Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A numerical analysis of energetic performances of active and passive aftertreatment systems

The present work aims to analyze the thermal and the energetic performances of an aftertreatment system with unidirectional and periodic reversal flow within the device. To this purpose a single‐channel one‐dimensional model was developed in order to assess the heat exchange between the aftertreatment system and the exhaust gas. Furthermore, the temperature profiles of the gas and solid phase were computed and the calculated temperatures were adopted to characterize the energy effectiveness of the aftertreatment system. The comparison between different control modes showed an increase in the heat retention efficiency of the system with reverse flow at low engine load conditions. Conversely, the system with passive thermal management presented higher temperatures of the monolith during the warm‐up operations. Furthermore, the influence of unburned hydrocarbons oxidation on the effectiveness of the aftertreatment system was evaluated and the significant influence of the cycle time and the monolith length on the system performance was shown. Finally, the gas residence time was evaluated for different operating conditions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Financial Factors Affecting Earnings Management and Earnings Quality: New Evidence from an Emerging Market

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of financial factors on earnings management and earnings quality. Moreover, the study examines the role of earnings management as a mediator in the effect of the financial factors on earnings quality. It provides some empirical evidences from an emerging market, especially from the Jordanian market. The study uses a panel data analysis method over a ten-year period (2009-2018). The study population includes all Jordanian insurance companies listed in Jordanian market at the end of the year 2019, and the study sample consists of 20 Jordanian insurance companies (a complete population), giving a total of 200 observations for each variable. The results indicate that all financial factors in the model combined affect the earnings management and earnings quality. In addition, earnings management negatively affects earnings quality, and earnings management fully mediates the effect of financial factors on earnings quality. The study advises that policy makers ought to follow good legislation to curb the company's earnings management activities. Hence, the policy makers need to apply regulations which enrich the company’s effectiveness and efficiency whilst protecting the investors and other interested parties from risk.
Electrical and optical properties of a single Sb2Se3 nanorod

In this paper we present the methods to chemically synthesize the Sb2Se3 nanorods and study the electrical and optical properties of a single Sb2Se3 nanorod with an average size of 70 nm in diameter and a length of about 1 μm to 2 μm. The techniques we devised can immobilize and allocate a single nano-object on an electron beam (E-beam) patterned smart substrate. It can also overcome the limitation of the spatial resolution of conventional optical techniques (∼ 1 mm) to obtain optical spectroscopy in an individual nano-object less than 100 nm in size. We also demonstrate the techniques in using E-beam defined metallic coordination markers as electrodes to measure the conductance of a single Sb2Se3 nanorod.
Assessment of Customer’s Satisfaction onWater Supply Service Deliveryin Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Understanding consumer satisfaction levels for drinking water can contribute to improvements in water service quality and water management. The aim of this study is to assess the consumers’ satisfaction on water supply service in Bahir Dar city, Ethiopia. The representative households were selected by stratified followed by systematic sampling techniques. The data was collected from 351 representative households using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The collected data was coded, edited and entered into STATA (Statistical analysis software) version 14.2 for further statistical analysis. Chi-square test and order logistic regression were conducted. The chi-square test indicated that relatively males were more satisfied than females. Customers with the educational status of having secondary and above educational level were relatively unsatisfied. Similarly, customers who had their own houses were more satisfied than customers who got house from the rent of individuals and agencies, while customers having low and middle income were significantly more satisfied than customers having high-income levels. Results from the order logistic regression indicated that total customer satisfaction had a significant relation with continuity of water supply, water pressure and scheduling of water service. The result also indicated that most customers were not willing to pay additional payment for the existing satisfaction level but customers were willing to pay more if there was a significant improvement in its overall customer services, particularly on the three least rated satisfaction drivers continuous water supply, water pressure and scheduling of water service.
Rapid Degradation of Azo Dye by Fe‐Based Metallic Glass Powder

The outstanding efficiency of Fe‐based metallic glass powders in degrading organic water contaminants is reported. While the glassy alloy contains 24% chemically inactive metalloid elements, the powders are capable to completely decompose the C32H20N6Na4O14S4 azo dye in aqueous solution in short time, about 200 times faster than the conventional Fe powders. The metastable thermodynamic nature and the particle surface topography are the major factors controlling the chemical performance of the metallic glass. Our findings may open a new opportunity for functional applications of metallic glasses.
Individual differences in structural-functional brain connections underlying curiosity

Curiosity motivates us to learn yet varies strikingly between individuals. This thesis aims to answer the following research questions: What are the brain networks associated with curiosity traits? How does curiosity benefit memory for information related and unrelated to the object of curiosity? How do curiosity traits and curiosity states interact to benefit memory? And how do variations in structural-functional brain connections relate to individual differences in curiosity-related memory? Chapters 2 and 3 investigate the neural mechanisms underlying trait curiosity, first examining its structural correlates followed by its functional correlates. In Chapter 2, inter-individual variations in the microstructure of the fornix related to Interest Epistemic Curiosity (EC), and inter-individual variation in the microstructure of the inferior longitudinal fasciculus related to both Interest and Deprivation EC. Furthermore, posterior hippocampal fornix microstructure was associated with Specific Perceptual Curiosity. These findings were not replicated in a follow-up experiment potentially due to several differences in the design. Next, Chapter 3 indicated that trait curiosity is associated with functional connectivity between the ventral tegmental area (VTA), hippocampus, and nucleus accumbens (NAcc); regions involved in the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway. Chapter 4 transitions the focus of the thesis from trait curiosity to state curiosity, where states of high curiosity were found to predict later memory for trivia answers but not incidental information preceding curiosity elicitation. This chapter also suggests that trait curiosity does not interact with the positive effects of curiosity on later memory. Finally, a three-way relationship between white matter microstructure, resting-state functional connectivity and curiosity-related behaviours was examined. A mediation analysis revealed that functional communication between the VTA and NAcc mediates the relationship between fornix microstructure and curiosity-related memory benefit. Together, these results provide a better understanding into the underlying relationship between structural and functional connectivity in the brain and how they support curiosity-related behaviours.
Migraine related white matter lesions in the differential diagnosis of multiple sclerosis: Magnetic resonance imaging features

Aim: This study aims to describe the lesion characteristics of conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients who are directed to a university hospital with a pre-diagnosis of demyelinating disease who are finally diagnosed as MrWMLs. Material and Methods: Individuals who were referred to an MS outpatient clinic of a university hospital with a pre-diagnosis of demyelinating disease and finally diagnosed with migraine according to the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD) -3 (β) criteria who also have MrWMLs and 45 age and gender-matched individuals who are diagnosed with MS according to the 2017 McDonald diagnostic criteria, without migraine-type headache were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Forty-five individuals with migraine and 45 age and gender-matched individuals who are diagnosed with MS were included. The median time since diagnosis was 10 (0.5-32) years for the migraine group and 5 (0.3-20) years in the group with MS (p=0.031). The median age of the group with migraine was 35 (23-54) years, while the median age of the group with MS was 34 (20-55) years. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of average age and gender distribution (p=0.342 and p=0.389). The total number of T1 and T2 lesions were significantly higher in the MS group. Similarly, the number of infratentorial and periventricular lesions was higher in the MS group (p<0.001). The number of deep white matter lesions was higher in the migraine group (p<0.05). Conclusion: In this study, conventional MRI tips were defined for differentiating MS lesions from MrWMLs which has an important place in the differential diagnosis of MS. MrWMLs were deep white matter lesions that are predominantly located at the frontal and parietal lobes. Studies involving more individuals and using automated segmentation software may provide more information to differentiate MrWMLs from MS lesions.
Feature Extraction and Representation of Urban Road Networks Based on Travel Routes

Extraction of traffic features constitutes a key research direction in traffic safety planning. In previous traffic tasks, road network features are extracted manually. In contrast, Network Representation Learning aims to automatically learn low-dimensional node representations. Enlightened by feature learning in Natural Language Processing, representation learning of urban nodes is studied as a supervised task in this paper. Following this line of thinking, a deep learning framework, called StreetNode2VEC, is proposed for learning feature representations for nodes in the road network based on travel routes, and then model parameter calibration is performed. We explain the effectiveness of features from visualization, similarity analysis, and link prediction. In visualization, the features of nodes naturally present a clustered pattern, and different clusters correspond to different regions in the road network. Meanwhile, the features of nodes still retain their spatial information in similarity analysis. The proposed method StreetNode2VEC obtains a AUC score of 0.813 in link prediction, which is greater than that obtained from Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) and Node2vec. This suggests that the features of nodes can be used to effectively and credibly predict whether a link should be established between two nodes. Overall, our work provides a new way of representing road nodes in the road network, which have potential in the traffic safety planning field.
Sweetheart Deals in Tax Bargaining? How Trust Affects Concessionary Behavior

This study analyzes the impact of trust on bargaining between auditor and auditee in a tax setting. We distinguish between interpersonal trust and trust in government, and we study the effect on both taxpayer and tax auditor during the bargaining process regarding ambiguous tax issues. We assess a three-party relationship between the taxpayer, the tax auditor as a government agent, and the government, to examine the taxpayer-tax auditor bargaining behavior in a multi-stage process, and its implications for the resulting tax payment. In a laboratory experiment with variation in pairwise (taxpayer-tax auditor) interpersonal trust and their trust in government, we expect and find evidence that both interpersonal trust and trust in government affect the bargaining behavior, albeit in different ways. Tax auditors show more concessionary behavior with high interpersonal trust, while taxpayers make more concessions under a more trusted government. Our findings demonstrate the importance of trust in the government for tax collection. Further, our findings indicate that a high level of interpersonal trust increases the risk of sweetheart deals, i.e. preferential treatment of trusted taxpayers by auditors. We contribute to research on bargaining, and on auditor behavior. Our results provide understanding about how trust shapes the bargaining between a government agency and a supervised individual, and, more specifically, the auditor-auditee relationship in a tax setting. We provide novel insights for tax authorities who expect higher compliance in an atmosphere of trust. The implications extend to non-tax settings, where a government agency and its representatives encounter bargaining situations with citizens, firms, and their representatives, e.g., in the financial, energy or health sector.
Extraction and characterization of asphaltenes from different crude oils and solvents

Three crude oils were employed for precipitation of asphaltenes using two solvents, n-pentane and n-heptane. Crude oils were analyzed by API gravity, elemental composition and metals content. Asphaltenes were characterized by VPO molecular weight, liquid State 1H and 13C NMR, elemental composition, and metals content. Spectra were divided in three and two different regions for 1H and 13C NMR, respectively, to determine the most important structural parameters of asphaltenes. To avoid errors when determining asphaltene content and characterization, a solvent-to-oil (S/O) ratio of 60:1 was used. This optimal ratio was defined after conducting various experiments with different values of S/O in the range of 5:1 to 100:1. It was found that solvent type has a very important influence in composition of asphaltenes, which were also very different for the three crude oils studied. Aromaticity of asphaltenes was higher when n-heptane was employed.
Grain Boundary Diffusion of Co-60 in Nickel

The grain boundary heterodiffusion of Co-60 in Marz-nickel polycrystals is investigted in the range from 673 to 1323 K by means of the serial sectioning method. It is shown that the temperature dependence of the triple product P = sδDg (s, δ, and Dg stand for segregation factor, grain boundary width, and grain boundary diffusion coefficient, respectively) is of the Arrhenius type, but is characterized by two different activation enthalpies. The values of pre-exponential factor sδDgo and activation enthalpy Hg for the high temperature region (from 933 to 1323 K) are (5.1) × 10−15 m3/s and (120 ± 6) kJ/mol, respectively. In this temperature interval the grain boundary diffusion characteristics for Co-60 lie lower than those published for the self-diffusion in Ni. However, at lower temperatures (between 673 and 803 K) the products P lie close to self-diffusion characteristics and the corresponding Arrhenius parameters are (1.3) × 10−11 m3/s and (174 ± 7) kJ/mol. Die Korngrenzendiffusion von Co-60 in Marz-Nickelpolykristallen wird im Bereich von 673 bis 1323 K mit Hilfe der Schichtabtragmethode untersucht. Es zeigt sich, das die Temperaturabhangigkeit des Produkts P = sδg (wo s den Segregationsfaktor, δ die Korngrenzenbreite und Dg den Korngrenzendiffusionskoeffizient bedeuten) Arrheniusform besitzt, und durch zwei verschiedene Aktivierungsenthalpien beschrieben wird. Fur den Hochtemperaturteil von 933 bis 1323 K werden fur den praexponentiellen Faktor und die Aktivierungsenthalpie die Werte (5,1) × 10−15 m3/s bzw. (120 ± 6) kJ/mol gefunden. In diesem Temperaturbereich liegen die gemessenen P-Werte niedriger als die, die fur die Selbstdiffusion in Ni publiziert werden. Bei niedrigeren Temperaturen (zwischen 673 und 803 K) befinden sich die ermittelten P in der Nahe der Werte fur die Selbstdiffusion in Ni. Die Aktivierungsparameter der Korngrenzendiffusion fur diesen Temperaturbereich lauten (1,3) × 10−11 m3/s und (174 ± 7) kJ/mol.
Creating Safe Spaces: Opportunities, Resources, and LGBTQ Student Groups at U.S. Colleges and Universities

Research shows that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) student groups facilitate LGBTQ students’ personal development. Nevertheless, we know little about the prevalence of LGBTQ student groups and why some colleges and universities are home to LGBTQ student groups while others are not. Drawing on our original database of officially recognized LGBTQ student groups across all four-year, not-for-profit U.S. colleges and universities, we first show that LGBTQ student groups can be found at 62 percent of U.S. colleges and universities. Guided by social movement theory, and employing logistic regression analyses, we then show that LGBTQ groups are more likely to be present in favorable political contexts (Democratic-leaning states), favorable educational sectors (public and secular schools), and schools that have the human and organizational resources necessary to support them. The study advances scholarship on LGBTQ issues in higher education and holds important practical implications for students working to promote LGBTQ inclusion in U.S. schools.
WOOD-PLASTIC COMPOSITE BASED ON POST-CONSUMER HDPE AND VERMICULITE / COMPÓSITO MADEIRA-PLÁSTICO À BASE DE HDPE PÓS-CONSUMO E VERMICULITA

In this work, wood plastic-composites (WPCs) were prepared by the incorporation of vermiculite in the post-consumer HDPE. The processing of WPCs with different clay contents (2, 5 and 10% by weight) was carried out in a mono-extruder. The specimens were obtained by compression and characterized by density (ASTM D792), hardness (ASTM D2240) and melt flow index (MFI, ASTM Braz. J. of Develop., Curitiba, v. 6, n. 10, p. 82980-82987, oct. 2020. ISSN 2525-8761 D1238). The composites obtained showed a tendency of increased density and reduced MFI from 5% clay. However, no significant difference in WPC hardness was observed in relation to the matrix.
Self-Balancing Two-Wheeled Robot Featuring Intelligent End-to-End Deep Visual-Steering

This article proposes a self-balancing wheeled robot named J4. α equipped with intelligent modules for automatic navigation. A mechanism involving dynamic mass was designed to control the linear motion of the robot. RGB-D camera was adopted to monitor the front environment; a deep convolutional neural network was adopted to realize a certain level of socially compliant navigation. In combination with the topological localization scheme, J4. α can navigate between nodal locations without environment modification. To facilitate the work of the manipulator on-board, an auto-balancing module was designed to maintain force equilibrium. To further secure spatial reliability, motorized parking stands are also introduced. Prototypes were made and tests were carried out to examine the system dynamics. The experimental result confirmed the effectiveness of the intelligent navigation modules.
Rheological behavior of corn and soy mix as feed ingredients

Foods behave as non-Newtonian fluids, but little is known about how corn and soybean mix behave under viscometric flow. In order to characterize the rheological behavior of animal feed under viscometric flow, a 70:30 (mass:mass) mixture of ground corn and soybean grains was submitted to a capillary rheometer at 3 different temperatures (80, 120, and 160 °C), different moisture levels (26.5 ± 0.08; 30.4 ± 0.31, and 33.4 ± 0.05%), and 4 shear rates (30.4; 72.9; 304.3, and 728.6/second). Different strain rates and die dimensions were used to obtain the target shear rates. The resulting data were fitted to Power Law, Casson, and Bingham models. Based on experimental data, water content, mass temperature, and the effects of shear rate on the apparent shear viscosity of corn-soy mix were fitted to a single expression (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.93): η = 18,769.7 (y)-0.86 e (-9.34 U + 935 T), where y is shear rate, U is sample moisture, and T is sample temperature in Kelvin scale. As expected, such mixture presented a pseudoplastic (shear-thinning) behavior.
Pedagogical Approaches of Intermediate Schoolteachers for Teaching Students by Building Online Classroom Communities during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study explores teachers’ perceptions of their pedagogical approaches for teaching students by connecting and building online classroom communities in distance education programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants in this study are teachers from 12 intermediate schools in Kuwait. The study generates survey data from 153 teachers (93 females and 60 males) to determine teachers’ perceptions of their pedagogical beliefs, mode of delivery and communication, patterns of interaction and guided inquiry. The findings of the study suggest that teachers are willing to use technology and different modes of communication to connect with students and deliver remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although teachers did combine some aspects of both traditional and constructivist approaches and were willing to use technology to bridge the distance created by remote education, they were averse to teaching online and considered face-to-face interaction with students essential. While it is evident that there will be a continuum of technology-based instruction when the teachers transition from face-to-face teaching to fully online remote teaching, the teachers were not aware of interaction patterns which are critical in online distance education. ANOVA results indicate there is no significant difference in the participants’ opinions on interaction patterns based on teachers’ experience and courses they taught (p=>.05). The descriptive data and the results of ANOVA and Tukey indicate that most teachers, irrespective of their subject specializations or experience, did not consider guided inquiry to be important for distance education. This study has implications for supporting effective technology integration for the delivery of instruction during a pandemic. Keywords: Pandemic, COVID-19, Remote Teaching, Distance Learning, Pedagogical Beliefs, Pedagogical Approaches, Interaction Patterns, Guided Inquiry, Communities of Inquiry, TPACK, Practical subject (Electrical) DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-30-02 Publication date: October 31 st 2020
Simplified logistics model and its application in process simulation

In order to solve the problem of complex calculation of logistics value in process simulation, based on the parameter characteristics of Aspen Plus, a simplified logistics calculation model is proposed. The comparison with exercom shows that the error of the calculation results in this paper is less than 1%, which verifies the correctness of the model. The calculation model of logistics flow provides convenience for process simulation software Aspen Plus to analyze the simulation process. Based on the logistics calculation model and the "fuel cost" model of thermal economics, a coal-fired boiler of a domestic unit is analyzed. The results show that the heat loss of the boiler mainly occurs in the process of coal decomposition and combustion, followed by the heat exchange process between flue gas and main heat exchange surface. The overall efficiency of the boiler is 46.4%.