Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Application of vector parabolic equation method to urban radiowave propagation problems

The vector parabolic equation method is applied to the modelling of radiowave propagation in the urban environment. As a paraxial version of Maxwell's equations it allows full treatment of 3D electromagnetic scattering which was not possible with scalar versions of the algorithm. The method allows detailed specification of the building geometry and electrical parameters. This approach is particularly useful for accurate modelling of scattering by a single building or a group of buildings at microwave frequencies. The method is validated using an iterative integral equation method and known analytical results. Examples include scattering by a building with hemispherical roof and scattering by a group of buildings with sloping roofs.
Electron Diffraction of Translation Interface Modulated Structures

Expressions are derived for the kinematical amplitudes of a perfect crystal, modulated by planar translation interfaces. The model is generalised so as to account for longitudinal and transversal relaxation effects at the interfaces and for non-equidistant interface distributions. The cases of short range order (nearest neighbour correlation) and long range order (uniform sequences) are treated in detail. The results can be applied to antiphase boundaries in long period superstructure alloys as well as to discommensuration walls in deformation modulated structures. Es werden Ausdrucke abgeleitet fur die kinematischen Amplituden eines perfekten Kristalls, der mit planaren Translationsgrenzflachen moduliert ist. Das Modell wird fur den Fall longitudinaler und transversaler Relaxationseffekte an den Grenzflachen und fur nichtaquidistante Grenzflachenverteilungen generalisiert. Die Falle der Nahordnung (Korrelation nachster Nachbarn) und Fernordnung (gleichmasige Folgen) werden ausfuhrlich behandelt. Die Ergebnisse lassen sich sowohl auf Antiphasengrenzflachen in langperiodischen Superstrukturlegierungen als auch auf diskommensurable Wande in deformationsmodulierten Strukturen anwenden.
Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of isotonic exercise monitoring device for measuring active knee extension

Background The goal of this study was to assess the reliability of electromyography and range of motion measurements obtained using a knee exercise monitoring system. This device was developed to collect data on knee exercise activities. Methods Twenty healthy individuals performed isotonic quadriceps exercises in this study. The vastus medialis surface electromyography (sEMG) and range of motion (ROM) of the knee were recorded during the exercise using the isotonic knee exercise monitoring device, the Mobi6-6b, and a video camera system. Each subject underwent a second measuring session at least 24 h after the first session. To determine reliability, the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and standard error of measurement (SEM) at the 95% confidence interval were calculated, and a Bland–Altman analysis was performed. Results For inter-rater reliability, the ICCs of the mean absolute value (MAV) and root mean square (RMS) of sEMG were 0.73 (0.49, 0.86) and 0.79 (0.61, 0.89), respectively. ROM had an ICC of 0.93 (0.02, 0.98). The intra-rater reliability of the MAV of the sEMG was 0.89 (0.71, 0.96) and the intra-rater reliability of RMS of the sEMG was 0.88 (0.70, 0.95). The ROM between days had an intra-rater reliability of 0.82 (0.54, 0.93). The Bland–Altman analysis demonstrated no systematic bias in the MAV and RMS of sEMG, but revealed a small, systematic bias in ROM (−0.8311 degrees). Conclusion For sEMG and range of motion measures, the isotonic knee exercise monitoring equipment revealed moderate to excellent inter- and intra-rater agreement. However, the confidence interval of ROM inter-rater reliability was quite large, indicating a small agreement bias; hence, the isotonic knee exercise monitor may not be suitable for measuring ROM. This isotonic knee exercise monitor could detect and collect information on a patient’s exercise activity for the benefit of healthcare providers.
Element substitution algorithm for general two-terminal network reliability analyses

The computation of the reliability of two-terminal networks is a classical reliability problem. For these types of problems, one is interested, from a general perspective, in obtaining the probability that two specific nodes can communicate. This paper presents a holistic algorithm for the analysis of general networks that follow a two-terminal rationale. The algorithm is based on a set replacement approach and an element inheritance strategy that effectively obtains the minimal cut sets associated with a given network. The vast majority of methods available for obtaining two-terminal reliability are generally based on assumptions about the performance of the network. Some methods assume network components can be in one of two states: (i) either completely failed; or (ii) perfectly functioning, others usually assume that nodes are perfectly reliable and thus, these methods have to be complemented or transformed to account for node failure, and the remaining methods assume minimal cut sets can be readily computed in order to analyze more complex network and component behavior. The algorithm presented in this paper significantly differs from previous approaches available in the literature in the sense that it is based on a predecessor matrix and an element substitution technique that allows for the exact computation of minimal cut sets and the immediate inclusion of node failure without any changes to the pseudo-code. Several case networks are used to validate and illustrate the algorithms.
Direct-detection DWDM and information transmission using infrared acousto-optic femtosecond pulse shaping

Acousto-optic modulator (AOM)-based pulse shaping permits precise spectrum slicing, which is useful for dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM)-based architectures. In essence, this method uses microsecond-duration radio frequency pulses to completely control the spectra of femtosecond laser pulses, hence achieves dramatic temporal data compression. We demonstrated the AOM pulse shaper as the modulator and a CCD camera with 256 pixels as the receiver. The spectrum of a 200 fs Erbium Doped Fiber Laser (EDFL) pulse was dispersed across the AOM’s aperture (FWHM was 35 nm) and was then modulated in a conventional pulse shaper. We tested 87 channels with channel-spacing of 0.41 nm using a 518-MHz modulator, and 120 channels with channel-spacing of 0.29 nm using a 148-MHz modulator (in each case a 0.1 nm guard band was used). Starting from the original pulses, this modulation creates time slots of 43 ps and 63.4 ps respectively. The equivalent speed of the transmission will be 2.0 Tb/s and 1.9 Tb/s in a highly multiplexed system. The spectral efficiencies achieved in this experiment were ~46%, approaching the theoretical limit of 50% for On-Off Keying (OOK) modulation. A benchmark image was successfully sent over the test bed.
Photoacoustic study of two‐photon absorption in hexagonal ZnS

Photoacoustic detection technique is employed to investigate two‐photon absorption (TPA) effects in ZnS over a wide frequency range with polarized 5 nsec dye laser pulses. By analyzing the dispersion and polarization dependence of TPA, we find that near the band gap, the TPA in ZnS occurs via allowed‐forbidden type one‐step, two‐photon transitions.
lncRNA NEAT1/miR‐495‐3p regulates angiogenesis in burn sepsis through the TGF‐β1 and SMAD signaling pathways

To investigate the role of the long‐chain noncoding RNA (lncRNA) nuclear enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1) in the process of angiogenesis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and illustrate its potential role in burn sepsis (BS) pathogenesis.
Numerical and experimental studies of a helical antenna loaded by a dielectric resonator

A helical antenna loaded by a dielectric resonator (DR) is rigorously studied. Effects due to the dielectric core are analyzed by replacing it with an equivalent polarization current density so that only the homogeneous dyadic Green's function is required. Special interest is paid to the handling of the singularity of the dyadic Green's function in the source region. Two coupled integral equations are obtained by enforcing the boundary condition on the surface of the helical antenna and by equating the total electric field inside the dielectric resonator. The method of moments is used to solve the coupled equations and hence to obtain other properties of the antenna, such as the input impedance, the radiation pattern, the beam width characteristics, and the axial ratio. Experimental measurements were conducted and compared with the theoretical results. It is found that excellent agreement is observed between theoretical values and experimental measurements. Various characteristics of the dielectric resonator loaded antenna are also discussed.
Large-eddy simulation of air flow around a wall-mounted circular cylinder and a tripod tower

This paper models the air flow around a wall-mounted tripod platform that mimics a meteorological tripod tower placed in shallow water for air–sea interaction measurements to study the flow distortion by the tower. We adopt large-eddy simulation technique, which is based on the characteristic Galerkin, fractional four-step finite element method. For model validation, we examine flow characteristics around a wall-mounted circular cylinder with two length-to-diameter ratios of 2.5 and 10. The results are in good agreement with existing experimental data and numerical simulations. The tip, von Karman, and horseshoe vortices around the cylinder are properly resolved. Several differences are manifest between the short- and long-cylinder cases. In particular, the downdraft behind the top free end of the long cylinder is much stronger than that of the short cylinder. The vorticity intensity in the wake region of the long cylinder is also stronger than that of the short cylinder. Furthermore, the vortex shedding .
Depth profiling of residual stress along interrupted test cuts in machined germanium crystals

Residual stress profiles in machined germanium have been determined by measuring the longitudinal optical phonon spectra using micro‐Raman spectroscopy. Lateral spatial resolution of 1 μm results from this direct nondestructive technique. By measuring the Raman spectra with several probe wavelengths, axial resolution of 10 nm is obtained through differential absorption profiling (DAP). The stress field in these machined brittle semiconductors is characterized by a surface layer under compression, an abrupt compressive‐to‐tensile transition, and a deeper‐lying region of tension which ultimately relaxes in the unstressed bulk. The abrupt transition is indicative of a change from plastic to elastic deformation. The DAP technique has been applied to interrupted test cuts in diamond‐turned germanium to reveal that fractured regions of the machined surface possess higher tensile stress that occurs at shallower depths than unfractured regions. A qualitative mechanism of the machining process consistent with these residual stress data is presented.
Computational And Experimental AnalysisOf The Churning Power Losses In An IndustrialPlanetary Speed Reducer

Advantages of planetary speed reducers are well known and due to their compact design and power density they are suitable for a wide range of applications. Efficiency is becoming more and more of a main concern in the design of power transmissions and the demand for high efficiency gearboxes is continuously increasing. For this reason it is important to have some models in order to quantify the power losses of those already during the design stage. Some theoretical or semi-empirical models that allow us to estimate losses like those of bearings, of seals, of gear meshing (due to sliding) and, for ordinary gears, those of churning are available in literature. In the case of planetary speed reducers, where the motion of the planet carrier causes a rotatory motion of the planets around the axis of the gearbox, the oil splash lubrication is an important source of losses. This report introduces a multiphase CFD model for the prediction of the churning losses characteristic of planetary gears. The analysis has been carried out by means of an unsteady Volume of Fluid (VOF) model and implemented on a commercial software (Fluent). The whole geometry of the speed reducer and many operating conditions like the rotational speed, the oil level and the operating temperature have been taken into account. Moreover the results of an experimental testing campaign on an especially designed gearbox are presented and compared with the computation ones in order to validate the model. The two approaches give results in good agreement.
Computation reduction for intra 4x4 mode decision with SATD criterion in H.264/AVC

In H.264 advanced video coding standard, the intra prediction made by referring to the surrounding coded pixels plays an important role in achieving the compression efficiency. To find the best prediction mode, the H.264 reference software JM 6.1d suggests two criteria, the sum of absolute differences (SAD) and the sum of absolute transformed differences (SATD). The SATD criterion with extra Hadamard transform achieves better coding performance, but needs more computation than the SAD criterion. A fast algorithm is developed to reduce the computation of the SATD, by using the property of linear transform and the fixed-spatial relationship of predicted pixels in each intra mode. With the fast SATD computation, about 50% computation of the original SATD algorithm can be reduced. To further reduce the SATD computation, a two-stage simplified SATD method is proposed, which first uses the SAD criterion to eliminate some unwanted modes and then performs the fast SATD computation to select the best mode. Experimental results show that the proposed two-stage simplified SATD method can save about 70% of computation costs with negligible PSNR loss for H.264 intra prediction.
Dislocation transport and intermittency in the plasticity of crystalline solids

When envisioned at the relevant length scale, plasticity of crystalline solids consists in the transport of dislocations through the lattice. In this paper, transport of dislocations is evidenced by experimental data gathered from high-resolution extensometry carried out on copper single crystals in tension. Spatiotemporal kinematic fields display spatial correlation through characteristic lines intermittently covered by plastic activity. Intermittency shows temporal correlation and power-law distribution of avalanche size. Interpretation of this phenomenon is proposed within the framework of a field dislocation theory attacking the combined problem of dislocation transport and long-range internal stress field development. Intermittency and transport properties show remarkable independence from sample size, aspect ratio, loading rate, and strain-rate sensitivity of the flow stress.
Progress in stellarator research in Kharkov IPP

Recent results of the experimental program on the stellarator-type device Uragan-3M at the IPP in Kharkov are presented. Efforts were focused mainly on optimization of the operation of the frame-type radiofrequency antenna to produce a target plasma for the three-half-turn antenna. Different regimes of the Uragan-3M operation, which are characterized by different temporal behavior of the average plasma density, electron cyclotron emission radiation intensity and particle confinement time, are considered. Elementary atomic processes responsible for plasma creation are studied. The particle confinement time for the Uragan-3M plasmas is estimated. Measurements of energy spectra of charge exchange atoms are carried out. The principal possibility of realizing a ‘stellarator–magnetic mirror’ scheme as a prototype of a stellarator-mirror fusion–fission hybrid is shown for Uragan-2M. Future plans are discussed.
Treatment outcomes in poor metabolizers of cytochrome P450 2A6 with concurrent chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced head- and neck-squamous cell carcinoma

ABSTRACT Introduction: Human Cytochrome 2A6 (CYP2A6) is involved in the oxidative metabolism of the nicotine to the inactive cotinine. CYP2A6 is a primary enzyme in nicotine metabolism, the enzyme has been proposed as a novel target for smoking cessation. Materials and Methods: A total of 70 male patients of locally advanced head- and neck-squamous cell carcinoma confirmed by histopathological examination were enrolled in this study. All patients received concurrent chemoradiotherapy (total dose of 70 Gray in 35 fractions in 7 weeks with concurrent tablet capecitabine 1250 mg/m2/day). Response assessment was based on response evaluation criteria in solid tumor criteria. Total ribonucleic acid (RNA) was isolated from the whole blood of all patients by TRI REAGENT BD (SIGMA USA) followed by real-time polymerase chain reaction assay which was done in studying messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of Excision Repair Cross Complementation Group 1 in blood lymphocytes of patient. Results: The most common stage prevalent was Stage IV A in 28 (56%) patients followed by Stage III in 16 (32%) patients. Out of 70, 20 (28.6%) patients defaulted for treatment, so the analysis was done in 56 patients. A total of 19 (34%) patients had a complete response (CR) and 17 (30%) patients had no response. In all the patients who had CR, posttreatment relative quantification (RQ) expression levels were high. Among nonresponders only three had higher RQ folds and the rest 14 had lower RQ folds. Conclusion: Posttreatment expression levels of CYP2A6 were found to be a better predictor for tumor response to the treatment than the pretreatment expression levels. Almost all the patients having higher RQ folds had CR and those having lower RQ folds had either no response or progressive disease on follow-up visits.
Climate change 2001: The scientific basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The earth’s climate system has demonstrably changed since the pre-industrial era, with some of these changes attributable to human activities. The consequences of climate change pose a serious challenge to policy-makers. Hence they need an objective source of information about climate change, its impacts and possible response options. Recognising this, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environmental Programme jointly established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. The terms of reference of the IPCC include:
Taxonomic description for western Australian distribution medium-voltage and low-voltage feeders

A typical distribution network contains hundreds of medium-voltage (MV) feeders and ten thousands of low-voltage (LV) feeders. This work introduces an efficient taxonomy approach that combines cluster analysis with discriminant analysis to identify statistically representative MV and LV feeders in the west Australian context. Quadratic discriminant functions have been extracted and can be used as a feeder classifier for any feeder in this distribution system. The representative feeder sets provide rigorously validated test cases for the evaluation of smart grid technologies.
Tuning the Structure and Parameters of a Neural Network by Using Cooperative Quantum Particle Swarm Algorithm

In this paper, a cooperative quantum genetic algorithm-particle swarm algorithm (CQGAPSO) is applied to tune both structure and parameters of a feedforward neural network (NN) simultaneously. In CQGAPSO algorithm, QGA is used to optimize the network structure and PSO algorithm is employed to search the parameters space. The amplitude-based coding method and cooperation mechanism improve the learning efficiency, approximation accuracy and generalization of NN. Furthermore, the ill effects of approximation ability caused by redundant structure of NN are eliminated by CQGAPSO. The experimental results show that the proposed method has better prediction accuracy and robustness in forecasting the sunspot numbers problems than other training algorithms in the literatures.
Atmospheric pressure plasma jet annealed ZnO films for MgZnO/ZnO heterojunctions

Rf-sputtered ZnO films, annealed by atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ), are characterized and used for MgZnO/ZnO heterostructures. The highly reactive N2 plasma generated by APPJ allows much shorter treatment time compared with conventional thermal anneals. The APPJ treatment can increase the crystallinity of ZnO films and release the compressive residue stresses, verified by XRD and UV–Vis transmission measurements. In our previous studies, we demonstrate that thermal anneal is the critical step for the formation of two-dimensional electron gases in defective rf-sputtered MgZnO/ZnO heterostructures. This paper reports the experimental results that APPJ treatments can be used for the same purpose with a much shorter processing time. A thirty-second APPJ anneal on ZnO can be used to replace 400 °C × 30 min furnace-anneal to promote the formation of 2DEGs in MgZnO/ZnO heterostructure. The ultra-short processing time is attributed to the synergy of plasma reactivity and temperature of APPJ.
Transient Heat Transfer in Channel Flow with Step Change in Inlet Temperature

A second-order accurate finite-difference scheme based on a modification of the upwind method for the classical wave equation is proposed for transient forced convection in laminar channel flow. Stability analysis is performed, and the modified equation is established. The problem involving a step change in inlet temperature is studied for both slug and parabolic flow inside a parallel-plate duct. The accuracy of the numerical scheme is examined by comparing the results to the exact solutions available for the case of slug flow. Numerical results are presented for the average flow temperature and local Nusselt number as a function of position along the channel at different times, and the thermal wave propagation phenomena are physically interpreted.
Positive relations between sexual quality of life and satisfaction with healthcare in women living with HIV and/or HCV: Results from a multicountry study

Introduction The sexual quality of life is a neglected concern in women living with HIV (WHIV) or with HCV (WHCV), which can further be affected by their experience with stigma, social instability, fear of transmission and reduced access to treatment. The objective of this study was to identify sociodemographic, psychosocial, and behavioural factors associated with sexual quality of life (SQoL) in this study group. Methods Between December 2017 and December 2018, PROQoL-Sex Life questionnaire was administered to 404 WHIV and WHCV in five countries. PROQoL-SQoL consists of four dimensions: positive sexual perception (Psp), stigma and social distress (Sti), soft sexual practices (Sof), sexual practices with a partner (Sp), all of which were scored from 0 to 100 and considered as main outcomes, lower scores mean better sexual quality of life. Linear mixed effects models were used to evaluate the association with sociodemographic and psychosocial factors. Results Of the participants analyzed, 191 were living with HCV, 180 with HIV and 33 with HIV and HCV, median age was 48. Among WHIV, a higher satisfaction with health care, and talking about sexuality with healthcare workers were associated with lower scores in all the dimensions of the SQoL, while psychoactive substance use was associated with lower scores of Sti and Sof. Moreover, higher satisfaction with health care, talking about sexuality with healthcare workers, and psychoactive substance use (except cocaine use) in WHCV were associated with lower scores in Psp, Sti, and Sof. Besides, cocaine use was associated with higher scores of Sof. Conclusion This study highlighted strong relationship between the quality of health care, and psychoactive substance use (except cocaine) and the sexual quality of life in WHIV and WHCV in these five countries. These findings draw attention to the different interventions that can be proposed for improving the sexual quality of life.