Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Semi-Continuous Heterophase Polymerization to Synthesize Nanocomposites of Poly(acrylic acid)-Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes

Two materials, pure poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and nanocomposites with a matrix of PAA and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as reinforcing agent were synthesized by semi-continuous heterophase polymerization (SHP). CNTs were prepared by a chemical vapor deposition technique and purified by steam. CNTs were characterized by a high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM) and Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies. Nanocomposites were prepared with: (i) purified CNTs (CNTsp) or (ii) purified and functionalized CNTs possessing an acyl chloride moiety (CNTsOCl). In both cases, the nanocomposites synthesis was carried out by in situ polymerization of acrylic acid (AA) by SHP. When CNTsOCl were used previously to the polymerization of AA, a series of specific amounts of CNTsOCl and AA were mixed to induce a chemical reaction between the carboxyl group of AA and the acyl chloride group of the CNTsOCl. The product, acrylic acid grafted to CNTsOCl (CNTsOCl-AA), was used to prepare the PAA-CNTsOCl nanocomposites. The PAA-CNTsOCl nanocomposites were characterized by HRSEM, Raman, FTIR and CPMAS 13C-NMR spectroscopies and also by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results reveal that PAA-CNTsOCl nanocomposites were formed by PAA macromolecules grafted to CNTsOCl. The kinetic behavior observed for the synthesis of pure PAA or PAA-CNTsOCl nanocomposites by SHP was similar. Latexes of PAA-CNTsOCl nanocomposites were stable without formation of a precipitate of CNTsOCl for over 1.5 years, while latex prepared with CNTsp and PAA, was unstable and formation of a precipitate of CNTsp was observed immediately after its preparation. PAA-CNTsp nanocomposites were characterized only by TGA. Moreover, latex of the PAA-CNTsp nanocomposite that did not precipitate immediately after its preparation, turned into a gel; this gelation never occurred with the PAA-CNTsOCl nanocomposite latex.
Numerical Study of Split T‐Micromixers

Three-dimensional numerical simulations were performed to study the liquid flow inside split T-type micromixers, investigating the effects of various operating and design parameters on the mixing process. While for small Reynolds numbers, the mixing efficiency of a split T-micromixer is larger than that of a simple T-micromixer, it was found that, when Re = 100, mixing is further enhanced by the formation of vortex pairs. This is not only a function of the flow rate, but it depends also on the geometry of the device and on the ratio between the flow rates in the inlet sub-channels. In general, at a given flow rate, vertical splits induce a much better mixing than horizontal splits, while the reverse may occur for strongly unequal inlet flow rates.
Studies on nepalese crude drugs. III. On the saponins of Hedera nepalensis K. Koch.

Twelve saponins, tentatively named HN-saponins A (I), B (II), D1 (III), D2 (IV), E (V), F (VI), H (VII), I (VIII), K (X), M (XII), N (XIII) and P (XIV), were isolated from the stem and bark of Hedera nepalensis K. KOCH. (Araliaceae). Compounds II, V, XII, XIII and XIV were identified as Kizuta saponins K3, K6, K10, K11 and K12, respectively, which have been isolated from Hedera rhombea BEAN. On the basis of chemical and physicochemical evidence, other saponins were identified as follows : I, a mixture of the β-D-glucopyranosides of campesterol (trace), stigmasterol and β-sitosterol ; III, hederagenin 3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside ; IV, oleanolic acid 3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-α-L-arabinopyranoside ; VI, 3-O-α-L-arabinopyranosyl-hederagenin 28-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl ester ; VII, hederagenin 28-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→4)-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→6)-β-D-glucopyranosyl ester ; VIII, oleanolic acid 3-O-β-D-glucuronopyranoside ; X, hederagenin 3-O-β-D-glucuronopyranoside. Compounds VI and VII were isolated from nature for the first time, though they had previously been derived from Akebia seed saponin D and Kizuta saponin K12, respectively, by partial hydrolysis.
SIRT2 (Sirtuin2) - An Emerging Regulator of Neuronal Degeneration

SIRT2(sirtuin 2) is one of the mammalian orthologs (sirtuins) of yeast silent information regulator 2 (Sir2) proteins that regulate cell differentiation and calorie restriction (Gan and Mucke, 2008; Nakagawa and Guarente, 2011 for review). In contrast to other family members of sirtuins, SIRT2 is mostly localized in the cytoplasm, and regulates posttranslational modifications of proteins such as microtubules via tubulin deacetylation (North et al., 2003)(Fig. 1). The enzyme catalyzes the hydrolysis of NAD+ and transfer of the acetyl moiety of acetylated alpha-tubulin to the resultant ADP-ribose, thus yielding free alpha-tubulin, 2'-O-acetylated ADP-ribose, and niconinamide. This stoichiometry indicates that its activities are modulated by the status of energy metabolism, and nicotinamide serves as an inhibitor. It has well been appreciated that SIRT2 plays a crucial role in cellular functions including oligodendrocyte differentiation (Li et al., 2007; Ji et al., 2011) and cell cycle (Dryden et al., 2003; Inoue et al., 2007) in non-neuronal cells. So far very few studies have ever addressed the question as to whether its expression in neurons shows any functional significance. We will briefly summarize our results on its functional involvement in axon degeneration, and discuss some of recent findings, highlighting an emerging role of SIRT2 in the regulation of neuronal degeneration and plasticity.
Complex formation equilibria in the binary Zn2+–oxalate and In3+–oxalate systems

The complex formation equilibria between oxalate and Zn2+ as well as between oxalate and In3+ have been investigated through a potentiometric methodology at 25 °C in 1, 2 and 3 M NaClO4, by using both glass and metal amalgam electrodes. Owing to the low solubility of the Zn(II) and In(III) oxalates, the analytical concentration of the metal ions was forced to be kept below the 5 mM level: constant current coulometry has been used in order to prepare solutions containing the metal ion at very low but accurately known total concentration. At each ionic strength, the formation constants of the complexes ZnC2O4(aq), Zn(C2O4)22−, InC2O4+, In(C2O4)2− and In(C2O4)33− have been determined. By using the specific ion interaction theory the constants have been extrapolated at zero ionic strength. Thus relevant interaction coefficients have been obtained, which appear in the mathematical development of the theory. Solutions, containing InC2O4+ or In(C2O4)2− as the prevailing metal-containing species, were prepared on the basis of the thermodynamic parameters determined, and were analysed through electrospray mass spectrometry. The fragmentation of the In(C2O4)(H2O)2+ and In(C2O4)2− complexes detected produced respectively the InH2O+ and InC2O4− species of In(I).
Thermal deactivation studies of coconut shell pyrolysis

The kinetics of pyrolysis of predried coconut shell sample has been investigated in the temperature range of 523 K to 1023 K in an inert atmosphere by captive sample technique. A kinetic scheme has been proposed where two parallel reactions are given for the production of volatiles and char. The reaction rate constants are found to decrease with high temperatures above 673 K due to chemical and physical changes of the reactant during devolatilisation reaction. Several deactivation models have been proposed to give good agreement with the experimental data. On a etudie la cinetique de la pyrolyse d'un echantillon de coquille de noix de coco presechee a des temperatures comprises entre 523 K et 1023 K dans une atmospheare inerte par une technique basee sur des echantillons captifs. On propose un schema cinetique dans lequel deux reactions paralleales sont utilisees pour la production de volatils et de produits de la carbonisation. On a trouve que les constantes de vitesse de reaction diminuaient avec des temperatures au-dessus de 673 K en raison des changements chimiques et physiques subis par le reactif lors de la reaction de devolatilisation. Plusieurs modeales de desactivation sont proposes en vue de trouver un bon accord avec les donnees experimentales.
Interface Engineering for InGaAs n-MOSFET Application Using Plasma PH3 – N2 Passivation

To realize high electron mobility metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) on In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As with unpinned Fermi level, a PH 3 -N 2 plasma treatment is proposed and preliminarily studied as a novel interface engineering technique, which passivates the InGaAs surface by depositing a phosphorus nitride (P x N y ) layer to suppress AsO x and free As. Comparative X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy studies reveal that a low pressure PH 3 -N 2 plasma treatment of In 0.5 Ga 0.47 As results in a smooth and atomically thin (~1 monolayer) P x N y film as a main product, with a P-for-As anion exchanged layer found beneath the P x N y layer in a practically wide range of process window. The process conditions affect the stoichiometry of the P x N y layer, the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen atoms incorporated, and the degree of the P-for-As exchange reaction. MOSFET devices integrated with metalorganic chemical vapor deposited HfO 2 /TaN metal gate on the passivated In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As substrates have been fabricated by the conventional self-aligned gate-first process and compared to nonpassivated MOSFETs. The excellent interface quality of P x N y passivated In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As/HfO 2 /TaN gate stack has been proven showing suppressed frequency dispersion in inversion capacitance by 82-94% compared to the nonpassivated device and a low subthreshold slope approaching the theoretical value of 60 mV/dec.
New Aspects on Spark Ignition

Fundamental investigations have been made on processes in common spark plugs useful for ignition of fuel-air mixtures. Development of spark discharge from the early beginnings as well as the initiation of chemical reaction have been studied experimentally by using very high frequency measuring technique, radiation measurements, spectroscopic methods and interferometry by a nitrogen laser (about 300 ps). The measurements have been carried out in non-reacting gases (N2, air) as well as in inflammable mixtures. A complete description will be given of the total process from the spark breakdown to the arc and glow-phase, resp. , in the millisecond range including temperature, local dimensions, energy distribution and radicals which can be formed. /SASI/
Rotational analysis of bands of the B1Σ—X1Σ system of gaseous MgS

The absorption spectrum of MgS has been observed for the first time, using a carbon tube furnace at about 2000°C. A search of the visible spectrum revealed only the single system, B1Σ—X1Σ already known in emission. Constants for 24Mg32S (cm–1) derived from the rotational analysis of six bands are as follows: [graphic ommitted]
COD REMOVAL FROM LANDFILL LEACHATE USING FENTON OXIDATION AND COAGULATION

A b s t r a c t The treatment of old municipal landfill leachate by Fenton oxidation, coagulation as well as coagulation combined with the Fenton oxidation was carried out on a laboratory scale. It has been found that organic pollutants in leachate could be suc cessfully removed by Fenton oxidation. The most advantageous dose of H 2O2 and Fe 2+ /H 2O2 ratio were 1350 mg/L and 0.2, respectively at pH 3 and reaction time of 45 minutes. In these operating conditions, the COD removal efficiency reached 61%. However, a 73.1% removal of COD was attained after 26 hours of Fenton oxidation. In coagulation process, the effi ciency was within the range of 39-45.8% using PIX as a coagulant at dose of 500 mg/L (pH 5 and 30 min of reaction time). The best result of COD removal (65.3%) was obtained in the combined treatment system including a coagulation process, followed by a Fenton oxidation. In this case, COD removal by coagulation was 45.8% while by Fenton oxidation only 19.5%. Therefore more experiments need to be done towards optimisation of such combined system. It concerns particularly the second treatment stage by Fenton oxidation. It was concluded that the Fenton oxidation or combined coagulation-Fenton oxidation system are very efficient and promising methods for treatment of non-biodegradable landfill leachate. S t r e s z c z e n i e Prowadzono oczyszczanie odciekow ze starej kwatery skladowiska odpadow komunalnych za pomocą odczynnika Fentona, procesu koagulacji, jak rowniez koagulacji polączonej z utlenianiem odczynnikiem Fentona w skali laboratoryjnej. Wykazano, ze zanieczyszczenia organiczne zawarte w odciekach byly efektywnie usuwane za pomocą utleniania odczyn nikiem Fentona. Najkorzystniejsza dawka H 2O2 i stosunek Fe 2+ /H 2O2 wynosily odpowiednio 1350 mg/L i 0.2 przy pH 3 i cza sie reakcji 45 minut. W tych warunkach stopien obnizenia wartości ChZT wynosil 61%. Po 26 godzinach efektywnośc ta zwiekszyla sie do 73.1%. W procesie koagulacji, efektywnośc obnizania ChZT zawierala sie w granicach 39-45.8% przy zas tosowaniu dawki PIX-u rownej 500 mg/L przy pH 5 i czasie reakcji 30 minut. Najlepszy wynik obnizenia wartości ChZT (65.3%) uzyskano w ukladzie kombinowanym (koagulacja-odczynnik Fentona). W tym przypadku efektywnośc obnizenia wartości ChZT w procesie koagulacji wynosila 45.8%, natomiast w procesie Fentona jedynie 19.5%. Dlatego niezbedne są dalsze badania nad optymalizacją takiego ukladu kombinowanego, a w szczegolności drugiego stopnia oczyszczania odczyn nikiem Fentona. Wyniki badan wykazaly, ze zastosowanie odczynnika Fentona bądź ukladu kombinowanego stanowi efek tywny i obiecujący sposob oczyszczania odciekow niepodatnych na biodegradacje.
Could iron nutrition status be evaluated through photosynthetic pigment changes

Abstract Iron deficiency decreases the amount of photosynthetic pigments in higher plants, and also results in characteristic changes in the relative photosynthetic pigment composition. Iron deficient plants exhibit a relative increase in xanthophylls, largely attributable to pigments within the xanthophyll cycle, violaxanthin, antheraxanthin, and zeaxanthin. Furthermore, the xanthophyll cycle functions in Fe‐deficient plants, but not in other yellow, carotenoid enriched‐materials, such as etiolated or senescing leaves. When Fe‐deficient leaves are illuminated, part of the violaxanthin is converted into antheraxanthin and zeaxanthin. When Fe‐deficient leaves are placed in the dark, the cycle reverts back to violaxanthin. In this paper we present further data on this cycle and discuss the possible relevance of pigment changes as an alternative mechanism for the dissipation of excess energy. The possibility of using characteristic pigment changes as a tool for monitoring Fe status in higher plants is discussed.
In-vivo optical imaging and spectroscopy of cerebral hemodynamics

Functional optical imaging techniques, such as diffuse optical imaging and spectroscopy and laser speckle imaging (LSI), were used in research and clinical settings to measure cerebral hemodynamics. In this thesis, theoretical and experimental developments of the techniques and their in-vivo applications ranging from small animals to adult humans are demonstrated. Near infrared diffuse optical techniques non-invasively measure hemoglobin concentrations, blood oxygen saturation (diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, DRS) and blood flow (diffuse correlation spectroscopy, DCS) in deep tissues, e.g. brain. A noise model was derived for DCS measurements. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) measured with DCS was validated with arterial-spin-labeling MRI. Threedimensional CBF tomography was obtained during cortical spreading depression from a rat using the optimized diffuse correlation tomographic method. Cerebral hemodynamics in newborn piglets after traumatic brain injury were continuously monitored optically for six hours to demonstrate the feasibility of using diffuse optical techniques as bedside patient monitors. Cerebral autoregulation in piglets and human stroke patients was demonstrated to be non-invasively assessable via the continuous DCS measurement. Significant differences of CBF responses to head-of-bead maneuvers were observed between the periand contra-infarct hemispheres in human stroke patients. A significant portion of patient population showed paradoxical CBF responses, indicating the importance of individualized stroke management. The development of a speckle noise model revealed the source of noise for LSI. LSI was then applied to study the acute functional recovery of the rat brain following transient brain ischemia. The spatial and temporal cerebral blood flow responses to functional stimulation were statistically quantified. The area of activation, and the temporal response to stimulation were found significantly altered by the ischemic insult, while the magnitude of the CBF response was preserved in the early hours following the ischemia. In total, this research has further developed the diffuse optical and laser speckle imaging techniques and translated their applications from laboratory to the clinic.
Evaluation of Sample Recovery of Odorous VOCs and Semi‐VOCs From Odor Bags, Sampling Canisters, Tenax TA Sorbent Tubes, and SPME

Odor samples collected in field research are complex mixtures of hundreds if not thousands of compounds. Research is needed to know how best to sample and analyze these compounds. The main objective of this research was to compare recoveries of a standard gas mixture of 11 odorous compounds from the Carboxen/PDMS 75 μm SPME fibers, PVF (Tedlar), FEP (Teflon), foil, and PET (Melinex) air sampling bags, sorbent Tenax TA tubes and standard 6 L Stabilizer™ sampling canisters after sample storage for 0.5, 24, and 120 (for sorbent tubes only) hrs at room temperature. The standard gas mixture consisted of 7 volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from acetic to hexanoic, and 4 semi‐VOCs including p‐cresol, indole, 4‐ethylphenol, and 2’‐aminoacetophenone with concentrations ranging from 5.1 ppb for indole to 1, 270 ppb for acetic acid. On average, SPME had the highest mean recovery for all 11 gases of 106.2%, and 98.3% for 0.5 and 24 hrs sample storage time, respectively. This was followed by the Tenax TA sorbent tubes (94.8.
Coating of Silica and Titania Aerosol Nanoparticles by Silver Vapor Condensation

Silica and titania aerosol nanoparticles are coated with silver through a physical coating process. The silver is evaporated in a tubular furnace flow system and condensed on the ceramic carrier particles with diameters of approximately 100 nm. The temperature gradient in the furnace system is optimized in order to avoid homogeneous nucleation of the silver. The generated ceramic–silver composite nanoparticles are characterized with aerosol measurements and analytical transmission electron microscopy. Two completely different particle morphologies are clearly observed, silver-decoration and composite doublet, with amorphous silica and crystalline rutile titania as the carrier particles, respectively. The former morphology consists of multiple silver nanodots with diameters of 1–10 nm, while in the latter morphology the silver had formed a larger structure with a size comparable to that of the carrier particle. Different shapes are observed in these larger silver structures, such as triangular, rodlike, and hexagonal. Differences in the silver particle migration on the surface of the silica and titania particles is proposed to be the key factor resulting into the two distinct particle morphologies. Copyright 2015 American Association for Aerosol Research
UniT: Unified Knowledge Transfer for Any-shot Object Detection and Segmentation

Methods for object detection and segmentation rely on large scale instance-level annotations for training, which are difficult and time-consuming to collect. Efforts to alleviate this look at varying degrees and quality of supervision. Weakly-supervised approaches draw on image-level labels to build detectors/segmentors, while zero/few-shot methods assume abundant instance-level data for a set of base classes, and none to a few examples for novel classes. This taxonomy has largely siloed algorithmic designs. In this work, we aim to bridge this divide by proposing an intuitive and unified semi-supervised model that is applicable to a range of supervision: from zero to a few instance-level samples per novel class. For base classes, our model learns a mapping from weakly-supervised to fully-supervised detectors/segmentors. By learning and leveraging visual and lingual similarities between the novel and base classes, we transfer those mappings to obtain detectors/segmentors for novel classes: refining them with a few novel class instance-level annotated samples, if available. The overall model is end-to-end trainable and highly flexible1. Through extensive experiments on MS- COCO [32] and Pascal VOC [14] benchmark datasets we show improved performance in a variety of settings.
Partial Feature Decorrelation for Non-I.I.D Image classification.

Most deep-learning-based image classification methods follow a consistency hypothesis that all samples are generated under an independent and identically distributed (I.I.D) setting. Such property can hardly be guaranteed in many real-world applications, resulting in an agnostic context distribution shift between training and testing environments. It can misguide the model overfit some statistical correlations between features in the training set. To address this problem, we present a novel Partial Feature Decorrelation Learning (PFDL) Algorithm, which jointly optimizes a feature decomposition network and the target image classification model. The feature decomposition network decomposes feature embedding into independent and correlated parts such that the correlations between features will be highlighted. Then, the correlated features are used to help learn a stable feature representation by decorrelating the highlighted correlations while optimizing the image classification model. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposal can improve the backbone model's accuracy in non-i.i. d image classification datasets.
Organic and inorganic fertilizers influence biomass production and esculin content in Cichorium intybus L.

The purpose of the current study was to optimize the carbohydrate sources and sucrose concentrations for mass clonal propagation of B. pallida. Sucrose in MS liquid medium consisting additives (ascorbic acid, 50mg/l + citric acid, 25 mg/l + cysteine, 25 mg/l) was found to be the best carbohydrate source for shoot induction and shoot multiplication. NAA 0.25mg/l in combination with TDZ 0.25mg/l in the medium exhibited high frequency shoot induction and NAA 0.25mg/l with BAP 1.0mg/l helped for further multiplication of quality shoots. IBA pulse treated shoots were rooted in the MS half strength agar gelled medium fortified with sucrose (2%) and glucose (1%). Rooted plantlets were well established in the green house with more than 95% survivability within four weeks period.