Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comprehensive characterization of palygorskite from Torrejón el Rubio (Spain) based on experimental techniques and theoretical DFT studies

New data about the physico-chemical, microstructural and crystal-chemical properties of the mineral paligorskite from Torrejon el Rubio (Caceres, Spain) were obtained by a combination of experimental techniques (XRD, FRX, FTIR, TG-DSC, SEM and chemical analyses), as well as geometry optimization by means of the Density Functional Theory (DFT). This palygorskite has a dioctahedral character and can be defined as a Type II common palygorskite. The total amount of phyllosilicates in the bulk sample is 60 wt. %, being the clay mineral fraction composed by palygorskite (97 wt.%), muscovite/illite (2 wt.%) and chlorite (1 wt.%). The remaining minerals on the total fraction are quartz, cristobalite, K-feldspar, barite and ilmenite. No carbonates were found. The XRD patterns show that the mineral fits better to an orthorhombic structure and after unit cell refinements the calculated parameters were a = 12.7763 ± 0.0276 A, b = 17.9211 ± 0.0441 A and c = 5.2013 ± 0.0161 A, with = = = 90o and a volume cell of 1190.92 ± 4.48 cm. These parameters that fix well with those calculated by DFT periodic planewave pseudopotential studies employed that are used to provide firstprinciples predictions of local structural relaxation, atomic ordering and site preference of water molecules inside the palygorskite channels. According to FTIR and chemical formula calculations, Mg atoms at octahedral sites are substituted by Al, Fe and Ti; and silica at tetrahedral sheets is substituted by Al. The excess of negative charge on both sheets is compensated by K, Ca and Na interlayer cations: from +0.05 to +0.14 e/hfuc, which correspond to a CEC between 7 and 20 meq/100g depending on the average tetrahedral substitutions. For the five octahedral positions per half unit cell (phuc), one octahedral site is vacant and 1.56-1.60 is occupied by Al. The half unit cell formula for its dehydrated form determined on the basis of 21 oxygens is (Mg2.00Al1.57Fe 3+ 0.39Ti0.04 1)(Si7.90Al0.10)K0.14O21. Inside the octahedral sheet, the inner M1 sites are occupied by vacants, whereas the M2 sites are occupied at 98% by trivalent cations (78.5% Al and 19.5% Fe) and at 2.0% by tetravalent cations Ti, all of them linked to structural 2.0 structural hydroxyls. The two remaining Mg per hfuc occupy edge M3 sites and are coordinated to 2.0 molecules of OH2. Channels of this palygorskite are deficient in zeolitic H2O since they contain only 1.69 water molecules. The R /R ratio is around 1.01 (Al/Mg ratio of 0.83) indicating the pronounced dioctahedral character, which was confirmed by
Life Cycle Assessment for Supporting Eco-Design: The Case Study of Sodium–Nickel Chloride Cells

The European Union is moving towards a sustainable, decarbonized, and circular economy. It has identified seven key value chains in which to intervene, with the battery and vehicle value chain being one of them. Thus, actions and strategies for the sustainability of batteries need to be developed. Since Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a strategic tool for evaluating environmental sustainability, this paper investigates its application to two configurations of a sodium–nickel chloride cell (planar and tubular), focusing on the active material and the anode, with the purpose of identifying the configuration characterized by the lowest environmental impacts. The results, based on a “from cradle to gate” approach, showed that the tubular cell performs better for all environmental impact categories measured except for particulate matter, acidification, and resource depletion. With nickel being the main contributor to these impact categories, future sustainable strategies need to be oriented towards the reduction/recovery of this material or the use of nickel coming from a more sustainable supply chain. The original contribution of the paper is twofold: (1) It enriches the number of case studies of LCAs applied to sodium/nickel chloride cells, adding to the few studies on these types of cells that can be found in the existing scientific literature. (2) The results identify the environmental hot spots (cell configuration and materials used) for improving the environmental footprint of batteries made from sodium/nickel chloride cells.
Efficient hybrid passive method for the detection and localization of copy-move and spliced images

: Digital passive image forgery methods are extensively used to verify the authenticity and integrity of images. Splicing and copy-move are the most common types of passive digital image forgeries. Several approaches have been proposed to detect these forgeries separately, but very few approaches are available that can detect them simultaneously. However, a more eﬀicient method is still in demand to meet the day-to-day challenges to detect these forgeries at the same time. So, a passive hybrid approach based on discrete fractional cosine transform (DFrCT) and local binary pattern (LBP) is proposed to detect copy-move and splicing forgeries simultaneously. The extra parameter i.e. fractional parameter of DFrCT is utilized to enhance the accuracy and LBP is used to highlight the tampering artifacts effectively. Then, a support vector machine (SVM) is employed to categorize the images into authentic, copy-move, and spliced images. Next, localization is performed on both the copy-move and spliced images to localize the duplicated areas in the image. Experiments on six benchmark datasets, namely, CASIA v1.0, GRIP, CASIA v2.0, IMD, COVERAGE, and Columbia, attain accuracy rates of 99.67%, 99.23%, 99.76%, 98.81%, 95%, and 98.17%, respectively. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, comparative analysis has been performed with existing methods in terms of ROC, precision, recall, F 1 score, F 2 score, and accuracy. Moreover, the robustness of the proposed work is tested under rotation attack and better results are attained in comparison to the existing techniques.
Composite blending of ionic liquid–poly(ether sulfone) polymeric membranes: Green materials with potential for carbon dioxide/methane separation

The incorporation of imidazolium-based ionic liquids into a poly(ether sulfone) (PES) polymeric membrane resulted in a dense and void-free polymeric membrane. As determined through the ideal gas permeation test, the carbon dioxide (CO2) permeation increased about 22% compared to that of the pure PES polymeric membrane whereas the methane (CH4) permeation decreased tremendously. This made the CO2/CH4 ideal separation increase substantially by more than 100%. This study highlighted the utilization of imidazolium-based ionic liquids in the synthesis of ionic liquid polymeric membranes (ILPMs). Two different ionic liquids were used to compare the CO2 separation performance through the membranes. The glass-transition temperatures (Tgs) of ILPMs were found to be lower than the Tg of the pure PES polymeric membranes; this supported the high CO2 permeation of the ILPMs due to the increase in PES flexibility caused by ionic liquid addition. The results also draw attention to new trends of ionic liquids as a potential green candidates for future membrane synthesis. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43999.
Tundra Underlain By Thawing Permafrost Persistently Emits Carbon to the Atmosphere Over 15 Years of Measurements

Warming of the Arctic can stimulate microbial decomposition and release of permafrost soil carbon (C) as greenhouse gases, and thus has the potential to influence climate change. At the same time, plant growth can be stimulated and offset C release. This study presents a 15‐year time series comprising chamber and eddy covariance measurements of net ecosystem C exchange in a tundra ecosystem in Alaska where permafrost has been degrading due to regional warming. The site was a carbon dioxide source to the atmosphere with a cumulative total loss of 781.6 g C m−2 over the study period. Both gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Reco) were already likely higher than historical levels such that increases in Reco losses overwhelmed GPP gains in most years. This shift to a net C source to the atmosphere likely started in the early 1990s when permafrost was observed to warm and thaw at the site. Shifts in the plant community occur more slowly and are likely to constrain future GPP increases as compared to more rapid shifts in the microbial community that contribute to increased Reco. Observed rates suggest that cumulative net soil C loss of 4.18–10.00 kg C m−2—8%–20% of the current active layer soil C pool—could occur from 2020 to the end of the century. This amount of permafrost C loss to the atmosphere represents a significant accelerating feedback to climate change if it were to occur at a similar magnitude across the permafrost region.
The Economic Efficiency of Traditional and Islamic Banking (a Comparative Analysis of the Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Iranian Banking Sectors)

The article attempts to develop a methodology for a comparative assessment of the economic efficiency of banks, including traditional and Islamic banking mod‐ els. The assessment shows that the stability of financial institutions in Azerbaijan is lower compared to banks where Islamic banking is used. The assessment also shows that there is a strong dependence of the GDP growth rate on the sub‐in‐ dices of the effectiveness of financial institutions in Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Iran. The methodology of linear regression and a composite index of the economic ef‐ ficiency of banks are applied. The assessment shows that the influence of the sta‐ bility of the financial system on economic growth in Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkey is different. The economic growth rate and the ratio of bank loans to bank deposits in Azerbaijan and Turkey are positively related, but negatively in Iran.
Influential aspects on melting and solidification of PCM energy storage containers in building envelope applications

ABSTRACT Phase change materials (PCMs) incorporated building envelope for thermal energy storage (TES) considerably enhances building thermal energy and improves indoor comfort. Amongst other methods, macroencapsulation provides a flexible and efficient PCM utilization among practical incorporation methods during a long time of service. Nevertheless, there is still arguement regarding PCM thermal performance during melting and solidification phases due to macroencapsulation containers, not to mention PCM’s poor thermal conductivity. A brief overview of possible practical integration methods of PCMs with building elements is presented along with the main advantages and drawbacks in this work. This is followed by the popular incorporation techniques in building applications giving special attention to the macroencapsulation method and its role in improving building performance. The main influential aspects of macroencapsulated PCM performance during the melting and solidification, namely the shape, material type, compatibility with PCM type, and enhancement methods of encapsulation containers, are highlighted and discussed. We believe that this work analysis and conclusions provide a clear understanding of the main trends and gaps in this research area for further investigation and optimization studies by researchers, engineers, and developers.
The First Year Acculturation: A Longitudinal Study on Acculturative Stress and Adjustment among the First Year International College Students

We analyzed 192 first year international college students in Mid-Atlantic region to examine change of international students’ acculturative stress, adjustment, and collegiate experiences during their first year in the U.S. higher education. We found that male students, students from low socio-economic status, and students majored in humanity showed higher rate of acculturative stress and lower rate of satisfaction with college experiences compared to their counterparts. International students reported decreased acculturative stress and homesick, and increased English proficiency, social connectedness, and satisfaction with college experiences during the last week of the first year compared to the first week of their first semester. Satisfaction with college experiences, English proficiency, social connectedness, and self-esteem were significant predictors of acculturative stress. Lastly, acculturative stress in the first week of the first year and satisfaction with college experience in the last week of the first year were on each other reciprocally over one year internal.
Raman and dielectric studies of 0.95Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-0.05PbTiO3 ceramic

ABSTRACT 0.95Na0. 5Bi0.5TiO3-0.05PbTiO3 ceramic was prepared by a conventional solid phase sintering process. X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the obtained specimens possess perovskite structure with rhombohedral symmetry. The microstructure study showed a dense structure, in good agreement with the relative density of above 95% as determined by the Archimedes method. The crystal structure, phase transitions behavior and dielectric properties of these ceramics were investigated. Relaxor-like behavior was revealed.
Characterization and Suitability of Nigerian Barites for Different Industrial Applications

This work aimed to characterize barite samples from selected different locations in Nigeria and determine their suitability for various industrial applications. The properties determined include mineralogy, chemical composition, morphology, functional groups, and specific gravity. Samples were obtained from ten locations in Nasarawa and Taraba states as well as a standard working sample (WS) obtained from a drilling site. The samples were characterized using scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX), Fourier infrared analysis (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Specific gravity (SG) was determined using the pycnometer method. Results of SEM-EDX analysis show that the WS has a Ba-S-O empirical composition of 66.5% whereas these of the ten samples investigated vary between 59.36% and 98.86%. The FTIR analysis shows that the functional groups of S-O, SO42−, Ba-S-O, OH of the ten samples match that of the WS. Results of XRD show that the ten samples have the same mineralogical composition as the WS and all meet American Petroleum Institute (API) standards for industrial barite. Similar matching results are shown from EDXRF spectra intensity, position, and composition analysis of the ten samples compared to the WS. Specific gravity (SG) results show that six out of the ten samples have SG above 4.2 which is the recommended minimum for the American Petroleum Institute (API) standard. The other four samples will require beneficiation to meet the standard for drilling mud application. Using all the parameters of the assessment together, results show that while some (6) of the samples can be used for drilling fluid application, some (4) require beneficiation but all ten samples can be used for other industrial applications including healthcare, construction, plastic, cosmetics, paper, and rubber industries. The results of the study can be used for value addition in developing beneficiation procedures, processes, and technology for purification along with new materials for the industries.
Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Phthalide Composition of Celery oil from Apium graveolens L. cultivated in Nigeria.

Phthalides are important bioactive constituents of celery plants. The medicinal uses of celery and their characteristic aroma have been linked to the phthalides. In this report, the leaf and stalk oils of celery were extracted either by hydrodistillation or maceration in water and the phthalide constituents of the oils were characterized by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. The leaf oil consists mainly of dihydroxyphthalides while the volatile phthalides are the main phthalides in the stalk oil. The phthalide content of the leaf oil and the stalk oil are 39.8% and 29.95% respectively. The phthalides identified in the leaf oil are the isomeric compounds of senkyunolide I and senkyunolides (J & N), while the major phthalide constituents of the stalk oil include 3-n- butylphthalide, sedanolide, neocnidilide and sedanenolide/senkyunolide A. The results suggest that the Nigerian celery plant could be considered a good source of phthalides which are known for their nutraceutical properties such as anti-oxidant, antitumor, anti- platelet aggregation, hypotensive, hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic properties. Further phytochemical and pharmacological evaluation of the locally cultivated celery are required in order to exploit the medicinal potentials of the plant for applications in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.
Premature ovarian insufficiency patients with viable embryos derived from autologous oocytes through repeated oocyte retrievals could obtain reasonable cumulative pregnancy outcomes following frozen-embryo transfer

Background Women with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) are often discouraged from using autologous oocytes; however, some patients have a strong desire to be genetically linked to their offspring. In the present study, we aimed to estimate cumulative pregnancy outcomes following frozen-embryo transfer (FET) in POI patients who could obtain viable embryos with their eggs during in vitro fertilization (IVF)/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatments. Methods In this matched-retrospective cohort study, only patients undergoing IVF/ICSI treatments with a freeze-all strategy were screened, and 103 POI patients were matched with 515 normal controls in terms of the same number of viable embryos obtained at the same age. The primary outcome was the cumulative clinical pregnancy rate (CCPR) following FET per patient. Results Patients with POI and normal ovarian reserve had comparable CCPRs of 62.14% (64/103) and 65.24% (336/515), respectively (P=0.547), and no statistical difference was found in the cumulative live-birth rate (CLBR) between the study group (43.69%) and the control group (53.01%). Based on binary logistic regression, the CCPR and CLBR showed no association with the type of ovarian function (POI or normal ovarian reserve). The number of embryos per transfer and the sum of all viable embryos per patient were positively associated with the CCPR and CLBR. The clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) per FET cycle was 38.17% for the study group and 52.1% for the control group, while the CPRs per oocyte retrieval cycle in the 2 groups were 11.25% and 69.9%, respectively, and both were statistically different (P<0.05). Moreover, POI patients had a lower implantation rate (27.8% vs. 37.94%) and a higher early miscarriage rate per transfer (26.76% vs. 15%) than patients in the control group (P<0.05). Conclusions Cumulative pregnancy outcomes following FET were reasonable for POI patients using viable embryos derived from autologous oocytes through repeated oocyte retrievals.
Non‐linear adaptive tracking control for quadrotor aerial robots under uncertain dynamics

This paper presents the design, analysis, and implementation of an adaptive backstepping controller for underactuated quadrotors to track time-varying trajectories with parameter uncertainties. Quadrotor systems are subject to complicated non-linearity and coupling dynamics, so the ignorance of parameter uncertainties may cause performance degrada-tion and even instability. With the concept of nominal input, the uncertain mass and inertia are decoupled from the lifting force and moment torque. By utilizing the backstepping technique, the design procedure with adaptive laws for dynamic parameters is proposed to ensure stability and convergence of tracking errors to the origin asymptotically. The proposed control scheme is extended to control a quadrotor with velocity motor input while the motor coefﬁcients and geometric parameters are handled by the adaptive laws. A trajectory generation for the proposed adaptive tracking controller is addressed subsequently. The proposed controller requires only the position and orientation of the quadrotor with the twice-differentiable trajectories, while previous work demanded acceleration information. Simulation and experimental results are illustrated to show the efﬁcacy of tracking performance for object transportation.
VIRAL ION CHANNEL PRODUCTION FOR STRUCTURAL STUDIES

6 Introduction . 7 X-ray crystallography . 8 X-ray crystallography of membrane proteins . 9 Potassium channels . 11 X-Ray crystallographic structure of KcsA and KirBac1.1, two bacterial potassium channels . 15 Viral potassium channels: PBCV-1 Kcv . 19 Viral potassium channels: Kcv-like channels . 24 Viral potassium channels: MA-1D Kcv . 29 Viral potassium channels: MT325 Kcv . 30 Viral potassium channels: ATCV-1 Kcv . 32 Viral potassium channels: Kesv . 34 Heterologous expression system: Pichia pastoris . 38 Cell-free expression systems . 39 Aim of the PhD . 41 Materials and Methods . 42 Molecular biology . 43 1) DNA Cloning . 43 Genes:. 43 PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction): . 43 Vectors: . 45 A) pPIC3.5K . 45 B) pET21CHx . 46 C) pSGEM. 46 D) pIVEX2.3 . 46 Cloning . 46 2) Transformation of E. coli . 47 3) DNA Sequencing . 47 Protein Expression . 48 1) Pichia pastoris transformation . 48 2) Protein production . 48
A Recommendation Algorithm Based on Efficient Dense Subsequence and Data Generation

[purposes] The recommendation effect of the user-based collaborative filtering algorithm is improved by extracting the effective dense sub-sequence between the user and the project and generating the data information of the project that the user participates in with high probability, The problem of data sparsity is alleviated to some extent, and the validity of binary data method in expressing user interest is verified. [methods]There are two steps to extract the effective dense subsequences from the user rate sequence, Firstly, the effective dense subsequence is extracted based on the time range; secondly, the subsequence is extracted twice by judging the items in the subsequence with high probability that do not conform to the user's interest. Generating data for projects with high probability of user participation requires the use of project attributes of user participation projects. The validity of the binary data method is mainly verified by the comparison experiment with the scoring data and the final result of the recommendation algorithm. [results] The experimental results show that RMSE (root mean square error) is reduced by more than 0.04 on the ml-latest-small data set compared with the classical traditional collaborative filtering algorithm. When F value (the harmonic mean of accuracy and recall rate) is taken as the evaluation standard, the algorithm proposed in this paper is more accurate than other classical algorithms, and the recommendation accuracy has been significantly improved. [conclusions] The method of extracting the effective dense subsequence between the user and the project is better than the traditional collaborative filtering method in terms of recommendation effect, and using binary data in the algorithm to replace the original rate data can bring better recommendation effect.