Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preparation of Quaternized Lignin Derived from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches and its Flocculation Properties

Quaternized lignin-based flocculant (QL) was prepared by a single-step reaction of an extracted lignin (EL) derived from oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) with 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl trimethylammonium chloride (CHPTAC) under alkaline condition. The performance of QLs was studied for various β values (molar ratios of CHPTAC to phenylpropanoid unit of lignin), flocculant dosages, pH values, kaolin concentrations, slow mixing rates and sedimentation times. The QL10 achieved the highest turbidity removal efficiency (εt) with increasing flocculant dosage, pH and kaolin concentration to the optimal conditions of 5 mg L−1, pH 7 and 1000 mg L−1, and required 20 min of sedimentation time at all the mixing rates tested. The flocculation kinetics agreed well with the particle collision model. The QL10 has good sludge dewatering properties compared to the alum. It also showed encouraging results in water quality analysis for sewage wastewater flocculation in comparison to that of the alum. This indicates the potential application of QL in treating water and wastewater.
Structural Phase Transition and Metallization of Nanocrystalline Rutile Investigated by High-Pressure Raman Spectroscopy and Electrical Conductivity

We investigate the structural, vibrational, and electrical transport properties of nanocrystalline rutile and its high-pressure polymorphs by Raman spectroscopy, and AC complex impedance spectroscopy in conjunction with the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) up to ~25.0 GPa using the diamond anvil cell (DAC). Experimental results indicate that the structural phase transition and metallization for nanocrystalline rutile occurred with increasing pressure up to ~12.3 and ~14.5 GPa, respectively. The structural phase transition of sample at ~12.3 GPa is confirmed as a baddeleyite phase, which is verified by six new Raman characteristic peaks. The metallization of the baddeleyite phase is manifested by the temperature-dependent electrical conductivity measurements at ~14.5 GPa. However, upon decompression, the structural phase transition from the metallic baddeleyite to columbite phases at ~7.2 GPa is characterized by the inflexion point of the pressure coefficient and the pressure-dependent electrical conductivity. The recovered columbite phase is always retained to the atmospheric condition, which belongs to an irreversible phase transformation.
Influence of nitrogen form and concentration on yield and quality of pot grown basil

In the organic production of pot grown basil, yield depressions and quality impairments are often observed. During the early development stage, cotyledons become chlorotic and necrotic. Subsequently, fungal diseases such as botrytis occur. One possible reason for this problem could be the high concentration of ammonium in the growing media released by the mineralization of organic fertilizers. Therefore, a fertilization trial was carried out to investigate the effect of ammonium (NH4+) on basil in comparison to nitrate (NO(3-)). The experiment included different NH4+-N/NO(3--)N ratios (100/0, 50/50 and 0/100) and nitrogen (N) concentrations in the nutrient solution (8, 12 and 16 mmol N L(‑1)). Plants were cultivated in a peat substrate and fertilized with a nutrient solution which, in addition to the different N sources, contained equal concentrations of a base fertilizer as well as the nitrification inhibitor DMPP. Furthermore, an organic fertilization treatment was realized. Basil fertilized solely with NH4+ showed a diminished growth in comparison to well-developed plants receiving NO3- as N source. Germination rate, plant height and fresh matter yield were significantly reduced by NH4+ nutrition. Similar results occur in the organic treatment where the NH4+ concentration rose up to 350 mg NH4+-N L(‑1) substrate at the beginning of the cultivation period. Along with a reduction in biomass production, chlorotic cotyledons were observed. These effects might have been caused by NH4+. When N mineralization declined and NH4+ was largely converted to NO3-, plants exhibited improved growth. Within the mineral N treatments, rising NO(3-) concentration and NO(3)--N/NH(4)+-N ratio promoted plant height and reduced plant compactness due to an increased internode elongation. At the end of the experiment, the NO(3-) content in basil shoots was highest in the organic treatment and lowest with NH4+ as the sole N source. The best herb quality in terms of plant compactness, turgidity and healthiness of cotyledons was observed when basil was fertilized with ammonium nitrate.
Aspects of plasma biochemistry and intestinal health of weaned piglets fed dietary extruded linseed and walnut meal mixture

The effects of dietary extruded linseed (ELS):walnut meal (WM) mixture (8:1) on some plasma parameters and intestinal health in weaned piglets was investigated. Forty piglets (Topigs hybrid; body weight BW=8.02±0.82 kg), age 30±3 days, were divided into 2 groups and fed 2 diets: control (C, based on corn-triticale-soybean meal (SBM)) and experimental (ELS:WM, where the ELS:WM mixture 8:1 partially replaces SBM). Blood samples were collected at 7 and 21 days postweaning (PW). A chemistry analyzer was used to determine the plasma lipid (total cholesterol, T-Chol; HDL-cholesterol, HDL-C; triglycerides, TG), mineral and enzymatic profile. Microbial populations from fecal samples were determined by counting the colonies obtained on selected media. There was no effect of dietary mixture inclusion on plasma parameters at 7 and 21 days PW (P>0.05). The plasma HDL-C concentration was positively correlated with the alpha-linolenic (ALA) fatty acids content of diet at days 7 (r=0.94, P<0.0001) and 21 PW (r=0.89, P<0.0001), while at day 21 PW the T-Chol (r=0.52, P=0.08) and TG (r=0.54, P=0.07) tended to be influenced by the dietary treatment. Fecal score (FS) decreased at day 7 PW (P>0.05), and at day 21 PW a tendency to decrease FS as a response to dietary mixture addition was observed (P=0.07). The tested dietary mixture positively affected the microbial fecal populations by decreasing the Staphylococcus spp. (P=0.001), E. coli (P<0.0001) and fungi (P=0.004), also tended to increase the Lactobacillus spp. (P=0.08). In conclusion, the dietary mixture could be an alternative to partially replace SBM in piglet’s diet due to positive biochemical response and intestinal health.
Evaluation of enzyme inhibitory and antioxidant activity of some Lamiaceae plants

Lamiaceae is one of the most widespread families in Turkey. The aim of this study was to determine antialzheimer, antidiabetic, antioxidant and antiobesity activities of ethanol extracts of Lamium purpureum var. purpureum, Origanum onites, Salvia sclarea, S. virgata and Thymus zygioides var. lycaonius. Acetylcholinesterase, butyrylcholinesterase, α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and pancreatic lipase inhibitory activities were tested for the determination of the activity of these extracts. Furthermore, total antioxidant, ferric-reducing antioxidant power, metalchelating and N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylendiamine radical scavenging assays were utilized to screen antioxidant activity. Total phenolic content of the extracts were also calculated. Among the tested extracts, T. zygioides var. lycaonius aerial part extract (85.28 ± 0.89 %) showed the highest inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase. The inhibitory activities of all extracts against α-amylase were lower than 50 %. S. sclarea leaf extract indicated remarkable butyrylcholinesterase inhibition (51.76 ± 1.04 %), but all of the plant extracts were inactive against acetylcholinesterase. The Salvia species showed the highest total antioxidant activity. S. sclarea flower (1.34 ± 0.08) and leaf (1.34 ± 0.08) extracts showed the highest ferric-reducing antioxidant power activities. Our findings indicated that O. onites, S. sclarea, S. virgata, and T. zygioides var. lycaonius extracts showed valuable inhibitory activity and emerged as the sources of possible α-glucosidase inhibitors for future studies.
Kinetic study of sulfur dioxide absorption into dolomite-brucite suspensions

The influence of the dolomite-brucite concentration and temperature on the global process of sulfur dioxide, SO2, absorption into dolomite-brucite suspensions was established. According to the proposed macro-kinetic model, the chemical reaction between H2SO3 and MeCO3 takes place into the adsorbed layer, at the outer surface of the granules. The low values of the activation energies obtained, Ea << 25.1 kJ/mol, confirmed for working conditions, that the global chemisorption process was limited to diffusion stage. At suspension concentrations lower than 5% and high temperatures, the chemisorption was carried out according to the shrinking core model without crust, when the diffusion of H2SO3 through the liquid phase is the limitative stage. At concentrations higher than 10% the chemisorption was carried out according to the unreacted core model with crust formation, when the diffusion of H2SO3 through the crust of products remains the limitative phenomenon.
Bilingual Sentence Processing: Relative clause attachment in English and Spanish

The cross-linguistic differences documented in studies of relative clause attachment offer an invaluable opportunity to examine a particular aspect of bilingual sentence processing: Do bilinguals process their two languages as if they were monolingual speakers of each? This volume provides a review of existing research on relative clause attachment, showing that speakers of languages like English attach relative clauses differently than do speakers of languages like Spanish. Fernandez reports the findings of an investigation with monolinguals and bilinguals, tested using speeded ("on-line") and unspeeded ("off-line") methodology, with materials in both English and Spanish. The experiments reveal similarities across the groups when the procedure is speeded, but differences with unspeeded questionnaires: The monolinguals replicate the standard cross-linguistic differences, while bilinguals have language-independent preferences determined by language dominance — bilinguals process stimuli in either of their languages according to the general preferences of monolinguals of their dominant language.
Effect of total and partial replacing the Milk Powder Used in the Made of Ice Cream by the Whey Protein Concentrate and Soy flour on Product Quality.

Ice-cream was made by partial substitution of skim milk powder (T1:75%skim milk powder: 25%whey protein concentrate,T2: 75%skim milk powder: 25%soy bean protein,T3:50%skim milk powder: 50%whey protein concentrate,T4: 50%skim milk powder: 50%soy bean protein,T5: 25%skim milk powder:75%whey protein concentrate,T6: 25%skim milk powder: 75%soy bean protein, and total substitution of skim milk powder in T7: 52.5% whey protein concentrate and T8: 52.5%soy bean protein) of each with whey protein concentrate or soy protein in 8 batches and control without addition. The result traded ice cream batches were chemically, microbiological and organoleptically analyses when fresh and after 30 days storage at -18˚ c. All treatments decreased in the activity PH values were deserved in all variants after 30 days. The same hand was also observed for the T.S. , nitrogenous continents and fat contents. The highest overrun of 36% was detected in T5 and the lowest of 32% in T8. Organoleptic score of 91 was gained in the control, whereas the range of 87 – 70 in all treatments compared with the control. The corresponding range of 83 – 67 was detected after 30 days, compared with 83 in the control. On the other hand, It showed effect of adding the mastic gum on the organoleptic score of 91 was gained in the control, whereas the range of 76 – 74 in all treatments compared with the control. The corresponding range of 71 – 68 was detected after 30 days, compared with 83 in the control, in another direction. The milting point increased after 30days compared with the fresh products either at 30, 60 or 90 mints. All of the examined treatments were completely free from Staphylococcus aurous group and coliform either when fresh or during storage.
Antipuritive Effect of Aqueous Root Extracts of Moringa oliefera on Alcohol-induced Haematoxicity in Wistar Rats

Aim: The study is aimed at investigating the antinutritive effects of aqueous root extract of Moringa oleifera on haematological indices following sub-chronic consumption of alcohol in Wistar rats. Methods and Materials: Thirty (30) experimental rats weighing 100-120 g were randomly divided into 6 groups of 5 rats each. Group 1, the normal control group was given just rat feed and water, group 2, negative control was administered alcohol only (1.5 ml/kg body weight), rats in group 3, 4 and 5 received combined administration of alcohol 1.5 ml/kg body weight and 200, 400 and 600 mg/kg body weight of aqueous root extract of Moringa oleifera respectively, group 6 rats were administered 250 mg/body weight of extract only. At the end of fourteen days (14) the experimental rats were then sacrificed, and blood was collected for haematological analysis. Results: The result obtained shows a dose-dependent response in almost all the parameters, white blood cell (WBC) count increases significantly(P<0.05) with 600 mg/kg while dose 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/g shows no significant change. Red blood cells (RBC) decreases non-significantly (P<0.05) with increased amount of aqueous Moringa root extract. Likewise, there was also a dose-dependent decrease in the haematological count and more noticeable with 200 mg/kg dose. It was also observed that mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) increases in all the treatment groups with significant observed in 400 mg/kg and 600 mg/kg. The increase in alcohol can bring about suppression of the blood cells production, enhance if there is reduction in the red blood cells, it, therefore, implies that the will be reduction in the oxygen-carrying capacity of the red blood cells, that would be carried to the tissues as well as the level of carbon dioxide returned to the lungs. Also, the PCV is involved in the transport of oxygen and absorption of the nutrient. Therefore, increase in PCV, shows a better transportation and thus results in an increase in both primary and secondary polycythemias. Conclusion: This research work shows that the plant extract contains some bioactive component or phytochemical constituents that are capable of ameliorating the toxicity effect of alcohol on animal models.
Implementing and Evaluating CPU/GPU Real-Time Ray Tracing Solutions

Ray tracing is a popular algorithm used to simulate the behavior of light and is commonly used to render images with high levels of visual realism. Modern multicore CPUs and many-core GPUs can take advantage of the parallel nature of ray tracing to accelerate the rendering process and produce new images in real-time. For non-specialized hardware however, such implementations are often limited to low screen resolutions, simple scene geometry and basic graphical effects. In this work, a C++ framework was created to investigate how the ray tracing algorithm can be implemented and accelerated on the CPU and GPU, respectively. The framework is capable of utilizing two third-party ray tracing libraries, Intel’s Embree and NVIDIA’s OptiX, to ray trace various 3D scenes. The framework also supports several effects for added realism, a user controlled camera and triangle meshes with different materials and textures. In addition, a hybrid ray tracing solution is explored, running both libraries simultaneously to render subsections of the screen. Benchmarks performed on a high-end CPU and GPU are finally presented for various scenes and effects. Throughout these results, OptiX on a Titan X performed better by a factor of 2-4 compared to Embree running on an 8-core hyperthreaded CPU within the same price range. Due to this imbalance of the CPU and GPU along with possible interferences between the libraries, the hybrid solution did not give a significant speedup, but created possibilities for future research.
Influence of Sugar Beet Nitrogen Content on Quality and Efficiency of Sugar Extraction

The present study highlights on the effect of over nitrogen content on beet sugar quality, sugar content, alkalinity, impurity value, raffinose formation, chemical impurities especially (Na) ions and the loss of sugar in molasses. The results showed that nitrogen content must be done in the way that causes a high productivity of roots with a high content of sucrose and pureness percentages with low levels of vegetarian growth levels. Also, the acceptable values of α-amino N, K and Na in roots for processing must be about 150, 140 and 700 -1000 mg 100g sugar, respectively. One of the greatest effects is the increment the loss of sugars to molasses rate as a result of the increment of sucrose solubility hence decrement in crystallization. Therefore, this study recommends not to overuse nitrogen fertilization because the increase of the nitrogen inside the roots inhibits the processes of crystallization process hence, decreasing the quality of sugar extraction process. Keyword: Nitrogen content non-sugar impuritiesroot yield sucrose content – sugar beet.
A new pore-scale numerical simulator for investigating special core analysis data

The study presented in this thesis addresses various pore-scale phenomena related to the oil industry by implementing new numerical models capable of simulating a wide range of multiphase flow processes such as depressurisation, water flooding, gas injection and various EOR techniques. The aim is not to produce quantitative predictions per se but rather to examine the effect of key petrophysical parameters on oil recovery when different production protocols are applied to specific rock analogues. In order to facilitate this, a new pore-scale process simulator is developed – numSCAL (numerical Special Core Analysis Laboratory) – with different modules associated with different mechanisms. A steady-state depletion model is described first and used to investigate the impact of numerous parameters on solution gas drive. We show that parameter combinations that increase bubble density can lead to delayed gas breakthrough and can result in high critical gas saturations. The model is extended to support three-phase flow by incorporating concepts from graph theory. Simulation results highlight the interaction between the underlying phase saturations, spreading conditions and wetting films and emphasise the competition among mechanisms acting in three-phase systems. Two unsteady-state models are also presented to study water flooding processes in porous media – the first mainly applied to simulate drainage processes and the second used to study the onset of ganglia mobilisation. Results show that parameters affecting the capillary number and viscous ratio play a crucial role in determining the observed invasion regime and final oil recoveries. Conditions required for ganglia mobilisation are derived and used to predict the likelihood of mobilisation at different parts of the reservoir. The dynamic drainage model is then extended to simulate low salinity (LS) water flooding and polymer injection – secondary and tertiary effects are shown to depend on interactions amongst several key flow parameters (including initial reservoir wettability, flow rate and viscous ratio). In addition, a positive synergistic effect is identified, where the combined injection of LS brine and polymer leads to increased recovery in several scenarios. The study concludes with an application of the pore-scale modelling technique in a novel research area. A new approach is presented to model drug perfusion surrounding Glioblastoma Multiform (GBM) tumours. Results show that blood flow, transmural transport and tissue diffusion have a direct impact on the average drug concentrations that develop in the vascular network and the surrounding tissue.
Concise Review of Nickel Human Health Toxicology and Ecotoxicology

Nickel (Ni) metal and Ni compounds are widely used in applications like stainless steel, alloys, and batteries. Nickel is a naturally occurring element in water, soil, air, and living organisms, and is essential to microorganisms and plants. Thus, human and environmental nickel exposures are ubiquitous. Production and use of nickel and its compounds can, however, result in additional exposures to humans and the environment. Notable human health toxicity effects identified from human and/or animal studies include respiratory cancer, non-cancer toxicity effects following inhalation, dermatitis, and reproductive effects. These effects have thresholds, with indirect genotoxic and epigenetic events underlying the threshold mode of action for nickel carcinogenicity. Differences in human toxicity potencies/potentials of different nickel chemical forms are correlated with the bioavailability of the Ni2+ ion at target sites. Likewise, Ni2+ has been demonstrated to be the toxic chemical species in the environment, and models have been developed that account for the influence of abiotic factors on the bioavailability and toxicity of Ni2+ in different habitats. Emerging issues regarding the toxicity of nickel nanoforms and metal mixtures are briefly discussed. This review is unique in its covering of both human and environmental nickel toxicity data.
Using satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 columns to infer long-term trends in US NOx emissions: the importance of accounting for the free tropospheric NO2 background

Abstract. The National Emission Inventory (NEI) of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports a steady decrease in US NOx emissions over the 2005–2017 period at a rate of 0.1 Tg N a−1 (53 % decrease over the period), reflecting sustained efforts to improve air quality. Tropospheric NO2 columns observed by the satellite-based Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) over the US show a steady decrease until 2009 but a flattening afterward, which has been attributed to a flattening of NOx emissions, contradicting the NEI. We show here that the steady 2005–2017 decrease in NOx emissions reported by the NEI is in fact largely consistent with observed network trends of surface NO2 and ozone concentrations. The OMI NO2 trend is instead similar to that observed for nitrate wet deposition fluxes, which is weaker than that for anthropogenic NOx emissions, due to a large and increasing relative contribution of non-anthropogenic background sources of NOx (mainly lightning and soils). This is confirmed by contrasting OMI NO2 trends in urban winter, where the background is low and OMI NO2 shows a 2005–2017 decrease consistent with the NEI, and rural summer, where the background is high and OMI NO2 shows no significant 2005–2017 trend. A GEOS-Chem model simulation driven by NEI emission trends for the 2005–2017 period reproduces these different trends, except for the post-2009 flattening of OMI NO2, which we attribute to a model underestimate of free tropospheric NO2. Better understanding is needed of the factors controlling free tropospheric NO2 in order to relate satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 columns to the underlying NOx emissions and their trends. Focusing on urban winter conditions in the satellite data minimizes the effect of this free tropospheric background.