Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kinetics of rhodium-catalyzed methanol carbonylation

The kinetic data of the rhodium-catalyzed carbonylation of methanol have been critically analyzed. It has been found that the discrepancy between the reaction rate constants is due to ignoring the effect of vapor-liquid equilibrium of the iodide promoter. The distribution coefficients describing the vapor-liquid equilibrium of CH 3 I were determined and employed in the recalculation of the reaction rate data. A very close agreement of the corrected rate constants with those obtained from the literature was achieved
Effects of Fed Policy Rate Forecasts on Real Yields and Inflation Expectations at the Zero Lower Bound

We study the effects of quantitative policy rate forecasts by the Federal Reserve on real yields and inflation expectations at the zero lower bound (ZLB). We study the effects of surprises in policy rate forecasts from the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) on real yields and breakeven inflation rates derived from government bonds for forward rates across the yield curve. We find that surprises in the SEP policy rate forecasts significantly affect real yields in the expected direction across the yield curve. By contrast, breakeven inflation rates are little affected across the yield curve. In particular, five-year breakeven inflation rates five years ahead, a common measure of monetary policy credibility, are not significantly affected by surprises in SEP policy rate forecasts. This suggests that policy rate forecasts by the Fed at the ZLB managed to affect real yields without adversely affecting monetary policy credibility.
Long‐Term Performance of an In Situ “Iron Wall” for Remediation of VOCs

The use of granular iron for in situ degradation of dissolved chlorinated organic compounds is rapidly gaining acceptance as a cost‐effective technology for ground water remediation. This paper describes the first field demonstration of the technology, and is of particular importance since it provides the longest available record of performance (five years). A mixture of 22% granular iron and 78% sand was installed as a permeable “wall” across the path of a contaminant plume at Canadian Forces Base, Borden, Ontario. The major contaminants were trichloroethene (TCE, 268 mg/L) and tetrachloroethene (PCE, 58 mg/L). Approximately 90% of the TCE and 86% of the PCE were removed by reductive dechlorination within the wall, with no measurable decrease in performance over the five year duration of the test. Though about 1% of the influent TCE and PCE appeared as dichloroethene isomers as a consequence of the dechlorination of TCE and PCE, these also degraded within the iron‐sand mixture. Performance of the field installation was reasonably consistent with the results of laboratory column studies conducted to simulate the field behavior. However, if a more reactive iron material, or a higher percentage of iron had been used, complete removal of the chlorinated compounds might have been achieved. Changes in water chemistry indicated that calcium carbonate was precipitating within the reactive material; however, the trace amount of precipitate detected in core samples collected four years after installation of the wall suggest that the observed performance should persist for at least another five years. The study provides strong evidence that in situ use of granular iron could provide a long‐term, low‐maintenance cost solution for many ground water contamination problems.
VAPORIZATION AND OXIDATION OF LIQUID FUEL DROPLETS AT HIGH TEMPERATURE AND HIGH PRESSURE: APPLICATION TO N-ALKANES AND VEGETABLE OIL METHYL ESTERS

Vaporization and oxidation of liquid fuel droplets are basic mechanisms in spray combustion for various industrial applications. In this work, coupled effects of temperature and pressure on n-alkane droplet vaporization are investigated in experiments conducted in a high-pressure and high-temperature gasification facility equipped with the fiber-suspended droplet technique. The influence of temperature and pressure on n-heptane and n-decane vaporization rates is particularly emphasized with regard to critical conditions of the liquid fuel. Characteristics of n-alkane droplet vaporization, and heating and vaporization times are compared with those of vegetable oil methyl esters—biofuels used in diesel engines. Finally, chemical species formed during the oxidation of these biofuels are identified by gas chromatography in oxidation experiments performed in a jet-stirred reactor. The influence of temperature, pressure, and equivalence ratio on regulated and unregulated pollutants is discussed. Emissions of pollutants obtained during biofuels oxidation are compared with those identified during the oxidation of a synthetic diesel fuel.
WET SEWAGE SLUDGE APPLICATION EFFECT ON SOIL PROPERTIES AND ELEMENT CONTENT OF LEAF AND ROOT VEGETABLES

ABSTRACT Pot experiments were conducted in a heated greenhouse to study the effects of increasing doses of sewage sludge application on vegetables grown for leaves (lettuce, endive, spinach) and roots (radish, carrots, beets), and on some soil properties. Results showed that sewage sludge application increased or decreased soil pH in cases of lower or higher values respectively, increased soil organic matter, and increased soil concentrations in all mineral elements studied, except for manganese (Mn) and cobalt (Co). Cadmium (Cd) was not detected in soil-sewage sludge mixtures. After sewage sludge application, edible plant parts of leaf and root vegetables had increased copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) concentrations and decreased Mn concentrations, whereas iron (Fe) concentrations remained almost unchanged in the leaf vegetables and were lower in the root vegetables. Cobalt, lead (Pb), and Cd were not detected in plant tissues. Increasing doses of sewage sludge resulted in higher dry matter yield of vegetable edible parts, with those grown for roots responding stronger.
QoS Aware Robot Trajectory Optimization With IRS-Assisted Millimeter-Wave Communications

This paper considers the motion energy minimization problem for a robot that uses millimeter-wave (mm-wave) communications assisted by an intelligent reflective surface (IRS). The robot must perform tasks within given deadlines, and it is subject to quality of service (QoS) constraints. This problem is crucial for fully automated factories governed by the binomial of autonomous robots and new generations of mobile communications, i.e., 5G and 6G. In this new context, robot energy efficiency and communication reliability remain fundamental problems that couple in optimizing robot trajectory and communication QoS. More precisely, to account for the mutual dependency between robot position and communication QoS, robot trajectory and beamforming at the IRS and access point all need to be optimized. We present a solution that can decouple the two problems by exploiting mm-wave channel characteristics. Then, a closed-form solution is obtained for the beamforming optimization problem, whereas the trajectory is optimized by a novel successive-convex optimization-based algorithm that can deal with abrupt line-of-sight (LOS) to non-line-of-sight (NLOS) transitions. Specifically, the algorithm uses a radio map to avoid obstacles and poorly covered areas. We prove that the algorithm can converge to a solution satisfying the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. The simulation results show a fast convergence rate of the algorithm and a dramatic reduction of the motion energy consumption with respect to methods that aim to find maximum-rate trajectories. Moreover, we show that passive IRSs represent a powerful solution to improve the radio coverage and motion energy efficiency of robots.
Protective Effects of Pelargonium graveolens Essential Oil on Methomyl-Induced Oxidative Stress and Spatial Working Memory Impairment in Association with Histopathological Changes in the Hippocampus of Male Wistar Rats

Introduction: Methomyl (MET) is a carbamate insecticide, used in agriculture and public health to eliminate harmful insects. Besides its advantages in agriculture, it causes neurotoxic effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of MET on Spatial Working Memory (SWM), oxidative stress parameters, and histopathological changes in the hippocampus, as well as the possible protective role of Pelargonium graveolens Essential Oil (EO). Methods: Male Wistar rats were randomized into four groups of six animals: group I as the control that received the vehicle; group II received EO (75 mg/kg b.w), group III received MET (2 mg/kg b.w); and group IV received both MET and EO. The rats were administered the respective doses orally by gavage for 28 days. SWM was assessed using Y-maze on the day before the first treatment and day 28 after the last dose. They were sacrificed by decapitation and their brains were taken for assessing oxidative stress parameters and histopathological analysis. Results: MET treatment caused SWM deficits. Furthermore, drastic changes were observed in aspartate transaminase, alanine aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase activities. The level of malondialdehyde significantly increased, whereas antioxidant (glutathioneS-transferase and catalase) enzyme activities significantly decreased. The CA1 region of the hippocampus of rats exposed to MET revealed severe histological alterations. However, supplementation with EO improved SWM and partially restored the activities of antioxidant systems and prevented neuronal cell damage. Conclusion: P. graveolens EO has the potential in mitigating most of the adverse effects in the hippocampus and prevents SWM impairment induced by MET toxicity.
Effects of Elevated CO2 and Agricultural Management on Flux of Greenhouse Gases From Soil

To evaluate the contribution of agriculture to climate change, the flux of greenhouse gases from different cropping systems must be assessed. Soil greenhouse gas flux (CO2, N2O, and CH4) was assessed during the final growing season in a long-term (10-year) study evaluating the effects of crop management (conservation and conventional) and atmospheric CO2 (ambient and twice ambient) on a Decatur silt loam (clayey, kaolinitic, thermic Rhodic Paleudults). Seasonal soil CO2 flux was significantly greater under elevated (4.39 Mg CO2-C ha−1) versus ambient CO2 (3.34 Mg CO2-C ha−1) and was generally greater in the conventional (4.19 Mg CO2-C ha−1) compared with the conservation (3.53 Mg CO2-C ha-1) system. Soil flux of both N2O (range, −1.5 to 53.4 g N2O-N ha−1 day−1) and CH4 (range, −7.9 to 24.4 g CH4-C ha−1 day−1) were low throughout the study and rarely exhibited differences caused by treatments. Global warming potential (calculated based on flux of individual gases) was increased by elevated CO2 (33.4%) and by conventional management (17.1%); these increases were driven primarily by soil CO2 flux. As atmospheric CO2 continues to rise, our results suggest adoption of conservation management systems represents a viable means of reducing agriculture's potential contribution to global climate change.
Sentiment analysis in Bengali via transfer learning using multi-lingual BERT

Sentiment analysis (SA) in Bengali is challenging due to this Indo-Aryan language’s highly inflected properties with more than 160 different inflected forms for verbs and 36 different forms for noun and 24 different forms for pronouns. The lack of standard labeled datasets in the Bengali domain makes the task of SA even harder. In this paper, we present manually tagged 2-class and 3-class SA datasets in Bengali. We also demonstrate that the multi-lingual BERT model with relevant extensions can be trained via the approach of transfer learning over those novel datasets to improve the state-of-the-art performance in sentiment classification tasks. This deep learning model achieves an accuracy of 71% for 2-class sentiment classification compared to the current state-of-the-art accuracy of 68%. We also present the very first Bengali SA classifier for the 3-class manually tagged dataset, and our proposed model achieves an accuracy of 60%. We further use this model to analyze the sentiment of public comments in the online daily newspaper. Our analysis shows that people post negative comments for political or sports news more often, while the religious article comments represent positive sentiment. The dataset and code is publicly available 1.1https://github.com/KhondokerIslam/BengaliSentiment
Study of Phase Changes in Aromatic Polyesters Induced by the Effect of Rubbery Annealing

Poly (ethylene terephtalate) (PET) and poly (ethylene naphtalate) (PEN) are polymers whose thermal behavior has been successfully described by the three-phase model. The aim of this contribution is to study the effect of rubbery annealing on phase changes in the two materials by the use of this model. We were able through the study of crystallization kinetics to prove thermo-activated crystallization: PET crystallizes into a single system with an energy value of approximately 242.16 kJ/mole. However, PEN crystallizes in two regimes with two energy values equal to 102 and 234.6 kJ/mol. Calorimectric measurements have allowed us to study the isothermal crystallization of the two materials. This study led us to quantify the different phases present in the studied materials. A multiple melting phenomenon was highlighted when the crystallization reached its maximum rate. XRD measurements showed that PEN can crystallize into two forms of crystal lattice, namely the form α and the form β. However, PET crystallizes in a single form.
Face to Face or Online Learning: Students’ Perspectives on Blended Learning in Indonesia

The implementation of blended learning (BL) continues to grow and encouraged in many contexts of teaching. While previous investigations had largely focused on BL implementation and effect on learning, the number of studies highlighting the students’ point of view is limited. This survey study investigated students’ perspective on the implementation of BL in the context of tertiary education. The respondents of this study were 75 students from three tertiary institutions in Indonesia. The data were collected utilizing a questionnaire which was adapted from and developed based on the PLEQ II to meet this present context of the study. Thematic analysis of five possible situations of blended learning resulted in the identification of the attributes that hinder and facilitate learning in the context of BL from the perspective of the students. This study indicated that students preferred and felt that they learned better in face to face session. The students acknowledged advantages but found online sessions more problematic. The study also confirms the self-regulatory attribute as a vital component in blended learning. The findings imply that blended learning, as opposed to blended teaching, requires careful tailoring to meet specific context and purpose of learning.
Factors associated with bronchiectasis in Korea: a national database study

Background Many important clinical features of bronchiectasis have been reported. However, the factors were evaluated using a specific disease cohort. Thus, clinical factors associated with bronchiectasis have not been well assessed in comparison to the general population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the factors associated with bronchiectasis using a national representative database. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007–2009. To evaluate factors associated with bronchiectasis, a multivariable logistic analysis was used with adjustment for demographic and socioeconomic factors. Results In the present study, the prevalence of bronchiectasis was 0.4%. Compared with subjects without bronchiectasis, subjects with bronchiectasis were older (55.1 vs. 44.4 years, P<0.001) and had lower body mass index (BMI) (23.2 vs. 24.2 kg/m2, P<0.001). The proportions of low family income (70.5% vs. 40.2%, P<0.001) and low educational level (less than high school) (85.3% vs. 70.6%, P=0.041) were higher in subjects with bronchiectasis than in subjects without bronchiectasis. Regarding comorbidities, subjects with bronchiectasis were more likely to have asthma (17.8% vs. 2.9%, P<0.001), previous history of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) (43.5% vs. 5.0%, P<0.001), osteoporosis (19.1% vs. 7.8%, P=0.002), and depression (9.3% vs. 3.0%, P=0.015) compared with subjects without bronchiectasis. In addition, subjects with bronchiectasis had more respiratory symptoms and poorer quality of life measured using the EuroQoL five dimensions questionnaire (EQ-5D) index (0.87 vs. 0.93, P<0.001) than subjects without bronchiectasis. In multivariable logistic regression analysis, low family income (adjusted odds ratio, OR =3.83, 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.46–10.03), asthma (adjusted OR =3.73, 95% CI: 1.29–10.79), pulmonary TB (adjusted OR =7.88, 95% CI: 2.65–23.39), and the presence of airflow limitation (adjusted OR =2.98, 95% CI: 1.01–8.98) were independently associated with bronchiectasis. Conclusions Subjects with bronchiectasis suffered from more respiratory symptoms with limited physical activity and poorer quality of life than the general population. Factors independently associated with bronchiectasis were lower family income and comorbid pulmonary conditions, such as previous pulmonary TB, asthma, and airflow limitation.
PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF LOCAL HONEY FROM EAST KALIMANTAN

Most of the local honey production in East Kalimantan is managed traditionally, thus honey quality, particularly its physical and chemical properties, are unknown. However, the honey analysis provides a comprehensive composition profile and potentially gives hints to improve the quality of local honey from East Kalimantan. This research aimed to analyse the properties of two local honey from East Kalimantan. The methods used in this study were gravimetric, volumetric, spectroscopy, spectrophotometry, and chromatography. Honey A was produced by Apis cerana whereas Apis dorsata produced honey B. The color intensities were 560±5.66 and 947.5±27.58 mAu for honey A and B, respectively. Honey A and B a had moisture content of 22.7 and 25.8% w/w, respectively. Other proximate analysis parameters were also reported. Fructose and glucose content for honey A were 30.65±2.35% w/w and 30.08±0.58% w/w, while honey B gave different pattern with fructose at 28.06±1.04 and higher glucose instead at 32.74±1.13% w/w. Reducing sugar and total sugar for both samples were higher than 60% w/w while sucrose in honey A and B were 2.8 and 1.4% w/w respectively, thus indicating no adulteration. Vitamin C content measurement showed negligible result with total phenolic content of honey A was lower than honey B. Honey B had higher Na, Ca, Fe and Zn than those of honey A. This study reported thorough chemical composition of local honeys from East Kalimantan in which some could have significant nutritional value. However, quality improvement particularly on moisture and reducing sugar content is necessary to meet Indonesian National Standard 8664:2018.
Biodiversity of marine microbes is safeguarded by phenotypic heterogeneity in ecological traits

Why, contrary to theoretical predictions, do marine microbe communities harbor tremendous phenotypic heterogeneity? How can so many marine microbe species competing in the same niche coexist? We discovered a unifying explanation for both phenomena by investigating a non-cooperative game that interpolates between individual-level competitions and species-level outcomes. We identified all equilibrium strategies of the game. These strategies represent the probability distribution of competitive abilities (e.g. traits) and are characterized by maximal phenotypic heterogeneity. They are also neutral towards each other in the sense that an unlimited number of species can co-exist while competing according to the equilibrium strategies. Whereas prior theory predicts that natural selection would minimize trait variation around an optimum value, here we obtained a mathematical proof that species with maximally variable traits are those that endure. This discrepancy may reflect a disparity between predictions from models developed for larger organisms in contrast to our microbe-centric model. Rigorous mathematics proves that phenotypic heterogeneity is itself a mechanistic underpinning of microbial diversity. This discovery has fundamental ramifications for microbial ecology and may represent an adaptive reservoir sheltering biodiversity in changing environmental conditions.
Evolutionary Learning of Interpretable Decision Trees

In the last decade, reinforcement learning (RL) has been used to solve several tasks with human-level performance. However, there is a growing demand for interpretable RL, i.e., there is the need to understand how a RL agent works and the rationale of its decisions. Not only do we need interpretability to assess the safety of such agents, but also we may need it to gain insights into unknown problems. In this work, we propose a novel optimization approach to interpretable RL that builds decision trees. While techniques that optimize decision trees for RL do exist, they usually employ greedy algorithms or do not exploit the rewards given by the environment. For these reasons, these techniques may either get stuck in local optima or be inefficient. On the contrary, our approach is based on a two-level optimization scheme that combines the advantages of evolutionary algorithms with the benefits of $\mathcal {Q}$ -learning. This method allows decomposing the problem into two sub-problems: the problem of finding a meaningful decomposition of the state space, and the problem of associating an action to each subspace. We test the proposed method on three well-known RL benchmarks, as well as on a pandemic control task, on which it results competitive with the state-of-the-art in both performance and interpretability.
PYRITE DESULFURIZATION BY WET OXIDATION IN ALKALINE SOLUTIONS

Particles of iron pyrites can be desulfurized by leaching them with a hot alkaline solution containing dissolved oxygen under pressure. As the reaction proceeds sulfur is extracted largely as soluble sulfates, and a shell of iron oxide is formed around a shrinking core of pyrite. The overall rate of the reaction seems to be controlled by diffusion of dissolved oxygen through the shell of iron oxide.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Conformational Equilibria and Equilibration of 4,4-Difluoropiperidine. Measurement of the N-H Inversion Rate in a Six-Membered Ring

Fluorine magnetic resonance spectroscopy has been used to measure the rates of inversion of 4,4-difluoropiperidine. The activation energy (E_s) was found to be 13.9 and 13.5 kcal/mol in methanol and chloroform, respectively. In acetone, N-H nitrogen inversion was found to be slow on the nmr time scale with an E_s of about 10 kcal/mol. The free-energy difference between the forms with the N-H hydrogen axial and equatorial appears to be 0.42 kcal/mol with uncertain sign.