Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating the effects of Surfactants on drag reduction performance of diesel fuel in a rotating disk apparatus

The high cost of energy associated with the way liquids are transported in pipelines was reduced by numerous methods such as using different types of additives. One of the most popular additives is Polymers which have been widely employed to replace the pumping stations and other high energy cost mechanisms. Most of these polymers degrade after a period of time due to turbulent flow. In view of such degradation, an alternative type of additives (Surfactant) which are self-repairing, have been employed to enhance the drag reduction efficiency of fluids. In this study, drag reduction efficacy of Sodium Di-octyl sulfosuccinate (SDS), Sodium dodecyl benzene sulfate (SDBS), and Sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) with diesel fuel in a rotating disk apparatus is investigated. Dependence of drag reduction on various factors, such as: surfactant type, surfactant concentration, and rotational disk speed (RPM) are also investigated. In addition, the degradation behavior of these surfactants with time was studied by measuring torque values for 30 sec at a fixed rotational speed (1500 rpm). It can be observed that the drag reduction of diesel fuel increases with increasing surfactant concentration, and decreased with increasing of rotational disk speed. The maximum drag reduction achieved was 29.5% for Sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) at 1100 RPM and 1000 ppm.
Vascular bioengineering of scaffolds derived from human discarded transplant kidneys using human pluripotent stem cell–derived endothelium

The bioengineering of a replacement kidney has been proposed as an approach to address the growing shortage of donor kidneys for the treatment of chronic kidney disease. One approach being investigated is the recellularization of kidney scaffolds. In this study, we present several key advances toward successful re‐endothelialization of whole kidney matrix scaffolds from both rodents and humans. Based on the presence of preserved glycosoaminoglycans within the decelullarized kidney scaffold, we show improved localization of delivered endothelial cells after preloading of the vascular matrix with vascular endothelial growth factor and angiopoietin 1. Using a novel simultaneous arteriovenous delivery system, we report the complete re‐endothelialization of the kidney vasculature, including the glomerular and peritubular capillaries, using human inducible pluripotent stem cell –derived endothelial cells. Using this source of endothelial cells, it was possible to generate sufficient endothelial cells to recellularize an entire human kidney scaffold, achieving efficient cell delivery, adherence, and endothelial cell proliferation and survival. Moreover, human re‐endothelialized scaffold could, in contrast to the non‐re‐endothelialized human scaffold, be fully perfused with whole blood. These major advances move the field closer to a human bioengineered kidney.
Resisting Protein but Promoting Cell Adhesion by Choline Phosphate: A Comparative Study with Phosphate Choline

Zwitterionic materials are now widely used to fabricate various functionalized surfaces for biomedical applications due to their excellent non-fouling properties. As a newly-discovered zwitterionic material, choline phosphate (CP) was reported to be cell-adhesive, which makes it different from traditional non-fouling zwitterionic materials such as sulfobetaine, carboxybetaine and phosphorylcholine (PC). However, there are still few reports about choline phosphate, and to the best of our knowledge, a direct comparative study between choline phosphate and conventional zwitterionic materials has not been reported to date. To further investigate the properties of choline phosphate, a comparative study was conducted and the widely-reported zwitterionic phosphorylcholine, which has the same chemical component but opposite charge orientation with choline phosphate, was employed as a control. For this purpose, CP and PC-functionalized surfaces were prepared by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (Si-ATRP), and their non-fouling properties were probed by protein adsorption and eukaryotic cell adhesion measurement. The result shows that CP-functionalized surfaces exhibit almost equivalent amounts of adsorbed proteins to that of PC, but they are more beneficial to cells initial adhesion and further spreading in serum-free medium, indicating that CP has a promising prospect of application in tissue engineering.
Hydrodynamics modeling and analysis of rapid expansion systems of supercritical solutions (RESS)

In this paper, we study the hydrodynamics aspects of the RESS (e.g. rapid expansion of supercritical solutions) process to produce fine particles for heat-sensitive organic compounds. The Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) modeling and analysis of the supercritical solutions passing through a capillary nozzle were studied. The CFD simulation is focused on the pre-expansion chamber of the RESS process consisting of three successive steps that are at the stagnation chamber (i.e. the reservoir), nozzle inlet and along the nozzle itself to the outlet. The solute considered is benzoic acid and the supercritical solvents are CO2 and CHF3 respectively. The aim of this study is to examine the effect and sensitivity of the design parameters (i.e. temperature, pressure and density) on the formation of particulates in the chamber. The study reveals that at lower preexpansion temperature with constant pre-expansion pressure the solute nucleation seems to start inside the nozzle. Moreover, it is also found that pre-expansion pressure has insignificant effect on the nucleation process, i.e. the nucleation rate slightly increases when the pressure is set higher. Furthermore, the study also reveals that high preexpansion pressures and low pre-expansion temperature favors small particles. The results demonstrate that the variation of thee parameters in the ranges studied may lead to the increased super-saturation and simultaneously increase in nucleation rate.
A Secure User Authentication Scheme with Biometrics for IoT Medical Environments

Internet of Things (IoT) is a ubiquitous network that devices are interconnected and users can access those devices through the Internet. Recently, medical healthcare systems are combined with these IoT networks and provide efficient and ef-fective medical services to medical staff and patients. However, the security threats are increased simultaneously as the requirements of medical services in IoT medical environments are increased. It is essential to provide security of the networks from malicious attacks. In 2018, Roy et al. proposed a remote user authentication and key agreement scheme with biometrics in IoT medical environments. Unfortunately, we analyze Roy et al.’s scheme and demonstrate that their scheme does not withstand various attacks, such as replay attacks and password guessing attacks. Then we propose a user authentication scheme to overcome these security drawbacks. The proposed scheme withstands various attacks from adversaries in IoT medical environments and provide better security functionalities of those of Roy et al. We then prove the authentication and session key of the proposed scheme using BAN logic and analyze that our proposed scheme is secure against various attacks.
Grado en que el gas natural ha sustituido a las otras fuentes de energía en el Principado de Asturias (España)

In order to determine the significant substitute products in each one of the consumption sectors in the Principality of Asturias, the correspondent bivariant and partial statistical correlations of NG against other energies in demand are calculated. The functions among the value-pair sequences of the analyzed variables are linear. The measurement of the dependence level is carried out by Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient. To evaluate this coefficient and to confirm whether there exists or not a significant correlation between the variables (p-value<5%) a hypothesis test based on the t-Student distribution is done. The results obtained show a clear substitution of coal by NG.
Eating pathology and associations with long‐term changes in weight and quality of life in the longitudinal assessment of bariatric surgery study

OBJECTIVE This study examines the course of eating pathology and its associations with change in weight and health-related quality of life following bariatric surgery. METHOD Participants (N = 184) completed the eating disorder examination-bariatric surgery version (EDE-BSV) and the medical outcomes study 36-Item short form health survey (SF-36) prior to and annually following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) or laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) for up to 7 years. RESULTS The prevalence of ≥ weekly loss of control (LOC) eating, picking/nibbling, and cravings declined post-RYGB and remained lower through 7 years (LOC: 5.4% at Year-7 vs. 16.2% pre-RYGB, p = .03; picking/nibbling: 7.0% vs. 32.4%, p < .001; and cravings: 19.4% vs. 33.6%, p = .02). The prevalence of picking/nibbling was significantly lower 7 years following LAGB vs. pre-LAGB (29.4% vs 45.8%, p = .049), while cravings (p = .13) and LOC eating (p = .95) were not. EDE-BSV global score and ratings of hunger and enjoyment of eating were lower 7 years following both RYGB and LAGB versus pre-surgery (p's for all <.05). LOC eating following RYGB was associated with less long-term weight loss from surgery (p < .01) and greater weight regain from weight nadir (p < .001). Higher post-surgery EDE-BSV global score was associated with less weight loss/greater regain (both p < .001) and worsening/less improvement from surgery in the SF-36 mental component summary scores (p < .01). DISCUSSION Initial improvements in eating pathology following RYGB and LAGB were sustained across 7 years of follow-up. Individuals with eating pathology post-RYGB, reflected by LOC eating and/or higher EDE-BSV global score, may be at risk for suboptimal long-term outcomes.
Comparison of spatiotemporal gait characteristics between vertical climbing and horizontal walking in primates

ABSTRACT During quadrupedal walking, most primates utilize diagonal-sequence diagonal-couplet gaits, large limb excursions and hindlimb-biased limb loading. These gait characteristics are thought to be basal to primates, but the selective pressure underlying these gait changes remains unknown. Some researchers have examined these characteristics during vertical climbing and propose that primate quadrupedal gait characteristics may have arisen due to the mechanical challenges of moving on vertical supports. Unfortunately, these studies are usually limited in scope and do not account for varying strategies based on body size or phylogeny. Here, we test the hypothesis that the spatiotemporal gait characteristics that are used during horizontal walking in primates are also present during vertical climbing irrespective of body size and phylogeny. We examined footfall patterns, diagonality, speed and stride length in eight species of primates across a range of body masses. We found that, during vertical climbing, primates slow down, keep more limbs in contact with the substrate at any one time, and increase the frequency of lateral-sequence gaits compared with horizontal walking. Taken together, these characteristics are assumed to increase stability during locomotion. Phylogenetic relatedness and body size differences have little influence on locomotor patterns observed across species. These data reject the idea that the suite of spatiotemporal gait features observed in primates during horizontal walking are in some way evolutionarily linked to selective pressures associated with mechanical requirements of vertical climbing. These results also highlight the importance of behavioral flexibility for negotiating the challenges of locomotion in an arboreal environment. Summary: Gait characteristics of horizontal arboreal walking and vertical climbing differ from each other in important mechanical ways. The results presented here further emphasize high levels of gait flexibility in arboreal animals.
Phenotypic diversity and plant growth promoting characteristics of Mesorhizobium species isolated from chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.) growing areas of Ethiopia

Chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the major sources of dietary protein for majority of Ethiopian population. It also maintains soil fertility through its symbiotic nitrogen-fixation in association with Mesorhizobium species. Therefore, this study was aimed at isolation, characterization and selection of symbiotically effective native chickpea nodulating rhizobia endowed with different plant growth promoting (PGP) characteristics. Hence, phenotypic and plant growth promoting characteristics of thirty-six rhizobia isolates recovered from root nodules of chickpea grown in soils collected from different chickpea producing areas found in Central and Northern part of Ethiopia were investigated. The result of our study indicated that chickpea rhizobial isolates have shown wide diversity in their different C and N-sources utilization pattern and tolerance to salinity, high temperatures, acid and alkaline pH, heavy metals and antibiotics. Symbiotic and morphological characterization also showed a wide diversity among tested isolates. Moreover, screening for PGP characteristics indicated that 44.4% of the isolates were phosphate solubilizer while 27.8% of them were found to be indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) producer. Furthermore, 19.4% tested isolates showed antagonistic activity against Fusarium oxysporum in dual culture assay. Generally, the present study indicates that Ethiopian soils contain symbiotically effective chickpea nodulating rhizobia which are endowed with different PGP characteristics. Keywords: Chickpea, Mesorhizobium , plant growth promoting, Ethiopia, symbiotic nitrogen fixation African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 11(29), pp. 7483-7493, 10 April, 2012
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AND NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF FLOW AROUND WING CONTROL SURFACE

This paper examines the capability of CFD methods based on RANS equations to simulate spoiler and aileron setting effects and evaluates its accuracy by comparison to wind tunnel tests. Thus, a specific wind tunnel (w/t) test campaign has been conducted in ONERA T2 facility to determine effects of spoiler and aileron setting on a basic extruded profile. Following are numerical simulations of these tests, including not only the profile but also the w/t walls. Finally, the end of the paper focuses on industrial applications of CFD performed at Airbus. Particularly, the interaction between spoiler and horizontal/vertical tail planes are pointed out.
A case of nighttime high ozone concentration over the greater Athens area A

A case of abrupt and significant increase of surface ozone was examined, which is recorded during the night of October 9, 2003, over the area of the Thriassion Plain – Greece, being accompanied by the occurrence of a wind outbreak during the same period. As this increase cannot be explained by the ordinary diurnal evolution of tropospheric ozone concentration, the possibility of downward stratospheric ozone transport was investigated. It was indeed found that the case is associated with tropopause folding and subsequent stratospheric air intrusion in the upper troposphere over Greece. With the aid of mesoscale modeling, being also supported by the hydraulic theory, it was found that the intense wind outbreak is associated with the development of disturbances in the lee side of the neighbouring mountain ranges. These disturbances contribute to the free troposphere – atmospheric boundary layer interaction, facilitating the transportation of stratospheric air close to the surface, thus resulting to the observed tropospheric ozone increase.
Solution‐Processed Low Threshold Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers from All‐Inorganic Perovskite Nanocrystals

Recently, newly engineered all‐inorganic cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (IPNCs) (CsPbX3, X = Cl, Br, I) are discovered to possess superior optical gain properties appealing for solution‐processed cost‐effective lasers. Yet, the potential of such materials has not been exploited for practical laser devices, rendering the prospect as laser media elusive. Herein, the challenging but practically desirable vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) based on the CsPbX3 IPNCs, featuring low threshold (9 µJ cm−2), directional output (beam divergence of ≈3.6°), and favorable stability, are realized for the first time. Notably, the lasing wavelength can be tuned across the red, green, and blue region maintaining comparable thresholds, which is promising in developing single‐source‐pumped full‐color visible lasers. It is fully demonstrated that the characteristics of the VCSELs can be versatilely engineered by independent adjustment of the cavity and solution‐processable nanocrystals. The results unambiguously reveal the feasibility of the emerging CsPbX3 IPNCs as practical laser media and represent a significant leap toward CsPbX3 IPNC‐based laser devices.
Social inclusion and service delivery in a fragile and post-conflict environment in Africa

iv Introduction . 1 The Importance of Service Delivery in Fragile/post-conflict Environments . 4 The Five Governance Functions of Fragile States.9 The Three Strategies of Service Delivery In Fragile States . 14 Impacts of The Strategies on Service Delivery . 17 Capacity Challenges Confronting Fragile/post-conflict Countries in Restoring Basic Services and Infrastructure . 18 Conclusions: Policy Recommendations.22 References . 25
Visual-Based SLAM Configurations for Cooperative Multi-UAV Systems with a Lead Agent: An Observability-Based Approach

In this work, the problem of the cooperative visual-based SLAM for the class of multi-UA systems that integrates a lead agent has been addressed. In these kinds of systems, a team of aerial robots flying in formation must follow a dynamic lead agent, which can be another aerial robot, vehicle or even a human. A fundamental problem that must be addressed for these kinds of systems has to do with the estimation of the states of the aerial robots as well as the state of the lead agent. In this work, the use of a cooperative visual-based SLAM approach is studied in order to solve the above problem. In this case, three different system configurations are proposed and investigated by means of an intensive nonlinear observability analysis. In addition, a high-level control scheme is proposed that allows to control the formation of the UAVs with respect to the lead agent. In this work, several theoretical results are obtained, together with an extensive set of computer simulations which are presented in order to numerically validate the proposal and to show that it can perform well under different circumstances (e.g., GPS-challenging environments). That is, the proposed method is able to operate robustly under many conditions providing a good position estimation of the aerial vehicles and the lead agent as well.
J ul 2 01 4 A Clustering Approach to Learn Sparsely-Used Overcomplete Dictionaries

We consider the problem of learning overcomplete dictionaries in the context of sparse coding, where each sample selects a sparse subset of dictionary elements. Our main result is a strategy to approximately recover the unknown dictionary using an efficient algorithm. Our algorithm is a clustering-style procedure, where each cluster is used to estimate a dictionary element. The resulting solution can often be further cleaned up to obtain a high accuracy estimate, and we provide one simple scenario where l1-regularized regression can be used for such a second stage.
Genetic Differentiation among Nigerian Indigenous Goat Populations

A total of 200 goats and 25 microsatellite markers proposed by the Food and Agricultural Organization and the International Society for Animal Genetics (FAO-ISAG) were used to determine the genetic diversity of three breeds of the Nigerian indigenous goats, namely Sahel (60), Red Sokoto (60), West African Dwarf (60) and one strain; Kano Brown (20). Genetic differentiation between the breeds and strain ranged from 0.011 to 0.037, and the least genetically differentiated populations were Kano Brown and Red Sokoto. Molecular variations were observed to be higher within populations (96%) than among populations (4%), which suggest higher heterozygosity within populations. This study showed that the Nigerian goats are admixed due to extensive cross-breeding and high gene flow amongst the breeds, and that the goats are geographically distributed in two major locations. Measures to conserve the uniqueness/distinctiveness of the Nigerian goat breeds should be sought, and gene flow between populations should be controlled by adopting effective breeding and management practices.
dSUMO: towards a distributed SUMO

Microscopic urban mobility simulations consist of modelling a city's road network and infrastructure, and to run autonomous individual vehicles to understand accurately what is going on in the city. However, when the scale of the problem space is large or when the processing time is critical, performing such simulations might be problematic as they are very computationally expensive applications. In this paper, we propose to leverage the power of many computing resources to perform quicker or larger microscopic simulations, keeping the same accuracy as the classical simulation running on a single computing unit. We have implemented a distributed version of SUMO, called dSUMO. We show in this paper that the accuracy of the simulation in SUMO is not impacted by the distribution and we give some preliminary results regarding the performance of dSUMO compared to SUMO.
Internet Usage and Educational Outcomes Among 15-Year Old Australian Students

Children in rich countries are using the Internet for social networking and gaming at very high rates, particularly in Australia. This study addresses whether these activities affect educational achievement in mathematics, reading, and science using the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s 2012 Program for International Student Assessment data set. The results suggest that using online social networks reduces academic achievement. Conversely, playing online games increases scores. It is argued that although both activities are associated with a high opportunity cost of study, video games potentially allow students to apply and sharpen skills learned in school. Skipping school, failing an academic year in the past, and being indigenous are also important predictors of underachievement. It is suggested that monitoring, counseling, and tutoring students who are at risk of failure may useful.
The Role of Exporting and Trade for Entry over the Business Cycle

This paper studies the role of international trade and the export participation decisions of establishments for the entry of establishments over the business cycle in a general equilibrium model. The model captures two key features of establishment and exporter dynamics: i) new establishments start small and grow over time and ii) exporters tend to be bigger and more productive than non-exporters. When the cost of creating establishments fluctuates with aggregate productivity, we find the model can generate procyclical fluctuations in the stock of domestic establishments and importers similar to the data. The model also generates fluctuations in the stock of importers, exporters, and domestic establishments of similar magnitude to those in the data. Without international trade, both intratemporal and intertemporal, entry is countercyclical and too smooth compared to the data. With an entry margin, we also find that output is hump-shaped following a productivity shock since investments in creating establishments and exporters generate an incentive to delay accumulating physical capital.