Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AN ALKALI–CATALYZED TRANSESTERIFICATION PROCESS FOR HIGH FREE FATTY ACID WASTE OILS

Vegetable oil used for deep–frying processes becomes a contaminating waste product after use. It represents a problem for disposal and for wastewater systems. Among the possibilities for recycling of used vegetable oil, conversion into biofuel is very interesting and promising. In this work, a comparison between biofuels from waste vegetable oils from several countries was carried out. The raw materials used were the most common waste oils from Brazil (palm oil and hydrogenated fat), Spain (olive oil), and Germany (mixture of several vegetable oils). The transesterification process was carried out in two steps, using a stoichiometric amount of methanol and the necessary amount of KOH, supplemented with the exact amount of KOH to neutralize acidity. Both reactions were completed in 30 min. The temperature was in the range of 40 ³ C to 60 ³ C. Several parameters were analyzed, including density, viscosity, water content, and energy content. Results revealed that free fatty acid (FFA) content is a key parameter for determining the viability of the waste vegetable oil transesterification process. To carry the reaction to completion, an FFA value lower than 3% is needed; the higher the acidity of the oil, the smaller the conversion efficiency. Both excess as well as insufficient amount of catalyst may cause soap production. All methyl esters had adequate density values, but slightly higher viscosity values, which could contribute to incomplete combustion. Results showed that higher heat values (HHV) were 14% lower for biodiesel samples than for diesel fuel, which can be tolerated. Finally, we conclude that the two–step transesterification process (without any costly purification step) is an economic method for biofuel production using the waste vegetable oils tested.
Performance degradations of WDM systems due to laser and optical filter misalignments

Laser and optical filter misalignment tolerances for WDM systems with two optical filters are almost the same at 2.5 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s per optical channel. For the three types of optical filters used. Multilayer dielectric film optical filters have the highest misalignment tolerances. Grating-based optical filters have lower tolerances, and multiple-path interferometer optical filters have the lowest tolerances. Using two grating-based optical filters, laser misalignments of about +or-30 GHz for 25 GHz filter misalignments produce 1 dB system excess loss.
Increasing Adiabatic Film-Cooling Effectiveness by Using an Upstream Ramp

A new design concept is presented to increase the adiabatic effectiveness of film cooling jets without unduly increasing surface heat transfer and pressure loss. Instead of shaping the film-cooling hole at its downstream end as is done for shaped holes, this study proposes a geometry modification upstream of the film-cooling hole to modify the approaching boundary-layer flow and its interaction with the film-cooling jet. Computations, based on the ensemble-averaged Navier-Stokes equations closed by the realizable k-e turbulence model, were used to examine the usefulness of making the surface just upstream of the film-cooling hole into a ramp with backward-facing step. The effects of the following parameters were investigated: angle of the ramp (8.5°, 10°, 14°), distance between the backward-facing step of the ramp and the film-cooling hole (0.5D, D), and blowing ratio (0.36, 0.49, 0.56, 0.98). Results obtained show that an upstream ramp with a backward-facing step can greatly increase film-cooling adiabatic effectiveness. The laterally averaged adiabatic effectiveness with ramp can be two or more times higher than without the ramp. Also, the ramp increases the surface area that each film-cooling jet protects. However, using the ramp does increase drag. The increase in surface heat transfer was found to be minimal.Copyright © 2006 by ASME
Conceptual investigation of a propulsive fuselage aircraft layout

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is the multi-disciplinary conceptual investigation of a propulsive fuselage (PF) aircraft layout allowing for new performance synergies through closely coupled propulsion/airframe integration. The discussed aircraft layout facilitates the ingestion of the fuselage boundary layer and the utilization of wake filling, thus eliminating a significant share of fuselage drag. Design/methodology/approach – Based on consistent book-keeping standards for conventionally installed and highly integrated propulsion systems, key aspects of conceptualisation regarding airframe and propulsion system are presented. As a result of this, a PF aircraft configuration is proposed featuring a fuselage fan power plant in conjunction with two under-wing podded power plants. Parametric models for integrated aircraft and propulsion system sizing and performance analysis are discussed that are suitable for the consistent mapping of the characteristics intrinsic to a PF layout. In an initial benchma.
A Novel UWB Monopole Antenna with Reconfigurable Band Notch Characteristics Based on PIN Diodes

Our design for a novel UWB monopole antenna structure with reconfigurable band notch characteristics based on PIN diodes is presented in this paper. The proposed antenna is comprised of a modified circular patch and a partial ground plane. The band-notch characteristics are achieved by etching a slot on the partial ground plane and inserting three PIN diodes into the slots for adjusting the operating antenna bands. The reconfigurability is achieved by adding three PIN diodes to obtain eight states with UWB, dual and triple operating bands which can be obtained by changing the PIN state from ON to OFF, and vice versa. The proposed design shows a simple biasing process to switch the frequency bands with insignificant gain variation and low radiation efficiency reduction. The reconfigurability of the frequency is accomplished by adjusting the effective slot length through modifying the PIN diodes states at the desired operating bands. The desired operating frequency bands can be obtained by switching the diodes. A systematic parametric study based on a numerical analysis is invoked to verify and refine the proposed performance. The proposed antenna is fabricated on FR-4 substrate with dimensions of 50×60×1 mm3. The proposed antenna performance was tested experimentally and compared to the simulated results from CSTMW based on FIT. Experimental results were in concordance with simulated results. We found that the proposed antenna design had simple geometry and it was easy to control the frequency bands to suit the applications of WiMAX and WiFi systems.
Estimation of Yield and Nitrogen Removal by Bermudagrass and Bahiagrass

The objective of this work was to develop quantitative procedures for estimating annual yield, plant N concentration, and plant N removal as related to applied N, water availability, and plant species for bermudagrass and bahiagrass. The logistic equation provided excellent correlation (R > 0.98) between yield and applied N. An exponential equation was used to relate plant N concentration to applied N. For applied N of 170 kg/ha (150 lb/acre), plant N recovery ranged from 97% for bermudagrass with high rainfall to 58% for bahiagrass with low rainfall.
An efficient ray-tracing method for radiopropagation based on the modified BSP algorithm

A new and efficient ray-tracing method based on a combination of image theory and the binary space partitioning (BSP) algorithm is presented. The efficiency of the method allows a full three-dimensional implementation of the Geometrical Optics and the Uniform Theory of Diffraction (GO/UTD). The optimization of ray-tracing makes it possible to take into account a great number of rays: reflected, diffracted and multiple combinations of these effects. This degree of precision in the calculation of the signal levels permits an accurate estimation not only of the signal mean level but also its statistics. The main feature of the method is the possibility of analyzing the radio channel in general enclosed spaces, including indoor, outdoor and mixed indoor/urban environments.
Gemcitabine Plus Vinorelbine for Refractory or Relapsing Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: Response Rate and Survival

Background: Two chemotherapeutic agents, vinorelbine and gemcitabine, have shown encouraging early results in the treatment of heavily pre-treated relapsed or refractory lymphoma when used as single agents, with responses of between 20 and 47%. This work aimed to evaluate the role of gemcitabine and vinorelbine in the treatment of relapsed and /or refractory aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) as regard response rate, survival analysis. Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 20 patients who had relapsed and /or refractory NHL and treated with a minimum follow of 6 months. All patients were subjected to full clinical examination, laboratory and radiological study. Vinorelbine, Gemcitabine, dexamethasone, filgrastim (VGF) was administrated, On days 1 and 8, patients received vinorelbine 25 mg/m2, Gemcitabine 1000 mg/m2 and Dexamethasone 16mg/m2 I.V, On day 9, they received peg-filgrastim 6 mg subcutaneously, Patients received 4 cycles of VGF, Assessment was performed after 4th cycle of treatment and according to response during follow up period, the patient received 2 more cycles with minimum follow up 6 months and/or PET-CT was done in all patients to evaluate response rate. Results: Regarding status; 60 % of patients were relapsed and 40% of them were refractory. Regarding line therapy: all patients were treated with 1st line protocol of Rituxan/Rituximab-Cyclophosphamide-Hydroxydaunorubicin-Oncovin-Prednisone regimen (R-CHOP), and 4 of them had been treated with 2nd line chemotherapy of Ifosfamide, Cisplatin or Carboplatin, and Etoposide (ICE). So 80% of patients received VGF chemotherapy as 2nd line, while 20% of them received it as the 3rd line. And there was no statistical difference between relapsed and refractory groups regarding lines of VGF chemotherapy. Regarding the toxicity of VGF (toxicity criteria as defined by Chesson and WHO); 50% of patients complicated with grade III anaemia, 50% of patients complicated with grade III neutropenia, 60% of patients complicated with grade III thrombocytopenia, 20% of patients complicated with grade II GIT upset, 40% of patients complicated grade II thrombophlebitis and 40% of patients complicated with grade II neurotoxicity. Conclusions: VGF shows substantial activity in relapsed or refractory aggressive NHL. The regimen is generally well-tolerated, but haematological toxicity is common.
Fungal community and functional responses to soil warming are greater than for soil nitrogen enrichment

Soil fungi are key regulators of forest carbon cycling and their responses to global change have effects that ripple throughout ecosystems. Global changes are expected to push many fungi beyond their environmental niches, but there are relatively few studies involving multiple, simultaneous global change factors. Here, we studied soil fungal diversity, community composition, co-occurrence patterns, and decomposition gene responses to 10 years of soil warming and nitrogen addition, alone and in combination. We specifically examined whether there were fungal community characteristics that could explain changes in soil carbon storage and organic matter chemistry in chronically warmed and fertilized soil. We found that fungal communities in warmed soils are less diverse and shift in composition. Warming also favored hyperdominance by a few mycorrhizal fungal species and lowered manganese peroxidase but increased hydrolytic enzyme encoding gene potentials. Nitrogen addition did not significantly affect fungal community composition but, like warming, did reduce fungal diversity and favored overdominance by a unique set of mycorrhizal taxa. Warming alone and in combination with nitrogen addition also reduced negative but increased positive fungal co-occurrence probabilities, promoting species coexistence. Negative fungal co-occurrence was positively correlated to soil carbon content, while the proportion of fungal hydrolytic enzyme encoding genes was negatively correlated with soil carbon content. This may reflect fungal life history trade-offs between competition (e.g., reduced negative co-occurrence) and resource acquisition (e.g., higher abundance of hydrolytic enzyme encoding genes) with implications for carbon storage.
EXAMINATION OF THE CORRELATION OF CRITICAL SUCCESS AND DELAY FACTORS IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

EXAMINATION OF THE CORROLATION OF CRITICAL SUCCESS AND DELAY FACTORS IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIAMohammed M Alkhathami, PhDUniversity of Pittsburgh, 2004The goal of all parties involved in a construction project - owners, contractors, or consultants, in either the private or public sector - is to successfully complete it on schedule, within a planned budget, with the highest quality, and in the safest manner. Construction projects are frequently influenced by either success factors that help project parties reach their goal as planned, or delay factors, that stifle or postpone project completion. Accurately identifying success and delay factors can help project parties reach their intended goals with greater efficiency. This study extracted seven of the most important success and delay factors according to the literature (14 total success and delay factors), and then examined correlations between them to determine which were the most influential in preventing project delays. Two surveys were distributed throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The first examined how project owners and contractors that collaborated on the same project perceived success and delay factors, while the second examined the perceptions of engineers in general. Data was collected and evaluated by statistical methods to measure the strength and direction of the relationship between critical success and delay factors, to examine owners' and contractors' evaluations of projects' critical success and delay factors, and to evaluate the influence of critical success factors on critical delay factors. Additionally, one and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been used to examine how the group or groups evaluated the influence of the critical success factors in avoiding or preventing each of the delay factors, and which success factors were perceived as most influential in avoiding or preventing critical delay factors. The research found that sound organization planning efforts and a competent and experienced project manager helped to avoid many critical delay factors, while adherence to safety precautions and procedures and a project team's motivation and goal orientation were the least influential among the seven success factors.
Impact of fiber chromatic dispersion in high-speed TDM transmission systems

General guidelines for high-speed time-division multiplexing (TDM) data-rate transmission are essential for the increase of the overall transmission capacity. In this paper, general theoretical investigations concerning fiber chromatic dispersion in optical TDM systems are performed. Recent experiments that confirm the theoretical predictions are presented. Nonzero dispersion-shifted fiber and standard single-mode fiber are recommended for 40 and 160 Gb/s, respectively, independent of the chromatic dispersion compensation scheme.
Experimental study of large rectenna array for microwave energy transmission

For a field experiment on microwave power transmission (MPT) which was jointly conducted by the Radio Atmospheric Science Center of Kyoto University, Robe University, and Kansai Electric Power Company from 1994 to 1995, we had developed and tested a new type of rectenna (rectifying antenna) based on a circular microstrip antenna (CMA). A square shape of array with an area of 3.2 m/spl times/3.6 m was then constructed using the developed rectennas for experiment. The whole rectenna array is composed of 256 sub-arrays, each with nine rectenna elements. We place the rectenna sub-array with better RF-DC conversion efficiency in the central area of the whole rectenna array. Such spatial optimization is needed because the power density of the microwave beam used in the experiment has a spatial gradient with a peak at the center of the beam. We then examined dependence of the rectenna array characteristics on the electrical connection of the sub-arrays. The difference of the output DC power of the whole array for five different electrical connections is within 5%. The load characteristics, therefore, suffers little change even if the electrical connection of the rectenna sub-array is changed.
Evaluación del proceso de extracción de aceite de aguacate hass (Persea americana Mill) utilizando tratamiento enzimático

Introduction. Avocado oil is rich in vitamins A, B, C and E, and is mainly composed by monounsaturated fat acids, which effectively reduce cholesterol levels in blood, thus helping to prevent cardiovascular diseases. Objective. Evaluating the performance of Hass avocado (Persea americana Mill) oil extraction in E3-M (mature) from the East of Antioquia, by the use of commercial enzymatic complexes. Materials and methods. To develop this research work, a physical-chemical characterization was performed, determining the pertinent maturity state to extract the oil. The enzymatic extraction was performed with three enzymatic complexes, Pectinex Novozym nd Ultrazym, and three enzyme concentration levels (150, 200 and 250 mL/t. of mixture) to evaluate the quantity of extracted oil. Results. The best performance was achieved with the pectinex enzyme, in a concentration of 200 ml of enzima/t, mixture in which an oil extraction performance of 60% was obtained in the E3-M maturity state (mature). Conclusion. The treatment with enzymatic complexes is a feasible alternative to extract the oil, because it is possible to degrade the galacturonic acid chains and
GMinterp, A Matlab Based Toolkit for Gravity and Magnetic Data Analysis: Example Application to the Airborne Magnetic Anomalies of Biga Peninsula, NW Turkey

The analysis of gravity and magnetic field methods is becoming increasingly significant for the earth sciences as a whole and these potential field methods efficiently assist in working out both shallow and deep geologic problems and play important role on modeling and interpretation procedures. The main advantage of some gravity and magnetic data processing techniques is to present the subtle details in the data which are not clearly identified in anomaly maps, without specifying any prior information about the nature of the source bodies. If the data quality permits, many analyzing techniques can be carried out that help to build a general understanding of the details and parameters of the shallower or deeper causative body distributions such as depth, thickness, lateral and vertical extensions. Gravity and magnetic field data are usually analyzed by means of analytic signal (via directional derivatives) methods, linear transformations, regional and residual anomaly separation techniques, spectral methods, filtering and forward and inverse modeling techniques. Some commercial software packages are commonly used for analyzing potential field data by employing some of the techniques specified above. Additionally, many freeware and open-source codes can be found in the literature, but unfortunately they are focused on special issues of the potential fields. In this study, a toolkit, that performs numerous interpretation and modeling techniques for potential field data, is presented. The toolkit, named GMinterp, is MATLAB-based consisting of a series of linked functions along with a graphical user interface (GUI). GMinterp allows performing complex processing such as transformations and filtering, editing, gridding, mapping, digitizing, extracting cross-sections, forward and inverse modeling and interpretation tasks. The toolkit enables to work with both profile and gridded data as an input file. Tests on the theoretically produced data showed the reliability of developed toolkit. Additionally some experiments on real data sets were performed to interpret the geological structure of Biga Peninsula, NW part of Anatolia, Turkey.
The Effect of Corporate Sustainable Management on the Relationship between Cost Stickiness and Earnings Transparency

This study empirically analyzes the relationship between cost stickiness and earnings transparency. Additionally, this study examines the effect of corporate sustainable management (CSM) on the relationship between cost stickiness and earnings transparency. The evaluation scores of Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS) are employed to measure CSM activities. The empirical results show that the relationship between cost stickiness and earnings transparency is significant in the negative direction. This means that the more sticky the costs of a firm, the lower the earnings transparency of the firm. In addition, the relationship between the interaction variables of CSM and cost stickiness and earnings transparency is significant in the positive direction. This indicates that CSM activities act as a mechanism to mitigate the negative relationship between cost stickiness and earnings transparency. The findings of this study, which presented the effects of cost stickiness on earnings transparency and the fact that CSM activities act as a device to suppress the opportunistic cost behavior of managers, are expected to provide important implications to investors, external auditors, and supervisors.
In‐plane/out‐of‐plane interaction of strong masonry infills: From cyclic tests to out‐of‐plane verifications

The construction of RC frame structures with masonry infills is part of the traditional building practice in many European countries and worldwide. Several studies have been recently conducted to improve further the understanding of the seismic response of masonry infills, which are mainly focused on weak/slender clay masonry panels representing a common typology of the past, whereas very limited research has been devoted to stronger/thicker masonry infills, which nowadays are being adopted with increasing frequency in newly designed RC structures for their excellent thermal and acoustic performance. In order to fill this gap, within a systematic experimental and numerical research program, the in‐plane and out‐of‐plane experimental response of ‘strong’ masonry infills has been investigated at the Eucentre and the University of Pavia. In particular, this paper presents the framework and discusses the results of out‐of‐plane static cyclic tests on full‐scale, single‐storey, single‐bay RC frame specimens infilled with 35 cm thick tongue and groove clay unit walls, the related damage propagation and the failure mechanisms. The in‐plane/out‐of‐plane experimental interaction evaluated in terms of stiffness and strength reduction and period increase in function of previous in‐plane damage is also introduced, with the aim of providing a simplified out‐of‐plane strength verification within the European codified design procedures.
AN INTEGRATED INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPMENT DESIGN CAE MODEL UTILIZING NEW JIT: APPLICATION TO AUTOMOTIVE HIGH RELIABILITY ASSURANCE

With a view to assisting corporations to survive in the "worldwide quality competition", the author has proposed the "Integrated Intelligence Development Design CAE Model" utilizing New JIT. This model consists of the "Total Quality Assurance (QA) High Cycle-ization Business Process System", the "Stratified Intelligence CAE Management System", and the "Intelligence CAE Development Design Approarch System". In an effort to verify the validity of this model, the author has analyzed an issue of worldwide concern, the oil seal leakage mechanism on an automobile transaxle with the cooperation of the Toyota and NOK, and has created the "Intelligence CAE Software-Oil Leakage Simulator" that incorporates CG Navigation in order to ensure "high reliability assurance of the automotive transaxle".