Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring the fracture toughness of cement paste and mortar

Synopsis This paper describes two methods that have been used to measure the effective fracture toughness of cement pastes and mortars. The first is a notched-beam technique, combined with compliance measurements to measure the slow crack growth prior to instability. The change of toughness is measured for separate increments of crack growth as the crack propagates. The second method, using a double-cantilever beam, avoids the slow crack growth problem by making a specimen of variable web width such that the length of crack front increases with and exactly compensates for the effect of crack growth. Tests of both pastes and mortars show that the fracture toughness of cement paste is independent of crack growth but that the toughness of mortar increases as the crack propagates. For both materials, the stress intensity required to initiate crack growth was less than that to maintain crack growth at the loading rates used.
Compact triple‐band antenna with rectangular ring for WLAN and WiMAX applications

A novel compact triple‐band antenna with rectangular ring for wireless local area network and worldwide interoperability for microwave access applications is proposed.The antenna is simply composed of a rectangular ring, a pair of symmetrical L‐shaped strips, and a T‐shaped monopole. Dual‐band characteristic can be produced by the pair of L‐shaped strips and T‐shaped monopole. By extending the rectangular ring from the ground plane, a new resonant frequency is obtained. Based on this concept, a prototype of this triple‐band antenna has been designed, fabricated, and measured. The experimental results show that the antenna covers the frequency bands 2.34–2.74, 3.04–3.82, and 5.03–6.05 GHz with −10 dB return loss. Moreover, good omnidirectional radiation patterns and reasonable gains are also obtained. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:286–289, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26561
Effects of Cyclic Thermal Stress at Later Age on Production Performance and Meat Quality of Fast-Growing, Medium-Growing and Thai Native Chickens

Simple Summary An increase in global surface temperature has raised a serious concern, as it can remarkably decrease broiler production, hence altering food security. This study investigated the effects of cyclic thermal stress, mimicking the rise of temperature during the day in tropical regions on production performance and meat quality of fast-growing commercial broilers (BRs), slow-growing Thai native (NT) chickens and medium-growing ones obtained from crossbreeding between BR and NT. The results indicated that, upon an exposure to thermal stress (35 ± 1 °C, 6 h daily) for 3 weeks prior to their specific market ages, all three chicken strains showed reduced final body weight and decreased average daily weight gain in comparison to their control counterparts. The adverse effects on production performance were less pronounced in the medium-growing and slow-growing chickens, with no significant alteration in their meat quality indices. Abstract The present study aimed at assessing the impact of cyclic thermal stress on production performance and meat quality of commercial broilers (BRs), Thai native chickens (NT) and the hybrids between BR and NT (H75; crossbreed 25% NT). At the age of 3, 5 and 9 weeks for BR, H75 and NT, respectively, each strain was equally divided (n = 50) into control and treatment groups. The controls were raised at a constant 26 ± 1 °C, while the treatments were subjected to thermal stress (35 ± 1 °C, 6 h daily) for 3 weeks. The results indicated that final weight and average daily gain of BR and NT treated groups were significantly lower than those of their control counterparts. Reduced body weight gain of BR and H75, as well as feed intake of H75, was observed in the treatment groups (p < 0.05). The stressed BR breasts showed decreased moisture, fat and carbohydrate, accompanied by increased protein, ash, L *-value, b*-value and shear force (p < 0.05). No significant effects (p ≥ 0.05) of the thermal stress on meat quality indices were found for H75 and NT breast samples. Pectoral myopathies were observed in BR and H75 chickens, but the numbers of cases were decreased in the thermally treated groups.
Energy requirement for irrigation pumps in Allahabad district, Uttar Pradesh (India).

A survey was conducted in six blocks of Allahabad district to assess the energy requirement for irrigation pumps. Around 26 villages of six blocks have been covered. The survey revealed that the pump sets were 8 to 12 HP, which was much higher than their requirement of 3 to 7 HP for irrigation. The energy requirement for each block was much higher than the actual energy required. The survey revealed that the pumping systems adopted by the farmers were inefficient and consumed more energy at the field level. The overall results showed that awareness among the farmers about the huge wastage should be made, which would help them in selection of proper size irrigation pump sets.
Practical Use of Airborne Simulation in a Release-Regrasp Skill on the High Bar

The aim of this study was to objectively predict individual improvements in a release-regrasp tkatchev skill. The prediction was based on a kinematic analysis of failed and successful trials. The modification of release conditions, and the correction of hip and shoulder joint motions during the aerial phase of failed trials, were determined by considering the successful trials as target executions. Computer simulations were used to confirm the effect of the corrected parameters on the flight trajectory and angular motion of the body over the bar. The results indicated that when time of release is initiated earlier, this presents a major problem the gymnast must overcome in order to grasp the bar. Moreover, the moment when the body’s center of gravity is vertically above the bar represents a critical instant for the gymnast in initiating the hip and shoulder movements. The rotation motion analysis of the segments indicated that the stabilization motion of the upper limbs could be a good strategy for improv.
Acoustical Investigations in Virtual Environments for a Car Passing Application

Product development is dominated by reducing time and costs, which is often contradictory to the required high quality of product properties. Therefore, the demand for efficient tools, which support the product development process, is rising. Virtual Reality (VR) can be used as such a tool. The interactive presentation of simulation results using (extended) VR technologies is very helpful — especially if both the simulation tools and the VR presentation are multimodal. Due to the increasing importance of acoustics and the expectation of an improving presence in VR environments the sense of perception should be extended. For this a special audio-visual VR-system and audio-visual models are necessary. For the current investigations a spatial, interactive auralisation-system is used. The main focus of the paper lies on the state dependent reproduction of the acoustical behavior using a real-time capable, network-based sound-server. The developed methods are explained in the paper by an automotive example.Copyright © 2014 by ASME
Impact of Green Tea Extract on Intraradicular Dentin Wettability and Bond Strength of Resin-Based Sealer Following Two Chelating Agents

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of 3% green tea extract (GTE) on wettability, depth of penetration, and push out bond strength (PBS) of AH Plus sealer to intraradicular dentin following the use of 0.2% Nano chitosan or 17% EDTA. Materials and methods: Twenty human radicular dentin segments were used for wettability assessment. Following immersion in 2.6% NaOCl solution, samples were divided into 2 groups (n=10) according to the chelating agent used: group I: 0.2% Nano chitosan, and group II: 17% EDTA, each used for 3 min, then the contact angle (CA) was measured. The samples were further immersed in 3% GTE solution for 5 min followed by CA measurement. Twenty human mandibular premolars were prepared up to # X4 ProTaper Next files, then divided into two groups as mentioned previously. Each group was subdivided into two subgroups based on the final flush used (n=5); subgroups A and B; no treatment, and 3% GTE, respectively. Samples were obturated by cold lateral compaction using AH Plus sealer and gutta-percha. PBS was measured using a universal testing machine and sealer penetration was assessed using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Results: Using 3% GTE following the use of 0.2% Nano chitosan significantly increased the wettability and PBS of AH Plus sealer to intraradicular dentin, while its use following 17% EDTA significantly decreased the wettability and PBS of AH Plus sealer. Using GTE increased the maximum depth of AH Plus sealer penetration into the dentinal tubules. Conclusion: GTE improved the wettability, depth of penetration, and push out bond strength of AH Plus sealer to intraradicular dentin treated with Nano-chitosan. Nevertheless, it adversely affected those properties of AH Plus sealer to EDTA-treated dentin. Codex : 10/21.10 azhardentj@azhar.edu. eg http://adjg.journals. ekb.eg DOI: 10.21608/adjg.2021.106129.1457 Restorative Dentistry (Removable Prosthodontics, Fixed Prosthodontics, Endodontics, Dental Biomaterials, Operative Dentistry)
DNA Sequencing Analysis Framework for ABO Genotyping and ABO Discrepancy Resolution *

Precise identification is needed to avoid the transfusion reaction leading to death from ABO incompatibility. However, some rare blood groups including subgroups, paraBombay or Bombay phenotypes may show weak or no agglutination reaction resulting in misidentification. Genotyping is a method of choice which can identify blood group in the allele level. Although DNA sequencing is a medium-throughput technique, it is time-consuming and large data is generated. In this work, DNA sequencing analysis framework was proposed objected to provide a reliable method and tools for blood group confirmation process in routine transfusion service laboratory. The framework comprises 2 main sections. First, chromatogram data preprocessing includes quality check, overlapping peak translation, and reference gene alignment Second part is SNPs detection and analysis for ABO subgroup phenotype alleles identification. The evaluation was done with both synthesized and real sequence data from PCR. The algorithm performs at 92.4% accuracy on synthesized dataset and 100% on real dataset. The system was implemented as web based application, available at: https://snp-checking.innogehlalab-cmu.com/.
Open Access Electronic Resources Use and Research Productivity of Faculty Members: A Case Study of a Selected University in Ghana

Research is one of the key pillars in the teaching and learning situation in any university in the world. However, the approach to research varies from one university to the other. The purpose of this study was to find out how the level of awareness and satisfaction, the challenges and extent of use of open access resources impact research productivity of faculty in *Dartum University. A quantitative survey research method was adopted. A sample size of 62 full-time lecturers and 134 part-time lecturers was selected for the study using a stratified simple random sampling technique. The findings revealed that research productivity is low despite the high level of awareness and satisfaction with open access use. Again, the findings showed that faculty members use open access to a considerable extent and point out some challenges associated with open access use. It was concluded that there is a very weak but significant influence of open access use on research productivity in Dartum University. It is recommended that African universities, and in particular Dartum University, establish or patronise institutional repositories which support open access.
An analytical technique to fast evaluate mutual coupling integrals in spectral domain analysis of multilayered coplanar coupled striplines

The analysis of propagation in multilayered coplanar coupled striplines by means of Galerkin's method in the spectral domain with expansion functions factorizing the edge behavior of the surface current density on each strip leads to the evaluation of slowly converging integrals. In this work a new analytical technique to express the mutual coupling integrals as rapidly converging series is presented. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:1035–1039, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26674
Multi-layer surface profiling using gated wavefront sensing

Recently, multi-layer surface profiling and inspection has been considered an emerging topic that can be used to solve various manufacturing inspection problems, such as graded index lenses, TSV (Thru-Silicon Via), and optical coating. In our study, we proposed a gated wavefront sensing approach to estimate the multi-layer surface profile. In this paper, we set up an experimental platform to validate our theoretical models and methods. Our test bed consists of pulse laser, collimator, prism, well-defined focusing lens, testing specimen, and gated wavefront sensing assembly (e.g., lenslet and gated camera). Typical wavefront measurement steps are carried out for the gated system, except the reflectance is timed against its time of flight as well as its intensity profile. By synchronizing the laser pulses to the camera gate time, it is possible to discriminate a multi-layer wavefront from its neighbouring discrete layer reflections.
4-level direct-detection polarization shift-keying (DD-PolSK) system with phase modulators

We propose and demonstrate a novel 4-level DD-PolSK system with LiNbO/sub 3/-based phase modulator and alternative allocation of constellations, which lead to a greatly simplified transceiver architecture. A 5 Gb/s (2.5 GS/s) testbed has been build to demonstrate the feasibility of the 4-PolSK transceiver.
The singularity expansion method and its application to target identification

The singularity expansion method (SEM) for quantifying the transient electromagnetic (EM) scattering from targets illuminated by pulsed EM radiation is reviewed. SEM representations for both induced currents and scattered fields are presented. Natural-resonance-based target identification schemes, based upon the SEM, are described. Various techniques for the extraction of natural-resonance modes from measured transient response waveforms are reviewed. Particular attention is given to the aspect-independent (extinction) E-pulse and (single-mode) S-pulse discriminant waveforms which, when convolved with the late-time pulse response of a matched target, produce null or mono-mode responses, respectively, through natural-mode annihilation. Extensive experiment results for practical target models are included to validate the E-pulse target discrimination technique. Finally, anticipated future extensions and areas requiring additional research are identified. >
The utility of histopathological features predicting microsatellite high (MSI-H) colorectal cancer in a limited setting

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Approximately 15% of CRCs have microsatellite instability (MSI), which is caused by a dysfunction of the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes. The histopathological features have been applied to predict high frequency MSI (MSI-H) in CRCs, and we investigated this association with MSI-H and the histopathological features. Materials and methods: Fifty-four tumors were evaluated based on nine histopathological features associated with MSI-H. DNA was extracted and prepared from the FFPE of tumors and normal colon tissue. Five microsatellite markers (BAT25, BAT26, D2S123, D5S346, and D17S250) were screened. Results: Of the 54 cases, 38 (70.4%) were between 50-60 years old, and 16 (29.6%) were younger than 50 years. Tumors mainly presented in the left-side colon (40 cases, 74.1%). MSI-high (MSI-H) was found in 7 cases, MSI-low (MSI-L) was found in 7 cases, and the rest were microsatellite stable (MSS). The majority of CRC with MSI-H showed a Crohn-like lymphocytic reaction, mucinous features, tumor grade 2, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. Only the mucinous component was significantly associated with the MSI-H (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The initial prevalence of MSI-CRCs in our study (via 5 microsatellite markers) was similar to previous studies. Some histopathological features helped to guide the MSI testing. Even though only the mucinous features were related to the MSI-H status, none of MSI-H CRCs lacked any of the of 9 selected histopathological features. Our study was limited by selected age groups and a small sample size. Further studies with more samples including all age groups should be performed to demonstrate the usefulness of the histopathological features in predicting the MSI in CRC.
The Molecular Ecology Analysis of Microbial Communities in LuLiang Oil Field

The molecular ecology analysis of microorganisms is important for the development of microbial enhanced oil recovery. The bacterial 16S rRNA gene clone library was constructed to detect the community diversity in injection-water and produced-water in Luliang Oil field in Xinjiang in this study. The phylogenetic analysis indecated that most of clones (76%) in injection-water were clustered in α-proteobacteria. Roseovarius sp. and Novispirillum sp. were the main bacteria accounting for 41.3% of the total of clones. And the most clones in production water were clustered in α,γ-proteobacteria with the phylotypes belonging to α-proteobacteria accounting for 61% of the clone library. Sphingomonas sp. and Pseudomonas stutzeri sp. were the dominant bacteria which constitute 26% and 22%. The variaty of functional bacteria is more in produced-water than injection-water.
A Novel Approach of Loss Sensitivity Factor for Optimal Placement of Battery Energy Storage System

One of the methods to reduce peak-time generation costs is by using a battery energy storage system (BESS). To effectively utilize BESS, its installation must be considered carefully since incorrect site placement will increase grid losses and reduce BESS's benefits. This paper presents the application of loss sensitivity factor (LSF) to obtain BESS's optimal placement. The approach will be based on a novel approach considering the charging and discharging period of BESS. The optimization process aims to minimize grid losses when BESS is installed. The performance of the proposed method is validated by using IEEE RTS-96 24 bus system. The results obtained show that this novel approach can significantly minimize the grid losses compared to the conventional LSF approach.
Blended Dry and Hot Events Index for Monitoring Dry‐Hot Events Over Global Land Areas

The amplifying effects of disasters caused by compound dry and hot extremes (dry‐hot events) have attracted widespread attention. This study presents a novel Blended Dry and Hot Events Index (BDHI) considering various dry and hot conditions (i.e., dry/hot, dry/cool, wet/hot, and wet/cool conditions). BDHI was applied to monitor dry‐hot events over global land areas during the 1950–2019 period and its performance was compared against that of the Standardized Compound Event Indicator (SCEI), which includes certain unsatisfactory or unclear features. We found that BDHI comprehensively reflected the characteristics of meteorological drought and temperature anomalies in monitoring dry‐hot events. Many regions around the globe have been experiencing more severe dry‐hot events since the 1990s, especially Russia, the USA, China, India, Australia, southern Africa, Europe, and South America. The proposed index is expected to serve as a potential tool for monitoring dry‐hot events and will be useful for managing and mitigating associated risks.
Geothermal Energy for Electricity Generation

A theoretical investigation of the electricity generation from geothermal energy has been established for different year months and earth’s depths. The efficiency of Carnot cycle of the geothermal power plant increases with increasing temperature difference between the productions well and the re-injection well temperature. It is found that the largest value of temperature difference is at Jan. and Dec., and the lower value is at July. The largest value of electricity production for the geothermal power plant is at Jan. and Dec. and the lower value is at July. The largest value of heat supplied from geothermal power plant is at Jan. and Dec., and the lower value is at May. The increasing in earth’s depth will increase the power production, and the largest value of power production is at Jan. and Dec. whereas the lower value is at Jun. and July.
Is The Risk of Thromboembolic Disease and Bleeding Adequately Evaluated in Patients with Glioblastoma? A Review of The Topic

Introduction: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most frequent malignant brain tumor, with an aggressive course and a short life expectancy despite standard treatment (chemotherapy and radiotherapy). The possibility of the development of thrombotic events (VTE) with this type of cancer is frequent. Objective: To determine the risk of presenting VTE and haemorrhagic events in patients affected by GBM. Methods: Observational retrospective study of patients with GBM diagnosis at the General University Hospital of Ciudad Real between 2012 and 2015. The demographic characteristics of patients were studied, predictive models were compared, and a survival analysis was performed. Results: 77 patients were studied, 42 (55.3%) / 34 (44.7%), men and women respectively, with an average age of 66.42 years. 13 (16.9%) presented VTE; of which 10 (61.54%) in the form of deep venous thrombosis (DVT), 3 (23.08%) pulmonary embolism (PE) and 2 (15.38%) mixed events. The quality of life according to the performance status ECOG scale at the moment of diagnosis was 1 in 42 (15.38%) patients, and at the time of VTE, 5 (41.7%) had a value of 2, and 4 (33.3.3 %) registered 3. In the group that developed VTE according to the predictive model of risk for thrombosis in Khorana 5 (38.5%) had low risk and 8 (61.5%) intermediate; on the ASCO 2013 modified scale 5 (38.5%) had an Intermediate risk and 8 (61.5%) high. With a median, 1 year follow-up, 64 (84.2%) patients died, with an average time after the diagnosis of 279.09 days (216.6-341.6) (SE 31,8). 2 (2.6%) of the patients presented a greater haemorrhagic event and 7 (7.9%) cerebral haemorrhage, of which 4 (44.4%) had prophylactic Low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs). In the survival analysis of Kaplan Meyer, patients who received prophylactic treatment with LMWHs had a higher survival rate with an average of 298.5 days compared to 239.3 of those who did not (p> 0.05). There were no significant variables in the multivariate analysis for thrombotic or haemorrhagic events. Conclusion and Discussion: The demographic and clinical characteristics of our patients were similar to those reported in other international publications. The predictive scale of Khorana was not validated in our study, in contrast, the modified ASCO 2013 scale was closer to our results. The creation of a precise predictive model would help to delineate the benefit of prophylactic anticoagulation in high-risk patients. Long-term prophylaxis with LMWHs has demonstrated a reduction of thrombotic events without significantly increasing the fatal haemorrhagic episodes, also demonstrating greater long-term survival, independent of thrombotic events. Randomized prospective studies are needed to demonstrate its benefits.