Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Instrumental and Sensory Quality Characteristics of 'Gala' Apples in Response to Prestorage Heat, Controlled Atmosphere, and Air Storage

ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS. Malus ×domestica, apple volatiles, flavor, low temperature storage, postharvest physiology, respiration ABSTRACT. Fruit quality, sensory characteristics, and volatiles produced by 'Gala' apples (Malus ×domestica Borkh.) were characterized following regular atmosphere (RA) storage without and with a prestorage heat treatment (38 °C for 4 days) or controlled atmosphere (CA) storage at 0 and 2 °C for 0 to 6 months plus 7-day shelf life at 20 °C. Static CA conditions were 0.7 kPa O2 plus 1.0 kPa CO2, 1.0 kPa O2 plus 1.0 kPa CO2, and 1.5 kPa O2 plus 2.5 kPa CO2. Most of the more abundant volatiles were esters; the rest were alcohols, an aldehyde, a ketone, and an aryl ether. Respiration and ethylene production rates, internal atmospheres of CO2 and ethylene, and volatile levels were reduced following CA storage compared with RA storage without and with a prestorage heat treatment. Magness-Taylor and compression firmness, titratable acidity, and sensory scores for firmness, sourness, apple-fruity flavor, and overall acceptability were higher for CA- than for RA- stored fruit. Soluble solids content and sensory scores for sweetness were similar among all treatments. Quality and sensory characteristics were generally similar in heated and nonheated RA-stored fruit, and between 0 and 2 °C in CA- and RA-stored fruit. While one CA regime had a higher CO2 concentration than the others tested, CA effects on quality and sensory characteristics were generally more pronounced at the lower O2 levels. Quality characteristics declined between 2 and 4 months storage. The results indicate that short-term CA storage can maintain instrumental and sensory quality of 'Gala' apples.
Climate change awareness, coping mechanisms and adaptation in poor rural coastal communities, Ben Tre Province, Vietnam

Ben Tre Province in Vietnam is ranked among the most vulnerable places in Asia to climate change events. We conducted a study to evaluate community knowledge, awareness, perception severity, coping mechanism and adaptation to climate change in Ben Tre Province. Community members were aware of changing climatic conditions. About 90% of respondents suffered losses from salt water intrusion. Households adopted coping mechanisms to deal with these changes. Age, education and previous affliction with climate change events influence knowledge, awareness, perception of severity and preparedness to manage climate change events. Local governments proposed adaptation strategies such as building of dikes to prevent salt water intrusion and developing of irrigation systems. Of the two adaptation strategies evaluated to losses from climate change, the sea dike system protected more land but the irrigating system was more cost effective in mitigating losses from climate change.
The effects of catchment land use on water quality and macroinvertebrate assemblages in Otara Creek, New Zealand

The effect of catchment land use on water quality and macroinvertebrate communities was examined by using data gathered during a 2004 reconnaissance of nine sites in the Otara Creek, New Zealand. Data collected included macroinvertebrate, water chemistry and sediments characteristics. Macroinvertebrate data were used in metric and index calculations. A total of 61 macroinvertebrate taxa, with 3032 total individuals, were identified from the macroinvertebrates samples collected from nine sites in Otara Creek. The greatest number of macroinvertebrate taxa was recorded within bush sites (mean>25), while the urban sites had the least number of taxa (mean=10). Pasture sites were intermediate with the mean>17. Taxa number differed significantly across land use. Mean macroinvertebrates abundance varied across the sites and land uses. The highest macroinvertebrates mean abundance was recorded in urban and pasture sites, while bush sites had significantly lower mean abundance. Physico-chemical parameters decreased from bush toward urban streams. Biotic indices were sensitive to changes in macroinvertebrates community structure across land uses with mean scores decreasing from bush to urban and pasture streams. Ordination of biological data showed a clear separation of bush from urban and pastures streams. Analysis of similarities revealed significant differences in macroinvertebrates between both stream groups and land-use groups. The observed macroinvertebrate assemblage pattern was best correlated with a single variable, conductivity, temperature, turbidity, nitrate and dissolved oxygen. The combination of these environmental variables best explained the changes in the macroinvertebrate assemblages between sites. This study demonstrates that catchment land use may significantly affect the water quality and macroinvertebrate communities in an ecosystem.
A systematic approach to the study of multicomponent polymerization kinetics : butyl acrylate/methyl methacrylate/vinyl acetate. III: Emulsion homopolymerization and copolymerization in a pilot plant reactor

A systematic study of the terpolymerization of butyl acrylate/methyl methacrylate/vinyl acetate (BA/MMA/VAc) is being conducted. In this third stage of the study,1 emulsion homopolymerizations and copolymerizations of the monomers comprising the BA/MMA/VAc system were performed in a 5 litre stainless steel pilot plant reactor, mainly for troubleshooting purposes and as a precursor to the detailed terpolymerization experiments to follow. First, a search for a stable emulsion recipe was conducted. At the same time, experimental procedures were established for the 5 litre pilot plant reactor along with product characterization techniques. Finally, selective emulsion homopolymerizations and copolymerizations were run for each of the three monomers and each combination of the three monomers, respectively. The polymers produced were characterized for conversion, composition, molecular weight and particle size. Although the emphasis of the experiments was to establish recipes, techniques, and procedures for emulsions terpolymerization, several useful observations were made regarding the kinetics even from these troubleshooting experiments.
Inhomogeneities in the Chemical Structure of Spruce Lignin

Summary Thioacidolysis, periodate oxidation and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) were used for the analysis of spruce lignin samples. The standard thioacidolysis method was modified by including a pre-swelling of the lignocellulosic sample before the reaction, and this gave a higher yield of monomer products. Middle lamella and compression wood lignin was found to contain a larger amount of oligomers after thioacidolysis than normal wood lignin. Analysis by thioacidolysis of a thermomechanical pulp (TMP) revealed that approximately 10% of the β-O-4 structures in the lignin were cleaved due to the mechanical grinding effect. From kraft pulp, the mixture of thioacidolysis products contains a major fraction having a considerably larger molecular mass than the products from spruce wood and TMP. The structure of this material is still unknown.
Risk and Health Effect of Boric Acid

Problem statement: Boric acid is a pesticide usually used to kill mites, fungi, plants and insect including fleas, termites, cockroaches and wood decay fungi. Besides, it was also used in many fields such as food preservative, in newborn baby’s nurseries and antiseptic. Many reports indicated that boric acid poisoning occurred due to the misuse of household product and illegal use of boric acid in food product. In this study, the concern issue was the usage of boric acid that may lead to boric acid poisoning. Approach: This review had shown some information for boric acid such as its usage, the existent method for detection of boric acid in food. Besides, this review also discussed about the toxicology and pharmacokinetic of boric acid and the health impact of boric acid on human and animal. Result: Previous studies showed that food products such as yellow noodles contain boric acid. The boric acid level in most foods was different among the factory and the production period. It is due to the lack of standard measurement during the processing. Conclusion: Since boric acid was harmful to human health and may cause poisoning, hence, the control and the awareness of the usage of boric acid especially in food should be increased. There are numerous methods available for quantification of boric acid such as mannitol titration technique, colorimetric method. Accordingly, the analysis of boric acid is essential.
Ion—Aerosol Attachment Coefficients and the Steady-State Charge Distribution on Aerosols in a Bipolar Ion Environment

Calculations of the ion—aerosol attachment coefficients are carried out for Fuchs' theory (as corrected in this paper) and for a theory which includes three body trapping. The resulting charge distributions agree quite well for particles with radii greater than about 0.007 μm. For smaller particles three-body trapping becomes increasingly important. Comparison of theoretically predicted charge distributions with recently measured charge distributions at radii smaller than 0.02 μm show good agreement. Asymmetric charging due to differences in the physical properties of positive and negative ions can result in large differences in the number of positively and negatively charged particles, particularly at larger radii. The asymmetric charge distribution is also shown to depend on the ionization rate. For the case when aerosol concentrations are comparable to the ion concentrations the effect of polydispersity on the charge distribution is difficult to predict. It is shown that a dominant size particle can es.
High‐resolution 1H NMR spectroscopy in organs and tissues using slow magic angle spinning

It is shown that high‐resolution 1H NMR spectra of intact excised tissues and organs can be obtained by rotating the sample slowly about an axis at the magic angle of 54°44′ with the external magnetic field. In this way tissue and cellular damage invoked by standard magic angle spinning (MAS) experiments, where spinning speeds of several kHz are typically employed, are minimized. Special RF pulse sequences, developed originally in solid state NMR, can be used to produce a spinning sideband‐free isotropic spectrum. In this article the first results are shown of the brain, heart, liver, gluteus muscle, and kidney excised from mice using the 2D‐phase‐altered spinning sidebands (PASS) technique and employing MAS spinning speeds of 43–125 Hz. It was found that with slow sample spinning similar, and in some cases even better, spectral resolutions are obtained as compared with fast MAS. Magn Reson Med 46:88–94, 2001. Published 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Relationship between water and nitrogen uptake in nitrate- and ammonium-supplied Phaseolus vulgaris L. plants

Sole ammonium supply provokes negative effects on dry-mass formation, leaf growth, and water uptake of ammonium-sensitive plants. To study the effects of N form on nutrient and water uptake and aquaporin expression, French bean plants were grown in a split-root system. Five treatments were compared: homogeneous nitrate (NN) and ammonium (AA) supply; spatially separated supply of nitrate and ammonium (NA); and half of the root system supplied with N-free nutrient solution, the other half with either nitrate (N0) or ammonium (A0). Ten days after onset of treatments, root dry mass (DM) and water-uptake rate (WUR) were significantly reduced under ammonium compared to nitrate supply. WUR from nitrate-supplied vessels was 80% higher than that from N-free nutrient solution, while WUR from N-free nutrient solution was 130% higher than that from ammonium-supplied vessels. Potassium uptake was lower under ammonium supply and the ratio of N : K uptake of treatment AA was significantly higher compared to others. High K uptake from N-free nutrient solution of A0 plants resulted in a ratio of N : K uptake comparable to nitrate-supplied plants, but shoot growth resembled that to plants under sole ammonium supply. Within 24 h after onset of treatments, expression of aquaporin was lower under ammonium compared to nitrate supply. From these data, it can be concluded that reduced root water transport under ammonium supply is directly related to aquaporin activity.
Pattern Formation of Two-Dimensional Smectic-A Filaments

Abstract Electric field-induced pattern formation of two-dimensional smectic-A filaments have been observed in the binary mixture of octyloxycyanobiphenyl and dodecyl alcohol. As the mixture is cooled below its transition temperature, the smectic-A phase grows into a collection of filaments directly from an isotropic phase. Without the electric-field application, these filaments, which have fixed radius, buckle three-dimensionally as they grow. When the liquid crystal samples are subjected to electric field, the three-dimensional patterns of smectic-A filaments are changed to two-dimensional periodic wavy patterns of the filaments. The two-dimensional pattern is formed on a plane perpendicular to electric field. To understand the electric field-induced two-dimensional pattern formation process, the shape equations for the filaments have been derived by a variation of the sum of Gibbs free energy, curvature elastic energy, surface energy, and dielectric energy. An analytical solution to the slope equations are derived, and shown to be in good agreement with the experimental observation.
catena-Poly­[[(di-2-pyridyl­amine)­silver(I)]-μ-nicotinato] and catena-poly­[[(di-2-pyridyl­amine)silver(I)]-μ-2,6-di­hydroxy­benzoato]

In catena-poly[[(di-2-pyridylamine-kappa(2)N,N')silver(I)]-mu-nicotinato-kappa(2)N:O], [Ag(C(6)H(4)NO(2))(C(10)H(9)N(3))](n), the Ag(I) atom is tetracoordinated by two N atoms from the di-2-pyridylamine (BPA) ligand [Ag-N = 2.3785 (18) and 2.3298 (18) angstroms] and by one N atom and one carboxylate O atom from nicotinate ligands [Ag-N = 2.2827 (15) angstroms and Ag-O = 2.3636 (14) angstroms]. Bridging by nicotinate N and O atoms generates a polymeric chain structure, which extends along [100]. The carboxyl O atom not bonded to the Ag atom takes part in an intrachain C-H.O hydrogen bond, further stabilizing the chain. Pairs of chains are linked by N-H.O hydrogen bonds to generate ribbons. There are no pi-pi interactions in this complex. In catena-poly[[(di-2-pyridylamine-kappa(2)N,N')silver(I)]-mu-2,6-dihydroxybenzoato-kappa(2)O(1):O(2)], [Ag(C(7)H(5)O(4))(C(10)H(9)N(3))](n), the Ag(I) atom has a distorted tetrahedral coordination, with three strong bonds to two pyridine N atoms from the BPA ligand [Ag-N = 2.286 (5) and 2.320 (5) angstroms] and to one carboxylate O atom from the 2,6-dihydroxybenzoate ligand [Ag-O = 2.222 (4) angstroms]; the fourth, weaker, Ag-atom coordination is to one of the phenol O atoms [Ag.O = 2.703 (4) angstroms] of an adjacent moiety, and this interaction generates a polymeric chain along [100]. Pairs of chains are linked about inversion centers by N-H.O hydrogen bonds to form ribbons, within which there are pi-pi interactions. The ribbons are linked about inversion centers by pairs of C-H.O hydrogen bonds and additional pi-pi interactions between inversion-related pairs of 2,6-dihydroxybenzoate ligands to generate a three-dimensional network.
Thermodynamic properties of TaCr2 and NbCr2

The heat capacities of the Laves phases TaCr2 and NbCr2 have been measured between 10 and 350 K and the thermodynamic functions in this temperature range derived. The (heat capacity, temperature) curves have a simple sigmoid shape. The dissociation pressure of the NbCr2 phase at 1 472 K has also been determined experimentally. Combination of the present results with earlier experimental work on the heats and Gibbs energies of formation of TaCr2 shows that the entropy at 0 K is zero within the estimated experimental error of ±0.4 cal/g atom K. Published work on other Laves phases, such as CaMg2, and MgNi2 and KNa2, also show a very small “frozen-in” disorder at 0 K. The heats of formation of TaCr2 and NbCr2 at 298 K are –2.15 ± 0.2 and –1.67 ± 0.25 kcal/g atom, respectively. The entropies of formation are compared with other properties of Laves phases.
model for calculating the viscosity of natural iron-bearing silicate melts over a wide range of temperatures, pressures, oxygen fugacites, and compositions

Abstract A new general model that takes into account the pressure and redox state effect is presented to calculate melt viscosities of natural Fe-bearing melts. This new model is applicable to melts that span a wide range of temperatures (from 733 to 1873 K), pressures (0.001-15 kbar), H2O content (from 0 to 12.3 wt%), and compositions (from ultramafic, mafic to silicic melts). The accuracy of the model is calculated to be ±0.23 log units of viscosity, which is within or close to experimental uncertainty. The transport properties, including glass transition temperature and melt fragility, can also be calculated from this model. A spreadsheet to calculate the viscosity is provided in an Electronic Supplement.
Estimation of Ion-Pairing Constants in Plasticized Poly(vinyl chloride) Membranes Using Segmented Sandwich Membranes Technique

Segmented sandwich membrane method was used to determine ion-pairing constants for four cationic sites: tris-(2,3,4-dodecyloxy)benzenetrimethylammonium, tris-(2,3,4-dodecyloxy)benzenedimethyloctylammonium, tris-(2,3,4-dodecyloxy)benzenemethyldioctylammonium, and dimethyldioctadecylammonium with chloride, bromide, nitrate, benzene sulfonate, trichloroacetate, thiocyanate, perchlorate and picrate, as well as ion-pairing constants for two anionic sites: tetraphenylborate and tris-(2,3,4-octyloxy)benzenesulfonate with dimedrol, quinine, anapriline, and amantadine cations in poly(vinyl chloride) membranes plasticized with 2-nitrophenyl octyl ether. Ion association constants of anions with quaternary ammonium sites regularly increase from picrate to chloride along with reduction of the anion radius and with improvement of site exchanger center steric accessibility. Ion association constants of amine cations with tris-(2,3,4-octyloxy)benzenesulfonate are several orders higher than those with tetraphenylborate and regularly increase from tertiary amine to primary one.
Comparison of Methanol, Ethanol, and Methane as Electron Donors for Denitrification

The results of denitrification assays using three electron donor sources—methanol, ethanol, and methane— are presented and discussed based on the apparent kinetic parameters estimated from the experimental data. The research was carried out in batch reactors fed with synthetic wastewater simulating nitrified effluents from domestic sewage treatment plants. The most effective electron donor was ethanol, which completely removed nitrite and nitrate in 50 min. The same efficiency was achieved by feeding the reactors with methanol and methane for 120 and 315 min, respectively. The kinetic model of two reactions in series, having nitrite as the intermediate compound, adequately represented the denitrification process in the reactors fed with methanol and ethanol. To apply this model, the conversions of nitrate-to-nitrite and of nitrite-to-molecular nitrogen were represented, respectively, by first- and zero-order equations. In both the methanol and ethanol experiments, nitrite conversion was the limiting step .
The Structures and Hydrogen Bonding Networks in Crystals of Alkylenediammonium Salts of Galactaric Acid

The crystal structures of five alkylenediammonium galactarates (1– 5) were determined because the information from these structures may provide some insight into the solid state structures of the poly(alkylene galactaramides) derived from these salts. In each case the meso-galactarate anion is in the extended conformation. In four out of the five cases associations between galactarate units led to alternating layers of anions and cations rather than the expected alternation of anion and cation found in ionic solids. All five salts display extensive hydrogen bonding involving ammonium and carboxylate groups and in some cases hydroxyl groups of the anion.
Thermodynamics of High-Pressure Adsorption of Argon, Nitrogen, and Methane on Microporous Adsorbents

Adsorption equilibria of argon, nitrogen, and methane on the 13X molecular sieve and the AS activated carbon were measured at five temperatures over a wide pressure range from 0.1 to 20 MPa using a microbalance. From experimental adsorption isotherms, which are excess functions, the absolute isotherms were calculated using equations of state for a real gas phase. Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations and density functional theory calculations were carried out in order to explain specific features of the resulting isotherms. Different thermodynamic functions evaluated from the excess and absolute adsorption isotherms were analyzed over a wide pressure range at the average temperature of the range studied.
Cross-Modal Contrastive Learning of Representations for Navigation Using Lightweight, Low-Cost Millimeter Wave Radar for Adverse Environmental Conditions

Deep reinforcement learning (RL), where the agent learns from mistakes, has been successfully applied to a variety of tasks. With the aim of learning collision-free policies for unmanned vehicles, deep RL has been used for training with various types of data, such as colored images, depth images, and LiDAR point clouds, without the use of classic map–localize–plan approaches. However, existing methods are limited by their reliance on cameras and LiDAR devices, which have degraded sensing under adverse environmental conditions (e.g., smoky environments). In response, we propose the use of single-chip millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar, which is lightweight and inexpensive, for learning-based autonomous navigation. However, because mmWave radar signals are often noisy and sparse, we propose a cross-modal contrastive learning of representations (CM-CLR) method that maximizes the agreement between mmWave radar data and LiDAR data in the training stage. We evaluated our method in real-world robot compared with 1) a method with two separate networks using cross-modal generative reconstruction and an RL policy and 2) a baseline RL policy without cross-modal representations. Our proposed end-to-end deep RL policy with contrastive learning successfully navigated the robot through smoke-filled maze environments and achieved better performance compared with generative reconstruction methods, in which noisy artifact walls or obstacles were produced. All pretrained models and hardware settings are open access for reproducing this study and can be obtained at https://arg-nctu.github. io/projects/deeprl-mmWave.html.
Unchain the Search Space with Hierarchical Differentiable Architecture Search

Differentiable architecture search (DAS) has made great progress in searching for high-performance architectures with reduced computational cost. However, DAS-based methods mainly focus on searching for a repeatable cell structure, which is then stacked sequentially in multiple stages to form the networks. This configuration significantly reduces the search space, and ignores the importance of connections between the cells. To overcome this limitation, in this paper, we propose a Hierarchical Differentiable Architecture Search (H-DAS) that performs architecture search both at the cell level and at the stage level. Specifically, the cell-level search space is relaxed so that the networks can learn stage-specific cell structures. For the stage-level search, we systematically study the architectures of stages, including the number of cells in each stage and the connections between the cells. Based on insightful observations, we design several search rules and losses, and mange to search for better stage-level architectures. Such hierarchical search space greatly improves the performance of the networks without introducing expensive search cost. Extensive experiments on CIFAR10 and ImageNet demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed H-DAS. Moreover, the searched stage-level architectures can be combined with the cell structures searched by existing DAS methods to further boost the performance. Code is available at: https://github.com/msight-tech/research-HDAS