Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Evaluation of Possible Biases in the U.S. EPA’s Method 101A-Mercury Emissions from Stationary Sources

EPA Method 101A is used for the determination of particulate and gaseous mercury emissions from sewage sludge incinerators and other specified source. In this method, emissions are withdrawn isokinetically from the source and collected in acidic potassium permanganate solution. The mercury (Hg) collected in the mercuric form is reduced to elemental mercury and aerated from the solution into an optical cell and measured by cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometry (CVAAS)
Correlation of the Rates of Solvolysis of Methyl Chloroformate with Solvent Properties †

The specific rates of solvolyis of methyl chloroformate are very well correlated by the extended Grunwald–Winstein equation over a wide range of solvents; the pathway is believed to be predominantly addition–elimination, except that a positive deviation for solvolysis in 90% 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoropropan-2-ol suggests an 80% contribution from an ionisation mechanism.
The Impact of Quality of Digital Elevation Models on the Result of Landslide Susceptibility Modeling Using the Method of Weights of Evidence

The paper discusses the impact that the quality of the digital elevation model (DEM) has on the final result of landslide susceptibility modeling (LSM). The landslide map was developed on the basis of the analysis of archival geological maps and the Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) digital elevation model. In addition, complementary field studies were conducted. In total, 92 landslides were inventoried and their degree of activity was assessed. An inventory of the landslides was prepared using a 1-m-LiDAR DEM and field research. Two digital photogrammetric elevation models with an elevation pixel resolution of 20 m were used for landslide susceptibility modeling. The first digital elevation model was obtained from a LiDAR point cloud (DEM–airborne laser scanning (ALS)), while the second model was developed based on archival digital stereo-pair aerial images (DEM–Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS)). Both models were subjected to filtration using a Gaussian low-pass filter to reduce errors in their elevation relief. Then, using ArcGIS software, a differential model was generated to illustrate the differences in morphology between the models. The maximum differences in topographic elevations between the DEM–ALS and DEM–LPIS models were calculated. The Weights-of-Evidence model is a geostatistical method used for the landslide susceptibility modeling. Six passive factors were employed in the process of susceptibility generation: elevation, slope gradient, exposure, topographic roughness index (TRI), distance from tectonic lines, and distance from streams. As a result, two landslide susceptibility maps (LSM) were obtained. The accuracy of the landslide susceptibility models was assessed based on the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve index. The area under curve (AUC) values obtained from the ROC curve indicate that the accuracy of classification for the LSM–DEM–ALS model was 78%, and for the LSM–LPIS–DEM model was 73%.
Automated fluorometric method for hydrogen peroxide in air

A fluorometric method for measuring H/sub 2/O/sub 2/ vapor in air utilizes peroxidase enzyme to catalyze the reaction in which hydroperoxides cause dimerization of (p-hydroxyphenyl)acetic acid. In a second channel, H/sub 2/O/sub 2/ is selectively decomposed by catalase so that the fluorescence signal is due only to organic hydroperoxides. The difference between the two signals is a measure of H/sub 2/O/sub 2/ vapor. The H/sub 2/O/sub 2/ vapor is collected by means of a glass coil though which air and water flow concurrently. The coefficient of variation is 0.5% at 2.5 parts per billion by volume. The standard deviation of the base line is 10 parts per trillion by volume (pptv) under laboratory conditions. This standard deviation has varied between 3 and 33 pptv during ground-based field missions, and was 70 pptv on aircraft flights. Thirty seconds is required for the signal to change from 10 to 90% of its maximum value. 13 references, 4 figures, 1 table.
NAC Candidate Gene Marker for bgm-1 and Interaction With QTL for Resistance to Bean Golden Yellow Mosaic Virus in Common Bean

Genetic resistance is the primary means for control of Bean golden yellow mosaic virus (BGYMV) in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Breeding for resistance is difficult because of sporadic and uneven infection across field nurseries. We sought to facilitate breeding for BGYMV resistance by improving marker-assisted selection (MAS) for the recessive bgm-1 gene and identifying and developing MAS for quantitative trait loci (QTL) conditioning resistance. Genetic linkage mapping in two recombinant inbred line populations and genome-wide association study (GWAS) in a large breeding population and two diversity panels revealed a candidate gene for bgm-1 and three QTL BGY4.1, BGY7.1, and BGY8.1 on independent chromosomes. A mutation (5 bp deletion) in a NAC (No Apical Meristem) domain transcriptional regulator superfamily protein gene Phvul.003G027100 on chromosome Pv03 corresponded with the recessive bgm-1 resistance allele. The five bp deletion in exon 2 starting at 20 bp (Pv03: 2,601,582) is expected to cause a stop codon at codon 23 (Pv03: 2,601,625), disrupting further translation of the gene. A Tm-shift assay marker named PvNAC1 was developed to track bgm-1. PvNAC1 corresponded with bgm-1 across ∼1,000 lines which trace bgm-1 back to a single landrace “Garrapato” from Mexico. BGY8.1 has no effect on its own but exhibited a major effect when combined with bgm-1. BGY4.1 and BGY7.1 acted additively, and they enhanced the level of resistance when combined with bgm-1. Tm-shift assay markers were generated for MAS of the QTL, but their effectiveness requires further validation.
Physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of supraglacial pools on a debris-covered glacier in Mt. Gongga, Tibetan Plateau

ABSTRACT Meltwater habitats are found on glacier surfaces worldwide, but much of the current understanding of these habitats comes from clean glaciers sprinkled with cryoconite. Cryoconite is windblown dust particles covered with biological material that form small meltwater holes due to difference in the albedo of cryoconite compared to clean ice. However, no information is available on the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of supraglacial pools on debris-covered glaciers. We measured physical and chemical variables and sampled macroinvertebrates from forty-six supraglacial pools during the summers of 2018 and 2019 on the debris-covered Hailuogou Glacier in southeastern Tibet. Our physical and chemical results indicated that the sampled supraglacial pools exhibited a greater diversity of shapes, were larger, contained larger substrate sizes, and had greater substrate diversity than cryoconite holes. The sampled supraglacial pools frequently contained Chironomidae (Diptera) and Isotomidae (Collembola), which are macroinvertebrate taxa that are uncommon in cryoconite holes. Chironomidae occurrence and abundance was not correlated with any measured environmental variable. The best predictors of Isotomidae and macroinvertebrate occurrence and abundance were conductivity, ice to water surface depth, and number of supraglacial pools within 5 m. Our results highlight the uniqueness of supraglacial pools on a debris-covered glacier in southeastern Tibet.
Chitosan-coated alginate - polyvinyl alcohol beads for encapsulation of silicone oil containing pyrene: a novel method for biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

BACKGROUND: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are potential hazards in the environment owing to their toxic, carcinogenic and recalcitrant nature. Biodegradation of these compounds, although effective compared with other treatment techniques, is problematic owing to its low aqueous solubility and negligible bioavailability. The present study reports a novel method for biodegradation of PAHs using an encapsulated form of the pollutant in chitosan-coated alginate–polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) beads. RESULTS: A suitable combination of 3% (w/v) PVA, 100 g L−1 non-ionic surfactant Brij 30 and 0.3 silicone oil fraction in the formulation was found to be optimal in the preparation of stable emulsion. The emulsion obtained was admixed with alginate (3% w/v) to prepare suitably sized microspheres by an emulsion gelation technique, which were later coated with chitosan to yield a maximum pyrene encapsulation efficiency of 90.7%. Pyrene in silicone oil at concentration as high as 2 g L−1, when delivered through the chitosan coated alginate–PVA beads, was completely degraded by Mycobacterium frederiksbergense within 10 days without any significant lag phase. CONCLUSION: Using chitosan-coated alginate–PVA beads sustained release of pyrene and subsequent biodegradation by M. frederiksbergense were achieved. Using the present system, complete degradation of pyrene was attained even at its very high initial concentration and within a short time period. Further advantage offered by this system seems to be negligible toxic effect of pyrene and solvents on the degrading microorganisms since these were in an encapsulated form and were not in direct contact with the organism. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry
Effects of Cell Structure on Water Sorption for Wood

Summary Contributions of the cell structure of wood to water sorption were examined using the chemical potential change induced by restrained swelling. Thermodynamic analysis revealed that this potential was proportional to the product of moisture content and the bulk modulus of the restraining region in the wood. The modulus of the restricting region, which was calculated from isotherm curves of wood powder and block samples by using the thermodynamically derived relationship, was near that obtained from the swelling strain and stress in the cross section for whole wood. These results demonstrated that S1 and S3 layers in the cell wall, where thin crystal threads called microfibrils are wound helically in the circumference, act to resist swelling so that the isotherm curve of the block sample was lower than that of wood powder.
Assessment of ITER divertor performance during early operation phases

During the ITER design phase, the focus of ITER boundary plasma modeling activities has been on divertor performance under baseline H-mode, fusion power operation (FPO) conditions. However, early ITER operation will be primarily with hydrogen fuel in L-mode, in the pre-fusion power operation 1 (PFPO-1) phase. Here, the SOLPS-ITER code is used to evaluate divertor performance during this non-active phase. To verify the assumptions used in the existing high power simulation database, gas throughput scans were performed for two types of divertor surface material (beryllium and tungsten) and two gas puff locations (divertor and main chamber). The adoption of beryllium target surfaces simulates the effect of main chamber material erosion and migration and, along with main chamber gas injection, is the current default for the high power database. Depending on the divertor surface material, the atom to molecule ratio of the recycled neutral particles varies. This modifies the momentum and power loss mechanisms arising from plasma–neutral interactions. However, since the effect of atomic and molecular reactions are compensatory, the ‘total’ power and momentum losses are relatively insensitive to the target surface material. Similarly, the impact of gas puff location on divertor plasma parameters is not significant, though main chamber injection provides an additional ionization source in the upstream scrape-off layer (SOL) and leads to moderate changes in the upstream density and far SOL parameters. However, these effects can be neglected within the available range of the gas puff and pump rates in ITER. Since beryllium and tungsten are materials at both extremes in terms of surface reflection properties, the conclusions may be applicable to other divertor surface materials. An important additional finding of the study is that the insensitivity of upstream density to divertor neutral pressure found in the FPO database is also recovered in these PFPO-1 simulations.
Optimization of a neuro-human thermal model using a genetic algorithm

A neuro-human thermal model was optimized to increase the prediction accuracy of the physiological variables of a group of 15 healthy male students exposed to transient environmental conditions. The effect of both the passive and active systems parameters was studied using a sensitivity analysis, and the parameters that had the most influence on the neuro-human thermal model outputs were established. A genetic algorithm was then used to optimize the model in order to determine the parameters that corresponded to the studied population. The results showed that the optimization increased the precision of the neuro-human thermal model. The mean absolute error and the maximum error between the experimental data and the numerical results for mean skin temperature were 0.13°C and 0.56°C, respectively, and we obtained 0.03°C and 0.11°C, respectively, for rectal temperature. These results show that the neuro-human thermal model can be accurately adjusted for the rectal, mean and local skin temperatures of a targeted population by using a genetic algorithm to determine the values of the parameters that correspond to this population.
The Squeezed Light Source for the Advanced Virgo Detector in the Observation Run O3

From 1 April 2019 to 27 March 2020, the Advanced Virgo detector, together with the two Advanced LIGO detectors, conducted the third joint scientific observation run O3, aiming for further detections of gravitational wave signals from astrophysical sources. One of the upgrades to the Virgo detector for O3 was the implementation of the squeezed light technology to improve the detector sensitivity beyond its classical quantum shot noise limit. In this paper, we present a detailed description of the optical setup and performance of the employed squeezed light source. The squeezer was constructed as an independent, stand-alone sub-system operated in air. The generated squeezed states are tailored to exhibit high purity at intermediate squeezing levels in order to significantly reduce the interferometer shot noise level while keeping the correlated enhancement of quantum radiation pressure noise just below the actual remaining technical noise in the Advanced Virgo detector.
Two-order-parameter description of liquids. I. A general model of glass transition covering its strong to fragile limit

Here we propose a simple physical model that may universally describe glass-transition phenomena from the strong to the fragile limit. Our model is based on the idea that there always exist two competing orderings in any liquids, (i) density ordering leading to crystallization and (ii) bond ordering favoring a local symmetry that is usually not consistent with the crystallographic symmetry. The former tries to maximize local density, while the latter tries to maximize the quality of bonds with neighboring molecules. For the phenomenological description of these competing ordering effects [(i) and (ii)] hidden in many-body interactions, we introduce density and bond order parameters, respectively. This leads to the following picture of a liquid structure: Locally favored structures with finite, but long lifetimes are randomly distributed in a sea of normal-liquid structures. Even simple liquids suffer from random disorder effects of thermodynamic origin. We argue that locally favored structures act as impu.
Plasma-Treated Flammulina velutipes-Derived Extract Showed Anticancer Potential in Human Breast Cancer Cells

Natural products with medicinal properties are among alternative therapies of interest due to their high body tolerance. We aimed to determine whether nonthermal gas plasma could enhance the medicinal value of Flammulina velutipes mushrooms. Generated gas plasma was characterized by its emission spectrum in ambient air, pH, temperature, and H2O2 and NOx concentrations after exposure for various periods. Phenolic and flavonoid contents in the extracts were measured using antioxidant assays and Fourier transform infrared and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. We analyzed the effects of the plasma-treated mushroom-derived extracts against breast carcinoma using the MCF7 and MDA-MB231 cell lines. The extracts significantly and concentration dependently inhibited the growth of breast cancer cells without inducing toxicity in normal MCF10A cells, and induced apoptosis via oxidative stress, evidenced by DNA damage (γ-H2AX foci formation), and increased the population of MCF7 breast cancer cells arrested in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. The extracts also induced mitochondrion-mediated apoptosis of MCF7 cells through cytochrome c release and caspase cleavage activity. The plasma improved the biological activity of mushrooms by increasing their phenolic compounds that prevented the growth of breast cancer cells in vitro.
Principals’ role in leadership capacity development of post level one teachers for school leadership

This study was undertaken to explore the role of principals in capacity development of post level one teachers for school leadership positions. The success of a school and its attendant learner achievement depends largely on good school leadership. Thus, it is highly unlikely that poor or ineffective school leadership will lead to successful schools. This study argues that it is the responsibility of principals to ensure that adequate opportunities exist for leadership development of post level one teachers. A qualitative research approach was selected to investigate the role principals play in building leadership capacity in post level one teachers. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with ten (10) participants at two (2) schools: one (1) principal and four (4) post level one teachers per school. Findings indicate that principals played a fundamental role, notably different, in the creation of opportunities for leadership development in post level one teachers. The opportunities ranged from the formation of committees, which offer exposure to early leadership practices, mentoring and coaching prospects and the availability of leadership training and development resulting from the outcomes of the Integrated Quality Management System appraisal system mandated by the Department of Education. Lastly, the study encapsulates these opportunities in a five-year leadership capacity building programme, to be offered as an in-service internal programme for post level one teachers to support progressive and developmental leadership capacity improvement.
Raman study of solid N2O4: Temperature induced autoionization

Raman spectra of solid N2O4 condensed from gaseous NO2/N2O4 were investigated. When deposited at 80 K the O2NNO2 dimer is formed. Deposition at 15 K produces additionally bands of the NO2 monomer and the O2NONO isomers. Warming to 180 K induces autoionization to NO+NO−3 which remains stable over the 15–180 K range. The transition is probably an intermolecular process invoked through the low energy lattice modes or ν4 twist vibration of the dimer.
Practical Evaluation of Online Heterogeneous Machine Learning

SUMMARY In recent years, the use of big data has attracted more attention, and many techniques for data analysis have been proposed. Big data analysis is di ﬃ cult, however, because such data varies greatly in its regularity. Heterogeneous mixture machine learning is one algorithm for analyzing such data e ﬃ ciently. In this study, we propose online heterogeneous learning based on an online EM algorithm. Experiments show that this algorithm has higher learning accuracy than that of a conventional method and is practical. The online learning approach will make this algo-rithm useful in the ﬁeld of data analysis.
Many-body interactions in colloidal suspensions

At low ionic strength the interaction between any two charged colloids in a concentrated charge-stabilized suspension is strongly influenced by the charge distributions of other colloids in the neighbourhood of the two interacting colloids. When such many-body interactions become important, a colloidal suspension can no longer be treated as a simple Yukawa liquid. We here (i) discuss experimental data showing that many-body interactions are indeed present in low-salt-content colloidal suspensions, (ii) report on three-body calculations in colloidal systems that help in understanding the concept of 'macroion shielding', (iii) demonstrate the configuration dependence of effective forces and (iv) illustrate, using simulations based on (a) a truncated Yukawa potential with a density-dependent cut-off and (b) a full Poisson–Boltzmann mean-field description, the effect of many-body interactions on the solid–liquid phase behaviour of colloidal suspensions.
Enantioselective analysis of thiobencarb sulfoxide produced by metabolism of thiobencarb by hydroxypropyl‐γ‐cyclodextrin modified micellar electrokinetic chromatography

Cyclodextrin-modified micellar electrokinetic chromatography was applied to the enantioseparation of thiobencarb sulfoxide, which is produced by S-oxygenation of thiobencarb, a herbicide, using γ-cyclodextrin together with sodium dodecyl sulfate. Factors affecting chiral resolution and migration time of thiobencarb sulfoxide were studied. The optimum running conditions were found to be 20 mM phosphate-5 mM borate buffer (pH 8.5) containing 60 mM hydroxypropyl-γ-cyclodextrin and 100 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate with an effective voltage of +20 kV at 20°C using direct detection at 220 nm. Under these conditions, the resolution (Rs) of racemic thiobencarb sulfoxide was approximately 1.7. Thiobencarb was treated with a rat liver microsomal fraction containing cofactors (known as S9mix). The ratio between (+)- and (-)-thiobencarb sulfoxide was found to be 15:85. It was also found that the ratio between (+)-and (-)-thiobencarb sulfoxide produced in soil spiked with thiobencarb was 3:7. These results indicated marked enantioselectivities for these metabolisms. The activities of thiobencarb, (+)- and (-)-thiobencarb sulfoxides on 5α-dihydrotestosterone-and 17β-estradiol-induced transcriptions were also investigated. Whereas thiobencarb and (+)-thiobencarb sulfoxide did not show any activities, (-)-thiobencarb sulfoxide showed significant anti-estrogenic and anti-androgenic activities, suggesting that thiobencarb sulfoxide can act as both an enantioselective anti-estrogen and an enantioselective anti-androgen.
Magnetically tunable Airy-like beam of magnetostatic surface spin waves

In this Letter, we report an Airy-like beam of magnetostatic surface spin wave (AiBMSSW) supported on the ferromagnetic film, which is transferred from the optical field. The propagation properties of AiBMSSW were verified with micromagnetic simulation. From simulation results, the typical parabolic trajectory of the Airy-type beam was observed with an exciting source encoding 3/2 phase pattern. The simulation results coincide well with design parameters. Furthermore, simulated results showed that the trajectories of the AiBMSSW could be tuned readily with varied external magnetic fields. This work can extend the application scenario of spin waves.