Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Light Propagation in a Warp Drive Spacetime

Within the context of general relativity, the Alcubierre metric (AM) provides a mathematical description of a “warp drive” spacetime that would allow an object to traverse a vast distance in an arbitrarily small time period. To an observer at rest in flat space, it looks as if the object has a speed V > c. This idea is analogous to the “warp drive” of science fiction and has led to the AM being coined the “Alcubierre warp drive”. This thesis examines the propagation of electromagnetic waves in the two-dimensional AM. Conformal coordinate transformations are used to solve the electromagnetic wave equation. It is found that the apparent velocity of light will change as it passes through the boundary of a warp drive. It is also found that an electromagnetic wavepacket will undergo an apparent redshift or blueshift. For the case of a warp drive traveling at speeds faster than light, an apparent horizon forms. We conclude by analyzing this horizon using conformal light-cone coordinates.
Effects of starter culture and different components of ‘ kuuru ’ on the nutritional quality of fermented Parkia biglobosa

Article Type: Full Length Research Article Iru–pete was produced by fermenting Parkia biglobosa cotyledons, using ‘kuuru’, a local softening agent (dried seeds of Hibiscus sabdariffa and ash) and a strain of Bacillus subtilis group (BC4333), while commercial sample of iru-pete served as control. The proximate composition, anti-nutritional factors, antioxidants, protein digestibility and vitamins of the fermented products were determined. There were significant increases in the crude protein, crude ash and crude fat contents of the starter-culture fermented ‘iru’ (F14). However, significant reductions (P=0.05) were found in the protein and crude fibre contents of ‘iru’ fermented with ‘kuuru’ (IFK). Starter culture fermentation enhanced significant reductions in the phytic acid and trypsin inhibitor of the substrate from 9.61 and 63.36 mg/ml to 8.24 and 57.55 mg/ml, respectively (P=0.05). Conversely, there was significant increase (P=0.05) in phenols, total flavonoids and free radical scavengers of the starter culture-fermented product. The addition of ‘kuuru’ and its components during fermentation led to significant decrease (P=0.05) in vitamins A, B, D and E contents in the fermented products. The starter-culture fermented product had the highest in vitro protein digestibility (41.68%); while the least value was recorded in ‘iru’ fermented with dry seeds of H. sabdariffa (IFH) (33.29). A similar trend was observed when fermented with the components of ‘kuuru’. Thus, the use of ‘kuuru’ or its components as softening agents are not suitable additives for production of ‘irupete’. The research confirmed that the use of Bacillus subtilis BC4333 as starter culture enhanced the nutritional value of iru-pete. ©2014 BluePen Journals Ltd. All rights reserved
A novel architecture for reducing the sensitivity of multibit sigma-delta ADCs to DAC nonlinearity

A novel first order sigma-delta architecture, which also shapes the nonlinearity of the DAC is proposed. Unlike other proposed solutions this topology consists of multibit quantisation noise only so offers enhanced stability and higher-order noise-shaping at the expense of a highly linear analog differentiator. The paper discusses some aspects of a practical realisation and possible extensions to higher order noise-shaping.
Forest Feedstock Supply Chains and Market Potential for Wood Pellet Facilities in the Ozark and Appalachia Regions

The pellet wood industry in the United States has grown exponentially in recent years, due mostly to the expanding export market to Europe. At this time, the European market for pellet wood is highly subsidized as part of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) in an effort to mitigate fossil fuel consumption for power production. Although there are other popular renewable resources such as wind, water, and solar, the burning of biomass is among the most utilized sources of renewable energy today. This study examines the existing pellet wood industry in the United States, particularly within the Ozarks and Appalachia Regions, so as to identify locational characteristics of existing pellet wood facilities. Taking this study a step further, this data was then used to identify localities within the study area that could reasonably be predicted to facilitate an expansion of the pellet wood industry in the future. This industry expansion would have the potential to create many regional jobs within the industry, and bring outside money to struggling rural economies.
Chemical Speciation of Complexes of L-phenylalanine and maleic acid with toxic metal ions in Dimethylformamide-Water Mixtures

The formation equilibria of complexes of Pb (II), Cd (II), and Hg (II) with L-phenylalanine and maleic acid were investigated pH metrically in Dimethyl formamide-water mixtures (0-50%v/v) at 303 K and ionic strength of 0.16 moldm-3. The dominant species detected were ML2, ML2H, and ML3 of LPA and MA complexes of Pb(II), Cd(II) and Hg(II) were refined in DMF-water mixtures. The appropriateness of the experimental conditions was verified by introducing errors deliberately. The models containing different numbers of species were refined by using the computer program MINIQUAD75. Selection of the best fit models was based on the statistical parameters. The trend in variation of stability constant of the complexes with dielectric constant of the medium was attributed for the formation and possible structures of the complex species presented. The chemical speciation was explained based on the distribution diagrams drawn using HYSS HYPERQUAD.
Clustering Based on the User Search Intention

This paper presents a novel algorithm of Text Clustering. With the popularity of the Internet, text information on the web shows explosive growth trend. Text Clustering technology as a method of unsupervised machine learning, which does not need the training process and pre-manual tagging, so Text Clustering is an effective way for dealing with massive text messages. The traditional Text Clustering is based on the content of the article, and they think that the articles which belong to the same class have the greater similarity. In this paper, we extracted label word from the summary information returned by search engine. Then did hierarchical clustering based on the text feature of the label word. Experiment shows that the algorithm is feasible.
2 7 M ay 2 01 9 Multi-sensorStateEstimation overLossyChannels using

This paper focuses on a networked state estimation problem for a spatially large linear system with a distributed array of sensors, each of which offers partial state measurements, and the transmission is lossy. We propose a measurement coding scheme with two goals. Firstly, it permits adjusting the communication requirements by controlling the dimension of the vector transmitted by each sensor to the central estimator. Secondly, for a given communication requirement, the scheme is optimal, within the family of linear causal coders, in the sense that the weakest channel condition is required to guarantee the stability of the estimator. For this coding scheme, we derive the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) state estimator, and state a necessary and sufficient condition with a trivial gap, for its stability. We also derive a sufficient but easily verifiable stability condition, and quantify the advantage offered by the proposed coding scheme. Finally, simulations results are presented to confirm our claims.
Development of a Coupled Multi-Physics Code System for Pebble Bed Reactor Core Modeling

A coupled multi-physics code system is being developed for threedimensional full-core modeling of pebble bed reactors. Three separate modeling areas are combined in a novel way to provide detailed data of the main physical processes in the core. In the first area, discrete element method (DEM) is used to model the packing and dynamic behavior of the pebble bed. A DEM simulation provides realistic data of the randomly packed pebble bed, which is then utilized as exact pebble positions in Monte Carlo reactor physics calculations and as porosities in the calculation cells of volume averaged thermal-hydraulic calculations. The thermal-hydraulic model and the reactor physics model are coupled so that the core power and temperature fields are solved iteratively. At the current stage of the development, an open source code LIGGGHTS is used for the DEM calculations, ANSYS Fluent is used for the thermal-hydraulic calculations and the Monte Carlo code Serpent is used for the reactor physics calculations. Additional codes have been written to transfer and map data between the different codes and to control the iterative solution of the coupled thermal-hydraulics and reactor physics. In this paper, a general description of the code system is given along with a simplified demonstration calculation.
Community-implemented trauma therapy for former child soldiers in Northern Uganda: a randomized controlled trial.

CONTEXT The psychological rehabilitation of former child soldiers and their successful reintegration into postconflict society present challenges. Despite high rates of impairment, there have been no randomized controlled trials examining the feasibility and efficacy of mental health interventions for former child soldiers. OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy of a community-based intervention targeting symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in formerly abducted individuals. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Randomized controlled trial recruiting 85 former child soldiers with PTSD from a population-based survey of 1113 Northern Ugandans aged 12 to 25 years, conducted between November 2007 and October 2009 in camps for internally displaced persons. Participants were randomized to 1 of 3 groups: narrative exposure therapy (n = 29), an academic catch-up program with elements of supportive counseling (n = 28), or a waiting list (n = 28). Symptoms of PTSD and trauma-related feelings of guilt were measured using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale. The respective sections of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview were used to assess depression and suicide risk, and a locally adapted scale was used to measure perceived stigmatization. Symptoms of PTSD, depression, and related impairment were assessed before treatment and at 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months postintervention. INTERVENTION Treatments were carried out in 8 sessions by trained local lay therapists, directly in the communities. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Change in PTSD severity, assessed over a 1-year period after treatment. Secondary outcome measures were depression symptoms, severity of suicidal ideation, feelings of guilt, and perceived stigmatization. RESULTS PTSD symptom severity (range, 0-148) was significantly more improved in the narrative exposure therapy group than in the academic catch-up (mean change difference, -14.06 [95% confidence interval, -27.19 to -0.92]) and waiting-list (mean change difference, -13.04 [95% confidence interval, -26.79 to 0.72]) groups. Contrast analyses of the time × treatment interaction of the mixed-effects model on PTSD symptom change over time revealed a superiority of narrative exposure therapy compared with academic catch-up (F(1,234.1) = 5.21, P = . 02) and wait-listing (F(1,228.3) = 5.28, P = . 02). Narrative exposure therapy produced a larger within-treatment effect size (Cohen d = 1.80) than academic catch-up (d = 0.83) and wait-listing (d = 0.81). CONCLUSION Among former Ugandan child soldiers, short-term trauma-focused treatment compared either with an academic catch-up program including supportive counseling or with wait-listing resulted in greater reduction of PTSD symptoms. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00552006.
Toward an organ based dose prescription method for the improved accuracy of murine dose in orthovoltage x-ray irradiators.

PURPOSE Accurate dosimetry is essential when irradiating mice to ensure that functional and molecular endpoints are well understood for the radiation dose delivered. Conventional methods of prescribing dose in mice involve the use of a single dose rate measurement and assume a uniform average dose throughout all organs of the entire mouse. Here, the authors report the individual average organ dose values for the irradiation of a 12, 23, and 33 g mouse on a 320 kVp x-ray irradiator and calculate the resulting error from using conventional dose prescription methods. METHODS Organ doses were simulated in the Geant4 application for tomographic emission toolkit using the MOBY mouse whole-body phantom. Dosimetry was performed for three beams utilizing filters A (1.65 mm Al), B (2.0 mm Al), and C (0.1 mm Cu + 2.5 mm Al), respectively. In addition, simulated x-ray spectra were validated with physical half-value layer measurements. RESULTS Average doses in soft-tissue organs were found to vary by as much as 23%-32% depending on the filter. Compared to filters A and B, filter C provided the hardest beam and had the lowest variation in soft-tissue average organ doses across all mouse sizes, with a difference of 23% for the median mouse size of 23 g. CONCLUSIONS This work suggests a new dose prescription method in small animal dosimetry: it presents a departure from the conventional approach of assigninga single dose value for irradiation of mice to a more comprehensive approach of characterizing individual organ doses to minimize the error and uncertainty. In human radiation therapy, clinical treatment planning establishes the target dose as well as the dose distribution, however, this has generally not been done in small animal research. These results suggest that organ dose errors will be minimized by calibrating the dose rates for all filters, and using different dose rates for different organs.
A Review on Space Debris and Its Detection Prof .

Space debris is non-functional man-made objects in earth’s orbit. Their number has increased tremendously and this can be attributed to the number of space launches in the last few decades. Their increasing growth has become a threat to the operational satellites and space crafts. This paper makes a survey of the threats posed by space debris and creates an urge to mitigate them. The paper also makes a review of the detection schemes employed to detect the space debris in order to build models to determine their orbits and to keep track of their population.
Calcium intake and the risk of stroke

Objective: Prospective cohort studies have suggested that dietary calcium intake is associated with the risk of stroke; however, the results are inconsistent. We conducted a meta-analysis of published studies to assess the relationship between calcium intake from diet and the risk of stroke. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and OVID for relevant studies until January 1, 2013. Included for analysis were prospective cohort studies that reported relative risks with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between calcium intake from diet and the stroke risk. Categorical, heterogeneity, publication bias, and subgroup analyses were performed. Results: There were 492,755 participants from ten studies, with 9,329 cases of stroke. For the highest versus lowest category of dietary calcium intake, the relative risk of total stroke was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.73-1.00). The pooled relative risk was 0.80 (95% CI: 0.62-0.98) for ischemic stroke, 0.95 (95% CI: 0.59-1.33) for intracerebral hemorrhage; and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.60-1.33) for subarachnoid hemorrhage. An inverse association between dietary calcium intake and stroke risk was observed in Asian populations (RR 0.68, 95% CI: 0.56-0.80) and participants with < 800 mg/d average dietary calcium intake (RR 0.74, 95% CI: 0.64-0.85). Conclusion: High dietary calcium intake was associated with a reduced risk of stroke, especially in ischemic stroke, Asian populations, and participants with < 800 mg/d average dietary calcium intake.
ODOROUS IMPACT FROM COMPOSTING PLANT : BIOFILTER VERSUS RTO

The obtained results led to the conclusion that the most common solution is the worst one in terms of impact on the territory. This is due to the fact that the dilution effects are strongly reduced by adopting a biofilter. Besides this, the maturation and storage phases of the final product under open shed were noted to have a crucial contribution to the total impact; their input is greater in percentage increasing the distance from the plant.
Listeners as co-narrators.

A collaborative theory of narrative story-telling was tested in two experiments that examined what listeners do and their effect on the narrator. In 63 unacquainted dyads (81 women and 45 men), a narrator told his or her own close-call story. The listeners made 2 different kinds of listener responses: Generic responses included nodding and vocalizations such as "mhm. " Specific responses, such as wincing or exclaiming, were tightly connected to (and served to illustrate) what the narrator was saying at the moment. In experimental conditions that distracted listeners from the narrative content, listeners made fewer responses, especially specific ones, and the narrators also told their stories significantly less well, particularly at what should have been the dramatic ending. Thus, listeners were co-narrators both through their own specific responses, which helped illustrate the story, and in their apparent effect on the narrator's performance. The results demonstrate the importance of moment-by-moment collaboration in face-to-face dialogue.
Mitochondrial evolution across lineages of the vampire barnacle Notochthamalus scabrosus

Abstract Eight whole mitochondrial genomes from the barnacle Notochthamalus scabrosus, with one from the northern lineage and seven from the divergent southern lineage, are presented. The annotated and aligned data were analyzed for signals of non-neutral evolution. Overall, these data are consistent with purifying selection operating on the protein-coding regions of the mitochondrion. However, a notable region of nonsynonymous substitution at the 3′ end of the ND2 gene region, along with unusual site frequency spectra in two other gene regions, was identified.
Relationship between Sport Participation Behavior and the Two Types of Sport Commitment of Japanese Student Athletes

The purpose of this study was to develop a Japanese version of the enthusiastic and constrained sport commitment scale originally developed by Scanlan et al. (2016), and to investigate the relationship between actual behavior and the two types of commitment. The participants were 587 male Japanese collegiate athletes. The scale was translated into Japanese using the back translation method, and its reliability and validity were examined. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to analyze scale items, and 2 factors (6 items for enthusiastic commitment, 5 items for constrained commitment) were extracted. In addition, reliability and factorial validity were confirmed by Cronbach's alpha and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Construct validity was also confirmed in this study. The results suggested that the Japanese version of the enthusiastic and constrained sport commitment scale has sufficient validity and reliability. In addition, the result of examining the relationship between the two types of sport commitment and actual sport participation behavior showed that both enthusiastic commitment and constrained commitment were positively associated with actual behavior, and enthusiastic commitment affected actual behavior more strongly than constrained commitment. In conclusion, the constructed scale was judged to be suitable for measuring the two types of sport commitment in Japanese athletes; the two types indicated differences in effectiveness for actual sport participation behavior.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: a Questionnaire Survey of a Self-Help Group

Ninety-three of 217 members of a self-help group for sufferers from obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD) completed a detailed questionnaire concerning psychological symptoms, biographical data, and the family and social context of their disorder. Eighty-one respondents (49 women) met DSM-111-R criteria for OCD, and the data are based on these. The mean duration of OCD was 18 years, and 74% of respondents rated their symptoms as extremely, very, or fairly severe for at least 50% of the time since onset. Respondents had received a great deal of psychiatric and psychological treatment, and rated behaviour therapy and individual psychotherapy as the most effective. Women employed outside the home reported significantly less obsessional symptoms than those who were not. Significantly raised scores on a measure of perceived parental protection, and significant correlations between parental overprotection and the amount of psychiatric treatment, suggest avenues for new research in the area.
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF POLYMER ELECTROLYTE MEMBRANE FUEL CELLS USING A GRAPHITE COMPOSITE BIPOLAR PLATE FABRICATED BY SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) can be used to fabricate graphite composite bipolar plates with complex flow fields for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The additive manufacturing process can significantly reduce the time and cost associated with the research and development of bipolar plates as compared to other fabrication methods such as compression molding. In this study, bipolar plates with three different designs, i.e., parallel in series, interdigitated, and bio-inspired, were fabricated using the SLS process. The performance of these SLS-fabricated bipolar plates was studied experimentally within a fuel cell assembly under various operating conditions. The effect of temperature, relative humidity, and pressure on fuel cell performance was investigated. In the tests conducted for this study, the best fuel cell performance was achieved with a temperature of 75 , relative humidity of 100%, and back pressure of 2 atm.
A Novel Binding Interaction For The Paxillin Ld3 Motif: Paxillin Ld3 Mediates Merlin-Paxillin Binding At Paxillin Binding Domain 1

Neurofibromatosis type 2, an autosomal dominant genetic disorder, causes predisposed individuals to develop various benign central and peripheral nervous system tumors. The characteristic tumors of this disease are schwannomas, which are tumors of the Schwann cells, typically on the vestibular nerve. These and the other associated tumors slowly compress nervous system structures causing deafness and loss of balance, resulting in an average life-span of less than 40 years. The product of the Nf2 gene is the protein named merlin or schwannomin. In individuals diagnosed with NF2, merlin is either absent or mutated to the point of inactivation. As such, merlin functions as a negative growth regulator in that it suppresses tumor growth. Being that NF2 is predominately a disease of the Schwann cells, merlin’s functional role within the signal transduction pathways of Schwann cell growth and differentiation are being investigated. This thesis explores the molecular relationships between merlin and its various interactors within Schwann cells, and illuminates one step in elucidating merlin’s functional mechanism of action. Merlin has been shown to associate with paxillin in a density-dependant manner and to bind directly to paxillin through two specific paxillin binding domains. Individual paxillin LD domain fusion proteins were produced, as well as recombinant merlin lacking the paxillin binding domains. Direct binding assays were performed in order to determine which specific paxillin domains merlin might interact with directly. The results indicate that, in vitro, merlin binds, through its PBD1 domain, to the paxillin LD3 motif. Supporting this