Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stability of Colorants from Ultrasonic Induced Monascus purpureus

Natural colorants derived from polyketide compounds of Monascus purpureus have been extensively used in pharmaceuticals and foods to replace the synthetic colorants. A ultrasonic treatment at 45 kHz for 2min at 28 C for induced mutation was applied to Thai Isolated Monascus purpureus TISTR 3385 fermented in a modified yeast extract supplemented with cassava starch and monosodium glutamate to generate extracellular pigment Monascus mutant producers. Four generations of ultrasonic induced were obtained as G1-G4 and wild type, G0 and the derived extracellular pigments were tested for the ranges of pH and solvent stability. Results showed that yellow pigments of both mutants and wild type showed higher stability on pHs and solvents than other pigments especially at the basic pH values (> 7.0-13.0). When compared with the wide ranges of solvent stability, wild type showed significantly higher stability over other generations at which hexane was the most suitable and the yellow pigments of all generation were the best sustainable colorant. These results indicate that Monascus yellow pigments of all generations may possibly be used as colorants in foods having neutral, slightly acidic and basic pH values.
MEANING OF SOIL BIOLOGICAL QUALITY AND METHODS OF CHARACTERIZING DEMONSTRATIONS

The sustainability of the earth’s land and water resources is dependent upon maintaining the health of living biota that provide critical inputs into the ecosystem services that support these resources. A vast assemblage of organisms naturally resides in the soil and performs a wide range of functions, which are essential for a normal healthy soil. Soil microorganisms for example decompose organic matter, release nutrients into plant-available forms, and degrade toxic residues. They also form symbiotic associations with roots (facilitating nitrogen fixation or phosphate uptake), act as antagonistic to pathogens, influence the weathering and solubilization of minerals, and contribute to the maintenance of soil structure. (Lee and Pinehurst, 1992; Pankhurst and Lynch, 1995). Larger soil organisms such as earthworms contribute to the soil health through bioturbation and communition of organic residues into the soil.
An Evaluation of Thermochemical Property Models for CaO-MnO-SiO 2-Al 2 O 3-MgO

The modeling of thermochemical properties is important in studying the physical behavior of slag in the operation of pyrometallurgical smelters. To study the flow of slag through a submerged-arc furnace (SAF) taphole, knowledge of thermochemical properties such as viscosity, thermal conductivity, density and heat capacity are required. In literature various models exist for silicate slags that enable thermochemical properties to be predicted as functions of chemical composition and temperature. This paper reports on the application of models in the CaO-MnO-SiO2-Al2O3-MgO slag system to be used in future CFD modeling of slag tapped from SAFs producing high-carbon ferromanganese (HCFeMn) or silicomanganese (SiMn). FactSage 6.2 is used to estimate the phase composition of slags with varying chemical composition and temperature. The dependence of thermochemical property models on chemical composition and temperature is illustrated in the form of ternary diagrams showing the predicted property values as a function of basicity (chemical composition) and temperature. Slag compositions typical of HCFeMn and SiMn processes are used. Each thermochemical property is calculated at 1400, 1500 and 1600°C at a fixed weight percentage ratio Al2O3/SiO2 of 0.57 and 6% MgO. Ternary phase diagrams (1400, 1500 and 1600°C) and a ternary liquidus temperature diagram are also presented for the system. Since viscosity has the most significant influence on flow behavior, results from various viscosity models have been compared with measured data. Predictions for thermal conductivity, density, and heat capacity are also discussed.
GOD, PROSPERItY AnD POVERtY

An influential strain in recent Christian thought (Schneider 2002a) has stressed that material prosperity is a quality for human life sought by God for all people. Clearly, this objective has not been achieved. One of the reasons why the all-enveloping prosperity objective has not been reached is that its pursuit has been undertaken by down-playing God’s equally-important objective of mitigating material poverty. Incompatible with God’s aims, poverty persists. Via Biblical exegetes’ interpretation of Jesus’ sayings, this paper shows that Jesus usually speaks of the necessity to share possessions with the poor when He teaches on wealth. If assistance to the materially poor is as important as achieving prosperity in the Christian framework, implications arise for today. Final sections consider how the poor in First World countries might be identified (using the United States as the example), and how they might be helped to greater prosperity.
Audio data processing for phonetics and phonology in Blackfoot *

This article outlines a collaborative audio data mining project that is developing an automated program to process and compile audio files for Blackfoot research. The framework consists of two major steps, audio syntactic analysis and data mining. We tested the system on recordings of Blackfoot conversations to automatically identify segments containing the phonetic forms [x], [x], and [ç] of a particular phoneme /x/. At this point, we are able to process a large volume of audio streams and the experimental results show that the project is promising. This project is innovative because the application of computational techniques in indigenous languages is underdeveloped, and it could also enhance research methods in other languages. The project extended existing computational techniques, such as information processing and artificial intelligence (Jones, 2007), to tackle issues in understudied languages. This study also exemplifies one of many possibilities for collaborative projects between a computer science specialist and a linguist to enhance research in both areas.
The application of fractional Zener model on MCL

On the basis of recently published experimental results of Abramowitch et al. (2004), dealing with viscoelastic properties of sham operated and healing MCL, we show that the fractional Zener model of viscoelastic body seems to be very tractable tool for rheological description of different states of biological tissues. In this paper medial collateral ligament of the knee will be described by means of the method of Dankuc et al. 2010, who examined middle ear structures and ramp-and hold stress relaxation experiments. Two different states of MCL were described by four different constants representing modulus of elasticity, the order of fractional derivative and two relaxation constants. Predictions of the model are in good agreement with the experimental results.
Qualitätsmanagement in der Stroke Unit Quality Management in Stroke Units

Quality management (QM) is an obligatory element in Ger-man hospitals. Although quality improvement has been an integral part of clinical medicine for many years, the imple-mentation of formal QM is still of limited acceptance. Due to time-critical processes together with the interdisciplin-ary approach and inherant risks, there is convincing need for QM in acute stroke. For more than 20 years, QM activ-ities of stroke units (SU), comprising the entire chain of stroke care, have regularly been evaluated by a standardized certification process. However, QM does not end with a successful certification. Effective QM requires an authen-tic attitude towards continuous quality improvement. The progress in stroke management during the last two dec-ades constitutes a benchmark of successful QM in medicine.
ACUTE PANCREATITIS AFTER TRANSARTERIAL CHEMOEMBOLIZATION BEFORE LIVER TRANSPLANTATION FOR HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA: A CASE REPORT.

Hanane BASR 1 , Rachida SAOUAB 2 , Brahim AITBIHI 1 , Mohamed MAHI 2 and Fedoua ROUIBAA 1 . 1. Department of Gastroenterology I, Mohamed V Military Hospital, Rabat, Morocco. 2. Department of Radiology, Mohamed V Military Hospital, Rabat, Morocco. Manuscript Info Abstract . Manuscript History
WC-Co Particles Reinforced Aluminum Matrix by Conventional and Microwave Sintering

Metal matrix composites of Al-WC (10, 15 and 20 wt%) were prepared by microwave (without holding) and conventional sintering (held for 1 hour) processes at various temperatures between 650-950 °C. The results indicated that the highest density of conventional and microwave sintering corresponds to 97.4 ± 1.2% and 98.6 ± 0.8 of theoretical density, respectively; The highest bending strength of conventional and microwave sintered samples were 223 ± 12 and 256 ± 12 MPa, respectively. XRD patterns showed the decomposition of WC particles and formation of Al5W and Al12W interfacial reaction product phases in both processes. SEM studies showed that WC reinforcement particles were more likely to be agglomerated in microwave compared to conventional sintering process.
Feature Localization Refinement for Improved Visual Odometry Accuracy

This work aims at improving the accuracy in the estimation of the path of a mobile platform from onboard passive stereo vision (so-called Visual Odometry). Our algorithm estimates motion steps by robust bundle adjustment of matched feature points, independently extracted from two pairs of stereo images. It is shown that, when using a fast Hessian-based feature detector/descriptor developed by us, a simple and computationally inexpensive algorithm can be devised to refine the image localization of features. Tests on real data confirm that this refinement actually yields a non negligible improvement in path estimation accuracy. Keywords— Robot localization, Stereo vision, Visual odometry, Feature descriptors, Feature detectors
Ju l 2 00 6 Effect of Nonmagnetic Impurity in Nearly Antiferromagnetic Fermi Liquid : Magnetic Correlations and Transport Phenomena

In nearly antiferromagnetic (AF) metals such as high-Tc superconductors (HTSC’s), a single nonmagnetic impurity frequently causes nontrivial widespread change of the electronic states. To elucidate this long-standing issue, we study a Hubbard model with a strong onsite impurity potential based on an improved fluctuation-exchange (FLEX) approximation, which we call the GV I -FLEX method. This model corresponds to the HTSC with dilute nonmagnetic impurity concentration. We find that (i) both local and staggered susceptibilities are strongly enhanced around the impurity. By this reason, (ii) the quasiparticle lifetime as well as the local density of states (DOS) are strongly suppressed in a wide area around the impurity (like a Swiss cheese hole), which causes the “huge residual resistivity” beyond the s-wave unitary scattering limit. We stress that the excess quasiparticle damping rate caused by impurities has strong k-dependence due to non-s-wave scatterings induced by many-body effects, so the structure of the “hot spot/cold spot” in the host system persists against impurity doping. This result could be examined by the ARPES measurements. In addition, (iii) only a few percent of impurities can causes a “Kondo-like” upturn of resistivity (dρ/dT < 0) at low T when the system is very close to the AF quantum critical point (QCP). The results (i)-(iii) obtained in the present study, which cannot be derived by the simple FLEX approximation, naturally explains the main impurity effects in HTSC’s. We also discuss the impurity effect in heavy fermion systems and organic superconductors.
SYMPLECTIC SINGULARITIES AND THEIR QUANTIZATIONS

These lecture notes are based on a mini-course given by the author at Università degli Studi di Padova. The aim is to explain the basic theory of symplectic singularities and their quantizations this is an area of geometric representation theory commonly referred to as “symplectic representation theory”. We start by recalling the definition of a symplectic singularity, and the notion of symplectic resolutions. In the second and third lectures, I will describe Namikawa’s results on the existence of a universal Poisson deformation of a symplectic singularity, and its implication for the existence of symplectic resolutions. Then, in the fourth lecture, we consider quantizations of symplectic singularities. This recovers many important algebras such as primitive quotients of enveloping algebras and symplectic reflection algebras. It allows us to use geometry to study their representation theory. Finally, we briefly discuss the basics of geometric category O. A heavy emphasis is placed throughout on examples to illustrate the applicability of the theory. In particular, we explain how the representation theory and geometry of semi-simple complex Lie algebras can be viewed as a particular instance of symplectic representation theory.
Teaching and Learning perspectives on Numbers Systems within a first year tertiary IT course

In this paper the author investigates which teaching and learning techniques are effective in helping first-year IT students grasp number system concepts. The culture, academic background and prior mathematical experience are factors in how students choose to learn these skills. The teaching and learning principles which underpin effective pedagogy are discussed and teaching materials are presented which are of immediate relevance to students studying computer networking, hardware and programming. The author provides a lesson plan illustrating a detailed, visual and yet flexible constructivist approach to teaching conversions between decimal and binary systems to help students gain fluency in conversion. The author concludes that making explicit connections between prior number knowledge, being flexible in which tool or device is used to perform calculation and providing a contextual focus helps students learn this skill quickly and effectively. The conversion skills then can be easily adapted to octal and hexadecimal systems as required.
Far-infrared study of K giants in the solar neighborhood: Connection between Li enrichment and mass-loss

We searched for a correlation between the two anomalous properties of K giants: Li enhancement and IR excess from an unbiased survey of a large sample of RGB stars. A sample of 2000 low-mass K giants with accurate astrometry from the Hipparcos catalog was chosen for which Li abundances have been determined from low-resolution spectra. Far-infrared data were collected from the $WISE$ and $IRAS$ catalogs. To probe the correlation between the two anomalies, we supplemented 15 Li-rich K giants discovered from this sample with 25 known Li-rich K giants from other studies. Dust shell evolutionary models and spectral energy distributions were constructed using the code DUSTY to estimate different dust shell properties, such as dust evolutionary time scales, dust temperatures, and mass-loss rates. Among 2000 K giants, we found about two dozen K giants with detectable far-IR excess, and surprisingly, none of them are Li-rich. Similarly, the 15 new Li-rich K giants that were identified from the same sample show no evidence of IR excess. Of the total 40 Li-rich K giants, only 7 show IR excess. Important is that K giants with Li enhancement and/or IR excess begin to appear only at the bump on the RGB. Results show that K giants with IR excess are very rare, similar to K giants with Li enhancement. This may be due to the rapid differential evolution of dust shell and Li depletion compared to RGB evolutionary time scales. We also infer from the results that during the bump evolution, giants probably undergo some internal changes, which are perhaps the cause of mass-loss and Li-enhancement events. However, the available observational results do not ascertain that these properties are correlated. That a few Li-rich giants have IR excess seems to be pure coincidence.
HEURISTICALLY IMPROVED BAYESIAN SEGMENTATION OF BRAIN MR IMAGES

One of the major tasks or even the most prevalent task in medical image processing is image segmentation. Among them, brain MR images suffer from some difficulties such as intensity inhomogeneity of tissues, partial volume effect, noise and some other imaging artifacts and so their segmentation is more challenging. Therefore, brain MRI segmentation based on just gray values is prone to error. Hence involving problem specific heuristics and expert knowledge in designing segmentation algorithms seems to be useful. A two-phase segmentation algorithm based on Bayesian method is proposed in this paper. The Bayesian part uses the gray value in segmenting images and the segmented image is used as the input to the second phase to improve the misclassified pixels especially in borders between tissues. Similarity index is used to compare our algorithm with the well known method of Ashburner which has been implemented in Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) package. Brainweb as a simulated brain MRI dataset is used in evaluating the proposed algorithm. Results show that our algorithm performs well in comparison with the one implemented in SPM. It can be concluded that incorporating expert knowledge and problem specific heuristics improve segmentation result. The major advantage of proposed method is that one can update the knowledge base and incorporate new information into segmentation process by adding new rules. Keywords : Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI); Segmentation; Bayesian classifier; Heuristics
Ambient‐field Green's functions from asynchronous seismic observations

We demonstrate that the coda of station‐to‐station Green's functions extracted from the ambient seismic field in southern California reach stability in the microseism band (5–10 s) after correlating six months of noise data. The coda stability makes it possible to retrieve Green's functions between stations that operate asynchronously through scattered waves as recorded by a network of fiducial stations. The Green's functions extracted from asynchronous and synchronous data have comparable quality as long as stable virtual coda are used, and both show good convergence to the Green's functions extracted from 1 year of seismic noise with ∼50 fiducial stations. This approach suggests that Green's functions can be extracted across seismic stations regardless of whether or not they are occupied simultaneously, which raises the prospect of a new mode for seismic experiments that seek to constrain Earth structure.
Searching for Surprise Georgios

Inspired by the notion of surprise for unconventional discovery in computational creativity, we introduce a general search algorithm we name surprise search. Surprise search is grounded in the divergent search paradigm and is fabricated within the principles of metaheuristic (evolutionary) search. The algorithm mimics the self-surprise cognitive process of creativity and equips computational creators with the ability to search for outcomes that deviate from the algorithm’s expected behavior. The predictive model of expected outcomes is based on historical trails of where the search has been and some local information about the search space. We showcase the basic steps of the algorithm via a problem solving (maze navigation) and a generative art task. What distinguishes surprise search from other forms of divergent search, such as the search for novelty, is its ability to diverge not from earlier and seen outcomes but rather from predicted and unseen points in the creative domain considered.
TIME SERIES OBSERVATIONS OF A PHYTOPLANKTON COMMUNITY MONITORED WITH A NEW SUBMERSIBLE FLOW CYTOMETER

Our understanding of the dynamics and regulation of phytoplankton communities has been limited by the space and time scales associated with traditional monitoring approaches. To overcome some of these limitations, we have developed a submersible flow cytometer (FlowCytobot) designed for extended autonomous measurements of phytoplankton abundance, cell size and pigmentation. FlowCytobot was moored on the seafloor from late July to October 2001 at the LEO-15 study site off the coast of New Jersey, and water samples from 5 m depth were pumped continuously through the instrument. The resulting measurements reveal distinct populations of Synechococcus and cryptophytes, as well as an assemblage of other picoand nano-phytoplankton of mixed taxonomy. For each of these groups, dramatic variations in cell concentration were observed within the sampling period. Diel variations in cell scattering crosssection, which are indicative of changes in cell size, were consistent with patterns of cell growth during the light period and cell division late in the day. We developed a sizestructured matrix population model that accommodates simultaneous growth and division, and then used the model and size distribution data from FlowCytobot to estimate daily intrinsic growth rates for Synechococcus; these growth rate estimates are independent of cell concentration data. The results show that a dramatic autumn decline in the concentration of Synechococcus was caused by a decrease in intrinsic growth rate and not by physical transport processes or trophic interactions.
ANALYSIS OF THE INTEGRATED DOUBLE BUCK BOOST CONVERTER FOR POWER-LED LAMPS

The IDBB converter features just one controlled switch and two inductors and is able to supply a solid-state lamp from the mains providing high power factor and good efficiency. And with a careful design of the converter the filter capacitances can be made small enough so that film capacitors may be used. Thus the converter mean time between failures can be made as high as that of the solid-state lamp. The integrated double buck–boost (IDBB) converter will power-LED lamps from the ac mains providing high power factor, low LED current ripple and high efficiency. The operation of the converter is equivalent to two buck–boost converters in cascade, in which the controlled switch is shared by the two stages.
Presence Theory

Presence (shortened from telepresence) occurs when media users in some way overlook the role of technology in their experience; it is increasingly common and takes place with media from novels to videoconferencing to virtual reality. A variety of theoretical frameworks have been proposed to understand spatial presence (in which a mediated environment seems to not be mediated) and social presence (in which mediated actual or artificial people or characters seem to be present). The development of presence theories, including themany reviewed here, is at an early and fragmented stage but represents an exciting and important challenge for scholars.
Learning via Game Design: From Digital to Card Games and Back Again.

In this paper we consider the problem of making design of digital games accessible to primary school children and their teachers, and we argue for the need of di gital games that are easy to alter by young learners. We know from previous research projects that digital games do not enable children to express their creativity at full, in contrast with low- fidelity prototypes and non-digital toys (such as card or table top games). Therefore, we propose here a novel approach that serves as a middle ground between digital and traditional table top games, and grants children more freedom to express themselves, articulate their understanding and difficulties both individually and socially. This approach, called card- based model for digital game design, is an alternative to the current trend of associating programming with digital creativity. A preliminary study was conducted by transp osing a digital game into a trading card game, to investi gate the potential of the approach: as expected, students participating to the study shifted between playing and design thinking. The card-based model introduced in this paper works full circle: it enables learners to go from digital games to cards and back. In fact, the card-centric game architecture that resulted from the study allows a digital game to be reified as trading card-game, so that learners can re-design and digitize it to obtain a new a digital game, without programming. The next step is to involve primary schools in more complete evaluations of our new game development approach.