Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flow of a concentrated emulsion with surfactant through a periodic porous medium

Abstract High-resolution, long-time three-dimensional simulations are presented for slow, pressure-driven flow of a periodic emulsion of deformable drops through a dense, simple cubic array of solid spheres (one drop and one particle per periodic cell). The drops, covered with insoluble, non-diffusive surfactant, are large compared with pores, and they squeeze with high resistance, very closely coating the solids to overcome surface tension and lubrication effects. The solid volume fraction is 50 %, the emulsion concentration $c_{em}$ in the pore space is 36 % or 50 %, the drop-to-medium viscosity ratio $\lambda$ is 0.25 to 4. The contamination measure $\beta \leq 0.1$ keeps the linear surfactant model (assumed in most of the work) physically relevant. The boundary-integral solution requires extreme resolutions (tens of thousands of boundary elements per surface) achieved by multipole acceleration with special desingularizations, combined with flow-biased surfactant transport algorithms for numerical stability. The time-periodic regime is typically attained after a few squeezing cycles; the motion period is used in the extrapolation scheme to evaluate critical capillary numbers $Ca_{crit}$ demarcating squeezing from trapping. Due to Marangoni stresses, even light ($\beta =0.05$) to moderate ($\beta =0.1$) contaminations significantly reduce the average drop-phase migration velocity (up to 2.8 times, compared with clean drops), especially at small $\lambda =0.25$. In contrast, $Ca_{crit}$ is weakly sensitive to contamination and levels off completely at $\beta =0.05$. At $\lambda =0.25$ and $c_{em}=0.36$, the average drop-phase velocities are much different for lightly and moderately contaminated emulsions, except for near-critical squeezing when they become the same. Nonlinear surfactant models (Langmuir, Frumkin) are used to validate the linear model.
Penicillin Binding Protein 7/8 Is a Potential Drug Target in Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii

Limited therapeutic options dictate the need for new classes of antimicrobials active against carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii. Presented data confirm and extend penicillin binding protein 7/8 (PBP 7/8) as a high-value target in the CR A. baumannii strain HUMC1. ABSTRACT Limited therapeutic options dictate the need for new classes of antimicrobials active against carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii. Presented data confirm and extend penicillin binding protein 7/8 (PBP 7/8) as a high-value target in the CR A. baumannii strain HUMC1. PBP 7/8 was essential for optimal growth/survival of HUMC1 in ex vivo human ascites and in a rat subcutaneous abscess model; in a mouse pneumonia model, the absence of PBP 7/8 decreased lethality 11-fold. The loss of PBP 7/8 resulted in increased permeability, sensitivity to complement, and lysozyme-mediated bactericidal activity. These changes did not appear to be due to alterations in the cellular fatty acid composition or capsule production. However, a decrease in lipid A and an increase in coccoidal cells and cell aggregation were noted. The compromise of the stringent permeability barrier in the PBP 7/8 mutant was reflected by an increased susceptibility to several antimicrobials. Importantly, expression of ampC was not significantly affected by the loss of PBP 7/8 and serial passage of the mutant strain in human ascites over 7 days did not yield revertants possessing a wild-type phenotype. In summary, these data and other features support PBP 7/8 as a high-value drug target for extensively drug-resistant and CR A. baumannii. Our results guide next-stage studies; the determination that the inactivation of PBP 7/8 results in an increased sensitivity to lysozyme enables the design of a high-throughput screening assay to identify small molecule compounds that can specifically inhibit PBP 7/8 activity.
Diffusive acceleration of auroral primaries

The acceleration of electrons in a parallel electric field containing randomly distributed, micro double layers is investigated. The study is motivated by recent electric field observations in the auroral acceleration region. Its objective is to determine what effects stochastic versus static parallel electric fields may have on the spectral features of precipitating electrons. The average electron response as characterized by friction and diffusion coefficients is first analyzed. These coefficients are then used in a Fokker-Planck equation for the altitudinal variation in the electron energy distribution. Electron sources at the top of the acceleration region (plasma sheet electrons) and at its latitudinal edges (ionospheric electrons) are included. It is shown that (1) the plasma sheet source gives rise to “inverted V” precipitation, as in quasi-static models, and (2) the edge source is responsible for highly collimated, suprathermal precipitation. The spectral features of the former depend primarily on the average electric field and only weakly on its fluctuations. The properties of collimated precipitation are very sensitive to the microfield, however, owing to trapping phenomena. This analysis represents the first quantitative treatment of collimated electron precipitation; its predictions are in agreement with the observed intensity, pitch angle distribution, energy spectrum, and latitudinal width of edge region precipitation.
Highly Efficient Traffic Planning for Autonomous Vehicles to Cross Intersections Without a Stop

Waiting in a long queue at traffic lights not only wastes valuable time but also pollutes the environment. With the advances in autonomous vehicles and 5G networks, the previous jamming scenarios at intersections may be turned into non-stop weaving traffic flows. Toward this vision, we propose a highly efficient traffic planning system, namely DASHX, which enables connected autonomous vehicles to cross multi-way intersections without a stop. Specifically, DASHX has a comprehensive model to represent intersections and vehicle status. It can constantly process large volumes of vehicle information, resolve scheduling conflicts, and generate optimal travel plans for all vehicles coming toward the intersection in real time. Unlike existing works that are limited to certain types of intersections and lack considerations of practicability, DASHX is universal for any type of 3D intersection and yields the near-maximum throughput while still ensuring riding comfort. To better evaluate the effectiveness of traffic scheduling systems in real-world scenarios, we developed a sophisticated open source 3D traffic simulation platform (DASHX-SIM) that can handle complicated 3D road layouts and simulate vehicles’ networking and decision-making processes. We have conducted extensive experiments, and the experimental results demonstrate the practicality, effectiveness, and efficiency of the DASHX system and the simulator.
JamSketch Deep α: A CNN-Based Improvisation System in Accordance with User's Melodic Outline Drawing

We present an improvisation system called JamSketch Deep α, which generates melodies using a convolutional neural network (CNN) according to melodic outlines given by the user. The original version of JamSketch used a genetic algorithm for generating melodies, so it took time for obtaining melodies. We therefore show a prototype of our CNN-based version of JamSketch, which immediately generates a Blues-style melody once the user draws an outline.
A Reality Check of Positioning in Multiuser Mobile Augmented Reality: Measurement and Analysis

Multiuser Augmented Reality (MuAR) is essential to implementing the vision of Metaverse. With the pervasive mobile devices, MuAR enables multiple devices to share a common AR experience. In such experiences, the peer positions are critical to understand peers' intentions and actions so as to achieve the smooth interaction in AR. Such a spacial awareness requirement poses new challenges to MuAR. Traditionally, in AR experiences designed for the single user, the SLAM algorithm is adopted to compute self positions. However, the computed positions cannot be directly used to compute the relative positions of peer devices in MuAR, because they are computed with respect to independent coordinate systems associated with participating devices. To fill in the gap, the industry has recently proposed to implement peer tracking with the help of built-in Ultra Wideband (UWB) chip. In this work, we aim to perform a reality check on the proposed support, with the Nearby Interaction (NI) framework developed for iOS mobile devices as an example. The goal of our study is to gain an in-depth understanding about the reliability of the proposed support and identify potential issues. Through extensive measurements, we discover the peer tracking solution is not reliable sometimes, in terms of availability and accuracy. Furthermore, with regard to erroneous position reports, we present a quantitative analysis, summarizing the error types (e.g., transient errors and permanent errors) and revealing their underlying reasons. We believe the preliminary findings could help to improve the spacial awareness and enhance user experiences in MuAR.
A Music Loop Sequencer with User-Adaptive Music Loop Selection

A loop sequencer enables non-musicians to compose high-quality musical pieces by concatenating short musical audio materials called music loops, but if the system has many music loops, selecting favorite ones is not easy. Smart Loop Sequencer with automatic loop selection has been proposed, but no attempts to adapt the selection behavior to each user's musical preference have been made. We introduce a user adaptation method based on the users' manual music loop replacement data to our Smart Loop Sequencer. The experiment results show that most participants felt that selected music loops became closer to those they selected.
Learning the User’s Deeper Preferences for Multi-modal Recommendation Systems

Recommendation system plays an important role in the rapid development of micro-video sharing platform. Micro-video has rich modal features, such as visual, audio, and text. It is of great significance to carry out personalized recommendation by integrating multi-modal features. However, most of the current multi-modal recommendation systems can only enrich the feature representation on the item side, while it leads to poor learning of user preferences. To solve this problem, we propose a novel module named Learning the User’s Deeper Preferences (LUDP), which constructs the item-item modal similarity graph and user preference graph in each modality to explore the learning of item and user representation. Specifically, we construct item-item similar modalities graph using multi-modal features, the item ID embedding is propagated and aggregated on the graph to learn the latent structural information of items; The user preference graph is constructed through the historical interaction between the user and item, on which the multi-modal features are aggregated as the user’s preference for the modal. Finally, combining the two parts as auxiliary information enhances the user and item representation learned from the collaborative signals to learn deeper user preferences. Through a large number of experiments on two public datasets (TikTok, Movielens), our model is proved to be superior to the most advanced multi-modal recommendation methods.
Wavelet-domain demosaicking using linear estimation of interchannel correlation

The light information obtained through a color filter array is sampled as R (red), G (green), and B (blue) based on the intensity of the radiation sensor CCD charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). Because one pixel in the CCD or CMOS has a wave value for only one color, the information on the other two colors has to be estimated from the samples of the neighboring pixels. This estimation process is called demosaicking, and it plays an important role in the image pipeline. We propose a demosaicking method that uses the correlation among the wavelet coefficients in the high-frequency region of the color channels (R, G, and B). In our method, the high-frequency wavelet coefficients are obtained by linear estimation. The low-frequency coefficients are replaced by the results obtained from bilinear interpolation. We simulate our method and compare it with existing demosaicking schemes. The experimental results show that the proposed method can perform good demosaicking.
Exchange Rate Volatility and Accounting for the Impact of Economic Events: Evidence from a Garch Model

Many research studies have examined the distributional properties of exchange rates. A main conclusion resulted from the majority of research studies is that the unconditional distribution of foreign exchange growth rates is leptokurtic (Diebold and Nerlove, 1986; Milhoj, 1987; Bollerslev, 1987). The implication of such a regularity is that the magnitude of deviations from mean is serially correlated. Having knowledge on the properties of the exchange rate and in particular on its distributional behaviour enhances the capacity of the researcher to assess the response of foreign exchange markets to certain economic facts.
An Empirical Investigation of Purchasing Power Parity

Many studies [Meese and Singleton (1983), and Corbae and Ouliaris (1986), among others] have demonstrated the foreign exchange rate has a unit root. However, the nonstationarity issue for the price level is largely ignored for testing PPPT with the exception of Rush and Husted. In this study, we demonstrate that price data between domestic (U.S.) and foreign countries have a unit root, and thus they are not stationary.
Direct actuation of cantilever in aqueous solutions by electrostatic force using high-frequency electric fields

We recently developed a method to directly actuate a cantilever in aqueous solutions by electrostatic force [K. -I. Umeda et al., Appl. Phys. Express 3, 065205 (2010)]. However, the cantilever was actuated by surface stress in a low frequency regime. We solved this problem by applying amplitude-modulated high-frequency electric fields, which actuates the cantilever solely by electrostatic force. The time variations of the self-oscillation frequency of a cantilever and the Au(111) surface images by frequency-modulation atomic force microscopy using acoustic, photothermal, and the improved electrostatic actuation methods were compared, which demonstrates the advantages of the last method such as stability and simplicity in instrumentation.
Generation of identical photons using an electrically driven single-photon source

A single-photon source capable of emitting indistinguishable photons is a key element in schemes for scalable quantum information processing with linear optics. Whilst several groups have reported such sources, up until now an electrically driven source capable of making these protocols technologically viable has yet to be reported. We present the first demonstration of an electrically driven single-photon source emitting indistinguishable photons. Our sample consists of a layer of InAs/GaAs quantum dots embedded in the intrinsic region of a p-i-n microcavity diode. We test the indistinguishability of consecutive photons by carrying out a Hong-Ou- Mandel-type two-photon interference experiment whereby two identical photons arriving simultaneously at two input ports of a 50:50 beamsplitter exit together. The device was operated under two modes, continuous and pulsed current injection. In the former case, we measured a coherence time of up to 400 ps at low pump current - the longest reported under these excitation conditions. A two-photon interference visibility was measured, limited only by the timing resolution of our detection system and further suggesting a 100% overlap of photon wavepackets at the output beamsplitter. In the case of pulsed injection, we employed a two-pulse voltage sequence which allowed us to carry out temporal filtering of photons which had undergone dephasing. The characteristic Hong-Ou-Mandel "dip" was measured resulting in a visibility of 64 ± 4%.
The Fermi Paradox Is Neither Fermi's Nor a Paradox

Abstract The so-called Fermi paradox claims that if technological life existed anywhere else, we would see evidence of its visits to Earth—and since we do not, such life does not exist, or some special explanation is needed. Enrico Fermi, however, never published anything on this topic. On the one occasion he is known to have mentioned it, he asked “Where is everybody? ”—apparently suggesting that we do not see extraterrestrials on Earth because interstellar travel may not be feasible, but not suggesting that intelligent extraterrestrial life does not exist or suggesting its absence is paradoxical. The claim “they are not here; therefore they do not exist” was first published by Michael Hart, claiming that interstellar travel and colonization of the Galaxy would be inevitable if intelligent extraterrestrial life existed, and taking its absence here as proof that it does not exist anywhere. The Fermi paradox appears to originate in Hart's argument, not Fermi's question. Clarifying the origin of these ideas .
On the Stability of the Demand for Money in India.

A large number of studies exist involving econometric techniques for modelling in the Monetary sector. One of the most important survey which reviews the development of the model building activity in the Indian economy is by Desai (1973). A more recent review is by Jadhav (1990). Desai in his review emphasized Mamman’s model (1967) as the only one that attempted systematic modelling of the monetary sector previous to 1970.
Generalised H2 controller synthesis for uncertain discrete-time fuzzy systems via basis-dependent Lyapunov functions

S. Zhou and G. Feng Abstract: The generalised H2 control problem is investigated for a class of discrete-time fuzzy systems with uncertainties. The uncertain fuzzy dynamic model is used to represent a class of uncertain discrete-time complex nonlinear systems which include both linguistic information and system uncertainties. Using basis-dependent Lyapunov functions an H2 control design approach is developed. It is shown that the controller can be obtained by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities. It is also shown that the basis-dependent results are less conservative than the basis-independent ones. Numerical examples including a discrete chaotic Lorenz system are also given to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach.
Economic Valuation of Generation System Reliability using Customer Outage Costs in India

in India, the demand for electricity has risen more rapidly than its supply. Lack of financial resources required to expand the supply systems fast enough to keep pace with the increasing demand for electricity and a general climate of growing dependence on electricity services has led to a power deficit situation in India. For the power supply industry, this may be a mere loss of its revenues. But, to the rest of the economy it results in severe economic impacts. The serious and growing imbalance between supply and demand constrains the efforts to achieve a sustainable socio-economic growth which is strongly tied to electricity consumption.
Pooling Cross-Section and Time Series Data: The Expenditure and Net Domestic Product Relationship for Major Indian States

In Indian context, after having a planned process of development for nearly five decades, still the relative positions of rich and poor states have remained more or less same or even the gap has increased between the rich and poor states. The widening of regional imbalances had been adequately covered in some of the empirical studies. The increases in the nonplan revenue expehcitures in the states with all the populist schemes along with the sick state enterprises problem are leading to unproductive expenditures in the states. There had been no significant investment in long term projects undertaken since early 1970s in the field of infrastructure. The shortages in power transport, communications, and other capital good industries have become a serious bottieneck for the private sector investments in most of the states. The need for investing in long term infrastructure projects has been felt and efforts in that direction have started around mid 1990s with state governments directly inviting private enterprise (both domestic and foreign) to participate. Growth performance of states as indicated by the NDP would enable the states to spend on plan, non-plan, capital and revenue expenditures The tendency of increases in unproductive expenditure and the fiscal deficits particularly since early 1980s at the state level reveals that states are not able to mobilize enough revenue resources and also their own revenues are just meeting the nonplan expenditures only. Thus, they are not able to invest in capital and plan expenditures. This may lead to severe bottlenecks in the long run to sustain the growth performance of even the rich states. To asses the post liberalization relationships in the Indian context, the availability of just eight years of data is insufficient to carryout any meaningful time series analysis. Also the Targe variations among the rich and poor states will pose a problem to carryout cross section regressions. Therefore, it is felt that pooling technique will help to overcome these two problems and accordingly, the present exercise makes an attempt to estimate the expenditure and NDP relationship for 14 major states for the period 1991-1996 in India using this technique’. Assam is included in the study as it is a major state among the special category states and another special category states are not included in the study as their spending has been mostly on account of liberal central help.
Bulk Velocities, Chemical Composition, and Ionization Structure of the X-Ray Shocks in WR 140 near Periastron as Revealed by the Chandra Gratings

The Wolf-Rayet WC7+O4-5 binary WR 140 went through the periastron passage of its 8 yr eccentric binary orbit in early 2001 as the two stars made their closest approach. Both stars have powerful supersonic stellar winds that crash into each other between the stars to produce X-rays. Chandra grating observations were made when the X-rays were at their peak, making WR 140 the brightest hot-star X-ray source in the sky and giving the opportunity to study the velocity profiles of lines, all of which were resolved and blueshifted before periastron. In the general context of shock physics, the measurements constrain the flow of hot gas and where different ions were made. The brightness of lines relative to the strong continuum in conjunction with plasma models gives interim abundance estimates for eight different elements in WC-type material including an Ne/S ratio in good agreement with earlier long-wavelength measurements. The lower velocity widths of cool ions imply a plasma that was not in equilibrium, probably due to the collisionless nature of the shock transitions and the slow character of both the postshock energy exchange between ions and electrons and subsequent ionization. Electron heat conduction into fast-moving preshock gas was absent, probably suppressed by the magnetic field involved in WR 140's synchrotron emission. After periastron, the spectrum was weaker due mainly to absorption by cool Wolf-Rayet star material.