Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Physical Absorption Assessment of a New Alternative Solvent for Carbon Capture

The reliance of the world economies on the use of fossil fuels (i.e. coal, natural gas and oil) as primary source of energy, have contributes to the high emission of CO2 in atmosphere. One of the promising way to mitigate the CO2 emission is by implemented Post Combustion Carbon Capture (PCCC) through absorption process. PCCC by amines based solvent is a method to remove the carbon dioxide from the main stream of escape gases before releasing them to the atmosphere. Using this technology, it is possible to reduce CO2 emissions rate around 80 % to 95 %. Currently, the commercialise solvent used for carbon capture which is monoethanolamine, (MEA) have some drawbacks such as high energy penalty for regeneration process, solvent degradation issue and not environmental friendly. Therefore it is a need to develop new alternative solvent to improve the current carbon capture process. The objective of this study is to evaluate the absorption and desorption performance of new alternative solvent for carbon capture process. In this study, Aspen Plus software is used to simulate the absorption and desorption process, estimate and evaluate the performance of MEA and all new alternative solvent. Three absorption performance criteria that is assessed in this study are percentage of CO2 capture by each solvent, energy required for solvent regeneration and percentage of solvent loss through thermal degradation process. This performance assessment is only based on the physical absorption theory. The reaction interaction between CO2 and solvent will not be assessed in this study due to the limitation of data of new alternatives solvent. The result of this study shows that, all the new alternatives solvent is suitable for PCCC process. Besides, some of the solvent show a good performance (less energy requirement, high capture capacity and low rate of degradation) when compare with MEA.
Is the Use of β-Blockers in COPD Still an Unresolved Dilemma?

β-Blockers are competitive antagonists at β-adrenergic receptors (β-AR) and are a life-saving form of treatment in different cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Despite current guidelines supporting the use of selective β1-blockers in patients with CVD and especially in heart failure (HF), they are still largely underused, mostly as a consequence of the presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In primary care, prevalence of COPD in patients with HF is approximately 25%, and it will rise in the next years. In the general population, only 20% of COPD patients with HF are treated with β-blockers. β-Blockers may result in pulmonary adverse effects that are relevant to COPD patients. Bronchoconstriction may be the consequence of: absence of cardioselectivity; loss of cardioselectivity at high doses, and unopposed stimulation of cholinergic muscarinic M2 receptors. The concern of inducing bronchospasm is the more likely explanation of a poor prescription of β-blockers in patients with CVD also suffering from COPD. However, under carefully controlled conditions, which include close monitoring of lung function and appropriate selection of the drug and titration of the dose on a case-by-case basis, selective β1-blockers can be safely administered to most patients with COPD. Pneumologists and cardiologists should develop a detailed and standardized protocol to guide the use of selective β1-blockers in everyday practice, which could significantly reduce the physicians’ mistrust of β-blockers in COPD patients.
Robust and Efficient Detection of Salient Convex Groups

This paper describes an algorithm that robustly locates salient convex collections of line segments in an image. The algorithm is guaranteed to find all convex sets of line segments in which the length of the gaps between segments is smaller than some fixed proportion of the total length of the lines. This enables the algorithm to find convex groups whose contours are partially occluded or missing due to noise. We give an expected case analysis of the algorithm performance. This demonstrates that salient convexity is unlikely to occur at random, and hence is a strong clue that grouped line segments reflect underlying structure in the scene. We also show that our algorithm run time is O(n/sup 2/log(n)+nm), when we wish to find the m most salient groups in an image with n line segments. We support this analysis with experiments on real data, and demonstrate the grouping system as part of a complete recognition system.
Dephasing-assisted transport: quantum networks and biomolecules

Transport phenomena are fundamental in physics. They allow for information and energy to be exchanged between individual constituents of communication systems, networks or even biological entities. Environmental noise will generally hinder the efficiency of the transport process. However, and contrary to intuition, there are situations in classical systems where thermal fluctuations are actually instrumental in assisting transport phenomena. Here we show that, even at zero temperature, transport of excitations across dissipative quantum networks can be enhanced by local dephasing noise. We explain the underlying physical mechanisms behind this phenomenon and propose possible experimental demonstrations in quantum optics. Our results suggest that the presence of entanglement does not play an essential role for energy transport and may even hinder it. We argue that Nature may be routinely exploiting dephasing noise and show that the transport of excitations in simplified models of light harvesting molecules does benefit from such noise assisted processes. These results point toward the possibility for designing optimized structures for transport, for example in artificial nanostructures, assisted by noise.
The technical baccalaureate: providing excellence in vocational education?

Proposals for a technical baccalaureate have received cross-party support in England. The technical baccalaureate is intended to deliver the necessary training to enable young people to fill the UK’s skills gap in intermediate-level occupations in STEM and other sectors. This paper explores how to design and implement a high-quality technical baccalaureate and identifies some of the challenges that are likely to be encountered. We argue that the curriculum of the technical baccalaureate should aim to strike a balance between providing young people with skills needed to enter specific sectors whilst also providing a component of general academic education to help keep options open. We argue that the assessment needs to be both reliable and valid. We also suggest that hurdles – additional criteria that students must meet (e.g. must pass a maths exam) – to gain the Tech Bacc should be avoided, as should aggregating qualifications together to grade the technical baccalaureate. We conclude by discussing the challenges of implementing the technical baccalaureate, including obtaining the necessary employer engagement and provision of information advice and guidance.
Confidential Network Coding: Physical Layer vs. Network Layer

In all kind of information exchange, security is essential. One protection goal that has to be enforced is confidentiality. In state-of-the-art protocols, messages are encrypted before they are transmitted to ensure their confidentiality. However, incorporating novel technologies like network coding allows for more efficient solutions. Within this article, we compare different solutions for confidential communication by means of network coding at physical layer and at network layer. We discuss security, efficiency, and computational complexity of these approaches. The results allow to draw conclusions about the choice of a suited communication scheme depending on the system model and the relevant parameters.
a . Architecture QAComPS SWS Ontology Management MatchMaker RDF Management WSDL or API Provider Interface SWS

This research sets out to help computational modellers to select the most cost effective Cloud service provider. This is when they opt to use cloud computing in preference to in-house HPC facilities. Cloud computing is a pay-per-use model for accessing computing resources from a variety of service providers such as Amazon EC2. Increasingly cloud providers are offering the high performance computing options that are necessary for computational modellers. The paper is concerned with a quality-aware computational broker (QABroker). The QABroker service federates across specific service packages offered by a selected set of computational cloud providers that potentially meet the user’s computational resource and QoS requirements. These vary during the various stages of the computational modelling cycle. The core of the QABroker is a novel Quality-aware federated computational semantic Web service (QAComPS). This includes an integrated ontologybased system that makes use of OWL2 features. This is used to filter the cloud providers’ services into three groups. These are: High, Medium and Low quality of service. This classification is then used by a MatchMaker to automatically select the highest ranked service that meets the user requirements. A SAWSDL interface was used to transfer semantic annotations to/from the QAComPS service and QABroker. Early evaluation of the QAComPS service was very promising and demonstrates its potential to make cloud computing more accessible and cost effective for computational modellers.
The V122I cardiomyopathy variant of transthyretin increases the velocity of rate-limiting tetramer dissociation, resulting in accelerated amyloidosis

The transthyretin (TTR) amyloid diseases are of keen interest, because there are >80 mutations that cause, and a few mutations that suppress, disease. The V122I variant is the most common amyloidogenic mutation worldwide, producing familial amyloidotic cardiomyopathy primarily in individuals of African descent. The substitution shifts the tetramer-folded monomer equilibrium toward monomer (lowers tetramer stability) and lowers the kinetic barrier associated with rate-limiting tetramer dissociation (pH 7; relative to wild-type TTR) required for amyloid fibril formation. Fibril formation is also accelerated because the folded monomer resulting from the tetramer-folded monomer equilibrium rapidly undergoes partial denaturation and self-assembles into amyloid (in vitro) when subjected to a mild denaturation stress (e.g., pH 4.8). Incorporation of the V122I mutation into a folded monomeric variant of transthyretin reveals that this mutation does not destabilize the tertiary structure or alter the rate of amyloidogenesis relative to the wild-type monomer. The increase in the velocity of rate-limiting tetramer dissociation coupled with the lowered tetramer stability (increasing the mol fraction of folded monomer present at equilibrium) may explain why V122I confers an apparent absolute anatomic risk for cardiac amyloid deposition.
Study on the spatial resolution of EEG - effect of electrode density and measurement noise

The spatial resolution of electroencephalography (EEG) is studied by means of inverse cortical EEG solution. Special attention is paid to the effect of electrode density and the effect of measurement noise on the spatial resolution. A three-layer spherical head model is used as a volume conductor to obtain the source-field relationship of cortical potentials and scalp potential field. Effect of measurement noise is evaluated with truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD). Also simulations about different electrode systems' ability to separate cortical sources are performed. The results show that as the measurement noise increases the advantage of dense electrode systems decreases. Our results suggest that in clinical measurement environment it is always beneficial to use at least 64 measurement electrodes. In low-noise realistic measurement environment the use of even 256 measurement electrodes is beneficial.
Expandable microspheres incorporated in a PDMS matrix: a novel thermal composite actuator for liquid handling in microfluidic applications

In this study a novel actuator concept based on expandable microspheres incorporated in a PDMS matrix is presented. Merging the merits of the two substances gives the resulting composite material novel application possibilities as well as novel performance and processing properties. The expansion behavior of the composite was investigated and a maximum volume change of 270% of its original volume was measured after heating to 80/spl deg/C. Applying a heat treatment to the composite shows its capability of filling out deep voids. The composite shows very good applicability as embedded actuator and may be appropriate for various applications. Furthermore, the applicability of the composite for replica molding has been demonstrated by creating inverse replicated features in the cured composite. We show the investigation of fabrication, expansion and application techniques by means of a novel actuator concept for liquid handling.
Simulation results for coverage and performance improvements for CDMA2000 1X network using smart antenna systems

In this paper, we study the coverage and performance improvements that can be achieved by using smart antenna systems in the CDMA2000 1X network. We present a simulation model and an evaluation method for the smart antenna systems in the CDMA systems. We propose a method that can show the impact of smart antenna systems on the E/sub C//I/sub 0/ ratio. We consider the data service users as well as the voice service users. We derive the E/sub C//I/sub 0/ and data throughput. The simulation results of the cell coverage area and radius are also presented as a function of the antenna types and beam width. The simulation results show that the performance improvements are remarkable if the smart antenna systems are used for data service users. From the simulation results we discuss the impact of smart antenna systems on the cell coverage area, the average E/sub C//I/sub 0/ ratio, data throughput and so forth.
Combining Bagging and Boosting

Bagging and boosting are among the most popular re- sampling ensemble methods that generate and combine a diversity of classifiers using the same learning algorithm for the base-classifiers. Boosting algorithms are considered stronger than bagging on noise- free data. However, there are strong empirical indications that bagging is much more robust than boosting in noisy settings. For this reason, in this work we built an ensemble using a voting methodology of bagging and boosting ensembles with 10 sub- classifiers in each one. We performed a comparison with simple bagging and boosting ensembles with 25 sub-classifiers, as well as other well known combining methods, on standard benchmark datasets and the proposed technique was the most accurate.
Rating scales in Web surveys. A test of new drag-and-drop rating procedures

In Web surveys, rating scales measuring the respondents’ attitudes and self-descriptions by means of a series of related statements are commonly presented in grid (or matrix) questions. Despite the benefits of displaying multiple rating scale items neatly arranged and supposedly easy to complete on a single screen, respondents are often tempted to rely on cognitive shortcuts in order to reduce the extent of cognitive and navigational effort required to answer a set of rating scale items. In order to minimize this risk of cognitive shortcuts resulting in satisfying rather than optimal answers, respondents have to be motivated to spend extra time and effort on the attentive and careful processing of rating scales. A wide range of visual and dynamic features are available in interactive Web surveys allowing for visual enhancement and greater interactivity in the presentation of survey questions. To date, however, only a few studies have systematically examined new rating scale designs using data input methods other than conventional radio buttons. In the present study, two different rating scales were designed using drag-and-drop as a more interactive data input method: Respondents have to drag the response options towards the rating scale items (‘drag-response’), or in the reverse direction, the rating scale items towards the response options (‘drag-item’). In both drag-and-drop rating scales, the visual highlighting of the items and response options as well as the dynamic strengthening of the link between these key components are aimed at encouraging the respondents to process a rating scale more attentively and carefully. The effectiveness of the drag-and-drop rating scales in preventing the respondents’ susceptibility to cognitive shortcuts is assessed on the basis of five systematic response tendencies that are typically accompanied by rating scales, i.e., careless, nondifferentiated, acquiescent, and extreme responding as well as the respondents’ systematic tendency to select one of the first response options, so called primacy effects. Moreover, item missing data, response times, and respondent evaluation are examined. The findings of the present study revealed that although both drag-and-drop scales entail a higher level of respondent burden as indicated by an increase in item missing data and longer response times compared to conventional radio button scales, they promote the respondents’ attentiveness and carefulness towards the response task which is accompanied by the respondents’ reduced susceptibility to cognitive shortcuts in processing rating scales.
Molecular heterogeneity of basal laminae: isoforms of laminin and collagen IV at the neuromuscular junction and elsewhere

Laminin and collagen IV are components of most basal laminae (BLs). Recently, both have been shown to be products of multigene families. The A, B1, and B2 subunits of the laminin trimer are products of related genes, and the BL components merosin M and s-laminin are homologues of the A and B1 subunits, respectively. Similarly, five related collagen IV chains, alpha 1(IV)-alpha 5(IV), have been described. Here, we used a panel of subunit-specific antibodies to determine the distribution of the laminin and collagen IV isoforms in adult BLs. First, we compared synaptic and extrasynaptic portions of muscle fiber BL, in light of evidence that axonal and muscle membranes interact selectively with synaptic BL during neuromuscular regeneration. S-laminin, laminin A, and collagens alpha 3(IV) and alpha 4(IV) are greatly concentrated in synaptic BL; laminin B1 is apparently absent from synaptic BL; collagens alpha 1(IV) and alpha 2(IV) are less abundant in synaptic than extrasynaptic BL; and laminin B2 and merosin M are present at similar levels synaptically and extrasynaptically. These results reveal widespread differences between synaptic and extrasynaptic BL, and implicate several novel polypeptides as candidate mediators of neuromuscular interactions. Second, we widened our inquiry to assess the composition of several other BLs: endoneurial and perineurial BLs in intramuscular nerves, BLs associated with intramuscular vasculature, and glomerular and tubular BLs in kidney. Of eight BLs studied, at least seven have distinct compositions, and of the nine BL components tested, at least seven have distinct distributions. These results demonstrate a hitherto undescribed degree of heterogeneity among BLs.
Exploration of Factors Beyond Audibility That May Influence Speech Recognition

The effects of reduced ability to differentiate acoustic information on speech reception are difficult to separate from the effects of reduced absolute sensitivity. One possible way is to explore abilities to differentiate acoustic information while holding absolute sensitivity constant. Two auditory phenomena known as enhancement and suppression, which are thought to be related to speech reception ability, were evaluated in persons with normal absolute sensitivity who had either normal or reduced speech recognition in noise. Results of forward masking experiments do not support the notion that enhancement or suppression is reduced in persons with reduced speech recognition in noise. However, their pattern of performance differed from that of listeners with normal speech recognition in noise when the duration of certain complex maskers was varied.
Forcing Your Opponent to Stay in Control of a Loony Dot-and-Boxes Endgame

The traditional children’s pencil-and-paper game called Dotsand-Boxes is a contest to outscore the opponent by completing more boxes. It has long been known that winning strategies for certain types of positions in this game can be copied from the winning strategies for another game called Nimstring, which is played according to similar rules except that the Nimstring loser is whichever player completes the last box. Under certain common but restrictive conditions, one player (Right) achieves his optimal Dots-and-Boxes score, v, by playing so as to win the Nimstring game. An easily computed lower bound on v is known as the controlled value, cv. Previous results asserted that v = cv if cv ≥ c/2, where c is the total number of boxes in the game. In this paper, we weaken this condition from cv ≥ c to cv ≥ 10, and show this bound to be best possible. Introduction to Loony Endgames and Controlled Value The reader is assumed to be familiar with the game of Dots and Boxes. An excellent introduction can be found in [WW], [Nowakowski] or [D&B]. Some results about this game are more easily described in terms of the dual game, called Strings-and-Coins [D&B, Chapter 2]. This game is played on a graph G, whose nodes are called coins and whose branches are called strings. In this graph, the ends of each string are attached to two different coins or to a coin and the ground, which is a special uncapturable node. The valence of any coin is the number of strings attached to it. It has long been known that typical endgames reach a loony stage in which no coin has valence 1, and every coin of valence 2 is part of a chain of at least 3 such coins or of a loop of at least 4 such coins. When such a position occurs, the player who has just completed his turn is said to be in control. Let’s call him Right. All moves now available to his opponent, called Left, are of the type called loony. Wherever Left plays, Right will then (possibly after capturing a few coins) have a choice between two options: (1) he can complete his turn by declining the last two or four coins of
Tackling Human Fungal Infections

Fungi infect billions of people every year, yet their contribution to the global burden of disease is largely unrecognized. Most are “relatively” minor infections, but millions contract diseases that kill at least as many people as tuberculosis or malaria. Although true mortality rates are unknown because of a lack of good epidemiological data, the incidence of invasive fungal infections is rising as a result of modern medical interventions and immunosuppressive diseases, such as AIDS. Despite the high mortality rates of invasive fungal infections, they remain understudied and underdiagnosed as compared with other infectious diseases. What can be done to remedy this unfortunate situation?