Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PHASE DIAGRAM OF HARD SPHEROCYLINDERS

The phase transitions exhibited by systems of hard spherocylinders, with a diameter D and cylinder length L, are re‐examined with the isothermal–isobaric Monte Carlo (MC‐NPT) simulation technique. For sufficiently large aspect ratios (L/D) the system is known to form liquid crystalline phases: isotropic (I), nematic (N), smectic‐A (Sm A), and solid (K) phases are observed with increasing density. There has been some debate about the first stable liquid crystalline phase to appear as the aspect ratio is increased from the hard‐sphere limit. We show that the smectic‐A phase becomes stable before the nematic phase as the anisotropy is increased. There is a transition directly from the isotropic to the smectic‐A phase for the system with L/D=3.2. For larger aspect ratios, e.g., L/D=4, the smectic‐A phase is preceded by a nematic phase. This means that the hard spherocylinder system exhibits I–Sm A–K and I–N–Sm A triple points, the latter occurring at a larger aspect ratio. We also confirm the simulation resul.
Immobilization of acetylcholinesterase in nanofibrous PVA/BSA membranes by electrospinning

Electrospinning, a simple and versatile method to fabricate nanofibrous supports, has attracted continuous attention in the field of enzyme immobilization. In this study, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) has been successfully immobilized in PVA nanofibers via electrospinning of a mixture of AChE, BSA as an enzyme stabilizing additive and PVA. The maximum activity recovery of immobilized AChE was about 40%. In comparison with free enzyme, the immobilized AChE showed improved stability while retaining a considerable amount of activity at lower pH values. Moreover, the immobilized AChE retained >34% of its initial activity when stored at 30°C for 100 days and retained 70% of its initial activity after ten consecutive reactor batch cycles.
Electrostatic and contact forces in force microscopy

We have been measuring the electrostatic and contact forces between a tip and a graphite surface in a force microscope, which uses a polarizing optical interferometer. For large distances where the electrostatic force predominates, the data are analyzed in terms of a model which introduces the elongated shape of an actual tip. We find that the macroscopic tip has to be taken into account when analyzing the experimental data. The model allows us to deduce the effective radius of the tip which is operative in the electrostatic interaction. We also analyze the contact problem. The attractive part is consistent with van der Waals (vdW) forces. The repulsive regime shows an anomalously small level deflection which is attributed to the deformation of the sample surface. The adhesion of the tip sample is also measured.
2_CULTURAL SPECIFIC SYNDROMES IN INDIA.indd

The term culture-bound syndrome denotes locality-specific, recurrent patterns of variant behavior and disturbing experience that could conceivably be connected to a specific DSM-IV-TR[2] diagnostic category. A large number of these examples are indigenously thought to be “illness”, or at least afflictions, and most have local names. Culture-bound syndromes are generally limited to specific societies or culture areas and are localized, folk, diagnostic categories that frame coherent meanings for certain repetitive, patterned, and troubling sets of experiences and observations. Present overview paper has focused on various syndromes/disorders that are specific to India or Indian culture.
Thermodynamics of the zinc sulphide transformation, sphalerite → wurtzite, by modified entrainment

The dissociative sublimation of both α- and β-zinc sulphide, ZnS(c)= Zn(g)+½S2(g), has been studied by modified entrainment in the temperature range 1010–1445 K. The following free-energy equations were derived: ΔG°(α)/J mol–1= 376 700 – 191.9T/K and ΔG°(β)/J mol–1= 374 200 – 190.4T/K from which the enthalpy and entropy changes of transformation (β→α) at the transition temperature (1293 K) were –2.5 ± 1.5 kJ mol–1 and –1.5 ± 1.3 J K–1 mol–1. The corresponding ΔH°(β→α) at 298.15 K obtained by the third-law method was –2.3 ± 0.9 kJ mol–1. This enthalpy change is at variance with the currently accepted value of ca. 13 kJ mol–1.
Fabrication of a Nonvolatile Full Adder Based on Logic-in-Memory Architecture Using Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

Nonvolatile logic-in-memory architecture, where nonvolatile memory elements are distributed over a logic-circuit plane, is expected to realize both ultra-low-power and reduced interconnection delay. We have fabricated a nonvolatile full adder based on logic-in-memory architecture using magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) in combination with metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors. Magnesium oxide (MgO) barrier MTJs are used to take advantage of their high tunnel magneto-resistance (TMR) ratio and spin-injection write capability. The MOS transistors are fabricated using a 0.18 µm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process. The basic operation of the full adder is confirmed.
NEST-SITE SELECTION AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF URBAN-NESTING SWAINSON'S HAWKS IN THE CENTRAL VALLEY OF CALIFORNIA

AI•STRACT. --From 1990-94, we studied Swainson's hawks (Buteo swainsoni) nesting in the cities of Davis and Stockton and in adjacent rural habitats in California's Central Valley. We documented 31 urban nesting attempts at 16 sites in Davis and 34 nesting attempts at 24 sites in Stockton. Most were located in residential neighborhoods (Davis 81%, Stockton 71%) with the remainder in park-like landscapes or commercial/industrial settings. Nests were found more frequently in neighborhoods >20 yr old, with areas >45 yr old preferred due to the availability of mature landscaping. Three nests were found in neighborhoods <20 yr old, all in trees that predated urbanization. Nest trees were significantly taller than a random sample in 20-45-yr-old neighborhoods, but not in areas >45 yr old. Conifers were preferred over other trees in Davis (79%) and Stockton (94%) regardless of neighborhood age; conifers may provide better visual screening from below than other tree types. Fewer young fledged from nests in urban than in rural settings (P < 0.05). The proportion of nesting attempts resulting in at least one fledgling, and the number of young fledged per nesting attempt and per successful nest for urban nests were among the lowest reported for this species. Swainson's hawk nests have not been found in apparently suitable urban areas in the Central Valley where foraging habitat is unavailable for 5-8 km (e.g., Lodi and Sacramento), thus requiring long-distance transport of prey throughout the entire nesting cycle. Rapid urbanization or crop changes near cities could cause the long-term decline of Swainson's hawks in existing urban neighborhoods.
Management of Changing to PBL at the Faculty of Engineering of Universidad Nacional de Colombia

The Faculty of Engineering of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, led by its directives, began three years ago the implementation of strategies for the management of change, seeking to transform their methodologies and pedagogical practices into active learning, student-centered and PBL. This paper details the top-down and bottom-up strategies applied in the Faculty and the results obtained so far. Keywords—Management of changing, engineering education, Project Based Learning, Flipped classroom.
Label-Free Aptamer Fluorescence Determination of Trace Pb2+ Using AuPd Nanoalloy Probe as Catalyst

In the condition of 1.24 mmol/L EDTANa2, 16.7 mmol/L NaCl and 0.17 mmol/L Tris, the substrate chain of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) could be cracked by Pb2+ to release single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) that adsorb onto AuPd nanoparticle (AuPdNP) and form stable AuPdNP-ssDNA, but the dsDNA can not protect AuPdNP that were aggregated to big AuPdNP aggregations (AuPdNPA) under the action of NaCl. The AuPdNP-ssDNA and AuPdNPA could be separated by centrifugation. With the concentration of Pb2+ increased, the released ssDNA increased, the AuPdNP-ssDNA in centrifugation solution increased and the catalytic effect enhanced on the fluorescence quenching reaction of Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) and NaH2PO2, which led the fluorescence intensity at 552nm to decrease. The decreased fluorescence intensity (ΔF552nm) was linear to the concentration of Pb2+ in the range of 0.33-8.00 nmol/L, a detection limit of 0.21 nmol/L. The proposed method was applied to detect Pb2+ in water samples, with satisfactory results.
Natural images are more informative for interpreting CNN activations than synthetic feature visualizations

Feature visualizations such as synthetic maximally activating images are a widely used explanation method to better understand the information processing of convolutional neural networks (CNNs). At the same time, there are concerns that these visualizations might not accurately represent CNNs’ inner workings. Here, we measure how much extremely activating images help humans in predicting CNN activations. Using a well-controlled psychophysical paradigm, we compare the informativeness of synthetic images by Olah et al. [45] with a simple baseline visualization, namely natural images that also strongly activate a speciﬁc feature map. Given either synthetic or natural reference images, human participants choose which of two query images leads to strong positive activation. The experiment is designed to maximize participants’ performance, and is the ﬁrst to probe intermediate instead of ﬁnal layer representations. We ﬁnd that synthetic images indeed provide helpful information about feature map activations ( 82 ± 4% accuracy; chance would be 50% ). However, natural images—originally intended to be a baseline—outperform these synthetic images by a wide margin ( 92 ± 2% accuracy). The superiority of natural images holds across the investigated network and various conditions. Therefore, we argue that visualization methods should improve over this simple baseline.
Vibrational Stark effect of CO on Ni(100), and CO in the aqueous double layer: Experiment, theory, and models

The vibrational Stark effect (VSE), the effect of applied electrostatic field on a molecule’s vibrational frequency, is observed for adsorbates in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) and in the electrochemical double layer. The VSE has been measured and compared with theory. Models of the double layer have also been compared with experiment. The vibrational Stark tuning rate of c(2×2) CO on Ni(100) at 300 K was measured using IR spectroscopy. The observed Stark tuning rate in terms of the applied E field δνE was (5.27±0.27)×10−7 cm−1/(V/cm). Quantum mechanics has been used to express δνE in terms of a molecule’s potential energy function and dipole moment function. The quantum theory confirms the accuracy of δνE predicted by a classical model. The theory, with potential energy and dipole moment functions observed for the experimental system, gives δνE =(4.7±1.1)×10−7 cm−1/(V/cm), in agreement with the present measurement. The fully resolved CO vibrational line shape was asymmetric with a 16 cm−1 full width at half‐max.
Preparation, characterization, and physical properties of the series MPd3S4(M = rare earth)

The synthesis, characterization, and physical properties of the ternary sulphides MPd3S4(M = rare earth metal) are described. The material LaPd3S4 has the ideal NaPt3O4 structure as deduced from Xray and neutron diffraction results. Comparisons between the isomorphous sulphides and oxides are presented.
Influence of Interfacial Rheological Properties on Stability of Asphaltene-Stabilized Emulsions

A series of oscillating droplet measurements have been performed on asphaltenes at the oil/water interface, in order to correlate the interfacial rheological behavior to their ability to stabilize emulsions. In the concentration sweep, the elastic modulus goes through a maximum around an asphaltene concentration of 0.05–0.10 g/l. This behavior was not in good correspondence with emulsion stability, which increased consistently from low to high concentrations. The decrease above 0.10 g/l was most likely an effect of diffusion of asphaltenes in the bulk to the interface, which became more significant at higher bulk concentrations. The rheology data as a function of concentration has been fitted to Butler's surface equation of state and the Lucassen–van den Tempel model. A decent correlation was found between emulsion stability and elasticity for both the effect of solvent aromaticity and pH. The elastic modulus displayed a gradual increase when xylene was mixed with heptane as the solvent, as was seen with emulsion stability. This was not caused by a significant increase of the adsorbed amount of asphaltene at the interface, as shown by a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), but a more efficient reorganization of the already adsorbed asphaltenes. The ability asphaltenes displayed in stabilizing emulsions was significantly increased at both low and high pH, according to a previous study. The elastic modulus, on the other hand, only showed a very weak increase at pH 2, but a better correlation with emulsion stability above pH 8. From this it would appear that the dissociation of acid groups in the asphaltene structure at high pH has a bigger impact on the interfacial activity than the protonation of bases at low pH, while their effect on emulsion stability was the same.
Phosphate Sensitive Electrodes in Model Studies for Phosphorylation and Dephosphorylation Reactions

Highly selective and sensitive phosphate sensors have been fabricated by constructing a solid membrane disk consisting of variable mixtures of aluminium powder (Al), aluminium phosphate (AlPO4), and powdered copper (Cu). Both binary and ternary electrode systems were produced. The ternary membranes exhibited greater selectivity over a wide range of concentrations. The ternary electrode with the composition 25% AlPO4, 25% Cu, and 50% Al was selected as our preferred electrode for the study. Complexation and dephosphorylation reactions of model compounds which mimic enzyme and substrates were monitored. The results showed that the complexation reactions are fast and diffusion controlled.
Isotropic and Birefringent Dispersions of Surface Modified Silica Rods with a Boehmite-Needle Core

A method is presented for the preparation of charged and sterically stabilized rodlike silica particles. First, boehmite needles are synthesized hyhydrothermal treatment of aqueous aluminum alkoxide solutions. Then controlled silica growth on the needles takes place in an aqueous sodium silicate solution without formation of aggregates or homogeneous silica particles. Finally grafting reactions are performed with (fluorescent) silanes and octadecyl alcohol to obtain stable dispersions in organic solvents. Special attention is given to the silica-covered rods grafted with a dense octadecyl brush, which form isotropic (flow birefringent) dispersions and translucent (permanent birefringent) incompressible low-density sediments in cyclohexane
Accelerating Continuous Integration by Caching Environments and Inferring Dependencies

To facilitate the rapid release cadence of modern software (on the order of weeks, days, or even hours), software development organizations invest in practices like Continuous Integration (CI), where each change submitted by developers is built (e.g., compiled, tested, linted) to detect problematic changes early. A fast and efficient build process is crucial to provide timely CI feedback to developers. If CI feedback is too slow, developers may switch contexts to other tasks, which is known to be a costly operation for knowledge workers. Thus, minimizing the build execution time for CI services is an important task. While recent work has made several important advances in the acceleration of CI builds, optimizations often depend upon explicitly defined build dependency graphs (e.g., make, Gradle, CloudBuild, Bazel). These hand-maintained graphs may be (a) underspecified, leading to incorrect build behaviour; or (b) overspecified, leading to missed acceleration opportunities. In this paper, we propose Kotinos—a language-agnostic approach to infer data from which build acceleration decisions can be made without relying upon build specifications. After inferring this data, our approach accelerates CI builds by caching the build environment and skipping unaffected build steps. Kotinos is at the core of a commercial CI service with a growing customer base. To evaluate Kotinos, we mine 14,364 historical CI build records spanning three proprietary and seven open-source software projects. We find that: (1) at least 87.9 percent of the builds activate at least one Kotinos acceleration; and (2) 74 percent of accelerated builds achieve a speed-up of two-fold with respect to their non-accelerated counterparts. Moreover, (3) the benefits of Kotinos can also be replicated in open source software systems; and (4) Kotinos imposes minimal resource overhead (i.e., $<$<</mml:mo> 1 percent median CPU usage, 2 MB – 2.2 GB median memory usage, and 0.4 GB – 5.2 GB median storage overhead) and does not compromise build outcomes. Our results suggest that migration to Kotinos yields substantial benefits with minimal investment of effort (e.g., no migration of build systems is necessary).
Wittgenstein's ladder : poetic language and the strangeness of the ordinary

Marjorie Perloff, among our foremost critics of twentieth-century poetry, argues that Ludwig Wittgenstein provided writers with a radical new aesthetic, a key to recognizing the inescapable strangeness of ordinary language. Taking seriously Wittgenstein's remark that "philosophy ought really to be written only as a form of poetry", Perloff begins by discussing Wittgenstein the "poet". What we learn is that the poetics of everyday life is anything but banal. "This book has the lucidity and the intelligence we have come to expect from Marjorie Perloff. --Linda Munk, "American Literature" "[Perloff] has brilliantly adapted Wittgenstein's conception of meaning and use to an analysis of contemporary language poetry". --Linda Voris, "Boston Review" " "Wittgenstein's Ladder" offers significant insights into the current state of poetry, literature, and literary study. Perloff emphasizes the vitality of reading and thinking about poetry, and the absolute necessity of pushing against the boundaries that define and limit our worlds". --David Clippinger, "Chicago Review" "Majorie Perloff has done more to illuminate our understanding of twentieth century poetic language than perhaps any other critic. Entertaining, witty, and above all highly original". --Willard Bohn, "SubStance"
Production and Analysis of Biodiesel from Non-Edible Seed Oil of Pistacia Chinensis

Pistacia Chinensis is a potential and suitable non-edible feedstock for biodiesel production in China. In the present paper, three extraction methods to obtain seed oil of Pistacia Chinensis were compared and the Soxhlet extraction was found as the most effective one. Two kinds of biodiesels were produced catalyzed homogeneously by sodium hydroxide from crude oil of Pistacia Chinensis in Hebei province and Jiangsu province. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to compare the alterations of the functional groups in the crude oils and their biodiesel products after transesterification, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography were used to compare the composition of the biodiesels qualitatively and quantitatively. The results show that the C18 fatty acid methyl esters are the main components in both the biodiesels, and the seed oil of Pistacia Chinensis from Hebei province is more suitable for biodiesel production than that from Jiangsu province in terms of their chemical structure.
Effect of Powder Characteristics on Electrical Properties of (Ba, Bi, Nb)-Added TiO2 Ceramics

The effect of powder characteristics on the microstructures and electrical properties of (Ba, Bi, Nb)-added TiO2 ceramics was studied. Two powders were selected: one prepared by sol-precipitation using modified alkoxide precursors, and another prepared by mixing reagent-grade oxides. The fine grains and homogeneous distribution of additives in the sol-precipitated powder enhanced additive ( e.g. Ba, Bi, Nb) dissolution in the matrix during sintering, as well as solute segregation during cooling, which resulted in better varistor electrical properties.
In situ X-ray diffraction study of the crystallization of spray-dried lactose

An in situ technique with X-ray diffraction analysis has been developed to study the crystallization of lactose in humid air. This technique was used in association with ex situ scanning electron microscopy to determine changes in phase composition and morphology during crystallization. Individual spherical particles of spray-dried lactose plasticize and coalesce upon absorption of moisture. Following an induction period, crystallization is rapid with the appearance of the anhydrous 5:3 phase containing both a and β isomers of lactose, α-lactose monohydrate and /3-lactose, almost simultaneously. The 5:3 phase decomposed as the other two phases developed. After extended exposure to humid air, only α-lactose monohydrate and /3-lactose were observed. The predominant particle habit observed in the fully crystallized lactose is platelet. These observations are rationalized in terms of the restricted molecular diffusion in plasticized lactose preventing movement of the β-lactose isomer toward developing α-lactose monohydrate crystals with the result that normal solution phase inhibition of growth of the (Oil) face leading the tomahawk shaped crystal lactose does not occur. The restricted diffusional conditions also favor the formation of the mixed isomer 5:3 phase, resulting in the entrapment of both isomers during crystallization.
Exploiting Symbolic Execution to Accelerate Deterministic Databases

Deterministic databases (DDs) are a promising approach for replicating data across different replicas. A fundamental component of DDs is a deterministic concurrency control algorithm that, given a set of transactions in a specific order, guarantees that their execution always results in the same serial order. State-of-the-art approaches either rely on single threaded execution or on the knowledge of read- and write-sets of transactions to achieve this goal. The former yields poor performance in multi-core machines while the latter requires either manual inputs from the user — a time-consuming and error prone task — or a reconnaissance phase that increases both the latency and abort rates of transactions.In this paper, we present Prognosticator, a novel deterministic database system. Rather than relying on manual transaction classification or an expert programmer, Prognosticator employs Symbolic Execution to build fine-grained transaction profiles (at the key-level). These profiles are then used by Prognosticator’s novel deterministic concurrency control algorithm to execute transactions with a high degree of parallelism.Our experimental evaluation, based on both TPC-C and RUBiS benchmarks, shows that Prognosticator can achieve up to 5× higher throughput with respect to state-of-the-art solutions.