Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A critical analysis of techniques and basic phenomena related to deposition of high temperature superconducting thin films

The processes involved in plasma and ion beam sputter-, electron evaporation-, and laser ablation-deposition of high temperature superconducting thin films are critically reviewed. Recent advances in the development of these techniques are discussed in relation to basic physical phenomena, specific to each technique, which must be understood before high quality films can be produced. Low temperature processing of films is a common goal for each technique, particularly in relation to integrating high temperature superconducting films with the current microelectronics technology. Research is now demonstrating that the introduction of oxygen into the growing film, simultaneously with the deposition of the film components, is necessary to produce as-deposited superconducting films at relatively low substrate temperatures.
The YqfN protein of Bacillus subtilis is the tRNA: m1A22 methyltransferase (TrmK)

N1-methylation of adenosine to m1A occurs in several different positions in tRNAs from various organisms. A methyl group at position N1 prevents Watson–Crick-type base pairing by adenosine and is therefore important for regulation of structure and stability of tRNA molecules. Thus far, only one family of genes encoding enzymes responsible for m1A methylation at position 58 has been identified, while other m1A methyltransferases (MTases) remain elusive. Here, we show that Bacillus subtilis open reading frame yqfN is necessary and sufficient for N1-adenosine methylation at position 22 of bacterial tRNA. Thus, we propose to rename YqfN as TrmK, according to the traditional nomenclature for bacterial tRNA MTases, or TrMet(m1A22) according to the nomenclature from the MODOMICS database of RNA modification enzymes. tRNAs purified from a ΔtrmK strain are a good substrate in vitro for the recombinant TrmK protein, which is sufficient for m1A methylation at position 22 as are tRNAs from Escherichia coli, which natively lacks m1A22. TrmK is conserved in Gram-positive bacteria and present in some Gram-negative bacteria, but its orthologs are apparently absent from archaea and eukaryota. Protein structure prediction indicates that the active site of TrmK does not resemble the active site of the m1A58 MTase TrmI, suggesting that these two enzymatic activities evolved independently.
Coordination Between Unmanned Aerial and Ground Vehicles: A Taxonomy and Optimization Perspective

The coordination between unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) is a proactive research topic whose great value of application has attracted vast attention. This paper outlines the motivations for studying the cooperative control of UAVs and UGVs, and attempts to make a comprehensive investigation and analysis on recent research in this field. First, a taxonomy for classification of existing unmanned aerial and ground vehicles systems (UAGVSs) is proposed, and a generalized optimization framework is developed to allow the decision-making problems for different types of UAGVSs to be described in a unified way. By following the proposed taxonomy, we show how different types of UAGVSs can be built to realize the goal of a common task, that is target tracking, and how optimization problems can be formulated for a UAGVS to perform specific tasks. This paper presents an optimization perspective to model and analyze different types of UAGVSs, and serves as a guidance and reference for developing UAGVSs.
Fast k-NNG Construction with GPU-Based Quick Multi-Select

In this paper, we describe a new brute force algorithm for building the -Nearest Neighbor Graph (k-NNG). The k-NNG algorithm has many applications in areas such as machine learning, bio-informatics, and clustering analysis. While there are very efficient algorithms for data of low dimensions, for high dimensional data the brute force search is the best algorithm. There are two main parts to the algorithm: the first part is finding the distances between the input vectors, which may be formulated as a matrix multiplication problem; the second is the selection of the k-NNs for each of the query vectors. For the second part, we describe a novel graphics processing unit (GPU)-based multi-select algorithm based on quick sort. Our optimization makes clever use of warp voting functions available on the latest GPUs along with user-controlled cache. Benchmarks show significant improvement over state-of-the-art implementations of the k-NN search on GPUs.
Inferring brain-computational mechanisms with models of activity measurements

High-resolution functional imaging is providing increasingly rich measurements of brain activity in animals and humans. A major challenge is to leverage such data to gain insight into the brain's computational mechanisms. The first step is to define candidate brain-computational models (BCMs) that can perform the behavioural task in question. We would then like to infer which of the candidate BCMs best accounts for measured brain-activity data. Here we describe a method that complements each BCM by a measurement model (MM), which simulates the way the brain-activity measurements reflect neuronal activity (e.g. local averaging in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) voxels or sparse sampling in array recordings). The resulting generative model (BCM-MM) produces simulated measurements. To avoid having to fit the MM to predict each individual measurement channel of the brain-activity data, we compare the measured and predicted data at the level of summary statistics. We describe a novel particular implementation of this approach, called probabilistic representational similarity analysis (pRSA) with MMs, which uses representational dissimilarity matrices (RDMs) as the summary statistics. We validate this method by simulations of fMRI measurements (locally averaging voxels) based on a deep convolutional neural network for visual object recognition. Results indicate that the way the measurements sample the activity patterns strongly affects the apparent representational dissimilarities. However, modelling of the measurement process can account for these effects, and different BCMs remain distinguishable even under substantial noise. The pRSA method enables us to perform Bayesian inference on the set of BCMs and to recognize the data-generating model in each case. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Interpreting BOLD: a dialogue between cognitive and cellular neuroscience’.
Optimal design of Orthotropic Piezoelectric membranes and plates using particle swarms

Optimal Design Of Orthotropic Piezoelectric Membranes And Plates Using Particle Swarms M.J.S. Joubert Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa. Thesis: MEng (Mech) March 2014 Over the past 50 years smart materials have made their appearance in many structures. The thermopiezoelectric ceramic is one of these smart materials. When thermal effects are considered negligible, then the materials are classified as piezo-ceramic and piezoelectric materials. These so called piezo-ceramics are used as actuator and sensor components in many structures. The use of these components with composite materials is significant due to their application in the aerospace and aeronautics fields. The interaction that the piezoelectric material has with a composite body can be improved in order to reduce the energy requirement of the material for deformation. An objective in the optimisation of composite material structures is to minimise compliance or maximise stiffness uT f, with the laminate ply orientations as design variables, where u and f are displacement and force vectors, respectively. Here, the objective is not the maximisation of stiffness but the maximisation of compliance, with typical constraints being failure criteria. These failure criteria can include theories such as the maximum principle stress, the Tsai-Hill or Tsai-Wu failure theories. The compliance is maximised to accentuate any piezoelectric movement and is for theoretical treatment only. Piezoelectric materials once polarized the materials becomes quasi-isotropic. The piezoelectric materials are isotropic in the plane normal to the direction of the voltage being applied and have altered properties normal to this plane. This change in the material properties can be exploited so that the layup can be altered in orientation to improve performance. The idea is to improve the mechanical capabilities of the structure subject to an electrical input or vice versa. In the works by both Carrera et al. and Piefort, First Order Shear Deformation Theory (FSDT) is used in finite element analysis to characterise the structural and electrical behaviour of a plate or iii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
CompCertTSO: A Verified Compiler for Relaxed-Memory Concurrency

In this article, we consider the semantic design and verified compilation of a C-like programming language for concurrent shared-memory computation on x86 multiprocessors. The design of such a language is made surprisingly subtle by several factors: the relaxed-memory behavior of the hardware, the effects of compiler optimization on concurrent code, the need to support high-performance concurrent algorithms, and the desire for a reasonably simple programming model. In turn, this complexity makes verified compilation both essential and challenging. We describe ClightTSO, a concurrent extension of CompCert’s Clight in which the TSO-based memory model of x86 multiprocessors is exposed for high-performance code, and CompCertTSO, a formally verified compiler from ClightTSO to x86 assembly language, building on CompCert. CompCertTSO is verified in Coq: for any well-behaved and successfully compiled ClightTSO source program, any permitted observable behavior of the generated assembly code (if it does not run out of memory) is also possible in the source semantics. We also describe some verified fence-elimination optimizations, integrated into CompCertTSO.
Development of a Simplified, Cost Effective GC-ECD Methodology for the Sensitive Detection of Bromoform in the Troposphere

Wherever measurements have been made bromoform was found to be ubiquitous in the surface ocean in pmolar-nmolar concentrations. These measurements show concentrations in coastal regions orders of magnitude higher than in the pelagic oceans. Its atmospheric presence is primarily due to its release from algae and rapid transport to the marine boundary troposphere where it is known to participate in ozone chemistry via photochemical and catalytic pathways. Until quite recently, a limited number of studies existed (compared to other marine volatile organic compounds (VOCs)), mainly due to the analytical challenge(s) presented by the low environmental mixing ratios. In this work we detail the development of a simplified, cost effective method to detect and quantify bromoform in environmental air samples. Air samples (1.5 L) were preconcentrated onto a precooled adsorbent (Carbopack X/Carboxen 1016) trap. These samples were injected by means of rapid thermal desorption for separation and detection by GC-ECD. The system was calibrated by means of a custom-built permeation oven. A linear system response was achieved, having a detection limit of 0.73 ± 0.09 ppt. A range of environmental samples was analysed to demonstrate the ability of the technique to separate and identify bromoform from air samples. The results showed that bromoform concentrations typically averaged 24.7 ± 17.3 ppt in marine air samples, 68.5 ± 26.3 ppt in Cape Town urban air samples and 33.9 ± 40.5 ppt in simulated biomass burning plumes (SBBP).
Permeation Studies and Histological Examination of Sheep Nasal Mucosa Following Administration of Different Nasal Formulations with or without Absorption Enhancers

This study was designed to investigate the possible histological effects of different intranasal (IN) formulations of indomethacin (IND) on nasal mucosa in sheep. For this purpose, oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion (E) and solution (S) formulations including 3 mg/mL of IND were prepared. Penetration enhancers such as polyvinylpyrolidone (PVP), citric acid (CA) and sodium taurocholate (NaT) were added to emulsion (1%) at the final step into the formulations. First, the effect of penetration enhancers on permeation of IND was evaluated by in vitro permeation studies in which sheep nasal mucosa was used. According to the permeation studies PVP showed the highest enhancing effect on the permeation rate of IND from sheep nasal mucosa. Furthermore, the IND permeation from E containing PVP (1.624 ± 0.045 mg) was significantly higher than that obtained from E (0.234 ± 0.012 mg) (p < 0.05). For the histological studies, white Karaman sheep of approximately 20 ± 5 kg, aged 4 to 8 months were used. They were randomly divided into eight groups, each including three sheep. Five experimental groups received different formulations of IND emulsion without/ with penetration enhancers (E-PVP, E-CA, E-NaT, E) and IND solution (S), respectively. Parallel controls were composed of either untreated groups and were given blank emulsion or isotonic sodium chloride solution (0.31 mg/kg). 2 mL of each experimental formulation was applied to both nostrils of sheep, and 1/3 central and lower regions of the nose were dissected and prepared for light microscopy. Specimens stained with hematoxylin and eosin and Gomori's trichrome were examined by light microscopy. No signs of inflammation or erosion were noticed in the nasal mucosa of the control groups. Widened epithelial intercellular spaces were noticed in E-CA, E-NaT, and E-PVP groups as well with the E-PVP group showing the largest intraepithelial separations. E-CA and E-NaT groups showed significant decrease in the amount of goblet cells, while hypoplasia was considerably moderate in the E-PVP group. Finally, intranasal administration of IND emulsion with PVP may be considered as an alternative to intravenous and per oral administrations of IND to overcome their adverse effects.
Wearable Sensing of In-Ear Pressure for Heart Rate Monitoring with a Piezoelectric Sensor

In this study, we developed a novel heart rate (HR) monitoring approach in which we measure the pressure variance of the surface of the ear canal. A scissor-shaped apparatus equipped with a piezoelectric film sensor and a hardware circuit module was designed for high wearability and to obtain stable measurement. In the proposed device, the film sensor converts in-ear pulse waves (EPW) into electrical current, and the circuit module enhances the EPW and suppresses noise. A real-time algorithm embedded in the circuit module performs morphological conversions to make the EPW more distinct and knowledge-based rules are used to detect EPW peaks. In a clinical experiment conducted using a reference electrocardiogram (ECG) device, EPW and ECG were concurrently recorded from 58 healthy subjects. The EPW intervals between successive peaks and their corresponding ECG intervals were then compared to each other. Promising results were obtained from the samples, specifically, a sensitivity of 97.25%, positive predictive value of 97.17%, and mean absolute difference of 0.62. Thus, highly accurate HR was obtained from in-ear pressure variance. Consequently, we believe that our proposed approach could be used to monitor vital signs and also utilized in diverse applications in the near future.
Monte carlo investigation of ferromagnetic properties under compressive stress

In this work, we used Monte Carlo simulations to model the three-dimensional ferromagnetic Ising spins under the influence of uniaxial and hydrostatic compressive mechanical stresses. The study was performed with a cluster-flip algorithm to investigate how the magnetic properties including critical behaviors depend on temperatures and the applied mechanical stresses. From the results, the magnetic profiles as a function of temperature were obtained and it was found that the applied stresses lowered the magnetic phase transition point. However, the critical exponents to the relevant observables did not significantly change. This suggests universality behavior in magnetic systems under loading environment.
Characterization of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes/Natural Rubber Nanocomposite by Wet Mixing Method

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes/natural rubber (MWCNTs/NR) nanocomposites is formed by incorporating nanotubes in a polymer solution and subsequently evaporating the solvent. Using this technique, nanotubes will be dispersed homogeneously in the NR matrix in an attempt to increase the mechanical properties of these nanocomposites. Mechanical test results show an increase in the tensile strength for up to 19 times in relation to pure NR. In addition to mechanical testing, the morphology of the MWNTs into NR was studied by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) in order to understand the morphology of the resulting system. Slight shift noted from FTIR and Raman analyses from each different wt. % of MWCNTs with the NR due to the stress transfer that indicates reinforcement of the nanotubes.
On the regularization of Wasserstein GANs

Since their invention, generative adversarial networks (GANs) have become a popular approach for learning to model a distribution of real (unlabeled) data. Convergence problems during training are overcome by Wasserstein GANs which minimize the distance between the model and the empirical distribution in terms of a different metric, but thereby introduce a Lipschitz constraint into the optimization problem. A simple way to enforce the Lipschitz constraint on the class of functions, which can be modeled by the neural network, is weight clipping. It was proposed that training can be improved by instead augmenting the loss by a regularization term that penalizes the deviation of the gradient of the critic (as a function of the network's input) from one. We present theoretical arguments why using a weaker regularization term enforcing the Lipschitz constraint is preferable. These arguments are supported by experimental results on toy data sets.
Characterisation of the Physico-chemical Properties of Selected White Sorghum Grain and Flours for the Production of Ice Cream Cones

Six white sorghum varieties (MUC007/11, MUC007/27, MUC007/193, MUC007/80, MUC007/171, MUC007/174) available in Uganda were evaluated for their suitability as alternate materials for the production of ice cream cones. Physico- chemical properties of the sorghums were determined and correlated to the properties of the ice cream cones produced from them. Results from this study showed that the swelling power and pasting properties of the flours determined by amylose/amlopectin ratio and amylose content as well as the presence of lipids, dietary fibre, tannins and minerals. The break down viscosity (r=-0.825), the final viscosity(r=-0.834) and amylose/amylopectin ratio (r=- 0.782) attained had the highest correlation with the ice cream permeability and weight while hardness of the cone corre- lated with dietary fibre content (r=0.576), tannin content(r=0.75) and protein (r=-0.458). Hardness showed highest correla- tion with setback (r=-0.859) and final viscosity(r=-0.703) while texture showed highest correlation with hardness (r=- 0.662) and set back(r=0.778). The cone appearance correlated highest with particle size (r=0.696) and dietary fibre (r=- 0.693). An amylose content of about 28% and lipid content of about 3% with endosperm texture rated as 3 (scale ;1- corneous and 5-floury), 0.1% Tannins, 1.7% minerals and dietary fibre of 5%, in the epuripur variety produced the best sorghum ice cream cone.
Large initial compressive stress in top-down fabricated silicon nanowires evidenced by static buckling

Single crystal silicon nanowires with a width down to 25 nm and a length-to-width (L/w) aspect ratio up to 177 were fabricated by surface micromachining of thin SOI wafers. It is demonstrated that these top-down fabricated clamped-clamped nanowires are laterally buckled when L/w is larger than about 44. This is attributed to an unexpected high compressive residual pre-stress estimated to be in the −270 to −335 MPa range from a simple nonlinear post-buckling model. The origin of this stress is investigated by considering several axial stress generation mechanisms in the silicon nanowires such as thermomechanical stresses, surface layers and deformation stresses of dies induced by patterning or die attachment. It is shown that none of these mechanisms can generate the observed initial compressive stress and high temperature steps during SOI wafers fabrication and/or thinning are likely to be the main cause of high compressive stress generation. Possible occurrence of a large stress in top-down fabricated Si nanowires is often ignored and must be considered in future works notably for electrical and thermal transport investigations.
4-[2-(Pyridin-1-ium-4-yl)ethyl]pyridin-1-ium bis(2,6-dinitrobenzoate)

The asymmetric unit of the title salt, C12H14N2 2+·2C7H3N2O6 −, comprises half a 4-[2-(pyridin-1-ium-4-yl)ethyl]pyridin-1-ium dication, being disposed about a centre of inversion, and a 2,6-dinitrobenzoate anion, in a general position. In the anion, the carboxylate group is inclined to the benzene ring [dihedral angle = 85.45 (9)°], whereas near-coplanar and twisted arrangements are found for the nitro groups [O—N—C—C torsion angles = 179.80 (14) and 20.2 (2)°]. In the crystal, three-component aggregates sustained by charge-assisted N+—H⋯O− hydrogen bonds are found and these are consolidated into a three-dimensional architecture by C—H⋯O and π–π [inter-centroid distances = 3.6796 (14) and 3.7064 (14) Å] interactions.
DATA TRANSFER STRATEGY FOR MULTIPLE DESTINATION NODES IN VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS

The paper attempts to design a data transfer scheme suitable for a host of receiver nodes in the wired infrastructure of a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The primary focus echoes a simultaneous data transfer strategy in the paths that inter connect a single source and multiple destinations in a wired VPN and offer a promising service similar to that of a dedicated private network. The methodology caters to extricate a suitable routing pattern to arrive at the preferred user across a service provider over specific time frames through an optimum use of bandwidth. It forges to acquire the best values of performance indices for that path which uses minimum bandwidth in each mission. The scheme be-hives a facility to re-route the data through an alternate path on the occurrence of a link failure to reach the desired destination. The performance of the routing mechanism simulated using a chosen network in the hose model serves to highlight the viability of the proposed approach to suit the befitting requirements in the field of data transfer.
CROEQS: Contemporaneous role ontology-based expanded query search - Analysis of the result set size

We designed CROEQS, which allows users to search a multimedia database. The query formulation is not only based on text, but also on higher-level attributes: users can query videos about persons based on additional information about that person. The aim of CROEQS is to build a more efficient search engine, able to respond to queries on a higher level. To this end it makes use of an ontology in which the domain knowledge on people fulfilling a role during a temporal interval in general, and politicians holding a political office specifically. In this paper, we focus on the impact of the semantic clause on the result set size. The evaluation results demonstrate a significant impact, which can be used for targeted search, and show that temporal information is useful if the period during which a the temporal statement holds is limited.