Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selfdual Einstein Metrics with Torus Symmetry

It is well-known that any 4-dimensional hyperkahler metric with two commuting Killing fields may be obtained explicitly, via the Gibbons-Hawking Ansatz, from a harmonic function invariant under a Killing field on • 3. In this paper, we find all selfdual Einstein metrics of nonzero scalar curvature with two commuting Killing fields. They are given explicitly in terms of a local eigenfunction of the Laplacian on the hyperbolic plane. We discuss the relation of this construction to a class of selfdual spaces found by Joyce, and some Einstein-Weyl spaces found by Ward, and then show that certain 'multipole' hyperbolic eigenfunctions yield explicit formulae for the quaternion-kahler quotients of • Pm—1 by an (m — 2)-torus studied by Galicki and Lawson. As a consequence we are able to place the well-known cohomogeneity one metrics, the quaternion-kahler quotients of • P2 (and noncompact analogues), and the more recently studied selfdual Einstein Hermitian metrics in a unified framework, and give new complete examples.
Blood Flow in Channel Constrictions: A Lattice-Boltzmann Consistent
 Comparison between Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Models

Lattice Boltzmann simulations have been carried out in order to study the flow of blood in normal and constricted blood channels using Newtonian and non-Newtonian rheological models. Instead of using parameters from previous works as is usually done, we propose a new optimization methodology that provides in a consistent manner the complete set of parameters for the studied models, namely Newtonian, CarreauYassuda and Kuang-Luo. The optimization was performed simultaneously using experimental data from several sources. Physical observables such as velocity profiles, shear rate profiles and pressure fields were evaluated. For the normal channel case, it was found that the Newtonian model predicts both the highest velocity and shear rates profiles followed by the Carreau-Yassuda and the Kuang-Luo models. For a constricted channel, important differences were found in the velocity profiles among the studied models. First, the Newtonian model was observed to predict the velocity profile maximum at different channel width positions compared to the nonNewtonian ones. Second, the obtained recirculation region was found to be longer for the Newtonian models. Finally, concerning the constriction shape, the global velocity was found to be lower for a rectangular geometry than for a semi-circular one.
1200V 6A SiC BJTs with very low VCESAT and fast switching

This paper reports measurements and simulations made on 1200V 6A Silicon carbide (SiC) bipolar junction transistors. A SPICE model for the transistor has been developed and verified by static and dynamic measurements. Fast switching and low on state losses have been measured and SPICE simulated on the component level. To further describe the impact on a systems level a simplified boost converter has been simulated with regards to power losses and cooling.
GrabcutD: improved grabcut using depth information

Popular state of the art segmentation methods such as Grab cut include a matting technique to calculate the alpha values for boundaries of segmented regions. Conventional Grabcut relies only on color information to achieve segmentation. Recently, there have been attempts to improve Grabcut using motion in video sequences. However, in stereo or multi-view analysis, there is additional information that could be also used to improve segmentation. Clearly, depth based approaches bear the potential discriminative power of ascertaining whether the object is nearer of farer. In this work, we propose and evaluate a Grabcut segmentation technique based on combination of color and depth information. We show the usefulness of the approach when stereo information is available and evaluate it using standard datasets against state of the art results.
Assessing Website Credibility Through theUser’s Eyes

A stream of research studies has looked into the factors affecting an individual’s attitudes toward and use of websites. Few studies, however, examined the role of a website’s credibility in a user’s assessment to engage with the website. Fogg (2003) proposed prominence-interpretation theory (PIT), which suggests that both prominence (what the users observe about a website) and interpretation (how users come to interpret the elements they observed) impact their assessment of the website’s credibility. While PIT is very intuitive and promising, very few studies have attempted to empirically test it, and even fewer studies examined the theory in its entirety. Fogg (2003) examined only the prominence part of the theory, George et al. (2014) explored the antecedents of prominence, and George et al. (2016) tested the complete model of the theory and found an interaction effect of prominence and interpretation in accurately predicting attitudes about the website’s credibility. We are not aware of any other studies which attempted to empirically validate this theory. In their 2016 study, George and colleagues conducted a lab experiment, where they exposed the participants to a website and later asked the participants what they had observed on the website and how each recalled element was interpreted. While this study demonstrated the viability of the theory, we suggest that the examination of the theory could be further enhanced. George and his colleagues relied on the recalled responses of the participants in determ ining the prominence of the website’s elements. Prior studies have demonstrated that the actual behavior of participants may differ from self-reporting (e.g. Eysenbach and Köhler, 2002). Instead of rel ying on responses from the website’s users, researchers today can employ eye tracking technology to objectively determine what the users looked at each specific time and examine the eye movement patterns between the website’s elements. Eye tracking technol ogy has been widely adopted in human computer interaction research, in psychology, and many other disciplines, proving to be an effective tool in understanding the point of regard of the user. Further, the PIT suggests five antecedents to province: motivation,
Tourism recommendation based on vector space model using composite social media extraction

Intentionally or not, social media users likely to share others recommendation about things, included tourism activities. In this paper we proposed a technique which was able to structure the joint recommendation of composite social media and extract them into knowledge about the tourist sites by deploying the vector space model. We included advice seeking technique to not only calculate recommendations obtained from the profile itself but also recommendations by social network users. This is a potential solution to handle sparsity problem that usually appears in conventional recommender systems. We further formulated an approach to normalize the unstructured text data of social media to obtain appropriate recommendation. We experimented the real world data from various source of social media in R language. We evaluated our result with Spearman's rank correlation and showed that our formulation has diversity recommendation with positive correlation to user's profile.
Linking Discourse and Space: Towards a Cultural Sociology of Space in Analysing Spatial Policy Discourses

The aim of this paper is to explore how spatialities are 'constructed' in spatial policy discourses and to explore how these construction processes might be conceptualised and analysed. To do this, we discuss a theoretical and analytical framework for the discourse analysis of socio-spatial relations. Our approach follows the path emerging within planning research focusing on the relations between rationality and power, making use of discourse analytics and cultural theoretical approaches to articulate a cultural sociology of space. We draw on a variety of theoretical sources from critical geography to sociology to argue for a practice- and culture-oriented understanding of the spatiality of social life. The approach hinges on the dialectical relation between material practices and the symbolic meanings that social agents attach to their spatial environment. Socio-spatial relations are conceptualised in terms of their practical 'workings' and their symbolic 'meaning', played out at spatial scales from the body to the global-thus giving notion to an analysis of the 'politics of scale'. The discourse analytical approach moves away from textually oriented approaches to explore the relations between language, space and power. In the paper, we use examples of the articulation of space in the emerging field of European spatial policy. It is shown how the new spatial policy discourse creates the conditions for a new set of spatial practices which shape European space, at the same time as it creates a new system of meaning about that space, based on the language and ideas of polycentricity and hypermobility.
H-transforms for symbol error probability

In this paper, we establish a unifying framework to analyze symbol error probability (SEP) for wireless communication where the fading envelope is described by H-fading or degree-2 irregular H-fading. By virtue of two essential operations-termed as Mellin and convolution operations- involved in the Mellin transform and Mellin convolution of two H-functions, the H-transform for the SEP culminate in H-functions. Using the algebraic asymptotic expansions of the H-transform, we further analyze the SEP at high signal-to-noise ratios in again a unified fashion.
CONSTRAINTS ON CHARON'S ORBITAL ELEMENTS FROM THE DOUBLE STELLAR OCCULTATION OF 2008 JUNE 22

Pluto and its main satellite, Charon, occulted the same star on 2008 June 22. This event was observed from Australia and La Réunion Island, providing the east and north Charon Plutocentric offset in the sky plane (J2000): X= + 12,070.5 ± 4 km (+ 546.2 ± 0.2 mas), Y= + 4,576.3 ± 24 km (+ 207.1 ± 1.1 mas) at 19:20:33.82 UT on Earth, corresponding to JD 2454640.129964 at Pluto. This yields Charon's true longitude L= 153.483 ± 0. °071 in the satellite orbital plane (counted from the ascending node on J2000 mean equator) and orbital radius r= 19,564 ± 14 km at that time. We compare this position to that predicted by (1) the orbital solution of Tholen & Buie (the “TB97” solution), (2) the PLU017 Charon ephemeris, and (3) the solution of Tholen et al. (the “T08” solution). We conclude that (1) our result rules out solution TB97, (2) our position agrees with PLU017, with differences of ΔL= + 0.073 ± 0. °071 in longitude, and Δr= + 0.6 ± 14 km in radius, and (3) while the difference with the T08 ephemeris amounts to only ΔL= 0.033 ± 0. °071 in longitude, it exhibits a significant radial discrepancy of Δr= 61.3 ± 14 km. We discuss this difference in terms of a possible image scale relative error of 3.35 × 10−3in the 2002–2003 Hubble Space Telescope images upon which the T08 solution is mostly based. Rescaling the T08 Charon semi-major axis, a = 19, 570.45 km, to the TB97 value, a = 19636 km, all other orbital elements remaining the same (“T08/TB97” solution), we reconcile our position with the re-scaled solution by better than 12 km (or 0.55 mas) for Charon's position in its orbital plane, thus making T08/TB97 our preferred solution.
Asteroseismology of Procyon with SOPHIE

This paper reports a 9-night asteroseismic observation program conducted in January 2007 with the new spectrometer SOPHIE at the OHP 193-cm telescope, on the F5 IV-V target Procyon A. Aims.This first asteroseismic program with SOPHIE was intended to test the performance of the instrument with a bright but demanding asteroseismic target and was part of a multisite network. Methods.The SOPHIE spectra have been reduced with the data reduction software provided by OHP. The Procyon asteroseismic data were then analyzed with statistical tools. The asymptotic analysis has been conducted considering possible curvature in the echelle diagram analysis. Results.These observations have proven the efficient performance of SOPHIE used as an asteroseismometer, and succeed in a clear detection of the large spacing. An echelle diagram based on the 54-Hz spacing shows clear ridges. Identification of the peaks exhibits large spacings varying from about 52 Hz to 56 Hz. Outside the frequency range [0.9, 1.0 mHz] where the identification is confused, the large spacing increases at a rate of about Hz. This may explain some of the different values of the large spacing obtained by previous observations.
In vitro fermentation of grape seed flavan-3-ol fractions by human faecal microbiota: changes in microbial groups and phenolic metabolites.

With the aim of investigating the potential of flavan-3-ols to influence the growth of intestinal bacterial groups, we have carried out the in vitro fermentation, with human faecal microbiota, of two purified fractions from grape seed extract (GSE): GSE-M (70% monomers and 28% procyanidins) and GSE-O (21% monomers and 78% procyanidins). Samples were collected at 0, 5, 10, 24, 30 and 48 h of fermentation for bacterial enumeration by fluorescent in situ hybridization and for analysis of phenolic metabolites. Both GSE-M and GSE-O fractions promoted growth of Lactobacillus/Enterococcus and decrease in the Clostridium histolyticum group during fermentation, although the effects were only statistically significant with GSE-M for Lactobacillus/Enterococcus (at 5 and 10 h of fermentation) and GSE-O for C. histolyticum (at 10 h of fermentation). Main changes in polyphenol catabolism also occurred during the first 10 h of fermentation; however, no significant correlation coefficients (P > 0.05) were found between changes in microbial populations and precursor flavan-3-ols or microbial metabolites. Together, these data suggest that the flavan-3-ol profile of a particular food source could affect the microbiota composition and its catabolic activity, inducing changes that could in turn affect the bioavailability and potential bioactivity of these compounds.
Sampled-Data Exponential Synchronization of Complex Dynamical Networks With Time-Varying Coupling Delay

This paper studies the problem of sampled-data exponential synchronization of complex dynamical networks (CDNs) with time-varying coupling delay and uncertain sampling. By combining the time-dependent Lyapunov functional approach and convex combination technique, a criterion is derived to ensure the exponential stability of the error dynamics, which fully utilizes the available information about the actual sampling pattern. Based on the derived condition, the design method of the desired sampled-data controllers is proposed to make the CDNs exponentially synchronized and obtain a lower-bound estimation of the largest sampling interval. Simulation examples demonstrate that the presented method can significantly reduce the conservatism of the existing results, and lead to wider applications.
Pretreatment with Fish Oil-Based Lipid Emulsion Modulates Muscle Leukocyte Chemotaxis in Murine Model of Sublethal Lower Limb Ischemia

This study investigated the effects of a fish oil- (FO-) based lipid emulsion on muscle leukocyte chemotaxis and inflammatory responses in a murine model of limb ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury. Mice were assigned randomly to 1 sham (sham) group, 2 ischemic groups, and 2 IR groups. The sham group did not undergo the ischemic procedure. The mice assigned to the ischemic or IR groups were pretreated intraperitoneally with either saline or FO-based lipid emulsion for 3 consecutive days. The IR procedure was induced by applying a 4.5 oz orthodontic rubber band to the left thigh above the greater trochanter for 120 min and then cutting the band to allow reperfusion. The ischemic groups were sacrificed immediately while the IR groups were sacrificed 24 h after reperfusion. Blood, IR-injured gastrocnemius, and lung tissues were collected for analysis. The results showed that FO pretreatment suppressed the local and systemic expression of several IR-induced proinflammatory mediators. Also, the FO-pretreated group had lower blood Ly6ChiCCR2hi monocyte percentage and muscle M1/M2 ratio than the saline group at 24 h after reperfusion. These findings suggest that FO pretreatment may have a protective role in limb IR injury by modulating the expression of proinflammatory mediators and regulating the polarization of macrophage.
Influence of Permeant Ions on Gating in Cyclic Nucleotide–gated Channels

Cyclic nucleotide–gated channels are key components in the transduction of visual and olfactory signals where their role is to respond to changes in the intracellular concentration of cyclic nucleotides. Although these channels poorly select between physiologically relevant monovalent cations, the gating by cyclic nucleotide is different in the presence of Na+ or K+ ions. This property was investigated using rod cyclic nucleotide–gated channels formed by expressing the subunit 1 (or α) in HEK293 cells. In the presence of K+ as the permeant ion, the affinity for cGMP is higher than the affinity measured in the presence of Na+. At the single channel level, subsaturating concentrations of cGMP show that the main effect of the permeant K+ ions is to prolong the time channels remain open without major changes in the shut time distribution. In addition, the maximal open probability was higher when K+ was the permeant ion (0.99 for K+ vs. 0.95 for Na+) due to an increase in the apparent mean open time. Similarly, in the presence of saturating concentrations of cAMP, known to bind but unable to efficiently open the channel, permeant K+ ions also prolong the time channels visit the open state. Together, these results suggest that permeant ions alter the stability of the open conformation by influencing of the O→C transition.
Population synthesis of wide binary millisecond pulsars

Four evolutionary channels leading to the formation of wide binary millisecond pulsars are investigated. The majority of binary millisecond pulsars are found to descend from systems in which the most massive component undergoes a common-envelope phase prior to the supernova explosion leading to the birth of the neutron star. The orbital period distribution of simulated samples of wide binary millisecond pulsars is compared with the observed distribution of Galactic binary millisecond pulsars for a variety of parameters describing the formation and evolution of binaries. The distribution functions typically show a short-period peak below 10 d and a long-period peak around 100 d. The observed distribution is best reproduced by models with highly non-conservative mass transfer, common-envelope efficiencies equal to or larger than unity, a critical mass ratio for the delayed dynamical instability larger than 3, and no or moderate supernova kicks at the birth of the neutron star. Few systems are found with orbital periods longer than 200 d, irrespective of the accretion efficiency of neutron stars. This occurs as a result of the upper limit on the initial orbital periods beyond which the binary avoids the common-envelope phase prior to the supernova explosion of the primary.
Potential Anti-Atherosclerotic Properties of Astaxanthin

Astaxanthin is a naturally occurring red carotenoid pigment classified as a xanthophyll, found in microalgae and seafood such as salmon, trout, and shrimp. This review focuses on astaxanthin as a bioactive compound and outlines the evidence associated with its potential role in the prevention of atherosclerosis. Astaxanthin has a unique molecular structure that is responsible for its powerful antioxidant activities by quenching singlet oxygen and scavenging free radicals. Astaxanthin has been reported to inhibit low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation and to increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol and adiponectin levels in clinical studies. Accumulating evidence suggests that astaxanthin could exert preventive actions against atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) via its potential to improve oxidative stress, inflammation, lipid metabolism, and glucose metabolism. In addition to identifying mechanisms of astaxanthin bioactivity by basic research, much more epidemiological and clinical evidence linking reduced CVD risk with dietary astaxanthin intake is needed.
Global charges in Chern-Simons theory and the 2+1 black hole.

We use the Regge-Teitelboim method to treat surface integrals in gauge theories to find global charges in Chern-Simons theory. We derive the affine and Virasoro generators as global charges associated with symmetries of the boundary. The role of boundary conditions is clarified. We prove that for diffeomorphisms that do not preserve the boundary there is a classical contribution to the central charge in the Virasoro algebra. The example of anti\char21{}de Sitter 2+1 gravity is considered in detail.
Is untargeted outreach visiting in primary care effective? A pragmatic randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND There is increasing evidence that clinical guidelines can lead to improvements in clinical care. However, they are not self-implementing. Outreach visits may improve prescribing behaviour. METHODS Within a before-and-after pragmatic randomized controlled trial, involving all general practices in one health district, routine methods were used to distribute guidelines for management of Helicobacter pylori eradication. Intervention practices were offered a visit and the conduct of an audit by a pharmacist trained in the techniques of outreach visiting. The intervention was evaluated using level three Prescribing Analysis and Cost (PACT) data for metronidazole and omeprazole for the two 12 month periods around the introduction of the guidelines. RESULTS Of the 38 intervention practices 19 accepted an outreach visit and three accepted the offer of an audit. There was a significant increase in omeprazole use during the study of 0.24 [95 per cent confidence interval (CI) +0.19 to +0.29] dose units per year but no effect from the offer [-0.02 (95 per cent CI -0.12 to +0.08) dose units] or acceptance of a visit [-0.03 (95 per cent CI -0.15 to +0.08) dose units]. The results for metronidazole were similar, with an increase in use of 0.028 (95 per cent CI +0.018 to +0.038) dose units per year. The effect of the intervention was a non-significant change in prescribing of -0.005 (95 per cent CI -0.025 to +0.015) dose units. Accepting a visit had little effect on prescribing: a change of 0.003 (95 per cent CI -0.021 to +0.027) dose units. CONCLUSIONS The routine use of untargeted outreach visiting is probably not a worthwhile strategy.
Homotopy and geometric perspectives on string topology

In these lecture notes I will try to summarize some recent advances in the new area of study known as string topology. This subject was initiated in the beautiful paper of Chas and Sullivan [3], and has attracted the attention of many mathematicians over the last few years. In its most basic form, string topology is the study of differential and algebraic topological properties of paths and loops in a manifold. Throughout this note M will denote a closed, n-dimensional, oriented manifold. LM will denote the free loop space, LM = Map(S,M). For D1, D2 ⊂ M closed submanifolds, PM (D1, D2)) will denote the space of paths in M that start at D1 and end at D2, PM (D1, D2)) = {γ : [0, 1]→M, γ(0) ∈ D1, γ(1) ∈ D2}.