Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cavitation and shock wave formation in dense plasmas by relativistic electron beams

The propagation of a high current relativistic electron beam through a dense plasma, for example, in fast-ignition inertial confinement fusion, produces strong heating and magnetic field generation. The j × B force and thermal pressure gradient that the return current creates may in fact cavitate and cause shock waves in the plasma around the electron beam. Here we investigate this effect in different regimes of plasma density and hot electron current. An analytic model has been developed that gives good estimates of the density, pressure, magnetic field and velocity obtained in the plasma. This model is compared against the results from an MHD code that includes the effects of resistive field growth, Ohmic heating and the j × B force. The strength of the cavitation is found to be dependent upon the ratio between j2 and the initial mass density. It is shown that cavitation is indeed relevant to fast-ignition, and is strong enough to launch shocks in certain circumstances.
Spectral analysis of point-vortex dynamics: first application to vortex polygons in a circular domain

The present study addresses the classical problem of the dynamics and stability of a cluster of N-point vortices of equal strength arranged in a polygonal configuration (‘N-vortex polygons’). In unbounded domains, such N-vortex polygons are unconditionally stable for N ≦̸ 7 ? > . Confinement in a circular domain tightens the stability conditions to N ≦̸ 6 ? > and a maximum polygon size relative to the domain radius. This work expands on existing studies on stability and integrability by a first giving an exploratory spectral analysis of the dynamics of N vortex polygons in circular domains. Key to this is that the spectral signature of the time evolution of vortex positions reflects their qualitative behaviour. Expressing vortex motion by a generic evolution operator (the so-called Koopman operator) provides a rigorous framework for such spectral analyses. This paves the way to further differentiation and classification of point-vortex behaviour beyond stability and integrability. The concept of Koopman-based spectral analysis is demonstrated for N-vortex polygons. This reveals that conditional stability can be seen as a local form of integrability and confirms an important generic link between spectrum and dynamics: discrete spectra imply regular (quasi-periodic) motion; continuous (sub-)spectra imply chaotic motion. Moreover, this exposes rich nonlinear dynamics as intermittency between regular and chaotic motion and quasi-coherent structures formed by chaotic vortices.
Comparison of QWIP to HgCdTe detectors for gas imaging

This paper discusses the performance difference of two long-wave (8 to 12 microns) cooled infrared focal plane arrays applied to spectral imaging, one using a HgCdTe detector array and the other using a QWIP detector array. QWIP detectors tend to have a much narrower spectral response than HgCdTe detectors, therefore applications can be limited. For applications for the detection of specific gases, such that the signature of the gas absorption is within the narrower band, the QWIP can be a viable alternative to HgCdTe detectors. Such is the case for detection of sulfurhexafluoride (SF6). In this paper we compare the performance of two different imaging spectrometers where one has a cooled HgCeTe detector array and the other has a cooled QWIP detector array. The gases used in this comparison were sulfurhexafluoride (SF6), 1,1- difloroethane, and 1,1,3 trichloroethane. Figures of merit that will be compared are the noise equivalent spectral radiance (NESR), and visibility. Both detectors have 340 x 256 pixel elements in the array. A paper written comparing HgCdTe and QWIP dual band detectors by Arnold Goldberg et. al. discussed the difference between the two detector materials. To our knowledge, a comparison of a broadband (HgCdTe) and narrow band (QWIP) detector as applied to spectral imaging of gases has never been done before.
An optimal extraction algorithm for imaging photometry

This paper is primarily an investigation of whether the ‘optimal extraction’ techniques used in CCD spectroscopy can be applied to imaging photometry. It is found that using such techniques provides a gain of around 10 per cent in signal-to-noise ratio over normal aperture photometry. Formally, it is shown to be equivalent to profile fitting, but offers advantages of robust error estimation, freedom from bias introduced by mis-estimating the point spread function, and convenience. In addition some other techniques are presented, which can be applied to profile fitting, aperture photometry and the ‘optimal’ photometry. Code implementing these algorithms is available at http://www.astro. keele.ac. uk/~timn/.
Vacuum field fluctuations and spontaneous emission in a dielectric slab

The electromagnetic field is quantized on the basis of the complete set of spatial modes of a plane dielectric slab of arbitrary thickness and refractive index but infinite transverse dimensions, located in otherwise empty three-dimensional space. The vacuum field fluctuations and spontaneous emission rates are evaluated as functions of position both inside and outside the slab. The source-field operator is derived for emission by atoms inside the slab, in the direction perpendicular to its surfaces. Particular attention is given to the possibility of suppressing spontaneous emission by placing atoms in, or close to, a dielectric slab.
Ski vibrations and damping

Vibrations and damping characteristics of skis are important with respect to the gliding, stability, and holding ability of skis which again affect skier safety. Some evidence exists that ski stiffness and ski weight also play a role in determining the term known among skiers as “ski damping. ” This paper reports the vibratory properties of skis as measured in the laboratory and the field by using strain gage and LVDT transducers. Five well‐known slalom skis are examined in the laboratory and results compared for one‐dimensional bending vibrations. In the field, one alpine ski is analyzed for vibrations in bending, torsion, and sideflex under the most common ski maneuvers. When carefully tested in free vibrations, skis are found to conform fairly well with the accepted models of viscous free vibrations with logarithmic decrement damping. To obtain damping data over a wider frequency range (8–50 Hz) the skis were put on a shaker and magnification factors and resonance sharpnesses compared. Field testing sho.
Integrated bistable optical devices

We describe several versions of an integrated bistable optical device fabricated with Ti in‐diffused waveguides in LiNbO3. The ends of the LiNbO3 crystal are cleaved to form a Fabry‐Perot resonator. These devices can be operated with as little as 1 pJ of optical switching energy.
A note on the locus of a shelf front

It is suggested that the locus of a shelf front is where the water depth is equal to the thickness of the tidal frictional bottom boundary layer. From this, it follows that the locus of the front should be given by a critical value of h / U t , where h is the water depth and U t is the tidal stream amplitude. This result differs from that suggested by Simpson and Hunter who argued that a critical value of h / U 3 t determines the locus of the front. The parameterization suggested here implies that the locus of a shelf front (1) does not adjust in response to the seasonal heating cycle and (2) responds only weakly to the spring-neap cycle. Utilizing established empirical constants, we predict that the locus of a shelf front should be where h / U t ≅ 80 s. All these predicted features conform well with observed properties of shelf fronts. The bottom boundary layer thickness conformant with these results is equal to λ( C d ∫ U t 2 ) 1/2 / f , where λ = 0.20 and C d = 0.003. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0870.1988. tb00361.x
Programmable Sandbox for Malware Analysis

—Ransomware has grown to be one of the largest cibersecurity threats in the past few years, so efforts in building better detection mechanisms have also increased. Ransomware’s mainstream approach of encrypting large amount of ﬁles, leads to the rationale of using dynamic malware analysis to build detection models as they produce ﬁle access patterns that could be used as features for the training of said models. However, it has been reported that papers published in this research area have seen a lack of scientiﬁc rigor due to absence of proper experiment and result reporting that can be attributed to the friction of properly log experiments alongside fast research approach iteration. In the effort to reduce the mentioned friction, this work presents the Programmable Sandbox for Malware Analysis (PSMA), a scalable dynamic malware analysis system that enables researchers to perform programmable and repeatable experiments, by using a modular approach and storing the modules used and parameters conﬁgured in each experiment, which can later be used for the creation of proper reports on new tested approaches.
Rashnu: Data-Dependent Order-Fairness

Distributed data management systems use state Machine Replication (SMR) to provide fault tolerance. The SMR algorithm enables Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) protocols to guarantee safety and liveness despite the malicious failure of nodes. However, SMR does not prevent the adversarial manipulation of the order of the trans-actions, where the order assigned by a malicious leader differs from the order in that transactions are received from clients. While order-fairness has been recently studied in a few protocols, such protocols rely on synchronized clocks, suffer from liveness issues, or incur significant performance overhead. This paper presents Rashnu , a high-performance fair ordering protocol. Rashnu is motivated by the fact that fair ordering among two transactions is needed when both transactions access a shared resource. Based on this observation, we define the notion of data-dependent order fairness where replicas capture only the order of data-dependent transactions and the leader uses these orders to propose a dependency graph that represents fair ordering among transactions. Replicas then execute transactions using the dependency graph resulting in the parallel execution of independent transactions. We implemented a prototype of Rashnu on top of HotStuff, where our experimental evaluation reveals the efficiency of Rashnu compared to the state-of-the-art order-fairness protocol and its low overhead compared to HotStuff.
Conceptualisation of an internal control information system for electronic invoices

Avoiding accounting errors is important to ensure quality information for proper management of companies. With the development of new forms of document transmission by digital means, such as electronic invoices, the need for paper support may no longer make sense. However, neither the existence of electronic invoices, nor the automation processes of their formal validity, guarantee, by themselves, the elimination of errors, namely in accounting. This study aimed to propose a conceptual model of an automated internal control system for supplier’s electronic invoices that meets the business validation objective, with the potential to prevent subsequent errors. It was evidenced that it is possible to design automatisms for internal control purposes, properly monitorable and comprehensive, based on the electronic invoice together with other elements present in business information systems, improving effectiveness and efficiency in error prevention and enhancing an improvement in data quality. It was concluded through demonstration with a semi-functional prototype and evaluation through tests, complemented with concept validation through a focus group with potential IS users, that the proposed artefact has validity. However, there are limitations to make the model usable in a real context, since it is necessary to guarantee and provide the internal business and B2B processes with elements that allow communication and automated processing in the IS, highlighting, in the case of supplier’s electronic invoices, the adequate referencing of purchase orders and products.
The Perceptual Contribution of Pinna Related Transfer Function Attributes in the Median Plane

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Coping With the Unforeseen: An Investigation of Character Strengths of Parents who Have Children with Life-Altering Diagnoses

Parenting is a challenge role, and it is an even more challenging experience when you have a child with a life-altering diagnosis (LAD). In this investigation, the character strengths of parents of healthy children and parents of children with LADs were measured, as well as their sense of meaning and well-being. We hypothesized that parents of children with LADs might have a different profile of top strengths than parents of healthy children. However, the results revealed no significant differences in character strengths between the two groups of parents, except for the character strength of love of learning. There were significant differences in well-being, but not meaning, between parents of healthy children and parents of children with LADs. The results suggest that character strengths may not be being leveraged, or at least have not altered significantly, in parents with children with LADs. Given that character strengths are linked to subjective well-being, and well-being among parents of children with LADs was low, this may present an opportunity to leverage interventions that promote well-being and flourishing through the use of character strengths in service to parental well-being.
ErN and HoN spherical regenerator materials for 4 K cryocoolers

HoN and ErN spheres were synthesized by nitriding metallic spheres, and their regenerator performance was investigated by measuring the cooling power, CP, using a commercial Gifford–McMahon cryocooler loaded with the samples. The lowest achieved temperature was below 4.2 K. The CP of the nitride spheres was decreased by the presence of surface roughness, porosity, and oxide impurities. The intrinsic cooling power of ErN, calculated by considering these deficiencies, was greater than that measured for HoCu2. This high performance originates from the large specific heat, which peak at approximately 5 K given by magnetic transition.
Human In Vitro Models of Epilepsy Using Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

The challenges in making animal models of complex human epilepsy phenotypes with varied aetiology highlights the need to develop alternative disease models that can address the limitations of animal models by effectively recapitulating human pathophysiology. The advances in stem cell technology provide an opportunity to use human iPSCs to make disease-in-a-dish models. The focus of this review is to report the current information and progress in the generation of epileptic patient-specific iPSCs lines, isogenic control cell lines, and neuronal models. These in vitro models can be used to study the underlying pathological mechanisms of epilepsies, anti-seizure medication resistance, and can also be used for drug testing and drug screening with their isogenic control cell lines.
Manufacture of n-Propyl Propionate Using Ion Exchange Resins: Reaction Kinetics and Feasibility of Reactive Distillation

Reaction kinetics of esterification of propionic acid with 1-propanol to produce n-propyl propionate using Amberlyst-15 as a catalyst was investigated in this work. Effect of various parameters was studied. Initially, the efficacy of different catalysts was investigated which revealed that Amberlyst-15 can be suitably used for the reaction. This was followed by mass transfer exclusion which included effect of agitation speed, catalyst size and calculation of Weisz-Prater Criterion. Parameters selected for kinetic study were mole ratio of propionic acid to 1-propanol, temperature, catalyst loading and initial water concentration. Catalyst reusability was also verified. Aspen Custom Modeler (ACM) was used to regress kinetic parameters and a good match was obtained. Reactive Distillation (RD) runs in the batch mode were performed which showed that RD is a better option for process intensification (PI) for this reaction. Copyright © 2022 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).
Liquid-vapor coexistence in fluids of dipolar hard dumbbells and spherocylinders

Fluids of dipolar hard spheres are thought to have rather unusual phase behavior in that liquid-vapor equilibrium has not been observed in computer simulations. Recently, McGrother and Jackson [Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 4183 (1996)] have reported Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo (GEMC) results for dipolar hard spherocylinders. At the reduced temperature ${T}^{*}=0.12$ they report liquid-vapor coexistence for aspect ratios $L/D\ensuremath{\gtrsim}0.19,$ but no coexistence was found for smaller values. In the present paper we investigate the phase behavior of dipolar hard dumbbells and dipolar hard spherocylinders using both GEMC and grand canonical Monte Carlo methods. For both models at the same reduced temperature we find liquid-vapor coexistence for aspect ratios as low as 0.1. For aspect ratios $\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.1,$ the strong dipolar interactions create severe sampling problems and reliable results cannot be obtained. This is particularly true for the GEMC method and possibly accounts for the disagreement we find with the earlier simulations.
Flipper-Style Locomotion Through Strong Expanding Modular Robots

Volume-changing robotic units present an exciting pathway for modular robotics. However, current attempts have been relatively limited, requiring tethers, complex fabrication or slow cycle times. In this letter, we present AuxBots: an auxetic-based approach to create high force, fast cycle time self-contained modules. By driving the auxetic shell's expansion with a motor and leadscrew, these robots are capable of expanding their volume by 274% in 0.8 seconds with a maximum strength to weight ratio of 76x. These force and expansion properties enable us to use these modules in conjunction with flexible wire constraints to get shape changing behavior and independent locomotion. We demonstrate the power of this modular system by using a limited number of AuxBots to mimic the flipper-style locomotion of mudskippers and sea turtles. These structures are entirely untethered and can still move forward even as some AuxBots stall and enter a fault state, achieving the key modular robotics goals of versatility and robustness.
Integrated Physiological and Metabolomic Analyses Reveal the Differences in the Fruit Quality of the Blueberry Cultivated in Three Soilless Substrates

With improving living standards, traditional blueberry planting modes cannot meet commercial demands, and blueberry cultivation with soilless substrate has become a popular solution in the blueberry industry. In this study, different soilless substrate treatments were found to markedly influence fruit appearance and intrinsic quality. The fruit in the 50:50 peat/pine bark (v/v) (FPB) treatment group had the maximum single fruit weight, largest vertical diameter, and brightest color, as well as the highest 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) value, solid-acid ratio and anthocyanin content. The fruit in the 50:50 pine bark/rice husk (v/v) (FBR) treatment group had the highest total phenol and flavonoid levels, largest drip loss value, and lowest total pectin content and firmness value. Metabolomic analysis showed that flavonoid, carbohydrate, and carbohydrate conjugate, and amino acid, peptide, and analog levels were significantly different between groups. Fruit in the FPB group had the highest sucrose, D-fructose 1,6-bisphosphate, salidroside, tectorigenin, naringenin chalcone, trifolirhizin, and galangin contents. The increase in the relative expression of phenylalanine (Phe) promoted the synthesis of fruit polyphenols in the FBR group. Our results provide new insights into the effects of different substrates on the quality of blueberries and a reference for the soilless substrate cultivation of blueberries.
Characterization of a Collection of Colored Lentil Genetic Resources Using a Novel Computer Vision Approach

The lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is one of the major pulse crops cultivated worldwide. However, in the last decades, lentil cultivation has decreased in many areas surrounding Mediterranean countries due to low yields, new lifestyles, and changed eating habits. Thus, many landraces and local varieties have disappeared, while local farmers are the only custodians of the treasure of lentil genetic resources. Recently, the lentil has been rediscovered to meet the needs of more sustainable agriculture and food systems. Here, we proposed an image analysis approach that, besides being a rapid and non-destructive method, can characterize seed size grading and seed coat morphology. The results indicated that image analysis can give much more detailed and precise descriptions of grain size and shape characteristics than can be practically achieved by manual quality assessment. Lentil size measurements combined with seed coat descriptors and the color attributes of the grains allowed us to develop an algorithm that was able to identify 64 red lentil genotypes collected at ICARDA with an accuracy approaching 98% for seed size grading and close to 93% for the classification of seed coat morphology.
Experiments on the stability of viscous flow between rotating cylinders - VI. Finite-amplitude experiments

The ion technique is applied to a variety of experiments in Couette flow: determination of the critical Taylor number; determination of wavenumber and waveform of the vortices; establishment of the laws that the square of the amplitude and the amplification factor both vary as the difference between the Taylor number and the critical Taylor number; and finally certain studies of the growth and decay of vortices as the Taylor number is changed. The experimental data are compared with the results of integration of the exact equations for the linear stability problem by means of a high-speed computer. These theoretical values were obtained by P. H. Roberts and are presented in an appendix to this paper.
Optical Fiber Distributed Sensing Network for Thermal Mapping in Radiofrequency Ablation Neighboring a Blood Vessel

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a minimally invasive form of thermotherapy with great potential in cancer care, having the capability of selectively ablating tumoral masses with a surface area of several cm2. When performing RFA in the proximity of a blood vessel, the heating profile changes due to heat dissipation, perfusion, and impedance changes. In this work, we provide an experimental framework for the real-time evaluation of 2D thermal maps in RFA neighboring a blood vessel; the experimental setup is based on simultaneous scanning of multiple fibers in a distributed sensing network, achieving a spatial resolution of 2.5 × 4 mm2 in situ. We also demonstrate an increase of ablating potential when injecting an agarose gel in the tissue. Experimental results show that the heat-sink effect contributes to a reduction of the ablated region around 30–60% on average; however, the use of agarose significantly mitigates this effect, enlarging the ablated area by a significant amount, and ablating an even larger surface (+15%) in the absence of blood vessels.