Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mechanistic study of Pd(II) catalysed oxidation of maleic and crotonic acids by N-chlorosuccinimide in perchloric acid medium

The kinetics of oxidation of maleic and crotonic acids by N-chlorosuccinimide (NCS) in perchloric acid are presented. Analysis of the results shows that the observed rates of oxidation indicate zero order in [substrate] and [H + ]. First order dependence of the reactions on NCS at its lower concentrations tends to zero order in its higher concentration range. The reaction rate increases with increase in [Pd(II)] but the order in [Pd(II)] is less than unity. The initial addition of Cl - and five fold excess of added succinimide (NHS) do not affect the rate significantly. Increase in ionic strength has negligible effect on the rate while increase in acetic acid content in reaction medium decreases the rate. Mechanistic steps are discussed on the basis of kinetic observations and products analysis.
Knowledge on the first permanent molar - audit on215 Romanian mothers

Many epidemiological studies prove the high vulnerability to caries of the first permanent molar, even shortly after its emergence. Aim: to assess the knowledge of preschool children’s parents on the matter of the first permanent molar. Material and method: the mothers of 215 children aged 1 to 7 years old were asked to fill in a questionnaire containing closed questions about the moment of the eruption of the first permanent molar and its position in the arch relative to the decidual molars, about caries prevention means for this tooth, as well as about the source of information on this subject. The mothers were aged 20 to 48 years (mean age = 31.16±0.29 years). 26.51% of them had a university degree, 55.81% were high school graduates and 16.28% had 10 classes or less. 22.79% were unemployed and 75.81% were employed. Results: Concerning the moment of the first permanent molar’s emergence, 20.93% of the answers were correct, while the question on the place of this tooth in the arch was correctly answered by 21.39%. The mother’s level of education significantly influences the answers on the moment of the emergence of the first permanent molar and does not influence the accuracy of the answers on the position of this tooth. Mother’s occupation does not influence the level of knowledge (p=0.05). Regarding the preventive means applicable for the first permanent molar, tooth brushing was most commonly mentioned (79.53%), while sealing was familiar to only 7.91% of the mothers. Half of the questioned women admitted not to have got any information on this tooth, while 17.67% stated that they got information from the dentist. Conclusions: 1. Parents have little knowledge on the moment of eruption and position in the arch of the first permanent molar. 2. There is a certain discrepancy between theoretic knowledge on oral health and actual oral habits. 3. Further caries prevention programs need to target the first permanent molar. For an increased efficiency, such programs should involve dentists, parents and teachers at the same time.
Analysing Teachers’ Reading Habits And Teaching Strategies For Reading Skills

Reading, being one of the factors considered when establishing the level of literacy of a population, is one of the biggest concerns in the development and success of a nation. It is definitely the language skill that is given most attention in Malaysia. This study seeks to analyze teachers’ reading habits and teaching strategies for reading skills. Sixty five Secondary School English Language teachers around the Klang Valley participated in the study. The main methodology employed in this study was a survey questionnaire. Additionally, interviews were conducted with five of the participants who had also responded to the questionnaire. The study showed that respondents in the Klang Valley do read but it is not their main choice when it comes to how they spend their spare time. Results of the study also showed that respondents were familiar with reading strategies and used various strategies when teaching for reading skills. Some recommendations and suggestions are put forward by the researcher in this study including the suggestion that consideration be given for further studies in this area as the current study indicates that it would be beneficial.
Effect of reinforcement geometry on the performance of a reduced-scale strip footing model supported on geocell reinforced sand

Geocell is an effective type of geosynthetics for improving the performance of reinforced soil foundations due to provision of lateral confinement for the infill soil. In this research, in order to study the bearing pressure-settlement response of geocell reinforced sand, a reduced-scale physical model is developed and geocells with various geometrical dimensions (height, pocket size and width) produced from woven geotextile are used to reinforce sand bed. Strip footing model is then loaded monotonically to ultimate failure level and the influence of geocell geometrical properties on the improvement in bearing capacity and settlement of footing is described. The results show that by increasing height and decreasing pocket size of geocell, the beneficial effect of geocell reinforcement increases substantially. For the highest geocell used in the tests at settlement level of 6%, improvement in bearing capacity and percentage reduction in footing settlement is obtained as 2.1 and 48% respectively. The optimum width of geocell is determined five times the foundation width beyond which the improvement effect is negligible. It is also concluded that substituting a single layer of geocell reinforcement with 2 half-height and 4 quarter-height geocell layers results in 10% and 22% decrease in the ultimate bearing capacity respectively.
A POSTERIORI ERROR ESTIMATORS FOR SECOND ORDER ELLIPTIC SYSTEMS : PART 1 . THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS AND A POSTERIORI ERROR ANALYSIS

This is the first in a series of two papers dealing with a po.teriori error estimation for hop finite element approximation of second order elliptic systems. In this paper, we shaU present the fundamental ideas behind the error estimator and the theoretical foundations for the method. The second paper deala with the algoritlunical details.
Bootstrap Causality Tests Of The Relationship Between The Equity Markets Of The US And Other Developed Countries: Pre- And Post-September 11

We analyse the causal relationship between the equity markets of the US and those of the UK, Japan, Germany, France, Canada and Australia based on leveraged bootstrap approach developed by Hacker and Hatemi-J (2005). This method overcomes problems of non-normalities and ARCH effects in the data. Using weekly MSCI price indices, we focus our investigation on the period 1998 to 2005 which we divided into two sub-periods to take into account the potential structural break arising from September 11. Our results show that before September 11, there was bi-directional causality between the US and Japan and between the US and Germany. In addition, there was also a uni-directional causality from the US to Canada and from the US to France. After September 11, the only causality was a unidirectional one from the US to Japan and from the UK to the US. Thus, after September 11, the US Granger-caused a fewer number of markets. This could imply that after September 11, the other markets became more efficient in responding to information transmitted from the US market.
A Kalman-filter bias correction method applied to deterministic, ensemble averaged and probabilistic forecasts of surface ozone

Kalman filtering (KF) is used to estimate systematic errors in surface ozone forecasts. The KF updates its estimate of future ozone-concentration bias using past forecasts and observations. The optimum filter parameter is estimated via sensitivity analysis. KF performance is tested for deterministic, ensemble-averaged and probabilistic forecasts. Eight simulations were run for 56 d during summer 2004 over northeastern USA and southern Canada, with 358 ozone surface stations. KF improves forecasts of ozone-concentration magnitude (measured by root mean square error) and the ability to predict rare events (measured by the critical success index), for deterministic and ensemble-averaged forecasts. It improves the 24-h maximum ozone-concentration prediction (measured by the unpaired peak prediction accuracy), and improves the linear dependency and timing of forecasted and observed ozone concentration peaks (measured by a lead/lag correlation). KF also improves the predictive skill of probabilistic forecasts of concentration greater than thresholds of 10–50 ppbv, but degrades it for thresholds of 70–90 ppbv. KF reduces probabilistic forecast bias. The combination of KF and ensemble averaging presents a significant improvement for real-time ozone forecasting because KF reduces systematic errors while ensemble-averaging reduces random errors. When combined, they produce the best overall ozone forecast.
Air-Ground Temperature Coupling: Analysis by Means of Thermal Orbits

Long-term measurements of air, near-surface (soil) and ground temperatures that were collected between 1994 and 2013 at the drill site of the Geothermal Climate Change Observatory (Prague) were analyzed to understand the relationship between these variables and to reveal the mechanisms of heat transport at the land-atmosphere boundary layer. The 2D Thermal Orbit (TO) method was applied to detect regularities that were hidden in noisy and highly variable temperature time series. The results showed that the temperatures at shallow depths were affected by surface air temperature (SAT) variations on seasonal and annual time scales and could be regarded as an accurate proxy for low frequency temperature variations at the Earth’s surface. Only low-frequency/ high-amplitude surface temperature variations penetrate into the subsurface because of strong damping and the filtering effect of the ground surface. The borehole temperatures have good potential to capture temperature variations (periodicities) over long time scales that cannot be detected in the SAT series themselves because of the interference of higher frequency noise. The TO technique is a useful and powerful tool to quickly obtain diagnostics of the presence of long periodicities in borehole temperature time series.
Convergence of paths and approximation of fixed points of asymptotically nonexpansive mappings

Let E be a real Banach space with a uniformly Gâteaux differentiable norm possessing uniform normal structure, K be a nonempty closed convex and bounded subset of E, T : K → K be an asymptotically nonexpansive mapping with sequence {k n } n C [1, ∞). Let u E K be fixed, {t n } n C (0,1) be such that lim t n = 1, t n k n 0, there is a unique x n ∈ K such that x n = (1 - t n /k n )u + t n /k n T n x n . If, in addition, lim n→ ∞ ∥x n - Tx n ∥ = 0 and lim n→ ∞ ∥z n - Tz n ∥ = 0, then {z n } n converges strongly to a fixed point of T.
Biomass estimation of mixed forest landscape using a Fourier transform texture-based approach on very-high-resolution optical satellite imagery

Assessment of forest structure parameters via remote-sensing data offers the opportunity to examine stand parameters and to detect degradation and forest dynamics, such as above-ground biomass (AGB), at the landscape scale. While much attention has focused on spectrum-based and radar backscatter approaches for assessing forest biomass, texture-based approaches show strong promise. This work makes use of the novel Fourier transform textural ordination (FOTO) method, which involves the combination of 2D fast Fourier transform (FFT) and ordination through principal component analysis (PCA) for characterizing the structural and textural properties of vegetation. This technique presents the potential of Fourier transform approaches in estimating the different forest types, their stand structure, and biomass dynamics in the context of an oil palm–tropical forest landscape in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The method was applied to the recordings of very-high-resolution (VHR) Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre (SPOT) imagery of the study area. The technique proved useful in distinguishing between the forest types and developing individual biomass estimate models for various forest types. Results show that the FOTO method is able correctly to resolve high AGB values of various forest types. These findings are in agreement with the results based on ground measurements.
Synergy effects with mobile ( audio and ) video telephony

Despite the progress in technology, mobile video telephony (MVT) is not used on a large scale. In a quest to explain the latter, we adopted a user-centered instead of technological perspective, where the influence of screen size on the synergy of audio and video was under investigation. 54 participants conducted an experiment in which the intelligibility of a standardized video-listening test was determined for three screen sizes: mobile phone, PDA and PC monitor. A significant increase in intelligibility for the large compared to the small screens was found. Moreover, a signal-to-(white) noise ratio of -9dB significantly limited the intelligibility of the videos. With respect to the Quality of Service of MVT, two conclusions result: 1) the display size should be maximized and 2) already limited amounts of noise decreases intelligibility. Consequently, we emphasize the need for both technological development and user-centered research on MVT.
Responsive and Adaptive Design for Survey Optimization

Abstract We discuss an evidence-based approach to guiding real-time design decisions during the course of survey data collection. We call it responsive and adaptive design (RAD), a scientific framework driven by cost-quality tradeoff analysis and optimization that enables the most efficient production of high-quality data. The notion of RAD is not new; nor is it a silver bullet to resolve all the difficulties of complex survey design and challenges. RAD embraces precedents and variants of responsive design and adaptive design that survey designers and researchers have practiced over decades. In this paper, we present the four pillars of RAD: survey process data and auxiliary information, design features and interventions, explicit quality and cost metrics, and a quality-cost optimization tailored to survey strata. We discuss how these building blocks of RAD are addressed by articles published in the 2017 JOS special issue and this special section. It is a tale of the three perspectives filling in each other. We carry over each of these three perspectives to articulate the remaining challenges and opportunities for the advancement of RAD. We recommend several RAD ideas for future research, including survey-assisted population modeling, rigorous optimization strategies, and total survey cost modeling.
The incidence of postoperative infection in tertiary rural hospital

Background: Post-operative wound infections have been a problem since surgery was started as a treatment modality. Post-operative infections were responsible for 70-80% of deaths until Ignaz Semmelweis and Joseph Lister, in middle of 19 th century, introduced methods of infection control by use of antiseptics. Objective was to study the incidence of postoperative infection in tertiary rural hospital. Methods: A hospital based cross sectional study was carried out at Department of General Surgery, SRTR Rural Government Medical College from September 2015 to August 2016 among 1250 patients. Detailed history, complete and thorough clinical examination was carried out for each and every individual included in the present study. The patients are assessed pre operatively and post operatively. Results: It was found that the maximum cases belong to the age group of 26-35 years i.e. 28.32% followed by age group of 36-45 years (25.68%). The proportion of males was slightly more than females. The most common surgical procedure done was inguinal hernioplasty in 24.96% of cases followed by internal appendectomy in 22.24% of cases. Maximum study subjects had clean surgical procedure in 62.08% of cases. The highest incidence (19.46%) was found in the age group of above 56 years followed by age more than 56 years in 19.46% of cases. It was found that the incidence of SSI was more among females than males. It was found that the incidence of SSI was more among those with some co-morbidity than among those who doesn’t have any co-morbidity. Conclusions: Surgical infections particularly, surgical site infections, have always been a major complication of surgery and trauma. The overall prevalence of surgical site wound infection in the surgical ward was 10.4%.
No . 3 ( 2012 ) 485-494 THE EFFECT OF THE RATIO BETWEEN SUBSTRATE CONCENTRATION AND SPECIFIC AREA OF THE SUPPORT ON THE BIOMASS YIELD OF FUNGAL URFACE

A parameter, σ0 = S 0α (gcm−2), is defined. Where, S 0, (gcm−3) is the initial substrate concentration and α is the specific area of the solid support. This parameter helps comparing the biomass yields, YX/S , of fungical superficial cultures either with a fixed S 0 value and variable α or with fixed α and variable S 0. A. niger cultures followed the logistic equation with maximal surface density ρAM (gcm−2). Final average thickness, h, was measured by image analysis. The values of h, followed a saturation function of σ0 (R2 = 0.965) with extrapolated value hMAX ≈ 0.4 cm. But the volumetric density ρV = ρAMh was nearly constant ρV ≈ 0.046 ± 0.005 (gcm−3). The regression Y−1 x/S = Y−1 0 +σ0ε (R2 = 0.95) in the range, 5.9 mgcm−2 < σ0 < 62.8 mgcm−2 indicated, Y0 = 0.5, as the maximal biomass yield, and ε = ρv hMAX ≈ 0.02 gcm−2, as a measurement of the biosynthetic efficiency. This approach could be useful for the normalization and comparison of screening tests of fungal surface cultures with a variety of solid supports and culture conditions. For example, cultures with different S 0 values but, similar yield coefficient YX/S .
Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in normal and tumoral liver mouse cells

In previous studies have been reported a controversy between the reactivity of mono and polyclonal antibodies in different cells populations of the mouse. In this study we focus on the immunoreactivity of the monoclonal antibody VEGF (C1) in order to analyze its expression in two cell populations of regenerating mouse liver (hepatocytes and endothelial cells) after partial hepatectomy, and two transplanted hepatocarcinomas (ES2 and SS1K). C3H/S male mice were divided into two groups and kept under standard conditions for circadian periodicity analysis, one group were transplanted with the tumors into the subcutaneous tissue of the animal flank and the other group were subjected to a partial hepatectomy (70 %). The animals were killed by decapitation and exsanguination. Samples of regeneration liver, ES2 and SS1K tumors were processed for histology and immunostained with VEGF (C-1) mouse monoclonal IgG2a antibody. The results showed strongly immunopositivity reaction for VEGF either in hepatocytes or endothelial cells of mouse regenerating liver. We also demonstrated positive immunoreaction in both malignant tumors ES2 and SS1K endothelial and parenchymal cells. We conclude that the use of VEGF (C-1) mouse monoclonal IgG2a antibody can be applied successfully in experimental design leading to study processes involved in mice’s angiogenesis.
Antimicrobial Behavior of Intracellular Proteins from Two Moderately Halophilic Bacteria: Strain J31 of Terribacillus halophilus and Strain M3- 23 of Virgibacillus marismortui

In the present study, we firstly aimed to determine the ability of halophilic bacteria to improve tomato growth. as well as to detect the antimicrobial activities from two moderately halophilic bacteria strain M3-23 of Virgibacillus marismortui and strain J31 of Terribacillus halophilus exhibited by their intracellular proteins. The results showed that both bacteria were able to improve stem tomato growth by comparison of untreated tomato. The halophilic bacteria were also able to produce intracellular antifungal enzyme: glucanase produced by V. marismortui (1.74U/mg) and chitinase (39.39U/mg) produced by T. halophilus. Both chitinases were halotolerants (active in the presence of (0% to 30% NaCl (w/v)). Chitinase produced by strain J31 was alcaline (pH optimum pH 12), but chitinase from strain M3- 23 was acidic (pH 4 optimum) more than 90% and 80% of activities were retained in the presence of pH value from 4 to 12, respectively for strain J31 and M3-23. Both enzymes were thermotolerants; optimum temperature was 80°C and 90°C respectively for strain J31 and strain M3-23. Both strains have lysozyme activity and value ranging from 6.6 U/ml to 6.8 U/ml respectively for strain J31 and strain M3-23. On the whole, the most potent in vitro antifungal effect was demonstrated by intracellular compound produced by strain J31 compared to strain M3-23. This study, was the first showing the antimicrobial efficiency of moderately halophilic bacteria by means of their intracellular compounds, by means of the spore germination reduction and the destroy of mycelial growth of Botrytis cinerea, in vitro. The distinguishable characteristics of their intracellular halotolerant and thermotolerant chitinases make them as good candidates for biotechnological applications.
Title Global Well-Posedness of the 2 D Boussinesq Equations with Vertical Dissipation Permalink

We prove the global well-posedness of the two-dimensional Boussinesq equations with only vertical dissipation. The initial data (u0, θ0) are required to be only in the space X = {f ∈ L(R) | ∂xf ∈ L2(R2)}, and thus our result generalizes that in [C. Cao, J. Wu, Global regularity for the two-dimensional anisotropic Boussinesq equations with vertical dissipation, Arch. Rational Mech. Anal. , 208 (2013), 985–1004], where the initial data are assumed to be in H(R). The assumption on the initial data is at the minimal level that is required to guarantee the uniqueness of the solutions. A logarithmic type limiting Sobolev embedding inequality for the L(R) norm, in terms of anisotropic Sobolev norms, and a logarithmic type Gronwall inequality are established to obtain the global in time a priori estimates, which guarantee the local solution to be a global one.
Self-broadening of the hydrogen Balmer α line

Context. Profiles of hydrogen lines in stellar spectra are determined by the properties of the hydrogen atom and the structure of the star’s atmosphere. Hydrogen line profiles are therefore a very important diagnostic tool in stellar modeling. In particular they are widely used as effective temperature criterion for stellar atmospheres in the range Teff 5500–7000 K. Aims. In cool stars such as the Sun hydrogen is largely neutral and the electron density is low. The line center width at half maximum and the spectral energy distribution in the wings are determined primarily by collisions with hydrogen atoms due to their high relative density. This work aims to provide benchmark calculations of Balmer α based on recent H2 potentials. Methods. For the first time an accurate determination of the broadening of Balmer α by atomic hydrogen is made in a unified theory of collisional line profiles using ab initio calculations of molecular hydrogen potential energies and transition matrix elements among singlet and triplet electronic states. Results. We computed the shape, width and shift of the Balmer α line perturbed by neutral hydrogen and studied their dependence on temperature. We present results over the full range of temperatures from 3000 to 12 000 K needed for stellar spectra models. Conclusions. Our calculations lead to larger values than those obtained with the commonly used Ali & Griem (1966, Phys. Rev. A, 144, 366) theory and are closer to the recent calculations of Barklem et al. (2000a, AA 2000b, A&A, 363, 1091). We conclude that the line parameters are dependent on the sum of many contributing molecular transitions, each with a different temperature dependence, and we provide tables for Balmer α. The unified line shape theory with complete molecular potentials also predicts additional opacity in the far non-Lorentzian wing.