Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Statistically anisotropic curvature perturbation generated during the waterfall

If the waterfall field of hybrid inflation couples to a U(1) gauge field, the waterfall can generate a statistically anisotropic contribution to the curvature perturbation. We investigate this possibility, generalising in several directions the seminal work of Yokoyama and Soda. The statistical anisotropy of the bispectrum could be detectable by PLANCK even if the statistical anisotropy of the spectrum is too small to detect.
Disturbances of 1-2 hour-periods observed in the tropical lower troposphere during the TOGA-COARE IOP

Mesoscale disturbances in the tropical lower troposphere having periods of 1-2 hours were detected in the wind profiler data during the intensive observing period of the Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA-COARE). Seven cases were detected with average amplitudes of the vertical velocity greater than 0.1 m s -1 . One case that was observed at Kapingamarangi (1.1°N, 154.8°E) on January 7, 1993 was examined in detail. This disturbance had a period of 60 minutes and a duration of 6 hours. Assuming that this disturbance was a gravity wave, the vertical and horizontal wavelengths were estimated as 5.4-7.6 km and 24-37 km, respectively. Using satellite and sounding data, it was inferred that the disturbance was excited by a mesoscale cloud line lying about 400 km ESE from Kapingamarangi, and then propagated in a wave duct in the troposphere.
The Stagger-grid: A Grid of 3D Stellar Atmosphere Models V. Fe line shapes, shifts and asymmetries ⋆

Aims. We present a theoretical study of the effects and signatures of realistic velocity field and atmosphe ric inhomogeneities associated with convective motions at the surface of cool late-type stars on the emergent profiles of iron spectral lines for a la rge range in stellar parameters. Methods. We compute 3D spectral line flux profiles under the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) by employing state-of-the-art, time-dependent, 3D, radiative-hydrod ynamical atmosphere models from the Stagger-grid. A set of 35 real unblended, optical Fei and Feii lines of varying excitation potential are considered. Addi tionally, fictitious Fe i and Feii lines (5000 ˚ A and 0, 2, 4 eV) are used to construct general curves of growth and enable comparison of line profiles with the same line strength to il lustrate systematical trends stemming from the intrinsic structural differences among 3D model atmospheres with different stellar parameters. Theoretical line shifts and bisectors are derived to analyz e the shapes, shifts, and asymmetries imprinted in the full 3D line profiles emerging self-consistently from the convective simulations with velocity fields and atmospheric inhomogeneities. Results. We find systematic variations in line strength, shift, width , and bisectors, that can be related to the respective physic al conditions at the height of the line formation in the stellar atmospheric environment, in particular the amplitude of the vertical velocity field. Conclusions. Line shifts and asymmetries arise due to the presence of convective velocities and the granulation pattern that are ubiquitously found in observed stellar spectra of cool star s.
Prediction of the Rheological Properties of Fresh Cementitious Suspensions Considering Microstructural Parameters

Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) are commonly used to partially replace cements. Although it is necessary to investigate the rheological properties of the individual supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) for understanding complex rheological behaviors of the blended mixes, the study on the investigation of rheological properties of various SCMs such as fly ash, blast-furnace slag, and silica fume, according to various solid volume fractions and prediction models is fairly limited. This study investigated the rheological properties of non-blended cementitious suspensions with Portland cement (PC), fly ash (FA), blast-furnace slag (BS), and silica fume (SF) materials in the experiments and predicted using YODEL (Yield stress mODEL) and Krieger–Dougherty’s (K–D’s) equation. Experiments were designed with various solid volume fractions (ϕ) from 0.28 to 0.44, and the rheological properties of all cementitious suspensions were noted to increase with increasing ϕ, showing an improved flowability at low ϕ. YODEL, derived from the first principles considering particle-size distributions, interparticle forces and microstructural parameters predicted the yield stress. The YODEL predictions were consistent with the experiments with a positive correlation coefficient of above 0.96. K–D’s equation with the maximum particle fractions and intrinsic viscosity as key parameters predicted the plastic viscosity. The K–D’s equation predictions match up with the experiments with a positive correlation coefficient of above 0.94. Both models showed more quantitative predictions without any fitting parameters and could be applied to any multimodal powder suspensions.
Modeling a Spheroidal Particle Ensemble and Inversion by Generalized Runge–Kutta Regularizers from Limited Data

Extracting information about the shape or size of non-spherical aerosol particles from limited optical radar data is a well-known inverse ill-posed problem. The purpose of the study is to figure out a robust and stable regularization method including an appropriate parameter choice rule to address the latter problem. First, we briefly review common regularization methods and investigate a new iterative family of generalized Runge–Kutta filter regularizers. Next, we model a spheroidal particle ensemble and test with it different regularization methods experimenting with artificial data pertaining to several atmospheric scenarios. We found that one method of the newly introduced generalized family combined with the L-curve method performs better compared to traditional methods.
Serum Analytes of American Mink (Neovison Vison) Challenged with Aleutian Mink Disease Virus

Simple Summary Aleutian mink disease virus (AMDV) causes major health problems in the mink industry worldwide. The disease caused by AMDV has no cure or effective vaccine, and long-term viral eradication programs have failed in many countries. Some AMDV infected mink are genetically capable of tolerating the infection and living healthy and productive lives. Genetic selection for tolerance is, thus, a practical strategy to combat this virus. Accurate identification of tolerant animals is the fundamental issue in selection programs. The concentrations of some blood analytes, which are widely used as indicators of the presence and severity of diseases in humans and animals, are known to increase the accuracy of identifying tolerant mink. The objective of this study was to evaluate the merits of 14 serum analytes as biomarkers of tolerance to AMDV infection. Blood samples from 493 AMDV inoculated mink collected between 120 and 1211 days post-inoculation were analyzed. Total serum protein and globulin were found to be the most useful biomarkers of tolerance, whereas the relationships of other serum analytes to tolerance were weak or negligible. Abstract Black American mink (Neovison vison), which had been selected for tolerance to Aleutian mink disease virus (AMDV) for more than 20 years (TG100) or were from herds that have been free of AMDV (TG0), along with their progeny and crosses with 50% and 75% tolerance ancestry, were inoculated with a local isolate of AMDV. Blood samples were collected from 493 mink between 120 and 1211 days post-inoculation, and concentrations of 14 serum analytes were measured. Distributions of all analytes significantly deviated from normality, and data were analyzed after Box–Cox power transformation. Significant differences were observed among tolerant groups in the concentrations of globulin (GLO), total protein (TP), alkaline phosphatase, urea nitrogen, and calcium. Concentrations of GLO and TP linearly and significantly decreased with an increasing percentage of tolerance ancestry. Eleven analytes had the smallest values in the tolerant groups (TG100 or TG75), and eight analytes had the greatest values in the non-selected groups (TG0 or TG50). Antibody titer had the greatest correlation coefficients with GLO (0.62), TP (0.53), and creatinine (0.36). It was concluded that selection for tolerance decreased the concentrations of most serum analytes, and TP and GLO were the most accurate biomarkers of tolerance to AMDV infection. Males had significantly greater values than females for phosphorus and total bilirubin concentrations, but females had significantly greater amylase, cholesterol, and BUN concentrations than males.
Vertebral Augmentation: Is It Time to Get Past the Pain? A Consensus Statement from the Sardinia Spine and Stroke Congress

Vertebral augmentation has been used to treat painful vertebral compression fractures and metastatic lesions in millions of patients around the world. An international group of subject matter experts have considered the evidence, including but not limited to mortality. These considerations led them to ask whether it is appropriate to allow the subjective measure of pain to so dominate the clinical decision of whether to proceed with augmentation. The discussions that ensued are related below.
Impact of operational activities on customer satisfaction in cafes and restaurants: A mediating role of infrastructural elements

After restrictions on community activities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted, numerous businesses, including restaurants and cafes, have already resumed normal operations. Competition is also unavoidable. Thus, companies should motivate their managers to develop various operational strategies to increase customer satisfaction. This study aims to analyze the relationship between customer satisfaction and operational management activities, including layout, decoration, location, and cleanliness. In addition, it examines human resource management, food quality, and atmosphere as mediating variables. Data were obtained using an online questionnaire conducted between June and December 2021. A total of 1,068 clients of cafes and restaurants were selected as the participants using purposive random sampling. Data were evaluated using variance-based structural equation modeling. The results showed that operational management activities promote cafes and restaurants (p-value = 0.000). Furthermore, this study indicates the role of infrastructure elements, specifically human resource management, atmosphere, and food quality, as moderating variables on customer satisfaction (p-value = 0.000). Overall, the findings of this empirical study provide a theoretical contribution by emphasizing cafe and restaurant operational strategies that enhance customer satisfaction.
Non-native plant associations with wildfire, tree removals, and deer in the eastern United States

Wildfires, tree removals, and deer herbivory are potential pathways for spread of non-native plants. I modeled the number of recorded nonnative plant species by county compared to wildfire area, tree removals, and deer densities in the eastern United States and also eastern forests. Species richness of 1016 plant species in 780 primarily forested counties decreased with increased values of the three variables; models equally showed negative relationships. For model predictions, based on withheld samples of non-native species counts, percentage wildfire area alone had the greatest association (R2 value of 31%) for non-native species richness in eastern forests; non-native species richness decreased with wildfire area until stabilizing at >1% wildfire area to a neutral relationship. For 1581 species in 2431 counties in the eastern U.S., the three variables each had an overall negative relationship with non-native species richness (R2 value up to 14%), without a consensus by three regression types of most influential variables. These formal models suggest that wildfire, tree removals, and deer herbivory generally may be nominal pathways for non-native plant spread at landscape scales in the eastern United States.
Comparison of the VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey with the Munich semi-analytical model II. The colour−density relation up to z ∼ 1.5

Aims. Our aim is to perform the same colour-density analysis on galaxy mock samples as was carried out on a 5 h(-1) Mpc scale using the VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS), and to compare the results from these mock samples with observed data. This allows us to test galaxy evolution in the model and to understand the relation between the studied environment and the underlying dark matter distribution. Methods. We used galaxy mock catalogues with the same flux limits as the VVDS-Deep (I-AB \textless= 24) survey (CMOCKS), constructed using a semi-analytic model for galaxy evolution applied to the Millennium Simulation. From each CMOCK, we extracted a subsample of galaxies mimicking the VVDS observational strategy (OMOCKS). We then computed the B-band luminosity function LF and the colour-density relation in the mock samples using the same methods as employed for the VVDS data. Results. We find that the B-band LF in mock samples roughly agrees with the observed LF, but at 0.2 \textless z \textless 0.8 the faint-end slope of the model LF is steeper than the observed one. Computing the LF for early-and late-type galaxies separately, we show that mock samples have an excess of faint early-type galaxies and of bright late-type galaxies compared with the data. We find that the colour-density relation in OMOCKS agrees excellently with that in CMOCKS. This suggests that the VVDS observational strategy does not introduce any severe bias to the observed colour-density relation. At z similar to 0.7, the colour-density relation in mock samples agrees qualitatively with observations, with red galaxies residing preferentially in high densities. However, the strength of the colour-density relation in mock samples does not vary within 0.2 \textless z \textless 1.5, while the observed relation flattens with increasing redshift and possibly inverts at z similar to 1.3. We argue that the lack of evolution in the colour-density relation in the model cannot be due only to inaccurate prescriptions for the evolution of satellite galaxies, but indicates that the treatment of the central galaxies has also to be revised. Conclusions. The reversal of the colour-density relation can be explained by wet mergers between young galaxies, producing a starburst event. This should be seen on group scales, where mergers are frequent, with possibly some residual trend on larger scales. This residual is found in observations at z = 1.5 on a scale of similar to 5 h(-1) Mpc, but not in the model, suggesting that the treatment of physical processes influencing both satellites and central galaxies in models should be revised. A detailed analysis would be desirable on small scales as well, which requires flux limits fainter than those of the VVDS data.
Advanced spectral analysis of ionospheric waves observed with sparse arrays

This paper presents a case study from a single, 6h observing period to illustrate the application of techniques developed for interferometric radio telescopes to the spectral analysis of observations of ionospheric fluctuations with sparse arrays. We have adapted the deconvolution methods used for making high dynamic range images of cosmic sources with radio arrays to making comparably high dynamic range maps of spectral power of wavelike ionospheric phenomena. In the example presented here, we have used observations of the total electron content (TEC) gradient derived from Very Large Array (VLA) observations of synchrotron emission from two galaxy clusters at 330MHz as well as GPS‐based TEC measurements from a sparse array of 33 receivers located within New Mexico near the VLA. We show that these techniques provide a significant improvement in signal‐to‐noise ratio (S/N) of detected wavelike structures by correcting for both measurement inaccuracies and wavefront distortions. This is especially true for the GPS data when combining all available satellite/receiver pairs, which probe a larger physical area and likely have a wider variety of measurement errors than in the single‐satellite case. In this instance, we found that the peak S/N of the detected waves was improved by more than an order of magnitude. The data products generated by the deconvolution procedure also allow for a reconstruction of the fluctuations as a two‐dimensional waveform/phase screen that can be used to correct for their effects.
The analysis of the largest sample of multifrequency pulsar scatter time estimates

We present our results of pulse broadening time estimates and the study of the frequency scaling of this quantity for 60 pulsars based on actual multi-frequency scattering estimates. This research was based on our own measurements, performed on the observational data and the profiles from various pulsar profile databases, as well as the scatter time measurements that were found in the literature. We were able to construct a database of over 60 pulsars with true multi-frequency $\alpha$ measurements, which allowed us to revise the previously proposed relations between the scatter time spectral slope and the dispersion measure (DM). We found that the deviations from theoretical predictions of the value of $\alpha$ appear for pulsars regardless of their DM, however the DM-averaged value of the scaling index is almost constant except for pulsars with very high DMs. Based on the obtained slopes we were also able to estimate the amount of scattering at the standard frequency of 1 GHz. We found that while the estimated standardized pulse broadening time increases with DM the relation seems to be much flatter than it was previously proposed, which suggests higher values of the scatter time for mid-DM pulsars, and lower values of expected pulse broadening for highly dispersed sources.
Local Support on Sports Tourism Development: An Integration of Emotional Solidarity and Social Exchange Theory

Globally, sports tourism is considered a vital type of tourism that combines sports and tourism to attract tourists, contribute to the economy, and promote local culture. Despite its straightforward relevance, the current literature finds some drawbacks of the social exchange theory (SET) in modeling local support in tourism development, particularly when dealing with emotional interactions among tourists and locals. Thus, this study integrates the emotional solidarity construct (i.e., welcoming nature, sympathetic understanding, and emotional closeness), residents’ attitudes, and the extension of SET (i.e., support for sports tourism, community contribution, and future support for sports tourism development) to model the residents’ support for future sports tourism development, with personality traits as a moderating variable between emotional solidarity and attitude. This study uses random sampling to obtain the response from 1004 residents in Danao City (Philippines)—an emerging destination for sporting events. Furthermore, partial least squares—structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is utilized to examine the direct relationships among the exogenous and endogenous constructs and the moderating effect of personality traits (i.e., Big Five personality traits). The results revealed that all direct relationships were supported, indicating that those emotional interactions among tourists and residents would affect the latter’s view on their support for sports tourism which would consequently translate to support for future development agenda. However, the moderating effect of the personality traits was not supported. Furthermore, a multigroup analysis was conducted to gain more profound implications on the varying attitudes of the residents towards sports tourism. Based on the study’s findings, insights were drawn for governments to design specific measures for developing sports tourism in view of local support.
Diffusive heat blanketing envelopes of neutron stars

We construct new models of outer heat blanketing envelopes of neutron stars composed of binary ion mixtures (H - He, He - C, C - Fe) in and out of diffusive equilibrium. To this aim, we generalize our previous work on diffusion of ions in isothermal gaseous or Coulomb liquid plasmas to handle non-isothermal systems. We calculate the relations between the effective surface temperature Ts and the temperature Tb at the bottom of heat blanketing envelopes (at a density rhob= 1e8 -- 1e10 g/cc) for diffusively equilibrated and non-equilibrated distributions of ion species at different masses DeltaM of lighter ions in the envelope. Our principal result is that the Ts - Tb relations are fairly insensitive to detailed distribution of ion fractions over the envelope (diffusively equilibrated or not) and depend almost solely on DeltaM. The obtained relations are approximated by analytic expressions which are convenient for modeling the evolution of neutron stars.
THE FAINTEST X-RAY SOURCES FROM z = 0 TO 8,,

We use the new 4 Ms exposure of the Chandra Deep Field-South (CDF-S) field obtained with the Chandra X-ray satellite to investigate the properties of the faintest X-ray sources over a wide range of redshifts. We use an optimized averaging procedure to investigate the weighted mean X-ray fluxes of optically selected sources in the CDF-S over the redshift range z = 0–8 and down to 0.5–2 keV fluxes as low as 5 × 10−19 erg cm−2 s−1. None of the samples of sources at high redshifts (z > 5) show any significant flux, and at z = 6.5 we place an upper limit on the X-ray luminosity of 4 × 1041 erg s−1 in the rest-frame 3.75–15 keV band for the sample of Bouwens et al. This is consistent with any X-ray production in the galaxies being solely due to star formation. At lower redshifts, we find significant weighted mean X-ray fluxes in many samples of sources over the redshift range z = 0–4. We use these to argue that (1) the relation between star formation and X-ray production remains invariant over this redshift range, (2) X-ray sources below the direct detection threshold in the CDF-S are primarily star forming, and (3) there is full consistency between UV and X-ray estimations of the star formation history.
The (galaxy-wide) IMF in giant elliptical galaxies: From top to bottom

Recent evidence based independently on spectral line strengths and dynamical modelling point towards a non-universal stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF), probably implying an excess of low-mass stars in elliptical galaxies with a high velocity dispersion. Here we show that a time-independent bottom-heavy IMF is compatible neither with the observed metal-rich populations found in giant ellipticals nor with the number of stellar remnants observed within these systems. We suggest a two-stage formation scenario involving a time-dependent IMF to reconcile these observational constraints. In this model, an early strong star-bursting stage with a top-heavy IMF is followed by a more prolonged stage with a bottom-heavy IMF. Such model is physically motivated by the fact that a sustained high star formation will bring the interstellar medium to a state of pressure, temperature and turbulence that can drastically alter the fragmentation of the gaseous component into small clumps, promoting the formation of low-mass stars. This toy model is in good agreement with the different observational constrains on massive elliptical galaxies, such as age, metallicity, alpha-enhancement, M/L, or the mass fraction of the stellar component in low-mass stars.