Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mixing Evaluation of a Passive Scaled-Up Serpentine Micromixer With Slanted Grooves

A novel, passive, scaled-up micromixer based on fluid rotation is proposed and evaluated experimentally and numerically over Reynolds numbers ranging from 0.5 to 100. Flow visualization is employed to qualitatively assess flow patterns, while induced fluorescence is used to quantify species distribution at five locations along the channel length. Two individual fluids are supplied to the test section via a Y-inlet. The fluid enters a meandering channel with four semicircular portions, each of which is lined with nine slanted grooves at the bottom surface. The main mixing channel is 3 mm wide and 0.75 mm deep, with a total length of 155.8 mm. Numerical simulations confirm rotation at all investigated Reynolds numbers, and the strength of rotation increases with increasing Reynolds number. Grooves are employed to promote helical flow, while the serpentine channel structure results in the formation of Dean vortices at Re ≥ 50 (Dean number ≥ 18.25), where momentum has a more significant effect. A decreasing-increasing trend in the degree of mixing was noted, with an inflection point at Re = 5, marking the transition from diffusion dominance to advection dominance. The increase in interfacial surface area is credited with the improved mixing in the advection-dominant regime, while high residence time allowed for significant mass diffusion in the diffusion-dominant regime. Good mixing was achieved at both high and low Reynolds numbers, with a maximum mixing index of 0.90 at Re = 100.
STU black holes and SgrA⋆

The equations of null geodesics in the STU family of rotating black hole solutions of supergravity theory, which may be considered as deformations of the vacuum Kerr metric, are completely integrable. We propose that they be used as a foil to test, for example, with what precision the gravitational field external to the black hole at the centre of our galaxy is given by the Kerr metric. By contrast with some metrics proposed in the literature, the STU metrics satisfy by construction the dominant and strong energy conditions. Our considerations may be extended to include the effects of a cosmological term. We show that these metrics permit a straightforward calculation of the properties of black hole shadows.
Chandra Observations of Magnetic Fields and Relativistic Beaming in Four Quasar Jets

We discuss the physical properties of four quasar jets imaged with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory in the course of a survey for X-ray emission from radio jets (Marshall et al.). These objects have sufficient counts to study their spatially resolved properties, even in the 5 ks survey observations. We have acquired Australia Telescope Compact Array data with resolution matching Chandra. We have searched for optical emission with Magellan, with subarcsecond resolution. The radio to X-ray spectral energy distribution for most of the individual regions indicates against synchrotron radiation from a single-component electron spectrum. We therefore explore the consequences of assuming that the X-ray emission is the result of inverse Compton scattering on the cosmic microwave background. If particles and magnetic fields are near minimum energy density in the jet rest frames, then the emitting regions must be relativistically beamed, even at distances of order 500 kpc from the quasar. We estimate the magnetic field strengths, relativistic Doppler factors, and kinetic energy flux as a function of distance from the quasar core for two or three distinct regions along each jet. We develop, for the first time, estimates in the uncertainties in these parameters, recognizing that they are dominated by our assumptions in applying the standard synchrotron minimum energy conditions. The kinetic power is comparable with, or exceeds, the quasar radiative luminosity, implying that the jets are a significant factor in the energetics of the accretion process powering the central black hole. The measured radiative efficiencies of the jets are of order 10-4.
Oral oxycodone self‐administration leads to features of opioid misuse in male and female mice

Use of prescription opioids, particularly oxycodone, is an initiating factor driving the current opioid epidemic. There are several challenges with modelling oxycodone abuse. First, prescription opioids including oxycodone are orally self‐administered and have different pharmacokinetics and dynamics than morphine or fentanyl, which have been more commonly used in rodent research. This oral route of administration determines the pharmacokinetic profile, which then influences the establishment of drug‐reinforcement associations in animals. Moreover, the pattern of intake and the environment in which addictive drugs are self‐administered are critical determinants of the levels of drug intake, of behavioural sensitization and of propensity to relapse behaviour. These are all important considerations when modelling prescription opioid use, which is characterized by continuous drug access in familiar environments. Thus, to model features of prescription opioid use and the transition to abuse, we designed an oral, homecage‐based oxycodone self‐administration paradigm. Mice voluntarily self‐administer oxycodone in this paradigm without any taste modification such as sweeteners, and the majority exhibit preference for oxycodone, escalation of intake, physical signs of dependence and reinstatement of seeking after withdrawal. In addition, a subset of animals demonstrate drug taking that is resistant to aversive consequences. This model is therefore translationally relevant and useful for studying the neurobiological substrates of prescription opioid abuse.
Revisiting the Size–Luminosity Relation in the Era of Ultra Diffuse Galaxies

Galaxies are generally found to follow a relation between their size and luminosity, such that luminous galaxies typically have large sizes. The recent identification of a significant population of galaxies with large sizes but low luminosities (“ultra diffuse galaxies,” or UDGs) raises the question of whether the inverse is also true—that is, whether large galaxies typically have high luminosities. Here we address this question by studying a size-limited sample of galaxies in the Coma cluster. We select red cluster galaxies with sizes of reff > 2 kpc down to Mg ∼ −13 mag in an area of 9 deg2, using carefully filtered Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope images. The sample is complete to a central surface brightness of μg,0 ≈ 25.0 mag arcsec−2 and includes 90% of Dragonfly-discovered UDGs brighter than this limit. Unexpectedly, we find that red, large galaxies have a fairly uniform distribution in the size–luminosity plane: there is no peak at the absolute magnitude implied by the canonical size–luminosity relation. The number of galaxies within ±0.5 mag of the canonical peak (Mg = −19.69 for 2 < reff < 3 kpc) is a factor of ∼9 smaller than the number of fainter galaxies with −19 < Mg < −13. Large, faint galaxies, such as UDGs, are far more common than large galaxies that are on the size–luminosity relation. An implication is that, for large galaxies, size is not an indicator of the halo mass. Finally, we show that the structure of faint large galaxies is different from that of bright large galaxies: at a fixed large size, the Sérsic index decreases with the magnitude following the relation .
Multi-Objective Optimization of an Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor with Arc-Shaped Magnets

To get a better electromagnetic performance of an axial flux permanent magnet brushless DC motor (AFPMBLDC), an AFPMBLDC with arc-shaped magnets and its multi-objective optimization design are researched. Firstly, the main design parameters of the AFPMBLDC are proposed, and the initial designs are carried out according to the given requirements. Furthermore, the pole arc coefficient, permanent magnet thickness, permanent magnet arc radius, and air-gap length are selected as optimization factors. Then, an orthogonal experiment table is established, in which the flux density, no-load back EMF, harmonic distortion rate, and output torque ripple are selected as optimization targets. The Taguchi optimization method is adopted to optimize the performance indexes and the optimal parameters are obtained. Finally, the optimized model is constructed, and some simulations are carried out to verify the optimal design. The research results have shown that the air-gap flux density of the optimized AFPMBLDC is reduced to 31.8%, the total harmonic distortion rate of no-load back EMF is less than 7.5%, and the torque ripple is reduced to 4.3%.
A Numerical Exploration of the Spherically Symmetric SU(2) Einstein-Yang-Mills Equations

The Einstein-Yang-Mills equations are the source of many interesting solutions within general relativity, including families of particle-like and black hole solutions, and critical phenomena of more than one type. These solutions, discovered in the last thirty years, all assume a restricted form for the Yang-Mills gauge potential known as the "magnetic" ansatz. In this thesis we relax that assumption and investigate the most general solutions of the Einstein-Yang-Mills system assuming spherically symmetry, a Yang-Mills gauge group of SU(2), and zero cosmological constant. We proceed primarily by numerically integrating the equations and find new static solutions, for both regular and black hole boundary conditions, which are not asymptotically flat, and attempt to classify the possible static behaviours. We develop a code to solve the dynamic equations that uses a novel adaptive mesh refinement algorithm making full use of double-null coordinates. We find that the "type II" critical behaviour in the general case exhibits non-universal critical solutions, in contrast to the magnetic case and to all previously observed type II critical behaviour.
Retrieving Pulsatility in Ultrasound Localization Microscopy

Ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) is a vascular imaging method that provides a 10-fold improvement in resolution compared to ultrasound Doppler imaging. Because typical ULM acquisitions accumulate large numbers of synthetic microbubble (MB) trajectories over hundreds of cardiac cycles, transient hemodynamic variations such as pulsatility get averaged out. Here we introduce two independent processing methods to retrieve pulsatile flow characteristics from MB trajectories sampled at kilohertz frame rates and demonstrate their potential on a simulated dataset. The first approach follows a Lagrangian description of the flow. We filter the MB trajectories to eliminate ULM localization grid artifacts and successfully recover the pulsatility fraction <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{\mathrm {f}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 3.3%. Our second approach follows a Eulerian description of the flow. It relies on the accumulation of MB velocity estimates as observed from a stationary observer. We show that pulsatile flow gives rise to a bimodal velocity distribution with peaks indicating the maximum and minimum velocities of the cardiac cycle. In this second method, we recovered the pulsatility fraction <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{\mathrm {f}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> by measuring the location of these distribution peaks with a RMSE of 5.2%. We evaluated the impact of the MB localization precision <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sigma $ </tex-math></inline-formula> on our ability to retrieve the bimodal signature of a pulsatile flow. Together, our results demonstrate that pulsatility can be retrieved from ULM acquisitions at kilohertz frame rate and that the estimation of the pulsatility fraction improves with localization precision.
Operad groups as a unified framework for Thompson-like groups

We propose a new unified framework for Thompson-like groups using a well-known device called operads and category theory as language. We discuss examples of operad groups which have appeared in the literature before. As a first application, we give sufficient conditions for plain operads to yield groups of type $F_\infty$. This unifies and extends existing proofs for certain Thompson-like groups in a conceptual manner.
Assessment of Immune and Clinical Response in Patients with Mucosal Leishmaniasis Treated with Pentavalent Antimony and Pentoxifylline

Mucosal leishmaniasis (ML) is a severe form of tegumentary leishmaniasis associated with a persistent inflammatory response. High levels of TNF, IFN-γ, CXCL9 and CXCL10 are found in ML patients, and the association of pentoxifylline with antimony is more effective in decreasing the healing time in ML patients when compared to antimony alone. The present study aimed to investigate the existence of a correlation between cytokine and chemokine production and ML severity and evaluate the potential value of cytokine and chemokine production as marker of therapeutic response in ML patients. This prospective study included 86 subjects in an area of endemic Leishmania braziliensis transmission. Patients diagnosed with ML were classified into clinical stages ranging from I to V according to disease severity. TNF, IFN-γ, CXCL9 and CXCL10 levels were quantified in the supernatant of the mononuclear cell cultures by ELISA before and after treatment with antimony alone or antimony plus pentoxifylline. The median TNF level in the group with mild disease (Stages I–II) was 1064 pg/mL (142–3738 pg/mL), while, in the group with moderate or severe disease (Stages III–V), it was 1941 pg/mL (529–5294 pg/mL) (p = 0.008). A direct correlation was observed between ML clinical severity and levels of TNF production (r = 0.44, p = 0.007). Patients who were treated with antimony and pentoxifylline healed significantly faster than those treated with antimony alone (52 vs. 77 days, hazard ratio = 0.60; 95% confidence interval = 0.38–0.95, p = 0.013). Therapeutic failure was higher in the group that received antimony alone (25% vs. 7%; p = 0.041). There was a significant decrease in CXCL9 after therapy of ML in both groups (p = 0.013; p = 0.043). TNF levels are associated with the severity of mucosal diseases, and pentoxifylline associated with antimony should be the recommended therapy for ML in countries where liposomal amphotericin B is not available.
Constraining the Magnetic Field of the Smith High-velocity Cloud Using Faraday Rotation

The Smith Cloud is a high-velocity cloud with an orbit suggesting it has made at least one passage through the Milky Way disk. A magnetic field found around this cloud has been thought to provide extra stability as it passes through the Galactic halo. We use the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array to measure Faraday rotation measures (RMs) toward 1105 extragalactic background point sources behind and next to the Smith Cloud to constrain the detailed geometry and strength of its magnetic field. The RM pattern across the cloud gives the detailed morphology of the magnetic field structure, which indicates a field draped over the ionized gas and compressed at the head of the cloud. We constrain the peak line-of-sight magnetic field strength to ≳+5 μG and create a model of the magnetic field to demonstrate that a draped configuration can qualitatively explain the morphology of the observed RMs.
Dissecting the active galactic nucleus in Circinus – II. A thin dusty disc and a polar outflow on parsec scales

Recent observations which resolved the mid-infrared (MIR) emission of nearby active galactic nuclei (AGNs), surprisingly revealed that their dust emission appears prominently extended in the polar direction, at odds with the expectations from the canonical dusty torus. This polar dust, tentatively associated with dusty winds driven by radiation pressure, is found to have a major contribution to the MIR flux from scales of a few to hundreds of parsecs. When facing a potential change of paradigm, case studies of objects with the best intrinsic resolution are essential. One such source with a clear detection of polar dust is a nearby, well-known AGN in the Circinus galaxy. In the first paper, we successfully explained the peculiar MIR morphology of Circinus observed on large, tens of parsec scales with a model consisting of a compact dusty disc and an extended hollow dusty cone. In this work, we further refine the model on smaller, parsecs scales to test whether it can also explain the MIR interferometric data. We find that a model composed of a thin dusty disc seen almost edge-on and a polar outflow in the form of a hyperboloid shell can reproduce well the VLTI/MIDI observations at all wavelengths, baselines, and position angles. In contrast, while providing a good fit to the integrated MIR spectrum, the dusty torus model fails to reproduce the spatially resolved interferometric data. We put forth the disc + hyperboloid wind model of Circinus AGN as a prototype for the dust structure in the AGN population with polar dust.
Inhibitory control and ability to maintain response in obesity and binge eating disorder

The aim of this study was to analyse the inhibitory control and the ability to maintain response in obese patients with and without Binge Eating Disorder (BED), compared to normalweight subjects. A total of 114 participants comprised three different groups (obese with BED, obese without BED and normal-weight) completed the Frontal Assessment Battery, the Stroop Neuropsychological Screening Test and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. The results showed differences between the obese groups and normal-weight group, to inhibitory control. There were also differences between the two obese groups in the ability to maintain the response. These results suggest that low inhibitory control, characterizes obesity and the difficulties to maintain the response, characterizes the binge eating disorder.
D=2, N=2, Supersymmetric theories on Non(anti)commutative Superspace

The classical action of a two dimensional N=2 supersymmetric theory, characterized by a general K\"{a}hler potential, is written down on a non(anti)commutative superspace. The action has a power series expansion in terms of the determinant of the non(anti)commutativity parameter $C^{\alpha\beta}$. The theory is explicitly shown to preserve half of the N=2 supersymmetry, to all orders in (det C)^n. The results are further generalized to include arbitrary superpotentials as well.
Energetics of hydrogen impurities in aluminum and their effect on mechanical properties

The effects of hydrogen impurities in the bulk and on the surface of aluminum are theoretically investigated. Within the framework of density-functional theory, we have obtained the dependence on H concentration of the stacking fault energy, the cleavage energy, the Al/H surface energy, and the Al/H/Al interface formation energy. The results indicate a strong dependence of the slip energy barrier in the [2 11] direction, the cleavage energy in the [111] direction and the Al/H/Al interface formation energy, on H concentration and on tension. The dependence of the Al/H surface energy on H coverage is less pronounced, while the optimal H coverage is ≤0.25 ML. The calculated activation energy for diffusion between high-symmetry sites in the bulk and on the surface is practically the same. 0.167 eV. From these results, we draw conclusions about the possible effect of H impurities on mechanical properties and, in particular, on their role in embrittlement of Al.
Ferromagnetic spin fluctuation induced superconductivity in Sr_2RuO_4

We propose a quantitative model for triplet superconductivity in Sr_2RuO_4 based on first principles calculations for the electronic structure and magnetic susceptibility. The superconductivity is due to ferromagnetic spin fluctuations, that are strong at small wave vectors. The calculated effective mass renormalization, renormalized susceptibility, and superconducting critical temperature are all in good agreement with experiment. The most stable superconducting solution has order parameters of comparable magnitude on all three sheets of the Fermi surface. We also propose an explanation of the discrepancy between the Fermi surface topology observed in the photoemission and in de Haas-van Alphen experiments.
On ε-mechanism-driven pulsations in VV 47

We report new observations of the central star of the planetary nebula VV 47 carried out to verify earlier assertions that the short-period pulsation modes detected in the star are driven by the $\epsilon$ mechanism. In our data, VV 47 was not variable up to a limit of 0.52 mmag in the Fourier amplitude spectrum up to the Nyquist frequency of 21.7 mHz. Given this null result we re-analyzed the data set in which oscillations were claimed. After careful data reduction, photometry, extinction correction, and analysis with a conservative criterion of S/N $\geq$ 4 in the Fourier amplitude spectrum, we found that the star was not variable during the original observations. The oscillations reported earlier were due to an over-optimistic detection criterion. We conclude that VV 47 did not pulsate during any measurements at hand; the observational detection of $\epsilon$-driven pulsations remains arduous.
The economics of LBOs: evidence from the syndicated loan market

This paper surveys extant literature on Leveraged Buy-Outs (LBOs). In addition to describing the economic motivation for the use of LBOs, this paper provides details on LBO characteristics and players, it presents the recent trends of the market, and provides statistics in relation to syndicated loans extended to LBOs worldwide in the 2000-2020 period. LBOs create economic value by reducing agency problems, improving operating performance, increasing interest tax shields, reducing transaction costs, and allowing for takeover defenses. However, LBOs also have drawbacks, namely: high complexity, off-balance sheet treatment, asymmetric information problems, expropriation of nonequity stakeholders, and increased financial distress. Statistical analysis shows that loan contractual characteristics differ significantly in the pre- versus the crisis period, and both loan spread and major pricing factors differ significantly for deals closed in the U.S. vis-à-vis Europe. In addition, loans to LBOs arranged for U.S. borrowers have higher spreads and upfront fees and have higher loan size to deal size ratios when compared with loans arranged for borrowers located in Europe. On the contrary, loans closed in the U.S. have a much shorter average maturity and are much less likely to be subject to currency risk and to be closed as term loans.
Stabilizing strongly correlated photon fluids with non-Markovian reservoirs

We introduce a novel frequency-dependent incoherent pump scheme with a square-shaped spectrum as a way to study strongly correlated photons in arrays of coupled nonlinear resonators. This scheme can be implemented via a reservoir of population-inverted two-level emitters with a broad distribution of transition frequencies. Our proposal is predicted to stabilize a non-equilibrium steady state sharing important features with a zero-temperature equilibrium state with a tunable chemical potential. We confirm the efficiency of our proposal for the Bose-Hubbard model by computing numerically the steady state for finite system sizes: first, we predict the occurrence of a sequence of incompressible Mott-Insulator-like states with arbitrary integer densities presenting strong robustness against tunneling and losses. Secondly, for stronger tunneling amplitudes or non-integer densities, the system enters a coherent regime analogous to the superfluid state. In addition to an overall agreement with the zero-temperature equilibrium state, exotic non-equilibrium processes leading to a finite entropy generation are pointed out in specific regions of parameter space. The equilibrium ground state is shown to be recovered by adding frequency-dependent losses. The promise of this improved scheme in view of quantum simulation of the zero temperature many-body physics is highlighted.