cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Movable but unavoidable nodal lines through high-symmetry points in two-dimensional materials
Creators: name: Damljanovic, Vladimir
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In two-dimensional materials electronic band contacts often give non-trivial contribution to materials topological properties. Besides band contacts at high-symmetry points (HSP) in the Brillouin zone (BZ), like those in graphene, there are nodal lines which form various patterns in the reciprocal space. In this paper we have found all movable nodal lines, which shape depends on the model, that pass through HSPs in the presence of time-reversal symmetry. Cases with and without spin-orbit coupling are included by studying all eighty layer groups and their double extensions. Eight single and six double groups, including three symmorphic, necessarily host Dirac and Weyl nodal lines that extend through the whole BZ, respectively. Our research might be of interest in designing new materials with interesting physical properties.
description: 13 pages, two figures
Differential and Twistor Geometry of the Quantum Hopf Fibration
Creators: name: Brain, Simon
name: Landi, Giovanni
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Quantum Algebra (math.QA)
subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study a quantum version of the SU(2) Hopf fibration $S^7 \to S^4$ and its associated twistor geometry. Our quantum sphere $S^7_q$ arises as the unit sphere inside a q-deformed quaternion space $\mathbb{H}^2_q$. The resulting four-sphere $S^4_q$ is a quantum analogue of the quaternionic projective space $\mathbb{HP}^1$. The quantum fibration is endowed with compatible non-universal differential calculi. By investigating the quantum symmetries of the fibration, we obtain the geometry of the corresponding twistor space $\mathbb{CP}^3_q$ and use it to study a system of anti-self-duality equations on $S^4_q$, for which we find an `instanton' solution coming from the natural projection defining the tautological bundle over $S^4_q$.
description: v2: 38 pages; completely rewritten. The crucial difference with respect to the first version is that in the present one the quantum four-sphere, the base space of the fibration, is NOT a quantum homogeneous space. This has important consequences and led to very drastic changes to the paper. To appear in CMP
Enhanced expression of BMP6 inhibits hepatic fibrosis in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Creators: name: Arndt, Stephanie
name: Wacker, Eva
name: Dorn, Christoph
name: Koch, Andreas
name: Saugspier, Michael
name: Thasler, W. E.
name: Hartmann, Arndt
name: Bosserhoff, Anja-Katrin
name: Hellerbrand, Claus
Publisher: name: Universität Regensburg
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: 610 Medizin
subject: 615 Pharmazie

description: Objective: Bone morphogenetic protein 6 (BMP6) has been identified as crucial regulator of iron homeostasis. However, its further role in liver pathology including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its advanced form non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is elusive. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and function of BMP6 in chronic liver disease. Design: BMP6 was analysed in hepatic samples from murine models of chronic liver injury and patients with chronic liver diseases. Furthermore, a tissue microarray comprising 110 human liver tissues with different degree of steatosis and inflammation was assessed. BMP6-deficient (BMP6−/−) and wild-type mice were compared in two dietary NASH-models, that is, methionine choline-deficient (MCD) and high-fat (HF) diets. Results: BMP6 was solely upregulated in NAFLD but not in other murine liver injury models or diseased human livers. In NAFLD, BMP6 expression correlated with hepatic steatosis but not with inflammation or hepatocellular damage. Also, in vitro cellular lipid accumulation in primary human hepatocytes induced increased BMP6 expression. MCD and HF diets caused more hepatic inflammation and fibrosis in BMP6−/− compared with wild-type mice. However, only in the MCD and not in the HF diet model BMP6−/− mice developed marked hepatic iron overload, suggesting that further mechanisms are responsible for protective BMP6 effect. In vitro analysis revealed that recombinant BMP6 inhibited the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and reduced proinflammatory and profibrogenic gene expression in already activated HSCs. Conclusions. Steatosis-induced upregulation of BMP6 in NAFLD is hepatoprotective. Induction of BMP6-signalling may be a promising antifibrogenic strategy.
Observational properties of relativistic fluid spheres with thin accretion disks
Creators: name: Rosa, João Luís
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In this work we analyze the observational properties of incompressible relativistic fluid spheres with and without thin-shells, when surrounded by thin accretion disks. We consider a set of six configurations with different combinations of the star radius $R$ and the thin-shell radius $r_Σ$ to produce solutions with neither thin-shells nor light-rings, with either of those features, and with both. Furthermore, we consider three different models for the intensity profile of the accretion disk, based on the Gralla-Lupsasca-Marrone (GLM) disk model, for which the peaks of intensity occur at the Innermost Stable Circular Orbit (ISCO), the Light-Ring (LR), and the center of the star. The observed images and intensity profiles for an asymptotic observer are produced using a Mathematica-based ray-tracing code. Our results indicate that, in the absence of a light-ring, the presence of a thin-shell produces a negligible effect in the observational properties of the stars. However, when the spacetime features a light-ring, the portion of the mass of the star that is stored in the thin-shell has a strong effect on its observational properties, particularly in the magnitude of the central gravitational redshift effect responsible for causing a central shadow-like dimming in the observed images. A comparison with the Schwarzschild spacetime is also provided and the most compact configurations are shown to produce observational imprints similar to those of black-hole solutions, with subtle qualitative differences, most notably extra secondary image components that decrease the radius of the shadow and are potentially observable.
description: 22 pages, 25 figures
Interactive Visualization of Recommender Systems Data
Creators: name: Richthammer, Christian
name: Sänger, Johannes
name: Pernul, Günther
Publisher: name: Universität Regensburg
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Recommender systems, interactive visualization, data types
subject: 004 Informatik

description: Recommender systems provide a valuable mechanism to address the information overload problem by reducing a data set to the items that may be interesting for a particular user. While the quality of recommendations has notably improved in the recent years, the complex algorithms in use lead to high non-transparency for the end user. We propose the usage of interactive visualizations for presenting recommendations. By involving the user in the information reduction process, the quality of recommendations could be enhanced whilst keeping the system’s transparency. This work gives first insights by analyzing recommender systems data and matching them to suitable visualization and interaction techniques. The findings are illustrated by means of an example scenario based on a typical real-world setting.
Validating Monte Carlo simulations for an analysis chain in H.E.S.S
Creators: name: Leuschner, Fabian
name: Schäfer, Johannes
name: Steinmassl, Simon
name: Holch, Tim Lukas
name: Bernlöhr, Konrad
name: Funk, Stefan
name: Hinton, Jim
name: Ohm, Stefan
name: Pühlhofer, Gerd
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) detect very high energetic (VHE) gamma rays. They observe the Cherenkov light emitted in electromagnetic shower cascades that gamma rays induce in the atmosphere. A precise reconstruction of the primary photon energy and the source flux depends heavily on accurate Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of the shower propagation and the detector response, and therefore also on adequate assumptions about the atmosphere at the site and time of a measurement. Here, we present the results of an extensive validation of the MC simulations for an analysis chain of the H.E.S.S. experiment with special focus on the recently installed FlashCam camera on the large 28 m telescope. One goal of this work was to create a flexible and easy-to-use framework to facilitate the detailed validation of MC simulations also for past and future phases of the H.E.S.S. experiment. Guided by the underlying physics, the detector simulation and the atmospheric transmission profiles were gradually improved until low level parameters such as cosmic ray (CR) trigger rates matched within a few percent between simulations and observational data. This led to instrument response functions (IRFs) with which the analysis of current H.E.S.S. data can ultimately be carried out within percent accuracy, substantially improving earlier simulations.
description: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted as Proceeding of the 7th Heidelberg International Symposium on High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy (Gamma2022)
Inadequate corticosterone levels relative to arthritic inflammation are accompanied by altered mitochondria/cholesterol breakdown in adrenal cortex: a steroid-inhibiting role of IL-1β in rats
Creators: name: Wolff, Christine
name: Krinner, Katharina
name: Schroeder, Josef A.
name: Straub, Rainer H.
Publisher: name: Universität Regensburg
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: 610 Medizin

description: Objectives In rheumatoid arthritis, inadequate cortisol secretion was observed relative to inflammation, but reasons are unknown. Human adrenal glands cannot be investigated due to ethical reasons. Thus, a model of arthritis was studied to test inadequate glucocorticoid secretion and adrenocortical alterations. Methods Arthritis in DA rats was induced by collagen type II. Plasma hormone (cytokine) levels were determined by ELISA or radioimmunoassay (Luminex). Adrenocortical cells were investigated making use of in vitro culture, immunohistochemistry and imaging techniques, cholesterol uptake studies and electron microscopical morphological analyses of adrenocortical lipid droplets and mitochondria. Results During the course of arthritis, corticosterone and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) levels were only elevated on day 1 after immunisation but were in the normal range from day 5 to 55. Serum levels of corticosterone relative to IL-1β were markedly lower in arthritis than in controls. IL-1β inhibited ACTH-stimulated corticosterone secretion from adrenocortical cells in vitro. Cholesterol uptake receptor SR-BI protein was unchanged. Number of altered swollen and cavitated mitochondria increased during the course of arthritis (maximum on day 55), and this was correlated to reduced breakdown of lipid droplets and increased Sudan III-positive lipid accumulation from day 28 to 55. Reduced lipid breakdown measured as a high number of homogenous lipid droplets negatively correlated with plasma corticosterone (p=0.022). Adrenocortical tissue density of normal mitochondria positively correlated with serum corticosterone levels. Conclusions This study on inadequate adrenal glucocorticoid secretion in arthritis demonstrated altered mitochondria and altered lipid breakdown paralleled by low corticosterone levels in relation to inflammation. IL-1β is a key cytokine.
The Rate, Amplitude and Duration of Outbursts from Class 0 Protostars in Orion
Creators: name: Zakri, W.
name: Megeath, S. T.
name: Fischer, W. J.
name: Gutermuth, Robert
name: Furlan, Elise
name: Hartmann, Lee
name: Karnath, Nicole
name: Osorio, Mayra
name: Safron, Emily
name: Stanke, Thomas
name: Stutz, Amelia M.
name: Tobin, John J.
name: Allen, Thomas S.
name: Federman, Sam
name: Habel, Nolan
name: Manoj, P.
name: Narang, Mayank
name: Pokhrel, Riwaj
name: Rebull, Luisa
name: Sheehan, Patrick D.
name: Watson, Dan M.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: At least half of a protostar's mass is accreted in the Class 0 phase, when the central protostar is deeply embedded in a dense, infalling envelope. We present the first systematic search for outbursts from Class 0 protostars in the Orion clouds. Using photometry from Spitzer/IRAC spanning 2004 to 2017, we detect three outbursts from Class 0 protostars with $\ge 2$ mag changes at 3.6 or 4.5 $μ$m. This is comparable to the magnitude change of a known protostellar FU Ori outburst. Two are newly detected bursts from the protostars HOPS 12 and 124. The number of detections implies that Class 0 protostars burst every 438 yr, with a 95% confidence interval of 161 to 1884 yr. Combining Spitzer and WISE/NEOWISE data spanning 2004-2019, we show that the bursts persist for more than nine years with significant variability during each burst. Finally, we use $19-100$ $μ$m photometry from SOFIA, Spitzer and Herschel to measure the amplitudes of the bursts. Based on the burst interval, a duration of 15 yr, and the range of observed amplitudes, 3-100% of the mass accretion during the Class 0 phase occurs during bursts. In total, we show that bursts from Class 0 protostars are as frequent, or even more frequent, than those from more evolved protostars. This is consistent with bursts being driven by instabilities in disks triggered by rapid mass infall. Furthermore, we find that bursts may be a significant, if not dominant, mode of mass accretion during the Class 0 phase.
description: Accepted to ApJL
Sensing Translocating Polymers via Induced Magnetic Fields
Creators: name: Buyukdagli, Sahin
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The requirement to boost the resolution of nanopore-based biosequencing devices necessitates the integration of novel biosensing techniques with reduced sensitivity to background noise. In this article, we probe the signatures of translocating polymers in magnetic fields induced by ionic currents through membrane nanopores. Within the framework of a previously introduced charge transport theory, we evaluate the magnetic field signals generated by voltage- and pressure-driven DNA translocation events in monovalent salt solutions. Our formalism reveals that in voltage-driven transport, the translocating polymer suppresses the induced magnetic field via the steric blockage of the ion current through the mid-pore. In the case of pressure-driven transport, the magnetic field reduction by translocation originates from the negative electrokinetic contribution of the anionic DNA surface charges to the streaming current predominantly composed of salt cations. The magnitude of the corresponding field signals is located in the nano-Tesla range covered by the resolution of the magnetoelectric sensors able to detect magnetic fields down to the pico-Tesla range. This suggests that the integration of magnetic field detection techniques into the current biosequencing approaches can complement efficiently the conventional biosensing strategies employing ionic current readouts with high susceptibility to background noise.
Localization and the effects of symmetries in the thermalization properties of one-dimensional quantum systems
Creators: name: Santos, Lea F.
name: Rigol, Marcos
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study how the proximity to an integrable point or to localization as one approaches the atomic limit, as well as the mixing of symmetries in the chaotic domain, may affect the onset of thermalization in finite one-dimensional systems. We consider systems of hard-core bosons at half-filling with nearest neighbor hopping and interaction, and next-nearest neighbor interaction. The latter breaks integrability and induces a ground-state superfluid to insulator transition. By full exact diagonalization, we study chaos indicators and few-body observables. We show that when different symmetry sectors are mixed, chaos indicators associated with the eigenvectors, contrary to those related to the eigenvalues, capture the onset of chaos. The results for the complexity of the eigenvectors and for the expectation values of few-body observables confirm the validity of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis in the chaotic regime, and therefore the occurrence of thermalization. We also study the properties of the off-diagonal matrix elements of few-body observables in relation to the transition from integrability to chaos and from chaos to localization.
description: 12 pages, 13 figures, as published (Fig.09 was corrected in this final version)
The fabrication of an artificial intelligence agent for reservoir history matching from the Volve dataset
Creators: name: Reyes, Alfonso R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: petroleum engineering
reservoir simulation
Volve dataset
data science

description: Notebooks, scripts and code for the article "The fabrication of an artificial intelligence agent for reservoir history matching from the Volve dataset" appeared in http://blog.oilgainsanalytics.com/publications/the-fabrication-of-an-artificial-intelligence-agent-for-reservoir-history-matching-from-the-volve-dataset/
The sympathetic nervous system stimulates anti-inflammatory B cells in collagen-type II-induced arthritis
Creators: name: Pongratz, Georg
name: Melzer, Madlen
name: Straub, Rainer H.
Publisher: name: Universität Regensburg
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: 610 Medizin

description: Background: As previously shown, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) shows proinflammatory activity during initiation of arthritis but is anti-inflammatory in established collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). Interleukin 10 (IL-10)-producing B cells suppress arthritis and are a potential target of the SNS because (1) B cells express functional β2-adrenoceptors (β2ARs) and (2) IL-10, at least in monocytes/macrophages, is regulated in a cAMP/PKA/CREB-dependent manner. Objective: To test the hypothesis that anti-inflammatory effects of the SNS in CIA are mediated by stimulating IL-10-producing anti-inflammatory B cells. Methods: Collagen-induced arthritis in DBA/1 mice, sympathectomy, adoptive B cell transfer, in vitro B cell culture, and assessment of B cell IL-10 production. Results and conclusion: Mice treated with B cells from SNS-intact mice showed less severe arthritis than mice treated with B cells from sympathectomised mice. This anti-inflammatory action of B cells from SNS-intact mice correlated with increased IL-10 produced by B cells, which was mediated by norepinephrine (NE), in a β2AR, PKA-dependent manner. However, an NE-mediated increase in IL-10 was seen only in B cells from immunised but not naive mice, explaining in part the anti-inflammatory properties of the SNS in the late phase of arthritis. Finally, animals treated with B cells isolated from immunised mice and activated in vitro in the presence of a β2AR stimulus showed a decrease in arthritis severity in comparison with controls, an approach that might be used for future cellular treatment strategies.
The newly observed $Ω_c(3327)$: A good candidate for a $D$-wave charmed baryon
Creators: name: Luo, Si-Qiang
name: Liu, Xiang
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The newly observed $Ω_c(3327)$ gives us a good chance to construct the $Ω_c$ charmed baryon family. In this work, we carry out the mass spectrum analysis by a non-relativistic potential model using Gaussian Expansion Method, and the study of its two-body Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka allowed strong decay behavior. Our results imply that the $Ω_c(3327)$ is good candidate of $Ω_c(1D)$ state with $J^P=5/2^+$. We also predict the spectroscopy behavior of other $Ω_c(1D)$ states, which may provide further clues to their search.
description: 6 pages, 4 tables, 3 figures. Accepted by PRD
Genotypic and phenotypic analysis of 396 individuals with mutations in Sonic Hedgehog
Creators: name: Solomon, B. D.
name: Bear, K. A.
name: Wyllie, A.
name: Hehr, Ute
Publisher: name: Universität Regensburg
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: 610 Medizin

description: Background: Holoprosencephaly (HPE), the most common malformation of the human forebrain, may result from mutations in over 12 genes. Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) was the ﬁrst such gene discovered; mutations in SHH remain the most common cause of nonchromosomal HPE. The severity spectrum is wide, ranging from incompatibility with extrauterine life to isolated midline facial differences. Objective: To characterise genetic and clinical ﬁndings in individuals with SHH mutations. Methods: Through the National Institutes of Health and collaborating centres, DNA from approximately 2000 individuals with HPE spectrum disorders were analysed for SHH variations. Clinical details were examined and combined with published cases. Results: This study describes 396 individuals, representing 157 unrelated kindreds, with SHH mutations; 141 (36%) have not been previously reported. SHH mutations more commonly resulted in non-HPE (64%) than frank HPE (36%), and non-HPE was signiﬁcantly more common in patients with SHH than in those with mutations in the other common HPE related genes (p<0.0001 compared to ZIC2 or SIX3). Individuals with truncating mutations were signiﬁcantly more likely to have frank HPE than those with non-truncating mutations (49% vs 35%, respectively; p¼0.012). While mutations were signiﬁcantly more common in the N-terminus than in the C-terminus (including accounting for the relative size of the coding regions, p¼0.00010), no speciﬁc genotype―phenotype correlations could be established regarding mutation location. Conclusions: SHH mutations overall result in milder disease than mutations in other common HPE related genes. HPE is more frequent in individuals with truncating mutations, but clinical predictions at the individual level remain elusive.
Long Term Impact of Using Smart Speakers in Accessing Literary Works by People with Vision Loss – Usability Study of Blvnz Alexa Skill
Creators: name: Beksa, Jarek
Publisher: name: Media Design School
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 46
subject: Information and computing sciences
classificationCode: 460102
subject: Applications in health

description: Developments in technology have the potential to improve the independence of people with disabilities (Darcy, Maxwell & Green, 2016). For people who are blind or have low vision who use these forms of adaptive technology, alternative assistive technology is often costly. However, Gill (2017) suggests that voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa are a low-cost solution to meeting their needs. The Blind Foundation worked with Sonnar Interactive LTD to create a third-party library skill for the Amazon Alexa voice assistant to provide voice activated audio content access to its members as an alternative to current CDs and app solutions.
FGC 1287 and its enigmatic 250 kpc long HI tail in the outskirts of Abell 1367
Creators: name: Scott, T. C.
name: Cortese, L.
name: Lagos, P.
name: Brinks, E.
name: Finoguenov, A.
name: Coccato, L.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present HI and radio continuum, narrow-band H$α$ imaging, IFU spectroscopy, and X-ray observations of the FGC 1287 triplet projected $\sim$ 1.8 Mpc west of the galaxy cluster Abell 1367. One triplet member, FGC 1287, displays an exceptionally long, 250 kpc HI tail and an unperturbed stellar disk which are the typical signatures of ram pressure stripping (RPS). To generate detectable RPS signatures the presence of an Intra-cluster medium (ICM)/intra-group medium (IGM) with sufficient density to produce RPS at a realistic velocity relative to the ICM/IGM is a prerequisite. However, XMM-Newton observations were not able to detect X-ray emission from the triplet, implying that if a hot ICM/IGM is present, its density, n${_e}$, is less than 2.6 $\times$ 10$^{-5}$ cm$^{-3}$. Higher-resolution VLA HI data presented here show FGC 1287's HI disk is truncated and significantly warped whereas the HI tail is clumpy. TNG H$α$ imaging identified three star forming clumps projected within 20 kpc of FGC 1287's disk, with VIMOS-IFU data confirming two of these are counterparts to HI clumps in the tail. The triplet's HI kinematics, together with H$α$ and radio continuum imaging suggests an interaction may have enhanced star formation in FGC 1287's disk, but cannot readily account for the origin of the long HI tail. We consider several scenarios which might reconcile RPS with the non-detection of ICM/IGM X-ray emission but none of these unambiguously explains the origin of the long HI tail.
description: 15 pages, 11 figures
Spectral geometry of Riemannian Legendre foliations
Creators: name: Baditoiu, Gabriel
name: Ianus, Stere
name: Pastore, Anna Maria
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Differential Geometry (math.DG)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 53C12, 53C25, 58J50

description: We obtain geometric characterizations of isospectral minimal Riemannian Legendre foliations on compact Sasakian manifolds of constant $ϕ$-sectional curvature.
description: 14 pages
Structural performance of nail-laminated timber-concrete composite floors
Creators: name: Hong, Kwan Eui Marcel
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2017

description: Nail-laminated timber-concrete composite (TCC) is a system composed of a nail-laminated timber (NLT) panel connected to a concrete slab through shear connections. When used as flexural elements such as floors, the concrete and NLT are located in the compression and tension zones, respectively. NLT panels, being constructed out of inexpensive lumber planks nailed on their sides, offer an economical advantage in mass-timber constructions that complement the structural and building physics advantages of TCC. However, the performance of nail-laminated TCC as well as efficient shear connectors for this system have not been investigated. This thesis presents the experimental study conducted on the performance of TCC panels constructed out of NLT, mechanical fasteners, and cast-in-place concrete. First, nine different sizes of truss-plates and two configurations of self-tapping screws installed in small-scale TCC specimens were tested under shear load. The connections’ strength and stiffness were determined to evaluate its performance as TCC shear connectors. Second, four truss-plate configurations were selected for implementation in full-scale TCC panels. Two panels for each shear connection systems were tested under impact loading and a quasi-static monotonic loading to determine the vibration bending properties, respectively. Panel specifications and layouts of the connectors were designed based on the established γ-method. The test results show that nail-laminated TCC panels reached slightly higher fundamental natural frequency and elastic bending stiffness than predicted. Furthermore, failure did not occur until loading reached 5 to 7 times the serviceability requirements. The selected truss-plates shear connection demonstrated to be an efficient solution for nail-laminated TCC panels.
X-ray burst and persistent emission properties of the magnetar SGR 1830-0645 in outburst
Creators: name: Younes, G.
name: Hu, C. -P.
name: Bansal, K.
name: Ray, P. S.
name: Pearlman, A. B.
name: Kirsten, F.
name: Wadiasingh, Z.
name: Gogus, E.
name: Baring, M. G.
name: Enoto, T.
name: Arzoumanian, Z.
name: Gendreau, K. C.
name: Kouveliotou, C.
name: Guver, T.
name: Harding, A. K.
name: Majid, W. A.
name: Blumer, H.
name: Hessels, J. W. T.
name: Gawronski, M. P.
name: Bezrukovs, V.
name: Orbidans, A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We report on NICER X-ray monitoring of the magnetar SGR 1830-0645 covering 223 days following its October 2020 outburst, as well as Chandra and radio observations. We present the most accurate spin ephemerides of the source so far: $ν=0.096008680(2)$~Hz, $\dotν=-6.2(1)\times10^{-14}$~Hz~s$^{-1}$, and a significant second and third frequency derivative terms indicative of non-negligible timing noise. The phase-averaged 0.8--7~keV spectrum is well fit with a double-blackbody (BB) model throughout the campaign. The BB temperatures remain constant at 0.46 and 1.2 keV. The areas and flux of each component decreased by a factor of 6, initially through a steep decay trend lasting about 46 days followed by a shallow long-term one. The pulse shape in the same energy range is initially complex, exhibiting three distinct peaks, yet with clear continuous evolution throughout the outburst towards a simpler, single-pulse shape. The rms pulsed fraction is high and increases from about 40% to 50%. We find no dependence of pulse shape or fraction on energy. These results suggest that multiple hotspots, possibly possessing temperature gradients, emerged at outburst-onset, and shrank as the outburst decayed. We detect 84 faint bursts with \nicer, having a strong preference for occurring close to the surface emission pulse maximum the first time this phenomenon is detected in such a large burst sample. This likely implies a very low altitude for the burst emission region, and a triggering mechanism connected to the surface active zone. Finally, our radio observations at several epochs and multiple frequencies reveal no evidence of pulsed or burst-like radio emission.
description: ApJ accepted
A $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant for chiral and particle-hole symmetric topological chains
Creators: name: Monaco, Domenico
name: Peluso, Gabriele
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: 81-06, 81V70

description: We define a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-valued topological and gauge invariant associated to any 1-dimensional, translation-invariant topological insulator which satisfies either particle-hole symmetry or chiral symmetry. The invariant can be computed from the Berry phase associated to a suitable basis of Bloch functions which is compatible with the symmetries. We compute the invariant in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model for chiral symmetric insulators, and in the Kitaev model for particle-hole symmetric insulators. We show that in both cases the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant predicts the existence of zero-energy boundary states for the corresponding truncated models.
description: REVTeX class, 20 pages, no figures; to appear in the proceedings volume for the workshop "Learning from Insulators: New Trends in the Study of Conductivity of Metals", 9-13 August 2021, Lorentz Center (Leiden, NL)
How Chinese firms link with foreign markets
Creators: name: Sun, Xiaonan
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2017

description: This dissertation consists of three essays, each of which studies a unique perspective of how Chinese firms participate in foreign markets. The first essay investigates a government regulation that restricts the use of intermediaries linking domestic producers and foreign buyers. A model is developed to describe the matches between automakers and intermediaries. It shows that the regulation leads to market division, inefficiencies in matching, and double marginalization. The model predictions coincide with a number of stylized facts: a strong decline in the number of auto intermediaries, assortative matching, export price increases for intermediaries, and substantial churning in the sets of intermediaries registered by the automakers. Welfare analysis shows that this regulation benefits automakers while intermediaries are made worse off. The second essay studies the sales allocation of Chinese exporters between domestic and foreign markets. The exports to domestic sales ratio is decreasing in firm productivity. Heterogeneous marketing cost elasticities are introduced in the model to rationalize this empirical phenomenon. A higher marketing cost elasticity domestically gives rise to a larger sales expansion in the home market as firm productivity increases. Empirical tests of the model predictions provide evidence to support the role of marketing costs and are inconsistent with alternative explanations related to variable markups and product quality. The third essay examines the persistence of trade relationships from a historical point of view. It studies the effect of treaty linkages established between Chinese cities and foreign countries during the 19th century on China's trade today. Evidence shows that trade is higher among the group of countries and cities that were involved in treaty arrangements. These higher levels of trade may be due to complementary in industry structure and business knowledge developed in the treaty port era. An alternative explanation is that today's trade is due to the relatively high levels of development of the trading partners and is unrelated to treaty ports.
Coevolution of trustful buyers and cooperative sellers in the trust game
Creators: name: Masuda, Naoki
name: Nakamura, Mitsuhiro
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT)
subject: Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: FOS: Biological sciences

description: Many online marketplaces enjoy great success. Buyers and sellers in successful markets carry out cooperative transactions even if they do not know each other in advance and a moral hazard exists. An indispensable component that enables cooperation in such social dilemma situations is the reputation system. Under the reputation system, a buyer can avoid transacting with a seller with a bad reputation. A transaction in online marketplaces is better modeled by the trust game than other social dilemma games, including the donation game and the prisoner's dilemma. In addition, most individuals participate mostly as buyers or sellers; each individual does not play the two roles with equal probability. Although the reputation mechanism is known to be able to remove the moral hazard in games with asymmetric roles, competition between different strategies and population dynamics of such a game are not sufficiently understood. On the other hand, existing models of reputation-based cooperation, also known as indirect reciprocity, are based on the symmetric donation game. We analyze the trust game with two fixed roles, where trustees (i.e., sellers) but not investors (i.e., buyers) possess reputation scores. We study the equilibria and the replicator dynamics of the game. We show that the reputation mechanism enables cooperation between unacquainted buyers and sellers under fairly generous conditions, even when such a cooperative equilibrium coexists with an asocial equilibrium in which buyers do not buy and sellers cheat. In addition, we show that not many buyers may care about the seller's reputation under cooperative equilibrium. Buyers' trusting behavior and sellers' reputation-driven cooperative behavior coevolve to alleviate the social dilemma.
description: 5 figures
UndoPort: Exploring the Influence of Undo-Actions for Locomotion in Virtual Reality on the Efficiency, Spatial Understanding and User Experience
Creators: name: Müller, Florian
name: Ye, Arantxa
name: Schön, Dominik
name: Rasch, Julian
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: When we get lost in Virtual Reality (VR) or want to return to a previous location, we use the same methods of locomotion for the way back as for the way forward. This is time-consuming and requires additional physical orientation changes, increasing the risk of getting tangled in the headsets' cables. In this paper, we propose the use of undo actions to revert locomotion steps in VR. We explore eight different variations of undo actions as extensions of point\&teleport, based on the possibility to undo position and orientation changes together with two different visualizations of the undo step (discrete and continuous). We contribute the results of a controlled experiment with 24 participants investigating the efficiency and orientation of the undo techniques in a radial maze task. We found that the combination of position and orientation undo together with a discrete visualization resulted in the highest efficiency without increasing orientation errors.
description: To appear in Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 23), April 23-28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 15 pages
Effect of EpCAM, CD44, CD133 and CD166 expression on patient survival in tumours of the ampulla of Vater
Creators: name: Piscuoglio, Salvatore
name: Lehmann, Frank S.
name: Zlobec, I.
name: Dietmaier, Wolfgang
name: Rümmele, Petra
Publisher: name: Universität Regensburg
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: 610 Medizin

description: Background: Carcinomas of the Vaterian system are rare and presumably arise from pre-existing adenomas. According to the cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis, only a small subset of tumor cells has the ability to initiate and develop tumor growth. In colorectal cancer, CD44, CD133, CD166 and EpCAM have been proposed to represent CSC marker proteins and their expression has been shown to correlate with patient survival. Aims: To evaluate a potential role of these CSC proteins in tumors of the ampulla of Vater, we investigated their expression in 175 carcinoma, 111 adenoma and 152 normal mucosa specimens arranged in a Tissue Microarray format. Materials and methods: Membranous immunoreactivity for each protein marker was scored semi-quantitatively by evaluating the number of positive tumor cells over the total number of tumor cells. Median protein expression levels were used as cut-off scores to define protein marker positivity. Clinical data including survival time were obtained by retrospective analysis of medical records, tumor registries or direct contact. Results: The expression of all evaluated marker proteins differed significantly between normal mucosa, adenoma and carcinoma samples. In all markers, we found a tendency towards more constant expression from normal to neoplastic tissue. EpCAM expression was significantly correlated with better patient survival. The increased expression of CD44s, CD166 and CD133 from normal mucosa samples to adenoma and carcinoma was linked to tumor progression. However, there was no statistically significant correlation with survival. Conclusion: Our findings indicate, that in ampullary carcinomas, loss of expression of EpCAM may be linked to a more aggressive tumor phenotype
Deep Unified Representation for Heterogeneous Recommendation
Creators: name: Lu, Chengqiang
name: Yin, Mingyang
name: Shen, Shuheng
name: Ji, Luo
name: Liu, Qi
name: Yang, Hongxia
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Information Retrieval (cs.IR)
subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Recommendation system has been a widely studied task both in academia and industry. Previous works mainly focus on homogeneous recommendation and little progress has been made for heterogeneous recommender systems. However, heterogeneous recommendations, e.g., recommending different types of items including products, videos, celebrity shopping notes, among many others, are dominant nowadays. State-of-the-art methods are incapable of leveraging attributes from different types of items and thus suffer from data sparsity problems. And it is indeed quite challenging to represent items with different feature spaces jointly. To tackle this problem, we propose a kernel-based neural network, namely deep unified representation (or DURation) for heterogeneous recommendation, to jointly model unified representations of heterogeneous items while preserving their original feature space topology structures. Theoretically, we prove the representation ability of the proposed model. Besides, we conduct extensive experiments on real-world datasets. Experimental results demonstrate that with the unified representation, our model achieves remarkable improvement (e.g., 4.1% ~ 34.9% lift by AUC score and 3.7% lift by online CTR) over existing state-of-the-art models.
description: 12 pages, 4 figures, accepted by the ACM Web Conference 2022 (WWW '22)
Oscillations in the inflaton potential: Complete numerical treatment and comparison with the recent and forthcoming CMB datasets
Creators: name: Aich, Moumita
name: Hazra, Dhiraj Kumar
name: Sriramkumar, L.
name: Souradeep, Tarun
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Amongst the multitude of inflationary models currently available, models that lead to features in the primordial scalar spectrum are drawing increasing attention, since certain features have been found to provide a better fit to the CMB data than the conventional, nearly scale invariant, primordial spectrum. In this work, we carry out a complete numerical analysis of two models that lead to oscillations over all scales in the scalar power spectrum. We consider the model described by a quadratic potential which is superposed by a sinusoidal modulation and the recently popular axion monodromy model. Since the oscillations continue even on to arc minute scales, in addition to the WMAP data, we also compare the models with the small scale data from ACT. Though, both the models, broadly, result in oscillations in the spectrum, interestingly, we find that, while the monodromy model leads to a considerably better fit to the data in comparison to the standard power law spectrum, the quadratic potential superposed with a sinusoidal modulation does not improve the fit to a similar extent. We also carry out forecasting of the parameters using simulated Planck data for both the models. We show that the Planck mock data performs better in constraining the model parameters as compared to the presently available CMB datasets.
description: 10 pages, 6 figures
Analytic formulas for topological degree of non-smooth mappings: the even-dimensional case
Creators: name: Goffeng, Magnus
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: K-Theory and Homology (math.KT)
subject: Differential Geometry (math.DG)
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: Topological degrees of continuous mappings between manifolds of even dimension are studied in terms of index theory of pseudo-differential operators. The index formalism of non-commutative geometry is used to derive analytic integral formulas for the index of a 0:th order pseudo-differential operator twisted by a Hölder continuous vector bundle. The index formula gives an analytic formula for the degree of a Hölder continuous mapping between even-dimensional manifolds. The paper is an independent continuation of the paper "Analytic formulas for topological degree of non-smooth mappings: the odd-dimensional case".
description: 24 pages
A new MRI rating scale for progressive supranuclear palsy and multiple system atrophy: validity and reliability
Creators: name: Rolland, Yann
name: Schuierer, Gerhard
name: NNIPPS, Study Group
Publisher: name: Universität Regensburg
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: 610 Medizin

description: Aim: To evaluate a standardised MRI acquisition protocol and a new image rating scale for disease severity in patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and multiple systems atrophy (MSA) in a large multicentre study. Methods: The MRI protocol consisted of two-dimensional sagittal and axial T1, axial PD, and axial and coronal T2 weighted acquisitions. The 32 item ordinal scale evaluated abnormalities within the basal ganglia and posterior fossa, blind to diagnosis. Among 760 patients in the study population (PSP=362, MSA=398), 627 had per protocol images (PSP=297, MSA=330). Intra-rater (n=60) and inter-rater (n=555) reliability were assessed through Cohen's statistic, and scale structure through principal component analysis (PCA) (n=441). Internal consistency and reliability were checked. Discriminant and predictive validity of extracted factors and total scores were tested for disease severity as per clinical diagnosis. Results: Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability were acceptable for 25 (78%) of the items scored (≥0.41). PCA revealed four meaningful clusters of covarying parameters (factor (F) F1: brainstem and cerebellum; F2: midbrain; F3: putamen; F4: other basal ganglia) with good to excellent internal consistency (Cronbach α 0.75–0.93) and moderate to excellent reliability (intraclass coefficient: F1: 0.92; F2: 0.79; F3: 0.71; F4: 0.49). The total score significantly discriminated for disease severity or diagnosis; factorial scores differentially discriminated for disease severity according to diagnosis (PSP: F1–F2; MSA: F2–F3). The total score was significantly related to survival in PSP (p<0.0007) or MSA (p<0.0005), indicating good predictive validity. Conclusions: The scale is suitable for use in the context of multicentre studies and can reliably and consistently measure MRI abnormalities in PSP and MSA. Clinical Trial Registration Number: The study protocol was filed in the open clinical trial registry (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov) with ID No NCT00211224.
Nevanlinna-Pick interpolation on distinguished varieties in the bidisk
Creators: name: Jury, Michael T.
name: Knese, Greg
name: McCullough, Scott
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Functional Analysis (math.FA)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 47A57

description: This article treats Nevanlinna-Pick interpolation in the setting of a special class of algebraic curves called distinguished varieties. An interpolation theorem, along with additional operator theoretic results, is given using a family of reproducing kernels naturally associated to the variety. The examples of the Neil parabola and doubly connected domains are discussed.
description: 31 pages. The question left open at the end of version 1 has been answered in the affirmative; see Theorem 1.12 and Corollary 1.13 in version 2