Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reliability assessment of the performance of granular column in the nonuniform liquefiable ground to mitigate the liquefaction-induced ground deformation

ABSTRACT Granular columns have been widely used to mitigate the liquefaction-induced ground deformation. The increment in lateral stress due to densification, shear reinforcement, and drainage capacity of granular columns are believed to increase the liquefaction resistance of the ground. However, several case histories and recent research development exhibited the limitations of the effectiveness of granular columns under strong earthquakes. Besides, the mechanism of shear reinforcement governed by granular columns is poorly understood. Moreover, the spatial nonuniformity of the ground should be considered for a reliable engineering assessment of the performance of granular columns. A series of three-dimensional nonlinear stochastic analyses are carried out using the OpenSees framework with PDMY02 elasto-plastic soil constitutive model to map the reliability of the performance of equally-spaced granular columns. Soil variability is implemented with stochastic realizations of overburden and energy-corrected, equivalent clean sand, (N1)60cs values using spatially correlated Gaussian random field. The reliability of the performance of granular column is assessed based on the stochastic distributions of average surface settlement and horizontal ground displacement associated with the degree of confidence. The implications of cumulative absolute velocity, Arias Intensity and peak acceleration of different ground motions on the efficacy of the granular column are also discussed.
Effectiveness of continuous adductor canal block versus continuous epidural analgesia in patients with total knee arthroplasty: A systematic review

Background: This systematic review aimed to summarize the evidence base on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the continuous adductor canal block (CACB) and continuous epidural analgesia (CEA) in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) surgery. Methods: We searched the Cochrane Library, PubMed, and EMBASE database from the beginning of 2016 until 2020 to find RCTs published in English language, which have investigated pain score, length of stay (LOS), ambulation distance, and total opioid consumption in TKA. Results: Three RCTs were included in the final analysis. All of them employed similar argument that CACB is better than CEA in pain score, but only two of three studies investigated the other parameters such as LOS, ambulation distance, and opioid consumption, with the result that CACB is better than CEA. Conclusion: It was found that CACB was better in pain control compared to CEA, but there are very few similar studies. Future research is required to establish the therapeutic efficiency of CACB than CEA in TKA surgery.
Evaluating the effects and outcome of technological innovation on a web-based e-learning system

Abstract The advancements in technological innovations have had a substantial impact on the Internet infrastructure, Web technology, and the usefulness of e-learning systems. This requires a discrete initiative to exploit the full capabilities of technological innovation to improve the functional characteristics of e-learning systems, the ensuing benefits, and to sustain educational challenges. A context-based model that incorporates explicit and widely accepted determinants of information systems success, technology acceptance, e-learning success models, and technological innovation has been developed. Empirically, the model has been validated using a logistic regression method and 458 valid responses. Findings indicate a unit increase in the level of technological innovation results in 55 times improvement in the features of e-learning systems and 3 times in e-learning outcome. Also, a unit increase in the features of e-learning systems results in three times improvement in the outcome of e-learning system. Risk minimization and achieving learning goals are the most important positive benefits of e-learning systems to students. The factor with the highest positive impact on e-learning systems is improved software service. 52% of students indicated e-learning systems are innovative. 61% specified that the usefulness and performance of e-learning system(s) are satisfactory and would strongly recommend them to others.
Inter-municipal cooperation in Brazil: the case of solid waste consortia

This article aims to describe the engagement of local governments in intermunicipal cooperation and the costs of these arrangements for municipalities. Based on a multiple-case research design, three consortia operating in the Brazilian solid waste sector between 2013 and 2017 were selected and examined. The main findings show that the costs of the intermunicipal cooperation and the costs related to the participation of the municipality in these arrangements increased in the period. However, a parameter estimator calculation shows that such costs are likely to be reduced in the near future. It can also be concluded that smaller local governments (either by population or by km2) are more likely to benefit from intermunicipal cooperation. The study discusses both theoretical and practical implications.
Mutagenic Improvement of Some Bacillus Strains for Enhanced Alpha Amylase Production

Alpha amylases are answerable for the conversion of starch, widely distributed polysaccharide, into simple sugar. These enzymes have a myriad of diverse industrial applications like food, brewing, paper, detergent, textile, leather, starch liquefaction International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 9 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Various Temperature of Vacuum and Conventional Roasting on Color Alteration and Polyphenols Content of Cocoa Powder

This study has the objective to found out the temperature and raosting time of cocoa powder in order to gain color, aroma and taste favored by the panelist and has high polyphenol content. The roasting time in this research has been determined 35 min, and roasting temperature of 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140 and 150 °C with vacuum and conventional system. From those temperatures ranges, we would take the three best levels according to organoleptic test result. The three selected temperatures would be tested for changing in polyphenol content during roasting process. Color alteration would be physically analyzed using color reader (PCE-RGB). However, phenol total content was analyzed using colorimetric method of Folin-Ciocalteu. Result of this study showed that color alteration percentage (RGB model analysis) during conventional roasting is higher (43%) compared with vacuum roasting system (2%). Subsequently, organoleptic test result showed that from roasting temperatures between 80 °C and 150 °C, cocoa powder favored by the panelist were those that was treated in temperature 100 °C, 110 °C and 120 °C. Other results indicated that vacuum roasting implementation could increase polyphenol content. While vacuum roasting of 60.8 cm Hg in 120 °C with roasting time of 25 min has obtained 10.57% total phenolic, or increasing as much as 1.22%.
Kinetics of swelling and shrinking of gels

The kinetics of swelling and shrinking of gels is theoretically generalized and experimentally studied. A new relation, in addition to the differential equation developed by Tanaka and Fillmore, is formulated to solve the kinetics of gels having arbitrary shape. Using our new theory, we provide explicit solutions for long cylinder and large disk gels. These solutions predict that the effective diffusion constants of long cylinder and large disk gels are 1.5 and 3 times smaller than that of a spherical gel. The relaxation times of long cylinder and large disk gels with small shear modulus μ are approximately 2.0 and 5.7 times longer than that of a sphere, where the diameters of the cylinder and the sphere and the thickness of the disk are the same. The theory also concludes that the experimentally measured kinetics of a long cylinder and disk gels along the z axis and the radial axis are the same. The results have been excellently confirmed by the experiments.
Chiral Bis(η5:η1-pentafulvene)titanium Complexes

The series of bis(pentafulvene)titanium complexes (η6-C5H4CR2)2Ti (CR2 = C(p-tol)2 (3), adamantyl (4)) and their corresponding bis(benzofulvene) derivatives (η6-C9H6CR2)2Ti (CR2 = C(p-tol)2 (7), adamantyl (8)) have been synthesized by reaction of TiCl3·3THF with the pentafulvene ligands (2 equiv) and magnesium as reducing agent (1.5 equiv). The bis(fulvene) complexes 7 and 8 have been obtained as diastereomerically pure compounds. All complexes have been characterized by spectroscopy and by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The bonding situation is best described as a π-η5:σ-η1 coordination mode. The bis(fulvene) complex 3 is approximately C2 symmetric, whereas 7 crystallizes as a conglomerate in the monoclinic space group P21 and one of the enantiomers was identified as a (S,pS,pR) stereoisomer showing C1 symmetry. The adamantyl benzofulvene complex 8 crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P21/c; both benzofulvene ligands are coordinated as optical antipodes, and a (S,pS,pR)/(R,pR,pS) configuration i.
Offline Data-Driven Evolutionary Optimization Using Selective Surrogate Ensembles

In solving many real-world optimization problems, neither mathematical functions nor numerical simulations are available for evaluating the quality of candidate solutions. Instead, surrogate models must be built based on historical data to approximate the objective functions and no new data will be available during the optimization process. Such problems are known as offline data-driven optimization problems. Since the surrogate models solely depend on the given historical data, the optimization algorithm is able to search only in a very limited decision space during offline data-driven optimization. This paper proposes a new offline data-driven evolutionary algorithm to make the full use of the offline data to guide the search. To this end, a surrogate management strategy based on ensemble learning techniques developed in machine learning is adopted, which builds a large number of surrogate models before optimization and adaptively selects a small yet diverse subset of them during the optimization to achieve the best local approximation accuracy and reduce the computational complexity. Our experimental results on the benchmark problems and a transonic airfoil design example show that the proposed algorithm is able to handle offline data-driven optimization problems with up to 100 decision variables.
Spinal Space Occupying Lesions: A Comprehensive Study of Clinico-pathological Spectrum and Measure of Degree of Agreement Between the Diagnostic Modalities

Background: Spinal SOLs are quite fascinating group of lesions, comprising a minority of central nervous system lesions often resulting in significant morbidity. There is paucity of comprehensive population-based data of these SOLs in Indian subcontinent. Material and Methods: The present study was a retrospective descriptive study conducted at the department of pathology, Kamineni Institute of Medical Sciences for 3 years starting from January 2017 to December 2019. Results: We analyzed eighty-nine spinal SOLs during the study period. Spinal neoplasms encompassed the largest number accounting for 70.7% of total spinal SOLs. Majority were reported in the 20-40 years’ age group with predominant male preponderance except for universal phenomenon of female predominance in meningioma. Back pain was the most common clinical presentation. Among spinal neoplasms, NSTs comprising of schwannoma and neurofibroma, was the most common finding and spinal tuberculosis was the most common nonneoplastic SOL. Majority of benign spinal tumors were distributed in the intradural extra medullary location and involved thoracic vertebrae. Malignant tumors predominantly involved extradural location and were clustered along thoracic and lumbar vertebrae. Measure of agreement between radiological and histopathological diagnosis using kappa statistics revealed almost perfect agreement for extradural spinal SOLs and moderate agreement for intradural intramedullary and intradural extra medullary SOLs. Conclusion: Comprehensive evaluation of spinal SOLs warrants multidisciplinary approach. Rapid advancements in radiology optimised diagnostic evaluation of non-neoplastic SOLs, however we conclude that histopathological evaluation is still the gold standard for diagnosis of primary spinal cord tumours and for planning the treatment and predicting prognosis.
Evaluation of Predictors for Safe Motherhood Among Tribal Women in Bangladesh Chittagong Hill Tracts

Objectives: Bangladesh is a country which is known for its flora and fauna in South Asia. Despite embracing safe motherhood and adhering to the advice of the International Community, with remarkable progress towards achieving the maternal mortality Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 5 goal, its development contrasts with the tribal people who reside in the remote hilly regions of the country. Therefore, this study was intended to identify the predictors that affect secure maternity practices among the tribal women of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh. Materials and Methods: This study adopted a cross-sectional approach and was performed with live births of 556 married tribal females aged 15 to 49 years from three districts of CHT when the age of their children was not more than 1 year. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to interview the subjects. Finally, the statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS20 to estimate the odds ratios and strength of the relationship between the variables at P<0.10. Results: The results of the study revealed that safe maternity practices are not the standard in CHT. Only 12.7% met the standard of maternity services in CHT. At the time of pregnancy, more than 2/3 of females received no prenatal care. The results further demonstrated that only 34% of the women gave birth to the baby at a hospital while 66% of the births occurred at home and over 50% were assisted by untrained traditional midwives. Conclusions: In general, the results revealed that socioeconomic, demographic, cultural, and behavioral factors affected the adoption of maternal health care services (MHCS) by the women of CHT. Therefore, improving the economic conditions by introducing ‘eco-friendly’ industries can help enhance the uptake of safe motherhood practices.
High power pulse UV source development and its applications

Laser filament provides scientists a powerful tool to promote and guide lightning discharge. An ultraviolet (UV) laser provides unique advantages due to a low threshold of filament formation as well as long propagation distance. However, a major bottleneck in conducting these experiments is the lack of a powerful yet stable laser source in the UV spectral range. Here, we developed a high power UV source suitable for laser filamentation studies in air. The system was optimized to produce < 300 ps, ⇠ 0.3J pulses at 266 nm. This corresponds to a peak power of ⇠ 1 GW, which is well above the critical power required for filament generation. The system includes four critical components: a single mode Nd:YAG oscillator, 6-stage amplifier chain, a pulse compressor and frequency conversion units. We optimized each component for maximum energy throughput with an emphasis on stability and reproducibility. At each stage, the v optical output is characterized experimentally and compared to theoretical modeling of the corresponding physical processes. A number of technical innovations have emerged during the construction of the system. First, we invented a novel feedback-based cavity stabilization scheme for single-mode operation of the Nd:YAG oscillator. Our scheme eliminated mode beating in ⇠100% of the output pulses over a time scale of hours under noisy environments. Second, we developed a systematic optimization approach for high-energy pulse compression using stimulated Brillouin scattering. Our method achieved temporal compression of 40X in 532 nm with < 2% pulse-to-pulse fluctuation and elucidated the role of a number of overlooked parameters in the literature. We illustrated the application of the system with preliminary UV filamentation in air and laser-induced discharge studies. Future directions are discussed.
Online Handwritten Arabic Scripts Recognition Using Stroke-Based Class Labeling Scheme

Withtheincreasingavailabilityofpen-baseduserinterfaces,weoftencomeuponmultipledatasetsofonlinehandwrittenscripts such as letters, words, etc., that are collected based on a viable interface. In this paper, we set forward a new method for online handwritten Arabic scripts recognition. Departing from the assumption that handwritten scripts are encoded as a set of strokes, theproposedapproachreliesfirstuponclassifyingstrokescontainedonthescriptandthenrecognizesthewholescript.Forstroke classification,ansupportvectormachine(SVM)istrainedwithstrokefeaturesvectorsobtainedfromtheBeta-ellipticmodeland fuzzyelementaryperceptualcodestoobtainclassstrokeprobabilities.TheoutputofthisSVMiscombinedwithspatialrelation vectorsfeedingtoasecondSVMtoprovidescriptslevelrecognition.TheproposedmodelhasbeentestedonMAYASTROUNdataset. Inordertoobtainadditionalinsightintotheefficiencyoftheproposedapproach,weperformedfurtherexperimentson ADABdataset.Theexperimentalresultshighlightitsrelevancebycomfortablyoutperformingstate-of-artsystems. © 2021 The Authors . Published by Atlantis Press B.V. This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http:/
Dielectronic recombination data for dynamic finite-density plasmas VIII. The nitrogen isoelectronic sequence

Dielectronic recombination data for nitrogen-like ions forming oxygen-like ions has been calculated as part of the assembly of a level-resolved dielectronic recombination database necessary for the modelling of dynamic finite-density plasmas (Badnell et al. 2003). Dielectronic recombination rate coefficients for a selection of ions from O + to Xe 47+ are presented and the results discussed.
Hole transport investigation in unstrained and strained SiGe

Ohmic majority and minority drift mobilities are calculated for holes in unstrained and strained SiGe up to Ge contents of 30% and doping concentrations of 1020 cm−3. The transport model is based on three analytical hole bands and is therefore suitable for Monte Carlo simulations of npn heterojunction bipolar transistors with position-dependent Ge profiles. The band parameters have been adjusted to full band structure data obtained by the nonlocal empirical pseudopotential method including spin-orbit interaction. In strained SiGe the theoretical in-plane mobility component is compared to literature data and new experimental measurements. The theoretical results indicate an appreciable increase of the mobility for the highest Ge concentrations. In addition, the effective valence-band densities of states are computed.
Physical-Chemical Properties of Poultry Rendering Meal of Whole Broiler Carcasses Stored for Different Times and Temperatures

The effect of storage temperature on the physical-chemical properties of poultry rendering meals (PRM) of whole broiler carcasses was evaluated. Chemical parameters, oxidation and biogenic amines (BA) profiles were determined. A completely randomized design in a 2x4 factorial arrangement (two stored temperature: 26 oC or 7 oC; and four storage times: 0, 24, 48 and 72h before rendering) was used. PRM nutrient levels were within the acceptable ranges determined for animal byproducts in all treatments and they did not influence PRM acidity index or TBARS (P>0.05). The peroxide index of all PRM was higher than the acceptable limit (>10 meq/1000g) but did not cause a rancid odor. Lower total BA content was determined at 72 h of storage in PRMs from refrigerated carcasses. The nutrient composition of PRMs shows quality enough to possibly be utilized as a feedstuff. Additional studies are needed to establish the safety of these byproducts as feedstuffs.
Patient-reported Satisfaction with Current Clinical Management of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in Kazakhstan

BACKGROUND: Over the past decades, patient satisfaction has been increasingly recognized as a powerful tool to measure the quality of health-care services. AIM: This study evaluated the satisfaction of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with current clinical management in Semey, East Kazakhstan, and explored the factors associated with dissatisfaction. METHODS: All adult SLE patients registered at health-care facilities of Semey were enrolled in a cross-sectional study. RESULTS: Out of 67 patients, 66 were females and their mean age was 39 years. Symptoms associated with the musculoskeletal system were the most commonly reported (95.5%), followed by fatigue (88.1%) and neurological symptoms (53.7%). None of the patients were very satisfied or satisfied with current clinical management and the overall rate of patient dissatisfaction was 83.6%. Education (p = 0.04), monthly income (p = 0.01), SLE disease activity index score (p = 0.031), therapy with biologic agents (p = 0.029), immunosuppressants (p = 0.01), and corticosteroids (p = 0.01) were predictors of patient dissatisfaction in multiple logistic regression analysis. CONCLUSION: This real-world study is the first effort to understand the experience of SLE patients within the health-care system of Kazakhstan and the results may facilitate doctor-patient discussions on the initiatives that need to be taken to improve the quality of the medical services provided.
The MET Analysis of Yield Performance of Advanced Sorghum [Sorghum Bicolor (L.) Moench] Lines under Moisture Stress Areas Using Spatial Analysis

Sorghum is one of the most widely cultivated cereal crops in Ethiopia which is grown for food and feed uses. It’s far an indigenous crop that’s grown in incredibly diverse environments of getting diverse water strain, soil fertility, and temperature situations. Trait of sorghum varieties tolerant to drought and producing desirable grain yield at the same time as addressing the biomass requirement is one of the techniques within the sorghum breeding program to the dry lowland surroundings so one can feed the growing population in Ethiopia. A total of 126 superior early maturing sorghum elite lines had been evaluated through along with recently released popular trendy check Melkam and Argiti to estimate the grain yield and stability of overall performance throughout the testing environments. Based on the overall performance of grain yield, flowering time, plant height, and the stability of grain yield genotype ETSC14501-2-2 and 14MWLSDT7196 become top ranked followed by genotype 14MWLSDT7176, 14MWLSDT7241 and 13MWF6#6037 which could be a capability candidate for production to the target environments. The varieties had better grain yield performance and stability across the environment, which may be used as capacity parental lines for genetic improvement in the sorghum improvement program. Finally based on the presented result on early maturing variety ETSC14501-2-2 with the pedigree of Redswazi/Meko-1 identified and registered for variety verification across locations on stations and on farms to confirm the stability and preference by farmers with their own farming practices.