Publications by authors named "Donovan Cheng"

Confined geometries are used to increase measurement sensitivity to thermal boundary resistance at buried SiO interfaces with frequency-domain thermoreflectance (FDTR). We show that radial confinement of the transducer film and additional underlying material layers prevents heat from spreading and increases the thermal penetration depth of the thermal wave. Parametric analyses are performed with finite element methods and used to examine the extent to which the thermal penetration depth increases as a function of a material's effective thermal resistance and the degree of material confinement relative to the pump beam diameter.

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  • The study aims to assess the impact of transanal total mesorectal excision (taTME) on fecal incontinence and various functional outcomes (defecatory, urinary, and sexual) in patients with rectal cancer.
  • It was found that while initial outcomes post-surgery showed a decline in fecal continence and defecatory function, patient outcomes improved significantly by 12 months after ileostomy closure, though they did not fully recover to preoperative levels.
  • Urinary function remained stable throughout the study, but both female and male sexual functions declined without signs of recovery in the follow-up period.
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  • * This experiment produced 2.05 MJ of laser energy, resulting in 3.1 MJ of total fusion yield, which exceeds the Lawson criterion for ignition, demonstrating a key milestone in fusion research.
  • * The report details the advancements in target design, laser technology, and experimental methods that contributed to this historic achievement, validating over five decades of research in laboratory fusion.
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  • More women are facing a serious pregnancy issue called placenta accreta spectrum, where the placenta sticks too closely to the uterus, leading to health risks for moms.
  • To help treat this issue effectively, hospitals need a team of different medical experts, like surgeons, doctors who specialize in babies, and mental health professionals.
  • The article aims to create a plan to ensure these teams are prepared with the right tools and guidelines to care for these patients before, during, and after childbirth.
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Background: Heart failure is an ever-growing contributor to morbidity and mortality in the ageing population. Medication adherence rates among the HF population vary widely in the literature, with a reported range of 10-98%. Technologies have been developed to improve adherence to therapies and other clinical outcomes.

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From 2016-2019, dry bulb onions were the suspected cause of three multistate outbreaks in the United States. We investigated a large multistate outbreak of Newport infections that caused illnesses in both the United States and Canada in 2020. Epidemiologic, laboratory and traceback investigations were conducted to determine the source of the infections, and data were shared among U.

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  • * In inertially confined fusion, ignition allows the fusion process to spread into surrounding fuel, potentially leading to higher energy output.
  • * Recent experiments at the National Ignition Facility achieved capsule gains of 5.8 and approached ignition, even though "scientific breakeven" has not yet been fully realized.
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  • The study investigates compact binary coalescences with at least one component mass between 0.2 and 1.0 solar masses using data from Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors over six months in 2019, but they found no significant gravitational wave candidates.
  • The analysis leads to an upper limit on the merger rate of subsolar binaries ranging from 220 to 24,200 Gpc⁻³ yr⁻¹, based on the detected signals’ false alarm rate.
  • The researchers use these limits to set new constraints on two models for subsolar-mass compact objects: primordial black holes (suggesting they make up less than 6% of dark matter) and
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This study aimed to assess pesticide exposure and its determinants in children aged 5-14 years. Urine samples (n = 953) were collected from 501 participating children living in urban areas (participant n = 300), rural areas but not on a farm (n = 76), and living on a farm (n = 125). The majority provided two samples, one in the high and one in the low spraying season.

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Background: Epigenetic clocks have been associated with cancer risk in several observational studies. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether they play a causal role in cancer risk or if they act as a non-causal biomarker.

Methods: We conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study to examine the genetically predicted effects of epigenetic age acceleration as measured by HannumAge (nine single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)), Horvath Intrinsic Age (24 SNPs), PhenoAge (11 SNPs), and GrimAge (4 SNPs) on multiple cancers (i.

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Purpose: To develop deep learning models to perform automated diagnosis and quantitative classification of age-related cataract from anterior segment photographs.

Design: DeepLensNet was trained by applying deep learning models to the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) dataset.

Participants: A total of 18 999 photographs (6333 triplets) from longitudinal follow-up of 1137 eyes (576 AREDS participants).

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We search for gravitational-wave signals produced by cosmic strings in the Advanced LIGO and Virgo full O3 dataset. Search results are presented for gravitational waves produced by cosmic string loop features such as cusps, kinks, and, for the first time, kink-kink collisions. A template-based search for short-duration transient signals does not yield a detection.

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We present our current best estimate of the plausible observing scenarios for the Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA gravitational-wave detectors over the next several years, with the intention of providing information to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We estimate the sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals for the third (O3), fourth (O4) and fifth observing (O5) runs, including the planned upgrades of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. We study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source for gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary systems of compact objects, that is binary neutron star, neutron star-black hole, and binary black hole systems.

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  • On May 21, 2019, Advanced LIGO and Virgo detected a significant gravitational-wave signal known as GW190521, indicating a high probability event with a low chance of false alarms.
  • The signal suggests it resulted from the merger of two black holes, one around 85 solar masses and the other about 66 solar masses, with the primary black hole likely being an intermediate mass black hole.
  • The source of the merger is estimated to be about 5.3 billion light-years away, and the rate of similar black hole mergers is estimated to be about 0.13 mergers per billion cubic parsecs per year.
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  • The study investigates the existence of subsolar mass ultracompact objects by analyzing data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run and includes the impact of spin on gravitational waves.
  • No suitable gravitational-wave candidates were found for binaries with at least one component between 0.2 and 1.0 solar masses, leading to significant constraints on their binary merger rates.
  • The findings suggest that such ultracompact objects likely do not form through conventional stellar evolution, and they outline how these constraints on merger rates can be applied to different black hole population models that predict subsolar mass binaries.
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The recent discovery by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo of a gravitational wave signal from a binary neutron star inspiral has enabled tests of general relativity (GR) with this new type of source. This source, for the first time, permits tests of strong-field dynamics of compact binaries in the presence of matter. In this Letter, we place constraints on the dipole radiation and possible deviations from GR in the post-Newtonian coefficients that govern the inspiral regime.

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We analyze the impact of a proposed tidal instability coupling p modes and g modes within neutron stars on GW170817. This nonresonant instability transfers energy from the orbit of the binary to internal modes of the stars, accelerating the gravitational-wave driven inspiral. We model the impact of this instability on the phasing of the gravitational wave signal using three parameters per star: an overall amplitude, a saturation frequency, and a spectral index.

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We present the first Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo search for ultracompact binary systems with component masses between 0.2  M_{⊙}-1.0  M_{⊙} using data taken between September 12, 2015 and January 19, 2016.

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On 17 August 2017, the LIGO and Virgo observatories made the first direct detection of gravitational waves from the coalescence of a neutron star binary system. The detection of this gravitational-wave signal, GW170817, offers a novel opportunity to directly probe the properties of matter at the extreme conditions found in the interior of these stars. The initial, minimal-assumption analysis of the LIGO and Virgo data placed constraints on the tidal effects of the coalescing bodies, which were then translated to constraints on neutron star radii.

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The detection of gravitational waves with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo has enabled novel tests of general relativity, including direct study of the polarization of gravitational waves. While general relativity allows for only two tensor gravitational-wave polarizations, general metric theories can additionally predict two vector and two scalar polarizations. The polarization of gravitational waves is encoded in the spectral shape of the stochastic gravitational-wave background, formed by the superposition of cosmological and individually unresolved astrophysical sources.

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We present possible observing scenarios for the Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA gravitational-wave detectors over the next decade, with the intention of providing information to the astronomy community to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We estimate the sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals, and study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source. We report our findings for gravitational-wave transients, with particular focus on gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary neutron star systems, which are the most promising targets for multi-messenger astronomy.

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The LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations have announced the event GW170817, the first detection of gravitational waves from the coalescence of two neutron stars. The merger rate of binary neutron stars estimated from this event suggests that distant, unresolvable binary neutron stars create a significant astrophysical stochastic gravitational-wave background. The binary neutron star component will add to the contribution from binary black holes, increasing the amplitude of the total astrophysical background relative to previous expectations.

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  • * The analysis focused on detecting continuous signals from pulsars and did not depend on any specific gravity theory.
  • * After examining data from advanced LIGO, we found no signs of these gravitational waves, but established upper limits for scalar and vector strains that are similar to existing limits for tensor strain.
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On August 17, 2017 at 12∶41:04 UTC the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors made their first observation of a binary neutron star inspiral. The signal, GW170817, was detected with a combined signal-to-noise ratio of 32.4 and a false-alarm-rate estimate of less than one per 8.

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