Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of nanostructure scattering and absorption for combined optical diagnostic and therapeutic applications

Medical applications of metal nanoparticles are the subject of intense research due to their unique properties which make them suitable for both diagnostic and therapeutic use. One such property is surface plasmon resonance which results in strong enhancement of the absorption and scattering of electromagnetic radiation. The combination of metal type, size, and shape characteristics provides unique tunability of a nanostructure's optical properties. Several types of nanoparticles have been explored for medical and biological applications. Here we present a theoretical investigation of novel metal nanostructures which have distinct absorption and scattering spectra. This could be beneficial for combined diagnostic and therapeutic applications since the diagnostic and therapeutic laser wavelengths can be decoupled for increased efficacy and safety. For this purpose, it is desirable to have the most intense scattering, with minimal absorption, in the near-infrared for imaging and the opposite in the red, for therapy. The efficiency factor for various metals, shapes and sizes was first calculated using the Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) method. From the results, nanostructures consisting of combinations of cubes and spheres were found to have the most appropriate scattering and absorption spectra and their optical properties were thoroughly investigated. The size, number and material (silver or gold) of the nanospheres and, to a lesser extent, the dimensions of the cubes were varied in order to obtain the optimum nanostructure with distinct absorption and scattering spectra. Given its properties, these nanostructures have the potential to be used for enhancement of various imaging and therapeutic methods.
Analysis of Experimental and Simulation Results of SF6/N2 Gas Mixture for Different Concentrations under the Stress of DC Positive Breakdown Voltage

Over the recent past, the use of Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) has been a dominant efficient dielectric because of its excellent arch quenching measure, and inflammability. However, there have been great worries due to greenhouse effects of SF6. With purity of dielectric being a major point of concern, a mixture of low SF6 gas with nitrogen (N2) gas which is less harmful strike a key milestone in obtain compromise between the environment protection campaign as well as need of power systems. Need of great knowledge in dielectric breakdown voltage values and breaking voltages under different conditions thus have become inhabitable study area. To analyze the breakdown voltages of SF6 & N2 gases and their mixtures this research work is focused on experimental and simulation investigation of DC breakdown voltages at different pressure on positive polarity. COMSOL MULTI-PHYSICS used to get simulation results at different pressures and SF6/N2 gas mixture. On comparison it is found that DC positive breakdown voltage results from simulation are higher than experimental results at same pressure and SF6/N2 gas mixture concentration. Practically, the DC positive breakdown voltage of SF6/N2 gas mixture happen early due to the occurrence of corona and partial discharge. The difference between simulation and experimental results DC positive breakdown voltage of SF6/N2 gas mixture decreases as the percentage of SF6 gas increases while having same pressure inside the ball bowl electrode.
Effects of Dietary Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum) Supplementation in Ducks Fed Mycotoxin-Contaminated Diets

Simple Summary Previous experiments have shown that the medicinal plant milk thistle (Silybum marianum) can be a potential feed additive protecting farm animals against the deleterious effects of various mycotoxins. The main objective of our study was to investigate the health protective effects of dietary milk thistle seed (0.5%), oil (0.1%), and seed cake (0.5%) in ducks fed diets naturally contaminated with deoxynivalenol (3.43–3.72 mg/kg feed) and zearalenone (0.46–0.50 mg/kg feed). The feeding of experimental diets did not result in mortality cases, clinical signs of mycotoxicosis, or in differences of clinical chemistry values of blood serum but led to histopathological alterations. The positive effects of milk thistle oil on histopathology parameters exceeded those of the seed and seed cake (vacuolar hepatocyte degeneration) or all of the treatments showed similar effectiveness (solitary cell death and infiltration of lympho- and histiocytes in the liver, lymphocyte depletion in the spleen and bursa of Fabricius). Based on our results, the applied milk thistle supplements have been proven effective in the prevention of histopathological changes caused by deoxynivalenol and zearalenone. Abstract The medicinal plant milk thistle (Silybum marianum) has been widely used due to its hepatoprotective properties. The main objective of our study was to investigate the health protective effects of dietary milk thistle seed (MS), oil (MO), and seed cake (MSC) in ducks fed diets naturally contaminated with deoxynivalenol (DON; 3.43–3.72 mg/kg feed) and zearalenone (ZEN; 0.46–0.50 mg/kg feed). Female White Hungarian ducks were randomly allocated to four dietary treatments consisting of the control diet (C), the control diet supplemented with 0.5% MS, 0.5% MSC, or 0.1% MO. The feeding of experimental diets did not result in mortality cases, clinical signs of mycotoxicosis, or in differences of clinical chemistry values of blood serum. The positive effect of MO on vacuolar hepatocyte degeneration exceeded that of the MSC on d14 and both MS and MSC on d42. Each treatment was equally effective in the decrease of the severity of solitary cell death and infiltration of lympho- and histiocytes in the liver on d28 as well as in the prevention of lymphocyte depletion in the spleen and bursa of Fabricius on d14. In conclusion, the applied treatments have been proven effective in the prevention of histopathological changes caused by DON and ZEN.
Robust Fault Location Method for Transmission Lines Using PMUs

The random noise and abnormally greater numbers may affect the accuracy of traditional transmission line fault location. A robust fault location method for transmission lines based on PMUs (Phasor Measurement Unit) is proposed in this paper. The node voltage equations based on voltage fault components are adopted to establish the quadratic nonlinear overdetermined equations of fault location, only using limited PMUs adjacent to the faulted line. In order to quantify the impact of measurement errors, the residual errors are introduced into the fault location equations. Levenberg-Marquardt (L-M) algorithm has been used to solve the equations. Then the original fault location data at each time after the occurrence of one cycle is obtained. A filtering method is proposed to filter the possible interference such as noise and abnormally greater numbers in fault location sequence. The abnormal data that deviating from the mean can be detected by the probability distribution and replaced by smooth filtering data. The simulation results on IEEE 39-bus systems show that proposed algorithm can effectively improve the location accuracy, is not affected by the fault location, transition resistance, fault type, and has strong anti-interference ability and good robustness.
Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy for materials with high damping and samples of arbitrary geometry

Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) is a powerful and established technique for measuring elastic constants of a material with general anisotropy. The first step of this technique consists of extracting resonance frequencies and damping from the vibrational frequency spectrum measured on a sample with free boundary conditions. An inversion technique is then used to retrieve the elastic tensor from the measured resonance frequencies. As originally developed, RUS has been mostly applicable to (i) materials with small damping such that the resonances of the sample are well separated and (ii) samples with simple geometries for which analytical solutions exist. In this paper, these limitations are addressed with a new RUS approach adapted to materials with high damping and samples of arbitrary geometry. Resonances are extracted by fitting a sum of exponentially damped sinusoids to the measured frequency spectrum. The inversion of the elastic tensor is achieved with a genetic algorithm, which allows searching for a global minimum within a discrete and relatively wide solution space. First, the accuracy of the proposed approach is evaluated against numerical data simulated for samples with isotropic symmetry and transversely isotropic symmetry. Subsequently, the applicability of the approach is demonstrated using experimental data collected on a composite structure consisting of a cylindrical sample of Berea sandstone glued to a large piezoelectric disk. In the proposed experiments, RUS is further enhanced by the use of a 3‐D laser vibrometer allowing the visualization of most of the modes in the frequency band studied.
A new Rényi entropy-based local image descriptor for object recognition

This paper shows how local directional entropy can be used as a tool to build up a robust local image descriptor for image feature extraction. Among other possible choices, the Rényi entropy has been selected as the main technique for this application. Local directional entropy which is related with the anisotropy images has been considered here as the basis for the design of a new Rényi entropy-based local image descriptor (RELID). The properties of this new descriptor are described and evaluated. The experimental results confirm that the new descriptor is endowed by most of the invariant properties desired for object recognition applications.
Impact of Pipe Material and Temperature on Drinking Water Microbiome and Prevalence of Legionella, Mycobacterium, and Pseudomonas Species

In drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs), pipe material and water temperature are some of the critical factors affecting the microbial flora of water. Six model DWDSs consisting of three pipe materials (galvanized steel, copper, and PEX) were constructed. The temperature in three systems was maintained at 22 °C and the other 3 at 32 °C to study microbial and elemental contaminants in a 6-week survey using 16S rRNA next-generation sequencing (NGS) and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Pipe material and temperature were preferentially linked with the composition of trace elements and the microbiome of the DWDSs, respectively. Proteobacteria was the most dominant phylum across all water samples ranging from 60.9% to 91.1%. Species richness (alpha diversity) ranking was PEX < steel ≤ copper system and elevated temperature resulted in decreased alpha diversity. Legionellaceae were omni-prevalent, while Mycobacteriaceae were more prevalent at 32 °C (100% vs. 58.6%) and Pseudomonadaceae at 22 °C (53.3% vs. 62.9%). Heterogeneity between communities was disproportionately driven by the pipe material and water temperature. The elevated temperature resulted in well-defined microbial clusters (high pseudo-F index) in all systems, with the highest impact in PEX (10.928) followed by copper (9.696) and steel (5.448). Legionellaceae and Mycobacteriaceae are preferentially prevalent in warmer waters. The results suggest that the water temperature has a higher magnitude of impact on the microbiome than the pipe material.
Googling Referendum Campaigns: Analyzing Online Search Patterns Regarding Swiss Direct-Democratic Votes

In direct democracies, voters are faced with considerable information demands. Although search engines are an important gateway to political information, it is still unclear what role they play in citizens’ information behavior regarding referendum campaigns. Moreover, few studies have examined the search terms that citizens use when searching for political information and the potential “user-input biases” in this regard. Therefore, we investigate to what extent citizens search online for information about upcoming referendums and what differences emerge between proponents, opponents, and non-voters regarding the search terms they used and the results they visited, related to three national ballot proposals voted on in Switzerland on November 28, 2021. The study combines cross-sectional survey data with longitudinal digital trace data containing participants’ Google Search histories obtained through data donations. Our findings show that participants rarely used Google to search for information about upcoming referendums. Moreover, most ballot-related searches employed rather neutral search terms. Nevertheless, a qualitative analysis of the search terms points to differences between different voting groups, particularly for the most prominent proposal around a Covid-19 law. The study provides interesting insight into how citizens search for information online during national referendum campaigns.
Predictors of Progression of Tricuspid Regurgitation in Patients with Persistent Atrial Fibrillation

Previous studies have shown that tricuspid regurgitation (TR) can be developed in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) due to annular dilatation. This study aimed to investigate the incidence and predictors of the progression of TR in patients with persistent AF. A total of 397 patients (66.9±11.4 years, 247 men; 62.2%) with persistent AF were enrolled between 2006 and 2016 in a tertiary hospital, and 287 eligible patients with follow-up echocardiography were analyzed. They were divided into two groups according to TR progression (progression group [n=68, 70.1±10.7 years, 48.5% men] vs. non-progression group [n=219, 66.0±11.3 years, 64.8% men]). Among 287 patients in the analysis, 68 had worsening TR severity (23.7%). Patients in the TR progression group were older and more likely to be female. Patients with left ventricular ejection fraction <50% were less frequent in the progression group than those in the non-progression group (7.4% vs. 19.6%, p=0.018). Patients with mitral valve disease were more frequent in the progression group. Multivariate analysis with COX regression demonstrated independent predictors of TR progression, including left atrial (LA) diameter >54 mm (HR 4.85, 95%CI 2.23-10.57, p<0.001), E/e’ (HR 1.05, 95%CI 1.01-1.10, p=0.027), and no use of antiarrhythmic agents (HR 2.20, 95%CI 1.03-4.72, p=0.041). In patients with persistent AF, worsening TR was not uncommon. The independent predictors of TR progression turned out to be greater LA diameter, higher E/e’, and no use of antiarrhythmic agents.
Nano-indentation of polymeric surfaces

This paper presents results of normal hardness, plasticity index and elastic modulus for a selection of organic polymers (a poly(methylmethacrylate), PMMA, a poly(styrene), PS, a poly(carbonate), PC, and an ultra-high molecular weight poly(ethylene), UHMWPE) obtained using the contact compliance method. The paper describes in detail the dependence of the imposed penetration depth, the maximum load and the deformation rate upon the hardness and elastic modulus values for these polymeric surfaces; typical penetration depths range from about 10 nm to m where the imposed loads are less than 300 mN. The results show a considerable strain-rate hardening effect for the present systems and possibly a peculiarly harder response of these materials at the near-to-surface (submicron) layers. The paper includes considerations of a practical nature which are drawn in order to overcome some intrinsic limitations of this technique when it is used for polymeric surfaces, especially for a creeping phenomenon which may be observed at the incipient unloading experimental segments. The appropriateness of using a tip calibration constructed upon hard substrates when indenting polymers is reviewed at the conclusion of the paper.
Dual vortex structure shedding from low aspect ratio, surface-mounted pyramids

The flow around surface-mounted, square-based pyramids, of apex angles ranging from 5° to 90°, placed in a thin boundary layer with one face normal to the on-coming flow was investigated for Reynolds numbers of 10 000–150 000 using surface pressure measurements and particle image velocimetry as well as oil-film surface-flow patterns. Based on the periodicity of the surface pressure on the pyramid side faces, four distinct shedding regimes were identified: constant local Strouhal number, discrete cellular, low aspect ratio and suppressed. Closer inspection of the low aspect ratio regime indicates that two distinct vortical structures are shed at the same frequency. Vortices are shed alternately from opposing faces in the obstacle base region, while hairpin vortices are shed in-phase and are most easily observed near the tip region of the pyramid. It is further shown that the existence of these structures is consistent with the mean surface-flow topology observed in the wake and side faces of the obstacles.
Common-Mode Circuit Analysis of Current-Source Photovoltaic Inverter for Leakage Current and EMI

Leakage current and electromagnetic interference (EMI) are closely related to the common-mode (CM) circuit in transformerless photovoltaic inverter systems. However, the correlation between them is elusive, as they are always studied independently because of the different frequency bands involved. This article establishes the CM circuit models of the current-source inverter, and the inherent relationship and the affecting factors between leakage current and CM EMI are revealed. Based on the established models, the leakage current and conducted EMI are accurately predicted with a reduced computational burden. In addition, some suppression measures for leakage current and CM EMI are derived, including the effectiveness of connecting a neutral wire. Finally, through simulations and experiments, the correctness of the theoretical analysis is verified.
Hamming-Distance Trellis Min-Max-Based Architecture for Non-Binary LDPC Decoder

Limitations on hardware resource consumption and throughput make the use of non-binary low-density parity-check (NB-LDPC) codes challenging in practical applications. This brief first proposes a novel check-node (CN) decoding algorithm called Hamming-distance trellis min-max (H-TMM) to reduce the complexity introduced by searching for two minimum values in previous TMM-based algorithms. Then, by taking advantage of the proposed algorithm and the number appearances of reliable values, a high-performance H-TMM-based NB-LDPC decoder architecture is presented. Experiments on the 32-ary (837, 726) NB-LDPC code confirmed that the proposed decoder can obtain a high throughput on less hardware resources compared with the state-of-the-art works while maintaining a competitive error-correcting performance. In particular, the proposed CN unit architecture reduced hardware resources by almost half compared to that in the latest decoder.
Industrial particle flow modelling using discrete element method

– The purpose of this paper is to show how particle scale simulation of industrial particle flows using DEM (discrete element method) offers the opportunity for better understanding of the flow dynamics leading to improvements in equipment design and operation. , – The paper explores the breadth of industrial applications that are now possible with a series of case studies. , – The paper finds that the inclusion of cohesion, coupling to other physics such fluids, and its use in bubbly and reacting flows are becoming increasingly viable. Challenges remain in developing models that balance the depth of the physics with the computational expense that is affordable and in the development of measurement and characterization processes to provide this expanding array of input data required. Steadily increasing computer power has seen model sizes grow from thousands of particles to many millions over the last decade, which steadily increases the range of applications that can be modelled and the complexity of the physics that can be well represented. , – The paper shows how better understanding of the flow dynamics leading to improvements in equipment design and operation can potentially lead to large increases in equipment and process efficiency, throughput and/or product quality. Industrial applications can be characterised as large, involving complex particulate behaviour in typically complex geometries. The critical importance of particle shape on the behaviour of granular systems is demonstrated. Shape needs to be adequately represented in order to obtain quantitative predictive accuracy for these systems.
Program self-reference

The interest is in understanding and insightfully characterizing the power of program self-reference (synonyms: self-knowledge, self-reflection). Kleene's Recursion Theorem (krt) formalizes this notion in the context of effective programming systems (epses), the computability theoretic analogs of programming languages for the partial computable functions. krt holds in some epses, but not in others. Thus, to characterize the power of program self-reference is, at least in part, to characterize the epses in which krt holds. This dissertation presents three such characterizations. It also presents several interesting results concerning krt that were obtained along the way. A comparison is given between krt and some other forms of the recursion theorem, including Rogers' Fixpoint Recursion Theorem ( fprt). fprt is strictly weaker than krt, in that fprt holds in any eps in which krt holds, but not vice versa. Thus, one could ask: are there programs that one would reasonably call self-referential, and whose existence is assured by krt, but not by fprt? It is shown that self-reproducing programs (a.k.a. quines) satisfy these technical conditions. Since most would surely agree that a self-reproducing program is self-referential, this result suggests that krt is better than fprt at capturing the notion of program self-reference. It is shown that there exist epses in which an extremely non-constructive form of krt holds. Roughly, in such epses, self-referential programs exist, but cannot be found algorithmically—not even with access to an oracle for K (the diagonal halting problem). Several results are presented concerning the relationship between krt and various kinds of control structures. For example, it is shown that there is no class of recursive denotational control structures whose implementation characterizes krt . It is also shown that there is no class of recursive denotational control structures whose implementation is complementary to krt. This latter result is in contrast to a result of Royer, which showed that implementation of if-then-else—a denotational control structure—is complementary to the constructive form of Kleene's Recursion Theorem. On the other hand, it is shown that there exist non-denotational control structures whose implementation is complementary to krt. Examples of such control structures are given herein. The proofs of several of these results involve priority methods.
THE DISTANCE TO THE CRAB NEBULA AND NP 0532

Twelve lines of evidence bearing on the determination of the distance to the Crab nebula and NP 0532 are discussed. Some of these depend on the dynamics of the nebular expansion, some on physical processes in the supernova or its remnant, and some on the nature of the intervening interstellar medium. An unweighted average of the various methods yields a distance of about 1930 pc. Key words: Crab nebula - NP 0532- distances to cosmic objects