Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dielectric characterization of ceramic mate for high voltage vacuum insulation

Very high voltage rigidity is often required in a number or low pressure devices, such as travelling wave tubes, X r switching devices, spark gaps. Ceramic materials are frequent insulators in these devices, but some uncontrolled high voltagt breakdowns may occur, even in the case of high reliability devices. presents experimental results concerning ceramic insulator behav polarization. Electron trapping properties in insulators appea indicators of their high voltage breakdown capabilities. By I trapping and detrapping process, it is possible to obtain surface using a conventional scanning electron microscope. The method H investigate high voltage breakdown of alumina having an electric larger than 300 kV.cm-'.
Life Satisfaction and Tax Morale in Azerbaijan: Mediating Role of Institutional Trust and Financial Satisfaction

This paper examines the relationship between life satisfaction (measured as the self-reported satisfaction of each individual with their past life and goal achievements) and tax morale (measured as the likelihood of an individual’s intrinsic motivation to pay taxes). Using a large-scale survey dataset from Azerbaijan, it is documented that life satisfaction is positively associated with tax morale. Life satisfaction plays a significant role in increasing tax compliance practices. It is also important to note that there is a positive mediating effect of life satisfaction on tax morale through financial satisfaction and institutional trust. In line with our hypotheses, the results of a series of analyses remain robust to different models. These results imply that a higher level of life satisfaction may increase the proportion of individuals who report the highest tax morale in Azerbaijan. Our findings have policy implications for Azerbaijan and other governments aiming to alleviate high levels of tax evasion.
Injectable therapies for knee osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis is a degenerative arthritis that mainly affects older adults. Over time, osteoarthritis can result in significant and sustained discomfort, pain, and disability. Current treatment focuses on the alleviation of pain and functional impairment. While arthroplasty is the definitive management option, it subjects patients to surgical complications, and the possibility of surgical revisions. In addition, many patients are not surgical candidates. Instead, pharmacological therapy is recommended first-line for most patients. On top of pharmacological therapy, there are a range of non-operative procedural options available. However, leading professional guidelines vary in their recommendations for these agents. Therefore, we present a review of recent randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses on injectable corticosteroids, hyaluronic acid (HA), platelet-rich plasma (PRP), mesenchymal stem cell injections, and ozone therapy. The preliminary data reveal the strongest evidence in favour of corticosteroid injections, although there are promising findings regarding the long-term efficacy of HA and PRP.
Testing for Multiple Bubbles

Identifying and dating explosive bubbles when there is periodically collapsing behavior over time has been a major concern in the economics literature and is of great importance for practitioners. The complexity of the nonlinear structure inherent in multiple bubble phenomena within the same sample period makes econometric analysis particularly difficult. The present paper develops new recursive procedures for practical implementation and surveillance strategies that may be employed by central banks and fiscal regulators. We show how the testing procedure and dating algorithm of Phillips, Wu and Yu (2011, PWY) are affected by multiple bubbles and may fail to be consistent. The present paper proposes a generalized version of the sup ADF test of PWY to address this difficulty, derives its asymptotic distribution, introduces a new date-stamping strategy for the origination and termination of multiple bubbles, and proves consistency of this dating procedure. Simulations show that the test significantly improves discriminatory power and leads to distinct power gains when multiple bubbles occur. Empirical applications are conducted to S&P 500 stock market data over a long historical period from January 1871 to December 2010. The new approach identifies many key historical episodes of exuberance and collapse over this period, whereas the strategy of PWY and the CUSUM procedure locate far fewer episodes in the same sample range.
Indoor Human Wayfinding Performance Using Vertical and Horizontal Signage in Virtual Reality

Disorientation has many costs. It may lead to physical fatigue, stress, and frustration and can also jeopardize people's safety. Designing wayfinding aids to fit people's needs can facilitate their environmental knowledge acquisition and, therefore, improve their wayfinding performance. The scope of this article is human wayfinding in unfamiliar buildings, considering only individual pedestrian movement in an immersive virtual environment. The purpose is to investigate the use of external information at a higher level of awareness (e.g., signage) as a wayfinding aid, as well as the use of immersive virtual reality (VR) to study indoor wayfinding. Fifty‐four volunteers accomplished a wayfinding task (i.e., finding a room from the building's entrance) within a virtual building, employing two types of signage systems (i.e., vertical and horizontal conditions). A neutral condition (no signage) was also considered as a control condition to be used as a baseline. Aside from the success of the wayfinding task (getting to the destination), other performance metrics (distance traveled, time spent, number of pauses, and average speed) were analyzed and compared. Although the differences found are not statistically significant, findings suggest that participants assigned to the horizontal condition traveled smaller distances, spent less time, made fewer pauses, and moved at higher average speed than those assigned to vertical and neutral conditions. Gender‐related differences were found statistically significant only in the average speed variable (females were faster than males). © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A Case of Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer With Pelvic Lymph Node Involvement Treated With Pembrolizumab and Subsequent Radical Cystectomy and Maintained No Evidence of Disease After Surgery

A 67-year-old man was referred to our hospital with chief complaints of macrohematuria and anemia. He was diagnosed with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) with right external iliac lymph node (LN) involvement and received two courses of gemcitabine and carboplatin. After chemotherapy, left external iliac LN involvement was identified as a new lesion, even though the bladder cancer (BCa) and right external iliac LN decreased in size. Therefore, pembrolizumab was administered as a second-line treatment. The bladder tumor and positive LNs subsequently shrunk. Open radical cystectomy and bilateral ureterocutaneostomy were also performed. The pathological examination of the surgical specimen indicated urothelial carcinoma, pathological stage Tis, and negative LN involvement. The patient was followed up for 30 months without evidence of local recurrence or distant metastasis.
Incidence of Teratological Fishes from Cedar Fork Creek, Ohio

A total of 18,361 specimens belonging to 34 species and 6 families was examined for external morphological anomalies. Forty-seven defective fishes (0.26%) were found. The most widespread abnormality was spinal curvature, occurring 16 times in 5 species. Deformed or missing fins were found in 10 specimens of 4 species. Two deformed mouths were recorded from 2 species, and one specimen had an incomplete operculum. There were 18 cases of pugheadedness in Pimephales notatus. The frequency of anomalies in this undisturbed community agrees well with figures in the literature for other areas. This information is intended to serve as base line data for future studies of Cedar Fork Creek. OHIOJ. SCI. 81(5): 225, 1981 The first figure of a teratological fish was published in 1553. Pierre Belon, the French naturalist, illustrated the head of an old male Atlantic salmon with a deformed upper jaw and a characteristically hooked lower jaw. Belon thought it was a normal female head and made no comment on the anomaly. The second deformed fish to be figured was a pugheaded carp illustrated by Guillaume Rondelet in 1555. These modest but historically interesting beginnings of fish teratology have been recorded by Gudger (1936). The scholarship of Dawson (1964, 1966, 1971) and Dawson and Heal (1976) has provided ichthyologists with an extensive bibliography offish anomalies. This paper records the anomalies present in a fish community from Cedar Fork Creek, an unpolluted headwater tributary of the Mohican River in north central Ohio. This information will serve as base line data for comparing future collections from this stream. A related study on the incidence of blackspot disease in fishes of this creek was Manuscript received 25 July 1980 (#80-42). published recently (Berra and Au 1978). The underlying hypothesis is that some anomalies can be caused by environmental factors such as pollution during the sensitive embryonic or larval stages of development and, therefore, the frequency of abnormalities may be useful as an index of pollution. Hickey (1973) reviewed this assumption, the common abnormalities in fishes, and their causes including environmental factors. METHODS AND MATERIALS Fishes were collected from a 137 m section of Cedar Fork Creek, Ohio River drainage, in Richland County, Ohio, with a 3 rn seine (1.6 mm mesh). A total of 43 collections was made in all seasons from 24 July 1975 through 27 August 1978. This gravelbottomed, clear stream flows in alternating pools and riffles through rolling agricultural land. Its width ranges from 6 m to 15 m and depth varies from 0.15 m to 2 m. Vegetation consists of filamentous algae. Water temperature varies from 0 °C in winter to 22 °C in summer. The fishes were fixed in 10% formalin and stored in 40% isopropyl alcohol. Each specimen was examined for visible morphological defects.
Mouse Acidic Chitinase Effectively Degrades Random-Type Chitosan to Chitooligosaccharides of Variable Lengths under Stomach and Lung Tissue pH Conditions

Chitooligosaccharides exhibit several biomedical activities, such as inflammation and tumorigenesis reduction in mammals. The mechanism of the chitooligosaccharides’ formation in vivo has been, however, poorly understood. Here we report that mouse acidic chitinase (Chia), which is widely expressed in mouse tissues, can produce chitooligosaccharides from deacetylated chitin (chitosan) at pH levels corresponding to stomach and lung tissues. Chia degraded chitin to produce N-acetyl-d-glucosamine (GlcNAc) dimers. The block-type chitosan (heterogenous deacetylation) is soluble at pH 2.0 (optimal condition for mouse Chia) and was degraded into chitooligosaccharides with various sizes ranging from di- to nonamers. The random-type chitosan (homogenous deacetylation) is soluble in water that enables us to examine its degradation at pH 2.0, 5.0, and 7.0. Incubation of these substrates with Chia resulted in the more efficient production of chitooligosaccharides with more variable sizes was from random-type chitosan than from the block-type form of the molecule. The data presented here indicate that Chia digests chitosan acquired by homogenous deacetylation of chitin in vitro and in vivo. The degradation products may then influence different physiological or pathological processes. Our results also suggest that bioactive chitooligosaccharides can be obtained conveniently using homogenously deacetylated chitosan and Chia for various biomedical applications.
The inside story of China's high-tech industry : making Silicon Valley in Beijing

Introduction Chapter 1: Making Silicon Valley in China: Zhongguancun Chapter 2: From Offspring to Rebel: The Birth of ZGC and the Transformation of China's Science and Technology Establishments, 1950s-1980s Chapter 3: Foreign "Wolf" and Local "Lamb": Multinational Companies and Resurgence of ZGC in the 1990s Chapter 4: The Internet and the Restructuring of ZGC, 1998-2003 Chapter 5: The Anatomy of ZGC: The Domestic Companies Chapter 6: The Dynamics of Internationalization in ZGC Chapter 7: Grassroots Transnationals: Returnee Entrepreneurs Chapter 8: China's Technical Standard Strategies: Toward an Alternative Path Conclusion References
PIV Measurements of the Cross-Flow Velocity Field Around a Turning Submarine Model (ONR Body-1). Part 1. Experimental Setup

Abstract : Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), a quantitative flow visualization technique, was utilized to characterize the flow field around a sting-mounted captive model in a steady turn. The submarine model (ONR Body-I) was also instrumented with block gages, yielding force and moment data in tandem with the detailed map of the cross-flow velocity field. The near wake flow field is observed to be dominated by complex interactions of large-scale vortical structures from the hull separated flow and the tip vortices from the sail and various control surfaces. In addition, the incorporation of micro-vortex generators (MVGs) on the submarine model is shown to have significant effects on the flow field and the resulting forces and moments on the submarine model.
The Research of Pore Water Pressure Effect on the Slope Safety Factor Based on Flac

On the basis of the Australian Computer Society(ACADS)`s typical questions1(a),first, regardless of the slope in the case of pore water pressure, used FLAC procedure calculate the safety factor, the result was very close to the reference answer given by ACADS, we can see the accuracy of FLAC. Then, applied to the slope of different pore water pressure, obtained safety factor under corresponding conditions, then, we found that the pore water pressure had effect on the slope safety factor, but the influence are not same, when the pore water pressure less than a certain value, the influence are very small, but, when the pore water pressure exceeded this value, the influence became very large.
Comparing the risks of diverse methods of electricity generation using the J-value framework

This thesis presents and extends the J-value framework for assessing expenditure on risk mitigation, and then applies the method in a comparative risk assessment of UK electricity generating systems. The thesis is split into two volumes. The first volume contains part one, in which the J-value framework is introduced and developed. The loss of life expectancy is a key parameter in the framework, and general risk models for calculating this parameter are developed in terms of exposures and responses. Specific examples of radiation and pollution models are also presented. The “Hazard Elimination Premium” is also introduced as a useful common metric for risk comparisons. Part one also contains an assessment of the uncertainty of the J-value and its input parameters and it is found that the J-value has an internal accuracy of around 3%, but that other, context dependant parameters can degrade this accuracy. A sensitivity analysis of the J-value framework also found that the J-value was reasonably robust against random variation of the input parameters as well as against the use of simplifying assumptions used in the development of the J-value. The second volume contains parts two and three. Part two describes the comparative risk analysis of the electricity generating systems. The analysis is carried out on nuclear, coal, natural gas, onshore wind and offshore wind. The analysis assesses human mortality impacts arising from the current and future plants over the sixty year period from 2010 to 2070 for the entire fuel chain. The results indicate that nuclear generally has the lowest impacts, while gas, onshore and offshore wind have indicative impacts that are about an order of magnitude greater, although the estimates for both wind technologies carry considerable uncertainty. Coal power was found to present high impacts compared with the other technologies, mainly as a result of pollution emissions. Total nuclear impacts were found to be sensitive to assumptions regarding the use of collective dose and the assumptions which are then used to calculate impacts. For the most pessimistic case, when world exposures are taken, total nuclear impacts increase by about an order of magnitude, which would render the risks from nuclear generation comparable with those from gas and wind generation. Part three presents the conclusions, further work, bibliography and appendices.
Experimental Investigation of Performance of an Air Blast Atomizer by Planar Laser Sheet Imaging Technique

It is widely recognized that the fuel/air mixing process is a critical factor in improving combustion efficiency and in minimizing pollutants such as NOx. Enhancement of fuel/air mixing can lead to lower pollutant emissions and greater efficiency. However, swirling flows in lean combustors play the role of fuel/air mixing and flame stability. The complex fluid dynamic phenomena encountered in swirling two-phase flow contribute to the difficulty in complete understanding the different processes occurring in combustors. Fortunately, Optical and laser-based visualization techniques available in our lab are important non-intrusive tools for visualizing flow process, especially for fuel injection and fuel/air mixing. To provide for a better understanding of effects of counter-rotating flow on droplets in atomization process, this study is a detailed characterization of the spray generated by an airblast atomizer by planar laser sheet imaging method.Optical facility for spray diagnostics with fuel Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (fuel-PLIF) method for fuel distribution, and Particle Image Velocity (PIV) method for velocity of droplets, is used to evaluate the performance of an air-blast atomizer. The results show that the performance of secondary atomization is influenced by swirling flow and primary atomization simultaneously, the swirling flow exhibits significant influence on the droplet size and space distribution relative to that of primary atomization. The primary swirling air reopens the spray cone generated by pressure-swirl atomizer, and the secondary swirling air affects the fuel distribution by forming the recirculation zone. The results provide critical information for design and development of combustion chamber.Copyright © 2013 by ASME
SFLU: Synchronization-Free Sparse LU Factorization for Fast Circuit Simulation on GPUs

Sparse LU factorization is one of the key building blocks of sparse direct solvers and often dominates the computing time of circuit simulation programs. Existing GPU-accelerated sparse LU factorization methods either offload relatively small dense matrix-matrix multiplications to GPU cores, or extract level-set information to parallelize elimination operations in each level. However, because of the insufficient parallelism, neither of the methods can saturate a large amount of compute units on modern GPUs.We in this paper propose a synchronization-free sparse LU factorization algorithm called SFLU. To saturate GPU cores, our method lets each thread block eliminate a column and runs all the thread blocks at the same time. Through communicating dependency information stored on global memory, all the thread blocks either busy wait to run or get updated by their previous columns. Because elimination of all the columns work concurrently, our method avoids any barrier synchronization and saturates GPU resources. By benchmarking over 1000 sparse matrices on an NVIDIA Titan RTX GPU, our SFLU outperforms SuperLU and GLU by a factor of on average 155.71 and 8.21 (up to 3585.62 and 252.66), respectively.
New system for fast submicron laser direct writing

We report on a new system for submicron lithography by fast laser direct writing, where a programmable phase modulating spatial light modulator (SLM) is imaged onto the wafer using flash on the fly exposure with an excimer laser light source. This new principle for maskless optical lithography has been investigated for the first time. A SLM with 512 X 464 pixels has been developed and fabricated using a CMOS active matrix and a reflective, deformable viscoelastic layer on top. Using this light modulator for image generation a demonstrator exposure tool for 0.6 micrometers minimum feature size has been designed and set up including all the components necessary for the exposure of a complete lithographic layer from CAD layout data. The demonstrator is shown to give good quality photoresist pattern on the wafer at a throughput of roughly one 4"-wafer per hour. Based on our experimental results we propose a tool with a throughput of nine 6"-wafers per hour and conclude that the new principle of operation has the potential of high performance optical direct writing lithography.
The Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases in Axial Spondyloarthritis. Current Insights

There is an increased cardiovascular (CV) risk in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), leading to increased CV mortality and morbidity in these patients. The factors that may explain this enhanced CV risk in axSpA are multiple, including traditional CV risk factors such as smoking, but also the inflammatory process and probably the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). The CV involvement of axSpA may be detected at an early and pre-clinical stage, using non-invasive techniques. While NSAIDs play a deleterious role in the CV risk of axSpA, TNF inhibitors seem to have a beneficial impact, but this remains to be demonstrated in specific clinical studies. More data are needed to determine the potential effects of IL-17 inhibitors on the CV risk of axSpA. CV comorbidity has been mainly assessed in the radiographic form of axSpA, while limited data are available in patients with the non-radiographic form. The current management of axSpA must consider this CV comorbidity according to the EULAR recommendations. Rheumatologists play a determinant role in the detection of CV risk and current management of these patients is focused on the control of disease activity, suppression of inflammation, screening for and management of traditional CV risk factors, as well as the restriction of NSAID use.
Clausewitzian Friction And Future War

Abstract : Contents include: The Once and Future Problem of General Friction; Clausewitz's Development of the Unified Concept of a General Friction; Scharnhorst's Clarity About War As It Actually Is; Clausewitz's Mature Concept of General Friction; Friction Before, During, and After Desert Storm; The Intractability of Strategic Surprise; The Inaccessibility of Critical Information; Evolutionary Biology As A Source of Friction and Exemplar for Theory; 'Situation Awareness' in Air to Air Combat and Friction; Nonlinearity and A Modern Taxonomy of General Friction; and Implications for Future War, Its Theory, and Its Conduct.
IN-PLACE BURNING OF CRUDE OILS IN BROKEN ICE1

ABSTRACT In March 1986, in-place oil-burning tests were conducted at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Oil and Hazardous Materials Simulated Environmental Test Tank (OHMSETT) facility in Leonardo, New Jersey. These tests culminated a three-year effort to explore the range of conditions under which in-place burning of oil is possible in broken-ice conditions. Four tests were conducted in the OHMSETT test tank in a 42 m2 area, and 19 follow-on tests were conducted in a 1 m2 pan. The tank tests used Hibernia A and Prudhoe Bay crude oils. The oil was burned in an area having 60% to 75% ice cover. In tests with Hibernia A, both neat and aerated to raise the flash point to 14° C, a total of 65% to 75% of the oil was removed by burning. The neat Prudhoe Bay crude was aerated to a flash point of 46° C and only allowed removal of 18% of the oil. An emulsion of 9% Sandy Hook Bay water and 91% Hibernia crude burned, removing 55% of the emulsion. The pan tests used four crude oils in neat, aerated, and emuls.