Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Nitrogen, Methane, and Oxygen on Structure and Electrical Properties of Thin Tantalum Films

An investigation was made of tantalum films sputtered in argon containing individual small amounts of nitrogen, methane, and oxygen. With argon alone, 1000‐A bcc tantalum films deposited on glass substrates heated to 400°C had a specific resistivity four times the bulk value, with the increase attributable to a reactive gas residual pressure of 10−6 to 10−5 Torr. The mixed argon‐nitrogen experiments produced initially hcp Ta2N, and at higher pressures an fcc phase attributed to a new TaN structure. With methane only fcc TaC was obtained, while with oxygen an amorphous phase began to grow initially, and at higher pressures was dominant with a structure identical to anodically formed Ta2O5. The nitrides and carbide have specific resistivities from 200–300×10−6 Ω cm, and temperature coefficients between +3×10−4 and −2×10−4 deg−1. With increasing oxygen content, the specific resistivity increases approximately exponentially; the positive temperature coefficient decreases, becomes zero before the precipitation.
Brown Coal Drying in a Fluidized Bed Applying a Low-Temperature Gaseous Medium

This article contains results of an experimental study on the efficiency of the brown coal drying process in a fluidized bed conducted by means of warm air. It also presents results of a study on mathematical modelling of a fluidized bed of different dryer construction. The modelling results allowed for the determination of the optimal construction of the dryer (i.e., its shape and size), taking into consideration the intensity of mass and heat exchange. On the basis of the results of mathematical modelling research, the laboratorial fluidized bed dryer was constructed. Next, several experimental drying tests were carried out using two brown coals of different particle sizes and different air temperatures, one from the Belchatow mine and the other earthy coal from the Turow mine. Drying rates and energy consumption during drying were established on the basis of experimental results. Optimal parameters of drying due to minimal energy usage were then determined.
Turbulent convection for different thermal boundary conditions at the plates

Abstract The influence of the different thermal boundary conditions at the bottom and top plates on the dynamics and statistics of a turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection flow is studied in three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. The flow evolves in a closed cylinder with an aspect ratio of $\varGamma =1/2$ in air for a Prandtl number $Pr=0.7$ and a Rayleigh number $Ra=10^7$ and in the liquid metal alloy GaInSn at $Pr=0.033$ and $Ra=10^7$, $10^8$. We apply for each case three different thermal boundary conditions at the top and bottom of the fluid volume while leaving the solid sidewall thermally insulated: (i) fixed temperature, (ii) fixed heat flux and (iii) conjugate heat transfer which couples the temperature and heat flux in the working fluid to that of the finitely thick, solid plates enclosing the turbulent flow. The global heat transfer is enhanced by up to 19 % for the conjugate heat transfer case in comparison to that of isothermal plates. The differences decrease for the lower of the two Prandtl numbers; they remain generally smaller for the global turbulent momentum transfer. Mean temperature profiles and root mean square velocity fluctuations are surprisingly weakly affected. The largest difference appears for the distribution of local thermal boundary scales when the cases of fixed temperature and of conjugate heat transfer are compared. We also discuss our results in view to experimental uncertainties in liquid metal experiments.
Approximate Analytical Solutions for Marangoni Mixed Convection Boundary Layer

The paper deals with a steady coupled dissipative layer, called Marangoni mixed convection boundary layer, which can be formed along the interface of two immiscible fluids, in surface driven flows. The mixed convection boundary layer is generated besides the Marangoni convection effects induced flow over the surface due to an imposed temperature gradient, there are also buoyancy effects due to gravity and external pressure gradient effects. We shall use a model proposed by Chamkha wherein the Marangoni coupling condition has been included into the boundary conditions at the interface. The similarity equations are first determined, and the approximate analytical solutions are obtained by an efficient transformation, asymptotic expansion and Pade approximant technique. The features of the flow and temperature fields as well as the interface velocity and heat transfer at the interface are discussed for some values of the governing parameters. The associated fluid mechanics was analyzed in detail.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
The size effect of hematite and corundum inclusions on the efflorescence relative humidities of aqueous ammonium sulfate particles

Mineral dusts inside aqueous atmospheric particles provide surfaces that induce crystallization during episodes of decreasing relative humidity (RH). Submicron aqueous ammonium sulfate particles containing hematite (α‐Fe2O3) and corundum (α‐Al2O3) inclusions are investigated in an aerosol flow tube at 298 K. As compared to 35% RH where homogeneous nucleation is rapid, the heterogeneous nuclei regulate the RH from 35% up to 60% RH as the inclusion size varies from 50 to 450 nm. The strong size dependence can be rationalized by an active site model. Model optimization yields 1010.4 sites cm−2 and m < 0 for α‐Al2O3 and 109 sites cm−2 and m=0.04 for α‐Fe2O3 particles.
Induction of Functional Hypothalamus and Pituitary Tissues From Pluripotent Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine

Abstract The hypothalamus and pituitary have been identified to play essential roles in maintaining homeostasis. Various diseases can disrupt the functions of these systems, which can often result in serious lifelong symptoms. The current treatment for hypopituitarism involves hormone replacement therapy. However, exogenous drug administration cannot mimic the physiological changes that are a result of hormone requirements. Therefore, patients are at a high risk of severe hormone deficiency, including adrenal crisis. Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) self-proliferate and differentiate into all types of cells. The generation of endocrine tissues from PSCs has been considered as another new treatment for hypopituitarism. Our colleagues established a 3-dimensional (3D) culture method for embryonic stem cells (ESCs). In this culture, the ESC-derived aggregates exhibit self-organization and spontaneous formation of highly ordered patterning. Recent results have shown that strict removal of exogenous patterning factors during early differentiation efficiently induces rostral hypothalamic progenitors from mouse ESCs. These hypothalamic progenitors generate vasopressinergic neurons, which release neuropeptides upon exogenous stimulation. Subsequently, we reported adenohypophysis tissue self-formation in 3D cultures of mouse ESCs. The ESCs were found to differentiate into both nonneural oral ectoderm and hypothalamic neuroectoderm in adjacent layers. Interactions between the 2 tissues appear to be critically important for in vitro induction of a Rathke’s pouch-like developing embryo. Various endocrine cells were differentiated from nonneural ectoderm. The induced corticotrophs efficiently secreted adrenocorticotropic hormone when engrafted in vivo, which rescued hypopituitary hosts. For future regenerative medicine, generation of hypothalamic and pituitary tissues from human PSCs is necessary. We and other groups succeeded in establishing a differentiation method with the use of human PSCs. Researchers could use these methods for models of human diseases to elucidate disease pathology or screen potential therapeutics.
Study of Heathland Succession, Prescribed Burning, and Future Perspectives at Kringsjå, Norway

The coastal heathland of Western Europe, dominated by Calluna vulgaris L. , was previously maintained by prescribed-burning and grazing to the extent that the Calluna became anthropogenically adapted to regular burning cycles. This 5000–6000-year-old land management practice was essential for local biodiversity and created a vegetation free from major wildland fires. In Norway, recent neglect has, however, caused accumulation of live and dead biomass. Invasion of juniper and Sitka spruce has resulted in limited biodiversity and increasing wildland fire fuels. At the Kringsja cabin and sheep farm, Haugesund, an area of previous fire safe heathland has been restored through fire-agriculture. Kringsja is located close to several important Viking Age sites and the Steinsfjellet viewpoint, a popular local tourist destination. The motivation for the present study is to analyse this facility and investigate possibilities for synergies between landscape management and tourism as a route to sustainable transitions. The present study compares restored heathland vegetation with unmanaged heathland at Kringsja. The potential for activities is also analysed based on the proximity to the tourist attractions in the region. The Kringsja area demonstrates different vegetation conditions depending on level of afforestation, Calluna heath maintenance, and gracing. Within a few minutes’ walk, dense Sitka spruce communities with desert-like forest floor may be compared to native forest floors, Calluna dominated heathland, and grazing fields. It turns out that Kringsja may become a showcase for resuming prescribed burning and grazing for fire-safe rich landscapes, while offering cultural and historical experiences for all age groups. Moreover, tourism may become a source of income required for supporting ongoing restoration initiatives. To start working on a common vision, preferably aligned with existing "Homeland of the Viking Kings" tourism approach, should be one of the first steps along this path.
DA4Event: Towards Bridging the Sim-to-Real Gap for Event Cameras Using Domain Adaptation

Event cameras are novel bio-inspired sensors, which asynchronously capture pixel-level intensity changes in the form of “events”. The innovative way they acquire data presents several advantages over standard devices, especially in poor lighting and high-speed motion conditions. However, the novelty of these sensors results in the lack of a large amount of training data capable of fully unlocking their potential. The most common approach implemented by researchers to address this issue is to leverage simulated event data. Yet, this approach comes with an open research question: how well simulated data generalize to real data? To answer this, we propose to exploit, in the event-based context, recent Domain Adaptation (DA) advances in traditional computer vision, showing that DA techniques applied to event data help reduce the sim-to-real gap. To this purpose, we propose a novel architecture, which we call Multi-View DA4E (MV-DA4E), that better exploits the peculiarities of frame-based event representations while also promoting domain invariant characteristics in features. Through extensive experiments, we prove the effectiveness of DA methods and MV-DA4E on N-Caltech101. Moreover, we validate their soundness in a real-world scenario through a cross-domain analysis on the popular RGB-D Object Dataset (ROD), which we extended to the event modality (RGB-E).
Cautiously Optimistic Policy Optimization and Exploration with Linear Function Approximation

Policy optimization methods are popular reinforcement learning algorithms, because their incremental and on-policy nature makes them more stable than the value-based counterparts. However, the same properties also make them slow to converge and sample inefficient, as the on-policy requirement precludes data reuse and the incremental updates couple large iteration complexity into the sample complexity. These characteristics have been observed in experiments as well as in theory in the recent work of Agarwal et al. (2020a), which provides a policy optimization method PC-PG that can robustly find near optimal polices for approximately linear Markov decision processes but suffers from an extremely poor sample complexity compared with value-based techniques. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm, COPOE, that overcomes the sample complexity issue of PC-PG while retaining its robustness to model misspecification. Compared with PC-PG, COPOE makes several important algorithmic enhancements, such as enabling data reuse, and uses more refined analysis techniques, which we expect to be more broadly applicable to designing new reinforcement learning algorithms. The result is an improvement in sample complexity from Õ(1/ǫ) for PC-PG to Õ(1/ǫ) for COPOE, nearly bridging the gap with value-based techniques.
Assessment of Heavy Metal Amounts of Spinach
Plants (Spinach Oleracea L.) Grown on Cd and
Chicken Manure Applied Soil Conditions

Although some plants accumulate excessive metal and can grow without any toxic symptoms, the consumption of these plants by humans can be extremely inconvenient for their health. Increasing doses of Cd (0, 10, and 20 mg kg-1 Cd) and chicken manure (0, 500, 1000, and 2000 kg da-1) were applied to the soil to evaluate the effects of cadmium and chicken manure on growth of spinach (Spinach oleracea L.) leaves and roots and on some heavy metal concentrations. Cadmium decreased the dry weight amounts of spinach both in leaves and in roots, decreased the amounts of Cd and also other heavy metals. The highest cadmium concentrations were determined at the second dose as 75.04 mg kg-1 in leaves, and 162.17 mg kg-1 in roots. Improved dry weight and decreased Cr, Pb, and Fe amounts were determined with chicken manure application. However it was not found proficient to decrease Cd which was found over the limits of WHO. Because of being highly toxic to humans, health-related limits of cadmium in soils, and in plants consumed by humans have to be carefully controlled in such conditions and the threshold limits must be changed.
Microporosity Development of Herringbone Carbon Nanofibers by RbOH Chemical Activation

The influence of different activation conditions, including activating agent/CNFs ratio, activation temperature, and He flow rate, on the pore structure development of herringbone carbon nanofibers (CNFs) was studied. The best results of activated CNFs with larger specific surface area can be achieved using the following optimized factors: RbOH/CNFs ratio = 4/1, activation temperature = 900∘C ,and a He flow rate = 850 ml/min. The optimization of these three factors leads to high CNFs micropore volume, being the surface area increased by a factor of 3 compared to the raw CNFs. It is important to note that only the creation of micropores (ultramicropores principally) took place, and mesopores were not generated if compared with raw CNFs.
How does monetary policy affect investment in the euro area

We set out to analyse the monetary policy transmission mechanism by documenting how the annual investment of more than one million firms in Germany, Spain, France and Italy responded to monetary policy shocks between 2000 and 2016. We show that euro area firms react differently depending on their age and the industry they operate in: young firms and those producing durable goods react more strongly than the average firm. This confirms that monetary policy is affecting firms’ investment through two different channels. On the one hand, the “interest rate channel” affects demand for durable goods more than demand for services, which in turn affects investment demand from the producers of those goods. On the other hand, as young firms are more likely to face financing constraints, their stronger than average reaction can be explained by the “balance sheet channel” of monetary policy transmission. JEL Classification: E22, E52
Minimize electricity generation cost for large scale wind- thermal systems considering prohibited operating zone and power reserve constraints

Wind power plants (WPs) play a very important role in the power systems because thermal power plants (TPs) suffers from shortcomings of expensive cost and limited fossil fuels. As compared to other renewable energies, WPs are more effective because it can produce electricity all a day from the morning to the evening. Consequently, this paper integrates the optimal power generation of TPs and WPs to absolutely exploit the energy from WPs and reduce the total electricity generation cost of TPs. The target can be reached by employing a proposed method, called one evaluation-based cuckoo search algorithm (OEB-CSA), which is developed from cuckoo search algorithm (CSA). In addition, conventional particle swarm optimization (PSO) is also implemented for comparison. Two test systems with thirty TPs considering prohibited working zone and power reserve constraints are employed. The first system has one wind power plant (WP) while the second one has two WPs. The result comparisons indicate that OEB-CSA can be the best method for the combined systems with WPs and TPs.
Anatomía articular y parámetros radiográficos de la cadera como factor de riesgo de fractura: una mirada actualizada

Introduccion: Existe un aumento de la evidencia de que la estructura geometrica de la anatomia de la cadera juega un importante papel en la etiologia de la fractura. Objetivo: Sistematizar los conocimientos mas actuales referentes a las caracteristicas anatomicas de los parametros radiograficos de la articulacion de la cadera y su relacion con la fractura. Metodos: Se realizo una investigacion documental, con los articulos cientificos publicados en las bases de datos medicas informaticas como PubMed, Ebsco and ScieLo, en los ultimos 5 anos. Resultados: La mayoria de las publicaciones analizan el angulo cervicodiafisario y el eje de la cadera, Otras medidas analizadas son el eje femoral, la longitud y el ancho del cuello femoral, asi como medidas acetabulares. No existe un consenso en la medida del largo del cuello femoral o del eje femoral, a pesar de ser un componente importante de la estructura. El conocimiento de las particularidades de la anatomia y de las caracteristicas biomecanicas de la cadera permite establecer una base para la comprension de los factores que afectan esta articulacion. Conclusiones: Los estudios que se han realizado sobre las caracteristicas de los componentes estructurales, demuestran que existe una asociacion entre sus dimensiones y la ocurrencia de fractura de cadera, en algunos casos independientes a la densidad mineral osea.
Optimization and validation of a chromatographic methodology for the quantification of PAHs in drinking water samples

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are one of the most important persistent organic toxic micropollutants present in water. These compounds are essentially known for their carcinogenic, mutagenic and genotoxic properties, especially the PAHs containing four or more aromatic rings. The determination of these compounds in water is a challenging situation, making it necessary to develop specific methods with very low detection limits. This work describes the optimization and validation of a methodology for the determination of the five PAHs proposed in the Portuguese legislation, using a solid phase extraction technique followed by a reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection: benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[ghi]perylene, indene[1,2,3-cd]pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene. The performance of the methodology was tested in terms of linearity, limits of detection and quantification, trueness, repeatability and intermediate precision, following the recommendations of the international standard ISO/IEC 17025. The method showed good linearity for the tested concentration range, with limits of detection less than 0.29 ng/L for all the PAHs. Analytical recoveries, repeatability and intermediate precision were calculated in ultra-pure, bottled and tap water, with recoveries values ranging from 80 to 110%, repeatability and precision RSD values less than 15%. The methodology was applied to real water samples, fifty water springs from Sintra municipality. In the samples analyzed, PAHs were detected under the limits proposed by the legislation.
Self‐stated recovery from flooding: Empirical results from a survey in Central Vietnam

Social inequalities lead to flood resilience inequalities across social groups, a topic that requires improved documentation and understanding. The objective of this paper is to attend to these differences by investigating self‐stated flood recovery across genders in Vietnam as a conceptual replication of earlier results from Germany. This study employs a regression‐based analysis of 1,010 respondents divided between a rural coastal and an urban community in Thua Thien‐Hue province. The results highlight an important set of recovery process‐related variables. The set of relevant variables is similar across genders in terms of inclusion and influence, and includes age, social capital, internal and external support after a flood, perceived severity of previous flood impacts, and the perception of stress‐resilience. However, women were affected more heavily by flooding in terms of longer recovery times, which should be accounted for in risk management. Overall, the studied variables perform similarly in Vietnam and Germany. This study, therefore, conceptually replicates previous results suggesting that women display slightly slower recovery levels as well as that psychological variables influence recovery rates more than adverse flood impacts. This provides an indication of the results' potentially robust nature due to the different socio‐environmental contexts in Germany and Vietnam.
Cure of Limb-Threatening XDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection: Combining Genome Sequencing, Therapeutic Drug Level Monitoring, and Surgical Debridement

Abstract We describe a case of limb-threatening osteomyelitis and metalware infection with carbapenemase-producing extensively drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa successfully cured with aggressive surgical debridement and combined intravenous fosfomycin and colistin. Real-time therapeutic drug monitoring was used to maximize probability of efficacy and minimize potential for toxicity.