Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of dry and wet milling pre-treatment methods for improving the anaerobic digestion performance of the Pennisetum hybrid

Two types of milling pre-treatment methods were used to study their effects on the anaerobic digestion performance of the Pennisetum hybrid. The physical structure of the Pennisetum hybrid could be significantly damaged with both milling pre-treatment methods. With an increase in treatment time, the pore volume, surface area, average pore diameter, and the crystallization index of the Pennisetum hybrid increased gradually. The anaerobic fermentation test showed that, among the dry and wet milling pre-treatments, the highest specific methane yield was obtained at 3 h dry milling pre-treated (358.07 mL g−1 VS) and 6 h wet milling pre-treated grass (315.87 mL g−1), which was 41.04% and 24.42% higher than that of the untreated Pennisetum hybrid (253.88 mL g−1 VS). The median diameter (D50) of the Pennisetum hybrid was 25.28% and 22.36% lower than that of the untreated Pennisetum hybrid after 3 h dry and 6 h wet milling pre-treatment. After wet milling pre-treatment, the fluidity of the Pennisetum hybrid was much better than conventional “smashing” pre-treatment, which may make feeding easier in large-scale biogas projects. Good fluidity and optimization of the degree of milling pre-treatment could, therefore, be applied on an industrial scale in the future.
Investigating the physics and environment of Lyman limit systems in cosmological simulations

This work was supported in part by the NSF grant AST-0908063, and by the NASA grant NNX- 09AJ54G. The simulations used in this work have been performed on the Joint Fermilab - KICP Supercomputing Cluster, supported by grants from Fermilab, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, and the University of Chicago.
Finance and Creative Destruction: Evidence for Italy

In this paper we provide new evidence on the relationship between market concentration in the banking industry and firm dynamics. In Italy, in the case of a banking merger or acquisition, the antitrust authorities can require the sale of bank branches if the joint market share of the banks involved in the merger exceeds a specific threshold. We exploit this feature to carry out RDD estimates of (i) the effect of intervention by antitrust authorities on banking market concentration, and (ii) the effect of the level of bank concentration on various measures of firm dynamics. The results show that, in those areas where the authorities forced branch sales, firm's entry rates increase, reallocation of employees from incumbent to entrant firms is higher, and the survival rate of newly formed businesses increases. The overall allocative efficiency, as measured by an Olley-Pakes decomposition of labor productivity, is found to improve.
A Hybrid Spatiotemporal Deep Learning Model for Short-Term Metro Passenger Flow Prediction

The primary objective of this study is to predict the short-term metro passenger flow using the proposed hybrid spatiotemporal deep learning neural network (HSTDL-net). The metro passenger flow data is collected from line 2 of Nanjing metro system to illustrate the study procedure. A hybrid spatiotemporal deep learning model is developed to predict both inbound and outbound passenger flows for every 10 minutes. The results suggest that the proposed HSTDL-net achieves better prediction performance on suburban stations than on urban stations, as well as generating the best prediction accuracy on transfer stations in terms of the lowest MAPE value. Moreover, a comparative analysis is conducted to compare the performance of proposed HSTDL-net with other typical methods, such as ARIMA, MLP, CNN, LSTM, and GBRT. The results indicate that, for both inbound and outbound passenger flow predictions, the HSTDL-net outperforms all the compared models on three types of stations. The results suggest that the proposed hybrid spatiotemporal deep learning neural network can more effectively and fully discover both spatial and temporal hidden correlations between stations for short-term metro passenger flow prediction. The results of this study could provide insightful suggestions for metro system authorities to adjust the operation plans and enhance the service quality of the entire metro system.
Deluded by Artifices? The Common European Framework and Harmonization

This commentary provides a critical and historical review of the Common European Framework of Reference: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEF). It is presented within the context of political and policy issues in Europe, and considers the role that the CEF is likely to play in that context, which is beyond the control of language testers. The dangers of institutionalization through political mandate are explored for test providers, test takers, and score users. It is argued that the CEF should be treated as just one of a range of tools for reporting test scores.
Glaucoma Sex-Specific Effect of BDNF Val 66 Met Genotypes on the Progression of Open-Angle Glaucoma

Citation: Shen T, Gupta VK, Klistorner A, Chitranshi N, Graham SL, You Y. Sex-specific effect of BDNF Val66Met genotypes on the progression of openangle glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2019;60:1069–1075. https:// doi.org/10.1167/iovs.18-26364 PURPOSE. To investigate whether the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met genotype is associated with the rate of progression of open-angle glaucoma (OAG).
Experimental, Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamic Study on Corrosion Inhibition of Mild Steel by Pyridine Derivatives in Aqueous Perchloric Acid

The corrosion of mild steel in aqueous perchloric acid solution was studied in the presence and absence of four different pyridine derivatives. Electrochemical measurements point out that these molecules inhibit the corrosion of mild steel by acting as mixed inhibitors. The adsorbed molecules act as a barrier that prevents the oxidation of the metal and the hydrogen evolution reaction at the mild steel surface. Molecular insights vis-à-vis the corrosion process were acquired by the use of Density Functional Theory (DFT), Molecular Dynamics, and Monte Carlo calculations. Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamic simulation were used to understand at the molecular level the adsorption ability of the studied molecules onto Fe(110) surface. The experimental results and theoretical calculations provided important support for the understanding of the corrosion inhibition mechanism expressed by the pyridine molecules.
Copula Model Selection for Vehicle Component Failures Based on Warranty Claims

In the automotive industry, it is important to know whether the failure of some car parts may be related to the failure of others. This project studies warranty claims for five engine components obtained from a major car manufacturer with the purpose of modeling the joint distributions of the failure of two parts. The one-dimensional distributions of components are combined to construct a bivariate copula model for the joint distribution that makes it possible to estimate the probabilities of two components failing before a given time. Ultimately, the influence of the failure of one part on the operation of another related part can be described, predicted, and addressed. The performance of several families of one-parameter Archimedean copula models (Clayton, Gumbel–Hougaard, survival copulas) is analyzed, and Bayesian model selection is performed. Both right censoring and conditional approaches are considered with the emphasis on conditioning to the warranty period.
Defining the attributes for specific playing positions in football match-play: A complex systems approach

ABSTRACT Introduction Talent identification and development programmes that retain and develop athletes are integral to the sporting success of National Governing Bodies in football. Currently, player attributes are studied in isolation without considering the complexity of interacting components of football performance. The current study applied a systems analysis framework to describe, in a structured and systematic way, the attributes for specific playing positions in football match-play. Methods: Eight high-level football coaches were interviewed. Models of the interacting attributes were developed for each position using Work Domain Analysis (WDA). Results: Six WDA models detail the attributes associated with each playing position. The models identified purposes of playing positions (restrict opposition actions, organise and coordinate, building up of offence, goal scoring and stretch opposition), performance-related measures and the functions required to achieve the playing position purposes (game play, psychological functions, time and space and player actions). Critically, the relationships between the purposes, measures, functions, processes, and objects are described in the models. Discussion The WDA models describe the interacting attributes of different playing positions in football match-play. The findings demonstrate football performance is complex, consisting of multiple interacting and dynamic components. Implications to support coaches in talent identification and development are discussed.
Functional consequences of prey acclimation to ocean acidification for the prey and its predator

Ocean acidification is the suite of chemical changes to the carbonate system of seawater as a consequence of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Despite a growing body of evidences demonstrating the negative effects of ocean acidification on marine species, the consequences at the ecosystem level are still unclear. One factor limiting our ability to upscale from species to ecosystem is the poor mechanistic understanding of the functional consequences of the observed effects on organisms. This is particularly true in the context of species interactions. The aim of this work was to investigate the functional consequence of the exposure of a prey (the mussel Brachidontes pharaonis) to ocean acidification for both the prey and its predator (the crab Eriphia verrucosa). Mussels exposed to pH 7.5 for >4 weeks showed significant decreases in condition index and in mechanical properties (65% decrease in maximum breaking load) as compared with mussels acclimated to pH 8.0. This translated into negative consequences for the mussel in presence of the predator crab. The crab feeding efficiency increased through a significant 27% decrease in prey handling time when offered mussels acclimated to the lowest pH. The predator was also negatively impacted by the acclimation of the prey, probably as a consequence of a decreased food quality. When fed with prey acclimated under decreased pH for 3 months, crab assimilation efficiency significantly decreased by 30% and its growth rate was 5 times slower as compared with crab fed with mussels acclimated under high pH. Our results highlight the important to consider physiological endpoints in the context of species interactions.
When Consumption Regulations Backfire: The Role of Political Ideology

The authors investigate the role of political ideology in consumer reactions to consumption regulations. First, they demonstrate via a natural experiment that conservatives (but not liberals) increase usage of mobile phones in cars after a law was enacted prohibiting that activity (Study 1). Then, through three lab experiments the authors illustrate that after consumers are exposed to consumption regulations from the government (e.g., laws that restrict consumption, warning labels designed by the Food and Drug Administration), conservatives (vs. liberals) are more likely to (1) use phones when restricted (Study 2), (2) purchase unhealthy foods (Study 3), and (3) view smoking e-cigarettes more favorably (Study 4). No such effects are observed when a nongovernment source is used, or when the message from the government is framed as a notification (vs. warning). These findings point to the important roles of political ideology and the message source in increasing reactance to consumption regulations, thereby mitigating the effectiveness of public policy initiatives undertaken by the government.
REMEDIAL EFFECT OF CORIANDRUM SATIVUM (CORIANDER) EXTRACTS ON LEAD INDUCED OXIDATIVE DAMAGE IN SOFT TISSUES OF SWISS ALBINO MICE Research Article

The present communication attempts to evaluate the antioxidant potential on the seeds of Coriandrum sativum, Umbelliferae family. Administration of coriander extracts to lead induced mice countered oxidative stress as evidenced by significantly decreased lipid peroxidation and increased activity of SOD, CAT, and GSH and total protein content in the liver, kidney and testis of lead induced mice treated with coriander. Beside this, Treatment with coriander decreased the activity of AST, ALT enzyme and cholesterol level in the soft tissues of lead induced mice. Efficacy of coriander to reduce tissue lead concentration was also evaluated. Histopathological studies of kidney revealed that supplementation of coriander extract showed the tubules appear more or less normal. In conclusion, the treatment with coriander extracts ameliorated oxidative stress in lead induced mice due to the synergistic action of antioxidant phytochemicals, carotenoids, flavonoids etc. present in the extracts. From the findings of the study, the coriander is identified to possess antioxidant potential and hence it is worth to be considered as a natural chelating agent for lead intoxication.
Semi-Supervised Pairing via Basis-Sharing Wasserstein Matching Auto-Encoder

Semi-supervised pairing, learning explicit pairing relation between unlabeled input and target distribution in an otherwise semisupervised setting, has recently attracted lots of attention [16, 12], since data labeling is often time-consuming and requires lots of human labor. In this paper, we propose Basis-Sharing Wasserstein Matching Auto-Encoder to tackle the problem of semi-supervised pairing. Our model inspired by the success of robust representation learning for matching cross-modal latent space distribution [15, 10] and good statistical properties of optimal transport [1, 4]. In particular, Wasserstein distance in the optimal transport family has been shown to work on GANs and autoencoders [2, 14]. We propose to match the latent code distribution of the unlabeled dataset, with the labeled data points as “anchor points”. This should help the network making association between the distributions from two different domains. A similar idea that uses a different method has been shown to work on some language tasks [3]; our work explores a new approach based on distribution matching. Through preliminary experiments, we show that the proposed algorithm can successfully incorporate the unlabeled data for improving the classification accuracy on MNIST and CIFAR10 datasets.
Large-Dimensional Factor Modeling Based on High-Frequency Observations

This paper develops a statistical theory to estimate an unknown factor structure based on financial high-frequency data. We derive an estimator for the number of factors and consistent and asymptotically mixed-normal estimators of the loadings and factors under the assumption of a large number of cross-sectional and high-frequency observations. The estimation approach can separate factors for continuous and rare jump risk. The estimators for the loadings and factors are based on the principal component analysis of the quadratic covariation matrix. The estimator for the number of factors uses a perturbed eigenvalue ratio statistic. In an empirical analysis of the S&P 500 firms we estimate four stable continuous systematic factors, which can be approximated very well by a market and industry portfolios. Jump factors are different from the continuous factors.
Antimicrobial Activity of Propolis on Different Oral Bacteria

Propolis is a natural substance which is produced from honey bees through collecting and transforming resins and exudates from plants. The propolis can use the medicine field for antibacterial effect. The purpose of our study was to investigate the antibacterial activity for the oral prevention of dental caries. The propolis was from Australia honeybees, diluted 5w% and 10w% in ethanol. The antibacterial activity of the treated propolis against Streptococcus gordonii(S. gordonii), Streptococcus intermedius(S. intermedius) and Streptococcus sanguinis(S. sanguinis) were determined using optical density and colony forming units. All experimental groups were effective against bacteria. Streptococcus intermedius and Streptococcus sanguinis were more effective compared to Streptococcus gordonii . All groups inhibition bacterial growth, but there were no significant differences of different wt% groups. There were significantly low activities treated with propolis. The antibacterial activity indicated propolis against Streptococcus gordonii, Streptococcus intermedius and Streptococcus sanguinis . Propolis possesses several medicinal properties. In this study, the 5 wt% and 10 wt% group of propolis was indicated antibacterial effects, which succeeded in inhibiting the bacteria growth. Our study showed a significant effect related to oral bacteria species. In conclusion, the antibacterial action observed in this study suggests that this propolis substance could be used as an alternative medicine for infectious conditions of the oral disease without causing any major local or systemic adverse effects.
The Impact of Pedagogy Content Knowledge on Pre-service and In-service Students’ Understanding

The study examined the impact of pedagogy content knowledge on pre-service and in-service student' understanding and solving chemistry problem. The sample consisted of 16 students pursuing a Bachelor degree in Educational Sciences College; 8 of them were pre-service, and the other 8 were in-service students' teachers who had two years diploma on teaching prior to their admission to university programs; the pre-service students had been admitted directly to the univesity (having a higher score on GSC -General Secondary Certificate). The whole sample studied general chemistry course in their freshman year and a methodology course in their junior year. The results show that although in-service students’ teachers had been admitted with lower GS, however, they show better performance in solving chemistry problem. This indicates the dynamic process of learning and that the mental structure of individual is not static, integrating the practical science teaching experience with formal pedagogy content knowledge allowed better understanding for scientific concepts and in turn a better performance in solving chemistry problems on the part of in-service students’ teachers.
Toxicity of some insecticides against the green lacewing , Chrysoperla carnea ( Stephens ) ( Neuroptera : Chrysopidae ) under laboratory conditions

The green lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) is the most important predators which has significant potential for commercialization and use against many crop pests. The present work aimed to study the toxicity of some insecitides against C. carnea larvae under laboratory conditions. The obtained results showed that after 24 h of exposure, the LC50 values for abamectin, KZ oil, divor, acetamipride, albolum, super misrona and lambda were 150, 200, 280, 700, 100, 80 and 0.1 mg/L, respectively; while, the corresponding LC90 were 284, 431, 586, 1344, 233, 169 and 1 mg/L, respectively. After 48 h, the highest value of LC50 (550 mg/L) was recorded when used acetamipride followed by divor (205), KZ oil (150), abamectin (110), albolum (81), super misrona (45) and lambda (0.03); while, the LC90 values ranged between 0.18 (in the case of lambda) and 1055 (in the case of acetamipride). With respect to the LC50 value after 72 h of exposure, it reached 0.03 mg/L for lambda cyhalothrin, 40 mg/L for super misrona, 70 mg/L for albolum, 90 mg/L for abamectin, 130 mg/L for KZ oil, 180 mg/L for divor and 480 mg/L for acetamipride; while, the LC90 values ranged between 0.18 and 714 mg/L. According to the slope values, the present findings referred to low homogeneity of the tested strain of the 2 instar larvae of C. carnea. [Ahmed H. El-Afify, R.M. Shreef, N.M. Ghanim and M.A. Hendawy. Toxicity of some insecticides against the green lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) under laboratory conditions. Life Sci J 2018;15(9):35-41]. ISSN: 1097-8135 (Print) / ISSN: 2372-613X (Online). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 4. doi:10.7537/marslsj150918.04.
Advances in uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for non-small cell lung cancer

Lung cancer has the highest incidence and mortality rates among all cancers, both globally and in China. In clinical oncology, lung cancers can be divided into small-cell lung cancer and non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Currently, radical resection is an important clinical method for NSCLC treatment, and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) occupies a major role in lung cancer surgery, especially owing to its minimally invasive character. In particular, since the initial report of uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (uniportal VATS) in 2004, rapid advances have been made, and this surgical procedure is now extensively applied in clinical practice. The aim of this comprehensive review is to provide a summary of the recent advances in the application of uniportal VATS for NSCLC.
Industry Projects in Requirements Engineering Education: Application in a University Course in the US and Comparison with Germany

Project-based learning has proven useful in software engineering education to increase student engagement and learning performance. In this paper, we contribute our experiences from applying industry projects in an undergraduate requirements engineering course in the United States. We furthermore discuss our experiences from courses conducted in Germany and the US course in light of difference in the educational systems. Results show that our course design is well received in both countries in terms of learning outcomes, student motivation, teamwork, attention to detail, and performance in the exam.
The Strong Porter Hypothesis in an Endogenous Growth Model with Satisficing Managers

Few endogenous growth models have focused attention on the strong Porter hypothesis that stricter environmental policies induce innovations, the benefits of which exceed the costs. A key assumption underlying this hypothesis is that policy strictness pushes firms to overcome some obstacles to profit maximization. This paper incorporates pollution and taxation in the model of Aghion and Griffith (2005) of growth which includes satisficing managers and non-drastic innovation. Our theoretical results predict the strong Porter hypothesis. However, assuming drastic innovation in the model, we predict the weak Porter hypothesis. We also consider several extensions, such as a simultaneous competition policy or a command and control policy.