Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of organically modified nanoclay on the miscibility, rheology, morphology and properties of epoxy/carboxyl-terminated (butadiene-co-acrylonitrile) blend

Carboxyl-terminated (butadiene-co-acrylonitrile) (CTBN) modified epoxy/clay nanocomposites (epoxy/clay/CTBN ternary nanocomposites) were synthesized using nadic methyl anhydride as curing agent. Effect of nanoclay on the phase behavior (UCST) of epoxy oligomer/CTBN blend has been studied in detail. The phase diagram was shifted to a higher temperature with increase in clay loading due to the easy penetration of low molecular weight CTBN into the clay galleries. The XRD studies confirmed the penetration of CTBN into the clay galleries, as the ‘d’ spacing increased with increase in CTBN content in the epoxy/clay/CTBN ternary nanocomposite. The interaction of organically modified clay with epoxy and CTBN were studied using frequency sweep rheological analysis. The individual and combined effect of nanoclay and CTBN on the cure reaction was followed by isothermal rheological analysis. It was found that complex viscosity profiles during cure reaction follow an exponential growth. The characteristic relaxation time of viscosity growth was described by the WLF equation. Moreover the dynamics of phase separation during cure was followed using optical microscopy. The scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images revealed that the domain size of phase separated CTBN in epoxy/clay/CTBN ternary nanocomposite was smaller than in epoxy/CTBN binary blend. The kinetic factor in epoxy-anhydride cure reaction and the presence of clay at epoxy–CTBN interface was used to explain this size reduction. The high resolution transmission electron microscopic (HRTEM) image of epoxy/3 phr clay nanocomposite showed that the clay platelets were mostly intercalated. Epoxy/3 phr clay/15 phr CTBN nanocomposite has an intercalated with occasional exfoliated microstructure with slightly distorted clay orientation. Low magnification TEM images showed that most of the clay platelets located near the phase separated CTBN and the presence of clay at the epoxy–CTBN interface. The viscoelastic properties of epoxy/clay/CTBN nanocomposite was studied and compared with that of epoxy/clay nanocomposite and epoxy/CTBN blend. A quantitative measurement of constrained region (macromolecular chains immobilized by the clay platelets) was carried out for epoxy/clay and epoxy/clay/CTBN nanocomposites. Finally thermal degradation studies were performed to evaluate the thermal stability of the ternary nanocomposites.
Reply to Comments from Gunnar Jeschke

Gadolinium complexes are attracting increasing attention as spin labels for EPR dipolar distance measurements in biomolecules and particularly for in-cell measurements. It has been shown that flip-flop transitions within the central transition 15 of the high spin Gd3+ ion can introduce artefacts in dipolar distance measurements, particularly when measuring distances less than 3 nm. Previous work has shown some reduction of these artefacts through increasing the frequency separation between the two frequencies required for the Double Electron-Electron Resonance (DEER) experiment. Here we use a high power (1 kW), wideband, non-resonant, system operating at 94 GHz to evaluate DEER measurement protocols using two rigid Gd(III)rulers, consisting of two bis-Gd3+-PyMTA complexes, with separations of 2.1 nm and 6.0 nm, respectively. We show that by 20 avoiding the ! − ! "# → ! "# central transition completely, and placing both the pump and the observer pulses on either side of the central transition, we can now observe apparently artefact-free spectra and narrow distance distributions, even for a Gd-Gd distance of 2.1 nm. Importantly we still maintain excellent signal-to-noise ratio and relatively high modulation depths. These results have implications for in-cell EPR measurements at naturally occurring biomolecule concentrations. 25
Anticipating deceptive movements in rugby union: The role of reinvestment

Received: 13.05. 2019 Accepted: 11.09. 2019 Online: 26.11. 2019 The ability to quickly and accurately anticipate deceptive and non-deceptive movements is crucial in many sports. In the current investigation, novice (N=10), intermediate (N=10) and professional (N=10) rugby players anticipated the final running direction of an opponent changing direction (with or without deception). The study aimed to better understand (1) the effect skill level has on anticipation of deceptive and non-deceptive movements and (2) whether the propensity for reinvestment plays a role in anticipatory performance. Reinvestment is an individual predisposition to consciously monitor and control decisions (measured using the Decision Specific Reinvestment Scale) or movements (measured using the Movement Specific Reinvestment Scale). Much research has shown that the tendency to reinvest detrimentally affects performance under pressure. Our results showed that expert players took significantly longer to respond than novices but were significantly more accurate than novices when anticipating deceptive and non-deceptive changes of direction. Furthermore, Conscious Motor Processing (a subscale of the Movement Specific Reinvestment Scale) scores were associated with poorer response accuracy for deceptive changes of direction.
A review of Rhinolophus mehelyi in Iran with new distributional records

We review earlier distributional records of Mehely's horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus mehelyi, in Iran and report new distribution records obtain during 2014–2017. Until 2012, R. mehelyi had been recorded from 14 localities. We report ten new locality records and therefore increasing the known range to Zagros Mts. We also report echolocation-call parameters for 42 individuals caught in six caves which represent the first information from Iran.
A product design process model that can redefine business strategies

Manzini pointed out that “traditionally, ideas follow organizations; in the future, organizations follow ideas. ” In a highly competing business environment, a company’s innovation capability defines its sustainability and good new product ideas are a key ingredient to company success. Industrial design deals mainly with new product development, in which innovation ideas are central. Designers view themselves as idea creators. But, why should future organizations follow the ideas proposed by designers? If designers’ ideas are to be followed by organizations, then a different design process thinking that can redefine company goals or suggest different business strategies is necessary. As a response, a business centered design process model is proposed, which consists of five steps: (1) Identifying new product ideas with attractive design potential from a user’s viewpoint, (2) Selecting appropriate company goals as design goals from a business perspective, (3) Defining new product concepts to reach the desired goals from a customer’s standpoint, (4) Specifying key design elements for less development efforts from a producer’s prospect, and (5) Translating design elements into physical entities or products. For verification, a product design workshop class taught by the author was employed. From students’ works, it can be asserted that the new procedure can be feasible and effective in developing new products that can meet market satisfaction and redefine business approaches. For illustration, a redesign work done by a student is demonstrated as an example. For further verification, theoretical analyses are conducted, resulting in supportive conclusions.
Tamarind xyloglucan: a polysaccharide with versatile application potential

A huge amount of new information on xyloglucan (obtained from tamarind kernel) is available in the literature. A lot of research on applications of this polysaccharide has been performed in the last ten years. The research on xyloglucan extracted from tamarind kernel is compiled and presented in a comprehensive way in this article. The purpose of this review is to give an overview of the structure and properties of tamarind xyloglucan and to discuss some recent advances and future prospects of this polysaccharide in various application areas like drug-delivery technology, food technology and textile industry, etc. The article is intended to serve as a useful tool for beginners as well as for researchers actively involved in the fascinating area of green polymeric materials. It is likely to benefit large numbers of end users of this polysaccharide also.
Effects of Natamycin and Temperature on the Microbial Population of Doogh during the Shelf Life

Article type: Research Paper Introduction: Due to the development of dairy industries, the consumption of Doogh has risen in Iran as a functional fermented beverage. Use of preservatives to reduce microbial contamination in Doogh could increase the risk of chronic diseases in the long run. The present study aimed to extensively investigate the effects of natamycin as a preservative on the microbial population of Iranian Doogh at various storage temperatures. Methods: Microbial analyses were performed to determine the total count of microorganisms, population of fungi (molds and yeasts), coliforms, Escherichia coli, coagulase-positive staphylococci, and lactic acid bacteria in Doogh samples. Results: The microbial population in the Doogh samples (with and without natamycin treatment) stored at 4°C was compared to the samples stored at 25°C and 35°C during the shelf life period. At the temperature of 25°C, natamycin could significantly control the growth of a wide range of microorganisms (P<0.05), while at 35°C, in the presence of natamycin, the microbial contaminants in the majority of cases were significantly increased (P<0.05). Conclusion: According to the findings, it can be concluded that paying attention to the microbial quality of raw milk, heat treatment, and cooling systems during transportation, environmental hygienic conditions and storage of the final products at refrigerated temperatures in order to effectively diminish the microbial population of Doogh and preventing spoilage is necessary. Article History: Received: 15 Aug 2019 Accepted: 25 Nov 2019 Published: 30 Nov 2019
Modeling the Flight Dynamics and Battery Utilization of a Hybrid Flapping-Gliding UAV

This paper presents a hybrid flapping-glidingdynamicmodel for a flapping-wingunmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The model combines the nonlinear phugoid dynamics of gliding flight, the equations of motion of the onboard servo motors, and an equivalent circuit discharge model for the onboard battery. The resulting state-space representation relates the aerodynamic flight performance to onboard energy utilization: the battery life is expended when the UAV flaps and is preserved when the UAV glides. Flapping flight is described by the phugoid model augmented to include thrust. An equivalent circuit model describes the onboard lithium-polymer battery discharge behavior and resulting input into the platform’s servo motor actuators. The model is illustrated via numerical simulations using parameter values based on the RoboRaven experimental testbed. Performance of intermittent gliding-flapping behavior is evaluated in terms of battery longevity and overall distance travelled.
Searches for exotic physics at CMS

One of the main goals of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector [1] at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is to discover evidences of physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM). The program of BSM searches at CMS covers an extensive set of final states and models, fully exploiting the capabilities of the detector. A precise understanding of the detector performances is crucial in order to perform reliable and efficient measurements of this type. This document presents a selection of current results of searches for BSM physics carried out at CMS. The results were chosen because of the relevance of the physics models to which they are sensitive, their novelty in terms of physics models explored and experimental techniques adopted and the demonstration of the extremly high-level of control of the detector performances achieved at CMS. The highlighted results exploit the 19.6 fb−1 of luminosity collected in 2012 at the centre-of-mass energy of the pp collisions equal to 8 TeV.
Aerobic Reduction of Hexavalent Chromium in Soil by Indigenous Microorganisms

Surface soil containing 25,100 mg/kg total Cr [12,400 mg/kg Cr(VI)] obtained from a Superfund site was used in laboratory microcosm studies to evaluate the potential for aerobic reduction of Cr(VI) by the indigenous soil microbial community. Hexavalent chromium in soil was reduced by as much as 33% (from 1840 to 1240 mg/L) within 21 days under enrichment conditions. Reduction of Cr(VI) in this system was biologically mediated and depended on the availability of usable energy sources. Mass balance studies suggested that the microbial populations removed Cr(VI) from the soil solutions by reduction. Indigenous microbial soil communities even with no history of Cr(VI) contamination were capable of mediating this process. However, Cr(VI) removal was not observed when microbial populations from a sewage sludge sample were added to the soil microcosms. The results suggest that Cr(VI)-reducing microbial populations are widespread in soil, and thus the potential exists for in situ remediation of environmentally si.
Loops abound in the cosmic microwave background: A $4\sigma$ anomaly on super-horizon scales

We present a topological analysis of the temperature fluctuation maps from the Planck 2020 Data release 4 (DR4) based on the NPIPE data processing pipeline. For comparison, we also present the topological characteristics of the maps from Planck 2018 Data release 3 (DR3). We perform our analysis in terms of the homology characteristics of the maps, invoking relative homology to account for analysis in the presence of masks. We perform our analysis for a range of smoothing scales spanning suband super-horizon scales corresponding to FWHM = 5′, 10′, 20′, 40′, 80′, 160′, 320′, 640′. Our main result indicates a significantly anomalous behavior of the loops in the observed maps compared to simulations that are modeled as isotopic and homogeneous Gaussian random fields. Specifically, we observe a 4σ deviation between the observation and simulations in the number of loops at FWHM = 320′ and FWHM = 640′, corresponding to super-horizon scales of 5 degrees and larger. In addition, we also notice a mildly significant deviation at 2σ for all the topological descriptors for almost all the scales analyzed. Our results show a consistency across different data releases, and therefore, the anomalous behavior deserves a careful consideration regarding its origin and ramifications. Disregarding the unlikely source of the anomaly being instrumental systematics, the origin of the anomaly may be genuinely astrophysical – perhaps due to a yet unresolved foreground, or truly primordial in nature. Given the nature of the topological descriptors, that potentially encodes information of all orders, non-Gaussianities, of either primordial or latetype nature, may be potential candidates. Alternate possibilities include the Universe admitting a non-trivial global topology, including effects induced by large-scale topological defects.
Preprocessing operations and the reverse compression

The task of compression of data – as stated by the source coding theorem – is one of the cornerstones of information theory. Data compression usually exploits statistical redundancies in the data according to its prior distribution. Motivated by situations where one does not have access to the statistics of data, but has some information about a transformation that is going to be applied to it, we propose a novel method for data compression called reverse compression. It is defined in such a way that works for both classical and quantum information processes, and furthermore relies exclusively on the channel to be used: all input data leading to indistinguishable outputs is compressed to the same state, regardless of their prior distribution. Moreover, this process can be characterized as a higher order operation within the type of preprocessing. We also consider as an example the application of the method to the classical and quantum erasure channel. The examples suggest that noiseless reverse compression can take place only in trivial cases, although meaningful instances of noisy reverse compression can exist.
Spatially Resolved Stellar Spectroscopy of the Ultra-diffuse Galaxy Dragonfly 44. III. Evidence for an Unexpected Star Formation History under Conventional Galaxy Evolution Processes

We use the Keck Cosmic Web Imager integral field unit spectrograph to (1) measure the global stellar population parameters for the ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG) Dragonfly 44 (DF44) to much higher precision than previously possible for any UDG and (2) for the first time measure spatially resolved stellar population parameters of a UDG. We find that DF44 falls below the mass–metallicity relation established by canonical dwarf galaxies both in and beyond the Local Group. We measure a flat radial age gradient ( mlogage=+0.01−0.08+0.08 log Gyr kpc−1) and a flat to positive metallicity gradient ( m[Fe/H]=+0.09−0.12+0.11 dex kpc−1), which are inconsistent with the gradients measured in similarly pressure-supported dwarf galaxies. We also measure a negative [Mg/Fe] gradient ( m[Mg/Fe]=−0.20−0.18+0.18 ) dex kpc−1 such that the central 1.5 kpc of DF44 has stellar population parameters comparable to metal-poor globular clusters. Overall, DF44 does not have internal properties similar to other dwarf galaxies and is inconsistent with it having been puffed up through a prolonged, bursty star formation history, as suggested by some simulations. Rather, the evidence indicates that DF44 experienced an intense epoch of “inside-out” star formation and then quenched early and catastrophically, such that star formation was cut off more quickly than in canonical dwarf galaxies.
Enumerating Labeled Graphs that Realize a Fixed Degree Sequence

A finite non-increasing sequence of positive integers 3 = (31 > · · · > 3=) is called a degree sequence if there is a graph = (+, ) with + = {E1, . , E=} and deg(E8) = 38 for 8 = 1, . , =. In that case we say that the graph realizes the degree sequence 3. We show that the exact number of labeled graphs that realize a fixed degree sequence satisfies a simple recurrence relation. Using this relation, we then obtain a recursive algorithm for the exact count. We also show that in the case of regular graphs the complexity of our algorithm is better than the complexity of the same enumeration that uses generating functions.
Using Mars co-orbitals to estimate the importance of rotation-induced YORP break-up events in Earth co-orbital space

Both Earth and Mars host populations of co-orbital minor bodies. A large number of presentday Mars co-orbitals is probably associated with the fission of the parent body of Mars Trojan 5261 Eureka (1990 MB) during a rotation-induced Yarkovsky–O’Keefe–Radzievskii– Paddack (YORP) break-up event. Here, we use the statistical distributions of the Tisserand parameter and the relative mean longitude of Mars co-orbitals with eccentricity below 0.2 to estimate the importance of rotation-induced YORP break-up events in Martian co-orbital space. Machine-learning techniques (k-means++ and agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithms) are applied to assess our findings. Our statistical analysis identified three new Mars Trojans: 2009 SE, 2018 EC4 and 2018 FC4. Two of them, 2018 EC4 and 2018 FC4, are probably linked to Eureka but we argue that 2009 SE may have been captured, so it is not related to Eureka. We also suggest that 2020 VT1, a recent discovery, is a transient Martian co-orbital of the horseshoe type. When applied to Earth co-orbital candidates with eccentricity below 0.2, our approach led us to identify some clustering, perhaps linked to fission events. The cluster with most members could be associated with Earth quasi-satellite 469219 Kamo‘oalewa (2016 HO3) that is a fast rotator. Our statistical analysis identified two new Earth co-orbitals: 2020 PN1, which follows a horseshoe path, and 2020 PP1, a quasi-satellite that is dynamically similar to Kamo‘oalewa. For both Mars and Earth co-orbitals, we found pairs of objects whose values of the Tisserand parameter differ by very small amounts, perhaps hinting at recent disruption events. Clustering algorithms and numerical simulations both suggest that 2020 KZ2 and Kamo‘oalewa could be related.
Thermodynamic formalism for generalized countable Markov shifts

Countable Markov shifts, denoted by $\Sigma_A$ for a 0-1 infinite matrix $A$, are central objects in symbolic dynamics and ergodic theory. R. Exel and M. Laca introduced the corresponding operator algebras, a generalization of the Cuntz-Krieger algebras for infinite countable alphabet, and the set $X_A$, a kind of Generalized Markov Shift (GMS) that coincides with $\Sigma_A$ in the locally compact case. The set $\Sigma_A$ is dense in $X_A$, and its complement, a set of finite allowed words, is dense in $X_A$ when non-empty. We develop the thermodynamic formalism for $X_A$, introducing the notion of conformal measure in it, and exploring its connections with the usual formalism for $\Sigma_A$. New phenomena appear, as different types of phase transitions and new conformal measures undetected by the classical thermodynamic formalism for $A$ not row-finite. Given a potential $F$ and inverse of temperature $\beta$, we study the existence of conformal measures $\mu_{\beta}$ associated to $\beta F$. We present examples where there exists a critical $\beta_c$ s. t. we have existence of conformal probabilities satisfying $\mu_{\beta}(\Sigma_A)=0$ for every $\beta > \beta_c$ and, on the weak$^*$ topology, the set of conformal probabilities for $\beta >\beta_c$ collapses to the standard conformal probability $\mu_{\beta_c}$, $\mu_{\beta_c}(\Sigma_A)=1$, for the limit $\beta\to\beta_c$. We study in detail the generalized renewal shift and modifications of it. We highlight the bijection between infinite emitters of the alphabet and extremal conformal probabilities for this class of renewal type shifts. We prove the existence and uniqueness of the eigenmeasure probability of the Ruelle's transformation at low enough temperature for a particular potential on the generalized renewal shift; such measures are not detected on the standard renewal shift since for low temperatures, $\beta F$ is transient.
Off-Policy Evaluation of Slate Policies under Bayes Risk

We study the problem of off-policy evaluation for slate bandits, for the typical case in which the logging policy factorizes over the slots of the slate. We slightly depart from the existing literature by taking Bayes risk as the criterion by which to evaluate estimators, and we analyze the family of 'additive' estimators that includes the pseudoinverse (PI) estimator of Swaminathan et al.\ (2017; arXiv:1605.04812). Using a control variate approach, we identify a new estimator in this family that is guaranteed to have lower risk than PI in the above class of problems. In particular, we show that the risk improvement over PI grows linearly with the number of slots, and linearly with the gap between the arithmetic and the harmonic mean of a set of slot-level divergences between the logging and the target policy. In the typical case of a uniform logging policy and a deterministic target policy, each divergence corresponds to slot size, showing that maximal gains can be obtained for slate problems with diverse numbers of actions per slot.