Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mysteries of the geometrization of gravitation

As we now know, there are at least two major difficulties with general relativity (GR). The first one is related to its incompatibility with quantum mechanics, in the absence of a consistent, widely accepted theory that combines the two theories. The second problem is related to the requirement of the dark sectors—inflaton, dark matter and dark energy by the energy-stress tensor, which are needed to explain a variety of astronomical and cosmological observations. Research has indicated that the dark sectors themselves do not have any non-gravitational or laboratory evidence. Moreover, the dark energy poses, in addition, a serious confrontation between fundamental physics and cosmology. Guided by theoretical and observational evidences, we are led to an idea that the source of gravitation and its manifestation in GR should be modified. The result is in striking agreement with not only the theory, but also the observations, without requiring the dark sectors of the standard approach. Additionally, it provides natural explanations to some unexplained puzzles.
The abundance of compact quiescent galaxies since z ~ 0.6

We set out to quantify the number density of quiescent massive compact galaxies at intermediate redshifts. We determine structural parameters based on i-band imaging using the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) equatorial Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 (CS82) survey (∼170 deg^2) taking advantage of an exquisite median seeing of ∼0.6 arcsec. We select compact massive (M_⋆ > 5 × 10^10 M_⊙) galaxies within the redshift range of 0.2 10. We systematically measure a factor of ∼5 more compacts at the same redshift than what was previously reported on smaller fields with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging, which are more affected by cosmic variance. This means that the decrease in number density from z ∼ 1.5 to z ∼ 0.2 might be only of a factor of ∼2–5, significantly smaller than what was previously reported. This supports progenitor bias as the main contributor to the size evolution. This milder decrease is roughly compatible with the predictions from recent numerical simulations. Only the most extreme compact galaxies, with R_eff 10^10.7 M_⊙, appear to drop in number by a factor of ∼20 and hence likely experience a noticeable size evolution.
THE γ-RAY EMISSION REGION IN THE FANAROFF–RILEY II RADIO GALAXY 3C 111

The broad-line radio galaxy 3C 111, characterized by a Fanaroff–Riley II (FRII) radio morphology, is one of the sources of the misaligned active galactic nucleus sample, consisting of radio galaxies and steep spectrum radio quasars, recently detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). Our analysis of the 24 month γ-ray light curve shows that 3C 111 was only occasionally detected at high energies. It was bright at the end of 2008 and faint, below the Fermi-LAT sensitivity threshold, for the rest of the time. A multifrequency campaign of 3C 111, ongoing in the same period, revealed an increase of the millimeter, optical, and X-ray fluxes in 2008 September–November, interpreted by Chatterjee et al. as due to the passage of a superluminal knot through the jet core. The temporal coincidence of the millimeter–optical–X-ray outburst with the GeV activity suggests a cospatiality of the events, allowing, for the first time, the localization of the γ-ray dissipative zone in an FRII jet. We argue that the GeV photons of 3C 111 are produced in a compact region confined within 0.1 pc and at a distance of about 0.3 pc from the black hole.
Performance Assessment of Variational Integrators for Thermomechanical Problems

Abstract Structure-preserving integrators are in the focus of ongoing research because of their distinguished features of robustness and long time stability. In particular, their formulation for coupled problems that include dissipative mechanisms is still an active topic. Conservative formulations, such as the thermo-elastic case without heat conduction, fit well into a variational framework and have been solved with variational integrators, whereas the inclusions of viscosity and heat conduction are still under investigation. To encompass viscous forces and the classical heat transfer (Fourier’s law), an extension of Hamilton’s principle is required. In this contribution we derive variational integrators for thermo-viscoelastic systems with classical heat transfer. Their results are compared for two discrete model problems vs. energy-entropy-momentum methods.
Colours of bulges and discs within galaxy clusters and the signature of disc fading on infall

The origins of the bulge and disc components of galaxies are of primary importance to understanding galaxy formation. Here bulge-disc decomposition is performed simultaneously in B and R bands for 922 bright galaxies in eight nearby (z < 0.06) clusters with deep redshift coverage using photometry from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) Fundamental Plane Survey. The total galaxy colours follow a universal colour-magnitude relation (CMR). The discs of L* galaxies are 0.24 mag bluer in B - R than bulges. Bulges have a significant CMR slope while the CMR slope of discs is flat. Thus the slope of the CMR of the total light is driven primarily (60 per cent) by the bulge CMR, and to a lesser extent (40 per cent) by the change in the bulge-to-total ratio as a function of magnitude. The colours of the bulge and disc components do not depend on the bulge-to-total ratio, for galaxies with bulge-to-total ratios greater than 0.2. While the colours of the bulge components do not depend significantly on environment, the median colours of discs vary significantly, with discs in the cluster centre redder by 0.10 mag than those at the virial radius. Thus while star formation in bulges appears to be regulated primarily by mass-dependent, and hence presumably internal, processes, that of discs is affected by the cluster environment.
The growth of galactic bulges through mergers in Λ CDM haloes revisited – I. Present-day properties

We use the combined data sets of the Millennium I and II cosmological simulations to revisit the impact of mergers in the growth of bulges in central galaxies in the Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) scenario. We seed galaxies within the growing CDM haloes using semi-empirical relations to assign stellar and gaseous masses, and an analytic treatment to estimate the transfer of stellar mass to the bulge of the remnant after a galaxy merger. We find that this model roughly reproduces the observed correlation between the bulge-to-total mass (B/T) ratio and stellar mass (M*) in present-day central galaxies as well as their observed demographics, although low-mass B/T < 0.1 (bulgeless) galaxies might be scarce relative to the observed abundance. In our merger-driven scenario, bulges have a composite stellar population made of (i) stars acquired from infalling satellites, (ii) stars transferred from the primary disc due to merger-induced perturbations and (iii) newly formed stars in starbursts triggered by mergers. We find that the first two are the main channels of mass assembly, with the first one being dominant for massive galaxies, creating large bulges with different stellar populations than those of the inner discs, while the second is dominant for intermediate/low-mass galaxies and creates small bulges with similar stellar populations to the inner discs. We associate the dominion of the first (second) channel to classical (pseudo) bulges, and compare the predicted fractions to observations. We emphasize that our treatment does not include other mechanisms of bulge growth such as intrinsic secular processes in the disc or misaligned gas accretion. Interestingly, we find that the evolution of the stellar and gaseous contents of the satellite as it spirals towards the central galaxy is a key ingredient in setting the morphology of the remnant galaxy, and that a good match to the observed bulge demographics occurs when this evolution proceeds closely to that of the central galaxy.
FPT: Fine-Grained Detection of Driver Distraction Based on the Feature Pyramid Vision Transformer

According to the surveys of the World Health Organization, distracted driving is one of main causes of road traffic accidents. To improve road traffic safety, real-time detection of drivers’ driving behavior is very important for the development of highly reliable Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS). At present, the deep learning architecture based on a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has disadvantages such as large number of parameters and weak global feature extraction ability. Therefore, this paper proposes an innovative driver distraction detection model based on the fusion of a transformer and a CNN, referred to as FPT, which is the first exploration in the field of driver distraction detection. First, we introduce the latest Twins transformer as a benchmark. Then, we design residual embedding to replace block embedding, which can further integrate the convolutional neural network with Transformer and improve the feature extraction ability. In addition, the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) module with a large parameter occupancy rate in the original transformer structure is replaced with a lightweight group convolution module to reduce computational complexity. Finally, a cross-entropy loss function for label smoothing is designed to guide network learning with significantly differentiated features. Comparison results on two large-scale driver distraction detection datasets show that the proposed FPT offers a better compromise between computational cost and performance compared to the state-of-the-art CNN and Transformer architectures.
Doppler Probe of Accretion onto a T Tauri star

The YY Ori stars are T Tauri stars with prominent time-variable redshifted absorption components that flank certain emission lines. One of the brightest in this class is S CrA, a visual double star. We have obtained a series of high-resolution spectra of the two components during four nights with the UVES spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope. We followed the spectral changes occurring in S CrA to derive the physical structure of the accreting gas. We found that both stars are very similar with regard to surface temperature, radius, and mass. Variable redshifted absorption components are particularly prominent in the SE component. During one night, this star developed a spectrum unique among the T Tauri stars: extremely strong and broad redshifted absorption components appeared in many lines of neutral and ionized metals, in addition to those of hydrogen and helium. The absorption depths of cooler, low ionization lines peak at low velocities - while more highly ionized lines have peak absorption depths at high velocities. The different line profiles indicate that the temperature and density of the accretion stream increase as material approaches the star. We derive the physical conditions of the flow at several points along the accretion funnel directly from the spectrum of the infalling gas. We estimated mass accretion rates of about 10^(-7) solar masses per year, which is similar to that derived from the relation based on the strength of H alpha emission line. This is the first time the density and temperature distributions in accretion flows around a T Tauri star have been inferred from observations. Compared with predictions from standard models of accretion in T Tauri stars, which assume a dipole stellar magnetic field, we obtained higher densities and a steeper temperature rise toward the star.
Nonlocal gravity. Conceptual aspects and cosmological predictions

Even if the fundamental action of gravity is local, the corresponding quantum effective action, that includes the effect of quantum fluctuations, is a nonlocal object. These nonlocalities are well understood in the ultraviolet regime but much less in the infrared, where they could in principle give rise to important cosmological effects. Here we systematize and extend previous work of our group, in which it is assumed that a mass scale Λ is dynamically generated in the infrared, giving rise to nonlocal terms in the quantum effective action of gravity. We give a detailed discussion of conceptual aspects related to nonlocal gravity (including causality, degrees of freedom, ambiguities related to the boundary conditions of the nonlocal operator, scenarios for the emergence of a dynamical scale in the infrared) and of the cosmological consequences of these models. The requirement of providing a viable cosmological evolution severely restricts the form of the nonlocal terms, and selects a model (the so-called RR model) that corresponds to a dynamical mass generation for the conformal mode. For such a model: (1) there is a FRW background evolution, where the nonlocal term acts as an effective dark energy with a phantom equation of state, providing accelerated expansion without a cosmological constant. (2) Cosmological perturbations are well behaved. (3) Implementing the model in a Boltzmann code and comparing with observations we find that the RR model fits the CMB, BAO, SNe, structure formation data and local H0 measurements at a level statistically equivalent to ΛCDM. (4) Bayesian parameter estimation shows that the value of H0 obtained in the RR model is higher than in ΛCDM, reducing to 2. 0σ the tension with the value from local measurements. (5) The RR model provides a prediction for the sum of neutrino masses that falls within the limits set by oscillation and terrestrial experiments (in contrast to ΛCDM, where letting the sum of neutrino masses vary as a free parameter within these limits, one hits the lower bound). (6) Gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light, complying with the limit from GW170817/GRB 170817A.
Cell-Based Metabolomics Approach for Anticipating and Investigating Cytotoxicity of Gold Nanorods

Despite the increasing application of gold nanoparticles, there has been little assessment of biological system toxicity to evaluate their potential impact on human health. In this study, the human hepatoma cell line (Hep G2) was used in a metabolomics approach to study the effects of shape, time, and dose of gold nanorods (GNRs). Using optimized parameters for chromatography and mass spectrometry, the metabolites detected by GC-MS were processed with MS DIAL and identified with Fiehnlib. Key metabolic pathways affected by GNRs were identified by endo-metabolic profiling of cells mixed with GNRs of varying shape while varying the dose and time of exposure. The shape of GNRs affected cytotoxicity, and short GNR (GNR-S) triggered disorder of cell metabolism. High concentrations of GNRs caused more significant toxicity. The cytotoxicity and bioTEM results illustrated that the mitochondria toxicity, as the main cytotoxicity of GNRs, caused declining cytoprotective ability. The mitochondrial dysfunction disrupted alanine, aspartate, glutamate, arginine, and proline metabolism, with amino acid synthesis generally downregulated. However, the efflux function of cells can exclude GNRs extracellularly within 24 h, resulting in reduced cell mitochondrial metabolic toxicity and allowing metabolic disorders to recover to normal function.
Chen's derivative rule revisited: Role of tip-orbital interference in STM

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, we revise Chen’s derivative rule for electron tunneling [C. J. Chen, Phys. Rev. B 42, 8841 (1990)] for the purpose of computationally efficient simulations of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) based on first principles electronic structure data. The revised model allows the weighting of tunneling matrix elements of different tip orbital characters by an arbitrary energy independent choice or based on energy dependent weighting coefficients obtained by an expansion of the tip single electron wavefunctions/density of states projected onto the tip apex atom. Tip-orbital interference in the STM junction is included in the model by construction and can be analyzed quantitatively. As a further advantage, arbitrary tip geometrical orientations are included in the revised model by rotating the coordinate system of the tip apex using Euler angles and redefining the weighting coefficients of the tunneling matrix elements. We demonstrate the reliability of the model by applying it to two functionalized surfaces of recent interest where quantum interference effects play an important role in the STM imaging process: N-doped graphene and a magnetic Mn2H complex on the Ag(111) surface. We find that the proposed tunneling model is 25 times faster than the Bardeen method concerning computational time, while maintaining good agreement. Our results show that the electronic structure of the tip has a considerable effect on STM images, and the Tersoff-Hamann model does not always provide sufficient results in view of quantum interference effects. For both studied surfaces we highlight the importance of interference between s and pz tip orbitals that can cause a significant contrast change in the STM images. Our method, thus, provides a fast and reliable tool for calculating STM images based on Chen’s derivative rule taking into account the electronic structure and local geometry of the tip apex.
Fertilization, but Not Post-Implantation Development, Can Occur in the Absence of Sperm and Oocyte Beta1 Integrin in Mice

Fertilization is a complex process that requires successive stages and culminates in the adhesion/fusion of gamete membranes. If the question of the involvement of oocyte integrins has been swept away by deletion experiments, that of the involvement of sperm integrins remains to be further characterized. In the present study, we addressed the question of the feasibility of sperm–oocyte adhesion/fusion and early implantation in the absence of sperm β1 integrin. Males and females with β1 integrin-depleted sperm and oocytes were mated, and fertilization outcome was monitored by a gestational ultrasound analysis. Results suggest that although the sperm β1 integrin participates in gamete adhesion/fusion, it is dispensable for fertilization in mice. However, sperm- and/or oocyte-originated integrin β1 is essential for post-implantation development. Redundancy phenomena could be at the origin of a compensatory expression or alternative dimerization pattern.
Two Procedures to Flag Radio Frequency Interference in the UV Plane

We present two algorithms to identify and flag radio frequency interference (RFI) in radio interferometric imaging data. The first algorithm utilizes the redundancy of visibilities inside a UV cell in the visibility plane to identify corrupted data, while varying the detection threshold in accordance with the observed reduction in noise with radial UV distance. In the second algorithm, we propose a scheme to detect faint RFI in the visibility time-channel (TC) plane of baselines. The efficacy of identifying RFI in the residual visibilities is reduced by the presence of ripples due to inaccurate subtraction of the strongest sources. This can be due to several reasons including primary beam asymmetries and other direction-dependent calibration errors. We eliminated these ripples by clipping the corresponding peaks in the associated Fourier plane. RFI was detected in the ripple-free TC plane but was flagged in the original visibilities. Application of these two algorithms to five different 150 MHz data sets from the GMRT resulted in a reduction in image noise of 20%–50% throughout the field along with a reduction in systematics and a corresponding increase in the number of detected sources. However, in comparing the mean flux densities before and after flagging RFI, we find a differential change with the fainter sources (25σ < S < 100 mJy) showing a change of −6% to +1% relative to the stronger sources (S > 100 mJy). We are unable to explain this effect, but it could be related to the CLEAN bias known for interferometers.
Accretion disc/corona emission from a radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy PKS 0558–504

Approximately 10-20% of Active Galactic Nuclei are known to eject powerful jets from the innermost regions. There is very little observational evidence if the jets are powered by spinning black holes and if the accretion disks extend to the innermost regions in radio-loud AGN. Here we study the soft X-ray excess, the hard X-ray spectrum and the optical/UV emission from the radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy PKS 0558-504 using Suzaku and Swift observations. The broadband X-ray continuum of PKS 0558- 504 consists of a soft X-ray excess emission below 2 keV that is well described by a blackbody (kTe ~ 0.13 keV) and high energy emission that is well described by a thermal Comptonisation (compps) model with kTe ~ 250 keV, optical depth {\tau} ~ 0.05 (spherical corona) or kTe ~ 90 keV, {\tau} ~ 0.5 (slab corona). The Comptonising corona in PKS 0558-504 is likely hotter than in radio-quiet Seyferts such as IC 4329A and Swift J2127.4+5654. The observed soft X-ray excess can be modelled as blurred reflection from an ionised accretion disk or optically thick thermal Comptonisation in a low temperature plasma. Both the soft X-ray excess emission when interpreted as the blurred reflection and the optical/UV to soft X-ray emission interpreted as intrinsic disk Comptonised emission implies spinning (a > 0.6) black hole. These results suggest that disk truncation at large radii and retrograde black hole spin both are unlikely to be the necessary conditions for launching the jets.
On the formation of the Kepler-10 planetary system

In this paper, we investigate the conditions required for the 3 and 17 Earth mass solid planets in the Kepler-10 system to have formed through collisions and mergers within an initial population of embryos. By performing a large number of N-body simulations, we show that the total mass of the initial population had to be significantly larger than the masses of the two planets, and that the two planets must have built-up farther away than their present location, at a distance of at least a few au from the central star. The planets had to grow fast enough so that they would detach themselves from the population of remaining, less massive, cores and migrate in to their present location. By the time the other cores migrated in, the disc's inner edge would have moved out so that these cores cannot be detected today. We also compute the critical core mass beyond which a massive gaseous envelope would be accreted and show that it is larger than 17 Earth masses if the planetesimal accretion rate onto the core is larger than 10^{-6} Earth mass per year. For a planetesimal accretion rate between 10^{-6} and 10^{-5} Earth mass per year, the 17 Earth mass core would not be expected to have accreted more than about 1 Earth mass of gas. The results presented in this paper suggest that a planetary system like Kepler-10 may not be unusual, although it has probably formed in a rather massive disc.
EFFECT OF VESICULAR ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZA (VAM) INOCULANTS ON GROWTH OF TOMATO

Vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic association with roots of most terrestrial plants including many agricultural crops. These are known to occur globally in a broad range of dissimilar environments from arctic to tropic and occupy a wide range of ecological niches. The role of VAM fungi in the improvement of crop plants is well documented. VAM fungi are known to improve the nutrient status of the plants, increase growth and development, protect plants against pathogens and confer resistance to drought and salinity. Sustainable agriculture has become a serious issue due to the energy crisis and environmental issues. Therefore, agricultural production is aimed to produce maximum output with minimum input. During agricultural production it is necessary to use organic fertilizers rather than chemical fertilizers. In the present study, authors assessed the efficacy of inoculants of three species of VAM fungi singly and in combination, on growth of tomato.