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Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., Energetic nuclear outbursts have been discovered in luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (U/LIRGs) at unexpectedly high rates. To investigate this population of transients, we performed a search in mid-IR data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite and its NEOWISE survey to detect and characterise luminous and smoothly evolving transients in a sample of 215 U/LIRGs. We report three new transients, all with ΔL > 1043 erg s−1, in addition to two previously known cases. Their host galaxies are all part of major galaxy mergers, and through radiative transfer model fitting we find that all have a significant contribution from an active galactic nucleus (AGN). We characterised the transients through measurements of their luminosities and resulting energetics, all of which are between 1050.9 erg and 1052.2 erg. The IR emission of the five transients was found to be consistent with re-radiation by the hot dust of emission at shorter wavelengths, presumably originating from an accretion event, onto the supermassive black hole. The corresponding transient rate of (1.6–4.6) × 10−3 yr−1 galaxy−1 is over an order of magnitude higher than the rate of large amplitude flares shown by AGN in the optical. We suggest that the observed transients are part of a dust-obscured population of tidal disruption events (TDEs) that have remained out of the reach of optical surveys due to the obscuring dust. In one case, this is supported by our radio observations. We also discuss other plausible explanations. The observed rate of events is significantly higher than optical TDE rates, which can be expected in U/LIRG hosts undergoing a major galaxy merger with increased stellar densities in the nuclear regions. Continued searches for such transients and their multi-wavelength follow-up is required to constrain their rate and nature. © T. M. Reynolds et al. 2022., T.M.R. acknowledges the financial support of the Jenny and Antti Wihuri foundation and the Vilho, Yrjö and Kalle Väisälä Foundation of the Finnish academy of Science and Letters. E.C.K. acknowledges support from the G.R.E.A.T research environment funded by Vetenskapsrådet, the Swedish Research Council, under project number 2016-06012, and support from The Wenner-Gren Foundations. This publication makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, and NEOWISE, which is a project of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology. WISE and NEOWISE are funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive, which is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and operated by the California Institute of Technology. This work is partially based on observations obtained as part of the VISTA Hemisphere Survey, ESO Progam, 179.A-2010 (PI: McMahon). This work is based in part on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, owned in collaboration by the University of Turku and Aarhus University, and operated jointly by Aarhus University, the University of Turku and the University of Oslo, representing Denmark, Finland and Norway, the University of Iceland and Stockholm University at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. This work is partly based on the NUTS2 programme carried out at the NOT. NUTS2 is funded in part by the Instrument Center for Danish Astrophysics (IDA). The Australia Telescope Compact Array is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility (grid.421683.a) which is funded by the Australian Government for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO. We acknowledge the Gomeroi people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site. The Australian SKA Pathfinder is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility (grid.421683.a) which is managed by CSIRO. Operation of ASKAP is funded by the Australian Government with support from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. ASKAP uses the resources of the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. Establishment of ASKAP, the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre are initiatives of the Australian Government, with support from the Government of Western Australia and the Science and Industry Endowment Fund. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site. This research made use of Astropy5, a community-developed core Python package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration 2013, 2018)., With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709.

Currently, the development of mobile pastoralism in Mongolia is known almost exclusively from burial and ritual contexts. Here we present the results of archaeological excavations and geoarchaeological work carried out at a deeply stratified multiperiod habitation site in northwestern Mongolia. Data include an unprecedented number of well-preserved artifacts, faunal and botanical remains, sedimentary information, and chronology that document the development of pastoralism in this region. Our findings index the local durability of pastoralist occupation over 4000 years, as well as the adaptive resilience of the herders here, indeed up to the present day, and this despite major changes in the sociopolitical, socioeconomic, and environmental conditions through time., This research is part of the ‘Western Mongolia Archaeology Project’, ‘Domestication in Action’ (University of Oulu, funded by Finnish Academy and ERC), and was partially funded by a National Geographic Society Early Career Grant to NE (EC-216R-18). D-AMS dates were funded by a Rust Family Foundation grant (RFF-2019-90). AA dates were funded by a WKU QTAG grant. JJGG acknowledges funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Grant No. IJC2018-035161-I) and thanks Guillermo Marín for processing phytolith samples and Robert Morgan for assisting with the sorting and documentation of the flotation samples.

18 páginas, 5 tablas, 3 figuras, Epichloë festucae is a common symbiont of the perennial and widely distributed cool season grass, Festuca rubra. The symbiosis is highly integrated involving systemic growth of the fungus throughout above-ground host parts and vertical transmission from plant to its offspring via host seeds. However, the nature of symbiosis is labile ranging from antagonistic to mutualistic depending on prevailing selection pressures. Both the loss of fungus in the maternal host lineage and horizontal transmission through sexual spores within the host population may partly explain the detected variation in symbiosis in wild grass populations. Epichloë species are commonly considered as pathogens when they produce sexual spores and partly castrate their host plant. This is the pathogenic end of the continuum from antagonistic to mutualistic interactions. Here we examined the population genetic structure of E. festucae to reveal the gene flow, importance of reproduction modes, and alkaloid potential of the symbiotic fungus in Europe. Epichloë-species are highly dependent on the host in survival and reproduction whilst benefits to the host are largely linked to defensive mutualism attributable to fungal-origin bioactive alkaloids that negatively affect vertebrate and/or invertebrate herbivores. We detected decreased genetic diversity in previously glaciated areas compared to non-glaciated regions during the last glacial maximum period and found three major genetic clusters in E. festucae populations: southern, northeastern and northwestern Europe. Sexual reproduction may have a higher role than expected in Spanish E. festucae populations due to the predominance of unique genotypes and presence of both mating types in the region. In contrast, asexual reproduction via host seeds predominates in the Faroe Island and Finland in northern Europe due to the presence of biased mating-type ratios and large dominant genotypes in the E. festucae populations within the region. A substantially larger variation of alkaloid genotypes was observed in the fungal populations than expected, although the variability of the alkaloid genotypes within populations is considerably lower in northern than Spanish populations in southern Europe. E. festucae populations consist of different combinations of alkaloid classes from the gene clusters of ergot alkaloid and indole-terpenes, and from pyrrolopyrazine alkaloid gene. We suggest that the postglacial distribution history of the host grass, prevailing reproduction strategies of E. festucae, and local selection pressures likely explain a large part of the genetic variation observed in fungal populations among geographic regions. The identified alkaloid genotypes can be used by turfgrass breeders to improve resistance against herbivores in red fescue varieties and to develop new sustainable cultivars in Europe., This study was supported by the Finnish Academy [Projects No. 137909 (data collection, laboratory analysis) 295976 (manuscript writing)] and by INTERACT (Grant Agreement No. 262693) under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (research design, sampling)

We introduce the notion of firm non-expansive mapping in weak metric spaces, extending previous work for Banach spaces and certain geodesic spaces. We prove that, for firm non-expansive mappings, the minimal displacement, the linear rate of escape, and the asymptotic step size are all equal. This generalises a theorem by Reich and Shafrir., 12 pages. The new Section 3 contains a characterisation of the firm non-expansive mappings of one-dimensional asymmetric normed spaces. The reference list includes new entries. This version has been accepted by Archiv der Mathematik

This note discusses some aspects of the asymptotic behaviour of nonexpansive maps. Using metric functionals, we make a connection to the invariant subspace problem and prove a new result for nonexpansive maps of $\ell^{1}$. We also point out some inaccurate assertions appearing in the literature on this topic., The reference list was updated and Remark 3.2 was included in this version

We thank the anonymous referee for the comments and suggestions that have helped to improve the paper. We are grateful to Peter Jonker who enabled the WHT observation of this target during his program W19AN003. We thank Peter Brown its contribution with data from the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. CPG and MS acknowledge support from EU/FP7-ERC grant No. [615929]. MO acknowledges support from UNRN PI2018 40B696 grant. GP acknowledges support by ANID – Millennium Science Initiative – ICN12_009. NER acknowledges support from MIUR, PRIN 2017 (grant 20179ZF5KS). MF is supported by a Royal Society - Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellowship. MS is supported by generous grants from VILLUM FONDEN (13261, 28021) and by a project grant (8021-00170B) from the Independent Research Fund Denmark. LG was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 839090. JB, DH, DAH, and CP were supported by NSF grant AST-1911225. TMB was funded by the CONICYT PFCHA / DOCTORADOBECAS CHILE/2017-72180113. This work has been partially supported by the Spanish grant PGC2018-095317-B-C21 within the European Funds for Regional Development (FEDER). Based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, owned in collaboration by theUniversity of Turku and Aarhus University, and operated jointly by Aarhus University, the University of Turku and the University of Oslo, representing Denmark, Finland and Norway, the University of Iceland and Stockholm University at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. Observations from the NOT were obtained through the NUTS and NUTS2 collaboration which are supported in part by the Instrument Centre for Danish Astrophysics (IDA). The data presented here were obtained in part with ALFOSC, which is provided by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (IAA) under a joint agreement with the University of Copenhagen and NOTSA. Based on observations made with the GTC telescope, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, under Director’s Discretionary Time. This work has made use of data from the Asteroid Terrestrialimpact Last Alert System (ATLAS) project. ATLAS is primarily funded to search for near earth asteroids through NASA grants NN12AR55G, 80NSSC18K0284, and 80NSSC18K1575; by products of the NEO search include images and catalogues from the survey area. The ATLAS science products have been made possible through the contributions of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, the Queen’s University Belfast, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the South African Astronomical Observatory. The Liverpool Telescope is operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. This work makes use of data from the Las Cumbres Observatory network., We present the photometric and spectroscopic evolution of supernova (SN) 2019cad during the first similar to 100 d from explosion. Based on the light-curve morphology, we find that SN 2019cad resembles the double-peaked Type Ib/c SN 2005bf and the Type Ic PTF11mnb. Unlike those two objects, SN 2019cad also shows the initial peak in the redder bands. Inspection of the g-band light curve indicates the initial peak is reached in similar to 8 d, while the r-band peak occurred similar to 15 d post-explosion. A second and more prominent peak is reached in all bands at similar to 45 d past explosion, followed by a fast decline from similar to 60 d. During the first 30 d, the spectra of SN 2019cad show the typical features of a Type Ic SN, however, after 40 d, a blue continuum with prominent lines of Si II lambda 6355 and C II lambda 6580 is observed again. Comparing the bolometric light curve to hydrodynamical models, we find that SN 2019cad is consistent with a pre-SN mass of 11 M-circle dot, and an explosion energy of 3.5 x 10(51) erg. The light-curve morphology can be reproduced either by a double-peaked Ni-56 distribution with an external component of 0.041 M-circle dot, and an internal component of 0.3 M-circle dot or a double-peaked Ni-56 distribution plus magnetar model (P similar to 11 ms and B similar to 26 x 10(14) G). If SN 2019cad were to suffer from significant host reddening (which cannot be ruled out), the Ni-56 model would require extreme values, while the magnetar model would still be feasible., European Commission 615929, UNRN PI2018 40B696, Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR), Research Projects of National Relevance (PRIN) 20179ZF5KS, Science Foundation Ireland, Magnus Ehrnrooth foundation, Vilho, Yrjo and Kalle Vaisala Foundation of the Finnish academy of Science and Letters, VILLUM FONDEN 13261 28021, Independent Research Fund Denmark - European Union'sHorizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant 839090, National Science Foundation (NSF) AST-1911225, CONICYT PFCHA/DOCTORADOBECAS CHILE/2017-72180113, Spanish grant within the European Funds for Regional Development (FEDER) PGC2018-095317-B-C21, Instrument Centre for Danish Astrophysics (IDA), National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) NN12AR55G 80NSSC18K0284 80NSSC18K1575, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC), ANID -Millennium Science Initiative ICN12 009, Jenny and AnttiWihuri foundation, ANID BECAS/DOCTORADO NACIONAL 21202412 W19AN003

The influence of uncertainties in gridded observational reference data on regional climate model (RCM) evaluation is quantified on a pan-European scale. Three different reference data sets are considered: the coarse-resolved E-OBS data set, a compilation of regional high-resolution gridded products (HR) and the European-scale MESAN reanalysis. Five high-resolution ERA-Interim-driven RCM experiments of the EURO-CORDEX initiative are evaluated against each of these references over eight European sub-regions and considering a range of performance metrics for mean daily temperature and daily precipitation. The spatial scale of the evaluation is 0.22°, that is, the grid spacing of the coarsest data set in the exercise (E-OBS). While the three reference grids agree on the overall mean climatology, differences can be pronounced over individual regions. These differences partly translate into RCM evaluation uncertainty. For most cases observational uncertainty is smaller than RCM uncertainty. Nevertheless, for individual sub-regions and performance metrics observational uncertainty can dominate. This is especially true for precipitation and for metrics targeting the wet-day frequency, the pattern correlation and the distributional similarity. In some cases the spatially averaged mean bias can also be considerably affected. An illustrative ranking exercise highlights the overall effect of observational uncertainty on RCM ranking. Over individual sub-domains, the choice of a specific reference can modify RCM ranks by up to four levels (out of five RCMs). For most cases, however, RCM ranks are stable irrespective of the reference. These results provide a twofold picture: model uncertainty dominates for most regions and for most performance metrics considered, and observational uncertainty plays a minor role. For individual cases, however, observational uncertainty can be pronounced and needs to be definitely taken into account. Results can, to some extent, also depend on the treatment of precipitation undercatch in the observational reference., Vilho, Yrjö and Kalle Väisälä Foundation of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.

Our main result is an abstract good-λ inequality that allows us to consider three self-improving properties related to oscillation estimates in a very general context. The novelty of our approach is that there is one principle behind these self-improving phenomena. First, we obtain higher integrability properties for functions belonging to the so-called John-Nirenberg spaces. Second, and as a consequence of the previous fact, we present very easy proofs of some of the self-improving properties of the generalized Poincaré inequalities studied by B. Franchi, C. Pérez and R.L. Wheeden in [9], and by P. MacManus and C. Pérez in [21]. Finally, we show that a weak Gurov-Reshetnyak condition implies higher integrability with asymptotically sharp estimates. We discuss these questions both in Euclidean spaces with dyadic cubes and in spaces of homogeneous type with metric balls. We develop new techniques that apply to more general oscillations than the standard mean oscillation and to overlapping balls instead of dyadic cubes., The rst author is grateful for the hospitality of ICMAT in Madrid, Spain, where parts of this research was conducted. The visit was supported by the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Vilho, Yrj o and Kalle V ais al a foundation. The second author was supported by the Academy of Finland. The third author was supported by ICMAT Severo Ochoa project SEV-2011-0087. He also acknowledges that the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ ERC agreement no. 615112 HAPDEGMT.

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a prominent member in the growing family of two-dimensional materials with potential applications ranging from being an atomically smooth support for other 2D materials to templating growth of molecular layers. We have studied the structure of monolayer h-BN grown by chemical vapour deposition on Ir(111) by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) experiments and state-of-the-art density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The lattice-mismatch between the h-BN and Ir(111) surface results in the formation of a moir\'e superstructure with a periodicity of $\sim$29 \AA\ and a corrugation of $\sim$0.4 \AA. By measuring the field emission resonances above the h-BN layer, we find a modulation of the work function within the moir\'e unit cell of $\sim$0.5 eV. DFT simulations for a 13-on-12 h-BN/Ir(111) unit cell confirm our experimental findings and allow us to relate the change in the work function to the subtle changes in the interaction between boron and nitrogen atoms and the underlying substrate atoms within the moir\'e unit cell. Hexagonal boron nitride on Ir(111) combines weak topographic corrugation with a strong work function modulation over the moir\'e unit cell. This makes h-BN/Ir(111) a potential substrate for electronically modulated thin film and hetero-sandwich structures., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

6 páginas, 3 figuras, 1 tabla.-- Kankare, E. et al., We report the discovery of two consecutive supernovae (SNe), 2010cu and 2011hi, located at 0.37" (180 pc) and 0.79" (380 pc) projected distance respectively from the centre of the K-band nucleus of the luminous infrared galaxy IC 883. The SNe were discovered in an ongoing near-infrared K-band search for core-collapse SNe in such galaxies using the ALTAIR/NIRI adaptive optics system with laser guide star at the Gemini-North Telescope. These are thus the closest SNe yet discovered to a LIRG nucleus in optical or near-infrared wavelengths. The near-infrared light curves and colours of both SNe are consistent with core-collapse events. Both SNe seem to suffer from relatively low host galaxy extinction suggesting that regardless of their low projected galactocentric distances, they are not deeply buried in the nuclear regions of the host galaxy., EK acknowledges support from the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (Vilho, Yrjö and Kalle Väisälä Foundation). SM and EK acknowledge the support from the Academy of Finland (project: 8120503). AAH and LC acknowledge support from the Spanish Plan Nacional de Astronomía y Astrofísica under grant AYA2010-21161-C02-1. AA, MAP-T. and CR-C acknowledge financial support from the Spanish MICINN trough grant AYA2009-13036-CO2-01, co-funded with FEDER funds. JK acknowledge the support from the Academy of Finland (project: 2600021612).

In this paper, we consider two cases of rolling of one smooth connected complete Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ onto another one $(\hM,\hg)$ of equal dimension $n\geq 2$. The rolling problem $(NS)$ corresponds to the situation where there is no relative spin (or twist) of one manifold with respect to the other one. As for the rolling problem $(R)$, there is no relative spin and also no relative slip. Since the manifolds are not assumed to be embedded into an Euclidean space, we provide an intrinsic description of the two constraints ''without spinning'' and ''without slipping'' in terms of the Levi-Civita connections $\nabla^{g}$ and $\nabla^{\hg}$. For that purpose, we recast the two rolling problems within the framework of geometric control and associate to each of them a distribution and a control system. We then investigate the relationships between the two control systems and we address for both of them the issue of complete controllability. For the rolling $(NS)$, the reachable set (from any point) can be described exactly in terms of the holonomy groups of $(M,g)$ and $(\hM,\hg)$ respectively, and thus we achieve a complete understanding of the controllability properties of the corresponding control system. As for the rolling $(R)$, the problem turns out to be more delicate. We first provide basic global properties for the reachable set and investigate the associated Lie bracket structure. In particular, we point out the role played by a curvature tensor defined on the state space, that we call the \emph{rolling curvature}. In the case where one of the manifolds is a space form (let say $(\hM,\hg)$), we show that it is enough to roll along loops of $(M,g)$ and the resulting orbits carry a structure of principal bundle which preserves the rolling $(R)$ distribution. In the zero curvature case, we deduce that the rolling $(R)$ is completely controllable if and only if the holonomy group of $(M,g)$ is equal to $SO(n)$. In the nonzero curvature case, we prove that the structure group of the principal bundle can be realized as the holonomy group of a connection on $TM\oplus \R$, that we call the rolling connection. We also show, in the case of positive (constant) curvature, that if the rolling connection is reducible, then $(M,g)$ admits, as Riemannian covering, the unit sphere with the metric induced from the Euclidean metric of $\R^{n+1}$. When the two manifolds are three-dimensional, we provide a complete local characterization of the reachable sets when the two manifolds are three-dimensional and, in particular, we identify necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a non open orbit. Besides the trivial case where the manifolds $(M,g)$ and $(\hM,\hg)$ are (locally) isometric, we show that (local) non controllability occurs if and only if $(M,g)$ and $(\hM,\hg)$ are either warped products or contact manifolds with additional restrictions that we precisely describe. Finally, we extend the two types of rolling to the case where the manifolds have different dimensions.

Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC-BY)., Control of the edge topology of graphene nanostructures is critical to graphene-based electronics. A means of producing atomically smooth zigzag edges using electronic current has recently been demonstrated in experiments [Jia et al., Science 323, 1701 (2009)]. We develop a microscopic theory for current-induced edge reconstruction using density functional theory. Our calculations provide evidence for localized vibrations at edge interfaces involving unpassivated armchair edges. We demonstrate that these vibrations couple to the current, estimate their excitation by Joule heating, and argue that they are the likely cause of the reconstructions observed in the experiments., A. P. J. is grateful to the FiDiPro program of the Finnish Academy. Computational resources were provided by the Danish Center for Scientific Computing (DCSC).

Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC-BY)., We develop a computational method for evaluating the damping of vibrational modes in monatomic metallic chains suspended between bulk crystals under external strain. The damping is due to the coupling between the chain and contact modes and the phonons in the bulk substrates. The geometry of the atoms forming the contact is taken into account. The dynamical matrix is computed with density-functional theory in the atomic chain and the contacts using finite atomic displacements while an empirical method is employed for the bulk substrate. As a specific example, we present results for the experimentally realized case of gold chains in two different crystallographic directions. The range of the computed damping rates confirms the estimates obtained by fits to experimental data [T. Frederiksen et al., Phys. Rev. B 75, 205413 (2007)]. Our method indicates that an order-of-magnitude variation in the harmonic damping is possible even for relatively small changes in the strain. Such detailed insight is necessary for a quantitative analysis of damping in metallic atomic chains and in explaining the rich phenomenology seen in the experiments., A.P.J. is grateful to the FiDiPro program of the Finnish Academy. Computational resources were provided by the Danish Center for Scientific Computing (DCSC).

Bacteriophage PRD1 replicates its DNA by means of a protein-primed replication mechanism. Using singlestranded oligonucleotide templates carrying the sequence corresponding to the 25 first bases of the 3é end of PRD1 DNA, and Mg2+ as the activating metal ion of the phage DNA polymerase, we show that the fourth base from the 3é end of the template directs, by base complementarity, the dNMP to be linked to the phage terminal protein (TP) in the initiation reaction. This result suggests that phage PRD1 maintains its 3é end DNA sequences via a sliding-back mechanism. The single-stranded DNA templates could not be replicated by the PRD1 DNA polymerase, much in contrast to the natural TP-DNA. Nevertheless, the analysis of the transition products obtained with TP-DNA and origin containing oligonucleotides suggests that sliding-back occurs stepwise, the fourth base being the directing position during the entire process., This work was supported by a grant from the Direcci6n General de Investigaci6n Cientffica y Tecnica (to J.C.), by a grant from the Finnish Academy of Sciences (to D.H.B.), by grant 5RO1 GM27242-13 from the NationalInstitutes of Health (to M.S.), by grant PB90-0091 from Direcci6n General de Investigaci6n Cientffica y T&cnica (to M.S.), and by an institutional grant from Fundacion Ramon Areces (to Centro de Biologia Molecular).

IOP Publishing open access policy: Licencia Creative Commons Reconocimiento 3.0, We review recent results on electronic and thermal transport in two different quasi one-dimensional systems: Silicon nanowires (SiNW) and atomic gold chains. For SiNW's we compute the ballistic electronic and thermal transport properties on equal footing, allowing us to make quantitative predictions for the thermoelectric properties, while for the atomic gold chains we evaluate microscopically the damping of the vibrations, due to the coupling of the chain atoms to the modes in the bulk contacts. Both approaches are based on the combination of density-functional theory, and nonequilibrium Green's functions., We thank the Danish Center for Scientific Computing (DCSC) and Direktør Henriksens Fond for providing computer resources. The authors would like to thank Thomas Frederiksen for helpful discussions and Nicolas Agra¨ıt showing his unpublished experimental results. TM acknowledges the Denmark-America foundation for financial support. APJ is grateful to the FiDiPro program of the Finnish Academy.