Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antibacterial Activity of TiO2- and ZnO-Decorated with Silver Nanoparticles

This work emphasizes the use of the silver decorative method to enhance the antibacterial activity of TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles. These silver-decorated nanoparticles (hybrid nanoparticles) were synthesized using sodium borohydride as a reducing agent, with the weight ratio of Ag precursors/oxide nanoparticles = 1:30. The morphology and optical properties of these hybrid nanoparticles were investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The agar-well diffusion method was used to evaluate their antibacterial activity against both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria, with or without light irradiation. The TEM images indicated clearly that silver nanoparticles (AgNPs, 5–10 nm) were well deposited on the surface of nano-TiO2 particles (30–60 nm). In addition to this, bigger AgNPs (<20 nm) were dispersed on the surface of nano-ZnO particles (30–50 nm). XRD patterns confirmed the presence of AgNPs in both Ag-decorated TiO2 and Ag-decorated ZnO nanoparticles. UV-Vis spectra confirmed that the hybridization of Ag and oxide nanoparticles led to a shift in the absorption edge of oxide nanoparticles to the lower energy region (visible region). The antibacterial tests indicated that both oxide pure nanoparticles did not exhibit inhibitory effects against bacteria, with or without light irradiation. However, the presence of AgNPs in their hybrids, even at low content (<40 mg/mL), leads to a good antibacterial activity, and higher inhibition zones under light irradiation as compared to those in dark were observed.
Visual and MSR Grades of Lumber Are Not 2-parameter Weibulls and Why This May Matter

It has been common practice to assume that a 2-parameter Weibull probability distribution is suitable for modeling lumber strength properties. Previous work has demonstrated theoretically and empirically that the modulus of rupture (MOR) distribution of a visual grade of lumber or of lumber that has been binned by modulus of elasticity (MOE) is not a 2-parameter Weibull. Instead, the tails of the MOR distribution are thinned via pseudo-truncation. Simulations have established that fitting 2-parameter Weibulls to pseudo-truncated data via either full or censored data methods can yield poor estimates of probabilities of failure. In this article, we support the simulation results by analyzing large In-Grade type data sets and establishing that 2-parameter Weibull fits yield inflated estimates of the probability of lumber failure when specimens are subjected to loads near allowable properties. In this article, we also discuss the censored data or tail fitting methods permitted under ASTM D5457, Standard Specification for Computing Reference Resistance of Wood-Based Materials and Structural Connections for Load and Resistance Factor Design.
Shapes of Nonbuoyant Round Luminous Hydrocarbon/Air Laminar Jet Diffusion Flames

The shapes (luminous flame boundaries) of round luminous nonbuoyant soot-containing hydrocarbon/air laminar jet diffusion flames at microgravity were found from color video images obtained on orbit in the Space Shuttle Columbia. Test conditions included ethylene- and propane-fueled flames burning in still air at an ambient temperature of 300 K, ambient pressures of 35-130 kPa, initial jet diameters of 1.6 and 2.7 mm, and jet exit Reynolds numbers of 45-170. Present test times were 100-200 s and yielded steady axisymmetric flames that were close to the laminar smoke point (including flames both emitting and not emitting soot) with luminous flame lengths of 15-63 mm. The present soot-containing flames had larger luminous flame lengths than earlier ground-based observations having similar burner configurations: 40% larger than the luminous flame lengths of soot-containing low gravity flames observed using an aircraft (K.C-135) facility due to reduced effects of accelerative disturbances and unsteadiness; roughly twice as large as the luminous flame lengths of soot-containing normal gravity flames due to the absence of effects of buoyant mixing and roughly twice as large as the luminous flame lengths of soot-free low gravity flames observed using drop tower facilities due to the presence of soot luminosity and possible reduced effects of unsteadiness. Simplified expressions to estimate the luminous flame boundaries of round nonbuoyant laminar jet diffusion flames were obtained from the classical analysis of Spalding (1979); this approach provided successful correlations of flame shapes for both soot-free and soot-containing flames, except when the soot-containing flames were in the opened-tip configuration that is reached at fuel flow rates near and greater than the laminar smoke point fuel flow rate.
Realistic On-the-fly Outcomes of Planetary Collisions: Machine Learning Applied to Simulations of Giant Impacts

Planet formation simulations are capable of directly integrating the evolution of hundreds to thousands of planetary embryos and planetesimals as they accrete pairwise to become planets. In principle, these investigations allow us to better understand the final configuration and geochemistry of the terrestrial planets, and also to place our solar system in the context of other exosolar systems. While these simulations classically prescribe collisions to result in perfect mergers, recent computational advances have begun to allow for more complex outcomes to be implemented. Here we apply machine learning to a large but sparse database of giant impact studies, which allows us to streamline the simulations into a classifier of collision outcomes and a regressor of accretion efficiency. The classifier maps a four-dimensional (4D) parameter space (target mass, projectile-to-target mass ratio, impact velocity, impact angle) into the four major collision types: merger, graze-and-merge, hit-and-run, and disruption. The definition of the four regimes and their boundary is fully data-driven. The results do not suffer from any model assumption in the fitting. The classifier maps the structure of the parameter space and it provides insights into the outcome regimes. The regressor is a neural network that is trained to closely mimic the functional relationship between the 4D space of collision parameters, and a real-variable outcome, the mass of the largest remnant. This work is a prototype of a more complete surrogate model, that will be based on extended sets of simulations (big data), that will quickly and reliably predict specific collision outcomes for use in realistic N-body dynamical studies of planetary formation.
Predicting State Changes in Procedural Text using Analogical Question Answering

Many of the changes in the world that happen over time are characterized by processes. Creating programs that comprehend procedural text (e.g. the stages of photosynthesis) is a crucial task in natural language understanding. In this paper we present a novel approach that uses analogical question answering to predict what state changes affect entities in a paragraph describing a process. We start from the hypothesis that human level QA requires multiple layers of rich, relational representations. For this reason, our model is built on the Companion Cognitive Architecture, which has a large knowledge base and a general-purpose semantic parser. During training, the system uses the output of the semantic parser to automatically construct query cases, which link annotated answers to semantic interpretations (i.e. logical statements). When faced with unseen questions, the system retrieves relevant query cases by analogy and uses them to predict sentence level state changes. To obtain a globally consistent sequence of events, we apply common sense constraints over the whole paragraph via dynamic programming. We test our system on AI2’s ProPara dataset where our approach achieves results comparable to topperforming models.
Salmonella enterica Growth Conditions Influence Lettuce Leaf Internalization

Human pathogens on plants (HPOP) have evolved complex interactions with their plant host. Stomatal internalization is one such mode of interaction, where bacteria are attracted to stomata and penetrate into the substomatal cavity by a process mediated by chemotaxis. Internalization enables HPOP to evade the hostile environment of the leaf surface and find a protected, nutrient-rich niche within the leaf. Numerous studies have documented attachment and entry of the foodborne pathogens, Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli into stomata. Internalization, however, varies considerably among different pathogens and in different plants, and both bacterial and plant’s factors were reported to influence HPOP attachment and internalization. Here we have studied the effect of laboratory growth conditions, on the internalization of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (STm) into lettuce leaf. We have further tested the potential involvement of universal stress-proteins in leaf internalization. We found that STm grown in Luria Bertani broth devoid of NaCl (LBNS), or in diluted LB (0.5×LB) internalized lettuce leaf better (62 ± 5% and 59 ± 7%, respectively) compared to bacteria grown in LB (15 ± 7%). Growth under non-aerated conditions also enhanced STm internalization compared to growth under aerated conditions. Growth temperature of 25 and 37°C did not affect STm internalization, however, growth at 42°C, significantly augmented leaf internalization. Since, the tested growth conditions represent moderate stresses, we further investigated the involvement of five universal-stress genes in STm leaf internalization following growth in LBNS medium. Knockout mutations in ydaA, yecG, ybdQ, and uspAB, but not in ynaF, significantly reduced STm internalization compared to the wild-type (wt) strain, without affecting bacterial attachment and motility. Transduction of the mutations back to the parent strain confirmed the linkage between the mutations and the internalization phenotype. These findings support a specific role of the universal-stress genes in leaf internalization. The present study highlights the complexity of bacterial internalization process and may provide partial explanation for the variable, sometimes-contrasting results reported in the literature regarding stomatal internalization by HPOP. Characterization of the regulatory networks that mediate the involvement of usp genes and the tested growth factors in STm internalization should contribute to our understanding of human pathogens-plant interactions.
LHC Phenomenology of SO(10) Models with Yukawa Unification II

In this paper we study Yukawa-unied SO(10) SUSY GUTs with two types of SO(10) boundary conditions: (i) universal gaugino masses and (ii) non-universal gaugino masses with eective \mirage" mediation. With these boundary conditions, we perform a global 2 analysis to obtain the parameters consistent with 11 low energy observables, including the top, bottom, and tau masses. Both boundary conditions have universal scalar masses and \just so" splitting for the up- and down-type Higgs masses. In these models, the third family scalars are lighter than the rst two families and the gauginos are lighter than all the scalars. We therefore focus on the gluino phenomenology in these models. In particular, we estimate the lowest allowed gluino mass in our models coming from the most recent LHC data and compare these to limits obtained using simplied models. We
The generalized Pareto process; with a view towards application and simulation

In extreme value statistics, the peaks-over-threshold method is widely used. The method is based on the generalized Pareto distribution characterizing probabilities of exceedances over high thresholds in $\mathbb {R}^d$. We present a generalization of this concept in the space of continuous functions. We call this the generalized Pareto process. Differently from earlier papers, our definition is not based on a distribution function but on functional properties, and does not need a reference to a related max-stable process. As an application, we use the theory to simulate wind fields connected to disastrous storms on the basis of observed extreme but not disastrous storms. We also establish the peaks-over-threshold approach in function space.
New Ultra Fast Short Circuit Detection Method Without Using the Desaturation Process of the Power Semiconductor

This paper presents an ultra fast short circuit detection method for hard switching faults and fault under load short circuit conditions without using the desaturation process of the power semiconductor. The detection method is based on monitoring the simultaneous behaviour of the di/dt and the gate voltage of the power semiconductor, which is significantly different under short circuit conditions. Furthermore, a comparison with different state-of-the-art short circuit detection methods is shown which allows a classification of the presented method in terms of detection time and detection current. Therefore, it will be presented that the new di/dt-gate short circuit detection method is able to detect a fault behaviour of the IGBT close to earliest possible point in time a short circuit failure could be detected at all.
G-Sparks: Glanceable Sparklines on Smartwatches

Optimizing the use of a small display while presenting graphic data such as line charts is challenging. To tackle this, we propose GSparks, a compact visual representation of glanceable line graphs for smartwatches. Our exploration primarily considered the suitable compression axes for time-series charts. In a first study we examine the optimal line-graph compression approach without compromising perceptual metrics, such as slope or height detections. We evaluated compressions of line segments, the elementary unit of a line graph, along the x-axis, y-axis, and xyaxes. Contrary to intuition, we find that condensing graphs yield more accurate reading of height estimations than non-compressed graphs, but only when these are compressed along the x-axis. Building from this result, we study the effect of an x-axis compression on users' ability to perform "glanceable" analytic tasks with actual data. Glanceable tasks include quick perceptual judgements of graph properties. Using bio-metric data (heart rate), we find that shrinking a line graph to the point of representing one data sample per pixel does not compromise legibility. As expected, such type of compression also has the effect of minimizing the needed amount of flicking to interact with such graphs. From our results, we offer guidelines to application designers needing to integrate line charts into smartwatch apps.
The return of the merging galaxy subclusters of El Gordo

Author(s): Ng, KY; Dawson, WA; Wittman, D; James Jee, M; Hughes, JP; Menanteau, F; Sifon, C | Abstract: © 2015 The Authors. Merging galaxy clusters with radio relics provide rare insights to the merger dynamics as the relics are created by the violent merger process. We demonstrate one of the first uses of the properties of the radio relic to reduce the uncertainties of the dynamical variables and determine the three-dimensional (3D) configuration of a cluster merger, ACT-CL J0102-4915, nicknamed El Gordo. From the double radio relic observation and the X-ray observation of a comet-like gas morphology induced by motion of the cool core, it is widely believed that El Gordo is observed shortly after the first core passage of the subclusters. We employ a Monte Carlo simulation to investigate the 3D configuration and dynamics of El Gordo. Using the polarization fraction of the radio relic, we constrain the estimate of the angle between the plane of the sky and the merger axis to be α = 21°±911. We find the relative 3D merger speed of El Gordo to be 2400 ±400200 km s-1 at pericentre. The two possible estimates of the time since pericentre (TSP) are 0.46±0.090. 16 and 0.91±0.220. 39 Gyr for the outgoing and returning scenario, respectively. We put our estimates of the TSP into context by showing that if the time-averaged shock velocity is approximately equal to or smaller than the pericentre velocity of the corresponding subcluster in the centre-of-mass frame, the two subclusters are more likely to be moving towards, rather than away, from each other, post apocentre. We compare and contrast the merger scenario of El Gordo with that of the Bullet Cluster, and show that this late-stage merging scenario explains why the south-east (SE) dark matter lensing peak of El Gordo is closer to the merger centre than the SE cool core.
Analysis of Exciton-Plasmon Nanohybrids

When a quantum dot is kept in the vicinity of a metal nanoparticle, a dipole-dipole coupling occurs between the two nanoparticles, which makes them behave like a single hybrid molecule possessing novel and interesting optical signatures tunable using a multitude of system properties such as the particle sizes, composition, inter-particle distance and the optical properties of the submerging medium. This thesis entails improved and computationally efﬁcient analytical and numerical studies of such exciton-plasmon nanohybrids formed by illuminating a metal nanoparticle-quantum dot pair, placed in nanoscale vicinity, followed by a numerical demonstration of their prospects in bio-sensing.
A note on actions with finite orbits on dendrites

It is shown that the restriction of the action of any group with finite orbit on the minimal sets of dendrites is equicontinuous. Consequently, we obtain that the action of any amenable group and Thompson group on dendrite restricted on minimal sets is equicontinuous. We further provide a class of non-amenable groups whose action on dendrites has finite orbit. We extend also some of our results to dendron. We further give a characterization of the set of invariant probability measures and its extreme points.
Shear behavior degradation and failure pattern of reinforced concrete beam with chloride-induced stirrup corrosion

Reinforcement corrosion exhibits an adverse effect on the shear strength of reinforced concrete structures. In order to investigate the effects of chloride-induced corrosion of reinforcing steel on the shear behavior and failure pattern of reinforced concrete beams, a total of 24 reinforced concrete beams with different concrete strength grades and arrangements of stirrups were fabricated, among which 22 beams were subjected to accelerated corrosion to achieve different degrees of reinforcement corrosion. The failure pattern, crack propagation, load–displacement response, and ultimate strength of these beams were investigated under a standard four-point loading test in this study. Extensive comparative analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of the concrete strength, shear span-to-depth ratio, and stirrup type on the shear behavior of the corroded reinforced concrete beams. The results show that increasing the stirrup yielding strength is more effective in improving the shear strength of corroded reinforced concrete beams than that of concrete compressive strength. In terms of three types of stirrups, the shear strength of the beams with deformed HRB-335 is least sensitive to stirrup corrosion, followed by the beams with smooth HPB-235 and the beams with deformed HRB-400. The effect of the different stirrups on the shear strength depends on the corrosion degree of stirrup and shear span-to-depth ratio of the beam. The predicted results of shear strength of corroded reinforced concrete beams by a proposed analytical model are well consistent with the experimental results.
Evolution of Hybrid Inductive and Capacitive AC Links for Wireless EV Charging—A Comparative Overview

The inductive link in a wireless power transfer (WPT) system, fed by various high-frequency power converters with appropriate control strategies is widely accepted for medium power (< 50 kW) and medium distance (100–200 mm) applications due to notable efficiencies (>95%) in static wireless charging scenarios. However, considering the dynamic wireless charging, the inductive link implementation for millions of kilometers is quite expensive due to the need for sophisticated resources. Therefore, relatively low-cost capacitive link, which initially focused on low power (< 100 W), small distance (< 10 mm) applications, has gained momentum and is explored for medium power (~3kW), medium distance (~100mm) applications. It has achieved a considerable dc–dc efficiency (>90%) and significant misalignment tolerance. This paper aims to find the significant roles played by inductive and capacitive ac link designs in static and dynamic expansion of wireless electric vehicle (EV) charging. Through a relative analysis, this paper emphasizes the need for mutual promotion of these ac links as a hybrid system in order to boost wireless EV charging technology.
Control of Listeria monocytogenes in vacuum packaged frankfurters by generally-recognized-as-safe (GRAS) antimicrobials and electron-beam irradiation

The inhibition of Listeria monocytogenes by lactic acid (LA) and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) was evaluated in frankfurters containing 64% beef and 36% pork and made with or without 2% (w/w) sodium lactate (SL). The frankfurters were surface treated by dipping for either 1 or 3 minutes in solutions containing all combinations of 0 and 5% (v/v) LA and 0.0, 0.5 and 1 % (w/v) SLS. The treated product was surface inoculated with 107 CFU of a five-strain mixture of L. monocytogenes per link, vacuum packaged and stored for at 4.0° C for 90 days. Dipping in 5% LA or 1 % SLS alone reduced initial numbers of the pathogen by 0.4 to 0.7 log. In contrast, the combination of 5% LA and 1 % SLS reduced initial numbers of the pathogens by 3.8 log CFU/link. Dipping time did not have an immediate inhibitory effect on the initial population of the pathogen but there was some residual bacteriostatic effect when samples with SL were dipped for 3 minutes in LA (5%) +SLS (1%or0.5 %). Number
Quantum processing by adiabatic transfer through a manifold of dark states

We consider a network whose nodes are electromagnetic cavities, each coupled to a single three-level atom. The nodes are connected by optical fibers. Each atom is addressed by a control laser, which along with the cavity field drives atomic transitions. The network can be in the form of chain or two and three dimensional arrays of $N$-cavities connected by $N_B$ fibers. Following the work on two-cavity system by Pellizzari, we find that under certain conditions, the system possesses two kinds of dark states. The first kind are $N$ states corresponding to atomic excitations at each node and these are our logical states for quantum processing. The second kind are $N_B$ degenerate dark states on pairs of sites connected by a fibre. By manipulating intensities and phases of control lasers on the cavities, one can pass adiabatically among these dark states due to their degeneracy. This network operates as a $N$-level quantum system in which one can generate computationally useful states by protocols of external controls. We obtain numerical results for small chains and lattices to demonstrate some quantum operations like the transport of states across the array, generation of W-states and Fourier-like states. We also discuss effects of dissipation and limitations of the model.
The packing spectrum for Birkhoff averages on a self-affine repeller

Abstract We consider the multifractal analysis of Birkhoff averages of continuous potentials on a self-affine Sierpiński sponge. In particular, we give a variational principle for the packing dimension of the level sets. Furthermore, we prove that the packing spectrum is concave and continuous. We give a sufficient condition for the packing spectrum to be real analytic, but show that for general Hölder continuous potentials, this need not be the case. We also give a precise criterion for when the packing spectrum attains the full packing dimension of the repeller. Again, we present an example showing that this is not always the case.