Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Method for Transferring High-Mobility CVD-Grown Graphene with Perfluoropolymers

The transfer of graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using amorphous polymers represents a widely implemented method for graphene-based electronic device fabrication. However, the most commonly used polymer, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), leaves a residue on the graphene that limits the mobility. Here we report a method for graphene transfer and patterning that employs a perfluoropolymer---Hyflon---as a transfer handle and to protect graphene against contamination from photoresists or other polymers. CVD-grown graphene transferred this way onto LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ heterostructures is atomically clean, with high mobility (~30,000 cm$^2$V$^{-1}$s$^{-1}$) near the Dirac point at 2 K and clear, quantized Hall and magneto-resistance. Local control of the LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interfacial metal-insulator transition---through the graphene---is preserved with this transfer method. The use of perfluoropolymers such as Hyflon with CVD-grown graphene and other 2D materials can readily be implemented with other polymers or photoresists.
Investigating the Role of Transportation Barriers in Cancer Patients’ Decision Making Regarding the Treatment Process

Transportation barriers to healthcare access may lead to rescheduled or missed appointments, thereby influencing patients’ treatment outcomes. However, the impact of transportation barriers on stopping cancer treatments remains unknown in the literature. This study aims to investigate the association between cancer patients’ travel behavior and their decisions about stopping or continuing treatments. In this study, an online survey was designed and conducted for cancer patients who received radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Comprehensive questions were asked to reveal personal- and treatment-related factors that affect participants’ decisions, including their travel behavior, travel burden, treatment characteristics, and side effects. With data collected from the survey, machine learning models were further employed to quantitatively assess the factors contributing to patients’ decision making. Results suggest that lack of access to transportation has a significant impact on cancer patients’ decisions with respect to stopping or continuing treatments. Limited access to private vehicles will likely lead to the stopping of radiotherapy. In addition, trip frequency and trip length to caregivers influence the patients’ continuing or quitting chemotherapy. Insights generated in this study have great potential to help policy makers and planners make informed decisions to enhance cancer patients’ access to treatments and improve their health outcomes.
A Nonlinear CFD/Multibody Incremental-Dynamic Model for A Constrained Mechanism

Numerical analysis of a multibody mechanism moving in the air is a complicated problem in computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Analyzing the motion of a multibody mechanism in a commercial CFD software, i.e., ANSYS Fluent®, is a challenging issue. This is because the components of a mechanism have to be constrained next to each other during the movement in the air to have a reliable numerical aerodynamics simulation. However, such constraints cannot be numerically modeled in a commercial CFD software, and needs to be separately incorporated into models through the programming environment, such as user-defined functions (UDF). This study proposes a nonlinear-incremental dynamic CFD/multibody method to simulate constrained multibody mechanisms in the air using UDF of ANSYS Fluent®. To testify the accuracy of the proposed method, Newton–Euler dynamic equations for a two-link mechanism are solved using Matlab® ordinary differential equations (ODEs), and the numerical results for the constrained mechanisms are compared. The UDF results of ANSYS Fluent® shows good agreement with Matlab®, and can be applied to constrained multibody mechanisms moving in the air. The proposed UDF of ANSYS Fluent® calculates the aerodynamic forces of a flying multibody mechanism in the air for a low simulation cost than the constraint force equation (CFE) method. The results could have implications in designing and analyzing flying robots to help human rescue teams, and nonlinear dynamic analyses of the aerodynamic forces applying on a moving object in the air, such as airplanes, birds, flies, etc.
Mutated Specification-Based Test Data Generation with a Genetic Algorithm

Specification-based testing methods generate test data without the knowledge of the structure of the program. However, the quality of these test data are not well ensured to detect bugs when non-functional changes are introduced to the program. To generate test data effectively, we propose a new method that combines formal specifications with the genetic algorithm (GA). In this method, formal specifications are reformed by GA in order to be used to generate input values that can kill as many mutants of the target program as possible. Two classic examples are presented to demonstrate how the method works. The result shows that the proposed method can help effectively generate test cases to kill the program mutants, which contributes to the further maintenance of software.
A study of mean platelet volume in acute ischemic stroke

Background: A stroke is defined by the abrupt onset of neurological deficit that is attributable to a focal vascular cause. Because of the growth in the number of ageing population, the burden of stroke is likely to increase automatically in the coming future. Mean platelet volume (MPV), a marker of platelet function is a physiological variable of hemostatic importance. Changes in MPV play a more important role in hemostasis than platelet count. Very few studies has looked at the association between mean platelet volume and ischemic stroke. So, the objectives were to study mean platelet volume in acute ischemic stroke, the role of mean platelet volume as an independent risk factor in acute ischemic stroke and to study the association between MPV and outcome in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods: A cross sectional analytical study was conducted on 60 patients with ischemic stroke identified based on clinical features and MRI of Brain admitted in Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College, Kalaburgi. Mean platelet volume (MPV) on admission was documented and severity of stroke at the presentation and at discharge was assessed using Modified Rankins scale (MRS). Results: Among 60 patients, 40% of the study patients were aged between 60-80 years and 60% of study population were male and 40% female. The co-morbid conditions present were hypertension in 50%, diabetes mellitus in 41% . The MPV was raised (>12.5fl) in 64 %of the patients. The clinical severity of stroke at presentation as determined by the Modified Rankin‘s scale (MRS) were moderate (20%), moderately severe (35%) and severe disability in 36.7% of cases. In our study MPV showed statistically significant correlation with Ischemic stroke severity. Clinical outcome as assessed by comparing MRS at admission and discharge with presentation MPV showed 25% moderately, 30% moderately severe and 23% were severely disabled. However, no statistical significance was seen. Conclusions: We conclude that MPV is raised in acute ischemic stroke and is an independent predictor of the risk of stroke. Higher MPV are associated with more severe stroke and tend to have poorer outcome. Mean platelet volume an indicator of platelet reactivity is a simple and easy test available in panel of hemogram and can serve as a valuable predictor of severity and outcome in acute ischemic stroke patients.
Kinetic parameters from wood thermal degradation under vacuum to implement a mathematic model

Wood heat-treatment technique has been developed rapidly in the past decades, it is an attractive way to improve the properties of wood, such as equilibrium moisture content (EMC), dimensional stability and durability [Candelieret al., 2013]. The treatment temperatures are in the range from 180 to 240 °C, underan inert atmosphere [Candelieret al., 2016; Estevesand Pereira2009]. Some advantages of wood treatment by the vacuum reactor are reported. The drying time of wood is decreased, and the end-product with lower volatiles which accelerate the degradation phenomena of wood [Torreset al., 2011; Sandaket al., 2015]. In the present work, the thermal degradation of wood under vacuum condition is investigated. Two different wood species, poplar (Populus nigra) and sapin (Picea abies), are examined in this study. The effects of operating conditions (temperature, heating rate and duration of treatment) on wood thermal degradation are studied. The reaction system involved four subsystems: heat treatment, balance measurement, vacuum compressor, and data collection. In addition, the properties of heated wood, such as higher heating value (HHV) and elemental analysis are examined. The experimental flow chart is shown in Fig. 1. These data will be useful to increase and improve an kinetic model to predict the weight loss percentage of wood during the heat treatment under vacuum condition. The kinetic model is based on Di Blasi approach [Di Blasic and Lanzetta 1997] and the kinetic parameters are calculated from the experiment results. As a whole, the obtained results and developing model are conducive to performing the heat treatment of wood in industry. Moreover, the operating cost of wood heat treatment can be reduced. (Texte integral)
Design of prescriptive model using nano-enabled sensors for water treatment and precise drip irrigation

Agriculture is one of the major sources of Indian economy where 60% of the population depend on it for survival. Due to increase in population size, water scarcity problem and pollutant water from industries directly affects economic growth in agriculture field. Over the past decade, many researchers have addressed this problem and provided solutions for water treatment and methodologies to effectively use water resources based on crop need. Most studies have only focused on effective water management practice and failed to remove water toxicants. Hence this paper seeks to address the removal of heavy metals in water resources using nano-sensors and proposed a prescriptive model to estimate the amount of resources like nutrients, fertilizers and water based on crop requirements. The proposed model is designed with the objective of implementation in irrigation areas to effectively remove toxicants from water resources and efficiently manage resources like nutrients, soil, fertilizers and water based on drip irrigation.
Construction process innovation on Brock Commons Tallwood House

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the construction process innovations that enabled the successful delivery of the hybrid mass timber high-rise building in Canada, the Brock Commons Tallwood House at the University of British Columbia. It is one of a set of papers examining the project, including companion papers that describe innovations in the mass timber design process and the impact of these innovations on construction performance. The focus of this paper is on innovation in the construction phase and its relationship to innovations implemented in previous project phases. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-method, longitudinal case study approach was used in this research project to investigate and document the Tallwood House project over a three-year period. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques were used. Members of the research team observed prefabrication and construction, conducted periodic interviews and reviewed project artefacts. Findings The research identified three innovation “clusters,” including the use of innovative tools, techniques and strategies in the design and construction processes and the role they played in delivering the project. The “clusters” were further characterized according to the type of “connectivity” they afforded, either facilitation, operationalization or materialization. These two perspectives support a compounding view on innovation and help to understand how it can flow throughout a project’s life cycle and across its supply chain. Three process-based innovations were initiated during the design phase, integrated design process, building information modeling and virtual design and construction and flowed through to the construction phase. These were seen to enable the creation of connections that were crucial to the overall success of the project. These innovations were operationalized and enacted through the construction phase as design for manufacturing and assembly and prefabrication, staged construction and just-in-time delivery, integration of safety and risk management and a rigorous quality control and quality assurance process. Finally, a full-scale mock-up was produced for practice and constructability assessment, materializing the radical product innovation that was the mass timber structure. These strategies are used together for a synergistic and integrated approach to increase productivity, expedite the construction schedule and develop an innovative building product. Originality/value This paper details an in-depth investigation into the diffusion dynamics of multiple systemic innovations for the construction process of a unique building project, the tools and techniques used by the construction manager and team, and the challenges, solutions and lessons learned.
Supercontinuum Generation in Naturally Occurring Glass Sponges Spicules

The complex process of supercontinuum generation (SG) is known to be exploitable for designing spatially coherent white light sources emitting light simultaneously in the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared ranges. Herein the first natural material able to generate in laboratory conditions a supercontinuum similar to those known from man‐made photonic crystal fibers is described. The ability resides in siliceous 20–50 cm long spicules of the glass sponge Sericolophus hawaiicus. By shedding into the spicules optical peak intensities ranging from 1 to 100 TW cm−2 the generation of a SG is revealed. The SG involves wavelengths between 650 and 900 nm and shows a maximum spectral spread for excitation at a wavelength of 750 nm. It is hypothesized that the SG is favored by spicules being a biocomposite that incorporates together isotopically pure biogenic silica (δ30Si = −3.28) and 15.2 ± 1.3 μg N‐acetyl‐glucosamine (chitin) per mg of silica. The internal organization of these spicules is distinguished by a solid silica core with a 1 μm wide axial channel as well as a highly ordered silica–chitin composite. Such a composition and organization pattern may be of potential interest for the design of low temperature synthesis of future materials for light guidance.
Don't Hold Your Breath—A Video-Based Study of Procedural Intervals During Pediatric Rapid Sequence Intubation

Objective Develop a framework for data collection to determine the contributions of both laryngoscopy and tube delivery intervals to the apneic period in unsuccessful and successful attempts among patients undergoing rapid sequence intubation (RSI) in a pediatric emergency department (PED). Design This was a retrospective, observational study of RSI. Setting An academic PED. Patients A consecutive sample of all intubations attempts of first provider physicians performing RSI in the shock trauma suite over a 10-month period in 2018–2019. Measurement and Main Results Data were collected by structured video review. The main outcome was the duration of the laryngoscopy and tube delivery intervals per attempt. We compared interval duration between successful and unsuccessful attempts, adjusting for age, accounting for repeated measures, and clustering by provider. There were 69 patients with 89 total intubation attempts. Sixty-three patients were successfully intubated by the first provider (91%). Pediatric emergency medicine fellows performed 54% of the attempts. The median duration of the apneic period per attempt was longer in unsuccessful attempts (57 vs 44 seconds; median of difference, −10.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], −17.0 to −4.0). The duration of laryngoscopy was similar (18 vs 13 seconds; median of difference, −3.5; 95% CI, −8.0 to 1.0), but tube delivery was longer in unsuccessful attempts (25.5 vs. 11 seconds; median of difference, −12.5; 95% CI, −17.0 to −4.0). These results did not change when adjusting for age or clustering by provider. Conclusions We successfully developed a specific, time-based framework for the contributors to prolonged apnea in RSI. Prolonged tube delivery accounted for more of the apneic period. Future studies and improvement should focus on problems during tube delivery in the PED.
Policy Rollout Action Selection in Continuous Domains for Sensor Path Planning

Policy rollout is a method for the online computation of future costs in approximate dynamic programming and has been utilized for various problems, including sensor management. In previous work, it has predominately been applied to the selection of actions from discrete sets. In this article, we present methods for action selection from continuous sets and analyze their tradeoffs. The methods are evaluated on the problem of sensor path planning, with the intent of minimizing the time to localize an emitter using bearing measurements.
Monocular Visual Inertial Direct SLAM with Robust Scale Estimation for Ground Robots/Vehicles

In this paper, we present a novel method for visual-inertial odometry for land vehicles. Our technique is robust to unintended, but unavoidable bumps, encountered when an off-road land vehicle traverses over potholes, speed-bumps or general change in terrain. In contrast to tightly-coupled methods for visual-inertial odometry, we split the joint visual and inertial residuals into two separate steps and perform the inertial optimization after the direct-visual alignment step. We utilize all visual and geometric information encoded in a keyframe by including the inverse-depth variances in our optimization objective, making our method a direct approach. The primary contribution of our work is the use of epipolar constraints, computed from a direct-image alignment, to correct pose prediction obtained by integrating IMU measurements, while simultaneously building a semi-dense map of the environment in real-time. Through experiments, both indoor and outdoor, we show that our method is robust to sudden spikes in inertial measurements while achieving better accuracy than the state-of-the art direct, tightly-coupled visual-inertial fusion method.
Measurement of Magnetic Field Fluctuations in the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter Missions

The search‐coil magnetometer (SCM) measures the magnetic signature of solar wind fluctuations with three components in the 3 Hz–50 kHz range and one single component in the 1 kHz–1 MHz range. This instrument is important for providing in situ observations of transients caused by interplanetary shocks and reconnection, for the identification of electromagnetic wave modes in plasmas and the determination of their characteristics (planarity, polarization, ellipticity, and k‐vector) and for studying the turbulent cascade in the kinetic range. Two similar triaxial search‐coils have been built for the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter missions. Here we describe the science objectives of both missions which led to the SCM design and present the characteristics of the two instruments.
On the comparison of strain measurements from fibre optics with a dense seismometer array at Etna volcano (Italy)

Abstract. We demonstrate the capability of distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) to record volcano-related dynamic strain at Etna (Italy). In summer 2019, we gathered DAS measurements from a 1.5 km long fibre in a shallow trench and seismic records from a conventional dense array comprised of 26 broadband sensors that was deployed in Piano delle Concazze close to the summit area. Etna activity during the acquisition period gives the extraordinary opportunity to record dynamic strain changes (∼ 10−8 strain) in correspondence with volcanic events. To validate the DAS strain measurements, we explore array-derived methods to estimate strain changes from the seismic signals and to compare with strain DAS signals. A general good agreement is found between array-derived strain and DAS measurements along the fibre optic cable. Short wavelength discrepancies correspond with fault zones, showing the potential of DAS for mapping local perturbations of the strain field and thus site effect due to small-scale heterogeneities in volcanic settings.
Bounded Leader-Following Consensus of Heterogeneous Directed Delayed Multi-Agent Systems via Asynchronous Impulsive Control

This brief investigates consensus of multi-agent systems via asynchronous impulsive control. Firstly, the model considered in this brief accords with actual situation. Secondly, a new control scheme is proposed, which not only can greatly reduce communication and control cost, but also effectively solves the problem of excessive power. Moreover, sufficient conditions formulated by linear matrix inequalities are developed to obtain the less conservative results. The consensus error bound and the convergence rate are also given by rigorous mathematical proof. Finally, a numerical simulation is given to verify the theoretical analysis.
EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY IN BIOPHYSICAL MACROMOLECULAR RESEARCH I. From Stokes shift to multiphoton induced fluorescence

The purpose of this review is twofold: first, to recall some modern emission methods in biochemistry and biophysics and second, to furnish their scope and limitations. Methodology of this part is based on the shift between excitation and emission spectra (Stokesc shift) and fluorescence anisotropy, including advantages of multi-photon excitations. Their applications in confocal microscopy led to higher spatial and temporal resolution, and lower photodamages, thus permit dipper penetration of the cells and tissues, and a ultraprecise nanosurgical applications. Higher selectivity of two-photon excitation (TPE) of tryptophan vs tyrosine residues is attainable due to short- wavelength shift of the TPE spectrum of tyrosine, and zero or slightly negative values of its TPE fundamental anisotropy.
Biomass and cellulose pretreatments for saccharification

The cellulosic Biomass has became a interesting product to be used like raw material for biofuels productioning, ethanol specially. The critic step on its convertion into ethanol imply polysaccharides degradation to fermentable sugars, process that is called saccharification. The cellulose, biomass principal component, is hard to be degradeted in mild conditions. More resent researches have been focused on some kind of pretreatment of biomass o cellulose in order to obtain easy to degrade materials to fermentable sugars. This paper shows the outstanding pretreatments of cellulose and biomass for converting it, into fermentable products using ethanolic pathway.
Application Analysis of Low Density Parity Check Code for Wireless Network

The Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes use an iterative decoding algorithm. The advantages of this algorithm are: the algorithm is completely parallel, so the decoding speed is extremely high; the complexity of the decoding algorithm is low, and the amount of calculation will not increase sharply due to the increase of the code length. It is incomparable with convolutional code and other group codes. A good compromise can be obtained in complexity and performance. Even for the same decoding algorithm, different iteration times can be selected according to channel conditions and system requirements, which is very flexible. In this paper, we review the construction and decoding of LDPC, analyze their advantages and provide their direction of future works.