Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Activación alcalina de cenizas volantes. Estudio comparativo entre activadores sódicos y potásicos

This paper shows the effect of the nature of some alkaline activators in the microstructural development of thermal-alkali activated f/y ash systems. The alkaline compounds employed in this investigation were: NaOH, KOH, Na 2 C0 3 , K 2 C0 3 , sodium silicate and potassium silicate. Results confirm that the main reaction product of the activation process (throughout the studied systems) is the amorphous alkaline aluminosilicate gel with a three-dimensional structure already observed in earlier research. It has been proved that the type of anion and cation involved in the activation reaction of the ashes not only affects the microstructural development of the systems but the Si/Al ratio of that prezeolitic gel too. For example, in the presence of soluble silicate ions the content of Si in the final structure is notably increased (Si/Al =2.7-3.0), however carbonate ions play a different role since the formation of Sodium or Potassium carbonate/bicarbonate acidifies the system and consequently the reaction rate is considerably slowed. Finally it is evident that; when all experimental conditions are equal, sodium has a greater capacity than potassium to accelerate the setting and hardening reactions of fly ash and also to stimulate the growth of certain zeolitic crystals (reaction by-products). In general it can be affirmed that OH - ion acts as a reaction catalyst; and the alkaline metal (M + ) acts as a structure-forming element.
Distinctively altered lignin biosynthesis by site‐modification of OsCAD2 for enhanced biomass saccharification in rice

Crop straws represent enormous biomass resource convertible for biofuels and bioproducts, but lignocellulose recalcitrance restricts its saccharification for commercial utility. Despite genetic modification of lignin biosynthesis being attempted to reduce recalcitrance in bioenergy crops, it remains challenging to optimize lignin deposition without an unacceptable yield penalty. Based on gene expression analysis and phylogenetic tree profiling, a cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase gene (OsCAD2) as the target for genetic engineering of lignin biosynthesis in rice was selected in this study. Using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, independent homozygous transgenic lines with precise site mutation of OsCAD2, which showed slightly reduced lignin levels but markedly decreased p‐hydroxyphenyl (H) contents in lignin by 34% and increased guaiacyl (G) contents by 16%, compared to the wild type were generated in this study. Under mild alkali pretreatment (1% NaOH, 50°C), the OsCAD2 site‐modified lines showed effective lignin extraction up to 70% (of total lignin) from mature rice straws, which caused either significantly increased biomass porosity and cellulose accessibility or remarkably reduced cellulase adsorption to lignin in pretreated lignocellulose residues. These consequently led to almost complete biomass enzymatic saccharification with increased hexoses yields by 61%–72% in the modified lines, being much higher than those of the lignin‐altered lines reported in previous studies. Hence, this study has demonstrated a novel genetic engineering strategy to reduce lignocellulose recalcitrance with minimized biomass loss for cost‐effective biomass conversion to bioethanol in rice and bioenergy crops.
Correlation of cyto-morphology with flow cytometric immunophenotyping in acute leukemia's-A Comparative study

Background: Immunophenotypic characterization of acute leukemia's (AL) is an important clinical application of flow cytometry (FCA) and has become a powerful tool contributing to the diagnosis and classification of acute leukemia's. Objective: To compare the morphological and cyto- chemical diagnosis of peripheral blood and bone marrow sample with flow cytometric immunophenotypic diagnosis in acute leukemia's.
Laser Induced CIDNP Study of Photochemical Electron Transfer Reaction between Covalently Linked Porphyrin–Tryptophan Compounds and 1,4-Benzoquinone

Argon ion laser excitation of covalently linked porphyrin–tryptophan compound in the presence of 1,4-benzoquinone in benzene-d6 resulted in strong 1H-NMR polarizations of tryptophan moiety. These CIDNP effects are reasonably explained by the mechanism involving the secondary electron transfer from tryptophan moiety to porphyrin cation radical as the key step.
Protein-polymer hybrid amphiphiles

Synthesis of 1: 350 mg (0.036 mmol) of carboxy terminated polystyrene, 20 mg (0.053 mmol) of biotinyl-3,6-dioxaoctanediamine and 0.06 ml Et3N were dissolved in 15 ml destilled DMF. Subsequently, 22 mg (0.050 mmol) of (benzotriazol-1-yloxy)tris(dimethylamino)phosphonium hexafluorophosphate was added. After stirring for 16 hrs at room temperature under a nitrogen atmosphere the solution was precipitated in 600 ml MeOH. The crude product was further purified by column chromatography (MeOH/CH2Cl2, 2:98 v/v); yield 142 mg (0.015 mmol; 43%) of 1. Mn = 9147; Mw/Mn = 1.03;
Improvement of the Deethanizing and Depropanizing Fractionation Steps in NGL Recovery Process Using Dividing Wall Column

In this work, our aim is to utilize a dividing wall column to improve the performance of the deethanizing and depropanizing fractionation steps in natural gas liquid processing. Starting from an initial conventional column sequence, the initial designs of the conventional dividing wall column and a top dividing wall column are obtained by maintaining the number of trays. In succession, they are optimized to reduce the energy consumption using factorial design. The results show that the conventional dividing wall column and the top dividing wall column can offer many benefits to the system, e.g., curbing the operating cost including refrigeration cost, and minimizing the reboiler and condenser duty. Furthermore, by using a dividing wall column, both the purity of ethane and its recovery rate are increased. The influence of utility prices on the operating cost saving of the conventional and the top dividing wall columns is also investigated. In addition, to further enhance the dividing wall column performance, heating is integrated on the top and an interreboiling system is installed at the bottom section of the dividing wall column.
Translational Diffusion in Thermotropic Smectic Phases

In this report the translational self-diffusion behavior of calamitic mesogens in smectic phases measured by means of NMR diffusometry will be reviewed. In particular the results reported demonstrate that translational diffusion in smectic phases is strongly dependent on molecular packing in the layered structure, but, in contrast with previous assertions seems to be only slightly affected by the clinicity of the phases, i.e., supporting the second order character of the phase transition going from the synclinic to the anticlinic structure typical in chiral Smectic C* phases.
Activated Carbon Adsorption of the Odorous Compounds 2‐Methylisoborneol and Geosmin

Two primary causative agents, 2-methylisoborneol and geosmin, of earthy-musty odor in water supplies readily adsorb on granular activated carbon at the threshold odor limit, 0.1 /ig/l. Distilled water solutions and real and simulated natural water solutions were used in batch equilibrium tests and continuous flow column experiments. Most of the adsorbed compounds could be recovered by extraction of the carbon with dioxane. Solution pH has no major effect on adsorption, but the adsorption capacity of both compounds is significantly reduced by humic substances.
Discrimination of Wheat Grain Varieties Using Image Analysis and Multidimensional Analysis Texture of Grain Mass

This article presents the results of discrimination of 11 wheat grain varieties. The statistical analysis included reduction of variables to a set of 49 textures with the highest discriminating strength and multidimensional analysis. Reduction of variables was performed by the following methods: genetic algorithms (sequential forward floating search [SFFS] method) as well as the Class Ranker and Class RankersSearch methods. Furthermore, the multidimensional analysis was performed by methods employing the following classifiers: Bayes, Lazy, Meta, Decision trees, and Discriminatory analyses. The classification of individual varieties, regardless of the year of cultivation, was between 98 and 100%.
Comparison of batch and column methods for assessing leachability of hazardous waste

Inorganic and organic analytes were leached from four waste samples by using batch and column leaching methods. Waste samples were electroplating sludge, fly ash, filter cake, and polystill bottoms. Leachate concentration profiles were constructed from sequential leaching of waste with distilled deionized water using a combined solution to waste ratio of 40:1. Leachate profiles produced by the batch and column methods were compared in terms of a fitted leaching profile function and variation of the experimental data. Leachate profiles produced by the two methods were significantly different for 12 of the 16 reported analytes. Analytes included Al, Ba, B, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Se, Sn, Ti, Zn, and chlorinated hydrocarbons. Variation of experimental data, as represented by relative standard deviation, was over twice as great for the column method than for the batch method. This result was attributed to varying degrees of channeling that may have occurred during leaching of waste constituents using the column method. The batch extraction method offers advantages through its greater reproducibility and simplistic design, while the column method is more realistic in simulating leaching processes which occur under field conditions.
Automatic breast thermography images classification based on deep neural networks

Breast thermography is a screening tool which is capable of detecting cancer at an early stage. The main objective of this work is using the full power of deep neural network (DNN) and exploring its ability to learn the discriminative features of input data. The transfer learning and data augmentation are performed to solve the problem of lack of labled data. To improve the accuracy, the support vector machine (SVM) classifier will hybrid with the convolutional neural network (CNN) instead of using the deep model as end-to-end. The performance is verified by the k-fold cross-validation. The proposed techniques are trained and evaluated on DMR-IR dataset to classify the thermographic images to normal and abnormal groups. The proposed technique of employing AlexNet hybrid with SVM achieves the best performance, producing 92.55% accuracy, 95.56% sensitivity, 89.80% precision, 92.63% F1 score.
Measurement of Thermal Diffusivities Using the Distributed Source, Finite Absorption Model

Measurement of Thermal Diffusivites Using the Distributed Source, Finite Absorption Model James B. Hall Department of Mechanical Engineering, BYU Master of Science Thermal diffusivity in an important thermophysical property that quantifies the ratio of the rate at which heat is conducted through a material to the amount of energy stored in a material. The pulsed laser diffusion (PLD) method is a widely used technique for measuring thermal diffusivities of materials. This technique is based on the fact that the diffusivity of a sample may be inferred from measurement of the time-dependent temperature profile at a point on the surface of a sample that has been exposed to a pulse of radiant energy from a laser or flash lamp. An accepted standard approach for the PLD method is based on a simple model of a PLD measurement system. However, the standard approach is based on idealizations that are difficult to achieve in practice. Therefore, models that treat a PLD measurement system with greater fidelity are desired. The objective of this research is to develop and test a higher fidelity model that more accurately represents the spatial and temporal variations in the input power. This higher fidelity model is referred to as Distributed Source Finite Absorption (DSFA) model. The cost of the increased fidelity associated with the DSFA model is an increase in the complexity of inferring values of the thermal diffusivity. A new method of extracting values from time dependent temperature measurements based on a genetic algorithm and on reduced order modeling was developed. The primary contribution of this thesis is a detailed discussion of the development and numerical verification of this proposed new method for measuring the thermal diffusivity of various materials. Verification of the proposed new method was conducted using numerical experiments. A detailed model of a PLD system was created using advanced engineering software, and detailed simulations, including conjugate heat transfer and solution of the full Navier-Stokes equations, were used to generate multiple numerical data sets. These numerical data sets were then used to infer the thermal diffusivity and other properties of the sample using the proposed new method. These numerical data sets were also used as inputs to the standard approach. The results of this verification study show that the proposed new method is able to infer the thermal diffusivity of samples to within 4.93%, the absorption coefficient to within 10.57 % and the heat capacity of the samples to within 5.37 %. Application of the standard approach to these same data sets gave much poorer estimates of the thermal diffusivity, particularly when the absorption coefficient of the material was relatively low.
Block Copolymer Assemblies with Cross-Link Stabilization: From Single-Component Monolayers to Bilayer Blends with PEO−PLA†

Amphiphilic diblock copolymers containing poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and saturated polybutadiene (PBD) hydrophobic chains have been cross-linked in both monolayer and bilayer assemblies. For monolayers, the Langmuir isotherm proves consistent with prior measures of density and compressibility for bilayer vesicles, and the monolayers can be macroscopically transferred as Langmuir−Blodgett films. Since the films are inverted (PBD oriented away from the slide) at the air−water interface, they spontaneously reorganize when immersed in water into wormlike micelles. However, this transition is quenched when the film is stabilized by free radical polymerization. Atomic force microscopy shows a stabilized but pitted film, which allows height measurements that prove consistent with a monolayer. With bilayer vesicles, we investigate several additional aspects of cross-linking. Spatial control of membrane cross-linking on the micrometer-scale is demonstrated by dynamic inflation−deflation of a membrane fixed to the .
Visualization of Massive Movement Datasets with Low Barrier to Entry – A Case Study

— With large movement datasets commonplace, a special focus in the information visualization community emerged with the goal of developing theories, frameworks and techniques tailored to the challenges and opportunities associated with the analysis of movement data. Looking to accommodate the adoption of methods and techniques of the emergent movement visualization science across a range of research communities, a call is made to look for balance between the sophistication and power and the steep learning curve associated with the production and use of advanced visualization tools. This paper presents a proof-of-concept approach to the exploratory visualization of massive movement datasets using well-established open-source software tools designed specifically for the non-programmers. This approach is evaluated by means of a case study — an exploratory visualization of 120 million movement records derived from social media data — that yields actionable insights for an analyst looking to explore, clean, and organize the sample dataset, or to calibrate and parameterize theoretical models for its subsequent in-depth analysis .
Structural studies of ionic solutions under critical conditions

The methods of neutron diffraction and isotopic substitution (NDIS) provide a direct means to probe the structure of a complex fluid mixture. The method is easily extended to studies under non-ambient conditions for which large sample containers can be used to withstand temperatures of up to and pressures of 2000 bar. Within the past few years NDIS experiments have been performed on aqueous solutions of several salts at temperatures up to and beyond their critical states. The results show that both the aqua ion and hydrogen bond structure change appreciably with increases in temperature.
Normal and Tangential Momentum Accommodation for Earth Satellite Conditions

Momentum accommodation was determined experimentally for gas-surface interactions simulating in a practical way those of near-earth satellites. Throughout the ranges of gas energies and incidence angles of interest for earth-conditions, two components of force were measured by means of a vacuum microbalance to determine the normal and tangential momentum-accommodation coefficients for nitrogen ions on technical-quality aluminum surfaces. For these experimental conditions, the electrodynamics of ion neutralization near the surface indicate that results for nitrogen ions should differ relatively little from those for nitrogen molecules, which comprise the largest component of momentum flux for near-earth satellites. The experimental results indicated that both normal and tangential momentum-accommodation coefficients varied widely with energy, tending to be relatively well accommodated at the higher energies, but becoming progressively less accommodated as the energy was reduced to and below that for earth-satellite speeds. Both coefficients also varied greatly with incidence angle, the normal momentum becoming less accommodated as the incidence angle became more glancing, whereas the tangential momentum generally became more fully accommodated. For each momentum coefficient, an empirical correlation function was obtained which closely approximated the experimental results over the ranges of energy and incidence angle. Most of the observed variations of momentum accommodation with energy and incidence angle were qualitatively indicated by a calculation using a three-dimensional model that simulated the target surface by a one-dimensional attractive potential and hard sphere reflectors.
Enhancing Performance of Silty Clayey Sandy and of Pavement Using Cement and Geogrid in South Republic of Benin (West Africa)

Pavement infrastructure built on expansive soil can experience multiple forms of degradation, mainly cracks when there are no adequate arrangements made to avoid or to limit the impact of the changes on the volume of the supporting soil. In this research, three objectives have been adopted in-depth on the performance characteristics of West Africans soil and aim to (i) accessing characteristics of soil types in the region; (ii) assessing the performance of these soils with 2%, 2.5%, 3%, 3.5%, 4%, 4.5%, 5% and 5.5% of cement and (iii) using geogrid to evaluate the performance of pavement on clayey soil. Design of flexible pavement is largely based on empirical methods using layered elastic and two-dimensional finite element (FE) analysis. Currently a shift underway towards more mechanistic design techniques to minimize the limitations in determining stress, strain and displacement in pavement analysis. For this reason, computational analysis of pavement methods have been investigated on the structural model pavement and the effectiveness of geogrids as a reinforcement of layer in a flexible pavement system. In this study, flexible pavement modeling is done using Abaqus software in which model dimensions, element types and meshing strategies are taken by successive trial and error to achieve desired accuracy and convergence of the research. Flexible pavements (with and without geogrids) were built and subjected to 127.49 kN load applications and the Finite Element Method (FEM) as computer analysis under static load. The results reveal that the proportion of percentage cement leading to the best performances varying from 3% to 5.5%. And, the pavement made with geogrid in subgrade is the best. As a conclusion, in an unstable area, this research suggests the use of silty clayey sandy treated with a minimum percentage of 3% cement in subbase layer and geogrid in subgrade because, the inclusion of geogrid in subgrade reduces the deformation.
Experimental research of high-frequency MagAmp power converters for synchronous rectification

The results of experimental research of high-efficiency high-frequency power supplies for specialized computer systems that require high load current at low output voltage are given in the article. In particular, the new methods for the design of MOSFET synchronous rectifiers in power converters based on high-frequency magnetic amplifiers are investigated. The proposed methods allow obtaining significantly higher power converters efficiency compared to existing ones.
Detection, Quantification, and Magnetic Field Dependence of Solid-State 17O NMR of X−O−Y (X,Y = Si,Ti) Linkages: Implications for Characterizing Amorphous Titania-Silica−Based Materials

17O solid-state NMR spectra from hybrid TiO2−SiO2-based materials can clearly distinguish Si−O−Si, Si−O−Ti, and Ti−O−Ti linkages. Spectra are reported from these groups for applied magnetic fields from 5.6 to 14.1 T, which allows their NMR parameters to be deduced. The quantitative accuracy of these spectra is investigated and the implications for detecting nanoscale phase separation discussed. Changes in the local structure with functionalization of the silicon alkoxide (R‘xSi(OR)4-x) and modification of the titanium precursor by acetylacetone are examined.
Degradation of chemically modified Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) with Fenton reagent

Abstract The Fenton reaction is supposed to play a key role in the initial wood degradation by brown rot fungi. Wood was modified with 1,3-dimethylol-4,5-dihydroxyethyleneurea (DMDHEU) and glutaraldehyde (GA) to various weight percentage gains in order to study if these types of modifications are able to reduce wood degradation by Fenton reagent. Veneers modified with higher concentrations (1.2 and 2.0 mol l-1) of both chemicals exhibited minor losses in mass and tensile strength during treatment with Fenton reagent, which shows restrained oxidative degradation by hydroxyl radicals. The decomposition rate of H2 O2 was lower in the Fenton solutions containing modified veneers than in those containing unmodified controls. More CO2 evolved in systems containing unmodified veneers than in systems with modified veneers, indicating that modification protected wood from mineralisation. The reason for the enhanced resistance of modified wood to the Fenton reaction is attributed to impeded diffusion of the reagent into the cell wall rather than to inhibition of the Fenton reaction itself. The results show that wood modification with DMDHEU and GA is able to restrain the degradation of wood by the Fenton reaction and can explain why modified wood is more resistant to brown rot decay.
Measurements and Predictions of Hydrate Equilibrium Conditions

Abstract: The main objective of this study was to demonstrate the importance of reliable hydrate equilibrium data for thorough mitigation and remediation of hydrate problems. Hydrate prevention strategies generally rely on extensive use of different hydrate simulators that, in turn, are based on experimental data. Erroneous hydrate predictions may severely jeopardize the established hydrate strategy and can have severe economic implications. In this study the hydrate equilibrium conditions for eight different hydrocarbon systems were investigated by experimental measurements and by hydrate simulator predictions. The results clearly verify the importance of having due control over the experimental parameters, especially the heating gradient. The error in the determination of the hydrate equilibrium temperature seems to increase with the complexity of the system; for example, when inhibitors are added to the aqueous phase.