Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compressed Biogas-Diesel Dual-Fuel Engine Optimization Study for Ultralow Emission

The aim of this study is to find out the optimum operating conditions in a diesel engine fueled with compressed biogas (CBG) and pilot diesel dual-fuel. One-dimensional (1D) and three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code and multiobjective optimization code were employed to investigate the influence of CBG-diesel dual-fuel combustion performance and exhaust emissions on a diesel engine. In this paper, 1D engine code and multiobjective optimization code were coupled and evaluated about 15000 cases to define the proper boundary conditions. In addition, selected single diesel fuel (dodecane) and dual-fuel (CBG-diesel) combustion modes were modeled to compare the engine performances and exhaust emission characteristics by using CFD code under various operating conditions. In optimization study, start of pilot diesel fuel injection, CBG-diesel flow rate, and engine speed were optimized and selected cases were compared using CFD code. CBG and diesel fuels were defined as leading reactants using user defined code. The results showed that significantly lower NOx emissions were emitted under dual-fuel operation for all cases compared to single-fuel mode at all engine load conditions.
Comparison of Least-Cost and Least-Pollution Equipment Fleet Configurations Using Computer Simulation

AbstractConstruction vehicles and equipment, like all other fuel-powered vehicles, contribute to air pollutant emissions, such as nitrogen oxides (NOX) and particulate matter (PM). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established standards for pollutant emissions for different tiers of equipment to attain a “least-pollution” equipment spread or fleet. Although using higher-tier vehicles and equipment can reduce pollutant emissions under otherwise identical conditions, policies and contractor operations can also significantly affect the total pollutant emitted for a given amount of work, such as cubic yards of earth moved or tons of surface course placed. Previous studies demonstrated the direct relationship between pollutant emissions and operational productivity and the quantitative effects of that relationship using real-world emissions data. This paper describes the results of a study conducted using computer-based simulation techniques to compare costs and pollutant emissions for a typical ear.
Correlation between Metabolic Rate and Salinity Tolerance and Metabolic Response to Salinity in Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella)

Simple Summary The association between the metabolic rate and salinity tolerance in stenohaline freshwater fish could affect how fish adapt to changes in environmental salinity. In Experiment I, the metabolic rates and upper salinity tolerance limit of the grass carp were determined individually, and we aimed to test whether an association existed between the salinity tolerance capacity and both the resting metabolic rate and maximum metabolic rate. In Experiment II, the effects of increasing salinity on metabolic rates, gill histology, and Na+-K+-ATPase activities were determined in grass carp. The results suggest that a lower metabolic rate may not necessarily allow for a better salinity tolerance capacity of grass carp. Salinity-induced changes in the gill surface contribute more to ion exchange capacity than to oxygen uptake capacity. Abstract The metabolic rate could be one of the factors affecting the salinity tolerance capacity of fish. Experiment I tested whether metabolic rates correlate with the upper salinity tolerance limit among individual grass carp by daily increasing salinity (1 g kg−1 day−1). The feeding dropped sharply as the salinity reached 10 g kg−1 and ceased when salinities exceeded 11 g kg−1. The ventilation frequency decreased weakly as salinity increased from 0 to 12 g kg−1 and then increased rapidly as salinity reached 14 g kg−1. The fish survived at salinities lower than 14 g kg−1, and all fish died when salinity reached 17 g kg−1. The upper salinity tolerance limit was not correlated with metabolic rates. Therefore, a lower metabolic rate may not necessarily allow for better salinity tolerance capacity. Experiment II tested how different salinities (0, 0.375, 0.75, 1.5, 3, and 6 g kg−1 for 2 weeks) affect the metabolic parameters of grass carp. The changes in the resting metabolic rate with increasing salinity could be explained by the relative changes in interlamellar cell mass and protruding lamellae. The maximum metabolic rate remained constant, suggesting that the salinity-induced changes in the gill surface had a minor effect on oxygen uptake capacity.
Daisy: Model Use, Calibration, and Validation

Daisy is a soil-plant-atmosphere system model focusing on agro-ecosystems. It simulates water, heat, carbon, and nitrogen balances as well as crop production and pesticide fate in agro-ecosystems subjected to various management strategies. The basic scale of application is the field (management unit), which may be simulated in one or two dimensions. Daisy allows several different process descriptions for water flow, evapotranspiration, crop growth, and solute transport. Furthermore, it can operate in a distributed mode (several fields) and link up with distributed hydrological models. In this case, statistical and remote sensing data are relevant. Considerations concerning the objective of a given study and available data determine the choice of process descriptions. All applications require information concerning weather (at minimum, daily values of solar radiation, air temperature, and precipitation), soil (texture, organic matter, hydraulic parameters, etc.), location of groundwater, and vegetation cover. Applications that focus on nitrogen dynamics require a description of crop rotation, tillage, use of fertilizer and manure, irrigation, sowing, harvesting, and organic matter turnover in the soil. In carbon and nitrogen balance simulations, the uncertainty associated with crop growth is particularly important because Daisy only considers water and nitrogen stress. Dry matter and nitrogen yield may require calibration. Uncertainty associated with initialization of the organic matter pools and the parameterization of organic fertilizers is considered to be of major importance. For pesticide transport calculations, descriptions of macroporosity and hydraulic conditions close to the surface are critical. Daisy has been validated in several international comparative validation studies.
VEHICULAR ENERGY LOSSES ASSOCIATED WITH THE TRAVERSAL OF AN UNEVEN ROAD

SUMMARY The energy losses which derive from the vibratory phenomenon experienced by a motor vehicle when It traverses an Irregular road surface have been examined. The study has revealed that there are, at least, four “dynamic” energy-loss mechanisms contributing to vehicular rolling resistance. Specifically, it was determined that the energy losses associated with the dynamic deflection of the tire and the stroking of the suspension damper are predicted reasonably well by a linear mass-spring-damper model of a motor vehicle traversing an uneven road surface at constant speed. The energy losses attributable to impacts between tire and road become significant only when the speed is very high or the road is very rough. Finally, measurements have shown that the angular accelerations associated with time-varying radial deflections of the tire will cause an energy loss when the shear forces required to accelerate or decelerate the wheel become larger than can be sustained by the frictional coupling prevailing .
Vulnerabilities and Threats to Natural Forest Regrowth: Land Tenure Reform, Land Markets, Pasturelands, Plantations, and Urbanization in Indigenous Communities in Mexico

Despite the economic and social costs of national and international efforts to restore millions of hectares of deforested and degraded landscapes, results have not met expectations due to land tenure conflicts, land-use transformation, and top-down decision-making policies. Privatization of land, expansion of cattle raising, plantations, and urbanization have created an increasingly competitive land market, dispossessing local communities and threatening forest conservation and regeneration. In contrast to significant investments in reforestation, natural regrowth, which could contribute to landscape regeneration, has not been sufficiently promoted by national governments. This study analyzes socio-ecological and economic vulnerabilities of indigenous and other peasant communities in the Mexican states of Veracruz, Chiapas, and Morelos related to the inclusion of natural regeneration in their forest cycles. While these communities are located within protected areas (Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, El Tepozteco National Park, and Chichinautzin Biological Corridor), various threats and vulnerabilities impede natural regeneration. Although landscape restoration involves complex political, economic, and social relationships and decisions by a variety of stakeholders, we focus on communities’ vulnerable land rights and the impacts of privatization on changes in land use and forest conservation. We conclude that the social, economic, political, and environmental vulnerabilities of the study communities threaten natural regeneration, and we explore necessary changes for incorporating this process in landscape restoration.
The speed of focal attention in early vision

Previous investigations reported the speed of focal attention to be at least as fast as 33.3 msec per item (for 1-4 items displayed serially). In this study, the speed of presentation was increased to 16.7 msec per item (RS-170 standard field rates) using an advanced digital real-time image video system. Four observers participated in this study. Performance was based on the percentage of correct responses. Using stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 16.7, 33.3, and 50 msec, the authors found that performance decreased with faster SOAs. All subjects performed well above the theoretical chance level, even for four objects displayed in a sequence. Therefore, the authors conclude that the speed of focal attention is at least 12 times as fast as the saccadic scanning rate of the human eye. <<ETX>>
Loss of an Intimin-Like Protein Encoded on a Uropathogenic E. coli Pathogenicity Island Reduces Inflammation and Affects Interactions with the Urothelium

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) causes the majority of uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTI), which affect nearly half of women worldwide. Many UPEC strains carry an annotated intimin-like adhesin (ila) locus in their genome related to a well-characterized virulence factor in diarrheagenic E. coli pathotypes. ABSTRACT Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) causes the majority of uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTI), which affect nearly half of women worldwide. Many UPEC strains carry an annotated intimin-like adhesin (ila) locus in their genome related to a well-characterized virulence factor in diarrheagenic E. coli pathotypes. Its role in UPEC uropathogenesis, however, remains unknown. In prototype UPEC strain CFT073, there is an ila locus that contains three predicted intimin-like genes, sinH, sinI, and ratA. We used in silico approaches to determine the phylogeny and genomic distribution of this locus among uropathogens. We found that the currently annotated intimin locus-encoded proteins in CFT073 are more closely related to invasin proteins found in Salmonella. Deletion of the individual sinH, sinI, and ratA genes did not result in measurable effects on growth, biofilm formation, or motility in vitro. On average, sinH was more highly expressed in clinical strains during active human UTI than in human urine ex vivo. Unexpectedly, we found that strains lacking this ila locus had increased adherence to bladder cells in vitro, coupled with a decrease in bladder cell invasion and death. The sinH mutant displayed a significant fitness defect in the murine model of ascending UTI, including reduced inflammation in the bladder. These data confirmed an inhibitory role in bladder cell adherence to facilitate invasion and inflammation; therefore, the ila locus should be termed invasin-like rather than intimin-like. Collectively, our data suggest that loss of this locus mediates measurable interactions with bladder cells in vitro and contributes to fitness during UTI.
Methodologies for the Possible Integral Generation of Geopolymers Based on Copper Tailings

It is of interest to study the use of copper tailings as a raw material to generate geopolymers due to the exorbitant amounts of existing tailings deposits, which also produce different risks to nearby communities. Therefore, using this industrial waste as construction material would result in several environmental and economic benefits. Due to the above, it is necessary to perform laboratory tests that account for the relevant variables to obtain fresh geopolymer pastes with good consistency, and to obtain hardened geopolymers with good mechanical strength. This report gives an account of the experimental work carried out in the laboratory of the CIMS Sustainable Mining Research Center of the Engineering Consulting Company JRI, exposing the preliminary results observed in the generation of geopolymers by means of seven different methods using copper tailings and NaOH. Of the seven methods evaluated in the laboratory, it was observed that two of them deliver better results from a qualitative point of view, where the influence of the curing stage stands out, reflecting that temperature is one of the critical variables for the formation of geopolymers based on copper tailings and NaOH. The best means to work the mixtures should be studied to optimize the solubility of the NaOH and, therefore, the dissolution of the aluminosilicates in the tailings.
Empathy-based counterspeech can reduce racist hate speech in a social media field experiment

Despite heightened awareness of the detrimental impact of hate speech on social media platforms on affected communities and public discourse, there is little consensus on approaches to mitigate it. While content moderation—either by governments or social media companies—can curb online hostility, such policies may suppress valuable as well as illicit speech and might disperse rather than reduce hate speech. As an alternative strategy, an increasing number of international and nongovernmental organizations (I/NGOs) are employing counterspeech to confront and reduce online hate speech. Despite their growing popularity, there is scant experimental evidence on the effectiveness and design of counterspeech strategies (in the public domain). Modeling our interventions on current I/NGO practice, we randomly assign English-speaking Twitter users who have sent messages containing xenophobic (or racist) hate speech to one of three counterspeech strategies—empathy, warning of consequences, and humor—or a control group. Our intention-to-treat analysis of 1,350 Twitter users shows that empathy-based counterspeech messages can increase the retrospective deletion of xenophobic hate speech by 0.2 SD and reduce the prospective creation of xenophobic hate speech over a 4-wk follow-up period by 0.1 SD. We find, however, no consistent effects for strategies using humor or warning of consequences. Together, these results advance our understanding of the central role of empathy in reducing exclusionary behavior and inform the design of future counterspeech interventions.
Impacts of Holding Control Strategies on Transit Performance

Transit operators are interested in strategies to improve service reliability as it is an important measure of performance and level of service. One of the common practices aimed at reducing service unreliability is holding control strategies. The design of these strategies involves the selection of a set of time point stops and the holding criteria for regulating the departure time. The interactions between passenger activity, transit operations, and traffic dynamics must be dynamically modeled to analyze the impacts of holding strategies on transit performance. An evaluation of different holding criteria and the number and location of time point stops was conducted with BusMezzo, a dynamic transit simulation model. The holding strategies were implemented in the model and applied to a high-frequency trunk bus line in Stockholm, Sweden. The analysis of the results considers the implications of holding strategies from both passenger and operator perspectives. The analysis suggests substantial gains are possible by implementing a holding strategy on the basis of the mean headway from the preceding and the succeeding buses. This strategy is the most efficient for passenger time savings as well as fleet costs and crew management.
How Do Violent Politicians Govern? The Case of Paramilitary-Tied Mayors in Colombia

Abstract How do politicians with coercive linkages govern? This article relies on original data on militia-linked mayors in Colombia from 1988 to 2015 derived from 42,000 pages of Colombian Supreme Court sentencing documents. Using a regression discontinuity design, it examines the governance records of militia-tied mayors who won the elections by a narrow margin. It finds that being ruled by a militia-linked mayor significantly reduces levels of insecurity and crime, but has pernicious effects on the provision of other public goods, especially education. I theorize that these politicians' (perverse) comparative advantage on security, combined with their crowding out of social spending, engenders these outcomes. I evaluate these mechanisms with data on the nature of paramilitary–mayor alliances, police reinforcements, municipal budgets, politicians' Twitter feeds, and in-depth interviews with paramilitary commanders and politicians. The article has implications for understanding the effects of voting for politicians with coercive ties on the quality of governance and democracy.
Crowding, climate, and the case for social distancing among trees.

In an emerging era of megadisturbance, bolstering forest resilience to wildfire, insects, and drought has become a central objective in many western forests. Climate has received considerable attention as a driver of these disturbances, but few studies have examined the complexities of climate-vegetation-disturbance interactions. Current strategies for creating resilient forests often rely on retrospective approaches, seeking to impart resilience by restoring historical conditions to contemporary landscapes, but historical conditions are becoming increasingly unattainable amidst modern bioclimatic conditions. What becomes an appropriate benchmark for resilience when we have novel forests, rapidly changing climate, and unprecedented disturbance regimes? We combined two longitudinal datasets-each representing some of the most comprehensive spatially explicit, annual tree mortality data in existence-in a post-hoc factorial design to examine the non-linear relationships between fire, climate, forest spatial structure, and bark beetles. We found that while pre-fire drought elevated mortality risk, advantageous local neighborhoods could offset these effects. Surprisingly, mortality risk (Pm) was higher in crowded local neighborhoods that burned in wet years (Pm = 42%) compared with sparse neighborhoods that burned during drought (Pm = 30%). Risk of beetle attack was also increased by drought, but lower conspecific crowding impeded the otherwise positive interaction between fire and beetle attack. Antecedent fire increased drought-related mortality over short timespans (<7 yrs) but reduced mortality over longer intervals. These results clarify interacting disturbance dynamics and provide a mechanistic underpinning for forest restoration strategies. Importantly, they demonstrate the potential for managed fire and silvicultural strategies to offset climate effects and bolster resilience to fire, beetles, and drought.
Concept Libraries for Repeatable and Reusable Research: Qualitative Study Exploring the Needs of Users

Background Big data research in the field of health sciences is hindered by a lack of agreement on how to identify and define different conditions and their medications. This means that researchers and health professionals often have different phenotype definitions for the same condition. This lack of agreement makes it difficult to compare different study findings and hinders the ability to conduct repeatable and reusable research. Objective This study aims to examine the requirements of various users, such as researchers, clinicians, machine learning experts, and managers, in the development of a data portal for phenotypes (a concept library). Methods This was a qualitative study using interviews and focus group discussion. One-to-one interviews were conducted with researchers, clinicians, machine learning experts, and senior research managers in health data science (N=6) to explore their specific needs in the development of a concept library. In addition, a focus group discussion with researchers (N=14) working with the Secured Anonymized Information Linkage databank, a national eHealth data linkage infrastructure, was held to perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for the phenotyping system and the proposed concept library. The interviews and focus group discussion were transcribed verbatim, and 2 thematic analyses were performed. Results Most of the participants thought that the prototype concept library would be a very helpful resource for conducting repeatable research, but they specified that many requirements are needed before its development. Although all the participants stated that they were aware of some existing concept libraries, most of them expressed negative perceptions about them. The participants mentioned several facilitators that would stimulate them to share their work and reuse the work of others, and they pointed out several barriers that could inhibit them from sharing their work and reusing the work of others. The participants suggested some developments that they would like to see to improve reproducible research output using routine data. Conclusions The study indicated that most interviewees valued a concept library for phenotypes. However, only half of the participants felt that they would contribute by providing definitions for the concept library, and they reported many barriers regarding sharing their work on a publicly accessible platform. Analysis of interviews and the focus group discussion revealed that different stakeholders have different requirements, facilitators, barriers, and concerns about a prototype concept library.
Deaf Culture in Inclusive Schools

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the culture of students who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing within the broader context of inclusive schools, specifically as demonstrated though their learning experiences, socialization, and identity issues in such an environment. The chapter will include qualitative data in the form of observations and in-depth student interviews to allow the reader insight into the shared cultural model of students who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing. The goal is to provide a holistic picture of cultural phenomena through the points of view of d/Deaf and hard of hearing students themselves. The description of the culture of this group of students may prove useful in shaping effective inclusive environments for students who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing.