Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of urban aerosol pollution over the Moscow megacity by the MAIAC aerosol product

Abstract. We estimated the distribution of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) with a spatial resolution of 1 km over the Moscow megacity using the MAIAC aerosol product based on MODIS satellite data (Lyapustin et al., 2018) for the warm period of the year (May–September, 2001–2017). AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network)-based validation of satellite estimates near the city centre at Moscow_MSU_MO and over the Moscow suburbs at Zvenigorod revealed that MAIAC AOT at 0.47 µm is in agreement with AERONET AOT though underestimated by 0.05–0.1 for AOT and overestimated for smoke conditions with AOT>1 . The MAIAC AOT biases were almost the same for the Moscow_MSU_MO and Zvenigorod AERONET sites, which indicated that the MAIAC algorithm effectively removed the effect of the bright urban surface in the city centre. For the ground-based measurements, the difference between annual median AOT at Moscow_MO_MSU and Zvenigorod ( ΔAOT ) varied within −0.002 to +0.03 , with statistically significant positive bias for most years, and an average ΔAOT was about 0.02. According to the MAIAC dataset, the ΔAOT varied within ±0.01 and was not statistically significant. The ΔAOT started decreasing recently due to intensive urban development of the territory around Zvenigorod and the decrease in pollutant emissions in Moscow, which is mainly caused by the environmental regulations. According to the MAIAC dataset, the most pronounced spatial AOT differences over the territory of Moscow were observed at the 5 % quantile level, where they reached 0.05–0.06 over several locations and could be attributed to the stationary sources of aerosol pollution, for example, large areas of construction sites, aerosol pollution from roads and highways, or agriculture activities. The differences between the maximum and the mean AOT for different quantiles, except the 95 % quantile, within the Moscow region, were about 0.02–0.04, which could be attributed to the local aerosol sources. The application of the MAIAC algorithm over the whole Moscow region has revealed a decreasing AOT trend over the centre of Moscow and an increasing trend over the “New” Moscow territory which experienced an intensive build-up and agricultural development.
Deep-Learning-Based Blockchain Framework for Secure Software-Defined Industrial Networks

Software-defined industrial network has emer-ged as an autonomous ecosystem where the network control relies on a centralized controller to provide seamless data transfer. However, the reliance on a centralized controller can lead to several challenges, such as single point of failure. An adversary can initiate a denial of service attack and limit the availability of the controller by projecting malicious or uncontrolled traffic flows. To overcome this, in this article, a deep-learning-based blockchain framework is designed for providing secure software-defined industrial network. In this framework, a blockchain mechanism is designed wherein all the switch are registered, verified (using zero-knowledge proof), and, thereafter, validated in the blockchain using a voting-based consensus mechanism. A deep Boltzmann machine based flow analyzer is deployed at the control plane to identify the anomalous switch requests. The evaluation is performed using a mininet emulator wherein the results obtained depict the superiority of the proposed framework.
Knowledge, attitudes and practices among the youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina relevant for reproductive health

Introduction. The aim of this study was to investigate the sexual behavior, attitudes and knowledge on contraception, sexually transmitted infections and reproductive health among the youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Material and Methods. A prospective study included a sample of 6.000 subjects, aged 19 - 24, of both sexes, investigating the sexual behavior of the youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period 2007 - 2009. Results. Of the interviewed examinees, 61% were sexually active, of which 56.4% had sexual intercourse with one partner (z = 28.51; p < 0.001). The average age of sexarche was significantly lower in males 17.34 ± 1.77 years, than in females 18.20 ± 1.84 years (z = -14.44; p < 0.001). Contraception was used by 67.6% at first intercourse, and by 70.4% at the last intercourse. The most common method of contraception was male condom (74%), coitus interruptus (11.1%), and oral hormonal contraceptives (14.9%). The examined subjects had inadequate knowledge (51.6%) about contraceptive methods, and it was significantly higher in males (64.6%) than in females (42.2%) (z = 10.17; p < 0.001). Some 4.9% of the sexually active females had intentional abortions. Up to 51.7% of females had never had a pelvic examination, and Pap test was done by 37.2%. The examinees obtained information about contraception and sexually transmitted infections from peers 50.7% and parents 9.7%. Only 28% of females had a positive attitude towards oral hormonal contraceptives. Conclusion. The interviewed young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina keep traditional sexual behavior patterns, attitudes and practices. However, more effort should be put into the improvement of knowledge on contraception, sexually transmitted infections, and healthcare protection.
Coupling between Diagenetic Environment and Porosity Evolution—A Quantitative Study of the Zhuhai Formation in the Huizhou Sag, Pearl River Mouth Basin, South China Sea

The diagenetic environment is vital in controlling reservoir quality by influencing diagenetic processes, especially porosity evolution. The Zhuhai Formation is a critical exploration target in the Huizhou Sag. However, there are considerable differences between the reservoirs in the west (Huixi) and east (Huidong) Huizhou Sag with only a 400 m difference in burial depth. To investigate causes of these differences, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cathodoluminescence analysis, fluorescence analysis, and fluid inclusion analysis are employed for the petrological and diagenetic characterization of the target formation. Moreover, image analysis software is used to qualitatively evaluate the impacts of diagenesis on porosity. The results show that the digenetic environments in Huixi and Huidong are different. Huixi is characterized by a high content of feldspar with a stronger dissolution phenomenon than that observed in Huidong. The main cement types in Huixi are siliceous cement and kaolinite. Moreover, Huixi had a low palaeo-temperature, low palaeo-salinity, and low palaeo-pH diagenetic environment. In contrast, Huidong is accessible via deep faults and rich in lithic fragments which show visible deformation. Moreover, cements in this area include carbonate, gypsum, quartz overgrowth, kaolinite, and chlorite. This evidence confirms that the diagenetic environment in Huidong was a high palaeo-temperature and high palaeo-salinity environment with high palaeo-pH. Additionally, the palaeo-pH evolved following the sequence of weakly alkaline, acidic, alkaline and acidic. Microscopy evidence indicates that the Dongsha Uplift was a likely source of Huixi sediments during the deposition of the Zhuhai Formation. The determination of the porosity evolution shows that compaction and lithic fragment content are the main controlling factors on the reservoir quality of the Zhuhai Formation.
Physico-Chemical Characterization and Stability Study in Acidic and Basic Solution of Ceramic Filters from Mouka’s Clay (Cameroon)

This paper deals with the characterisation and study of physico-chemical stability of ceramic filters from clays and rice husk obtained from the far north region of Cameroon (Logone Valley) and their application in potable water treatment. Clays from Mouka were characterized by FTIR analysis. The results showed that the filter formulated with a mixture containing 80% clay and 20% rice husk of 100 μm in size each gave the lowest filter shrinkage rate; these formulated filters were chosen for the remaining work. Leaching tests showed that with filters at a sintering temperature of 830°C the leaching was not observed under neutral (pH 6.8) and acidic (pH 5) conditions as compared to 950°C and 1000°C where the leaching was observed. In basic (pH 9) condition, all the filters obtained released ions. Leaching tests revealed that the conductivity of the leachate for the filters sintered at 830°C was lower than those sintered at 950°C and 1000°C. Meanwhile, conductivity decreases with increasing sintering temperature (temperature up to 830°C) due to the fact that ceramization starts as from 850°C that leads to an amorphous state that favours chemical stability, the leaching ions were Fe2+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and Al3+. The ceramic filters sintered at 950°C were applied to the filtration of water and the performance in terms of turbidity reduction was 95% and the flow rate after 50 minutes was 100 × 10−3 L/h.
The Fallouts and Downsides of the use of Dopaminergic Drugs to treat Motor Symptoms in Parkinson’s Disease and Non-Dopaminergic Treatments Being Developed to treat Both Motor and Non-Motor Symptoms: A Literature Review

Author(s): Villasenor, Melina | Abstract: Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the world and yet has no effective treatments that treat all symptoms to date. The most common form of treatment is levodopa, a dopaminergic medication designed to compensate for the lack of dopamine in the brain. However, L-dopa has proven to cause more side-effects than it does provide solutions. These side effects are in the form of both motor and non-motor symptoms.L-dopa commonly causes dyskinesia, a symptom that increases difficulty for voluntary movement, and sleep problems in patients who suffer from Parkinson’s Disease. Moves to research in non-motor symptoms and treatment through non-dopaminergic means have begun due to the ineffectiveness of L-dopa. Unfortunately, no promising results have been brought to the forefront, suggesting the need for even more research in the field and in the non-dopaminergic route of treating patients.
Inference of Retention Time From Tracer Tests in Crystalline Rock

A statistical parametrization of transport combined with a new, general partition function for diffusive mass transfer (Cvetkovic, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR021187) is here developed into a practical tool for evaluating tracer tests in crystalline rock. The research question of this study is how to separate the characteristic times of retention and advection, using tracer test information alone; this decoupling is critical for upscaling of transport. Three regimes are identified based on the unconditional mean number of trapping events. Analytical expressions are derived for inferring transport‐retention parameters; these are first tested on a series of generic examples and then using two sets of tracer test data. Our results indicate that the key transport‐retention parameters can be inferred separately with reasonable accuracy by a few simple steps, provided that the macrodispersion is not too large and retention not too strong. Of particular interest is inference of the retention time from the breakthrough curve peak that avoids costly asymptotic monitoring. Finally, we summarize the retention times as inferred from a series of nonsorbing tracer tests in the Swedish granite, demonstrating the uncertainties when estimating retention based on material and structural properties from samples. Possible strategies for reducing these uncertainties that combine improved understanding of crystalline rock evolution with numerical simulations are noted as topics for future research.
Treatment of crude oil contaminated wastewater via an electrochemical reaction

A cost-effective and catalyst-free approach for the treatment of oil field formation water has been extensively explored in this work. ZnO NPs were synthesized via an electrochemical reaction using hydrogen peroxide as the electrolyte. The XRD and TEM analysis depicted the high purity and wurtzite hexagonal structure of ZnO NPs with an average size of 35 ± 5 nm. TGA data showed the thermal stability of the synthesized material up to 750 °C. The efficiency of the removal of hydrocarbons from formation water by the combination of electrochemical reaction and synthesized ZnO NPs was monitored by GC-MS and FTIR. GC-MS analysis revealed that out of 214 compounds (present in the untreated sample), a total of 131 compounds were adsorbed by ZnO NPs. Further, the absence of any compound in the chromatogram of the treated sample attests that the rest of the compounds were completely or partially degraded by electrochemical degradation reaction. Moreover, this technique overcomes some of the important drawbacks of the existing techniques in the area of electrochemical research, such as the generation of toxic byproducts, unwanted side reactions, and involvement of hazardous chemicals.
Are Audience Response Systems Worth the Cost? Comparing Question-Driven Teaching Strategies for Emergency Medical Technician Education

Purpose: As Emergency Medical Technician educators develop curricula to meet new national educational standards, effective teaching strategies validated for course content and unique student demographics are warranted. Three methods for answering multiple choice questions presented during lectures were compared: a) Audience Response System (ARS, clickers), b) hand-raising-with-eyes-closed (no-cost option), and c) passive response (no-cost option). The purpose was to determine if using the ARS resulted in improved exam scores. Method: 113 Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) students participated in this cross-over, block randomized, controlled trial, which was incorporated into their Cardiac Emergencies and Pulmonary Emergencies course lectures. Students took pretests, immediate post-tests, and delayed post-tests composed of multiple choice questions that targeted either lower or higher order thinking. Results: For both lectures, there were significant improvements on all immediate post-test scores compared to all pretest scores (p Conclusions: In this cohort, incorporation of no-cost question-driven teaching strategies into lectures was as effective as an ARS at encouraging significant, immediate and sustained improvements in answering multiple choice questions.
A comparative study using solution analysis, electrochemistry and mass change for the inhibition of carbon steel by the plant alkaloid Voacangine

In this work, the plant alkaloid Voacangine, isolated from the bark of Tabernaemontana contorta, was examined as a corrosion inhibitor for steel in 1 M hydrochloric acid. The study was carried out using a comparative approach where several independent methods (spectroscopic solution analysis, electrochemical impedance, potentiodynamic polarisation and mass loss measurements) were performed in order to strengthen the validity of the results. All the findings revealed to be in close agreement with each other. Voacangine was determined to be a mixed corrosion inhibitor and to closely follow Langmuir-type adsorption onto active corrosion sites on the metal surface. The maximal inhibition efficiency was 90% which is lower than other comparable species. This deficiency was ascribed to the presence of a basic nitrogen group causing a degree of steric hindrance for the adsorption.
Suspected thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura: Urgent timely therapeutic plasma exchange improves patient prognosis

We present a case of 62 year male with dyspnea, cough and abdominal pain. There was a diagnostic dilemma for TTP as Hemolytic uremic syndrome, dengue, malaria and autoimmune hemolytic anemia were ruled out by investigations. ADAMTS-13 testing could not be performed due to financial constraints. The deteriorating life threatening condition of the patient compelled us to perform TPE on urgent basis. The close association of pathologist, clinician , intensivist and transfusion specialists improved patient outcome.
Numerical testing and verification of a marine propeller operating in a uniform flow field

ABSTRACT This paper examines the methodology for the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) based Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) prediction of the flow around a propeller operating in a uniform flow. The work investigates the influence of grid and physics setup on the prediction of propeller propulsion properties (i.e. thrust (Kt) and torque (Kq) coefficients). The investigation includes the selection of the turbulence model, near wall gridding and state condition to achieve predictions comparable to experimental measurements. The prediction was validated against the experimental data from the open water propeller test conducted at the Australian Maritime College Cavitation Tunnel (AMCCT). The results show the CFD predictions were in good agreement with the experimental measurements (i.e. less than 5% at up to J = 1.1 and 10% at up to J = 1.19 for Kt and Kq). This confirms the presented methodology can be adopted to provide high fidelity prediction for the hydrodynamic characteristics of the propeller.
The effectiveness of form focused instruction in augmenting the use of verb-noun collocations in L2 learners’ writing / Chiah Siew Fei Chiah Suphon

Form focused instruction (FFI) is a pedagogic approach to teaching linguistic form through communicative language use. This study aims at investigating the effectiveness of FFI in the primary school L2 learners’ use of verb-noun collocations in their writing. In this experimental study, data was collected from pretest and posttest which was conducted before and after a 6 week-course. The 30 respondents from a primary school in KL federal territory (14 males and 16 females) involved in this study were randomly assigned to an experimental group which was treated with Focus on Form (FonF) approach following an inductive and learner-centered learning. The learners in the control group (treated with non FonF approach) followed the traditional Presentation-Practise-Production (PPP) model of language teaching. The analysis of the types of errors found in the use of verb-noun collocations indicated the highest percentage of error occurring in the use of verbs specifically in the formation of the past tense verb form. The errors found revealed that the learners faced difficulties in using delexical or weak verbs such as “make” take” and “have” with the correct noun pairs. The data from the pretest and posttest were also analyzed using a paired sample t-test to determine the between group performance at two time points. The findings suggested that the learners in the FonF group performed better than the non FonF group in terms of the number of collocational uses. This could be attributed to the influence of the focused tasks used during the intervention which gives holistic representation of the collocations in appropriate contexts. Errors in the use, however, are still prevalent in the FonF group as the learners may have stopped short at comprehension without in-depth understanding of the structure.
The impact on anxiety and depression of a whole school approach to health promotion: evidence from a Canadian comprehensive school health (CSH) initiative

Abstract In this paper, we examine the impact of adopting a comprehensive school health (CSH) approach on reducing anxiety and depression of school-age children. We use the data from 245 schools that received government funding support to adopt a CSH approach in order to build health promoting school environments in Alberta. Using a linear multi-level (hierarchical) model, we compare the average percentage of students with anxiety and depression across the schools that are in three different funding stages: pre-funded, actively-funded, and post-funded. Results show that, all else held constant, the schools that are in the actively-funded stage, relative to pre-funded schools have a lower percentage of students who suffer from anxiety and depression.
Asymmetric Dynamic Conditional Copula Correlation and Fundamental Determinants of Interest Rate Comovement

Abstract We study time-varying interest rate comovement and its determinants for the retail banking sector in the euro area over pre-crisis and during crisis, between 2003 and 2018. The analysis is conducted for 11 euro area countries, each classified as either core or periphery. Copula Asymmetric DCC-GARCH is estimated for each country-pair to measure the dynamic interest rate correlations for deposits and loans to households. We then examine the determinants by regressing quarterly correlations on macroeconomic and cross-border linkages, banking, and sociological variables. We also assess the impact of the two crises and of policy initiatives, including negative interest rate, Single Supervisory Mechanism, and Single Regulatory Mechanism. Different panel regressions reveal limited, although varied, influence of determinants on correlations across different products, maturities, and country groups. We conclude that the intrinsic features of the retail banking industry, such as customers' trust, information asymmetry, and political influence, hinder strong interest rate convergence in the euro area.
Weak Professional Interactions as main Cause of Medication Errors in Intensive Care Units in Iran

Background: The goal of healthcare professionals is to provide safe care, prevent injury, and promote the health of patients. Different factors and conditions, in particular, medication errors, may threaten patient safety. Objectives: This study was conducted to explore and to describe the role of interactions among healthcare professionals regarding medication errors in intensive care units. Methods: The study was conducted using a descriptive qualitative method in 2016. The participants were purposively chosen. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews and used qualitative content analysis for the analysis. The setting of the study included 16 internal, surgical, poisoning, and cardiac intensive care units of 7 educational hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences located in central Iran with a total of 190 beds. Participants included 19 members of the healthcare team (physician, nurse and clinical pharmacist) with at least 1 year of work experience in intensive care units. Results: The main category and 3 sub- categories were extracted from interviews. The 3 sub- categories were: “weak interprofessional interaction (physician and nurse)”, “weak intraprofessional interaction (among physicians)”, and “weak interaction of physician as well as nurse with the patient and family”. Conclusions: The findings suggest that medication errors may occur due to lack of interprofessional collaboration and weak communication of the healthcare team with the patient and his family. The collaboration between healthcare providers and communication with patients directly had an impact on patient outcomes. To improve the quality and safety of care delivery, healthcare center managers need to promote interprofessional collaboration, the participation of patient and family in care plan, interprofessional development, and implementation of programs to prevent as well as reduce medication errors in intensive care units.