Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coupling a distiller and an electrochemical cell for energy production from low temperature heat sources .

We aim at exploiting the heat sources at very low temperature, below 150◦ (e.g. low-concentration solar and industrial waste heat) for production of electrical energy, in particular for small power applications. In this case, traditional techniques, such as organic Rankine cycle, Stirling engines and solid-state devices based on Seebeck effect, are not economically viable. We explore a low-cost, easily downscalable electrochemical method working with a closed cycle: a salinitygradient-power device produces electrical current by consuming the concentration difference between two solutions; the mixed solutions it produces are sent to a distiller which restores the concentration difference, in turn exploiting the low-temperature heat source. The “battery mixing”, a newly introduced salinity-gradient-power technique, enables the exploitation of a wide range of solutes and solvents. In this manuscript, we theoretically analyse the whole cycle, in order to enable an educated choice of solutes and solvents with respect to the efficiency in the conversion of heat into electrical power. We find that the main requirement is a high boiling point elevation; minor advantages are obtained by solutions with a high latent heat of vaporisation and low specific heat capacity. The first two requirements could appear counter-intuitive, since they are detrimental in the case of distillation processes per se. Quite surprisingly, the electrochemical parameters play a minor role in determining the efficiency. Our results allow to devise solutions for single-effect processes that give a high efficiency, close to the Carnot limit, for very low temperature heat sources (e.g. 11% for a temperature difference of 40 K), competitive with the more traditional techniques but much cheaper and easily down-scalable. ∗Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Matematica, via Saldini 50, 20133 Milano (Italy). E-Mail:dbrogioli@gmail.com
The ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera / EFOSC

In the year 1981, the Instrumentation Group, then unter the direction of D. Enard, started a design study for a Low Dispersion Spectrograph for the ESO 3.6 m telescope. In September 1982, adecision was taken for a Focal Reducer type instrument at the Cassegrain focus. Prestudies, including flexure analysis and optical design, were completed early in 1983. Integration tests started in Garching in the beginning of 1984; a first telescope test was performed successfully in June 1984. H. Dekker was project manager. S. D'Odorico, who became Head of the Optical Instrumentation Group in 1983, provided the overall guidance in the integration and astronomicai test phases. B. Delabre was responsible for the optical design. J. Paureau and G. Hess designed the mechanics and the structure and W. Nees and B. Gustafsson were responsible for electronics and control software. During the test phase, B. Buzzoni did the integration and R. Reiss installed and tuned the CCD. P. Focardi helped reducing and assessing the quality of the test observations. The instrument will be available for general use in low dispersion spectroscopy and direct imaging modes from April 1985. Manuals are in preparation and will be available at this date (1), (2). Multiple object spectroscopy will probably be offered six months later.
Conditional Probability in Visual Search

Conditional probability modulates visual search performance by improving search efficiency for high probability targets and lowering efficiency for low probability targets. This modulation is not simply due to low level color priming. Probability effects persist for complex cue-target relationships, but require explicit knowledge to utilize. This suggests that probability influences visual search through a top-down mechanism.
Instability indices and forecasting thunderstorms: the case of 30 April 2009

Abstract. In this paper, one meteorological case study for two Iranian airports are presented. Attempts have been made to study the predefined threshold amounts of some instability indices such as vertical velocity and relative humidity. Two important output variables from a numerical weather prediction model have been used to survey thunderstorms. The climatological state of thunder days in Iran has been determined to aid in choosing the airports for the case studies. The synoptic pattern, atmospheric thermodynamics and output from a numerical weather prediction model have been studied to evaluate the occurrence of storms and to verify the threshold instability indices that are based on Gordon and Albert (2000) and Miller (1972). Using data from the Statistics and Data Center of the Iran Meteorological Organization, 195 synoptic stations were used to study the climatological pattern of thunderstorm days in Iran during a 15-yr period (1991–2005). Synoptic weather maps and thermodynamic diagrams have been drawn using data from synoptic stations and radiosonde data. A 15-km resolution version of the WRF numerical model has been implemented for the Middle East region with the assistance of global data from University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). The Tabriz airport weather station has been selected for further study due to its high frequency of thunderstorms (more than 35 thunderstorm days per year) and the existence of an upper air station. Despite the fact that storms occur less often at the Tehran weather station, the station has been chosen as the second case study site due to its large amount of air traffic. Using these two case studies (Tehran at 00:00 UTC, 31 April 2009 and Tabriz at 12:00 UTC, 31 April 2009), the results of this research show that the threshold amounts of 30 °C for KI, −2 °C for LI and −3 °C for SI suggests the occurrence and non-occurrence of thunderstorms at the Tehran and Tabriz stations, respectively. The WRF model output of vertical velocity and relative humidity are the two most important indices for examining storm occurrence, and they have a numerical threshold of 1 m s−1 and 80%, respectively. These results are comparable to other studies that have examined thunderstorm occurrence.
Sediment geochemistry of the Yamuna River System in the Himalaya: Implications to weathering and transport

Bed sediments of the Yamuna River and its tributaries in the Himalaya (Yamuna River System, YRS) have been analyzed for major elements and trace metals (Sr, Ba, Ni, Cu, Co, Zn, Pb and Cr). These results have been used to characterize chemical weathering and transport in the Himalaya, to assess relative mobility of elements during weathering and to understand heavy metal association. Concentrations of major and trace elements of YRS sediments vary between 20 and 50%. In general, elemental variability reduces when data are analyzed individually for the major rivers, suggesting that tributaries draining diverse lithology contribute significant variations. Comparison of sediment chemistry with composition of source rocks and average Upper Continental Crust (UCC) suggests significant loss of Na, K, Ca and Mg from source rocks during weathering, the degree of loss being more for Ca and Na. Chemical index of alteration (CIA) for YRS sediments averages at 59, indicating that weathering in the basin is of moderate intensity. This inference is also supported by major ion chemistry of YRS waters and is attributed to steep gradient and enhanced physical erosion in the basin. Available results seem to indicate that Na and Sr are effectively more mobile than Ba, which is thought to be a combined effect of higher solubility of Na and Sr, and the affinity of Ba to be adsorbed onto solid phase. Heavy metals show significant positive correlation with Al and weak correlation with Fe, Mn and P. These observations suggest that metal concentrations are controlled mainly by clay mineral abundances, and that Fe-Mn oxides and organic matter may be playing less significant role. Heavy metal concentrations of YRS sediments are lower than those of suspended particulates of the Yamuna river, presumably due to higher clay mineral abundances in the latter. Strong association of metals with Al, and lower metal concentrations in bed sediments compared to suspended matter underscores the importance of sediment transport and mineral sorting in influencing the YRS sediment chemistry. Enrichment factor and geo-accumulation index calculated for heavy metals in YRS sediments suggest that they are mainly of natural origin and that anthropogenic activities exert little influence on their abundances.
DM-L Based Feature Extraction and Classifier Ensemble for Object Recognition

Deep Learning is a powerful technique that is widely applied to Image Recognition and Natural Language Processing tasks amongst many other tasks. In this work, we propose an efficient technique to utilize pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architectures to extract powerful features from images for object recognition purposes. We have built on the existing concept of extending the learning from pre-trained CNNs to new databases through activations by proposing to consider multiple deep layers. We have exploited the progressive learning that happens at the various intermediate layers of the CNNs to construct Deep Multi-Layer (DM-L) based Feature Extraction vectors to achieve excellent object recognition performance. Two popular pre-trained CNN architecture models i.e. the VGG_16 and VGG_19 have been used in this work to extract the feature sets from 3 deep fully connected multiple layers namely “fc6”, “fc7” and “fc8” from inside the models for object recognition purposes. Using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique, the Dimensionality of the DM-L feature vectors has been reduced to form powerful feature vectors that have been fed to an external Classifier Ensemble for classification instead of the Softmax based classification layers of the two original pre-trained CNN models. The proposed DM-L technique has been applied to the Benchmark Caltech-101 object recognition database. Conventional wisdom may suggest that feature extractions based on the deepest layer i.e. “fc8” compared to “fc6” will result in the best recognition performance but our results have proved it otherwise for the two considered models. Our experiments have revealed that for the two models under consideration, the “fc6” based feature vectors have achieved the best recognition performance. State-of-the-Art recognition performances of 91.17% and 91.35% have been achieved by utilizing the “fc6” based feature vectors for the VGG_16 and VGG_19 models respectively. The recognition performance has been achieved by considering 30 sample images per class whereas the proposed system is capable of achieving improved performance by considering all sample images per class. Our research shows that for feature extraction based on CNNs, multiple layers should be considered and then the best layer can be selected that maximizes the recognition performance.
Submitted to the Language , Interaction and Acquisition Journal ( 2012 ) Spatial encoding in English and French : Typological constraints on second language acquisition and aphasia

Languages show differences in how they encode motion in discourse: V-framed languages lexicalize Path in the verb, leaving Manner peripheral or implicit; S-framed languages lexicalize Manner together with Path adjuncts. The present study investigates the extent to which such typological constraints affect second language learners’ verbalizations (English learners of French) and aphasic speakers’ symptomatology (English and French agrammatics) who typically show dissociations between lexical and syntactic knowledge in comparison to controls (English and French native speakers), as well as the relative role of language-independent factors (level of acquisition/syndromes) involved. Despite some similarities between learners and speakers with aphasia due to language-independent factors, the findings suggest typologically constrained verbalizations in all groups as well as diverging strategies that reflect distinct underlying conceptualization processes.
Compressive Strength of Palm Oil Waste Lightweight Aggregate Concrete Containing Palm Oil Fuel Ash as Partial Cement Replacement

The increasing amount of by-product generated by Malaysian palm oil mills namely oil palm shell (OPS), palm oil clinker (POC) and palm oil fuel ash (POFA) which are disposed without any profitable value at dumping site has caused huge land consumption and also pollution to the environment. Thus, this problem has lead towards researcher’s effort towards integrating these by-products in concrete production. Integrating POFA as partial cement replacement, OPS as coarse aggregate and POC as fine aggregate in lightweight aggregate concrete would reduce huge amount of waste disposed at the landfill. This paper addresses the compressive strength of palm oil waste lightweight aggregate concrete containing various percentage of POFA as partial cement replacement. Palm Oil Waste lightweight aggregate concrete mixes were produced by replacing various percentage of POFA ranging from 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%, respectively by weight of cement. In this investigation, all the specimens were prepared in form of cubes (100 mm x 100 mm x 100 mm) and water cured until the testing age. The compressive strength test was carried out at 7 and 28 days following the procedures in BSEN 12390 – 3. The finding shows that specimen produced using 20% POFA exhibit encouraging result value of compressive strength as compared to control specimen. Incorporation of palm oil wastes as mixing ingredient in lightweight concrete production would reduce the amount of waste disposed thus ensuring ecological balance as well as sustainable environment for future generation.
Contribution PREDICTORS OF EMOTIONAL ILLNESS PERCEPTION IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC DISEASES

Illness perception manages illness behavior. Emotional illness perception refers to psychological distress of patients. 237 patients with rheumatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, hypertension and diabetes mellitus type 2 have been studied. PURPOSE: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the influence of optimism, negative expectations, health locus of control and chronic disease self-efficacy on emotional illness perception. METHODS: Optimism and Negative expectancies Inventory, Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scales, Brief Illness perception Questionnaire, Chronic Disease Self-efficacy Scales; Statistical methods: Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Linear regression, ANOVA, Student's t-test, P value of less than 0.05 was regarded as significant. RESULTS: According to the data of the study, negative expectations and self-efficacy to manage symptoms and depression are significant predictors of distress. The negative expectations increase distress during an illness, whereas the self-efficacy reduces distress. Health locus of control and optimism are not significant factors of emotional distress level. High chronic disease self-efficacy is significantly associated with less distress. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived competence to manage physical symptoms and coping with psychological distress are equally important for adaptation to the disease. Negative expectations predict distress in chronic disease, optimism does not.
Making museums attractions to tourists: serious leisure, meaningfulness and emotions as drivers to engagement

The aim of this study is to explore the relationships among the concepts of serous leisure, meaningfulness, emotions, word-of-mouth and passionate desire, as antecedents and outcomes of engagement with museums. The proposed model is tested with a sample of 461 visitors (from Portugal and abroad) in a culturally specific setting of Lisbon museums (where improvements and innovations were implemented). The findings contribute to a better understanding of visitors’ perceptions about museums acting as tourist attractions. Several implications can be pointed out from the study findings, and interesting directions for future research are provided.
Performance Evaluation of Proactive and Reactive Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks

this paper, we study the two different type of routing strategies used in wireless sensor networks i.e. proactive and reactive routing mechanisms. These routing mechanisms are applied in different kind of applications for efficient routing in the network. In this paper, we have studied the different routing protocols which use these routing mechanisms and have compared them. We have also taken the homogenous and heterogeneous type of networks and also see the effect of homogeneity and heterogeneity on the routing in the network. So, we have taken LEACH and SEP routing protocols for homogenous and heterogeneous network respectively using proactive mechanism for routing and TEEN and TADEEC protocols for homogenous and heterogeneous using reactive mechanisms. Lastly we have compared the results of two routing strategies in term of stability period (the round in which first node dies), lifetime of the network and throughput i.e. data send to the base station per unit round.
A Survey on Shadow Removal Techniques for Single Image

Shadows are physical phenomena that appear on a surface when direct light from a source is unable to reach the surface due to the presence of an object between the source and the surface. The formation of shadows and their various features has evolved as a topic of discussion among researchers. Though the presence of shadows can aid us in understanding the scene model, it might impair the performance of applications such as object detection. Hence, the removal of shadows from videos and images is required for the faultless working of certain image processing tasks. This paper presents a survey of notable shadow removal techniques for single image available in the literature. For the purpose of the survey, the various shadow removal algorithms are classified under five categories, namely, reintegration methods, relighting methods, patch-based methods, color transfer methods, and interactive methods. Comparative study of qualitative and quantitative performances of these works is also included. The pros and cons of various approaches are highlighted. The survey concludes with the following observations(i) shadow removal should be performed in real time since it is usually considered as a preprocessing task, (ii) the texture and color information of the regions underlying the shadow must be recovered, (iii) there should be no hard transition between shadow and nonshadow regions after removing the shadows.
Is juvenile anchovy a feeding resource for the demersal community in the Bay of Biscay? On the availability of pelagic prey to demersal predators

The role that juvenile anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) play as a food resource for the demersal community in the southern Bay of Biscay is assessed using 21 years of anchovy abundance data and demersal predator diets. During the study period, a total of 26 fish and elasmobranch species preyed on anchovy either frequently or occasionally. Predators with a crustacean-based diet targeted the smaller anchovy individuals. The size range of anchovy juveniles (centred at 7.5– 8.9 cm) was comparable to that of the largest nektonic– benthic crustaceans, but generally smaller than other demersal and pelagic fish prey. Hake (Merluccius merluccius) and megrim (Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis) were the predators that consumed the highest number of anchovy, one of the main prey items driving the variability of their diets. Anchovy consumption conformed only partially to the abundance of anchovy in the southern Bay of Biscay, suggesting that factors other than abundance might condition its availability to demersal predators. Prey size could be one of them, as the size of the anchovy preyed on proved to be significantly smaller than the individuals collected with bottom trawls. However, other factors, such as the vertical position of the shoals of anchovy juveniles, could also constrain anchovy availability to demersal predators.
Decode-and-forward plus cooperative jamming based cooperation for wireless physical layer security

In this paper, the case of one source-destination pair with the help of multiple cooperating nodes in the presence of one eavesdropper was considered to improve the performance of secure wireless communications. A novel cooperative scheme decode-and-forward plus cooperative jamming(DFCJ) was pro- posed. In this scheme, the relay nodes transmit a weighted version of the source signals plus a common weighted jamming signal to confound the eavesdropper. For DFCJ, the optimal power allocation is obtained in closed-form in the condition of the complete nulling of jamming signals at the destination subject to a secrecy rate constraint. The numerical evaluation of the transmit power and the obtained secrecy rate results shows that the proposed scheme can significantly improve the performance of wireless physical layer security, as compared to the decode- and-forward(DF) scheme.
Isolation, production and characterization of protease from Bacillus Sp isolated from soil sample

Bacillus sp being industrially important organisms produces a wide variety of extra-cellular enzymes including proteases. Bacillus sp isolated from local soil samples collected from Maharani Science College Campus, Bangalore produced protease enzyme. The optimum conditions for cell growth and protease production were 37 °C in 24 h, agitation speed of 200 rpm and medium pH 7.0. The specific activity of partially purified protease obtained from ammonium sulphate fractionation is found to be 10.32 and the fractionation is 1.32 fold purified from the crude enzyme preparation yielding 75.75% from the crude protein. The optimum temperature and pH of the partially purified protease from Bacillus Sp is found to be 40 °C and pH 7.0 respectively. Key words: Bacillus Sp, Proteases, Partial Purification, Industrial Applications.
Growth, Yield and Consumer Acceptance of Sweet Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) as Influenced by Open Field and Greenhouse Production Systems

A study was conducted on sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) on growth, yield and consumer acceptance as influenced by open field and greenhouse production systems at the University of Ghana Forest and Horticultural Crops Research Centre, Okumaning – Kade in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The experiment was conducted in the minor season (dry season) from October 2014 to March 2015. A 2 × 9 factorial was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The experiment consisted of two production systems: greenhouse and open field and nine varieties of sweet pepper: California Wonder, Yolo Wonder, Kulkukan, F1 Nobile, Crusader, Guardian, Embella 733- EM and Caribbean Red, Pepper 1) with three replications. Data were recorded on plant height (cm), girth (mm), leaf number, number of fruits per plant, fruit weight per plant (kg), length of fruits (cm), diameter of fruits (cm), pericarp thickness (mm), number of locules per fruit and yield (t/ha). All the parameters measured differed significantly except pericarp thickness of fruits. In the greenhouse Kukulkan (21.34t) recorded the highest yield (t/ha) followed by California Wonder (20.99t) and Yolo Wonder (8.20t) had the least. In the open field it revealed that the yield of California Wonder (12.57t) gained the highest, followed by Crusader (10.57t) and pepper 1 (5.02) had the least weight. Fruits were ranked for its acceptability by consumers (rank = 1 - Very poor quality to 9 - Extreme excellent quality). California wonder (rank -8) was highly accepted by consumers compared to Caribbean Red (rank 4- moderate quality) in both greenhouse and open field conditions.