Objects In Universe Research Articles

Compact ellipticals in the Antlia cluster of galaxies

Compact ellipticals (cEs) are rare objects in the local Universe, but relevant for the evolution of galaxies. Their origin is not completely understood, with evidence equally suggesting that they are relics of early epochs, and remnants of tidal disruptions. This article aims to characterise two cEs, members of the nearby Antlia cluster, providing insights into the formation channels of cEs residing in high-density environments. This dataset consists of archival ACS/HST images and Gemini/GMOS slit spectra. The isophotal analysis of the cEs was compared with their kinematics and stellar population synthesis. The results were also compared with a sample of cEs and `relic' galaxies from the literature, to put them into context. Their characterisations highlight clear differences between the two cEs. Although the stellar populations for both cEs are mainly old, with mass-weighted ages above 10\,Gyr, FS90\,110, the most massive one, has a minor contribution from an intermediate-age population. Besides, it presents rotational evidence, a remarkably bright nucleus for its luminosity, and a clear dichotomy between the inner and outer components. It is probably the remnant of a low-mass disc galaxy that has been tidally disrupted by the close massive elliptical NGC\,3258. On the contrary, FS90\,192 does not present evidence for either rotation or discy isophotes, and its population synthesis leads to a stellar population with ages above 12\,Gyr. It is probably a low-mass analogue to `relic' galaxies.

Development of Interactive Multimedia Based Mathematics Learning Media for Class XI SMA

Mathematics is a science that studies quantity, structure, space and change. This science has abstract and universal study objects which play an important role in discipline and the development of human thinking power. The mathematical mindset is deductive, starting from general objects to important conclusions. Multimedia learning methods are an alternative to help students understand material concretely. The use of multimedia can make learning more interesting with graphics, animation, video and sound. Teachers must use approaches, methods and techniques that actively involve students in learning in order to achieve good academic achievement. The use of learning media can create new interests and motivate students. Developing mathematics learning media using Adobe Animate to create animations is an interactive learning media that can help teachers broaden students' horizons and increase student interest and motivation. Interactive multimedia-based learning can increase motivation, learning independence and be a solution to make mathematics learning interesting and easy to understand

Wheat as a test object for determining the degree of soil contamination with petroleum products

Abstract Currently, the oil and gas industry remains the leader in meeting the global need for energy resources. The high intensity of hydrocarbon production naturally leads to an increase in the volume of petrochemical waste that ends up in the natural environment. In this regard, the implementation of toxicological assessment of oil-containing soils and water bodies is one of the most important environmental tasks. Biotesting allows for a quick integral assessment of the properties of a contaminated environment. This method of toxicity analysis is economical and does not require the use of special chemical reagents and equipment. The seeds of higher vegetation are the most accessible, easy to use and universal test objects. However, it is necessary to use only species that are highly sensitive to pollutants. This article is based on the results of a study of the phytotoxicity of gray forest soil contaminated with petroleum products using wheat. Experiments have shown that soil contaminated with oil waste has a strong inhibitory effect on wheat seedlings. It was found that small doses of petroleum products (0.31% oil) have a stimulating effect on seed germination in the analyzed soil.

Rigidity on quantum symmetry for a certain class of graph C*-algebras

Quantum symmetry of graph C*-algebras has been studied, under the consideration of different formulations, in the past few years. It is already known that the compact quantum group (C(S1)∗C(S1)∗⋯∗C(S1)︸|E(Γ)|−times,Δ) [in short, *|E(Γ)|C(S1),Δ] always acts on a graph C*-algebra for a finite, connected, directed graph Γ in the category introduced by Joardar and Mandal, where |E(Γ)| ≔ number of edges in Γ. In this article, we show that for a certain class of graphs including Toeplitz algebra, quantum odd sphere, matrix algebra etc. the quantum symmetry of their associated graph C*-algebras remains *|E(Γ)|C(S1),Δ in the category as mentioned before. More precisely, if a finite, connected, directed graph Γ satisfies the following graph theoretic properties: (i) there does not exist any cycle of length ≥2 (ii) there exists a path of length (|V(Γ)| − 1) which consists all the vertices, where |V(Γ)| ≔ number of vertices in Γ (iii) given any two vertices (may not be distinct) there exists at most one edge joining them, then the universal object coincides with *|E(Γ)|C(S1),Δ. Furthermore, we have pointed out a few counter examples whenever the above assumptions are violated.

Two Varieties of Korean: Rightward Head Movement or Polarity Sensitivity?

A strong argument in favor of the existence of rightward, string-adjacent head movement comes from Han, Lidz, and Musolino (2007). They argue that Korean language-internal variation with respect to the scopal order between negation and universal quantifier objects shows that in the variety where negation takes wide scope, the negative marker must have moved along with the verb/auxiliary to the head of IP. This would then constitute evidence for rightward, string-adjacent head movement. In this article, I argue that this analysis actually makes different predictions than have been attested in Korean. Moreover, I argue that, following a well-known stand with respect to the nature of polarity sensitivity (Chierchia 2013), these facts follow naturally once it is assumed that in one variety, but not the other, universal quantifiers are positive polarity items. This makes the attested language-internal variation in Korean less exceptional since language-internal variation with respect to polarity sensitivity is widely attested.

Confused and disentangled distribution alignment for unsupervised universal adaptive object detection

Universal domain adaptive object detection (UniDAOD) is a more challenging and realistic problem than traditional domain adaptive object detection (DAOD), aiming to transfer the knowledge from the well-labeled source domain to the unlabeled target domain without any prior knowledge of label sets. Intuitively, the main challenge of UniDAOD is to eliminate the domain shift and suppress the interference caused by the category shift induced by private classes (i.e., classes only existed in one domain). In the current study, we propose a simple but effective CODE framework, namely Confused and Disentangled Extraction, for alleviating this issue. Specifically, we propose the virtual adversarial adaptation module, characterized by incorporating virtual domain labels within the domain classifier for unaligned samples. This confuses the domain classifier, effectively addressing the issue of converging to local optima resulting from equilibrium challenges and consequently narrowing the domain shift. Simultaneously, we introduce the entropy margin separation module, which utilizes the distinctiveness of category predictions as a disentangled factor. This enables the automatic discovery of private classes in each domain, suppressing interference during the adaptation process. Experiments on four universal scenarios (i.e., closed-set, partial-set, open-partial-set, and open-set) show that CODE obtains a significant performance gain over original DAOD detectors.

Image Detection Network Based on Enhanced Small Target Recognition Details and Its Application in Fine Granularity

Image detection technology is of paramount importance across various fields. This significance is not only seen in general images with everyday scenes but also holds substantial research value in the field of remote sensing. Remote sensing images involve capturing images from aircraft or satellites. These images typically feature diverse scenes, large image formats, and varying imaging heights, thus leading to numerous small-sized targets in the captured images. Accurately identifying these small targets, which may occupy only a few pixels, is a challenging and active research area. Current methods mainly fall into two categories: enhancing small target features by improving resolution and increasing the number of small targets to bolster training datasets. However, these approaches often fail to address the core distinguishing features of small targets in the original images, thus resulting in suboptimal performance in fine-grained classification tasks. To address this situation, we propose a new network structure DDU (Downsample Difference Upsample), which is based on differential and resolution changing methods in the Neck layer of deep learning networks to enhance the recognition features of small targets, thus further improving the feature richness of recognition and effectively solving the problem of low accuracy in small target object recognition. At the same time, in order to take into account the recognition effect of targets of other sizes in the image, a new attention mechanism called PNOC (protecting the number of channels) is proposed, which integrates small target features and universal object features without losing the number of channels, thereby increasing the accuracy of recognition. And experimental verification was conducted on the PASCAL-VOC dataset. At the same time, it was applied to the testing of the fine-grained MAR20 dataset and found that the performance was better than other classic algorithms. At the same time, because the proposed framework belongs to a one-stage detection method, it has good engineering applicability and scalability, and universality in scientific research applications are good. Through comparative experiments, it was found that our algorithm improved the performance of the mAP by 0.7% compared to the original YOLOv8 algorithm.

A dynamically class-wise weighting mechanism for unsupervised cross-domain object detection under universal scenarios

In the realm of object detection, traditional domain adaptive object detection (DAOD) methods assume that source and target data completely share one identical class space, which is often difficult to satisfy in many real-world applications. To address this limitation, this paper introduces universal domain adaptive object detection (UniDAOD), a learning paradigm that relaxes identical class space assumption to be a different but overlapped class space. Intuitively, the main challenge of UniDAOD is to reduce the negative transfer of private classes (i.e., classes only existed in one domain) and reinforce the positive transfer of the common classes (i.e., classes shared across domains). In this paper, we provide a rigorous theoretical analysis and induce a new generalization bound of the expected target error under the UniDAOD setting. On the basis of theoretical insight, we then propose weighted adaptation (W-adapt) to suppress the interference of private classes and reinforce the positive effects of common classes. In particular, we propose a pseudo category margin (PCM) to quantify class importance based on dynamic pseudotarget label prediction to recognize common classes. Furthermore, to alleviate the impact of inaccurate pseudotarget labels, we propose a temporary memory-based filter (TMF) to dynamically store and update the PCM during progressive training. On the basis of the learned TMF, we design a weighted classwise domain alignment loss to adapt two domains across common classes. Experiments on four universal scenarios (i.e., partial-set, open-partial-set, open-set, and closed-set) show that W-adapt outperforms several domain adaptation methods.

ASTRAEUS

Context. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed an abundance of bright z > 10 galaxy candidates, challenging the predictions of most theoretical models at high redshifts. Aims. Since massive stars dominate the observable ultraviolet (UV) emission, we explore whether a stellar initial mass function (IMF) that becomes increasingly top-heavy towards higher redshifts and lower gas-phase metallicities results in a higher abundance of bright objects in the early universe and how it influences the evolution of galaxy properties compared to a constant Salpeter IMF. Methods. We parameterised the IMF based on the findings from hydrodynamical simulations that track the formation of stars in differently metal-enriched gas clouds in the presence of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at different redshifts. We incorporated this evolving IMF into the ASTRAEUS (semi-numerical rAdiative tranSfer coupling of galaxy formaTion and Reionisation in N-body dArk mattEr simUlationS) framework, which couples galaxy evolution and reionisation in the first billion years. Our implementation accounts for the IMF dependence of supernova (SN) feedback, metal enrichment, and ionising and UV radiation emission. We conducted two simulations: one with a Salpeter IMF and the other with the evolving IMF. In both, we adjusted the free model parameters to reproduce key observables. Results. Compared to a constant Salpeter IMF, we find that (i) the higher abundance of massive stars in the evolving IMF results in more light per unit stellar mass, resulting in a slower build-up of the stellar mass and lower stellar-to-halo mass ratio; (ii) due to the self-similar growth of the underlying dark matter (DM) halos, the evolving IMF’s star formation main sequence scarcely deviates from that of the Salpeter IMF; (iii) the evolving IMF’s stellar mass to gas-phase metallicity relation shifts to higher metallicities, while its halo mass to gas-phase metallicity relation remains unchanged; (iv) the evolving IMF’s median dust-to-metal mass ratio is lower due to its stronger SN feedback; and (v) the evolving IMF requires lower values of the escape fraction of ionising photons and exhibits a flatter median relation and smaller scatter between the ionising photons emerging from galaxies and the halo mass. However, the ionising emissivities of the galaxies mainly driving reionisation (Mh ∼ 1010 M⊙) are comparable to those of a Salpeter IMF, resulting in minimal changes to the topology of the ionised regions. Conclusions. These results suggest that a top-heavier IMF alone is unlikely to explain the higher abundance of bright z > 10 sources, since the lower mass-to-light ratio driven by the greater abundance of massive stars is counteracted by stronger stellar feedback.

Oral Health in the State of Kuwait: An Appraisal

BackgroundOral health issues have received significant attention from most global health agencies, which have integrated these issues into their noncommunicable disease, sustainable development, and universal health coverage objectives. MethodsThis paper provides an update on the progress made in the last 2 decades and aims to highlight some of the challenges faced by the oral health care system in Kuwait. ResultsDespite the nation's rising expenditure on oral health care, the prevalence of oral diseases remains high in Kuwait. The lack of reliable data on periodontitis and edentulism limits the ability of researchers to comment on the trends of these conditions. This emphasises the critical need for a nationwide household-level oral health survey in both pediatric and adult populations that would provide valuable information on the oral health status of these populations. ConclusionIn the future, Kuwait must invest more in oral disease prevention programs, especially among children and the high-risk communities of the population.

Redesigning Android Development: Using Reactive Programming to Retrofit REST APIs and Concurrency

In this paper the current techniques and tools used by developers to create applications are described in detail and the use of REST APIs in Android applications as a case study. The first component is the installation of the APIs, which we will focus on the Retrofit library for network management, and the API Clients to manage requests. This study evaluates the nuances of JSON parsing, serialization, and deserialization through the Retrofit API client. We study the technique of data searching, the introduction of Tap Drawer using Firebase to improve the app functionality, and the string transformation method of Scalar with JSON Converter Factory.The tutorial explains how to set up an API, design an interface for Product ID query, use a Binding Adaptor for handling images and a Glide dependency to load images. As well, we consider how to create a Product Adaptor for a Recycler View which leverages Fragments to implement complex user interfaces. According to the plan of Android development, we absorb width, wrap content and verticality alignment as layout factors.The building of the “Adapter List” based on the “Create View Holder” function and the creation of Product Model class — which consists of fields for ratings and product details — as well as the JSON integration are presented in the article. Asynchronous processes are applied in the application as well as the `enqueue` technique has been used to provide effective network connection.We intend to acquire an experimental data by app scanning on the Android platform, by referring to Stack Overflow's most favourite pages and through a survey of mobile application developers in order to build a code collection associated with REST mobile client technologies. From our findings it follows that application communicating through the Internet phenomenon associated with JSON syntax implementation in comparison to XML data processing execution rather widespread and acceptable in terms of Android developers. We include the HTTP libraries standardized by third-party organizations in the paper which also explains how to use the practices.In unity, we discuss the perks of Android system uniqueness which facilitates the application customization, suppliers and the consumers, in terms of security, usability, and usefulness. Our app framework for Android offers coronary adjust to existing apps through behaviour simply without accessing or modifying app source code but sticks to the universal app-agnostic transformation objectives. This architecture is thus designed to allow the modified software version to function without any hindrance on any normal Android device. Keywords- REST API, Android, Retrofit, Firebase, Gson, Recycler View, JSON parsing, HTTP libraries, refactoring, Android programming principles.

Viability leads to the emergence of gait transitions in learning agile quadrupedal locomotion on challenging terrains

Quadruped animals are capable of seamless transitions between different gaits. While energy efficiency appears to be one of the reasons for changing gaits, other determinant factors likely play a role too, including terrain properties. In this article, we propose that viability, i.e., the avoidance of falls, represents an important criterion for gait transitions. We investigate the emergence of gait transitions through the interaction between supraspinal drive (brain), the central pattern generator in the spinal cord, the body, and exteroceptive sensing by leveraging deep reinforcement learning and robotics tools. Consistent with quadruped animal data, we show that the walk-trot gait transition for quadruped robots on flat terrain improves both viability and energy efficiency. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of discrete terrain (i.e., crossing successive gaps) on imposing gait transitions, and find the emergence of trot-pronk transitions to avoid non-viable states. Viability is the only improved factor after gait transitions on both flat and discrete gap terrains, suggesting that viability could be a primary and universal objective of gait transitions, while other criteria are secondary objectives and/or a consequence of viability. Moreover, our experiments demonstrate state-of-the-art quadruped robot agility in challenging scenarios.

ESF-YOLO: an accurate and universal object detector based on neural networks.

As an excellent single-stage object detector based on neural networks, YOLOv5 has found extensive applications in the industrial domain; however, it still exhibits certain design limitations. To address these issues, this paper proposes Efficient Scale Fusion YOLO (ESF-YOLO). Firstly, the Multi-Sampling Conv Module (MSCM) is designed, which enhances the backbone network's learning capability for low-level features through multi-scale receptive fields and cross-scale feature fusion. Secondly, to tackle occlusion issues, a new Block-wise Channel Attention Module (BCAM) is designed, assigning greater weights to channels corresponding to critical information. Next, a lightweight Decoupled Head (LD-Head) is devised. Additionally, the loss function is redesigned to address asynchrony between labels and confidences, alleviating the imbalance between positive and negative samples during the neural network training. Finally, an adaptive scale factor for Intersection over Union (IoU) calculation is innovatively proposed, adjusting bounding box sizes adaptively to accommodate targets of different sizes in the dataset. Experimental results on the SODA10M and CBIA8K datasets demonstrate that ESF-YOLO increases Average Precision at 0.50 IoU (AP50) by 3.93 and 2.24%, Average Precision at 0.75 IoU (AP75) by 4.77 and 4.85%, and mean Average Precision (mAP) by 4 and 5.39%, respectively, validating the model's broad applicability.

Interpretation of Verses on the 'Parable of the Deeds of Disbelievers': Embodied Islamic Knowledge in Ibn 'Ashur's Maqasid-Based Exegesis

This article examines the reinterpretation of verses depicting the "Parable of the Deeds of Disbelievers," focusing on the maqasid-based exegesis approach adopted by Ibn 'Ashur. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the verses of al-tamthil in the Qur'an, which can be analyzed through various approaches, including linguistic methods such as rhetoric (balaghah), syntax (nahwu), and morphology (sharaf), as well as philosophical approaches like semantics and semiotics. However, this research specifically utilizes the maqasid approach to uncover the deeper objectives and meanings of these verses. This approach has been a subject of academic debate and criticism, highlighting the need for more in-depth studies. This research is a literature review that focuses on a textual analysis, drawing primarily on Ibn 'Ashur's Tafsir al-Tahrir wa al-Tanwir as its main source. The findings reveal that the maqasid approach to the verses of al-tamthil depicting the deeds of disbelievers successfully identifies two primary objectives: "li at-tadabbur" (for contemplation) and "li at-tadzakkur" (for reflection). These objectives suggest that the parables in these verses serve as a means to encourage readers to engage in profound reflection and internalize the wisdom contained within them, thereby fostering embodied Islamic knowledge among the readers of Ibn 'Ashur's maqasid-based exegesis. These findings not only enrich the understanding of Qur'anic texts but also offer a significant contribution to the study of embodied Islamic knowledge within maqasid-based exegesis by demonstrating how this approach can relate the text to broader universal objectives within the framework of maqasid al-shariah.

Astigmatism-based active focus stabilisation with universal objective lens compatibility, extended operating range and nanometer precision

Focus stabilisation is vital for long-term fluorescence imaging, particularly in the case of high-resolution imaging techniques. Current stabilisation solutions either rely on fiducial markers that can be perturbative, or on beam reflection monitoring that is limited to high-numerical aperture objective lenses, making multimodal and large-scale imaging challenging. We introduce a beam-based method that relies on astigmatism, which offers advantages in terms of precision and the range over which focus stabilisation is effective. This approach is shown to be compatible with a wide range of objective lenses (10x-100x), typically achieving <10 nm precision with >10 μm operating range. Notably, our technique is largely unaffected by pointing stability errors, which in combination with implementation through a standalone Raspberry Pi architecture, offers a versatile focus stabilisation unit that can be added onto most existing microscope setups.

Galaxy spin direction asymmetry in JWST deep fields

Abstract The unprecedented imaging power of JWST provides new abilities to observe the shapes of objects in the early Universe in a way that has not been possible before. Recently, JWST acquired a deep field image inside the same field imaged in the past as the HST Ultra Deep Field. Computer-based quantitative analysis of spiral galaxies in that field shows that among 34 galaxies for which their rotation of direction can be determined by the shapes of the arms, 24 rotate clockwise, and just 10 rotate counterclockwise. The one-tailed binomial distribution probability to have asymmetry equal or stronger than the observed asymmetry by chance is ∼0.012. While the analysis is limited by the small size of the data, the observed asymmetry is aligned with all relevant previous large-scale analyses from all premier digital sky surveys, all show a higher number of galaxies rotating clockwise in that part of the sky, and the magnitude of the asymmetry increases as the redshift gets higher. This paper also provides data and analysis to reproduce previous experiments suggesting that the distribution of galaxy rotation in the Universe is random, to show that the exact same data used in these studies in fact show non-random distribution, and in excellent agreement with the results shown here. These findings reinforce consideration of the possibility that the directions of rotation of spiral galaxies as observed from Earth are not necessarily randomly distributed. The explanation can be related to the large-scale structure of the Universe, but can also be related to a possible anomaly in the physics of galaxy rotation.

Os limites da razão em Immanuel Kant

With base in the Ilustration project, Immanuel Kant rushes to the exam of the ends limits of the reason, with the target of evidencing the limits and domain of the Metaphysics. For Kant, the classic Metaphysics could not be considered a rigorous science, as the mathematics or the pure science of the nature (the physics), for lacking a previous treatment concerning the powers and limits of the reason. This problem imposes to this ability, fundamentally, the task of illuminating the problem of the nature and production of its universal propositions, necessary and objective, constituent in specific of the transcendental’s beginnings of the sciences. In this attempt, raised by the reason, we glimpse the challenge of the project of an autonomous knowledge.

Exploring the effects of digital technologies in health financing for universal health coverage: a synthesis of country experiences and lessons

Abstract The use of digital technologies (DTs) for health financing receives increased attention in policy, practice and research. However, not much robust evidence exists on their effects on the intermediate and final universal health coverage objectives. This paper seeks to contribute to evidence gathering, by synthesizing the findings from nine country case studies which covered diverse applications of DTs and identified their effects on health financing and universal health coverage objectives. This paper also draws on review papers on the use of DTs for health financing. Our synthesis reveals that DTs can support and simplify health financing tasks and thus contribute to enhanced efficiency and transparency and more equitable resource distribution. If well designed, DTs can help overcome challenges inherent in paper-based data systems and enable otherwise hardly implementable policy options, especially options that rely on near real-time exchange of data. Yet, the studies also point to various risks. Caution is for instance required when the use of DTs enhances inequities between population groups due to various digital divides. The findings point to a number of policy orientations. There is need to include the application of DTs for health financing in national digital health strategies and to develop health financing specific guidance and regulation. This is for instance necessary to avoid that DTs negatively affect financial protection. Clear stipulations related to equity will serve to ensure that positive effects accrue to vulnerable population groups. The future research agenda calls for more and methodologically robust evidence generation with a clear universal health coverage orientation.

Renewal of Societal Ideosphere: An Analytical Study of Medieval Philosophical Thought

This article explores the evolution of philosophical ideas and perspectives that have significantly influenced the formation of democratic societies. It examines the genesis and dynamics of these ideas, focusing on how enlightenment and education have contributed to the renewal and advancement of societal ideologies and the acquisition of global knowledge. The analysis includes insights from medieval Eastern thinkers, who addressed the necessity of knowledge development for societal progress. These scholars employed scientific methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparative analysis, and generalization to advance their ideas. The philosophical concepts and teachings, which blend national and universal objectives, are highlighted for their role in promoting democratic development and are recognized as valuable contributions to philosophical heritage. The article underscores the importance of renewing the ideosphere within democratic development and acknowledges the objective laws governing societal progress. It provides a thorough examination of the scientific and philosophical perspectives of prominent thinkers, scholars, and public figures from the Middle Ages who contributed to this renewal. The research reveals that these historical insights are crucial for the intellectual and spiritual development of the younger generation. It argues that such philosophical and intellectual traditions foster a sense of initiative, responsibility, self-sacrifice, and engagement among youth, thereby supporting and advancing national development.

UniDetector: Towards Universal Object Detection with Heterogeneous Supervision.

In this paper, we formally address universal object detection, which aims to detect every category in every scene. The dependence on human annotations, the limited visual information, and the novel categories in open world severely restrict the universality of detectors. We propose UniDetector, a universal object detector that recognizes enormous categories in the open world. The critical points for UniDetector are: 1) it leverages images of multiple sources and heterogeneous label spaces in training through image-text alignment, which guarantees sufficient information for universal representations. 2) it involves heterogeneous supervision training, which alleviates the dependence on the limited fully-labeled images. 3) it generalizes to open world easily while keeping the balance between seen and unseen classes. 4) it further promotes generalizing to novel categories through our proposed decoupling training manner and probability calibration. These contributions allow UniDetector to detect over 7k categories, the largest measurable size so far, with only about 500 classes participating in training. Our UniDetector behaves the strong zero-shot ability on large-vocabulary datasets - it surpasses supervised baselines by more than 5% without seeing any corresponding images. On 13 detection datasets with various scenes, UniDetector also achieves state-of-the-art performance with only a 3% amount of training data.