Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Local Segmental Dynamics of Low Molecular Weight Polystyrene: New Results and Interpretation

The molecular dynamics of an 1100 low molecular weight polystyrene are reexamined by photon correlation spectroscopy measurements. The new experimental data combined with recoverable creep compliance data taken previously on the same sample provides information on the local segmental motion in a wide time window of more than 11 decades. Significant reduction of the “fragility” (i.e., a scaled temperature dependence of the retardation time) of the low molecular weight polystyrene compared with high molecular weight polystyrene, seen first by Santangelo and Roland by shear modulus measurement, is confirmed. The broader time window available in the present work shows for the first time that, unlike high molecular weight polystyrene, the dispersion of the low molecular weight sample is strongly temperature dependent and narrows with increasing temperature. By considering the low molecular weight polymer as a blend of chain ends and inner repeat units, the results are interpreted by the coupling model.
Role of the FeOx support in constructing high-performance Pt/FeOx catalysts for low-temperature CO oxidation

Based on a simple colloid deposition method, a series of Pt/FeOx catalysts were prepared using 3–4 nm Pt colloid nanoparticles and FeOx with different microstructures (i.e. the structure and surface properties). The FeOx support was obtained via a thermal treatment method, which enables the tailoring of FeOx from ferrihydrite to α-Fe2O3, and the amount of hydroxides on the surface of FeOx decreases gradually with the phase change. Over optimized Pt/FeOx, CO could be completely converted at room temperature (298 K) and a relatively high space velocity (1.2 × 105 mL g−1 h−1). The correlation between the microstructure of the FeOx support and the CO oxidation performance of the resultant Pt/FeOx catalyst was investigated. Although the oxidation of Pt nanoparticles is inevitable in the Pt loading process, relatively large amounts of Pt0 species can be preserved on the FeOx support possessing abundant surface hydroxides. In situ DRIFTS shows that the surface hydroxides on FeOx could also participate in the catalytic process; they could react with CO adsorbed on Pt0 sites and then recover easily in the co-presence of molecular oxygen and water gas. These results show that the intrinsic properties of the FeOx support not only affect the oxidation state of supported Pt nanoparticles in the preparation process, but also provide new active sites in the catalytic process. FeOx supports possessing abundant surface hydroxides are suitable for preparing high-performance Pt/FeOx catalysts for low-temperature CO oxidation.
Deep Low-Frequency Earthquakes Associated with the Eruptions of Shinmoe-dake in Kirishima Volcanoes

17 Deep low-frequency (DLF) earthquakes occur beneath the Kirishima volcanoes in 18 southwest Japan at depths of 10–30 km. In this study, we aim to reveal the relationship between 19 DLF earthquakes and volcanic activity including eruptions by relocating the hypocenters of the 20 earthquakes using the network correlation coefficient method and detecting the earthquakes 21 comprehensively using the matched filter technique. Hypocenters of DLF earthquakes are 22 found to be concentrated in some separated small clusters within depths of 10–15 and 20–27 23 km. Activation of deeper DLF earthquakes had been observed for approximately two years 24 from December 2009, during which various styles of eruptions occurred. Such a two-year 25 increase in DLF seismicity was well correlated with crustal deformation because of the volume 26 change of a magma reservoir. The waveforms and hypocenters of DLF earthquakes during the 27 activation period were different from those during other time periods. The activated DLF 28 earthquakes mostly had low dominant frequencies and were located in four deeper clusters. 29 The activation of each cluster was switched three times at the transition of the eruption styles. 30 These results suggest that DLF earthquakes might occur near magma sills and could be 31 triggered by fluid flow in the changing paths by complex eruption processes. In addition, the 32 waveforms and hypocenters of DLF earthquakes associated with the 2018 eruptions are 33 different from those associated with the 2011 eruptions. The fluid paths of the 2018 eruptions 34 might be different from those of the 2011 eruptions. 35
Modelling two SiGe HBT specific features for circuit simulation

We present compact model formulations for the description of two effects seen in SiGe HBT's, but not in pure-Si transistors. One of them is the influence on the Early effect of a graded Ge-content in the base. The other is the neutral base recombination due to the high base doping levels in some SiGe transistors. Both formulations have been implemented as options in a publicly available compact model.
An Evaluative Screening Level Model of the Fate of Organic Chemicals in Sludge-Amended Soils Including Organic Matter Degradation

The Biosolids-Amended Soil: Level IV (BASL4) evaluative screening level model of the fate of organic chemicals introduced to a two-layer soil in association with contaminated biosolids amendments is described. The model is intended for use in assessing the likely month-to-month and year-to-year fate and possible build-up of chemicals in sludge-amended soils in which there can be relatively rapid degradation of the organic matter (OM) present in the applied sludge. To accomplish this goal, processes of chemical degradation, inter-layer transport, volatilization, leaching, diffusion, sorbed phase transport due to bioturbation, and degradation of both fast and slow degrading OM present in the soil and amendment are quantified. Chemical can be introduced as pure compound or in biosolids; it may be applied to the surface layer of the soil or injected into a deeper layer of soil, and it may be ploughed into the surface and deeper layer. BASL4 was applied illustratively to three dissimilar chemicals: DDT, benzene, and phenol for a 12-month simulation period. Several simulations of DDT fate in different amended and unamended soil scenarios demonstrate the capabilities of the model. Degradation of OM is shown to significantly affect partitioning between solids, pore water, and pore air and hence the fate of the chemicals. A preliminary evaluation of the model is described by simulating three field and laboratory studies and the results are regarded as being in reasonable accord with observations. A sensitivity analysis is included with the objective of determining the relative importance of the various parameters describing chemical and soil properties. The model is a useful tool for evaluating the potential for soil contamination under conditions of OM degradation, for identifying the need for soil monitoring studies, and as a basis for estimating concentrations in soil-dwelling organisms.
Functional Properties of Protein Concentrates of Cowpea and Bambara Bean Involving Different Drying Techniques

The effect of different drying methods used in the preparation of protein concentrates from different cultivars of cowpea and bambara bean was investigated. Protein was extracted by the isoelectric precipitation method and subsequently dried by cabinet drying (CD), vacuum drying (VD) and freeze drying (FD). The protein extraction yield and protein content were high. The subunit composition of protein concentrates was characterized by electrophoresis. The drying methods affected water-holding capacity, oil absorption capacity and solubility of protein concentrates depending on cultivars. Water-holding capacity was adequate for its utilization in viscous foods. The protein concentrates prepared by FD showed higher oil absorption capacity than those by CD and VD. The protein concentrates prepared by FD showed lower solubility at pH 2–6, and above pH 6 the concentrates prepared by VD presented higher solubility compared with those by CD and FD. This study provided useful information to optimize utilization of legume protein concentrates in the food industry. Practical Applications Cowpea and bambara bean cultivars could be used in the preparation of protein concentrates due to their good nutritional quality and low cost. Techniques used during the preparation of protein concentrates usually involve the conversion into a dry powder form that facilitates stable and long-term storage, enabling their use as ingredient in food applications. In this regard, the effect of cabinet drying, vacuum drying and freeze drying in the functional properties of cowpea and bambara bean protein concentrates was investigated. The freeze-drying technique was adequate for utilization of concentrates in viscous foods, bakery products and in the cold meat industry as these concentrates presented high water-holding and oil absorption capacities. The vacuum-drying technique produced concentrates with high solubility at pH 2 and above pH 6, and was adequate for concentrates that could find utilization in the fortification of beverages. Choosing appropriate drying technique and cultivar could determine utilization of protein concentrates in the food industry.
Effect of bond length fluctuations on crystal nucleation of hard bead chains

We study the effect of bond length fluctuations on the nucleation rate and crystal morphology of linear and cyclic chains of flexibly connected hard spheres using extensive molecular dynamics simulations. For bond length fluctuations as small as a tenth of the bead diameter, the relaxation and crystallization resemble those of disconnected spheres. For shorter bond lengths and chains with <10 beads the nucleation rates depend sensitively on the bond length, number of beads per chain, and chain topology, while for longer chains the nucleation rates are rather independent of chain length. Surprisingly, we find a nice data collapse of the nucleation rate as a function of the number of bonds per sphere in the system, independent of bead chain composition, chain length and topology. Hence, the crystal nucleation rate of bead chains can be enhanced by adding monomers to the system. We also find that the resulting crystal morphologies of bead chains with bond length fluctuations resemble closely those of hard spheres including structures with a five-fold symmetry.
Treatment of sulphite pulp bleaching effluents in anaerobic/aerobic fluidized biofilm reactors

Three reactor systems have been used in parallel to treat real sulphite pulp bleaching effluents, discharged by the first chlorination and alkaline extraction stages. The reactors were fluidized sand bed reactors with an adapted biofilm, running under aerobic or anaerobic conditions. The inoculum has been sludge taken from wastewater treatment plants of cellulose production. Two reactor combinations were compared with a single stage aerobic fluidized bed (AFB) and an anaerobic fluidized bed (AAS1). In anaerobicaerobic reactors in series (AAS), the effluents were first treated anaerobically followed by an aerobic reactor in a single pass. In an anaerobic-aerobic recycle reactor (AAR), the aerobic effluents were, after degassing, partly recycled to the anaerobic pretreatment. The reactors were run continuously during 31 months, with variously diluted bleaching wastewaters (two parts of the chlorination stage and one part of the alkaline extraction stage) supplemented with nutrients but no additional carbon source. In terms of global parameters (COD, NPOC, AOX) the fractional removal was strongly limited at 30%, independently of the wastewater's dilution. No significant difference could be observed between the three systems involving aerobic stages. The single aerobic reactor was a competitive system compared to the combined anaerobic-aerobic configurations. The chlorinated material was removed to the same extent as the nonchlorinated, the NPOC/AOX ratios were the same before and after
Effects of Dissolved Organic Matter and pH on Heavy Metal Uptake by Sludge Particulates Exemplified by Copper(II) and Nickel(II): Three‐Variable Model

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) and pH are important factors affecting heavy metal uptake by sludge particulates. Copper(II) and Nickel(II) uptake behavior by primary and secondary sludge particulates was studied under various pH and DOM conditions. A three‐variable model, incorporating effects of pH and DOM, was developed to describe heavy metal uptake. Results show that heavy metal uptake by sludge particulates can be better described by the three‐variable model than by the modified Langmuir model in a wide pH range.
The Design of an Estimation Model for Environmental Liability Insurance (ELIS)

Pricing for an insurance policy can be described as the process of calculation of expectedcompensation to be paid to property losers as well as associated costs of potential risks. Loss forecast isaccurate if the risks will be identified appropriately in order to calculate the frequency and expected severityof losses.This is particularly important about environmental risks since most of them appear in the long run.Environmental risk assessment model is both able to estimate the environmental liability premium forenvironmental pollution and degradation, and it can play a valuable role in promoting this industry. ELIS(Environmental Liability Insurance) software calculates the environmental risk number in industry sector andinsurance charges for events resulting in environmental pollution. This paper deals with designing the modeland outputs of the software. The user selects the type of project, and input the descriptive informationconcerning the occurrence of possible environmental pollutions. The model calculates risk numbers, the typeof accidents, classification and weighting of severity of environmental impacts, risk priority numbers (RPN);pollutant volume and environmental sensitivity, environmental cost of contaminates, and finally Net premium for Possible Accidents. The case study indicated the applicability of then model. For this case an oil refinery in Iran was selected with a capacity of 85,000.barrels of refined oil per day. The calculated premium on the basis of losses arising from air pollution was evaluated to be equivalent to 70,000$ US. The same procedure can be applied to evaluate the amount of premium for soil and water pollution.
Gas supply systems for substrate processing chambers and methods therefor

Disclosed is a gas supply subsystem for providing a set of process gases to a substrate processing chamber, the set of process gases being a subset of a plurality of process gases available to the substrate processing chamber. The gas supply subsystem has fewer multi-gas mass flow controllers than the number of available process gases, wherein multiple process gases are multiplexed at the input of one or more of the multi-gas mass flow controllers. Pump-purge may be employed to improve gas switching speed for the multi-gas mass flow controllers.
Risk historical simulations of VIX futures spreads

In this work we describe a method to perform risk simulations of VIX futures, according to the historical-simulation model. We assume a stochastic volatility mean-reverting constant elasticity of variance process to model the VIX dynamics. Following non-arbitrage argument, the market expectation of VIX futures price results in a function of three financial variables: the spot VIX, the long-run mean of the mean-reverting VIX process, and a time scale parameter. For each trading day in the period 2011-2012 we collect the closing VIX futures market quotes across all available maturities and calibrate the three financial variables using an ad-hoc least-squares procedure. In this way we can extract the VIX futures term-structure for each day in the sample period. We then compute historical scenarios for all financial variables and we apply these scenarios to a calendar spread position on VIX futures to simulate its value. Finally, from the distribution of the simulated spread values we derive the P&L (profit and loss) strip which is used to compute risk figures. • Leonardo D’Auria is a Master Candidate in Economics and Finance, University of Milan Bicocca • Master thesis advisor: Marco Marchioro, Ph.D., Head of Quantitative Research at StatPro Italia, and Adjunct Professor of Advanced Derivatives at University of Milan Bicocca
Dielectric relaxation of lanthanide-based ternary oxides: physical and mathematical models

Cerium-doped hafnium oxides (CexHf1-xO2) and lanthanum-doped zirconium oxides (LaxZr1-xO2) were investigated. The highest dielectric constants, k, were obtained from lightly doped oxides with an La content of x = 0.09 and a Ce content of x = 0.1, for which k-values of 33-40 were obtained. The dielectric relaxation appears to be related to the size of crystal grains formed during annealing, which was dependent on the doping level. The physical and mathematical models were used to analyze the relationship between k-values and frequencies. The variations in the k-values up tomegahertz frequencies for both CexHf1-xO2 and LaxZr1-xO2 are simulated based on the Curie-von Schweidler (CS) or Havriliak-Negami (HN) relationships. Concerning the lightly doped CexHf1-xO2 and LaxZr1-xO2, the data extracted are best modeled by the HN law, while LaxZr1-xO2 with doping level from x = 0.22 to 0.63 are best modelled based on the CS law.
Efficient Learning Algorithm for Maximum Entropy Discrimination Topic Models

摇 Time complexity of the existing supervised topic model training algorithms is generally linear to the number of topics and therefore their large鄄scale application is limited. To solve this problem, an efficient learning algorithm for maximum entropy discrimination of latent Dirichlet allocation (MedLDA) supervised subject model is proposed in this paper. The proposed algorithm is based on coordinate descent, and the number of iterations of training classifiers is less than that of the existing Monte Carlo algorithm for MedLDA. The algorithm also makes use of rejection sampling and efficient preprocessing technique to reduce the time complexity of training from linear to sub鄄linear with respect to the number of topics. The comparison experiments on multiple text corpora show that the proposed algorithm makes a great improvement in training speed compared with the existing Monte Carlo algorithm.
Aktinwellen im Kontext der Zellbewegung

Living cells constitute a fascinating system that feeds, grows, replicates, self-organizes and moves. Depending on the cell type and environmental conditions, different kinds of motion can be identified. Dictyostelium discoideum, a slime mold, can crawl on solid substrates using protrusions along the cell periphery. The resulting irregular patterns of motion are characterized as amoeboidal cell crawling. The cell’s ability to crawl depends to a large extent on the cytoskeleton, a highly dynamic network of filamentous polymers, that is constantly kept out of thermodynamic equilibrium. A large number of recent experimental evidence indicates that the protrusions result from polymerization of actin filaments, one of the polymers of the cytoskeleton. Spontaneous formation of actin polymerization waves has been observed. These waves have been proposed to orchestrate the cytoskeletal dynamics during cell crawling. In this thesis we investigate a specific mechanism of actin wave generation in the context of cell migration. An important aspect is the interaction between polymerization waves and the cell membrane, which we study using a phase-field approach. Numerical solutions show two distinct modes of motion. Firstly, a state of directed motion and secondly, a pattern of seemingly random motion that is connected to spiral actin waves in the cell interior. This kind of motion is reminiscent of amoeboidal cell crawling and has been observed experimentally in Dictyostelium discoideum and dendritic cells. We show further that amoeboidal motion results from a deterministic, chaotic dynamic of actin filaments and does not require noise. In addition, we show that polymerization waves are able to sense topographical structures and are capable of adapting the cell’s motion to the constraints given by this environment.
SOIL WATER INFILTRATION AND SALT REDISTRIBUTION IN SOIL OF EL-TINA PLAIN AREA USING WATER OF VARIOUS SALINITY

Soil infiltration is a key factor to water movement in soil and subsequently leaching of saline soils. A laboratory column experiment was conducted to examine the rate of water flow during the downward movement of various types of infiltrated water for El-Tina plain soil. Transparent perspex columns, 10.4 cm in diameter and 100 cm in length were used in this experiment. The treatments included the use of the River Nile water, and two water mixtures between the Suez Canal and the River Nile water of 1:15 and 1:1. The redistribution of salts after water infiltration was also assessed, and the changes in selected soil properties were evaluated. Results showed that the accumulated water intake (cm) were higher when infiltrating with the 1:1 water mixture as compared to both the River Nile and the 1:15 water mixture. The elapsed time required for the wet front to reach the bottom of the soil column with the 1:1 water mixture was only half of the time required using the River Nile water. Alkalinity build-up occurred during infiltration with the River Nile water, even in the presence of the gypsum requirements in the upper 15 cm soil layer. Salt redistribution showed that infiltration with low salinity water caused more accumulation of salt at the lower soil layers. pH values decreased as the salt content increased in the lower soil layers. Sodium was found to be the major cation, followed by magnesium and calcium. Magnesium concentrations were extremely higher in the lower soil layers as compared to the upper soil layers. Chloride was the dominant anion followed by sulfate.
Ion beam assisted deposition of organic light emitting devices : Enhanced optoelectronic properties

We present optoelectronic characteristics of organic light-emitting devices realized by Ion Beam Assisted Deposition (IBAD) of Alq3 (8-hydroxyquinoline aluminum) layer between an ITO anode and a Ca/Al cathode. The ion type is Iodine ion and the study against the ion beam energy (contained between 50 eV and 150 eV) indicates an optimization of the optoelectronic properties (internal quantum efficiency and luminance) at 100 eV while the optimized localization of the assisted layer is the area 25–50 nm. The characteristics log ( J ) = f (log [ V ]) indicates that the injection process takes place by trapped-charge-limited current and an estimation of the trap density N t leads to N t ≈ 10 14 cm −3 ; the enhanced optoelectronic properties of devices obtained by IBAD are attributed to the limitation of quenching sites in the recombination area and also to charge carrier confinement at the interface assisted layer and virgin (non-assisted) layer.