Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Origin of D-band emission in a novel Bi3+-doped phosphor La3SnGa5O14:Bi3+

The luminescence characteristics of Bi3+ ions in solids have been extensively investigated during recent decades; however, the origin of extra spectra signals (referred to as D-bands) of Bi3+ in some compounds still remains ambiguous. In this work, a novel Bi3+-doped phosphor La3SnGa5O14:Bi3+ (LSGO:Bi3+) was successfully synthesized via the conventional solid-state reaction method. The structural characteristics, luminescence properties and concentration quenching of the LSGO:Bi3+ phosphor were investigated systematically and two emission bands centered at 360 and 540 nm were observed, respectively. The narrow band emission centered at 360 nm was attributed to the transition of 3P1 → 1S0 (A-band) of Bi3+ while the broadband emission centered at 540 nm was considered as the D-band emission. A combined experimental and theoretical approach was employed in order to confirm the origin of the D-band emission of LSGO:Bi3+. Temperature dependent photoluminescence of LSGO:Bi3+ and the fluorescence lifetime of two emission centers were studied. Moreover, the energy of metal-to-metal charge-transfer (MMCT) was also calculated. Ultimately, the D-band emission of LSGO:Bi3+ was considered to originate from the forbidden 3P0 → 1S0 electronic transition of Bi3+. This work will contribute to a better understanding of the luminescence mechanisms of Bi3+ doped phosphors and pave the way toward the future development of new effective Bi3+ activated luminescent materials.
Optimization of Performance and Emission Responses for a CIE Run by Meoh/Biodiesel/Diesel Blends Utilizing Response Surface Methodology

The response surface methodology - central composite design matrix (RSM-CCD) is applied to make experiment design and response optimization for CIE engine fulled by different methanol-biodiesel-diesel blending ratios. The 5% biodiesel has enhanced methanol-diesel miscibility by about twelve folds. A full factorial design is employed to build the experimental tests of the performance and exhaust emissions for CIE run by methanol/biodiesel/diesel fuel. The statistical tests are used to check the significance of models by p-value test, adeq. Precision test, Predicted R2, and adjusted R2. With a maximum error of 6%, models of the BTE, CO, UHC, CO2, and NOX are showed a good agreement between predicted and experimental results. The optimization indicated that engine load is a master input factor affecting the responses.
The Simulation of Long-Range Transport of Biomass Burning Plume and Short-Range Transport of Anthropogenic Pollutants to a Mountain Observatory in East Asia during the 7-SEAS/2010 Dongsha Experiment

ABSTRACTThe Community Multi-scale Air Quality Model (CMAQ) is used to simulate the long-range transport of biomass burning (BB) pollutants from Southeast Asia (SEA) towards the Taiwan Central Mountain Range (CMR) in March and April 2010. The results show that a proportion of the BB plume was blocked and compressed at the windward side of CMR. High-altitude BB plume is shown to influence air quality on the ground via three mechanisms: (1) the subsidence in the anticyclone, (2) the downward motion in the cold surge, and (3) the vertical mixing of the boundary layer over land. Two case studies are further investigated to probe the chemical evolution of the air parcel approaching Mt. Lulin. The first case shows that the third mechanism also explained the increase in the concentrations of peroxyacyl nitrate (PAN), higher peroxyacyl nitrate (PANX), NH3, SO2, and volatile organic compounds in the BB plume when entering the land over western Taiwan. Meanwhile, the percentage of NO3– in the plume is also significantly increased. The second case reveals that valley wind transported air pollutants from the ground to the mountains. The air parcel, accompanied with considerable concentrations of PAN, PANX, SULF, and anthropogenic secondary organic aerosol, moved up Mt. Lulin. The pollutant concentrations, except for elemental carbon, in the air parcel decreased on approach to Mt. Lulin because the air parcel was mixed with a clean air.
Origami-based auxetic tunable Helmholtz resonator for noise control

In this paper, we propose an origami-based auxetic tunable Helmholtz resonator by controlling the volume of the cavity to allow a real-time tunability of the resonance frequency. The design is inspired by the waterbomb origami base, which expands when stretched and contracts when compressed. Such a foldable structure offers a wide range of volume variation, which corresponds to a larger frequency shift in the bandwidth of interest. Based on the design of the origami resonator, multi-physical models are established to understand and predict the parameters’ effect on the device’s behavior. After fabrication, experimental tests are conducted on physical prototypes to validate the models and illustrate the effectiveness of the concept.
Modeling Hereditary Disease Behavior Using an Innovative Similarity Criterion and Ensemble Clustering

Today, there are various theories about the causes of hereditary diseases, but doctors believe that both genetic and environmental factors play an essential role in the incidence and spread of these diseases. In order to identify genes that are cause the disease, inter-cell or inter-tissue communications must be determined. The inter-cells or inter-tissues interaction could be illustrated by applying the gene expression. The disorders that have led to widespread changes could be identified by investigating gene expression information. In this paper, identifying inter-cell and inter-tissue communications for various diseases has been accomplished utilizing an innovative similarity criterion of the graph topological structure characteristics and an extended clustering ensemble. The proposed method is performed in two stages: first, several clustering models have been combined to detect initial inter-cell or inter-tissue communications and produce better results than singular algorithms. Second, the cell-to-cell or tissue-totissue similarity in each cluster is identified through a similarity criterion based on the graph topological structure. The evaluation of the proposed method has been carried out, benefiting the UCI and FANTOM5 datasets. The results of experiments over FANTOM5 dataset report that the Silhouette coefficient equals 0.901 in 18 clusters for cells and equal to 0.762 in 13 clusters for tissues. The maximum inter-cells or inter-tissues similarity in each cluster can be exploited to detect the relationships between diseases.
A Broadband Asymmetrical GaN MMIC Doherty Power Amplifier with Compact Size for 5G Communications

This paper proposes a broadband asymmetrical monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) Doherty power amplifier (DPA) using 0.25-μm gallium-nitride process with a compact chip size of 2.37 × 1.86 mm2 for 5G communication. It adopts an unequal Wilkinson’s power divider with a ratio of 2.5:1, where 71.5% of the total power is transferred to the main amplifier for higher gain. Different input matching networks are used to offset phase difference while completing impedance conversion. This design also applies a novel topology to solve the problem of large impedance transformer ratio (ITR) in conventional DPA, and it optimizes the ITR from 4:1 to 2:1 for wider band. Moreover, most of the components of the DPA including power divider and matching networks use lumped inductors and capacitors instead of long transmission line (TL) for a smaller space area. The whole circuit is designed and simulated using Agilent’s advanced design system (ADS). The simulated small-signal gain of DPA is 8–11 dB and the saturation output power is more than 39.5 dBm with 800 MHz band from 4.5 GHz to 5.3 GHz. At 6-dB output power back-off, the DPA demonstrates 38–41.3% power added efficiency (PAE), whereas 44–54% PAE is achieved at saturation power.
Education for Sustainable Development in Spanish University Education Degrees

This work presents an analysis of student perception of Spanish university education degrees regarding their training in sustainable development. A sample of 942 students was used. The methodology consists of analyzing the results of a survey answered by the first- and fourth-year students from nine education degree courses in four Spanish universities. Comparison of the perception of learning by fourth-year students against those of the first year enables improvements in learning regarding sustainability to be ascertained. The questionnaire consists of 18 questions concerning four sustainability competencies: C1-Critical contextualization of knowledge, C2-Sustainable use of resources, C3-Participation in community processes, and C4-Ethics. Two composite indicators are defined to analyze the absolute learning (achieved on completion of their studies) and the relative learning (achieved with respect to what should have been achieved) declared by the students in each competency, degree and university. The results show that students declare an improvement in all their sustainability competencies, although the results of the final learning are far from those expected: they have learned only 27% of what they should have learned. Moreover, the learning achieved in the four competencies depends on the degree and the university.
Impact of Online Learning Readiness on Students Satisfaction in Higher Educational Institutions

: Recent pandemic has fueled the growth of online learning like never before among the students of all levels. It has opened up tremendous opportunity to evaluate teaching practices through empirical investigation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the learners’ readiness and their satisfaction towards online education. Online learning readiness is defined as skills needed by students to learn. It emphasises on self-learning management and understanding experiences of self-learning (Smith, 2005). Literature suggests that there are studies that explored the relationship between online learning readiness, motivation, learning, cooperative working, achievement and continuation of education (Davis, 2006; Horzum, M. B., Kaymak, Z. D., & Gungoren, O. C.,2015). However, scholars paid less attention to the relationship between online learning readiness and student satisfaction among undergraduate engineering students. Research by Gunawardena and Duphorne (2000) has identified a direct connection between learning readiness and satisfaction of learning experiences. However, their study was on the adult who had undergone distance study through computer conferencing model. The present study considers a blended online learning model. Data were collected from 155 students who are studying an undergraduate course in Indian universities. The proposed causal relationship was examined with SmartPLS 3, as it is more suitable for the moderate sample size. The research showed a positive relationship between students’ online learning readiness and satisfaction. The findings demonstrated a significant relationship between the increasing levels of online learning readiness and student satisfaction. Administrators who are at the helm of responsibility of educational institutions should provide all the required facilities for the teachers to embrace online teaching.
Sharp threshold for the Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem

For positive integers n$$ n $$ and k$$ k $$ with n≥2k+1$$ n\ge 2k+1 $$ , the Kneser graph K(n,k)$$ K\left(n,k\right) $$ is the graph with vertex set consisting of all k$$ k $$ ‐sets of {1,…,n}$$ \left\{1,\dots, n\right\} $$ , where two k$$ k $$ ‐sets are adjacent exactly when they are disjoint. The independent sets of K(n,k)$$ K\left(n,k\right) $$ are k$$ k $$ ‐uniform intersecting families, and hence the maximum size independent sets are given by the Erdős–Ko–Rado Theorem. Let Kp(n,k)$$ {K}_p\left(n,k\right) $$ be a random spanning subgraph of K(n,k)$$ K\left(n,k\right) $$ where each edge is included independently with probability p$$ p $$ . Bollobás, Narayanan, and Raigorodskii asked for what p$$ p $$ does Kp(n,k)$$ {K}_p\left(n,k\right) $$ have the same independence number as K(n,k)$$ K\left(n,k\right) $$ with high probability. For n=2k+1$$ n=2k+1 $$ , we prove a hitting time result, which gives a sharp threshold for this problem at p=3/4$$ p=3/4 $$ . Additionally, completing work of Das and Tran and work of Devlin and Kahn, we determine a sharp threshold function for all n>2k+1$$ n>2k+1 $$ .
Study on post-fire performance and residual capacity of steel reinforced high-strength concrete composite columns under eccentric compression

In order to combine the advantages of steel reinforced concrete column, high-strength concrete and precast structures, a new steel reinforced high-strength concrete composite column is presented in this paper. With the aim to explore the post-fire behavior of this composite column under eccentric compression, based on the test results, the commercial finite element software ABAQUS was used to simulate the temperature field and then evaluated that sectional damage. The results indicated that the core temperature of the specimen increases with the increase of the thickness of the protective layer of the section steel, and decreases with the increase of the heating time; the longer the heating time, the more serious the section damage is. Based on the theory of equivalent strength, the reduction coefficient of post-fire strength of concrete was determined. Finally, the calculation method of residual capacity of proposed columns was put forward and verified to be valid.
Fine Mode Aerosol Optical Properties Related to Cloud and Fog Processing over a Cluster of Cities in Northeast China

Fine mode aerosol optical properties were retrieved from sunphotometer measurements, carried out in Shenyang, Anshan, Benxi, and Fushun in Northeast China from 2009-2013. Accumulation mode aerosol size distribution retrievals were investigated for specific situations involving extensive cloud processing during fog or haze. Large fine mode median radii (≥0.20 μm) frequently occurred at the four sites in July. At other times, as aerosol optical depths increased so did the fine mode median radii, reaching 0.30-0.40 μm. This was possibly due to aerosol humidification during cloud processing. Instances of large (~1.50) Alpha curvature at the sites also may be associated with cloud processing. When single scattering albedos were ≥ 0.90, the radii distributions were centered round 0.30-0.40 μm at all at sites except Benxi, perhaps due to non-absorbing material from aerosol/cloud interactions. Case studies of size distribution retrievals at each of the four sites showed that large accumulation mode radii (0.40-0.50 μm) may be linked to cloud processing.
Recent Advances in GaN‐Based Power HEMT Devices

The ever‐increasing power density and operation frequency in electrical power conversion systems require the development of power devices that can outperform conventional Si‐based devices. Gallium nitride (GaN) has been regarded as the candidate for next‐generation power devices to improve the conversion efficiency in high‐power electric systems. GaN‐based high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with normally‐off operation is an important device structure for different application scenarios. In this review, an overview of a series of effective approaches to improve the performance of GaN‐based power HEMT devices is given. Modified epistructures are presented to suppress defects and current leakage, and low‐damage recess‐free processes are discussed in fabricating normally‐off HEMTs. Possible effects of dielectrics on a metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) structure are also intensively introduced. Metal/semiconductor contact engineering is investigated, and fabrication of Au‐free ohmic contact and graphene insertion layer to enhance the device performance is emphasized. Finally, the effects of field plates are studied through the use of simulated and fabricated devices.
Hierarchical Sparse Recovery from Hierarchically Structured Measurements with Application to Massive Random Access

A new family of operators, dubbed hierarchical measurement operators, is introduced and discussed within the framework of hierarchically sparse recovery. A hierarchical measurement operator is a composition of block and mixing operations. It notably contains Kronecker products as a special case. Results on their hierarchical restricted isometry property (HiRIP) are derived, generalizing prior work on the recovery of hierarchically sparse signals from Kronecker-structured linear measurements. Specifically, these results show that recovery properties of the block and mixing part can be traded against each other. The measurement structure is motivated by a massive random access channel design in communication engineering. Numerical evaluation of user detection rates demonstrate benefits of the theoretical framework.
Cosmic axion force

Nambu-Goldstone bosons, or axions, may be ubiquitous. Some of the axions may have small masses and thus serve as mediators of long-range forces. In this paper, we study the force mediated by an extremely light axion, $\phi$, between the visible sector and the dark sector, where dark matter lives. Since nature does not preserve the CP symmetry, the coupling between dark matter and $\phi$ is generically CP-violating. In this case, the induced force is extremely long-range and behaves as an effective magnetic field. If the force acts on electrons or nucleons, the spins of them on Earth precess around a fixed direction towards the galactic center. This provides an experimental opportunity for $\phi$ with mass, $m_\phi$, and decay constant, $f_\phi$, satisfying $m_\phi\lesssim 10^{-25}\,$ eV, $f_\phi\lesssim 10^{14}\,$GeV if the daily modulation of the effective magnetic field signals in magnetometers is measured by using the coherent averaging method. The effective magnetic field induced by an axionic compact object, such as an axion domain wall, is also discussed.
An Objective Prior from a Scoring Rule

In this paper, we introduce a novel objective prior distribution levering on the connections between information, divergence and scoring rules. In particular, we do so from the starting point of convex functions representing information in density functions. This provides a natural route to proper local scoring rules using Bregman divergence. Specifically, we determine the prior which solves setting the score function to be a constant. Although in itself this provides motivation for an objective prior, the prior also minimizes a corresponding information criterion.
Hard- and software development of a mechanobiological organ-on-a-chip platform

While mechanobiological research interfaces biology and engineering, most current systems still rely on an expensive and bulky periphery to relay pressure to and from pneumatic valves to a cell-culture device. Such a periphery usually consists of a pressure system, pumps, and a computer for control. However, setting up such a system may require engineering expertise or commercial solutions. Here, a platform is presented, which allows scientists to perform dynamic cultivation for biology experiments on microfluidic devices to facilitate mechanobiological research at low cost. The platform consists of an Arduino based controller paired with a transistor array which can drive eight solenoid valves simultaneously. The pneumatic of the platform is controlled by a LCD and rotary encoder, while encased into a custom-made housing. The footprint of the system is 6.5 x 9 x 13 cm and the total material price is less than 100e. As a demonstration, we show that the platform is capable of automatically inducing reproducible wounds on a wound healing chip.
Migration of Radionuclides in the Geosphere: What can we learn from Natural Analogues?

Natural analogues give unique qualitative and, in some cases, quantitative information on the migration processes of radionuclides through the geosphere. In this review paper, we show in particular that they help tackle important issues concerning fluid flow paths, water-rocks interactions, chemical forms of radionuclides, processes of elemental retardation, major geochemical parameters and model validation, in varied geological
PRELIMINARY ETHNOBOTANIC STUDY OF PLANTS USED TO TREAT INFANT DIARRHEA BY THE MITSOGHO PEOPLE IN GABON

An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants was carried out among the Mitsogho people of thefour (4) villages located from Oyane 4 to Four-Place (Estuaire-Gabon). The objective of this study was firsttodraw up an inventory of plants used in their traditional medicine against infant diarrhea and then to describe the recipes applied by the local population. Sixteen (16) plants species belonging to sixteen (16) genus and eleven (11) families were identified. The most species cited were Sida rhombifolia (18%), Cyathula prostrata (12%), Desmodium adscendens (12%), andPsidium guineense (12%). Those with the lowest frequencies were among others Picralima nitida (6%) and Santiria trimera (6%). The most represented families are Malvaceae (25%), Apocynaceae (12.5%) and Fabaceae (12.5%). The plants inventoried are mainly woody (81%) trunk bark (56%) and leaves (37%) are the most used plant parts. Twenty-two (22) recipes have been described, of which 77% contain a single plant and 23% are mixture.
Retailer-consumers model in electricity market under demand response

Demand response (DR) programs have gained much attention during the last three decades to optimize the decisions of the electricity market participants considering the demand-side management (DSM). It can potentially enhance system reliability and manages price volatility by modifying the amount or time of electricity consumption. This paper proposes a novel game-theoretical model accounting for the relationship between retailers (leaders) and consumers (followers) in a dynamic price environment where both players optimize their respective economic goals under uncertainty. The model is solved under two frameworks. First by considering retailer's market power and second by accounting for an equilibrium setting based on a Cournot game. These are formulated in terms of a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) and with a mixed-integer linear program (MILP), respectively. In particular, the retailers' market power model is first formulated as a bi-level optimization problem, and the MPEC is subsequently derived by replacing the consumers' problem (lower level) with its Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimality conditions. In contrast, the Cournot equilibrium model is solved as a MILP by concatenating the retailer's and consumers' KKT optimality conditions. The solution sets, the practical approaches for solutions, the required techniques to test and compare the performance of the model are undertaken with realistic data. Numerical simulations confirm the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed model to explore the interactions of markets power and DR programs. The results confirm that consumers are better off in an equilibrium framework while the retailer increases its expected profit when the market power is considered. However, we show how these results are highly affected by the levels of of consumers' flexibility.
Deep Learning Hamiltonian Monte Carlo

We generalize the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo algorithm with a stack of neural network layers and evaluate its ability to sample from different topologies in a two dimensional lattice gauge theory. We demonstrate that our model is able to successfully mix between modes of different topologies, significantly reducing the computational cost required to generated independent gauge field configurations. Our implementation is available at https://github.com/saforem2/l2hmc-qcd .