Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TiO2 Nanotubes Architectures for Solar Energy Conversion

Electromagnetic light from the Sun is the largest source, and the cleanest energy available to us; extensive efforts have been dedicated to developing science and engineering solutions in order to avoid the use of fossil fuels. Solar energy transforms photons into electricity via the photovoltaic effect, generating about 20 GW of energy in the USA in 2020, sufficient to power about 17 million households. However, sunlight is erratic, and technologies to store electric energy storage are unwieldy and relatively expensive. A better solution to store energy and to deliver this energy on demand is storage in chemical bonds: synthesizing fuels such as H2, methane, ethanol, and other chemical species. In this review paper we focus on titania (TiO2) nanotubes grown through electrochemical anodization and various modifications made to them to enhance conversion efficiency; these semiconductors will be used to implement the synthesis of H2 through water splitting. This document reviews selected research efforts on TiO2 that are ongoing in our group in the context of the current efforts worldwide. In addition, this manuscript is enriched by discussing the latest novelties in this field.
Combining Sufficiency, Efficiency and Flexibility to Achieve Positive Energy Districts Targets

Energy efficiency, generation from renewable sources and more recently energy flexibility are key elements of present sustainability policies. However, we are beginning to see a recognition of the need to couple technological solutions with lifestyle and behavioral changes, sometimes labeled under the term “sufficiency”. Appropriate policies and design principles are necessary to enable sufficiency options, which in turn reveal that there is a bidirectional influence between the building and the district/city level. In this context, the authors discuss how city and building re-design should be implemented combining energy efficiency, flexibility, production from renewables and sufficiency options for achieving a positive energy balance at the district level even within the constraints of dense cities. Based on a review of recent advances, the paper provides a matrix of interactions between building and district design for use by building designers and city planners. It also compares possible scenarios implementing different strategies at the building and urban level in a case study, in order to evaluate the effect of the proposed integrated approach on the energy balance at yearly and seasonal time scales and on land take.
Activity of Regional Microfinance Institutions in Terms of Regional Development

Purpose: The aim of the article is to analyse the activity of two types of microfinance institutions in Poland, loan funds and loan guarantee funds and to indicate the relations between their activity and the condition of the regions. Design/Methodology/Approach: To analyse funds activity we have employed a methodological approach of comparative analysis based on data from Eurostat, Local Data Bank, European Microfinanse Network, Polish Association of Loan Funds and Polish Association of Guarantee Funds. Data used in the study included 2012- 2018 years. In order to evaluate the impact of the funds on the region’s development, the study applied Pearson's correlation analysis, linear regression analysis, and single-factor variance analysis. Findings: The results indicate that the collective analysis of operations run by both types of institutions has shown numerous negative correlations, whereas the analysis of the impacts of the funds in the individual voivodeships has shown positive outcomes. It can therefore be stated that the activity of loan funds and guarantee funds on the regional scale displays positive effects and relationships, which differ depending on the region. Practical Implications: Both funds and their owners have to search for new solutions and ways of development. This regards especially the guarantee funds which must compete with national guarantee programmes, which decreases their role from the point of view of commercial banks. Originality/Value: The research study is an original analysis of the impact of regional financial institutions on regional development. It indicated a need for the institutions to change their strategies. In order to increase their impact on the region, the owners (which are mainly self-governmental bodies) should consider recapitalisation while retaining their regional character.
Acoustic oscillations in cigar-shaped logarithmic Bose–Einstein condensate in the Thomas–Fermi approximation

We consider the dynamical properties of density fluctuations in the cigar-shaped Bose–Einstein condensate described by the logarithmic wave equation with a constant nonlinear coupling by using the Thomas–Fermi and linear approximations. It is shown that the propagation of small density fluctuations along the long axis of a condensed lump in a strongly anisotropic trap is essentially one-dimensional, while the trapping potential can be disregarded in the linear regime. Depending on the sign of nonlinear coupling, the fluctuations either take the form of translationally symmetric pulses and standing waves or become oscillations with varying amplitudes. We also study the condensate in an axial harmonic trap, by using elasticity theory’s notions. Linear particle density and energy also behave differently depending on the nonlinear coupling’s value. If it is negative, the density monotonously grows along with lump’s radius, while energy is a monotonous function of density. For the positive coupling, the density is bound from above, whereas energy grows monotonously as a function of density until it reaches its global maximum.
An LCC-Based String-to-Cell Battery Equalizer With Simplified Constant Current Control

Constant current equalization can effectively mitigate the inconsistency of battery strings in a fast manner. In this manuscript, a constant current string-to-cell battery equalizer with an open-loop current control is proposed. The equalization scheme is based on LCC multiresonant topology. It utilizes a common equalizer unit shared by each unbalanced cell to transfer energy from the entire string to a single cell. A constant balancing current is achieved with simple fixed-frequency open-loop control. The equalization speed is determined by the predesigned balancing current. Design considerations of the proposed equalizer are analyzed in detail, which ensure zero-voltage switching among all MOSFETs during the equalization process. An experimental platform to balance four lithium-ion battery cells is designed to verify the system performance. Experimental results validate the functionality and analysis of this equalizer. Compared with the conventional architecture, the proposed architecture exhibits a high efficiency, low components count, and obviously reduced control complexity.
Research on the Influence of Volatility of International Energy Commodity Futures Market on CPI in China

This article analyses the transmission path of the international commodity futures market’s impact on the Chinese economy. We use the MIDAS model and daily data to predict China’s CPI in real time. Empirical analysis results show that (1) the influence of high-frequency explanatory variables on low-frequency CPI is different. The optimal lag orders of domestic high-frequency variables are all around 23, which can be regarded as one month in practice, indicating that their CPI influence takes one month to show. (2) Both the univariate MIDAS model and the multivariate MIDAS combined prediction model have good performance in prediction accuracy. (3) The predicted results of the multivariate MIDAS combined prediction model for CPI in China’s normal months are relatively excellent. However, when exceptional circumstances occur, the prediction results will show a specific deviation, and the prediction accuracy will also be reduced. Finally, some feasible suggestions are put forward according to the research results.
Fast high-quality sparse reconstruction of photoacoustic imaging based on HTP compressed sensing

As a new non-destructive medical imaging technology, photoacoustic imaging combines the advantages of optical imaging and ultrasonic imaging, which has the characteristics of high contrast and strong penetration ability. It can effectively image biological tissues and functions, and be applied to the early diagnosis and treatment of tumors, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, which has broad prospects for development in the field of biomedicine. When photoacoustic imaging is used to collect a large number of pathological medical images, it is prone to slow data transmission and poor reconstruction effect. In an effort to speed up data transmission and improve image reconstruction quality, this article is based on photoacoustic imaging technology and compressed sensing reconstruction algorithm, a virtual simulation platform of photoacoustic tomography combined with compressive sensing is built by using K-wave simulation toolbox to simulate the propagation process of photoacoustic signals, and the hard thresholding pursuit algorithm is used to complete the signal reconstruction. In order to verify the performance of the virtual simulation platform, in this paper, the local vascular network map is compressed and reconstructed. The obtained image retains the main information in the original image, and the edge features are similar. The results show that the virtual simulation platform can reconstruct high quality images by a small amount of data, which provides important significance and theoretical research value for compressed sensing reconstruction algorithm applied in photoacoustic imaging.
Effect of Term Weighting on Keyword Extraction in Hierarchical Category Structure

While there have been several studies related to the effect of term weighting on classification accuracy, relatively few works have been conducted on how term weighting affects the quality of keywords extracted for characterizing a document or a category (i.e., document collection). Moreover, many tasks require more complicated category structure, such as hierarchical and network category structure, rather than a flat category structure. This paper presents a qualitative and quantitative study on how term weighting affects keyword extraction in the hierarchical category structure, in comparison to the flat category structure. A hierarchical structure triggers special characteristic in assigning a set of keywords or tags to represent a document or a document collection, with support of statistics in a hierarchy, including category itself, its parent category, its child categories, and sibling categories. An enhancement of term weighting is proposed particularly in the form of a series of modified TFIDF's, for improving keyword extraction. A text collection of public-hearing opinions is used to evaluate variant TFs and IDFs to identify which types of information in hierarchical category structure are useful. By experiments, we found that the most effective IDF family, namely TF-IDFr, is identity>sibling>child>parent in order. The TF-IDFr outperforms the vanilla version of TFIDF with a centroid-based classifier.
Early Sasanian landscape modification: New geoarchaeological evidence from the Ardashir Pond in southwest Iran (Palace of Ardashir, third century CE)

The Sasanian period (224–651 CE) marked an era of large‐scale urban projects in southwest Asia, including Iran's semi‐arid highlands, with particular efforts to manipulate water bodies. This study presents a recent interdisciplinary investigation of a spring‐fed pond at the entrance of the Palace of Ardashir (Firuzabad plain, southwest Iran), part of a recently registered World Heritage site. Historical accounts suggest that the entire water system of the plain, including the pond, underwent a hydraulic re‐organization at the beginning of the Sasanian period, a fact that has never been investigated geoarchaeologically. A series of sediment cores were retrieved from the pond to probe its evolution and examine the extent of its landscape modification. The cores were sedimentologically described and radiocarbon‐dated with age–depth models established based on 57 AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) 14C dates to understand the basin's depositional history. The results indicate that (i) Ardashir Pond has existed as part of a larger wetland complex since at least 4500 years ago, (ii) it was substantially enlarged at the beginning of the Sasanian era, and (iii) it was abandoned at the end of the Sasanian period. The Ardashir Pond is one of the first geoarchaeologically investigated case studies to demonstrate the Sasanian landscape in the framework of the “Iranshahr” sociopolitical concept.
IMPLEMENTATION OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN FACILITIES TO IMPROVE INSTITUTION QUALITY SCHOOL

One of the improvements in the quality of education is the fulfillment of the needs for facilities and adequate, quality, and ready-to-use educational infrastructure. So as for the impact of the lack of proper infrastructure of school institutions, namely that it can reduce student achievement in learning activities, especially in class. Therefore, to improve the quality of education in schools, management of facilities and infrastructure is needed to meet the needs of the student learning process at school. This study aims to determine the implementation of total quality management in improving the quality of infrastructure in schools. This research using library research with analytical study methods (library research), namely research carried out using a library alias literature, either in the form of notes, books, journals, or reports of previous research results. The analytical study used is content analytical and analytical descriptions of total quality management to improve infrastructure at school. The results of this study indicate that the facilities and infrastructure at the school are inadequate standards. Therefore, the use of infrastructure in the learning process must also be improved, as an increase in service quality continuously meets the reality and expectations for customers.
Biomass burning nitrogen dioxide emissions derived from space with TROPOMI: methodology and validation

Abstract. Smoke from wildfires is a significant source of air pollution, which can adversely impact air quality and ecosystems downwind. With the recently increasing intensity and severity of wildfires, the threat to air quality is expected to increase. Satellite-derived biomass burning emissions can fill in gaps in the absence of aircraft or ground-based measurement campaigns, and can help improve the on-line calculation of biomass burning emissions as well as the biomass burning emissions inventories that feed air quality models. This study focuses on satellite-derived NOx emissions using the high-spatial resolution TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) NO2 dataset. Advancements and improvements to the satellite based determination of forest fire NOx emissions are discussed, including information on plume height and effects of aerosol scattering on the satellite-retrieved vertical column densities. Two common top-down emission estimation methods, (1) an Exponentially Modified Gaussian (EMG) and (2) a flux method, are applied to synthetic data to determine the accuracy and the sensitivity to different parameters, including wind fields, satellite sampling, noise, lifetime and plume spread. These tests show that emissions can be accurately estimated from single TROPOMI overpasses. The effect of smoke aerosols on TROPOMI NO2 columns (via AMFs) is estimated and these satellite columns and emission estimates are compared to aircraft observations from four different aircraft campaigns measuring biomass burning plumes in 2018 and 2019 in North America. Our results indicate that applying an explicit aerosol correction to the TROPOMI NO2 columns improve the agreement with the aircraft observations (by about 10–25 %). The aircraft- and satellite-derived emissions are in good agreement within the uncertainties. Both top-down emissions methods work well, however, the EMG method seems to output more consistent results and has better agreement with the aircraft-derived emissions. Assuming a Gaussian plume shape for various biomass burning plumes, we estimate an average NOx e-folding time of 2 ± 1 h from TROPOMI observations. Based on chemistry transport model simulations and aircraft observations, the net emissions of NOx are 1.3 to 1.5 times greater than the satellite-derived NO2 emissions. A correction factor of 1.3 to 1.5 should thus be used to infer net NOx emissions from the satellite retrievals of NO2.
The effect of basic ingredients form, cold storage and precipitate separation on bioactive components and antioxidant activity of Curcuma xanthorrhiza Roxb

Curcuma xanthorrhiza Roxb water extract is like temulawak drinks, are easily precipitated when stored in cold temperatures (refrigerator). This study aimed to determine the effect of basic ingredients form, cold storage and precipitate separation of water extract on the bioactive components and antioxidant activity of the C. xanthorrhiza water extract. The bioactive components qualitatively observed were tannins, flavonoids, glycosides, terpenoids, and saponins. Furthermore, curcumin, flavonoids, total phenolic, and antioxidant activity were quantitatively analyzed. Antioxidant activity was carried out by testing the capacity of DPPH radical scavenging. The capacity of free radical scavenging, total phenol, flavonoids and curcumin from water extract of C. xanthorrhiza from fresh rhizome without cold storage and without separation of the precipitate was the largest compared to other treatments, were 76.39%, 1.68 mg/mL, 2.47 mg/mL and 0.71 mg/mL, respectively. Separation of the precipitate from C. xanthorrhiza water extract reduces curcumin, flavonoid contents, total phenols and DPPH radical scavenging capacity
An Efficient Cooperative Transmission Based Opportunistic Broadcast Scheme in VANETs

In vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), quick and reliable multi-hop broadcasting is important for the dissemination of emergency warning messages. By scheduling multiple nodes to transmit messages concurrently and cooperatively, cooperative transmission based broadcast schemes may yield much better broadcast performance than conventional broadcast schemes. However, a cooperative transmission requires multiple relays to achieve strict synchronization on both time and frequency, which may induce high cost for a cooperative transmission process. In this paper, we analyze the cost and benefit of a cooperative transmission for data broadcasting in vehicular networks, and introduce a new metric called the single-hop broadcast efficiency (SBE) to evaluate the overall broadcast performance. We propose an efficient, non-deterministic cooperation mechanism to reduce the cooperation cost. The mechanism maximizes the expected broadcast performance by selecting cooperators with the largest expected SBE value for a lead relay, and initiates cooperative broadcasting process when the expected SBE value is larger than that of a single-relay based broadcasting. Based on the non-deterministic mechanism, we propose an efficient, cooperative transmission based opportunistic broadcast (ECTOB) scheme which further utilizes rebroadcast to improve the reliability of the broadcast scheme. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the conventional ones.
Effect of Alkali Treatment on the Properties of Acacia Caesia Bark Fibres

As possible substitutes for non-biodegradable synthetic fibre, ligno-cellulosic fibres have attracted much interest for their eco-friendliness; a large number of them are already used for the production of green polymer composites. The search for further green candidates brings into focus other fibres not previously considered, yet part of other production systems, therefore available as by-products or refuse. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential of alkali treatment with 5% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to enhance the properties of bark-extracted Acacia Caesia Bark (ACB) fibres. The microscopic structure of the treated fibres was elucidated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Moreover, the fibres were characterised in terms of chemical composition and density and subjected to single-fibre tensile tests (SFTT). Following their physico-chemical characterisation, fibre samples underwent thermal characterisation by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and their crystallinity was assessed using X-ray diffraction (XRD). This level of alkali treatment only marginally modified the structure of the fibres and offered some improvement in their tensile strength. This suggested that they compare well with other bark fibres and that their thermal profile showed some increase of degradation onset temperature with respect to untreated ACB fibres. Their crystallinity would allow their application in the form of fibres with an average length of approximately 150 mm, even in thermoplastic biocomposites.
The Eulerian–Lagrangian Approach for the Numerical Investigation of an Acoustic Field Generated by a High-Speed Gas-Droplet Flow

This paper presents the Eulerian–Lagrangian approach for numerical modeling of high-speed gas-droplet flows and aeroacoustics. The proposed hybrid approach is implemented using the OpenFOAM library and two different methods. The first method is based on a hybrid convective terms approximation method employing a Kurganov–Tadmor and PIMPLE scheme. The second method employs the regularized or quasi-gas dynamic equations. The Lagrangian part of the flow description uses the OpenFOAM cloud model. Within this model, the injected droplets are simulated as packages (parcels) of particles with constant mass and diameter within each parcel. According to this model, parcels moving in the gas flow could undergo deceleration, heating, evaporation, and breakup due to hydrodynamic instabilities. The far-field acoustic noise is predicted using Ffowcs Williams and Hawking’s analogy. The Lagrangian model is verified using the cases with droplet evaporation and motion. Numerical investigation of water microjet injection into the hot ideally expanded jet allowed studying acoustic properties and flow structures, which emerged due to the interaction of gas and liquid. Simulation results showed that water injection with a mass flow rate equal to 13% of the gas jet mass flow rate reduced the noise by approximately 2 dB. This result was in good coincidence with the experimental observations, where maximum noise reduction was about 1.6 dB.