Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hybrid Elements for Modelling Squeeze Film Effects Coupled with Structural Interactions in Vibratory MEMS Devices

We present a hybrid finite element based methodology to solve the coupled fluid structure problem of squeeze film effects in vibratory MEMS devices, such as gyroscopes, RF switches, and 2D resonators. The aforementioned devices often have a thin plate like structure vibrating normally to a fixed substrate, and are generally not perfectly vacuum packed. This results in a thin air film being trapped between the vibrating plate and the fixed substrate which behaves like a squeeze film offering both stiffness and damping. For accurate modelling of such devices the squeeze film effects must be incorporated. Extensive literature is available on squeeze film modelling, however only a few studies address the coupled fluid elasticity problem. The majority of the studies that account for the plate elasticity coupled with the fluid equation, either use approximate mode shapes for the plate or use iterative solution strategies. In an earlier work we presented a single step coupled methodology using only one type of displacement based element to solve the coupled problem. The displacement based finite element models suffer from locking issues when it comes to modelling very thin structures with the lateral dimensions much larger than the plate thickness as is typical in MEMS devices with squeeze film effects. In this work we present another coupled formulation where we have used hybrid elements to model the structural domain. The numerical results show a huge improvement in convergence and accuracy with coarse hybrid mesh as compared to displacement based formulations. We further compare our numerical results with experimental data from literature and find them to be in good accordance.
STRUCTURAL-CHEMICAL APPROACH FOR COMPOSITIONAL DEPENDENCES OF γ-INDUCED OPTICAL EFFECTS IN CHALCOGENIDE GLASSES OF Ge-Sb-S SYSTEM

Compositional dependences of γ-induced optical effects in ternary chalcogenide glasses of Ge-Sb-S system within Sb2S3-GeS2 and Sb2S3-Ge2S3 cross-sections have been studied in terms of the average coordination number Z. The structural-chemical approach based upon the criterion of structural modification efficiency, covalent bond redistribution and free volume concept has been used for their interpretation. It is found that the most suitable explanation for compositional dependences of γ-induced optical effects can be made in the framework of combination of covalent bond redistribution and free volume content. The microstructural features of the effects observed have been also analysed. (Received September 1, 2005; accepted September 22, 2005)
Changes of condyle cartilage in orchidectomized rats fed with young coconut juice: novel preliminary findings.

Androgens play a very important role in building the skeleton in young adults and help to prevent bone loss and osteoporosis in aging men. In addition, in elderly men, bone mass has been related to estrogen levels rather than to testosterone. Estrogen replacement therapy has, therefore, been proposed to prevent bone loss in males as well as in females. Estrogen, however, has been considered as one of the hormonal risk factors of benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer and also other side effects. Young coconut juice (YCJ), presumably containing phytoestrogen, was investigated in the present study for its possible beneficial effects on delaying osteoporosis using a male rat model, to replace estrogen replacement therapy. In this study, mandibular condylar cartilage was used as the osteoporotic model. We have found that total cartilage thickness, particularly the hypertrophic zone of mandibular condylar cartilage, was thickest in the sham-operated rats receiving YCJ orally fed for a 14-day period, compared with a sham, orchidectomized, orchidectomized rats receiving estradiol benzoate, and orchidectomized rats receiving YCJ.
Biodiesel Production from Unrefined Rice Bran Oil through Three-Stage Transesterification

Unrefined rice bran oil (UNRFRBO) with high free fatty acids (FFA) is used as a source for the production of unrefined rice bran oil methyl ester (UNRFRBOME). Three-stage transesterification process is successfully used. Initially, the FFA of UNRFRBO is reduced to 1% (0.8%) by using two stages esterification process with methanol in the presence of acid (H2SO4) as a catalyst. Finally, biodiesel has produced by alkaline (NaOH) catalyzed transesterification process which has designed according to the central composite design. 90% has obtained at the optimum values of CH3OH (20% v/v of oil), NaOH (1.0% w/v of oil), reaction time (60 minutes) and reaction temperature (55°C to 60°C).
Some strict inclusions between spaces of ^{}-multipliers

Suppose that the Hausdorff topological group G is either compact or locally compact abelian and that Cc denotes the set of continuous complex-valued functions on G with compact supports. Let L% denote the restrictions to Cc of the continuous linear operators from L"(G) into L"(G) which commute with all the right translation operators. When \^p<qS2 or 2^q<p^oo it is known that (1) LI <= LI The main result of this paper is that the inclusion in (1) is strict unless G is finite. In fact it will be shown, using a partly constructive proof, that when G is infinite U L\ g L% g n L% lâq<p p<gS2 for l<p<2, with the first inclusion remaining strict when p = 2 and the second inclusion remaining strict when p= 1. (Similar results also hold for 2Sp£co.) When G is compact, simple relations will also be developed between idempotent operators in LI and lacunary subsets of the dual of G which will enable us to find necessary conditions so that inclusion (1) is strict even if, for example, LI and L\ are replaced by the sets of idempotent operators in ££ and L% respectively. 1. General notation and preliminaries. 1.1 The notation outlined in this section will generally follow [1] where further details may be found. Let G denote a multiplicatively written locally compact group (all topological groups will be assumed to be Hausdorff), e its identity and AG a fixed left Haar measure on G. If G is compact, Ac is assumed to be normalized so that Xa(G)=l. Let L"=Lp(G)—l^p^oo always—denote the usual Lebesgue space of equivalence classes of functions on G. Its norm will be denoted by || • ||p. When 1 <p<oo, p' will always satisfy l/p+l/p' =1; also l' = oo and oo'=l. Let C=C(G) denote the space of continuous complex-valued functions over G. C0 and Cc will denote the subspaces of C comprised of functions which vanish at infinity and of functions which have compact supports, respectively; C0 = CC=C when G is compact. Also assume that C0 is equipped with the uniform (or supremum) norm, which makes it a Banach space. The left and right translation operators ra and pa (a e G) are defined on C by Taf(x) = f(a " 1x), Paf(x) = f(xa 7l), and may then be extended to measures. Received by the editors June 13, 1969. AMS 1969 subject classifications. Primary 4635, 4755; Secondary 2265, 4250.
Specialized Finite Set Statistics (FISST)-Based Estimation Methods to Enhance Space Situational Awareness in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)

This report describes research on the application of a Cardinalized Probability Hypothesis Density ( CPHD ) multi-target filter, parameterized in terms of specialized Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) elements to estimate the state of resident space objects in the geostationary regime. Justification for the use of GEO elements is provided through comparisons of the differential entropy and Kullback-Leibler divergence for linearized filter implementations in GEO elements versus conventional position/velocity states. Algorithms are demonstrated by a simulation of ground-based observations of a cluster of five geostationary satellites. for public release; distribution is unlimited. This report describes research on the application of a Cardinalized Probability Hypothesis Density (CPHD) multi-target filter, parameterized in terms of specialized geostationary earth orbit (GEO) elements to estimate the state of resident space objects in the geostationary regime. Justification for the use of GEO elements is provided through comparisons of the differential entropy and Kullback-Leibler divergence for linearized filter implementations in GEO elements versus conventional Earth Centered Inertial (ECI) position and velocity states. Algorithms are demonstrated in a simulation of ground-based observations of a cluster of five geostationary satellites. estimation regions, the to improve that appear their field of The work far focused on quantifying impact of the state representation and setting up a CPHD filter to produce an accurate multi-target solution.
Investigation and hazard assessment of the 2003 and 2007 Staircase Falls rock falls, Yosemite National Park, California, USA

Abstract. Since 1857 more than 600 rock falls, rock slides, debris slides, and debris flows have been documented in Yosemite National Park, with rock falls in Yosemite Valley representing the majority of the events. On 26 December 2003, a rock fall originating from west of Glacier Point sent approximately 200 m3 of rock debris down a series of joint-controlled ledges to the floor of Yosemite Valley. The debris impacted talus near the base of Staircase Falls, producing fragments of flying rock that struck occupied cabins in Curry Village. Several years later on 9 June 2007, and again on 26 July 2007, smaller rock falls originated from the same source area. The 26 December 2003 event coincided with a severe winter storm and was likely triggered by precipitation and/or frost wedging, but the 9 June and 26 July 2007 events lack recognizable triggering mechanisms. We investigated the geologic and hydrologic factors contributing to the Staircase Falls rock falls, including bedrock lithology, weathering, joint spacing and orientations, and hydrologic processes affecting slope stability. We improved upon previous geomorphic assessment of rock-fall hazards, based on a shadow angle approach, by using STONE, a three-dimensional rock-fall simulation computer program. STONE produced simulated rock-fall runout patterns similar to the mapped extent of the 2003 and 2007 events, allowing us to simulate potential future rock falls from the Staircase Falls detachment area. Observations of recent rock falls, mapping of rock debris, and simulations of rock fall runouts beneath the Staircase Falls detachment area suggest that rock-fall hazard zones extend farther downslope than the extent previously defined by mapped surface talus deposits.
Employment of Human-Emitted Heat for Hand Lamps

The present work concerns the design, manufacturing and testing of a non-battery hand lamp. The present idea is based on utilization of human-emitted heat to activate a Peltier thermo-electric module for electricity generation. This technique is an emerging energy-harvesting application. The size of the lamp is suitable to be hold by the hand of a grown-up person. A group of nine suitable and powerful LEDs were used as the light source of the lamp. A special housing was designed and fabricated of Teflon. Also, the lamp was supplied by a heat sink to increase the efficiency of the Peltier module. Interesting conclusions and suggestions for further development are stated.
THE DYNAMICS OF REGIONAL GDP IN THE EURO ZONE FROM 1980 TO 2005: ECONOMIC GROWTH OR DEVELOPMENT?

This paper aims to determine and analyse the typology and intensity of the economic growth through an approach to the structure of the allometric models, previously developed by biologists. It could be important for political decision-takers to know the type of growth since it allows the determination of the dynamics that characterize the areas subject to the study. This study aims to examine the growth in the Euro zone considering the GDP per capita at 2000 prices of every single country in the period from 1980 to 2005. The model permits the estimate of the pattern intensity and typology that characterize the economic growth of every single Euro country with respect to the relevant region.
The Problems with Prediction The Dark Room Problem and the Scope Dispute

There is a disagreement over the scope of explanation for predictive processing. While some proponents think that it is best motivated from—and indeed comprises an explanation of—biological self-organization, others maintain that it should only be a theory of neurocognitive function, or even just of some limited domain of neurocognitive function. Something that these theorists share is an interest in addressing the dark-room problem: at its most naïve, if action is driven by the minimization of surprise then why don’t cognitive creatures act to minimize stimuli in general? The dark-room problem is in fact best conceived as a cluster of related concerns, rather than as a single argument against action-oriented predictive processing. These have to do with: i) whether PP (predictive processing) has any substantive empirical content when it is pitched in very general domains; ii) whether a specification can be given of the environmental niche that action moves the organism to occupy, and which is not the dark room; and iii) whether an adequate account can be given within this specification of exploratory and exploitative behaviours. There are interesting conceptual relations between the dark-room problem and the scope dispute. As the putative scope of predictive processing gets wider (culminating in the free energy principle), the resources that are available for answering the concerns about niche-specification become very rich. But increasingly puzzling problems arise as to the implementation of surprise-minimisation within non-paradigmatically cognitive biological systems. On the other hand, under more restrictive construals of the scope of predictive processing, there are new difficulties standing in the way of niche-specification, and new questions about the interface between surprise-minimisation and model-free cognition undermine the promise of predictive processing as a unifier of theories of neurocognitive function in subordinate domains. In this paper I make explicit the dialectic between proponents and critics in order to show how the two problems are related. Keywords
Introductory invited paper Reliability of ultrathin gate oxides for ULSI devices

Ultrathin gate oxide, which is essential for low supply voltage and high driving capability, is indispensable for the continued scaling of ULSI technologies towards smaller and faster devices. Needless to say, the reliability of ultrathin oxide is of major concerns in the manufacturing of the state-of-the-art metal-oxide-semiconductor devices. This paper reviews the reliability issues regarding ultrathin gate oxide for present and future ULSI technologies. Issues including gate leakage current, time-dependent dielectric breakdown, poly-gate depletion, boron penetration, and plasma process-induced damage will be addressed. Several techniques such as nitrided oxide and alternative processes, which are proposed to improve gate oxide reliabilities, are also discussed. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Free carrier absorption and inter-subband transitions in imperfect heterostructures

We present the results of a quantum mechanical modelling of the free carrier absorption (FCA) in semiconductor heterolayers. Elastic and inelastic scatterers are considered with emphasis on the interface defects (optical phonons) contributions to the induced photon absorption for elastic (inelastic) scatterers. Various approaches to FCA are also presented (perturbation, Green’s function technique). The connection between inter-subband absorption and FCA is thoroughly discussed. The absorption lineshape and its modification by suitable doping is presented.
Can organizational change be planned and controlled? Evidence from Russian companies

This study explores limits of applicability of a planned change approach in Russian companies. The data on change management programmes in 59 Russian companies of various industries, regions and sizes was gathered with the help of questionnaires filled by management consultants. The study found that resulted changes often did not coincide with initial plans of change agents. Two groups of organizational elements were identified: ‘uncontrollable’ (those elements that changed outside of the planned change) and ‘unmanageable’ (those elements that did not change despite forming part of the planned change). The findings also indicate that the efficiency of the change programme was unaffected by whether the change programme plans were executed or not. The results suggest that the applicability of a planned change approach is dependent upon the organizational elements at which change interventions are targeted and that change content has to be incorporated into contingency models of change.
Advances in Soft Matter Nanofabrication

The focus of this thesis is placed on the fabrication of engineered nanodevices for the manipulation of soft matter thin films. By combining top-down micro- and nanofabrication approaches with bottom-up self-assembly strategies, new research platforms were developed, tested and characterized. A large part of the studies described herein were performed on electron beam-sculpted Teflon AF surfaces, which served as substrate for molecular lipid films and biological cells. The effects of e-beam exposure of Teflon AF deposits, including changes in hydrophobicity, topography, surface potential and roughness, have been investigated in detail. Lipophilic nanolanes of 50 nm width were created in this manner. The studies show, for example, how spreading of a phospholipid monolayer film originating from a single giant multilamellar vesicle source can be confined and guided by e-beam-exposed frames on the polymer surface. The studies also reveal the preferential adhesion of biological cells on these e-beam-treated Teflon AF surfaces, where the shape of the patterned areas strongly affects cell adhesion. By applying perfluorinated solvent as developer to complete the ebeam-lithography procedure, Teflon AF was introduced as non-amplified negative e-beam resist. Nanostructures with feature sizes as small as 30 nm in width and 40 nm in pitch were fabricated. This new resist was characterized by determining its contrast, sensitivity, and film thickness. The accommodation of single DNA origami scaffolds on developed Teflon AF nanopillars has been investigated as an exemplary application, and about 80% coverage of the available pillar surface was achieved. Moreover, a novel, contact-free technology was developed to generate surface-supported networks of lipid nanotubes and flat giant unilamellar vesicles on a micro-patterned SU-8 substrate. The nanotubes were formed by thermomigration of a phospholipid double bilayer, where the migration of lipid material on the patterned surface was initiated and controlled by a temperature gradient created with an IR laser. In the work presented here, a number of specific problems have been tackled in an interdisciplinary approach, making use of micro- and nanotechnologies, new materials and biomimetic principles that can open up new experimental opportunities to address further fundamental research questions.
The Morse index theorem

The use of a matrix Riccati equation to establish sufficiency theorems in the calculus of variations is well known (see [3], e.g.). In this note we extend the method to give an elementary proof of the Morse index theorem, thereby eliminating the ad hoc subdivisions of the classical proof (see [2], [4], or [5], e.g.). Although we consider only the simplest form of the index theorem, the technique can easily be adapted to generalizations such as that of [N]. Let E be a euclidean space, G the linear space of broken CIO maps u: [0, T]-->E for some closed interval [0, T], and H the subspace of those uEG such that u(0) =u(T) =0. Let P be a given Coo map of [0, T] into the selfadjoint linear transformations of E, and let U: [0, T]->HomR(E, E) be the unique Coo map satisfying U(O) =0, U' (0) = I, and U" +P U= 0; U can also be regarded as a linear transformation of G into itself which is stable on the subspace H. The multiplicity of any t& (O, T] is the nullity of U(t), and t is a focal point whenever it has positive multiplicity. The index form I on HXH is defined by I(u, v)-=ft 'o[(u', v')-(Pu, v)]dt, and an inner product J on HXH is defined by J(u, v) =fT0(u, v)dt, where (, ) is in both cases the inner product on E XE; for convenience we set I(u, u) = I(u) and J(u, u) =J(u). The index i(I) is the dimension of any maximal subspace of H on which I is negative definite, and the nullity n(I) is the dimension of the subspace of those u CH such that I(u, v)=0 for all vEH. The first portion of our proof of the index theorem is standard, depending on the following classical lemma:
Think tank: water relations of Bromeliaceae in their evolutionary context

Water relations represent a pivotal nexus in plant biology due to the multiplicity of functions affected by water status. Hydraulic properties of plant parts are therefore likely to be relevant to evolutionary trends in many taxa. Bromeliaceae encompass a wealth of morphological, physiological and ecological variations and the geographical and bioclimatic range of the family is also extensive. The diversification of bromeliad lineages is known to be correlated with the origins of a suite of key innovations, many of which relate directly or indirectly to water relations. However, little information is known regarding the role of change in morphoanatomical and hydraulic traits in the evolutionary origins of the classical ecophysiological functional types in Bromeliaceae or how this role relates to the diversification of specific lineages. In this paper, I present a synthesis of the current knowledge on bromeliad water relations and a qualitative model of the evolution of relevant traits in the context of the functional types. I use this model to introduce a manifesto for a new research programme on the integrative biology and evolution of bromeliad water-use strategies. The need for a wide-ranging survey of morphoanatomical and hydraulic traits across Bromeliaceae is stressed, as this would provide extensive insight into structure–function relationships of relevance to the evolutionary history of bromeliads and, more generally, to the evolutionary physiology of flowering plants.