Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Advances on transition metal oxides catalysts for formaldehyde oxidation: A review

ABSTRACT This article highlights recent advances in the development of transition metal-based catalysts for formaldehyde oxidation, particularly the enhancement of their catalytic activity for low-temperature oxidation. Various factors that enhance low-temperature activity are reviewed, such as morphology and tunnel structures, synthesis methods, specific surface area, amount and type of active surface oxygen species, oxidation state, and density of active sites are discussed. In addition, catalyst immobilization for practical air purification, reaction mechanism of formaldehyde oxidation, and the reaction parameters affecting the overall efficiency of the reaction are also reviewed.
Placental damages from ultrasonic changes to histopathological findings in maturing placenta in pregnancy complicated with hypertension: an observational clinical study

Background: The development of mild hypertension or preeclampsia at or near term is associated with minimal maternal and neonatal morbidities. Obstetric ultrasound provides a cornerstone to other modalities used for assessing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Placental architecture is modified in PE and eclampsia. This study was designed to detect the placental changes in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and correlation with ultrasonic and histopathological changes. Methods: The study group comprised of 42 patients with pregnancy complicated with hypertension with period of gestation above 20 weeks and B.P. more than 140/90 mm of Hg measured on two occasions 6 hours or more apart. The control group consists of 42 normotensive patients matched with age and parity. One ultrasonic examination was performed between 28 weeks and 34 weeks and another after 34 weeks till term. Apart from routine parameters i.e. BPD, AC, FL, Amniotic fluid index, EBW and gestational age routine placental grading were performed according to the classification proposed by Grannum and associates. To evaluate perinatal outcome following measurement were studied birth weight immediately after delivery, mode of delivery, perinatal morbidity and mortality, APGAR score, presence of fetal distress. Results: In 97.62% cases (41 out of 42) of control group showed Grade–II changes as opposed to 57.14% of cases (24 out of 42) in study group before 34 weeks. All 21 cases in study group showing Grade ‘III’ changes before 34 weeks had infarction, calcification, increased syncytial knots, fibrinoid necrosis from 95.23 to 100% of these cases showed all these changes. Only 2 cases (9.52%) showed perivascular hemorrhage having Grade ‘III’ before 34 weeks. Conclusions: Accelerated maturation of placenta in pregnancy complicated with hypertension are more common in the hypertensive group. Increased histopathological degenerative changes e.g. calcification, fibrinoid necrosis etc., are more marked even before 34 weeks of gestation in hypertensive group.
The role of argumentation in the resolution of ambiguous situations: an exploratory study in the field of supervision in the nuclear industry

This exploratory study is part of the evaluation, using a full-scale simulator, of a new organisation for a nuclear plant operating team. The purpose of the study is to test the possibility of there being a link between the characteristics of the operating activity and the argumentative activity of the teams when managing ambiguous situations. A comparative analysis of the operating activity, the "decision pathway" and the argumentative discourse of the three future operating teams was carried out during the resolution of an ambiguous situation. Results show that, according to the team, the "decision pathway" differs in terms of the aims set or prioritised by the team (alongside those required by the procedure). According to the types of aims, we will highlight the different argumentative patterns.
Multifocus Image Fusion Using Biogeography-Based Optimization

For multifocus image fusion in spatial domain, sharper blocks from different source images are selected to fuse a new image. Block size significantly affects the fusion results and a fixed block size is not applicable in various multifocus images. In this paper, a novel multifocus image fusion algorithm using biogeography-based optimization is proposed to obtain the optimal block size. The sharper blocks of each source image are first selected by sum modified Laplacian and morphological filter to contain an initial fused image. Then, the proposed algorithm uses the migration and mutation operation of biogeography-based optimization to search the optimal block size according to the fitness function in respect of spatial frequency. The chaotic search is adopted during iteration to improve optimization precision. The final fused image is constructed based on the optimal block size. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has good quantitative and visual evaluations.
Site Occupancy in Nontronite Studied by Acid Dissolution and Mössbauer Spectroscopy

The dissolution of two Ca2+-exchanged nontronite samples has been studied in 10% HCl. Early acid-dissolution studies (Osthaus, 1954) have indicated that after two hours of dissolution most of the octahedral Fe3+ (VIFe3+) would be removed leaving mainly tetrahedral Fe3+ (IVFe3+) in the nontronite structure. In the present study, 57Fe Mössbauer spectra of acid-treated samples were recorded and fitted with two octahedral Fe3+ (2 × VIFe3+) and two octahedral and one tetrahedral (2 × VIFe3+, 1 × IVFe3+) doublet models. The Mössbauer spectra of acid-treated Garfield nontronite samples could be adequately fitted with two-doublet models but acid-treated Hohen Hagen nontronite samples could not. Isomer shift and quadrupole splitting values obtained from the two-doublet models corresponded to VIFe3+ and not IVFe3+, as was suggested by the Osthaus (1954) experiment. When an IVFe3+ doublet was included in the model used to fit the Mössbauer spectra of acid-treated Garfield nontronite samples, a slight increase in the intensity of the IVFe3+ doublet occurred with increasing dissolution, but this was much lower than indicated by Osthaus (1954) No trend in the intensity of the IVFe3+ doublet was observed for acid-treated Hohen Hagen nontronite. Therefore, acid treatment appears to remove VIFe3+ and IVFe3+ from the nontronite structure at about the same rate. Mössbauer spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction data indicate that the nontronite that remains undissolved following acid treatment is structurally similar to the untreated nontronite.
Strategies to control Salmonella in the broiler production chain

Broiler meat is one of the sources of Salmonella contamination of humans. Concerns about food safety have prompted the poultry industry and governments to introduce control plans to combat Salmonella. This has been strengthened by legislation, as is the case in the EU, where targets have been set forcing member states to decrease Salmonella prevalence in poultry flocks. Strategies to prevent transmission of Salmonella to humans should focus on the whole production chain of broiler meat and on the subsequent storage and handling of meat, thus from farm to fork. In the primary production phase, both hygienic measures and general farm management strategies are important. These management strategies should include in-feed Salmonella control and product administration. A wide range of feed additives is currently available for that purpose. Hygienic measures and logistic slaughter are tools to reduce the Salmonella contamination in the slaughterhouse. At retail and in the consumer's kitchen, care needs to be taken of product storage and handling to avoid contamination and bacterial growth. The numbers of contaminated Salmonella broiler flocks will most likely decrease in the future due to the established action plans, but complete eradication of Salmonella is unrealistic. The main issue is, however, to keep the flock prevalence, the within-flock prevalence and the numbers of bacteria in infected animals at such a low level, that contamination of meat, and thus transmission to humans, becomes a highly unlikely event. This clearly underlines the need for coordinated action of governments and poultry-related industries (including feed industry and slaughterhouses), at all stages of the production chain.
The Role of Bowfin, Amia calva, in Multiple Species Management Plans

The major challenge to fisheries managers of the 21st century will be to maintain the diversity, not only of fishing opportunity, but also of traditionally non-game and economically unimportant species. With the relatively recent understanding of the importance of ecosystem level management, attention is being focused on native species that were often ignored or eradicated under past management practices. One such fish that has been largely ignored is the bowfin, Amia calva. Ecological data pertaining to bowfin natural history are limited and to date no attempt has been made to integrate bowfin into fisheries management decisions within the species native range. Therefore, I studied the natural history of the bowfin in hopes of determining the role bowfin can play in both the aquatic ecosystem and in fisheries management. A total of 3 8 bowfin were caught during the summer of 1997 in backwaters of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Each fish was weighed (nearest gram), measured (nearest millimeter) and sexed. Measurements of depth, water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen levels, secchi disc readings and substrate type were taken at each trap site. The fish were returned to the Illinois Natural History Survey lab where gular plates and stomachs were removed for aging and determination of food habits. The mean lengths and weights for males were 586.3 mm and 1728.1 g and for females were 622.8 mm and 2303.8 g. The averages for habitat parameters were as follows: depth (0.6 m), temperature (22.8 C), pH (8.06), D.O (8.6), secchi disc (22.6 cm). Silt was the substrate type at all sampling locations. Average growth rates for the first six years of life were 3 24. 4 mm, 114. 4 mm, 69. 4 mm, 46.8 mm, 49.6 mm and 32.9 mm. Crayfish were the most important food items based on the proportion of total weight of all prey items as well as by frequency of occurrence.
Effect of poultry manure and plant population on productivity of fluted pumpkin (Telfaiaria occidentalis Hook F.) in Calabar, Nigeria.

Field experiments were conducted during the 2010-2011 cropping season at the Crop Science Research Farm of the University of Calabar, Nigeria (04o 57' N and 08o 18' E; 37 meters above mean sea level) to investigate the effect of poultry manure application (0, 6, 12 and 24 t ha-1) and plant population densities (10,000, 20,000 and 40,000 plants ha-1) on leaf productivity of fluted pumpkin (Telfaiaria occidentalis Hook F), a vine grown as a leaf vegetable in west Africa. The experimental design was a 3× 4 factorial in a randomised complete block design replicated four times. Results indicated significant (P = 0.05) increase in vine length, leaf proliferation, fresh leaf weight/plant and dry matter production. Longest vines with 256 cm length, bearing 181 leaves/plant, with highest fresh leaf weight of 5,435 kg ha-1 and correspondingly highest dry matter yield of 183.5 kg ha-1, were obtained by applying poultry manure at 24 t ha-1 to 20,000 plants ha-1. This indicates that the application of poultry manure at 24 t ha-1 and a plant population density of 20,000 plants ha-1 in fluted pumpkin (Telfaiaria occidentalis Hook F) seems optimal and leads to increased vegetative growth and leaf productivity of fluted pumpkin in the Calabar area of Cross River State, Nigeria. Overall, crop management adopting the optimal poultry manure application and the optimal plant population density can boost fluted pumpkin productivity for poverty reduction and improved livelihood of resource poor farmers in Nigeria and comparable socio-agro-economic environments in Sub-Saharan African countries.
Influence of Planning Phase Principles on Project Performance within the Building Industry in Abuja, Nigeria

The building industry continues to occupy an important position in the nation’s economy even though it contributes less than the manufacturing industries. It has continued to be a major player in the socio-economic development of many countries globally. However, recently, issues of quality, costs, reliability and human and environmental safety have emerged posing a challenge to the growth of industry. This is as a result of poor planning phase principles in the building industry. However, poor planning in the Nigerian Building Industry (NBI) was linked to its inability to deliver service effectively and efficiently; and these are impediment on the Nigerian economy. This study therefore sought to examine how planning phase principles influence project performance within the building industry in Abuja, Nigeria. Explanatory and descriptive approaches were used to obtain data from completed projects files (three from both public and private sectors respectively) and professionals from the building industry. Stratified and purposive random samplings were used to select completed projects and qualitative data for the purpose of analysis. The results reveal that planning phase principles was not adopted due to poor management of projects, unnecessary rush in project implementation, inadequate planning and budgetary provisions, costly project execution. In spite of the efforts of the industry to improve project performance, yet it is still faced with challenges of project management, but if planning phase principle is employed, it could improve project performance and will reduce cost and time overruns.
Re-Design, Fabrication, and Performance Evaluation of Manual Conical Drum Seeder: A Case Study

Abstract. Rice cultivation is basically carried out by means of transplanting or direct sowing (DS). Although transplanting methods tend to give higher yields, the cost of operation is significantly higher in relation to DS methods. Hence, to date, most famers in the Third World countries use manual broadcasting (MB) due to its economic viability. Manual broadcasting is direct sowing of pre-germinated paddy rice (DSPPR) by hand, based on personnel skill, on wet puddled soils. A major drawback of this method is that the distribution of pre-germinated paddy rice (PPR) is not uniform on the wet puddled soil, which results in a lower yield. Although the mechanization of DS has been achieved via manually operated mechanical drum seeders to overcome this challenge, these have their own inherent drawbacks. The present work was undertaken to re-design and develop a manually operated mechanical drum seeder, which can be used for sowing PPR, by taking into consideration currently available drum seeder designs and their drawbacks. The performance of the new design conical drum seeder (CDS) in the paddy fields was evaluated in relation to MB. The theoretical and effective field capacity, field efficiency, and missing hill percentage were observed to be 0.22 ha/h, 0.18 ha/h, 81% and 3.70%, respectively. The saving of PPR seed was about 75% and increase in yield was about 37% in CDS as compared to MB.
A chemical method for the investigation of chemical changes in fish during smoking

This report surveys the literature on the effects of smoking on the nutritive value of flesh foods and the chemical changes associated with such processing methods. The development of a dye binding method for use in assessing protein damage in smoked Coley (Pollachius vireus) fillets is described. The use of blacking reagents with dye binding permitting estimation of lysine content is also described and the results so determined are compared with values for lysine obtained by the use of fluoro-dinitrobenzene. The possibility of interference from smoke components in the dye binding and the fluoro-dinitrabenzene methods was also examined.
Does Corporate Governance Predict Firms' Market Values? Evidence from Korea

We report strong OLS and instrumental variable evidence that an overall corporate governance index is an important and likely causal factor in explaining the market value of Korean public companies. We construct a corporate governance index (KCGI , 0∼100) for 515 Korean companies based on a 2001 Korea Stock Exchange survey. In OLS , a worst-to-best change in KCGI predicts a 0.47 increase in Tobin's q (about a 160% increase in share price). This effect is statistically strong (t e 6.12) and robust to choice of market value variable (Tobin's q , market/book, and market/sales), specification of the governance index, and inclusion of extensive control variables. We rely on unique features of Korean legal rules to construct an instrument for KCGI . Good instruments are not available in other comparable studies. Two-stage and three-stage least squares coefficients are larger than OLS coefficients and are highly significant. Thus, this article offers evidence consistent with a causal relationship between an overall governance index and higher share prices in emerging markets. We also find that Korean firms with 50% outside directors have 0.13 higher Tobin's q (roughly 40% higher share price), after controlling for the rest of KCGI . This effect, too, is likely causal. Thus, we report the first evidence consistent with greater board independence causally predicting higher share prices in emerging markets. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
The Interdependence Between the Financial Sector and Business Sector in ASEAN 4 Countries

In this study, we analyze the dynamic interactions between the financial sectors and the business sectors in the ASEAN-4 countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore). To do that, we apply the newly generalized version of the Vector Autoregressive Framework (VAR) spillover index approach proposed by Diebold and Yilmaz (2012) as our method of analysis. Based on quarterly data of each variable over the period from the first quarter of 1984 to the fourth quarter of 2015 for the ASEAN-4 countries, this study finds that: 1) Spillovers between the variables move in a diverse manner over the period of analysis for each country, 2) The variable that acts as the dominant crisis transmitter in each country is different for each country, 3) The interdependence between the variables became stronger, both within and across the countries, during the crisis period. In particular, the business sectors played a leading role during the onset of the crisis, while the financial sectors took their places as the dominant source of spillovers as the crisis deepened. 4) Credit growth in Thailand was found to be the dominant transmitter of shocks to the ASEAN-3 countries. Overall, these results suggest that the strength and movement of the spillovers between the financial and business sectors changed from time to time along with the changes that happened in the economies.
Precision feeding and forage management effects on phosphorus loss modeled at a watershed scale

Delaware County and the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County of New York State have initiated a farm-scale precision feed management (PFM) program to reduce soil-phosphorus build-up and phosphorus (P) losses to the Cannonsville Reservoir, a major supply source of New York City drinking water. The PFM program includes strategies that more precisely balance dairy cattle dietary P requirements with actual P intake and that improve on-farm forage production and utilization in the animal diet. The goal of the PFM program is to reduce manure P concentration, feed nutrients importation, P imbalance problems, and soil-P build-up while maintaining farm profitability. In this study, several PFM strategies were evaluated with respect to controlling P losses and soil-P build-up at both field and watershed scales using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. Using the SWAT model, manure with reduced P concentration was applied to cropland while grass-forage crop productivity was increased through N fertilizer application. The SWAT model simulation revealed decreased particulate phosphorus and soluble phosphorus losses by 22% and 13%, respectively. Predicted reductions of average particulate phosphorus and soluble phosphorus losses at the watershed outlet were 16% and 13% respectively, over a three-year period, compared to the baseline (conditions before changes were implemented). Model results also demonstrated an appreciable decrease in field-level soil-P during the growing season, indicating increased soil-P uptake by the improved grass-forage. For the growing season, reductions for predicted active and labile P pools were 11 and 5 mg kg-1 (0.02 and 0.01 lb tn-1), respectively, compared to the baseline. The corresponding reductions in field-level soil P were equivalent to 8% and 7% for labile and active P pools, respectively. Overall, the PFM strategies were found to have a potential for reducing soil-P build-up and P losses both at field and watershed levels. Performing a model-based environmental evaluation of farm management strategies at a watershed level helps to integrate farm management planning (the smallest management unit) into watershed level planning. Also, evaluating farm management strategies at a watershed scale provides valuable and comprehensive information for assessing the potential for long-term, cost-effective, and permanent reduction of P loss from dairy agriculture to the Cannonsville Reservoir.
Empowerment and anger: learning how to share ownership of the museum

The article explores the challenges of community involvement and of equal representation agendas in museums in a multicultural society. The aim is to contribute to an increased understanding of power struggles and controversies associated with community dialogue and shared authority approaches in museums. These topics are analyzed in relation to the colonial legacy of Western museums and to discourses of multiculturalism, representation and inclusion. Two recent controversial cases of community dialogue in the Museum of World Culture in Sweden are discussed: the project Advantage Goteborg , during which extensive battles over the right of interpretation took place, and the case of the painting Scene d’Amour by artist Louzla Darabi, which was taken off display after strong demands from members of the public. While such cases are difficult and challenging for a museum, the author argues that they are necessary triggers for institutional change.
North-South Trade and the Environment

A simple static model of North-South trade is developed to examine linkages between national income, pollution, and international trade. Two countries produce a continuum of goods, each differing in pollution intensity. We show that the higher income country chooses stronger environmental protection, and specializes in relatively clean goods. By isolating the scale, composition, and technique effects of international trade on pollution, we show that free trade increases world pollution; an increase in the rich North's production possibilities increases pollution, while similar growth in the poor South lowers pollution; and unilateral transfers from North to South reduce worldwide pollution.
Cryptosporidium diagnosis in different groups of children and characterization of parasite species

ABSTRACT Background: Microscopy and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) are routinely used for Cryptosporidium diagnosis, without differentiating the parasite species. Methods: Children’s feces were analyzed by modiﬁed Ziehl-Neelsen (mZN) and ELISA for Cryptosporidium diagnosis and by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism for species identification. Results: Cryptosporidium frequency was 2.6%. The sensitivity and specificity of ELISA were 85.7% and 99.7%, respectively, with excellent concordance with mZN (kappa=0.854). Parasite species were characterized as Cryptosporidium hominis (78.3%), Cryptosporidium felis (17.4%), and Cryptosporidium parvum (4.3%). Conclusions: Coproantigen ELISA is as efficient as mZN for Cryptosporidium diagnosis. Cryptosporidium genotyping suggests anthroponotic and zoonotic transmission to children.