Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Finite Element Models of Gold Nanoparticles and Their Suspensions for Photothermal Effect Calculation

(1) Background: The ability of metal nanoparticles to carry other molecules and their electromagnetic interactions can be used for localized drug release or to heat malignant tissue, as in the case of photothermal treatments. Plasmonics can be used to calculate their absorption and electric field enhancement, which can be further used to predict the outcome of photothermal experiments. In this study, we model the nanoparticle geometry in a Finite Element Model calculus environment to calculate the effects that occur as a response to placing it in an optical, electromagnetic field, and also a model of the experimental procedure to measure the temperature rise while irradiating a suspension of nanoparticles. (2) Methods: Finite Element Method numerical models using the COMSOL interface for geometry and mesh generation and iterative solving discretized Maxwell’s equations; (3) Results: Absorption and scattering cross-section spectrums were obtained for NanoRods and NanoStars, also varying their geometry as a parameter, along with electric field enhancement in their surroundings; temperature curves were calculated and measured as an outcome of the irradiation of different concentration suspensions; (4) Conclusions: The results obtained are comparable with the bibliography and experimental measurements.
A Decade Review of the Art of Inspection and Monitoring Technologies for Long-Distance Oil and Gas Pipelines in Permafrost Areas

Long-distance oil and gas pipelines buried in permafrost areas will inevitably encounter typical geological disasters, such as frost heave and thaw settlement and sliding, which easily cause pipeline displacement, bending, or deformation. When there are certain defects in the pipeline, additional complex, external stress will further lead to the failure of the pipeline or weld and can even lead to serious accidents such as pipeline leakage, pipe burst, or fracture. This paper introduces in detail the typical defects and risks of buried pipelines in permafrost areas and summarizes the in-line inspection technologies, off-line inspection technologies, and integrated monitoring systems for pipelines in the pipeline industry. Regarding pipelines in permafrost areas, in-line inspection methods may be employed. These include magnetic flux leakage, electromagnetic eddy current, ultrasonic, IMU, and electromagnetic acoustic transducer inspections. Off-line inspection is also one of the important means of inspecting a pipeline in a permafrost area. Indirect inspection is combined with verification by direct inspection to check and evaluate the integrity of the anticorrosive coating and the effectiveness of the cathodic protection for the pipeline. Meanwhile, considering the external environment of a pipeline in a permafrost area, a monitoring system should be developed and established. This paper discusses and projects the future development of related technologies, which provides reference for the construction and operation of pipelines in permafrost areas.
A Bibliometric Analysis of Literature on Prenatal Exposure to Air Pollution: 1994–2022

Early life exposure to air pollutants during pregnancy is one of the leading causes of different health outcomes. However, few studies have provided an overview of this area of research. The aim of this study was to look at the key trends in the research on prenatal exposure to air pollution. Data were retrieved from Web of Science, and the search was conducted based on the paper title, abstract, and keywords. The relevant literature searched was from 1994 to 2022, and 952 English documents were obtained. Of the total documents, 438 documents were included in the review and 83% (n = 365) of the documents were journal articles. Type of document, annual distribution of publications, and distribution of prenatal exposure by countries were extracted. Co-authorship and keywords co-occurrence analyses were also carried out. Of all the countries that published in this field, the United States of America. had the highest number of publications, followed by China. Among the different health and environmental disciplines, 62% (n = 273) of papers came from environmental science. There were limited collaborations among researchers from different countries and institutions. In conclusion, there should be more collaboration among the researchers in this field regarding institutions, countries, and disciplines.
Laser interferometer with a sharply focused beam as a tool for optical tomography

On the base of spatial-temporal analogy in properties of the optical fields the equivalence of temporal and spatial photodetector averaging of light interference field is shown. In the low-coherence interferometry the interferential signal is vanished when optical path difference becomes more than light coherence length lc approximately equals (lambda) 2/(Delta) (lambda) . This value determines the accuracy of the testing of the reflecting layer location. The analogous vanishing of the interferential signal can be realized by a spatial averaging of the interference field in the case of the sufficiently wide receiving photodetector aperture. For such averaging Michelson interferometer with a laser beam focussed on the object surface can be used. In this case interferential signal is vanished when the surface displacement is more than a focussed beam parameter (delta) ((Delta) z) equals (lambda) /(NA)2, where NA is a numerical aperture of the objective. With NA approximately equals 1 only a few oscillations of interferential signal is observed. It is corresponding to advanced achievements of the low-coherence interferometry. The experimental results show a high testing accuracy of the position of smooth and rough surfaces, the thickness of transparent coating attached to the rough surface and multilayered scattering objects. Thus, interferometers with a sharply focussed probing beam can be consider as a good alternative for the low-coherence interferometry and can be used in coherent optical tomography.
Measurement of the 3-D shape of specular polyhedrons using an M-array coded light source

In this paper we describe a method for measuring three-dimensional shape of specular polyhedron by using an M-array coded light source. Determination of a shape of specular surface is important especially for industrial applications. However, owing to specular reflection, it is difficult to measure the shape of specular surfaces by applying the methods for diffusing surfaces. We reconstruct the shape of specular objects from the image of M-array coded light source observed after being reflected by the object. Using the "window property" of M-array, the correspondence is found between a point on the image of reflected light source and a point on light source. By assuming that the surface is locally a plane, normal vectors of the surface are determined from the correspondence, and three-dimensional shape of the surface is reconstructed. This method enables us to measure the shape of specular polyhedron by using a simple equipment. The method was tested for a polyhedron of 10 cm of each side, 50 cm apart from the camera. The shape of the polyhedron was reconstructed correctly. The precision of the measurement was about 1 mm. <<ETX>>
Extraction and Depolymerization of Lignin from Pine Sawdust and Pistachio Shells

Lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable resource that contains three major constituents: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Lignin is a potential source of aromatic phenols. The extraction and subsequent depolymerization of lignin was studied using pine sawdust and pistachio shells. Lignin extraction used 70:30 methyl isobutyl ketone:ethanol followed by 0.1M H2SO4. The extraction yield of lignin was 15.78 ± 3.38% from pistachio shells and 18.86 ± 1.52% from pine sawdust. The extracted lignin was characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and 1H-NMR spectroscopy. The extracted lignin was depolymerized using subcritical water and a Ni-Graphene catalyst at 240 °C for 10 min. The depolymerization products were identified as phenolic monomers, such as phenol, guaiacol, vanillin, syringol, guaiacylpropane, syringaldehyde, coniferaldehyde, synapyl alcohol, and synapyl aldehyde, using GC-MS.
Determination of Optimal Parameters for the Immune Algorithm Used for Solving Inverse Heat Conduction Problems with and without a Phase Change

In this article the inverse heat conduction problem and the inverse Stefan problem with the third kind of boundary condition are solved by applying the immune algorithm. This method has been introduced in recent years and belongs to the group of optimization algorithms inspired by natural processes. In this case the applied algorithm is based on the rules of immune system functioning in vertebrate bodies. It is used for minimizing a functional playing a crucial role in the solution of the problem posed. The algorithm considered is investigated with respect to the parameters which should be chosen in order to provide the most efficient algorithm performance.
Short-Packet Communications for UAV-Based NOMA Systems Under Imperfect CSI and SIC

This paper studies the performance of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-aided short-packet non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems under imperfect channel state information (ipCSI) and successive interference cancellation (ipSIC). Closed-form expressions for the average block-error rate (BLER), throughput, goodput, latency, reliability, and age of information (AoI) are derived. To gain useful insights, an asymptotic BLER analysis is carried out at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime, from which users’ diversity order and the impact of the UAV’s trajectory are deduced. Three optimization problems are formulated in order to: 1) minimize the overall BLER of the user with high quality-of-service by optimizing the power allocation (PA) coefficients; 2) maximize the system throughput by jointly optimizing PA and coding rate (CR) coefficients; 3) minimize AoI by optimizing block-length transmission per-hop transmission. Numerical results show that, at high SNR regime, users’ performance is not influenced by UAVs’ radius and horizontal flight angle when ipCSI occurs. The proposed system achieves better throughput than the baseline schemes and can be further enhanced by jointly optimizing PA and CR. To achieve the minimum AoI, the source and UAV should transmit a moderate block-length for low transmit power, while for moderate and high transmit power, 100 is sufficient.
Bending waves on inviscid columnar vortices

Bending waves, perturbation modes leading to deflections of the vortex centreline, are considered for an infinitely long straight vortex embedded in an irrotational flow of unlimited extent. We first establish the general form of the dispersion relation for long waves on columnar vortices with arbitrary distributions of axial and azimuthal vorticity by a singular perturbation analysis of the Howard-Gupta equation. The asymptotic results are shown to compare favourably with numerical solutions of the Howard-Gupta equation for wavelengths comparable to the vortex core radius and longer. Dispersion relations are then found numerically for specific models of vortex core structures observed experimentally; here no restrictions are placed on wavelength. The linear dispersion relation has an infinite number of branches, falling into two families; one with infinite phase speed at zero wavenumber (which we call ‘fast’ waves), the other with zero phase speed (‘slow’ waves). In the long-wave limit, slow waves have zero group velocity, while the fast waves may have finite non-zero group speeds that depend on the form of the velocity profiles on the axis of rotation. Weakly nonlinear waves are described under most circumstances by the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Solitons are possible in certain ‘windows’ of wavenumbers of the carrier waves. An example has already been presented by Leibovich & Ma (1983), who compute solitons and soliton windows on a fast-wave branch for a vortex with a particular core structure. Experimental data of Maxworthy, Hopfinger & Redekopp (1985) reveal solitons which appear to be associated with the slow branch, and these are computed for velocity profiles fitting their data. The nonlinear Schrödinger equation is shown to fail for long waves, and to be replaced by a nonlinear integro-differential equation.
An efficient interval method for global analysis of non‐linear resistive circuits

A new method for finding the set of all operating points of non-linear resistive circuits is suggested. It takes into account the fact that the circuit equations are in the so-called separable form where any equation fi(x) is the sum of terms fij(xj), each term depending on a single variable. The method is based on the introduction of an approximation of every real non-linear function fij(xj) by an appropriate linear interval function, i.e. by a real linear function having an additive interval term. The parameters of the linear interval approximations are dynamically updated at each iteration of the computational process. Numerical experiments show that the computational efficiency of the new method is vastly superior to that of other known methods for global analysis, especially for circuits of large size. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Near infrared absorption spectrum of liquid water

The near infrared absorption spectrum of liquid water at 20°C has been reinvestigated using a PbS cell detector system. The total spectral range investigated was from 0.70 to 2. 50μ. A curve is included which shows five prominent absorption bands at 0.76, 0.97, 1.19, 1.45, and 1. 94μ; and a table gives experimental results of water absorption at 20°C.
Astrophotometric variability of CFHT-LS Deep 2 QSOs

Context. The current conventional realization of the ICRS (International Celestial Reference System) is, in the radio wavelength, the International Celestial Reference Frame 2 (ICRF2). The individual positions of the defining sources have been found to have accuracies better than 1 milliarcsecond (mas). In 2012, the European astrometric satellite Gaia will be launched. This mission will provide an astrometric catalog of an estimated number of 500000 QSOs. The uncertainty in the coordinates is anticipated to be 200 microarcsecond (μas) for the magnitude = 20. If this were achieved, the ICRF and the Gaia related reference frame could be related with a μas accuracy. Aims. The goal of this work is both to measure the photometric variability of a set of quasars in a given field, and search wether this variability can be related to an astrometric instability characterized by a motion of the quasar photocenter. If this correlation existed for some given QSO, then it would be inadequate to materialize the Gaia extragalactic reference frame at the level of confidence required, i.e. the sub-milliarcsecond one. This should be an important result in the scope of the Gaia mission. Methods. We use QSO CCD images obtained over 4.5 years with the Canada France Hawai Telescope (CFHT) in the framework of the CFHT-Legacy Survey (CFHT-LS). The pictures were analysed with both the SExtractor software and customised codes to perform a photometric calibration together with an astrometric one. A total of 41 QSOs in the Deep 2 field were analysed. Magnitude variations during more than 50 months are given at three different bandwiths G, R, and I. Among the set above, 5 quasars were chosen to test the ties between the postion of their centroid and their magnitude variations. For one of these 5 QSOs, the proximity of a neighbouring star allows the comparison between the PSFs. Results. We clearly show significant photometric variations reaching sometimes more than one magnitude, for a good proportion of the 41 quasars in our sample. We show that these variations often occur within a few months, and that the correlation between the photometric curves in the three bands, G, R and I is obvious. As a second important result, we show that with a reasonably high probability, photometric variations for one quasar in our sample are accompagnied by substantial modification of its PSF.
Proteasome dysfunction induces excessive proteome instability and loss of mitostasis that can be mitigated by enhancing mitochondrial fusion or autophagy

ABSTRACT The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP) is central to proteostasis network (PN) functionality and proteome quality control. Yet, the functional implication of the UPP in tissue homeodynamics at the whole organism level and its potential cross-talk with other proteostatic or mitostatic modules are not well understood. We show here that knock down (KD) of proteasome subunits in Drosophila flies, induced, for most subunits, developmental lethality. Ubiquitous or tissue specific proteasome dysfunction triggered systemic proteome instability and activation of PN modules, including macroautophagy/autophagy, molecular chaperones and the antioxidant cncC (the fly ortholog of NFE2L2/Nrf2) pathway. Also, proteasome KD increased genomic instability, altered metabolic pathways and severely disrupted mitochondrial functionality, triggering a cncC-dependent upregulation of mitostatic genes and enhanced rates of mitophagy. Whereas, overexpression of key regulators of antioxidant responses (e.g., cncC or foxo) could not suppress the deleterious effects of proteasome dysfunction; these were alleviated in both larvae and adult flies by modulating mitochondrial dynamics towards increased fusion or by enhancing autophagy. Our findings reveal the extensive functional wiring of genomic, proteostatic and mitostatic modules in higher metazoans. Also, they support the notion that age-related increase of proteotoxic stress due to decreased UPP activity deregulates all aspects of cellular functionality being thus a driving force for most age-related diseases. Abbreviations: ALP: autophagy-lysosome pathway; ARE: antioxidant response element; Atg8a: autophagy-related 8a; ATPsynβ: ATP synthase, β subunit; C-L: caspase-like proteasomal activity; cncC: cap-n-collar isoform-C; CT-L: chymotrypsin-like proteasomal activity; Drp1: dynamin related protein 1; ER: endoplasmic reticulum; foxo: forkhead box, sub-group O; GLU: glucose; GFP: green fluorescent protein; GLY: glycogen; Hsf: heat shock factor; Hsp: Heat shock protein; Keap1: kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1; Marf: mitochondrial assembly regulatory factor; NFE2L2/Nrf2: nuclear factor, erythroid 2 like 2; Opa1: optic atrophy 1; PN: proteostasis network; RNAi: RNA interference; ROS: reactive oxygen species; ref(2)P: refractory to sigma P; SQSTM1: sequestosome 1; SdhA: succinate dehydrogenase, subunit A; T-L: trypsin-like proteasomal activity; TREH: trehalose; UAS: upstream activation sequence; Ub: ubiquitin; UPR: unfolded protein response; UPP: ubiquitin-proteasome pathway.
Fuzzy algorithms for learning vector quantization: generalizations and extensions

This paper presents a general methodology for the development of fuzzy algorithms for learning vector quantization (FALVQ). These algorithms can be used to train feature maps to perform pattern clustering through an unsupervised learning process. The development of FALVQ algorithms is based on the minimization of a fuzzy objective function, formed as the weighted sum of the squared Euclidean distances between an input vector, which represents a feature vector, and the weight vectors of the map, which represent the prototypes. This formulation leads to the development of genuinely competitive algorithms, which allow all prototypes to compete for matching each input. The FALVQ 1, FALVQ 2, and FALVQ 3 families of algorithms are developed by selecting admissible generalized membership functions with different properties. The efficiency of the proposed algorithms is illustrated by their use in codebook design required for image compression based on vector quantization.
Social Media Affordances of Ephemerality and Permanence: Social Comparison, Self-Esteem, and Body Image Concerns

Instagram provides users with different features, including posts and stories. Instagram post stays on the users’ feeds permanently unless the content is deleted. An Instagram story has an ephemeral nature as the uploaded content vanishes after 24 h. Through a survey of 224 respondents, this study explored individuals’ psychological constructs when using different Instagram features. Instagram usage pattern (i.e., use of different features (video, emoji, etc.), categories of content (food, selfie, etc.) that users usually post, reasons for editing photos (slim body, flawless skin, etc.), amount of time to create and upload a post/story), social comparison, self-esteem, and body image concerns based on the user’s perception of ephemerality and permanency were examined. Results demonstrated that the perception of ephemerality on Instagram stories were negatively related to social comparison and body image concerns. In addition, the longer the amount of time the user spent on posting either a post or story on Instagram, the higher the likelihood the user was to socially compare. Overall, the findings align with previous research suggesting that Instagram users who socially compare are likely to have lower self-esteem and higher body image concerns.
CLINICAL EFFECTS OF HYPERBARIC LIDOCAINE AND BUPIVACAINE IN SPINAL ANESTHESIA – OUR EXPERIENCE

Introduction Various side effects and complications in the perioperative period can occur with the use of hyperbaric lidocaine and bupivacaine. Goal Comparative presentation of the occurrence of side effects and complications of hyperbaric lidocaine and bupivacaine during spinal anesthesia in our patients. Methods The study was retrospective and included 178 patients of both sexes. Patients were divided into two groups. In Group I (n-98) hyperbaric lidocaine 5% was used for spinal block. Group II (n-80) was divided into 2 subgroups, A- where hyperbaric Markain 0.5% was used (n-51), and B (n-29) where hyperbaric Sensorkain 0.75% was used. In the study, we analyzed gender, age, block onset, and complications. Results There were 98 patients in Group I, 79 males and 19 females. There were 80 patients in Group II, 69 males and 11 females. The mean age of patients in Group I was 44.96 and in Group II 48.16 years. There was no statistically significant difference in the age of patients in both groups p> 0.05 (p = 0.2321). The occurrence of spinal block occurred significantly faster in Group I compared to group II (p <0.0001), and in subgroup B faster than in subgroup A (p <0.005). The clinical occurrence of complications and side effects during spinal anesthesia is somewhat more common in spinal block with 5% lidocaine. Conclusion The compared incidence of adverse perioperative clinical effects and complications after administration of hyperbaric lidocaine and bupivacaine in spinal anesthesia was not statistically significant.
How conducting polymer electrodes operate

To optimize devices, elementary steps that store or transfer charge must be identified Organic electrochemical devices, which use conjugated polymers in contact with an electrolyte, have applications in bioelectronics, energy storage, electrocatalysis, and sensors (1, 2). Their operation relies on the oxidation (electron loss) or reduction (electron gain) of the polymer, which are traditionally described as Faradaic processes that transfer charge (3). However, recent evidence from various devices based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) chemically doped with poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is consistent with a purely capacitive process that stores charge (4). To clarify whether PEDOT:PSS is an exception or the rule and determine which processes are capacitive and which are Faradaic, solid-state physics methodology developed to understand the operation of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) can be used (5). Such studies can pave the way for device optimization.