Recently, more and more countries are entering the global race for university competitiveness. On the one hand, global rankings are a convenient tool for quantitative analysis. On the other hand, their indicators are often difficult to quickly calculate, they often contradict each other. We thought about using widely available indicators for a quick analysis of the University's publication strategy. We opted for the normalized citation indicators available in SciVal analytical tool, i.e. Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) and Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI). We have demonstrated the possibility of applying the correlation analysis to the impact indicators of a document and a journal on the sample of the social and humanitarian fields at Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. Particular attention was paid to the application of the results in practice.

I examine the groups which underly classical mechanics, non-relativistic quantum mechanics, special relativity, relativistic quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics, quantum flavourdynamics, quantum chromodynamics, and general relativity. This examination includes the rotations SO(2) and SO(3), the Pauli algebra, the Lorentz transformations, the Dirac algebra, and the U(1), SU(2), and SU(3) gauge transformations. I argue that general relativity must be generalized to Einstein-Cartan theory, so that Dirac spinors can be described within the framework of gravitation theory.

Based on a local causal model of the dynamics of curved discrete spacetime, a causal model of quantum field theory in curved discrete spacetime is described. On the elementary level, space(-time) is assumed to consists of interconnected space points. Each space point is connected to a small discrete set of neighboring space points. Density distribution of the space points and the lengths of the space point connections depend on the distance from the gravitational sources. This leads to curved spacetime in accordance with general relativity. Dynamics of spacetime (i.e., the emergence of space and the propagation of space changes) dynamically assigns "in-connections" and "out-connections" to the affected space points. Emergence and propagation of quantum fields (including particles) are mapped to the emergence and propagation of space changes by utilizing identical paths of in/out-connections. Compatibility with standard quantum field theory (QFT) requests the adjustment of the QFT techniques (e.g., Feynman diagrams, Feynman rules, creation/annihilation operators), which typically apply to three in/out connections, to n > 3 in/out connections. In addition, QFT computation in position space has to be adapted to a curved discrete space-time.

Based on a local causal model of the dynamics of curved discrete spacetime, a causal model of quantum field theory in curved discrete spacetime is described. At the elementary level, space(-time) is assumed to consists of interconnected space points. Each space point is connected to a small discrete set of neighbor space points. Density distribution of the space points and the lengths of the space point connections depend on the distance from the gravitational sources. This leads to curved spacetime in accordance with general relativity. Dynamics of spacetime (i.e., the emergence of space and the propagation of space changes) dynamically assigns "in-connections" and "out-connections" to the affected space points. Emergence and propagation of quantum fields (including particles) are mapped to the emergence and propagation of space changes by utilizing identical paths of in/out-connections. Compatibility with standard quantum field theory (QFT) requests the adjustment of the QFT techniques (e.g., Feynman diagrams, Feynman rules, creation/annihilation operators), which typically apply to three in/out connections, to n > 3 in/out connections. In addition, QFT computation in position space has to be adapted to a curved discrete space-time.

The stability assessment of aged tunnel linings were mainly evaluated based on the visual inspection, and the Tunnel-lining Crack Index (TCI) is one of the most widely used tunnel lining health assessment indexes in Japan. However, the intersection and distribution of cracks, which can influence the stability of tunnel lining greatly, were not considered in the TCI. A new method was proposed for the health assessment of tunnel lining, which evaluate the lining states according to the fractal dimension of cracks. Based on the machine vision-based method, the crack image can be extracted efficiently. The fractal dimension of lining cracks in one span can be obtained in a few minutes. A series of comparative tests and field tests were conducted to evaluate the validity of this new method. The comparative tests confirmed that fractal dimension can characterize the density, width, and distribution of cracks. The results also certificated that the influence of crack width is larger than the crack density. The intersection of cracks, which will increase the risk of lining collapse, can also increase the fractal dimension, whereas the TCI keep constant. The fractal dimensions of tunnel lining cracks were obtained according to the digital inspection test of Hidake Tunnel in Japan for all the 65 spans. Moreover, the TCI was obtained through statistical methods. The correlation between fractal dimension and TCI of tunnel lining was studied. The significance of the new evaluation index is that it can identify some unusual spans of tunnel lining and provide a basis for further internal testing. As a complement to the conventional visual inspection method, the fractal dimension of the cracks is a promising health assessment index.

MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) radar provides much more flexibility than the traditional radar for its ability to realize far more observation channels than the actual number of T/R (transmit and receive) elements. Designing the array of MIMO imaging radar, the commonly used virtual array theory generally assumes that all elements are placed on the same line. However, due to the physical size of the antennas and coupling effect between T/R elements, a certain height difference between T/R arrays is essential, resulting in the defocusing of edge points of the scene. On the other hand, the virtual array theory implies far-field approximation, leading to inevitable high grating lobes in the imaging result of near-field edge points of the scene observed by common MIMO array. To tackle these problems, this paper derives the relationship between target’s PSF (point spread function) and pattern of T/R arrays, by which the design criterion of near-field imaging MIMO array is presented. Firstly, the proper height between T/R arrays is designed to focus the near-field edge points well. Secondly, the far-field array is modified to suppress the grating lobes in the near-field area. Finally, the validity of the proposed methods is verified by simulations and an experiment.

In this project, four of fibers Bragg gratings were fabricated by injecting different volumes of liquids (star line Glass Mechanix optical adhesive material, olive oil diluted with ethanol) into the hollow core fiber. The amplitude splitting interferometric technique with a high resolution specially designed translation stage was used for the fabrication process. The fabrication was done using ultraviolet laser operated at wavelength 405nm. The fabricated Bragg length of the four fibers is equal to 3.8 cm. The results presented fiber Bragg grating (FBG) with successful fabrication at 653.3 nm Bragg reflected wavelength.

The high radio frequency polarization imaging of non-thermal emission from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is a direct way to probe the magnetic field strength and structure in the immediate vicinity of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and is crucial in testing the jet-launching scenario. To explore the the magnetic field configuration at the base of jets in blazars, we took advantage of the full polarization capabilities of the GMVA (Global Millimeter VLBI Array). With an angular resolution of ~50 micro-arcseconds at 86 GHz, one could reach scales down to ~900 Schwarzschild radii (for a 10^9 solar mass black hole). We present here the preliminary results of our study on the blazar BL Lac. Our results imply that on sub-mas scales the core and central jet of BL Lac is significantly polarized with two distinct regions of polarized intensity. We also noted a great morphological similarity between the 7mm/3mm VLBI images at very similar angular resolution.

Homochirality is an obvious feature of life on Earth. On the other hand, extraterrestrial samples contain largely racemic compounds. The same is true for any common organic synthesis. Therefore, it has been a perplexing puzzle for decades how these racemates could have formed enantiomerically enriched fractions as a basis for the origin of homochiral life forms. Numerous hypotheses have been put forward as to how preferentially homochiral molecules could have formed and accumulated on Earth. In this article, it is shown that homochirality of the abiotic organic pool at the time of formation of the first self-replicating molecules is not necessary and not even probable. It is proposed to abandon the notion of a molecular ensemble and to focus on the level of individual molecules. Although the formation of the first self-replicating, most likely homochiral molecule is a seemingly improbable event, on a closer look, it is almost inevitable that homochiral molecules have formed simply on a statistical basis. In this case, the non-selective leap to homochirality would be one of the first steps in chemical evolution directly out of a racemic “ocean”. Moreover, most studies focus on the chirality of the primordial monomers with respect to an asymmetric carbon atom. However, any polymer with a minimal size that allows folding to a secondary structure, would spontaneously lead to asymmetric higher structures (conformations). Most of the functions of these polymers would be influenced by this inherently asymmetric folding. To summarize, simple and universal mechanisms may have led to homochiral self-replicating systems in the context of chemical evolution. A homochiral monomer pool is deemed unnecessary and probably never existed on primordial Earth.

The various methods used to choose the profile shift coefficients, primarily the so-called equalizations, were based on assumed advantages without physical evidence proving them. In this paper a new calculation method is presented for determining profile shift coefficient. The procedure gives the pair of values ​​of the profile shift coefficients, in which case, under the given load, the resulting bending stress will be of the lowest possible value.

The research is focusing on analyzing the concentrations of particulate matter (PM) next to a highly congested road section, with 39,900 as a maximum number of vehicles per 24 h, in the vicinity of Timisoara, Romania. Concentrations have been measured in multiple episodes using two different measurement methods, gravimetric and dynamic light scattering, showing a disperse range of PM concentrations. Presence of metal particles in the samples have been analyzed using an electron microscope. Additionally, impact on human health is described by evaluating results for inhalable, thoracic, and alveolar sized particles.

Loss of photoreceptors in retinal degenerative diseases also impacts the inner retina: bipolar cell dendrites retract, neurons rewire and protein expression changes. ON-bipolar cells represent an attractive target for optogenetic vision restoration. However, above-described maladaptations may negatively impact the quality of restored vision. To investigate this question, we employed human post-mortem retinas and transgenic rd1_Opto-mGluR6 mice expressing the optogenetic construct Opto-mGluR6 in ON-bipolar cells and carrying the retinal degeneration rd1 mutation. We found significant changes in delayed rectifier potassium channel expression in ON-bipolar cells of degenerative retinas. In particular, we found an increase in Kv1.3 expression already in early stages of degeneration. Immunohistochemistry localized Kv1.3 channels specifically to OBC axons. In whole-cell patch-clamp experiments, ON-bipolar cells in the degenerated murine retina were less responsive, which could be reversed by application of the specific Kv1.3 antagonist Psora-4. Notably, Kv1.3 block significantly increased the amplitude and kinetics of Opto-mGluR6-mediated light responses in ON-bipolar cells of the blind retina and increased the signal-to-noise ratio of light-triggered responses in retinal ganglion cells. We propose that reduction of Kv1.3 activity in the degenerated retina, either by pharmacological block or by KCNA3 gene silencing, could improve the quality of restored vision.

In this work we identify combinations of technological activities that signal the presence local capabilities in a country to successfully export a product. We use country-level patent and trade data to generate a multi-layer network, and we apply maximization of entropy to generate synthetic data to effectively divide signal from noise. We show that in several sectors the signal far exceed the noise. Our exercise provides robust evidence of the presence of synergies between technologies to explain trade performances in specific markets. This can be highly useful for policy makers, to inform industrial and innovation policies.

Lithium-metal batteries offer high energy density, but are challenged by dendrite growth, which can lead to short circuits and battery failure. Various models with varying degrees of accuracy and computational cost have been developed to understand and predict dendrite growth. In this study, a simple simulation model to predict macroscale dendrite growth on lithium metal electrodes is presented. The model uses a 3D single-particle diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) algorithm, biased by the electric field, to simulate dendrite growth. The model was validated using 3D MRI of dendrite growth in a lithium symmetric cell. It was used to simulate deposition between consecutive measured dendrite structures. The model also introduces an important parameter, namely the biasing factor c, which determines the balance between diffusion and electric field effects. This parameter was calibrated using the overlap and displacement of deposition sites metrics, achieving optimal results at c = 0.7. The model predictions were in good agreement with experimental data confirmed by fractal dimension analysis. This model provides a useful tool for predicting and studying dendrite formation in lithium and other metal batteries.

Brain tumors are frequently classified with high accuracy using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and better comprehend the spatial connections among pixels in complex pictures. Due to their tiny receptive fields, the majority of deep convolutional neural network (DCNN)-based techniques overfit and are unable to extract global context information from more significant regions. While dilated convolution retains data resolution at the output layer and increases the receptive field without adding computation, stacking several dilated convolutions has the drawback of producing a grid effect. To handle gridding artifacts and extract both coarse and fine features from the images, this research suggests using a dilated parallel deep convolutional neural network (PDCNN) architecture that preserves a wide receptive field. To reduce complexity, initially, input images are resized and then grayscale transformed. Data augmentation has since been used to expand the number of datasets. Dilated PDCNN makes use of the lower computational overhead and contributes to the reduction of gridding artifacts. By contrasting various dilation rates, the global path uses a low dilation rate (2,1,1), while the local path uses a high dilation rate (4,2,1) for decremental even numbers to tackle gridding artifacts and extract both coarse and fine features from the two parallel paths. Using three different types of MRI datasets, the suggested dilated PDCNN with the average ensemble method performs better. The accuracy provided by the Multiclass Kaggle dataset-III, Figshare dataset-II, and Binary tumor identification dataset-I is 98.35%, 98.13%, and 98.67%, respectively. In comparison to state-of-the-art techniques, the suggested structure improves results by extracting both fine and coarse features, making it efficient.

Conjugated polymers (CPs) offer potentials for sustainable semiconductor devices due to their low cost, and inherent molecular self-assembly. Enhanced crystallinity and molecular orientation in thin films of solution-processable CPs have significantly improved organic electronic device per-formance. In this work, three methods namely spin-coating, dip-coating, and unidirectional float-ing-film transfer method (UFTM) were utilized with their parametric optimization for fabricating RR-P3HT films. These films were then utilized for their characterization via optical and micro-structural analysis to elucidate dominant roles of molecular orientation, and crystallinity in con-trolling charge transport in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). OFETs fabricated by RR-P3HT thin films using spin-coating and dip-coating displayed field-effect mobility (μ) of 8.0 × 10-4 cm2V-1s-1 and 1.3 × 10-3 cm2V-1s-1, respectively. This two-time enhancement in (µ for dip-coated films was attributed to its enhanced crystallinity. Interestingly, UFTM films based OFETs demon-strated μ of 7.0 × 10-2 cm2V-1s-1, >100 times increment as compared to its spin-coated counterpart This superior device performance is attributed to synergistic influence of higher crystallinity and molecular orientation. Since the crystallinity of dip-coated and UFTM-thin films are similar ~50 times improved µ of UFTM thin films suggest a dominant role of molecular orientation as com-pared to crystallinity in controlling the charge transport.

The amorphous Fe77Cu1Si13B9 ribbons were treated with pulsed laser interference heating (PLIH). It was confirmed here that the use of the laser heating process allowed for obtaining two-dimensional crystallised micro-areas, periodically distributed (at a distance of 17µm) on the surface of the amorphous ribbons. The correlation between structural changes (SEM, TEM, HRTEM) and the distribution of magnetic field lines of heated amorphous Fe77Cu1Si13B9 (FeCuSiB) ribbons is presented. Particular attention is paid to structure changes in micro-areas where, by controlling the laser interference heating process, partial crystallisation of amorphous alloys and the formation of clusters or single nanocrystallites (α-Fe(Si)) embedded in an amorphous matrix are given. The addition of copper to the FeSiB alloy promoted inhibition of grain growth. Electron holography of micro-areas confirmed shifts of the magnetic field lines in the areas of nanocrystallites, the presence of which in the structure caused magnetisation of the surrounding amorphous matrix.

The state detection of power cable is very important to ensure the reliability of power supply. Traditional sensors are mostly based on electric field detection, the operation is complex, and its efficiency needs to be improved. This paper optimizes the design and development of the magnetic field detection sensor for AC power cables. Firstly, through the establishment of the magnetic field sensor model, it is determined that permalloy is the material of the magnetic core, the optimal aspect ratio of the magnetic core is 20, and the ratio of coil length to core length is 0.3. Secondly, the coil simulation model is established, and it is determined that the optimal number of turns of the coil is 11000 turns, the diameter of the enamelled copper wire is 0.08mm, and the equivalent magnetic field noise of the sensor is 0.06pT. Finally, the amplifying circuit based on negative magnetic flux feedback is designed and the sensor is assembled, and the experimental circuit is built for sensitivity test. the results show that the sensitivity of the magnetic field sensor is 327.6mV/μT. The sensor designed in this paper has the advantages of small size, high sensitivity, easy to carry and high reliability.

By this contribution we would like to briefly highlight the problems in conceiving the “Hydrogen Bond” (HB) as a real short-range, directional, electrostatic, attractive interaction and to reframe its nature through the non-approximated view of condensed matter offered by a Quantum Electro-Dynamic (QED) perspective. We focus our attention on water, as the paramount case to show the effectiveness of this 40-years’ old theoretical background, which depicts water as a two-fluid system (where one of the two phases is coherent). The HB emerge to be the result of the electromagnetic field gradient in the coherent phase of water, whose vacuum level is lower than the non-coherent (gas-like) fraction. Thus, the HB can be properly looked at, i.e. no more as a “dipolar force” among molecules, but as the phenomenological effect of their collective thermodynamic tendency to occupy a lower ground-state, compatibly with temperature and pressure. This perspective allows to account for many “anomalous” behaviours of water and to understand why the calculated energy associated to HB should change when considering two molecules (water-dimer), or the liquid state, or the several kinds of ice. The emergence of a condensed, liquid, phase at room temperature is indeed the consequence of the boson condensation as described in the framework of spontaneous symmetry breakings (SSB). The switch from a still semi-classical Quantum Mechanical (QM) in the 1st quantization to a Quantum Field Theory (QFT) view embedded in the 2nd quantization is advocated for a more realistic and authentic description of water, condensed matter and living systems.

In Korea, the underground silo structure for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste disposal facilities has been constructed and operated since 2014. Large-scale earthquakes occurred in 2016 and 2017, respectively, in Gyeongju and Pohang areas near the underground silo structures, and interest in the stability of the underground silo increased significantly. In this paper, one-dimensional free field analyses have been carried out before the three-dimensional silo dynamic analyses subjected to earthquake loadings. As an additional study, a new form of finite element equilibrium equation is derived in terms of relative motions, which is essentially the same equation as that expressed in terms of total motions where the base shear force is applied for earthquake load. The accuracy of conventional finite element solutions is evaluated by directly comparing them with closed-form solutions by frequency domain analysis such as SHAKE91.

In this paper, we derive Jeffreys divergence, generalized Fisher divergence and corresponding De Bruijn identities on space-time random field. First, we determine the relation between Fisher information on the space-time random field in one of the space-time points and the ratio of Jeffreys divergence on a space-time random field at distinct space-time positions to the square of coordinate difference. In addition, we also find identities between the partial derivative of the Jeffreys divergence and the generalized Fisher divergence with respect to space-time variables, i.e. the De Bruijn identities, between two space-time random fields obtained by different parameters under the same Fokker-Planck equations. At the end of this paper, we present three examples of the Fokker-Planck equations on space-time random fields, identify their density functions, and derive the Jeffreys divergence, generalized Fisher information, generalized Fisher divergence, and accompanying De Bruijn identities.

We propose a description of the electromagnetic field in the form of a four-component complex spinor, from which a vector of electromagnetic potential with two degrees of freedom, calibrated by two conditions - zero length and zero component along the y-axis - is obtained by using Pauli matrices. A similar approach is applied to the field of a fermion, in particular, the electron. It is known that the quantum field of the electron and the electron itself is a four-component complex spinor, so, existing in the Minkowski vector space, we cannot observe it directly. But with the help of Pauli matrices a vector is formed from the electron spinor, which is known to us as an electric current vector, and this current vector describes exactly a single particle. As a vector, it is available to us for observation in our vector space. Similarly, the electromagnetic field and its photon particle is also a four-component spinor, from which the universal formula using Pauli matrices produces a vector, it is known to us as the electromagnetic potential vector, and it too describes even a single photon. All the differences in the properties of the current vector and the electromagnetic potential vector, and hence the electron and the electromagnetic field, are due only to a slight difference in the structures of their four-component spinors and inextricable linked to them momentum spinors and coordinate spinors. Expressions for the electric and magnetic fields of a photon during its interaction with an electron.Thus, a unified way to describe bosons and fermions in spinor space is proposed. Each spinor using the same formula corresponds to a vector, in the case of a fermion it is a current vector, in the case of a boson it is a vector, for example, of the electromagnetic potential. Each spinor of a field is matched with a spinor of coordinates and a spinor of momentum, which are transformed by the same Lorentz transformations and which have the same structure as their corresponding field spinor, that is, the momentum and coordinates of boson have a bosonic spinor structure, while momentum and coordinates of fermion are a spinor with a fermionic structure. Field, coordinates and momentum vectors of boson automatically have a zero length, while in the case of fermion they all have a nonzero length, so the fermion, in contrast to the boson, has a nonzero mass, nonzero charge and moves with a sub light speed.While quantum mechanics treats probability as a real number, quantum field theory deals with probability as a four-dimensional real vector. The place of the probability amplitude, which in quantum mechanics is a complex number, in quantum field theory is taken by a complex spinor.In the same way as in quantum mechanics the processes of propagation and interaction are described at the level of complex probability amplitudes, and the final result is translated into a real probability value, so in quantum field theory all processes should be described in terms of complex spinor space, and the result is translated into the form of a real vector in Minkowski space.The presented approach, at its proper development, makes it possible to carry out calculations of the interaction of particles in two-dimensional spinor space, and to interpret in terms of the Minkowski vector space only the final results.

Coastal inundation is recently requiring a significant attention worldwide. The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme events (sea storms, tsunami waves) are highly stressing the coastal envi-ronments, e.g. endangering a large number of residential areas, ecosystems, tourist facilities, and also leading to potential environmental risks. Predicting such events and the generated coastal flooding is thus of paramount importance and can be reached by exploiting the potential of different tools, like remote sensors and numerical modeling. To this aim, a combination is possible between marine radars and wave-resolving propagation models. While instruments like X-band radars are able at precisely reconstructing both wave field and bathymetry within a coastal area that is some kilometers offshore, wave-resolving Boussinesq-type models can reproduce the wave propagation in the nearshore and the consequent coastal flooding. The present work illustrates the reconstruc-tion of coastal data (wave field and seabed depth) conducted using radar signals and a specifically suited data processing, named “Local Method”, and the use of such coastal data to run numerical simulations of wave propagation (using the FUNWAVE-TVD solver) aimed at reproducing coastal inundation over different scenarios. Such scenarios are built using two different European beaches, i.e. Senigallia (Italy) and Oostende (Belgium), and three different directional spreading values, to evaluate the performances in case of either long- or short-crested waves. The overall validation of the methodology, in terms of maximum inundation, shows good performances, especially in case of short-crested wind waves. Furthermore, the application on the Oostende beach demonstrates that the present methodology might work only using open-access tools, i.e. an easy investigation of the coastal inundation and a potential low-cost integration into early warning systems.

Scanning underwater areas, using magnetometers, in search of unexploded ordnance is a difficult challenge, where machine learning methods can find a significant application. However, this requires the creation of a set enabling the training of prediction models. Such a task is difficult and costly due to the limited availability of relevant data. To meet this challenge in the article, we propose the use of numerical modeling to solve this task. The conducted experiments allow us to conclude that it is possible to obtain high compliance of the numerical model with the results of physical tests. In addition, the paper discusses the methodology of simplifying the computational model, allowing for almost three times reduction of the calculation time. In addition, in the work we present the methodology of creating an appropriate data set, enabling the generation of any number of training samples.

The performance of two bio inoculants either in single or in combined applications with organic fertilizer was tested to determine their effect on plant growth and yield under normal and unfavorable field conditions such as low pH value and low content of P. Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Fungi ((AMF; three species of Glomus) and the plant growth-promoting bacterial strain Kosakonia radicincitans DSM16656 were applied to barley in two years field experiment with different soil pH levels and available nutrients. Grain yield, content of P, N, K, Mg, and soil microbial parameters were measured. Grain yield and content of nutrients were significantly increased by the applications of mineral fertilizer, organic fertilizer, AMF, K. radicincitans, and combined application of organic fertilizer with AMF and with K. radicincitans over the control under normal growth conditions. Under low pH and low P conditions, only the combined application of the organic fertilizer with K. radicincitans and organic fertilizer with AMF could increase grain yield and content of nutrients of barley over the control.

Compared to wide-field telescopes, small-field detection systems have higher spatial resolution, resulting in stronger detection capabilities and higher positioning accuracy. When detecting by small-field in synchronous orbit, both space debris and fixed stars are imaged as point targets, making it difficult to distinguish them. In addition, with the improvement of detection capabilities, the number of stars in the background rapidly increases, which puts higher requirements on recognition algorithms. Therefore, star detection is indispensable for identifying and locating space debris in complex backgrounds. To address these difficulties, this paper proposes a real-time star extraction method based on adaptive filtering and multi frame projection. We use bad point repair and background suppression algorithms to preprocess star image. Afterwards, we analyze and enhance the target signal-to-noise ratio(SNR). Then, we use multi frame projection to fuse information. Subsequently, adaptive filtering, adaptive morphology, and adaptive median filtering algorithms are proposed to detect trajectories. Finally, the projection is released to locate the target. Our recognition algorithm has been verified by real star images, and the images were captured using small-field telescope. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm proposed in this paper. We successfully extracted hip-27066 star, which has magnitudes about 12 and SNR about 1.5. Compared with existing methods, our algorithm has advantages in both recognition rate and false-alarm rate, and can be used as real time target recognition algorithm for space-based synchronous orbit detection payload.

Ship detection using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has been extensively utilized in both the military and civilian fields. On account of complex backgrounds, large scale variations, small-scale targets, and other challenges, it is difficult for current SAR ship detection methods to strike a balance between detection accuracy and computation efficiency. To overcome those challenges, ESarDet, an efficient SAR ship detection method based on context information and large effective receptive field (ERF) is proposed. We introduce the anchor-free object detection method YOLOX-tiny as a baseline model and make several improvements on it. First, the CAA-Net, which has a large ERF, is proposed to better merge the context and semantic information of ships in SAR images to improve ship detection, particularly for small-scale ships with complex backgrounds. Further, to prevent the loss of semantic information regarding ship targets in SAR images, we redesign a new spatial pyramid pooling network, namely A2SPPF. Finally, in consideration of the challenge posed by the large variation in ship scale in SAR images, we design a novel convolution block, called A2CSPlayer, to enhance the fusion of feature maps from different scales. Extensive experiments are conducted on three publicly available SAR ship datasets, DSSDD, SSDD, and HRSID, to validate the effectiveness of the proposed ESarDet. The experimental results demonstrate that ESarDet has distinct advantages over current state-of-the-art (SOTA) detectors in terms of detection accuracy, generalization capability, computational complexity, and detection speed.

Heavy Ion Beam Probing (HIBP) diagnostic is a powerful tool for electric field studies in hot dense plasma of modern day toroidal magnetic confinement devices. On the TUMAN-3M to-kamak, the HIBP have been used in regimes with improved plasma confinement to clear up the role of radial electric field in the transition to good confinement regimes. Recently, a moderni-zation of the TUMAN-3M HIBP diagnostics was performed aiming to reconfigure it for a work with a reversed plasma current direction and improvement of overall stability of the diagnostic. The results of first measurements of plasma potential in co-NBI scenario are reported and dis-cussed.

This paper results from our investigation into novel means of electromagnetic propulsion. It requires the basis of our claims to be put on a sound theoretical footing regarding the purported momentum exchange with the electromagnetic field. One of these concerns is the huge discrepancy between the energy density of the Zeropoint and its purported manifestation as the Cosmological Constant. Here we state that it is manifestly wrong to introduce the zeropoint at zero order into the stress-energy tensor, because it is something which describes zero particle count. As a fluctuation, it belongs in a higher order Taylor expansion in frequency of the stress-energy tensor. Furthermore in the 3^rd order in the Einstein constant our procedure is some 9 orders of magnitude too small. We make up this difference by suggesting that vacuum energy is much higher still and that more degrees of freedom exist in physics beyond the Standard Model or that there is interaction energy between the modes.

The doctoral defense, which is an essential requirement for the doctoral degree, is considered to have three dimensions: the scholarly dimension, the emotional (affective) dimension, and the cultural dimension. In this work, I explore the link between sociodemographic factors and students’ perception of the doctoral defense. In particular, I focus on gender, ethnicity, and age at time of defense, as well as current position, and field of study. To address the influence of these aspects on the affective dimension of the doctoral defense, I first reviewed the literature on these socio-demographic aspects as well as the affective dimension of the defense. I then carried out an international survey on doctoral defenses, defense formats, and students’ perceptions and analyzed the 204 completed surveys for this study using quantitative and qualitative methods. The analysis included cross-correlations between students’ perceptions and the studied sociodemographic aspects. The main results of these analyses are that gender affects various aspects of the students’ perception of the doctoral defense and long-term perception, and that female candidates experience more issues with their committee. Ethnicity is important as well, although the participations of non-white respondents in this survey was limited. The influence of age at the defense is limited, and only for the youngest and oldest age groups I observe some differences in perception. There is no relation between current position and perception of the candidates during the defense. Finally, field of study is correlated for various aspects of student perception, committee issues, and long-term perception. The conclusion of this work is that socio-demographic aspects, and in particular gender, ethnicity, and field of study, influence how doctoral candidates experience their defense.

Automation of forest field reference data collection has been an intensive research objective for laser scanning scientists ever since the invention of terrestrial laser scanning more than two decades ago. Recently, it has been proposed that such automated data collection providing both the tree heights and stem curves would require a combination of above-canopy UAV point clouds and terrestrial point clouds. In this study, we demonstrate that an under-canopy UAV laser scanning system utilizing a rotating laser scanner can alone provide accurate estimates of the canopy height and the stem volume for the majority of the trees in a boreal forest. To this end, we mounted a rotating laser scanner based on a Velodyne VLP-16 sensor onboard a manually piloted UAV. The UAV was commanded with the help of a live video feed from the onboard camera of the UAV. Since the system was based on a rotating laser scanner providing varying view angles, all important elements such as treetops, branches, trunks, and ground could be recorded with laser hits. In an experiment including two different forest structures, namely sparse and obstructed canopy, we showed that our system can measure the heights of individual trees with a bias of -20 cm and a standard error of 40 cm in the sparse forest and with a bias of -65 cm and a standard error of 1 m in the obstructed forest. The accuracy of the obtained tree height estimates was equivalent to airborne above-canopy UAV surveys conducted in similar forest conditions. The higher underestimation and higher inaccuracy in the obstructed site can be attributed to three trees with a height exceeding 25 m and the applied laser scanning system VLP-16 that had a limited height measurement capacity when it comes to trees taller than 25 m. Additionally, we used our system to estimate the stem volumes of individual trees with a standard error at the level of 10%. This level of error is equivalent to the error obtained when merging above-canopy UAV laser scanner data with terrestrial point cloud data. Future research is needed for testing new sensors, for implementing autonomous operation inside canopies through collision avoidance and navigation through canopies, and for developing robust methods that work also with more complex forest structure. The results show that we do not necessarily need a combination of terrestrial point clouds and point clouds collected using above-canopy UAV systems in order to accurately estimate the heights and the volumes of individual trees.

The available magnetic field strength for high resolution NMR in persistent superconducting magnets has recently improved from 23.5 to 28 Tesla, increasing the proton resonance frequency from 1 to 1.2 GHz. For magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR, this is expected to improve resolution, provided the sample preparation results in homogeneous broadening. We compare two-dimensional (2D) proton detected MAS NMR spectra of four membrane proteins at 950 and 1.2 GHz. We find a consistent improvement in resolution that scales superlinearly with the increase in magnetic field for three of the four examples. In 3D and 4D spectra, which are now routinely acquired, this improvement indicates the ability to resolve at least 2 and 2.5 times as many signals, respectively.

Traditional potential transformers have problems of large volume, difficulty in insulation, iron core saturation, ferroresonance overvoltage and poor transient response characteristics. The voltage sensor based on the principle of electric field coupling and differential input structure does not need to contact the measured object or ground, and can avoid the above problems. However, it requires a sufficiently high capacitance between the differential electrodes to obtain sufficient accuracy and a high voltage division ratio. The existing method of using mutual capacitance between the differential electrodes will cause many problems and fail to meet the practical needs. To solve the above problems, this paper innovatively uses multi-layer ceramic capacitor to replace the mutual capacitance and designs a new type of voltage sensor. In addition, by using single bypass small resistance grounding method to increase the input impedance of the differential signal processing circuit, error of the sensor is further reduced. The experimental results show that the sensor has excellent accuracy and great transient response characteristics. The ratio error under power frequency is within ±0.5% and the phase error is within 1. The ratio error in the range of 500 Hz∼30 kHz is within ±5% and the phase error is within 5. Moreover, it has the advantages of low cost, miniaturization, flexible shape and easy to adjust the voltage division ratio. These characteristics indicate that the sensor has good voltage measurement and sensor network potential.

We study in this paper the time evolution of stock markets using a statistical physics approach. We consider an ensemble of agents who sell or buy a good according to several factors acting on them: the majority of the neighbors, the market ambiance, the variation of the price and some specific measure applied at a given time. Each agent is represented by a spin having a number of discrete states q or continuous states, describing the tendency of the agent for buying or selling. The market ambiance is represented by a parameter T which plays the role of the temperature in physics: low T corresponds to a calm market, high T to a turbulent one. We show that there is a critical value of T, say T_c, where strong fluctuations between individual states lead to a disordered situation in which there is no majority: the numbers of sellers and buyers are equal, namely the market clearing. The specific measure, by the government or by economic organisms, is parameterized by $H$ applied on the market at the time t₁ and removed at the time t₂. We have used Monte Carlo simulations to study the time evolution of the price as functions of those parameters. In particular we show that the price strongly fluctuates near T_c and there exists a critical value H_c above which the boosting effect remains after H is removed. Our model replicates the stylized facts in finance (time-independent price variation), volatility clustering (time-dependent dynamics) and persistent effect of a temporary shock. The second party of the paper deals with the price variation using a time-dependent mean-field theory. By supposing that the sellers and the buyers belong to two distinct communities with their characteristics different in both intra-group and inter-group interactions, we find the price oscillation with time. Results are shown and discussed.

Exploring the dynamic behavior of cellular metabolism requires a standard laboratory method that guarantees rapid sampling and extraction of the cellular content. We propose a versatile sampling technique applicable to cells with different cell wall and cell membrane properties. The technique is based on irreversible electroporation with simultaneous quenching and extraction by using a microfluidic device. By application of electric pulses in the millisecond range, permanent lethal pores are formed in the cell membrane of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, facilitating the release of the cellular contents; here demonstrated by the measurement of glucose-6-phosphate and the activity of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. The successful application of this device was demonstrated by pulsed electric field treatment in a flow-through configuration of the microfluidic chip in combination with sampling, inactivation, and extraction of the intracellular content in a few seconds. Minimum electric field strengths of 10 kV/cm for E. coli and 7.5 kV/cm for yeast S. cerevisiae were required for successful cell lysis. The results are discussed in the context of applications in industrial biotechnology, where metabolomics analyses are important.

The alignment of nanostructures in materials such as lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) templated materials has the potential to signicantly improve their performances. However, accurately characterising and quantifying the alignement of such fine structures remains very challenging. In situ small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and molecular dynamics were employed for the first time to understand the hexagonal LLC alignment process with magnetic nanoparticles under a magnetic field. The enhanced alignment has been illustrated from the distribution of azimuthal intensity in the samples exposed to magnetic field. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal the relationship between the imposed force of the magenetic nanoparticles under magnetic field and the force transferred to the LLC cylinders which leads to the LLC alignment. The combinational study with experimental measurement and computational simulation will enable the development and control of nanostructures in novel materials for various applications.

During flux weakening operation time (FWOT), the total iron loss rises and affects the accuracy of loss prediction and efficiency especially if a large range of FWOT exists. Iron loss prediction is widely employed in investigations for a fast electrical machine analysis using 2-D FEA. This paper studies harmonic loss analytically by a steady-state equivalent circuit. Consideration of skin effects and iron saturation are utilized in order to examine the accuracy through the relative error distribution in the frequency domain of each model from 50 to 700 Hz. Additionally, this comparative study presents a torque-frequency-flux density calculation over each single term of the modified IEM-formula. The analytical calculation is performed using 2-D FEA for a classic and modified IEM-formula along with experimental verifications on a surface-mounted PMSG for a wind generation application.

This paper proposed three-dimensional numerical simulation method by coupling of electrostatic and fluid fields to evaluating the performance of electrical sensor in the concentration measurement of gas/solid two-phase flow. Compared with the static numerical simulation, this real-time dynamic 3-D simulation method can research on a designed capacitance sensor combining the dynamic characteristics of the two-phase flows for concentration measurement. Several fluid-electrostatic models of transmission pipes with different sensor structures are built. Under different test positions and different particle concentrations, the flow characteristics and the corresponding electric signals can be obtained, and the correlation coefficient between the concentration values and the capacitance values are used for performance evaluation of the sensors. The effects of flow regimes on concentration measurement are also been investigated in this paper. To validate the results of simulation, an experimental platform with horizontal straight pipe for phase volume concentration measurement of solid/air two-phase flow is built, and the experimental results agree well with simulation conclusions. The simulation and test results show that the coupling models can give constructive reference opinions for the sensor design and collection of installation position in different transmission pipelines, which are very important for the practical process of pneumatic conveying system.

In graduate programs such as social work, field education is the signature pedagogy of education. As such, student placement with an appropriate field education agency is critical to ensure academic success and career readiness. A variety of Learning Management System (LMS) and Integrated Planning and Advising Service (IPAS) technologies have been developed to fully integrate technology into the educational system and streamline and improve the learning experience for students, educators, and administrators. Few (if any) of the existing solutions have capabilities to match students with field educators on the basis of an individual student’s completed coursework and area of specialization, as well as field educator needs and opportunities. This paper describes our experience developing a custom LMS/IPAS system—the School of Social Work information System (SSWiS)—that was designed specifically for student learning, faculty advising, and academic administration within our social work graduate program. We present the challenges that motivated the design of the SSWiS before describing the architecture and functionality of our solution. We then discuss our preliminary evaluation results. We conclude with a discussion of the benefits and limitations of our system in the context of today’s technical needs in graduate education in social work and other fields.

Recent developments in microfluidics and biomaterials have enabled the creation of organs-on-chips (OoCs), which provide a controlled and lifelike in vitro microenvironment resembling an actual organ. Organ-on-a-chip technology offers a tremendous opportunity for efficient, cost-effective, and ethical drug testing and research. However, the high throughput and large quantities of data these complex microenvironments produce make it difficult for researchers to effectively analyze the data and draw valuable conclusions. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are most aptly positioned to address many of OoC’s challenges because of their ability to interpret microscopic images and facilitate the analytical process. Despite the growing field of AI, there have been a limited number of studies summarizing the various applications of CNNs in OoCs. This review aims to provide 1) an overview of the technology involved with CNNs and OoCs 2) an insight into the state-of-the-art applications of CNNs in OoCs including device parameters, predicting and tracking cell trajectories, super-resolution image segmentation, and image classification, and 3) an overview of existing challenges and opportunities ahead for clinical translation of this technology. Various applications of CNNs have been classified by the type of task. Different CNN models such as Faster R-CNNs, fully convolutional networks (FCNs), and Mask R-CNNs are explained and highlighted. This review article can be used as a resource for a better understanding of the potential of CNNs in biomedical research and clinical applications, particularly OoCs.

In the following article, we analyzed a variable present in the ISTAT-BES dataset, namely "People You Can Count On"-PYCC for the Italian regions. Following an analysis of the time series aimed at highlighting the trends of the regions, we created a clustering with a k-Means algorithm optimized with the Silhouette coefficient. The data shows the presence of two clusters. We then present an econometric model aimed at estimating the value of PYCC based on a set of socio-economic variables. The results are also discussed in light of the economic policy implications.

Covariant integral quantization with rotational symmetry SO(3) is established for the quantum motion on this group manifold, or, alternatively, for Gabor signal analysis on this group. We revisit the action of the related (non-unitary) Weyl-Gabor operator on the Hilbert space of square integrable functions on SO(3) and disclose a set of various properties. By selecting weight functions on the corresponding discrete-continuous phase space, one derives related coherent states and Wigner transform.

Liquid manipulation by photoisomerization attracts recent attentions as a new active droplet control method for micro-chemical analysis. Such a non-inverse manipulation can be realized by a use of solution liquid of surfactant that exhibits the \emph{cis}-\emph{trans} isomerization triggered by light irradiation with a specific wavelength such as ultraviolet light. Since the isomerization is accompanied by changes in fluid properties, a light irradiation on one of liquid-air interfaces of a liquid column in a tube would generate differences in the wettability accompanied between the both sides of the finite liquid column. Although this technique has been demonstrated experimentally by Muto et al. (\emph{Euro.~Phys.~J.~Special Topics}, {\bf 226}, 2016, 1199--1205), its dynamics and developments of each isomer distribution are not understood. In order to reveal the liquid-column migration phenomenon, we have performed numerical simulations of air-liquid two-phase flows and its scalar transport of the isomer, using the Volume-of-Fluid method in conjunction with the Continuum-Surface-Force model and Continuous-Species-Transfer method. We validated present results by comparison with experimental result in terms of the migration distance of the liquid column. We confirmed a termination of the liquid-column migration occurs when the \emph{cis} isomer distribution reaches the non-irradiated region. The migration speed was less dependent on the liquid-column length and was proportional to the tube diameter.

The oil and gas industry faces increasing pressure to remove people from dangerous offshore environments. Robots present a cost-effective and safe method for inspection, repair and maintenance of topside and marine offshore infrastructure. In this work, we introduce a new immobile multi-sensing robot, the Limpet, which is designed to be low-cost and highly manufacturable, and thus can be deployed in huge collectives for monitoring offshore platforms. The Limpet can be considered an instrument, where in abstract terms, an instrument is a device that transforms a physical variable of interest (measurand) into a form that is suitable for recording (measurement). The Limpet is designed to be part of the ORCA (Offshore Robotics for Certification of Assets) Hub System, which consists of the offshore assets and all the robots (UAVs, drones, mobile legged robots etc.) interacting with them. The Limpet comprises the sensing aspect of the ORCA Hub System. We integrated the Limpet with Robot Operating System (ROS), which allows it to interact with other robots in the ORCA Hub System. In this work, we demonstrate how the Limpet can be used to achieve real-time condition monitoring for offshore structures, by combining remote sensing with signal processing techniques. We show an example of this approach for monitoring offshore wind turbines. We demonstrate the use of four different communication systems (WiFi, serial, LoRa and optical communication) for the condition monitoring process. By processing the sensor data on-board, we reduce the information density of our transmissions, which allows us to substitute short-range high-bandwidth communication systems with low-bandwidth long-range communication systems. We train our classifier offline and transfer its parameters to the Limpet for online classification, where it makes an autonomous decision based on the condition of the monitored structure.

In this paper, quasi-static axial compression tests are performed on the nodal Moso bamboos to study the size effect on energy absorption of the bamboos and the damage pattern of the multiple bamboo columns. Experimental results show that under the same moisture content, growth age and growing environment, the specific energy absorption (SEA) of the test samples increases with the increase of the out-diameter and thickness of the bamboo columns, indicating that size effect exists for energy absorption of the Moso Bamboos. For the multiple bamboo columns, there are mainly three failure modes for the constituent single bamboo columns: splitting above the node, splitting below the node and splitting through the node. Also, the tensile tests are conducted on three kinds of dog-bone shaped bamboo samples to investigate the macroscopic tensile fracture mode in the longitudinal direction of Moso bamboos. Results show that there is no direct relationship between the fracture pattern and moisture content of the bamboos, as well as the growth age of the bamboos. However, the tensile loading rate and the shape of the dog-bone shaped bamboo sample could affect the macroscopic fracture pattern of the bamboos in some cases.

In transient phase of an atmospheric-pressure discharge, the avalanche turns into a streamer discharge with time. Hydrodynamic fluid models are frequently used to describe the formation and propagation of streamers, where charge particle transport is dominated by the creation of space charge. The required electron transport data and rate coefficients for the fluid model are parameterized using the local mean-energy approximation (LMEA) and the local field approximation (LFA). In atmospheric pressure applications, the excited species produced in the electrical discharge determine the subsequent conversion chemistry. We performed the fluid model simulation of streamers in nitrogen gas at atmospheric pressure using three different parametrizations for transport and electron excitation rate data. We present the spatial and temporal development of several macroscopic properties such as electron density and energy, and the electric field during the transient phase. The species production efficiency which is important to understand the efficacy of any application of non-thermal plasmas is also obtained for the three different parametrizations. Our results suggest that at atmospheric pressure all three schemes predicted essentially the same macroscopic properties. Therefore, a lower order method such as LFA which does not require the solution of the energy conservation equation should be adequate to determine the streamer macroscopic properties to inform most plasma-assisted applications of nitrogen containing gases at atmospheric pressure.

The paper presents a new type of hydraulic clutch operating with magnetorheological (MR) fluids and the results achieved from both theoretical analysis and experimental measurement. The hy-draulic clutch system of its own design with MR working fluid and a rotating magnetic field lo-cated is designed. The principle of this clutch is to use a rotating magnetic field created by an al-ternating current electromagnet to set the MR fluid in motion. In the tests of the hydraulic clutch with a rotating magnetic field, MR fluid produced on their own, consisting of solid iron particles of various diameters mixed with a silicone oil, are used as working fluids. The rheological properties of MR fluids are assessed on the basis of tests carried out with a Brookfield DV2T rheometer equipped with a magnetic device for generating the magnetic field of its own design. The char-acteristics of the hydraulic clutch with MR working fluid and the rotating magnetic field are tested on a specially built test stand. As a result of the research, it has been found that the torque transmitted by the clutch is the greater, the higher the rotational speed of the magnetic field and the lower the rotational speed of the beaker in which the working fluid is placed, and that the greatest torque occurs for the working fluid with the highest iron content. Based on the analysis of the structure and characteristics of the clutch in which the magnetic field is used, it has been shown that the design of the developed clutch is similar to that of an induction clutch, and its characteristics correspond to the characteristics of the eddy current clutch. Therefore, the proposed new clutch working with MR fluid and the rotating magnetic field can be applied to stationary power transmission system similarly to an eddy current clutch.

The statistical analysis of impact of the top 50 solar flares of X-class (1997-2023) on the global seismic activity, as well as on the earthquake preparation zones located in illuminated part of the globe and in the area of 5000 km radius around the subsolar point was carried out. It is shown by a method of epoch superposition that for all cases the increase of seismicity is observed, especially in the region around the subsolar point (up to 38%) during 10 days after the solar flare in comparison with preceding 10 days. The case study of aftershock sequence of strong M=9.1 earthquake (Su-matra-Andaman Islands, 26.12.2004) after the solar flare of X7.2 class (20.01.2005) demonstrated that the number of aftershocks with magnitude M≥2.5 increases more than 20 times after the solar flare with a delay of 7 days. For the case of the Darfield earthquake (M=7.1, 04.09.2010, New Zealand) it was shown that strong solar flares of class X and M probably triggered two strong aftershocks (M>6) with the same delay of 6 days on the Port Hills fault, which is the most sensitive to external electromagnetic impact from point of view of the fault electrical conductivity and orientation. Based on the obtained results the possible application of natural electromagnetic triggering of earthquakes is discussed for a short-term earthquake prediction using confidently recorded strong external electromagnetic triggering impacts on the specific earthquake preparation zones, as well as ionospheric perturbations due to aerosol emission from the earthquake sources recorded by satellites.

We present detailed models at the hydrodynamics and decoherence phenomena observed in ideal quantum gases. The model is expressed in terms of a quantum field theory, where the action involves both hydrodynamic and decoherence terms. The density-current relation is derived, and the current Green function is introduced. The effective action for two fields is presented, and the physical field is defined in terms of the bare action. Identities such as CTP symmetry, transposition, and the Ward identity are discussed. The Green function and its inverse for different components are also explored. These notes provide a comprehensive understanding of the theoretical framework for studying the hydrodynamics and decoherence of ideal quantum gases.

The Gulf of Suez is a sedimentary rift-basin with thick evaporites and complex structural settings that presents challenges to achieving quality imaging based on seismic reflection data. Such subsurface settings and the lack of 3D seismic data poses challenges in building reservoir models to guide hydrocarbon exploration and development, especially in southern parts the Gulf of Suez. This study attempts to overcome the challenges of both 2D seismic interpretation and building a static reservoir model of two Miocene reservoir formations, Ras Ghara Field, Southern Gulf of Suez. Integration of well log data analysis of nine wells and regional-tectonics cognizant 2D seismic interpretation of nineteen 2D seismic lines enabled a reliable 3D static reservoir model. The Miocene reservoir characterization reveals heterogeneity in lithofacies distribution, with thick evaporite sequences causing seismic reflection distortions. Significant hydrocarbon accumulations are associated with horst fault blocks. The Miocene reservoirs demonstrate effective porosity of 14-33%, water saturation of 16-65%, and hydrocarbon saturation of 35-84%. Two new prospects are identified based on structure, facies distribution, and petrophysical results, with estimated original oil in place (OOIP) of 2,002,404 stock tank barrels (STB) and 1,175,580 STB for the Kareem Formation, and 6,302,916 STB and 2,841,894 STB for the Rudeis Formation.

Precision farming, a labor-saving and highly productive management, is gaining popularity as the number of farmers declines in contrast to the increasing global food demand. However, it requires more efficient crop phenology observation and growth monitoring. One measure is the Leaf Area Index (LAI), which is essential for estimating biomass and yield, but its validation requires destructive field measurements. Remote sensing offers a non-destructive and effective method for ground- and UAV-based field observations. Thus, in this study, a method for indirect estimation of LAI was investigated using ground and UAV observation data. A weekly plant survey was done to measure the plant height, above-ground biomass, and light intensity. Furthermore, images from ground-based and UAV-based cameras were acquired to generate NDVI and the canopy height (CH), respectively. Using the canopy photosynthetic model, derived from Lambert-Beer’s law, the daily biomass was estimated by applying the weekly estimated LAI using CH, and the observed light intensity data as input. The results demonstrated the possibility of quantitatively estimating the daily growth biomass of rice plants, including its spatial variation. The near-real-time estimation method of rice biomass by integrating observation data at fields with numerical models can be applied to the management of major crops.

We report on ground-based measurements of the atmospheric electric field (Ez= -Potential Gradient (PG)) and current density (Jz) that were conducted at two locations in Israel. One is the Emilio Segre cosmic ray station located on Mt. Hermon (34.45 N, 2020 m AMSL) located in northern Israel near the Syrian-Lebanon border and at the other at the Wise astronomical observatory in the Negev desert highland plateau of southern Israel (31.18 N, 870 m AMSL). We searched for possible effects of strong, short-term solar events on the potential gradient and the vertical current density, as disruption to the Global Electric Circuit are often observed following strong solar events. The first case study (St. Patrick Day, 17 March 2015) was classified as the strongest event of 2015. The second case study (8 Sep 2017) was categorized as the strongest event of 2017 and one of the twenty strongest events on record to date. The results show that the electrical parameters measured at ground level at both stations were not affected during the two massive proton events and the ensuing geomagnetic storms. The magnetospheric shielding in lower latitudes is strong enough to shield against flux of energetic particles from solar events, obscuring any impact that may be noticeable above the local daily variations induced by local meteorological conditions (aerosol concentrations, clouds, high humidity, and wind speed) which were investigated as well.

The compilation summarizes results so far gathered in a project that investigates the atom with classical (Newtonian) physics. It posits that the atom’s wave-particle dual nature is real, objective and intrinsic; the wave gives rise to the cosmic vacuum field while the particle, of course, manifests condensed matter. Light’s π radians oscillation manifests, on molar scale, significant radial tension in the vacuum field, the effect, amongst others, causes molecular matter to precipitate out of the vacuum – so-called ‘molecular outflow’. Cosmic vacuum field radial tension relates to molecular mass, in other words, a mass-radius (M-R) relationship is uncovered. It is argued that using the M-R relation it is possible to perform a valid simulation of the cosmic physical reality. The three states of matter are meaningfully accounted for using the atom’s e-m radiation wavelength. It is explained that force, be it of any kind whatsoever, originates in the atomic waveform, i.e., the cosmic vacuum field.

This article proposes the multilayer and multilevel cosmological model, on average, balanced with respect to the Einsteinian vacuum. This hierarchical model is based on 10 possible Kottler solutions of the extended Einstein's field equations. The extension of the Einstein field equations is associated with the addition of an infinite number of lambda_j-terms to these equations with the condition that the series (i.e., the total sum) of these terms converges to zero. A simplified ten-layer and ten-level case is considered, in which ten spherical formations are sequentially nested into each other like "nesting dolls", while the radii of these spherical formations correspond to the characteristic sizes of a discrete sequence of observed spherical objects: metagalaxy core, galactic cores, stellar (planet) core, biological cells and nuclei of atoms and elementary particles, etc. As an example, from the general ten-level (hierarchical) solution of extended Einstein's field equations, two antipodal spherical formations with a core radius commensurate with the classical electron radius are singled out. Therefore, the metric-dynamic models of these formations obtained in this way are called «electron» and «positron». The article is aimed at the development of differential geometry and the program for the complete geometrization of physics by Clifford-Einstein-Wheeler.

This paper develops a Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory (GLOSA) system for buses (B-GLOSA). The proposed B-GLOSA system is implemented on diesel buses, and field tested to validate and quantify the potential real-world benefits. The developed system includes a simple and easy to calibrate fuel consumption model that computes instantaneous diesel bus fuel consumption rates. The bus fuel consumption model, a vehicle dynamics model, the traffic signal timings, and the re-lationship between vehicle speed and distance to the intersection are used to construct an optimi-zation problem. A moving-horizon dynamic programming problem solved using the A-star algo-rithm is used to compute the energy-optimized vehicle trajectory through signalized intersections. The Virginia Smart Road test facility was used to conduct the field test on 30 participants. Each participant drove three scenarios including a base case uninformed drive, an informed drive with signal timing information communicated to the driver, and an informed drive with the recom-mended speed computed by the B-GLOSA system. The field test investigated the performance of using the developed B-GLOSA system considering different impact factors, including road grades and red indication offsets, using a split-split-plot experimental design. The test results demonstrated that the proposed B-GLOSA system can produce smoother bus trajectories through signalized in-tersections producing fuel consumption and travel time savings. Specifically, compared to the uninformed drive, the B-GLOSA system produces fuel and travel time savings of 22.1% and 6.1% on average, respectively.

Theta oscillations generated in hippocampal (HPC) and cortical neuronal networks are involved in various aspects of brain function, including sensorimotor integration, movement planning, memory formation and attention. Disruptions of theta rhythms are present in individuals with various disorders, including epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease. Theta rhythm generation involves a specific interplay between cellular (ionic) and network (synaptic) mechanisms. HCN channels are theta modulators, and several medications are known to enhance their activity. We investigated how different doses of lamotrigine (LTG), an HCN channel activator, and antiepileptic and neuroprotective agent, would affect hippocampal theta rhythms in acute HPC slices (in vitro) and anaesthetized rats (in vivo). Whole-cell patch clamp recordings revealed that LTG decreased GABAA-fast transmission in CA3 and CA1 cells, in vitro. In addition, LTG directly depressed CA3 and CA1 pyramidal neuron excitability. These effects were partially blocked by ZD 7288, a selective HCN blocker, and are consistent with decreased excitability associated with antiepileptic actions. Lamotrigine also depressed hippocampal theta oscillations in vitro, also consistent with its neuronal depressant effects. In contrast, it exerted an opposite, enhancing effect, on theta recorded in vivo. The contradictory in vivo and in vitro results indicate that LTG increases ascending theta activating medial septum/entorhinal synaptic inputs that over-power the depressant effects seen in hippocampal neurons. These results provide new insights into LTG actions and indicate an opportunity to develop more precise therapeutics for the treatment of dementias, memory disorders and epilepsy.

Bone cement, mainly based in PMMA, is commonly used in different arthroplasty surgical proce-dures, and its use is essential for prosthesis fixation. However, its manufacturing process reaches high temperatures that can produce necrosis in the patients' surrounding tissues. In order to con-tribute to avoid this problem, the addition of graphene could delay the polymerisation of the MMA and, simultaneously, contribute to the optimisation of the composite material's properties. This article analysed the effect of the addition of different percentages of Highly Reduced Graphene Oxide (HRGO) with different wt. % (0,10, 0,50 and 1,00) and surface densities (150, 300, 500 and 750 m2/g) on the physical, mechanical, and thermal properties of commercial PMMA-based bone cement and its processing. It was noticed that a lower sintering temperature would be reached with this addition, making it less harmful to use in surgery and as it reduces its adverse effects. In contrast, the materials' density does not show significant changes, which indicates that the addi-tion of HRGO does not significantly increase its porosity. Lastly, the mechanical properties are re-duced by almost 20 %. Nevertheless, these properties are high enough so that these new materials can still fulfil their structural function.

The circuitry of the summarized "floating" differential stages (FDS) based on complementary field-effect transistors with a control p-n junction (CJFET), intended for use in low-noise analog microcircuits, for example, operational amplifiers. The results of modeling the flow characteristics of one of the CJFET FDSs in the LTSpice XVII environment at low temperatures (down to -197 ⁰С) and exposure to a neutron flux in the range of 1e13 ÷ 1e15 n / cm² are presented.

The evolution of integrable classical systems leads to conserved quantities and vanishing Poisson brackets. In contrast, such invariants do not exist in the dynamics of non-integrable systems, which include (but are not limited to) deterministic models with long-term chaotic behavior. The object of this review is to briefly survey the mathematical background of nonintegrability and its role in the physics unfolding well-above the Standard Model (SM) scale.

The goal of this work is to show that the underlying symmetries of effective field theory can be traced to the onset of self-similarity. In particular, we argue that the scale-free structure of fractal geometry lies at the heart of invariance principles in classical and Quantum Field Theory.

Neonicotinoids, such as dinotefuran (DF), have caused a variety of problems, such as massive loss and winter failure of the bee colony, as a price for the benefit of reducing farm work, because it continues to maintain a high insecticide activity over a long period of time. In this study, a field experiment was conducted for about six months to investigate the effects of DF on bee colonies damaged by Varroa mites. This study examined the long-term changes in such as the size of bee colonies, the intake of sugar syrup (SS), intake of pollen paste (PP), which is a vehicle for administering DF, the intake of DF, the mite-prevalence of bees and the inside and outside temperatures of hive-boxes. The variation width of the inner temperature of the hive-box is less than that of the ambient temperature (Ta). The inner temperature of the hive-box is adjusted with about 30 ℃ of Ta as the boundary. If Ta is lower than 30 ℃, the inner temperature of the box is higher than Ta, and if Ta is higher than 30 ℃, it is lower than Ta. The temperature variation width of the DF-exposed colony is greater than that of the control colony. The average intake of SS per bee per day of the DF-exposed colony is more than that of the control colony. The average intake of PP per bee per day of the DF-exposed colony is almost equal to that of the control colony. These results suggest that bees do not avoid DF, and ingest PP without distinction between toxic and pesticide-free. In the period from the start of DF administration to the colony extinction, the intake of DF per colony is about 865 µg/colony, the intake per bee is 14 ng/bee, and the intake per bee per day is less than 0.1 ng/bee/day in this work. These intakes are much lower than the previous ones (60-65 ng/bee, 0.27-2.32 ng/bee/day). These discrepancies may be because attacks of mites and Japanese giant hornets hastened the colony collapse. Seasonal changes in mite-prevalence of honeybees is approximately the same regardless of the bee colonies. At the end of August (the start of attacks by Japanese giant hornets), the mite-prevalence will increase rapidly. Even if the number of bees damaged by mites turns to decrease, the mite-prevalence will continue to increase, with approaching 100% before bee colonies become extinct. In this study, it was found that the bee colony was collapsed by the intake of a smaller amount of DF due to the synergistic effect of DF and mite-damage. To prevent a bee colony collapse, not only to make an effort to minimalize the adverse effect on the bee colony of neonicotinoids such as DF with long-term residual effect and high insecticide properties, it is necessary to reduce the damage of mites as much as possible, while considering the synergistically adverse effects of neonicotinoids and miticides.

Mind-body interaction and its manifestations at the brain level has been studied extensively in the field of consciousness research. Fara-darmani Consciousness Field, as claimed by Mohammad Ali Taheri (the founder), is a method of connecting with the Cosmic Consciousness Network through human mind and his brain has a detective role in this process. As a result of this connection, the scanning process of the state of a being, e.g., the health status of the cells and consequently organs is performed. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of the Fara-darmani Consciousness Field connection on electroencephalogram (EEG) features as an important biomarker of the brain functioning. The results showed that there was a significant increase in the gamma2 frequency band (35-40 Hz) power in the frontal lobe in medial frontal gyrus (BA6) and paracentral lobule (BA31) of the brain during the task condition compared to the rest condition in a Fara-therapist population. Considering the cortical electrical activity of Fara-therapist’s brain during Fara-darmani Consciousness Field connection, characterizing increase in the power of gamma wave and the activity of the areas affecting on memory, attention, perception and default mode network intrinsic activity. This manifestation distinguishes Fara-darmani Consciousness Field connection from other known methods dealing with the mind-body interaction criterion mainly different types of mediation.

The provision requirement of 10% openings of the total floor area stated in the Uniform Building by Law 1984 Malaysia has been practiced by designers for building plan submission approval. However, the effectiveness of thermal performance in landed residential buildings, despite the imposition by the by-law, has never been empirically measured and proven. Although terraced houses in Malaysia have dominated 40.9% of the total property transaction in 2019, such mass production with typical designs hardly provides its occupants with thermal comfort due to the static outdoor air condition and lack of external windows, where the conventional ventilation technique does not work well, even for houses with an air well system. Consequently, the occupants need to rely on mechanical cooling, which is a high energy-consuming component contributing to outdoor heat dissipation and therefore urban heat island effect. Thus, encouraging more effective natural ventilation to eliminate excessive heat from the indoor environment is critical. Since most of the research focuses on simulation modelling lacking sufficient empirical validation, this paper drawing on field measurement investigates natural ventilation performance in terraced housing with an air well system. More importantly, the key concern as to what extent the current air well system serving as a ventilator is effective to provide better thermal performance in the single storey terraced house is to be addressed. By adopting an existing single storey air welled terrace house, the existing indoor environmental conditions and thermal performance were monitored and measured using scientific equipment, namely HOBO U12 air temperature and air humidity, the HOBO U12 anemometer and the Delta Ohm HD32.3 Wet Bulb Globe Temperature meter for a six-month duration. The findings show that the air temperature of the air well ranged from 27.48°C to 30.92°C, while the mean relative humidity were from 72.67% to 79.25%. The mean air temperature for a test room (single sided ventilation room) ranged from 28.04°C to 30.92°C with a relative humidity of 70.16% to 76%. These empirical findings are of importance, offering novel policy insights and suggestions to potentially revising the existing building code standard and by laws; since the minimum provision of 10% openings has been revealed to be less effective to provide a desired thermal performance and comfort, mandatory compliance with, and the necessity for, the bylaw requirement should be revisited and further studied.

The use of Hyperspectral (HS) and LiDAR acquisitions has a great potential to enhance mapping and monitoring practices of endangered grasslands habitats, beyond conventional botanical field surveys. In this study we assess the potentiality of Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) in combination with Random Forest (RF) classification in extracting the main HS and LiDAR features needed to map selected Natura 2000 grasslands along Polish lowland river valleys, in particular alluvial meadows 6440, lowland hay meadows 6510 and xeric and calcareous grasslands 6120. We developed an automated RFE-RF system capable to combine the potentials of both techniques and applied it to multiple acquisitions. Several LiDAR-based products and different Spectral Indexes (SI) were computed and used as input in the system, with the aim of shedding light on the best-to-use features. Results showed a remarkable increase in classification accuracy when LiDAR and SI products are added to the HS dataset, strengthening in particular the importance of employing LiDAR in combination with HS. Using only the 24 optimal features selection generalized over the three study areas, strongly linked to the highly heterogeneous characteristics of the habitats and landscapes investigated, it was possible to achieve rather high classification results (K around 0.7-0.77 and habitats F1 accuracy around 0.8-0.85), indicating that the selected Natura 2000 meadows and dry grasslands habitats can be automatically mapped by airborne HS and LiDAR data. Similar approaches might be considered for future monitoring activities in the context of habitats protection and conservation

Recent astronomical observations with respect to measurements in distant supernovas, cosmic microwave background and weak gravitational lensing confirm that the Universe is undergoing a phase of accelerated expansion and it has been proposed that this cosmological behavior is caused by a hypothetical dark energy which has a strong negative pressure that allows explain the expanding universe. Several theoretical ideas and models related dark the energy includes the cosmological constant, quintessence, Chaplygin gas, braneworld and tachyonic scalar fields. In this paper, we have obtained new relativistic stellar configurations considering an anisotropic fluid distribution with a charge distribution which could represents a potential model of a dark energy star. In order to investigate the effect of a quadratic equation of state in this anisotropic model we specify particular forms for the gravitational potential that allow solving the Einstein-Maxwell field equations. For these new solutions we checked that the radial pressure, metric coefficients, energy density, anisotropy factor, charge density , mass function are well defined and are regular in the interior of the star. The solutions found can be used in the development of dark energy stars models satisfying all physical acceptability conditions but the causality condition and strong energy condition are violated. We expect that these models have multiple applications in astrophysics and cosmology.

Recently, several research groups have reported on anomalous enhancement of the self-field critical currents, Ic(sf,T), at low temperatures in superconductor/Dirac-cone material/superconductor (S/DCM/S) junctions. Some papers attributed the enhancement to the low-energy Andreev bound states arising from winding of the electronic wave function around DCM. In this paper, Ic(sf,T) in S/DCM/S junctions have been analyzed by two approaches: modified Ambegaokar-Baratoff and ballistic Titov-Beenakker models. It is shown that the ballistic model is an inadequate tool to analyze experimental data from S/DCM/S junctions. The primary mechanism for limiting superconducting current in S/DCM/S junctions is different from the conventional view that the latter is the maximum value within the order parameter phase variation. Thus, there is a need to develop a new model for self-field critical currents in S/DCM/S systems.

The direct measurements of the magnetic flux density in steel blocks within Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) magnet yoke are performed with 22 flux loops installed in selected regions of the yoke. The 10,000-ton CMS magnet flux return yoke encloses a 4 T superconducting solenoid with a 6-m-diameter by 12.5-m-length free bore and consists of five dodecagonal three-layered barrel wheels and four end-cap disks at each end. The yoke steel blocks, mostly up to 620 mm thick, serve as the absorber plates of the muon detection system. A TOSCA 3-D model of the CMS magnet has been developed to describe the magnetic field everywhere outside of the tracking volume which was measured with a field-mapping machine. In the present study, for the first time, the reliable reconstruction of the magnetic flux density in the steel blocks of the yoke is performed using the CMS magnet standard discharges from the operational magnet current of 18.164 kA. To provide this reconstruction, the voltages induced in the flux loops (with amplitudes of 20–250 mV) have been measured with six 16-bit DAQ modules and integrated offline over time. The results of the flux loop measurements during three magnet ramp downs are presented and discussed.

This paper reports aligned activities to promote energy and resource-efficient construction practice in Vietnam. First, the governance framework is introduced, including government decrees and technical standards. Then, a laboratory with building physics measurement technology is designed and partly set up at the local partner Vietnam Institute for Building Materials (VIBM), which can be used to determine the essential characteristic values required for the implementation of energy standards. The basis for the prioritization of the characteristic values are the requirements of the National technical regulation on energy efficient buildings of Vietnam – QCVN09:2017/BXD. Furthermore, basic characteristic values from international standards are described, which can also be used for calculations to optimize the energy consumption of buildings. In order to be able to carry out transient hygrothermal computer simulations, special characteristic values were also included. These are particularly useful for the research and development of new building materials and the evaluation of entire buildings in terms of thermal and moisture protection In order to communicate the material properties to the market and enable informed decision making by the stakeholders, a labeling system has been developed. Thereby, the practical means for implementing governance instruments are provided, and the related technical applications are supported.

For a linear ordinary differential equation (ODE in short) of the third order, results are presented that supplement the theory of conjugate points and extremal solutions by W. Leighton, Z. Nehari, M. Hanan. It is especially noted the sensitivity of solutions to the initial data, which makes their numerical study difficult. Similar results were obtained for the third-order nonlinear equations of the Emden-Fowler type.

Gravity played an important role in the development of life on earth. The effect of gravity on a living organisms can be investigated by controlling the magnitude of gravity. Most reduced gravity experiments are conducted on the lower earth orbit (LEO) in the International Space Station (ISS). However, running experiments in ISS face challenges such as high cost, extreme condition, lack of direct accessibility, and long waiting period. Therefore, researchers have developed various ground-based devices and methods to perform reduced gravity experiments. However, the search for life outside the earth requires more intensive research. Advancements in conventional methods and the development of new tools are required for this purpose. The advantages of Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) devices make them an attractive option for simulating microgravity. This paper briefly reviews the advancement of LOC technologies for simulating microgravity in a earth-based laboratory.

World is now experiencing a major health calamity due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus clade 2 (SARS-CoV- 2). The foremost challenge facing the scientific community is to explore the growth and transmission capability of the virus. Use of artificial intelligence (AI), such as, deep learning, in (i) rapid disease detection from x-ray/computerized tomography (CT)/ high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) images, (ii) accurate prediction of the epidemic patterns and their saturation throughout the globe, (iii) identification of the epicenter in each country/state and forecasting the disease from social networking data, (iv) prediction of drug-protein interactions for repurposing the drugs, and (v) socio-economic impact and prediction of future relapses, has attracted much attention. In the present manuscript, we describe the role of various AI-based technologies for rapid and efficient detection from CT images complementing quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunodiagnostic assays. AI-based technologies to anticipate the current pandemic pattern, possibility of future relapses and socio-economic impact are also discussed. We inspect how the virus transmits depending on different factors, such as, population density and mobility among others. We depict how AI-based mobile app for contact tracing and surveys can prevent the transmission. A modified deep learning technique can assess affinity of the most probable drugs to treat COVID-19. Here a few effective antiviral drugs, such as, Geneticin, Avermectin B1, and Ancriviroc among others, have been reported with their appropriate validation from previous investigations.

Ever since pharmacy has become a profession, pharmacist's role has been continuously subjected to changes due to specific influences from historical, socio-economic, political, and scientific context. Nowadays the classic perception of pharmaceutical profession in Community Pharmacy is facing worldwide extinction due to many factors. Modern services, such as online, mail-order, and telephone-order pharmacies are increasingly gaining ground thanks to their ability to facilitate customer demand. However, at the same time, they are endangering “face-to-face” contact, affecting the building of customer loyalty based on direct “human” interaction, and consequently reducing pharmacists to mere commercial figures. Communication is in fact emphasized as the essential element to build a solid and appropriate interpersonal relationship with the client, to make the consultancy process effective, and to strengthen pharmacist's professionalism in community pharmacy. The aim of this work is to analyze pharmacist’s role in modern society by pinpointing the factors affecting pharmacy profession practice. Specific purpose will be improving both the academic training of future professionals and their capacity to approach public relations through a deepened study and practice of behavioral, communication, educational, and sociological methodologies and techniques that would allow the development of more effective communication skills useful for providing an efficient consultancy service.

This paper designs and fabricates a small-type permanent-magnet linear motor and driver for automation applications. It covers structural design, magnetic circuit analysis, control strategies, and hardware development. Magnetic circuit analysis software JMAG is used for flux density distribution, back electromotive force(back-EMF), and electromagnetic force analysis. To address end effects and cogging force, auxiliary core structures and control strategies are proposed. The motor has a three-phase, six-coil, seven-pole configuration, achieving a peak phase voltage of 3.621 V at 1.0 m/s with a total harmonic distortion(THD) of 0.49 % and the voltages of each phase are balancing a phase voltage error of -0.002 V. The average electromagnetic force is 5.46 N/A. The driver uses a three-phase inverter with voltage space vector pulse width modulation(VSVPWM), dq-axes current closed-loop control, electromagnetic force control, and S-curve motion trajectory control. Simulations with JMAG-RT models in MATLAB/Simulink verify the control strategies. A microcontroller (TMS320F280045) serves as the control core, and a magnetic encoder with a 488 nm resolution provides position feedback. Each phase winding has an equivalent resistance of approximately 3.0 Ω and an inductance of approximately 1.98 mH. The S-curve motion trajectory control achieves a maximum position error of approximately 5.0 μm and a speed ripple of approximately 0.03 m/s at steady speed. With cogging force improvement, the maximum electromagnetic force is 4.90 N, and the q-axis current compensates around 1.05 A based on mover position. S-curve motion trajectory control results in highly stable and responsive performance. Practical tests show that the designed small-type permanent-magnet linear motor and its driver provide efficient, stable, and high-precision solutions for automation applications.

This work focuses on the theoretical study of the effect of entanglement in the Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide (YBCO) superconductor on the critical current density, critical magnetic field, and penetration depth. Using the Ginzburg Landau (GL) theory, the expression for the GL coherence length, the critical current density, the lower critical magnetic field (Hc1), and the upper critical magnetic field (Hc2) for the entangled superconducting YBCO was obtained. At zero external magnetic fields, YBCO was found to undergo a transition from the normal state to the superconducting state at 93K and returned to normal. We found a direct relationship between the GL coherence length penetration depth and the temperature of the entangled superconducting YBCO. The graphs of the lower critical magnetic field (Hc1) and critical current density against temperature show a non-linear dependence.In contrast, the graph of the upper critical magnetic field (Hc2) against temperature (T) shows the linear dependence, which is in agreement with existing theoretical observations. On the other hand, the graph of critical current density against the distance of separation between the entangled electrons that form a cooper pair showed that the critical current density increases between 1.8 and 6 nanometers attaining a constant value after reaching 7 nanometers for infinite distances. Finally, for lower critical fields, the magnetic field decreases between 1.5 to 6 nanometers attaining a constant value of the magnetic field, for infinite values of distance of separation between the entangled pair of electrons.

A fundamental aspect in the evolution of Time-to-Digital Converters (TDCs) implemented within Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), given the increasing demand for detection channels, is the optimization of resource utilization. This study reviews the principal methodologies employed for implementing low-resource TDCs in FPGAs. It outlines the foundational architectures and interpolation techniques utilized to bolster TDC performances without unduly burdening resource consumption. Low-resource Tapped Delay Line, Vernier Ring Oscillator, and Multi-Phase Shift Counter TDCs, including the use of SerDes, are reviewed. Additionally, novel low-resource architectures are scrutinized, including Counter Gray Oscillator TDCs and interpolation expansions using Voltage-Temperature-Consumption stable IODELAYS. Furthermore, the advantages and limitations of each approach are critically assessed, with particular emphasis on resolution, precision, non-linearities, and, especially, resource utilization. A comprehensive summary table encapsulating existing works on low-resource TDCs is provided, offering a comprehensive overview of the advancements in the field.

Extramammary Paget disease (EMPD) is an uncommon adenocarcinoma of apocrine gland-rich areas, presenting significant diagnostic challenges due to its nonspecific clinical appearance and frequent misidentification as benign, inflammatory skin conditions. Traditional diagnostic methods such as biopsy are invasive and uncomfortable, often required repeatedly due to high recurrence rates. Dermoscopy and non-invasive imaging techniques have been used but provide limited diagnostic accuracy due to their constraints in depth penetration and resolution. Recent advancements in imaging technologies, such as line-field confocal optical coherence tomography (LC-OCT), show promise in enhancing diagnostic precision while minimizing invasive procedures. LC-OCT merges high-resolution imaging with deep penetration capabilities, capturing detailed horizontal and vertical skin images akin to histopathology. This study evaluated the diagnostic performance of LC-OCT in detecting EMPD and its recurrence in 17 clinically suspicious anogenital regions, belonging to 6 patients. Data were collected prospectively at patient bedside by an LC-OCT expert with poor training for EMPD; and, then, reviewed retrospectively by an independent LC-OCT expert with adequate training for EMPD and no concerns about time. The prospective examination yielded 64.7%-accuracy, 71.4%-sensitivity, and 33.3%-specificity. The retrospective analysis achieved 94.1%-accuracy, 100%-sensitivity, and 66.7%-specificity, with the only false positive case being a difficult-to-diagnose concomitant presentation of a lichen sclerosus et atrophicus. Despite the need for specialized training, our results suggest that LC-OCT represents a valuable tool for accurately identifying EMPD and improve its management by reducing unnecessary biopsies. Further studies are needed to standardize its clinical application.

Bicuspid Aortic valve Stenosis (BCAS) with an incidence of 3% of the world's population constitutes the most frequent Congenital Heart Disease whereas all other subtypes collectively constitute 1% of all life births. Most and the extreme severity spectrum of valvular Aortic Stenosis (VAS) in adulthood are cases of congenital bicuspid aortic valve. It seems that the congenital occurrence of the bicuspid aortic valve is a major prerequisite of the pathological calcifications and fibrosis seen in adults. Those progressive changes can't be explained by sole hemodynamic destructive forces but other factors inherent to the bicuspid valve tissue are also contributing. Therapeutic options of (VAS) are relatively stagnant and have been limited to invasive and surgical options. Prudent observation of the risk factors of some CHDs including BCAS was the epigenetic effect of planetary electromagnetic field on the delicate process of endothelial mesenchymal transformation (EndoMT). The incidence of BCAS is progressively increasing as we depart north from the equator to the north pole. A deeper understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying EndoMT in congenital as well as acquired heart diseases is expected to open a new era in reversing heart disease in the human species. The potential to manipulate EndoMT and its signaling pathways or to reverse it with external electromagnetic power is an exciting therapeutic option for a wide array of congenital and acquired heart diseases including bicuspid aortic stenosis (BCAS) in the human species.

Fast Field-Cycling (FFC) Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) relaxometry is a powerful non-destructive magnetic resonance technique that enables, among other things, the investigation of slow molecular dynamics at low magnetic field intensities. FFC-NMR relaxometry measurements provide insight into molecular motion across various timescales within a single experiment. This study focuses on a \textit{model-free} approach, representing the NMRD profile $R_1$ as a linear combination of Lorentzian functions, thereby addressing the challenges of fitting data within an ill-conditioned linear least-squares framework. Tackling this problem, we present a comprehensive review and experimental validation of three regularization approaches to implement the model-free approach to analysing NMRD profiles. These include: (1) \nameUpe, utilizing locally adapted $L_2$ regularization; (2) \nameL, based on $L_1$ penalties; and (3) a hybrid approach combining locally adapted $L_2$ and global $L_1$ penalties. Each method's regularization parameters are determined automatically, according to the Balancing and Uniform Penalty principles. % Our contributions include the implementation and experimental validation of the \nameUpe{} and \nameUp{} algorithms, and the development of a "dispersion analysis" technique to assess the existence range of the estimated parameters. The objective of this work is to delineate the variance in fit quality and correlation time distribution yielded by each algorithm, thus broadening the set of software tools for the analysis of sample structures in FFC-NMR studies. The findings underline the efficacy and applicability of these algorithms in the analysis of NMRD profiles from samples representing different potential scenarios. 1

Nowadays, unmanned vehicles are widely used in various fields. However, the safety of unmanned vehicles is directly determined by the autopilot systems, and sensor faults are a very critical factor that affects the normal operation of the autopilot systems. To efficiently and comprehensively test unmanned systems for sensor faults, this paper proposes a chip-level testing platform for unmanned vehicle autopilot systems based on FPGA hardware-in-the-loop simulation. Unlike existing testing platforms, the introduction of FPGA technology allows us to achieve nanosecond real-time simulation frequency, thus realizing chip-level simulation of sensors and black-box automated testing. Firstly, we propose a set of general platform and modeling methods, and the paper presents a detailed application of the four most common necessary sensors in autopilot systems as examples. Secondly, we propose for the first time a chip-level fault testing method for unmanned systems, and build a test platform with a quadrotor vehicle, the PX4 software platform, and the Pixhawk4 hardware platform as examples. Finally, the experimental results verify that the testing platform proposed in this paper can adapt to various autopilot systems and has high simulation test reliability.

Oscillons, fundamental to various physical domains, are examined in-depth in this paper. From Josephson junctions in superconducting circuits to classical and quantum field theories, oscillators reveal profound insights into diverse phenomena. The study primarily focuses on oscillons, distinctive field configurations with enduring localization, establishing intriguing connections with well-known models like the Sine-Gordon breather. Surprising parallels in the weak coupling limit illuminate the rich dynamics of oscillators. A semi-classical quantization method, discretizing the field into spatially homogeneous regions, exposes stability angles, providing insights into the quantum nature of oscillons. The application of this quantization framework to specific cases, including the Sine-Gordon breather, showcases its versatility. The results offer a comprehensive perspective on the quantization of oscillons, unraveling the intricate interplay between classical and quantum dynamics. In conclusion, this paper provides a profound exploration of quantum oscillators, unveiling novel connections and presenting a rigorous quantization framework. The gained insights contribute significantly to the broader understanding of oscillatory systems and their pivotal role in diverse physical phenomena.

Estimating the infection risks in indoor environments comprises the assessment of the behavior of virus-laden aerosols, i.e. spreading, mixing, removal by air purifiers etc. A promising experimental approach is based on using non-hazardous surrogate aerosols of similar size, e.g. salt particles, to mimic the virus aerosol behavior. This manuscript addresses the issue how a successful transfer of such experiments can be accomplished. Corresponding experiments in two very different environments, a large community hall and a seminar room, with optional use of air purifiers in various constellations were conducted. While high particle concentrations are advantageous in terms of avoiding influence of background aerosol concentrations, it is shown that appropriate consideration of aggregation and settling are vital to theoretically describe the experimentally determined course of particle concentrations. A corresponding model equation for a well-mixed situation is derived and the required parameters are thoroughly determined in separate experiments independently. It is demonstrated that clean air delivery rates (CADR) of air purifiers determined with this approach may differ substantially from common approaches not explicitly taking into account aggregation.

We prove through path integral Monte Carlo computer experiments that the affine quantization of the $\varphi_4^4$ scaled Euclidean covariant relativistic scalar field theory is a valid quantum field theory with a well defined continuum limit of the one- and two-point-function. Affine quantization leads to a completely satisfactory quantization of field theories using situations that involve scaled behavior leading to an unexpected, $\hbar^2/\varphi^2$ which arises only in the quantum aspects.

In a recent paper, we extended previous studies on solar-terrestrial relationships by investigating the origin of the March 2012 heatwave in northeast USA. In the present study we check the possible relationship of solar activity with the early March 2012 bad weather in northeast Thrace, Greece. To this end, we examined data from various remote sensing instrumentation monitoring the Sun (SDO satellite), the Interplanetary Space (ACE satellite), the Earth’s magnetosphere (Earth based measurements, NOAA-19 satellite), the top of the clouds (TERRA and AQUA satellites) and the near ground atmosphere. Our comparative data analysis suggests that: (i) the winter-like weather (rainfall, fast winds, decreased temperature) in Thrace started on 6 March 2012, on the same day as the heatwave starting in USA, (ii) during the March 2012 winter-like event in Thrace (6-15 March), the ACE satellite recorded enhanced fluxes of solar energetic particles (SEPs), while SOHO and PAMELA recorded solar protons at very high energies (> 500 MeV), (iii) Thrace experienced particularly intense cyclonic circulation, during periods of magnetic storms on 8 - 10 and 12-13 March, which occurred after the arrival at ACE of two interplanetary shock waves, on March 8 and March 11, respectively, (iv) at the beginning of the two above mentioned periods large atmospheric electric fields were recorded, with values ranging between ~-2000V/m - ~1800V/m on 8 March, (v) the winter-like 8-10 March 2012 weather occurred after the detection of the main SEP event related with a coronal mass ejection released in the interplanetary space as a result of intense solar flare activity observed by SDO on 7 March 2012, (vi) the 8-10 March weather was related with a deep drop of ~630C in the cloud top temperature measured by MODIS/TERRA, which favors strong precipitation. Finally, we analyzed data from the electric power network in Thrace (~410N) and we found, for the first time sudden voltage changes of ~3.5kV in the electric grid in Greece, during the decay phase of the March 2012 superstorm. We discuss the winter-like March 2012 event in Thrace in terms of solar cosmic ray influence on the low troposphere mediated by positive NAO. Finally, we infer that the novel finding of the geomagnetic effects on the electric power grid in Thrace may open a new window into space weather applications research.

The commonly quoted bistable Higgs potential is not a proper description of the Higgs field because, among other technical reasons, one of its stable states acquires a negative expectation value in vacuum. We rely on formal catastrophe theory to derive the form of the Higgs potential that admits only one positive mean value in vacuum. No symmetry is broken during the ensuing phase transition that assigns mass to the Higgs field; only gauge redundancy is “broken” by the appearance of phase in the massive state, but this redundancy is not a true symmetry of the massless field. Furthermore, a secondary, certainly amusing conclusion is that, in its high-energy state, the field oscillates about its potential minimum between positive and negative masses; but it is doubtful that such evanescent states can survive below the critical temperature of 159.5 GeV, where the known particles were actually created.

Abstract: Agriculture uses plastic products for containers, packaging, tunnels, drip irrigation tub-ing, mulches. Large amounts of plastics are used as mulches on the soil surface for vegetable pro-duction (tomato, cucumber, watermelon, strawberry, vine) to reduce the weed competition, in-crease water and fertilizer use efficiency and enhance crop yield. Portugal uses around 4,500 t/year of polyethylene plastic to cover approximately 23,000 ha of agricultural land and only a small amount is recovered for recycling or secondary uses because of dirt with soil, vegetation, pesticide and fertilizers. Cleaning and decontaminating polyethylene mulch are costly and commercial technology is often not accessible nor economically viable in the current economic Portuguese situation. Most plastic mulch is composed of polyethylene that degrades slowly and produces a large quantity of residues in soil with negative impact in the environment. In the present study, the effects of long-term cultivation of blueberry using green 100% high density polyethylene mulch, in the south Portugal were evaluated for soil chemical and biological changes. High density green plastic mulch did not contaminate the topsoil with di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and heavy metals, buttotal nitrogen and organic carbon concentrations, electric conductivity and microbial activity were reduced in the planting row compared with bare soil, without mulching. Further-more, the presence of plastic mulch did not affect negatively the presence of nematodes, and the Rhabditida (bacterial feeders) increased in the planting and covered row.

At present, diversified and highly concurrent businesses in the Internet industry often require heterogeneous databases formed by multiple databases to meet the needs. This report introduces database kernel SG-ColBase we developed. After achieving read and write concurrency control, data rollback, atomic log writing, and downtime data redo to ensure complete transaction support. The parallelism of database kernel execution is extended through field level locks and snapshot reads. Use the Bloom filter, resource cache pool, memory pool, skip list, non blocking log cache, and asynchronous data writing mechanism to improve the overall execution efficiency of the system. In terms of data storage, column storage, logical key and LSM-tree are introduced. While improving the data compression ratio and reducing data gaps, all disk data operations are written in incremental order. With the characteristics of asynchronous batch operation, the data writing speed is greatly improved. Thanks to the continuous feature of vertical data brought by column storage, the disk scanning brought by vertical traversal is reduced, which is a qualitative leap in efficiency compared with traditional relational databases in the big data analysis scenario. SG-ColBase can reduce the use of heterogeneous databases in business and improve R&D efficiency.

Home-field advantage (HFA) encompasses all the processes leading to faster litter decomposition in the 'home' environment as compared to that of ‘away’ environments. To determine the occurrence of HFA in a forest and adjacent clear-cut, we set up a reciprocal litter decomposition experiment within the forest and clear-cut for two soil types (Cambisols and Gleysols) in temperate Germany. The forest was dominated by Norway spruce (Picea abies), whereas forest regeneration of European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) after clearcutting was encouraged. Our observation that Norway spruce decomposed faster than European beech in 70-yr-old spruce forest, was therefore most likely related to specialized litter-microbial interaction under existing spruce, and leading to a HFA. The ‘spruce’ microbial biome and soil conditions of original forest were then rapidly changed even after a short-term regeneration following clearcutting, resulting in faster beech decomposition also masking any HFA for spruce, particularly in moisture- and nutrient-deficient Cambisols. Divergence between forest and clear-cut in the Cambisol of their litter δ15N values beyond 9 months, implied litter N decomposition was only initially independent of soil and residual C status. We conclude that clearcutting modifies HFA and helps promote the establishment or regeneration of European beech in this and similar forest mountain upland areas.

This research takes Cuiwei Village in Qianshan District of Zhuhai City as an example. Through field research, the village is investigated and analyzed, and the street scale, spatial structure, functional characteristic streets, internal commercial distribution forms, and functions of Cuiwei Historic District are studied. analysis. On this basis, based on the convex space method and the line-of-sight analysis method in the space syntax theory, with the help of Depthmap software, the complex street node, that is, the space of the two nodes A and B, is established through the establishment of a visual field model. It includes the analysis of the integration degree of the horizon, the concentration of the horizon, the connection value of the horizon and the spatial characteristics of the historical area, as well as the traditional buildings that are the most representative of the village, namely the Three Kings Temple and the Webster's Mansion. When R=N and radius R=3, observe the changes in the two parameters of the visual integration and visual depth of the two historical buildings. And with the help of Baidu Time Machine photos in different periods to observe and record the changes in the store and the characteristics of people's behavior, and draw conclusions.

Solidification microstructure is formed under high cooling rates and temperature gradients in powder-based additive manufacturing. In this study, a non-equilibrium multi-phase field method (MPFM), which was based on a finite interface dissipation model proposed by Steinbach et. al., coupled with a CALPHAD database was developed for a multicomponent Ni alloy. A qua-si-equilibrium MPFM was also developed for comparison. Two-dimensional equiaxed micro-structural evolution for the Ni (Bal.)–Al–Co–Cr–Mo–Ta–Ti–W–C alloy was performed at various cooling rates. The temperature–γ fraction profiles obtained under 10^5 K/s using non- and qua-si-equilibrium MPFMs were in good agreement with each other. Over 10^6 K/s, the differences between non- and quasi-equilibrium methods grew as the cooling rate increased. The non-equilibrium solidification was strengthened over a cooling rate of 10^6 K/s. Colum-nar-solidification microstructural evolution was performed under cooling rates from 5×10^5 K/s to 1×10^7 K/s at various temperature gradient values under the constant interface velocity (0.1 m/s). The results showed that as the cooling rate increased, the cell space decreased in both methods, and the non-equilibrium MPFM agreed well with experimental measurements. Our results show that the non-equilibrium MPFM can simulate solidification microstructure in powder bed fusion additive manufacturing.

Fractional-time Schrödinger equation (FTSE) describes the evolution of quantum processes endowed with memory effects. FTSE manifestly breaks all consistency requirements of quantum field theory (unitarity, locality and compliance with the clustering theorem), unless the order of fractional differentiation and integration ( ) falls close to the standard index . Working in the context of the minimal fractal manifold (where , ), we confirm here that FTSE approximates the attributes of gravitational metric and provides an unforeseen generation mechanism for massive fields.

We previously reported new superconductivity produced by an electrostatic field and a diffusion current in a semiconductor without refrigeration. In particular, the superconductivity was investigated theoretically and confirmed experimentally. Here, we determine that the derived superconducting quantum state can be reproduced in a capacitor. When circuits are formed with this new-type capacitor and diodes, a magnetic field is applied to the diodes’ depletion layer. The depletion layer is biased because of the conversion from the magnetic-field energy to electric-field energy, resulting in the diodes’ spontaneously emitting a current. Thus, the new-type capacitor is charged using no other energy source. This new phenomenon is described theoretically with assistance of initial experiments.

It is strongly desirable to accurately detect the clouds in hyperspectral images onboard before compression. However, conventional onboard cloud detection methods are not appropriate to all situation such as shadowed cloud or darken snow covered surfaces which are not identified properly in the NDSI test. In this paper, we propose a new spectral–spatial classification strategy to enhance the orbiting cloud screen performances obtained on hyperspectral images by integrating threshold exponential spectral angle map (TESAM), adaptive Markov random field (aMRF) and dynamic stochastic resonance (DSR). TESAM is performed to classify the cloud pixels coarsely based on spectral information. Then aMRF is performed to do optimal process by using spatial information, which improved the classification performance significantly. Some misclassification points still exist after aMRF processing because of the noisy data in the onboard environment. DSR is used to eliminate misclassification points in binary labeling image after aMRF. Taking level 0.5 data from hyperion as dataset, the average overall accuracy of the proposed algorithm is 96.28% after test. The method can provide cloud mask for the on-going EO-1 images and related satellites with the same spectral settings without manual intervention. The experiment indicate that the proposed method reveals better performance than the classical onboard cloud detection or current state-of-the-art hyperspectral classification methods.

Abstract: Extensive research shows nurses’ work environment to be particularly stressful. This study develops, explores, and psychometrically tests a new profession specific ques-tionnaire identifying generalized and specific resistance resources, that make it possible to measure resources to manage work-related stress. An exploratory study design was em-ployed. The questionnaire was developed inspired by the MEASURE approach and the salutogenic theory of health. Building on the results from a literature review of nursing re-search and salutogenesis, supplemented by twelve interviews with hospital nurses, an item pool was generated. A first version was pilot tested in a group of nurses who were studying to become specialist nurses. A second version of the questionnaire was psycho-metrically tested on nurses in close patient care (n = 475), analysed using Principal Com-ponent Analysis as the extracting technique to identify the underlying structure of the questionnaire. The Principal Component Analysis revealed a four-component model of 19 items. “Manageability as a resource for handling the workload” was the strongest compo-nent, accounting for 21 % of the explained variance. “Contacts with patients as resources for nurses’ job satisfaction” (17.8 %). “Professional attitudes are labelled as resources to nursing” (15 %). “Colleagues are important resources for remaining in the nursing profes-sion” (11 %). The structure of the questionnaire indicates its usefulness in clinical practice for measuring resistance resources.

We report a small footprint cost-effective isothermal rapid DNA amplification system, with integrated microfluidics for automated sample analysis and detection of SARS-CoV-2 in human and environmental samples. Our system measures low-level fluorescent signal in real-time during amplification, while maintaining the desired assay temperature, on a low power, portable system footprint. A unique soft microfluidic chip design was implemented to mitigate thermocapillary effects and facilitate optical alignment for automated image capture and signal analysis. The system-on-board prototype coupled with the LAMP primers designed by BioCoS, is sensitive enough to detect viral loads of SARS-CoV-2 in a broad concentration range corresponding to a threshold cycle range of 16 to 39. Clinical specimens were tested at Kingston Health Sciences using a clinically validated PCR assay and variants were determined using whole genome sequencing.

Fluidic larger-scale integration (LSI) resides at the heart of comprehensive sample-to-answer automation and parallelization of assay panels for frequent and ubiquitous bioanalytical testing in decentralized the point-of-use / point-of-care settings. This paper develops a novel “digital twin” strategy with an emphasis on rotational, centrifugo-pneumatic flow control. The underlying model systematically connects retention rates of rotationally actuated valves as a key element of LSI to experimental input parameters; for the first time, the concept of band widths in frequency space as the decisive quantity characterizing operationally robustness is introduced, a set of quantitative performance metrics guiding algorithmic optimization of disc layouts is defined, and the engineering principles of advanced, logical flow control and timing are elucidated. Overall, the digital twin enables efficient design for automating multiplexed bioassay protocols on such “Lab-on-a-Disc” (LoaD) systems featuring high packing density, reliability, configurability, modularity and manufacturability to eventually minimize cost, time and risk of development and production.

Access to medicines is one of the essential problems in Public Health of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The World Health Organization (WHO) defines access to medicines as the possibility of "having continuously accessible and affordable medicines in public or private health facilities that are within a kilometer of the place of residence." Access to medicines, as defined by the WHO, is not fully guaranteed in many LMICs and even in many regions of high-resource countries. The WHO identifies several factors as determinants of limitations in the access to medicines: rational selection, affordable prices, sustainable financing, and reliable health services. The action on these factors makes it possible to improve universal access to medicines with consequent improvement in Public Health. Adequate access to antibiotics and vaccination will avoid a large part of the deaths caused by infectious diseases in the LMICs. However, the emergence of resistance and the difficulties in vaccination campaigns due to socio-political or cultural problems make it challenging to fight many easily treatable infectious diseases. The use and abuse of antibiotics are inevitably associated with the appearance of resistances that make them ineffective. Thus, whereas limited access to antibiotics raises mortality rates from infectious diseases, generalized open access to them ends up eliminating their clinical value. Moreover, the contraction of research in this field for many years has reduced the success in discovering new drugs. Additionally, local market regulations, inadequate selection, inaccessible prices, especially for those of second and third-generation, inefficient health systems, and difficulties of administration and control of prescription compliance, especially in the case of combined therapies, are additional obstacles to universal access to antibiotics. In order to simultaneously improve access to antibiotics and keep resistances under control, it is necessary to develop training and education activities at different social levels (from patients to various Health Care Providers) to complement the national or supranational strategic plans.

Under the main features required on portable devices in electrochemical instrumentation is to have a small size, low power consumption, economically affordable, and precision in the measurements. This paper describes the development of a programmable Embedded Potentiostat System (EPS) capable of performing electrochemical sensing over system-on-a-chip platforms. Furthermore, the study explains a circuit design and develops some validation of the entire system. The hardware validation is performed by electrochemical experiments such as Double Step Chronoamperometry (DSC), Linear Sweep Voltammetry (LSV) and Cyclic Voltammetry (CV); moreover, a comparison of the experimental signals between a commercial potentiostat and the EPS was done by analysis of errors on the response signal. Results illustrate that the EPS is capable of handling currents in the range of absolute values of 86.44 to 3000 nA, and having control voltages in the range of ± 2 V. The device can support from 50 to 2000 samples per second. The EPS capabilities were compared with other compact potentiostats. The programmable EPS is an original approach which hugely reduces the hardware complexity and leads the way to create new applications for Point-of-Care or industrial developments with a reusable full electronics module.

The lack of accurate and feasible diagnostic tests poses a significant challenge to visceral leish-maniasis (VL) healthcare services in endemic areas. To date, various VL diagnostic tests have been or are being developed, and their diagnostic performance needs to be assessed.. In the present study, the diagnostic performance of rk39RDT, Direct Agglutination Test (DAT), Microscopy, Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP), and miniature direct-on-blood polymerase chain reaction - nucleic acid lateral flow immunoassay (mini-dbPCR-NALFIA) was assessed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) as reference test in an endemic region of Ethiopia. In this study, 235 patients VL suspected patients and 104 non-endemic healthy controls (NEHC) were recruited. Among the VL-suspected patients, 144(61.28%) tested positive with qPCR. Sensi-tivities for rk39 RDT, DAT, Microscopy, LAMP assay, and mini-dbPCR-NALFIA were 88.11%, 96.50%, 76.58%, 94.33%, and 95.80%, respectively. Specificities were 83.33%, 97.96%, 100%, 97.38%, and 98.92% for rk39 RDT, DAT, Microscopy, LAMP assay, and mini-dbPCR-NALFIA, respectively. In conclusion, Rk39 RDT and microscopy exhibited lower sensitivity, while DAT demonstrated excellent performance. LAMP and mini-dbPCR-NALFIA showed excellent perfor-mance with feasibility to implement in remote endemic areas, although the latter requires further evaluation in such regions.

There are two reasons to have an efficient algorithm for identifying all maximal Lyndon substrings of a string: firstly, Bannai et al. introduced in 2015 a linear algorithm to compute all runs of a string that relies on knowing all maximal Lyndon substrings of the input string, and secondly, Franek et al. showed in 2017 a linear equivalence of sorting suffixes and sorting maximal Lyndon substrings of a string, inspired by a novel suffix sorting algorithm of Baier. In 2016, Franek et al. presented a brief overview of algorithms for computing the Lyndon array that encodes the knowledge of maximal Lyndon substrings of the input string. Among the presented were two well-known algorithms for computing the Lyndon array: a quadratic in-place algorithm based on iterated Duval's algorithm for Lyndon factorization, and a linear algorithmic scheme based on linear suffix sorting, computing inverse suffix array, and applying to it the Next Smaller Value algorithm. Duval's algorithm works for strings over any ordered alphabet, while for linear suffix sorting, a constant or an integer alphabet is required. The authors at that time were not aware of Baier's algorithm. In 2017, our research group proposed a novel algorithm for the Lyndon array. Though the proposed algorithm is linear in the average case and has O(n log(n)) worst-case complexity, it is interesting as it emulates the fast Fourier algorithm's recursive approach and introduces tau-reduction that might be of independent interest. In 2018, we presented a linear algorithm to compute the Lyndon array of a string inspired by Phase I of Baier's algorithm for suffix sorting. This paper presents theoretical analysis of these two algorithms and provides empirical comparisons of both their C++ implementations with respect to iterated Duval's algorithm.

In the implementation of thermal enhanced oil recovery (TEOR) techniques, the temperature impact on relative permeability in oil - water systems is of special concern. Hence, developing a fast and reliable tool to model the temperature effect on two-phase oil - water relative permeability is still a major challenge for precise studying and evaluation of TEOR processes. To reach the goal of this work, two promising soft-computing algorithms, namely Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) and Gene Expression Programming (GEP) were employed to develop reliable, accurate, simple and quick to use paradigms to predict the temperature dependency of relative permeability in oil - water systems (K_rw and K_ro). To do so, a large database encompassing wide-ranging temperatures and fluids/rock parameters, including oil and water viscosities, absolute permeability and water saturation, was considered to establish these correlations. Statistical results and graphical analyses disclosed the high degree of accuracy for the proposed correlations in emulating the experimental results. In addition, GEP based correlations were found to be the most consistent with root mean square error (RMSE) values of 0.0284 and 0.0636 for K_rw and K_ro, respectively. Lastly, the comparison of the performances of our correlations against those of the preexisting ones indicated the large superiority of the introduced correlations compared to previously published methods. The findings of this study can help for better understanding and studying the temperature dependency of oil - water relative permeability in thermal enhanced oil recovery processes.