Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effective densities of soot particles and their relationships with the mixing state at an urban site of the Beijing mega-city in the winter of 2018

Abstract. The effective density (ρeff) of refractory black carbon (rBC) is a key parameter relevant to their mixing state that imposes great uncertainty when evaluating the direct radiation forcing effect. In this study, a novel tandem DMA-CPMA-SP2 system was used to investigate the relationship between the effective density (ρeff) and the mixing state of rBC particles during the winter of 2018 in the Beijing mega-city. During the experiment, aerosols with a known mobility diameter (Dmob) and known ρeff values (0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, and 1.8 g/cm3) were selected and measured by the SP2 to obtain their corresponding mixing states. The results showed that the ρeff well represented the morphological variation in rBC-containing particles. The rBC-containing particles changed from an irregular and loose structure to a compact spherical structure with the increase in ρeff. A ρeff value of 1.4 g/cm3 was the morphological transition point. The morphology and ρeff value of the rBC-containing particles were intrinsically related to the mass ratio of non-refractory matter to rBC (MR). As the ρeff values of the rBC-containing particles increased from 0.8 to 1.8 g/cm3, the MR of the rBC-containing particles significantly increased from 2 up to 6–8, indicating that atmospheric aging processes were likely to lead to the reconstruction of more compact and regular particle shapes. During the observation period, the ρeff of most rBC-containing particles was lower than the morphology transition point independent of the pollution conditions, suggesting that the major rBC-containing particles did not have a spherical structure. Simulation based on an aggregate model considering the morphological information of the particles demonstrated that absorption enhancement of rBC-containing particles could be overestimated by ~ 17 % by using a core-shell model. This study highlights the strong dependence of the morphology of ambient rBC-containing particles on ρeff and will be helpful for elucidating the micro physical characteristics of rBC and reducing uncertainty in the evaluation of rBC climate effects and health risks.
Plantwide modelling – anaerobic digestion of waste sludge from parent nutrient (N and P) removal systems

Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) mathematical models are based on the behavioural patterns of microorganisms involved in the treatment process. These microorganisms are assumed incapable of thinking or planning but simply act according to the capabilities afforded to them by their surrounding conditions – hence different microorganisms pre-dominate different WWTP zones according to how well the conditions suit them. When waste activated sludge (WAS) from biological nutrient removal (BNR) activated sludge (AS) systems, containing phosphorus-accumulating organisms (PAOs), is fed to an anaerobic digester, there is a release of high quantities of metals, phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N). The manner in which we model the release of these metals and nutrients significantly affects the accuracy of predicted anaerobic digestion (AD) outcomes. Previous studies of PAOs show that in the anaerobic zone of the AS system, they can form energy-rich poly3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) at the expense of their aerobically generated polyphosphate (PP). Thus, it is expected that the PAOs containing PP sent into an anaerobic digester with volatile fatty acids (VFAs) present, would utilize their PP reserves as they would in the anaerobic zone of an AS process ending up with formation and storage of some PHB. Ultimately, all the stored products of the PAO get released, since there is no alternating aerobic environment to cater for their growth. Since it has been established that the PP release in the AD occurs much faster than the PAO biomass hydrolysis rate, it is modelled as a separate process. Steps are presented in the development of this PP release mass-balanced stoichiometries that occur with AD of PAOs. By comparing outcomes from these proposed stoichiometries against measured experimental data, it is noticed that better predictions are obtained with acetate uptake for PHB formation than when modelling the AD PP release to occur with PAO death and hydrolysis.
Estimating chlorophyll-A concentration in the Caspian Sea from MODIS images using artificial neural networks

Nowadays, due to various pollution sources, it is essential for environmental scientists to monitor water quality. Phytoplanktons form the end of the food chain in water bodies and are one of the most important biological indicators in water pollution studies. Chlorophyll-A, a green pigment, is found in all phytoplankton. Chlorophyll-A concentration indicates phytoplankton biomass directly. Therefore, Chlorophyll-A is an indirect indicator of pollutants, including phosphorus and nitrogen, and their refinement and control are important. The present study, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite images were used to estimate the chlorophyll-A concentration in southern coastal waters in the Caspian Sea. For this purpose, Multi-layer perceptron neural networks (NNs) were applied which contained three and four feed-forward layers. The best three-layer NN has 15 neurons in its hidden layer and the best four-layer one has 5 in each. The three- and four- layer networks both resulted in similar root mean square errors (RMSE), 0.1(μgl), however, the four-layer NNs proved superior in terms of R2 and also required less training data. Accordingly, a four-layer feed-forward NN with 5 neurons in each hidden layer, is the best network structure for estimating Chlorophyll-A concentration in the southern coastal waters of the Caspian Sea.
FORTIFICATION OF CERTAIN DAIRY PRODUCTS TO INCREASE BIOAVAILABILITY OF MINERALS AND ANTIOXIDANTS

The present study aimed to determine in vitro iron (Fe), zinc (Zn) and calcium (Ca) bioavailability of some dairy products. This study used date syrup, pomegranate syrup and sesame paste (tahina) natural sources to fortify the yoghurt and fermented milk (Rayb). Total phenols and antioxidant activity contents of samples were analyzed. Bioavailability ofFe, Zn and Ca in the samples were determined by an in vitro method as gastrointestinal digestion. All data were analyzed statistically. The results showed that sesame paste (tahina) had the highest level of total phenols. The fermented milk had the highest level of total antioxidant activity (96.387%) by DPPH. However, yoghurt had the highest level (89.910%) by ABTS. Addition of fruit syrup or tahina to yoghurt resulted in increase in total phenols and antioxidant activity. Moreover, the results showed that, the date syrup had the highest percent of Fe bioavailability (40.863%). The maximum bioavailability of Zn was found in low fat milk and fermented milk (59.992% and 59.780%, respectively). Meanwhile, the fermented milk had the highest bioavailability of Ca (59.072%), then yoghurt (54.622%). Generally, fortification by fruit syrup or tahina resulted in an increase in Fe, Zn and Ca bioavailability. The yoghurt which fortified by 5% date syrup had the highest of Fe bioavailability of Zn (38.454% and 44.444%, respectively). While fortification by tahina (both white and red) had the highest percent of Ca bioavailability (71.913% and 73.855%, respectively).
Uncertainty budget for the ion chromatographic determination of fluoride and chloride in nuclear grade boron carbide and elemental boron employing ultrasound-assisted dispersive solid–liquid extraction

Abstract A simple, rapid, and accurate method for the determination of trace level anionic impurities of fluoride and chloride in nuclear grade boron carbide and elemental boron is presented. The method involves ultrasound assisted dispersive solid–liquid extraction (UA-SLE) of fluoride and chloride from sample matrix, followed by determination of the analytes using ion exchange chromatography in suppressed conductivity mode. A Dionex IonPac AS11-HC anion exchange analytical column connected in series with an IonPac AG11-HC guard column has been employed for fluoride and chloride separation with 15 mM NaOH as the eluent. The limit of detection for fluoride and chloride is 1.0 and 2.0 µg g−1, respectively, and the relative standard deviation is 4% for the method. The present analytical method has a higher throughput. The recovery of added anions was in the range of 93–105%. The method was validated using ASTM method of pyrohydrolysis and ion selective electrode analysis. The method developed, eliminated the use of chemical reagents required in the case of regular sample pretreatment procedures. An uncertainty budget is presented for analysis using bottom up approach. Major contributor to the combined uncertainty was found to be the calibration intercept and instrumental response in the case of fluoride and chloride, respectively. Graphical Abstract
The application of scheduler agents in time-triggered embedded systems

This thesis is concerned with the monitoring of embedded systems in which timing behaviour is the key concern. The focus of this work is on the development of a “scheduler agent” (SA) which is used to monitor the temporal behaviour of embedded systems. It is assumed that the system to be monitored employs a timetriggered software architecture. This thesis begins by providing a review of timing issues in embedded systems, and followed by a review of previous research on runtime monitoring techniques (including hardware, software and “hybrid” approaches). The SA is then introduced. It consists of two parts: an internal monitor (IM) and an external analyzer (EA). Both of the IM and the EA have to work cooperatively in order to obtain information from the target system. The communication between them relies on a GPIO interface. However, an encoding technique is required since modern microcontrollers may not have enough GPIO port pins to represent all tasks in the target system. A simple and effective encoding technique has been introduced in this thesis to address this issue. Two versions of the SA – Passive SA (PSA) and Active SA (ASA) – are implemented. PSA retrieves task information from the “instrumented” target system passively. ASA takes advantages from the TTC architecture employed by the target system, in which the monitoring process collects information from the target system at the time when a task is due to start and end. We also developed a SA automation too l which can automatically generate the SA code for the external analyzer and the target system. This tool is used in the case study to generate the source code for bot h PSA and ASA. In the case study presented in this thesis, we confirm that the functionality of SA has in line with its requirements, since it is capable to measure task execution time and de tect temporal errors in the target system. Finally, the conclusions of this thesis with a discussion of the results and some suggestions for further work in this important area are presented.
Uso de extractos de plantas en la fermentación ruminal in vitro

The objective of this work was to obtain and characterize the extracts of Larrea tridentata, Origanum vulgare, Artemisa ludoviciana and Ruta graveolens for use in ruminal digestibility in vitro and to quantify their production of gas, volatile fatty acids and methane. The chemical composition of the extracts was determined by gas chromatography and ruminal fluid was used for in vitro gas production. The determination of volatile fatty acids was carried out by gas chromatography. Methane was inferred with the concentration of volatile fatty acids. For the chemical composition, the compounds were identified: terpinen, limonene, linalool, thymol and carvacrol. In digestibility, the lowest concentration of gas produced at a volume of 100 μL of extract was L. tridentata and methane is reported 1.4 times more than the control of alfalfa (0.514 mL g-1). For the concentration of 330 μL of the O. vulgaris extract, it showed inhibition of methane with respect to the control of alfalfa. It is concluded that the extract four of O. vulgaris was the one that presented a better digestibility with respect to the production of gas, AGV (volatile fatty acids) and lower concentration of methane with respect to the control.
Excited-State Deactivation Pathways of 7-Mercapto-4-Methyl-Coumarins: Theoretical Insight

EXPERIMENTALLY reported photophysics of 7-mercapto-4-methyl coumarin compounds in methanol (thiol (C-SH) and thione (C=S)) disclose that these materials are weak or non-fluorescent. When the thiol is methylated, the C-S(CH3) material shows strong fluorescence. This work focuses on applying two computational strategies based on DFT and its time-dependent extension TD-DFT to validate the experimental findings. On-the-fly single reference TDDFT computational is first applied, which identified in a simple way that the S1/S0 intersection is the main radiationless channel leading to fluorescence quenching in mercapto derivatives. A second supporting method based on scanning along of C-S bond distance in the S0 and S1 states is used. Both strategies came to similar conclusions. The applied approaches introduce quantitative explanation of the mechanism of radiationless deactivation in mercapto coumarins due to S1/S0 conical intersection (CI) or due to small S1/S0 energy gap in case of thione tautomer, which is the dominant (thermodynamically favorable) tautomer in the S1 state. The results of this insights may assist designing profitable new fluorescent or non-fluorescent materials by changing specific functional group(s) in the molecule.
Antibacterial Activity of Bioflavonoid from Fruit Pulps of Acacia nilotica Willd

The emergence of multi-drug resistance in bacteria has led to call for research and development of new leads as antibiotics from medicinal plants. Acacia nilotica (Linn) is a plant of multipurpose medicinal uses, three bioactive flavonoids (methyl gallate, gallic acid and catechin) were isolated from its fruit pulps through a bioassay guided fractionation technique and characterized based on High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectra and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectra. Antibacterial activity of these compounds was determined by microplate tetrazolium dye assay of broth microdilution technique against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and clinical isolates of Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumonia, Candida albicans and Bacillus subtilis. Catechin, methyl gallate and gallic acid at 19.5, 39 and 39 µg/ml respectively caused a significant bio-reduction in cells of test organisms. Time kill kinetic study of the extract shows that there was percentage of growth reduction in test organisms at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 hrs of contact. The extent and rate of killing of the organism by the extract at 2 x MIC followed the same trend as rate of killing was time dependent. Antibacterial effects of these compounds are within the breakpoint of control drug chloramphenicol and could serve as leads in new drug development.
Nanometric plasmonic optical trapping on gold nanostructures

The precise noninvasive optical manipulation of nanometer-sized particles by evanescent fields, instead of the conventional optical tweezers, has recently awaken an increasing interest, opening a way for investigating phenomena relevant to both fundamental and applied science. In this work, the optical trapping force exerted on trapped dielectric nanoparticle was theoretically investigated as a function on the trapping beam wavelength and as a function of several plasmonic nanostructures schemes based on numerical simulation. The maximum optical trapping forces are obtained at the resonance wavelength for each plasmonic nanostructure geometry. Prominent tunabilities, such as radius and separation of gold nanoparticles as well as the numerical aperture of objective lens were examined. This work will provide theoretical support for developing new types of plasmonic sensing substrates for exciting biomedical applications such as single-molecule fluorescence.
Thymol has beneficial effects on the experimental model of ulcerative colitis

Objective: Thymol, a natural aromatic monoterpene phenol derived from thymus, possesses anti-inflammatory benefits. Here, we evaluated the potential of thymol therapy in improving an animal model of ulcerative colitis. Materials and Methods: Luminal instillation of acetic acid was used to induce colitis in male Wistar rats. Treatment groups daily received prednisolone (2 mg/kg, orally) or thymol (100 mg/kg, orally) for 10 consecutive days. Then, the rats were euthanized and tissue specimens were collected for evaluation of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression by immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, the levels of total protein, nitric oxide, myeloperoxidase, malondialdehyde, IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-α were monitored in colonic homogenates. Eventually, the relative mRNA expression of IκBα and NF-κBp65 was investigated using reverse-transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) in colonic homogenates. Results: Both medications could reduce the mortality rate and the clinical scores of ulcerative colitis. The COX-2 expression was significantly reduced in the colons of thymol-treated animals compared to the prednisolone group. Also, the myeloperoxidase activity, nitric oxide level and malondialdehyde intensity were decreased in the colons of thymol-treated animals to a greater extent compared to the prednisolone group. Moreover, the total protein content of guts showed significant increases in the guts of thymol-treated animals in comparison to the prednisolone group. Nonetheless, thymol significantly reduced the levels of IL-6, and IL-1 compared to prednisolone. Both medications caused a significant decrease in the mRNA level of NF-κBp65, though the mRNA level of IκBα did not show significant changes between the groups. Conclusion: Thymol may be a promising agent to ameliorate ulcerative colitis.
Mutation induction in sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) by fast neutron irradiation

Basil species are highly sensitive to exterior environmental conditions and its consequences lead to great economic and agronomic losses. In this research, a mutation method was optimized out for creating a new variety of Ocimum basilicum L. , which could tolerate the extreme/extraordinary climatic circumstances or biotic stresses, such as fungal diseases. Fast neutron irradiation was performed on the Hungarian commercial variety seeds with doses of 5 to 60 Gray and grown into fully developed plants. Numerous phenotypical changes like deformed congestion, leaf mutation, and low growth occurred, especially at higher dosages. Then to confirm whether the plantlets had mutation or not, and to detect the molecular variation and relationship, fingerprinting profiles of the developed mutant regenerants and donor plant have been assessed using ISSR markers. 115 loci were yielded, ranging from 0.2 to 1.5 kb, out of which 110 loci were polymorphic in nature, representing 95.6% polymorphism. The most suitable primer to determine the genetic diversity within the Ocimum species was the UBC-856 with 0.42 PIC and 4.1 MI values.
Interface Molecular Engineering for Laminated Monolithic Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells with 80.4% Fill Factor

A multipurpose interconnection layer based on poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), and d‐sorbitol for monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells is introduced. The interconnection of independently processed silicon and perovskite subcells is a simple add‐on lamination step, alleviating common fabrication complexities of tandem devices. It is demonstrated experimentally and theoretically that PEDOT:PSS is an ideal building block for manipulating the mechanical and electrical functionality of the charge recombination layer by controlling the microstructure on the nano‐ and mesoscale. It is elucidated that the optimal functionality of the recombination layer relies on a gradient in the d‐sorbitol dopant distribution that modulates the orientation of PEDOT across the PEDOT:PSS film. Using this modified PEDOT:PSS composite, a monolithic two‐terminal perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell with a steady‐state efficiency of 21.0%, a fill factor of 80.4%, and negligible open circuit voltage losses compared to single‐junction devices is shown. The versatility of this approach is further validated by presenting a laminated two‐terminal monolithic perovskite/organic tandem solar cell with 11.7% power conversion efficiency. It is envisioned that this lamination concept can be applied for the pairing of multiple photovoltaic and other thin film technologies, creating a universal platform that facilitates mass production of tandem devices with high efficiency.
Recycling cassava stem to bioethanol by inoculating a novel xylose–glucose fermenting yeast at high initial concentration

Converting cassava stem (CS) to bioethanol instead of burning or allowing them to decay on open fields can contribute to efforts on reducing CO2 emission and fossil fuel use. New xylose‐glucose fermenting yeast Blastobotrys adeninivorans XE1 was inoculated on non‐detoxified acid hydrolysate of CS to produce ethanol. Experimentally, at low furfural concentrations (0.24 ± 0.05 g/L) in non‐detoxified acid hydrolysate of 100 g CS/L, B adeninivorans XE1 (~107 CFU/mL initial concentration) degraded furfural fast and then converted both glucose and xylose to ethanol. However, at higher furfural concentration (0.51 ± 0.11 g/L) in non‐detoxified acid hydrolysate of 150 g CS/L, B adeninivorans XE1 (around 107 CFU/mL) was unable to degrade all furfural, ethanol production by B adeninivorans XE1 was reduced. Increasing initial concentration of B adeninivorans XE1 to around 108 CFU/mL surpassed furfural inhibition and produced 17.4 ± 0.8 g/L ethanol on medium of non‐detoxified acid hydrolysate of 150 g CS/L after 60 hr.
Understanding Software Design for Creating Better Design Environments

Context: Software design is considered an essential activity to analyze software requirements in order to produce a description of the software’s internal structure that will serve as the basis for its construction. Models are a means to describe complex systems at several levels of abstraction and from a diversity of perspectives. Surprisingly, most of the current software design environments are not based on understanding of real needs of software designers in practice. Objective: As a first step towards supporting realistic software design processes, this thesis focuses on understanding software design practices, as well as on proposing and assessing of a new generation of software design environments. Method: To achieve the objective of this research, design science and empirical methods are employed. In particular, a new generation software design environment, called OctoUML, is created. Furthermore, to understand whether there is a need to improve modeling tools, the modeling process is analyzed in order to reveal how much effort is given to designing (i.e. thinking about the design of software systems), and how much effort is given to drawing the model (i.e. tool interaction). Result: This thesis describes two areas of contributions: On the one hand, OctoUML is perceived a usable environment in terms of ease of use, efficiency and user satisfaction. Moreover, it seems that OctoUML supports the design process by bridging the gap between early-phase design process and later on documentation and formalization process. Further results show that OctoUML was not only enjoyed by the designers, but also enhanced the efficiency of the software design process. On the other hand, we proposed experiments to increase our understanding of the software design process. We elicit many issues that need to be considered in such experiments. Our initial findings suggest that the majority of the modeling effort is devoted on design thinking. However, the effort spent on using modeling tools should be reduced by investigating better modeling-tool support.