Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Activation Product Analysis in the Presence of Fission Products

by Samuel Spencer Morrison, Ph.D. Washington State University August 2015 Methods to quantify activation products in complex samples are needed in areas such as nuclear safeguards, waste treatment and identification, environmental monitoring, and consequence management. Formation of activation products is often concurrent with the formation of large quantities of fission products that intermix with the activation products. As many fission products have high rates of gamma emissions, the presence of fission products obfuscate the gamma spectrum and increase the minimum detectable activity (MDA) limit for activation products. To achieve the lowest detection limits possible for activation product analysis of Fe, Ta, W, Pt, and Au, radiochemical separation procedures were developed and evaluated on multiple sample types including samples containing fission products.
AKRUAL: Jurnal Akuntansi

Banks are trust institutions. An appropriate tool in sustaining trust is the capital adequacy of the bank (capital buffer). This study aims to analyze the effect of financing risk (NPF), operational risk (BOPO), market risk (NI), Third Party Funds (DPK), GDP Growth (GDPG) and inflation on BUS capital buffers in Indonesia during the 2014-2018 period. This study uses panel data regression method with a sample of 12 BUS based on purposive sampling technique. BOPO, DPK, GDPG, and INF were found to have a significant effect on BUFF, where BOPO, DPK, and INF had a negative effect, while GDPG was positive. So operational risk, third party funds, GDP Growth, and inflation can be said to be determinants of BUS capital buffers in Indonesia in the 2014-2018 period. Financing risk (NPF) and market risk (NI) have no significant effect on BUS capital buffer in the study period. Regarding basel III implementation, operational risk is a significant determinant of capital buffer, and capital buffer is found to be procyclical to the Indonesian economy. Future studies can include more risk measurement variables and other macroeconomic variable
Problems affecting the practice of student-centered approach in teachings social studies

The study aimed to examine ways to actualize the approach in which students are responsible for their learning, assess the major challenges that hinder the implementation of active learning approaches, and to some extent assess the attitudes of social study teachers towards active-learning. A mixed-methods design was used. Among the eight selected woreda in Gamo Goffa Zone, a total of 61 social study teachers participated in the study and completed questionnaires. This was complemented by a qualitative approach that is Focus Group Discussion and interviews for data gathering. The study investigates that although the employment of active teaching and learning is emphasized in Ethiopian policies, traditional lecture methods, in which teachers talk and students listen, dominate the current teaching and learning process in teaching social studies in the study area. The common obstacles found included: lack of time and resources to implement, the rigidity of the time table, to some extent teacher’s attitudes, lack of instructional materials and administrative support, Problem in the seating arrangement, large classes and the huge amount of content to be covered. It is believed that training and support may improve teachers’ attitudes and teaching methods.
What Do Our Nurses Know about Managing Patient with Permanent Pacemakers?

Introduction: The number of patients with pacemaker implant is increasing in the health services sector in Malaysia, which requires nurses to have expertise in patient care with pacemaker implantation. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyse the level of knowledge among nurses regarding the management of patients with pacemaker implantation. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted through purposive sampling among all nurses working at the critical care unit, intensive care unit, cardiac rehabilitation ward, investigation clinical laboratory, and non-invasive clinical laboratory in a public hospital in Kelantan. A questionnaire consisted of demographic data and nurses’ knowledge was distributed. Data were analysed for descriptive analysis and using Pearson correlation test. Results: Results from all respondents (n=70), show 48.6 % of the respondents had moderate knowledge about patient management with pacemaker implantation, 32.9 % had a low level of knowledge and only 13.6% had high knowledge regarding management of patient with pacemaker implantation. There is a significant difference between the level of knowledge and demographic data, that is between the level of education (p=0.027), age (p=0.011) and length of service (p=0.015). There is no significant relationship between knowledge and demographic data, such as gender (p=0.481), marital status (p=0.315), and post-basic (p=0.067). Conclusion: Level of knowledge among nurses about the management of patient with pacemaker implantation is low to moderate. Additional education and exposure among nurses are needed to enhance the knowledge of nurses and improve the quality of care among patients with pacemaker implant.
Sense and similarity: automating legal text comparison

Lawyers routinely compare legal texts. Advances in technology now help automate such comparison by treating legal texts as data and quantifying their similarity. This renders legal text comparisons scalable and enables lawyers to investigate similarity patterns in large legal text corpora. In this paper, I outline the technological underpinnings of automated legal text comparison and discuss the practical limitations, implications and applications arising from its increasing use. Automated text comparisons, amongst others, improve legal search and recommender systems, allow to better track legal processes and can reveal patterns in legal corpora impossible to detect through traditional means. Automated text comparison, however, also suffers from limitations. It focuses on similarity of text and not similarity of meaning and cannot (yet) differentiate between legally significant and legally insignificant text differences. Therefore, automated text comparison is best seen as a complement to, rather than a substitute for, a manual or concept-based comparison of legal texts.
The Mechanism of Catalysis in the Crosslinking of Cotton with Formaldehyde2

Crosslinking of cotton cellulose with formaldehyde by the pad-dry-cure process has been studied kinetically. The reaction is catalyzed by hydroxonium ions, and this catalytic reaction accounts for more than 98% of all crosslinks formed. MgCl2 and mixtures of MgCl2 and tartaric acid have no detectable, direct catalytic effect but owe their activity to the fact that they bring about an increase in the concentration of hydroxonium ions under curing conditions.
Synthesis of global actual evapotranspiration from 1982 to 2019

Abstract. As a linkage among water, energy, and carbon cycles, global actual evapotranspiration (ET) plays an essential role in agriculture, water resource management, and climate change. Although it is difficult to estimate ET over a large scale and for a long time, there are several global ET datasets available with uncertainty associated with various assumptions regarding their algorithms, parameters, and inputs. In this study, we propose a long-term synthesized ET product at a kilometer spatial resolution and monthly temporal resolution from 1982 to 2019. Through a site-pixel evaluation of 12 global ET products over different time periods, land surface types, and conditions, the high-performing products were selected for the synthesis of the new dataset using a high-quality flux eddy covariance (EC) covering the entire globe. According to the study results, Penman–Monteith–Leuning (PML), the operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS, MOD16A2105), and the Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group (NTSG) ET products were chosen to create the synthesized ET set. The proposed product agreed well with flux EC ET over most of the all comparison levels, with a maximum relative mean error (RME) of 13.94 mm (17.13 %) and a maximum relative root mean square error (RRMSE) of 38.61 mm (47.45 %). Furthermore, the product performed better than local ET products over China, the United States, and the African continent and presented an ET estimation across all land cover classes. While no product can perform best in all cases, the proposed ET can be used without looking at other datasets and performing further assessments. Data are available on the Harvard Dataverse public repository through the following Digital Object Identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ZGOUED (Elnashar et al., 2020), as well as on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) application through this link: https://elnashar.users. earthengine.app/view/synthesizedet (last access: 21 January 2021).
A Proposed Extended Version of the Hadi-Vencheh Model to Improve Multiple-Criteria ABC Inventory Classification

The ABC classification problem is approached as a ranking problem by the most current classification models; that is, a group of inventory items is expressed according to its overall weighted score of criteria in descending order. In this paper, we present an extended version of the Hadi-Vencheh model for multiple-criteria ABC inventory classification. The proposed model is one based on the nonlinear weighted product method (WPM), which determines a common set of weights for all items. Our proposed nonlinear WPM incorporates multiple criteria with different measured units without converting the performance of each inventory item, in terms of converting each criterion into a normalized attribute value, thereby providing an improvement over the model proposed by Hadi-Vencheh. Our study mainly includes various criteria for ABC classification and demonstrates an efficient algorithm for solving nonlinear programming problems, in which the feasible solution set does not have to be convex. The algorithm presented in this study substantially improves the solution efficiency of the canonical coordinates method (CCM) algorithm when applied to large-scale, nonlinear programming problems. The modified algorithm was tested to compare our proposed model results to the results derived using the Hadi-Vencheh model and demonstrate the algorithm’s efficacy. The practical objectives of the study were to develop an efficient nonlinear optimization solver by optimizing the quality of existing solutions, thus improving time and space efficiency.
Analysis, characterization and some properties of polyacrylamide-Ni(II) complexes

The complexation of polyarylamide (PAam) with Ni(II) metal ions at different concentrations was investigated. The metal complexes were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-visible, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and atomic force microscope (AFM). FTIR spectroscopy was used to study the characteristic shifts of the absorbance bands of C=O and N-H2. UVvisible spectroscopy was used to follow the complex formation of PAam-Ni(II) and showed the appearance of a new band that was absent both in PAam and Ni(II) salt solutions. Thermal parameters, such as the glass transition temperature (Tg) and the melting point (Tm) of the polymer-metal complex have been measured by DSC. The variation of Tg and Tm with different Ni(II) concentrations was attributed to the complexation of the native polymer during the increasing of Ni(II) concentration. AFM was used to study the surface morphology of PAam films and its complexation with Ni(II) at different concentrations. The root mean square roughness increased as the Ni(II) concentration increases.
Wetting and Evaporation of Solvents on Thin Soluble Substrates

In this work, the wetting and evaporation behaviour of non-polar solvent droplets on thin soluble coatings is investigated experimentally. The wetting process on spin-coated polymer layers by toluene is captured using shadowgraphy. Initial spontaneous dynamic wetting as well as later stages of wetting are recorded and evaluated. Furthermore, structures obtained by wetting and subsequent evaporation of solvents on polymer coatings are studied by confocal microscopy. The solubility of the substrate has been varied by using polymers with different molecular masses. We observe that initial spreading dynamics does not depend on the molar mass in the studied range. However, we find a strong influence of the molar mass on the late stage wetting dynamics and on the surface structure after solvent evaporation.
Determination of the ciprofloxacin-resistant Escherichia coli isolated from chicken meat in Turkey

In this study, the occurrence of the ciprofloxacin-resistant (CR) Escherichia coli in chicken meat was determined, and their clonal relations were investigated by using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Antimicrobial resistance patterns of E. coli isolates were determined by using disc diffusion assay, and minimum inhibitory concentration of ciprofloxacin was determined by E-test. Plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR) and extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) resistance genes were also screened through polymerase chain reactions. Sixty chicken meat samples were collected from different supermarkets and butchers in Sivas, Turkey. CR E. coli strains were determined in 59 (98.3%) chicken meat samples. By analyzing PFGE fingerprint data, 34 different pulsotypes were determined. All E. coli strains were found to be resistant to nalidixic acid, enrofloxacin, and norfloxacin. In addition, isolates were resistant to levofloxacin (40.7%), ampicillin (94.9%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (76.3%), tetracycline (69.5%), and chloramphenicol (44.1%). However, isolates were susceptible to imipenem and colistin. In this study, 81.4% of CR E. coli isolates were observed to have a multidrug-resistant profile, which is defined as resistance to three or more classes of antibiotics. Through phenotypic confirmation tests, five isolates (8.3%) were determined to be ESBL-producing. The PMQR genes were not determined in any of the isolates. Two isolates (3.4%) possessed the blaCTX-M and blaCMY-2 genes, and 40 isolates (67.8%) had the blaTEM gene. Taken together, retail raw chicken meat is highly contaminated with CR E. coli. However, these isolates are not found to be carriers of the PMQR genes, indicating a low public health problem.
INFRAESTRUTURA E DESEMPENHO ESCOLAR NA PROVA BRASIL: ASPECTOS E CONEXÕES

Este artigo apresenta um estudo exploratório sobre infraestrutura escolar, e analisa suas conexões com o desempenho de estudantes dos anos finais do ensino fundamental, na Prova Brasil. Para isto, foram utilizadas técnicas de estatística descritiva e inferencial. Os resultados indicam que as escolas brasileiras, especialmente as das regiões Norte e Nordeste, ainda possuem deficiências de infraestrutura e que algumas políticas públicas adotadas não têm alcançado o efeito esperado. Destaca-se a significativa contribuição de fatores como presença de laboratório de informática e internet, quadra de esportes, dependências PNE, coleta de lixo e auditório para o bom desempenho escolar na avaliação analisada. Espera-se que os resultados obtidos possam ser úteis para orientar políticas públicas e despertem um maior interesse na discussão dos impactos das condições materiais do ambiente escolar na qualidade da educação.
Identification of Local Structure in 2-D and 3-D Atomic Systems through Crystallographic Analysis

In the present work, we revise and extend the Characteristic Crystallographic Element (CCE) norm, an algorithm used to simultaneously detect radial and orientational similarity of computer-generated structures with respect to specific reference crystals and local symmetries. Based on the identification of point group symmetry elements, the CCE descriptor is able to gauge local structure with high precision and finely distinguish between competing morphologies. As test cases we use computer-generated monomeric and polymer systems of spherical particles interacting with the hard-sphere and square-well attractive potentials. We demonstrate that the CCE norm is able to detect and differentiate, between others, among: hexagonal close packed (HCP), face centered cubic (FCC), hexagonal (HEX) and body centered cubic (BCC) crystals as well as non-crystallographic fivefold (FIV) local symmetry in bulk 3-D systems; triangular (TRI), square (SQU) and honeycomb (HON) crystals, as well as pentagonal (PEN) local symmetry in thin films of one-layer thickness (2-D systems). The descriptor is general and can be applied to identify the symmetry elements of any point group for arbitrary atomic or particulate system in two or three dimensions, in the bulk or under confinement.
In-silico Antimalarial Study of Monocarbonyl Curcumin Analogs and Their 2,4-Dinitro Phenylhydrazones Using the Inhibition of Plasmepsin II as Test Model

A well-known component of the Indian spice turmeric, curcumin, has received a lot of attention in recent years as a potential antimalarial agent but the inherent problems associated with low bioavailabilty tends to limit its applicability. The bioavailability is linked to its low solubility in water and its rapid break down in the blood plasma. In this study, we have proposed the use of synthetic analogs of curcumin and their derivatives which are expected to be less prone to degradation in the blood plasma as possible antimalarials. The binding affinity of monocarbonyl analogs of curcumin and their 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone derivatives for the chain A domain of plasmepsin II, one of the key enzymes involved in hemoglobin digestion in the food vacuole of the malaria parasite was determined by computational docking analysis, performed using Auto Dock Vina 1.1. 2, pymol and Chem 3D ultra 12.0. The binding energies of the 20 compounds studied was compared with that of pepstatin A (a known inhibitor of plasmepsin II), curcumin and chloroquine. The 3D structure of the protein was obtained from the protein data bank (PDB ID:1M43), the compounds’ 3D structure was generated with the Chem 3D ultra 12.0 and visualization done with pymol. Out of the 20 compounds docked with plasmepsin II, 17 had binding energies higher than that of pep A (-32.6, kJ/mol) and 19 of the compounds had binding energies higher than that of curcumin (30.96, kJ/mol). The docked compounds, 5b, 6b and 7b had the highest binding energies (-44.73 kJ/mol, -42.64 kJ/mol and -41.80 kJ/mol respectively). It is expected that the compounds with binding energies higher than that of pep A may be considered for further antimalarial studies in-vitro and in-vivo.
Effects of global ship emissions on European air pollution levels

Abstract. Ship emissions constitute a large, and so far poorly regulated, source of air pollution. Emissions are mainly clustered along major ship routes both in open seas and close to densely populated shorelines. Major air pollutants emitted include sulfur dioxide, NOx, and primary particles. Sulfur and NOx are both major contributors to the formation of secondary fine particles (PM2.5) and to acidification and eutrophication. In addition, NOx is a major precursor for ground-level ozone. In this paper, we quantify the contributions from international shipping to European air pollution levels and depositions. This study is based on global and regional model calculations. The model runs are made with meteorology and emission data representative of the year 2017 after the tightening of the SECA (sulfur emission control area) regulations in 2015 but before the global sulfur cap that came into force in 2020. The ship emissions have been derived using ship positioning data. We have also made model runs reducing sulfur emissions by 80 % corresponding to the 2020 requirements. This study is based on model sensitivity studies perturbing emissions from different sea areas: the northern European SECA in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, the Atlantic Ocean close to Europe, shipping in the rest of the world, and finally all global ship emissions together. Sensitivity studies have also been made setting lower bounds on the effects of ship plumes on ozone formation. Both global- and regional-scale calculations show that for PM2.5 and depositions of oxidised nitrogen and sulfur, the effects of ship emissions are much larger when emissions occur close to the shore than at open seas. In many coastal countries, calculations show that shipping is responsible for 10 % or more of the controllable PM2.5 concentrations and depositions of oxidised nitrogen and sulfur. With few exceptions, the results from the global and regional calculations are similar. Our calculations show that substantial reductions in the contributions from ship emissions to PM2.5 concentrations and to depositions of sulfur can be expected in European coastal regions as a result of the implementation of a 0.5 % worldwide limit of the sulfur content in marine fuels from 2020. For countries bordering the North Sea and Baltic Sea SECA, low sulfur emissions have already resulted in marked reductions in PM2.5 from shipping before 2020. For ozone, the lifetime in the atmosphere is much longer than for PM2.5, and the potential for ozone formation is much larger in otherwise pristine environments. We calculate considerable contributions from open sea shipping. As a result, we find that the largest contributions to ozone in several regions and countries in Europe are from sea areas well outside European waters.
Recent changes in pan-Antarctic region surface snowmelt detected by AMSR-E and AMSR2

Abstract. Surface snowmelt in the pan-Antarctic region, including the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) and sea ice, is crucial to the mass and energy balance in polar regions and can serve as an indicator of climate change. In this study, we investigate the spatial and temporal variations in surface snowmelt over the entire pan-Antarctic region from 2002 to 2017 by using passive microwave remote sensing data. The stable orbits and appropriate acquisition times of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) enable us to take full advantage of daily brightness temperature (Tb) variations to detect surface snowmelt. The difference between AMSR-E/2 ascending and descending 36.5 GHz Tb values in vertical polarization (DAV36) was utilized to map the pan-Antarctic region snowmelt, as this method is unaffected by snow metamorphism. We evaluated the DAV36 algorithm against ground-based measurements and further improved the method over the marginal sea ice zone by excluding the effect of open water. Snowmelt detected by AMSR-E/2 data was more extensive and persistent than that detected by the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) data. Continuous melt onset (CMO) ranged from August in the marginal sea ice zone to January in the Antarctic inland, and the early transient melt events occurred several days to more than 2 months earlier. The pan-Antarctic region CMO was significantly correlated (R=0.54, p<0.05) with the summer Southern Annular Mode (SAM). The decreased AIS melt extent was very likely linked (R=-0.82, p<0.01) with the enhanced summer SAM.