Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electronic Structure and Topological Quantum Phase Transitions in Strained Graphene Nanoribbons

In this chapter, we discuss the new classes of matter, such as the quantum spin Hall (QSH) and quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) states, that have been theoretically predicted and experimentally observed in graphene and beyond graphene systems. We further demonstrate how to manipulate these states using mechanical strain, internal exchange field, and spin‐orbit couplings (SOC). Spin‐charge transport in strained graphene nanoribbons is also discussed assuming the system in the QAH phase, exploring the prospects of topological devices with dissipationless edge currents. A remarkable zero‐field topological quantum phase transition between the time‐reversal‐ symmetry‐broken QSH and quantum anomalous Hall states is predicted, which was previously thought to take place only in the presence of external magnetic field. In our proposal, we show as the intrinsic SOC is tuned, how it is possible to two different helicity edge states located in the opposite edges of the graphene nanoribbons exchange their locations. Our results indicate that the strain‐induced pseudomagnetic field could be coupled to the spin degrees of freedom through the SOC responsible for the stability of a QSH state. The controllability of this zero‐field phase transition with strength and direction of the strain is also explored as additional phase‐tuning parameter. Our results present prospect of strain, electric and magnetic manipulation of the QSH, and QAH effect in these novel two‐dimensional (2D) materials.
Dynamics of a j = 3/2 quantum spin liquid

We study a spin-orbital model for 4$d^{1}$ or 5$d^{1}$ Mott insulators in ordered double perovskites with strong spin-orbit coupling. This model is conveniently written in terms of pseudospin and pseudo-orbital operators representing multipoles of the effective $j=3/2$ angular momentum. Similarities between this model and the effective theories of Kitaev materials motivate the proposal of a chiral spin-orbital liquid with Majorana fermion excitations. The thermodynamic and spectroscopic properties of this quantum spin liquid are characterized using parton mean-field theory. The heat capacity, spin-lattice relaxation rate, and dynamic structure factor for inelastic neutron scattering are calculated and compared with the experimental data for the spin liquid candidate Ba$_{2}$YMoO$_{6}$. Moreover, based on a symmetry analysis, we discuss the operators involved in resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) amplitudes for double perovskite compounds. In general, the RIXS cross sections allow one to selectively probe pseudospin and pseudo-orbital degrees of freedom. For the chiral spin-orbital liquid in particular, these cross sections provide information about the spectrum for different flavors of Majorana fermions.
Regionalism or Multilateralism? A Political Economy Choice

This paper provides a political economy analysis of the incentives underpinning a country's decision to enter a regional trade agreement when a multilateral free trade agreement is available, and of how entering a regional trade agreement affects the incentives to pursue multilateral trade liberalization. Taking into account the influence exerted by organized interest groups in the formation of trade agreements, we derive a formal condition under which a regional trade agreement is preferred to a multilateral one. Furthermore, we show that a country's decision to enter a regional trade agreement unambiguously undermines the incentives towards multilateral trade liberalization.
Water supply coverage and cost-recovery in Kathmandu: Understanding the role of time preferences and credit constraints

His Majesty’s Government of Nepal is planning to lease the operation of water supply services in Kathmandu Valley to the private sector. The objective of privatized water supply is more complete coverage, higher quality service, and cost-recovery. Privatization is controversial precisely because of that cost-recovery objective: higher and regular charges for an essential good such as water may be highly regressive. In particular, the concern is that connection charges (the up-front charge for connecting a household to the water supply system) may fall disproportionately on poor consumers unconnected to the piped water network or the poor will be excluded altogether because the private operator will anticipate affordability constraints and not extend the network to poor areas. The design of water consumption tariffs and targeted connection subsidies offer a set of policy levers to redress this situation. For example, connection charges could be reduced or financed at concessionary rates with crosssubsidization from water consumption tariffs. The effect of alternative charge structures depends on water consumers’ time preferences and credit constraints, which are often contextand/or group-specific. This paper reports on the findings of a field experiment that was conducted in Kathmandu in 2001. Using household survey data from an attribute-based choice experiment, we estimate discount rates and examine the impact of credit constraints and financing options on the probability of connecting to the water network, conditional on socio-economic status. Our results show that (a) there is strong support for a plan that would result in improved water services and higher water tariffs, (b) financing connection charges over a 2 year period would significantly improve equity, and (c) discount rates are heterogeneous – the poor and the credit-constrained households having significantly higher rates. We discuss extensions to the current model that could allow us to (a) compare and contrast hyperbolic and exponential discounting, (b) independently identify risk aversion through non-linear utility specifications, and (c) more comprehensively address heterogeneity through random parameter and latent-class modeling. We also discuss how estimated discount rates could be used in policy simulations. Simulations of revenue neutral options to expand coverage show that subsidizing and/or financing connections (compensated by higher monthly water bills) would improve the distributional incidence of privatized water supply.
Multiple Structural Change-Point Estimation in Linear Regression Models

This paper is concerned with the detection of multiple change-points in linear regression models. The proposed procedure relies on the local estimation for global change-point estimation. We propose a multiple change-point estimator based on the local least squares estimators for the regression coefficients and the split measure when the number of change-points is unknown. Its statistical properties are shown and its performance is assessed by simulations and real data applications.
Analysis of Seepage from Polygon Channels

An exact analytical solution for the quantity of seepage from a trapezoidal channel underlain by a drainage layer at a shallow depth has been obtained using an inverse hodograph and a Schwarz-Christoffel transformation. The symmetry about the vertical axis has been utilized in obtaining the solution for half of the seepage domain only. The solution also includes relations for variation in seepage velocity along the channel perimeter and a set of parametric equations for the location of phreatic line. From this generalized case, particular solutions have also been deduced for rectangular and triangular channels with a drainage layer at finite depth and trapezoidal, rectangular, and triangular channels with a drainage layer and water table at infinite depth. Moreover, the analysis includes solutions for a slit, which is also a special case of polygon channels, for both cases of the drainage layer. These solutions are useful in quantifying seepage loss and/or artificial recharge of groundwater through polygon channels.
Psychosocial Factors and CTS – Systematic Review

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy of the upper 4 limb. Research has shown that associative factors for CTS include occupational and 5 biomechanical elements, gender and age. To date no systematic review has been 6 undertaken to determine specifically whether there are any psychosocial risk factors in 7 developing CTS. The objective, to determine whether psychosocial factors are associated 8 with and/or predicts the development CTS. 9
LEARNING-BASED SPECTRUM SENSING AND ACCESS FOR COGNITIVE RADIO SYSTEMS by Menatalla

Spectrum management is one of the most important elements of the overall design of cognitive radio systems. Primary users (PUs), or license holders, should not be affected by the opportunistic use of the spectrum by the secondary users (SUs). Moreover, secondary users, or the non-license holders, should try to maximize their utilization of free channels for better spectrum efficiency. The decision whether to access a channel or not is crucial to both the primary and secondary users. In this thesis, an improved spectrum access algorithm is proposed for cognitive radio systems by modeling the primary user channel usage pattern as a Hidden Markov Model (HMM). The proposed algorithm maximizes the channel utilization without causing significant interference to the primary user by considering access based on the availability of the channel at the current timeslot. The decision on the availability of the channel is investigated using three machine learning techniques, namely HMMs, polynomial classifiers and nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous inputs (NARX) models. Simulation results based on models from real spectrum measurements show that using the conventional HMMdecoding technique leads to high collision probabilities of around 25%. On the other hand, using polynomial classifiers for deciding the availability of the channel enhances the system performance significantly, with collision probabilities less than 1%, while maintaining high utilization probabilities. A thorough investigation of the effect of the order of the polynomial classifier shows that while lower orders reduce the computational complexity of the algorithm, higher orders are more robust to high levels of shadowing. Another approach to mitigate the effect of shadowing is using cooperative spectrum sensing, where multiple SUs send the sensing results to a fusion center, which makes a global decision about the availability of the channel. Results show that the decision based on the scores of the classifiers outperforms majority vote in terms of collision and utilization probabilities. Search Terms: cognitive radio, spectrum management, dynamic spectrum access, spectrum sensing, hidden Markov model, polynomial classifier, nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous inputs model
Purification and Characterization of β-galactosidase from Kluveromyces lactis Isolated from a Yoghurt Waste Site

Whey is the aqueous fraction of milk generated as a by-product of dairy industries. The biggest pollution contributors in the dairy industry are the cheese, yoghurt and ice cream factories. Whey contains approximately 0.4-0.5% butterfat, 0.6-0.8% soluble protein, 4.5-5% lactose, minerals, trace amount of vitamins, and other organic matters [1]. Most dairy plants separate butterfat for use as an ingredient for further processing. The remaining whey may be made into various products such as condensed or powder whey, lactose and whey-protein concentrate by using an array of processes or otherwise disposed of. Disposing of surplus whey in the environment is problematic because of its high organic content with high Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and high Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) [2]. Continuous land disposal of whey can endanger the physical and chemical structure of soil, decrease crop yield and lead to serious water pollutions [3]. To overcome these complications, recent research attempts try to deal with the problem by focusing on the development of technologies that employ whey as raw material to produce useful products. One of such technologies is the hydrolysis of lactose in whey by β-galactosidase to produce low or non-lactose milk for lactose intolerant people and concentrated and frozen dairy products. β-galactosidase has also been used in the up grading of whey as ingredients of food and feed and in the production of sugar substitutes from permeate [4]. Hydrolysis of whey and their derivative expands their use as fermentation medium and for the production of fodder yeast bio-ethanol and other commercially important microbial metabolites.
Mathematical Analysis of Evolution by Duplicated Regions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Since many genomes such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome have been shown to be resulted from an ancestral doubling, many approaches have been developed for reconstruction of its ancestral genome. In this paper, we consider a genome halving issue, aiming at evolutionary distance in S. cerevisiae. We adapt the genome halving algorithm of El-Mabrouk and Sankoff to find the evolutionary distance in S. cerevisiae by using 55 pairs of ancestral duplicated regions existing in current-genome. We describe that halving distance is accessible by using natural graph drawn for those 55 evolutionary paralog regions originated from WGD. From a bioinformatics prospective, using the duplicated blocks of current genome, we infer that present genomic organization of S. cerevisiae has the potential to be valuable detailed information about its ancestry genome and provides novel insights into genome evolution of this reference organism.
A Dual-Polarized MIMO Antenna with EBG for 5.8 GHz WLAN Application

A dual-polarized multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna integrated with electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) is proposed. The MIMO antenna consists of two dual-polarized (0 ◦ and 90 ◦ polarizations) antenna elements. Each element includes four symmetrical arc-shaped slots. A mushroom-shaped EBG structure with four slots at its fringe is designed to enhance the gain of MIMO antenna. The bandwidth (return loss > 10 dB) of the proposed antenna is from 5.70 to 5.93 GHz, and the peak gain is 5.45 dBi. The isolation between the ports of adjacent antenna elements can be as small as less than �20 dB. The dual-polarized MIMO antenna with EBG has a compact volume of 44.5 × 77.5 × 1. 6m m 3 and can be suitable for 5.8 GHz WLAN application.
A Study of the Effects of Different Types of System Architecture on the Development Process

To minimise development cost and time different system architectures require different development processes, in this paper the impact on early phases is addressed. Three types of system architectures are identified, integrated, distributed and mixed, (partly integrated and partly distributed). It is shown that the type of interfaces defines the type of architecture. Integrated systems have more interfaces, which furthermore are vaguely defined. Distributed systems have fever and well-defined interfaces. To develop an integrated system focus has to be put on enhancing necessary iterations, in distributed systems focus has to be put on possible parallel development, mixed systems needs both approaches and also requires sequential development.
Profit-Sharing Versus Fixed-Payment Contracts: Evidence from the Motion- Pictures Industry

The choice between sharing and fixed-payment compensation schemes is examined using data on contracts from the motion pictures industry. Several competing explanations are explored, including moral hazard mitigation, risk sharing, liquidity constraints, and the superstar phenomenon. Detailed descriptive statistics are presented, and qualitative variation in contracting clauses is analyzed within this industry's institutional setting. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.
Assembling Magnetic Colloidal Particles in Microfluidic Devices by WeijiaXie

Assembling Magnetic Colloidal Particles in Microfluidic Devices by WeijiaXie The motivation of this research project is to assemble colloidal particles in microfluidic devices to create intelligent microstructures. We have created three types of novel structures. We have created magnetic chains consisting of hydrophobic particles functionalized with myristoleic acid. We have further formed hybrid hydrophobic hydrophilic magnetic chains by mixing particles coated with myristoleic acid and particles coated with biotin and linking them with streptavidin. Finally, we have developed hybrid ferromagnetic-paramagnetic chains with both ferromagnetic and paramagnetic particles. These chains have the ability to self assemble into specific structures due to their magnetic dipole-dipole interactions between the ferromagnetic particles. In order to precisely control the particle assembly process we have developed a microfluidic platform using pressurized reservoirs and microvalves. Combing the magnetic particle hybrid linking technology with microfluidic devices, we propose several potential methods to design and pattern segmental magnetic chains in a laminar multi-stream flow.
Hardware-In-The-Loop-Simulation of a Feedforward Multivariable Controller for the Altitude Test Facility at the University of Stuttgart

The altitude test facility (ATF) of the University of Stuttgart at the Institute for Aircraft Propulsion Systems (ILA) is a complex test facility which is used to test aero-engines and their components under altitude conditions. The ATF provides the total pressure and temperature at the inlet as well as the altitude pressure at the nozzle exit of the test object according to the conditions occurring during flight operations. At present, a model-based controller is available to adjust the altitude conditions during test facility operation. The ATF control system is a complex and safety-critical system, and thus faults may cause damage to the test object or the test facility. Therefore, thorough testing of the ATF control system including hardware and software is essential to ensure system integrity and reliability after changes of source code or modifications of the control hardware. A modular numerical performance model is available to simulate the steady-state and the dynamic operational behaviour of the altitude test facility. The modular approach permits the integration of test objects into the simulation. In addition the model-based controller must be included in the simulation in order to understand the dynamic interaction between test object, ATF control and test facility [1]. The existing model-based controller was extended by a feedforward controller. The Software-in-the-loop (SIL) simulation of controller and test facility offered a simple and cost-efficient way to verify the closed loop system requirements. For validation purposes a Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation was set up. A real-time capable performance model of the altitude test facility has been developed. The real-time simulation provided both synthetically generated sensor data and disturbance data for the ATF control system. The HIL simulation was used to perform functional tests of the I/O devices and the graphical user interface. The limits of controlled operation could be tested without endangering the test facility or the test object. Tests using a passive test object were conducted in order to validate the simulation and to demonstrate the functionality of the ATF control system. Furthermore, the improved performance of the feedforward controller could be shown during the test campaign.
A study of pattern, risk factors, types, complications and outcome of stroke in geriatric age group

Background: Stroke is the number one cause of disability and third leading cause of death in the world after heart diseases and cancer with an incidence approximately 150 to 200 in 100,000. The objective of this study was to study how the pattern of stroke in elderly differs from that of younger population. Methods: This is a prospective observational comparative study of stroke patients done over a period of one year at ACPM Medical College, Dhule. We studied 100 consecutive patients of stroke admitted in neuro-medicine department of this hospital. We have studied the risk factors, incidence, pattern, severity, complication and outcome of stroke in Geriatric age group compared to stroke in younger age group. The individuals who were 60 and above (≥60) are included in the ‘geriatric group’ and those below 60 were considered as ‘younger patients’. Those more than 85 years were classified as ‘very elderly’. Results: There is an increased incidence of both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes in geriatric population compared to younger people. Statistically there is increased incidence of ischemic stroke compared to hemorrhagic stroke in geriatric age group. PAC subtype of stroke has highest predilection to develop in both age groups and also PAC is the most common subtype of stroke leading to stroke related complications in geriatric population. There is no statistically increase incidence of severe stroke seen in elder age as compared to the younger people. Conclusions: The geriatric population does not have a poorer stroke outcome as compared to younger people. There is also no statistically significant difference in mortality rate in stroke patients between geriatric vs. younger age group.
Visualizing the 
d
 vector in a nematic triplet superconductor

Recent experiments show strong evidences of nematic triplet superconductivity in doped Bi$_2$Se$_3$ and in Bi$_2$Te$_3$ thin film on a superconducting substrate, but with varying identifications of the direction of the $d$-vector of the triplet that is essential to the topology of the underlying superconductivity. Here we show that the $d$-vector can be directly visualized by scanning tunneling measurements: At subgap energies the $d$-vector is along the leading peak wave-vector in the quasi-particle-interference pattern for potential impurities, and counter-intuitively along the elongation of the local density-of-state profile of the vortex. The results provide a useful guide to experiments, the result of which would in turn pose a stringent constraint on the pairing symmetry.
Domestic tourism demand in Italy: a Fixed Effect Vector Decomposition estimation

This study investigates the main determinants of the Italian domestic tourism demand measured in terms of regional bilateral tourism flows. We consider a large panel of explanatory variables meant to capture not only the role of traditional economic demand-driven forces, but also qualitative supply-side factors that can be crucial in determining the comparative advantage of the exporting regions. The empirical analysis, performed in the context of an extended gravity model, builds on the Fixed Effect Vector Decomposition estimator (FEVD) developed by Plumper and Troeger (2007). The investigation is conducted for the country as a whole and separately for the two macro-areas, namely the Centre-North and the South. According to our results, at aggregate level, the main determinants of Italian tourism flows appear to be the lagged dependent variable, which control for reputation and habit formation, and relative prices. Also the per capita GDP plays a significant role, but its coefficient suggests that in Italy domestic tourism does not behave as a luxury good, as frequently found in the international tourism context. Another interesting result is that for Italian tourists, domestic destinations and international destinations act as substitutable goods. At sub-sample level two main findings are worth noting. On the one hand, the main outcomes of the full sample analysis are confirmed, on the other hand some interesting differences arise with respect to the impact of the relevant variables. In particular, tourists coming from the southern regions appear to be more concerned than northern ones about variations in their per capita GDP and in price differences.