Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ICE AND DUST IN THE PRESTELLAR DARK CLOUD LYNDS 183: PREPLANETARY MATTER AT THE LOWEST TEMPERATURES

Dust grains are nucleation centers and catalysts for the growth of icy mantles in quiescent interstellar clouds, the products of which may accumulate into preplanetary matter when new stars and solar systems form within the clouds. In this paper, we present the first spectroscopic detections of silicate dust and the molecular ices H2O, CO, and CO2 in the vicinity of the prestellar core L183 (L134N). An infrared photometric survey of the cloud was used to identify reddened background stars, and we present spectra covering solid-state absorption features in the wavelength range 2–20 μm for nine of them. The mean composition of the ices in the best-studied line of sight (toward J15542044−0254073) is H2O:CO:CO2 ≈ 100:40:24. The ices are amorphous in structure, indicating that they have been maintained at low temperature (≲ 15 K) since formation. The ice column density N(H2O) correlates with reddening by dust, exhibiting a threshold effect that corresponds to the transition from unmantled grains in the outer layers of the cloud to ice-mantled grains within, analogous to that observed in other dark clouds. A comparison of results for L183 and the Taurus and IC 5146 dark clouds suggests common behavior, with mantles first appearing in each case at a dust column corresponding to a peak optical depth τ9. 7 = 0.15 ± 0.03 in the silicate feature. Our results support a previous conclusion that the color excess EJ − K does not obey a simple linear correlation with the total dust column in lines of sight that intercept dense clouds. The most likely explanation is a systematic change in the optical properties of the dust as the density increases.
An approach to improving the James-Stein estimator shrinking towards projection vectors

Consider a p -variate normal distribution ( p − q ≥ 3 , q = rank ( P V ) with a projection matrix P V ). Using a simple property of noncentral chi square distribution, the generalized Bayes estimators dominating the James-Stein estimator shrinking towards projection vectors under quadratic loss are given based on the methods of Brown, Brewster and Zidek for estimating a normal variance. This result can be extended the cases where covariance matrix is completely unknown or (cid:80) = σ 2 I for an unknown scalar σ 2 .
Impact of wearing a head-mounted display on localization accuracy of real sound sources

For augmented reality experiences, users wear head-mounted displays (HMD) while listening to real and virtual sound sources. This paper assesses the impact of wearing an HMD on localization accuracy of real sources. Eighteen blindfolded participants completed a localization task on 32 loudspeakers while wearing either no HMD, a bulky visor HMD, or a glass visor HMD. Results demonstrate that the HMDs had a significantly impact on participants’ localization performance, increasing local great circle angle error by 0.9°, and that the glass visor HMD demonstrably increased the rate of up–down confusions in the responses by 0.9–1.1%. These results suggest that wearing an HMD has a sufficiently small impact on real source localization that it can safely be considered as an HMD-free condition in most but the most demanding AR auditory localization studies.
Features of lower troposphere on occasions of contrasting rainfall at a tropical coastal station

The radiosonde data and the synoptic situations relating to pairs of consecutive days of contrasting rainfall recorded at the tropical coastal station, Bombay, were analysed for two contrasting summer monsoons. The synoptic situations relating to the pairs of days were classified into two categories, namely, not similar and nearly similar. The results pointed out that the majority of the higher rainfall days in the pairs, irrespective of the similarity in the synoptic situation, were associated with one or more of the following: (i) higher static stability, (ii) lower convective instability, (iii) higher precipitable water content and (iv) lower lifting condensation level. The associations noted with (i) and (iii) were not statistically significant on both the categories of synoptic situations. The association with (ii) was significant at the 10% level when the synoptic situations were nearly similar and was not significant when the situations were not similar. The association with (iv) was significant at the 5% level on both categories of days. The features noticed were discussed in the light of the available knowledge for tropical oceanic and land regions. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1978. tb00824.x
The Role of Hypertonic Saline in Ablative Radiofrequency of the Sacroiliac Joint: Observational Study of 40 Patients

Background: The aim of this retrospective uncontrolled article is to illustrate a technique of neurotomy of the sensitive branches of S1 S2 S3 in RFA that appears to result in a better success rate and longer-lasting pain relief. Methods: 40 patients were treated, 26 females and 14 males, with an average age of 74 (92–55). After the examination, the patients underwent an ultrasound-guided diagnostic block of the affected sacroiliac joint. Only patients who presented pain relief greater than 60% after the diagnostic block were candidates for the RFA procedure. The procedure was always performed in the operating room on an outpatient basis. After obtaining the best fluoroscopic visualization of the joint to be treated, two RFA cannulae were placed starting from the lower medial margin parallel to the SIJ to perform a bipolar RFA along the entire medial margin of the SIJ. Lidocaine 2% and hypertonic saline 2 mEq/mL were used for each RFA level. Patients were followed-up at 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months by evaluating the NRS and SF-12. Results: Patients reported extreme satisfaction with the procedure performed and reported a significant improvement in NRS and SF-12 at FU visits. No adverse events occurred. Conclusions: Bipolar RFA treatment of the sacroiliac joint with the use of a hypertonic saline solution appears to improve the success of the method and its durability. We are inclined to believe that the use of hypertonic saline may significantly increase the lesion area and result in a greater effect on the sensory branches.
A Physics-Based and Data-Driven Feature Extraction Model for Blades Icing Detection of Wind Turbines

Blades icing will seriously affect the performance of wind turbines with respect to power loss and dynamic load increase. Blades icing detection technique becomes necessary to advance de-icing maintenance. Extracting effective features from supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) data has become a challenging task during operating conditions under icing. Current research work lacks for the integration of physical information and insufficient analysis of icing dynamic evolution in the process of feature extraction. In order to eliminate these deficiencies, a multilevel feature extraction model combined with physical information and intelligent algorithm (MFT-PI) is proposed in this article. First, features that characterize the severity of icing are extracted by power characteristic curve technology and feature selection technology in the transient feature extraction level. These techniques are driven by the information of power loss and icing mass growth. Second, a fully connected neural network integrated with triplet loss function is designed for extracting fusion feature, which considers the similarity of data distribution between early-icing stage and non-icing stage. Finally, the proposed feature extraction model is evaluated in two icing wind turbines. Results show that fusion features extracted from the proposed model is more stable, reliable, and accurate by comparing the performance of other feature groups in different classifiers.
On the influence of the thickness of air-space on total reflection of electric radiation

In my preliminary experiments on the determination of the index of refraction of various substances for electric radiation, I used a single serai-cylinder of the given substance; the electric ray was refracted from the denser medium into air, and at the critical angle of incidence it underwent total reflection. The experiment was repeated with two semi-cylinders separated by a parallel air-space. With light waves an extremely thin air-film is effective in producing total reflection. But a question might arise whether waves a hundred thousand times as long would be totally reflected by films of air, and, if so, it would be interesting to find out the minimum thickness of air-space which would be effective in producing this result.
Journey of the Probiotic Bacteria: Survival of the Fittest

This review aims to bring a more general view of the technological and biological challenges regarding production and use of probiotic bacteria in promoting human health. After a brief description of the current concepts, the challenges for the production at an industrial level are presented from the physiology of the central metabolism to the ability to face the main forms of stress in the industrial process. Once produced, these cells are processed to be commercialized in suspension or dried forms or added to food matrices. At this stage, the maintenance of cell viability and vitality is of paramount for the quality of the product. Powder products requires the development of strategies that ensure the integrity of components and cellular functions that allow complete recovery of cells at the time of consumption. Finally, once consumed, probiotic cells must face a very powerful set of physicochemical mechanisms within the body, which include enzymes, antibacterial molecules and sudden changes in pH. Understanding the action of these agents and the induction of cellular tolerance mechanisms is fundamental for the selection of increasingly efficient strains in order to survive from production to colonization of the intestinal tract and to promote the desired health benefits.
Effect of growth temperature and post-growth annealing on luminescence properties of molecular beam epitaxy grown single layer Ge quantum dots

We report the detailed structural and luminescence properties of Si-embedded single layer Ge nanoislands grown via Stranski-Krastanov mechanism using molecular beam epitaxy. The luminescence energy peak positions correlated with structural properties have been studied as a function of the growth temperature and post-growth annealing. The photoluminescence peak for the annealed sample (500 °C grown) is blue shifted with increasing anneal temperature compared to the as grown sample due to intermixing of Si/Ge. Electroluminescence from the single layer Ge islands in the wavelength range 1.53 to 1.67 μm has been demonstrated using a metal-insulator-semiconductor structure, making it attractive for quantum dot light emitting devices.
Quantitative Evaluation of Dust and Black Carbon Column Concentration in the MERRA-2 Reanalysis Dataset Using Satellite-Based Component Retrievals

The aerosol optical property products of Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) reanalysis dataset have been extensively investigated on a global or regional scale. However, the understanding of MERRA-2 aerosol component products on an extensive temporal and spatial scale is inadequate. Recently, the aerosol component products have been derived from the observations of Polarization and Directionality of the Earth’s Reflectances/Polarization and Anisotropy of Reflectance for Atmospheric Science coupled with observations from a Lidar (POLDER/PARASOL). This study presents a quantitative evaluation of the MERRA-2 reanalysis dust and black carbon (BC) column concentration using independent satellite-based aerosol component concentration retrievals. Both GRASP/Component and MERRA-2 reanalysis products can capture well the temporal variation in dust column concentration over the dust emission resource and downwind dust-dominated regions with the correlation coefficient (R) varying from 0.80 to 0.98. MERRA-2 reanalysis dust products present higher column concentration than GRASP/Component dust retrievals with relative differences of about 20~70%, except in the Taklamakan Desert and Bay of Bengal, where the relative differences can be negative. The differences in dust column concentration over the African dust regions are larger than that over the Asian dust regions. Similar temporal variations in BC column concentration are characterized by both GRASP/Component BC retrievals and MERRA-2 BC products with R of about 0.70~0.90, except in the North China Plain region. We should pay more caution with the regional applicability of MERRA-2 component products when large differences and high correlation coefficients are obtained simultaneously. The results are favorable for identifying the behavior of MERRA-2 reanalysis component estimation in a new view and demonstrate a practical application of the satellite-based component retrievals, which could make more contributions to the improvement of model estimation in the near future.
A Multi-Frequency PCCM ZVS Modulation Scheme for Optimizing Overall Efficiency of Four-Switch Buck–Boost Converter With Wide Input and Output Voltage Ranges

The pseudo-continuous conduction mode (PCCM) zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) modulation scheme is widely used in the four-switch buck–boost (FSBB) converter to achieve high efficiency and voltage step-up/step-down without modulation mode transition. There are two degrees of modulation freedom in the PCCM ZVS modulation scheme. The previous schemes typically only optimize one of them to reduce root mean square (rms) inductor current, which results in relatively lower efficiency in the condition when the difference between input voltage and output voltage is large. In this article, a multi-frequency PCCM ZVS modulation scheme is proposed for the FSBB converter with wide input and output voltage ranges. By optimizing both of the two degrees of modulation freedom to reduce rms inductor current, the heavy-load efficiency can be effectively improved when the difference between input voltage and output voltage is large. Thus, the overall efficiency of the FSBB converter can be optimized. A 1500-W FSBB prototype with input and output voltage ranges of 200–400V is built to verify the proposed modulation scheme.
Nonlinear System Fault Detection Based on TLLE

In this work, a nonlinear system fault detection approach based on tangent space distance locally linear embedding (TLLE) is proposed. In the algorithm, tangent space distance is introduced to LLE, which overcomes the shortcoming of original LLE method based on Euclidean distance. It can satisfy the requirement of locally linear much better and so can express the I/O mapping quality better than classical method. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the fault detection algorithm based on TLLE method.
Dynamics on the ground-state potential surfaces of H/sub 3/ and its isotopomeres from their uv spectra

The uv spectra of ${\mathrm{H}}_{3},$ ${\mathrm{D}}_{2}\mathrm{H},$ and ${\mathrm{D}}_{3}$ emitted by a neutralized ion beam have been measured in the wavelength range 200\char21{}400 nm. The spectra are continuous and show two maxima at 240 and 310 nm. Numerical simulations of the uv spectra, taking ab initio potential surfaces and transition moments as a starting point, explain their bimodal structure as arising from radiative decay into the two Jahn-Teller sheets of the ground-state potential surface. Two different lifetimes ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{1}$ and ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{2}$ for the lower sheet and the upper sheet of the Jahn-Teller adiabatic ground-state surface, respectively, were introduced and varied when fitting the simulated spectra to the experimental ones. These lifetimes have to be interpreted as average values for different vibrational states with angular momentum quantum numbers ranging from 0 to 7. The values are for ${\mathrm{H}}_{3}$ ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{1}=3.5\mathrm{fs}$ and ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{2}=6.7\mathrm{fs},$ for ${\mathrm{D}}_{2}\mathrm{H},$ ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{1}=4.9\mathrm{fs}$ and ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{2}=8.2\mathrm{fs},$ and for ${\mathrm{D}}_{3},$ ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{1}=5.9\mathrm{fs}$ and ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{2}=8.7\mathrm{fs}$ and the error is estimated to be 0.5 fs. These results are consistent among each other, i.e., they show the expected dependence on the square root of the reduced masses. Furthermore, lifetimes for the uv emitting Rydberg states have been measured. Since lifetimes of Rydberg states of ${\mathrm{H}}_{3}$ and its isotopomeres are already known from analogous measurements in the visible spectrum, the $3s$ and $3d$ states could be identified as the main emitters of the uv radiation. Their mean lifetimes range from about 4 ns for ${\mathrm{H}}_{3},$ 5 ns for ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}\mathrm{D},$ and 6 ns for ${\mathrm{D}}_{2}\mathrm{H}$ to 10 ns for ${\mathrm{D}}_{3}. $
The Multidimensional Measurement Method of Urban Sprawl and Its Empirical Analysis in Shanghai Metropolitan Area

Urban sprawl concerns the high-quality and sustainable development of large cities. Due to the ambiguous definition, diversity of measurement indices and complexity of the driving mechanism of urban sprawl, the research results are rich but controversial. How does one carry out multidimensional measurement of urban sprawl? How does one reveal the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of urban sprawl dynamically? First, according to the three common characteristics of urban sprawl (discontinuity of land use, low population density and inefficiency of land use), we, respectively, measure the urban sprawl of Shanghai metropolitan area by single index and comprehensive indices based on multi-source geospatial data. Next, using geographic information system (GIS) method, the temporal and spatial characteristics of urban sprawl in Shanghai are quantitatively and dynamically analyzed. The results show that (1) land use continuity reveals that fringe expansion is the main mode of urban sprawl, population density exhibits an upwards trend, and land use benefit shows that the sprawl increased first, then decreased and increased again, i.e., “N” type trend. The results of the above three comprehensive superpositions indicate that the urban sprawl in Shanghai changed from severe in 1995 to mild in 2010 and in 2020. (2) From 1990 to 2020, urban sprawl in Shanghai showed a trend of decreasing first, then increasing and decreasing again, which is consistent with an evolutionary trend of newly increased construction land. The larger the sprawl area was, the lower the land use efficiency of the sprawl area was. (3) The main directions of urban sprawl were southeast and southwest, and Songjiang District and Pudong New Area were the main sprawl areas. The peak value of urban sprawl mainly occurred at 20–30 km and was located in the area between the outer ring and the suburban ring. (4) Through time series analysis, we found that the effective supply of housing significantly affected the intensity and scale of urban sprawl but not the speed of urban sprawl in Shanghai metropolitan area. These findings are helpful to reasonably evaluate the real picture of urban sprawl in Shanghai metropolitan areas and provide reference for the formulation of urban sprawl governance policies.
A Unidimensional Item Response Model for Unfolding Responses From a Graded Disagree-Agree Response Scale

Binary or graded disagree-agree responses to atti tude items are often collected for the purpose of attitude measurement. Although such data are sometimes ana lyzed with cumulative measurement models, recent studies suggest that unfolding models are more appro priate (Roberts, 1995; van Schuur & Kiers, 1994). Ad vances in item response theory (IRT) have led to the development of several parametric unfolding models for binary data (Andrich, 1988; Andrich & Luo, 1993; Hoijtink, 1991); however, IRT models for unfolding graded responses have not been proposed. A parametric IRT model for unfolding either binary or graded re sponses is developed here. The graded unfolding model (GUM) is a generalization of Andrich & Luo's hyperbolic cosine model for binary data. A joint maximum likeli hood procedure was implemented to estimate GUM pa rameters, and a subsequent recovery simulation showed that reasonably accurate estimates could be obtained with minimal data demands (e.g., as few as 100 respon dents and 15 to 20 six-category items). The applicability of the GUM to common attitude testing situations is illus trated with real data on student attitudes toward capital punishment. Index terms: attitude measurement, graded unfolding model, hyperbolic cosine model, ideal point process, item response theory, Likert scale, Thur stone scale, unfolding model, unidimensional scaling.
The Meaning of Integrity among Public Officers: a Phenomenology Study

Good governance can be realized if public officials have integrity. The integrity of public officials is a source of public trust in the government's performance in providing public services. This research aims to describe the meaning of integrity and internal factors that strengthen integrity from the perspective of public officials. Our study used a qualitative method based on phenomenological philosophy. Participants were selected based on three criteria: (1) echelon II officials as Heads of Regional Government Work Units, (2) have excellent work performance, and (3) have never violated the code of ethics, regulations, and laws. We conducted face-to-face, in-depth interviews to collect the data and analyzed the data using. Our findings reveal eight meanings of integrity by public officials and internal factors that strengthen integrity. Eight meanings of integrity include carrying out duties and obligations seriously; being honest in carrying out tasks; discipline, complying with procedures and regulations; consistency between values/principles and behavior; being fair; having moral courage; being a role model for subordinates; not abusing position for personal gain or specific parties. Meanwhile, internal factors that strengthen integrity include: social-oriented terminal value, moral-oriented instrument value; competency-oriented instrument value, self-awareness as a public servant, simple lifestyle, change motivation, learning motivation, and achievement motivation
Common signature of many-body thermal excitation in structural relaxation and crystallization of chalcogenide glasses

The structural stability of amorphous chalcogenides used in electrical and optical phase-change devices is critically affected by structural relaxation (SR) and crystallization. We studied the temperature activation of SR and crystallization in amorphous Ge2Sb2Te5. We demonstrate that SR and crystallization coherently obey the same Meyer–Neldel (MN) rule, evidencing the key role of many-body thermal excitation in these transformations. The different activation energies for SR and crystallization are discussed based on the strength and number of bonds to be rearranged during the transitions. The MN rule provides a straightforward explanation of the unphysical pre-exponential times (10−24–10−22 s) observed in chalcogenide glasses.