Simple Shift Research Articles

From “isolation” to “me-time”: linguistic shifts enhance solitary experiences

ABSTRACT Spending time alone is a virtually inevitable part of daily life that can promote or undermine well-being. Here, we explore how the language used to describe time alone – such as “me-time”, “solitude”, or “isolation” – influences how it is perceived and experienced. In Study 1 (N = 500 U.S adults), participants evaluated five common labels for time alone. Descriptive and narrative evidence revealed robust interindividual variability and significant mean differences in how these labels were evaluated. Overall, “me-time” was rated most positively, and “isolation” was rated least positively (but not negatively). In Study 2, we experimentally manipulated the linguistic framing of time alone, describing it as either “me-time” or “isolation”. Participants (N = 176 U.S undergraduates) then spent 30 min physically alone without in-person or digital interaction. Notably, positive affect increased for “me-time” participants but decreased for “isolation” participants. Negative affect decreased in both conditions, but the magnitude of the decrease was greater after “me-time”. People’s beliefs about being alone improved after “me-time” but not after “isolation”. Further, we explored participants’ behaviours and thoughts while alone. These findings demonstrate meaningful variation in how people perceive different time alone labels and provide preliminary evidence that simple linguistic shifts may enhance subjective experiences of time alone.

Hidden zeros for particle/string amplitudes and the unity of colored scalars, pions and gluons

Recent years have seen the emergence of a new understanding of scattering amplitudes in the simplest theory of colored scalar particles — the Tr(ϕ3) theory — based on combinatorial and geometric ideas in the kinematic space of scattering data. In this paper we report a surprise: far from the toy model it appears to be, the “stringy” Tr(ϕ3) amplitudes secretly contains the scattering amplitudes for pions, as well as non-supersymmetric gluons, in any number of dimensions. The amplitudes for the different theories are given by one and the same function, related by a simple shift of the kinematics. This discovery was spurred by another fundamental observation: the tree-level Tr(ϕ3) field theory amplitudes have a hidden pattern of zeros when a special set of non-planar Mandelstam invariants is set to zero. These zeros are not manifest in Feynman diagrams but are made obvious by the connection of these amplitudes to the new understanding of associahedra arising from “causal diamonds” in kinematic space. Furthermore, near these zeros, the amplitudes simplify, by factoring into a non-trivial product of smaller amplitudes. Remarkably the amplitudes for pions and gluons are observed to also vanish in the same kinematical locus. These properties for Tr(ϕ3) amplitudes hold and further generalize to the “stringy” Tr(ϕ3) amplitudes. The “kinematic causal diamond” picture suggests a unique shift of the kinematic data that preserves the zeros, and this shift is precisely the one that unifies colored scalars, pions, and gluons into a single object. We will focus in this paper on explaining the hidden zeros and factorization properties and the connection between all the colored theories, working for simplicity at tree level. Subsequent works will describe this new formulation for the Non-linear Sigma Model and non-supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, at all loop orders.

The Adaptative Modulation of the Phosphinito-Phosphinous Acid Ligand: Computational Illustration Through Palladium-Catalyzed Alcohol Oxidation.

The phosphinito-phosphinous acid ligand (PAP) is a singular bidentate-like self-assembled ligand exhibiting dissymmetric but interchangeable electronic properties. This unusual structure has been used for the generation of active palladium hydride through alcohol oxidation. In this paper, we report the first theoretical highlight of the adaptative modulation ability of this ligand within a direct H-abstraction path for Pd and Pt catalyzed alcohol oxidation. A reaction forces study revealed rearrangements in the ligand self-assembling system triggered by a simple proton shift to promote the metal hydride generation via concerted six-center mechanism. We unveil here the peculiar behavior of the phosphinito-phosphinous acid ligand in this catalysis.

PI gain tuning for pressure-based MFCs with Gaussian mixture model

A vast number of mass flow controllers (MFCs) are used in semiconductor industry. For the stable supply, an efficient production method of MFC is required. The gain tuning of the proportional-integral (PI) control to realize a setting flow rate is essential for efficient mass production. The gains are tuned to meet the specifications required for evaluation indices of response time and overshoot amount in a step response waveform. The tuning is complicated especially for the case of pressure-based MFCs. In this paper, we propose a simple method for the PI gain tuning using the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and the direct inverse analysis applicable to the pressure-based MFCs’ production. The relationship between the gains and evaluation indices for a standard unit of the MFC is modeled as the GMM. The direct inverse analysis calculates the difference between the standard and a test unit. Under the assumption that the difference can be compensated by a simple shift, gains likely to meet the specifications for the test unit are searched. We applied the method to seven test units. The result showed that the gains of all the test units were tuned within only a few iterations whose numbers were much less than the conventional manual tuning method, and there was no untunable unit.

Do people reach 100 by surviving, delaying, or avoiding diseases? A life course comparison of centenarians and non-centenarians from the same birth cohorts.

Centenarians are perceived as pioneers of longevity, possessing the secrets to surpassing age 100. It remains unclear whether they achieve this by surviving, delaying, or avoiding diseases to a greater extent than their shorter-lived peers. This register-based study encompassed all individuals aged 60 and older, born between 1912 and 1922 in Stockholm County, Sweden (N = 170,787). Using historical data, individuals were prospectively followed from 1972 to 2022 and stratified by their age at death. Age-specific incidence rates and remaining lifetime risk from age 60 were calculated for stroke, myocardial infarction, hip fracture, and various cancers (including colorectal, breast, and prostate), and compared between those who survived to age 100 and their shorter-lived counterparts. Centenarians had lower age-specific incidence rates for almost all diseases and ages. Despite longer life spans, their lifetime risks for all diseases except hip fracture were lower than those of non-centenarians. This suggests that centenarians delay, and even avoid, many of the major age-related diseases rather than surviving them to a higher extent. The findings that centenarians not only exhibit lower disease rates at younger ages compared to their shorter-lived peers but throughout their lives challenge the notion that longer life span inevitably leads to higher disease rates or a simple shift of diseases to older ages.

Probing Protein-Ligand Methyl-π Interaction Geometries through Chemical Shift Measurements of Selectively Labeled Methyl Groups.

Fragment-based drug design is heavily dependent on the optimization of initial low-affinity binders. Herein we introduce an approach that uses selective labeling of methyl groups in leucine and isoleucine side chains to directly probe methyl-π contacts, one of the most prominent forms of interaction between proteins and small molecules. Using simple NMR chemical shift perturbation experiments with selected BRD4-BD1 binders, we find good agreement with a commonly used model of the ring-current effect as well as the overall interaction geometries extracted from the Protein Data Bank. By combining both interaction geometries and chemical shift calculations as fit quality criteria, we can position dummy aromatic rings into an AlphaFold model of the protein of interest. The proposed method can therefore provide medicinal chemists with important information about binding geometries of small molecules in fast and iterative matter, even in the absence of high-resolution experimental structures.

Radically concrete or incrementally abstract? The contingent role of abstract and concrete framing in pitching novel ideas

ABSTRACT Entrepreneurs pitching new ideas are hard-pressed to frame their message in the most compelling way to win the attention and support of relevant audiences. But could a simple shift in framing sanction the success or failure of their communication efforts? Drawing on recent scholarship on the recognition of novel ideas and language, we compare the effectiveness of two framing approaches to idea pitching: abstract vs. concrete framing. We suggest that the best framing strategy to rally audience support depends on the novelty of the idea. Two controlled experiments where we investigate the combined impact of an idea’s degree of novelty and the abstractness level (why vs. how) of the framing strategy used to pitch it on the idea’s evaluation by members of a lay audience (e.g. crowdfunders, students, or other non-professional evaluators) confirm our intuition. The findings indicate that radical ideas are significantly more likely to elicit favourable evaluation from lay audience members when those ideas are framed in concrete ‘How’ terms; whereas incremental ideas fare better when framed in abstract ‘Why’ terms. By focusing on the framing strategies that entrepreneurs can use to communicate their new ideas, our study contributes to the growing research on the role of language in shaping the recognition of novelty. More generally, it provides entrepreneurs with actionable insights that they can leverage to attract attention and support from a general (lay) audience.

A general method for the estimation of moments of substitution number in molecular evolution

The random variable ‘substitution number’ N t , i.e.the number of mutations that have accumulated in a sequence under neutral evolution during a time t, is a cornerstone of the field of molecular evolution. We show here that a complete solution of the moments of this random variable can be obtained explicitly by recurrence, using a simple matrix shift method. This result leads to simple expressions for both the short and long time limits of the moments that can be computed directly from the substitution matrix used to model the neutral evolution. The method developed here is also used to compute the moments of the complementary variable, T n , the time it takes to accumulate n mutations. The method we develop here necessitates only elementary operations on the substitution matrix and does not involve spectral decomposition.

Isotope effect on the anomalies of water: A corresponding states analysis.

Light and heavy water show similar anomalies in thermodynamic and dynamic properties, with a consistent trend of anomalies occurring at higher temperatures in heavy water. Viscosity also increases faster upon cooling in heavy water, causing a giant isotope effect, with a viscosity ratio near 2.4 at 244K. While a simple temperature shift apparently helps in collapsing experimental data for both isotopes, it lacks a clear justification, changes value with the property considered, and requires additional ad hoc scaling factors. Here, we use a corresponding states analysis based on the possible existence of a liquid-liquid critical point in supercooled water. This provides a coherent framework that leads to the collapse of thermodynamic data. The ratio between the dynamic properties of the isotopes is strongly reduced. In particular, the decoupling between viscosity η and self-diffusion D, measured as a function of temperature T by the Stokes-Einstein ratio Dη/T, is found to collapse after applying the corresponding states analysis. Our results are consistent with simulations and suggest that the various isotope effects mirror the one on the liquid-liquid transition.

Estimation of Spectral Solar Irradiance in the Ecliptic Plane Using Synthetic Solar Surface Magnetograms

AbstractThe primary external energy input to planetary atmospheres comes from solar radiation. Accurate estimates of solar irradiance are needed in order to understand atmospheric conditions at other planets. Many studies have interpolated Earth‐based irradiance measurements at other planets, disregarding the evolution of solar features, which are responsible for the irradiance variability. We present an approach for assessing solar irradiance at other planets by using synthetic full surface magnetograms of the Sun, generated by the Surface Flux Transport Model, and then converted into sunspots and faculae areas. Following the Spectral And Total Irradiance REconstruction approach, we compute the irradiance as the sum of contributions from sunspots, faculae, and the quiet Sun. We calculate the S‐index, which is a proxy for near‐ultraviolet irradiance, and the total solar irradiance (TSI), which is the wavelength‐integrated value. We demonstrate that a simple phase shift of the Earth‐observed TSI does not produce reliable estimates in the ecliptic. By comparing and correlating our results with the interpolated measurements, we find that the two models agree in the S‐index variability, because faculae have a long lifetime, so the effect of the solar rotation becomes less important. Conversely, the methods disagree strongly in the TSI, since sunspots have a short lifetime, and the interpolation does not take into account their emergence and evolution on the far‐side of the Sun, as it only uses the information of the disc visible for an Earth‐bound observer.

Electromagnetic lensing using the Aharonov–Bohm effect

We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally an electromagnetic lensing concept using the magnetic vector potential—in a region free of classical electromagnetic fields—via the Aharonov–Bohm (AB) effect. This toroid-shaped lens with poloidal current flow allows for electromagnetic lensing which can be tuned to be convex or concave with a spherical aberration coefficient of opposite polarity to its focal length. This field-free lens combines the advantages of traditional electromagnetic and electrostatic field-based lenses and opens up additional possibilities for the optical design of charged-particle systems. More generally, these results demonstrate that the AB effect can shape charged particle wavefronts beyond simple step shifts if topologies beyond simple flux lines are considered and further supports the physical significance of the magnetic vector potential.

Language as an important means of information encoding

The purpose of the article is to study the significance of language as a means of encoding information, to prove its influence on the process of storing and transferring information. The research methodology consists in the application of various approaches: analytical – to study the literature on the topic of the article, systematic – to study the language as a means of coding information using general scientific methods, first of all systematisation and generalisation, as well as a comparative historical method. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the paper shows the importance of language as a necessary means of encoding information. Since ancient times, language has been a necessary means of communication in society. It did not have such clearly defined forms, was inarticulate, did not have specific rules and was not standardised, but with the development of society, language becomes more normalised. This played a very important role in the existence of mankind, because with the help of language, our ancestors managed to pass on a huge amount of experience, customs, traditions, cultural heritage and certain norms to their descendants, and today we already consider the concept of language as a tool for encoding the necessary information in various systems. And from this, accordingly, there arises a need to study language as a means of encoding information. Conclusions. Due to the need to encode information, a variety of techniques began to appear to solve this problem. Of course, methods of encoding information with the development of mankind have changed from a simple shift of the alphabet to the emergence of modern digital systems. And as a result, the emergence of the programming language as a special subtype of the artificial language is a consequence of the development of computing technology. This is how special font complexes began to appear to designate characters in electronic computer technology and systems built into it

An RNA thermometer in the chloroplast genome of Chlamydomonas facilitates temperature-controlled gene expression.

Riboregulators such as riboswitches and RNA thermometers provide simple, protein-independent tools to control gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. In bacteria, RNA thermometers regulate protein synthesis in response to temperature shifts. Thermometers outside of the bacterial world are rare, and in organellar genomes, no RNA thermometers have been identified to date. Here we report the discovery of an RNA thermometer in a chloroplast gene of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The thermometer, residing in the 5' untranslated region of the psaA messenger RNA forms a hairpin-type secondary structure that masks the Shine-Dalgarno sequence at 25°C. At 40°C, melting of the secondary structure increases accessibility of the Shine-Dalgarno sequence to initiating ribosomes, thus enhancing protein synthesis. By targeted nucleotide substitutions and transfer of the thermometer into Escherichia coli, we show that the secondary structure is necessary and sufficient to confer the thermometer properties. We also demonstrate that the thermometer provides a valuable tool for inducible transgene expression from the Chlamydomonas plastid genome, in that a simple temperature shift of the algal culture can greatly increase recombinant protein yields.

Web Mapping for Farm Management Information Systems: A Review and Australian Orchard Case Study

A web mapping XYZ Tile Layer Service, such as Google Earth (GE), provides an amazing resource for the visualization of spatial data against aerial and satellite imagery with global coverage, typically at a resolution finer than 5 m. However, the increasing requirement on spatial accuracy in farm information requires a greater appreciation of the issues involved in the use of such services. Position errors can be created in the georeferencing and orthorectification of images, transformation between reference frames (datums) in map projection, e.g., using a spheroid as compared to an ellipsoid earth model, and tectonic shifts. A review is provided of these issues, and a case study is provided of the horizontal positional accuracy of web map imagery for Australian mango orchards. Positional accuracies varied from 1.804 to 6.131 m across four farms using GE 2021 imagery, between 1.556 and 3.365 m in one farm for the most recent imagery available from each of four web map providers, and from 0.806 m (in 2016) to 10.634 m (in 2003) in one farm for the period of 2003 and 2021 using the historical GE imagery resource. A procedure involving the estimation of four transformation parameters was demonstrated for the alignment of GNSS data with GE imagery. However, as the scale factor was unity and the rotational value was near zero, the use of a simple horizontal mean shift vector was recommended. Further recommendations are provided on (i) the use of web mapping services, with a comparison of the use of UAV survey imagery, and (ii) the need for metadata, particularly the date of collection, on collected position data, in the context of use in farm management information systems.

Prediction model of type and band gap for photocatalytic g-GaN-based van der Waals heterojunction of density functional theory and machine learning techniques

Applying suitable two-dimensional (2D) heterojunctions to photocatalytic water cracking reaction can obtain excellent catalytic performance. However, due to many candidate materials and complex interface effects, finding suitable heterojunctions combinations has become a challenge for the above applications. Based on about 1000 pieces of material data in the computational 2D material database, we adopted a simple energy band shift hypothesis to creatively build a machine learning prediction model of g-GaN based 2D Van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures’ type with good performance, and carried out a first-principle calculation to verify the hypothesis. The results show that the band shift hypothesis is valid for the g-GaN based vdW heterojunctions combination without the participation of elements locatedin thefirsttransitional period and this classification model with the area under curve (AUC) value of 0.93. In addition, we further built a regression prediction model for the band gap value of type Ⅱ g-GaN based vdW heterojunctions in line with the band edge position of photocatalytic water-splitting reaction, with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.24 eV. This work establishes a machine learning screening process for g-GaN based vdW heterojunction applied in the field of photocatalysis, which greatly improves the research efficiency.

Accuracy and Trending Ability of Finger Plethysmographic Cardiac Output Monitoring in Late Pregnancy

(Can J Anesth 2022;69:1340–1348) Hemodynamic variation is a well-known part of pregnancy, particularly variation in cardiac output (CO). CO reduction in the third trimester is prominent when a patient is in the supine position and the weight of the pregnancy results in compression of the inferior vena cava (IVC). This is often corrected by a simple shift in position to the left lateral decubitus (LLD). Decreases in CO can have severe consequences for mother and child, particularly in circumstances of postpartum hemorrhage. Therefore, accurate and consistent CO monitoring is important to ensuring the best outcomes for delivery.

Synergistic effect of pH-shift and controlled heating on improving foaming properties of pea vicilin and its adsorption behavior at the air-water interface

In this study, the impact of pH-shift (PV-pH), controlled heating (PV–H), high intensity ultrasound (PV–U), and their combinations (PV-pH-H, PV-pH-U, PV-H-U) on the structural, foaming, and surface behavior at the air-water interface of the modified pea vicilin (PV) protein fraction were comprehensively evaluated. Results showed that the foaming capacity (FC) of samples treated by either PV-pH or PV-H was significantly increased (105.26%, 105.64%) as compared to the control (73.53%). This synergistic effect was observed with the combination of pH-shift and controlled heating (PV-pH-H), which drastically improved the FC of the modified PV (153.97%). Interestingly, ultrasound treatment exhibited the least effect on the FC of PV, no matter whether it was applied individually or combined with other treatments. The improved FC of PV was mainly attributed to newly formed soluble aggregates, the transition of β-sheet to α-helix, and increased surface hydrophobicity (H0), allowing PV to exist in a more flexible structure. The dynamic adsorption behaviors of the modified PV at the air-water interface indicated that its improvement in FC was also associated with the high surface pressure with short lag time. In addition, the modified PVs formed a strong elastic interfacial film through densely packed protein molecule as evidenced by E-π slop (>1). This study demonstrated that a simple pH shift combined with controlled heating technique could be applied to improve the foaming properties of PV.

Reconfigurable linear feedback shift register for wireless communication and coding

<p>Linear feedback shift register (LFSR) is the basic building block of the communication system used in different coding, error detection and correction codes, such as gold, low-density parity check (LDPC), polar, and turbo codes. There are simple shift register-based n-bit counters with a few XOR gates that behave pseudo-randomly. The LFSR is used in chip hardware for high-speed operations, error control, and the generation of pseudo-random numbers. The hardware chip design and performance estimation of the LFSR is the problem for specific communication system. The motivation of the work is to generate the Gold code sequence by the integration of two LFSR. The article proposes the hardware chip design and simulation of two 5-bit LFSR modules used for the gold sequence generator applicable for the communication systems. The novelty of the work is that the design is scalable and can be extended based on the requirements of the systems which is synthesized and experimentally verified on the Zynq-7000 field programmable gate array (FPGA) board. The concept of this design is programmable and can be extended to n-bit based on the applications. The work is supported, and formulated using very high speed integrated circuit hardware description language (VHDL) programming in Xilinx ISE 14.7 software.</p>

СРАВНИТЕЛЬНАЯ ОЦЕНКА МЕТОДОВ УСРЕДНЕНИЙ ДЛЯ ФИЛЬТРАЦИИ ИЗМЕРИТЕЛЬНЫХ СИГНАЛОВ

To improve the quality of manufactured products, it is necessary to improve all technologicalprocesses, which requires increasing the accuracy of the entire measuring path as a whole.For this it is necessary to carefully analyze systematic, random and fluctuating errors in the measurementchannel and take all measures to reduce them. Digital filtering or averaging of intermediatemeasurements (observations) according to certain rules is a radical means of improving theaccuracy of measurements performed. The aim of this work is to compare the quality of suppressionof near-real noise interference using the eight most well-known averaging methods. A model of the measurement path and a general block diagram for modeling the measurement process on acomputer under the influence of random interference are proposed for eight averaging algorithms.As a criterion for evaluating the quality of averaging methods, the ratios of absolute error variancesand mean square deviations before the computing device and after applying the specified averagingalgorithm are taken. Based on the simulation results, the following conclusions are made. 1. All averagingalgorithms provide suppression of random error components of complex interference to thelevel of 40–60 dB. Three algorithms are the best: arithmetic mean AR, a-truncated mean AU5 and atenderizedmean AB5, which provide for the suppression of 5 % of anomalous results. With an increasein the number of observations, the suppression coefficients increase proportionally. 2. Thesampling time must be a multiple of the duration of the 50 Hz AC mains period (20 ms). The optimalnumber of observations (measurements) is 100–128; with 128 measurements, the division operationis reduced to a simple shift, and the averaging result can be obtained in 1–2 μs. 3. When experimentallyapplying the AR averaging method for filtering a highly noisy measurement signal in a communicationline with a length of 800 m, a decrease in the spread of ADC output codes was observedfrom ± 3.5 % to ± 0.1 % after filtering (AR, 64 measurements in 40 ms).

Localization in a plastically anisotropic void-sheet

Pre-existing voids distributed as a single, but inclined layer are used to represent material defects leading to void growth and strain localization in a sheet. Small elastic but finite plastic strain deformations are accounted for in an elastic-plastically anisotropic material hardening three-dimensional finite element framework. Localization is here defined as the stage of deformation, where the straining in the layer relative to the overall prescribed straining grows to infinity, i.e 104 or higher. Three different materials are consider using the classical Hill-48 anisotropic yield surface (Hill, 1948). As a reference case, one of them is the isotropic Mises case, whereas the other two are anisotropic cases. Yield surfaces and Lankfords coefficients are provided for all three materials. For each material two different void volume fractions and several different loading triaxialities as well as void band inclinations are presented and compared. The strain for localization is given and corresponding deformed void band orientations are discussed. Qualitatively, the responses of the two anisotropic sheets are similar to that of the isotropic Mises case: A minimum in strain at a distinct initial void-band orientation can be identified. Except for one case, all cases studied here result in a simple shift of the critical strain level at localization. However, under uniaxial plane strain tension the isotropic and anisotropic sheet localizes at almost the same value of straining.