Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dependence of Mechanical Relaxation on Morphology in Isotactic Polypropylene.

The shear modulus and logarithmic decrement at approximately 1 c/s have been measured from -180 °C to about 150 °C for a series of samples of isotactic polypropylene prepared by various thermal treatments. The samples had varying densities (degrees of crystallinity) and morphologies as characterized by spherulite size. All of the samples exhibited the three relaxations characteristic of polypropylene. The maxima in the three measures of relaxation (logarithmic decrement, G″, and J″) occur at about -60 °C, 0-10 °C, and 50 to 100 °C for the three processes. However, the relation between crystallinity and the magnitude of the peak value of the particular measure of loss depends upon the relaxation and the function used to measure the loss. The loss is almost independent of density and morphology for all three relaxations when G″ is used to characterize the loss, whereas the loss increases monotonically as the density decreases when using J″ to characterize the loss behavior. The logarithmic decrement behaves in a more complicated manner. The implications of this behavior are discussed, and it is shown that the primary effect of changing density is to change the equilibrium modulus rather than the relaxation processes.
Energization of ionospheric ions by electrostatic hydrogen cyclotron waves

Interactions between ionospheric ions and a monochromatic electrostatic hydrogen cyclotron wave were studied numerically for conditions corresponding to the auroral plasma. Strong heating of the minority ions He+, He++, and O+ were observed. The fraction of the initial ion population which underwent heating was found to strongly depend on the mass, charge, and initial temperature of the ion species.
Incorporating issues of risk and uncertainty into Choice Modelling experiments

Many policy issues, as well as policy funding and management choices, have elements of risk and uncertainty. This means that choice experiments, such as those used in choice modelling (CM), may need to frame trade-offs so that risk and uncertainty are included.This research aims to explore some methodological approaches to identify and treat uncertainty in CM experiments. A review of theoretical models, as well as a case study application in the CM technique reported by Roberts et al. (2008), suggests that including uncertainty information in the choice sets should influence responses significantly. However, key challenges remain to define and describe the elements of risk and uncertainty that are to be included in a choice experiment, to communicate the issues to respondents, and to develop appropriate forms of analysis.
Mesoscale convective systems observed during AMMA and their impact on the NO x and O 3 budget over West Africa

Abstract. During the "African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis" (AMMA) field phase in August 2006, a variety of measurements focusing on deep convection were performed over West Africa. The German research aircraft Falcon based in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) investigated the chemical composition in the outflow of large mesoscale convective systems (MCS). Here we analyse two different types of MCS originating north and south of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ, ~10° N), respectively. In addition to the airborne trace gas measurements, stroke measurements from the Lightning Location Network (LINET), set up in Northern Benin, are analysed. The main focus of the present study is (1) to analyse the trace gas composition (CO, O 3 , NO, NO x , NO y , and HCHO) in the convective outflow as a function of distance from the convective core, (2) to investigate how different trace gas compositions in the boundary layer (BL) and ambient air may influence the O 3 concentration in the convective outflow, and (3) to estimate the rate of lightning-produced nitrogen oxides per flash in selected thunderstorms and compare it to our previous results for the tropics. The MCS outflow was probed at different altitudes (~10–12 km) and distances from the convective core ( 3 mixing ratios in the range of 35–40 nmol mol −1 were observed. Further downwind, O 3 mixing ratios in the outflow rapidly increased with distance, due to mixing with the ambient O 3 -rich air. After 2–3 h, O 3 mixing ratios in the range of ~65 nmol mol −1 were observed in the aged outflow. Within the fresh MCS outflow, mean NO x (=NO+NO 2 ) mixing ratios were in the range of ~0.3–0.4 nmol mol −1 (peaks ~1 nmol mol −1 ) and only slightly enhanced compared to the background. Both lightning-produced NO x (LNO x ) and NO x transported upward from the BL contributed about equally to this enhancement. On the basis of Falcon measurements, the mass flux of LNO x in the investigated MCS was estimated to be ~100 g(N) s −1 . The average stroke rate of the probed thunderstorms was 0.04–0.07 strokes s −1 (here only strokes with peak currents ≥10 kA contributing to LNO x were considered). The LNO x mass flux and the stroke rate were combined to estimate the LNO x production rate. For a better comparison with other published results, LNO x estimates per LINET stroke were scaled to Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) flashes. The LNO x production rate per LIS flash was estimated to 1.0 and 2.5 kg(N) for the MCS located south and north of the ITCZ, respectively. If we assume, that these different types of MCS are typical thunderstorms occurring globally (LIS flash rate ~44 s −1 ), the annual global LNO x production rate was estimated to be ~1.4 and 3.5 Tg(N) a −1 .
Comparison of Sunyaev-Zel’dovich measurements from Planck and from the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager for 99 galaxy clusters

We present observations and analysis of a sample of 123 galaxy clusters from the 2013 Planck catalogue of Sunyaev-Zel’dovich sources with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI), a ground-based radio interferometer. AMI provides an independent measurement with higher angular resolution, 3 arcmin compared to the Planck beams of 5–10 arcmin. The AMI observations thus provide validation of the cluster detections, improved positional estimates, and a consistency check on the fitted size (θs) and flux (Ytot) parameters in the generalised Navarro, Frenk and White (GNFW) model. We detect 99 of the clusters. We use the AMI positional estimates to check the positional estimates and error-bars produced by the Planck algorithms PowellSnakes and MMF3. We find that Ytot values as measured by AMI are biased downwards with respect to the Planck constraints, especially for high Planck-S/N clusters. We perform simulations to show that this can be explained by deviation from the universal pressure profile shape used to model the clusters. We show that AMI data can constrain the α and β parameters describing the shape of the profile in the GNFW model for individual clusters provided careful attention is paid to the degeneracies between parameters, but one requires information on a wider range of angular scales than are present in AMI data alone to correctly constrain all parameters simultaneously.
The central west Saharan dust hot spot and its relation to African easterly waves and extratropical disturbances

A vast, arid, and virtually uninhabited region covering eastern Mauritania and northern Mali appears in satellite estimates of dust loading as the global maximum during boreal summer. Here the complex meteorological conditions that create this central western Sahara (CWS) dust hot spot are investigated on the basis of regression analyses and case study examples using a wide range of satellite analysis products. The results confirm the importance of African easterly waves (AEWs), previously hypothesized on the basis of case studies. The main ingredients to create this connection are as follows. (1) Strengthened southerlies to the east of an AEW trough advect moist air into the southern Sahara. Daytime heating and orography trigger moist convection in this air mass. Strong evaporation in dry midlevel air generates extended cold pools and haboob dust storms. (2) Vertical mixing brings dust into the upper parts of the deep Saharan boundary layer, from where it can be advected back into the CWS region with the northerlies ahead of the next AEW trough. (3) If the associated surface vortex is strong enough, more dust emission occurs within or just upstream of the CWS. (4) High-amplitude waves in the subtropics enhance the meridional flow associated with the AEW. Although there is a considerable case-to-case variability, it can be concluded that AEWs in concert with extratropical disturbances substantially contribute to the hot spot creation both through emission and the organization of transport. Disagreement between different satellite products and the presence of clouds complicate the analysis and underline the necessity for new observations.
Variation in airborne fungal spore concentrations in four different microclimate regions in Romania.

Airborne fungal counts and types were examined in four regions from Romania. The aim of our study was to determine the concentrations of Alternaria, Cladosporium, Drechslera-type, Epicoccum and Nigrospora atmospheric fungal spores in urban areas: Brasov, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara. Other objective of this study was to examine the relationships between atmospheric fungal spores and pollen. Few studies have confirmed the high frequency and concentrations for some of these spore types in Romania. The sampling sites differed in habitat characteristics, such as vegetation and microclimate. Airborne spores’ sampling was carried out using the Lanzoni volumetric sampler and during August 2008. The totals of airborne spores recorded in this study show a considerable variation. Cladosporium and Alternaria have been identified as the most abundant and frequent fungal aeroallergens in Timisoara and Bucharest. Drechslera-type, Epicoccum, and Nigrospora had very low values of spore count in all sites. Observations show that seven types of pollen appear regularly and few of these are in great abundance. Fungi are present in the air in concentrations considerably in excess of that of pollen grains. Ambrosia artemisiifolia is the most important pollen allergen in all of the sampled areas discussed here, especially in western country (Timisoara).
Venture Capital Syndication and Firm Entry: Theory and Evidence

This paper develops a theory and provides empirical evidence on the interaction between venture capital syndication and firm entry. When deciding whether to syndicate an investment, venture capital investors (VCs) face the following trade-off: on the one hand, syndication is useful to obtain a second opinion about an investment opportunity; on the other hand, sharing information with another VC is risky because it increases the likelyhood that the latter invests in other similar deals, thereby increasing competition in the industry and reducing investment returns. Thus, syndication may increase firm entry. However, since VC investors' profits are very sensitive to investment returns, the lead VC investor in a syndicate may actually discourage the financing of rivals by offering another VC a sufficiently large stake in the syndicate. In this case, syndication is used as a coordination device to limit competition in the industry, i.e., to reduce firm entry. The ability to reduce firm entry by syndicating investments is possible when the number of VCs in a given industry is not too large. The relationship between syndication and firm entry is shown to exist and be positive, suggesting that the informational role of syndication dominates in the data, i.e. syndication disseminates information among VC investors and this increases entry in the industry. However, using a subsample of the data for a period of time in which venture capital was scarce, evidence is found of the strategic use of syndication to deter firm entry.
Seismotectonics of the Chersky Seismic Belt, eastern Sakha Republic (Yakutia) and Magadan District, Russia

Abstract. The Chersky seismic belt represents a zone of deformation between the North American and Eurasian plates in northeast Russia. The belt extends from the Laptev Sea into the Chersky Range where it splits into two branches. One branch extends to Kamchatka and the Aleutian-Kurile Junction, while the other branch extends south towards Sakhalin Island. Focal mechanisms indicate a change from extension to transpression in the northern Verkhoyansk Range and generally left-lateral transpression in the Chersky Range extending to northern Kamchatka. The few focal mechanisms on the second branch suggest right-lateral transpression. A large number of faults, sub-parallel to the seismicity and presumed to be strike-slip, are visible in satellite imagery and topographic maps and are also associated with seismically generated landslides. These data support a model in which the Sea of Okhotsk forms the core of a separate Okhotsk microplate surrounded by diffuse boundaries on the north and west. Microseismicity in continental northeast Russia is most heavily concentrated within and between the fault systems along the northern boundary of the proposed Okhotsk plate and indicates a high level of deformation. The sense of slip on the faults (both from focal mechanisms and geology) are also generally consistent with the extrusion of the Okhotsk plate to the southeast as it is compressed between its larger neighbors. The northernmost part of the Okhotsk plate may be decoupled to some degree from the more stable central Sea of Okhotsk.
More humid interglacials in Ecuador during the past 500 kyr linked to latitudinal shifts of the equatorial front and the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the eastern tropical Pacific

[1] Studying past changes in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean dynamics and their impact on precipitation on land gives us insight into how the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) movements and the El Nino‐Southern Oscillation modulate regional and global climate. In this study we present a multiproxy record of terrigenous input from marine sediments collected off the Ecuadorian coast spanning the last 500 kyr. In parallel we estimate sea surface temperatures (SST) derived from alkenone paleothermometry for the sediments off the Ecuadorian coast and complement them with alkenone‐based SST data from the Panama Basin to the north in order to investigate SST gradients across the equatorial front. Near the equator, today’s river runoff is tightly linked to SST, reaching its maximum either during the austral summer when the ITCZ migrates southward or during El Nino events. Our multiproxy reconstruction of riverine runoff indicates that interglacial periods experienced more humid conditions than the glacial periods. The north‐south SST gradient is systematically steeper during glacial times, suggesting a mean background climatic state with a vigorous oceanic cold tongue, resembling modern La Nina conditions. This enhanced north‐south SST gradient would also imply a glacial northward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone at least in vicinity of the cold tongue: a pattern that has not yet been reproduced in climate models.
The post-infall evolution of a satellite galaxy

As galaxy simulations increase in resolution more attention is being paid towards the evolution of dwarf galaxies and how the simulations compare to observations. Despite this increasing resolution we are however, far away from resolving the interactions of satellite dwarf galaxies and the hot coronae which surround host galaxies. We describe a new method which focuses only on the local region surrounding an infalling dwarf in an effort to understand how the hot baryonic halo will alter the chemodynamical evolution of dwarf galaxies. Using this method we examine how a dwarf, similar to Sextans dwarf spheroidal, evolves in the corona of a Milky Way like galaxy. We find that even at high perigalacticons the synergistic interaction between ram pressure and tidal forces transform a dwarf into a stream, suggesting that Sextans was much more massive in the past in order survive its perigalacticon passage. In addition the large confining pressure of the hot corona allows gas that was originally at the outskirts to begin forming stars, initially forming stars of low metallicity compared to the dwarf evolved in isolation. This increase in star formation eventually allows a dwarf galaxy to form more metal rich stars compared to one in isolation, but only if the dwarf retains gas for a sufficiently long period of time. In addition, dwarfs which formed substantial numbers of stars post-infall will have a slightly elevated [Mg/Fe] at high metallicity ([Fe/H] -1.5).
Preparation of Polyaniline-Doped Fullerene

Fullerene C 60 whiskers (FWs) doped with polyaniline emeraldine base (PANI-EB) were synthesized bymixing PANI-EB/N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) colloid and FWs suspension based on the nature of the electron acceptor of C 60 and electron donor of PANI-EB. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectra characterized the morphology and molecular structure of the FWs doped with PANI-EB. SEM observation showed that the smooth surface of FWs was changed to worm-like surface morphology after being doped with PANI-EB. The UV-Vis spectra suggested that chargetransfer (CT) complex of C 60 and PANI-EB was formed as PANI-EB-C 60 . PANI-EB-doped FWs might be useful as a new type of antibacterial and self-cleaning agent as well as multifunctional material to improve the human health and living environment.
ADHD Symptoms vs. Impairment: Revisited

We concluded that symptoms and impairment were somewhat distinct dimensions that should be considered as such in the diagnostic process. We further concluded that there appeared to be a weak relationship between symptoms and impairment such that clinical cases of ADHD could display the full range of ADHD‐type symptoms without necessarily displaying significant impairment. The prior article also highlighted limitations in current approaches to the assessment of impairment and statistical methods used to evaluate its relationship to symptom severity. The present article illustrates this issue by examining the relationship of ADHD symptom severity to impairment using different means of defining impairment and of analyzing the risk for impairment in major life activities. Specifically, we report on the relationship of ADHD symptoms to several investigator‐created omnibus impairment indexes. These are largely drawn from the types of specific measures of impairment used in our earlier paper. In this case, however, we convert these largely dimensional measures into discrete dichotomous categories (being impaired or not) on each specific measure. The omnibus index is then created by summing across these discrete measures to achieve a count of the total number of different measures on which impairment could be said to exist. We also examine self, other, employer, and clinician ratings of impairment across a number of domains of major life activities (work, school, family, social, driving,
Hydrogen Release from NH3 in the Presence of BN Graphene: DFT Studies

Using density functional theory, we investigated the interac- tion of an NH3 molecule with a pristine and antisite defected BN sheet (g-BN) in terms of energetic, geometric, and electronic properties. The adsorption energy of NH3 on defected g-BN was calculated to be in the range of −0.70 to −2.46 eV, which is considerably more nega- tive than that on the pristine sheet. It was found that the adsorption of NH3 adsorption on the defected sheet may cause the release of an H2 molecule. The electronic properties of the defected BN sheet were significantly changed after the adsorption process so that its HOMO/ LUMO energy gap was changed from 3.31 to 3.60-4.97 eV. Moreover, the Fermi level of the defected sheet shifts to higher energies after the interaction, which results in reduced potential barrier of the electron emission for the sheet surface, enhancing the field emission because of the decreased work function.
Perceptions of experiences of having a sibling stem cell donor

Objective: The aim was to explore stem cell recipients’ perceptions of experiences of having a sibling donor from pretransplantation to one year afterwards in order to support their learning process. Methods: Ten adult recipients, five women and four men, with a mean age of 52 years (19-68 years) receiving stem cells from a sibling donor were included consecutively. We used a phenomenographic approach to analyse the 28 open-ended interviews that took place before transplantation and three months and one year afterwards. Results: Ten categories emerged comprising 110 different perceptions pertaining to: Advantages, Acknowledgement, Risk evaluation, Complexity, Family impact, Non-directed donors, Self-identity, Facing the reality, Knowledge seeking and Caring encounters. Three distinct phases of the learning process were identified from before transplantation to one year afterwards, i.e., risk-benefit analysis, outcome expectations and facing the reality. Conclusions: Before transplantation the recipients had many perceptions about having a sibling donor and focused on a thorough risk versus benefit analysis for both themselves and the donor. Three months after transplantation the recipients sought knowledge in order to have realistic expectations and comprehend their future. One year after transplantation the recipients had few perceptions and focused on facing the reality, irrespective of whether the outcome was good or bad. The generic perceptions of the recipients over time were that serious blood diseases are burdensome and lethal, while treatment should include continuity of care.
Carbon-isotope stratigraphy from terrestrial organic matter through the Monterey event, Miocene, New Jersey margin (IODP Expedition 313)

The stratigraphic utility of carbon-isotope values from terrestrial organic matter is explored for Miocene siliciclastic sediments of the shallow shelf, New Jersey margin, USA (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program [IODP] Expedition 313). These shallow marine strata, rich in terrestrial organic matter, provide a record of deposition equivalent to the Monterey event, a prolonged interval of time characterized by relatively positive carbon-isotope values recorded from foraminiferal carbonate in numerous oceanic settings. Coherent stratigraphic trends and short-term isotopic excursions are observed consistently in palynological preparation residues, concentrated woody phytoclasts, and individually picked woody phytoclasts obtained from the New Jersey sediments. A bulk organic matter curve shows somewhat different stratigraphic trends but, when corrected for mixing of marine-terrestrial components on the basis of measured C/N ratios, a high degree of conformity with the woody phytoclast record is observed. However, assuming that the correlations based on strontium-isotope values and biostratigraphy are correct, the carbon-isotope record from the New Jersey margin contrasts with that previously documented from oceanic settings (i.e., lack of positive excursion of carbon-isotope values in terrestrial organic matter through the Langhian Stage). Factors that may potentially bias local terrestrial carbon-isotope records include reworking from older deposits, degradation and diagenesis, as well as environmental factors affecting vegetation in the sediment source areas. These possible factors are assessed on the basis of pyrolysis data, scanning electron microscope observations, and comparison to palynological indices of environmental change. Some evidence is found for localized degradation and/or reworking of older woody phytoclasts, but where such processes have occurred they do not readily explain the observed carbon-isotope values. It is concluded that the overall carbon-isotope signature for the exchangeable carbon reservoir is distorted, to the extent that the Monterey event excursion is not easily identifiable. The most likely explanation is that phytoclast reworking has indeed occurred in clinoform toe-of-slope facies, but the reason for the resulting relatively heavy carbon-isotope values in the Burdigalian remains obscure.