cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Milli-charged fermion vacuum polarization in cosmic magnetic fields and generation of CMB elliptic polarization
Creators: name: Ejlli, Damian
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The contribution of one loop milli-charged fermion vacuum polarization in cosmic magnetic field to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is considered. Exact and perturbative solution of the density matrix equations of motion in terms of the Stokes parameters are presented. For linearly polarized CMB at decoupling time, it is shown that propagation of CMB photons in cosmic magnetic field would generate elliptic polarization (circular and linear) of the CMB due to milli-charged fermion vacuum polarization. Analytic expressions for the degree of circular polarization and rotation angle of polarization plane of the CMB are presented. Depending on the ratio of milli-charged fermion relative charge to mass, $ε/m_ε$, and CMB observation frequency, it is shown that the acquired CMB degree of circular polarization could be of the order of magnitude $P_C(T_0)\sim 10^{-10}- 10^{-6}$ in the best scenario. The effect studied generates CMB polarization even in the case when the CMB is initially in thermal equilibrium. Limits on the magnetic field amplitude due to prior decoupling CMB polarization are presented.
description: 31 pages and 11 figures. Typos corrected, additional references included. Additional text about nature of cosmic magnetic field added in the conclusion section. Version to be published in Physical Review D
Comparative effects of chrysotile asbestos fibers on lavaged pulmonary macrophages.
Creators: name: Gallagher, Jane Elizabeth
Publisher: name: University of Utah
Year: 2012
Subjects: Pulmonary Lavage
Phagocoytes

description: Chrysotile asbestos is cytotoxic to alveolar macropages.  The mechanisms involved in initiating these cytotoxic events are poorly understood.  Some investigators believe that the magnesium component of chrysotile is largely responsible.  Others attribute the cytotoxicity to be the results of the chrysotile's physical characteristics.  In this project, lavaged alveolar macrophages were used to provide a bioassay for detecting fiver uptake over time.  In several separate experiments, two fiber populations differing significantly in both chemical and physical characteristics were added to cultured macrophages.  The results suggest that ingestion of magnesium-leached fibers took place to a greater extent than unleached fibers, as evidenced by decreasing numbers of fibers attached to macrophages over time.  The surface morphology of alveolar macrophages was not altered significantly by addition of either leached or unleached fibers.  In addition, enzyme analysis of two marker enzymes, beta-glucuronidase and lactate dehydrogenase, were not significantly elevated, indicating lack of cytotoxicity over the three-hour period studied.  This study provides information useful of future mechanistic investigations on cytopathologic interactions between macrophages and asbestos fibers.
Transition from rehabilitation hospital to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for people with brain injury and spinal cord injury: a data linkage protocol
Creators: name: Guthrie, Simon Andrew John
name: Alexander, Tara
name: Tickle, Leonie
name: Winkler, Dianne
name: Walsh, John Ernest
Publisher: name: La Trobe
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 32
subject: Biomedical and clinical sciences
classificationCode: 52
subject: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology
classificationCode: 42
subject: Health sciences
subject: FOS: Health sciences
classificationCode: 420318
subject: People with disability
classificationCode: 4201
subject: Allied health and rehabilitation science

description: Abstract: INTRODUCTION: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and spinal cord injury (SCI) are both major contributors to permanent disability globally, with an estimated 27 million new cases of TBI and 0.93 million new cases of SCI globally in 2016. In Australia, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) provides support to people with disability. Reports from the NDIS suggest that the cost of support for people with TBI and SCI has been increasing dramatically, and there is a lack of independent analysis of the drivers of these increases. This data linkage seeks to better understand the participant transition between rehabilitation hospitals and the NDIS and the correlation between functional independence in rehabilitation and resource allocation in the NDIS. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a retrospective, population-based cohort study using Australia-wide NDIS participant data and rehabilitation hospital episode data. The linked dataset provides a comparison of functional independence against which to compare the NDIS resource allocation to people with TBI and SCI. This protocol outlines the secure and separated data linkage approach employed in linking partially identified episode data from the Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC) with identified participant data from the NDIS. The linkage employs a stepwise deterministic linkage approach. Statistical analysis of the linked dataset will consider the relationship between the functional independence measure score from the rehabilitation hospital and the committed funding supports in the NDIS plan. This protocol sets the foundation for an ongoing data linkage between rehabilitation hospitals and the NDIS to assist transition to the NDIS. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval is from the Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee. AROC Data Governance Committee and NDIS Data Management Committee have approved this project. Research findings will be disseminated to key stakeholders through peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals and presentations to clinical and policy audiences via AROC and NDIS.
Confusion noise from Galactic binaries for Taiji
Creators: name: Liu, Chang
name: Ruan, Wen-Hong
name: Guo, Zong-Kuan
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Gravitational waves (GWs) from tens of millions of compact binaries in our Milky Way enter the milli-Hertz band of space-based detection. The majority of them cannot be resolved individually, resulting in a foreground confusion noise for Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). The concept of Taiji mission is similar to LISA's with slightly better sensitivity, which means that the galactic GW signals will also affect the detection with Taiji. Here we generate the GW signals from 29.8 million galactic binaries for Taiji and subtract the `resolvable' sources. The confusion noise is estimated and fitted in an analytic form with 6-month, 1-year, 2-year and 4-year observation time. We find that the full sensitivity curve is slightly lower for Taiji than for LISA at frequencies of $\leq 0.8$ mHz and around 2~mHz. For a 4-year lifetime, more than 29 thousand sources are resolvable with Taiji. Compared to LISA, Taiji can subtract $\sim 20 \%$ more sources and the distribution of them in our Milky Way is consistent with that of the resolvable sources with LISA. At frequencies around 2~mHz or with the chirp masses ranging from $0.2 M_\odot$ to $0.4 M_\odot$, more sources become resolvable with Taiji.
description: 7 pages, 5 figures. Version accepted by PRD
Energy Density Bands Engineering
Creators: name: Alhaidari, A. D.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We expand the quantum mechanical wavefunction in a complete set of square integrable orthonormal basis such that the matrix representation of the Hamiltonian operator is tridiagonal and symmetric. Consequently, the matrix wave equation becomes a symmetric three-term recursion relation for the expansion coefficients of the wavefunction whose solution is a set of orthogonal polynomials in the energy. The polynomials weight function is the energy density of the system constructed using the Green's function, which is written in terms of the Hamiltonian matrix elements. We study the distribution of zeros of these polynomials on the real energy line based exclusively on their three-term recursion relations. We show that the zeros are generally grouped into sets belonging to separated bands on the orthogonality interval. The number of these bands is equal to the periodicity (multiplicity) of the asymptotic values of the recursion coefficients and the location of their boundaries depend only on these asymptotic values. Bound states (if they exist) are located at discrete zeros found in the gaps between the density bands that are stable against variation in the order of the polynomial for very large orders. We give examples of systems with a single, double and triple energy density bands.
description: 13 pages, 8 figures
title: Path Planning for Aircraft Under Threat of Detection from Ground-Based Radar with Uncertainty in Aircraft and Radar States
Creators: name: Costley, Austin D.
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2022

description: Mission planners for manned and unmanned aircraft operating within the detection range of ground-based radar systems are often concerned with the probability of detection. Several factors influence the probability of detection, including aircraft position and orientation, radar position, and radar performance parameters. Current path planning algorithms assume that these factors are known with certainty, but in practice, these factors are estimated and have some uncertainty.
This dissertation explores methods to consider the uncertainty in the detection factors for an aircraft path planner. First, the detection model is extended to include uncertainty in the aircraft position and orientation, radar position, and radar parameters. Second, an efficient method to estimate the aircraft position and orientation uncertainty is presented that enables rapid path evaluation. Third, the extended radar model and efficient aircraft uncertainty calculation are incorporated into a path planner that evaluates the sources of uncertainty and provides actionable information to the mission planner.
Reduced Modeling of Unknown Trajectories
Creators: name: Héas, Patrick
name: Herzet, Cédric
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Methodology (stat.ME)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: This paper deals with model order reduction of parametrical dynamical systems. We consider the specific setup where the distribution of the system's trajectories is unknown but the following two sources of information are available: \textit{(i)} some "rough" prior knowledge on the system's realisations; \textit{(ii)} a set of "incomplete" observations of the system's trajectories. We propose a Bayesian methodological framework to build reduced-order models (ROMs) by exploiting these two sources of information. We emphasise that complementing the prior knowledge with the collected data provably enhances the knowledge of the distribution of the system's trajectories. We then propose an implementation of the proposed methodology based on Monte-Carlo methods. In this context, we show that standard ROM learning techniques, such e.g. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition or Dynamic Mode Decomposition, can be revisited and recast within the probabilistic framework considered in this paper.~We illustrate the performance of the proposed approach by numerical results obtained for a standard geophysical model.
title: Serendipity Shape Function for Hybrid Fluid/Kinetic-PIC Simulations
Creators: name: Taylor, Trevor V.
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2022

description: The Sun in our solar system and stars are capable of generating enormous amounts of energy. The process by which these gaseous, celestial bodies are able to produce such large amounts of energy is called thermonuclear fusion. Fusion happens when particles collide with one another at energy levels high enough to overcome the Coulomb force and then release vast amounts of energy. Plasma, the fourth state of matter, is the natural state of stars. Plasma is an ionized gas that consists of negatively and positively charged particles. Stars, which have immense mass, can confine the plasma through their gravity to sustain the fusion process. Laboratory plasma cannot be confined by gravity. Magnetic fields can be used instead. For the past 70 years, scientists and engineers have been working on harnessing energy from magnetized thermonuclear fusion. Current research contributes to creating a device capable of supporting fusion reactions and producing a clean sustainable energy source.
Sustaining a burning or ignited plasma through fusion reactions is not an easy task. These complex systems can result in many instabilities that limit plasma temperatures and densities and prevent significant thermonuclear fusion from taking place. An important piece of the physics puzzle that either stabilizes or destabilizes the plasma is the interaction of energetic particles with the bulk plasma. This is called the wave-particle interaction or energetic particle interaction with magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes. Another example of this would be the solar wind from the sun (energetic particles) interacting with Earth’s magnetosphere (bulk plasma).
This thesis focuses on an approach to more accurately and efficiently resolve the energetic particle motions using a computer code. This thesis will also compare two very different approaches to wave-plasma interaction problem by looking at the grow-rate of an instability that has been used to benchmark several computer codes used by the magnetic fusion energy community.
Evaluating the Fork-Awareness of Coverage-Guided Fuzzers
Creators: name: Maugeri, Marcello
name: Daniele, Cristian
name: Bella, Giampaolo
name: Poll, Erik
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR)
subject: Software Engineering (cs.SE)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Fuzz testing (or fuzzing) is an effective technique used to find security vulnerabilities. It consists of feeding a software under test with malformed inputs, waiting for a weird system behaviour (often a crash of the system). Over the years, different approaches have been developed, and among the most popular lies the coverage-based one. It relies on the instrumentation of the system to generate inputs able to cover as much code as possible. The success of this approach is also due to its usability as fuzzing techniques research approaches that do not require (or only partial require) human interactions. Despite the efforts, devising a fully-automated fuzzer still seems to be a challenging task. Target systems may be very complex; they may integrate cryptographic primitives, compute and verify check-sums and employ forks to enhance the system security, achieve better performances or manage different connections at the same time. This paper introduces the fork-awareness property to express the fuzzer ability to manage systems using forks. This property is leveraged to evaluate 14 of the most widely coverage-guided fuzzers and highlight how current fuzzers are ineffective against systems using forks.
description: Keywords: Fuzzing, Fork, Security Testing, Software Security
Lily Trieu Interview
Creators: name: Institute For Diversity & Civic Life
name: Department Of Religious Studies
Publisher: name: The University of Texas at Austin
Year: 2022
Subjects: Religions Texas
Activism
Agnostics
Asian Texans for Justice
Assimilation
Atheists
Chinese-Americans
COVID-19
Culture
Diversity and inclusivity
Education
ESL [English as a second language]
Family dynamics
First-generation Americans
Immigrant parents
Immigration
Language
Millennials
Model minorities
Non-profits
Politics
Race
Racism
Refugees
Spiritual
Texas
The University of Texas at Austin
TX - Alief
TX - Austin
TX - Houston
TX - Sugar Land
Vietnam

description: This interview is with Lily Trieu, a first-generation Chinese-American and non-profit director in Austin, TX. Lily shares her parents’ stories of coming to the US, living as a low-income family, and struggling with assimilation. She talks about her busy youth and her education. Lily describes her path from working in corporate marketing to working in policy advocacy and founding Asian Texans for Justice. She also shares her perspectives on anti-Asian racism and the needs of communities like hers.
What Do Practitioners Vary in Using Scrum?
Creators: name: Diebold, Philipp
name: Ostberg, Jan-Peter
name: Wagner, Stefan
name: Zendler, Ulrich
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Software Engineering (cs.SE)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Background: Agile software development has become a popular way of developing software. Scrum is the most frequently used agile framework, but it is often reported to be adapted in practice. Objective: Thus, we aim to understand how Scrum is adapted in different contexts and what are the reasons for these changes. Method: Using a structured interview guideline, we interviewed ten German companies about their concrete usage of Scrum and analysed the results qualitatively. Results: All companies vary Scrum in some way. The least variations are in the Sprint length, events, team size and requirements engineering. Many users varied the roles, effort estimations and quality assurance. Conclusions: Many variations constitute a substantial deviation from Scrum as initially proposed. For some of these variations, there are good reasons. Sometimes, however, the variations are a result of a previous non-agile, hierarchical organisation.
description: 12 pages
The columnar-disorder phase boundary in a mixture of hard squares and dimers
Creators: name: Mandal, Dipanjan
name: Rajesh, R.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: A mixture of hard squares, dimers and vacancies on a square lattice is known to undergo a transition from a low-density disordered phase to high-density columnar ordered phase. Along the fully packed square-dimer line, the system undergoes an Kosterliz-Thouless type transition to a phase with power law correlations. We estimate the phase boundary separating the ordered and disordered phases by calculating the interfacial tension between two differently ordered phases within two different approximation schemes. The analytically obtained phase boundary is in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations.
description: 11 pages, 13 figures
On the switching mechanism and optimisation of ion irradiation enabled 2D $MoS_2$ memristors
Creators: name: Aldana, Samuel
name: Jadwiszczak, Jakub
name: Zhang, Hongzhou
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)
subject: Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Memristors are prominent passive circuit elements with promising futures for energy-efficient in-memory processing and revolutionary neuromorphic computation. State-of-the-art memristors based on two-dimensional (2D) materials exhibit enhanced tunability, scalability and electrical reliability. However, the fundamental of the switching is yet to be clarified before they can meet industrial standards in terms of endurance, variability, resistance ratio, and scalability. This new physical simulator based on the kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) algorithm reproduces the defect migration process in 2D materials and sheds light on the operation of 2D memristors. The present work employs the simulator to study a two-dimensional $2H-MoS_2$ planar resistive switching (RS) device with an asymmetric defect concentration introduced by ion irradiation. The simulations unveil the non-filamentary RS process and propose practical routes to optimize the device's performance. For instance, the resistance ratio can be increased by 53% by controlling the concentration and distribution of defects, while the variability can be reduced by 55% by increasing 5-fold the device size from 10 to 50 nm. Our simulator also explains the trade-offs between the resistance ratio and variability, resistance ratio and scalability, and variability and scalability. Overall, the simulator may enable an understanding and optimization of devices to expedite cutting-edge applications.
description: 8 pages (double column), 6 figures, Supplementary Information (9 figures)
Chanda Parbhoo Interview
Creators: name: Institute For Diversity & Civic Life
name: Department Of Religious Studies
Publisher: name: The University of Texas at Austin
Year: 2022
Subjects: Religions Texas
Activism
Apartheid
Assimilation
Canada
Community
Culture
Discrimination
Diversity and inclusivity
Diwali
Family dynamics
Generation X
Hinduphobia
Hindus
Holidays
Immigrants
Immigration
Indian-Americans
Race
Racism
Representation
SAAVETX [South Asian American Voter Empowerment Texas]
Segregation
South Africa
Spiritual seekers
Texas
The University of Texas at Arlington
TX - Dallas
TX - Tyler

description: This interview is with Chanda Parbhoo, an Indian-American organizer and immigrant from South Africa who lives in Dallas, TX. Chanda compares her early experiences of ethnic integration in Canada with her experiences of apartheid in South Africa. She also shares the challenges and prejudice her family experienced in Canada and the States. She describes the influence of her father’s business ventures and values on her childhood and career. Chanda talks about her activism for representation in her school district and for AAPI voting empowerment.
Coulomb blockade of chiral Majorana and complex fermions far from equilibrium
Creators: name: Shapiro, Dmitriy S.
name: Mirlin, Alexander D.
name: Shnirman, Alexander
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study charge transport in a single-electron transistor implemented as an interferometer such that the Coulomb blockaded middle island contains a circular chiral Majorana or Dirac edge mode. We concentrate on the regime of small conductance and provide an asymptotic solution in the limit of high transport voltage exceeding the charging energy. The solution is achieved using an instanton-like technique. The distinctions between Majorana and Dirac cases appears when the tunnel junctions are unequal. The main difference is in the offset current at high voltages which can be higher up to $50\%$ in Majorana case. It is caused by an additional particle-hole symmetry of the distribution function in the Majorana case. There is also an eye-catching distinction between the oscillations patterns of the current as a function of the gate charge. We conjecture this distinction survives at lower transport voltages as well.
description: 11 pages, 5 figures
title: Late Pleistocene Piedmont Records in the Grand Staircase Region, Southern Utah
Creators: name: Short, Alexander K.
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2022

description: Today the climate in the southwestern United States is arid, characterized by desert landscapes and habitats, periods of drought, and arroyo streams that frequently fill with, and erode, through fine riverbed sediments. A series of cliffs and benches rising from the Grand Canyon to the southern plateaus of Utah, known as the Grand Staircase - home to Kodachrome Basin State Park, Bryce Canyon, are a classical example of this environment as we know it today. However, a record spanning the past 300 thousand years is preserved on the steps of the staircase indicating periods in the past where the climate may have been much different, and more energetic streams would have flowed and eroded through the region. These records are preserved in piedmont and river gravels visible at heights of up to 175 meters above modern-day river valleys.
A piedmont is a transitional area of a landscape between a steep front and the relatively less steep terrain below. Early piedmont and river gravels found along the steps of the Grand Staircase preserve a record of river position and energy over geologic time. The focus of this research was: to define to what extent this record was preserved, how many episodes of landscape change could be reconstructed, when that landscape change occurred, and what the main cause may have been for these episodes of change. This type of research contributes to the broader understanding of how and when landscapes may or may not respond to climate, a fundamental driver for landscape change, and how we can continue to tie landscape records to past, present, and future climate events.
Throughout the Grand Staircase three main levels of these gravel records were identified which mark at least three distinct periods of pronounced erosion across the region. Data from these gravels indicate that episodic and cyclical changes in climate, between wet and cool and warm and dry, over the last 300 thousand years, has been the primary cause of landscape changes in this region of the southwestern United States.
Electronic structure study of screw dislocation core energetics in Aluminum and core energetics informed forces in a dislocation aggregate
Creators: name: Das, Sambit
name: Gavini, Vikram
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We use a real-space formulation of orbital-free DFT to study the core energetics and core structure of an isolated screw dislocation in Aluminum. Using a direct energetics based approach, we estimate the core size of a perfect screw dislocation to be $\approx$ 7 $|{\bf b}|$, which is considerably larger than previous estimates of $1-3~|{\bf b}|$ based on displacement fields. The perfect screw upon structural relaxation dissociates into two Shockley partials with partial separation distances of 8.2 Å~and 6.6 Å~ measured from the screw and edge component differential displacement plots, respectively. Similar to a previous electronic structure study on edge dislocation, we find that the core energy of the relaxed screw dislocation is strongly dependent on macroscopic deformations. Next, we use the edge and screw dislocation core energetics data with physically reasonable assumptions to develop a continuum energetics model for an aggregate of dislocations. Further, we use this model in a discrete dislocation network, and from the variations of the core energy with respect to the nodal positions of the network, we obtain the nodal core force which can directly be incorporated into discrete dislocation dynamics frameworks. We analyze and classify the nodal core force into three different contributions based on their decay behavior. Two of these contributions to the core force, both arising from the core energy dependence on macroscopic deformations, are not accounted for in currently used discrete dislocation dynamics models which assume the core energy to be a constant. Using case studies involving simple dislocation structures, we demonstrate that the contribution to the core force from the core energy dependence on macroscopic deformations can be significant in comparison to the elastic Peach-Koehler force even up to distances of $10-15$ nm between dislocation structures.
description: In press- Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids
Engaging pregnant women in observational research: A qualitative exploratory study
Creators: name: Muggli, E
name: Curd, H
name: Nagle, C
name: Forster, Della
name: Halliday, J
Publisher: name: La Trobe
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 4204
subject: Midwifery
classificationCode: 3215
subject: Reproductive medicine

description: Background: Recruitment of pregnant women to population health research can be challenging, especially if the research topic is sensitive. While many pregnant women may be inherently interested in research about pregnancy, there is the possibility that the nature and timing of the project may give rise to anxiety in some women, especially if the topic is sensitive or it brings about new awareness of potential pregnancy complications. Research staff undertaking recruitment need to be skilled at strategies to manage the environment, and have well developed communication and interpersonal skills to explain and promote the study and facilitate each woman's informed decision-making regarding participation. However, the skills needed by recruitment staff to successfully engage pregnant women with a research topic are not well understood. This study aimed to address this evidence gap by providing insight into the dynamics between a pregnant woman and recruitment staff at the time of the offer to participate in an observational study about alcohol use in pregnancy. Methods: Naturalistic inquiry guided a qualitative exploratory descriptive approach. Experienced recruitment staff from the Asking Questions about Alcohol in Pregnancy (AQUA) study (Muggli et al., BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 14:302, 2014) participated in individual semi-structured interviews and were asked about their experiences and approaches to engaging pregnant women. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using inductive content analysis. Results: Pregnant women brought with them an inherent interest or disinterest in alcohol research, or in research in general, which formed the basis for engagement. Women responded favourably to the invitation to participate being delivered without pressure, and as part of a two-way conversation. Engagement with a sensitive topic such as alcohol use in pregnancy was facilitated by a non-judgmental and non-targeted approach. Influences such as privacy, distractions, partner's opinion, time factors and level of clinical support either facilitated or hindered a woman's engagement with the research. Conclusions: These results provide an in-depth explanation of barriers and enablers to recruitment of pregnant women in antenatal clinics to studies that may inform strategies and the training of recruitment staff.
title: Validation and Exploration of the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory with a Sample of Adolescents
Creators: name: Barr, John
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2022

description: The current study attempted to further psychological flexibility literature by validating the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory (MPFI) with a sample of adolescents (ages 16 and 17). This analysis also examined how the MPFI associates with other indicators of psychological flexibility, distress (depression, anxiety, somatic symptom severity and related distress, difficulties in emotion regulation) and well-being (subjective happiness, life satisfaction, self-compassion, emotional approach coping).
Results from this study suggested that psychological inflexibility as measured by the MPFI positively associated with a number of measures of distress, but generally did not inversely correlate with measures of well-being in a theoretically-consistent manner, which was contradictory to our hypotheses. Similarly, the MPFI’s psychological flexibility scales positively associated with measures of well-being but did not inversely correlate with measures of distress. More in-depth correlational analysis involved identifying specific subscales within the MPFI that demonstrated significant associations with measures of psychological distress and well-being. In this area, the aforementioned pattern generally continued where theoretically-consistent positive associations were evident between most MPFI flexibility and inflexibility subscales and subsequent measures of well-being and distress, but theoretically-consistent negative associations were not apparent. Given that other validation examinations with the MPFI have demonstrated both positive and negative correlations with measures of distress and wellbeing (Rolffs et al., 2018), these findings stand in contrast to these results, which might suggest that the MPFI performs differently with adolescent samples than with adults. Future research is needed to determine if such differences are a function of the present sample, the administration method, or true differences in how psychological inflexibility and flexibility relate to other psychological variables in adolescents.
Illuminating trap density trends in amorphous oxide semiconductors with ultrabroadband photoconduction
Creators: name: Mattson, George W.
name: Vogt, Kyle T.
name: Wager, John F.
name: Graham, Matt W.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Under varying growth and device processing conditions, ultrabroadband photoconduction (UBPC) reveals strongly evolving trends in the defect density of states (DoS) for amorphous oxide semiconductor thin-film transistors (TFTs). Spanning the wide bandgap of amorphous InGaZnO$_x$ (a-IGZO), UBPC identifies seven oxygen-deep donor vacancy peaks that are independently confirmed by energetically matching to photoluminescence emission peaks. The sub-gap DoS from 15 different types of a-IGZO TFTs all yield similar DoS, except only back-channel etch TFTs can have a deep acceptor peak seen at 2.2 eV below the conduction band mobility edge. This deep acceptor is likely a zinc vacancy, evidenced by trap density which becomes 5-6x larger when TFT wet-etch methods are employed. Certain DoS peaks are strongly enhanced for TFTs with active channel processing damage caused by plasma exposure. While Ar implantation and He plasma processing damage are similar, Ar plasma yields more disorder showing a 2x larger valence-band Urbach energy and two orders of magnitude increase in the deep oxygen vacancy trap density. Changing the growth conditions of a-IGZO also impacts the DoS, with zinc-rich TFTs showing much poorer electrical performance compared to 1:1:1 molar ratio a-IGZO TFTs owing to the former having a ~10xlarger oxygen vacancy trap density. Finally, hydrogen is found to behave as a donor in amorphous indium tin gallium zinc oxide TFTs.
description: 11 pages, 6 figures
title: Assessing Socio-Demographic and Urban Form Changes of Sprawl Retrofitting Projects in the United States
Creators: name: Hadayeghi, Hooman
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2022

description: Growing population and urbanization have escalated the inclination in today’s societies to live in the suburbs. In the United States, urban development has had a suburbanization pattern since World War II. People living in such areas must use their cars to reach their destination and commute to work. Sprawl retrofitting is a term introduced by planners and researchers to overcome urban sprawl's negative impacts on mobility, transportation, and the environment. This approach is used to densify and change the built environment to make daily trips easier, shorten daily travels, and enhance pedestrian activity in places dealing with sprawl. Sprawl retrofitting has been more frequently researched over the past few decades. It has attracted a great deal of attention among planners to utilize different tools in urban design and city planning to overcome the fast-growing sprawl. However, there are not many studies examining the aftermath.
This study attempts to analyze and compare the changes after sprawl retrofitting projects' completion. By using national demographic data and built environment changes, such as population density, block size fluctuations, and green space development, this research examines the difference in changes before and after the projects. The results are based on 59 sprawl retrofitting case studies throughout the United States chosen by the criteria, including size and completion date of the projects and other built environment factors, such as land use, that defined each project site. Results show an increase in population, job density, and the density of intersections in the project sites. By comparing the results, this study will inform future research about the implications of sprawl retrofitting and the current impacts they can have on the population and the built environment.
Quantum conditional entropies and steerability of states with maximally mixed marginals
Creators: name: Kumar, Komal
name: Ganguly, Nirman
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Quantum steering is an asymmetric correlation which occupies a place between entanglement and Bell nonlocality. In the paradigmatic scenario involving the protagonists Alice and Bob, the entangled state shared between them, is said to be steerable from Alice to Bob if the steering assemblage on Bob's side do not admit a local hidden state (LHS) description. Quantum conditional entropies, on the other hand provide for another characterization of quantum correlations. Contrary to our common intuition conditional entropies for some entangled states can be negative, marking a significant departure from the classical realm. Quantum steering and quantum nonlocality in general share an intricate relation with quantum conditional entropies. In the present contribution, we investigate this relationship. For a significant class, namely the two-qubit Weyl states we show that negativity of conditional Rényi 2-entropy and conditional Tsallis 2-entropy is a necessary and sufficient condition for the violation of a suitably chosen three settings steering inequality. With respect to the same inequality we find an upper bound for the conditional Rényi 2-entropy, such that the general two-qubit state is steerable. Moving from a particular steering inequality to local hidden state descriptions, we show that some two-qubit Weyl states which admit a LHS model possess non-negative conditional Rényi 2-entropy. However, the same does not hold true for some non-Weyl states. Our study further investigates the relation between non-negativity of conditional entropy and LHS models in two-qudits for the isotropic and Werner states. There we find that whenever these states admit a LHS model, they possess a non-negative conditional Rényi 2-entropy. We then observe that the same holds true for a noisy variant of the two-qudit Werner state.
description: Close to published version. Published in Physical Review A
Decaying Fermionic Dark Matter Search with CALET
Creators: name: Bhattacharyya, S.
name: Motz, H.
name: Torii, S.
name: Asaoka, Y.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The ISS-based CALET (CALorimetric Electron Telescope) detector can play an important role in indirect search for Dark Matter (DM), measuring the electron+positron flux in the TeV region for the first time directly. With its fine energy resolution of approximately $2\%$ and good proton rejection ratio ($1:10^5$) it has the potential to search for fine structures in the Cosmic Ray (CR) electron spectrum. In this context we discuss the ability of CALET to discern between signals originating from astrophysical sources and DM decay or annihilation. We fit a parametrization of the local interstellar electron and positron spectra to current measurements, with either a pulsar or 3-body decay of fermionic DM as the extra source causing the positron excess. The expected CALET data for scenarios in which DM decay explains the excess are calculated and analyzed. The signal from this particular 3-body DM decay which can explain the recent measurements of from the AMS$-02$ experiment is shown to be distinguishable from a single pulsar source causing the positron excess by 5 years of observation with CALET, based on the shape of the spectrum. We also study the constraints from extra-galactic diffuse $γ$-ray data on this DM-only explanation of the positron excess and show that especially for the possibly remaining parameter space a clearly identifiable signature in the CR electron spectrum exists.
description: For better comprehensibility of CALET sensitivity study an appendix is added in this version which contains the results of the numerical calculations (section 2 before) and comparison of parametrization and numerical calculation (section 5.3 before). Secondary gamma-ray flux from the interaction of DM decay products and ISRF are calculated and results are shown in figure 3 for 1 TeV DM
Heterodyne linewidth measurement of a free-running single frequency diamond Raman laser
Creators: name: Abedi, Seyed
Publisher: name: Macquarie University
Year: 2022
Subjects: Other education not elsewhere classified

description: Narrow linewidth lasers are important for many applications but are challenging to develop due to various mode stability issues, requiring complex locking mechanisms. Raman lasers offer an alternative and simple means to attain high-power single mode lasers with a large wavelength range. However, their linewidth properties have not been studied in detail. In this thesis, the linewidth of a 1240 nm quasi-continuous wave diamond Raman laser (DRL) was studied using heterodyne beat note detection with a 20 kHz linewidth reference laser. The heterodyne signal was analysed using two methods based on an RF analyser and a Fourier approach, which revealed a large chirp of the DRL frequency. A model was developed which showed the chirp was consistent with the calculated temperature increase in the diamond due to the inelastic stimulated Raman scattering process, which increases the cavity optical path length, down-chirping the DRL. An upper bound linewidth of 768 ± 207 kHz was obtained, resolution limited by the chirp, which represents an order of magnitude improvement on previously reported measurements for a DRL. This work also demonstrates, to the best of our knowledge, the first observation of a passively chirped Raman laser and highlights a new approach to high power, sub-MHz linewidth lasers.
title: Pronghorn Space-Use Ecology in Utah
Creators: name: Winter, Veronica A.
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2022

description: Pronghorn are viewed as a quintessential part of the landscape in the American West. Found only in western North America, pronghorn is a unique species, having historic ranges within prairie, shrubland-steppe, and desert habitat across the continental west. Even though they have been present on this landscape since the last ice age, little is known of pronghorn ecology. There has been growing concern over the impact anthropogenic features, such as development, agriculture, and roads are having on migration, seasonal range conditions, and overall population dynamics. The aim of this thesis is to investigate factors that may be important for pronghorn ecology and decipher links between where animals spend their time, their migration tendency, and environmental drivers. I used an updated model framework to draw inference on pronghorn habitat selection across the state of Utah. In doing so, I was able to create predictive distribution maps that can be utilized for areas where data may be lacking and/or under future conditions. This work can be of use to managers and decision makers to aid in conservation of pronghorn throughout Utah and the West.
title: Investigating Atmospheric Gravity Waves Using 3-Dimensional Spectral Analysis
Creators: name: Zia, Kenneth I.
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 2022

description: Atmospheric gravity waves (GW) are generated from the ground and go into the upper layers of the atmosphere where space begins. These waves have strong effects on the temperature and circulation of the Earth’s atmosphere. The temperature changes caused by these waves are observed through special cameras looking at light that the Earth’s atmosphere naturally emit at night. One of these cameras is placed at McMurdo Station, Antarctica where the long nights are used to see these waves longer than anywhere else. The images captured there are automatically analyzed to determine wave properties to better understand how often they are there, how strong, and in what direction they are moving. All of there are important pieces of information in understanding them and their influences better.
This document details how these waves are formed and move, the production of the naturally occurring light of the atmosphere, and the analysis used to gather information on the waves. Then later chapters discuss results the analysis found of waves making it to the edge of space and the properties they exhibit there.
Alkoholbedingte Mortalität bei Erwachsenen
Creators: name: Rommel, Alexander
name: Saß, Anke-Christine
name: Rabenberg, Martina
Publisher: name: Robert Koch-Institut, Epidemiologie und Gesundheitsberichterstattung
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Alkoholabhängigkeit
subject: Mortalität
subject: Erwachsene
subject: Alkoholmissbrauch
subject: 610 Medizin

description: Der riskante, missbräuchliche und abhängige Konsum alkoholischer Getränke birgt hohe Risiken für die Gesundheit der Konsumierenden, kann Dritte schädigen, hat Auswirkungen auf das soziale Umfeld der Konsumierenden und verursacht volkswirtschaftlich beträchtliche Kosten. Nationale und internationale Aktionsprogramme streben daher eine Reduktion des Alkoholkonsums und seiner Folgen an. Die alkoholbezogene Mortalität ist die schwerwiegendste Folge übermäßigen Alkoholkonsums. Hierzu weist die Todesursachenstatistik eine Reihe einschlägiger Diagnosen aus. Im Jahr 2014 wurde in Deutschland bei 14.095 verstorbenen Erwachsenen (20,8 von 100.000 Einwohnern) eine alkoholbedingte Todesursache festgestellt. Die betreffenden Diagnosen werden bei Männern deutlich häufiger gestellt als bei Frauen und weisen einen Spitzenwert in der Gruppe der 55- bis 64-Jährigen auf. Insgesamt ist die alkoholbedingte Mortalität in Deutschland rückläufig. Da Deutschland international einen relativ hohen Verbrauch alkoholischer Getränke aufweist, besteht weiterhin Handlungsbedarf.
The impact of numerical oversteepening on the fragmentation boundary in self-gravitating disks
Creators: name: Klee, Jannes
name: Illenseer, Tobias F.
name: Jung, Manuel
name: Duschl, Wolfgang J.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Context. It is still an open issue whether a self-gravitating accretion disk fragments. There are many different physical and numerical explanations for fragmentation, but simulations often show a non-convergent behavior for ever better resolution. Aims. We investigate the influence of different numerical limiters in Godunov type schemes on the fragmentation boundary in self- gravitating disks. Methods. We compare the linear and non-linear outcome in two-dimensional shearingsheet simulations using the VANLEER and the SUPERBEE limiter. Results. We show that choosing inappropriate limiting functions to handle shock-capturing in Godunov type schemes can lead to an overestimation of the surface density in regions with shallow density gradients. The effect amplifies itself on timescales comparable to the dynamical timescale even at high resolutions. This is exactly the environment, where clumps are expected to form. The effect is present without, but scaled up by, self-gravity and also does not depend on cooling. Moreover it can be backtracked to a well known effect called oversteepening. If the effect is also observed in the linear case, the fragmentation limit is shifted to larger values of the critical cooling timescale.
description: 8 pages, 10 figures