bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Use of Emerging Technologies DIoT: Elderly Daily Living in Post-Epidemic Era
Authors: Li Jie , Goh Wei Wei , Jhanjhi N.Z
Published: January 2021

As the number of aging population increases, their Quality of Life (QoL) becomes a concern in the society. The elderly is not only vulnerable due to their chronic degeneration issues but may also be insensitive to technological innovation which could possibly improve their QoL in the Industrial Revolution 4.0. The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly threatened their well-being in their living context and will consequentially change people’s perspective towards normal lifestyle after this public health crisis. Recent studies have highlighted the usability of the drone technology in the automation of navigation, monitoring, and load carrying which can potentially facilitate various purposes of use in our daily life. This paper reviews recent academic works related to Drone-Based Internet of Things (DIoT) technology and extracts the advantages of DIoT applications, which have the potential to assist elderly’s Activity of Daily Living (ADL) in post-epidemic time. Our results suggest that with the low energy consumption, the DIoT techniques are capable of reducing the body exposure under pandemic situation and satisfying the appreciation to normal and digital-connected life in the future. Nevertheless, the limited flying range and low technology penetration among elderly users significantly impede the implementation of DIoT application. Importantly, the DIoT technology upgrades manpower-based manual work. This paper updates to the knowledge of drone technology application in the context of elderly centre during post-pandemic.
SARS-CoV-2-Diagnostik – was ist wirklich sinnvoll?
Authors: Floß Niklas , Rassaf Tienush , Rohn Hana , Witzke Oliver
Published: January 2021

Den Goldstandard zur Diagnose einer Infektion mit SARS-CoV-2 stellt aktuell (Stand November 2020) die PCR-Untersuchung dar. Diese ist jedoch vor allem zeitintensiv. In Zukunft könnten sog. Antigentests schnell und patientennah als Point-of-Care-Methode durchgeführt werden, um die Diagnosestellung einer SARS-CoV-2 Infektion zu erleichtern. Veränderungen serologischer Biomarker (wie D-Dimere, Troponin T, CRP) können helfen, Patienten mit einem Risiko für einen schweren COVID-19-Verlauf zu identifizieren. Ein routinemäßiges Screening-CT-Thorax zur Identifizierung einer COVID-19-Pneumonie wird derzeit von den meisten radiologischen Gesellschaften nicht empfohlen. Dennoch nimmt die Zahl der durchgeführten CT-Untersuchungen kontinuierlich zu, und die radiologische Diagnostik nimmt bei an COVID-19 erkrankten Patienten mit pulmonalen Symptomen einen immer wichtigeren Stellenwert in der klinischen Erfassung der Schwere der Lungenbeteiligung ein.
A Comparative Analysis of Ophthalmology Resident Physician Performance Based on Use of Parental Leave
Authors: Fliotsos Michael J. , Zafar Sidra , Woreta Fasika A. , Ugoh Peter M. , Srikumaran Divya
Published: January 2021

Background Taking parental leave during ophthalmology residency may be perceived to negatively affect resident surgical volume and educational outcomes. However, limited data exist on whether taking parental leave is associated with objective measures of resident performance. The objective of the present study was to determine the association between taking parental leave and key measures of resident performance.

Methods Educational records of ophthalmology resident physicians who graduated from 2015 to 2019 at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Wilmer Eye Institute were reviewed. Measures of resident performance assessed were Ophthalmic Knowledge Assessment Program scores, number of publications during residency, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education milestones scores, and surgical volumes. These outcomes were compared for residents who took parental leave compared with their peers who did not take parental leave.

Results Twenty-five residents were included in the study. Four female residents (16%) took parental leave 8 weeks in duration. There were no significant differences between residents who did and did not take parental leave when considering mean Ophthalmic Knowledge Assessment Program scores (p = 0.27), number of publications during residency (p = 0.19), milestone scores (p-value range 0.09–0.40), and surgical volume by subspecialty category (p-value range 0.11–0.45).

Conclusion Parental leave did not negatively influence any of the studied measures of resident performance.
Effect of Mind-Body Approaches on Menopausal Symptoms among Women: A Community-Based Pilot Study
Authors: Thomas Timi , Kamath Neetha , Kumar Ajay , D’Silva Fatima
Published: January 2021

Introduction The process of women aging is characterized by a gradual transition from reproductive to nonreproductive life period. These changes in aging during menopause are accompanied by a wide range of physiological as well as psychological disturbing symptoms. The traditional therapeutic approach toward menopause management is hormone replacement therapy, which increases the risk of breast cancer, stroke, and coronary heart disease. However, the efficacy of complementary and alternative therapies like mind-body approach to troublesome hot flashes, anxiety, and depression is widely proven and it is used by many women. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the mind-body approach on menopausal symptoms among women.

Methods A quantitative research approach with quasi-experimental pretest–post-test design was adopted in the study. A total of 20 samples between the ages of 48 to 55 years with menopausal symptoms were the participants. The intervention of mind body approach (Mindfulness meditation) was performed for 8 weeks, which includes 35 minutes of session per day.

Results The majority (80%) of the participants were in the age group of 51 to 53 years and 50% of the participants attained menopause between 49 and 50 years. The results showed that the mean post-test menopausal symptom score was 15.60 ± 2.633 which was lower than the mean pretest score 28.420 ± 1.476 and the calculated t-value, t = 10.157 is greater than the table value (p < 0.001) at 0.001 level of significance. Hence, it is evident that the practice of mind-body approach was effective in reducing the intensity of menopausal symptoms among women.

Conclusion The study concludes that the practice of mind-body approach helped in reducing the menopausal symptoms on the domain of psychological and Somato vegetative scale like anxiety, depression, reduction in the intensity of hot flushes, and improved the sleeping pattern. Overall, the practice of Mindfulness meditation helped the participants to have a better quality of life. The study was found to be cost-effective and feasible to be made as a routine intervention for women to manage menopausal symptoms.
Transdisciplinary participatory-action-research from questions to actionable knowledge for sustainable viticulture development
Authors: Masson Jean E. , Soustre-Gacougnolle Isabelle , Perrin Mireille , Schmitt Carine , Henaux Mélanie , Jaugey Caroline , Teillet Emma , Lollier Marc , Lallemand Jean-François , Schermesser Frederic ,   GIEE Westhalten, Isner P. , Schaeffer P. , Koehler C. , Rominger C. , Boesch M. , Rué P. , Miclo Y. , Bursin A. , Dauer E. , Hetsch J. M. , Burgenath M. , Bauer J. , Breuzard M. , Muré V. , Cousin F. , Lassablière R.
Published: January 2021

Viticulture negatively impacts the environment, biodiversity, and human health; however, despite the widely acknowledged challenges that this intensive agricultural activity poses to sustainable development, measures to reduce its invasiveness are constantly being deferred or rebuffed. Constraints to change are linked to vine cultivation methods, the impacts of climate change on vine resilience and disease sensitivity, and socio-economic models, as well as growing criticisms from society. Research and training have thus far failed to provide solutions or mobilise stakeholders on a large scale. Such resistance to sustainable practices development calls into question the effectiveness of knowledge production systems and relations between scientists, winegrowers, and society: Have scientific disciplines overly isolated themselves from each other and from the wider society to the point of losing the capacity to incorporate alternative forms of knowledge and reasoning and achieve collaborative action? Herein, we describe our findings from a participatory action research project that began in Westhalten, France, in 2013 and ultimately spread to Switzerland and Germany over the next 6 years. We show that participatory action research can mobilise long-term collaborations between winegrowers, NGOs, advisers, elected officials, members of civil society, and researchers, despite differing visions of viticulture and the environment. The epistemological framework of this research promotes consensus-building by valuing complexity and dissensus in knowledge and reasoning such that all actors are involved in experimentation and the production of results. From these findings, consensus statements were collectively elaborated in qualitative and quantitative registers. Once acknowledged by the scientific community, these consensus statements became shareable knowledge. We propose that this renewed interdisciplinarity associating the human and social sciences with agronomic and biological sciences in collaboration with stakeholders produces actionable knowledge that mobilises and engages winegrowers to conceive and implement sustainable viticulture on a transnational scale.
AI-assisted peer review
Authors: Checco Alessandro , Bracciale Lorenzo , Loreti Pierpaolo , Pinfield Stephen , Bianchi Giuseppe
Published: January 2021

The scientific literature peer review workflow is under strain because of the constant growth of submission volume. One response to this is to make initial screening of submissions less time intensive. Reducing screening and review time would save millions of working hours and potentially boost academic productivity. Many platforms have already started to use automated screening tools, to prevent plagiarism and failure to respect format requirements. Some tools even attempt to flag the quality of a study or summarise its content, to reduce reviewers’ load. The recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) create the potential for (semi) automated peer review systems, where potentially low-quality or controversial studies could be flagged, and reviewer-document matching could be performed in an automated manner. However, there are ethical concerns, which arise from such approaches, particularly associated with bias and the extent to which AI systems may replicate bias. Our main goal in this study is to discuss the potential, pitfalls, and uncertainties of the use of AI to approximate or assist human decisions in the quality assurance and peer-review process associated with research outputs. We design an AI tool and train it with 3300 papers from three conferences, together with their reviews evaluations. We then test the ability of the AI in predicting the review score of a new, unobserved manuscript, only using its textual content. We show that such techniques can reveal correlations between the decision process and other quality proxy measures, uncovering potential biases of the review process. Finally, we discuss the opportunities, but also the potential unintended consequences of these techniques in terms of algorithmic bias and ethical concerns.
An approach to integrate population mobility patterns and sociocultural factors in communicable disease preparedness and response
Authors: Merrill Rebecca D. , Chabi Ali Imorou Bah , McIntyre Elvira , Kouassi Jules Venance , Alleby Martial Monney , Codja Corrine , Tante Ouyi , Martial Godjedo Togbemabou Primous , Kone Idriss , Ward Sarah , Agbeko Tamekloe Tsidi , Kakaı Clement Glèlè
Published: January 2021

Complex human movement patterns driven by a range of economic, health, social, and environmental factors influence communicable disease spread. Further, cross-border movement impacts disparate public health systems of neighboring countries, making an effective response to disease importation or exportation more challenging. Despite the array of quantitative techniques and social science approaches available to analyze movement patterns, there continues to be a dearth of methods within the applied public health setting to gather and use information about community-level mobility dynamics. Population Connectivity Across Borders (PopCAB) is a rapidly-deployable toolkit to characterize multisectoral movement patterns through community engagement using focus group discussions or key informant interviews, each with participatory mapping, and apply the results to tailor preparedness and response strategies. The Togo and Benin Ministries of Health (MOH), in collaboration with the Abidjan Lagos Corridor Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adapted and applied PopCAB to inform cross-border preparedness and response strategies for multinational Lassa fever outbreaks. Initially, the team implemented binational, national-level PopCAB activities in March 2017, highlighting details about a circular migration pathway across northern Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. After applying those results to respond to a cross-border Lassa fever outbreak in February 2018, the team designed an expanded PopCAB initiative in April 2018. In eight days, they trained 54 MOH staff who implemented 21 PopCAB focus group discussions in 14 cities with 224 community-level participants representing six stakeholder groups. Using the newly-identified 167 points of interest and 176 routes associated with a circular migration pathway across Togo, Benin, and Nigeria, the Togo and Benin MOH refined their cross-border information sharing and collaboration processes for Lassa fever and other communicable diseases, selected health facilities with increased community connectivity for enhanced training, and identified techniques to better integrate traditional healers in surveillance and community education strategies. They also integrated the final toolkit in national- and district-level public health preparedness plans. Integrating PopCAB in public health practice to better understand and accommodate population movement patterns can help countries mitigate the international spread of disease in support of improved global health security and International Health Regulations requirements.
Nanoscale imaging of Gilbert damping using signal amplitude mapping
Authors: Wu Guanzhong , Cheng Yang , Guo Side , Yang Fengyuan , Pelekhov Denis V. , Hammel P. Chris
Published: January 2021

Ferromagnetic resonance force microscopy (FMRFM) is a powerful scanned probe technique that uses sub-micrometer-scale, spatially localized standing spin wave modes (LMs) to perform local ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements. Here, we show the spatially resolved imaging of Gilbert damping in a ferromagnetic material (FM) using FMRFM. Typically damping is measured from the FMR linewidth. We demonstrate an approach to image the spatial variation of Gilbert damping utilizing the LM resonance peak height to measure the LM resonance cone angle. This approach enables determination of damping through field-swept FMRFM at a single excitation frequency. The extreme force sensitivity of ∼2 fN at room temperature can resolve changes of Gilbert damping as small as ∼2×10−4 at 2 GHz, corresponding to ∼0.16 Oe in FMR linewidth resolution. This high sensitivity, high spatial resolution, and single frequency imaging of Gilbert damping creates the opportunity to study spin interactions at the interface between an insulating FM and a small volume of nonmagnetic material such as atomically thin two-dimensional materials.
The mechanism of surface cooling by a horizontal layer of liquid evaporating at low reduced pressures
Authors: Zhukov V. I. , Pavlenko A. N.
Published: January 2021

We investigated the process of cooling the surface with a thin layer of liquid at low reduced pressures, consisting of two characteristic periods. In the first period, coherent structures in the form of plumes appeared in the layer. In the second period, the layer was destroyed with the formation of structures in the form of moving “craters,” accompanied by a massive droplet ejection, intense mixing, and pressure and temperature growth. At the point of layer destruction, thermodynamic equilibrium was established within the system.
Measuring synchrony in bio-medical timeseries
Authors: Leguia Marc G. , Rao Vikram R. , Kleen Jonathan K. , Baud Maxime O.
Published: January 2021

Paroxysms are sudden, unpredictable, short-lived events that abound in physiological processes and pathological disorders, from cellular functions (e.g., hormone secretion and neuronal firing) to life-threatening attacks (e.g., cardiac arrhythmia, epileptic seizures, and diabetic ketoacidosis). With the increasing use of personal chronic monitoring (e.g., electrocardiography, electroencephalography, and glucose monitors), the discovery of cycles in health and disease, and the emerging possibility of forecasting paroxysms, the need for suitable methods to evaluate synchrony—or phase-clustering—between events and related underlying physiological fluctuations is pressing. Here, based on examples in epilepsy, where seizures occur preferentially in certain brain states, we characterize different methods that evaluate synchrony in a controlled timeseries simulation framework. First, we compare two methods for extracting the phase of event occurrence and deriving the phase-locking value, a measure of synchrony: (M1) fitting cycles of fixed period-length vs (M2) deriving continuous cycles from a biomarker. In our simulations, M2 provides stronger evidence for cycles. Second, by systematically testing the sensitivity of both methods to non-stationarity in the underlying cycle, we show that M2 is more robust. Third, we characterize errors in circular statistics applied to timeseries with different degrees of temporal clustering and tested with different strategies: Rayleigh test, Poisson simulations, and surrogate timeseries. Using epilepsy data from 21 human subjects, we show the superiority of testing against surrogate time-series to minimize false positives and false negatives, especially when used in combination with M1. In conclusion, we show that only time frequency analysis of continuous recordings of a related bio-marker reveals the full extent of cyclical behavior in events. Identifying and forecasting cycles in biomedical timeseries will benefit from recordings using emerging wearable and implantable devices, so long as conclusions are based on conservative statistical testing.
Dirac operator on the quantum fuzzy four-sphere SqF4
Authors: Lotfizadeh M.
Published: January 2021

q-deformed fuzzy Dirac and chirality operators on quantum fuzzy four-sphere SqF4 are studied in this article. Using the q-deformed fuzzy Ginsparg–Wilson algebra, the q-deformed fuzzy Dirac and chirality operators in an instanton and no-instanton sector are studied. In addition, gauged Dirac and chirality operators in both cases have also been constructed. It has been shown that in each step, our results have a correct commutative limit in the limit case when q → 1 and the noncommutative parameter l tends to infinity.
Advances in imaging of chemically reacting flows
Authors: Frank Jonathan H.
Published: January 2021

Many important chemically reacting systems are inherently multi-dimensional with spatial and temporal variations in the thermochemical state, which can be strongly coupled to interactions with transport processes. Fundamental insights into these systems require multi-dimensional measurements of the thermochemical state as well as fluid dynamics quantities. Laser-based imaging diagnostics provide spatially and temporally resolved measurements that help address this need. The state of the art in imaging diagnostics is continually progressing with the goal of attaining simultaneous multi-parameter measurements that capture transient processes, particularly those that lead to stochastic events, such as localized extinction in turbulent combustion. Development efforts in imaging diagnostics benefit from advances in laser and detector technology. This article provides a perspective on the progression of increasing dimensionality of laser-based imaging diagnostics and highlights the evolution from single-point measurements to 1D and 2D multi-parameter imaging and 3D high-speed imaging. This evolution is demonstrated using highlights of laser-based imaging techniques in combustion science research as an exemplar of a complex multi-dimensional chemically reacting system with chemistry–transport coupling. Imaging diagnostics impact basic research in other chemically reacting systems as well, such as measurements of near-surface gases in heterogeneous catalysis. The expanding dimensionality of imaging diagnostics leads to larger and more complex datasets that require increasingly demanding approaches to data analysis and provide opportunities for increased collaboration between experimental and computational researchers in tackling these challenges.
Smale–Williams solenoids in autonomous system with saddle equilibrium
Authors: Kuznetsov S. P. , Kruglov V. P. , Sataev I. R.
Published: January 2021

We construct an autonomous low-dimensional system of differential equations by replacement of real-valued variables with complex-valued variables in a self-oscillating system with homoclinic loops of a saddle. We provide analytical and numerical indications and argue that the emerging chaotic attractor is a uniformly hyperbolic chaotic attractor of Smale–Williams type. The four-dimensional phase space of the flow consists of two parts: a vicinity of a saddle equilibrium with two pairs of equal eigenvalues where the angular variable undergoes a Bernoulli map, and a region which ensures that the trajectories return to the origin without angular variable changing. The trajectories of the flow approach and leave the vicinity of the saddle equilibrium with the arguments of complex variables undergoing a Bernoulli map on each return. This makes possible the formation of the attractor of a Smale–Williams type in Poincaré cross section. In essence, our model resembles complex amplitude equations governing the dynamics of wave envelops or spatial Fourier modes. We discuss the roughness and generality of our scheme.
Peptide functionalized liposomes for receptor targeted cancer therapy
Authors: Aronson Matthew R. , Medina Scott H. , Mitchell Michael J.
Published: January 2021

Most clinically approved cancer therapies are potent and toxic small molecules that are limited by severe off-target toxicities and poor tumor-specific localization. Over the past few decades, attempts have been made to load chemotherapies into liposomes, which act to deliver the therapeutic agent directly to the tumor. Although liposomal encapsulation has been shown to decrease toxicity in human patients, reliance on passive targeting via the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect has left some of these issues unresolved. Recently, investigations into modifying the surface of liposomes via covalent and/or electrostatic functionalization have offered mechanisms for tumor homing and subsequently controlled chemotherapeutic delivery. A wide variety of biomolecules can be utilized to functionalize liposomes such as proteins, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids, which enable multiple directions for cancer cell localization. Importantly, when nanoparticles are modified with such molecules, care must be taken as not to inactivate or denature the ligand. Peptides, which are small proteins with <30 amino acids, have demonstrated the exceptional ability to act as ligands for transmembrane protein receptors overexpressed in many tumor phenotypes. Exploring this strategy offers a method in tumor targeting for cancers such as glioblastoma multiforme, pancreatic, lung, and breast based on the manifold of receptors overexpressed on various tumor cell populations. In this review, we offer a comprehensive summary of peptide-functionalized liposomes for receptor-targeted cancer therapy.
Experimental conditions for generation of space-charge limitation in atmospheric pressure non-thermal-equilibrium argon plasma
Authors: Yambe Kiyoyuki , Kuramoto Naoya
Published: January 2021

The dependence of the charge of an atmospheric-pressure non-thermal-equilibrium argon plasma incident on a copper object under floating conditions was investigated. The plasma generation and propagation charges, which are the time integral of the current, were estimated from the power-line current and the current passing through a quartz tube from which the plasma was emitted, which was measured using a current monitor. The plasma generation and propagation charges increased with the surface area of the copper object. The phenomenon of space-charge limitation was confirmed from the dependence of the plasma charge on the surface area of the copper object. The drift velocity of the plasma charge was estimated based on the relationship between the difference in measurement times considering the positions of the current monitors. The charge flux was estimated from the plasma charge and its drift velocity. The charge flux was linearly proportional to the product of the square of the applied voltage and the surface area of the copper object. Consequently, from Gauss's law, it was clarified that space-charge limitation occurs when the sum of the charge flux and the product of the square of the applied voltage and the surface area of the copper object is excessive for the product of the constants of permittivity and electron mobility.
Improving energy efficiency of magnetic CO2 methanation by modifying coil design, heating agents, and by using eddy currents as the complementary heating source
Authors: Faure Stéphane , Kale Sumeet S. , Mille Nicolas , Cayez Simon , Ourlin Thibault , Soulantica Katerina , Carrey Julian , Chaudret Bruno
Published: January 2021

The Sabatier reaction activated by high-frequency magnetic fields is a promising approach for the power-to-gas process because of expected high energy efficiencies and fast switch-on times. Recent progresses have been achieved by combining nanoparticles displaying both a high heating power and a good catalytic activity. Here, we alternatively use iron microparticles associated with our own-designed Ni/CeO2 catalyst. The heating agent is cheap and abundant, and we demonstrate that the presence of eddy currents in the system improves its heating performance. The contribution of eddy currents to global heating is successfully determined by an original protocol consisting in comparing a calorimetric and a high-frequency hysteresis loop-based method to measure heating power. In addition, the optimization of the catalyst bed using SiC-spacers limits sintering and thus improves the durability of the catalyst. The energy efficiency of the catalysis process, calculated as a function of coil consumption and gas flow, is clearly improved by the use of an air-cooled Litz wire coil. These improvements are a step forward toward the development of a cheap and efficient process for chemical energy storage.
Self-compensation in heavily Ge doped AlGaN: A comparison to Si doping
Authors: Washiyama Shun , Mirrielees Kelsey J. , Bagheri Pegah , Baker Jonathon N. , Kim Ji-Hyun , Guo Qiang , Kirste Ronny , Guan Yan , Breckenridge M. Hayden , Klump Andrew J. , Reddy Pramod , Mita Seiji , Irving Douglas L. , Collazo Ramón , Sitar Zlatko
Published: January 2021

Self-compensation in Ge- and Si-doped Al0.3Ga0.7N has been investigated in terms of the formation of III vacancy and donor-vacancy complexes. Both Ge- and Si-doped AlGaN layers showed a compensation knee behavior with impurity compensation (low doping regime), compensation plateau (medium doping regime), and self-compensation (high doping regime). A maximum free carrier concentration of 4–5 × 1019 cm−3 was obtained by Ge doping, whereas Si doping resulted in only half of that value, ∼2 × 1019 cm−3. A DFT calculation with the grand canonical thermodynamics model was developed to support the hypothesis that the difference in self-compensation arises from the difference in the formation energies of the VIII-n•donor complexes relative to their onsite configurations. The model suggested that the VIII-2•donor and VIII-3•donor complexes were responsible for self-compensation for both Ge- and Si-doped AlGaN. However, a lower free carrier concentration in Si-doped samples was due to a high VIII-3•Si concentration, resulting from a lower energy of formation of VIII-3•Si.
Non-reciprocal voltage–current and impedance gyration effects in ferrite/piezoelectric toroidal magnetoelectric composites
Authors: Zhang Jitao , Ge Bingfeng , Zhang Qingfang , Filippov D. A. , Wu Jie , Tao Jiagui , Jia Zicheng , Jiang Liying , Cao Lingzhi , Srinivasan Gopalan
Published: January 2021

A compact, efficient, and passive magnetoelectric (ME) gyrator consisting of a toroidal ferrite/piezoelectric composite and coil was developed, and its non-reciprocal V–I/I–V and bidirectional impedance conversion properties were systemically characterized. When a maximum V/I coefficient of 115 V/A over RL > 10 kΩ was obtained for the direct ME effect configuration, the output power reaches its maximum of 2.59 μW for optimum RL = 65 Ω at a constant input density of 48.4 μW/cm3, and when an inverse I/V coefficient was obtained, the output power reaches its maximum at 1.4 mA/V and 0.83 μW under optimum RL = 260 Ω and a constant input of 32.3 μW/cm3. Correspondingly, resistance-controlled capacitive/inductance tunabilities of 31 pF/Ω and 0.37 μH/Ω were achieved. Compared to traditional rectangular ME gyrators, the toroidal one has desired electromagnetic interference (EMI) tolerances due to its lower shape-induced anisotropy, near-zero demagnetization effects, and closed magnetic circuit. These findings provided more flexibility of the device design for efficient and compact power electronics deployed in circumstances where the lower EMI at higher frequencies was required.
Frequency properties of a flexible printed circuit coil and inductive measurement of conductivity
Authors: Cheng Weiying , Hashizume Hidetoshi
Published: January 2021

This study investigated the frequency properties of a flexible printed circuit (FPC) coil and applied it to detect conductivity change of non-ferromagnetic metal materials. Theoretical analysis and measurements showed that the coil’s resistance and inductance are almost frequency-invariant in a particular frequency range; the coil circuit resonates at its self-resonant frequency. With no concern for its thickness, the conductivity of a test object can be measured with high sensitivity and accuracy by using the coil in its frequency-invariant range, based on the “same ωσ, same impedance” principle. In the case that the influence of thickness has to be eliminated, the variation of conductivity can be sensitively detected by using the coil’s resonant properties. The proposed methods have been verified with measurement of standard test pieces whose conductivities were given in advance, and applied to detect conductivity change of deteriorated tube.
Thickness dependence of spin torque effect in Fe/MgO/Fe magnetic tunnel junction: Implementation of divide-and-conquer with first-principles calculation
Authors: Huang Bao-Huei , Chao Chia-Chia , Tang Yu-Hui
Published: January 2021

In this study, we develop a divide-and-conquer (DC) method under the framework of first-principles calculation to prevent directly solving Hamiltonian of a large device with time-consuming self-consistent process. The DC implementation combined with JunPy package reveals the oscillatory decay of layer-resolved spin torques away from the MgO/Fe interface, and suggests a very thin Fe layer thickness below 2 nm to preserve the efficient current-driven magnetization switch. This newly developed JunPy-DC calculation may efficiently resolve current self-consistent difficulties in noncollinear spin torque effects for novel spintronic applications with complex magnetic heterostructures.
Neutron diffraction study of the Cr84.7Re15.3 alloy
Authors: Jacobs B. S. , Prinsloo A. R. E. , Venter A. M. , Sentsho Z. N. , Studer A. J. , Sheppard C. J.
Published: January 2021

Measurements of the temperature dependence of electrical resistance (R) and neutron powder diffraction (NPD) of a Cr84.7Re15.3 alloy is reported. The magnetism originates from the formation of a spin-density-wave (SDW) as a result of nesting between the electron and hole sheets at the Fermi surface (FS). NPD revealed the magnetic character of the SDW to be commensurate (C) with the lattice with a Néel temperature (TN) of 560 ± 5K that correlates to TN = 585 ± 5K determined from the saddle point in the R(T) results. A power law fit Iα(1−TTN)2β of the neutron data gave β = 0.36(1), indicating that the AF ordering follows the 3D Heisenberg model. An additional antiferromagnetic magnetic contribution, associated with Cr2O3, was observed to co-exist in the alloy. Quantification analyses revealed that the Cr2O3 content was less than 2 wt.%. A β value of 0.30(1) was determined for the magnetic phase transition of Cr2O3 in correspondence with the 3D Ising model.
Thermal stability and magnetization switching of composite free layer with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
Authors: Volvach I. , Fullerton E. E. , Lomakin V.
Published: January 2021

We present a micromagnetic study of a ferromagnetically exchange-coupled composite free layer design for perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions. The thermal stability factor and critical switching current density depend on the exchange coupling strength and effective anisotropy ratio between the sublayers of the composite free layer. The energy barrier increases with an increase of the exchange coupling strength until it reaches a plateau in the strong-coupling limit. An optimal exchange coupling strength exists that leads to the minimal critical switching current and a significant improvement of the figure of merit defined as the ratio between the energy barrier and critical switching current. This behavior is obtained for smaller device sizes with uniform reversal and larger sizes with domain wall reversal.
Personal experiences bridge moral and political divides better than facts
Authors: Kubin Emily , Puryear Curtis , Schein Chelsea , Gray Kurt
Published: January 2021

Significance

All Americans are affected by rising political polarization, whether because of a gridlocked Congress or antagonistic holiday dinners. People believe that facts are essential for earning the respect of political adversaries, but our research shows that this belief is wrong. We find that sharing personal experiences about a political issue—especially experiences involving harm—help to foster respect via increased perceptions of rationality. This research provides a straightforward pathway for increasing moral understanding and decreasing political intolerance. These findings also raise questions about how science and society should understand the nature of truth in the era of “fake news.” In moral and political disagreements, everyday people treat subjective experiences as truer than objective facts.
Anomalous influenza seasonality in the United States and the emergence of novel influenza B viruses
Authors: Borchering Rebecca K. , Gunning Christian E. , Gokhale Deven V. , Weedop K. Bodie , Saeidpour Arash , Brett Tobias S. , Rohani Pejman
Published: January 2021

Significance

Influenza A viruses are known for persistent change that allows them to reinfect individuals. Recently, influenza B viruses have shown accelerated rates of evolutionary change, but their epidemiological consequences are not understood. We use quantitative methods to explore whether the unusually early start of the US 2019/2020 influenza B season relates to changes in the structure of influenza B/Victoria viruses. A combination of simulation studies and model-fitting exercises demonstrate that atypical 2019 influenza dynamics are better explained by changes in virus transmissibility and population susceptibility than by a competitive interaction between influenza A and B. Anticipating the timing of influenza A and influenza B epidemics could improve vaccination schedules, so that individuals have protection throughout the influenza season.
Soils.
Authors: Whalen Joann
Published: January 2021

Field-grown horticultural crops are rooted in the soil, a layer of fragmented rocks and decomposing organic matter that provides the physical support as well as most of the water and essential nutrients for crop growth. The soil's ability to buffer chemical reactions controls the supply of nutrients to crops and binds inorganic salts, trace metals and organic compounds that could prove potentially toxic to crops. Soil is also home to a myriad of microorganisms and soil fauna, many of which prove beneficial to the growth of horticultural crops.
The Costs of Going Global
Authors: Stobb Maureen
Published: January 2021

Supreme Court influence depends greatly on the responses of lower court judges to its precedent. Justices employ numerous strategies to obtain lower court deference to their decisions, including the provocative practice of relying upon foreign law. Referred to as “constitutional cross-fertilization” when used in constitutional interpretation, this practice is labeled by critics as a threat to American democracy. Research suggests that the Court uses such references strategically to prop up controversial and ideologically charged decisions, and that they obtain a benefit in the form of increased citations. These studies do not tell us if the Court gains lower court deference. I contend that, in constitutional cases, lower court judges will not find reliance upon such sources persuasive; rather, they will regard these references with disdain. My findings support my argument. Contrary to the justices’ intentions, reliance upon foreign law in constitutional cases is associated with an increased probability of negative, as opposed to positive, treatment. Justices incur significant costs from participating in the global rights dialogue.
Agenda Setting and Attention to Precedent in the US Federal Courts
Authors: Duck-Mayr JBrandon , Hansford Thomas G. , Spriggs James F.
Published: January 2021

To what degree is judicial agenda setting top-down or bottom-up? Existing studies lack evidence of the frequency or magnitude of these two processes. We conceptualize the judicial agenda as the legal questions/rules receiving judicial attention, measure it using citations to Supreme Court opinions, and estimate vector autoregression models to identify how each level of court initiates or responds to variation in attention to precedent at other levels of the judiciary. The Supreme Court exerts some top-down control, but agenda setting is more often bottom-up, revealing lower courts are more integral to setting the federal judicial agenda than previously understood.
Non-perturbative quantum corrections to a Born–Infeld black hole and its information geometry
Authors: Pourhassan Behnam , Dehghani Mohsen , Faizal Mir , Dey Sanjib
Published: January 2021

We study the non-perturbative quantum corrections to a Born–Infeld black hole in a spherical cavity. These quantum corrections produce a non-trivial short distances modification to the relation between the entropy and area of this black hole. The non-perturbative quantum correction appears as an exponential term in the black hole entropy. This in turn modifies the thermodynamics of a given system, for example reduced value of the Helmholtz free energy. Moreover, the first law of black hole thermodynamics modified due to quantum corrections. We also investigate the effect of such non-perturbative corrections on the information geometry of this system. This is done using some famous information metrics.
Neutrino invisible decay at DUNE: a multi-channel analysis
Authors: Ghoshal Anish , Giarnetti Alessio , Meloni Davide
Published: January 2021

The hypothesis of the decay of neutrino mass eigenstates leads to a substantial modification of the appearance and disappearance probabilities of flavor eigenstates. We investigate the impact on the standard oscillation scenario caused by the decay of the heaviest mass eigenstate ν
3 (with a mass m
3 and a mean life τ
3) to a sterile state in deep underground neutrino experiment. We find that the lower bound of 5.1 × 10−11 s eV−1 at 90% confidence level on the decay parameter τ
3/m
3 can be set if the neutral current data are included in the analysis, thus providing the best long-baseline expected limit so far. We also show that the ν

τ
appearance channel would give only a negligible contribution to the decay parameter constraints. Our numerical results are corroborated by analytical formulae for the appearance and disappearance probabilities in vacuum (which is a useful approximation for the study of the invisible decay model) that we have developed up to the second order in the solar mass splitting and to all orders in the decay factor t/τ
3.
Nano-sized composite improving the insulating performance of insulating paper using low-temperature plasmas
Authors: Wu Shilin , Zhang Cheng , Zhang Chuansheng , Yu Weixin , Yang Qing , Shao Tao
Published: January 2021

Nanostructured dielectric composite has been considered as a promising manner in improving the flashover performance of oil-paper which has been widely used in power systems. In this paper, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) is used to deposit SiO2 on the ceramic fiber-reinforced insulating paper. Scanning electron microscope images show a large number of SiO2 nanoparticles with diameters of 100 nm–250 nm uniformly attached to the fiber surface after the plasma deposition. The surface flashover voltage of the insulating paper was tested in the air and the transformer oil, respectively. Results show that the corresponding DC surface flashover voltages increased by 15.1% in the air and breakdown between liquid and solid interface increased by 24.6% after the PECVD. It is believed that nanoparticles constructed in ceramic fibers change the electron injection barrier which inhibits the injection of negative charges and hinders the accumulation of charges in the dielectric. Nanoparticles can capture electric charges formed in the transformer oil which affects the generation and development of streamers, resulting in an increased dielectric strength. This study provides a new method to comprehensively improve the surface insulating property which has the prospect of promoting other dielectric materials.
Ice-templated hybrid graphene oxide—graphene nanoplatelet lamellar architectures: tuning mechanical and electrical properties
Authors: Yang Pei , Tontini Gustavo , Wang Jiacheng , Kinloch Ian A , Barg Suelen
Published: January 2021

The traditional freeze-casting route for processing graphene-based aerogels is generally restricted to aqueously dispersed flakes of graphene oxide (GO) and post-processing reduction treatments, which brings restrictions to the aerogels electrical properties. In this work, we report a versatile aqueous processing route that uses the ability of GO todisperse graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) to produce rGO-GNP lamellar aerogels via unidirectional freeze-casting. In order to optimise the properties of the aerogel, GO-GNP dispersions were partially reduced by L-ascorbic acid prior to freeze-casting to tune the carbon and oxygen (C/O) ratio. The aerogels were then heat treated after casting to fully reduce the GO. The chemical reduction time was found to control the microstructure of the resulting aeorgels and thus to tune their electrical and mechanical properties. An rGO-GNP lamellar aerogel with density of 20.8 ± 0.8 mg cm−3 reducing using a reduction of 60 min achieved an electrical conductivity of 42.3 S m−1. On the other hand, an optimal reduction time of 35 min led to an aerogel with compressive modulus of 0.51 ±0.06 MPa at a density of 23.2 ± 0.7 mg cm−3, revealing a compromise between the tuning of electrical and mechanical properties. We show the present processing route can also be easily applied to produce lamellar aerogels on other graphene-based materials such as electrochemically exfoliated graphene.
Loschmidt echo singularities as dynamical signatures of strongly localized phases
Authors: Benini Leonardo , Naldesi Piero , Römer Rudolf A , Roscilde Tommaso
Published: January 2021

Quantum localization (single-body or many-body) comes with the emergence of local conserved quantities—whose conservation is precisely at the heart of the absence of transport through the system. In the case of fermionic systems and S = 1/2 spin models, such conserved quantities take the form of effective two-level systems, called l-bits. While their existence is the defining feature of localized phases, their direct experimental observation remains elusive. Here we show that strongly localized l-bits bear a dramatic universal signature, accessible to state-of-the-art quantum simulators, in the form of periodic cusp singularities in the Loschmidt echo following a quantum quench from a Néel/charge-density-wave state. Such singularities are perfectly captured by a simple model of Rabi oscillations of an ensemble of independent two-level systems, which also reproduces the short-time behavior of the entanglement entropy and the imbalance dynamics. In the case of interacting localized phases, the dynamics at longer times shows a sharp crossover to a faster decay of the Loschmidt echo singularities, offering an experimentally accessible signature of the interactions between l-bits.
Evaluation of corrosion resistance of corrosion inhibitors in concrete structures by Impressed voltage test
Authors: Satish V L , Ravindra V
Published: January 2021

There are several commercially marketed corrosions inhibiting admixtures for concrete, presently not tested adequately and lack long term performance results. In this study laboratory studies were conducted on two commercially available Corrosion inhibitors to determine the effectiveness and their corrosion resistance parameters of concrete with OPC and PPC. This study examined the durability parameters in concretes mixed with Anodic Inhibitor (Calcium Nitrite based) and Bipolar Corrosion inhibitor (amino alcohol-based). The Accelerated corrosion testing (Impressed voltage test) was conducted to determine the efficacy of inhibitors. For PPC mixes, the Calcium Nitrite Inhibitor has shown better results in reducing the rate of corrosion of the embedded steel reinforcement. For OPC mixes both the inhibitors have given better results compared to control mix in reducing the corrosion rate of embedded steel.
Effect of alkali curing environment on M30 grade Sugarcane Bagasse Ash (SCBA) Concrete
Authors: Rambabu P V , Ramarao G V
Published: January 2021

The present paper deals with the replacement of Ordinary Portland Cement with SCBA at different percentages of 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% by weight of cement in M30 grade concrete, the mechanical properties of SCBA blended concrete were studied when subjected to alkali environment. The concrete specimens were cured in normal water, sodium sulphate solution (1%, 3% and 5%) and Magnesium Sulphate solution (1%, 3% and 5%) at ages of 28, 60 and 90 days and tested. From the experimental observation, the SCBA blended concrete provides resistance against sulphate attack.