Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determination of Biological Treatability Processes of Textile Wastewater and Implementation of a Fuzzy Logic Model

This study investigated the biological treatability of textile wastewater. For this purpose, a membrane bioreactor (MBR) was utilized for biological treatment after the ozonation process. Due to the refractory organic contents of textile wastewater that has a low biodegradability capacity, ozonation was implemented as an advanced oxidation process prior to the MBR system to increase the biodegradability of the wastewater. Textile wastewater, oxidized by ozonation, was fed to the MBR at different hydraulic retention times (HRT). During the process, color, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) removal efficiencies were monitored for 24-hour, 12-hour, 6-hour, and 3-hour retention times. Under these conditions, 94% color, 65% COD, and 55% BOD removal efficiencies were obtained in the MBR system. The experimental outputs were modeled with multiple linear regressions (MLR) and fuzzy logic. MLR results suggested that color removal is more related to COD removal relative to BOD removal. A surface map of this issue was prepared with a fuzzy logic model. Furthermore, fuzzy logic was employed to the whole modeling of the biological system treatment. Determination coefficients for COD, BOD, and color removal efficiencies were 0.96, 0.97, and 0.92, respectively.
One for all: can individual plant species indicate the overall number of plant species?

Questions: Is the number of forest vascular plant species an indicator of the total number of plant species? Is there a forest species that might serve to indicate a high number of plant species? Data: The flora of the sparsely populated Udomlya district (Tver region, central part of European Russia) mapped into 99 squares, each 5 km × 5 km. Methods: Test for a correlation between the number of forest species and the total number of species in a grid-cell. For each species, test for a correlation between the range in the number of species within grid-cells it occupies versus the mean number of species within those same grid-cells. Conclusion: The number of forest vascular plant species correlates positively but weakly with the total number of plant species. In general, a high number of species should be associated with species that are typical of rare habitat types (in the district). Thus indicators of a high number of species were not forest species, but species typical of open, mainly disturbed habitats (e.g. Avena sativa, Crataegus sanguinea, Lycopsis arvensis). Due to their unavoidable rarity, we cannot recommend using any of the species consistently found in speciose grid-cells as indicators of a high number of species in grid-cells within the central part of Eastern Europe. Floristic surveys remain an essential tool for studies of biodiversity and for evaluating human impact on ecosystems.
Threshold Research on Highway Length under Typical Landscape Patterns Based on Drivers’ Physiological Performance

The appropriately landscaped highway scenes may not only help improve road safety and comfort but also help protect ecological environment. Yet there is very little research data on highway length threshold with consideration of distinctive landscape patterns. Against this backdrop, the paper aims to quantitatively analyze highway landscape’s effect on driving behavior based on drivers’ physiological performance and quantify highway length thresholds under three typical landscape patterns, namely, “open,” “semiopen,” and “vertical” ones. The statistical analysis was based on data collected in a driving simulator and electrocardiograph. Specifically, vehicle-related data, ECG data, and supplemental subjective stress perception were collected. The study extracted two characteristic indices, lane deviation and LF/HF, and extrapolated the drivers’ U-shaped physiological response to landscape patterns. Models on highway length were built based on LF/HF’s variation trend with highway length. The results revealed that the theoretical highway length threshold tended to increase when the landscape pattern was switched to open, semiopen, and vertical ones. And the reliability and accuracy of the results were validated by questionnaires and field operational tests. Findings from this research will assist practitioners in taking active environmental countermeasures pertaining to different roadside landscape patterns.
CHARACTERIZATION OF GENETIC DIVERSITY OF VIOLA ODORATA FROM DIFFERENT REGIONS OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR USING RAPD PRIMERS

Viola odorata has been recognized as an important medicinal plant due to its role in the treatment of respiratory disorders and secondary cancer tumors. Genetic diversity was studied in ten Viola odorata samples collected from 10 different regions of Jammu and Kashmir. A total of 118 bands were amplified in ten V. odorata samples using 9 RAPD primers. Out of these 107 bands were polymorphic and 11 were monomorphic. Maximum numbers of bands were generated from the primer OPA19 giving 25 bands out of which 24 were polymorphic. A 100% polymorphism was obtained with two primers OPA-04 and by OPH-08 followed by primer OPA-19 showing a polymorphism of 96%. The genetic dissimilarity index calculated varied from 0.33 to 0.94 for ten Viola samples. The generated dendrogram based on the dissimilarity matrix using the neighbor- joining approach showed three distinct clusters.
Sustainable development and energy sector regulatory models

This work was financed by: the QREN – Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors, the European Union – European Regional Development Fund and National Funds- Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under Project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-011377 and Project Pest-OE/EME/UI0252/2011.
Economic Analysis of Rice Consumption Patterns in Nigeria

This study examined the nature and patterns of rice consumption in Nigeria, using Kwara State as a case study. The study methodology comprised a two stage sampling technique which was used to survey 110 rice consumer households across two villages and six towns in Kwara State. Analytical tools used in the study include descriptive statistics and the multinomial logit model. The major factors that significantly influence household preferences for either a combination of local and imported rice or the imported rice only to the local rice were the income of the head of household, household size and the educational status of the heads of household, the price per unit kilogramme of rice, however, was not a significant factor. This study therefore recommends that an effort should be made to increase rice production coupled with the provision of standard processing facilities. This will help to make the local rice sufficiently more competitive thereby increasing its demand.
imultaneous measurements of above and below canopy ozone fluxes elp partitioning ozone deposition between its various sinks in a editerranean Oak Forest

Castelporziano Estate is a coastal forest 25 km from downtown Rome. It is an ideal site to study interactions between Mediterranean forest ecosystems and a polluted atmosphere. Two eddy covariance systems were used to simultaneously measure water vapour and ozone fluxes above and below a canopy of Holm Oak (Quercus ilex). Additional measurements of environmental parameters allowed to calculate stomatal ozone fluxes in order to parameterize atmospheric models and new algorithms for discriminating ozone deposition into its three more significant sinks: soil, stomata, and cuticles. Results showed ddy covariance measurements
A procedure to analyze the viability of rainwater harvesting systems in urban areas based on pre-defined diagrams

Giving some specific precipitation regimes and technical design parameters, urban Rainwater Harvesting Systems (RWHS) may represent an alternative source to drinking water supply system promoting its conservation and rational use. The use of RWHS requires the definition of generic and simplified method for sizing RWHS accumulation tanks, which is has being considered the most expensive component of the system. Additionally, several methods have being used to define reservoir volumes leading to a wide variety of final reservoir volumes many of them over estimated. The main objective of this article is to present a new methodology to define RWHS reservoir volumes considering technical and economic viabilities of the systems. The proposed methodology was incorporated into a Decision Support System (DSS), named SARA. The method provides an alternative way to define smaller RWHS reservoir volumes once it accepts lower levels of reliabilities giving that the RWHS is considered a complimentary system, better suited for urban areas. RWHS design diagrams are built as a result of the methodology in an attempt to offer a tool to initial and rapid design of reservoir volumes for RWSH. The method was applied to different urban areas in Brazil.
Composition and variability of the Denmark Strait Overflow Water in a high-resolution numerical model hindcast simulation

The upstream sources and pathways of the Denmark Strait Overflow Water and their variability have been investigated using a high-resolution model hindcast. This global simulation covers the period from 1948 to 2009 and uses a fine model mesh (1/20°) to resolve mesoscale features and the complex current structure north of Iceland explicitly. The three sources of the Denmark Strait Overflow, the shelfbreak East Greenland Current (EGC), the separated EGC, and the North Icelandic Jet, have been analyzed using Eulerian and Lagrangian diagnostics. The shelfbreak EGC contributes the largest fraction in terms of volume and freshwater transport to the Denmark Strait Overflow and is the main driver of the overflow variability. The North Icelandic Jet contributes the densest water to the Denmark Strait Overflow and shows only small temporal transport variations. During summer, the net volume and freshwater transports to the south are reduced. On interannual time scales, these transports are highly correlated with the large-scale wind stress curl around Iceland and, to some extent, influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation, with enhanced southward transports during positive phases. The Lagrangian trajectories support the existence of a hypothesized overturning loop along the shelfbreak north of Iceland, where water carried by the North Icelandic Irminger Current is transformed and feeds the North Icelandic Jet. Monitoring these two currents and the region north of the Iceland shelfbreak could provide the potential to track long-term changes in the Denmark Strait Overflow and thus also the AMOC.
Image Compression using Wavelet and Modified Extreme Learning Machine

The development of Internet and multimedia technologies that grow exponentially, resulting in the amount of information managed by computer is necessary. This causes serious problems in storage and transmission image data. Therefore, should be considered a way to compress data so that the storage capacity required will be smaller. This paper presents a method of compressing still images combining the powerful features of modified extreme learning machine (MELM) for learning with discrete wavelet transform (DWT) in image transformation. DWT, based on the haar wavelet, has been used to transform the image and the coefficients acquired from DWT are then trained with MELM. MELM has the property that it selects a minimal number of coefficients to model the training data. The coefficients are then quantized and encoded using the Huffman coding algorithm. The performance of the proposed method is aspiring and comparable with the existing image compression standards.
DECAY OF THE TURBULENT WAKE FROM THE SUPERSONIC MICRO RAMP

The wake resulting from two micro ramps operating in a supersonic boundary layer at Ma = 2:0 is investigated by means of PIV. Two micro ramps are investigated with height of 60% and 80% of the undisturbed boundary layer with thickness of 5.2 mm. The measurement domain encompasses the range from 10 to 32 ramp heights downstream of the device. The decay properties are evaluated in terms of time-averaged and root-mean-square (RMS) statistics. In the time-averaged flow field, the recovery of the imparted momentum deficit and the decay of upwash motion are revealed. The RMS fluctuations of the velocity components exhibit strong anisotropy at upstream locations but develop into a more isotropic regime downstream. The Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instability at the upper shear layer further develops with the onset of vortex pairing. The wavelength evolution is estimated using statistic-based spatial auto-correlation. A marked transition with the wavelength nearly doubled is observed across the pairing regime.
The structure of lizard communities

Strictly speaking, a community is composed of all the organisms that live together in a particular habitat. Community structure concerns all the various ways in which the members of such a community relate to and interact with one another, as well as community-level properties that emerge from these interactions, such as trophic structure, energy flow, species diversity, relative abundance, and community stabil­ ity. In practice, ecologists are usually unable to study entire communities, but instead interest is often focused on some convenient and tractable subset (usually taxonomic) of a particular community or series of communities. Thus one reads about plant communities, fish communities, bird communities, and so on. My topic here is the structure of lizard communities in this somewhat loose sense of the word (perhaps assemblage would be a more accurate description); my emphasis is on the niche relationships among such sympatric sets of lizard species, especially as they affect the numbers of species that coexist within lizard communities (species den­ sity). So defined, the simplest (and perhaps least interesting) lizard communities would be those that contain but a single species, as, for instance, northern populations of Eumeces msciatus. At the other extreme, probably the most complex lizard commu­ nities are those of the Australian sandridge deserts where as many as 40 different species occur in sympatry (20). Usually species densities of sympatric lizards vary from about 4 or 5 species to perhaps as many as 20. Lizard communities in arid regions are generally richer in species than those in wetter areas; therefore, because almost all ecological studies of entire saurofaunas have been in deserts (l8, 20, 25), this paper emphasizes the structure of desert lizard communities. As such, I review mostly my own work. Other studies on lizard communities in nondesert habitats are, however, cited where appropriate. Historical factors such as degree of isolation and available biotic stocks (particu­ larly the species pools of potential competitors and predators) have profoundly shaped lizard communities. Thus one reason the Australian deserts support such very rich lizard communities may be that competition with, and perhaps predation pressures from, snakes, birds, and mammals are reduced on that continent (20).
An exploratory study of a pulsating heat pipe operated with a two component fluid mixture

A Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP) is essentially a passive two-phase heat transfer device. In this study a simple device was built and investigated at different heat inputs with pure ethanol and with its azeotropic binary mixture, respectively. Relevant parameters, i.e., local fluid and wall temperatures and corresponding internal pressure fluctuations, were recorded and the ensuing internal two-phase flow patterns visualized. The local heat transfer coefficient in the evaporator zone as well as the overall thermal resistance for the PHP working with the two fluids have been estimated at different heat inputs and matched. Appreciable difference has not been observed in the two cases, maximum heat transfer coefficient being ~ 4600 W/mK.
Large multinodular goiter--outpatient radioiodine treatment.

INTRODUCTION 131-I treatment of nodular, especially nontoxic, goitre is still reserved mainly for elderly patients, whose numerous concomitant diseases disqualify them from surgery. Therapy often involves isolation and is available only in selected centres, which may be located far from some patients' places of residence, which is inconvenient for elderly people. The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of outpatient fractionated 131-I treatment of patients with large nodular goitres, as well as to evaluate complications and the factors affecting treatment results. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study included 35 patients with a large nodular goitre. Thyroid volume and treatment results were evaluated using US and CT neck examination. RESULTS Mean thyroid volume prior to treatment was 104.36 mL (range 36.23-301.09 mL). An average administered 131-I activity was 1806 MBq (range 800-4000). The average reduction of goitre volume was 43.18% (range -17.23-89.66%). Final treatment results correlated with the thyroid size reduction obtained three months after treatment (r = 0.74; p = 0.001). Symptoms of transient hyperthyroidism were observed in 8.57% of patients, in 5.4% Graves disease was induced (including severe Graves' orbitopathy in 2.7%), and in 2.86% TRAb increase without development of hyperthyroidism was observed. The treatment results were not influenced by initial thyroid volume (r = -0.01; p = 0.95). An increase in thyroid volume during the treatment was reported in 20% of patients, with a mean increase of 22.3% (range 0.63-55.03%). Post-treatment hypothyroidism was diagnosed in 42.9% of patients. One patient was diagnosed with salivary gland damage. CONCLUSIONS Fractionated 131-I treatment of large nodular goitres is an effective method, the results of which are comparable to those obtained from the administration of one-time high doses of radioiodine.
The Distributional Consequences of Foreign Transfers: Do they Reduce or Exacerbate Inequality?

This paper employs a dynamic two-sector dependent-economy model to study the impact of foreign transfers on a country's aggregate economic performance, as well as its distributions of wealth, income, and welfare. The transfers may be allocated to debt reduction, or to the productivity enhancement of the traded or nontraded sector. The effect of the transfer on aggregate economic performance depends crucially upon: (i) the relative capital intensities of the two productive sectors, and (ii) the allocation of the transfers across the sectors. The consequences for wealth and income inequality depend not only upon these factors, but also upon (iii) the economy's access to the world financial market. Most of the analysis is conducted using simulations, where we characterize the dynamic evolution of both the aggregate economy and the inequality measures. Whether growth and inequality are positively or negatively associated over time depends upon the three factors noted above. Copyright 2012 Oxford University Press 2011 All rights reserved, Oxford University Press.
Quality Assessment Method of Web Documents Based on Random Forest

This paper proposes a method based on the method of Random Forest (RF) for better assessing quality of web documents, and formulates a novel quality evaluation index system including features of organization structure, network access and content. In order to extract the content feature of a document, a topic coverage degree calculation model based on LDA is put forward. Finally, it conduct some experiments on two document sets: Wikipedia and Baidu Encyclopedia, and precision rate, recall rate and F-Measure are used to verify the validity of the proposed quality assessment method. Experimental results show that the proposed evaluation index system and the RF-based quality assessment method can achieve good performance and advantages.
Effect of a ground shield of a silicon on-chip spiral inductor

This paper proposes a new layout for a silicon on-chip spiral inductor and analyzes the effectiveness of a ground shield that is considered to enhance the quality factor of a spiral inductor on a silicon chip. The effective series resistance becomes low when a ground shield is placed under a spiral inductor. Furthermore, a spiral inductor with a surrounding ground shield (SGS) does not significantly improve the quality factor, but a spiral inductor with a patterned ground shield (PGS) may do so.
Limiting spectral distribution for Wigner matrices with dependent entries

In this article we show the existence of limiting spectral distribution of a symmetric random matrix whose entries come from a stationary Gaussian process with covariances satisfying a summability condition. We provide an explicit description of the moments of the limiting measure. We also show that in some special cases the Gaussian assumption can be relaxed. The description of the limiting measure can also be made via its Stieltjes transform which is characterized as the solution of a functional equation. In two special cases, we get a description of the limiting measure - one as a free product convolution of two distributions, and the other one as a dilation of the Wigner semicircular law.
Asiatic black bear–human interactions around Dachigam National Park, Kashmir, India

Abstract We assessed patterns of Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus)–human interactions in the peripheral areas of the Dachigam landscape (∼1,000 km2) that encompass Dachigam National Park, Over-Aru Wildlife Sanctuary, and 8 conservation reserves, in Kashmir, India, based on semi-structured interviews with villagers living near the protected areas during 2007–09. We recorded considerable overlap in resource use by bears and humans in this landscape: 72% of villagers interviewed (n = 227) claimed that they depended on forest resources in bear habitats, and 85% reported crop depredation by black bears. The 3 types of bear–human interactions recorded in Dachigam landscape were crop depredation, bear attacks on humans, and livestock depredation. Of these, crop damage (85%) was most common, which occurred during May–December and peaked in summer (Jun–Sep), when bears were active and crop production was at its highest. We recorded 19 cases of attacks on humans; all occurred during May–November with the maximum cases at crepuscular times (59%), in crop fields (63%), and in summer (52%). Livestock depredations were less common than other categories of bear–human interactions; 7 cases were recorded, mostly during winter. Based on our observations, we suggest strengthening indigenous crop protection methods, improving livestock night shelters, and monitoring high conflict areas by strengthened management teams. These measures have improved management of problem bears and have led to gains in local community support for bear conservation in other areas with black bear–human interactions.
INFLUENCE OF ELEVATED LEVEL OF CO2 ON BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF GLYCINE MAX (L.) MERR. INOCULATED WITH BRADYRHIZOBIUM JAPONICUM

Effect of elevated CO2 with Bradyrhizobium japonicum strain (KUCC-118) on some biochemical parameters of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr was studied. The sterilized seeds of Glycine max were coated with Bradyrhizobium japonicum. The seedling of soybean was fumigated with 2% (20000ppm) and 3% (30000ppm) CO2 for 10 and 20 mins. , duration. Seedlings were exposed twice a day in a week to elevated CO2. The 3% (3000ppm) CO2 fumigated plants showed weekly reduction in carbohydrate, total protein, total DNA and total RNA as compared to the exposure of 2% (2000ppm) concentration of CO2. Control plants which were grown in ambient level (330ppm) of CO2 with inoculation of Bradyrhizobium japonicum showed significant increase in biochemical parameters.