Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bioleaching of Metal-Contaminated Soil in Semicontinuous Reactor

Recently, microbial leaching of heavy metals from contaminated soils with indigenous iron-oxidizing microflora has been successfully applied in flask experiments. However, the long hydraulic residence time (HRT) required and the batch mode are not well suited for an industrial scale process. Therefore, this research focused on bioleaching of Zn, Cu, and Mn from a contaminated soil in the semicontinuous mode. Metal leaching experiments were carried out in an 8 L semicontinuous stirred tank reactor (SCSTR) with a soil concentration of 100 g/L, as well as in 500 mL shake flasks. It was found that bioleaching in the SCSTR entails a reduction of treatment duration (from 10 to 2 days) and an increase in the solubilization efficiency. Metal solubilization efficiency in the SCSTR was 40% for Zn, 47% for Cu, and 34% for Mn. When the volume of the soil suspension remaining in the SCSTR between transfers was small (20% instead of 50%), corresponding to a shorter HRT (2.5 days instead of 4 days), the solubilization efficiencies were reduced. The volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient and the oxygen uptake rate were calculated in the SCSTR for both HRTs tested. The dissolved oxygen concentration below which the microflora does not grow was found to be 0.2 to 0.3 mg/L, and the concentration below which oxygen is limiting was 0.8 mg/L.
Electroless Copper Plating onto Printed Lines of Nanosized Silver Seeds

It was demonstrated that continuous copper films could be grown onto printed lines of nanosized silver colloids. These silver colloids, with an average size of ∼55 nm, were printed on alumina substrates by either an ink-jet printer or a felt-tip pen and then served as a seed layer for subsequent electroless copper plating. A complete copper film could be obtained in less than 10 min when the surface density of silver particles was greater than 1.5 × 10 9 cm -2 and an appropriate plating solution to produce a mean copper growth rate of 7.2 μm h -1 . After 30 min of growth and a resulting film thickness of ∼3.6 μm, the measured electric resistivity of the lines was about 1.8 X 10 -6 Ω cm, being very close to bulk copper. In addition, the measured peel adhesion strength between the deposited copper film and the Al 2 Ο 3 substrate was larger than 6 kg/cm.
Valuing Local and Dual-Class Ipos in the Alternative Investment Market

Initial Public Offerings are, by definition, not seasoned securities. They have not been subjected to valuation by the community of investors. It is often difficult or impossible to forecast their future cash flows because most do not have a long history of publicly disclosed financial information. Consequently, valuing IPOs in any market is more difficult than valuing seasoned equities. In this paper, we address the valuation of IPOs in the Alternative Investment Market, (hereafter the AIM.) The purpose of this study is to determine the observable factors that affect valuation in the AIM. We apply OLS, LASSO regression, and Extreme Bounds Analysis (EBA) techniques on historical accounting data to test our theory of valuation. The statistical sample consists of 2,185 IPOs issued on the AIM between 1995 and 2020. Our findings suggest that the market valuation of IPOs in the AIM is systematically related to a multiplicity of factors. These include earnings per share (EPS) in the after-market, operating cash follow per share, and the percentage of shares issued to the public. The findings of the study have a practical value for investors who are interested in buying IPOs in the AIM.
Nagra/PSI Chemical Thermodynamic Data Base 01/01

Summary The Nagra/PSI Chemical Thermodynamic Data Base has been updated to support performance assessments of the planned Swiss repositories for radioactive waste. The update from version 05/92 to 01/01 involved major revisions for most of the actinides and fission products. Altogether, more than 70% of the database contents have been revised. Data for U, Np, Pu, Am and Tc recommended by the NEA TDB project were considered in the update. Thermodynamic data for Th, Sn, Eu, Pd, Al, and solubility and metal complexation of sulphides and silicates were extensively reviewed. Data for Zr, Ni and Se were examined less rigorously as these elements are currently being reviewed in phase II of the NEA TDB project. Our experiences from this two year team effort can be summarised as follows. Detailed in-house reviews and critical appraisal of NEA recommendations greatly improved the chemical consistency and quality of the selected data. On the other hand, we could discern major gaps in the data, especially missing carbonate complexes. In some systems, e.g. Th(IV)-H2O and U(IV)-H2O, experimental data could not be described by a unique set of thermodynamic constants. There, a pragmatic approach based on solubility data was chosen for application to performance assessment. The electronic version of our database and information concerning its full documentation is available on our PSI web site (http://www.psi.ch/les).
Optical investigations on the existence of phase transition in ZnO:Li thin films prepared by DC sputtering method

We investigated the effect of temperature on the absorption spectra of Zn0.8Li0. 2O thin films (ZnO:Li), deposited at 573 K, in the wavelength range 190‐800 nm. The films were deposited on sapphire, MgO or quartz substrates by DC sputtering method. The results show a shift of the optical energy gap (Eg), with direct allowed transition type near the fundamental edge, to lower wavelengths as the temperature increases. The temperature rate of Eg changes considerably showing an anomaly around 320 K depending on type of substrate. The founded results indicated that replacement of Zn ions with Li ions induces a ferroelectric phase in the ZnO wurtzite‐type semiconductor. The exponential dependence of the absorption coefficient on the incident photon energy suggests the validity of the Urbach rule. (© 2007 WILEY ‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
IMPROVEMENT OF STEEL SHEETS’ CORROSION RESISTANCE BY APPLICATION OF NEW GENERATION COATINGS

Besides customers and environmental requirements such as safety increase, the weight and emission reduction, and the life-time improvement, huge role plays corrosion resistance of the car-body components. This is improved by applying Zn-based coatings on the steel sheets. In the article are presented results of corrosion tests performed on the steel sheets with Zn-Al-Mg coatings applied. These are compared to the standard Zn coating. Samples were deformed by Erichsen stretching test and by 3-point bending tests to the angle of 90° and 180°. After that, these were exposed to salt spray in the corrosion chamber. The limit criteria were time to red corrosion appearance and percentage of corroded surface evaluated on time. The results showed the small amount of Al and Mg improved the corrosion resistance of Zn-Al-Mg coatings when compared to the conventional Zn coating.
Digital-Analog Hybrid Optical Access Integrating 56-Gbps PAM-4 Signal and 5G mmWave Signal by Spectral Null Filling

A bandwidth-efficient and low-cost spectral-null-filling scheme simultaneously delivering a 56-Gbps 4-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) digital signal and a 10 × 400-MHz analog radio frequency (RF) signal on a single wavelength is demonstrated for high-capacity wired and wireless optical access networks. The data rate of the PAM-4 signal is consistent with the next-generation passive optical network (PON), and the PAM-4 signal inherently provides a spectral null at 28 GHz, which can be filled with the RF signal exactly at the 5G-specified millimeter wave (mmW) band. Since pulse shaping is not essential in this hybrid transmission system, a low-cost 2-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is adopted for the PAM-4 signal generation. Volterra nonlinear equalizer is adopted to effectively eliminate the analog-to-digital crosstalk without reserving a frequency gap in between. The digital-analog hybrid signal is simultaneously transmitted over a 25-km standard single-mode fiber in telecom C-band and the impact of chromatic dispersion on the number of supported mmW bands is analyzed. In addition, three types of hybrid transmitters are experimentally demonstrated, among which the first-time proposed IQ-modulator-based hybrid transmitter shows the best performance.
Mechanisms of the Ullmann coupling reaction in adsorbed monolayers

Ninety years ago, Ullmann and co-workers discovered that copper powder catalyzes the coupling of aromatic halides to produce biaryls, yet the role of the copper surface in this reaction remains controversial today. Recently, it has been shown that Ullmann'coupling of submonolayer coverages of iodobenzede to form bipbenyl occurs with 100% selectivity on a Cu(111) single crystal surface under ultrahigh-vacuum conditions (Xi, M.; Bent, B. E. Surf. Sci. 1992, 278, 19). We report here on studies in which surface analysis techniques have been applied to determine the mechanism of this reaction. Two mechanisms are found. At low surface coverages (<1 monolayer), iodobenzene dissociates at ∼175 K on the Cu(111) surface to form adsorbed phenyl groups, which subsequently couple at 300-400 K to form biphenyl
Models of electron trapping and transport in polyethylene: Current–voltage characteristics

We present a unified method to estimate current–voltage characteristics of insulators starting from ab initio electronic calculations of the properties of the dielectric material. The method consists of three stages: (1) computation of trap energy distributions for excess electrons by means of density functional theory, (2) computation of local electron mobilities from a multiple trapping electron transport model which includes trap filling effects and (3) macroscopic integration of the Poisson and current–field equations, using local electron mobility data from stage (2) to predict the current–voltage characteristics for a material of a given width. The only input to this procedure is the chemical composition of the insulating material. We compare our model results with experimental studies of the current–voltage curve of cross-linked polyethylene.
Termocoagulación por radiofrecuencia de ganglio de Gasser para el tratamiento de neuralgia Trigeminal, resultados de 11 años

Objetivos: Describir resultados de los últimos 11 años en el tratamiento de neuralgia del trigémino con termocoagulación por radiofrecuencia, analizar variables relacionadas a complicaciones y resultados.Material y Métodos: Estudio retrospectivo, descriptivo, longitudinal, comparativo y analítico. Se analizaron los resultados de los últimos 11 años de nuestro servicio evaluando las temperaturas de las lesiones armando dos grupos, de 65°C-70°C y 71°C-75°C para analizar su relación con resultados y complicaciones.Resultados: Se trataron 59 pacientes en los cuales se realizaron 74 procedimientos, la edad media fue 59.22 años (±13,45). Se observó recidiva en 23 procedimientos con una tasa global de 31%. El tiempo medio de recidiva fue de 28,19 meses (±26,21). El tiempo medio de seguimiento fue de 33,10 meses (±33,49). El tiempo medio de evolución del dolor, previo al primer procedimiento, fue de 5,35 años (±4,37). Analizando los grupos se observó que no existía relación significativamente estadística (p = 0,74) entre el grupo de pacientes de 65ºC-70ºC y el grupo de 71ºC-75ºC y recidiva. No se observó relación estadísticamente significativa entre el grupo de 65ºC-70ºC y el grupo de 71ºC-75ºC y tiempo de recidiva (p=0,12). Se observó más pacientes con hipoestesia inmediata en el grupo de pacientes de 65ºC-70ºC, sin significación estadística (p=0,47). Conclusión: La termocoagulación por radiofrecuencia de ganglio de Gasser es un procedimiento accesible, mínimamente invasivo que demostró buenos resultados y buen manejo del dolor con bajo índice de complicaciones.
Prevalence, predictors and outcomes of potential drug-drug interactions in left ventricular failure: considerable factors for quality use of medicines

Hospitalized patients with left ventricular failure (LVF) are at high risk for potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) and its related adverse effects owing to multiple risk factors such as old age, comorbidities and polypharmacy. This cross-sectional study conducted in two tertiary care hospitals aim to identify frequency, levels and predictors of pDDIs in LVF patients. Data about patients’ demographic, hospital stay, medication therapy, sign/symptoms and laboratory test results were collected for 385 patients with LVF. Micromedex Drug-Reax® was used to screen patients’ medication profiles for pDDIs. Overall prevalence and severity-wise prevalence of pDDIs were identified. Chisquare test was performed for comparative analysis of various variables. Logistic regression was applied to determine the odds-ratios (OR) for predictors of pDDIs. The prevalence of pDDIs was 96.4% (n=371). Overall 335 drug-interacting pairs were detected, which were presented in a total of 2870 pDDIs. Majority of pDDIs were of major(48.9%) and moderate-severity (47.5%). Logistic regression analysis shows significant association of >6 all types of pDDIs with >12 drugs as compared with <8 drugs (OR=16.5; p=<0.001). Likewise, there was a significant association of >4 majorpDDIs with men as compared with female (OR=1.9; p=0.007) and >12 drugs as compared with <8 drugs (OR=10.9; p=<0.001). Hypotension (n=57), impaired renal function (23) and increased blood pressure (22) were the most frequent adverse outcomes associated with pDDIs. This study shows high prevalence of pDDIs in LVF patients. Majority of pDDIs were of majorand moderate-severity. Male patients and those prescribed greater number of medicines were more exposed to major-pDDIs.
Millimeter-Wave Coordinated Beamforming Enabled Cooperative Network: A Stochastic Geometry Approach

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) and ultra-dense networks are two key technologies for the fifth-generation (5G) and beyond communication system. However, the ultra-dense deployment of small base stations (SBSs) might introduce severe interference to users that connect to SBSs. This paper analyzes the performance of 5G communication networks where the SBSs with coordinated beamforming, operating at mmWave frequency band and macro base stations (MBSs) operating at sub-6 GHz coexist. First, by utilizing a stochastic geometry approach, we obtain the cell association probability expressions in terms of different cell association biases, base station density ratios and probabilities of line of sight (LoS) link. Furthermore, we propose a clustering method to choose some SBSs to eliminate intra-cell interference. Then, we put forward an average distance from the Kth SBS to a user to obtain signal-to-interference-ratio (SINR) and rate coverage probability expressions. The simulation results validate the correctness of the expressions, and indicate that the optimal cardinality of coordinated SBSs increases with the density of SBSs. In addition, the relationship between the cluster size K and the average energy efficiency is obtained, which can be used to guide the coordination principle in 5G and beyond communication systems.
Homo- and Heterogeneous Mercury Oxidation in a Bench-Scale Flame-Based Flow Reactor

An experimental study of hetero- and homogeneous mercury oxidation chemistry was conducted in a bench-scale flame-based flow reactor with a residence time of 2.9 s. Homogeneous mercury oxidation levels increased with an increasing HCl concentration, with oxidation increasing to 29% at HCl concentrations of 555 parts per million by volume (ppmv). The presence of SO2 alone also led to Hg oxidation, with approximately 20% oxidation observed at SO2 concentrations ranging from 100 to 900 ppmv. When both HCl and SO2 were present, mercury oxidation was enhanced in the presence of SO2 when the concentration of HCl was 200 ppmv and inhibited when concentration of HCl was 555 ppmv. To examine heterogeneous effects, iron oxide or montmorillonite particles were injected into the post-flame gases of the system. Mercury oxidation by HCl was enhanced at high iron oxide particle concentrations (>100 mα-Fe2O32/m3 of flue gas) compared to the homogeneous system. When iron oxide particles were injected in the presence of 10.
Self-Assembly of Tetraphenylporphyrin Monolayers on Gold Substrates

Two tetraphenylporphyrins, TPP-P-disulfide and TPP-P-thiol, were synthesized and used to form self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold surfaces. The monolayers were characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ultraviolet/visible absorption spectroscopy (UV/vis), and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). XPS binding energy shifts revealed that the porphyrins were chemisorbed to the surface through a sulfur−gold bond. A red shift without a significant blue-shifted component of the Soret band in the absorption spectra demonstrated that the porphyrin molecules are aligned on the gold surface in a side-by-side orientation. Round STM features, approximately 2 nm in diameter, correspond closely to the diameter of tetraphenylporphyrin (1.8 nm). Taken together, these data indicated the formation of monolayers of uniformly spaced TPP-P-disulfide and TPP-P-thiol molecules, with the porphyrin ring oriented parallel to the gold surface. Furthermore, porphyrin monolayers were stable for at least a week a.
The digital immunization system of the future: imagining a patient-centric, interoperable immunization information system

To ensure the effectiveness of increasingly complex immunization programs in upper-middle and high-income settings, comprehensive information systems are needed to track immunization uptake at individual and population levels. The maturity of cloud systems and mobile technologies has created new possibilities for immunization information systems. In this paper, we describe a vision for the next generation of digital immunization information systems for upper-middle and high-income settings based on our experience in Canada. These systems center on the premise that the public is engaged and informed about the immunization process beyond their interaction with primary care, and that they will be a contributor and auditor of immunization data. The digital immunization system of the future will facilitate reporting of adverse events following immunization, issue digital immunization receipts, permit identification of areas of need and allow for delivery of interventions targeting these areas. Through features like immunization reminders and targeted immunization promotion campaigns, the system will reduce many of the known barriers that influence immunization rates. In light of the global COVID-19 pandemic, adaptive digital public health information systems will be required to guide the rollout and post-market surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.
A Novel Rotational Actuator With Variable Stiffness Using S-Shaped Springs

In this article, we propose a novel rotational variable stiffness actuator that uses S-shaped springs as elastic elements. The S-shaped springs are designed based on the principle of variable beam length, which allows for an easily customizable and wide-ranging stiffness regulation from a minimum value to near infinite. The stiffness can be smoothly regulated online by rotating the S-shaped springs, resulting in a compact stiffness regulation mechanism. Moreover, a planetary gear differential is used to drive the stiffness regulation mechanism such that both the stiffness control motor and the main drive motor can be placed at the proximal part. This configuration effectively reduces the reflected inertia of the moving parts, which helps to achieve a compact design and improve the control performance. The proposed actuator ranks high among designs of the similar output power in terms of the power-to-weight ratio and the power-to-volume ratio; therefore, the compactness of the proposed design is verified. Besides, the stiffness regulation speed of the proposed design also ranks high among the designs. Consequently, the actuator can be used for fast stiffness regulation. For robust position tracking under different operating conditions, a disturbance observer is used to estimate the mismatched lumped disturbance caused by the load torque and model uncertainties. To further improve the control performance, a sliding mode control term is introduced to compensate for the disturbance estimation error. The stability of the closed-loop system is proved using the Lyapunov method. Experimental results under different operating conditions have verified the validity of the novel actuator and the proposed controller.
Thermal conductivity of Toyoura sand at various moisture and stress conditions

Thermal conductivity of soils is a crucial characteristic in various geotechnical applications, such as geothermal pumps, energy piles and buried pipelines. Previous researchers have done extensive works on the factors that may affect the soil thermal conductivity, including soil porosity, degree of saturation, mineralogy, testing temperatures, particle size and gradation. A modified oedometer frame that can incorporate the transient heat probe method is adopted to investigate the influence of stress state on thermal conductivity of Toyoura sand. Preliminary test under 1-D compression shows that the thermal conductivity of sand increases with the rise of vertical stress, and the variation exhibits hysteresis during a loading and unloading cycle. In addition, the effects of void ratio and water content were also studied and test results agreed well with previous values reported in the literature.
Healthchain: Secure EMRs Management and Trading in Distributed Healthcare Service System

Electronic medical records (EMRs) are the most critical data in human health management. As in traditional centralized healthcare service systems (HSSs), user privacy security, EMRs data leakage, tampering, and island are some significant problems. However, blockchain is a promising technology to protect the privacy and realize cross-institutional data sharing for solving these problems. In this article, a novel peer-to-peer EMRs data management and trading system called healthchain has been proposed based on consortium blockchain technology. Through this distributed system, the patient can access their EMRs in different institutions freely, and the EMRs can be traded among different users conveniently. Then, to balance EMRs data supply and demand, we establish a Stackelberg pricing model to evaluate EMRs data providers and consumers’ interactions. The optimal unit price and data amounts can be found by applying the backward induction method, and the maximizing benefits of the participants can be obtained by achieving the Nash equilibrium in the proposed game. Moreover, security analysis shows the healthchain can provide secure EMRs management and trading, and the simulation results show that the proposed pricing model can help the healthchain achieve social welfare maximization.
Atomic layer epitaxy of CdTe and MnTe

Atomic deposition techniques are investigated for binary semiconductors of the telluride family, namely CdTe and MnTe. An original method for directly determining the CdTe atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) growth rate—in monolayers/cycle—is proposed, consisting in monitoring the reflection high‐energy electron diffraction (RHEED) sublimation intensity oscillations of an ALE grown CdTe layer deposited on a MgTe buffer layer. The ALE CdTe autoregulated growth rate at 0.5 monolayer/cycle (in the substrate temperature domain between 260 and 290 °C) is accounted for on the basis of an atomic model which relies on the alternating c(2×2) Cd and (2×1) Te surface reconstructions during the ALE cycle. RHEED studies on MnTe atomic deposition, together with x‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy on ALE grown CdTe/MnTe superlattices reveal that all deposited Mn atoms are incorporated so that no autoregulated growth can be achieved. Furthermore, less than one or just one monolayer of Mn must be sent on the surface per ALE cycle to obtain well controlled superlattices with abrupt interfaces.