Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THERMOELASTIC WAVES IN ANISOTROPIC SOLIDS

As motivated by the recent discovery of heat pulses propagating in dielectric crystals at low temperature, a continuum theory of thermoelasticity, which is modified to include the effect of thermal phonon relaxation, is applied to investigate the propagation of plane harmonic waves in unbounded anisotropic solids. Four characteristic wave speeds are found, three being analogous to those of isothermal or adiabatic elastic waves. The fourth wave, which is predominantly a temperature disturbance, corresponds to the heat pulses known also as the second sound. Velocity, slowness, and wave surfaces of the thermoelastic waves are analyzed and are illustrated with numerical and graphical results for NaF and solid helium crystals. A new definition of the group velocity for waves in a dissipative and dispersive anisotropic medium is proposed and is calculated and compared with the energy transport speed of thermoelastic waves.
Measurement of exhaled breath temperature in patients under general anesthesia: A feasibility study

The aim of the present study was to investigate the respiratory parameters that influence the exhaled breath temperature (EBT) and the feasibility of using the latter to monitor the core temperature under general endotracheal anesthesia. A total of 20 patients undergoing abdominal surgery were included in the present study. At the first stage of the experiment, the respiratory rate was adjusted, while the other respiratory parameters [tidal volume, inspiratory and expiratory time ratio (TI:TE), and positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP)] were maintained at a constant level. At the second stage, the tidal volume was adjusted, while the other respiratory parameters were maintained at a constant level. At the third stage, the TI:TE was adjusted, while the other parameters were maintained at a constant level. At the fourth stage, PEEP was adjusted, while the other parameters were maintained at a constant level. In each experiment, the EBT, the maximum temperature of exhaled air in each min, the inhaled air temperature and the nasopharyngeal temperature (T nose) were recorded every min. During the first stage of the experiment, no significant difference was noted in the EBT at different levels of respiratory rate. During the second, third and fourth stage, no significant difference was noted in the EBT at different tidal volumes, TI:TE and PEEP, respectively. The EBT was significantly correlated with the T nose. Overall, the present study demonstrated that the EBT of patients undergoing abdominal surgery under general endotracheal anesthesia was not affected by the examined respiratory parameters and that it could be considered a feasible method of monitoring core temperature.
The influence of stochastic density fluctuations on the infrared emissions of interstellar dark clouds

We investigate the effects of stochastic density fluctuations on the dust temperatures and the resulting infrared (IR) emission spectra of interstellar clouds as an extension of preceding investigations by Hegmann & Kegel. We consider absorption and scattering by dust grains in spherical clouds which are, on average, homogeneous but have a fluctuating density. The spatial variation of the density is described by means of a Markov process. This clump model introduces two parameters: the correlation length ln and the Gaussian width σn of the density fluctuations. As the intensity Iλ,n inherits the randomness of the density n, the ordinary radiative transfer equation has to be replaced by a generalized transfer equation of Fokker–Planck type. In the first part, we investigate the influence of our model parameters on the radiative transport in the ultraviolet (UV) and use the results to calculate the dust temperature in radiative equilibrium. Afterwards, the IR emission of the dust is modelled for the same set of clump parameters. We find that the presence of clumps decreases the effective extinction and therefore leads to substantial differences in UV illumination and dust temperatures, compared with the homogeneous case. Because of the distribution of dust temperatures, the presence of clumps also affects the IR emission and thus possible observations. In the second part, we use a fit with two blackbody spectra to determine the cloud dust mass from our synthetic IR fluxes. It is shown that in a clumpy environment the overall dust mass is generally underestimated. This effect correlates with the degree of cloud fragmentation.
The Effects of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles on Osteoblasts Mineralization: A Comparison between 2D and 3D Cell Culture Models

Although several studies assess the biological effects of micro and titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs), the literature shows controversial results regarding their effect on bone cell behavior. Studies on the effects of nanoparticles on mammalian cells on two-dimensional (2D) cell cultures display several disadvantages, such as changes in cell morphology, function, and metabolism and fewer cell–cell contacts. This highlights the need to explore the effects of TiO2 NPs in more complex 3D environments, to better mimic the bone microenvironment. This study aims to compare the differentiation and mineralized matrix production of human osteoblasts SAOS-2 in a monolayer or 3D models after exposure to different concentrations of TiO2 NPs. Nanoparticles were characterized, and their internalization and effects on the SAOS-2 monolayer and 3D spheroid cells were evaluated with morphological analysis. The mineralization of human osteoblasts upon exposure to TiO2 NPs was evaluated by alizarin red staining, demonstrating a dose-dependent increase in mineralized matrix in human primary osteoblasts and SAOS-2 both in the monolayer and 3D models. Furthermore, our results reveal that, after high exposure to TiO2 NPs, the dose-dependent increase in the bone mineralized matrix in the 3D cells model is higher than in the 2D culture, showing a promising model to test the effect on bone osteointegration.
Electro-optic sensors for electric field measurements. I. Theoretical comparison among different modulation techniques

We present a complete analysis of electro-optic sensors for electric field measurement based on three different modulation techniques: amplitude, phase, and polarization state modulation. We treat the most general case, considering both isotropic and anisotropic crystals and taking into account the absorption of the crystal. We derive the optimal configuration of experimental setups for the three studied modulation techniques, and we give the values of the variable physical parameters required to yield the best performance. Finally we compare the three modulation techniques and show that phase or polarization state modulations result in exactly the same performance while amplitude modulation gives slightly enhanced performance.
Resonant scattering of low-energy electrons by Be+ and Mg+ ions

The electron impact excitation cross section for resonance transitions of Be+ and Mg+ is calculated by the diagonalisation method. The energies, effective quantum numbers, total and partial widths of resonances in cross sections are obtained. The partial and differential cross sections were also obtained. The total cross sections were compared with experiment and other calculations.
A New Seismic Phase to Detect Mid‐Mantle Scatterers

Small‐scale mid‐mantle heterogeneities (<100 km) are revealed by various short‐period seismic waves with different sampling paths. Here, using dense stations in China, we present the observations of a new seismic phase that arrives as a PP precursor. This arrival represents a P‐wave scattered at mid‐mantle heterogeneities as PdpP (“d” indicates the depth of heterogeneity) and appears in two forms: (a) a wave train with increasing slowness from P/Pdiff to PP slowness; (b) a single arrival with unique slowness between Pdiff and PP slowness. Waveform modeling results suggest that both types of PdpP signals can be simultaneously generated by lower mantle scatterers with scales larger than 20 km, situated close to the source region. Furthermore, focusing on the observations of PdpP from Fiji‐Tonga earthquakes, we locate a series of scatterers at depth of 800–1,350 km that may be related to the Pacific slab subducting along the Tonga‐Kermadec trench.
Exact solitary solution of Schamel equation in plasmas with negative ions

A theoretical investigation is carried out for understanding the properties of the solitary solution in plasmas with negative ions. Schamel equation for a plasma consisting of electron, positive ions and negative ions has been derived by using the reductive perturbation method. The effects of negative ions and the density on the properties of the solitary solution is discussed. We make use of the extended mapping method and auxiliary equation to obtain the solution of Schamel equation. This solution includes the Jacobi elliptic function solutions, hyperbolic function solutions, rational solutions, and periodic wave solutions. Furthermore, we show that the incorporate negative ion effects in the nonlinear propagation of ion acoustic waves that are controlled by trapped electrons and the results of the solitary solution in plasmas with negative ions model are discussed.
A Crack Segmentation Model Combining Morphological Network and Multiple Loss Mechanism

With the wide application of computer vision technology and deep-learning theory in engineering, the image-based detection of cracks in structures such as pipelines, pavements and dams has received more and more attention. Aiming at the problems of high cost, low efficiency and poor detection accuracy in traditional crack detection methods, this paper proposes a crack segmentation network by combining a morphological network and a multiple-loss mechanism. First, for improving the identification of cracks with different resolutions, the U-Net network is used to extract multi-scale features from the crack image. Second, for eliminating the effect of polarized light on the cracks under different illuminations, the extracted crack features are further morphologically processed by a white-top hat transform and a black-bottom hat transform. Finally, a multi-loss mechanism is designed to solve the problem of the inaccurate segmentation of cracks on a single scale. Extensive experiments are carried out on five open crack datasets: Crack500, CrackTree200, CFD, AEL and GAPs384. The experimental results showed that the average ODS, OIS, AIU, sODS and sOIS are 75.7%, 73.9%, 36.4%, 52.4% and 52.2%, respectively. Compared with state-of-the-art methods, the proposed method achieves better crack segmentation performance. Ablation experiments also verified the effectiveness of each module in the algorithm.
Microdialysis Reveals Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Sulfated Glycosaminoglycanes in the Early Phase of Bone Healing

Although chronic inflammation inhibits bone healing, the healing process is initiated by an inflammatory phase. In a well-tuned sequence of molecular events, pro-inflammatory cytokines are secreted to orchestrate the inflammation response to injury and the recruitment of progenitor cells. These events in turn activate the secretion of anti-inflammatory signaling molecules and attract cells and mediators that antagonize the inflammation and initiate the repair phase. Sulfated glycosaminoglycanes (sGAG) are known to interact with cytokines, chemokines and growth factors and, thus, alter the availability, duration and impact of those mediators on the local molecular level. sGAG-coated polycaprolactone-co-lactide (PCL) scaffolds were inserted into critical-size femur defects in adult male Wistar rats. The femur was stabilized with a plate, and the defect was filled with either sGAG-containing PCL scaffolds or autologous bone (positive control). Wound fluid samples obtained by microdialysis were characterized regarding alterations of cytokine concentrations over the first 24 h after surgery. The analyses revealed the inhibition of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and MIP-2 in the sGAG-treated groups compared to the positive control. A simultaneous increase of IL-6 and TNF-α indicated advanced regenerative capacity of sGAG, suggesting their potential to improve bone healing.
Arguments, rules and cases in law: Resources for aligning learning and reasoning in structured domains

This paper provides a formal description of two legal domains. In addition, we describe the generation of various artificial datasets from these domains and explain the use of these datasets in previous experiments aligning learning and reasoning. These resources are made available for the further investigation of connections between arguments, cases and rules. The datasets are publicly available at https://github.com/CorSteging/LegalResources.
Optimization of a land vehicle suspension subjected to a buried charge explosion

Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) represent a serious threat to vehicles. These IEDs can partially or fully damage the vehicle and the onboard equipment and, threaten the lives of its crew. To protect against these devices, modifications to specialized vehicles are made in different parts. Among these latter, the present work focuses on the effects of the suspension system on the dynamic response of the vehicle. The behaviour of a McPherson suspension system of a light vehicle is numerically studied in order to optimize the dimensions of selected components. Three models based on different approaches are developed. The first is based on an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) formulation with fluid-structure coupling, which gives a more realistic representation of the blast phenomena. However, it needs significant calculation time and computational power. The second is a simplified, purely Lagrangian, model which requires less computational resources but includes several assumptions. The third model is based on a meta-modelling approach. This latter is used to optimize the dimensions of selected sub-systems of the vehicle suspension via a genetic optimization algorithm.
A guiding center Hamiltonian: A new approach

A Hamiltonian treatment of the guiding center problem is given which employs noncanonical coordinates in phase space. Separation of the unperturbed system from the perturbation is achieved by using a coordinate transformation suggested by a theorem of Darboux. As a model to illustrate the method, motion in the magnetic field B=B (x,y) ? is studied. Lie transforms are used to carry out the perturbation expansion.
3D AFM Nanomechanical Characterization of Biological Materials

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a powerful tool enabling the mechanical characterization of biological materials at the nanoscale. Since biological materials are highly heterogeneous, their mechanical characterization is still considered to be a challenging procedure. In this paper, a new approach that leads to a 3-dimensional (3D) nanomechanical characterization is presented based on the average Young’s modulus and the AFM indentation method. The proposed method can contribute to the clarification of the variability of the mechanical properties of biological samples in the 3-dimensional space (variability at the x–y plane and depth-dependent behavior). The method was applied to agarose gels, fibroblasts, and breast cancer cells. Moreover, new mathematical methods towards a quantitative mechanical characterization are also proposed. The presented approach is a step forward to a more accurate and complete characterization of biological materials and could contribute to an accurate user-independent diagnosis of various diseases such as cancer in the future.
Temperature dependence of Schottky barrier heights on silicon

We investigate the temperature dependence of Schottky barrier heights on silicon. The analysis of a large variety of polycrystalline diodes shows that the temperature coefficient of the barrier height depends on the chemical nature of the metal. This observation is in contradiction with models suggesting Fermi‐level pinning at the center of the semiconductor’s indirect band gap. From the analysis of epitaxial NiSi2/Si Schottky contacts, we conclude that there is a direct influence of interface crystallography on both the barrier height and its temperature dependence. Finally, we present some new results on the pressure coefficient of barrier heights. Pressure and temperature coefficients of polycrystalline Schottky contacts are correlated similarly to the pressure and temperature coefficients of the band gap.
The Scattering of Elastic Waves by Rough Surfaces

We consider the scattering of elastic waves by an unbounded surface on which the displacement vanishes. The wave field is assumed to be time-harmonic and the propagation medium to be homogeneous and isotropic. The scattering surface is assumed to be given as a graph of a bounded function f ∈ C, but otherwise no assumptions are made. The problem is formulated as a boundary value problem for the scattered field in the unbounded domain above the scattering surface. This boundary value problem formulation includes a novel radiation condition characterising upward propagating waves. The way in which this radiation condition generalises other radiation conditions commonly employed in elastic wave scattering problems is discussed in detail. It is then shown that the boundary value problem, and thus the scattering problem, admits at most one solution for a general class of incident fields including plane and cylindrical waves. Existence of solution is established via the boundary integral equation method. The properties of elastic singleand double-layer potentials on rough surfaces are studied with an emphasis on obtaining estimates uniformly for classes of such surfaces. An equivalent formulation of the scattering problem as a boundary integral equation of the second kind is obtained. Since the scatterer is unbounded the integral operator in this equation is not compact, and nor is the equation of a standard singular type previously studied. Thus, a new solvability theory is developed, which establishes solvability of the integral equation in the space of bounded and continuous functions, and also in all L-spaces, 1 ≤ p ≤ ∞.
Using “cultural continuity” to examine aspects of Early Archaic settlement in Virginia and beyond

ABSTRACT This paper tests aspects of previous models that argue for cultural continuity between Paleoindian and Early Archaic groups. Using data from Virginia, I provide evidence that Paleoindian and Early Archaic settlement strategies were different. In Virginia, Early Archaic sites are closer together and closer to key resources. Early Archaic groups also occupied new areas, and studies of artifact curation and raw materials suggest a change in territory size. In addition, I use coarse-grained data from other key sites in the region (Shawnee-Minisink, Thunderbird, and Fifty) to suggest specific changes in land use. While many of my findings are compatible with aspects of several earlier Early Archaic settlement models in the Southeast, the common theme may be more patterned landscape use on a seasonal basis. I see the expanded landscape use in Virginia as a clear marker of a change among Early Archaic populations.
Lefschetz formulae for Anosov flows on 3-manifolds

Abstract Fried has related closed orbits of the geodesic flow of a surface S of constant negative curvature to the R-torsion for a unitary representation of the fundamental group of the unit tangent bundle T1S. In this paper we extend those results to transitive Anosov flows and 2-dimensional attractors on 3-manifolds.
GENERAL NUTRITION PRINCIPLES FOR THE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN

According to the theory of Hipocrates (3rd century BC) "all diseases begin in the intestines". It is now known that intestinal microorganisms participate in physiological processes such as: immune system functioning, detoxification, inflammation, neurotransmitter and vitamin production, nutrient absorption, hunger, and satiety signaling, carbohydrate and fat burning. Thus, a beneficial microbial flora is maintained by proper nutrition. Also, in the literature, there are microbiome-specific associations with different pathologies: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), asthma, autism, allergies, chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety, and diabetes. To prevent these pathologies, in the children's growth and development it must be considered multiple factors: the type of birth (natural or caesarean), genetics, general health, physical activity, sedentarism, sleep quality, and appropriate nutrition.
Bio-stimulants Influence on Growth and Yield of Aggregatum Onion

Onion, being an edible vegetable crop, inclusion of any organic inputs without chemical usage in enhancing yield is booming strategy in view of consumer health. Accordingly, different bio-stimulants were tested to determine the influence on the growth and yield of aggregatum onion var. CO 4. The experiment consisted foliar spray of 0.1 percent seaweed extract (T1), 0.2 percent seaweed extract (T2), 0.3 percent seaweed extract (T3), 0.1 percent humic acid (T4), 0.2 percent humic acid (T5), 0.3 percent humic acid (T6), 0.1 percent fish amino acid (T7), 0.15 percent fish amino acid (T8), 0.20 percent fish amino acid (T9) and control (T10). Foliar spraying was performed three times at a 15-day interval at 30, 45 and 60 days after bulb sowing. The experiment was laid out in Randmized Block Design with three replications. At the 45th and 60th days, observations on growth and yield characteristics were made. The testing findings indicated that humic acid at a concentration of 0.3 percent produced the highest plant height (41.3 cm), neck thickness (1.067 cm), and dry matter (1.20g). Humic acid 0.3 percent had the highest average bulb weight (33.25g) and total yield (14.41 tonnes/ha). Seaweed extract at 0.3 percent had the second-best results in terms of plant height (38.30 cm), average bulb weight (29.00g), and bulb production (12.57 t/ha), but it outperformed fish amino acid and the control. The overall performance of several biostimulants shows that humic acid @ 0.3 percent foliar spray effectively enhances various growth parameters of aggregatum onion var. CO 4, resulting in increased yield.
Inversion of non-linear stochastic models for the purpose of parameter estimation

Prediction error and maximum likelihood estimation of non-linear stochastic models requires inversion of the model, a step which may require substantial efforts, either in terms of manual calculations or through the use of software capable of symbolic computations. In this paper we show that model inversion can be easily implemented in numerical software such as, e.g. Simulink and Matrix X, by means of a feedback connection based on the model. It is further shown how the gradients, used for the optimization of the cost function, can be generated by a linear time-varying feedback system associated with the non-linear model. In addition, we derive sufficient conditions for the existence of a stable causal inverse as well as sufficient conditions for the initial transient to decay. These conditions are given in terms of properties for a linear time-varying system associated with the non-linear model. The method is illustrated on numerical examples.