Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
STEM EMBEDDED IN THE DUJIANGYAN IRRIGATION SYSTEM: A DESCRIPTIVE - INTERPRETIVE ANALYSIS TO DESIGN STEM COURSE

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education is recognized as the world’s top education program. However, few STEM programs have been designed based on cultural-historical events. To explore this issue, the present study drew on the cultural-historical activity theory and the content analysis method by adopting the descriptive-interpretative approach to explore the STEM content of the Dujiangyan Irrigation System (DIS) in present-day Sichuan, China. As early as 2,275 years ago during the Warring States period, Li Bing, the governor of Shu Shire in the Qin state, implicitly implemented the STEM concept when building the irrigation system. The results of this study indicate that the DIS incorporates Science (e.g., the hydraulic principle), Technology (e.g., making a large cobblestone Bamboo-Cage for building Fish Mouth), Engineering (e.g., water-level measurement) and Mathematics (e.g., Calculation of sand discharge). Adopting an educational pedagogy proposed by UNESCO which emphasized learning concepts from daily life, the present study draws on a cultural-historical event to inform STEM learning. The method and results of this study can be applied in the design of STEM programs based on other cultural-historical events from around the world. Keywords: cultural-historical activity theory, Dujiangyan, hydraulic engineering, interdisciplinary knowledge, STEM
CAA Approaches for Duct Elements of HVAC Systems

In recent years there has been a significant increase in computing performance. This has allowed companies to make more use of numerical simulation methods during the development phase, even for areas that until recently were almost unfeasible. This article presents the fundamental aspects related to Computational Aero-Acoustics for internal flow with a focus on HVAC elements. The aim was to answer questions about the computational mesh, computational models and boundary conditions.
Analytical Validation of Quantitative High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Methods in Pharmaceutical Analysis: A Practical Approach

Analytical validation is an essential component in allowing a laboratory to ensure routine acceptable performance of analytical methods. Despite the considerable amount of important published work on this subject, diversity still prevails in the employed methodologies because validation of an analytical method depends on the specific purpose of that method. This can lead to difficulties in validation approaches and the interpretation of results. Aiming to assist in the planning of validation methods, we discuss relevant approaches of various parameters in quantitative high-performance liquid chromatographic methods and validation fields in pharmaceutical analysis. Moreover, this article provides several up-to-date examples that should be useful as an introduction to analytical validation for practical applications in academic research or the industrial sector.
USE OF MULTIVARIATE ADAPTIVE REGRESSION SPLINES (MARS) FOR PREDICTING PARAMETERS OF BREAST MEAT IN QUAILS

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of variety and sex on the color of the breast meat (brightness: L*, red color: a*, yellow color: b*) in quails. In this study, a total of 144 quails from three different varieties (Wild-type, Dark Brown and Golden) were employed. The color and pH parameters of the breast meat were measured in quails slaughtered in week 10. In order to predict the brightness (L*), red color (a*), and yellow color (b*) values of the breast meat, Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) models were implemented. When determining the best model, attention was paid to minimize the Generalized Cross Validation (GCV), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) statistics and to maximize coefficient of determination (R2) and adjusted R2 values. In the MARS models constructed to predict L*, a* and b*, it was found that R2 values were 0.999, 0.999, and 0.999; adjusted R2 values were 0.997, 0.992, and 0.996; and RMSE values were 0.068, 0.082, and 0.038, respectively. As a result, it could be suggested that MARS modeling may be a useful tool for the prediction of the color parameters of the breast meat.
Gate Drivers for Medium-Voltage SiC Devices

Extensive research in wide-bandgap material technology such as silicon carbide (SiC) has led to the development of medium-voltage (MV) power semiconductor devices with blocking voltages of 3.3 to 15 kV. When these devices are used in various applications, they are exposed to a high peak voltage stress and a very high $dv/dt$ (50–100 V/ns). These impose stringent requirements on the gate driving stage for these devices in terms of featuring a high isolation voltage capability along with a high $dv/dt$ ruggedness, which makes it necessary to have an ultralow coupling capacitance between primary and secondary sides of the gate drivers. One of the key issues in achieving this MV insulation pertains to the necessary clearance and creepage requirements, as defined in IEC 61800-5-1 standards. While the successful operation of these gate drivers is demonstrated in MV converter applications such as solid-state transformers, and MV grid-connected inverters, substantial research needs to be carried out to improve the gate drivers’ performance and provide a plug-and-play solution. This article aims to comprehensively review these gate drivers and consolidate various required design features concerning their galvanic isolation stage, based on normal and short-circuit operation of MV high-power converter systems. Different device short-circuit protection schemes for these gate drivers are explored in detail. Additional applications and functionalities of the gate drivers, including gate drivers used in the series-connection of MV devices and intelligent gate drivers, are also provided in brief. Based on prior research, this review aims to provide design choices and guidelines for the gate drivers, accelerating the growth and deployment of MV SiC devices for field applications.
Development of a Small Downdraft Biomass Gasifier for Developing Countries

Biomass gasification has been receiving increasing attention as a potential renewable energy source for the last few decades. This attempt involved designing, developing and testing a small downdraft biomass gasifier JRB-1 (6-7 kW) at Durham University, UK. The gasifier was built of stainless steel pipes, sheets and other fittings and tested for wood chips and pellets. The composition, moisture content and consumption of biomass feedstock (3.1 kg/hr for wood chips, 2.9 kg/hr for pellets), temperature inside the reaction zone (950-1150 o C), primary air flow rate (0.0015 m 3 /s) and exit temperature of the producer gas (180-220 o C) was measured. The main constituents of syngas included nitrogen (50-56%), carbon monoxide (19-22%), hydrogen (12-19%), carbon dioxide (10-12%) and a small amount of methane (1-2%). These results were used in Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software to obtain the lower calorific value of syngas (4424-5007 kJ/m 3 ) and cold gas efficiency (62.569.4%) of the gasifier, which were found close to the calculated values. Again the thermal efficiency was calculated as 90.1-92.4%. Being comparatively easy to build, downdraft gasifiers like JRB-1 are likely to be the most appropriate technology for developing countries as a source of decentralized power supply and for development in agricultural sector.
Determining Adventure Tourist Loyalty: Mediating Role of Tourist Satisfaction and Quality of Life

This study aims to test the interrelationship among perceived value, tourist satisfaction, quality of life, and tourist loyalty in an Indonesian tourist adventure destination. The respondents were recruited from Bromo Mountain, East-Java Province, Indonesia. For this study, 250 questionnaires were distributed, of which 240 could be used for analysis, yielding a response rate of 96%. Data was analyzed using Partial Least Squares with smartPLS 3 software. Both outer model and inner model evaluation were conducted to ensure the robustness of the proposed model. The findings showed that perceived value does not have a direct significant effect on tourist loyalty. However, tourist satisfaction and quality of life have significant effects on tourist loyalty. The mediating effect test indicated that tourist satisfaction and quality of life significantly mediated the effect of perceived value on tourist loyalty. The multi-group analysis test found that the demographic factor does not have any influence. By accomplishing its research objectives, this study provides both theoretical and practical contributions. From a theoretical standpoint, this study provides a comprehensive conceptual model in explaining Indonesia adventure tourist loyalty. From a practical standpoint, this study offers recommendations to adventure tourism management to enhance the sustainability of the tourism destination, especially the adventure tourism destination.
Thermal diffusion effects in hydrogen-air and methane-air flames

The influence of thermal diffusion on the structure of hydrogen-air and methane-air flames is investigated numerically using complex chemistry and detailed transport models. All the transport coefficients in the mixture, including thermal diffusion coefficients, are evaluated using new algorithms which provide, at moderate computational costs, accurate approximations derived rigorously from the kinetic theory of gases. Our numerical results show that thermal diffusion is important for an accurate prediction of flame structure. §E-mail address: ern@cermics.enpc. fr ∥E-mail address: giovangi@cmapx.polytechnique. fr
Inland blue holes of The Bahamas – chemistry and biology in a unique aquatic environment

: While lake systems in temperate regions have been extensively studied, tropical and subtropical systems have received less attention. Here, we describe the water chemistry and biota of ten inland blue holes on Andros Island, The Bahamas, representative of the morphological, abiotic, and biotic variation among Androsian inland blue holes. The majority of the studied blue holes were vertically stratified with oxic freshwater overlying anoxic saline groundwater of marine origin. Water chemistry (e.g. total phosphorus and nitrogen) in shallow waters was similar among blue holes, while turbidity and water color varied. Presence of hydrogen sulfide and reduced iron in and below the halocline indicate reducing conditions in all stratified blue holes. The biota above the halocline was also similar among blue holes with a few taxa dominating the phytoplankton community, and the zooplankton community consisting of copepods and rotifers. The Bahamas mosquitofish ( Gambusia hubbsi ) was present in all investigated blue holes, often accompanied by other small planktivorous fish, while the piscivorous bigmouth sleeper ( Gobiomorus dormitor ) was only present in some of the blue holes. Our field study reinforces that inland blue holes are highly interesting for biogeochemical research, and provide naturally replicated systems for evolutionary studies.
Objective measurement of physical activity in a random sample of Saint-Petersburg inhabitants

Background: World Health Organization (WHO) experts listed physical inactivity in leading risk factors for global mortality. Current research shows that only objective measurement of physical activity may provide accurate information on this parameter. The aim of our study was to assess the 7-day physical activity monitoring using triaxial accelerometers in a random sample of Saint-Petersburg inhabitants. Material and methods: As a part of all-Russian epidemiology survey ESSE-RF there was involved random sampling of 1600 Saint-Petersburg inhabitants (25–65 years) stratified by age and sex. After that a random sub-population of 100 subjects was selected. All subjects filled in questionnaire regarding physical activity, occupation, education and nutrition. Anthropometry (weight, height with body-mass index calculation, waist circumference) was performed. Actigraph GT3X+ (Actigraph LLC, USA) accelerometer and physical activity diary were used in order to evaluate physical activity monitoring for 7 days. Adequate levels of physical activity (PA) were defined as more than 10 000 steps/day and at least 150 minutes/week of moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in bouts of 10 minutes or more. Results: 1/2 of subjects were physically active according to steps, and 1/3 according to MVPA time criteria. No gender, occupation or body composition differences were revealed in physically active and inactive subjects. Almost 50% of physically active subjects had balanced workweek-weekend PA profile, and the same criterion is true only for 13% of subjects in inactive group. In both groups the same peaks of MVPA were revealed — at 8.00–9.00 and 18.00–19.00, which are typical transportation time, but in active group these peaks were significantly higher. According to PA diaries, in most of cases physical inactivity was related to the usage of private or public transport. Conclusion: Triaxial PA-monitoring shows, that 40–60% of subjects were physically inactive, and 150-min MVPA goal can easily be achieved by only increasing walking time during transportation peaks. The physical inactivity was not determined by the type of occupation, sex or age, instead it was mainly influenced by the usage of cars in the morning and evening transportation time, rather than walking.
An Improved Intuitionistic Fuzzy C-Means for Ship Segmentation in Infrared Images

Infrared ship segmentation is extensively applied in military fields. Due to noise and intensity inhomogeneity, the segmentation of infrared ship is a challenging task. The fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering algorithm is widely used in image segmentation. However, traditional FCM is sensitive to noise and unable to obtain desirable segmentation results for infrared ship images. In this article, a novel probability induced intuitionistic FCM clustering algorithm is proposed to address the problem. First, the target probability information is incorporated into intuitionistic FCM to induce and refine membership which is affected by interferences. Second, by making use of neighborhood information in the form of a regularization term, the proposed method could suppress intensity inhomogeneity as well as maintain image details. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method could achieve better results than 12 other comparing algorithms for infrared ship segmentation.
Locality Preserving Discriminant Projection for Speaker Verification

In this paper, a manifold subspace learning algorithm based on locality preserving discriminant projection (LPDP) is used for speaker verification. LPDP can overcome the deficiency of the total variability factor analysis and locality preserving projection (LPP). LPDP can effectively use the speaker label information of speech data. Through optimization, LPDP can maintain the inherent manifold local structure of the speech data samples of the same speaker by reducing the distance between them. At the same time, LPDP can enhance the discriminability of the embedding space by expanding the distance between the speech data samples of different speakers. The proposed method is compared with LPP and total variability factor analysis on the NIST SRE 2010 telephone-telephone core condition. The experimental results indicate that the proposed LPDP can overcome the deficiency of LPP and total variability factor analysis and can further improve the system performance.
Optimal Photovoltaic Multi-String Inverter Topology Selection Based on Reliability and Cost Analysis

Inverters are the most vulnerable parts of the photovoltaic (PV) power plants. Therefore, choosing an appropriate inverter topology to maximize the reliability and availability of the PV power plants is very important, especially in the large scale power plants. This paper proposes a novel index named Total Financial Losses (TFL) to compare different inverter topologies from reliability and energy losses points of view. Initial cost, repair cost, financial losses due to the downtime and element losses, and environmental conditions are considered in evaluating the TFL index. Using this universal index, the optimal inverter topology and its switching frequency are determined when the TFL is minimized. Considering the fact that the reliability of power electronic devices is strongly dependent on their power losses and ambient conditions, the exact failure rates of vulnerable elements such as capacitors, switches, diodes, and cooling system are calculated. The system availability and frequencies of encountering the failure states are determined using the Markov method. Finally, the optimal photovoltaic inverter of the 150 kW power range is selected out of commonly used two-level and three-level topologies.
La lutte contre le COVID-19 au Niger: l´évaluation de la prévention et contrôle des infections dans les formations sanitaires de la communauté urbaine de Niamey

Le Niger fait face depuis le 19 mars 2020, à la pandémie de maladie à coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). L´objectif de cette étude était d´évaluer les mesures de prévention et de contrôle des infections (PCI) dans les structures sanitaires de la communauté urbaine de Niamey au Niger et d´élaborer un plan de résolution des problèmes. Il s´agissait d´une analyse descriptive des 12 thématiques contenues dans la fiche Scorecard PCI de l´Organisation Mondiale de la Santé au niveau des formations sanitaires (FS) publiques et privées de la communauté urbaine de Niamey. L´étude s´est basée sur 83 formations sanitaires, soit 60% des formations sanitaires de la communauté urbaine de Niamey. Au niveau des formations sanitaires tertiaires, le résultat global de la PCI a donné un score de 75% soit un niveau moyen de satisfaction. Au niveau des formations sanitaires privées, l´évaluation globale était de 53% soit un niveau moyen de satisfaction. Enfin, celle des formations sanitaires publiques de premier niveau a donné un score de 45% soit un niveau très bas de satisfaction. Les mesures de PCI dans les formations sanitaires publiques et privées de Niamey demeurent un défi pour les autorités sanitaires. L´élaboration d´un plan de résolution des problèmes sera utile pour relever ce défi.
Removal of Lead from Contaminated Soils Using Poly(amidoamine) Dendrimers

This study investigated the feasibility of using selected dendrimers for the removal of lead (Pb2+) from three contaminated soils. Lead removal was tested in a fixed-bed column setup, where a prescribed dendrimer solution was passed through a lead-loaded soil bed. Effects of dendrimer generation, concentration, type of the terminal groups, solution pH, and soil type were investigated. In all cases, lower pH increased the removal, lower-generation dendrimers were more effective than higher-generation dendrimers based on the same dose, whereas the effect of terminal groups was minimal. The removal was more effective for sandy soil than for clay soil. A sequential extraction experiment indicated that dendrimer treatment removed primarily (>82%) carbonate-bound Pb2+ cations. Approximately 95% of the spent dendrimers was recovered by nanofiltration, followed by acid regeneration. Approximately 96% of the Pb2+ cations in the solution can be retained by nanofiltration, and ∼94% of the retained Pb2+ cations can b.
Effect of the atmospheric pressure nonequilibrium plasmas on the conformational changes of plasmid DNA

The cold atmospheric pressure plasma, which has been widely used for biomedical applications, may potentially affect the conformation of DNA. In this letter, an atmospheric pressure plasma plume is used to investigate its effects on the conformational changes of DNA of plasmid pAHC25. It is found that the plasma plume could cause plasmid DNA topology alteration, resulting in the percentage of the supercoiled plasmid DNA form decreased while that of the open circular and linearized form of plasmid DNA increased as detected by agrose gel electrophoresis. On the other hand, further investigation by using polymerase chain reaction method shows that the atmospheric pressure plasma jet treatments under proper conditions does not affect the genes of the plasmid DNA, which may have potential application in increasing the transformation frequency by genetic engineering.
Grid Information Systems: Past, Present and Future

Grid information systems enable the discovery of resources in a grid computing infrastructure and provide further information about their structure and state. The original concepts for a grid information system were defined over 20 years ago and the GLUE 2.0 information model specification was published 10 years ago. This contribution describes the current status and highlights the changes over the years. It provides an overview of today’s usage from analysing the system logs and compares this with results from over a decade ago. A critical analysis of the system is provided with lessons learned and some perspectives for the future.
Un’indagine sulla percezione del carico assistenziale tra gli infermieri italiani, nell’era del COVID-19

Introduction: Following the COVID-19 infection, the World Health Organization declared the world-wide pandemic on 11th March 2020. This event has led to a reconfiguration of healthcare companies with a reorganization of the work activity of health personnel. This reconfiguration has involved and upset the ordinary routine of healthcare professionals. Objective: The study aims to analyze the Italian nurses’ perceived workload that because of COVID19 pandemic has changed patients care needs. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted by administering an online questionnaire related to the care workload perceived by nurses (i.e., the IDA score). The questionnaire was administered between April and May 2020 and was posted on the wall of three Facebook groups of nurses. 956 people view the posts, and 281 complete surveys returned (response rate of 29.4%). Results: Results show that nurses perceive a medium-high IDA score; that is, on average, patients require relatively high assistance. The patients’ needs that required nurses’ greater assistance were movement, hygiene, the need for a safe environment, and breathing. Furthermore, nurses located in southern Italy and the islands, male nurses, those over the age of 40, and those operating in critical areas and/or in COVID-19 wards perceived a greater care load for patients, compared to their counterparts. Discussion: The paper provides a photograph of the current working situation of Italian nurses. Results have shown interesting differences between the nurses' perceptions based on gender, age, geographic area, and wards. The results of our study show that the most critical patients’dependence needs in this pandemic period are: movement, hygiene, safe environment, and breathing. International literature shows that operators generally overlook those due staff shortages in the wards and too high 2020, Volume 4, Nr. 4 pp. 57-83 Un’indagine sulla percezione del carico assistenziale tra gli infermieri italiani, nell’era del COVID-19 61 number of patients per operator. Therefore, these needs came back into vogue in the pandemic period; on one side Italian nurses rediscovered the importance of those patients’ need, and on the other hand, patients require from the operator harder assistance. Hence our conclusion: the care dependence of the coronavirus patient has a great impact on the nurse’s work and psychophysical well-being.