Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dark Sector Cosmology

The dark side of the universe is mysterious and its nature is still unknown. In fact, this poses perhaps as the biggest challenge in the modern cosmology. The two components of the dark sector (dark matter and dark energy) correspond today to around ninety five percent of the universe. The simplest dark energy candidate is a cosmological constant. However, this attempt presents a huge discrepancy of 120 orders of magnitude between the theoretical prediction and the observed data. Such a huge disparity motivates physicists to look into a more sophisticated models. This can be done either looking for a deeper understanding of where the cosmological constant comes from, if one wants to derive it from first principles, or considering other possibilities for accelerated expansion, such as modifications of general relativity, additional matter fields and so on. Still regarding a dynamical dark energy, there may exist a possibility of interaction between dark energy and dark matter, since their densities are comparable and, depending on the coupling used, the interaction can also alleviate the issue of why dark energy and matter densities are of the same order today. Phenomenological models have been widely explored in the literature. On the other hand, field theory models that aim a consistent description of the dark energy/dark matter interaction are still few. In this thesis, we explore either a scalar or a vector field as a dark energy candidate in several different approaches, taking into account a possible interaction between the two components of the dark sector. This thesis is based on the following papers: 1611.00428, 1605.03550, 1509.04980, 1508.07248, 1507.00902 and 1505.03243. The author also collaborated in the works 1607.03506 and 1605.05264.
Promoter replacement of ANT1 induces anthocyanin accumulation and triggers the shade avoidance response through developmental, physiological and metabolic reprogramming in tomato

Abstract The accumulation of anthocyanins is a well-known response to abiotic stresses in many plant species. However, the effects of anthocyanin accumulation on light absorbance and photosynthesis are unknown . Here, we addressed this question using a promoter replacement line of tomato constitutively expressing a MYB transcription factor (ANTHOCYANIN1, ANT1) that leads to anthocyanin accumulation. ANT1-overexpressing plants displayed traits associated with shade avoidance response: thinner leaves, lower seed germination rate, suppressed side branching, increased chlorophyll concentration, and lower photosynthesis rates than the wild type. Anthocyanin-rich leaves exhibited higher absorbance of light in the blue and red ends of the spectrum, while higher anthocyanin content in leaves provided photoprotection to high irradiance. Analyses of gene expression and primary metabolites content showed that anthocyanin accumulation produces a reconfiguration of transcriptional and metabolic networks that is consistent with, but not identical to those described for the shade avoidance response. Our results provide novel insights about how anthocyanins accumulation affects the trade-off between photoprotection and growth.
Spectra of length and area in (2 + 1) Lorentzian loop quantum gravity

We study the spectrum of the length and area operators in Lorentzian loop quantum gravity, in 2 + 1 spacetime dimensions. We find that the spectrum of spacelike intervals is continuous, whereas the spectrum of timelike intervals is discrete. This result contradicts the expectation that spacelike intervals are always discrete. On the other hand, it is consistent with the results of the spin foam quantization of the same theory.
Seiberg Duality for Quiver Gauge Theories

A popular way to study N = 1 supersymmetric gauge theories is to realize them geometrically in string theory, as suspended brane constructions, D-branes wrapping cycles in Calabi-Yau manifolds, orbifolds, and otherwise. Among the applications of this idea are simple derivations and generalizations of Seiberg duality for the theories which can be so realized. We abstract from these arguments the idea that Seiberg duality arises because a configu- ration of gauge theory can be realized as a bound state of a collection of branes in more than one way, and we show that different brane world-volume theories obtained this way have matching moduli spaces, the primary test of Seiberg duality. Furthermore, we do this by defining "brane" and all the other ingredients of such arguments purely algebraically, for a very large class of N = 1 quiver supersymmetric gauge theo- ries, making physical intuitions about brane-antibrane systems and tachyon condensation precise using the tools of homological algebra. These techniques allow us to compute the spectrum and superpotential of the dual theory from first principles, and to make contact with geometry and topological string theory when this is appropriate, but in general provide a more abstract notion of "noncommutative geometry" which is better suited to these problems. This makes contact with mathematical results in the representation theory of algebras; in this language, Seiberg duality is a tilting equivalence between the derived categories of the quiver algebras of the dual theories.
Bank stability, performance and efficiency: an experience from West Asian countries

PurposeThe banking sector in West Asia has always experienced positive growth except for Palestine. Apart from some negligible outlying outcomes in some countries that have faced political crises and war, most West Asian countries have gained bank profitability and efficiency. However, the stability in the banking sector has been rarely examined in the literature. Hence, this study sheds light on examining bank stability by considering 12 countries in West Asia.Design/methodology/approachA fixed effect panel data regression analysis is employed on strongly balanced panel data using data from 2004 to 2018.FindingsResults reveal that the net interest margin has a positive relationship with bank stability. The bank’s stability rises as the net interest margin improves. Furthermore, the non-interest income reveals a positive significant impact on the stability of banks, depicting that the increase in non-interest income increases the stability of banks. Additionally, the non-interest expense also reveals positive significant results with the stability of banks. Nevertheless, leverage ratio and long-term debt portray a negative significant impact on banks’ stability. The finding reveals that higher long-term debt and leverage ratios may decrease the stability of the banks in West Asia.Practical implicationsOverall, the authors’ findings add to the literature on the stability of the banks by providing some new but significant information. Some of the recommendations may be beneficial to the long-term success of 12 Western Asian countries’ banks.Originality/valueThe study examines the stability of banks by incorporating both profitability and operating efficiency along with net-interest income, which extends to the current literature’s insight.
Discovery of Probable Relativistic Fe Emission and Absorption in the Cloverleaf Quasar H 1413+117

We present results from Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of the low-ionization broad absorption line (LoBAL) quasar H 1413+117. Our spatial and spectral analysis of a recent deep Chandra observation confirms a microlensing event in a previous Chandra observation performed about five years earlier. We present constraints on the structure of the accretion flow in H 1413+117 based on the timescale of this microlensing event. Our analysis of the combined spectrum of all the images indicates the presence of two emission peaks at rest-frame energies of 5.35 and 6.32 keV, detected at the ≳98% and ≳99% confidence levels, respectively. The double-peaked Fe emission line is fit well with an accretion-disk line model; however, the best-fitting model parameters are neither well constrained nor unique. Additional observations are required to constrain the model parameters better and to confirm the relativistic interpretation of the double-peaked Fe Kα line. Another possible interpretation of the Fe emission is fluorescent Fe emission from the back side of the wind. The spectra of images C and D show significant high-energy broad absorption features that extend up to rest-frame energies of 9 and 15 keV, respectively. We propose that a likely cause of these differences is significant variability of the outflow on timescales that are shorter than the time delays between the images. The Chandra observation of H 1413+117 has made possible for the first time the detection of the inner regions of the accretion disk and/or wind and the high ionization component of the outflowing wind of a LoBAL quasar.
Audit Delay of Manufacturing Companies in Indonesia

Audit delay is the time required by the company in publishing the audit results of its financial statements. The higher number of days of the audit delay, the less preferred by investors. This study proved that only company size can reduce audit delay. Meanwhile, auditor switching, audit committee, and independent board of commissioners have no impact on audit delay. The population in this study were all manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the 2016-2018 period. The sampling technique used was purposive sampling method by setting certain criteria in order to obtain 128 companies that met the criteria. The analytical model used in this study is multiple regression analysis.
Stability and Feasibility of Dried Blood Spots for Hepatitis E Virus Serology in a Rural Setting

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the most common cause of acute viral hepatitis worldwide. In many low-income countries it causes large outbreaks and disproportionally affects pregnant women and their offspring. Surveillance studies to find effective preventive interventions are needed but are hampered by the lack of funding and infrastructure. Dried blood spots (DBS) offer an easier and more robust way to collect, transport, and store blood samples compared to plasma/serum samples, and could ease some of the barriers for such studies. In this study we optimize an HEV IgG ELISA for DBS samples and validate it on 300 paired DBS and plasma samples collected in rural areas of Bangladesh from participants in a HEV vaccine study. We demonstrate that HEV IgG in blood stored as DBS is stable for two months at up to 40 °C, and for five freeze-thaw cycles. The specificity was 97% and the overall sensitivity of the DBS assay was 81%. The sensitivity was higher in samples from vaccinated participants (100%) compared to previously infected participants (59%), reflecting a positive correlation between IgG titer and sensitivity. We found a strong correlation between DBS and plasma samples with an r2 of 0.90, but with a higher degree of difference between individual paired samples. Our study shows that DBS offers a stable alternative to plasma/serum for HEV IgG measurements and can facilitate serological studies, particularly in resource limited areas.
Yanson point-contact spectroscopy of Weyl semimetal WTe2

We carried out point contact (PC) investigation of WTe2 single crystals. We measured Yanson PC spectra (d2V/dI2) of the electron–phonon interaction (EPI) in WTe2. The PC spectra demonstrate a main phonon peak around 8 meV and a shallow second maximum near 16 meV. Their position is in line with the calculation of the EPI spectra of WTe2 in the literature, albeit phonons with higher energy are not resolved in our PC spectra. An additional contribution to the spectra is present above the phonon energy, what may be connected with the peculiar electronic band structure and need to be clarified. We detected tiny superconducting features in d2V/dI2 close to zero bias, which broadens by increasing temperature and blurs above 6 K. Thus, (surface) superconductivity may exist in WTe2 with a topologically nontrivial state. We found a broad maximum in dV/dI at large voltages (>200 mV) indicating change of conductivity from metallic to semiconducting type. The latter might be induced by the high current density (~108 A cm−2) in the PC and/or local heating, thus enabling the manipulation of the quantum electronic states at the interface in the PC core.
The Physics of Crystallizing White Dwarfs

White dwarfs can be used as Galactic chronometers and, therefore, provide important information about Galactic evolution if good theoretical models of their cooling are available. Consequently, it is natural to wonder if all the sources or sinks of energy are correctly taken into account. One energy source is partial differentiation of the chemical components of the white dwarf upon crystallization. In this paper we use a new formalism to show that if there is a redistribution of the elements inside the star, there is a net release of energy that must be radiated away and that slows down the cooling rate of the white dwarf.
Brief Research Report: Teachers’ Gender-Differentiated Attributions

Abstract Teachers play a fundamental role in guaranteeing an inclusive teaching practice using Educational Robotics (ER). However, they may hold gender-differentiated views of their students’ academic abilities and aptitudes in ER. This quasi-experimental test investigated gender-differentiated attributions and behavioral intentions of N = 158 Italian learning support teachers (LST) answering a questionnaire at the end of a post-graduate ER course. Participants read one of two vignettes regarding a student failing an ER activity in class: − (1) a boy; or (2) a girl. Then participants answered items based on measures that assessed their gender stereotypes, attributions for the child’s failure, and hypothetical intentions to use ER with the same child. Results of moderation analyses indicated that the failure of the depicted girl was attributed to internal, stable and uncontrollable causes (i.e., low abilities in ER) to a greater extent than the same failure of the depicted boy, among LST with high levels of gender stereotypes. Furthermore, LST with high levels of gender stereotypes declared less intention to use ER with the depicted girl as compared with the depicted boy.
Higher derivative corrections to eleven dimensional supergravity via local supersymmetry

In this paper we derive higher derivative corrections to the eleven dimensional supergravity by applying the Noether method with respect to the = 1 local supersymmetry. An ansatz for the higher derivative effective action, which includes quartic terms of the Riemann tensor, is parametrized by 132 parameters. Then we show that by the requirement of the local supersymmetry, the higher derivative effective action is essentially described by two parameters. The bosonic parts of these two superinvariants completely match with the known results obtained by the perturbative calculations in the type IIA superstring theory. Since the calculations are long and systematic, we build the computer programming to check the cancellation of the variations under the local supersymmetry. This is an extended version of our previous paper [1].
Knowledge of Dental Ethics and Jurisprudence Among Dental Practitioners in Pune: A Questionnaire Survey

Objective Dental ethics is a moral obligation that solicits professional behaviour imposed by the members of the dental profession. In addition, a set of legal regulations by each state's legislature describing the legal limitations and regulations related to dentistry, dental hygiene, and dental assisting is a part of dental jurisprudence. The present study aims to evaluate the knowledge regarding ethics and medical law for the practice among private practitioners in Pune, India. Materials and methods This was a cross-sectional study. The snowball sampling method (a randomization method) was used to contact all the registered practitioners for the study. A total of 250 dentists agreed to provide written informed consent and participate in the study. The collected data were entered into Microsoft Excel 2013 sheet (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA) and cleaned, and statistical analysis was carried out using Epi Info software (CDC, Atlanta, GA). All p-values below 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Results A total of 250 dentists participated in the present study. Female postgraduate dentists had lesser knowledge of abbreviations used on dental boards. Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) dentists had more knowledge regarding dental jurisprudence than Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) practitioners. Conclusions The present study highlighted the lack of awareness regarding dental ethics and jurisprudence among dental practitioners. It underlines the need for more education programs and curriculum changes with a focus on ethics, jurisprudence, and legal matters pertaining to clinical practice.
Planet Formation in AB Aurigae: Imaging of the Inner Gaseous Spirals Observed inside the Dust Cavity

We report the results of ALMA observations of a protoplanetary disk surrounding the Herbig Ae star AB Aurigae. We obtained high-resolution (0.″1; 14 au) images in 12CO J = 2 − 1 emission and in the dust continuum at the wavelength of 1.3 mm. The continuum emission is detected at the center and at the ring with a radius (r) of ∼120 au. The CO emission is dominated by two prominent spirals within the dust ring. These spirals are trailing and appear to be about 4 times brighter than their surrounding medium. Their kinematics is consistent with Keplerian rotation at an inclination of 23°. The apparent two-arm-spiral pattern is best explained by tidal disturbances created by an unseen companion located at r of 60–80 au, with dust confined in the pressure bumps created outside this companion orbit. An additional companion at r of 30 au, coinciding with the peak CO brightness and a large pitch angle of the spiral, would help to explain the overall emptiness of the cavity. Alternative mechanisms to excite the spirals are discussed. The origin of the large pitch angle detected here remains puzzling.
The metallicity of the intracluster medium over cosmic time: further evidence for early enrichment

We use Chandra X-ray data to measure the metallicity of the intracluster medium (ICM) in 245 massive galaxy clusters selected from X-ray and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect surveys, spanning redshifts 0 < z < 1.2. Metallicities were measured in three different radial ranges, spanning cluster cores through their outskirts. We explore trends in these measurements as a function of cluster redshift, temperature and surface brightness 'peakiness' (a proxy for gas cooling efficiency in cluster centres). The data at large radii (0.5-1 r(500)) are consistent with a constant metallicity, while at intermediate radii (0.1-0.5 r(500)) we see a late-time increase in enrichment, consistent with the expected production and mixing of metals in cluster cores. In cluster centres, there are strong trends of metallicity with temperature and peakiness, reflecting enhanced metal production in the lowest entropy gas. Within the cool-core/sharply peaked cluster population, there is a large intrinsic scatter in central metallicity and no overall evolution, indicating significant astrophysical variations in the efficiency of enrichment. The central metallicity in clusters with flat surface brightness profiles is lower, with a smaller intrinsic scatter, but increases towards lower redshifts. Our results are consistent with other recent measurements of ICM metallicity as a function of redshift. They reinforce the picture implied by observations of uniform metal distributions in the outskirts of nearby clusters, in which most of the enrichment of the ICM takes place before cluster formation, with significant later enrichment taking place only in cluster centres, as the stellar populations of the central galaxies evolve.
Applied Logistic Regression: Hosmer/Applied Logistic Regression

"A new edition of the definitive guide to logistic regression modeling for health science and other applicationsThis thoroughly expanded Third Edition provides an easily accessible introduction to the logistic regression (LR) model and highlights the power of this model by examining the relationship between a dichotomous outcome and a set of covariables. Applied Logistic Regression, Third Edition emphasizes applications in the health sciences and handpicks topics that best suit the use of modern statistical software. The book provides readers with state-of-the-art techniques for building, interpreting, and assessing the performance of LR models. New and updated features include: A chapter on the analysis of correlated outcome data. A wealth of additional material for topics ranging from Bayesian methods to assessing model fit Rich data sets from real-world studies that demonstrate each method under discussion. Detailed examples and interpretation of the presented results as well as exercises throughout Applied Logistic Regression, Third Edition is a must-have guide for professionals and researchers who need to model nominal or ordinal scaled outcome variables in public health, medicine, and the social sciences as well as a wide range of other fields and disciplines"--
DTC Linearization via Mismatch-Noise Cancellation for Digital Fractional-N PLLs

Digital-to-time converter (DTC) based quantization noise cancellation (QNC) has recently been shown to enable excellent fractional-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> PLL performance, but it requires a highly-linear DTC. Known DTC linearization strategies include analog-domain techniques which involve performance tradeoffs and digital predistortion techniques which converge slowly relative to typical required PLL settling times. Alternatively, a DTC implemented as a cascade of 1-bit DTC stages can be made highly linear without special techniques, but such DTCs typically introduce excessive error from component mismatches which has so far hindered their use in low-jitter PLLs. This paper presents a background calibration technique that addresses this issue by adaptively canceling error from DTC component mismatches. The technique is entirely digital, is compatible with a large class of digital fractional-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> PLLs, and has at least an order of magnitude lower convergence time than the above-mentioned predistortion techniques. The paper presents a rigorous theoretical analysis closely supported by simulation results which quantifies the calibration technique’s convergence time and noise performance.
Duality and mapping tori in Heegaard Floer homology

We show that the graph TQFT for Heegaard Floer homology satisfies a strong version of Atiyah's duality axiom for a TQFT. As an application, we compute some Heegaard Floer mixed invariants of 4‐dimensional mapping tori in terms of Lefschetz numbers on HF+ .
Kinematics of the Local Universe XIV. Measurements from the 21 cm line and the HI mass function from a homogeneous catalog gathered with the Nançay radio telescope

Aims. This paper presents 828 new 21 cm neutral hydrogen line measurements carried out with the FORT receiver of the meridian transit Nancay radio telescope (NRT) in the years 2000–2007. Methods. This observational program was part of a larger project aimed at collecting an exhaustive and magnitude-complete HI extragalactic catalog for Tully-Fisher applications. Through five massive data releases, the KLUN series has collected a homogeneous sample of 4876 HI-spectra of spiral galaxies, complete down to a flux of 5 Jy km s -1 and with declination δ > −40°. Results. We publish here the last release of the KLUN HI observational program, corresponding to the faint end of the survey, with HI masses ranging from 5 × 10 8 to 5 × 10 10 solar masses. The size of this final sample is comparable to the catalogs based on the Arecibo and Parkes radio telescope campaigns, and it allows general HI mass distribution studies from a set of homogeneous radio measurements.