Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kinetic and mechanistic study into emission of HCl in fires of PVC

PVC pyrolyses in fires eliminating HCl, which can subsequently participate in the formation of chloroaromatic pollutants. In this study, the Density Functional Theory (DFT) has been deployed to simulate the mechanisms of HCl elimination from pyrolysing PVC. Although PVC consists mainly of polymerised chloroethene, it also contains other structural entities as impurities or defect compounds, which significantly enhance its decomposition. For this reason, we have studied elimination of HCl from seven compounds that represent the defects in PVC. We have found two generic pathways for the elimination of HCl. The first involves a C-Cl fission at an allylic site and a C-H cleavage at a vinylic site, whereas the second entails scissions of allylic Cl and methylenic H. The latter pathway appears more favourable from thermodynamic and kinetic standpoints. We have investigated the effect of the length of carbon chain on reaction and activation enthalpies by considering analogous dehydrochlorination pathways for short chlorinated aliphatics (i.e., C3, C4), discovering the reaction and activation enthalpies required for HCl elimination to be independent of the length of the carbon chain. We then explored the effects of temperature and pressure on rate constants for all possible dehydrochlorination pathways within the formalism of the unimolecular reaction rate theory of RRKM. Pressure fall-off regions extend generally between 0.001 and 1.0 atm, and the dehydrochlorination reactions exhibit pressure-independent behaviour even under ambient pressure. Kinetic parameters presented herein should be useful to model the decomposition of PVC in fires.
5G integrated Fiber-Wireless networks exploiting existing photonic technologies for high-density SDN programmable network architectures Deliverable D7.2 Fully assembled FlexBox, FlexBox-Pro-SDM and 25/400 Gb/s 64x64 MIMO RRH prototypes

: 5G-PHOS aims to architect and evaluate Fifth Generation (5G) broadband networks for dense, ultra-dense and hotspot area use cases capitalizing on the convergence of fiber wireless (FiWi) technologies and migrating from Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) to seamlessly integrated FiWi with support to Millimeter Wave (mmWave) Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (mMIMO) communications. This deliverable elaborates on the design and characterization of the 5G-PHOS hardware components that will be employed as the remote radio head (RRH) and FlexBox modules. Furthermore, an experimental evaluation of the Analog-over-Fiber optical transmission based on commercial devices is described.
Three‐dimensional developing flow model for photocatalytic monolith reactors

A first-principles mathematical model describes performance of a titania-coated honeycomb monolith photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) reactor for air purification. The single-channel, 3-D convection-diffusion-reaction model assumes steady-state operation, negligible axial dispersion, and negligible homogeneous reaction. The reactor model accounts rigorously for entrance effects arising from the developing fluid-flow field and uses a previously developed first-principles radiation-field submodel for the UV flux profile down the monolith length. The model requires specification of an intrinsic photocatalytic reaction rate dependent on local UV light intensity and local reactant concentration, and uses reaction-rate expressions and kinetic parameters determined independently using a flat-plate reactor. Model predictions matched experimental pilot-scale formaldehyde conversion measurements for a range of inlet formaldehyde concentrations, air humidity levels, monolith lengths, and for various monolith/lamp-bank configurations. This agreement was realized without benefit of any adjustable photocatalytic reactor model parameters, radiation-field submodel parameters, or kinetic submodel parameters. The model tends to systematically overpredict toluene conversion data by about 33%, which falls within the accepted limits of experimental kinetic parameter accuracy. With further validation, the model could be used in PCO reactor design and to develop quantitative energy utilization metrics.
"Mechanisms of Policy Stability and Change: epistemological and theoretical implications of the application of the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework to the analysis and explanation of policy dynamics"

Theoretical debate on policy dynamics in the field of policy studies has been dominated during the last years by three major approaches – the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), the Punctuated-Equilibrium Theory (PET), and the Multiple Streams (MS) approach. Despite their acceptation, they are not exempt from weaknesses which have been frequently pointed out by scholars in the area. In this context, the author has proposed an alternative synthetic framework for the analysis of policy dynamics built on the basis of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, articulated around a number of causal mechanisms explaining policy stability and change (MPSC). This paper outlines the main elements of the MPSC framework, and explores in deep the implications of the underlying epistemological and theoretical choices implicit in it.
SolarSLAM: Battery-free Loop Closure for Indoor Localisation

In this paper, we propose SolarSLAM, a batteryfree loop closure method for indoor localisation. Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) based indoor localisation method has been widely used due to its ubiquity in mobile devices, such as mobile phones, smartwatches and wearable bands. However, it suffers from the unavoidable long term drift. To mitigate the localisation error, many loop closure solutions have been proposed using sophisticated sensors, such as cameras, laser, etc. Despite achieving high-precision localisation performance, these sensors consume a huge amount of energy. Different from those solutions, the proposed SolarSLAM takes advantage of an energy harvesting solar cell as a sensor and achieves effective battery-free loop closure method. The proposed method suggests the key-point dynamic time warping for detecting loops and uses robust simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) as the optimiser to remove falsely recognised loop closures. Extensive evaluations in the real environments have been conducted to demonstrate the advantageous photocurrent characteristics for indoor localisation and good localisation accuracy of the proposed method.
Nanoparticle Formation from a Commercial Air Freshener at Real-exposure Concentrations of Ozone

Occupational nanomaterial exposure is an important issue in the manufacture of such products. People are also exposed to various nanoparticles in their living environments. In this study, we investigated nanoparticle formation during the reaction of ozone and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from a commercial air freshener, one of many widely used consumer products, in a 1-㎥ reaction chamber. The air freshener contained various VOCs, particularly terpenes. A petri dish containing 0.5 mL of the air freshener specimen was placed in the bottom of the chamber, and ozone was continuously injected into the center of the chamber at a flow rate of 4 L/min with an ozone concentration of either 50, 100 or 200 ppb. Each test was conducted over a period of about 4 h. The higher ozone concentrations produced larger secondary nanoparticles at a faster rate. The amount of ozone reacted was highly correlated with the amount of aerosol formation. Ratios of reacted ozone concentration and of formed particle mass concentration for the three injected ozone concentrations of 50, 100 and 200 ppb were similar to one other; 4.6 : 1.9 : 1.0 and 4.7 : 2.2 : 1.0 for ozone and aerosol mass, respectively.
Interactive comment on “The ERA5-Land Soil-Temperature Bias in Permafrost Regions” by Bin Cao et al

When reading through the manuscript, many important points only became clear to me very late, i.e. in the Discussion. The temperature comparisons of the different products in the Results section, for example, left me wondering on the interpretation and implications. The same applies to the findings on the sizable reduction of “permafrost area” in ERA5L, which only much later is resolved as likely being more an artefact of the model than reality. To a casual reader, the manuscript appears to make a number of potentially bold statements, without providing any hint that the interpretations/ clarification of implications are provided at some later stage in the Discussion (where some casual readers might miss it). While the strict separation of the different manuscript parts is in line with accepted methodology for scientific writing, I recommend guiding the reader through the manuscript in a better way. I have made more specific annotations and suggestions under general comments. We agree, hints are added as suggested in the specific comments. Especially, Section 5.2 will be mentioned in the caption of Table 2 in order to avoid any possible misunderstanding. We’ll also move the implication part from Section Conclusions to the Discussion.
Exploring Wi-Fi Network Diversity for Vehicle-To-Infrastructure Communication

Due to their ubiquity and low use-cost, the opportunistic use of Wi-Fi networks to offload data from moving vehicles is enticing. However, due to their limited coverage and variable performance, choosing what Access Points (APs) to use in order to maximize the amount of data that can be offloaded is challenging. This difficulty is exacerbated by the heterogeneity created by the introduction of new Wi-Fi standards such as 802.11ad, which renders heuristics designed for homogeneous environments, e.g., signal quality, ineffective. In this work we test the hypothesis that historical network performance, indexed by vehicular mobility information, can be used to effectively forecast future network performance, and consequently help select APs for data offloading in a heterogeneous Wi-Fi environment. Our approach was to perform a trace-based analysis on experimental data collected in a realistic vehicular environment. Our results show that a practical algorithm based on data rate forecasting from mobility information was able to transfer at least 80% of the optimal amount of data, under the tested scenarios.
Acute and Subacute Effects of Aqueous Extract of Picralima nitida Seeds on Dexamethasone Induced Insulin Resistance in Rats

Background: Picralima nitida is a West African plant with varied applications in African folk medicine. Aqueous extract of seeds of Picralima nitida was used to evaluate its protective effect on dexamethasone-induced insulin-resistance in rats. Methods and Findings: Male rats were divided into five groups for acute and subacute study. At the end of the acute study, Oral Glucose Tolerance Test was performed. For the subacute study, Groups 1 and 2 received distilled water for 11 days orally and from day 7, either saline or dexamethasone (8 mg/kg) intraperitoneally for the last 5 days. Groups 3, 4 and 5 were respectively pretreated with glibenclamide (10 mg/kg), P. nitida extract at the doses of 200 mg/kg or 400 mg/kg orally for 11 days. At the end of the experiment on day 12, blood was collected for biochemical analysis and the animals were subjected to a fasting glucose test and then thereafter sacrificed. The liver, pancreas, kidney, and adrenal were weighed and histological analysis performed. The Area Under the Curve (AUC) of the glucose tolerance test, performed 4 hours after the end of acute treatment at a dose of 400 mg/kg of the extract, was significantly reduced (p<0.01). In subacute treatment, the AUC of the aqueous extract of the seeds of Picralima nitida was significantly reduced at doses of 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg compared to rats treated with dexamethasone. Furthermore, there was a significant decrease in Total Cholesterol and LDL-Cholesterol with the extract treatment as well as with glibenclamide which decrease Total Cholesterol. Glibenclamide and the extract at 400 mg/kg prevented the drop in protein levels induced by dexamethasone. Adrenal atrophy was noted in all rats given dexamethasone, as well as increased liver and kidney weights. The pretreatment with the aqueous extract of the seeds of Picralima nitida prevented cytolysis and degeneration of hepatocyte, hypotrophy of the pancreatic islets and tubular and glomerular degeneration caused by dexamethasone. Conclusions: This study reveals that the aqueous extract of the seeds of Picralima nitida has anti-hyperglycemic and antihypercholesterolemic properties that may justify its use in traditional medicine against diabetes abnormalities.
Multi-grid algorithm for passive tracer transport in the NEMO ocean circulation model: a case study with the NEMO OGCM (version 3.6)

Ocean biogeochemical models are key tools for both scientific and operational applications. Nevertheless the cost of these models is often expensive because of the large number of biogeochemical tracers. This has motivated the development of multi-grid approaches where ocean dynamics and tracer transport are computed on grids of different spatial resolution. However, existing multi-grid approaches to tracer transport in ocean modelling do not allow the computation of ocean dynamics and tracer transport simultaneously. This paper describes a new multi-grid approach developed for accelerating the computation of passive tracer transport in the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) ocean circulation model. In practice, passive tracer transport is computed at runtime on a grid with coarser spatial resolution than the hydrodynamics, which reduces the CPU cost of computing the evolution of tracers. We describe the multi-grid algorithm, its practical implementation in the NEMO ocean model, and discuss its performance on the basis of a series of sensitivity experiments with global ocean model configurations. Our experiments confirm that the spatial resolution of hydrodynamical fields can be coarsened by a factor of 3 in both horizontal directions without significantly affecting the resolved passive tracer fields. Overall, the proposed algorithm yields a reduction by a factor of 7 of the overhead associated with running a full biogeochemical model like PISCES (with 24 passive tracers). Propositions for further reducing this cost without affecting the resolved solution are discussed.
On the Concentration Dependence of the Thermal Impurity‐to‐Band Activation Energies in Semiconductors

It is proved by Hall effect measurements on Te-doped GaP and on ZnSiP2 that the thermal activation energies of the majority impurities depend on the minority impurity concentrations. A new theoretical explanation for this concentration dependence is presented. Mittels Halleffektmessungen an Te-dotiertem GaP und an ZnSiP2 wird gezeigt, das die thermischen Aktivierungsenergien der Majoritatsstorstellen von der Konzentration der Minoritatsstorstellen abhangen. Fur diese Konzentrationsabhangigkeit wird eine neue theoretische Erklarung gegeben.
One-year measurement of size-resolved particle fluxes in an urban area

Size-resolved particle flux measurements were carried out in an urban area from April 2012 to April 2013. Together with a standard eddy covariance system, two fast optical particle counters have been employed on a 65-meter-high tower in Münster, Germany. Particle number fluxes were directly calculated for particles with diameters from 0.06 to 10 µm within 16 individual size-bins. Whereas particle number concentrations show a distinct yearly pattern with maxima in winter and minima in summer, the flux time series is more multifaceted. Average daily maxima of 3.0e+07 particles m−2 s−1 occurred during winter while minima of 2.0e+06 particles m−2 s−1 were observed in fall. The size-resolved measurements revealed that during spring and summer a considerable number of accumulation mode particles deposits while a simultaneous net particle emission occurred, which is mostly driven by particles smaller than 0.12 µm. These bi-directional fluxes lead to a net mass deposition of up to 13.5 µg m−2 d−1. The tipping-point between the emission and deposition lay between 0.16 and 0.19 µm. In a comprehensive analysis of the flux and concentration time series, the degree of atmospheric stability, the seasons, and the type of source region have been identified as key influences for particle fluxes. Different responses between particle fluxes and concentrations have been found along these drivers.
Monte Carlo calculation of thermodynamic properties of binary mixtures of Lennard-Jones (12-6) liquids

Calculations have been carried out for binary equimolar mixtures of Lennard-Jones (12-6) liquids conforming to the combination rules e12 2 = e11e22 and 2σ12 = σ11 + σ22. The results cover the parameter range with at 97 K and 117 K; they include free energies, enthalpies, volumes and chemical potentials. The effect of small deviations from the combination rules is examined and comparisons are carried out with the predictions of the van der Waals 1- and 2-fluid theories and with experimental data for 9 real mixtures.
Effects of surface pretreatments on nucleation and growth of diamond films on a variety of substrates

The effects of surface pretreatments on nucleation and growth of chemical vapor deposited diamond films were studied. The pretreatments included scratching with diamond grit, coating with a low vapor pressure, high thermal stability hydrocarbon oil, and coating with a 100–200‐A‐thick layer of evaporated carbon. The effects of the treatments on carbide and noncarbide forming materials are described.
JPEG Pleno: Standardizing a coding framework and tools for plenoptic imaging modalities

– JPEG Pleno is an upcoming standard from the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 1 (JPEG) Committee. It aims to provide a standard framework for coding new imaging modalities derived from representations inspired by the plenoptic function. The image modalities addressed by the current standardization activities are light field, holography, and point clouds, where these image modalities describe different sampled representations of the plenoptic function. The applications that may benefit from these emerging image modalities range from supporting varying capture platforms, interactive content viewing, cultural environments exploration and medical imaging to more immersive browsing with novel special effects and more realistic images. These use cases come with a set of requirements addressed by the JPEG Pleno standard. Main requirements envision high compression efficiency, random access, scalability, error-resilience, low complexity, and metadata support. This paper presents a synopsis of the status of the standardization process and provides technical insights as well as the latest performance evaluation results.
What do Neural Machine Translation Models Infer about Multiple Meanings of Homonyms?

—Neural machine translation (NMT) has shown promising results in translating text or speech from one language to another and achieved state-of-the-art performances for various language pairs. However, little is known about what these models learn about language. Recent work has started evaluating the quality of vector representations learned by NMT models on morphological, syntactic, and part-of-speech tasks. In this paper, we empirically evaluate the quality of NMT representations for learning the different meanings of homonyms through an extrinsic meaning classiﬁcation task. We conduct a thorough investigation for both unidirectional and bidirectional NMT models trained with various target languages. We analyze how various target languages used in training NMT models affect how well NMT representations convey the different meanings of homonyms. We observe that the effect of the target languages on source-side representations is more substantial for lower quality NMT models than for higher quality NMT models. Our data-driven, quantitative evaluation serves as the necessary ﬁrst step to incorporate the best meaning disambiguation system to the models, which would improve NMT model’s ability to translate sentences containing homonyms. 1
Towards efficient and verified virtual machines for dynamic languages

The prevalence of dynamic languages is not commensurate with the security guarantees provided by their execution mechanisms. Consider, for example, the ubiquitous case of JavaScript: it runs everywhere and its complex just-in-time compilers produce code that is fast and, unfortunately, sometimes incorrect. We present an Isabelle/HOL formalization of an alternative execution model---optimizing interpreters---and mechanically verify its correctness. Specifically, we formalize advanced speculative optimizations similar to those used in just-in-time compilers and prove semantics preservation. As a result, our formalization provides a path towards unifying vital performance requirements with desirable security guarantees.
Experiments with Expanded Virtual Puppeteering

This work proposes a framework for digital puppeteering performances, using solely the performer’s bare hands. The framework relies on Unity as a base, and hand information is captured from a Leap Motion device. The performer employs a gesture interaction system and precise hand movements to manipulate the puppet in a number of different manners. It is then possible for the audience to view the puppet directly in a big screen, or using virtual or augmented reality headsets, which allows rich interactions. The aim of this work is to preserve the expressiveness and know-how of classic puppeteering, while at the same time, to look at it in a diﬀerent perspective with the help of the aforementioned advances in technology.
Supraclavicular lymph node metastasis in elderly patients undergoing esophageal squamous cell carcinoma radical surgery: construction of risk and prognostic predictive nomograms

Background Supraclavicular lymph node metastasis (SCLN) is an adverse prognostic determinant of esophageal cancer. However, lymphadenectomy for SCLN is a traumatic procedure, especially in elderly patients, which is associated with more postoperative complications. Currently, identification of risk factors of SCLN metastasis and avoidance of unnecessary lymphadenectomy for SCLN in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients has become an unmet clinical need. Methods A total of 90 elderly patients with ESCC between January 2008 and December 2013 was eligible for this analysis. Logistic regression was performed to determine risk factors for SCLN metastasis after ESCC radical surgery in elderly patients. A nomogram was constructed to individually predict the risk for SCLN metastasis. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve and cumulative risk curve were further analyzed to evaluate the effect of SCLN metastasis after ESCC radical surgery on survival prognosis and cumulative risk assessment in elderly patients. Finally, the SCLN metastasis group and the independent risk factor group were fitted by drawing a decision curve to evaluate the net benefit of the model. Results SCLN developed in 38 patients (42.2%). Postoperative lymph node metastasis (P<0.05), tumor thrombus (P<0.05) and tumor infiltration (P<0.05) were independent risk factors for SCLN metastasis. The influence of SCLN metastasis on postoperative survival in elderly ESCC patients was statistically significant (P=0.028, P <0.05); with the passage of time, the cumulative risk of SCLN metastasis increased, the survival probability decreased, and the survival time was shortened. Conclusions Postoperative lymph node metastasis, tumor thrombus and tumor infiltration are independent risk factors for recurrence and metastasis of SCLNs in elderly patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The nomogram model based on these factors provides a preliminary reference for individualized risk assessment, prognosis guidance and decision-making of SCLN metastasis in elderly patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).