Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Agents of Change: Sustainability and Industry Trade Associations -- An Evolving Value Proposition

This work looks at the role of industry trade associations in the sustainability arena and probes the questions around how far these organizations have come along a business and society trajectory. Five industry associations, composed of global companies worth over $4.3 trillion incorporate membership revenues, form the basis of the case study, including: CEFIC, IFA, CGF, IFPMA, Crop Life. The conclusions suggest that as trade associations advance their activities towards sustainability goals, they will not only increase their ability to affect important global policy, they will also increase their value proposition for their member companies. In the past, one would typically not look to industry trade associations as having a hand in helping tackle some of society’s big problems. In fact, many trade associations had rather bleak track records when it came to advancing sustainability. Interviews and insights show a new energy and new investment of industry groups in addressing some of society’s greatest challenges. We see 'coalitions of the willing' converge around common goals and increasingly becoming instrumental players in key global policy debates. The research captures the activities of trade associations as “force multipliers”, working to: - Facilitate dialogue on global policy to tackle critical problems around, for example, nutrition, health, climate and employment; - Convene best-practice platforms to improve standards and performance; - Collaborate on research to fast-track innovations for new technologies, processes, products, and; - Develop tools and training programs to advance sustainability. Of interest to the corporate membership is how 'visible rivals’ work alongside their competition, as well as customers and suppliers with shared aims around social purpose and environmental stewardship. Interviews and discussions with key stakeholders highlight industry trade associations’ ability to: • attract resources and tackle larger challenges than companies can address on their own; • operate on longer time horizons than companies (driven by quarterly reports) or governments (driven by the daily news cycle); • plan and develop strategic partnerships; • identify essential resources, implement and, increasingly, evaluate programs; • predict megatrends and to shape those trends and, • steer their industry away from reactivity and toward a positive future vision that resonates with governments and the general public.
Brazilian Geological Sandstone Characterization and its Utilization as Aggregate in Structural Concrete

The sandstone extraction is an essential activity to the production of specific products. It is employed in the civil construction sector. However, there is still a deficiency in physical and geological characterization. This research develops two experiments in the sandstone matrix located in São Carlos region (City of São Paulo State – Brazil). The first experiment is related to the geological aspect of the specific sandstone. It identified the geographic location and investigated the porosity and absorption rates of the Brazilian sandstone rock, besides verifying its compressive strength. The purpose was to identify and evaluate possibilities of sandstone use in the structural concrete composition. The second experiment tested the concrete strength with this aggregate. Some quantities of crushed sandstone were used as fine aggregate in the manufactured concrete. The experiments presented sandstone properties and sandstone aggregate possibilities in concrete composition. The present study is a result of an undergraduate project, aiming to contribute with new information on the Brazilian sandstone characterization and concrete strength application with the sedimentary aggregate. This work showed some possibilities to use this type of yellow and red sandstone as aggregate.
Power quality characteristics of rural electric secondary power systems

The occurrence of power supply anomalies (e.g., voltage sags, surges and swells, sustained under and over voltages, etc.) originating on the secondary side of rural facilities and high utilization voltage levels can often damage and/or disrupt rural computerized processes, electric equipment and interrupt loads, a costly issue for rural society. This paper attempts to answer several questions concerning the frequency and duration of voltage sags, swells and surges posed by rural customers and reveal the statistical characteristics of the utilization voltage levels at rural sites. The answers to these questions are based on the national survey results of the frequency and duration of voltage sags and surges at rural sites monitored at their utilization voltage levels. The survey results provide a knowledge base for monitoring, operating electric equipment, designing and utilizing power quality mitigating technologies in rural electric environments.
A critical review of household recycling barriers in the United Kingdom

The UK recycling rate fluctuates between 45% and 47% and has consistently failed to meet the 65% target set by the post-Brexit Resource and Waste Strategy. Understanding the issues surrounding the low recycling rate in metropolitan cities in the United Kingdom will help to overcome these recycling challenges. The review examines the current situation with regard to the recycling rate and tonnage of waste produced in the United Kingdom based on available secondary waste flow data and explores different barriers related to household recycling. Many areas giving rise to the recycling challenges have been identified, including waste policy constraints, lack of effective communication, public engagement, physical barriers, service constraints, human factors and socio-economic barriers. The literature review reveals that factors such as waste policy, communication and physical factors were the most important aspects in influencing recycling rate or output. It is concluded that a multi-dimension intervention is required, which includes a thorough review of waste policy, a more stringent enforcement, an improved communication strategy and a more integrated planning development policy to mitigate issues affecting the United Kingdom’s low recycling rate or output. This approach will propel the local authorities to launch or initiate effective recycling management and to put in place the required infrastructure to facilitate effective recycling activities.
Controlled-Endwall-Flow Blading for Multistage Axial Compressor Rotor

This research aims to develop an advanced technology of highly loaded axial compressor stages with high efficiency and sufficient surge margin. To improve endwall boundary layer flows which lead to energy loss and instability at an operation of low flow rate, the Controlled-Endwall-Flow (CEF) rotor blades were designed and tested in the low speed rotating cascade facility of Kyushu University. The CEF rotor blades have three distinctive features: the leading-edge sweep near hub and casing wall, the leading-edge bend near the casing, and the same exit metal angle of blade evaluated by a conventional design method. Mechanical strength of the blade was verified by a numerical simulation at a high speed condition. The baseline rotor blades were designed under the same design condition and tested to compare with the CEF rotor. The results showed that the maximum stage efficiency of the CEF rotor was higher by 0.7 percent and the increase in surge margin was more than 20 percent in comparison with the baseline rotor. The results of both internal flow survey and 3D Navier-Stokes analysis showed that improvement of the overall stage performance resulted from activation of the endwall boundary layers, and suggested that further improvement might be expected by combination of end-bend stator blades and a highly loaded axial compressor stage could be developed by use of the CEF rotor.Copyright © 1997 by ASME
Quantitative understanding of inversion-layer capacitance in Si MOSFET's

The inversion-layer capacitance (C/sub inv/) in n-channel Si MOSFET's is studied experimentally and theoretically with emphasis on the surface carrier concentration (N/sub s/) dependence of C/sub inv/, which is important in the quantitative description of the inversion-layer capacitance. Based on the experimental N/sub s/ and temperature dependencies, the physical origin of C/sub inv/ is discussed. It is shown that, at lower N/sub s/, C/sub inv/ is determined by the finite effective density of states, while, at higher N/sub s/ C/sub inv/ is determined quantum mechanically by the finite inversion-layer thickness. Also, the results of the surface orientation dependence of C/sub inv/ are presented as the first direct evidence for the fact that surface quantization plays a significant role in C/sub inv/ even at room temperature. The self-consistent Poisson-Schrodinger calculation of C/sub inv/ is performed and found to represent the experimental results accurately. The influence of C/sub inv/ on the gate capacitance is discussed in terms of the device scaling on basis of the experimental and calculated values of C/sub inv/.
The Dynamic Response of Railway Track With Unsupported Sleepers

The dynamic response of railway track with a section of unsupported sleepers is examined experimentally and a mathematical model of such track is presented. The principal function of ballast at frequencies above 100 Hz is to damp vibration of the track while the resilience of the railpad attenuates forces transmitted to the sleeper. In the absence of ballast, concrete sleepers are likely to crack if there are modest wheel or railhead irregularities.
Miniature photometric stereo system for textile surface structure reconstruction

In this work a miniature photometric stereo system is presented, targeting the three-dimensional structural reconstruction of various fabric types. This is a supportive module to a robot system, attempting to solve the well known “laundry problem”. The miniature device has been designed for mounting onto the robot gripper. It is composed of a low-cost off-the-shelf camera, operating in macro mode, and eight light emitting diodes. The synchronization between image acquisition and lighting direction is controlled by an Arduino Nano board and software triggering. The ambient light has been addressed by a cylindrical enclosure. The direction of illumination is recovered by locating the reflection or the brightest point on a mirror sphere, while a flatfielding process compensates for the non-uniform illumination. For the evaluation of this prototype, the classical photometric stereo methodology has been used. The preliminary results on a large number of textiles are very promising for the successful integration of the miniature module to the robot system. The required interaction with the robot is implemented through the estimation of the Brenner’s focus measure. This metric successfully assesses the focus quality with reduced time requirements in comparison to other well accepted focus metrics. Besides the targeting application, the small size of the developed system makes it a very promising candidate for applications with space restrictions, like the quality control in industrial production lines or object recognition based on structural information and in applications where easiness in operation and light-weight are required, like those in the Biomedical field, and especially in dermatology.
Vertical earthquake response of megawatt‐sized wind turbine with soil‐structure interaction effects

The dynamic response of a wind turbine on monopile is studied under horizontal and vertical earthquake excitations. The analyses are carried out using the finite element program SAP2000. The finite element model of the structure is verified against the results of shake table tests, and the earthquake response of the soil model is verified against analytical solutions of the steady‐state response of homogeneous strata. The focus of the analyses in this paper is the vertical earthquake response of wind turbines including the soil‐structure interaction effects. The analyses are carried out for both a non‐homogeneous stratum and a deep soil using the three‐step method. In addition, a procedure is implemented which allows one to perform coupled soil‐structure interaction analyses by properly tuning the damping in the tower structure. The analyses show amplification of the ground surface acceleration to the top of the tower by a factor of two. These accelerations are capable of causing damage in the turbine and the tower structure, or malfunctioning of the turbine after the earthquake; therefore, vertical earthquake excitation is considered a potential critical loading in design of wind turbines even in low‐to‐moderate seismic areas. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Malicious Packet Loss During Routing Misbehavior-Identification

3 Abstract: Defending the data from malicious attacks is an important yet demanding security issue. In this paper, we describe clarification for such network that protects both the routing and data forwarding functions. It guards the data by detecting and reacting to the malicious nodes. Although methods have been proposed to mitigate routing misbehavior in mobile ad hoc networks, they cannot be directly applied to DTNs because of the flashing connectivity between nodes. To overcome the problem, we propose a scheme to detect packet dropping in DTNs. In our proposal, a node is required to keep a few signed contact records of its previous contacts, based on which the next contacted node can detect if the node has dropped any packet. Since unruly nodes may misreport their contact records to avoid being detected, a small part of each contact record is scattered to a certain number of witness nodes, which can collect appropriate contact records and detect the misbehaving nodes. We address a scheme to mitigate routing misbehavior by off-putting the number of packets forwarded to the misbehaving nodes. Trace-driven simulations show that our solutions are efficient and can effectively mitigate routing misbehavior.
Experimental Investigation of Environmental Hydraulic Parameters for Dual Mixed Media Biofilter for Greywater Treatment

Laboratory scale model of DMMBF (dual mixed media biofilter) were designed and installed in Al-Mustansiriya University Environmental Hydraulic Lab. Experiments were conducted using two mixed layers through PVR column—2.2 m height and 300 mm diameter. The first mixed media filter of depth 640mm mixed of sand, rice husk and granular activated carbon. The percentage volume mix is 1:1:1. While the other mixed media of depth 740 mm, consisting of coal, crash porcelinaite, rock and granite with equally percentage volume. Fifty samples were collected during the experiments, which was spread over a period of forty two weeks. The obtained results indicate that when the flow loading raised from 0.15 L/min to 2.7 L/min, the removal efficiency of BOD decreased 8%-11%, and the removal efficiency of COD deceased 3%-4%, while the removal efficiency of turbidity increased with the decreasing of hydraulic loading. The results showed that the removal efficiency of turbidity is more than 95% at the lower discharge (0.15 L/min). Therefore, infiltration should be conservatively designed using low loading rates.
A remote sensing‐based three‐source energy balance model to improve global estimations of evapotranspiration in semi‐arid tree‐grass ecosystems

It is well documented that energy balance and other remote sensing‐based evapotranspiration (ET) models face greater uncertainty over water‐limited tree‐grass ecosystems (TGEs), representing nearly 1/6th of the global land surface. Their dual vegetation strata, the grass‐dominated understory and tree‐dominated overstory, make for distinct structural, physiological and phenological characteristics, which challenge models compared to more homogeneous and energy‐limited ecosystems. Along with this, the contribution of grasses and trees to total transpiration (T), along with their different climatic drivers, is still largely unknown nor quantified in TGEs. This study proposes a thermal‐based three‐source energy balance (3SEB) model, accommodating an additional vegetation source within the well‐known two‐source energy balance (TSEB) model. The model was implemented at both tower and continental scales using eddy‐covariance (EC) TGE sites, with variable tree canopy cover and rainfall (P) regimes and Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) images. 3SEB robustly simulated latent heat (LE) and related energy fluxes in all sites (Tower: LE RMSD ~60 W/m2; MSG: LE RMSD ~90 W/m2), improving over both TSEB and seasonally changing TSEB (TSEB‐2S) models. In addition, 3SEB inherently partitions water fluxes between the tree, grass and soil sources. The modelled T correlated well with EC T estimates (r > .76), derived from a machine learning ET partitioning method. The T/ET was found positively related to both P and leaf area index, especially compared to the decomposed grass understory T/ET. However, trees and grasses had contrasting relations with respect to monthly P. These results demonstrate the importance in decomposing total ET into the different vegetation sources, as they have distinct climatic drivers, and hence, different relations to seasonal water availability. These promising results improved ET and energy flux estimations over complex TGEs, which may contribute to enhance global drought monitoring and understanding, and their responses to climate change feedbacks.
Evaluating the Efficiency of Selenium Nanoparticles in the Production of Decellularized Neural Scaffold and the Ability to Preserve Stem Cells Cultured on Them: A Laboratory Study

Background and Objectives: Selenium is a trace element and its nanoparticle has antimicrobial activity and due to their low toxicity and excellent biological performance, it has many biological applications in tissue engineering. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of selenium nanoparticles on stem cell interaction on rat decellularized sciatic nerve scaffolds. Materials and Methods: In this laboratory study, the effect of selenium nanoparticles on stem cell interaction on rat decellularized sciatic nerve scaffold, scaffolds were prepared using Sondell decellularizaton method and stored in PBS solution containing antibiotics. Biomechanical and histological evaluations of scaffolds were examined using the light microscope. In the next step, adipose stem cells were seeded on the scaffold and the viability of the cells on the scaffold in the presence of selenium nanoparticles were measured by MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assay. Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's post hoc test. Results: The tensile test showed that after decellularization, extracellular matrix components such as collagen, laminin, and elastin were retained in the scaffold. Also, DNA content was significantly reduced in the scaffold group (p<0.01). The results of MTT test showed that selenium nanoparticles had no toxicity on stem cells cultured on the scaffold. Conclusion: The biocompatibility of scaffolds and the viability of stem cells treated with selenium nanoparticles were not significantly different from the control group. Therefore, it can be evaluated as a reinforcing factor to increase the efficiency of scaffolds for the use in regeneration of the nerve lesions.
Expressing unconscious general knowledge using Chevreul’s pendulum

ABSTRACT Can unconscious knowledge be elicited by ideomotor action when the knowledge fails to be elicited by verbal reports? Using an Ouija board, previous research found ideomotor action produced substantial accuracy for general knowledge questions previously rated as pure “guesses,” and for which later verbal reports produced accuracy close to chance. We replicated the procedure substituting Chevreul’s pendulum rather than an Ouija board. We found that questions whose answer was previously rated as a guess, were answered equally well and at about chance levels by ideomotor action and verbal responses. Thus, one cannot presume that ideomotor action rather than verbal report will allow greater knowledge to be expressed in any particular context, including therefore the hypnotherapy one. An ideomotor action may elicit only conscious knowledge. Further research is recommended to clarify this important issue.
Endoscopic Sinus Surgery for Cystic Fibrosis: Variables Influencing Sinonasal and Pulmonary Outcomes

Background Endoscopic sinus surgery is a well-established treatment for chronic rhinosinusitis in patients with cystic fibrosis, though its benefits seem to be limited to improving sinonasal symptoms rather than affecting lung function. Objective This study aims to identify clinical and demographic factors that may influence sinonasal and pulmonary outcomes after surgery. Methods This is a six-year retrospective analysis of adult cystic fibrosis patients who underwent endoscopic sinus surgery at a tertiary care center. 22-Item Sino-Nasal Outcomes Test scores and mean forced expiratory volume data at baseline and three to six months after surgery were analyzed using t-test and stepwise regression with the following covariates: age, gender, lung transplant, revision surgery, and pseudomonas on sinus culture. Results 119 surgeries were performed on 88 patients, with 69% on patients with transplant. The overall mean (Standard Deviation) improvement in 22-Item Sino-Nasal Outcomes Test score was 9.42 (18.15) for the entire cohort (P < .001). Pseudomonas on culture was associated with less improvement in sinonasal scores (P = .002). There was no significant change in forced expiratory volume after surgery (P = .94). Revision surgery (P = .004) and older age (P = .007) were associated with less favorable change of pulmonary function on stepwise regression (P = .002). There was no correlation between change in sinonasal scores and pulmonary function. Conclusion Although surgery was associated with a clinically and statistically significant improvement in sinonasal scores in cystic fibrosis patients, patients with pseudomonas may experience less benefit. Revision surgery and older age may be associated with less favorable pulmonary outcomes. Awareness of such variables may help when deciding which cystic fibrosis patients should undergo surgery.
Challenges and Strategies in Designing Trans-National Learning Team Projects in Virtual Worlds

In this chapter we discuss an exploration of the ways that virtual worlds can facilitate cross-cultural collaboration in higher education, and the benefits, issues, and challenges in designing and implementing cross-national collaborative learning activities in virtual worlds. The case involves graduate students in Israel and the United States working together in virtual teams in Second Life (SL) to design a learning activity that uses the affordance of a 3D virtual environment. The goal of this collaborative learning activity was to enable the students to understand the learning strategies as well as the potential benefits and limitations of virtual worlds like Second Life to support collaborative learning. The results provide insights on cognitive, social, and teaching presence factors in virtual world learning activities.