Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Possibilities of Intensifying Heat Transfer in Heat Exchangers for High Temperature Applications

A high temperature heat transfer application actually represents the case of a heat exchanger operated within a process with high temperature. In every industrial domain, a different value of temperature may be considered “high”. We are active in the field of chemical, petrochemical, waste-to-energy, power and process energy recovery heat transfer applications. In these applications a tube-fin exchangers are successfully used for gas or liquid and/or aggressive fluids with temperatures up to 350 and/or 400 °C. They are also frequently used in combustion systems with air preheating applications. Tubular heat exchangers, especially those with U-tubes, helical and straight tubes are most frequently used for hightemperature applications with working temperatures above 650 °C. Extended surfaces are used as an intensification approach to decrease the area requirements on flue gas side. Selection of an extended surface depends on type of fuel. In the case of combustion of fuels producing flue gas with fouling tendency, studded tubes are preferred. More efficient finned tubes may be used if fuel burnt produces relatively clean flue gas. Generally enhanced surfaces are used for gaseous media with low heat transfer coefficient. Fins substantially enhance the heat transfer area and consequently heat duty of the equipment. Improving heat transfer performance is commonly referred to as heat transfer enhancement. Enhancement is usually represented by increasing the (film and overall) heat transfer coefficient by so called “passive” (surface extension) or “active” (increasing fluid turbulence) way. This paper presents a possible selection of novel types of longitudinally finned tubes intensifying the heat transfer utilizing both passive and active principles. It means that fins not only increase heat transfer area but also make the fluid flowing around fin to change the flow direction, i.e., to increase the turbulence. This allows increasing the film heat transfer coefficient on fin-side.
Chemical Composition of Vermicompost Made from Organic Wastes through the Vermicomposting and Composting with the Addition of Fish Meal and Egg Shells Flour

Chemical composition of compost is an important indicator that determines the quality of compost. This study compared the chemical composition of vermicompost resulting from the process of vermicomposting alone with combined vermicomposting and composting with addition of egg shells flour and fish meal. Organic wastes used were the mixture of spent mushrooms waste, coconut husks, cow dung, vegetables residue, and leaf litter. Lumbricus rubellus was the species of earthworm used in the vermicomposting process. In the composting process, egg shells flour and fish meal are added into the vermicompost as additives materials. The results indicate that the combined vermicomposting and composting process with addition the additives materials improves the chemical composition of vermicompost compared to using vermicomposting process alone. The change of chemical composition was indicated by a decrease in C-organic content and C/N ratio by 29% and 99%, respectively, while the content of N, P, K and S increased by 52%, 67.5%, 29% and 25%, respectively due to the addition of additives material in the composting process. The largest increase of vermicompost nutrient content occurred in the Ca content by an average of up to 7-fold. While polyphenols, lignin and cellulose content of vermicompost decreased slightly. The treatment of two mixture (a) spent mushrooms waste, cow dung and vegetables residue, and (b) spent mushroom waste, cow dung, vegetables residue, and leaf litter gave the best chemical composition. However, to determine the quality, we need to test the product in a plant growth bioassay as a follow-up study.
Impact of Genetic Algorithm Parameters on its performance for Solving Flow Shop Scheduling Problem

The primary objective of flow shop scheduling is to obtain the best sequence which optimizes various objectives such as makespan, total flow time, total tardiness, or number of tardy jobs, etc. Due to the combinatorial nature of the flow shop problem (FSP) there is a lot of artificial intelligence methods proposed to solve it. The Genetic Algorithm (GA), one of these methods, is considered a valuable search algorithm capable of finding a reasonable solution in a short computational time. GAparameters, (population size, crossover probability and mutation probability) give different values that can be combined to give various GAs. In this paper we investigate the impact of the GA parameters (population size, crossover probability and mutation probability)on the quality of the GA solution in solving the flow shop scheduling problems. In this paperfourpopulation size (Ps), fivecrossover probability (Pc) andten mutation probability (Pm) are investigated. The computational results show that there are significant differences among the investigated parameters on the performance of the proposed GA.
DETERMINING THE SUSCEPTIBILITY OF AVOCADO CULTIVARS TO FEEDING BY THE PERSEA MITE, Oligonychus perseae (ACARI: TETRANYCHIDAE)

SUMMARY We compared the susceptibility of seven cultivars of avocado, Persea americana, to feeding by Oligonychus perseae. Based on the percentage of leaf area damaged by mites feeding on leaves in 1997, cultivars were categorized in three groups: ‘Hass’ and Gwen were ‘susceptible’, ‘Fuerte’, ‘Lamb Hass’, and ‘Reed’ were “resistant”, ‘Esther’ and ‘Pinkerton’ were of "intermediate" susceptibility. A life table study in the laboratory showed no difference in mortality and rate of development of O. perseae of either the first or second generation reared on either Hass, Pinkerton or Lamb Hass cultivars. Although O. perseae exhibited no difference across cultivars with respect to reproductive rates when reared on leaves collected in late spring (April) and early summer (June), net reproduction and intrinsic rate of increase were significantly higher on ‘Hass’ avocados in mid summer (July). A corresponding increase in percentage leaf area damaged by mite feeding was also observed in the field on ‘Hass’ in July. We suggest that seasonal changes in the nutritional quality of leaves may be the major factor determining susceptibility of avocado cultivars to O. perseae.
Microphysical sensitivity of coupled springtime Arctic stratocumulus to modelled primary ice over the ice pack, marginal ice, and ocean

Abstract. This study uses large eddy simulations to test the sensitivity of single-layer mixed-phase stratocumulus to primary ice number concentrations in the European Arctic. Observations from the Aerosol-Cloud Coupling and Climate Interactions in the Arctic (ACCACIA) campaign are considered for comparison with cloud microphysics modelled using the Large Eddy Model (LEM, UK Met. Office). We find that cloud structure is very sensitive to ice number concentrations, Nice, and small increases can cause persisting mixed-phase clouds to glaciate and break up. Three key dependencies on Nice are identified from sensitivity simulations and comparisons with observations made over the sea ice pack, marginal ice zone (MIZ), and ocean. Over sea ice, we find deposition–condensation ice formation rates are overestimated, leading to cloud glaciation. When ice formation is limited to water-saturated conditions, we find microphysics comparable to aircraft observations over all surfaces considered. We show that warm supercooled (−13 °C) mixed-phase clouds over the MIZ are simulated to reasonable accuracy when using both the DeMott et al.(2010) and Cooper(1986) primary ice nucleation parameterisations. Over the ocean, we find a strong sensitivity of Arctic stratus to Nice. The Cooper(1986) parameterisation performs poorly at the lower ambient temperatures, leading to a comparatively higher Nice (2.43 L−1 at the cloud-top temperature, approximately −20 °C) and cloud glaciation. A small decrease in the predicted Nice (2.07 L−1 at −20 °C), using the DeMott et al.(2010) parameterisation, causes mixed-phase conditions to persist for 24 h over the ocean. However, this representation leads to the formation of convective structures which reduce the cloud liquid water through snow precipitation, promoting cloud break-up through a depleted liquid phase. Decreasing the Nice further (0.54 L−1, using a relationship derived from ACCACIA observations) allows mixed-phase conditions to be maintained for at least 24 h with more stability in the liquid and ice water paths. Sensitivity to Nice is also evident at low number concentrations, where 0.1 × Nice predicted by the DeMott et al.(2010) parameterisation results in the formation of rainbands within the model; rainbands which also act to deplete the liquid water in the cloud and promote break-up.
Emerging extraction processes of essential oils: A review

The aim of this work is to study the extraction of the essential oil as a process that appeared to obtain the bioactive substances among the several extraction processes. A great number of extraction processes are available. In this study, the recent processes were compared with the conventional ones. Also, the economic evaluation of the extraction process plant including energy cost, manual labor, raw materials, and fixed costs were studied. We assessed the costs involved in the extraction process of the bioactive compounds. Carbon dioxide is the most desirable solvent for Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE). Its attraction for the extraction of the heat-sensitive compounds is due to its critical temperature (304 °K). Solvent extraction and steam distillation process (SE‒SD) may overcome many disadvantages that conventional solvent extraction and hydrodistillation bring about in the extraction of essential oil. This combination technology has been used in the extraction of essential oil from plant material for high quality, simple technology, and low cost. The microwave assisted hydro-distillation (MAHD) is less tedious and minimizes the risk of the compound degradation at high temperatures. The MAHD presents distinct advantages for the fast and reproducible production process. The study of the ultrasound-enhanced subcritical water extraction process (USWE) showed many advantages such as: time-saving, environment-friendliness, and high efficiency.
Comparative Study of Comprehensive Evaluation Model for Academic Quality of Food Journals

This study puts forward an academic level evaluation model of journal based on a rough-set-equivalent thinking and neural networks and tests the model’s efficiency and practicality by comparing it to the traditional evaluation methods. First of all, the forming of this evaluation model includes the simplification of journal evaluation with theories based on rough-set-equivalent thinking and the abandoning of miscellaneous evaluation indicators. Secondly, the remaining essential evaluation indicators would be used to form plenty of training samples for the neural networks’ building up. Lastly, the neural networks would use the BP algorithm to rank those samples in general and therefore forms the journal academic level evaluation model. In order to testify the effectiveness of this model, other methods of TOPSIS is used to evaluate these journals and gray-relation-based thinking is used to set the essential indicators’ weights, which provide another outcome for comparison. The instance analysis of food journals indicates that the process of building this evaluation model is secured and logical and the model could well fit into the actual food journals academic level evaluation.
Adiponectin Fails in Improving Angiogenic Repair in Streptozocin-Treated or Lepr db/db Mice after Hind Limb Ischemia

Objectives. Type 1 and 2 diabetes carry risk factors for the development of microvascular diseases with associated impairment of angiogenic repair. Here, we investigated whether adiponectin, an adipocyte-specific adipocytokine with antiatherosclerotic and antidiabetic properties, regulates angiogenic repair in response to tissue ischemia in Leprdb/db and streptozocin-treated diabetic mouse models. Methods. Adenoviral vectors containing the gene for β-galactosidase, full-length mouse adiponectin, and dominant-negative AMPKα2 were used in streptozocin-treated male Leprdb/db mice, after which hind limb blood flow was measured using a laser doppler blood flow analyzer. Results. The angiogenic repair of ischemic hind limbs was impaired in both streptozocin-treated and Leprdb/db mice compared to wild-type mice as evaluated by laser doppler flow and capillary density analyses. Adenovirus-mediated administration of adiponectin accelerated angiogenic repair after hind limb ischemia in WT mice, but not in Leprdb/db mice or mice treated with streptozocin. In vitro experiments using HUVECs highlighted the antiapoptotic and proangiogenic properties of adiponectin but could not demonstrate accelerated differentiation of endothelial cells into tube-like structures at elevated glucose levels. Conclusions. External administration of adiponectin at elevated glucose levels may not be useful in the treatment of diabetes mellitus-related vascular deficiency diseases.
A Comprehensive Survey of Palmprint based Biometric Verification System

: As an emerging biometric technology, palmprint recognition technology has been researched widely and developed rapidly, which is well known for its high verification accuracy, low-price capture device, high reliability and user acceptance. During this instance of time, several different glitches related to palmprint recognition have been addressed. Furthermost of the studies has been done in palmprint recognition due to its stability, reliability and exclusivity. Furthermore, it has been used for law enforcement, civil applications and access control applications. Researchers have proposed a variety of palmprint pre-processing, feature extraction and matching approaches. This paper deliberates and review about the number of investigation works introduced to overcome the difficulties confronted in each stage of palm print verification. Our study on palm print recognition focuses on verifying the palm print in different types of schemes involved.
Mineral and nutritive value of Dennettia tripetala fruits

Introduction . Dennettia tripetala G. Baker (Annonaceae), or pepper fruit tree, is a well-known Nigerian spicy medicinal plant. The mineral, vitamin and nutrient composition of the fruit of Dennettia tripetala were determined. Materials and methods . Ripe fruits of Dennettia tripetala were analysed for proximate composition, and mineral and vitamin contents. Results and discussion . Our work showed that Dennettia tripetala contained crude protein (15.31%), total carbohydrate (62%), crude fibres (9.84%), crude lipids (3.47%) and moisture (8.0%). It had a calorific value of 480.24 g cal·100 g–1 of fresh fruit, and mineral content comprised: calcium (1.80%), phosphorus (0.33%), potassium (2.50%) and magnesium (0.42%). Trace elements included iron, copper, zinc and cadmium, but chromium was not detected. The water-soluble vitamins include ascorbic acid, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. Conclusion . Our work justifies the use of Dennettia tripetala fruits as food and a drug in herbal medicine in Southeastern Nigeria.
Appointment of Politically Connected Top Executives and Subsequent Firm Performance and Corporate Governance: Evidence from China’s Listed SOEs

This paper investigates the decision to appoint politically connected top executives to Chinese listed state-owned enterprises (SOEs) when they face distressful conditions and whether such appointments enhance or reduce firm performance and corporate governance in subsequent years. China is the world’s largest emerging economy, and Chinese SOEs are under intensive state control and are obliged to draw on a less developed managerial labor market. Using data on the top-management turnover of listed SOEs from 2001 to 2005, we find that state-owned companies are more likely to replace top executives and appoint a politically connected executive when they encounter a distress such as poor ROA, an earnings loss, a high financial risk, or regulations violation. We also find that newly appointed politically connected top executives subsequently improve firm performance and governance structures and reduce the frequency of illegal action by firms. However, there is no evidence that newly appointed politically connected top executives benefit firms through affording them preferential access to resources or government assistance. The findings suggest that politically connected executives may be selected for the alignment of shareholders’ interests and for their special managerial talent in emerging markets dominated by government ownership, and may display additional managerial productivity in such an environment.
Biogenic iodine emissions and identification of end-products in coastal ultrafine particles during nucleation bursts

[1] Ultrafine particles sampled during new particle formation bursts observed in the coastal zone were studied with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and elemental analysis using energy-dispersive X ray (EDX). It was observed that both iodine and sulphur were present in the new particles with diameter below 10 mn. Gaseous emissions of halogen compounds from seaweeds were also measured at the same location during low-tide particle nucleation episodes. Based on the presence of iodine in the particle phase during low-tide nucleation bursts, and the significant emission of iodine compounds from the seaweeds during these periods, it is apparent that part of the biogenic iodine species emitted from the seaweeds end up in the ultrafine particulate phase. It was not possible to quantitatively determine the iodine content in the particles; however, in most cases the relative contribution from iodine and sulphate was similar, while some cases indicated no sulphate. On larger sized particles the contribution of sulphate was significantly higher than iodine. It appears that the condensable species leading to the appearance of new particles in the coastal atmosphere is an iodine species. Whether or not this iodine species also participates in the nucleation of new stable clusters could not be completely verified.
Frame Work for Expression Invariant Face Recognition System Using Warping Technique

Facial expressions, usually has an adverse effect on the performance of a face recognition system. In this investigation, expression invariant face recognition algorithm is presented that converts input face image with an arbitrary expression into its corresponding neutral facial image. In the present study, deep learning algorithm is used to train classifiers for reference keypoints, where key-points are located and deep neural network is trained to make the system able to locate the landmarks in test image. Create an intermediate triangular mesh from the test and reference image and then warp it using affine transform and take the average of the normalized faces. To extract the features presented in the result image shift invariant feature extraction technique is used. Finally, results are compared and the recognition accuracy is determined for different expressions. The present work is tested on three different databases: JAFFE, Cohn-Kanade (CK) and Yale database. Experimental results show that the expression invariant face recognition method is very robust to variety of expressions and recognition accuracy is found to be 97.8 %, 96.8% and 95.7% for CK, JAFFE and Yale databases respectively.
Increased Auditor Independence by External Rotation and Separating Audit and Non Audit Duties? - A Note on the European Audit Regulation

The European audit reform contains the implementation of an external mandatory auditor rotation (audit firm rotation) and a separation of audit and non audit duties to increase auditor independence. The central question is, whether these regulation measures are connected with an increased accounting and audit quality. First, this article presents an agency theoretical foundation of auditor independence. Then, a state of the art analysis of empirical research illustrates these ambivalent results, so that the economic need for the audit market regulation in Europe is controversial.
GC-MS based metabolomics and multivariate statistical analysis of Wedelia trilobata extracts for the identification of potential phytochemical properties

Wedelia trilobata is known as a noxious weed with potential pharmaceutical properties that can be used to treat inflammation and bacterial infections. Despite its impacts and potentials, the characterization of W. trilobata’s metabolite profiles using metabolomics approach has never been described. In this study, we used a non-targeted gas chromatography mass spectrometer (GC-MS) and multivariate statistical analysis (MVA) to determine the metabolic content of W. trilobata. Metabolite extraction was carried out using solvents of methanol/water, methanol/chloroform/water, ethanol and water. Unsupervised principle component analysis (PCA) and partial least square discriminant analysis (PLSDA) were applied to evaluate grouping trends between the different solvents extracts. Upon evaluation of four different extraction solvents systems, ethanol was found to have good extraction efficiency based on metabolites contribution and separation trend observed in PCA and PLSDA. Variable importance in projection (VIP) scores revealed that separation between solvents extract were largely contributed by monosaccharides and diterpenes of resin acids of 13cis-retinoid acid and isopimaric acid. High abundance of resin acids in W. trilobata suggested potential allelopathy properties that can have beneficial herbicides. This study presents a simple non-targeted metabolomics approach to determine the metabolite differences in W. trilobata. The findings can be used to further optimise metabolite extraction from W. trilobata.