Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fatigue behaviour of corrosion pits in X65 steel pipelines

Corrosion pits are a form of geometrical discontinuity that lead to stress and strain concentration in engineering components, resulting in crack initiation under service loading conditions and ultimately fracture and failure. Initiation and propagation of cracks in offshore pipelines can lead to loss of containment and environmental and commercial impacts. In order to prevent such failures, tools to predict the structural integrity of pipelines need to be improved. This work investigates the fatigue behaviour of corrosion pits in API-5L X65 grade steel pipeline utilising numerical and analytical methods. Firstly, load-controlled fatigue tests were carried out on smooth X65 steel samples to establish S–N data. Secondly, local stress–strain behaviour at corrosion pits and its effect on fatigue crack initiation were investigated using elastic-plastic finite element analysis of samples containing a single corrosion pit under cyclic loading. Analysis of stabilised stress–strain hysteresis loops at corrosion pits showed that the local stress ratio at the pit changes from 0.1 to −0.4 while the applied stress amplitude increases with the same stress ratio of 0.1. Analytical methods were also used to predict the local maximum stress and strain at the pit, which showed a similar local stress ratio to the finite element analysis result but lower stress and strain ranges. Finally, fatigue crack initiation life was predicted using the combination of finite element stress and strain analysis and the Smith–Watson–Topper strain–life approach. An advantage of this method for life estimation is that this approach considers the local stress and strains at corrosion pits rather than applied stress.
EFFECT OF ONION (Allium cepa L.) EXTRACT ON MAILLARD REACTION UNDER in vitro CONDITIONS

Plant extracts have their own importance and now being studied extensively due to having little or no side effects. Protein glycation takes place when elevated levels of reduced sugars react with amino groups in proteins, reaction known as Maillard reaction. If this process continues, it will lead to the formation of complex, often unstable, irreversible and reactive compounds “AGEs”, a process that may take weeks or even months to accomplish. In present study onion was selected and used to check the Maillard reaction inhibitory activity. Different combinations of glucose, protein and onion extracts were made under in vitro conditions and their activity was monitored with Trichloro acetic acid treatment method at 350 nm. Maillard reaction products/ AGEs were more with high glucose and high protein concentration and these were decreased by highest concentration of onion extract i.e. 25 mg/mL or 250 μL. Lower concentrations of plant extract produced either no or least response against Maillard reaction.
CREATININE ADSORPTION BY ACTIVATED CARBON FIBRE ( ACF ) DERIVED FROM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH ( EFB ) FIBRE

Adsorption is an important process in the haemodialysis treatment to treat patients with kidney failure. Adsorption membranes in haemodialysis systems are usually made of synthetic polymers but these membranes do not have high efficiency in removing uremic toxins such as urea, uric acid and creatinine. Thus, it is suggested to replace the current membranes with a new material that has high adsorption capability as well as being lightweight and low cost. This study suggests that activated carbon may be a potential replacement of current haemodialysis membranes. Activated carbon fibre is chosen due to their better adsorptive characteristics compared to granular and powder activated carbon. Empty fruit bunch fibre is chosen to produce activate carbon fibre because it is easily available in abundance throughout the year and has low commercial value. There is not much information available on creatinine adsorption using activated carbon fibre derived from empty fruit bunch fibre. Cleaned empty fruit bunch fibre is impregnated with 4 different chemicals to produce activated carbon fibre. The effects of these chemical treatments on the pore characteristics and physiochemical properties are studied. Activated carbon fibre samples are produced via pre-carbonisation chemical treatment followed up by carbonisation at 400 °C and activation at 900 °C. Samples exhibited Type I isotherm which indicates the presence of micro and mesoporous structure. The sample treated with phosphoric acid has the highest BET surface area of 1493 m/g and pore volume of 0.782 cm/g compared to other samples. Carbon burnoff of activated carbon fibre sample treated with phosphoric acid proved to be 86% which is the highest among all samples despite having the best adsorbing capability. This work has shown that activated carbon fibre treated with phosphoric acid has the potential in replacing the current membrane used in the current haemodialysis system with creatinine removal of 70% and urea removal of 68% which is higher than the conventional haemodialysis membrane.
Three-Dimensional Variational Analysis with Spatially Inhomogeneous Covariances

In this study, a global three-dimensional variational analysis system is formulated in model grid space. This formulation allows greater flexibility (e.g., inhomogeneity and anisotropy) for background error statistics. A simpler formulation, inhomogeneous only in the latitude direction, was chosen for these initial tests. The background error statistics are defined as functions of the latitudinal grid and are estimated with the National Meteorological Center (NMC) method. The horizontal scales of the variables are obtained through the variances of the variables and of their Laplacian. The vertical scales are estimated through the statistics of the vertical correlation of each variable and are applied locally using recursive filters. For the multivariate correlation between wind and mass fields, a statistical linear relationship between the streamfunction and the balanced part of temperature and surface pressure is assumed. A localized correlation between the velocity potential and the streamfunction is also used to account for the positive correlation between the vorticity and divergence in the planetary boundary layer. Horizontally, the global domain is divided into three pieces so that efficient spatial recursive filters can be used to spread out the information from the observation locations. This analysis system is tested against the operational Spectral Statistical-Interpolation analysis system used at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction. The results indicate that 3DVAR in physical space is as effective as 3DVAR in spectral space in the extratropics and yields superior results in the Tropics as a result of the latitude dependence of the background error statistics.
The quality of motivation among elementary school students

Lack of motivation in students to learn is a pressing educational problem. This paper presents the results of an assessment of the quality of motivation of 1,381 elementary school students, with an average age of 11.2 years, through the application of the Elementary School Motivation Scale (Escala de Motivacao de Estudantes do Ensino Fundamental). The results revealed that autonomous motivation predominated among the participants. The comparison among variables showed that a lack of motivation and controlled motivation were higher among the male participants in comparison to the females, who obtained higher rates in the evaluation of autonomous motivation. Controlled motivation and lack of motivation increased as students advanced in grades, while autonomous motivation decreased. Students at private schools were less self motivated and depended more on external control to become motivated when compared to students from the public system. The latter were significantly more involved in school for autonomous reasons. The educational implications of these findings are considered in the discussion session.
A NOVEL GYSEL POWER DIVIDER AT 3GHZ FREQUENCY WITH EQUAL AND UNEQUAL POWER RATIO FOR ANTENNA APPLICATIONS

Gysel Power divider is a novel approach to achieve unequal and equal power division and again suitable for termination with and without any transmission losses. This Power divider has advantage over Wilkinson power divider; it has high power handling capability. By making use of transmission line parameters, the simple closed form design equations are available for evaluation of various components. In this project both for equal and unequal power division parameters are studied and appropriate result are obtained. It is seen that this is good example for equal and unequal power division . In this paper I had designed the gysel power divider which works for equal as well as unequal power divider at 3 ghz frequency. Many antennas are operating at this frequency. It will work for high powers.
Effect of Winter Snow and Ground-Icing on a Svalbard Reindeer Population: Results of a Simple Snowpack Model

Abstract Winter climate is a key factor affecting population dynamics in high-arctic ungulates, with many studies showing a strong negative correlation of winter precipitation to fluctuations in population growth rate. Terrestrial ice crust or ground-ice can also have a catastrophic impact on populations, although it is rarely quantified. We assess the impact of winter climate on the population dynamics of an isolated herd of Svalbard reindeer near Ny-Ålesund with a retrospective analysis of past winter snowpack. We model landscape-scale snowpack and ground-ice thickness using basic temperature and precipitation data in a simple degree-day model containing four adjustable parameters. Parameter values are found that lead to model snow and ground-ice thicknesses which correlate well with three different model targets: reindeer population growth rates; April snow accumulation measurements on two local glaciers; and a limited number of ground-icing observations. We explain a significant percentage (80%) of the variance in the observed reindeer population growth rate using just the modeled mean winter ground-ice thickness in a simple regression. Adding other explanatory parameters, such as modeled mean winter snowpack thickness or previous years' population size does not much improve the regression relation.
The Operation and Model of UPQC in Voltage Sag Mitigation Using EMTP by Direct Method

Nowdays, regarding to the great us of sensitive devices, the quality of the transmitted power, have become an important issue. One of the most important dimension of power quality is magnitude load terminal voltage. Different devices has been designed for voltage sag compensation or other distortions. UPQC is a compensator which is able to compensate all distortions, such as voltage sag, flicker, unbalance, harmonic and current distortions such as reactive, harmonic and unbalance. Several controllers have been designed to compensate the whole or a part of distortions. In this paper its going to introduce a kind of controller which is able to compensate voltage sag to direct and simple by UPQC. At the end, simulation and voltage sag mitigation is going to be performed by ATP-EMTP software.
TESTING THE SCALAR PROPERTY WITH INTERVAL REPRODUCTIONS

According to the scalar property for time, the variability to time ratio should be constant. The validity of this property was tested in a restricted range of durations (standard values from 1 s to1.9 s) with an interval reproduction method. Time intervals to be reproduced with finger tapping were presented with 2, 4, or 6 brief and successive auditory signals marking 1, 3, or 5 intervals, respectively. The variability to time ratio is not constant across the standard interval conditions (higher at 1.9 than at 1 s), and this violation to scalar timing does not interact with the number-of-interval variable.
Narrowing the Curriculum? Contemporary trends in provision and attainment in the Scottish Curriculum

 greater choice and opportunity, earlier, for young people, to help them realise their individual talents and to help close the opportunity gap by better engaging those who currently switch off from formal education too young  more skills-for-work options for young people, robustly assessed and helping them to progress into further qualifications or work  more space in the curriculum for work in depth, and to ensure that young people develop the literacy, numeracy and other essential skills and knowledge they will need for life and work  young people achieving the broad outcomes that we look for from school education, both through subject teaching and more cross-subject activity  more space for sport, music, dance, drama, art, learning about health, sustainable development and enterprise, and other activities that broaden the life experiences – and life chances – of young people (Scottish Executive, 2004, p.4)
Thermodynamics of the Corn-Ethanol Biofuel Cycle

This article defines sustainability and sustainable cyclic processes, and quantifies the degree of non-renewability of a major biofuel: ethanol produced from industrially grown corn. It demonstrates that more fossil energy is used to produce ethanol from corn than the ethanol's calorific value. Analysis of the carbon cycle shows that all leftovers from ethanol production must be returned back to the fields to limit the irreversible mining of soil humus. Thus, production of ethanol from whole plants is unsustainable. In 2004, ethanol production from corn will generate 8 million tons of incremental CO2, over and above the amount of CO2 generated by burning gasoline with 115% of the calorific value of this ethanol. It next calculates the cumulative exergy (available free energy) consumed in corn farming and ethanol production, and estimates the minimum amount of work necessary to restore the key non-renewable resources consumed by the industrial corn-ethanol cycle. This amount of work is compared with the maximum useful work obtained from the industrial corn-ethanol cycle. It appears that if the corn-ethanol exergy is used to power a car engine, the minimum restoration work is about 6 times the maximum useful work from the cycle. This ratio drops down to 2 if an ideal fuel cell is used to process the ethanol. The article estimates the U.S. taxpayer subsidies of the industrial corn-ethanol cycle at $3.8 billion in 2004. The parallel subsidies by the environment are estimated at $1.8 billion in 2004. The latter estimate will increase manifold when the restoration costs of aquifers, streams, and rivers, and the Gulf of Mexico are also included. Finally, the article estimates that (per year and unit area) the inefficient solar cells produce ∼ 100 times more electricity than corn ethanol. There is a need for more reliance on sunlight, the only source of renewable energy on the earth.
Simulation-based Evaluation of an Intercloud Service Broker

The lack of common standards in a fast emerging Cloud computing market over the last years resulted in "vendor lock in" and interoperability issues across heterogeneous Cloud platforms. Therefore, the Cloud user is facing now a challenging problem of selecting the Cloud provider that fits his needs. A new promising research approach is the use of intermediate broker services to assist the user in finding the appropriate Cloud resources that satisfy his requirements. In this paper, we present a generic simulation framework based on the CloudSim toolkit for the validation and evaluation of a Cloud service broker deployed on an Intercloud environment. A unique feature of the framework is the integration of several state of the art technologies and standards, which makes it easy to deploy on real production Clouds. After presenting the framework fundamental architecture, we discuss in detail the solved implementation challenges. Finally, we present some initial evaluation results.
DEFAULT RISK AND FIRM PERFORMANCE AMONG PROBLEMATIC FIRMS

This study aims to investigate whether the problematic firms that were listed under PN17 really suffer financial difficulties prior to their fraud perpetration by using the proxy of default risk. Then, the effect of the default risk will be analysed on the performance of problematic firms. As for this study; the results show that the default risk has significant negative effect on firm’s performance among problematic firms. This implies that default risk of problematic firms could negatively affect the firm’s performance. The result of this study could pave way to any agency that monitors the misconducts among listed firms as financial difficulties may give early signal to warn a company of the possibility of severe fraud occurrence in the future. Moreover, the effect of financial difficulties will give some extent of indicators to public on the tendency to commit fraud due to financial desperation. This study could also help in formulating the guidelines on how to mitigate the effect of fraud perpetration among firms that faced financial difficulties.
The Physics of Water Masers observable with ALMA and SOFIA: Model Predictions for Evolved Stars

We present the results of models that were designed to study all possible water maser transitions in the frequency range 0-1.91 THz, with particular emphasis on maser transitions that may be generated in evolved-star envelopes and observed with the ALMA and SOFIA telescopes. We used tens of thousands of radiative transfer models of both spin species of H2O, spanning a considerable parameter space in number density, kinetic temperature and dust temperature. Results, in the form of maser optical depths, have been summarized in a master table, Table 6. Maser transitions identified in these mod els were grouped according to loci of inverted regions in the density/kinetic temperatur e plane, a property clearly related to the dominant mode of pumping. A more detailed study of the effect of dust temperature on maser optical depth enabled us to divide the maser transitions into three groups: those with both collisional and radiative pumping schemes (22,96,209,321,325,395,941 and 1486 GHz), a much larger set that are predominantly radiatively pumped, and another large group with a predominantly collisional pump. The effect of accelerative and decelerative velocity shifts of up to 5 km s 1 was found to be generally modest, with the primary effect of reducing computed maser optical depths. More subtle asymmetric effects, dependent on line overlap, include maximum gains offset from zero shift by >1 km s 1 , but these effects were predominantly found under conditions of weak amplification. These models will allow astronomers to use multi-transition water maser observations to constr ain physical conditions down to the size of individual masing clouds (size of a few astronomical units).
The influence of scuba divers’ personality, experience,and demographic profile on their underwater behavior

Scuba diving activity is known to cause detrimental impact on the marine environment and its sustainability. This study explores the influence of divers’ personality, experience, and demographic profile on their underwater behavior. Data were collected using convenience sampling among divers in Malaysia. A total of 302 questionnaires were returned and analyzed. The results show that divers are generally responsible underwater. Scuba diving experience parameters of duration of involvement, number of dives, self-rating experience, and diving frequency influence underwater behavior. Divers with high neuroticism are more likely to be irresponsible, while high agreeableness personality factor is related to more responsible behavior underwater. Based on the results the authors provide some managerial recommendations in order to promote responsible scuba diving activities.
Extranodal NK/T-Cell Lymphoma without Nasal Cavity Involvement Associated with Epstein-Barr Virus: A Multimodality-Based Diagnosis of Two Cases

We report two cases of extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type, in immunocompetent patients without nasal cavity involvement. In the two cases, the initial presumptive diagnosis was tuberculosis and there was a rapid dissemination of the tumor with short survival after the hospital admittance. An autopsy was performed showing infiltration in several organs including lymph nodes and mesenteric and retroperitoneal fat. Histological sections showed an angiocentric and angiodestructive growth pattern and the immunophenotype was CD45
Can global precipitation datasets benefit the estimation of the area to be cropped in irrigated agriculture?

Abstract. The area to be cropped in irrigation districts needs to be planned according to the available water resources to avoid agricultural production loss. However, the period of record of local hydro-meteorological data may be short, leading to an incomplete understanding of climate variability and consequent uncertainty in estimating surface water availability for irrigation area planning. In this study we assess the benefit of using global precipitation datasets to improve surface water availability estimates. A reference area that can be irrigated is established using a complete record of 30 years of observed river discharge data. Areas are then determined using simulated river discharges from six local hydrological models forced with in situ and global precipitation datasets (CHIRPS and MSWEP), each calibrated independently with a sample of 5 years extracted from the full 30-year record. The utility of establishing the irrigated area based on simulated river discharge simulations is compared against the reference area through a pooled relative utility value (PRUV). Results show that for all river discharge simulations the benefit of choosing the irrigated area based on the 30 years of simulated data is higher compared to using only 5 years of observed discharge data, as the statistical spread of PRUV using 30 years is smaller. Hence, it is more beneficial to calibrate a hydrological model using 5 years of observed river discharge and then to extend it with global precipitation data of 30 years as this weighs up against the model uncertainty of the model calibration.
Late Neogene benthic stable isotope record of Ocean Drilling Program Site 999: Implications for Caribbean paleoceanography, organic carbon burial, and the Messinian Salinity Crisis

[1] We report on epibenthic foraminiferal δ18O and δ13C and percentage coarse fraction records from Caribbean Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 999 (12°44′N, 78°44′W, water depth 2828 m) spanning the interval from 8.5 to 5.3 Ma. Low epibenthic δ13C values and low amounts of sand-sized particles (mostly foraminifer shells) indicate a poorly ventilated deep Caribbean throughout the late Miocene. At this time the deep Caribbean was dominated by a nutrient-rich and corrosive water mass. A generally constant δ13C gradient between the Caribbean and deep Atlantic records during the late Miocene suggests that the fluctuations in δ13C reflect global changes in δ13C of the dissolved inorganic carbon due to varying erosion of organic carbon from terrigenous soils and shelf sediments. The observed 100-kyr cyclicity of epibenthic δ13C is in good accordance with the variability of terrigenous input to the equatorial Atlantic as recorded by magnetic susceptibility records of the Ceara Rise. However, some short-term gradient changes between 7.0 and 4.5 Ma indicate a poorer ventilation of the deep Atlantic related to a reduced production of deep water in the Atlantic. The Messinian Salinity Crisis between 6.0 and 5.3 Ma did not affect the intermediate to deep water gradient between the Caribbean and the Atlantic. Comparison to the Bahama platform record of ODP Site 1006, however, indicates a poorer ventilation of the shallower northern Caribbean basins coincident with the isolation of the Mediterranean Sea.