Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Polysaccharides from Sunflower Stalk Pith: Chemical, Structural, and Partial Physicochemical Characterization

Polysaccharides from Sunflower Stalk Pith: Chemical, Structural, and Partial Physicochemical Characterization Ming Xu Advisors: Dr. Steve W. Cui University of Guelph, 2016 Dr. H. Douglas Goff Polysaccharides from sunflower stalk pith (SSP) were extracted by hot water and sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP). The chemical analyses suggested both fractions dominated in galacturonic acids with small amount of neutral sugars, indicating their identity as pectins. The yield of water-extractable pectin (WEP) and SHMP-extractable pectin (SEP) were 1.8% and 11.0%, respectively. The detailed structure of each fraction was investigated by high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC), FT-IR spectroscopy, methylation analysis and 1D & 2D NMR spectroscopy. The weight average molecular weight and intrinsic viscosity for WEP and SEP were 57.2 kDa, 0.48 dL/g and 23.1 kDa, 0.50 dL/g, respectively. FT-IR spectra confirmed WEP and SEP had characteristic pectin-like structures and the degree of esterification (DE) was calculated to be 92% and 64 %, respectively. Methylation analysis demonstrated that 1,4-GalpA residues dominated all the sugar linkages, while other linkage types including 1,2-Rhap, 1,2,4-Rhap, 1,4-Galp and 1,5-Araf were also present in WEP and SEP. NMR spectroscopy further revealed WEP and SEP mainly homogalacturonan (HG) structure and a small fraction of rhamnogalacturonan-I (RG-I) structure was also in evidence. WEP and SEP showed limited surface activity within a concentration up to 1 % (w/w), compared with commercial citrus pectin. Residue fraction (RF) after pectin extraction, which was mainly composed of insoluble cellulose and hemicellulose, had the best water holding and oil binding capacities among all the examined fractions.
Projected Changes in Extreme Temperature and Precipitation Indices Over CORDEX-MENA Domain

In this study, projected changes in climate extreme indices defined by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices were investigated over Middle East and North Africa. Changes in the daily maximum and minimum temperature- and precipitation- based extreme indices were analyzed for the end of the 21st century compared to the reference period 1971–2000 using regional climate model simulations. Regional climate model, RegCM4.4 was used to downscale two different global climate model outputs to 50 km resolution under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. Results generally indicate an intensification of temperature- and precipitation- based extreme indices with increasing radiative forcing. In particular, an increase in annual minimum of daily minimum temperatures is more pronounced over the northern part of Mediterranean Basin and tropics. High increase in warm nights and warm spell duration all over the region with a pronounced increase in tropics are projected for the period of 2071–2100 together with decrease or no change in cold extremes. According to the results, a decrease in total wet-day precipitation and increase in dry spells are expected for the end of the century.
‘NUDGE’ - TO STAY RELEVANT

What you want to say and what they are interested in? The answer creates a seamless partnership between Knowledge Worker and the Organisation to achieve sustained growth in a disruptive changing business landscape. To drive the answer to the above question i.e. ‘RELEVANCY’ both for the organisation as well as Knowledge Worker in the industry ecosystem the power of behavioural insights and neuroscience’s Happy-Hormone is leverage in this research article. We act as a choice-architect and worked on automated system-intuitive thinking. The tone of this article is prescriptive and the ‘Nudges’ are provided as a treatment for the diagnosed issues of the Organisation, the subject-matter of the present study. The effectiveness of prescribed Nudges tested on treatment and control group by deploying experiment method and results evidence significant effect on the treatment group. In this study, our learning reflections: ‘Pre-commitment is an impactful tool’; ‘Peer support matters’; ‘Craving need to be instigated, to get reminder work’.
Beef cattle methane emissions measured with tracer-ratio and inverse dispersion modelling techniques

Abstract. The development and validation of management practices to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock require accurate emission measurements. This study assessed the accuracy of a practical inverse dispersion modelling (IDM) technique to quantify methane (CH 4 ) emitted from a small cattle herd (16 animals) confined to a 63 m × 60 m experimental pen. The IDM technique calculates emissions from the increase in the CH 4 concentration measured downwind of the animals. The measurements were conducted for 7 d. Two types of open-path (OP) gas sensors were used to measure concentration in the IDM calculation: a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (IDM-FTIR) or a CH 4 laser (IDM-Laser). The actual cattle emission rate was measured with a tracer-ratio technique using nitrous oxide (N 2 O) as the tracer gas. We found very good agreement between the two IDM emission estimates (308.1 ± 2.1 – mean ± SE – and 304.4 ± 8.0 g CH 4 head −1 d −1 for the IDM-FTIR and IDM-Laser respectively) and the tracer-ratio measurements (301.9 ± 1.5 g CH 4 head −1 d −1 ). This study suggests that a practical IDM measurement approach can provide an accurate method of estimating cattle emissions.
Low Back Pain Versus Back-Related Leg Pain: How Do Patient Expectations and Outcomes of Lumbar Spine Surgery Compare?

Background: An increasing number of lumbar spine conditions are treated surgically. Such intervention, however, is commonly thought to be more effective in addressing leg pain than low back pain. Patient expectations may also contribute to self-reported surgical outcomes. Questions/Purposes: We sought to compare the expectations of patients in 2 groups undergoing lumbar spine surgery: those with predominantly low back pain and those with predominantly leg pain. We also sought to evaluate how these expectations were fulfilled for each group. Methods: We carried out a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from a prior study in which patients scheduled for lumbar spine surgery at a single institution completed validated surveys preoperatively and at 2 years postoperatively, including a 20-item survey on expectations for lumbar spine surgery. The patients were enrolled in the study between February 2010 and August 2012, and were divided into 2 cohorts: a “Back > Leg” group that consisted of patients with back pain that was isolated or greater than leg pain, and a “Leg ≥ Back” group that consisted of patients with leg pain that equaled or exceeded back pain. The primary analysis compared composite expectation scores (range, 0–100) between groups. Results: A total of 366 patients were deemed eligible for the study; of these, 162 patients were allocated to the Back > Leg group and 204 patients were allocated to the Leg ≥ Back group. Patients in the Leg ≥ Back group had a greater mean preoperative expectation score compared with those in the Back > Leg group. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that higher preoperative expectations were associated with leg pain symptoms after controlling for disease diagnosis. Both groups reported similar proportions of fulfilled expectations. Conclusion: Patients with predominantly leg pain hold greater preoperative expectations for lumbar spine surgery than do patients with predominantly back pain. That these patient groups reported similar fulfillment of their expectations at 2 years postoperatively illustrates the greater clinical outcomes achieved among patients who presented with predominantly leg pain.
Vibrational Analysis of Benziodoxoles and Benziodazolotetrazoles

Tetrazoles are well known for their high positive enthalpy of formation which makes them attractive as propellants, explosives, and energetic materials. As a step towards a deeper understanding of the stability of benziodazolotetrazole (BIAT)-based materials compared to their benziodoxole (BIO) counterparts, we investigated in this work electronic structure features and bonding properties of two monovalent iodine precursors: 2-iodobenzoic acid and 5-(2-iodophenyl)tetrazole and eight hypervalent iodine (III) compounds: I-hydroxybenzidoxolone, I-methoxybenziodoxolone, I-ethoxybenziodoxolone, I-iso-propoxybenziodoxolone and the corresponding I-hydroxyben ziodazolotetrazole, I-methoxybenziodazolotetrazole, I-ethoxybenziodazolotetrazole and I-iso- propoxybenziodazolotetrazole. As an efficient tool for the interpretation of the experimental IR spectra and for the quantitative assessment of the I−C, I−N, and I−O bond strengths in these compounds reflecting substituent effects, we used the local vibrational mode analysis, originally introduced by Konkoli and Cremer, complemented by electron density and natural bond orbital analyses. Based on the hypothesis that stronger bonds correlate with increased stability, we predict that, for both series, i.e., substituted benziodoxoles and benziodazolotetrazoles, the stability increases as follows: I-iso-propoxy < I-ethoxy < I-methoxy < I-hydroxy. In particular, the I−N bonds in the benziodazolotetrazoles could be identified as the so-called trigger bonds being responsible for the initiation of explosive decomposition in benziodazolotetrazoles. The new insight gained by this work will allow for the design of new benziodazolotetrazole materials with controlled performance or stability based on the modulation of the iodine bonds with its three ligands. The local mode analysis can serve as an effective tool to monitor the bond strengths, in particular to identify potential trigger bonds. We hope that this article will foster future collaboration between the experimental and computational community being engaged in vibrational spectroscopy.
Sensing of volatile organic compounds by copper phthalocyanine thin films

Thin films of copper phthalocyanine have been deposited by thermal evaporation technique. We have subsequently exposed these films to the vapours of methanol, ethanol and propanol. Optical absorption, infrared spectra and electrical conductivities of these films before and after exposure to chemical vapours have been recorded in order to study their sensing mechanisms towards organic vapours. These films exhibit maximum sensing response to methanol while low sensitivities of the films towards ethanol and propanol have been observed. The changes in sensitivities have been correlated with presence of carbon groups in the chemical vapours. The effect of different types of electrodes on response-recovery times of the thin film with organic vapours has been studied and compared. The electrodes gap distance affects the sensitivity as well as response-recovery time values of the thin films.
Image Segmentation Using A Neoteric-Adaptive Fusion Of Fuzzy C-Means Clustering Model And Fuzzy Svm

Image Clustering processes have effectively remained as an alphanumeric method of image separation method in many arenas and applications. A clustering algorithm screens records that are keen on numerous groups in such a way that the resemblance inside a group is enhanced than between groups. On the other hand, those grouping procedures are merely relevant for explicit images like medicinal images, atomic pictures, etc. In this paper, we extant a novel grouping procedure grounded on A Neoteric-Adaptive Fusion of Fuzzy C-Means (NAF-FCM) for image separation which might be useful on broad images and exact images like medicinal and atomic images, seized using communal digital cameras and Charged-Couple Device cameras. The procedure involves the notions of fuzziness and belongingness to offer an improved and further adaptive grouping process as matched to numerous conventional grouping procedures. Both high quality and quantifiable investigates favor the projected grouping procedure in terms of furnishing an improved segmentation enactment for several numbers of segmented regions. This work incorporates image segmentation using a fusion of fuzzy c-means clustering model with fuzzy SVM classification to identify the changed areas using remote sensing images. The proposed algorithm is concentrated on fast and exact clustering. Grounded on the consequences assimilated, the projected system contributes an enhanced visual quality and its performance is compared with the conventional K-means clustering procedure. The result acquired from the proposed Neoteric Adaptive clustering process is far better than the conventional K-mean procedure.
Structure, Stability and Optical Absorption of a Comprehensive Li-Brary of Minimal Eumelanin Oligomer Models

Eumelanin is the black biopolymer responsible for photoprotection in living organisms. Lack of knowledge of the atomic-level structure limits understanding of its function and exploitation of its potential in material science. To overcome these limitations, we present a systematic density functional theory study of the stability and optical properties of a library of 830 dimers of 5,6-dihydroxyindole (DHI), which are minimal models of eumelanin oligomers. Our aim is to understand the principles that govern the formation of DHI oligomers, relate the optical properties of the dimers with their stability, and establish their possible role in the photophysics of the biopolymer. From the structural point of view, we find a preference for oxidized over reduced and cyclic over linear structures, which speaks in favor of polycyclic graphite-like structures for the larger oligomers. We present an electrocyclization mechanism leading to the cyclic structures. We also find that besides the widely considered quinone and quinone methide oxidation patterns where two heteroatoms per DHI fragment are oxidized, dimers with one or three oxidized sites per fragment and an interfragment double bond are also stable and may be present in eumelanin. As far as the optical properties are concerned, some oxidized dimers combine relative stability with absorption energies as low as 1.3 eV. Such fragments may be present as substructures in the naturally found oligomers and might have a relevant contribution to the absorption spectrum of the biopolymer. In addition to these insights into the struc-tural and optical properties of the oligomers, we introduce a new classification scheme and a representative set of 53 dimers combining thermodynamic stability with chemical diversity.
Genome-wide patterns of genetic diversity, population structure and demographic history in mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium) growing on indigenous Māori land

Abstract Leptospermum scoparium J. R. Forst et G. Forst, known as mānuka by Māori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa (New Zealand), is a culturally and economically significant shrub species, native to New Zealand and Australia. Chemical, morphological and phylogenetic studies have indicated geographical variation of mānuka across its range in New Zealand, and genetic differentiation between New Zealand and Australia. We used pooled whole genome re-sequencing of 76 L. scoparium and outgroup populations from New Zealand and Australia to compile a dataset totalling ~2.5 million SNPs. We explored the genetic structure and relatedness of L. scoparium across New Zealand, and between populations in New Zealand and Australia, as well as the complex demographic history of this species. Our population genomic investigation suggests there are five geographically distinct mānuka gene pools within New Zealand, with evidence of gene flow occurring between these pools. Demographic modelling suggests three of these gene pools have undergone expansion events, whilst the evolutionary histories of the remaining two have been subjected to contractions. Furthermore, mānuka populations in New Zealand are genetically distinct from populations in Australia, with coalescent modelling suggesting these two clades diverged ~9–12 million years ago. We discuss the evolutionary history of this species and the benefits of using pool-seq for such studies. Our research will support the management and conservation of mānuka by landowners, particularly Māori, and the development of a provenance story for the branding of mānuka based products.
Automatic defect detection for fabric printing using a deep convolutional neural network

ABSTRACT Defect detection is a crucial step in textile and apparel quality control. An efficient defect detection system can ensure the overall quality of the processes and products that are acceptable to consumers. Existing techniques for real-time defect detection tend to vary according to unique manufacturing processes, focal defects and computational algorithms. Although the need is high, research related to automatic printed fabric defect detection processes is not prevalent in academic literatures. This research proposes a novel methodology that demonstrates the application of convolutional neural network (CNN) to classify printing defects based on the fabric images collected from industries. The research also integrated visual geometric group (VGG), DenseNet, Inception and Xception deep learning networks to compare model performance. The results exhibit that the VGG-based models perform better compared to a simple CNN model, suggesting promise for automatic defect detection (ADD) of printed fabrics that can improve profitability in fashion supply chains.
A TRIZ Approach to Reliable Megaproject Sustainability

Purposes: This article presents a recent research into megaproject sustainability with a particular focus on identifying a structure of its body of knowledge so as to establish the methodology of megaproject assessment on sustainability (MAS), which consists of a research roadmap toward megaproject sustainability and a system reliability analysis. In response to the research topic on “Reviews for Advanced Construction Management” at Frontiers in Built Environment, this article aims to make a contribution with the description about a generic approach to conducting literature review based on a whole range of relevant evidence in a systemic way. Methodology: The research described in this article is underpinned by the use of several methods. The nine-square process (NSP) of Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) is the method for facilitating a systemic evidence-based learning (EBL) process to identify further research into MAS. A normal process to establish research roadmap was then introduced to summarize what has been identified as specific research tasks alongside lifecycle processes on megaproject delivery, to which RIBA Plan of Work 2020 was adopted as the prototype. An event tree analysis (ETA) was eventually introduced by incorporating the novel measurements on system reliability to support quantitative MAS in terms of both practices and research. Findings: This article presents several findings from the described research, and these include that the use of NSP led to the formation of a systematic procedure for literature review, a procedure to support MAS, a research roadmap to facilitate efforts to be made for megaproject sustainability, and the feasibility of system reliability analysis to measure the status of sustainability underpinned by research and practices throughout megaproject lifecycle. Implications: The described research provides four modules to foster further research into megaproject sustainability, and these include a TRIZ-based module to facilitate systemic literature review for EBL, a lifecycle process module for MAS, a prototype research roadmap to guide research and development for megaproject sustainability, and an ETA module to support a system reliability analysis in the dynamic process of research and practices toward megaproject sustainability. Value: The research described in this article has made an initial effort to conduct a strategic review, development, analysis, and discussion about tactics for research and development toward megaproject sustainability. Research findings can be used for related research and practices with regard to technical guidance and best practices in megaproject delivery.
Advances in high-resolution RIXS for the study of excitation spectra under high pressure

ABSTRACT Hard X-ray resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) is a promising X-ray spectroscopic tool for measuring low-energy excitation spectra from complex materials under high pressure. In the past, these measurements have been stymied by technical difficulties inherent in measuring a tiny sample, held at high pressure, inside a diamond anvil cell. Now, due to substantial advances in X-ray instrumentation, high-resolution ( meV) RIXS spectrometers at third-generation synchrotron radiation sources have started to successfully address these samples in their extreme environment. However, compared to elastic X-ray scattering and X-ray emission spectroscopy, RIXS is a very photon hungry technique and high-resolution RIXS for samples under high pressure is in its infancy. In this review, the fundamentals of the high-resolution RIXS and associated instrumentation are presented, as well as technical details of diamond anvil cells, sample preparation, and the measurement geometry. Experimental data from measurements of 3d- and 5d-transition metal oxides are shown and future improvements of the RIXS technique in the context of high pressure are discussed.
The Sun's role in decadal climate predictability in the North Atlantic

Abstract. Despite several studies on decadal-scale solar influence on climate, a systematic analysis of the Sun's contribution to decadal surface climate predictability is still missing. Here, we disentangle the solar-cycle-induced climate response from internal variability and from other external forcings such as greenhouse gases. We utilize two 10-member ensemble simulations with a state-of-the-art chemistry–climate model, to date a unique dataset in chemistry–climate modeling. Using these model simulations, we quantify the potential predictability related to the solar cycle and demonstrate that the detectability of the solar influence on surface climate depends on the magnitude of the solar cycle. Further, we show that a strong solar cycle forcing organizes and synchronizes the decadal-scale component of the North Atlantic Oscillation, the dominant mode of climate variability in the North Atlantic region.
Who Gets the Money? Strategic Orientations and Resource Attraction by Not-for-Profit Organizations

ABSTRACT Not-for-profit organizations (NPOs) depend heavily on external resources to sustain their operations and program delivery. Their financial sustainability depends on their ability to attract donors’ resources, which is a challenging task in the resource-scarce external environment. Our study investigates the impact of two strategic orientations – market orientation and internal market orientation – on the success of NPOs at attracting resources. Based on survey data gathered from 360 NPOs having field operations in India in the space of environment, livelihoods, and natural resource management, and using the Partial Least Square based Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method, we find that market orientation and staff retention predict resource attraction by NPOs. Internal market orientation has an indirect impact on resource attraction through staff retention. The study also finds that bigger NPOs attract more resources than smaller ones.