Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pollution Par Les Metaux Lourds Dans un Bassin de Decantation Recevant des Eaux de Ruissellement D'Origine Routiere Heavy Metal Pollution in a Detention Pond Receiving Highway Run-Off

Heavy metals accumulation in sediments from detention pond receiving highway run-off of the Chevire bridge, close to Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), has been studied. Pb, Cu, Cd and Zn contamination of the sediment and of the top layer of the soil was shown, high concentrations were observed until the 10–20 cm layer. The risk of heavy metals release was evaluated using a sequential extraction scheme. Metals are mainly extracted by acetic acid and hydroxylamine hydrochloride. The pH and redox potential variations could be the controlling factors of metal mobility. The best management practices of this work would be the regular cleaning of the sewers and of the pond as also the disposal in landfill or the treatment of sediments.
Using the Past in Populist Communicational Strategies

This chapter investigates how political strategies interrelate populist rhetoric with memory issues. By looking at the case of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) from Romania, between 2017-2019, this chapter reveals how the slide to populism, generated by cyclical confrontations with the rule of law institutions, steered the PSD to adopt conspirational beliefs and appeal to traumatic memories to frame the judiciary as the new Securitate. Through the use of discourse analysis and virtual ethnography, this chapter analyses party resolutions and political rallies. This chapter explains how the populist rhetoric created a new hegemonic narrative of the judiciary, by intersecting its values and symbolism with the memory of the former Securitate from the Communist period.
The Effect of Curcumin on the Newborn Bone Development in Pregnant Rats that are Given Nicotine

Seher Yilmaz1*,Ayşe Yeşim Göçmen2, Adem Tokpinar1, Halil Yilmaz3, Mehtap Nisari4, Tolga Ertekin5, Şükrü Ateş1, Erdoğan Unur4 and Seda Avnioğlu6 1Department of Anatomy, YozgatBozok University Faculty of Medicine, Turkey 2Department of Biochemistry, YozgatBozok University Faculty of Medicine, Turkey 3Department of Therapy and Rehabilitation, Kozakli Vocational School, NevsehirHaciBektasVeli University, Turkey 4Department of Anatomy, Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine, Turkey 5Department of Anatomy, Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University, Faculty of Medicine, Turkey 6Alanya AlaaddinKeykubat University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Anatomy, Turkey
Copper(I)‐Catalyzed Cascade Synthesis of 2‐Substituted 1,3‐Benzothiazoles: Direct Access to Benzothiazolones

An efficient cascade process for the preparation of 2-substituted 1,3-benzothiazoles directly from 2-haloaryl isothiocyanates and O or S nucleophiles by a Cu-catalyzed, intramolecular, C–S bond formation has been developed. This cascade method is viable for the efficient syntheses of both O- and S-substituted 1,3-benzothiazoles. Furthermore, 1,3-benzothiazol-2(3H)-ones having an alkyl group allow easy access to 1,3-benzothiazolones. (© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2009)
Dynamic Clinical Features During the Para-Exacerbation Period of Critical COVID-19 Patients

Background COVID-19 has been currently spread all over the world with high mortality reported in severe COVID-19 patients. Many severe COVID-19 patients exacerbated from mild illness several days after hospital admissions. Pathophysiological evolution within this para-exacerbation period remain unclear.Methods Twenty-two confirmed COVID-19 patients who underwent at least one exacerbation were included. Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and radiological data were extracted from electronic medical records and compared between the records of hospital admission day and the exacerbation day. Dynamic profiles of critical parameters were explored during the para-exacerbation period.Results Most of the patients were elder (67, IQR63-79), male (81.8%), coexisted with comorbidities (72.7%), multi-segments radiologically involved and exacerbated from mild to severe illness with anoxia at a median interval of 4 days (IQR, 2-7) from hospital admissions. On exacerbations, various clinical parameters were worsened, including respiratory rate, PaO2/FiO2 rate (PFR), alveolar-arterial PO2 difference (A-aDO2), hematological cellularities, biochemical parameters and radiological abnormalities. Dynamic profiles showed that neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and serum level of lactic acid, lactate dehydrogenase and coagulation parameters started to increase even at four days before the exacerbation. Conclusions Anoxia due to impaired gas exchange progress pathophysiologically characterized the exacerbation of COVID-19 patients. Continuously monitoring crucial clinical parameters, such as NLR, serum albumin, LDH, lactic acid, and CT involvement scale will be helpful to improve the recognition of the disease progression in patients with COVID-19 at early stage.Trial registration This retrospective study has been registered in Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2000030580, www.chictr.org.cn)
INVESTIGATING VOLATILITY BEHAVIOUR: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM ISLAMIC STOCK INDICES

The main purpose of this research is to apply five univariate GARCH models to the daily stock returns of four major sharia stock indices. Two symmetric versions of the GARCH model (GARCH and MGARCH) and three asymmetric versions (EGARCH, TGARCH and PGARCH) are employed to estimate and forecast the volatility of four major sharia indices. The results provide strong evidence that all models can depict the volatility behaviours in all four sharia index returns. The two symmetric models indicate that the volatility of a sharia index’s returns depend on its previous own lags, and statistically prove that a rise in volatility (risk) leads to an increase in mean (return), i.e. the risk premium effect. Meanwhile, the three asymmetric models suggest that negative shocks to daily returns tend to have higher impact on the volatility of sharia indices than positive shocks of the same magnitude. Moreover, based on the values of forecasting errors – root mean square errors (RMSE) and mean absolute errors (MAE) – the asymmetric GARCH models outperform the symmetric models in forecasting the volatility of four major sharia indices. However, the very small difference values of RMSE and MAE among the univariate GARCH-type models denote that no single model is superior to the others.
Modelling a modified atmosphere packaging system for fresh scallops (Argopecten purpuratus)

Seafood is a highly perishable food, which has a relative short shelf‐life. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is a system that offers a way of extending the shelf‐life of seafood products, maintaining quality and inhibiting bacterial growth. The objective of this research was to study and determine the optimal conditions for packaging scallops in a modified atmosphere system, which includes CO2/O2/N2 mixture, headspace:food ratio and storage temperature, utilizing an integrated mathematical model for MAP systems with its respective experimental validation. For validation purposes, two experiments were conducted, using gas mixtures of: (a) 45% CO2/10% O2/45% N2; and (b) 60% CO2/10% O2/30% N2. In addition, two experiments, at 6°C and 20°C, were conducted to obtain the shelf‐life model, utilizing the following gas mixtures: 30% CO2/10% O2/60% N2; 45% CO2/10% O2/45% N2; 60% CO2/10% O2/30% N2; and 75% CO2/10% O2/15% N2. Gas mixtures with CO2 concentrations between 30% and 70% and different headspace:food ratios were tested during simulations. The optimal conditions for scallop storage were a 60% CO2/10% O2/30% N2 gas mixture and a headspace:food ratio of 2:1. With these conditions, a simulated shelf‐life of 21 days was obtained. Optimal conditions consider maximum shelf‐life, an adequate film collapse criterion, and time to reach the pseudo‐equilibrium condition. The predictive mathematical model, coupled with experimental studies for specific products, can be efficiently utilized to evaluate packaging alternatives (size, material and selected thickness) for different temperatures and initial gas concentration scenarios of MAP products. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
SARS-COV2 Renal Impairment in Critical Care: A Retrospective Study of 42 Cases - Kid COVID Study

BackgroundThe new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection leads to 5% to 16% hospitalization in Intensive Care Units (ICU) and is associated with 23% to 75% of kidney impairments, including acute kidney injury (AKI), as a major prognosis factor. The current work aims to characterize the renal impairment associated to SARS-CoV-2 in ICU patients, to evaluate its risk factors and its relationship with morbidity and mortality. Methods Forty-two patients consecutively admitted to the ICU of a university hospital (Paris, France) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 between March 25, 2020 and April 29, 2020 were included and classified in categories according to their renal function. Complete renal profiles and their evolution during ICU stay were fully characterized in 34 patients. Factors associated with AKI were identified through univariate analysis.ResultsThirty-two patients (94,1%) met diagnostic criteria for intrinsic renal injury with a mixed pattern of tubular and glomerular injuries within the first week of ICU admission, that lasted upon discharge. During their ICU stay, 24 patients (57.1%) presented AKI which was associated with increased mortality (p = 0.007), hemodynamic failure (p = 0.022), and more altered clearance at hospital discharge (p = 0.001). AKI occurrence was associated with lower pH (p = 0.024), higher PaCO2 (p = 0.027), PEEP (p = 0.027), procalcitonin (p = 0.015), and CRP (p = 0.045) on ICU admission.ConclusionsCritical SARS-CoV-2 is associated with persistent intrinsic renal injury and AKI, which is a risk factor of mortality. Identifying SARS-CoV-2 patients at risk of AKI will help in modifying clinical practice in ICU. Trial registration In accordance with the French law on biomedical research, this study obtained the approval of an Institutional Review Board (“Comité d’Éthique de la Recherche en Anesthésie-Réanimation” under the reference IRB 00010254 ‐ 2020 ‐ 106). Patients were all informed of the possible use of their data in researches as well as their right and terms of objection. Data were collected and integrated anonymously into a secure database in accordance with the French CNIL MR-004 methodology (registration number 20200803123416).
Using Big Books to Promote the Elementary School Students' Participation in English Classes

Maintaining the students' participation in the classroom is one of the greatest challenges faced by the English teachers especially those dealing with young learners’. This research aims to find out how well big books can improve the participation of fifthgrade students of SDN Pejagan 1 Bangkalan. Classroom action research was used as the research design. This research consisted of two cycles each of which was conducted in six meetings. The data was obtained from the observation and acting steps then analyzed descriptively. The researcher collaborated with the English teacher to conduct the research. To know the students' opinions towards the use of big books, the questionnaires were given at the end of each cycle. The interview was also done to some students and the English teacher related to the use of Big Book. This research revealed that big book which was big enough so it could be seen by the whole class; has interesting story and character and has eye-catching pictures could effectively encourage the students to participate actively in the English classes. Using big books in the classroom created a non-threatening atmosphere so that the students could express their opinion and disagreement freely.
Private Firm and Shareholder Response to Dividend Taxation: Evidence from the Taxation of Corporate Minority Shareholders

This paper examines the response of private firms and their shareholders to a dividend tax increase, which affects only a small group of shareholders. Using an exogenous shock in Germany, my results suggest that firms do not adjust their payout policy but corporate minority shareholders, the only ones affected by the increase in shareholder taxes, reduce their minority stakes in private firms after the dividend tax reform. Additional cross-sectional tests indicate a higher shareholder response, if corporate minority shareholders are financially distressed, own a minority stake in a firm with a high dividend payout and a majority shareholder, and do not belong to the same group as the firm in which they own a minority stake. My findings add to the very limited literature on the effects of dividend taxes on payout decisions of private firms and reactions of their shareholders.
Fours rotatifs: Modèle dynamique du mouvement du lit

The motions of the granular bed inside a rotary furnace are governed by complex dynamics consisting of two modes. The axial velocity of the active layer on top of the bed represents the fast mode, while the overall velocity in the bed follows a slower mode. The proposed nonlinear model focuses on the dynamics of the slow mode. The difficulties of an analytic solution are avoided by a numerical method that employs several correlations. The model can reproduce the experimental transient responses. It is concluded that rotary furnaces respond better to small amplitude excitations than to large ones; consequently, closed-loop control is well suited for this type of furnace. Les mouvements du lit de materiau granulaire a l'interieur d'un four rotatif sont regis par une dynamique complexe, composee de deux modes. La vitesse axiale de la couche active du lit suit un mode relativement rapide, alors que celle de l'ensemble du lit suit un mode plus lent. On propose un modele qui decrit la dynamique du deuxieme. Le modele est nonlineaire, et on contourne les difficultes d'une solution analytique en adoptant une methode numerique mettant en oeuvre des correlations. Le modele reussit a reproduire les reponses obtenues experimentalement. On en conclut que les fours rotatifs repondent mieux a des excitations de petites amplitudes qu'a des grandes, et qu'en consequence, un contrǒle en boucle fermee s'avere meilleur.
Use and Control of Artificial Intelligence in Patients Across the Medical Workflow: Single-Center Questionnaire Study of Patient Perspectives

Background Artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining increasing importance in many medical specialties, yet data on patients’ opinions on the use of AI in medicine are scarce. Objective This study aimed to investigate patients’ opinions on the use of AI in different aspects of the medical workflow and the level of control and supervision under which they would deem the application of AI in medicine acceptable. Methods Patients scheduled for computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging voluntarily participated in an anonymized questionnaire between February 10, 2020, and May 24, 2020. Patient information, confidence in physicians vs AI in different clinical tasks, opinions on the control of AI, preference in cases of disagreement between AI and physicians, and acceptance of the use of AI for diagnosing and treating diseases of different severity were recorded. Results In total, 229 patients participated. Patients favored physicians over AI for all clinical tasks except for treatment planning based on current scientific evidence. In case of disagreement between physicians and AI regarding diagnosis and treatment planning, most patients preferred the physician’s opinion to AI (96.2% [153/159] vs 3.8% [6/159] and 94.8% [146/154] vs 5.2% [8/154], respectively; P=.001). AI supervised by a physician was considered more acceptable than AI without physician supervision at diagnosis (confidence rating 3.90 [SD 1.20] vs 1.64 [SD 1.03], respectively; P=.001) and therapy (3.77 [SD 1.18] vs 1.57 [SD 0.96], respectively; P=.001). Conclusions Patients favored physicians over AI in most clinical tasks and strongly preferred an application of AI with physician supervision. However, patients acknowledged that AI could help physicians integrate the most recent scientific evidence into medical care. Application of AI in medicine should be disclosed and controlled to protect patient interests and meet ethical standards.
Modeling Aggregate Internal Pressure Evolution following Immersion to Quantify Mechanisms of Structural Stability

Identification of the key components controlling aggregate stability is important in soil structure research. The deterioration of soil aggregates during rapid wetting has often been attributed to the swelling and internal pressure buildup resulting from the compression of entrapped air by the advancing wetting front. Organic matter is known to reduce the extent of slaking, but the different modes of action have not yet been quantified. The objective of the study was to use theoretical three-dimensional models to quantify the effect of paper sludge amendment on the key processes controlling internal pressure evolution. A clay loam and a silty-clay loam were incubated for a 2-wk period with different amounts and types of paper sludge. Aggregates were then selected, air dried, and then fixed to a hypodermic needle connected to a pressure transducer, and the whole system was immersed in distilled water while images and pressure evolution were recorded. For both soils, the maximum internal pressure was lower in the sludge-amended aggregates. From the models fitted to the observed data, it appears that the addition of paper sludge resulted in an increase of the potential at the wetting front and a decrease of the near saturated hydraulic conductivity. This result suggests that sludge addition reduces pressure buildup by reducing the rate of water entry, lowering the potential at the wetting front and reducing the hydraulic conductivity of the aggregate.
The Effect of Board Size and Independent Director Composition on Firm’s Capital Structure: A Study on Malaysian Plantation Companies

Board of Director (BOD) is an important corporate governance mechanism that is useful in monitoring and controlling the opportunistic behavior of corporate managers. Hence, the size of BOD is expected to have an impact on corporate managers’ decisions with respect to a firm’s capital structure. Using a total of 44 Malaysian plantation companies as sample, this study investigates whether BOD size and independent director’s composition in the board impacted firms’ capital structure. Findings of this study showed that both the size of BOD and the presence of independent directors in the board have an impact on firm’s debt components but not the equity.
Adsorption Characteristics of Cu(II) and Pb(II) Ions onto Natural Manganese Ore from Aqueous Solution

The adsorption of heavy metal cations, i.e. Pb(II) and Cu(II), from aqueous solution by a natural manganese mineral (rhodochrosite) was investigated. The properties of the ore were studied using SEM, FT-IR, XRD and BET methods. The value of pHpzc was determined using an equilibrium technique to give a value of 7.8 ± 0.1 which was not affected by the presence of added electrolyte. Batch experiments were carried out to investigate the adsorption processes. Kinetic experiments indicated that the processes could be simulated by a pseudo-second-order model and the Elovich equation, suggesting that the process may be chemisorption in nature. The adsorption capacity increased with increasing initial concentration of metal cations. The resulting isotherms could be described by the Langmuir relationship, with the adsorbent showing a higher affinity towards Pb(II) ions than Cu(II) ions. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that the adsorption process was endothermic and possibly chemical in nature with positive values of ΔH0. Positive ΔS0 values suggested that a dissociative process was involved. The small positive ΔG0 values indicated that the adsorption processes required a small amount of energy. The adsorption processes were only slightly influenced by the concentration of added electrolyte but were strongly dependent on the pH value. It is proposed that the most possible mechanism for the adsorption processes involves inner-sphere complexation.
AUDIO SIGNALS CLIPPING DETECTION USING KURTOSIS AND ITS TRANSFORMS

This paper compares the results of subjective and objective assessments of the quality of speech and music signals distorted during clipping when large instantaneous signal values are replaced by a certain threshold constant or by values close to it. It was proposed in recent works to use kurtosis and some of its simple functional transforms such as reciprocal of kurtosis and square root of reciprocal of kurtosis as objective (instrumental) clipping value measures. This paper clarifies the results of a subjective assessment of the quality of speech and music signals distorted by clipping. A comparison of the obtained estimates allows one to conclude that the human auditory system is slightly more sensitive to the clipping of musical signals than to the clipping of speech signals, but this difference is small. Similarly, objective quality measures of clipped signals are almost equally sensitive to the clipping value of speech and music signals. An analysis of the variability of the kurtosis estimates, depending on the time of estimation, showed that the relative standard deviation of the kurtosis estimates is close to 10% for the analysis time interval of 1–40 s.
First zoeal stage morphology of Alpheus carlae and A. intrinsecus (Decapoda, Caridea, Alpheidae) obtained in the laboratory

Abstract The first zoeal stages of the snapping shrimps Alpheus carlae and A. intrinsecus from Brazil were obtained from laboratory-hatched specimens and a detailed morphological description is provided. The morphological characteristics of both species are compared with available descriptions of other Alpheus species with a known first zoeal stage. Remarks from a semi-quantitative comparison of species belonging to A. armillatus species complex (A. carlae and A. brasileiro) and a comparison between larvae of A. intrinsecus from two localities in Brazil are presented. It was possible to distinguish first zoea of both species from the other congeners based on morphology. No intraspecific variability was detected between A. intrinsecus larvae obtained from two locations. Some structures showed differences between species of the A. armillatus complex. However, generalizations and conclusions based on larval morphology for taxonomic rearrangements at this point need to be made with caution and accuracy, since data of a sufficient number of species are not yet available for comparison.