Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Application of Three-Dimentional Mixture Gel in Cell Migration Research

The matrix used in cell culture cannot match the requirement during the cell migration research in vitro at present.The three-dimentional collagen-matrigel mixture gel was studied which was made up of culture medium∶collagen∶matrigel by different ratios.The mixture gel got solidified within half an hour at room temperature,and did not show visible particles under microscope observation after fixation.The results from co-culture of cell aggregate and upper rhombic lip(URL) explant indicated that SDF-1 has the chemoattraction to URL cells,while slit has the chemorepulsion to them.
Self-Assembly of an Amphiphilic OEG-Linked Glutamide Lipid

Amphiphilic peptides with or without oligoethylene glycol (OEG) chains based on 3,4-bis(benzyloxy)benzoic-linked glutamide were designed and their self-assembly was investigated. It was found that the amphiphilic peptide 3 with OEG chains could not only form stable gels in a wide range of solvents, but also showed better solubility in solvents than those without OEG chains. Fibrillar and nanotube structures were found in the gels formed and the width of the fibres could be tuned with added water content. The UV-vis and XRD results suggested that the driving forces for the peptide self-assembly were mainly intermolecular π–π and hydrogen-bonding interactions. These results provide a deeper understanding of the self-assembly mechanism and size control of nanofibrils formed by an OEG-based amphiphilic peptide.
Exsolution and Al-Si disorder in alkali feldspars: Their analysis by infrared spectroscopy

Abstract An experimental method for the determination of Ab-Or exsolution and Al-Si ordering in alkali feldspar is described. Powder infrared spectroscopy was used to measure spectra in the spectral range between 50 and 1500 cm-1 using about 5 mg of sample material. The spectra were analyzed using reference spectra of uniform samples with various Ab-Or compositions and several degrees of Al-Si order. The application of this method is demonstrated for two examples of exsolved feldspar minerals, and it is shown that detailed characterization of alkali feldspars using IR spectroscopy leads to new insight into their structual details.
Effect of Antisite Defects on Li Ion Diffusion in LiNiPO4: a First Principles Study

Lithium diffusion properties in crystalline LiNiPO4 were studied using density functional theory. Formation and clustering energies of Li-Ni antisite defects are calculated, results showed the antisite defects are energetically favorable in the LiNiPO4 and they not tend to bind together. The energy barrier of Li is 0.28 eV in the pristine LiNiPO4. The energy barriers of Li diffusion along the [010] direction in the LiNiPO4 were not affected so much compared with that in the pristine system, however, the diffusion energy barrier of Ni diffusion was much larger than that of Li. This indicates that the existence of antisite defect will severely impede Li diffusion along the [010] direction and thus explains the poor cycling performance of LiNiPO4 cathode materials for LIBs.
Growth Setbacks in New Firms

This paper examines setbacks in the early growth of new firms. Growth interruptions mark the unfolding, cumulative processes of firm growth overlooked in standard studies that use cross sectional methods. To probe for possible patterns in growth setbacks, we examined a cohort of 200 high technology firms founded in about 1990 and analysed the growth paths of survivors. Simple compression techniques yielded seven types of growth turning points. Growth setbacks are the norm even among firms with better growth records. Growth crises can be represented as a shift in phase state. To understand what such a shift implies, we focus on the micro-evidence relevant to processes of firm growth and illustrate growth crises from case studies. Growth crises represent both limits to knowledge and the means by which knowledge is revised and learning accelerated in the firm.
CHARACTERIZATION OF THE FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES OF HYDROXYPROPYLATED AND CROSS-LINKED ARROWROOT STARCH IN VARIOUS ACIDIC pH MEDIUMS

Chemical modification of the native arrowroot starch by hydroxypropylation and cross link methods is done to improve or add certain functionality. This method is gaining popular interest from food industry practitioners to enable the stability of starch during acidic food processing. This research studied the changes in the functional properties of modified arrowroot starch in various acidic pH mediums. Being modified by hydroxypropylation and cross-linked methods changes the starch’s functional properties in mediums with a variety of pH conditions. The patterns of pasting properties of dual-modified arrowroot starch are similar to each other at different pH mediums, in which the final viscosity value was lower than the peak viscosity value (a type A pattern). The solubility of the modified arrowroot starch increased in a pH of 3.5. Increasing the starch solubility caused the swelling power of starch granules to decrease, and thus lessened the sedimentation volume. Modifying arrowroot starch by using propylene oxide 8% tends to maintain the structure of the granule upon swelling in mediums with any pH conditions. The syneresis value of modified arrowroot starch using 10% propylene oxide and a STMP 1% : STPP 4% ratio showed the lowest value in various pH mediums. The most stable modified starches were those with propylene oxide 8% and a ratio of STMP 1% : STPP 4%.
The Coffin-Manson formula for unleaded Sn/3.0Ag/0.5Cu solder

ABSTRACT This study explores Coffin-Manson equation and its feasibility for tin-silver-copper (Sn/3.0Ag/0.5Cu) solder. Most of the Sn/Ag/Cu solder studies were performed by experiment or the finite element method. In this study, MARC, a finite element analysis package, is applied for simulation. In the simulation, the material properties are temperature-dependent and the boundary conditions are time-dependent. Complying with JEDEC standard, the derivation of fatigue life formula for solder is built from experimental data. Using the experimental results of the BGA ball shear test, the amplitude of equivalent plastic shear strain at 1/4 cycle is obtained by finite element method. Meanwhile, substituting the CSP thermal cycle test results into Weibull life distribution, the amplitude of equivalent plastic shear strain at 3085 cycle is solved. The numerical results of the equivalent plastic shear strain amplitude are used to derive the Coffin-Manson equation proposed. To verify the feasibility and reliability of the formula derived, the result of an isothermal low cycle fatigue test is analyzed by the finite element method. It is observed that the proposed equation has a good agreement with the experimental data.
Densitometric determination of taurine and L-lysine hydrochloride in an energy drink and in multi-vitamin syrup, and validation of the method

A simple and rapid densitometric method has been developed for determination of taurine and lysine in 'energy drinks' and in syrup preparations. After dissolution and dilution in 4:1 96% ethanol-water the solutions were spotted on precoated silica gel plates which were then eluted with n-butanol-glacial acetic acid-96% ethanol-water, 4 + 2 + 3 + 3 (v/v). Quantitative evaluation was performed by measuring the absorbance reflectance of the analyte spots at λ = 490 nm. This densitometric method is selective, precise, and accurate and can be used for routine analysis of these pharmaceutical preparations in quality-control laboratories.
Women in hospitality leadership: barriers and best practices in Aruba

Abstract The current study uses qualitative semi-structured interviews to assess the perceived barriers and best practices of women at two different levels of leadership in the hospitality industry in Aruba. There were differences between levels related to acknowledgement and response to the glass ceiling, stereotyping, and work-life balance. Absence of formal higher education did not limit advancement to higher level positions. The majority of women used an inclusive, democratic leadership style unless it was deemed ineffective, and mentoring played a large role in the success of women in leadership. Implications for academics and practitioners in small island economies are discussed.
Examining when hotel middle-managers’ psychological ownership influences their commitment and job satisfaction

Abstract This study sought to examine the pro-organizational attitudes of hotel middle-managers. The ability of hotel middle-managers to contribute to the effectiveness and performance of their hotels is often dependent on their job satisfaction and affective commitment to the organization. By introducing the concept of psychological ownership, this particular study seeks to understand the determinants of hotel middle-managers' job satisfaction and affective commitment. Additionally, this study examines whether the tenure of hotel middle-managers is likely to attenuate the relationship between psychological ownership and pro-organizational attitudes. Empirical evidence is drawn from a sample of 110 middle-managers in a 4- and 5-star hotel chain in Malaysia. Findings from the study add a new dimension and insights into understanding how and when hotel middle-managers are satisfied with their jobs and committed to their organization.
Computational investigation of flow field, mixing and reaction in a T-shaped microchannel

Abstract Microfluidics plays an essential role in process intensification, carrying out reactions safely and enhancing mass and heat transfer coefficients. In this work, hydrodynamics, mixing and reaction in the microchannel are investigated numerically and experimentally. To predict the flow field, three dimensional transient CFD simulations are performed. The irreversibility induced by the flow is used to quantify the liquid circulation. To improve the flow field, the geometry of the microchannel is modified by placing obstacles. It is found that geometric modifications have a significant effect on the hydrodynamics and hence mixing and reaction. The axial and lateral mixing are analyzed for various obstacles using Residence Time Distribution (RTD). The mixing index is calculated to characterize lateral mixing and to find an optimum configuration that supports flow field and mixing. Further, the implications of these obstacles on a fast neutralization reaction in the microchannel are studied.
Locating urban CNG stations using quantitative risk assessment: using the Bayesian network

Abstract Due to the increasing need for fuel and the construction of compressed natural gas (CNG) refuelling stations in urban areas, the importance of accurate risk management in these stations has increased. This study is locating urban CNG stations using quantitative risk assessment in Hamedan, Iran using the Bayesian Network. In this study, the causes–consequences analysis of methane gas leakage from CNG storages was investigated by the Bowtie (BT) method. To quantitate this diagram, the Bayesian network (BN) was used. Finally, the quantitative risk was calculated and evaluated in a case study. Findings of the BT diagram showed that the probabilities (in year) of occurrence of VCE, Jet fire and Flashfire were 1.82 × 10−2, 1.532 × 10−2 and 1. 213 × 10−2, respectively. These values were calculated as 2.9 × 10−3, 2.2 × 10−2 and 1.9 × 10−3 in year, respectively, in the BN. The mortality area affected by these consequences was also calculated as 14.2, 44.5 and 1930 m2, respectively. The risk assessment results estimated the risk as unacceptable in most affected areas. Accurate risk management in process accidents requires high-precision risk assessment in the urban design phase. The findings showed that the use of the Bayesian network and PHAST modelling can be used in this risk assessment.
Agency workers and their equivocal roles – wandering employees?

ABSTRACT Agency workers (AWs) were originally employed on a substitutional and short-term contract basis, but recently they are found to be employed on a long-term purpose in Nigeria. Although agency labour helps solve recruitment challenges, it correspondingly erodes employment relations and causes conflicts across employers, trade unions and agency workers. As such, the current research aimed to examine the rise of AWs and analyse its influence on the union’s representation. The samples were 36 respondents (management, agency workers and trade unions) recruited from three oil multinational companies in Nigeria and were interviewed. Research data were analysed through thematic analysis and NVivo, revealing three important findings. First, AWs were often asked to take the posts which used to be taken by the permanent staff, but without the right to join the union. Second, the unions did not welcome AWs and concerned its implication on the recruitment of permanent staff. Third, AWs were reluctant to join the unions as their contract might not be renewed. Research findings brought new insights into the literature of agency workers. Managers are reminded that AWs are suffering from the issues identified above. Any management strategies will not reach their maximum effect unless these issues are rectified.
The Continued Domination of Western Journalists in Global African News Telling: The Imperatives and Implications

ABSTRACT Who reports Africa in the British press? This longitudinal study is aimed at addressing the issue. It applied content analysis methodology, the use of four British national newspapers and a sample duration that spanned between 1992 and 2017. It uncovered that Western journalists consistently dominated the reportage of Africa without any exception throughout the sample period. Apart from Western journalists, other journalists or sources involved in the media coverage—African local journalists, Afro-Western journalists, joint journalists, and news agencies’ African reports were insignificantly used. Also, this study further revealed that the use of news agencies’ African reports had a continuous decline from 1997 to 2017. Therefore, the domination of the British press coverage of Africa over the years by Western journalists results in the portrayal of Africa from an imbalanced single prism of Westernised perspective, thereby resulting in the poor coverage of Africa and the spread of further ignorance of the continent to the global audience, which hampers both tourism and Western business investments to Africa. This study concludes that who reports Africa in the UK press is embedded in neo-colonialism, white hegemony, and inequality.
Towards agroecological transition in degraded soils of the eastern Amazon

ABSTRACT This article explores factors that incentivize farmers to adopt diversification practices in agriculture (agroecological transition). The research was conducted between January 2013 and November 2017, involving eight agrovilas (rural villages built for relocated communities) in the Alcântara municipality, Maranhão– Brazil. Activities included training courses, workshops, farmer’s field visits, implantation of productive systems, and continuing technical assistance. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to understand the environmental perception of farmers involved or not in the agroecological transition process (n = 41). The farmers undergoing an agroecological transition in Alcântara have augmented their diversity of cultivated species by 76%, mainly tree species. Interestingly, formal education was unrelated to the adoption of more biodiverse systems or the promotion of environmental protection actions. Likewise, families with more income from non-agricultural sources tend to diversify less and not to plant trees. Non-formal education through spaces such as knowledge exchanges represents an important means of encouragement. On the other hand, land tenure insecurity discourages the adoption of perennial practices such as agroforestry systems. Public policies that value the implementation of agroecological transition systems are decisive for achieving the success and adherence of more farmers.
Robust sequential design for piecewise-stationary multi-armed bandit problem in the presence of outliers

ABSTRACT The multi-armed bandit (MAB) problem studies the sequential decision making in the presence of uncertainty and partial feedback on rewards. Its name comes from imagining a gambler at a row of slot machines who needs to decide the best strategy on the number of times as well as the orders to play each machine. It is a classic reinforcement learning problem which is fundamental to many online learning problems. In many practical applications of the MAB, the reward distributions may change at unknown time steps and the outliers (extreme rewards) often exist. Current sequential design strategies may struggle in such cases, as they tend to infer additional change points to fit the outliers. In this paper, we propose a robust change-detection upper confidence bound (RCD-UCB) algorithm which can distinguish the real change points from the outliers in piecewise-stationary MAB settings. We show that the proposed RCD-UCB algorithm can achieve a nearly optimal regret bound on the order of , where T is the number of time steps, K is the number of arms and S is the number of stationary segments. We demonstrate its superior performance compared to some state-of-the-art algorithms in both simulation experiments and real data analysis. (See https://github.com/woaishufenke/MAB_STRF.git for the codes used in this paper.)
Classifying insincere questions on Question Answering (QA) websites: meta-textual features and word embedding

ABSTRACT The power of information and information exchange defines the current Internet and Online Social Networks (OSNs). With such power and influence, individuals and entities expose those networks to different types of false information. This paper proposes several classification models based on Quora insincere questions; a dataset released by Kaggle. We evaluated several models including word embeddings based on meta and word-level features. Best results were achieved using the BERT transformer with an overall accuracy of more than 95% on several individual classifiers. Overall, results indicated that the meta-textual features are important predictors for whether a question is sincere or not. In one implication, we noticed that users are putting more cognitive efforts into writing more readable sincere questions compared to insincere questions. Moreover, a dictionary is assembled from several explicit dictionaries and significant words selected from Quora questions. The dictionary showed a good performance in predicting insincere questions.
Carbon accounting for negative emissions technologies

ABSTRACT Negative emissions technologies (NETs) are an essential part of most scenarios for achieving the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to below 2°C and for all scenarios that limit warming to 1.5 °C. The deployment of these technologies requires carbon accounting methods for a range of different purposes, such as determining the effectiveness of specific technologies or incentivising NETs. Although the need for carbon accounting methods is discussed within the literature on NETs, there does not appear to be a clear understanding of the range of different accounting challenges. Based on a systematic literature review this study identifies five distinct accounting issues related to NETs: 1. estimating total system-wide change in emissions/removals; 2. non-permanence; 3. non-equivalence of ‘no overshoot’ and ‘overshoot and removal’; 4. accounting for incentives for NETs; and 5. the temporal distribution of emissions/removals. Solutions to these accounting challenges are proposed, or alternatively, areas for further research and the development of solutions are highlighted. One key recommendation is that carbon accounting methods should follow a ‘reality principle’ to report emissions and removals when and where they actually occur, and an important overall conclusion is that it is essential to use the correct accounting method for its appropriate purpose. For example, consequential methods that take account of total system-wide changes in emissions/removals should be used if the purpose is to inform decisions on the deployment or incentivisation of NETs. Attributional methods, however, should be used if the purpose is to construct static descriptions of possible net zero worlds. Key policy insights Negative emissions technologies (NETs) raise a number of distinct carbon accounting challenges, the importance of which varies across different NETs. Attributional life cycle assessment is not an appropriate method for estimating the system-wide changes caused by the deployment of NETs. Consequential greenhouse gas accounting methods should be used to estimate system-wide changes, and should be used as much as possible for guiding incentives for NETs. Greenhouse gas accounting methods should follow a ‘reality principle’ to report emissions and removals when and where they actually occur.
Synthesis, Characterization and renal toxicity of ZnO and polyethylene glycol Coated ZnO nanoparticles

Objective(s): The wide scale use of Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) in the consumer market world makes human beings more prone to the exposure to ZnO nanoparticles and its adverse effects. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to assess renal toxicity potential of ZnO and Polyethylene glycol Coated ZnO Nanoparticles in rat.Materials and Methods: Co-precipitation chemical method was used in order to synthesize ZnO nanoparticles. The synthesized nanoparticles were coated with PEG (Polyethylene glycol) and the coating interactions were investigated by FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy). Structural properties of ZnO NPs were evaluated by TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope) and XRD (X Ray Diffraction). Toxicity assessment of ZnO and PEG coated ZnO nanoparticles were studied in rat by intra peritoneal injections during a one-month. Renal factors (Creatinine, Uric acid and Blood Urea Nitrogen) were measured 15 and 30 days post injection.Results: The synthesized nanoparticles were single phase and have spinel structure. Their size distribution was around 18 nm. Some kidney factors were changed due to the injection of both uncoated and coated nanoparticles (especially in groups received concentrations of more than 100 mg per kg of body weight). Renal factors changes were more considerable in groups received ZnO NPs in comparison with those received PEG coated ZnO NPs. Chemical toxicity studies showed that there was no irreversible effect in the groups received concentrations less than 200 mg/kg (mg per kg of body weight). Conclusion: The results indicated that renal factors were changed during 15 days post injection, especially in groups received high doses (200 mg/kg). The results of measurements 30 days post injection showed less change in comparison with the control and this indicates that there was no irreversible effect on kidney. Moreover, PEG coated nanoparticles were less toxic in comparison with Uncoated ZnO NPs.
Framing in multiple public goods games and donation to charities

The vast amount of research devoted to public goods games has shown that contributions may be dramatically affected by varying framing conditions. This is particularly relevant in the context of donations to charities and non-governmental organizations. Here, we design a multiple public goods experiment by introducing five types of funds, each differing in the fraction of the contribution that is donated to a charity. We found that people contribute more to public goods when the associated social donations are presented as indirect rather than as direct donations. At the same time, the fraction of the donations devoted to charity is not affected by the framing. We have also found that, on average, women contribute to public goods and donate to charity significantly more than men. These findings are of potential interest to the design of social investment tools, in particular for charities to ask for better institutional designs from policy makers.