Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physico-chemical model as a tool to explain the composition of thermal waters in tectonically active regions

In the present work, we address the structural-hydrogeological conditions for the Baikal Rift System (BRS) natural water formation in terms of lithospheric plate tectonics. A comparative analysis for the trace-element composition of thermal waters of rift and island-arc systems was made. We analyzed the thermal water trace elements to better understand the water origin through physico-chemical modeling. The results of different simulations of thermodynamic modeling are herein presented, in order to investigate the formation processes of thermal waters according to the geodynamic activity in the BRS region. Modeling results for the Alginsky Thermal Spring in BRS showed that all the elements can be accumulated in the waters from granites except for U, Li, Rb, B, Mo, Sr, S. These elements may have endogenous nature.
Vehicle Speed Estimation Using Wireless Sensor Network

A real time locating system automatically tracks and localizes people and objects. We propose a model fo r the speed monitoring of vehicles using wireless sensor networ k-based on real-time localization. Our model is based on symme tric double sided two way ranging algorithm which has the abili ty to zeros out the effect of clock drifts between transmitter and receiver. In our model two anchor nodes are used as road side units at fixed locations and heights and moving vehicle is e quipped with on board unit called a tag. Collected data from tag is used to calculate the speed of the vehicle at the base s tation. Several experiments are done to evaluate the performance of the proposed model at different sampling intervals of t ime by moving the vehicle at different speeds. Due to the noisy nature of collected data, discrete Kalman filter is used f or better estimation of the speed of the vehicle. We have com pared the true values of speed with measured values and estim ated values. Experimental results show that the estimate d values became close to the true values by applying Kalman filter. Keywords-SDS-TWR; Kalman filter; Traffic monitoring.
Analysis of Misalignment Journal Bearings Considering the Turbulent Effects

In order to investigate the cause of the typical bush rupture and wear damages in the journal bearing of the steam turbine generator set. The misalignment bearing analysis model of considering lubrication turbulence effects was established. The pressure, thickness distribution of the oil film is obtained. Compared with the alignment results, analysis results can be well explains the bearing bush burst at bearings maximum pressure place due to bearing misalignment, resulting in the film maximum pressure is off-center position, and larger than normal result. The bearing bush burst make friction being intensified, the oil temperature increasing, the viscosity drop, eccentricity bigger, attitude angle smaller, bearing point down, the minimum film thickness smaller, thus causing the wear damages,until shutdown. It explains the bearing failure phenomena studied in this paper that bush occurred half wear and bearing rupture location downstream of the minimum film thickness position.
Valuing Access to our Public Lands: A Unique Public Good Pricing Experiment

We report the findings of a unique nation-wide experiment to price access to our public lands. In 2004, the U.S. Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act mandated the creation of a new annual pass to cover all federal recreation sites that charge an entrance or access fee. Our task was to assist federal policymakers in determining an appropriate price for this new pass. Toward that end, we administered a contingent valuation phone survey to over 3700 households to estimate households' willingness to pay (WTP) for the new pass at a variety of different prices. Our innovative experimental design allows us to estimate the degree of hypothetical bias in the sample and calibrate our WTP estimates to reflect actual purchasing decisions. In a sample of the general U.S. population most of whom have little experience with similar federal passes respondents tend to greatly exaggerate their WTP for the pass when contrasted with previous pass sales. A sample of recent pass purchasers, however, exhibits little bias. This confirms recent research showing that market experience can be an effective means to mitigate hypothetical bias.
GELATINE, CASEIN AND POTASSIUM CASEINATE AS DISTINCT WINE FINING AGENTS: DIFFERENT EFFECTS ON COLOUR, PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS AND SENSORY CHARACTERISTICS

Aims: Describe and compare some characteristics, such as molecular weight (MW) distribution and surface charge density of commercial protein fining agents and to enhance the understanding of their effect on wine chemical and sensory characteristics.Methods and results: Protein (casein, potassium caseinate and gelatine) MW distribution was characterised by electrophoresis. These proteins were added to a red and a white wine, in order to evaluate its effect on colour, phenolic compounds and sensory attributes.Conclusion: A band at 30.0 kDa characterised casein and potassium caseinate. Gelatines showed polydispersion on the MW distribution, gelatine GSQ on the higher MW (> 43.0 kDa) and gelatine GL on the lower MW (< 43.0 kDa). Despite the fact that casein and potassium caseinate had similar MW distribution, casein decreased essentially the monomeric ((+) - catechin and (-) - epicatechin) while the potassium caseinate showed a lower influence on these compounds. Also, among the two gelatines used, a different behaviour was observed. The gelatine characterised by a polydispersion below 43.0 kDa depleted more the polymeric tannin fractions than the gelatine characterised by a polydispersion above 43.0 kDa. That gelatine has also decreased colour intensity and coloured anthocyanins of red wine but the hue remains unchanged. Addition of fining agents did not affect greatly the concentration of monomeric anthocyanins. Sensory analysis showed that wines fined with the different proteins presented distinct characteristics.Significance and impact of study: The knowledge of the physico-chemical characteristics, such as MW distribution and surface charge density, is important for wine fining optimisation and consequently for the wine quality.
Training farmers in agri-environmental management: the case of Environmental Stewardship in lowland England

Research on voluntary agri-environmental schemes (AES) typically reveals limited engagement on the part of most participants, with the majority enticed into participation by a combination of attractive payment rates and compatibility with the existing farming system. Commentators have argued that changing farmer attitudes towards environmental management should be an outcome of AES. One possible way of doing this is through the provision of educational and advisory programmes designed to help farmers understand why certain actions are required and how to undertake appropriate conservation management. Based on interviews with a sample of 24 farmers in the East and South West of England this paper explores farmer understanding and concerns regarding the management requirements of two options implemented under the Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) scheme. It considers the short and medium term impacts of participating in bespoke group training events and discusses the potential of training to improve the effective implementation of agri-environmental management at the farm level. Analysis of the impact of training reveals that participation in bespoke group training events can fill knowledge gaps, equip farmers with a range of management skills, improve confidence and engender a more professionalised approach to agri-environmental management.
Scalable Notch Antenna System for Multiport Applications

A novel and compact scalable antenna system is designed for multiport applications. The basic design is built on a square patch with an electrical size of (at 2.4 GHz) on a dielectric substrate. The design consists of four symmetrical and orthogonal triangular notches with circular feeding slots at the corners of the common patch. The 4-port antenna can be simply rearranged to 8-port and 12-port systems. The operating band of the system can be tuned by scaling ( ) the size of the system while fixing the thickness of the substrate. The antenna system with : 1/1 in size of mm2 operates at the frequency band of 2.3–3.0 GHz. By scaling the antenna with : 1/2.3, a system of mm2 is achieved, and thus the operating band is tuned to 4.7–6.1 GHz with the same scattering characteristic. A parametric study is also conducted to investigate the effects of changing the notch dimensions. The performance of the antenna is verified in terms of the antenna characteristics as well as diversity and multiplexing parameters. The antenna system can be tuned by scaling so that it is applicable to the multiport WLAN, WIMAX, and LTE devices with port upgradability.
Simultaneous determination of Ambroxol Hydrochloride and Guaifenesin by HPLC, TLC-Spectrodensitometric and multivariate calibration methods in pure form and in Cough Cold Formulations

Three simple, reliable methods were developed for the simultaneous determination of a mixture of Ambroxol HCl (A) and Guaifenesin (G) in presence of the oxidative degradate (AD) of A and guaicol (GD), the impurity of G . The first method is an isocratic HPLC method, where separation of the four components A, AD, G and GD was achieved on C18 column using water: methanol (80: 20, v/v, containing 1% triethylamine, pH 2.9) with a flow rate of 1.5 ml/min and UV detection at 220nm. A linear relationship in the range of 5-80 μg. ml -1 and 10-150 μg. ml -1 was obtained for A and G, respectively. The second method was a TLC-spectrodensitometric method, where the drugs together with AD and GD were applied on silica gel 60F 254 plates and a mobile phase consisted of chloroform: methanol: ethyl acetate: acetic acid (70: 8: 12:10, by volume) was used for separation. Densitometric evaluation of the separated zones was performed at 270 nm. The regression analysis for the calibration plots showed good correlation over the range 1-7 μg/ band and 2-10 μg/band for A and G, respectively. The third method was a multivariate spectrophotometric calibration method where principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS) methods were used for the determination of the four components A, AD, G, and GD. The three methods were applied to pharmaceutical dosage forms containing either ambroxol alone (drops, capsules and tablets) or A together with G (syrup). Model update of multivariate calibration was used to determine A and G in syrup dosage form due to interfering additives. Results for the three methods were statistically compared with those obtained by applying reference reported methods for the drugs and showed that the proposed methods are accurate, precise, and can be easily applied.
Consumer, Manufacturer and Retailer Responses to Health Price Policies: the example of EU Sugar Price Reform on the Soft Drink Market

Healthier food diet is likely to prevent numerous non communicable diseases. Then there is a growing interest in evaluating the impact of food price taxation on food consumption. However, strategic reactions of both manufacturers and retailers are missing in empirical analyses. Rather, passive pricing is assumed. Ignoring strategic pricing might lead to under-estimate or over-estimate the impact of food taxation. Based on the example of the soft drink industry, we analyse the bias which is introduced when assuming passive pricing. Using structural econometric model, we first estimate models of vertical relationships between the beverage industry and the retail industry. After selecting the ’best’ model of vertical relationships, we then simulate different scenrios of input cost changes or final products taxation. Our results indicate that assuming passive pricing by firms leads to under-estimate the impact on food consumption. In our example, the under-estimation amounts to 15% for regular products and 50% for diet ones when contracts between manufacturers and retailers are not taken into account. We thus conclude that for empirical analysis of food price policies for better health, considering strategic pricing is a key issue.
Evolving limitations in K-means algorithm in data mining and their removal

In the modern world large amount of information is stored in our database. These information are stored at different places in our data bases, therefore we have to develop some methods for extracting essential Information from these databases. Therefore we have to develop some methods for extracting essential Information from these databases; data mining is the process of extracting this information. There are various types of algorithms in data mining process. From these algorithm k-means algorithm is evolved. K-means is very popular because it is conceptually simple and is computationally fast and memory efficient but there are various types of limitations in k means algorithm that makes extraction some what difficult. In this paper we are discussing
X-shooter spectroscopy of young stellar objects: I - Mass accretion rates of low-mass T Tauri stars in \sigma Orionis

We present high-quality, medium resolution X-shooter/VLT spectra in the range 300-2500 nm for a sample of 12 very low-mass stars in the Orionis cluster. The sample includes eight stars with evidence of disks from Spitzer and four without, with masses ranging from 0.08 to 0.3 M . The aim of this first paper is to investigate the reliability of the many accretion tracers currently used to measure the mass accretion rate in low-mass, young stars and the accuracy of the correlations between these secondary tracers (mainly accretion line luminosities) found in the literature. We use our spectra to measure the accretion luminosity from the continuum excess emission in the UV and visual; the derived mass accretion rates range from 10 9 M yr 1 down to 5 10 11 M yr 1 , allowing us to investigate the behavior of the accretion-driven emission lines in very-low mass accretion rate regimes. We compute the luminosity of ten accretion-driven emission lines, from the UV to the near-IR, all obtained simultaneously. In general, most of the secondary tracers correlate well with the accretion luminosity derived from the continuum excess emission. We recompute the relationships between the accretion luminosities and the line luminosities, we confirm the validity of the correlations given in the literature, with the possible exception of H . Metallic lines, such as the CaII IR triplet or the Na I line at 589.3 nm, show a larger dispersion. When looking at individual objects, we find that the Hydrogen recombination lines, from the UV to the near-IR, give good and consistent measurements of Lacc often in better agreement than the uncertainties introduced by the adopted correlations. The average Lacc derived from several Hydrogen lines, measured simultaneously, have a much reduced error. This suggests that some of the spread in the literature correlations may be due to the use of non-simultaneous observations of lines and continuum. Three stars in our sample deviate from this behavior, and we discuss them individually.
The Artificial Leaf: Recent Progress and Remaining Challenges

The prospect of a device that uses solar energy to split water into H 2 and O 2 is highly attractive in terms of producing hydrogen as a carbon-neutral fuel. In this mini review, key research milestones that have been reached in this field over the last two decades will be discussed, with special focus on devices that use earth-abundant materials. Finally, the remaining challenges in the development of such “artificial leaves” will be highlighted.
Effect of Holoptelea Intigrifolia Bark Extract on Radical Scavening and 5’-Lipoxygease Activities.

Holoptelea intigrifolia is traditionally used for the treatment of inflammatory disease, hemorrhoids. The role of free radicals has been proved in several diseases of inflammatory origin. To understand the pharmacological actions in inflammatory diseases, different types of radical scavenging and 51-lipoxygenase inhibitory activities of methanol extract of bark of H. intigrifolia have been investigated. Methanol extract exhibited significant radical scavenging activities with IC50 values of 105, 115, 265 and 105 mg/ml against 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, super oxide, hydroxyl and nitric oxide radicals respectively. It also showed considerable inhibitory activity against 51-lipoxygenase with IC50 of 55.05 mg/ml. These results can contribute to understand the mechanism involved in the anti-inflammatory effects of the bark extract.
Microbiology of Contaminated or Visibly Clean Broiler Carcasses Processed with an Inside-Outside Bird Washer

Processors are washing carcasses with one or more inside-outside bird washers (IOBW) to comply with the zero tolerance for visible feces regulation mandated by the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service. A study was conducted to determine the effect of an IOBW on total aerobic bacteria, E. coli, Campylobacter, and Salmonella recovered from uncontaminated (control), contaminated, and possibly cross contaminated broiler carcasses at two different IOBW water pressure settings. In each of three trials, 12 commercially processed carcasses, divided into two groups each containing two control carcasses, two carcasses contaminated with 0.1g cecal contents (inoculated with Campylobacter and Salmonella), and two carcasses uncontaminated and placed adjacent to contaminated birds during washing (to determine cross contamination) were prepared (n=36). Whole carcass rinses were conducted on carcasses before contamination and washing, then again after washing. Carcasses were washed with an in-line commercial IOBW set at 140 birds per minute for a 5 sec dwell time and either 276 or 552 kPa (40 or 80 PSI) water pressure. Counts of total bacteria, E. coli, Campylobacter, or Salmonella were not significantly affected (P<0.05) by contamination with feces, by cross-contamination, or by IOBW pressure. The overall effect of washing was a slight but significant reduction in total aerobic bacteria (4.9 to 4.8) and E. coli (3.2 to 3.0) log cfu/ml rinsate. The IOBW decreased the incidence of Campylobacter from 22/36 positive carcasses (14 positive incoming carcasses plus 8 inoculated carcasses) to 1/36 positives, while Salmonella incidence decreased from 12/36 contaminated (inoculated) carcasses to 3/36 positive carcasses after washing. The IOBW removed carcass contamination to levels equivalent with uncontaminated controls without cross contaminating other carcasses. The incidence of Campylobacter was decreased, as was Salmonella to a lesser extent. Small reductions of bacterial numbers were noted for total bacteria and E. coli.
A 15 year record of frontal glacier ablation rates estimated from seismic data

We present a unique time series of continuous glacier frontal ablation rates with weekly resolution over 15 years estimated from seismic calving observations at Kronebreen, Svalbard. Using linear statistical models, we calibrate the seismic record with 7 years of satellite‐derived frontal ablation measurements. The two basic input parameters required for our models are the cumulative duration of individual seismic calving events and the incompleteness of the seismic record to correct for the effect of seismic background noise. Frontal ablation follows the seasonal glacier speedup, peaking 1–2 months after the melt season maximum. Short‐lived peaks are associated with melt and rain events. Cumulative frontal ablation of Kronebreen between 2001 and 2015 is about 4.0 km3 (3.7 Gt), with the greatest annual loss (0.45 km3) between 2013 and 2014 at the onset of the recent accelerated retreat of the glacier. Our approach provides a potential method for monitoring tidewater glaciers worldwide that have sufficiently close seismic instrumentation.
A study on oxidative stress and peripheral blood parameters of cows bred in the area exposed to depleted uranium ammunition

The paper presents results of the study on depleted uranium (DU) health effects on cows bred in areas exposed to DU ammunition, during NATO bombing of Serbia and Montenegro in 1999. The samples of animal blood, soils and feed were collected randomly in the region of Bujanovac, in 2003. Complete blood cells count was performed according to standard laboratory procedures. Concentration of red blood cells malondialdehyde (RBC MDA) and erythrocyte superoxid dismutase (SOD) activity were determined spectrophotometrically. The functional activity of leukocytes was investigated by NBT reduction and adhesion test. Activity of the radionuclides was determined by standard gamma spectrometry. The obtained results of complete red blood cells count indicate normocytic normochromic anaemia. Considerably increased RBC MDA concentration suggests a violent oxidative stress in cows bred in the exposed area, although the activity of their RBC antioxidant enzyme SOD was in the range of values obtained in the control group. The total number of leukocytes and the differential leukocyte counts were within the physiological range. NBT reduction test revealed the absence of leukocyte oxidative burst, which pointed to the absence of inflammation. A significant decrease of granulocyte adhesiveness, pointed at partial impairment of granulocyte functional activity. The activity of 238 U/ 235 U in soils and feed was below the minimal detectable concentration (10 -3 Bq/kg), while the content of natural ( 226 Ra and 232 Th) and anthropogenic ( 137 Cs) radionuclides in soils were within the average values for the region, except for low levels of 40 K - indicating soils impoverishment in potassium.
Rainfall erosivity in catchments contaminated with fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident

Abstract. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (FDNPP) accident in March 2011 resulted in the fallout of significant quantities of radiocesium over the Fukushima region. After reaching the soil surface, radiocesium is quickly bound to fine soil particles. Thereafter, rainfall and snowmelt run-off events transfer particle-bound radiocesium downstream. Characterizing the precipitation regime of the fallout-impacted region is thus important for understanding post-deposition radiocesium dynamics. Accordingly, 10 min (1995–2015) and daily precipitation data (1977–2015) from 42 meteorological stations within a 100 km radius of the FDNPP were analyzed. Monthly rainfall erosivity maps were developed to depict the spatial heterogeneity of rainfall erosivity for catchments entirely contained within this radius. The mean average precipitation in the region surrounding the FDNPP is 1420 mm yr−1 (SD 235) with a mean rainfall erosivity of 3696 MJ mm ha−1 h−1 yr−1 (SD 1327). Tropical cyclones contribute 22 % of the precipitation (422 mm yr−1) and 40 % of the rainfall erosivity (1462 MJ mm ha−1 h−1 yr−1 (SD 637)). The majority of precipitation (60 %) and rainfall erosivity (82 %) occurs between June and October. At a regional scale, rainfall erosivity increases from the north to the south during July and August, the most erosive months. For the remainder of the year, this gradient occurs mostly from northwest to southeast. Relief features strongly influence the spatial distribution of rainfall erosivity at a smaller scale, with the coastal plains and coastal mountain range having greater rainfall erosivity than the inland Abukuma River valley. Understanding these patterns, particularly their spatial and temporal (both inter- and intraannual) variation, is important for contextualizing soil and particle-bound radiocesium transfers in the Fukushima region. Moreover, understanding the impact of tropical cyclones will be important for managing sediment and sediment-bound contaminant transfers in regions impacted by these events.