Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthesis, characterization and catalytic testing of metal tungstates as catalysts for activation of lower alkanes

The electronic and structural properties of vanadium-containing phases govern the formation of isolated active sites at the surface of these catalysts for selective alkane oxidation. This concept is not restricted to vanadium oxide. The deliberate use of hydrothermal techniques can turn the typical combustion catalyst manganese oxide into a selective catalyst for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane (ODP). Nanostructured, crystalline MnWO4 serves as the support that stabilizes a defect-rich MnOx surface phase. Oxygen defects can be reversibly replenished and depleted at the reaction temperature. Terminating MnOx zigzag chains on the (010) crystal planes are supposed to bear structurally site-isolated oxygen defects that account for the unexpectedly good performance of the catalyst in propane activation. The mechanism of C-H activation in selective oxidation reactions of short-chain alkane molecules over transition metal oxides is critically affected by the balance of acid-base and redox sites at the surface of the catalyst. Using the example of manganese tungstate we discuss how the relative abundance of these sites can be controlled via synthetic techniques. Phase-pure catalysts composed of the thermodynamic stable monoclinic MnWO4 phase have been prepared by hydrothermal synthesis. Variation of the initial pH value resulted in rod-shaped nano-crystalline MnWO4 catalysts composed of particles with varying aspect ratio. The synthesis products have been analysed by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, infrared and photoelectron spectroscopy. In-situ Raman spectroscopy was used to investigate the dissolution-re-crystallization processes occurring under hydrothermal conditions. Ethanol oxidation was applied to probe the surface functionalities in terms of acid-base and redox properties. Changes in the aspect ratio of the primary catalyst particles are reflected in the product distribution induced by altering the fraction of acid-base and redox sites exposed at the surface of the catalysts in agreement with the proposed mechanism of particle growth by re-crystallization during ageing under hydrothermal conditions. Phase-pure CoWO4 catalysts were successfully prepared by hydrothermal synthesis and tested in ODP. Higher initial pH value in the synthesis gel gives rise to a higher Co/W ratio in the near surface region as detected by XPS. Furthermore, there exists a correlation between the specific propane consumption rate and the Co/W ratio. CoWO4 enriched in tungsten in the near surface region shows low selectivity to propene, and the selectivity to conversion trajectory is similar to that of mesoporous tungsten oxide. However, the catalyst with the highest Co/W ratio shows the best selectivity to propene at around 9 % propane conversion. Moreover, the surface termination by a Co chain structure on the (010) crystal planes is confirmed by HRTEM. FT-IR spectroscopy exhibits a band at 3387 cm attributed to surface Co bridging hydroxyl groups. The terminating oxo-hydroxy layer in the catalyst precursor is
Hygienic-health quality and microbiological hazard of clandestine Minas Frescal cheese commercialized in north Tocantins, Brazil

Cheese is a popular product that integrates the diet of the majority of the population, almost on a daily basis. It is rich in nutrients and, therefore, also an excellent substrate for the multiplication of microorganisms, including pathogens. The microbiological contamination of these products is highly relevant to the industry, resulting in an economic loss, and to public health, due to the risk of causing foodborne diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the hygienic-sanitary quality and the presence of bacterial pathogens in the clandestine Minas Frescal cheeses sold in the street open markets of Araguaína, TO, Brazil. Twenty-one samples were collected to evaluate the presence of total (TC) and thermotolerant (TTC) coliforms, Escherichia coli, and the pathotypes enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), and shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), coagulase-positive staphylococci (CPS), Salmonella spp. , and Listeria monocytogenes. The results showed that 100% of the cheese samples were in disagreement with the maximum standards of TC and TTC defined in the Brazilian legislation that regulates food quality control. In addition, 85.71% of the samples had values above the standard Brazilian maximum limit. In the study of diarrheagenic E. coli, 52.38%, 66.6%, and 4.76% of the samples were positive for EPEC, STEC, and EHEC, respectively, indicating fecal origin contamination of the samples and a potential consumer risk. No Salmonella spp. or Listeria monocytogenes were detected in these cheese samples. The high count of total and thermotolerant coliforms found in the samples demonstrates unsatisfactory sanitary conditions in the production, storage, and/or commercialization of this food product. The presence of EPEC, STEC, EHEC, and coagulase-positive staphylococci at high concentrations shows the health risk of the imminent consumption of Minas Frescal cheese.
Properties of SU(2) Center Vortex Structure in Smooth Configurations

New analysis regarding the structure of center vortices is presented: Using data from gluonic SU(2) lattice simulation with Wilson action, a correlation of fluctuations in color space to the curvature of vortex fluxes was found. Finite size effects of the S2-homogeneity hint at color homogeneous regions on the vortex surface.
A Proposed Fetal Risk Scoring System for Gestational Diabetes to assist in optimizing Timing of Delivery

Background: Gestational diabetes is characterized by three main factors: macrosomia, increased metabolic rate and large vascular cross sections. A critical and crucial finding in diabetic pregnancies is that significant acidaemia and hyperlacticemia can occur in fetuses in the absence of hypoxaemia. The increased metabolic rate results in significant increases in oxidative metabolism but this capacity is reduced in fetuses due to low pyruvate dehydrogenase activity increasing the risk for acidosis. This pathophysiology is not recognized by standard monitoring models which revolves around placental insufficiency which is in fact not the problem in a gestational diabetic pregnancy. A proposed risk scoring system has been developed based on our previous studies to risk categorise gestational diabetics in terms of fetal outcome.Methods: The diabetic cases from four case-control studies were combined to form a total sample of 159 cases for validation of the risk scoring system. Univariate logistic regression was used to assess the effect of individual risk factors with proposed cutoffs on adverse pregnancy outcome. The diagnostic accuracy of the total summative score, was assessed by computing the area under the ROC curve.Results: Four potential parameters were identified to risk- categorise fetuses in a gestational diabetic pregnancy ie the myocardial performance index (MPI), E/A ratio (marker of diastolic dysfunction), increasing fetal weight (macrosomia) and increased amniotic fluid index (AFI). The total score, obtained by summation of the composite scores for parameters ranged from 0 to 11. The total score performed as an excellent predictor of adverse outcome, evidenced by the ROC area under the curve of 0.94. A cutpoint of 6 on the score confers a sensitivity of 84.2% and specificity of 90.2% for detection of adverse outcome. Conclusion: To our knowledge this is the first Gestational Diabetic Scoring system proposed to predict an adverse outcome.
Tri-level handwritten text segmentation techniques for Gujarati language

Objectives : To improve the eﬃciency of tri-level segmentation tasks for handwritten Gujarati text. Methods : Using hybrid methods for tri-level segmentation, we have used line, word and character segmentation from the image. This study presents a segmentation paradigm that works with touching characters, slop of the line written on the page, character overlapping, etc. It evaluated on the dataset of 500+ images created by us on diﬀerent writing sentences by diﬀerent people. We have used the Horizontal projection technique for line segmentation, Scale-space technique for word segmentation and the Vertical projection technique for character segmentation . Findings : The experimental results show that the proposed method is more eﬃcient for handwritten Gujarati text with diacritics. We have obtained the accuracy for character level segmentation is 82%, word-level is 90% and for the line-level segmentation is 87% . Novelty : We have designed a methodology to segment Gujarati handwritten text with diacritics at all three levels including characters, words and lines . Applications : We have proposed tri-level segmentation which is pre-processing task that can be used in any character recognition systems i.e. OCR.
Development and Application of Dissolved Oxygen Analyzer Based on Fluorescence Quenching Principle

A sensor membrane sensitive to dissolved oxygen has been developed,and the main fluorescent material is an organic Ru complex.When excited by a strong light with a central wavelength of 465 nm,the sensor membrane can generate a fluorescence with a central wavelength of 620 nm,the dissolved oxygen in water can quench the excited fluorescence,and the quenching degree has a linear relationship with the dissolved oxygen concentration.The fluorescence strength of sensor membrane in the nitrogen-saturated water is about 20 times that in the oxygen-saturated water,so making a comparison between the fluorescence signal strengths in a water sample before and after quenching will determine the dissolved oxygen concentration in the water sample.Based on the principle and the fluorimetric technology,an optical dissolved oxygen analyzer was developed and used to test 6 different natural water samples,and the results determined with the analyzer have no significant difference from those with the standard iodimetric method with an error of no greater than 2% and a response time of less than 1 minute.It is shown from the 36-hour-underwater stability test results that the mean deviation of the measued dissolved oxygen values is less than 0.2 mg/L,which indicates that the analyzer is applicable to adverse environment and has a better stability.
Treating lexical retrieval using letter fluency and tDCS in primary progressive aphasia: a single-case study

ABSTRACT Background In early stages, individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) report language symptoms while scoring within norm in formal language tests. Early intervention is important due to the progressive nature of the disease. Method We report a single-case study of an individual with logopenic variant PPA (lvPPA). We tested whether letter fluency, used as a therapy task, can improve lexical retrieval when combined with tDCS to either the left inferior-frontal gyrus (IFG) or the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL), administered in two separate therapy phases separated by a wash-out period of 3 months. Outcomes and results We observed increases in number of words retrieved during a letter fluency task in trained and untrained letters, when letter fluency therapy (LeFT) was administered with anodal tDCS. When LeFT was combined with left IFG stimulation, words produced in a letter fluency task were lower frequency and higher age of acquisition after treatment, compared to before treatment and there was also an increase in accuracy and response times in an untrained picture-naming task. Conclusions The results indicate that letter fluency therapy combined anodal tDCS is effective in improving lexical retrieval, particularly when left IFG stimulation was used. Effects generalize beyond the trained task, albeit slowing down of responses in picture naming. This task may provide a useful clinical intervention strategy for patients with mild anomia, who are not challenged enough by traditional naming therapies.
Growing through life’s bumpy moments: key experiences transforming the careers of positive veteran performing arts teachers

ABSTRACT With many performing arts teachers succumbing to stress and burn-out and rates of attrition growing, it is critical to understand factors which enable some teachers to remain positive, committed and enthusiastic in their teaching. Interviews with four female veteran performing arts teachers revealed ways in which key complex and profound experiences of their careers had enriched their professional lives. Given the significant impact these positive veteran teachers continue to have on their colleagues and students, we advocate the importance of utilising the stability these teachers can provide in shepherding colleagues and beginning teachers through their own inevitable bumpy moments in their careers.
Investigation of Increasing Essential Oil and Maintaining Forage Quality and Digestibility of the Prangos ferulacea using an Optimizer Apparatus Design

The purpose of the present research was to evaluate the essential oil and forage quality optimizer (EFO) apparatus to improve oils, while preserving forage quality and digestibility for the first time. Prangos ferulacea L. Lindl aerial parts were collected and used for the essential oil, forage quality, and digestibility analysis. Effects of temperature treatments (60, 75 and 90° C) at EFO method on essential oil were compared to steam distillation. After the oil extraction, the nutrient compositions were measured and compared with the samples of before extracting. The results showed a significant increase in the content of essential oil in 75°C compared to the other treatments (p <0.05). Also, the quality and the digestibility of fodder were as follows: SD method < before the essential oil extraction < the EFO innovative method (75°C). Therefore, temperature of 75 °C in EFO was concluded as the optimum temperature, for increasing both of the quality and quantity of oil as well as preserving the quality and digestibility of forage. It is suggested that the EFO can be tested to obtain a more qualitative essential oil and forage that can be exploited in the pharmaceutical and animal food industry.
Pre-Training Time-Aware Location Embeddings from Spatial-Temporal Trajectories

With the increasing accumulation of spatial-temporal trajectory data, location-based data mining has recently been extensively studied. A fundamental research topic in this field is learning the embedding vectors of locations through self-supervised pre-training. Pre-trained embedding vectors can utilize the highly available unlabeled trajectory data, and benefit downstream tasks in multiple aspects. However, most existing methods ignore the temporal information hidden in the visited time of locations in trajectories. Considering that human activities are highly regulated by specific periods of a day, temporal information can reflect some intrinsic characteristics of locations, so it is necessary to fuse them into location embedding vectors. In this paper, we propose a Time-Aware Location Embedding (TALE) pre-training method based on the CBOW framework, which is able to incorporate temporal information into the learned embedding vectors of locations. A novel temporal tree structure is designed to extract temporal information during the calculation of Hierarchical Softmax. In order to verify the effectiveness of TALE, we apply the learned embedding vectors into three downstream location-based prediction tasks, i.e., location classification, location visitor flow prediction and user next location prediction. Experiments are conducted on four real-world user trajectory datasets, and the experimental results demonstrate that our TALE model can obviously help downstream tasks gain better performance.
Earthquake Swarm Detection Along the Hikurangi Trench, New Zealand: Insights Into the Relationship Between Seismicity and Slow Slip Events

Earthquake swarms, which are anomalous increases in the seismicity rate without a distinguishable mainshock, often accompany transient aseismic processes, such as fluid migration and episodic aseismic slip along faults. Investigations of earthquake swarm activity can provide insights into the causal relationship between aseismic processes and seismicity. Slow slip events (SSEs) along the plate interface in the Hikurangi Trench, New Zealand, are often accompanied by intensive earthquake swarms. However, the detailed spatiotemporal distribution of these earthquake swarms is still unclear. Here, we use the epidemic‐type aftershock‐sequence (ETAS) model to detect earthquake swarms (M ≥ 3) and create a new earthquake swarm catalog (1997–2015) along the Hikurangi Trench. We compare the earthquake swarm catalog with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) time series data, and existing SSE and tectonic tremor catalogs. Most of the detected (119) earthquake swarm sequences were intraplate events, and their epicenters were mainly concentrated along the east coast of the North Island, whereas many tectonic tremors were located inland. Twenty‐five of the detected earthquake swarms occurred within 25 days before and after transient eastward GNSS displacements due to known or newly detected SSEs. We find that the earthquake swarms sometimes preceded the GNSS displacements by more than several days. SSE‐induced stress loading is therefore not a plausible triggering mechanism for these pre‐SSE earthquake swarms. We propose that high fluid pressure within the slab, which accumulated before the SSEs, may have caused intraplate fluid migration, which in turn triggered the pre‐SSE earthquake swarms.
Can Anyone Implement the Law? The Discourse and Practice of Externalizing Legal Authority

Allowing private companies to de facto exercise legal authority is becoming increasingly common in several countries. Externalizing legal authority is sustained by a discourse replacing a conventional institutional approach to law enforcement with a functional approach where the agent is less important than efficiency and expected outcomes. Drawing on two brief case studies in Sweden—automobile inspections and reviews of international financial transactions—we argue that legal authority is transferred to for-profit actors with only a minimum of safeguards and accountability. For-profit actors are legal authority insiders but outsiders in the democratic chain of accountability.
Lifting the veil: Considering the conceptualizations of racism-based trauma among social workers

There is often a superficial veil that divides those willing to discuss the construct of race and those participating in racial ambivalence or color blindness. Talking about race, racism, and the traumatic effects of racism is a discussion that society is still learning how to navigate. This qualitative study, utilizing the narratives of 13 social workers, was the first to question how social workers, in the role of justice system advocates, engage with the construct of racism-based trauma experienced by the incarcerated person. Data analysis revealed that participants conceptualized racism-based trauma as an often unbeknownst and persistently stressful reaction to a covert or overt racially oppressive situation potentially accentuated by place or locale. Results highlight the importance of increasing knowledge in the construct of racism-based trauma to be beneficial in practice while confronting white privilege and allyship were identified challenges. Participants, varying in their education, indicated having received no training on racism-based trauma. An engagement with one’s racial identity before and during a critique of racialized systems was also posited as being beneficial. The aims of engaging with construct ultimately strengthen and diversify social work pedagogy, training, and policies regarding marginalized groups.
Mediating Effect of Customer Skill on Educating and Co-Creation on Higher Education (Conceptual Paper)

The intense competition in the service industry has changed the company's perspective to pay more attention to consumers ' wishes. This new perspective is known as Service Dominant Logic. Along with this transition, the company develops the concept of co-creation with its customers so that the resulting products can meet customer desires. The purpose of this research is to build a conceptual framework of the effects of mediation of customer expertise in relation between customer education and co-creation on Higher Education (HE). Earlier studies suggested that there are several variables of the consumer resources that have a direct effect on co-creation. Among them are customer education, skills, experience, ideas, etc. But mostly researched in the context of manufacturing industry. There is still a little research of co-creation in the field of education services industry.
Layer-by-Layer Assembly of Bio-functionalized Carbon Nanotubes for Rapid and Discriminate Detection of Organophosphate Neurotoxins

ii Acknowledgments. iii List of Tables . vii List of Figures . viii List of Abbreviations . xiv Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 Neurotoxic Compounds . 1 Biosensors . 4 Electrochemical Sensors . 5 Carbon nanotubes . 7 Enzymes/Enzyme Immobilization . 8 Organophosphate Hydrolase . 10 Organophosphate Acid Anhydrolase . 12 Acetylcholinesterase . 12 Other Inhibition-based Enzymes . 14 Glucose Oxidase . 14 Multi-Enzyme Strategies . 16 Layer-by-layer Assembly . 17 Chapter 2: Experimental Procedures . 22 Materials . 22 Equipment . 22
Large-Eddy Simulations of Stability-Varying Atmospheric Boundary Layer Flow over Isolated Buildings

This study explores the response of flow around isolated cuboid buildings to variations in the incoming turbulence arising from changes in atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) stability using a building-resolving large-eddy simulation (LES) technique with explicit representation of building effects through an immersed body force method. An extensive suite of LES for a neutral ABL with different model resolution and advection scheme configurations reveals that at least 6, 12, and 24 grid points per building side are required in order to resolve building-induced vortex shedding, mean-flow features, and turbulence statistics, respectively, with an advection scheme of a minimum of third order. Using model resolutions that meet this requirement, 21 building-resolving simulations are performed under varying atmospheric stability conditions, from weakly stable to convective ABLs, and for different building sizes (H), resulting in LABL/H ≈ 0.1–10, where LABL is the integral length scale of the incoming ABL turbulence. The building-induced flow features observed in the canonical neutral ABL simulation, e.g., the upstream horseshoe vortex and the downstream arch vortex, gradually weaken with increasing surface-driven convective instability due to the enhancement of background turbulent mixing. As a result, two local turbulence kinetic energy peaks on the lateral side of the building in nonconvective cases are merged into a single peak in strong convective cases. By considering the ABL turbulence scale and building size altogether, it is shown that the building impact decreases with increasing LABL/H, as coherent turbulent structures in the ABL become more dominant over a building-induced flow response for LABL/H > 1.