm,clip=]{fig3a.eps}
\includegraphics[angle=0,width=8.5cm,clip=]{fig3b.eps}
\caption{Charge deviation in a multilayered nanostructure with a
barrier thickness of 20. The barrier is slightly doped with
electrons so that the conduction electron filling is 0.251
[$\mu^{bulk}_{barrier}(T=0.25)=7.046$]. The different lines denote
different $E_f$ values, as detailed in the legend. Note the charge
deviation pattern with (a) negative $E_f$ is different from the
pattern with (b) positive $E_f$. With positive $E_f$, the
magnitude of the charge deviation on the interface increases with
the magnitude of the shift. With negative $E_f$, if the magnitude
of the shifts are small, the magnitudes of the charge deviation do
not change too much due to the presence of the Mott gap. (Color on-line.)}
\label{mott0.251}
\end{figure}

The existence of a large band gap in the strongly correlated doped
insulator dramatically changes the charge reconstruction from the
metallic case. The device exhibits asymmetry with regard to
positive and negative band shifts as shown in
Fig.~\ref{mott0.251}. With positive band shifts, the carriers can
easily move from the leads to the barrier until the electric field
generated by electronic charge reconstruction strikes a balance
with the mismatch of the bands. Larger band shifts cause larger
electronic charge reconstruction at the interface. The situation
is more complicated for negative band shifts.

If the shift is small, the doped carriers are completely drained
from the barrier ($\rho_{e}\rightarrow 0.25$) but the band gap in
the Mott insulator stops further diffusion of the carriers into
the leads. The charge profile in this case is similar to that of a
Schottky barrier. In the n-type Schottky barrier, electrons in an
n-type semiconductor can lower their energy by traversing the
junction. As the electrons leave the semiconductor, a positive
charge, due to the ionized donor atoms, stays behind. This charge
creates a negative field and lowers the band edges of the
semiconductor. Electrons flow into the metal until equilibrium is
reached between the diffusion of electrons from the semiconductor
into the metal and the drift of electrons caused by the field
created by the ionized impurity atoms. The difference is that in a
Schottky barrier, a region in the semiconductor close to the
junction is depleted of mobile carriers while in our multilayer
nanostructure, the carriers are completely drained from the doped
barrier because of the small barrier thickness. (Note in
Fig.~\ref{mott0.251}(a), with small shifts, the charge deviations
in the barrier planes uniformly have the value of $-0.01$ except
for the planes close to the interfaces, which means all the doped
carriers move to the interfaces.) When the shifts get larger, the
carriers close to the interface begin to move to the leads. Thus
holes are created near the interface in the barrier side. When the
band shift gets large enough, the band gap can no longer stop the
diffusion of the carriers from the barrier to the leads. The
charge deviation curve at large negative band shifts bears a
similar shape to the curve at positive band shifts, although the
maximum net charges on the interface are significantly less due to
the effect of the Mott-insulating band gap.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[angle=0,width=8.5cm,clip=]{fig4.eps}
\caption{Electric potential ($V_{\alpha}$) as a function of $E_f$.
The conduction electron filling is 0.251 and the interaction is
$U=12$. Note the drastic increase of the potential at the center
of the barrier from $E_{F}(T=0.25)=-4$ to $E_{F}(T=0.25)=-6$ (recall the bandgap
is equal to 5). (Color on-line.)} \label{potential}
\end{figure}

To better understand the effect of the band gap,
Fig.~\ref{potential} shows the electric potentials generated by
the charge reconstruction with $E_{F}=-4.0$ and $E_{F}=-6.0$
respectively. The nearly five fold increase of the potential at
the center of the barrier is because with $E_{F}=-6.0$, the band
gap can no longer hold the carriers in the lower band from moving
to the leads, resulting in more net charges along the interface.
This is quite different from the case where the barrier is
metallic, where an increase of $E_f$ generically results in a
smooth increase of the potential.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[angle=0,width=8.5cm,clip=]{fig5a.eps}
\includegraphics[angle=0,width=8.5cm,clip=]{fig5b.eps}
\caption{Charge deviation in a multilayered nanostructure with a
barrier thickness of 20. The barrier is slightly doped with holes
so that the conduction electron filling is 0.249
[$\mu^{bulk}_{barrier}(T=0.25)=2.488$]. The different lines denote
different $E_f$ values, as detailed in the legend. The charge
deviation pattern in this case is the opposite of that with the
0.251 filling. With negative $E_f$ [panel(b)], the magnitude of the charge
deviation on the interface changes with the magnitude of the
shift. With positive $E_f$ [panel (a)], if the magnitude of the shift is
small, the magnitude of the charge deviation does not change
much. (Color on-line.)} \label{mott0.249}
\end{figure}
We find opposite results if the carriers are holes instead of
electrons. Fig.~\ref{mott0.249} shows the electronic charge
reconstruction for the doped Mott insulator with a conduction
electron charge density $\rho_e=0.249$. In this case, negative
band shifts attract holes from leads to the barrier. Larger shifts
create more net charges along the interface. Small positive band
shifts can only drain holes from the lower band of the barrier due
to the band gap. For large positive band shifts, the charge
deviation curve returns to the shape of those with negative band
shifts.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[angle=0,width=8.5cm,clip=]{fig6.eps}
\caption{Charge deviation as a function of interaction $U$. The
conduction electron filling is 0.251 and the shift $E_{f}$ is
fixed at $-2.0$ [$\mu^{bulk}_{barrier}(T=0.25)=1.792$ for $U=6$,
$\mu^{bulk}_{barrier}(T=0.25)=3.250$ for $U=8$ and
$\mu^{bulk}_{barrier}(T=0.25)=5.121$ for $U=10$]. Note the magnitude of
the charge deviation on the interface drops as $U$ increases.
However if $U$ is large enough, further increase of $U$ will not
result in a further decrease of the magnitude of the charge
deviation. (Color on-line.)} \label{change u}
\end{figure}

Next we examine the electronic charge reconstruction for a given
amount of band shift with different strengths of the interaction.
We choose electrons as the carriers ($\rho_e=0.251$). The band
shift $E_f$ is fixed at $-2.0$. Fig.~\ref{change u} shows the
different charge profiles as $U$ changes from $6$ to $10$. For
small $U$, the gap of the Mott insulator is small. The electrons
inside the barrier can easily diffuse into the leads. We see a
large electronic charge reconstruction at the interface. As $U$
gets larger, it becomes harder for the electrons to move into the
leads due to the larger band gap. The net amount of the charge
deviation at the interface becomes less. With strong enough
interaction, only the doped carriers can be drawn from the barrier.
The curve then resembles the one with $U=12$.

In our model, the screening length $e_{Schot}$ can be changed in
the leads as well as in the barrier. We tried several different
values of $e_{Schot}$ ranging from 0.1 to 2.0. With a larger
screening length, the magnitude of the charge reconstruction increases,
essentially because the electric field generated by the
charge reconstruction is stronger. There are more net charges on
the planes close to the interface. Planes deeper inside the leads
are less affected by the change in the screening length. The effect of
$e_{Schot}$ is less obvious in the doped Mott insulator case with
large interaction.  The total number of carriers is limited in this
case. A longer screening length cannot move more carriers into the
leads, because they are depleted near the interface and the field is not
strong enough to start moving charge out of the lower Hubbard band.

The thickness of the barrier is not playing an important role in
these multi-layered structures (for moderately thick barriers).
We adjusted the thickness of the
barrier from 10 to 20 planes. More planes in the barrier obviously
provides more carriers, generating more net charges on the
interface. But the properties of the central part of the barrier
remain similar.

\section{\normalsize{CONCLUSION}}
In this paper, we applied a generalized DMFT to inhomogeneous
systems to calculate the self-consistent many-body solutions for
multilayered nanostructures with barriers that can be adjusted to
go through the Mott transition. We developed the computational
formalism based on the algorithm of Potthoff and Nolting and the
Falicov-Kimball model that can calculate the charge reconstruction
of the multilayered nanostructures with variable barrier fillings.
We focused our study on the doped Mott insulator as the barrier
material. We found interesting results that came out of this
analysis.

First of all, the scaling effect (the charge reconstruction
divided by the value of $E_f$ remain roughly the same across the
system) at half filling in the metal phase is no longer valid at
fillings other than 0.5. Second, the symmetry of the charge
reconstruction with positive and negative $E_f$ in the metal phase
is broken in the Mott insulating phase. With electrons as carriers
in the doped barrier, small negative $E_f$ can only draw the doped
carrier to the leads. If the value of $|E_{f}|$ is smaller than
the size of the band gap of the Mott insulator, the net charges on
the interface do not increase much with the increase of $|E_{f}|$
and the central part of the barrier remains drained of carriers. If
the the value of $|E_{f}|$ rises above the size of the band gap of
the Mott insulator, electrons from the lower band start to move to
the leads. The charge profile changes drastically. With holes as
carriers in the doped barrier, the positive region of $E_f$ is
affected by the band gap. So the charge reconstruction is opposite
to the electron doped barrier with respect to $E_f$. Third, the
charge reconstruction of the doped Mott insulator case does not
change much with changing parameters like $e_{Schot}$ or the
thickness of the barrier. The central planes of the barriers are
always drained of carriers. And the amount of the net charges on
the interface is largely determined by the number of carriers
inside the barrier with the strength of the interaction smaller
than the band gap. That means physical properties of devices made
in this structure may be stable even when the parameters of the
barrier material mentioned above have some deviation. So the next
step is to calculate the transport properties or the resistance of
this multilayered nanostructure with the doped Mott insulating
barriers and to compare the results from different parameter sets.
This requires generalizing the codes to the real axis, which is
beyond the scope of this work.
With small band shifts, we anticipate that the resistance should not change much
because the charge reconstruction is dominated by the amount of
carriers in the barrier. Because the carriers in the barrier are
completely drained, the resistance should be large. With a large
band shift, the resistance should be significantly lower since
charges from the lower band now move to the lead, and the whole
structure is more conductive as a result (even though the Coulomb potentials
are larger).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


For inspiration we have selected several popular types of homes for you. The selected house designs are completely flexible. Every client will have the opportunity to ask our designer to incorporate individual modifications or to design a completely original building. For log cabins that we build as part of the Mara Resort project, we have set the standard of construction and the level of layout and specifications which you can find here: The levels of construction for log cabins.
For these types of houses we provide prices bases on the "holodom (basic construction level)" construction level to help you with your planning. Before we complete an actual design and installation, a full and detailed offer will be prepared once we have discussed and agreed all the project details together.
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This cabin is a larger size category that is designed for families of 5-7 people. There are three bedrooms (the parent's bedroom on the ground floor and two children's rooms in the attic), living space, which includes a kitchen with a dining room and a gallery that can be used as a study room, plus a TV room. The cabin has two bathrooms and a separate toilet on the ground floor. The total living area is 205 m2.
A larger size category house with 4 bedrooms, a spacious gallery and a large terrace. Suitable for a family of 5-6 people. The house is suitable as a luxury family house or cottage. The total living area is 203,20 m2.
Log cabin with 5 rooms. Designed for a family of 4-6 people, either as a family home or a stylish weekend house. The total living area is 157,90 m2.
A medium sized house with 4 rooms, designed for a family of 5-7 people. The cabin is suitable as a family house or weekend house in the countryside. The total living area is 181,07 m2.
A medium sized house with 4 rooms, designed for a family of 4-6 people. The cabin is suitable as a cottage or weekend house. The total living area is 103,63 m2.
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HMAC with SHA-256, HMAC with SHA-384, and HMAC with SHA-512.
The AlgorithmIdentifier parameters field is OPTIONAL.
object identifiers are taken from [RFC5758].
[RFC5758]   Dang, Q., Santesson, S., Moriarty, K., Brown, D., and T.


The Longview Independent School District is the largest and most comprehensive school district in the greater Longview area. Having over 8,400 students, our district mirrors the rich diversity of the East Texas community and culture. Our campuses include eleven primary/elementary campuses, three middle schools and one high school. One of our elementary campuses has an Exemplary accreditation rating from the Texas Education Agency and has been recognized by Texas Monthly magazine as one of the top elementary schools in Texas. Two other elementary schools received Recognized status from the TEA in 2005-2006. As Regional Day School for the Deaf, the district provides educational services to the hearing impaired, ages birth through 22 years.


In this page we will show you a selection of news and projects we feel related to. Stay tuned and keep updated!
A young Saharan engineer designs an innovative shelter using PET plastic bottles in order to improve his refugee community's life conditions.
Brilliant solutions come out when people are in deep need. Tateh Lehbib Braica, a 27 years old engineer, born and raised in the Algerian desert has been suffering all type of inclemency: 50 degrees' temperature, sandstorms and heavy rains. For four decades ago, this inhospitable region has been home to the Saharan refugees who have been hardly living in mud houses with zinc roofs.
The nicknamed "crazy man of the bottles", Tateh, has found an allied in the PET plastic bottles which are carried away to nowhere throughout the desert. Firstly, he built this innovative shelter for his grandmother and it worked.
There are several considerable advantages of Tateh's houses. Since the walls must be solid barriers against the tough ecosystem, they are made of plastic bottles filled with sand, cement and a mixture of straw and earth, as insulation. Each house needs 6000 bottles and four people's workforce during one week.
The circular shape fulfils two major purposes. On one hand, it avoids sand dunes to gather around the house. Secondly, the round shape of the walls painted in white, significantly reduces until a 90% the impact of the sun's rays. The double roof with a gap for ventilation and the two windows built at different height allow airflows which achieve a five degrees' lower temperature inside than the traditional shelters.
Graduated in Renewable Sources of the University of Algiers and after having finished a Master in Energy Efficiency of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tateh conceived this idea in 2016, after the great flood. The project has been recognized by international organizations such as Acnur and there are 25 new houses planed to be build and offered to people with disabilities, mental disorders or especially vulnerable families.
The collection of bottles has represented a small economic incentive for the volunteers and helped to increase awareness about the new uses of the plastic waste. The characteristics of this omnipresent material, such as its durability and flexibility are used for more and more varied purposes and areas, from architecture to design, such as PET Lamp project which reveals new aesthetics and functional aspects of the PET plastic bottles.
Plastic rubbish has invaded our oceans, earth and lives. Tones of garbage are often unproperly managed so they are carried away on land and sea, dangerously harming environment and plenty of species. Basically, every plastic item we use every day, such as traffic cones, disposable lighters, tyres and even toothbrushes will almost certainly end on the bottom of the sea or ingested by any unsuspected bird or fish.
Plastic material has a great durability and does not break down as natural materials. Moreover, there is a huge contradiction between its very short lifespan and the time it takes to descompose, which should encourage more and more people to give plastic objects a second life, by reusing and converting them into new items.
World´s greatest trash container is the so-called "Trash Vortex", also known as the "Eastern Garbage Patch", a floating area equivalent to Texas or Turkey in the North Pacific, which slowly moves in a permanent rotation, shifted by the ocean's currents. It contains astonishing plastic quantities breaking into small toxic fragments.
Apart from the danger of filling their stomach with plastic trash, animals must fight against these chemical sponges and their presence as ocean hitshhikers which damage the ecosystem.
The appropriate management of plastic waste and reusage could represent a future solution and alternative in order to minimize environmental impact. This harmful process starts ashore in areas like the Colombian Amazon, where tropical rains wash the PET bottles into the rivers, which in turn wash them out to sea, which inspired PET Lamp project.
Upcycling is more than a trend, it means creativity and environmental awareness. On Botofago beach, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, plastic bottle sculptures have harmoniouly integrated into the landscape. The UN Conference on Sustainable Development created these giant installations made of plastic bottles to raise people's awareness about this global problem.
Plastic waste has turned into a global problem and thread to many species living in our oceans and seas. On this Brazilian beach, plastic bottles have been given fish shape, as a call to action for recycling. Everybody walking on the beach could read the next message: "recycle your attitude". It is an attitude problem indeed, since plastic currently represents the major ocean pollutant.
The sculpture was built on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. These giant fish were lit up at night in order to stand out and bring the message to more and more people.
Upcycling is the current philosophy of an increasing number of companies. PET Lamp believes in a second life of PET bottles and uses the durability and strength of this material in order to create unique lampshades.
Plastic bottles may extend their lifespan by serving for aesthetic purposes. This is the idea behind the project of the Czech artist Veronika Richterová, who uses heat in order to manipulate PET plastic bottles and turn them into beautiful sculptures inspired by nature.
Veronika recollects thousands of bottles every year. Her hands have come out a wide range of artworks, thus a new cycle is origined. Her items recreate plants figures and animals. Moreover, this avid reuser of PET bottles has observed the new models on the market for many years and started to gather different samples. Her collection currently contains over 3000 bottles from 76 countries around the world.
Since 1980 when plastic bottles have been placed on the market, their use and commercialization have drastically increased. They were incorporated to many other industries such as textile and carpeting thanks to the plastic material characteristics. It is strong, flexible, light and specially economic, but it does not descompose. Thanks to Veronika's shaping techniques, this object turns into very creative sculptures.
In PET Lamp, we also believe in reuse as the counterpoint to recycling. Our starting point is the deep contradiction hidden in every PET plastic bottle: a very short useful life compared to the time it takes to plastic to descompose. PET Lamp turns the plastic bottles into contemporaneous desireable objects for the market, by just merging it with weaving techniques and industrial lighting.
Craftwomen belonging to different ethnic groups from Cauca region in Colombia are meeting and developing workshops in order to gain certain independence and a regular income. Every creation is a reflection of their cosmogony, personal and community history.
There are still places that keep alive their essence and philosophy despite of the conflicts, migrations or colonization as for example Silvia, part of Cauca region and the third of Colombia's communities with indigenous population. Wherever you look at, there is a bag or an indigenous backpack, fancy large black hats, blue ponchos, skirts or any other clothing item, woven by misak, nasa or guambianos women. Their wide range of colours is not random, they symbolize ancient histories and a whole worldview of mountains, rivers and plants landscapes.
The recent conflict scenery governed by FARC, ELN, military or drug dealers has been replaced by the marketplace, where the only sound is the hustle and bustle of the conversations between local people, barter trades and sales, the transport of the merchandise, etc.
There are plenty of ethnic groups living together and sharing their traditions, products and resources, but there is also a time of change even in the most faraway land. Part of the population emigrates to the cities with different purposes, searching for a better paid job or for an university career. Preserving local cultivations is increasingly difficult for local people who still remain at home.
María Jacinta Cuchillo Tunubalá, a guambiano weaving artisan is a witness of all negative and positive changes. She works together with other craftswomen in La Casa del Agua, also called "The Paradise", the old residence of the famous drug dealer, Rodríguez Orejuela. The basketry workshops have turned into a way of living and regular income for all the envolved women. The project, called EnRedArte con Identidad and backed up by ONG Codespa, not only helps these women to strenghten their self-confidence and ensures them a regular income, but it offers them another perspective about their work by participating into exhibitions and help them become more competitive.
These workshops join together women of all ages, from five different communities. They apply their traditional techniques, search for new colours of dyes, patterns and fibres, while learning about their rights and obligations, self-confidence and their role in the family.
Some of these families have no electricity or running water, but they own a rich culture with a whole universe of symbols and an outstanding know-how of the weaving tradition. On Guambianos territory, where the two lagoons come into one, the great world news on the radio are mixed with people's usual conversations about relationships, the colour of the woven items and the daily tasks. For these artisan women, full of creativity, white keep symbolizing peace, red means blood and blue is water.
In 2012, PET Lamp project have started its journey to the heart of Cauca region where several Guambiano artisan women belonging to families displaced by guerrilla war added shape and colour to the lamps designed by Alvaro Catalan de Ocon. In their wool and cotton weaving they reflected the character and symbolism of their country and culture. We can still remember the Colombian sky reflected in the blue colour of the woven lampshades.
Most of Earth population achieves its daily tasks surrounded by plastic items, as a proof of the universality of this material. There are already different innovative alternatives based on plastic reuse and recyling processes which allow to use it in new fields and with new purposes.
Plastic use has dramatically increased in the last 50 years. Beatriz Meunier of PlasticsEurope Association affirms that plastic reuse could make a great difference regarding resource savings and she emphasizes plastic waste value.
Urban places are the main scenaries for future plastic reuse, but it could also be employed in fashion, energetic, packaging, street furniture and medicine field.
Zicla Plastics business is already developing urban projects which use recycled plastic in rail separators or innovative bus stops. They use a special "recipy" by combining different types of recycled plastic, offering more or less strength, depending on the outside temperature changes.
Functional polyvalence of plastic is quite limited and recycling must be done separately. PET will be PET, however, several of them can turn into a polar lining too. Mechanical properties and quality are lost when recycling, but there are infinite second lives for this material.
Thanks to its characteristics and durability, plastic offers a wide range of possibilities regarding its use. This is how PET Lamp project was conceived, benefiting from PET flexibility and transparency in order to combine it with worldwide weaving tradition.
The greatest genetic study of the human communities proves that the Australians come from one of the first African migrations.
Most genomic studies have omitted a research of Australian people so far. The recent interpretation of 83 Australian aborigines and 25 locals from Papua New Guinea has revealed that first African migrations traveled towards the Australian continent, a fact that turns them into the most ancient living people on Earth.
There are fundamental questions to understand our origins, such as: How many times did African natives leave their origin continent? or When did all these migrations occur? Eske Willerslev, the project head, from Copenhagen University reveals the fascinating great diversity of Australian natives.
The migrations produced 60.000 years ago, when Australia and Papua New Guinea were one single territory. Later rising sea level prevented them from migrating and mixing each other which lead to a complete genetic separation of the two communities.
Researchers from 35 countries, including Spain, presented four great genomic investigations with different conclusions, but all of them coincide that our origins are settled in Africa. One of the great revelations is that human population started to diverge 200.000 years ago and that there is still a little evidence of the first humans in our DNA.
Once we left Africa continent, the genetic mutation has accelerated, since time gap between generations has reduced.
In 2016, PET Lamp had the opportunity to travel to the heart of Australian indigenous communities and approach their culture, ancient traditions and magnificent cosmogony. Now that we know that we worked with the most ancient living humans, we see our project through different eyes.
Plastic has gone into the ocean directly or indirectly for decades, but there was no way to quantify the waste amount. Recently Experts from the University of Georgia and National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis have found the method to calculate the magnitude of plastic waste that the 192 costal countries throw to the ocean every year.
All kind of garbage is carried along estuaries, seashores or rivers to our seas. Wind and uncontrolled landfills also contribute to the spread of debris. The estimation was done in the 192 coastal countries which totally generated 275 million metric tons of plastic waste.
Not only does the framework calculate plastic inputs into the ocean but it analyzes waste streams of each country which could be adapted and reused in some other projects.
The issue of plastic contamination have occured in a relatively short time. This material has been incorporated to our daily use in the 1930s and '40s and it was not until 1970 when first unstructured landfills have been created.
Some of the 192 coastal countries have to fight the lack of clean drinking water and to implement a correct sewage treatment yet, since these are urgent threats against their population. Formal waste management systems are not within the reach of all countries and paradoxically, those with a higher gross national income have drastically increased the plastic resin production.
The amount of plastic waste generated by each person every day is overwhelming. Researchers hope that these estimated numbers determine more people to mitigate strategies like improving global solid management. Creative projects as PET Lamp have recently come up in order to approach this global issue, but there is still needed a worldwide strategy so plastic waste stop going into our seas.
Floating plastic waste patches are increasingly invading our seas and oceans. The oceans ecosystems and other industries, such as tourism, shipping and fishing are permanently threatened by the uncontrolled plastic misuse and the lack of recollection programs.
Garbage is washed up by the wind or rivers until the most remote islands in the middle of the ocean and transported back on land, accidentally. A handful of studies prove that all kind of plastic items have wound up in the world's sea turtles, marine birds and numerous species of fish.
The critical point of this phenomenon is expected to occur by the middle of the century, when the predicted rates of employed plastic staff are three times higher than in 2014.
The report published by the nonprofit foundation World Economic Forum is a warning signal against the plastic waste amount of 8 million metric tons which randomnly runs across the world every year. The report also provides the estimated percentages of the different usages of plastic, such as: carbon budget, oil consumption, soda bottles, plastic grocery bags, etc. Unfortunately, the 70% of the plastic we produce is either put in a landfill or lost to the world's waterways and other infrastructure.
There is still a drop of hope since our seas and oceans are more productive that we thought. We might be able to stop or reduce the current damaging impacts by implementing plastic waste recollection programmes, improving infrastructure, using more efficient packagings and turning to the reusage of plastic.
This last aspect converted into the philosophy of PET Lamp which enriches the PET bottle, as a simple item with a short lifespan, by applying local weaving techniques to it, resulting in contemporaneous and desirable design objects for the market.
This article has inspired our annual PET Lamp newspaper, since the whole project is basically the response to the overcome negative impacts of our environment and a reinterpretation of plastic waste.


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Is it true that King Ahaz of Judah, at 7 years old, reigned as vice-reg from 744BCE, to the 17th year (735BCE), of King Pekah in Israel, And then reigned, at 16 years old, as co-king with his father Jotham from 735BCE, to 731BCE. And, it true that Ahaz, at 20 years old in 731BCE, then, began his 16 year "sole" reign, 731BCE, to 715BCE, when he died at only 36 year old?
Date vary based on how they are interpreted in the text. 2Kings 16:2 — states Ahaz was20 years old when he became king. Was this when he ascended to the throne as sole king (732/731 BCE) or when he first became king as a co-regent in 735 (the 17th year of Pekah, king of Israel)? Add to this, 2Kings 15:30, stated it was in the 20th year of Jotham that Hoshea became king of Israel (732 BCE). Yet 2Kings 17:33 says Jotham reigned 16 years. So I take that to mean reign alone, and Ahaz and he are co-regents 735 to 732 BCE. One more complicating factor, 2Kings 17:1 states Hoshea ascend to this throne in the 12th year of Ahaz. Given Hoshea ascension in 732/31 is tied to the well document date 9 years later of 722 for the deportation of Israel to Assyria, 12 years earlier as Ahaz's 1st year would be 744/743 — implying he was vice-regent with his grandfather (Azariah/Uzziah (792-740 BCE) — when Azariah had leprosy. So which of these three ascensions to some sort of reign, 744/43 as vice-regent, 735 as co-regent with his father Jotham, or 732/31 when ruling alone was Ahaz age 20. I think the context of that remark – means when he was co-regent, but it could be 4 years later when he became the sole king. Add to this 2Kings 18:1-2 — when Hezekiah, a second or later son of Ahaz (recall Ahaz sacrificed a first born son in 2Kings 16:3) became king in the third year of Hoshea (i.e., 730/729) at age 25. I take this verse to mean Hezekiah became co-regent with Ahaz in 729, and was age 25 when he became sole king a Ahaz's death in 715. If so this implies Hezekiah's birth year was ~740 BCE. So Ahaz had to be old enough to have had a second child by that time. For me — he was age 20 when he became vice-regent or co-regent. If it were 732 when he became sole king, then he would have been 8 when he fathered a second son.


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The Eagles Add Vince Gill for Classic East and West Festival Shows
Jeff Giles
Myriam Santos
The new Eagles lineup will have a little extra firepower on guitar and vocals when they take the stage at the Classic East and Classic West festivals this year.
In addition to the previously reported addition of Deacon Frey, who will step into the spot left vacant with the passing of his father Glenn, the group will be joined by veteran country artist Vince Gill. The Los Angeles Times reports that Gill will split vocal duties with the younger Frey on Glenn's songs.
Eagles co-founder Don Henley, who earlier referred to Deacon's entrance as a modern musical version of the old "guild system, where the father is the master and the son is the apprentice," admitted that he viewed the group as finished after Glenn's passing, but quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson while exercising his right to change his mind: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
Henley also intimated that this version of the Eagles could continue for some time. Although he referred to the Classic shows as "experiments," he hinted at a future beyond the festival, saying that Deacon "doesn't have to do this forever. ... Someday, if he decides to write his own songs and have his own band, we'll be the first to support him. But this is a good way to break in."
Listen to Vince Gill Perform 'Peaceful Easy Feeling'
Deacon Frey told the Times that the surviving Eagles and manager Irving Azoff approached him with the idea of performing with the group. Referring to his father's longtime bandmates as "like my uncles," he argued that if the Eagles hadn't continued after the elder Frey's passing, "it's another family we would have been missing."
Those sentiments were echoed by Azoff, who felt a strong demand for Eagles shows even after Frey's death. Describing "a natural legion of Eagles fans out there who weren't ready to let go," he credited Henley with the idea for bringing in Deacon to fulfill those wishes. "To me," he said, "the fans and the legacy and everything was saying, 'It doesn't have to be over.'"
As for Gill, he's enjoyed an incredibly distinguished career in his own right, while also contributing to the Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles all-star country tribute record as well as Henley's recent Cass County LP. These new gigs offer a long-awaited opportunity to perform classic songs with some musical heroes.
"In my mind, I always thought I'd have made a good Eagle," joked Gill. "But in a million years, I never would have seen this coming. It's pretty surreal. I turned 60 recently, and to get to be a part of this amazing legacy of songs, that's the greatest part of all this for me."
Our Newly Updated Complete Guide to Eagles Lineup Changes
Next: Eagles Albums Ranked Worst to Best
Filed Under: The Eagles

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Ranking the NBA's Super Teams
Published on : July 12, 2017
It looks like every GM in the NBA is trying to build a monster that can challenge the Golden State Warriors. That means packaging multiple stars on one roster. These super teams are popping up all over thanks to the recent moves in free agency. This a current ranking of the top super teams in the league.
7. San Antonio Spurs
Not exactly a true super team but they do have Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tony Parker, Pau Gasol, Patty Mills and Rudy Gay. More importantly, the coach is still Gregg Popovich who has the power to make any 5 players look like all stars. San Antonio doesn't normally make big flashy deals but it wouldn't be surprising if they added another name at some point this year. They need something to help them get past the Warriors, beyond the starters staying healthy.
6. Oklahoma City Thunder
This roster is by no means loaded but it now features two of the league's premier scorers in Russell Westbrook and newly added Paul George. That alone is enough for the Thunder to make this list. The hope is that George can help carry the offensive weight so Westbrook isn't forced to do everything himself. The real question remaining is will this be enough firepower to get Oklahoma City back to the NBA Finals?
5. Minnesota Timberwolves
The cinderella super team. Minnesota has been slowly building a contender and this offseason they really turned up the aggressiveness about adding talent. As of now, the Timberwolves will feature Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Jimmy Butler, Jeff Teague, Taj Gibson and Jamal Crawford. Not a bad group. Lots of upside with enough vets to keep the team grounded. Wolves will make the playoffs and maybe even surprise some people.
Marquee names were falling fast off the big board but Boston waited for their guy. When the time was right, they finally sprung into action and acquired Gordon Hayward (formerly with the Utah Jazz). They had to deal Avery Bradley to make room for his contract but the Celtics think they now have the pieces to get past LeBron and the Cavs. The Boston roster will feature Isaiah Thomas, Gordon Hayward, rookie Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, Jae Crowder, Marcus Smart and Marcus Morris. That's a deep crew that should prove to be a real challenge for any Eastern Conference squad.
Houston made two gigantic moves in the last few weeks. First, they added Chris Paul and changed the entire landscape of the NBA. Then they gave James Harden a record breaking contract of 4 year/$228 million. Holy hell. That's a literal boatload. Rockets also added 7'2″ Chinese star Zhou Qi and got Nene a new deal. And let's not forget about Trevor Ariza, Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson. But the really crazy part is that Houston is rumored to still be searching for another big time player. Carmelo Anthony anyone?
The Cavs didn't make any huge moves since losing the NBA Finals. They brought back Kyle Korver, added Jeff Green and Jose Calderon. Some hoped they would get Paul George but we know how that went. They still have Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, JR Smith, Kyrie Irving and most importantly, LeBron James. That is more than enough to be one of the NBA's top super teams. Could Cleveland still get a big name to join them? Sure. But with no certainty that James will stay in town beyond 2018, their options appear limited.
There was talk that opposing GM's were going to deliberately overpay the few Warrior free agents in an effort to breakup the team. Well that didn't happen. Like at all. Andre Igoudala, Shaun Livingston, David West all re-signed. KD inked a new 2 year agreement and Steph got his $200 million max deal. Draymond Green and Klay Thompson are both still under contract so this whole crewing is coming back for another run. Some of those guys could have cashed in elsewhere but it looks like they value championship rings over a few extra bucks. Oh yeah, they also picked up former Laker, Nick Young. Some of you may know him as Swaggy P. Either way, another weapon added to the ultimate super team. Good luck everyone else.
These rankings are by no means set in stone. Celtics add Marc Gasol and maybe they move up a spot. Carmelo could join one of the above crews and mess everything all up. Kobe could come out of retirement, who knows? All we do know is that as long as this Warriors team plays together, super teams are here to stay.
Super-duper.
Basketball, Boston Celtics, Bruno Tysh, Cleveland Cavaliers, Free Agency Mambo, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA, Oklahoma City Thunder, Super Team, Super Teams
The NBA has a problem
Published on : June 17, 2017
The NBA has been nibbling at its own tail for some time now and it has finally caught up to the league. During the playoffs, while entertaining at certain points, the debate began as to if the league was conceding to one team (the Golden State Warriors). Over the past several years, the NBA has implemented many measures to the CBA to ensure all the teams have a fair chance at acquiring, and more importantly, keeping superior talent. There have been teams that intentionally tanked to get the players they want. The NBA has even intervened to keep star players from forming a "Super Team" (i.e., the NBA nixed the Chris Paul to Los Angeles Laker trade).
By putting so much effort into spreading the wealth of talent around the league, the NBA has caused the one problem it looked to avoid. The owners of the teams are crafty. Beyond analytics and cap crunching they are also in the business of making as much money as possible. Professional sports teams are a club of the elite. There are 30 to 32 teams per league and there's not for sale signs in front of those stadiums and arenas that often.
Super Team?
In the case of the NBA, almost every team has a franchise player. You could say "well, every team has the best player that the team can build around!" I would counter that statement by listing the Brooklyn Nets, Orlando Magic, Sacramento Kings, and the Denver Nuggets as a few teams that do not have a franchise player or one that projects to become one. Yet, these teams have consistently picked in the upper half of the draft and had cap room to lure a top free agent.
The talent is at an all-time high. Most fans think of eras chronologically. I tend to think of eras in terms of the most dominant player(s) during an extended period. So in my lifetime, I've been through the Magic/Bird, Jordan, Kobe/Duncan/Shaq, and now the LeBron eras. The transition from the Kobe to LeBron is when the league changed language and incentives in the CBA that helped teams keep their homegrown players. Moreover, the new TV contracts produced such an enormous cash flow that it has increased the cap significantly each year. This created a dilemma that while teams have been able to offer their players (with Bird rights) up to $75 million more over the course of a contract than other teams can offer, it also drove the market price of players up to stay above the cap floor. There's a lot of teams acquiring players that they do not need at salaries that, under past conditions, they would not warrant.
So, how does the league fix this?
That's harder than one would think. This past summer, players received such high salaries that in the upcoming years it will be hard to trade them and receive equal value. To actually trade player for player will be even harder. No one is trading Luol Deng straight up for Paul George. The salaries match up though and these are the kind of salary trades that would have worked in the past but this scenario is such a drop off in talent.
If I was in NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's ear this is what I would suggest:
Change the one and done rule: I would allow EXCEPTIONAL players to enter straight from high school. When I say exceptional I am talking about for sure first round selections. I would have a committee of non-partisan members (Rivals.com, NBAdraft.net, college recruiting services, etc.) that give all potential high school prospects a grade. If the grade is that they would be a first round pick then it would be passed to NBA GMs and scouting departments. They would grade the select few that passed the first process. If the player passes through the second phase then he can submit his name for the draft.
Listen up Adam.
The team has done its due diligence and the player is almost ensured of being selected first round. However, the players that did not make the cut must do the following. A) Attend a public university or college for 2 years. Two years is important because it gives the player more time to develop and it increases the chances that the player can graduate from college. Instead of taking a year of classes, it gets the player at least closer to major level courses if he chooses to stay in school or go back when he goes pro. B) If a team really wants to sign a player out of high school, the player must be signed to a 2 year guaranteed minimum contract and the player has to spend at least 90% of contract duration with NBDL affiliate. C) International players must be 19 before they can enter NBA draft. The International players have more opportunities to play professionally than US players. So a starting age of 19 is more than fair and would put them on par to enter the league with the 2-year players previously mentioned.
I think the NBA has done well in growing the sport. The issue now is that the league has too much talent spread around. The league should want three or four "Super Teams." I fully anticipate the Cleveland Cavaliers to make a move to keep them in contention for the championship. The San Antonio Spurs are rumored to have an interest in Chris Paul to pair with LaMarcus Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard. What about the other teams though? Could Kyle Lowry take Paul's spot on the Los Angeles Clippers and form a super team with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan? Maybe a year from now could Paul George and DeMarcus Cousins link with the Lakers to create a team with Brandon Ingram and possibly Lonzo Ball? More super teams is the solution not no super teams!
Adam Silver, Basketball, Chris Paul, Golden State Warriors, Lakers, NBA, Pro Basketball, Super Team


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UCU members at Bradford College have overwhelmingly backing to strike action in a dispute over plans to cut jobs and change contracts. Eight-eight per cent of members who voted backed strike action on a turnout of 61 per cent.
The union said that if the college refused to engage then it would announce strike dates. Bradford College has announced plans to cut 75 jobs as part of an effort to tackle a funding deficit after the college was issued with a financial notice to improve in March.
UCU members at Lewisham Southwark College will be on strike later this month in a row over pay. The union announced today that staff will walk out on Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23 May unless the college addresses their concerns over falling pay.
The college is part of NCG who have refused to implement a national pay deal of just 1%. NCG are based in Newcastle and have removed the London weighting allowance for staff based at Lewisham Southwark College. In the recent ballot 93% of members who voted backed strikes.
Although Amber Rudd finally resigned on Sunday evening, the problems related to the hostile environment created while Theresa May was home secretary show little sign of going away. As Sajid Javid took over at the Home Office, the Financial Times revealed that as many as 7,000 international students may have been incorrectly accused of faking their proficiency in English and ordered to leave the country, with some of them saying they were detained and made homeless as a result.
Looking at the appointment of Javid, THE's John Morgan said he had little time for higher education when business secretary, but was thought to be behind the move to axe maintenance grants. Although holding a view similar to many others in cabinet on the need to remove international students from migration figures, Morgan points out that Javid spoke strongly in favour of international students leaving the country once they had finished studying.
Elsewhere in Westminster, universities minister Sam Gyimah started the week saying he feared students were flunking exams because of a sharp rise in unconditional offers. While UK universities made just a few hundred unconditional offers in the years to 2012, the number of unconditional offers rose to 2,985 in 2013-14, 36,825 in 2014-15 and 51,615 last year - a rise of more than 1,600% over five years.
Speaking to Huff Post, a UCU spokesperson said the quickest and simplest way to resolve the issue of unconditional offers was for the UK to join the rest of the world and establish a system where students apply to university after they receive their results.
Yesterday Gyimah said the UK's complex tangle of regulations governing free speech on university campuses should be replaced by one clear set of guidelines for both students and institutions. The Guardian said the minister wanted to create the first new set of guidelines since the free speech duty was first introduced in 1986. However, the move met with criticism from universities, students and opposition MPs.
YouTube stars are being paid to sell academic cheating, according to a BBC investigation. More than 250 channels are promoting EduBirdie, based in Ukraine, which allows students to buy essays, rather than doing the work themselves.
The BBC uncovered more than 1,400 videos with a total of more than 700 million views containing EduBirdie adverts selling cheating to students and school pupils. EduBirdie is based in Ukraine, but aims its services at pupils and students across the globe.


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Music Mecca Interview: A Chat With Industry Professionals Mimi & Muziqueen
BY PAUL HOWARD | April 17, 2020
To the average person, Nashville is likely to conjure images of cowboy boots, cowboy hats, country music, and a predominantly honky tonk culture. Wh
ile this is indeed all a flagship theme of this city, and what's primarily seen in the national media, it's far from all that makes Nashville Music City.
This encompasses all kinds of music, regardless of how central and inflated country music is in this town. And don't get me wrong, it's what this city cultivated, and I love *real* country music as much as the next person, but people should realize the full scope of talent this city has to offer. The problem is, who's going to make sure these young, independent and "off-brand" artists get put on the right avenue to being heard and rewarded for their art?
Well that's where Jamila McCarley and Thalia Ewing, aka Mimi and Muziqueen come in.
Together Mimi and Muziqueen are the powerhouse duo behind Nashville Is Not Just Country Music, which helps cultivate and shine a light on Music City's urban creatives. Specifically they provide support through hosting urban writer's rounds, music business education seminars, creating networking opportunities, and more.
Mimi and Muziqueen have over twenty years of combined experience in nearly all facets of the music industry, and together utilize what they know to help young urban music creatives not only find their path, but navigate that path successfully.
We had the chance to chat with both Mimi and Muziqueen, and get a deeper look into who they are, what they do, and their crucial and praiseworthy vision for the independent urban artists of Nashville.
Music Mecca: Where did you grow up, and who or what developed your passion and love for music?
Thalia aka Muziqueen: Well, I am a native Nashvillian, so I have a little unicorn horn sticking out of my head. (laughs) I grew up on the north side of Nashville. Very proud of my city, and I got my love of music young when we'd have family nights watching old Earth, Wind, and Fire concerts, and my dad had some expensive vinyl collections we'd listen to, so that was the early, early part. And then when Yo! MTV Raps hit the scene is when I really fell in love with music. It put visuals to everything I was hearing on the radio. And I knew around 12-years-old what I wanted to do as far as music business is concerned. I knew I didn't want to be an artist, but I knew I had to be a part of music in some form or fashion. It's been a journey to figure it out.
Jamila aka Mimi: So I'm from Dayton, Ohio. Home of the funk, right? I grew up like literally one person away from somebody in The Ohio Players, Lakeside, or whoever. My uncle was a part of the local music scene there. A lot of those bands are all family in one way or another. Also my family is big into going to church of course, so lots of gospel influence too. I'm also a Motown head. My mom introduced me to Motown, and that was our Saturday cleanup music. (laughs) I fell in love with Motown. It evolved as I got older, you know, the music was always an emotional mood-changer. I got drawn to the people who were cultivating these bodies of talent. So that's what brought me into the music world. My family did a great job cultivating it, and they're all singers and they're all amazing. I look small to them. (laughs)
MM: So when did you move to Nashville then?
Mimi: I originally moved to Nashville in 2001, and went to school at Middle Tennessee State University, MTSU. I went to be a part of their recording industry music program, and after that I stayed, got married, moved to Memphis for a little while, then relocated back to Nashville in 2007.
MM: So how did you two meet, and what prompted you to work together?
Mimi: I'll tell the top half of that story… It's funny. So when I moved back to Nashville in 2007, the first thing that I did was call everybody I worked with musically back in the day. And two people told me to call Thalia, and that she's known as Muziqueen. So I called her on the spot, real random, she had never heard of me, and I said, "Hey two of my music friends told me to call you, are you able to meet?" And she was like, "Uhh uhh okay?" (laughs) So we met at a Panera bread downtown…
Muziqueen: So I, like Mimi, had started working in the music business in Nashville in the early 2000s when Nashville was a much different scene. A brand had encouraged me to open a publishing company, and I was just getting out and doing things in the community. And I was in a store and I met this guy, and he said "Yeah my cousin she's a songwriter, you should link up with her." So we met and put all the dots together, and it just all flowed and the energy was good that day. We stayed and chatted for a long while, just connecting all the people we had known, her journey and my journey, and we've talked on the phone everyday since.
MM: Can you give us the scope of Nashville's current urban music scene?
Muziqueen: So of course back in the early 2000s, it was a completely different scene. It was hard to get any kind of urban shows put together. There was just very little support. But now, today, with Nashville growing and people moving from all over, it's a whole new demographic of people here. It's all about supply and demand, and there's plenty of both. So there's more venues open to having more urban shows, and the talent is great, so there's an opportunity to be exposed and showcased. And Nashville's talent in the urban music scene is comparable with New York, LA, Atlanta- we have some of thee best creatives as far as urban, R&B, hip hop, pop, songwriters, producers- it's just almost like an untapped goldmine of talent ready to be shared with the world. And that's what Mimi and I are cultivating and doing. One of the initiatives is Nashville Is Not Just Country Music.
Mimi: Speaking from a creative standpoint within the scope of the urban scene, as a songwriter, the talent here is impeccable, and the collaborative spirit here is like, hands-down the best that I've experienced. Everybody is open to collaboration. You can be walking down the street and be like, "hey let's get together and write," and they're like, "Okay!" There's a hunger here in the urban creative community, because of the lack of opportunities. And then the other thing that is highly notable is the supportive creative community. At local shows you're going to draw the other artists and creatives, but the camaraderie among the urban creatives is definitely there.
MM: Can you talk about what Nashville Is Not Just Country Music (NINJCM) is all about?
Muziqueen: It started as an urban mixer. Once I began giving back to the artists and the publishing, I began to notice they didn't know each other all the way. Pockets here, pockets there. [I thought] Let's find a place where all of these people can get into the room at the same time. And that was one of the first things we did with Nashville Is Not Just Country Music (NINJCM) was the urban music mixers. The first one was at ASCAP where we brought in over 200 creatives from Alabama, Kansas City, Memphis- the support was overwhelming.
Mimi: With NINJCM, the name says it all. We're nurturing and cultivating a creative community, bringing in that exposure to the other music communities. We're shining a light that most outlets aren't shining a light on. Thalia was great when she started this thing as far as making sure the music business educational component was there. That's where we lacked the most in the urban music scene in Nashville, so that's we started focusing on that. We looked to country music as a model because they have a very streamlined infrastructure, and we honor what they do, so we're trying to do exactly that for these other more urban genres.
MM: Mimi, can you speak on your experience as Founder and President of Collab Music Network and how that's shaped your current vision?
Mimi: So of course we believe in everything being in the name, so collaboration of course is the tone. I focus on becoming a better collaborator. And through that concept of collaboration, you can build a team that can turn out a product. That was always my goal: how can I turn my thoughts into a product. What people are necessary to be a part of that process to bring that thought to life. Second was music. Everything I did was centered around music. The music remains the hub of the network. And that leads to the third piece, which is creating a network. Building a strong network of capable individuals who share in some shape the vision you have yourself. So that's what I aim to bring to NINJCM.
MM: How about you Thalia? If you could speak on your experience with Muziqueen Publishing Administration and how that's shaping your current vision.
Muziqueen: A lot of my vision and ideas came from my experience from Corporate America, working at Sony and BMI. That's where I saw what I thought was really going on in the music business, but it really had nothing to do with what was actually going on behind closed doors. So I felt the need to help the community in getting a better understanding of publishing, the importance of publishing, and why it's vital to your career, and that basically started Muziqueen Publishing and Administration. To help independent artists make sure that they are in a position to win as they advance in their career. Especially when you're independent and you need to maximize every dollar out there, and publishing is one of those. It's been a mission of mine to educate and put them in a position to collect royalties and be prepared, make sure all the paperwork is good, and maximize the monetary potential of their music. Otherwise it's just a hobby.
MM: What artists are y'all working with now who you're excited about and trying to hype up?
Mimi: So when I was on my journey as a songwriter and building my network of artists, songwriters, engineers, and so on, one friend said, "You gotta work with this artist!" And her name was Tahne. So I pulled up some music, and I was like, "I'm going to call her right now". So I work with her and she's great. I'm super excited about her, and she's got an EP coming out, she's in the lab right now. I have a record out called Lights that I wrote with an up and coming artist, 2'Live Bre, who cut that record along with a handful of others. Lights is out right now, super excited about that. And then a producer and writer, Patrick Brooks, who's a super dope producer. He's from Memphis, but he's been in Nashville for about four or five years. And Brian Johnson is a songwriter/artist- I'm just excited about all of these people.
Muziqueen: Patrick and Brian are a songwriter-producer combo that we signed to our publishing company and we represent them in that aspect. We do publishing, artist development, and we do a lot of services based on our experience and things like that. We want to help them flourish where they need.
Mimi: I will say within the NINJCM urban writer's rounds, we've had a chance to work with over 120 Nashville artists of all kinds of genres, so in that vein, we're excited about the whole community. There's so much talent right here in Nashville in all genres.
MM: Pandemic aside, what events/happenings/projects have you hosted and are you looking to host to raise awareness for what you're doing?
Muziqueen: We're definitely keeping with the urban writer's rounds, but kicking them up a notch. We're taking them online so that if you don't live in Nashville you'll still be able to experience an urban writer's round.
Mimi: And we're doing something similar with your Nashville Deck Sessions, and it's NINJCM Live. So we're filming the rounds, because again it's more exposure, and two, we're sitting down and talking with these artists one on one. They're speaking about their creative journey. Everything is tailored towards the Nashville creative community, and how they navigate this scene within other genres. And I think people are going to be very surprised about what is right here in Music City.
We're also doing Mimi and Muziqueen Live, where we share the journey of the women behind NINJCM, and we talk about being women in the music business and being double minorities. We talk about the music business education and again one that's one the staple things that are highly important to us. And another thing we're excited about is last year we made a deal with RipTide. So we do a lot of syncing and licensing with RipTide. The whole team is amazing, and this is another way we'll be bringing opportunities to the Nashville creative community. We want to facilitate and be the bridge for these artists and the music business. There's no greater joy than delivering a check to an artist for their music.
MM: As a whole, what do you think makes Nashville such a special and unique community?
Mimi: We honor what country music has done and love that, but our focus and vision has been on this community of urban talent. And when I say "urban" I don't want people to just think about Hip Hop or Rap. Outside of country music there's a hundred genres that we're catering to. All kinds of genre-bending music. I can't speak enough about the supportive creative community.
MM: Now this may be the most important question and it's largely for my own personal benefit, but what food establishments in town can you not live without?
Mimi: For me, this is a recent one, and this company was on Shark Tank, but Big Shakes in Rivergate. I typically for the most part have a clean eating habit, but at least twice a month I gotta get over to Big Shakes and get some Fried Chicken, fries, a milkshake- I just love it. I've told Thalia about it a hundred times. It's a great environment too.
Muziqueen: I love a good Slim & Husky's pizza. The white sauce is slammin'.
Mimi: Oh my God yes. Have you had that?
MM: I'm ashamed to say I have not…I've heard nothing but great things.
Muziqueen: It doesn't even make sense to get a Slim, you might as well always get a Husky.
Mimi: I will say this about them, aside from their food, they're so invested in the community. You feel that when you go in there.
Muziqueen: And they have the best Cinnamon Rolls at The Rollout, too.
Mimi: Carb city, baby.
https://musicmecca.org/a-chat-with-mimi-and-muziqueen-on-educating-nashvilles-urban-creatives/