Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving low load combustion, stability, and emissions in pilot-ignited natural gas engines

Abstract Stringent environmental policies and the ever-increasing demand for energy have triggered interest in novel combustion technologies that use alternative fuels as energy sources. Of these, pilot-ignited natural gas engines that employ small diesel pilots (∼1-5 per cent on an energy basis) to compression ignite a premixed natural gas-air mixture have received considerable attention. This paper discusses the effect of intake charge temperature and pilot injected quantity on the onset of ignition (ΔIGN) and combustion (ΔCOM) in a pilot-ignited natural gas engine with specific focus on early diesel pilot injection [begining of injection (BOI) at about 60° before top dead centre (BTDC)] for low-load operation. Both ΔIGN and ΔCOM had a strong influence on performance and emissions at 60° BTDC. At advanced BOI for both half and quarter-load operation, the best performance and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions could be obtained by optimally advancing ΔIGN relative to TDC and minimizing the cyclic variability in the ΔIGN. Furthermore, a clear dependence of ΔCOM on ΔIGN was observed with the optimally advanced and the least-variable ΔIGN producing the least ΔCOM variations. Engine performance, stability, and emissions were more sensitive to intake charge temperatures in comparison with pilot injected quantities. The best improvement in performance and emissions was obtained with increasing intake temperature at half load, where fuel conversion efficiency (FCE) increased from approximately 31 per cent to 38 per cent, coefficient of variation of indicated mean effective pressure (COVIMEP) decreased from about 11 per cent to 4 per cent, and HC emissions decreased from 72 to 23 g/kW h, while oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions increased from 16 to 142 mg/kW h. Performance and emissions trends at quarter load were similar to those observed at half load.
Skeletal deformation in 4,5-disubstituted 9,10-dihydrophenanthrenes and 4,5-disubstituted phenanthrenes

Les structures cristallines ont ete determinees pour six dihydro-9,10 di-X-4,5 phenanthrenes (X=H, F, OMe, Cl, Me, CF 3 ) et quatre di-X-4,5 phenanthrenes (X=F, Cl, Me, CF 3 ). La deformation du squelette dans les deux series semble etre simplement reliee a l'apparent recouvrement entre les groupes X
Microwave Freeze Drying of Sea Cucumber Coated with Nanoscale Silver

To develop an improved dehydration method for sea cucumber, microwave freeze drying was tested as a potential method. According to our experimental results, microwave freeze drying can reduce drying time to about half of the traditional vacuum freeze-drying process. To ensure a high degree of sterilization, a novel nanoscale silver coating technique was combined with microwave freeze drying. Microwave freeze drying combined with nanoscale silver coating treatment leads to a much lower microorganism number with no significant effect on drying efficiency and sensory quality.
Particulate Emissions from a Low-Speed Marine Diesel Engine

This study presents results from tail pipe emissions of particulate matter from a turbocharged common rail 2-stroke marine diesel engine (4RTX-3 from Wärtsilä) investigated at various operating conditions and using two different fuels. Size distributions were measured with a SMPS (Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer). A thermodesorber (TD) was applied to remove volatile material. In addition, filter samples were taken for gravimetric and chemical analysis. The mean diameters of the particles ranged between 20–40 nm, which is considerably smaller than the diameter of particles known from 4-stroke diesel engines as used in cars. A TD operated at 400°C evaporated the majority of the particles. The particle mass is dominated by volatile organic material, the fraction of which is significantly higher than for engines in cars. A high nucleation mode was found instead of a pronounced accumulation mode as known from 4-stroke diesel engines.
Nanosized Cu-MOFs induced by graphene oxide and enhanced gas storage capacity

Various MOFs with tailored nanoporosities have recently been developed as potential storage media for CO2 and H2. The composites based on Cu-BTC and graphene layers were prepared with different percentages of graphene oxide (GO). Through the characterization analyses and gas adsorption experiments, we found that the nanosized and well-dispersed Cu-BTC induced by the incorporation of GO greatly improved the carbon dioxide capture and hydrogen storage performance of the composites. The materials obtained exhibited about a 30% increase in CO2 and H2 storage capacity (from 6.39 mmol g−1 of Cu-BTC to 8.26 mmol g−1 of CG-9 at 273 K and 1 atm for CO2; from 2.81 wt% of Cu-BTC to 3.58 wt% of CG-9 at 77 K and 42 atm for H2). Finally, the CO2/CH4 and CO2/N2 selectivities were calculated according to single-component gas sorption experiment data.
Oil-in-water Pickering emulsions stabilized by colloidal particles from the water-insoluble protein zein

Few fully natural and biocompatible materials are available for the effective particle-stabilization of emulsions since strict requirements, such as insolubility in both fluid phases and intermediate wettability, need to be met. In this paper, we demonstrate the first use of water-insoluble proteins, employing the corn protein zein as a representative of this family, as effective particle-stabilizers of oil-in-water emulsions of natural oils and water. For this purpose, we synthesized zein colloidal particles through an anti-solvent precipitation procedure and demonstrated their use in the formation of stable oil-in-water Pickering emulsions as a function of particle concentration, pH and ionic strength. We confirmed that the wetting properties of zein, studied as a function of pH and ionic strength, strongly favor interfacial particle adsorption with oil-in-water three-phase contact angles θow close to 90°. We found that unmodified zein colloidal particles can produce stable, surfactant-free o/w emulsions with droplet sizes in the range 10–200 μm under experimental mixing conditions (2 min with Ultra Turrax homogenizer at 13500 rpm) at pH above and below the isoelectric point of zein, for low to moderate ionic strengths (1–10 mM). Under conditions where the particle volume fraction is low (<0.2 wt%) or at low pH, the resulting emulsions are not stable against coalescence. At a higher ionic strength, the zein particles have a tendency to aggregate and the resulting emulsions flocculate, forming an emulsion–gel phase.
Lack of activity of selected isoflavonoid phytoalexins as protectant fungicides

Seven isoflavonoid phytoalexins were subjected to a series of screening tests used for the routine examination of potential fungicides. The phytoalexins had no appreciable effects on disease intensity in these assays, which encompassed five major crop plants and six pathogens. It seems unlikely that isoflavonoid phytoalexins could be used as conventional fungicides in control programmes against phytopathogens.
Biofunctional self-assembled nanoparticles of folate–PEG–heparin/PBLA copolymers for targeted delivery of doxorubicin

To achieve a targeted drug delivery system for chemotherapy, we synthesized a ligand-mediated nanoparticulate drug carrier composed of folate-conjugated heparin-based copolymers. The use of a heparin-based drug delivery system is of special interest due to the attractive anticancer properties of heparin. Heparin–poly(β-benzyl-L-aspartate) (HP) and folate–poly(ethylene glycol)-conjugated HP (FPHP) amphiphilic copolymers were synthesized for delivery of doxorubicin (DOX). DOX was effectively incorporated into HP and FPHP nanoparticles at a high loading content and efficiency by a simple dialysis method. The DOX-loaded HP and FPHP nanoparticles had average diameters of 86–210 nm, depending on the drug loading content and the compositions of copolymers. Both DOX-loaded HP and FPHP nanoparticles had a sustained drug release pattern, and DOX-release from nanoparticles at pH 5.0 was much faster than that at pH 7.4. This pH-dependent DOX release property may ensure intracellular drug release due to decreases in pH values inside the endosomes and lysosomes of tumor cells. Furthermore, the DOX-loaded FPHP nanoparticles exhibited a greater extent of intracellular uptake against folate-receptor positive KB cells than DOX-loaded HP nanoparticles, indicating that the FPHP nanoparticles may serve as an effective active targeting carrier. The DOX-loaded FPHP nanoparticles also showed more potent cytotoxic effect on KB cells than on folate-receptor negative A549 cells. These results suggested that the FPHP nanoparticle is a promising candidate for targeted delivery of anticancer drugs to folate-receptor positive cells.
Making sense of flash drought: definitions, indicators, and where we go from here

<p>The topic of &#8220;Flash Drought&#8221; has rapidly gained attention within the research and drought management communities within the last decade. In preparation for a recent workshop on Flash Drought, the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) prepared a literature review to synthesize the research to-date (as of August 2020) and to provide a basis for future research on the topic. Specifically, this review is focused on documenting the range of definitions of "flash drought" that have been proposed by the research community. The term first appeared in the peer-reviewed literature in 2002, and by 2020, has become an area of active research. Within that 18-year span, 19 papers have provided measurable, defining criteria used to distinguish a flash drought from other drought. Of these papers, 11 distinguish flash drought as a rapid-onset or rapid-intensification drought event while seven distinguish flash drought as a short-term or short-lived, yet severe, drought event, and one paper considers flash drought as both a short-lived and rapid-onset event. Currently, there is no universally accepted definition or criteria for &#8220;flash drought,&#8221; despite recent research that has called for the research community to adopt the principle of rapid-intensification of drought conditions. This topic was further explored at the NIDIS-sponsored Flash Drought Workshop on 1-3 December 2020, where additional perspectives were shared about the key characteristics of flash drought that should inform its definition. &#160;We will provide a review of the literature-derived definitions as well as a brief overview of this additional discussion. </p>
Drying Characteristics of Garcinia atroviridis

Some physical and chemical properties of fresh garcinia fruits are reported. The most suitable drying conditions for garcinia material in a tray dryer based on the final moisture content were determined by extensive testing. It was found that for the material thickness of 2, 4 and 6 mm, a temperature of 55 °C and air velocity of 1.2 m/s are suitable for drying. The most suitable time where the final moisture content met the commercial standard was found to be 199, 256 and 427 min, respectively. The higher the temperature, the shorter the drying time. It was also observed that the suitable drying time for 2-mm thick material and air velocity of 1.2 m/s was 199, 159 and 99 min for drying temperature of 55, 65 and 75 °C, respectively. Drying characteristics are also reported. Most of the drying rate curves appear in a falling rate period except at low temperature and low velocity of operation parameters i.e. 55 °C and 0.5 m/s for 4-mm thick material, where the constant drying rate is approximately 0.09 kg water/min.m 2 . The sorption isotherm is sigmoidal shape at 30 °C and monolayer moisture content is 14.78 kg water/100 kg dry solid. Soaking material in 1.5 and 3.0 %w/w sodium chloride did not affect the drying rate. Effective moisture diffusivities were evaluated to be 5.57×10 -10 , 6.94×10 -10 and 1.11×10 -9 m 2 /s at temperatures 55, 65 and 75 °C, respectively.
Evaluation of Contrastive Predictive Coding for Histopathology Applications

Recent advances in self-supervised learning for image data are closing the gap between unsupervised and supervised learning. However, the eﬀective-ness of self-supervised methods has primarily been demonstrated for natural images. If the results would extrapolate to histopathology images, there could be signiﬁcant beneﬁts due to the reduced need for annotated data. In this paper, Contrastive Predictive Coding (CPC), one of the most promising state-of-the-art self-supervised methods, is extensively evaluated on histology data by varying a range of diﬀerent parameters, including training objective, resolution, and data setup. From the results, we are able to draw important conclusions on the usefulness of CPC for digital pathology. We show strong evidence of the limitations of the learned representation for tumor clas-siﬁcation, where only low-level information learned early during training, in the ﬁrst CPC layers, is used. Furthermore, in our experiments, diver-sifying the distribution of the dataset (i.e., data from multiple organs or medical centers) does not lead to the model learning a more general representation. This study deepens the understanding of how the CPC model’s objective relates to intrinsic characteristics of histology datasets and will help the development of eﬀective self-supervised methods for histopathology.
Isolation and characterization of dengue protease inhibitory prenylated chalcone from Polyalthia cerasoides Stem bark

Dengue infection is one of the leading causes of death globally. Still today there are no therapeutic agents to treat the disease. Plants are rich source of therapeutic phytochemicals. In the present study, we have explored Polyalthia cerasoides for possible anti-dengue phytoconstituents. Dried powdered Polyalthia cerasoides stem bark was extracted with methanol. Then, the methanol extract was fractionated with petroleum ether. The petroleum ether fraction was chromatographed over silica gel column chromatography and eluted with petroleum ether and ethyl acetate. The compound isolated from fractions 814 was characterized as 6, 4-dihydroxy-3-propane chalcone: a prenylated flavanone using mass spectroscopic data. The isolated prenylated flavanone was investigated for the inhibition of dengue viral protease using molecular docking studies and in vitro protease assay. Results indicated that the prenylated flavanone binds to the active site of dengue viral protease with binding energy -10.2 Kcal/mol and -12.8 Kcal/mol of Serotype 1 and Serotype 4 respectively. Further, the prenylated flavanone was investigated for the inhibition of DENV protease using in vitro high throughput protease assay. Results indicated that prenylated flavanone inhibits the DENV protease in a dose-dependent manner. Prenylated flavanone reported a less toxic effect against HepG2 cells in the MTT cytotoxicity test. Further investigations may lead to developing the isolated compound as a potential dengue viral therapeutic agent.
Effect of Educational Guideline on Quality of Life and Self Efficacy for Adult and Adolescent Patients with Colostomy

Colostomy may be the best and safest form of treatment for a number of conditions including rectal cancer, trauma, or inflammatory bowel disease. Aim: To assess the effect of educational guideline on the quality of life and self-efficacy for adult and adolescent patients with colostomy. Study design: A correlation descriptive research design was adopted in this study. Setting: The present study was conducted at the Outpatients Clinics in El-Demerdash Surgical Hospital and Pediatric Surgical Department Children's Hospital, affiliated to Ain Shams University. Subjects: A purposive sample composed of 90 patients (45 adults & 45 adolescent) with colostomy, six months or more after finishing chemotherapy and-or radiotherapy, both sexes and their age not less than fourteen years. Data collection tools: 1) Interview questionnaire, 2) Quality of Patients’ Life Questionnaire, 3) Stoma Self-efficacy Patient Scale and 4) Patient Skin Assessment Observation Tool. Results: The present study revealed that, mean ages of patients of the current study were 42.67±8.3 and 15.82 +2.03 for adults and adolescents respectively, more than half of the patients were males. There was a highly statistically significant difference between levels of knowledge, there were highly statistically significant differences between patients' quality of life as well as between self-efficacy of patients with stoma pre, immediately and one month later after implementation of educational guideline. Conclusion: Application of the educational guideline has a positive effect on enhancing all aspects of the quality of life domains (physical well-being, psychological well-being, social well-being and spiritual well-being), and all aspects of the self-efficacy (physical activity, psychological activity, social activity, colostomy care and preventing complications) for both adults and adolescence among patients with colostomy. Recommendations: the educational guideline for patients with colostomy should be applied to improve patients’ condition, quality of life and stoma self-efficacy, and there is aneed for a simplified illustrated and comprehensive Arabic language booklet to be distributed to those patients and used as a reference.
Evaluation of Impressions toward People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities using the Semantic Differential Method

We examined impressions towards people with disabilities by using a semantic differential (SD) method. Participants (N = 105, 40 men and 65 women) rated video scenes featuring a person with intellectual and developmental disabilities, on 20 adjective-pair scales, for 10 minutes. In addition, they completed questionnaire, investigating degree of recognition of various disabilities. Using principal factor analysis, we extracted 3 factors: Evaluation, Activity, and Potency. Furthermore, we compared factor scores between male and female and between participants with high and low degrees of recognition of disabilities in each factors. We found sex differences only in Evaluation. Moreover, we found individual differences in the degrees of recognition of disabilities in Evaluation and Potency, but not in Activity. These results showed the factor structure within attitude formation towards people with disabilities and indicated that sex differences and individual differences in the degree of recognition of various disabilities affected attitude formation.
Antihymolytic and Antioxidant Effects of Medicinal Plant Capparis spinosa L.

Capparis spinosa L. is a traditionally used plant in Algerian folk medicine to treat asthma, rheumatism and other free radicals related disorders such inflammatory. The present study was designated to study the antioxidant activity of aerial and root parts of Capparis spinosa L. Total polyphenol content was determined, after extraction with solvents in five subfractions; methanol (CE), Hexan (HE) chloroform (CHE), ethyl acetate (EAE) and aqueous extracts (AE), employing the "Prussian blue assay". The results showed that EAE containing the highest concentration of phenolic compounds and Flavonoids followed by those of CHE of aerial and root parts, repectively. The antioxidant protective effects of extracts were determined by measuring the erythrocyte membrane resistance to free radical-induced. The results demonstrated that all the extracts exhibited a protective effect against t-BHP induced oxidative damages in human erythrocytes, the most potents wer CEs and CHEs with 86.55%, 85.81%, 74.59%, and 68.70%, for aerial and root parts, respectively, which were more effective than used standards: Quercetin (65.46%) and rutin (59.62%). In order to more clarify the previous antioxidants activity of the extracts through other mechanisms, the iron chelating ability assays were realized. The results showed that the iron chelating ability of Aerial and root extracts were very considerable; the CE showed an excellent chelating with IC50 of 0.197 ± 0.031 µM/quercetin equivalent, higher than that used standard EDTA, with approximately 0.34 folds. These results show that Capparis spinosa L. extracts have strong anti-oxidant effects and may have some clinical benefits.
Ablation Studies to Uncover Structure of Learned Representations in Artificial Neural Networks

- Ablation studies have been widely used in the field of neuroscience to uncover structure and organization in complex biological systems. In this paper, we transfer the principle of ablation studies to two types of artificial neural networks trained to investigate the structure of their learned representations. We found that features distinct to the local and global structure of the training data are selectively and sometimes redundantly represented in specific parts of the network. Further, we found that the importance of these specific parts for the learning task can be determined based on the distribution of incoming weights of single units. Finally, we found that the network’s class -specific accuracy can be partly increased after training via ablations.
Effects of black pepper, tulsi, peppermint, garlic, black cumin, papaya, cinnamon and patent probiotics on growth performance of broiler

The experiment was conducted in Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, FANSVM, PSTU to study the effects of seven indigenous medicinal plants [black pepper (Piper nirgum), tulsi (Ocimum sanctum), peppermint (Mentha piperita), garlic (Allium sativum), black cumin (Nigella sativa), papaya (Carica papaya), cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum)] and two patent probiotics (SS Bio® and Poultrystar Sol®) on the growth performance (body weight and FCR) in broiler. The effects of black pepper, tulsi, peppermint, garlic, black cumin, papaya, cinnamon, SS Bio® and Poultrystar Sol® on hematological parameters (TEC, Hb and PCV) and biochemical parameter (blood glucose) were also observed. One hundred broiler were randomly divided into ten groups (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J), each consisting of ten broiler. Group A was kept as control. 10% water extract of black pepper (seed), tulsi (leaves), peppermint (leaves), garlic (bulbs), black cumin (seed), papaya (leaves), cinnamon (bark) were administered orally to the broiler of group B, C, D, E, F, G and H, respectively. Broiler of group I and J received orally SS Bio® and Poultrystar Sol®, respectively. Black pepper, tulsi, peppermint, garlic, black cumin, papaya, cinnamon, SS Bio® and Poultrystar Sol® were significantly (p<0.01 and p<0.05) increased body weight and FCR up to the experimental period. TEC was significantly (p<0.05) increased at garlic treated broiler. After treatment with peppermint, garlic, black cumin, papaya, cinnamon, SS Bio® and Poultrystar Sol®, Hb content increased significantly (p<0.05) in broiler. Black pepper, tulsi, peppermint, black cumin, papaya, SS Bio® and Poultrystar Sol® treatment significantly (p<0.01 and p<0.05) increased PCV in broiler. Peppermint, garlic, black cumin, papaya, cinnamon, SS Bio® and Poultrystar Sol® caused significantly (p<0.01 and p<0.05) increased blood glucose. Tulsi decreased (p<0.05) significantly blood glucose. The present study reveal that indigenous medicinal plants can be used as alternatives to patent probiotics in broiler. Asian Australas. J. Biosci. Biotechnol. 2019, 4 (3), 135-141
Screening of depression and anxiety amongst resident doctors at a tertiary care hospital in Gujarat during the COVID-19 pandemic: An online survey

association was found between depression and presence of any kind of symptoms and psychiatric comorbidity, between anxiety and gender, presence of psychiatric comorbidity, and any kind of symptoms. Conclusion: Our study suggested elevated levels of anxiety and depression due to COVID-19 pandemic. This alarmed the need of early psychiatric intervention to help them cope with the issue.