Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relevancy of human exposure via house dust to the contaminants lead and asbestos

The present report addresses the issues whether house dust is likely to contribute substantially to the exposure of humans, in particular for the contaminants lead and asbestos. House dust consists for 30-70% of soil material, indicating that contaminated soil can lead to contaminated house dust. It is concluded that exposure to lead via house dust should be included in risk assessment of soil contamination. The studies in which the amount of soil ingested by children are estimated use tracers in soil that are obviously both present in soil outdoors and in soil in house dust. Therefore, using this amount of soil ingested by children to cover both exposure of lead via soil outdoors and soil in house dust is reasonable. However, a correction factor of 2 is recommended to account for enrichment of lead in house dust in comparison with outdoor soil. This factor also accounts for other lead sources in house dust than contamination via soil. Significant contribution of asbestos to house dust from asbestos contaminated soil may occur at soil concentrations greater than 100 mg/kg. It is recommended to determine asbestos levels in house dust in houses adjacent to sites that are contaminated with asbestos above 1000 mg/kg for nonfriable asbestos, and above 100 mg/kg for friable asbestos. These recommendations are in agreement with a draft assessment protocol on site specific assessment of human risks to soil contamination with asbestos. A few comments on the protocol are made. For further recommendations for risk assessment of asbestos in house dust, we refer to this protocol.
Modelling Water Related Ecosystem Services in a Heavily Modified Mediterranean Reservoir Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)

Lake Karla (Thessaly, Greece) drainage and morphological alterations affected all water-related ecosystem services (ES). The lake is restored as a multipurpose reservoir, whose inflows are boosted with pumping from Pinios River. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) simulated the watershed’s hydrology and the reservoir’s function, under a climate change scenario to assess water related ES. Official timeseries were used for five different scenarios with simulation period until 2100. The results suggest that the reservoir’s water quality is impacted by summer irrigation and by the water volume from the Pinios during winter. As for the selected ES, in almost all scenarios, they seem negatively affected.
INFLUENCE OF LONG-TERM SPRINKLING IRRIGATION AND NITROGEN FERTILISATION ON SOIL NITROGEN CONTENT OF A CEREAL CROP ROTATION WP

The paper presents results of investigations on the proportion contents of different nitrogen forms in the soil in conditions of a long-term cereal crop rotation. The experimental factors included sprinkling irrigation and nitrogen applied at various doses. It was found, among others, that the sprinkling irrigation failed to influence the content of the examined nitrogen forms in contrast to the nitrogen impact whose effect was statistically significant. A synergistic influence of both factors became apparent only in the case of the content of easily-hydrolysable nitrogen (N-EH).
An “epitomic” analysis of the specificity of conformation-dependent, anti-Aß amyloid monoclonal antibodies

Antibodies against Aß amyloid are indispensable research tools and potential therapeutics for Alzheimer’s Disease, but display several unusual properties, such as specificity for aggregated forms of the peptide, ability to distinguish polymorphic aggregate structures and ability to recognize generic aggregation-related epitopes formed by unrelated amyloid sequences. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these unusual properties of anti-amyloid antibodies and the structures of their corresponding epitopes is crucial for the understanding why antibodies display different therapeutic activities and for the development of more effective therapeutic agents. Here we employed a novel “epitomic” approach to map the fine structure of the epitopes of 28 monoclonal antibodies against amyloid-beta using immunoselection of random sequences from a phage display library, deep sequencing and pattern analysis to define the critical sequence elements recognized by the antibodies. Although most of the antibodies map to major linear epitopes in the amino terminal 1-14 residues of Aß, the antibodies display differences in the target sequence residues that are critical for binding and in their individual preferences for non-target residues, indicating that the antibodies bind to alternative conformations of the sequence by different mechanisms. Epitomic analysis also identifies more discontinuous, non-overlapping sequence Aß segments than peptide array approaches that may constitute the conformational epitopes that underlie the aggregation specificity of antibodies. Aggregation specific antibodies recognize sequences that display a significantly higher predicted propensity for forming amyloid than antibodies that recognize monomer, indicating that the ability of random sequences to aggregate into amyloid is a critical element of their binding mechanism.
High-resolution NU-WRF simulations of a deep convective-precipitation 1 system during MC 3 E : Part I : Comparisons between Goddard microphysics 2 schemes and observations 3 4

32 The Goddard microphysics scheme was recently improved by adding a 4 ice class 33 (frozen drops/hail). This new 4ICE scheme was implemented and tested in the Goddard 34 Cumulus Ensemble model (GCE) for an intense continental squall line and a moderate, 35 less-organized continental case. Simulated peak radar reflectivity profiles were improved 36 both in intensity and shape for both cases as were the overall reflectivity probability 37 distributions versus observations. In this study, the new Goddard 4ICE scheme is 38 implemented into the regional-scale NASA Unified Weather Research and Forecasting 39 model (NU-WRF) and tested on an intense mesoscale convective system that occurred 40 during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E). The NU41 WRF simulated radar reflectivities, rainfall intensities, and vertical and horizontal 42 structure using the new 4ICE scheme agree as well as or significantly better with 43 observations than when using previous versions of the Goddard 3ICE (graupel or hail) 44 schemes. In the 4ICE scheme, the bin microphysics-based rain evaporation correction 45 produces more erect convective cores, while modification of the unrealistic collection of 46 ice by dry hail produces narrow and intense cores, allowing more slow-falling snow to be 47 transported rearward. Together with a revised snow size mapping, the 4ICE scheme 48 produces a more horizontally stratified trailing stratiform region with a broad, more 49 coherent light rain area. In addition, the NU-WRF 4ICE simulated radar reflectivity 50 distributions are consistent with and generally superior to those using the GCE due to the 51 less restrictive open lateral boundaries. 52 53
Mining for Cyber Security Threats

Blog data mining is a growing research area that addresses the domainspecific problem of extracting information from blog data. In our work, we analyzed blogs for various categories of cyber threats related to the detection of security threats and cyber crime. We have extended the Author-Topic model based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation for identify patterns of similarities in keywords and dates distributed across blog documents. From this model, we visualized the content and date similarities using the Isomap dimensionality reduction technique. Our findings support the theory that our probabilistic blog model can present the blogosphere in terms of topics with measurable keywords, hence aiding the investigative processes to understand and respond to critical cyber security events and threats.
E-Wallet as a Payment Instrument in the Millennial Era

This research aims to find out the role of E-Wallet as a payment instrument in the millennial era. This research used a descriptive qualitative method to describe the role of E-Wallets as an instrument of payment in the millennial era. Digital payments or commonly referred to as mobile payments is an innovation of technological evolution, especially in the financial sector. The results of these technological innovations, one of which were an electronic wallet or commonly abbreviated as the E-Wallet. Currently, E-Wallet is commonly used by those who are in their productive age. High usability is one of the back screens that makes E-Wallet increasingly in demand by many people. The results showed that quite several people were able to understand the use of E-Wallet and began using it in their daily trading activities.
Retrieval Practice & Bloom’s Taxonomy: Do Students Need Fact Knowledge Before Higher Order Learning?

The development of students’ higher order learning is a critical component of education. For decades, educators and scientists have engaged in an ongoing debate about whether higher order learning can only be enhanced by building a base of factual knowledge (analogous to Bloom’s taxonomy) or whether higher order learning can be enhanced directly by engaging in complex questioning and materials. The relationship between fact learning and higher order learning is often speculated, but empirically unknown. In this study, middle school students and college students engaged in retrieval practice with fact questions, higher order questions, or a mix of question types to examine the optimal type of retrieval practice for enhancing higher order learning. In laboratory and K-12 settings, retrieval practice consistently increased delayed test performance, compared with rereading or no quizzes. Critically, higher order and mixed quizzes improved higher order test performance, but fact quizzes did not. Contrary to popular intuition about higher order learning and Bloom’s taxonomy, building a foundation of knowledge via fact-based retrieval practice may be less potent than engaging in higher order retrieval practice, a key finding for future research and classroom application.
RCS reduction using a wideband dual logarithmic step patch PRRM in microstrip patch antenna

Radar cross‐section (RCS) reduction using a wideband dual logarithmic step patch polarization rotation reflective meta‐surface (PRRM) in microstrip patch antenna is proposed. The investigation proposes the use of designed PRRM to construct a low profile microstrip patch antenna with multiband operation, circular polarization, monostatic RCS reduction in a wider bandwidth, and virtually constant gain over the entire RCS reduction bandwidth. A dual logarithmic step patch PRRM unit cell element with FR4 superstrate is presented and it provides a relative bandwidth of 70.24% and polarization conversion ratio (PCR) greater than 90% from 6.65 to 13.85 GHz. The designed PRRM unit cells are arranged in 3 × 4 array on both sides of the designed microstrip patch antenna. This arrangement makes the antenna to operate circularly polarized at 10.33, 14.33, and 19.16 GHz with axial ratio values of 2.807, 1.963, and 1.471 dB, respectively. Also, it provides monostatic RCS reduction with 77.9% bandwidth ranging from 6.39 to 14.5 GHZ and virtually constant gain ranging from 8 to 19.7 GHz. The performance of the microstrip patch antenna with the designed PRRM are simulated and experimentally verified.
Gamification of The Future: An Experiment on Gamifying Education of Forecasting

In this study, we developed a gamified learning platform called F-LauReL that employed three gamification strategies (called Horses for Courses, JudgeIt and Metrics to Escape) to help educate statistical, judgmental forecasting and forecasting accuracy respectively. This study presents a quantitative analysis of experimental design concerning learning performance of 261 students of an undergraduate and an MBA course. Treatment and control groups were compared in a series of experiments. The results show that using gamified applications as a complementary teaching tool in a forecasting course had a positive impact on students’ learning performance.
SUSCEPTIBILITY OF DIFFERENT SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGIES TO EMP AND UWB

Heyno Garbe, Michael Camp (1) University of Hanover, Institute of Electrical Engineering and Measurement Science, D-30167 Hanover, Germany, E-mail: garbe@ieee.org (2) As (1) above, but E-mail: camp@ieee.org ABSTRACT In this paper the influence of the technology on the breakdown and destruction effects of semiconducters by impact of EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) and UWB (Ultra Wide Band) pulses is determined. Different logic devices like NANDs and Inverter were exposed to high amplitude transient pulses and new definitions were introduced to describe effects and thresholds.
Title Universality of Kolmogorov ' s Cascade Picture in Inverse Energy Cascade Range of Two-dimensional turbulence

We numerically investigate the inverse energy cascade range of two-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence. Our focus is on the universality of Kolmogorov’s phenomenology. In our direct numerical simulations, two types of forcing processes, the random forcing and the deterministic forcing, are employed besides the systematically varied numerical parameters. We first calculate the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations and confirm that the results obtained in the quasi steady state are consistent with Kolmogorov’s phenomenology for both types of forcing processes. It is also found that the difference in the evolution for the forcing process appears after the inverse energy cascade range reaches the system size; the dipole coherent vortices emerge and grow only when the random forcing is adopted. Then we add a large-scale drag term to the Navier-Stokes equations to obtain the statistically stationary state. When the random forcing is used, the scaling exponent of the energy spectrum in the stationary state starts to differ from the predicted −5/3 in the inverse energy cascade range as the infrared Reynolds number Red increases, where Red is defined as kf/kd with the forcing wave number kf and the large-scale drag wave number kd. This can be interpreted as a transition phenomenon in which the local maximum vorticity grows like an order parameter caused by excitation of strong coherent vortices. Strong coherent vortices emerge, grow after the quasi steady state, and then destroy the scaling law when Red is over a critical value. These coherent vortices are not due to the finite-size effect, unlike the dipole coherent vortices. On the other hand, when the deterministic forcing is adopted, strong coherent vortices are hardly seen and the k−5/3 scaling law holds independently of Red. We also examine the cases of the combination of both types of forcing processes and find that formation of such coherent vortices is sensitive to the mechanism of the external forcing process as well as the numerical parameters. Several types of large-scale drag terms are also tested and their insignificant influence on these qualitative properties is revealed. Our results apparently imply the non-universality of the Kolmogorov’s phenomenology in the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence. However, even when the k−5/3 scaling law is not observed at a glance, the background vorticity field, where the strong coherent vortices are filtered out, always holds the k−5/3 scaling law. The inverse energy cascade process may be universal and exist even when the k−5/3 scaling law is destroyed.
Anti-Albuminuric Effects of Spironolactone In Type-2 Diabetic Nephropathy

Original Research Article Background: The study was conducted to evaluate the protective effects of Spironolactone on diabetics (30-70yr) in relation to proteinuria and state of Diabetic Nephropathy. Material methods: A comparative, prospective, nonrandomized, non-blinded experimental study was conducted on 32 patients (30-70yr) of diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus showing proteinuria. Total duration of study was about one year from October 2017 to October 2018. Subjects were followed over 12 weeks and baseline and 12-week Urine ACR being compared. Initially there were total 32 patients out of which 4 patients did not came for follow up, hence total 28 patients were included in the study. Base line Urine ACR values were compared with follow up Urine ACR values at 12 weeks. Other base line laboratory investigation such as serum lipid profile, HbA1c, eGFR, fundus examination, ultrasonography (KUB), serum urea, serum creatinine, haemoglobin, were taken at the starting point. Observations: Patients after receiving drug (spironolactone 25mg) were followed for 3-month duration and response were assessed by measuring urine ACR value at end of 3 months. Mean values of baseline and follow up Urine ACR for Group was 474.88±438.94, 268.42±268.16 respectively For comparing effects ,paired t test was applied , t calculated was found more that value of t observed with p value <0.05 which proved statistically significant and denotes that there were significant reduction of proteinuria over 12 week follow up period in. It was observed that percentage reduction of Urine ACR was 43.47%. Conclusions: In the study it was concluded that spironolactone had significant effect over proteinuria reduction over follow up period in patient with diabetic nephropathy. Significant reduction of proteinuria(43.47%) occurred over 12 weeks follow-up period.
Ill‐conditioning and pre‐whitening in seismic deconvolution

SUMMARY Treitel & Wang (1976) observed that autocorrelation matrices, as used for time-domain design of digital deconvolution filters, are ill-conditioned in certain cases. They present an example, where the solution of such a system of linear equations results in significantly different filter points, when the solution is performed on different computers. This paper presents a survey of the causes of such problems from a mathematical point of view. Later, the effect of pre-whitening on numerical stability is examined.
Assessing Student Perceptions of Service Quality in Technical Educational and Vocational Training ( TEVT ) Institutions in Malaysia

This paper aims to investigate how students perceive the service quality offered at public and private Technical Education and Vocational Training (TEVT) institutes in Malaysia and their overall satisfaction. An evaluation study using questionnaire survey was employed to measure the student perceptions towards 10 service quality dimensions and their overall satisfaction. The questionnaire was distributed by hand at the beginning of several selected lecture or workshop sessions and the completed questionnaire were collected at the end of the sessions. Of the 200 questionnaire distributed, 124 were completed and returned. The study gave valuable information about students’ feedback as customers to the training institutes. Overall, students in public institutes are more satisfied with the services that they received compare to private institutes. This paper discusses the student’s perceptions in every service dimension measured. The similarities and differences with some previous studies were also discussed. Some service quality improvement solutions for TEVT institutes were also suggested.
Economic Growth and Convergence across the OIC Countries

The main purpose of this study is to analyze whether the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries show a regional economic convergence during the last three decade. Following the other leading studies in the literature, income convergence in the OIC countries is estimated by using the following two methods: (i) absolute income convergence; (ii) conditional income convergence. As an extension, the determinants of growth across the countries are also examined. For a given starting level of real per capita GDP, the growth rate is enhanced by higher schooling and investment rate, better maintenance of the rule of law, lower fertility and improvements in the terms of trade. For given values of these and other variables, growth is adversely related to the initial level of real per capita GDP.
Reliable User Datagram Protocol as a Solution to Latencies in Network Games

One of the major problems in network games has been that of latency (lagging) that game technology researchers are still tackling. Latency largely affects user satisfaction and it is often caused by insufficient hardware capacity or the internet speed that the user is employing. Even though online games are becoming more complex and the number of participants in these games is increasing continuously, users cannot properly deal with the requirements to play these games, as system upgrades and subscription changes to a higher speed internet service are costly. Instead of passing such a burden on to the users, the game companies should instead invest in providing an improved communication algorithm. Thus, the reliable user datagram protocol (RUDP)-based communication system design has been considered in this research instead of transmission control protocol (TCP) or user datagram protocol (UDP)-based systems. This could be a viable alternative system model. Many researchers agree that RUDP is a better protocol for the transport layer, but it seems that the large-scale testbeds that could support such an idea and carry out direct tests are very scarce, meaning that actual experimental implementation is difficult to achieve. This suggests that game designers or researchers need to rely on a small-scale testbed to collect performance data. Moreover, generating an analytic model from a small-scale testbed may not be viable due to the large number of elements involved in the implementation process, including latency. This study introduces an RUDP-based communication model created and tested by using the OPNET simulation tool. They are novel energy and cost-effective photonics technologies for access/metro networks.
Midterm outcomes after the rescue THV‐in‐THV procedure: Insights from the multicenter prospective OCEAN‐TAVI registry

To confirm whether the rescue transcatheter heart valve in the transcatheter heart valve (THV‐in‐THV) procedure is effective and feasible, we aimed to assess the midterm outcomes following rescue THV‐in‐THV procedures. The trends in the usage of the rescue THV‐in‐THV procedure at the time of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) have also been explored.
WEDDS : The WITS Encrypted Data Delivery System 1

WEDDS, the WITS Encrypted Data Delivery System, is a framework for supporting distributed mission operations by automatically transferring sensitive mission data in a secure and efficient manner to and from remote mission participants over the Internet. WEDDS was originally developed as part of WITS, the Web Interface for Telescience, and will be used in the 1998 Mars Polar Lander Mission to support distributed mission operations over the Internet for the first time in NASA history. WEDDS is written in Java, and is designed to provide secure distributed operations capabilities to any existing mission application with little modification, and in a manner that is nearly transparent to the existing application and its users. WEDDS relies on the NASA Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to verify the identity of remote users. Remote users must apply in person at a NASA security office or another trusted security authority in order to receive a digital certificate. All connections are made using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol in conjunction with the user’s certificate, and all transmissions are protected against eavesdropping through encryption with the Triple-DES-