Search

We have started a measurement campaign of numerous methanol isotopologs in low-lying torsional states in order to provide extensive line lists for radio astronomical observations from an adequate spectroscopic model and to investigate how the intricate vibration-torsion-rotation interactions manifest themselves in the spectra of different isotopic species. After CD$_3$OH and CD$_3$OD, we turn our focus to CH$_3$OD, which is an important species for studying deuteration in prestellar cores and envelopes that enshroud protostars. Notably, deuteration is frequently viewed as a diagnostic tool for star formation. The measurements used in this study were obtained in two spectroscopic laboratories and cover large fractions of the 34 GHz--1.35 THz range. As done in previous studies, we employed a torsion-rotation Hamiltonian model for our analysis that is based on the rho-axis method. The resulting model describes the ground and first excited torsional states of CH$_3$OD well up to quantum numbers $J \leqslant 51$ and $K_a \leqslant 18$. We derived a line list for radio astronomical observations from this model that is accurate up to at least 1.35~THz and should be sufficient for all types of radio astronomical searches for this methanol isotopolog in these two lowest torsional states. This line list was applied to a reinvestigation of CH$_3$OD in data from the Protostellar Interferometric Line Survey of IRAS 16293--2422 obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The new accurately determined value for the column density of CH$_3$OD implies that the deuteration in methanol differs in its two functional groups by a factor of $\sim$7.5., Comment: 12 pages including figures, tables, references and appendix. Astron. Astrophys., in press

We analyze the possibilities of detecting a signal in the hydrogen 21~cm line, which was formed in the early Universe during the the Dark Ages cosmological epoch, using the Ukrainian radio telescopes UTR-2 and GURT of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. As a result of cosmological expansion, this line is shifted to the decameter range of wavelengths ($\lambda_{obs}\approx18$ m, $\nu_{obs}\approx16$ MHz) and is in the band of operational frequencies of these telescopes. The brightness temperature of the predicted sky-averaged global signal ranges from $\sim-0.08$ to $\sim0.02$ K, depending on the cosmological model. Such a faint signal is a challenge even for the world's largest radio telescope in the decameter wavelength range, UTR-2, since the signal level of the foreground synchrotron radiation of the Galaxy at these wavelengths is 20000--40000~K. The paper highlights the peculiarities of spectroscopy at the decameter waves, interfering factors of natural and instrumental origin and the ways of eliminating them in order to reliably detect the signal in the 21~cm line, which can become an important source of information both about the environment in which the first stars and galaxies were born, and about the nature of dark matter particles and the magnitude of primordial magnetic fields. It was concluded that the detection of such a signal using the most sensitive radio telescopes at the decameter wavelength range is possible (with the signal integration over the frequency band of 25~MHz), the detection time will be $\sim50$~days) and can be implemented in the coming years of peace in Ukraine., Comment: 19 pages, 16 figures; v1 - Ukrainian text, v2 - English text

Interstellar scattering (ISS) of radio pulsar emission can be used as a probe of the ionised interstellar medium (IISM) and causes corruptions in pulsar timing experiments. Two types of ISS phenomena (intensity scintillation and pulse broadening) are caused by electron density fluctuations on small scales (< 0.01 AU). Theory predicts that these are related, and both have been widely employed to study the properties of the IISM. Larger scales ($\sim$1-100\,AU) cause measurable changes in dispersion and these can be correlated with ISS observations to estimate the fluctuation spectrum over a very wide scale range. IISM measurements can often be modeled by a homogeneous power-law spatial spectrum of electron density with the Kolmogorov ($-11/3$) spectral exponent. Here we aim to test the validity of using the Kolmogorov exponent with PSR~J0826+2637. We do so using observations of intensity scintillation, pulse broadening and dispersion variations across a wide fractional bandwidth (20 -- 180\,MHz). We present that the frequency dependence of the intensity scintillation in the high frequency band matches the expectations of a Kolmogorov spectral exponent but the pulse broadening in the low frequency band does not change as rapidly as predicted with this assumption. We show that this behavior is due to an inhomogeneity in the scattering region, specifically that the scattering is dominated by a region of transverse size $\sim$40\,AU. The power spectrum of the electron density, however, maintains the Kolmogorov spectral exponent from spatial scales of 5$\times10^{-6}$\,AU to $\sim$100\,AU., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, typo fixed

The size and complexity of deep neural networks continue to grow exponentially, significantly increasing energy consumption for training and inference by these models. We introduce an open-source package eco2AI to help data scientists and researchers to track energy consumption and equivalent CO2 emissions of their models in a straightforward way. In eco2AI we put emphasis on accuracy of energy consumption tracking and correct regional CO2 emissions accounting. We encourage research community to search for new optimal Artificial Intelligence (AI) architectures with a lower computational cost. The motivation also comes from the concept of AI-based green house gases sequestrating cycle with both Sustainable AI and Green AI pathways., Comment: Source code for eco2AI package (energy consumption and carbon emission tracker of code in python) is available at: https://github.com/sb-ai-lab/Eco2AI , the package is also available at PyPi: https://pypi.org/project/eco2ai/

Our paper presents the results of the second census of pulsars in decametre wave range at UTR-2 radio telescope. Over the past ten years, the number of discovered nearby pulsars in the world has doubled, which has made it urgent to search for a low-frequency radio emission from newly discovered sources. To increase this census sensitivity, the integration time was doubled compared with the first census of 2010-2013. As a result, the decametre radio emission of 20 pulsars was detected, their flux densities and the shape of pulses were obtained. The dispersion measure for 10 pulsars and the rotation period for 8 pulsars were refined. For several pulsars the scattering time constant and FWHM were estimated in decametre wave range. Upper limits of flux densities of 102 not yet detected pulsars were also estimated., Comment: 10 pages, 25 figures, 3 tables. This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society" following peer review. The version of record [DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stab3369] is available online at: (will be inserted upon publication here)

PSR B0950+08 is a bright non-recycled pulsar whose single-pulse fluence variability is reportedly large. Based on observations at two widely separated frequencies, 55 MHz (NenuFAR) and 1.4 GHz (Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope), we review the properties of these single pulses. We conclude that they are more similar to ordinary pulses of radio emission than to a special kind of short and bright Giant Pulses, observed from only a handful of pulsars. We argue that temporal variation of properties of interstellar medium along the line of sight to this nearby pulsar, namely the fluctuating size of decorrelation bandwidth of diffractive scintillation makes important contribution to observed single-pulse fluence variability. We further present interesting structures in the low-frequency single-pulse spectra that resemble the "sad trombones" seen in Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs); although for PSR B0950+08 the upward frequency drift is also routinely present. We explain these spectral features with radius-to-frequency mapping, similar to the model developed by Wang et al. (2019) for FRBs. Finally, we speculate that microsecond-scale fluence variability of the general pulsar population remains poorly known, and that its further study may bring important clues about the nature of FRBs., Comment: Accepted by A&A. This version includes a number of minor corrections, including corrected FRB luminosities on the time-luminosity phase-space plot for radio pulses from neutron stars and repeating FRBs

The dramatic increase in sensitivity, spectral coverage and resolution of radio astronomical facilities in recent years has opened new possibilities for observation of chemical differentiation and isotopic fractionation in protostellar sources to shed light on their spatial and temporal evolution. In warm interstellar environments, methanol is an abundant species, hence spectral data for its isotopic forms are of special interest. In the present work, the millimeter-wave spectrum of the $^{13}$CH$_3$OD isotopologue has been investigated over the region from 150$-$510 GHz to provide a set of transition frequencies for potential astronomical application. The focus is on two types of prominent $^{13}$CH$_3$OD spectral groupings, namely the $a$-type $^qR$-branch multiplets and the $b$-type $Q$-branches. Line positions are reported for the $^qR(J)$ clusters for $J = 3$ to 10 for the $v_{\rm t} = 0$ and 1 torsional states, and for a number of $v_{\rm t} = 0$ and 1 $^rQ(J)$ or $^pQ(J)$ line series up to $J = 25$. The frequencies have been fitted to a multi-parameter torsion-rotation Hamiltonian, and upper level excitation energies have been calculated from the resulting molecular constants., Comment: 25 pages, 8 pages text and references

Methyl mercaptan (CH3SH) is a known interstellar molecule with abundances high enough that the detection of some of its minor isotopologues is promising. The present study aims at providing accurate spectroscopic parameters for the (13)CH3SH isotopologue to facilitate its identification in the interstellar medium at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths. Through careful analysis of recent CH3SH spectra from 49-510 GHz and 1.1-1.5 THz recorded at natural isotopic composition, extensive assignments were possible not only for the ground torsional state of (13)CH3SH, but also in the first and second excited states. The torsion-rotation spectrum displays complex structure due to the large-amplitude internal rotation of the (13)CH3 group, similar to the main and other minor isotopic species of methyl mercaptan. The assigned transition frequencies have been fitted to within experimental error with a 52-parameter model employing the RAM36 programme. With predictions based on this fit, (13)CH3SH was searched for in spectra from the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) towards the Galactic centre source Sgr B2(N2). Several transitions were expected to be observable, but all of them turned out to be severely blended with emission from other species, which prevents us from identifying (13)CH3SH in this source., Comment: 20 pages (with figures and tables); Can. J. Phys. (https://www.nrcresearchpress.com/journal/cjp), accepted

We present a new global study of the millimeter (mm) wave, submillimeter (sub-mm) wave, and terahertz (THz) spectra of the lowest three torsional states of methyl mercaptan (CH$_3$SH). New measurements have been carried out between 50 and 510 GHz using the Kharkiv mm wave and the Cologne sub-mm wave spectrometers whereas THz spectra records were used from our previous study. The new data, involving torsion-rotation transitions with $J$ up to 61 and $K_a$ up to 18, were combined with previously published measurements and fit using the rho-axis-method torsion-rotation Hamiltonian. The final fit used 124 parameters to give an overall weighted root-mean-square deviation of 0.72 for the dataset consisting of 6965 microwave (MW) and 16345 far-infrared line frequencies sampling transitions within and between the ground, first, and second excited torsional states. This investigation presents a two-fold expansion in the $J$ quantum numbers and a significant improvement in the fit quality, especially for the MW part of the data, thus allowing us to provide more reliable predictions to support astronomical observations., Comment: 12 pages; Astron. Astrophys., in press

Lightning was detected by Voyager 2 at Uranus and Neptune, and weaker electrical processes also occur throughout planetary atmospheres from galactic cosmic ray (GCR) ionisation. Lightning is an indicator of convection, whereas electrical processes away from storms modulate cloud formation and chemistry, particularly if there is little insolation to drive other mechanisms. The ice giants appear to be unique in the Solar System in that they are distant enough from the Sun for GCR-related mechanisms to be significant for clouds and climate, yet also convective enough for lightning to occur. This paper reviews observations (both from Voyager 2 and Earth), data analysis and modelling, and considers options for future missions. Radio, energetic particle and magnetic instruments are recommended for future orbiters, and Huygens-like atmospheric electricity sensors for in situ observations. Uranian lightning is also expected to be detectable from terrestrial radio telescopes., Comment: Revised version for Space Science Reviews

Methyl mercaptan (CH$_3$SH) is an important sulfur-bearing species in the interstellar medium, terrestrial environment, and potentially in planetary atmospheres. The aim of the present study is to provide accurate spectroscopic parameters for the most abundant minor isotopolog CH$_3$$^{34}$SH to support radio astronomical observations at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The rotational spectrum of CH$_3$$^{34}$SH, which is complicated by the large-amplitude internal rotation of the CH$_3$ group versus the $^{34}$SH frame, was investigated in the 49$-$510 GHz and 1.1$-$1.5 THz frequency ranges in natural isotopic abundance. The analysis of the spectrum was performed up to the second excited torsional state, and the obtained data were modeled with the RAM36 program. A fit within experimental accuracy was obtained with a RAM Hamiltonian model that uses 72 parameters. Predictions based on this fit are used to search for CH$_3$$^{34}$SH with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) toward the hot molecular core Sgr B2(N2), but blends with emission lines of other species prevent its firm identification in this source., Comment: 8 pages, Astron. Astrophys., in press

Cyanamide is one of the few interstellar molecules containing two chemically different N atoms. It was detected recently toward the solar-type protostar IRAS 16293-2422 B together with H$_2$N$^{13}$CN and HDNCN in the course of the Atacama Large Millemeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Protostellar Interferometric Line Survey (PILS). The detection of the 15N isotopomers or the determination of upper limits to their column densities was hampered by the lack of accurate laboratory data at the frequencies of the survey. We wanted to determine spectroscopic parameters of the $^{15}$N isotopomers of cyanamide that are accurate enough for predictions well into the submillimeter region and to search for them in the PILS data. We investigated the laboratory rotational spectra of H$_2^{15}$NCN and H$_2$NC$^{15}$N in the selected region between 192 and 507~GHz employing a cyanamide sample in natural isotopic composition. Additionally, we recorded transitions of H$_2$N$^{13}$CN. We obtained new or improved spectroscopic parameters for the three isotopic species. Neither of the $^{15}$N isotopomers of cyanamide were detected unambiguously in the PILS data. Two relatively clean lines can be tentatively assigned to H$_2^{15}$NCN. If confirmed, their column densities would imply a low $^{14}$N/$^{15}$N ratio for cyanamide toward this source. The resulting line lists should be accurate enough for observations up to about 1 THz. More sensitive observations, potentially at different frequencies, may eventually lead to the astronomical detection of these isotopic species., Comment: Astron. Astrophys., 8 pages; paper appeared; CDMS links corrected

Earth-based observations are complicated by the opacity of Earth's ionosphere at very low frequencies and strong man-made radio frequency interference. This explains long standing interest in building a low frequency radio telescope on the farside of the Moon. Experience from ground-based observations near the ionospheric cutoff in dealing with the interference, ionosphere, and wide-field imaging/dynamic range problems provides crucial information for future radioastronomic experiments on the Moon. In this purpose we observed non-intensive solar bursts on the example of solar drift pairs (DP) at decameter-meter wavelengths with large and small arrays as well as by a single crossed active dipole. We used the large Ukrainian radio telescope UTR-2, the URAN-2 array, a subarray of the Giant Ukrainian radio telescope (GURT) and a single crossed active dipole to get the spectral properties of radio bursts at the frequency range of 8-80 MHz during solar observations on July 12, 2017. Statistical analysis of upper and lower frequencies, at which DPs are recorded, shows that the occurrence of forward DPs is more preferable at lower frequencies of the decameter range of observations in comparison with reverse DPs generated more likely at meter wavelengths. We conclude that DPs can be detected not only by antenna arrays, but even by a single crossed active dipole. Thus the latter antenna has a good potential for future low-frequency radio telescopes on the Moon., Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, 1 table

Methyl mercaptan (also known as methanethiol), CH3SH, has been found in the warm and dense parts of high -- as well as low -- mass star-forming regions. The aim of the present study is to obtain accurate spectroscopic parameters of the S-deuterated methyl mercaptan CH$_3$SD to facilitate astronomical observations by radio telescope arrays at (sub)millimeter wavelengths. We have measured the rotational spectrum associated with the large-amplitude internal rotation of the methyl group of methyl mercaptan using an isotopically enriched sample in the 150-510 GHz frequency range using the K\"oln millimeter wave spectrometer. The analysis of the spectra has been performed up to the second excited torsional state. We present modeling results of these data with the RAM36 program. CH$_3$SD was searched for, but not detected, in data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Protostellar Interferometric Line Survey (PILS) of the deeply embedded protostar IRAS 16293-2422. The derived upper limit corresponds to a degree of deuteration of at most ~18%., Comment: Astron. Astrophys., 8 pages; article appeared; CDMS links updated

The study of this theoretical work definitely adds extra four new dispersive shear-horizontal waves propagating in the transversely isotropic piezoelectromagnetic (PEM) plates of class 6 mm. In this study, the following mechanical, electrical, and magnetic boundary conditions at both the upper and lower free surfaces of the PEM plate are exploited: the mechanically free surface, continuity of both the electrical and magnetic inductions, and continuity of both the electrical and magnetic potentials. The obtained dispersion relations were also graphically studied and compared with previous results. Some interesting peculiarities were also discussed. It is well-known that the plate waves are frequently used for nondestructive testing and evaluation of thin films, further miniaturization of different technical devices based on PEM smart materials, and constitution of new technical devices such as filters, sensors, delay lines, switches, lab-on-a-chip, etc., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures

Using the Gaussian-03 for ab initio calculations, interactions of various acid molecules with a single water molecule were studied. The molecular and supermolecular optimized structures were found with the Becke-3-Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP-hybrid potential) calculations of density- functional theory (DFT) methods, as well as the M{\o}ller-Plesset second-order perturbation theory using the basis set of aug-cc-pVDZ quality and the CRENBL ECP effective core potential for molecules containing heavy iodine atom. Possible isomers of studied acids and supermolecules consisting of acid molecules coupled with a single water molecule are shown. Energies, zero-point energies (ZPEs), thermal enthalpies, and thermal free energies, as well as the corresponding binding energies for the theoretical methods were calculated. It was also found that optimized structures of supermolecular isomers with lowest energies corresponding to the global minimum on the potential energy surfaces can be different for both theories. The most simply structured acids H 2 S and H 2 Se, forming acid-water supermolecules, can give clear evidence of disagreement of the two theoretical methods concerning optimization of lowest energy structures, because the B3LYP-DFT method gives the lowest-energy structure for the first supermolecular isomer, but the MP2 method for the second possible isomer. A dramatic difference was also found between potential energy surfaces for both theories applying to the finding of the optimized structures of the H 2 SO 3 -H 2 O supermolecular isomers, because MP2 supermolecular geometries cannot exist for the corresponding B3LYP-DFT ones, for which the frequency characteristics of the supermolecular isomers were also calculated. ......, Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, Chapter 7 in: Advances in Chemistry Research, Volume 5, ISBN: 978-1-61728-773-2, Editor: James C. Taylor. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:0802.0625

Calcium imaging is a technique for observing neuron activity as a series of images showing indicator fluorescence over time. Manually segmenting neurons is time-consuming, leading to research on automated calcium imaging segmentation (ACIS). We evaluated several deep learning models for ACIS on the Neurofinder competition datasets and report our best model: U-Net2DS, a fully convolutional network that operates on 2D mean summary images. U-Net2DS requires minimal domain-specific pre/post-processing and parameter adjustment, and predictions are made on full $512\times512$ images at $\approx$9K images per minute. It ranks third in the Neurofinder competition ($F_1=0.569$) and is the best model to exclusively use deep learning. We also demonstrate useful segmentations on data from outside the competition. The model's simplicity, speed, and quality results make it a practical choice for ACIS and a strong baseline for more complex models in the future., Comment: Accepted to 3rd Workshop on Deep Learning in Medical Image Analysis (http://cs.adelaide.edu.au/~dlmia3/)

This paper describes digital radio astronomical receivers used for decameter and meter wavelength observations. This paper describes digital radio astronomical receivers used for decameter and meter wavelength observations. Since 1998, digital receivers performing on-the-fly dynamic spectrum calculations or waveform data recording without data loss have been used at the UTR-2 radio telescope, the URAN VLBI system, and the GURT new generation radio telescope. Here we detail these receivers developed for operation in the strong interference environment that prevails in the decameter wavelength range. Data collected with these receivers allowed us to discover numerous radio astronomical objects and phenomena at low frequencies, a summary of which is also presented., Comment: 24 pages, 15 figures

An adiabatic mode Helmholtz equation for 3D underwater sound propagation is developed. The Gaussian beam tracing in this case is constructed. The test calculations are carried out for the crosswedge benchmark and proved an excellent agreement with the source images method., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1406.6124

A pure analytic one-way coupled mode propagation model for resonant interacting modes is obtained by the multiscale expansion method. It is proved that the acoustic energy flux is conserved in this model up to the first degree of the corresponding small parameter. The test calculations with the COUPLE program give an excellent agreement., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures

Ray mode parabolic equations which are suitable for shallow water acoustics propagation problems are derived by the multiple-scale method., Comment: 7 pp., 0 fig

A mode parabolic equation method for resonantly interacted modes was developed. The flow of acoustic energy is conserved for the derived equations with an accuracy adequate to the used approximation. The testing calculations were done for ASA wedge benchmark and proved excellent agreement with COUPLE program., Comment: 17 pages 7 figures

Using the Gaussian-03 for ab initio calculations, we have studied interaction of different acid molecules with a single water molecule. The molecular and supermolecular optimized structures were found with the Becke-3-Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP-hybrid potential) calculations of density-functional theory (DFT) methods as well as the Moeller-Plesset second-order perturbation theory, using the basis set of Aug-cc-pVDZ quality and the CRENBL ECP effective core potential for molecules containing heavy iodine atom. Possible isomers of studied acids and supermolecules, consisting of acid molecules coupled with a single water molecule, are shown. Energies, zero-point energies (ZPEs), thermal enthalpies and free energies, as well as the corresponding binding energies for the theoretical methods were calculated. It was found that optimized structures of supermolecular isomers with lowest energies corresponding to the global minimum on the potential energy surfaces can be different for both theories. The simplest structure acids H2S and H2Se, forming acid-water supermolecules, can give clear evidence of disagreement of the two theoretical methods concerning optimization of lowest energy structures, because the B3LYP-DFT method gives the lowest-energy structure for the first supermolecular isomer, but the MP2 method for the second possible isomer. A dramatic difference between potential energy surfaces for both theories applying to the optimized structure finding of the H2SO3-H2O supermolecular isomers was found, because MP2 supermolecular geometries cannot exist for the corresponding B3LYP-DFT ones, for which the frequency characteristics of the supermolecular isomers were also calculated. In general, the binding energies and ZPE ones for the MP2 method are 10-15% larger than those for the B3LYP-DFT method., Comment: 22 pages, 2 figs, 2 tables, 90 references

The problem of scattering of linear internal waves from small compact sea bottom inhomogeneities is considered from the point of view of mode-to-mode scattering. A simple formula for modal conversion coefficients, quantifying the amount of energy that is scattered into the n-th mode from the incident field m-th mode, is derived. In this formula the representation of inhomogeneities by their expansions into the Fourier and Fourier-Bessel series with respect to angular and radial coordinates respectively are used. Results of calculations, performed in a simple model case, are presented. The obtained formula can be used for a formulation of the inverse problem, as it was done in the acoustic case., Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure

A parabolic equation for the propagation of periodic internal waves over varying bottom topography is derived using the multiple-scale perturbation method. Some computational aspects of the numerical implementation are discussed. The results of numerical experiments on propagation of an incident plane wave over a circular-type shoal are presented in comparison with the analytical result, based on Born approximation., Comment: Submitted to Coastal Engineering. 16 pages, 5 figures. One figure was excluded from article because of size problems

The results of simultaneous multifrequency observations of giant radio pulses from the Crab pulsar, PSR B0531+21, at 23, 111, and 600 MHz are presented and analyzed. Giant pulses were detected at a frequency as low as 23 MHz for the first time. Of the 45 giant pulses detected at 23 MHz, 12 were identified with counterparts observed simultaneously at 600 MHz. Of the 128 giant pulses detected at 111 MHz, 21 were identified with counterparts observed simultaneously at 600 MHz. The spectral indices for the power-law frequency dependence of the giant-pulse energies are from -3.1 to -1.6. The mean spectral index is -2.7 +/- 0.1 and is the same for both frequency combinations (600-111 MHz and 600-23 MHz). The large scatter in the spectral indices of the individual pulses and the large number of unidentified giant pulses suggest that the spectra of the individual giant pulses do not actually follow a simple power law. The observed shapes of the giant pulses at all three frequencies are determined by scattering on interstellar plasma irregularities. The scatter broadening of the pulses and its frequency dependence were determined as tau_sc=20*(f/100)^(-3.5 +/- 0.1) ms, where the frequency f is in MHz., Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, 1 table (originally published in Russian in Astronomicheskii Zhurnal, 2006, vol. 83, No. 7, pp. 630-637), translated by Georgii Rudnitskii