Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sea Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

This research demonstrates the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to characterize the gaseous (CO2) and 10 particle (10 500 nm) emissions of a ship at sea. The field study was part of the research voyage “The Great Barrier Reef as 11 a significant source of climatically relevant aerosol particles” on-board the RV Investigator around the Australian Great 12 Barrier Reef. Measurements of the RV Investigator exhaust plume were carried out while the ship was operating at sea, at a 13 steady engine load of 30%. 14 The UAV system was flown autonomously using several different programmed paths. These incorporated different altitudes 15 and distances behind the ship in order to investigate the optimal position to capture the ship plume. Five flights were 16 performed, providing a total of 27 horizontal transects perpendicular to the ship exhaust plume. Results show that the most 17 appropriate altitude and distance to effectively capture the plume was 25 m above sea level and 20 m downwind. 18 Particle number (PN) emission factors (EF) were calculated in terms of number of particles emitted (#) per weight of fuel 19 consumed (Kg fuel). Fuel consumption was calculated using the simultaneous measurements of plume CO2 concentration. 20 Calculated EFPN were between 9.19 x 10 14 and 5.15 x 10 15 #∙(Kg fuel) -1 . These values are in line with those reported in the 21 literature for ship emissions ranging from 0.2 6.2 x 10 16 #∙(Kg fuel) -1 to 6.2 x 10 16 #∙(Kg fuel) -1 . 22 This UAV system successfully assessed ship emissions to derive emission factors (EFs) under real world conditions. This is 23 significant as, for the first time, it provides a reliable, inexpensive and accessible way to assess and potentially regulate ship 24 emissions. 25
Effect of lutein in development of experimental diabetic nephropathy in rats

The present study has been designed to investigate the effect of lutein in streptzotocin induced diabetic nephropathy (DN) in wistar rats. Diabetic nephropathy was induced by administering single dose of streptozotocin in wistar rats. DN was clinically assessed by the estimation of various biochemical parameters and histopathological studies of renal tissue. Diabetic nephropathy was assessed biochemically by blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine and total urinary protein. Oxidative stress assessed by measuring the Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) level and renal reduced glutathione levels. Treatment with high dose of lutein (1.5 mg/kg, p.o.) shows significant improvement in (blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine, total urine protein, ratio of kidney wt/body wt, TBARS, reduced glutathione) renal parameters studied for DN. It may be therefore concluded that renoprotective effect of lutein is due to its antioxidant property. Lutein may prevent overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and to increase the removal of preformed ROS. This may prove to be effective in preventing the development and progression of diabetic nephropathy.
Doing It Again: Repeating Methodology from Published Literature to Learn Field Biology

Abstract Repeatability underpins a basic assumption in science which students must learn in order to evaluate others' research findings as well as to communicate the results of their own research. By attempting to repeat the methods of published studies, students learn the importance of clear written communication, while at the same time developing research skills. I describe three examples of published field studies that can be used as the basis for course exercises on the repeatability of methodology, as well as field sampling techniques, all grounded in the overall topic of environmental change. Two of the exercises returned students to the exact location of the past research that they had previously read from the primary literature, making it possible to clarify the difference between reproducibility and repeatability in field-based research. When student-collected data differed from published results, students explored, through both post-project discussions and written work, factors that could explain this variation, including methodology, ecological succession, and climate change. Assessments and student comments on course evaluations showed that these exercises have a positive impact on students' communication skills and engagement with the scientific process.
Scenario analysis of carbon emissions of China’s power industry based on the improved particle swarm optimization-support vector machine model

The power industry, as the primary source of carbon emissions across China, should take more responsibility to effectively reduce carbon emissions. Affected by various factors, carbon emissions from the power industry show non-linear and non-stationary characteristics. To forecast carbon emissions precisely and effi ciently, this paper proposes an improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO)-support vector machine (SVM) model combined with scenario analysis. Grey relativity analysis (GRA) is applied to identify and construe the major infl uencing factors. Based on factors including economic growth, urbanization rate, total electricity consumption, net coal consumption rate, and thermal power installed capacity, 48 kinds of development scenarios are set during 2016-20. Compared with other methods, the effectiveness of IPSOSVM has been proved to have the best forecasting performance. The prediction results indicate that carbon emissions from China’s power industry will be 128691.59-149137.32kt in 2020. And the infl uencing level of each factor differs a lot in different development scenarios. Furthermore, there exists a certain decoupling between carbon emissions of China’s power industry and economic growth.
Radars, an alternative in hydrological modeling. Lumped model

The use of meteorological radars in hydrological modeling is a tool that is becoming more important each day throughout the world. In order to validate its use in hydrological modeling, a study was carried out in the sub-watershed of the Mixcoac river, in the western region of the valley of Mexico, over an area of 31.5 km 2 . Rainfall data were estimated by the meteorological radar on Catedral hill, 35 km away from the watershed and from the rain gaUges network operated by the Sistema de Aguas de la Ciudad de Mexico (78 rain gauges). The study generated a lumped model of the rainfall-runoff type with input from radar and pluviograph data for calibration. The use of weather radars is shown to be an alternative in the generation of hydrological models. The model was used to prove the goodness of radar data in linear hydrological models of the input-output type.
The 2007 Personal Income Tax Reform in Italy: Effects on Potential Equity, Horizontal Inequity and Re-ranking

According to Kakwani and Lambert (1998), an equitable income tax should respect three axioms related to each taxpayer's tax liability, average tax rate and post-tax income: whenever taxation determines unequal tax treatments among equals or modifies pre-tax ordering, it influences the potential vertical effect of the tax through three types of inequity. Following the authors' measurement system, we investigate changes in axiom violations due to the 2007 Italian personal income tax reform, that introduced significant changes in the tax structure. Our microsimulation model uses as input data those provided by the Bank of Italy in its Survey on Households Income and Wealth in the year 2006; estimates of the distribution of taxpayers are very close to the Ministry of Finance official statistics. The analysis considers both the individual and equivalent household gross income distribution and evaluates the decomposition with and without surtaxes. Main findings suggest that both in the 2006 and 2007 tax system most of the overall violations concern the axiom demanding the average tax rate to be a non decreasing function with respect to the gross income; the axiom requiring richer taxpayers to pay higher tax liabilities than poorer ones and the axiom requiring the tax to do not introduce re-rankings in the pre-tax income order present minor violations. The 2007 reform enhances both the potential redistributive effect, that is the one that could be obtained without axiom violations, and the axiom violations: the net result is a small positive variation of the actual redistributive effect. These phenomena appear more relevant for taxpayers than those for equivalent households. For what concerns taxpayers, the 2007 reform has modified also the composition of the three axiom violations, that remains almost the same whenever equivalent households are considered. Finally, focusing on each decile of the income distribution, regressivities are concentrated in the bottom five deciles of the income distribution both for taxpayers and equivalent households.
Mesoscale processes for super heavy rainfall of Typhoon Morakot (2009) over Southern Taiwan

Abstract. Within 100 h, a record-breaking rainfall, 2855 mm, was brought to Taiwan by typhoon Morakot in August 2009 resulting in devastating landslides and casualties. Analyses and simulations show that under favorable large-scale situations, this unprecedented precipitation was caused first by the convergence of the southerly component of the pre-existing strong southwesterly monsoonal flow and the northerly component of the typhoon circulation. Then the westerly component of southwesterly flow pushed the highly moist air (mean specific humidity >16 g/kg between 950 and 700 hPa from NCEP GFS data set) eastward against the Central Mountain Range, and forced it to lift in the preferred area. From the fine-scale numerical simulation, not only did the convergence itself provide the source of the heavy rainfall when it interacted with the topography, but also convective cells existed within the typhoon's main rainband. The convective cells were in the form of small rainbands perpendicular to the main one, and propagated as wave trains downwind. As the main rainband moved northward and reached the southern CMR, convective cells inside the narrow convergence zone to the south and those to the north as wave trains, both rained heavily as they were lifted by the west-facing mountain slopes. Those mesoscale processes were responsible for the unprecedented heavy rainfall total that accompanied this typhoon.
Implementing Mental Health Promotion in Schools: A Process Evaluation

Recognition of the increasing burden of mental illness and the need for mental health promotion is leading researchers to explore ways of assessing the impact of mental health promotion initiatives. In particular, among young people, the impact of mental health promotion in the school setting is being investigated in terms of achieving change that is sustained. This paper argues that potential indicators of success associated with process need to be identified as a way to support schools and project teams as they implement mental health promotion initiatives. A process evaluation of a project to promote resilience in children and primary school communities using a health promotion school (HPS) approach was conducted in Brisbane, Australia, in 2004 and 2005. Aside from differences in the way in which the participating schools structured and implemented their health-promoting school projects, several critical themes emerged that have relevance to mental health promotion projects in school settings. They include the importance of time, the school context and supportive organisational structures, ethos and environment, and building resilience into the curriculum. Other themes indicated the importance of the engagement of the whole school community and of developing partnerships and services, and the usefulness of the health-promoting school framework. Such key factors should be considered in relation to the challenges facing schools that wish to promote resilience, or other concepts related to mental health.
Alignment of performance metrics in a multi-enterprise agribusiness: Achieving integrated autonomy?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the disconnect that can develop between corporate goals and those of individual intra‐organisational business units arranged as an internal supply chain within a large vertically integrated agribusiness. It also aims to explore and discuss the development of a holistic performance metrics system that facilitates internal supply chain coordination and cohesion, while allowing synergies to develop across the company.Design/methodology/approach – A case study approach involving a participative action research component was used to examine the disconnect between internal business unit (operational) goals and overall corporate (strategic) goals and to develop a conceptual performance assessment model addressing both operational and strategic contexts.Findings – The findings show that appropriate performance indicators and measures can be created that relate directly to logical operational outcomes, thus encouraging a more tightly integrated internal supply chai.
Linking In Situ Photochemical Reflectance Index Measurements With Mangrove Carbon Dynamics in a Subtropical Coastal Wetland

Photochemical reflectance index (PRI) has been found to be closely related with vegetation photosynthetic phenology in many ecosystems including boreal evergreen, but its ability to track carbon dynamics in low‐latitude evergreen mangrove ecosystems has rarely been assessed. To fill up this gap, this paper explored potential mangrove PRI‐carbon links and their environmental controls across temporal scales (diurnal and seasonal), based on 1‐year continuous high‐resolution (half‐hourly) time series measurements of spectral signals, eddy covariance carbon fluxes, and multiple environmental factors at a subtropical mangrove wetland of southeastern China. The diurnal variation of half‐hourly mangrove PRI, a U‐shaped changing pattern, was consistent with previous PRI studies on boreal evergreen, while the seasonal variation of daily mangrove PRI did not experience a hump‐shaped changing pattern as in boreal evergreen. Diurnal and seasonal mangrove PRI variations were significantly correlated with meteorological (radiation and vapor pressure deficit) and carbon‐related parameters (gross primary productivity, net ecosystem exchange, and light use efficiency), and the strength of diurnal PRI‐carbon correlations varied with meteorological factors with stronger correlations at enhanced radiation and vapor pressure deficit. Our results further indicated that physiology‐related PRI performed better than conventional structure‐related normalized difference vegetation index in tracking mangrove photosynthetic parameters. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the link between high‐frequency PRI and carbon dynamics across temporal scales in natural mangrove ecosystems. The PRI‐carbon linkage confirmed by this study will improve our understanding of temporal variations in photosynthetic carbon dynamics in mangrove ecosystems.
Analytical Propagation of Runoff Uncertainty Into Discharge Uncertainty Through a Large River Network

The transport of freshwater from continents to oceans through rivers has traditionally been estimated by routing runoff from land surface models within river models to obtain discharge. This paradigm imposes that errors are transferred from runoff to discharge, yet the analytical propagation of uncertainty from runoff to discharge has never been derived. Here we apply statistics to the continuity equation within a river network to derive two equations that propagate the mean and variance/covariance of runoff errors independently. We validate these equations in a case study of the rivers in the western United States and, for the first time, invert observed discharge errors for spatially distributed runoff errors. Our results suggest that the largest discharge error source is the joint variability of runoff errors across space, not the mean or amplitude of individual errors. Our findings significantly advance the science of error quantification in model‐based estimates of river discharge.
ELECTRO-OXIDATION TREATMENT USED FOR THE REMEDIATION OF ORGANIC POLLUTED SOILS

The objective of the experiment was to evaluate a combined treatment of contaminated soil remediation, to determine the main parameters which influence the technology, that can be considered as being applicable to petroleum contaminated soils. This type of soil has an expanded location in Romania. In the case of the experiment it was chosen the electroremediation method as main tehnique to remediate the soil samples. In adition, to improve the removal percentages, the electroremediation method was combined with chemical oxidation, therefore resulting a combined method: electro-oxidation. So far, soils have not been the subject to specific protection measures at Community level. Soil protection is reflected in various directives related to either environmental or other policy areas such as agriculture and rural development. Industrial activities brought a great amount of polluting chemicals and/or toxic substances (persistent organic compounds, heavy metals) through accidental spills or improper handling or use, which led to the current situation that consists in many contaminated sites throughout the world. Soil, sediments and groundwater pollution are a real problem for those sites that require the application of remediation technologies, as soon as possible, for the restoration of natural balance, to protect the public health and the environment. Unfortunately, conventional remediation technologies prove to be ineffective and/or to expensive for application, mostly, on low permeability soils, in the case of heterogeneous subsoil conditions or contaminants mixtures. The development of a new technology or the improvement of an existing one is imperative to resolve these problems and limitations. Recently, electrochemical technologies have proven to be effective for the remediation of sites with such complex problems. These remediation technologies used for soil and groundwater treatment is based on the application of an electric field directly in the polluted area. The effect of the electric field mobilizes ionic species that are removed from the soil and collected on the electrodes. At the same time, the electric field causes the
URBAN EXPANSION MODELING APPROACH BASED ON MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM AND CELLULAR AUTOMATA

Abstract. Urban expansion is a land-use change process that transforms non-urban land into urban land. This process results in the loss of natural vegetation and increase in impervious surfaces. Urban expansion also alters the hydrologic cycling, atmospheric circulation, and nutrient cycling processes and generates enormous environmental and social impacts. Urban expansion monitoring and modeling are crucial to understanding urban expansion process, mechanism, and its environmental impacts, and predicting urban expansion in future scenarios. Therefore, it is important to study urban expansion monitoring and modeling approaches. We proposed to simulate urban expansion by combining CA and MAS model. The proposed urban expansion model based on MSA and CA was applied to a case study area of Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomeration, China. The results show that this model can capture urban expansion with good adaptability. The Kappa coefficient of the simulation results is 0.75, which indicated that the combination of MAS and CA offered the better simulation result.
Machine Translation as an Academic Writing Aid for Medical Practitioners

In this paper we explore the utility of Machine Translation as a writing aid and its impact on the quality of the text produced. We focus on medical practitioners who are native speakers of Spanish and who need to publish their scientific work in English as a foreign language. After carrying out a general survey to determine whether Spanish-speaking medical practitioners already use MT as a writing aid, we engaged five participants in an experiment where we asked them to write a paper in Spanish that was subsequently machine translated. They were then asked to post-edit the MT output. We analyse their post-edits and further attempt to evaluate the overall quality of their texts by engaging a professional proofreader. Our results suggest that the texts produced with the help of MT+post-editing still require many edits in order to be considered of acceptable quality. In the conclusion, we identify several avenues worthy of future investigation and that could help achieve better quality.
Flavonoids from two Turkish Centaurea species and their chemotaxonomic implications

Centaurea asutro-anatolica Hub. -Mor. and C. kizildaghensis Uzunh. , E. Dogan & H. Duman, two indigenous perennial herbs from the Turkish flora, belong to the medicinally important genus Centaurea L. (fam: Asteraceae), which comprises ca. 600 species worldwide. While various Centaurea species are well-known for producing alkaloids, flavonoids, lignans and terpenoids, there is no report on any thorough phytochemical work on any of these two species available to date. In continuation of our phytochemical and bioactivity studies on the Turkish Centaurea species, four flavonoids apigenin (1), apigenin 7,4’-dimethyl ether (2), genkwanin (3) and quercetin (4) were isolated from the methanol extracts of the aerial parts of C. austro-anatolica and C. kizildaghensis, for the very first time. The structures of the flavonoids were elucidated conclusively by spectroscopic means, i.e., UV, MS and 1D and 2D NMR data analyses. The distribution of these flavonoids (1-4) within the genus Centaurea and their possible chemotaxonomic implications within the genus Centaurea or the family Asteraceae have been discussed.
Design of LCL Filter to Mitigate Harmonics in GRID Interconnected System

Due to increasing power demand and bad effects of conventional energy sources on the environment, renewable energy sources are being important. For maximizing the power extracted from renewable energy sources such as solar and to transfer it to utility grid, power converters are being used. For maximizing the power, DC-DC boost converter plays an important role. The power generated from solar is DC and most of electrical equipments run on AC hence an inverter is required. Due to use of inverter, harmonics are generated in system. To mitigate the harmonics an LCL filter is often used. LCL filter design method with proper control technique is described in this paper. This design procedure and control techniques can be used for small and medium scale renewable energy sources.