Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of the Protective Function of a Lignin Coating of Natural Fiber Geotextiles against Biodegradation

Natural fibers do not have a long life in soil; therefore, they cannot replace synthetic textiles in many applications. However, in order to solve ever-increasing global environmental problems due to microplastics, more and more natural polymers must be used, creating a need for research into the sustainable life extension of natural fibers. Lignin is, along with cellulose, a main component of wood, and is produced in large quantities as waste during paper production. With appropriate processing, lignin can be exploited/used as a textile auxiliary to combine the strength-enhancing properties of textiles made from natural fibers with the protective properties of a lignin coating. However, there is not yet sufficient research on how to integrate lignin into textile applications. For this purpose, in this study, we have investigated whether thermoplastic lignin can be processed as a surface protective coating. We tested lignin as a yarn coating to extend the service life of cellulosic textiles. Cotton yarns have been coated with lignin in variations of coating mass, characterized and investigated by means of soil burial tests. As the soil burial tests conducted in climate chamber and outdoor field environments showed, the lifespan of textiles made from natural fibers can be significantly extended with a lignin coating. Long-term resilience has been demonstrated in standard burial tests. In the outdoor tests, the lignin coating was still fully intact, even after about 160 days of burial. The textile materials coated in this way enable sustainable applications, especially for geotextiles. They have an adjustable, sufficiently long service life; however, they are still biodegradable, and can therefore replace some applications, such as vegetating trench/brook slopes, with synthetic materials. Lignin-coated textiles have the potential to significantly reduce the carbon footprint, reduce not only the dependence on petroleum-based products but also the amount of microplastics entering the environment. Further research can be conducted to improve lignin compounding in terms of other interesting properties for specific textile applications. Process optimization could increase the protective effect and further extend the life of useful textiles in soil.
Theoretical study of air-side volatility effects on the performance of H-type finned heat exchangers in waste heat utilization

ABSTRACT In this paper, a comprehensive transient three-dimensional model for heat transfer performance and flow resistance is applied to investigate the characteristics of a fin-and-tube heat exchanger with an H-typed fin. The overall and local dynamic response performance of Nu number and Eu number under volatile flow conditions are analyzed in detail. The results indicate that for the H-typed fin-and-tube heat exchanger, both the heat transfer and the fluid flow are influenced by volatile flow, which consists of three key parameters, time-averaged velocity, volatile amplitude, and the cycle time. Correlations of Nu number and Eu number for each case of volatile flow conditions are presented.
Scaling the Ion Inertial Length and Its Implications for Modeling Reconnection in Global Simulations

We investigate the use of artificially increased ion and electron kinetic scales in global plasma simulations. We argue that as long as the global and ion inertial scales remain well separated, (1) the overall global solution is not strongly sensitive to the value of the ion inertial scale, while (2) the ion inertial scale dynamics will also be similar to the original system, but it occurs at a larger spatial scale, and (3) structures at intermediate scales, such as magnetic islands, grow in a self‐similar manner. To investigate the validity and limitations of our scaling hypotheses, we carry out many simulations of a two‐dimensional magnetosphere with the magnetohydrodynamics with embedded particle‐in‐cell (MHD‐EPIC) model. The PIC model covers the dayside reconnection site. The simulation results confirm that the hypotheses are true as long as the increased ion inertial length remains less than about 5% of the magnetopause standoff distance. Since the theoretical arguments are general, we expect these results to carry over to three dimensions. The computational cost is reduced by the third and fourth powers of the scaling factor in two‐ and three‐dimensional simulations, respectively, which can be many orders of magnitude. The present results suggest that global simulations that resolve kinetic scales for reconnection are feasible. This is a crucial step for applications to the magnetospheres of Earth, Saturn, and Jupiter and to the solar corona.
Node-Level Conflict Measures in Bayesian Hierarchical Models Based on Directed Acyclic Graphs

Over the last decades, Bayesian hierarchical models defined by means of directed, acyclic graphs have become an essential and widely used methodology in the analysis of complex data. Simulation-based model criticism in such models can be based on conflict measures constructed by contrasting separate local information sources about each node in the graph. An initial suggestion of such a measure was not well calibrated. This shortcoming has, however, to a large extent been rectified by subsequently pro-posed alternative mutually similar tail probability-based measures, which have been proved to be uniformly distributed under the assumed model under various circum-stances, and in particular, in quite general normal models with known covariance matrices. An advantage of this is that computationally costly precalibration schemes needed for some other suggested methods can be avoided. Another advantage is that noninformative prior distributions can be used when performing model criticism. In this chapter, we describe the basic framework and review the main uniformity results.
Urinary MicroRNAs as Biomarkers of Urological Cancers: A Systematic Review

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are emerging as biomarkers for the detection and prognosis of cancers due to their inherent stability and resilience. To summarize the evidence regarding the role of urinary miRNAs (umiRNAs) in the detection, prognosis, and therapy of genitourinary cancers, we performed a systematic review of the most important scientific databases using the following keywords: (urinary miRNA) AND (prostate cancer); (urinary miRNA) AND (bladder cancer); (urinary miRNA) AND (renal cancer); (urinary miRNA) AND (testicular cancer); (urinary miRNA) AND (urothelial cancer). Of all, 1364 articles were screened. Only original studies in the English language on human specimens were considered for inclusion in our systematic review. Thus, a convenient sample of 60 original articles was identified. UmiRNAs are up- or downregulated in prostate cancer and may serve as potential non-invasive molecular biomarkers. Several umiRNAs have been identified as diagnostic biomarkers of urothelial carcinoma and bladder cancer (BC), allowing us to discriminate malignant from nonmalignant forms of hematuria. UmiRNAs could serve as therapeutic targets or recurrence markers of non-muscle-invasive BC and could predict the aggressivity and prognosis of muscle-invasive BC. In renal cell carcinoma, miRNAs have been identified as predictors of tumor detection, aggressiveness, and progression to metastasis. UmiRNAs could play an important role in the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of urological cancers.
Empowerment as a Mediator between Instructional Leadership and Teachers’ Organizational Citizenship Behavior

The study explores the mediating effect of teacher’s empowerment on the relationship between instructional leadership (IL) to teacher’s organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) toward student, team-members, and school. 395 Israeli teachers completed PIMRS, SPES, OCB, and demographic questionnaire. Path analysis showed a good fit of the data to the theoretical model. Teacher’s empowerment is a partial mediator for OCB toward student and school; and a full mediator for OCB toward team-members. Teacher’s OCB is crucial for schools’ effectivity, therefore identifying empowerment as a full mediator for OCB toward team-members may assist improving teamwork, especially through IL.
New results on robust stability analysis and synthesis for MIMO uncertain systems

This paper provides theoretical preliminary results and develops a first methodology, that allows one to efficiently estimate the maximum time constant of a dynamic matrix of an uncertain system with rational multi-affine structure with respect to parameters, and a second one to find a majorant system of a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system with rational multi-affine structure with respect to parameters. The developed methodologies are used to estimate the evolution of an uncertain linear time-invariant (LTI) system with additional bounded nonlinearities and/or additional bounded input signals. Moreover, the above results are also used to design a robust controller for an uncertain MIMO system with unmeasurable states and subject to a rate-bounded disturbance in order to track a rate-bounded reference signal. The obtained theoretical results are illustrated by three examples. The first two examples deal with the analysis of a LTI system with bounded disturbances and measurement noise, and additional bounded and not bounded nonlinearities, respectively; in the second example a new control law with saturation is also designed. In the last example, a robust controller for an uncertain electro-mechanical system with unmeasurable state is designed to track a rate-bounded reference signal in the presence of a disturbance with bounded derivative.
Changes in Physicochemical Properties of Organic Aerosol During Photochemical Aging of Cooking and Burning Emissions

Photochemical aging is a key atmospheric processing, yet the changes in physicochemical properties of organic aerosol (OA) during photochemical aging of primary emissions from cooking and burning are less understood. Here we conducted 12 burning (straw, wood, and coal) and cooking experiments to characterize the evolution of size distributions, volatility, and glass transition temperature (Tg) from fresh smoke to aged OA with an equivalent photochemical age of ∼1.5 days using an oxidation flow reactor‐thermodenuder‐aerosol mass spectrometer system. The mass spectra of OA showed significant changes during photochemical aging, for example, the rapid degradation of m/z 60 for straw and wood burning OA, and the large increase in f44 (fraction of m/z 44 in OA) for all OA. The contributions of non‐volatile compounds to the total OA in aged burning OA (1.6%–5.3%) decreased considerably compared with those in fresh burning smoke (2.3%–17.1%), suggesting that photochemical aging of primary emissions for ∼1.5 days produced more volatile secondary OA (SOA). Consistently, the pronounced formation of SOA below 150 nm was observed, and it showed more volatile properties than aged large particles. The Tg of OA under dry conditions (Tg,org) was estimated based on volatility distributions, and the results showed increased Tg,org during photochemical aging of biomass burning and coal combustion emissions, while decreased Tg,org for aged cooking OA. Overall, our results illustrate the different changes in size distributions, volatility, and Tg,org through photochemical aging of different primary emissions, which in turn affect their impacts on radiative forcing and human health.
Positivity-Preserving High-Order Discontinuous Galerkin Methods: Implicit Time Stepping and Applications to Relativistic Hydrodynamics

of “Positivity-Preserving High-Order Discontinuous Galerkin Methods: Implicit Time Stepping and Applications to Relativistic Hydrodynamics”, by Tong Qin, Ph.D., Brown University, May 2017 The positivity-preserving property is a highly desirable property when designing high order numerical methods for hyperbolic conservation laws, since negative values sometimes cause ill-posedness of the problem and blow-ups of the algorithms. The general framework for constructing positivity-preserving schemes for solving hyperbolic conservation laws have been proposed in (X. Zhang and C.-W. Shu, Journal of Computational Physics, 229 (2010), pp. 3091–3120) and (X. Zhang and C.-W. Shu, Journal of Computational Physics, 229 (2010), pp. 8918–8934). In this dissertation, we extend this framework to DG methods with implicit discretizations and to DG methods for solving the relativistic hydrodynamics (RHD). Due to the the Courant-Friedrichs-Levis (CFL) number constraint, explicit DG methods are impractical for problems involving unstructured and extremely varying meshes or long-time simulations. Instead, implicit DG schemes are often popular in practice, especially in the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) community. In the first part of this dissertation, we develop a high-order positivity-preserving DG method with the backward Euler time discretization for solving conservation laws, basing on a generalization of the Zhang-Shu positivity-preserving limiter. Both the analysis and numerical experiments indicate that a lower bound for the CFL number is required to obtain the positivity-preserving property for the numerical schemes. The proposed method not only preserves the positivity of the numerical approximation without compromising the designed high-order accuracy, but also helps accelerate the convergence towards the steady-state solution and add robustness to the nonlinear solver. For RHD systems, the density and the pressure are positive physical quantities and the velocity is bounded by the speed of light. The violation of these bounds will result in ill-posedness of the problem and blow-up of the code, especially in extreme relativistic cases. It is usually hard to maintain these physical bounds without sacrificing the numerical accuracy. In the second part, we develop a bound-preserving DG method to solve RHD systems by extending the bound-preserving limiter for the non-relativistic hydrodynamics. The proposed method has the following features. It can theoretically guarantee to preserve the physical bounds for the numerical approximation and maintain its designed high order accuracy. Moreover, it renders L-stability to the numerical scheme. The robustness of the scheme is tested on various extreme relativistic cases, including relativistic jets.
Distribution of Body Mass Index and Abdominal Obesity in Bayelsa State with Associated Interleukin-2 Gene Expression

Aims: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the distribution, prevalence and determinants of obesity, overweight and abdominal obesity in Bayelsa State, Nigeria as well as associated IL-2 gene expression. Study Design: A community based cross sectional study design was employed to randomly select 420 participants (aged 18 – 65 years) for the study. Methodology: The study participants were grouped into normal, overweight and general obesity based on their body mass index (BMI) and sub-grouped into normal and abdominal obesity based on their waist circumference. Weighing scale, metre rule and measuring tape were used to measure weight, height and waist circumference respectively. Real time PCR was used to quantify IL-2 gene expression. Results: The BMI distribution of adults in Bayelsa State was symmetrical around the mean (27.25 ± 4.12). Mean waist circumference was 95.27 ± 15.92 (men 97.51 ± 12.38; women 93.41 ± 18.15 cm). The prevalence of obesity, overweight and abdominal obesity were 26.2% (male, 10.7%; females, 15.5%), 35.2% (males, 16.4%; female, 18.8%), and 62.9% (males, 28.1% females, 34.8%) respectively. Compared with the normal group, a significant upregulation of IL-2 gene expression was found in the overweight, general obesity and abdominal obesity groups (p < 0.05). Significant association of the following determinants with obesity was found: both sexes, age group 36 - 55 years, working as small and medium scale business entrepreneurs and civil servants. Age group 56 – 65 years and female sex were associated with abdominal obesity. Conclusion: The present study found a high prevalence of overweight, general obesity and abdominal obesity in Bayelsa State and associated over expression of IL-2 gene. Findings may have implication for IL-2 based biomarker and drug development. Interventions to reduce BMI and waist circumference in Bayelsa State is emphasized in the present study.
UNSTEADY MHD FREE CONVECTION JEFFERY FLUID FLOW OF RADIATING AND REACTING PAST A VERTICAL POROUS PLATE IN SLIP-FLOW REGIME WITH HEAT SOURCE

This manuscript presents an analytical investigation on unsteady MHD free convective viscous incompressible flow of electrically conducting Jeffery fluid with heat source, past an infinite vertical porous flat plate in slip flow regime. A uniform magnetic field perpendicular to the plate is applied. The presence of thermal radiation, heat source, radiation absorption and chemical reaction are included. The effects of flow parameters and thermo physical properties on the velocity temperature and concentration fields across the boundary layer are investigated. The forms of the wall Shear stress, Nusselt number and Sherwood number are derived. The results are shown in figures and tables followed by a quantitative discussion.
Determination of soil gas radon concentration from some locations of Gedarif town, Sudan, by using CR-39

This work presents the results of the study of radon concentration in soil gas for 187 measurements of soil samples collected from different locations of Gedarif town in Sudan using the can technique, containing CR-39. From in this work, the soil gas radon concentrations were ranged from 4.20 ± 0.61 kBqm-3 to 15.15 ± 1.62 kBqm-3 with an average of (9.10 ± 1.31) kBqm-3. The annual effective dose was calculated that ranged from 18.71 ± 2.73 mSv to 67.53 ± 7.22 mSv, with an average value of 40.57 ± 5.86 mSv. A good correlation was observed between the radon concentration and soil depth. It was found that soil radon gas concentration increased with depth. The radon concentrations in the soil samples were found to be larger than the allowed limit from the World Health Organization. The results of this work were compared with national and worldwide results.
Intestinal Microbiota Reduction Followed by Fasting Discloses Microbial Triggering of Inflammation in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovitis is dominated by monocytes/macrophages with inflammatory patterns resembling microbial stimulation. In search of triggers, we reduced the intestinal microbiome in 20 RA patients (open label study DRKS00014097) by bowel cleansing and 7-day fasting (≤250 kcal/day) and performed immune monitoring and microbiome sequencing. Patients with metabolic syndrome (n = 10) served as a non-inflammatory control group. Scores of disease activity (DAS28/SDAI) declined within a few days and were improved in 19 of 20 RA patients after breaking the fast (median ∆DAS28 = −1.23; ∆SDAI = −43%) or even achieved remission (DAS28 < 2.6/n = 6; SDAI < 3.3/n = 3). Cytometric profiling with 46 different surface markers revealed the most pronounced phenomenon in RA to be an initially increased monocyte turnover, which improved within a few days after microbiota reduction and fasting. Serum levels of IL-6 and zonulin, an indicator of mucosal barrier disruption, decreased significantly. Endogenous cortisol levels increased during fasting but were insufficient to explain the marked improvement. Sequencing of the intestinal microbiota indicated that fasting reduced potentially arthritogenic bacteria and changed the microbial composition to species with broader metabolic capabilities. More eukaryotic, predominantly fungal colonizers were observed in RA, suggesting possible involvement. This study demonstrates a direct link between the intestinal microbiota and RA-specific inflammation that could be etiologically relevant and would support targeted nutritional interventions against gut dysbiosis as a causal therapeutic approach.
Development and Validation of a New Clinical Diagnostic Screening Model for Osteoporosis in Postmenopausal Women

Background Age and weight are not only strong predictive parameters for osteoporosis diagnosis but can also be easily acquired from patients. This study aimed to develop and validate a new diagnostic screening model for postmenopausal osteoporosis that uses only 2 parameters, viz., age and weight. The discriminative ability of the model was analyzed and compared with that of the osteoporosis self-assessment tool for Asians (OSTA) index. Methods The age–weight diagnostic screening model was developed using a retrospective chart review of postmenopausal women aged ≥50 years who underwent dual energy X-ray absorptiometry at a tertiary hospital from November 2017 to April 2022. Logistic regression analysis was used to derive a diagnostic screening model for osteoporosis. Results A total of 533 postmenopausal women were included in the study. According to the highest Youden index value, a probability cut-off value of 0.298 was used in the diagnosis screening model at any site, which yielded a sensitivity of 84.3% and a specificity of 53.8%. For increased sensitivity as a screening tool, a cut-off value of 0.254 was proposed to obtain a sensitivity of 90.2% and a specificity of 42.2%. The area under receiver operating characteristic curves from all screening models were significantly higher than those from the OSTA index model (P<0.05). Conclusions This study showed the feasibility of a postmenopausal osteoporosis diagnostic screening model that uses 2 strong predictors for osteoporosis diagnosis: age and weight. This age–weight diagnostic model is a simple, effective option in postmenopausal osteoporosis screening.
The Impact of Nonfamily CEOs on Family Firms’ Pursuit of Political Connections: The Theory of Bounded Reliability Perspective

This study investigates the effect of nonfamily chief executive officers (CEOs) on family firms’ propensity to form political connections. We combine research on corporate political activity and family business and draw from the bounded reliability theory to analyze how the presence of a nonfamily CEO is related to the hiring of politically connected managers and board members. We further examine how our base hypothesis is contingent upon the organizational and environmental factors influencing nonfamily CEOs’ bounded reliability. Using the data from publicly listed Chinese family firms, support for our model was found. The study advances the understanding of family firms’ political activity.
Karakteristik Pengeringan Asam Kandis (Garcinia xanthochymus) dengan Alat Pengering SUmber Energi Matahari

Nuraini, Andasuryani, Santosa ABSTRAK Asam kandis (Garcinia xanthochymus) merupakan salah satu tanaman rempah yang memiliki potensi ekonomi yang baik dan daya saing pasar yang sangat besar. Ketersediaan asam kandis di lingkungan masyarakat melimpah, namun kendala yang dihadapi petani adalah rendahnya mutu asam kandis yang dihasilkan. Salah satu penyebabnya yaitu pada proses pengeringan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji karakteristik pengeringan asam kandis menggunakan alat pengering buatan sumber energi matahari. Pengeringan asam kandis dilakukan sebanyak 3 kali pengulangan dengan 5 kg untuk setiap rak, jadi total 30 kg untuk setiap ulangan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa alat pengering tenaga surya dapat menyimpan panas sebesar 65 °C saat alat kosong dan 59 °C saat menggunakan bahan. Penyebaran suhu pada rak 1 dan rak 2 merata. Waktu yang dibutuhkan untuk mengeringkan 10 kg asam kandis hingga mencapai kadar air 12 % yaitu 34,67 + 2,082 jam. Laju pengeringan rata – rata selama pengeringan asam kandis yaitu sebesar 0,2253 + 0,0133 kg/jam. Rendemen yang dihasilkan sebesar 22,0781 + 0,2321 %. Efisiensi pengeringan total yang diperoleh yaitu 16,95 + 0,399 %. Kata Kunci – Pengeringan, Asam kandis, Alat Pengering, Laju Pengeringan, Efisiensi Pengeringan