Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of the Probe Sequence/Structure in Developing an Ultra-Efficient Label-Free COVID-19 Detection Method Based on Competitive Dual-Emission Ratiometric DNA-Templated Silver Nanoclusters as Single Fluorescent Probes

We report the development of a label-, antibody-, enzyme-, and amplification-free ratiometric fluorescent biosensor for low-cost and rapid (less than 12 min) diagnosis of COVID-19 from isolated RNA samples. The biosensor is designed on the basis of cytosine-modified antisense oligonucleotides specific for either N gene or RdRP gene that can form silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) with both green and red emission on an oligonucleotide via a one-step synthesis process. The presence of the target RNA sequence of SARS-CoV-2 causes a dual-emission ratiometric signal transduction, resulting in a limit of detection of 0.30 to 10.0 nM and appropriate linear ranges with no need for any further amplification, fluorophore, or design with a special DNA fragment. With this strategy, five different ratiometric fluorescent probes are designed, and how the T/C ratio, the length of the stem region, and the number of cytosines in the loop structure and at the 3′ end of the cluster-stabilizing template can affect the biosensor sensitivity is investigated. Furthermore, the effect of graphene oxide (GO) on the ratiometric behavior of nanoclusters is demonstrated and the concentration-/time-dependent new competitive mechanism between aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) and aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIE) for the developed ssDNA-AgNCs/GO nanohybrids is proposed. Finally, the performance of the designed ratiometric biosensor has been validated using the RNA extract obtained from more than 150 clinical samples, and the results have been confirmed by the FDA-approved reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) diagnostic method. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the best probe is more than >90%, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.978.
Micro-Raman spectroscopy of Si nanowires: Influence of diameter and temperature

Raman spectroscopy provides nondestructive information about nanoscaled semiconductors by modeling the phonon confinement effect. However, the Raman spectrum is also sensitive to the temperature, which can mix with the size effects borrowing the interpretation of the Raman spectrum. We present an analysis of the Raman spectra of Si nanowires (NWs). The influence of the excitation conditions and the temperature increase in the NWs are discussed. The interpretation of the data is supported by the calculation of the temperature inside the NWs with different diameters.
Coronal Mass Ejection: Initiation, Magnetic Helicity, and Flux Ropes. I. Boundary Motion-driven Evolution

In this paper we study a class of three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic model problems that may be useful to understand the role of twisted flux ropes in coronal mass ejections. We construct in a half-space a series of force-free bipolar configurations with different helicity contents and bring them into an evolution by imposing to their footpoints on the boundary slow motions converging toward the inversion line. For all the cases that have been computed, this process leads, after a phase of quasi-static evolution, to the formation of a twisted flux rope by a reconnection process and to the global disruption of the configuration. In contrast with the results of some previous studies, however, the rope is never in equilibrium. It thus appears that the presence of a rope in the preeruptive phase is not a necessary condition for the disruption but may be the product of the disruption itself. Moreover, the helicity keeps an almost constant value during the evolution, and the problem of the origin of the helicity content of an eruptive configuration appears to be that of the initial force-free state. In addition to these numerical simulations, we report some new relations for the time variations of the energy and the magnetic helicity and develop a simple analytical model in which the magnetic field evolution exhibits essential features quite similar to those observed during the quasi-static phase in the numerics.
GOODNESS-OF-FIT TESTS BASED ON KERNEL DENSITY ESTIMATORS WITH FIXED SMOOTHING PARAMETERS

In this paper, we study the bias-corrected test developed in Fan (1994). It is based on the integrated squared difference between a kernel estimator of the unknown density function of a random vector and a kernel smoothed estimator of the parametric density function to be tested under the null hypothesis. We provide an alternative asymptotic approximation of the finite-sample distribution of this test by fixing the smoothing parameter. In contrast to the normal approximation obtained in Fan (1994) in which the smoothing parameter shrinks to zero as the sample size grows to infinity, we obtain a non-normal asymptotic distribution for the bias-corrected test. A parametric bootstrap procedure is proposed to approximate the critical values of this test. We show both analytically and by simulation that the proposed bootstrap procedure works. Consistency and local power properties of the bias-corrected test with a fixed smoothing parameter are also discussed.
Starburst wind from the nucleus of NGC 7714

Kinematic evidence for a starburst-driven wind from the nucleus of the galaxy NGC 7714 is reported. The velocity field of the circumnuclear ionized gas is analyzed, and the observed properties of the circumnuclear gas are discussed. The wind shows a twofold pattern: (1) bipolar winds nearly perpendicular to the disk plane and (2) expanding lobes within the disk plane. 57 references.
Relapses of multisystem/multifocal bone Langerhans cell histiocytosis in paediatric patients: Data analysis from the JLSG‐96/02 study

We assessed relapse patterns in paediatric patients with relapsed Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) who were initially treated with the JLSG‐96/02 protocol. We analysed 187 relapse events in 101 relapsed LCH patients [31 with multifocal bone (MFB) and 70 with multisystem (MS) at LCH diagnosis] among a total 317 patients enrolled in JLSG‐96/‐02 studies. Relapse of LCH was defined as an exacerbation of the non‐active disease (NAD) condition. Of the 317 patients, 101 (31.9%) had the first relapse at 1.5 years after initiation of therapy. The first relapse and subsequent relapses did not differ between patients with MFB and MS disease. Of the 187 relapse events, relapse occurred as a single‐system disease (n = 159; 85%), in which isolated bone relapse (n = 104; 55%) was the most common. Relapse at MS disease with the risk of organ involvement is extremely rare. After relapse(s), most patients underwent chemotherapy (122/187; 65%) and 87% of them achieved NAD status again. The incidence of permanent consequences was significantly higher in patients with relapses than in those without relapses. In the JLSG cohort, bone relapse most occurred in both MFB and MS patients. Most relapses could be effectively controlled by repeated administration of the initial chemotherapy.
Effect of tool geometry on ultraprecision machining of soft-brittle materials: a comprehensive review

Brittle materials are widely used for producing important components in the industry of optics, optoelectronics, and semiconductors. Ultraprecision machining of brittle materials with high surface quality and surface integrity helps improve the functional performance and lifespan of the components. According to their hardness, brittle materials can be roughly divided into hard-brittle and soft-brittle. Although there have been some literature reviews for ultraprecision machining of hard-brittle materials, up to date, very few review papers are available that focus on the processing of soft-brittle materials. Due to the ‘soft’ and ‘brittle’ properties, this group of materials has unique machining characteristics. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of recent advances in ultraprecision machining of soft-brittle materials. Critical aspects of machining mechanisms, such as chip formation, surface topography, and subsurface damage for different machining methods, including diamond turning, micro end milling, ultraprecision grinding, and micro/nano burnishing, are compared in terms of tool-workpiece interaction. The effects of tool geometries on the machining characteristics of soft-brittle materials are systematically analyzed, and dominating factors are sorted out. Problems and challenges in the engineering applications are identified, and solutions/guidelines for future R&D are provided.
Light absorption and emission in semiconductors with band gap fluctuations—A study on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin films

This work investigates the influence of lateral fluctuations of the fundamental band gap on the macroscopic light absorptance and emission spectra of spatially inhomogeneous semiconductors. A model assuming a Gaussian distribution for the local band gaps yields closed-form expressions for the spectral absorptance and emission. Band gap fluctuations broaden the absorption edge of the fundamental band gap, as well as the associated emission peak. The spectral position of the photoluminescence emission peak depends on the length scale of the fluctuations in relation to the characteristic charge carrier transport length. We apply the model to experimental results from Cu(In1−x,Gax)Se2 thin films routinely used as photovoltaic absorbers in thin-film ZnO/CdS/Cu(In,Ga)Se2 heterojunction solar cells. The films feature band gap fluctuations with standard deviations between 15 and 65 meV which would lead to losses in the range of 5–80 mV for the open circuit voltage of solar cells made from these films. The pure te.
Race, Cultural Capital, and School Achievement in Race-Blind France

Scholarship examining the role of cultural capital in school outcomes in relation to race and ethnicity in the French context is scarce. This article seeks to test how various potential forms of cultural capital, beyond the most traditional ones, are associated with school grades relationally with French students’ backgrounds. Using Ministry of Education data to perform regression analyses on old and new forms of cultural capital, I find some evidence of differences in their association with grades. Reading, internet, documentaries, sport, and music practice are all associated with higher school grades, but less so for Haiti and overseas- origin children for four practices out of five. This study contributes to research on ethnic/racial inequalities in the French school system and to broader conversations around the contemporary redefinition of cultural capital by showing that racial inequalities can be reproduced in schools through a wide array of cultural practices.
A Combined Barotropic-Baroclinic Instability Study of the Upper Tropospheric Tropical Easterly Jet.

Abstract A combined barotropic-baroclinic stability analysis is performed for an upper tropospheric tropical easterly jet representing the observed mean monsoon zonal flow during summer. Numerical solutions are obtained by time integration of a 20-layer linear spectral quasi-geostrophic model, which is based on truncated Fourier series representations in y. It is seen from the growth rate and phase speed spectra that the asymmetric barotropic-baroclinic preferred wave has a wavelength of 6500 km, an e-folding time of 3.3 days, a westward phase speed of 20.5 m s− and a period of 3.8 days. The geopotential, vertical velocity and temperature fields associated with the most unstable barotropic-baroclinic wave are computed. The most unstable wave has a vertical scale of 125 mb, a meridional scale of 1650 km and a zonal scale of 2135 km. The relationship between the vertical and meridional scales of the wave with the corresponding basic zonal flow scales is discussed. The large southward easterly momentum trans.
Lithodiversity and cultural use of desert varnish in the Northern Desert of Mexico

Rock varnish is a thin layer (1-40 microns every 1000 years), dark-reddish in color (30% Mn and Fe oxides, 70% clay minerals), that coats a rock surfaces in the northern Mexican deserts. This accretion has been used as a canvas by ancestral human groups to record different types of motifs (zoomorphic, geometric and anthropomorphic) in the northern Mexican desert (Sonora and Chihuahua). These petroglyphs reflect the cultural and artistic nature of past inhabitants and the varnish preserves them through the millennia. Rock varnish coats a variety of rock types, and this paper explores differences in the chemical composition and interaction of varnish and the underlying rock. We studied varnish from three different sites: Samalayuca (Chihuahua); El Álamo (Sonora); and La Proveedora (Sonora). The analytical techniques of microscopy, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Laser Breakdown Spectra (LIBS), reveals a similar chemical composition (Mn, Fe, Ca and Al mainly) that it does not depend on the lithodiversity or location (Samalayuca -sandstone-, El Álamo -sandstone- and La Proveedora -granite-). We observed differences in the contact between the varnish and the underlying rock. Varnish penetrate into decayed minerals such as plagioclase; thick accumulations can occur on hard minerals such as quartz. Like prior research, we find little important contribution of material from the underlying to its varnish coating and conclude its main component derives mostly from aeolian deposition.
Oxidation state and lattice expansion of CeO 2-x nanoparticles as a function of particle size

Cerium oxide nanoparticles ${\mathrm{CeO}}_{2\ensuremath{-}x}$ (\ensuremath{\sim}3\char21{}20 nm in diameter) made by a vapor phase condensation method, have been studied by several methods of transmission electron microscopy (TEM): electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), high resolution imaging, and electron diffraction. The white-line ratios ${M}_{5}{/M}_{4}$ of the EELS spectra were used to determine the relative amounts of cerium ions ${\mathrm{Ce}}^{3+}$ and ${\mathrm{Ce}}^{4+}$ as a function of particle size. The fraction of ${\mathrm{Ce}}^{3+}$ ions in the particles rapidly increased with decreasing particle size below \ensuremath{\sim}15 nm in diameter. The particles were completely reduced to ${\mathrm{CeO}}_{1.5}$ at the diameter of \ensuremath{\sim}3 nm. This reduced cerium oxide has a fluorite structure which is the same as that of bulk ${\mathrm{CeO}}_{2}. $ Also, EELS spectra taken from the edge and center of the particle indicated that for larger particles the valence reduction of cerium ions occurs mainly at the surface, forming a ${\mathrm{CeO}}_{1.5}$ layer and leaving the core as essentially ${\mathrm{CeO}}_{2}. $ A micromechanical model based on linear elasticity was used to explain the lattice expansion of the ${\mathrm{CeO}}_{2\ensuremath{-}x}$ nanoparticles. Comparing our results with previously published works indicates that the amount of ${\mathrm{CeO}}_{1.5}$ in ${\mathrm{CeO}}_{2\ensuremath{-}x}$ nanoparticles is a strong function of the particular synthesis methods used to make these particles.
Toward deep neural networks robust to adversarial examples, using augmented data importance perception

Abstract. Deep neural networks (DNNs) have been shown to be susceptible to slightly perturbed adversarial examples. Even adversarial examples that are imperceptible to the human eye can easily lead to misclassification of DNNs. The most effective defense against adversarial examples is adversarial training (AT). Through AT, the robustness of the model against adversarial examples can be greatly improved. However, AT causes a decrease in the accuracy of the model’s classification of natural examples and serious overfitting problems. To improve the generalization ability of the model, we propose a method for enhancing model robustness through augmented data importance perception (ADIP). By extracting offensive adversarial examples for data augmentation and considering the attack strength of new adversarial examples to design an importance measure term to improve the loss function, the results of experiments show that the model robustness enhancement method based on ADIP improves the robustness of the model and alleviates the overfitting problem of the model caused by AT. In addition, our algorithm trains a robust model with a small computational cost.
An Initialization Method for Idealized Channel Simulations

AbstractIdealized model simulations have long been established as valuable tools to gain insight into atmospheric phenomena by providing a simplified, easier to comprehend version of the complex atmospheric system. A specific subgroup of idealized simulations, such as baroclinic channel models, requires the initialization of the model with balanced atmospheric fields to investigate the evolution of an introduced perturbation. The quality of these simulations depends on the degree of balance of the initial state, as imbalances result in geostrophic and hydrostatic adjustment processes that potentially skew the results. In this paper, a general method to create geostrophically and hydrostatically balanced initial conditions is introduced. The major benefit of this method is the possibility to directly define a basic state wind field with the pertinent atmospheric fields being derived given appropriate boundary conditions. Application of the method is exemplified by constructing initial conditions for a baro.
Barium Titanate Piezoelectric Ceramics Manufactured by Two-Step Sintering

Two-step sintering was applied to manufacture fine-grain barium titanate (BaTiO3) piezoelectric ceramics from hydrothermally synthesized 100 nm particles. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed a small and irregular domain structure in the samples. The sintering condition dependences of density, dielectric constants, and piezoelectric properties were investigated. Under the optimal conditions, dense specimens had an average grain size of approximately 1.6 µm, and showed large dielectric constants and excellent piezoelectric properties. The large piezoelectric constant of d33=460 pC/N was measured using a d33 meter. The Curie and orthorhombic-to-tetragonal phase transition temperatures were 126 and 24 °C, respectively. These results indicated the possibility of applying non-lead-based BaTiO3 ceramics manufactured by a low-cost process to ultrasonic generators, actuators, piezoelectric vibrators, and sensors working at room temperature.
DYNAMIC CONTACT PROBLEMS WITH SMALL COULOMB FRICTION FOR VISCOELASTIC BODIES: EXISTENCE OF SOLUTIONS

The existence of solutions to the dynamic contact problem with Coulomb friction for viscoelastic bodies is proved with the use of penalization and regularization methods. The contact condition, which describes the nonpenetrability of mass, is formulated in velocities. The coefficient of friction may depend on the solution but is assumed to be bounded by a certain constant.
Pre-Existing Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension and KidneyDisease as Risk Factors of Pre-Eclampsia: A Disease of Theories and Its Association with Genetic Polymorphism

Pre-existing diabetes, hypertension and kidney disorders are prominent risk factors of pre-eclampsia (PE). It is a multifactorial pregnancy disorder associated with high blood pressure, proteinuria, and multiorgan failure, which develops after the 20th week of pregnancy. It is one of the most feared pregnancy disorders, as it consumes thousands of fetomaternal lives per annum. According to clinical and pathological studies, the placenta appears to be a key player in the pathogenesis of PE; however, the exact origin of this disorder is still under debate. Defective placentation and angiogenesis are the hallmarks of PE progression. This angiogenic imbalance, together with maternal susceptibility, might determine the severity and clinical presentation of PE. This article comprehensively examines the mechanisms of pathogenesis of PE and current evidence of the factors involved in its progression. Finally, this article will explore the genetic association of PE, various candidate genes, their proposed mechanisms and variants involved in its pathogenesis.
Asymptotic model for the dynamics of curved viscous fibres with surface tension

In this paper, we derive and investigate an asymptotic model for the dynamics of curved viscous inertial Newtonian fibres subjected to surface tension, as they occur in rotational spinning processes. Accordingly, we extend the slender body theory of Panda, Marheineke & Wegener (Math. Meth. Appl. Sci., vol. 31, 2008, p. 1153) by including surface tension and deducing boundary conditions for the free end of the fibre. The asymptotic model accounts for the inner viscous transport and places no restrictions on either the motion or the shape of the fibre centreline. Depending on the capillary number, the boundary conditions yield an explicit description for the temporal evolution of the fibre end. We study numerically the behaviour of the fibre as a function of the effects of viscosity, gravity, rotation and surface tension.
Critical Pedagogy through Genre-Based Pedagogy for Developing Students' Writing Skills: Strategies and Challenges

This current study discusses critical pedagogy, a concept that supports the paradigm of education for cultural transformation. This concept has been considered an essential approach for developing students' critical thinking and awareness of social issues. Despite its popularity, the implementation of critical pedagogy in classes remains unclear. This paper suggests that critical pedagogy can be concurrent with genre-based pedagogy (GBP), the dominant approach to teaching writing in Indonesia's English language classes. This study argues that language teachers can use GBP to introduce critical pedagogy. This research used descriptive qualitative method, allowing researchers to collect the data from classroom observation in vignettes. The data were taken from four classes where the participant teacher trained students to write argumentative texts. It captured the teaching and learning process in the Context Building and Text Modelling phases. The researchers interpreted and analyzed the data based on the themes identified from the critical pedagogy and GBP literature. It is found that the principles of critical pedagogy such as historicity, problem-posing, emancipation, and dialogic are evident in this study. This study has implications for EFL teachers in Indonesia, especially when they must adapt to "Merdeka Belajar," which promotes critical thinking.