Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geometrical properties of three‐dimensional reconnecting magnetic fields with nulls

This paper is concerned with the geometrical aspects of the reconnection of magnetic field lines. Reconnection is associated with discontinuities in the overall field line organization of the configuration in which it occurs. The nature of these discontinuities is that field lines that are immediately adjacent in one region can be widely separated elsewhere. Then infinitesimal field line motion can have a finite consequence. This is an essential aspect of the reconnection phenomenon and distinguishes it from diffusion. Such discontinuous behavior implies the existence of special magnetic structures, which is the subject discussed here. One such structure that is often studied theoretically is a field line that is a closed loop. A common variation is a two-dimensional configuration in which certain lines are effectively closed by means of an implied periodicity or symmetry in the third direction. These will be called closed lines in this paper. Here, however, attention is focused on another special structure: isolated points where the magnetic field strength strictly vanishes. These points will be called magnetic nulls. Between magnetic nulls and closed field lines, the former are much more likely to be encountered in the uncontrolled extraterrestrial environment. Thus magnetic nulls are probably a crucial element of most reconnection events in the magnetosphere.
Anti-Melanogenic Potential of Natural and Synthetic Substances: Application in Zebrafish Model

Melanogenesis is a biosynthetic pathway for the formation of the pigment melanin in human skin. A key enzyme in the process of pigmentation through melanin is tyrosinase, which catalyzes the first and only limiting step in melanogenesis. Since the discovery of its methanogenic properties, tyrosinase has been the focus of research related to the anti-melanogenesis. In addition to developing more effective and commercially safe inhibitors, more studies are required to better understand the mechanisms involved in the skin depigmentation process. However, in vivo assays are necessary to develop and validate new drugs or molecules for this purpose, and to accomplish this, zebrafish has been identified as a model organism for in vivo application. In addition, such model would allow tracking and studying the depigmenting activity of many bioactive compounds, important to genetics, medicinal chemistry and even the cosmetic industry. Studies have shown the similarity between human and zebrafish genomes, encouraging their use as a model to understand the mechanism of action of a tested compound. Interestingly, zebrafish skin shares many similarities with human skin, suggesting that this model organism is suitable for studying melanogenesis inhibitors. Accordingly, several bioactive compounds reported herein for this model are compared in terms of their molecular structure and possible mode of action in zebrafish embryos. In particular, this article described the main metabolites of Trichoderma fungi, in addition to substances from natural and synthetic sources.
Trading Blame: Drawing Boundaries around the Righteous, Deserving and Vulnerable in Times of Crisis

Symbolic boundaries shape how we see and understand both ourselves and those around us. Amid periods of crisis, these boundaries can appear more salient, sharpening distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘them’ and reinforcing inequalities in the social landscape. Based on 50 in-depth interviews about pandemic experiences among Canadians with disabilities and chronic health conditions, we examine how this community distinguishes between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’, and how emotions related to blame and resentment inform the boundaries they draw. We find that people with disabilities and chronic health conditions drew boundaries based on unequal health statuses and vulnerabilities and between those who are and are not legitimately entitled to government aid. Underlying these dimensions are a familiar set of moral tropes that respondents use to assert their own superiority and to inveigh their frustrations. Together, they play an important role in solidifying boundaries between groups, complicating public perceptions of policy responses to crisis.
Efficient and accurate time adaptive multigrid simulations of droplet spreading

An efficient full approximation storage (FAS) Multigrid algorithm is used to solve a range of droplet spreading flows modelled as a coupled set of non‐linear lubrication equations. The algorithm is fully implicit and has embedded within it an adaptive time‐stepping scheme that enables the same to be optimized in a controlled manner subject to a specific error tolerance. The method is first validated against a range of analytical and existing numerical predictions commensurate with droplet spreading and then used to simulate a series of new, three‐dimensional flows consisting of droplet motion on substrates containing topographic and wetting heterogeneities. The latter are of particular interest and reveal how droplets can be made to spread preferentially on substrates owing to an interplay between different topographic and surface wetting characteristics. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
High‐gain miniaturized magnetoelectric dipole antenna array for millimeter‐wave applications

In this paper, a miniaturized high gain magnetoelectric dipole (MED) antenna array is proposed, which is composed of a one‐to‐two‐way substrate‐integrated waveguide E‐plane T‐type waveguide power divider as the feeding network. The MED antenna consists of a pair of mirror‐symmetrical E‐patches and a pair of vertical metallized vias. The size of the antenna array is 1. 2λ0× 1. 6λ0× 0. 17λ0. A bandwidth of 29.3% (25.6–34.4 GHz) for S11 < −10 dB can be achieved and has unidirectional radiation performance in the operating frequency band. The peak gain of the antenna reaches 11 dBi, and the average gain can reach more than 10 dBi.
Self-Reported Asthma Is Associated with Reduced Sperm Count—A Cross-Sectional Study of More than 6000 Young Men from the General Population

Asthma is driven by an inflammatory response that may impact testicular function. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the association between self-reported asthma and testicular function (semen parameters, reproductive hormone levels), and determined whether potential further inflammation due to self-reported allergy modified this association. A total of 6177 men from the general population completed a questionnaire including information on doctor-diagnosed asthma or allergy, had a physical examination, delivered a semen sample, and had a blood sample drawn. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed. A total of 656 (10.6%) men reported having ever been diagnosed with asthma. Generally, self-reported asthma was consistently associated with a poorer testicular function; however, few estimates were statistically significant. Specifically, self-reported asthma was associated with statistically significant lower total sperm count [median: 133 vs. 145 million; adjusted β (95% CI): −0.18 (−0.33 to −0.04) million on cubic-root-transformed scale] and borderline statistically significant lower sperm concentration compared with no self-reported asthma. The association between asthma and total sperm count was of similar magnitude among men with and without allergy. In conclusion, men with self-reported asthma had poorer testicular function than men without asthma. However, the cross-sectional design of the study limits ascertainment of causality.
Scan Blindness of Tapered-Slot Array Optimized with Tapered-Aerosubstrate in the Triangular Elements Grids

Tapered-aerosubstrate is applied to optimize the scan blindness of tapered-slot antenna array where elements are positioned in a triangular grid. The blindness occurs when the steering phase progression in the E-plane is equal to the phase progression of a leaky mode in the structure and could be optimized by the tapered-aerosubstrate which elevates the resonance positions of dominant radiator modes. Character analysis of tapered-aerosubstrate is shown to be agreed well with the compute and experiment results, and scan blindness is moved 12.5% toward the upper frequency.
Synthesis and Characterization of Core-Shell Nanowires

We report the synthesis and characterization of core-shell nanowires by thermal conversion of the Fe nanowires frompulse electrodeposition in anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) nanotemplates under various conditions. Well-deﬁned core-shell nanostruc-ture of the nanowires was conﬁrmed by TEM and corresponding elemental line scanning and point scanning. The type ofthe iron oxide in the shell was identiﬁed using nano-Raman spectroscopy, which exposes magnetite to be the major constituent. Themagnetic measurements demonstrate that the nanowires are robustly soft magnetic, with the magnetization tunable by heat treatmentparameters and a weak magnetic easy direction parallel to the nanowire axis.
Sensitivity analysis for the anomalous W + W − γ couplings at the LHeC and the FCC-he

We study the anomalous W + W − γ couplings in performing the production of the W-pair through the process e − p → e − γ ∗ γ ∗ p → e − W + W − p at the Large Hadron electron Collider (LHeC) and the Future Circular Collider-hadron electron (FCC-he). We examine the pure hadronic, the semi-leptonic and the pure leptonic decay channels of the produced W-pair. We assume the center-of-mass energies of √ s = 1 . 30 and 1 . 98 TeV and the integrated luminosities of 10–100 fb − 1 for the LHeC and the center-of-mass energies of √ s = 3 . 46 and 5 . 29 TeV and the integrated luminosities of 100–2000 fb − 1 for the FCC-he. The best limits at 95% conﬁdence level obtained for the anomalous couplings (cid:3)κ γ and λ γ are (cid:3)κ γ = [− 0 . 00208 ; 0 . 00206 ] and λ γ = [− 0 . 00174 ; 0 . 00834 ] . By comparing these limits with the experimental limits, we present the potentials of the process and future ep colliders.
Rapid Morphological Measurement Method of Aortic Dissection Stent Based on Spatial Observation Point Set

Objectives: Post-operative stent morphology of aortic dissection patients is important for performing clinical diagnosis and prognostic assessment. However, stent morphologies still need to be manually measured, which is a process prone to errors, high time consumption and difficulty in exploiting inter-data associations. Herein, we propose a method based on the stepwise combination of basic, non-divisible data sets to quickly obtain morphological parameters with high accuracy. Methods: We performed the 3D reconstruction of 109 post-operative follow-up CT image data from 26 patients using mimics software. By extracting the spatial locations of the basic morphological observation points on the stent, we defined a basic and non-reducible set of observation points. Further, we implemented a fully automatic stent segmentation and an observation point extraction algorithm. We analyzed the stability and accuracy of the algorithms on a test set containing 8 cases and 408 points. Based on this dataset, we calculated three morphological parameters of different complexity for the different spatial structural features exhibited by the stent. Finally, we compared the two measurement schemes in four aspects: data variability, data stability, statistical process complexity and algorithmic error. Results: The statistical results of the two methods on two low-complexity morphological parameters (spatial position of stent end and vascular stent end-slip volume) show good agreement (n = 26, P1, P2 < 0.001, r1 = 0.992, r2 = 0.988). The statistics of the proposed method for the morphological parameters of medium complexity (proximal support ring feature diameter and distal support ring feature diameter) avoid the errors caused by manual extraction, and the magnitude of this correction to the traditional method does not exceed 4 mm with an average correction of 1.38 mm. Meanwhile, our proposed automatic observation point extraction method has only 2.2% error rate on the test set, and the average spatial distance from the manually marked observation points is 0.73 mm. Thus, the proposed method is able to rapidly and accurately measure the stent circumferential deflection angle, which is highly complex and cannot be measured using traditional methods. Conclusions: The proposed method can significantly reduce the statistical observation time and information processing cost compared to the traditional morphological observation methods. Moreover, when new morphological parameters are required, one can quickly and accurately obtain the target parameters by new “combinatorial functions. ” Iterative modification of the data set itself is avoided.
Stationary LQG control of singular systems

The stationary linear-quadratic-Gaussian control problem is formulated and solved for single-input single-output singular systems. The control system is required to be internally proper and stable in order to avoid both impulsive and unstable exponential behavior. The set of all controllers resulting in such a control system is specified in parametric form. All controllers that yield finite cost are identified, once again in parametric form, within this set. Necessary and sufficient conditions are then established for an optimal controller to exist. All optimal controllers are shown to possess the same transfer function. The problem is analyzed in the complex domain. The transfer functions are expressed as quotients of proper, strict-Hurwitz rational functions. By means of this maneuver, the powerful tools of algebra are made available. The synthesis of the optimal controller is reduced to the solution of two linear Diophantine equations whose coefficients are obtained by spectral factorization.
On the relation between asymmetries in the ring current and magnetopause current

Motion of charged particles in the Earth's magnetosphere sets up a system of currents. Current continuity requires that these currents are closed, either locally or via other current systems. In this paper, we have investigated whether magnetopause surface currents can contribute to ring current closure. Using measurements from the Cluster constellation of spacecraft, we calculated thickness and current density of the magnetopause current layer for a large number of flank magnetopause traversals. For each event, we consulted sectorial ring current indices, derived from SuperMAG—a large constellation of ground‐based magnetometer stations. SuperMAG results show a significant and persistent dawn‐dusk asymmetry in ground magnetic perturbations which indicates a more intense ring current on the duskside. The asymmetries become more pronounced during disturbed magnetospheric conditions, indicating an increased divergence of the current and closure through other current systems. A similar response to geomagnetic activity is also observed at the magnetopause. Duskside magnetopause current densities are generally higher than their dawnside counterparts, and also, the magnetopause asymmetry becomes more pronounced during disturbed conditions. Although the two current systems are related to different processes—gradient drift of energetic plasma sheet particles for the ring current and a surface current due to differential motion of ions and electrons inside the magnetopause interface for the magnetopause current—the results demonstrate a mutual relation between the two current systems.
Computationally Efficient Spatial Forecast Verification Using Baddeley’s Delta Image Metric

Abstract An important focus of research in the forecast verification community is the development of alternative verification approaches for quantitative precipitation forecasts, as well as for other spatial forecasts. The need for information that is meaningful in an operational context and the importance of capturing the specific sources of forecast error at varying spatial scales are two primary motivating factors. In this paper, features of precipitation as identified by a convolution threshold technique are merged within fields and matched across fields in an automatic and computationally efficient manner using Baddeley’s metric for binary images. The method is carried out on 100 test cases, and 4 representative cases are shown in detail. Results of merging and matching objects are generally positive in that they are consistent with how a subjective observer might merge and match features. The results further suggest that the Baddeley metric may be useful as a computationally efficient summary metric.
Strongly Unforgeable Certificateless Signature Scheme in the Standard Model

Certificateless signature scheme eliminates the need of certificates in the traditional signature scheme and solves the inherent key escrow problem in the identity based signature scheme. In this paper, we propose a new construction of certificateless signature which is strongly unforgeable in the standard model with the computational Diffie-Hellman assumption in bilinear groups. As far as we know, this is the first certificateless signature scheme, which possesses the property of strong unforgeability in the standard model.
Electromagnetic wave transmission through subwavelength metallic meshes sandwiched between split rings

We report the extraordinary enhanced transmission of microwaves through a subwavelength metallic mesh sandwiched between two identical split-ring arrays. Such split-rings/metallic mesh/split-rings structure demonstrates some unique electromagnetic (EM) characteristics. It is found that the transmittances of EM wave are significantly enhanced at some frequencies near the stop bands of the split rings. The theoretical simulation indicates that two different physical mechanisms dominate those transmissions: negative refractive index effect and electromagnetic wave tunneling when EM wave penetrates through negative permittivity media sandwiched between two high permittivity slabs.
Probiotic Bacillus Strains Enhance T Cell Responses in Chicken

Banning antibiotic growth promotors and other antimicrobials in poultry production due to the increasing antimicrobial resistance leads to increased feeding of potential alternatives such as probiotics. However, the modes of action of those feed additives are not entirely understood. They could act even with a direct effect on the immune system. A previously established animal-related in vitro system using primary cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was applied to investigate the effects of immune-modulating feed additives. Here, the immunomodulation of different preparations of two probiotic Bacillus strains, B. subtilis DSM 32315 (BS), and B. amyloliquefaciens CECT 5940 (BA) was evaluated. The count of T-helper cells and activated T-helper cells increased after treatment in a ratio of 1:3 (PBMCs: Bacillus) with vital BS (CD4+: p < 0.05; CD4+CD25+: p < 0.01). Furthermore, vital BS enhanced the proliferation and activation of cytotoxic T cells (CD8+: p < 0.05; CD8+CD25+: p < 0.05). Cell-free probiotic culture supernatants of BS increased the count of activated T-helper cells (CD4+CD25+: p < 0.1). UV-inactivated BS increased the proportion of cytotoxic T cells significantly (CD8+: p < 0.01). Our results point towards a possible involvement of secreted factors of BS in T-helper cell activation and proliferation, whereas it stimulates cytotoxic T cells presumably through surface contact. We could not observe any effect on B cells after treatment with different preparations of BS. After treatment with vital BA in a ratio of 1:3 (PBMCs:Bacillus), the count of T-helper cells and activated T-helper cells increased (CD4+: p < 0.01; CD4+CD25+: p < 0.05). Cell-free probiotic culture supernatants of BA as well as UV-inactivated BA had no effect on T cell proliferation and activation. Furthermore, we found no effect of BA preparations on B cells. Overall, we demonstrate that the two different Bacillus strains enhanced T cell activation and proliferation, which points towards an immune-modulating effect of both strains on chicken immune cells in vitro. Therefore, we suggest that administering these probiotics can improve the cellular adaptive immune defense in chickens, thereby enabling the prevention and reduction of antimicrobials in chicken farming.
Electrostatic Surface Potential as a Key Parameter in Virus Transmission and Evolution: How to Manage Future Virus Pandemics in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Virus-cell interactions involve fundamental parameters that need to be considered in strategies implemented to control viral outbreaks. Among these, the surface electrostatic potential can give valuable information to deal with new epidemics. In this article, we describe the role of this key parameter in the hemagglutination of red blood cells and in the co-evolution of synaptic receptors and neurotransmitters. We then establish the functional link between lipid rafts and the electrostatic potential of viruses, with special emphasis on gangliosides, which are sialic-acid-containing, electronegatively charged plasma membrane components. We describe the common features of ganglioside binding domains, which include a wide variety of structures with little sequence homology but that possess key amino acids controlling ganglioside recognition. We analyze the role of the electrostatic potential in the transmission and intra-individual evolution of HIV-1 infections, including gatekeeper and co-receptor switch mechanisms. We show how to organize the epidemic surveillance of influenza viruses by focusing on mutations affecting the hemagglutinin surface potential. We demonstrate that the electrostatic surface potential, by modulating spike-ganglioside interactions, controls the hemagglutination properties of coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2) as well as the structural dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 evolution. We relate the broad-spectrum antiviral activity of repositioned molecules to their ability to disrupt virus-raft interactions, challenging the old concept that an antibiotic or anti-parasitic cannot also be an antiviral. We propose a new concept based on the analysis of the electrostatic surface potential to develop, in real time, therapeutic and vaccine strategies adapted to each new viral epidemic.
Separation of α-Lactalbumin Enriched Fraction from Bovine Native Whey Concentrate by Combining Membrane and High-Pressure Processing

Whey exhibits interesting nutritional properties, but its high β-Lactoglobulin (β-Lg) content could be a concern in infant food applications. In this study, high-pressure processing (HPP) was assessed as a β-Lg removal strategy to generate an enriched α-Lactalbumin (α-La) fraction from bovine native whey concentrate. Different HPP treatment parameters were considered: initial pH (physiological and acidified), sample temperature (7–35 °C), pressure (0–600 MPa) and processing time (0–490 s). The conditions providing the best α-La yield and α-La purification degree balance (46.16% and 80.21%, respectively) were 4 min (600 MPa, 23 °C), despite the significant decrease of the surface hydrophobicity and the total thiol content indexes in the α-La-enriched fraction. Under our working conditions, the general effects of HPP on α-La and β-Lg agreed with results reported in other studies of cow milk or whey. Notwithstanding, our results also indicated that the use of native whey concentrate could improve the β-Lg precipitation degree and the α-La purification degree, in comparison to raw milk or whey. Future studies should include further characterization of the α-La-enriched fraction and the implementation of membrane concentration and HPP treatment to valorize cheese whey.