Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental particle transport studies by pellet injection in helical equilibria

Helical equilibria have been experimentally found in the RFX-mod reversed field pinch both as spontaneous and induced states. These states are associated with a dominant helicity in the spectrum of magnetic field fluctuations producing a helical deformation of magnetic surfaces in a large fraction of the plasma core. In particular, they are also characterized by an improvement in global plasma performances in terms of electron temperature and energy confinement time with respect to the standard axisymmetric configuration with multiple helicities in the magnetic spectrum. These observations suggest that one should also expect an improvement in terms of particle confinement although this has never been experimentally observed due to the lack of a particle source in the core of RFX-mod plasmas. To address this point perturbative experiments were done in RFX-mod by injecting pellets (a known particle source) both inside and outside the helical magnetic structure present during such states. These experiments show that plasma density asymmetries and variations in the ablation rate of pellets are correlated with the internal magnetic field structure obtained by means of a line tracing code based on an equilibrium reconstructed in toroidal geometry using external measurements. In particular, they prove that particle transport is significantly reduced in the helical states with respect to axisymmetric configurations. An increase by a factor 2–3 was determined for the global electron particle confinement time calculated with a zero-dimensional model taking into account the helical geometry.
Synthesis and Development of N-2,5-Dimethylphenylthioureido Acid Derivatives as Scaffolds for New Antimicrobial Candidates Targeting Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Positive Pathogens

The growing antimicrobial resistance to last-line antimicrobials among Gram-positive pathogens remains a major healthcare emergency worldwide. Therefore, the search for new small molecules targeting multidrug-resistant pathogens remains of great importance. In this paper, we report the synthesis and in vitro antimicrobial activity characterisation of novel thiazole derivatives using representative Gram-negative and Gram-positive strains, including tedizolid/linezolid-resistant S. aureus, as well as emerging fungal pathogens. The 4-substituted thiazoles 3h, and 3j with naphthoquinone-fused thiazole derivative 7 with excellent activity against methicillin and tedizolid/linezolid-resistant S. aureus. Moreover, compounds 3h, 3j and 7 showed favourable activity against vancomycin-resistant E. faecium. Compounds 9f and 14f showed broad-spectrum antifungal activity against drug-resistant Candida strains, while ester 8f showed good activity against Candida auris which was greater than fluconazole. Collectively, these data demonstrate that N-2,5-dimethylphenylthioureido acid derivatives could be further explored as novel scaffolds for the development of antimicrobial candidates targeting Gram-positive bacteria and drug-resistant pathogenic fungi.
Charging Coordination of Plug-in Electric Vehicles Considering Machine Learning Based State-of-Charge Prediction for Congestion Management in Distribution System

Abstract This article proposes a novel strategy for congestion mitigation in a distribution system by charging coordination strategy of plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) considering grid-to-vehicle (G2V) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) modes. The G2V mode of a large figure of PEVs creates a congestion scenario in the distribution system. Therefore, a coordinated charging strategy has been considered in this work to mitigate distribution system congestion. Moreover, a precise estimation and prediction of PEVs state-of-charge (SOC) is necessary while formulating PEVs coordinated strategy. The study of the work is two folded. First, for the first time, a combination of machine learning approach like gradient boosting method-Bayesian optimization (GBM-BO) is considered in prediction of PEVs SOC at the finishing of trip. Second, a coordinated charging scheme is established based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) and firefly algorithm (FA) using the PEVs SOC at the finishing of trip. The charging coordination strategy is analyzed on the 38-bus radial distribution system integrated with solar powered charging-cum parking lot (SPCPL). The machine learning based prediction results reveal the significant reduction in errors between predicted and calculated values. The results further reveal the reduction in PEVs charging cost and congestion scenario while considering SPCPL in the distribution system.
Book Review: Successful Ageing: Ambition and Ambivalence

myself as a gerontologist, the aging material was familiar to me, but the public health perspectives helped me think about these topics in new ways. I believe that public health professionals looking for a public health perspective on aging or aging professionals interested in the public health perspective would benefit from reading this volume. Because the chapters are relatively short and jargon-free, the book should also be valuable for students, particularly at the undergraduate level. The reference lists are substantial and so the chapters can serve as useful jumping-off points for students interested in delving deeper into the topics.
Analysis of the impact of banking sector credit on the real sector

This study examines the impact of banking sector credit on Nigeria’s real sector based on data from 1986 to 2019 using the ARDL model. The bound testing result indicates that there is a long-run relationship between the variables of interest with real gross domestic product (RGDP) as the dependent variable. The result indicates that commercial bank credit (CBC) has a positive impact on RGDP in the long and short runs, which is consistent with a priori expectations. Domestic private investment (DPI) was found to have a negative and significant relationship with RGDP in the long and short runs. The estimated equations of the specified models show a significant positive relationship between government capital expenditure (GCE) and RGDP. In the short run, a significant increase in DPI, CBC, and GCE will bring about a significant increase in RGDP. The parameter estimates of DPI, CBC and GCE are statistically significant, as indicated by the t-value. The study reveals that effective utilization and distribution of bank credit to the real sector promotes economic growth. Therefore, the study recommends that there should be improved banking sector credit which will improve the output of the real sector and, in turn, boosts the economy.
Allometric analysis of sexual dimorphism and morphological variation in two chromosome races of the Sceloporus grammicus complex (Squamata: Phrynosomatidae) from Mexico

Sexual dimorphism is a widespread feature in the Animal Kingdom. In lizards of the Sceloporus grammicus complex, studies of sexual dimorphism that analyze the allometric trajectories of body traits remain unexplored. Here we investigate sexual dimorphism in key phenotypic traits, including body size (snout-vent length, SVL) as well as head length (HL), head width (HW), and forearm length (FL). We use an allometric approach to detect differences in scale relationships among body parts in the S. grammicus complex in Mexico. We focus on two chromosomal races within this complex, F5 (2n = 34) and FM2 (2n = 46). In the complex, we found that males are larger than females in all morphological variables, and this pattern was confirmed in both races. We determined negative allometric trajectories (SVLvs.HL and HW), isometry (SVLvs.FL) and intersexual differences in the slopes of the SVLvs.HL and HW; the males showed steeper slopes. Thus, the growth of the head is more pronounced in males than females. Additionally, we found between-race differences in these trajectories (SVLvs.FL) and in all morphological variables (F5 lizards are larger than those of the FM2 race), which correlate with their chromosomal divergence. We discuss biological implications of our findings in relation to sexual selection and natural selection.
Crystal Structure of Pseudo-six-fold Carbon Dioxide Phase II at High Pressures and Temperatures

The crystal structure of CO 2 -II is determined to be tetragonal P4 2 /mnm with z = 2, with evidence of some tetragonal-to-orthorhombic (Pnnm) disorder in the ab plane. In this structure, carbon atoms are pseudo-sixfold-coordinated by oxygens; two oxygens are at an elongated intramolecular C=O bond distance, 1.331(3) A, and four are at a collapsed intermolecular distance, 2.377(2) A, at the apices of highly distorted octahedral. Strong intermolecular association results in a large splitting of the symmetric stretching ν 1 mode and in a high bulk modulus 131.5 GPa. At 11 GPa, CO 2 -II is about 6.8% denser than CO 2 -III (Cmca).
Effect of electrical state on mechanical and electrical response of a ferroelectric ceramic PZT 95/5 to impact loading

Ferroelectric ceramic specimens 2–10 mm thick were impact loaded in uniaxial strain to a stress of 1.6 GPa. Material velocity‐time wave profiles were measured using a laser interferometer system. Specimen states studied were unpoled, poled and shorted, and poled with a high resistive load (E? 2 kV/mm). The results show clearly the effect of the specimen electrical state on the mechanical response. Evolution of the mechanical wave was studied by measuring profiles for several different thicknesses with the same electrical state. For poled specimens, simultaneous measurements were made of the depolarization current during the impact loading. Measured wave speed of the first detectable disturbance was sonic in some but not all cases. Measurements of Hugoniot states for unpoled material were also obtained.
The effect of turbulence on the surface pressure field of a square prism

Measurements are presented of the mean and fluctuating pressure field acting on a two-dimensional square cylinder in uniform and turbulent flows. The addition of turbulence to the flow is shown to raise the base pressure and reduce the drag of the body. It is suggested that this is attributable to the manner in which the increased turbulence intensity thickens the shear layers, which causes them to be deflected by the downstream corners of the body and results in the downstream movement of the vortex formation region. The strength of the vortex shedding is shown to be reduced as the intensity of the incident turbulence is increased.
Computational study of free surface film flow and subsequent disintegration of a sheet and ligaments into droplets from a rotary disk atomizer

In the present study, a computational methodology based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is developed to investigate free surface film flow and its subsequent disintegration on a rotary disk atomizer. The present study provides an insight into efficiently modeling both liquid film formation and its subsequent disintegration. The presented computational methodology can easily be reproduced and can act as a benchmark for the modeling of liquid film formation as well as the disintegration phenomenon. The influence of disk speed, liquid flow and feed arrangement on the rotating disk are investigated. The film thickness profile on the disk resembles the formation of spiral waves at 500 RPM and an irregular breakup of the spiral waves for a disk speed of 1000 RPM. At higher speeds, a smooth and thin liquid film is observed on the disk. Offset feeding of the liquid on the disk alters the wave formation and breakup of the spiral waves. It is found that ligaments are formed at the lip of the disk owing to Rayleigh–Taylor instability, whereas liquid sheet breakup is due to combined rim and wave disintegration for the parameters investigated in this study.
Stability and optimal control for delayed rumor-spreading model with nonlinear incidence over heterogeneous networks

On the multilingual online social networks of global information sharing, the wanton spread of rumors has an enormous negative impact on people’s lives. Thus, it is essential to explore the rumor-spreading rules in multilingual environment and formulate corresponding control strategies to reduce the harm caused by rumor propagation. In this paper, considering the multilingual environment and intervention mechanism in the rumor-spreading process, an improved ignorants–spreaders-1–spreaders-2–removers (I2SR) rumor-spreading model with time delay and the nonlinear incidence is established in heterogeneous networks. Firstly, based on the mean-field equations corresponding to the model, the basic reproduction number is derived to ensure the existence of rumor-spreading equilibrium. Secondly, by applying Lyapunov stability theory and graph theory, the global stability of rumor-spreading equilibrium is analyzed in detail. In particular, aiming at the lowest control cost, the optimal control scheme is designed to optimize the intervention mechanism, and the optimal control conditions are derived using the Pontryagin’s minimum principle. Finally, some illustrative examples are provided to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results. The results show that optimizing the intervention mechanism can effectively reduce the densities of spreaders-1 and spreaders-2 within the expected time, which provides guiding insights for public opinion managers to control rumors.
Annealing of defects in irradiated silicon detector materials with high oxygen content

A deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) study of electrically active defects in electron irradiated silicon detectors has been performed. Two types of materials have been studied and compared: carbon-lean magnetic Czochralski (MCZ-) Si, and high purity, diffusion oxygenated float-zone (DOFZ-) Si. In both materials we observed an earlier reported shift in position of peaks associated with the divacancy (V2) at 250–325 °C, indicating a gradual transition from V2 to the divacancy–oxygen complex (V2O). Heat treatments at higher temperatures reveal a difference in annealing behaviour of defects in DOFZ- and MCZ-Si. It is observed that VO and V2O anneal with a higher rate in DOFZ-Si. The appearance of a hydrogen related level only in the DOFZ-Si reveals a small presence of H and it is suggested that the difference in annealing behaviour is due to defect interaction with H in the DOFZ-Si. Our findings also suggest that dissociation may be a main mechanism for the annealing of V2O in MCZ-Si.
Psychophysical tuning curves in normal and impaired ears

Frequency selectivity in ears suffering sensorineural hearing deficits was assessed using a tone‐on‐tone masking paradigm. Psychophysical tuning curves relating level of a continuous tonal masker required to just mask a probe of constant frequency and intensity to the frequency of the masker were obtained for several normal and impaired ears. In agreement with the recent observation of Vogten (in Facts and Models in Hearing, E. Zwicker and E. Terhardt, Eds.), for high‐level probes (≃70 dB SPL) psychophysical tuning curves displayed well‐defined minima (corresponding to maximum masking) at masker frequencies below the frequency of the probe. This “negative‐maximum‐masking frequency” effect was observed at sensation levels of 20 dB or less in both normal ears exposed to wide‐band background noise and in ears impaired by acoustic trauma. In one patient having a uniform hearing loss of 60 dB at low frequencies, tuning curves did not contain either negative‐maximum‐masking frequencies or well‐defined minima. I.
Wearable Microfluidic Sweat Chip for Detection of Sweat Glucose and pH in Long-Distance Running Exercise

Traditional exercise training monitoring is based on invasive blood testing methods. As sweat can reveal abundant blood-related physiological information about health, wearable sweat sensors have received significant research attention and become increasingly popular in the field of exercise training monitoring. However, most of these sensors are used to measure physical indicators such as heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, etc., demanding a versatile sensor that can detect relevant biochemical indicators in body fluids. In this work, we proposed a wearable microfluidic sweat chip combined with smartphone image processing to realize non-invasive in situ analysis of epidermal sweat for sports practitioners. The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based chip was modified with nonionic surfactants to ensure good hydrophilicity for the automatic collection of sweat. Besides, a simple, reliable, and low-cost paper-based sensor was prepared for high-performance sensing of glucose concentration and pH in sweat. Under optimized conditions, this proposed chip can detect glucose with low concentrations from 0.05 mM to 0.40 mM, with a pH range of 4.0 to 6.5 for human sweat. The ability of this microfluidic chip for human sweat analysis was demonstrated by dynamically tracking the changes in glucose concentration and pH in long-distance running subjects.
A Note on Linear SVM in Gaussian Classes

The linear support vector machine(SVM) is motivated by the maximal margin separating hyperplane and is a popular tool for binary classification tasks. Many studies exist on the consistency properties of SVM; however, it is unknown whether the linear SVM is consistent for estimating the optimal classification boundary even in the simple case of two Gaussian classes with a common covariance, where the optimal classification boundary is linear. In this paper we show that the linear SVM can be inconsistent in the univariate Gaussian classification problem with a common variance, even when the best tuning parameter is used.
Particle number fluctuations and correlations in nucleus–nucleus collisions

Particle number fluctuations and correlations in nucleus–nucleus collisions at SPS and RHIC energies are studied within the statistical hadron-resonance gas model in different statistical ensembles and in the Hadron-String-Dynamics (HSD) transport approach. Event-by-event fluctuations of the proton to pion and kaon to proton number ratios are calculated in the HSD model for samples of the most central collision events and compared with the available experimental data. The role of the experimental acceptance and centrality selection is discussed.
wallace
 2: a shiny app for modeling species niches and distributions redesigned to facilitate expansion via module contributions

(e.g., niche overlap). This expansion was paired with outreach to the biogeography and biodiversity communities, including international presentations and workshops that take advantage of the software’s extensive guidance text. Additionally, the advances extend accessibility with a cloud-computing implementation and include a suite of comprehensive unit tests. The features in wallace 2 greatly improve its expandability, breadth of analyses, and reproducibility options, including the use of emerging metadata standards. The new architecture serves as an example for other modular software, especially those developed using the rapidly proliferating R package shiny , by showcasing straightforward module ingestion and unit testing. Importantly, wallace 2 sets the stage for future expansions, including those enabling biodiversity estimation and threat assessments for conservation.
Ethical Issues in Near-Future Socially Supportive Smart Assistants for Older Adults

This paper considers novel ethical issues pertaining to near-future artificial intelligence (AI) systems that seek to support, maintain, or enhance the capabilities of older adults as they age and experience cognitive decline. In particular, we focus on smart assistants (SAs) that would seek to provide proactive assistance and mediate social interactions between users and other members of their social or support networks. Such systems would potentially have significant utility for users and their caregivers if they could reduce the cognitive load for tasks that help older adults maintain their autonomy and independence. However, proactively supporting even simple tasks, such as providing the user with a summary of a meeting or a conversation, would require a future SA to engage with ethical aspects of human interactions which computational systems currently have difficulty identifying, tracking, and navigating. If SAs fail to perceive ethically relevant aspects of social interactions, the resulting deficit in moral discernment would threaten important aspects of user autonomy and well-being. After describing the dynamic that generates these ethical challenges, we note how simple strategies for prompting user oversight of such systems might also undermine their utility. We conclude by considering how near-future SAs could exacerbate current worries about privacy, commodification of users, trust calibration and injustice.
Optical properties of gold nanoparticles at laser radiation wavelengths for laser applications in nanotechnology and medicine

Investigations of laser interaction with metal (gold) nanoparticles is of a great interest for laser applications in nanotechnology, engineering, and medicine. The first problem of laser interaction is to determine the optical properties of metal nanoparticles, that determines following photophysical and photochemical processes. The calculation of efficiency factors of absorption, scattering and extinction for spherical gold nanoparticles with radiuses in the range 5-100 nm and for some laser wavelengths is performed. The estimation of absorbed laser radiation energy by gold nanoparticles, their maximal temperatures and comparison with experimental data is made. The importance of the use of correct values of optical parameters of nanoparticles is demonstrated.
Irregular tessellation based image analysis

Independent stochastic processes are used to generate in parallel irregular tessellations of an image. Recursive application of the procedure yields a multiresolution hierarchy adapted to the content of the image. The hierarchy is similar to traditional image pyramids: its height is of log (image size) order, but by being adapted to the input, it eliminates the artifacts frequently present in the latter. The output obtained at the apex of the hierarchy can be used for fast image analysis. The technique was applied to connected component labeling (labeled images) and segmentation (gray-level images). <<ETX>>
Anisotropic Temperature Plasma Instabilities

An anisotropic plasma exhibits a transverse instability due to the mutual attraction of the microscopic current elements. A detailed study is made of this instability in an electron‐ion plasma without any external magnetic field. The system is characterized by a temperature tensor and described by a quasi‐Maxwellian distribution function. The dielectric tensor for such a system is calculated and then the dispersion relation is considered. It is found that there are two unstable modes: (i) a purely transverse mode and (ii) a coupled or transverse‐longitudinal mode. The latter separates into two branches: (a) the first is an essentially unstable quasitransverse mode, (b) the second is the quasi‐longitudinal ion acoustic mode driven into instability through its interaction with the quasitransverse mode. Growth rate, k and angular dependence, domain of instability, and polarization are analyzed in detail.