Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhancing Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity via Pd−Au Alloy Sublayer Mediation of Pt Monolayer Electrocatalysts

New Pt monolayer electrocatalysts were prepared using galvanic displacement of a copper monolayer deposited at underpotentials on a Pd core. By performing underpotential deposition twice, two monolayers were deposited, forming a core−shell structure with double shells. The double shells consist of an outermost shell of Pt monolayer and a sublayer shell of Pd−Au alloy. It was found that by adjusting the compositions of the alloy sublayer, it is possible to mediate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity of the Pt catalysts. An alloy with 10% (atomic) Au was found to be the most active among the catalysts tested. Furthermore, the catalysts showed good cycling stability that may be due to stabilizing effect of Au. Since different alloys can be used as the sublayer for mediation, this work may open up various opportunities to tailor electrocatalysts for best ORR activity.
Developing Students’ Mathematics Achievement Using Three-Tiered Instructional Model

This study investigated the effectiveness of using Three-Tiered Instructional Model in enhancing students’ achievement in mathematics. The participants were two (2) intact grade 8 class of Misamis Oriental General Comprehensive High School in school year 2019-2020. The experimental group of the study was taught using Three-Tiered Instructional Model having its attributes wherein Tier 1 is a core classroom instruction conducted by the teacher; Tier 2 is a targeted small group instruction through peer tutoring; and, Tier 3 is the intensive individual intervention through pair tutoring. For the control group, students were taught using the Three-Tiered Instructional Model with the following attributes: Tier 1 is still carry out by the teacher; Tier 2 is a conventional small group discussion facilitated by the teacher; and, Tier 3 is an individual intervention through remedial conducted by the teacher. Prior and after the experimental period, students were given a validated 26-item multiple choice test to measure students’ achievement. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Results of the analysis revealed that students’ achievement in mathematics improved when taught using the Three-Tiered Instructional Model. The attributes used in each tier for experimental group helped the students better in their mathematics performance than the attributes used in each tiers for the control group. Hence, the researchers recommended that mathematics teachers may employ Three-Tiered Instructional Model in teaching mathematics as it has a positive effect in improving students’ mathematical achievement; provide enough opportunities to the performing students to solidify their learning; and, offer more chances to the least performing students to gain help in their difficulties. Furthermore, similar studies may be conducted for the better proper employment of the instructional model using different attributes in each tier and study how it can efficiently foster students’ achievement in mathematics.
A Study on the Adsorption Characteristics of Benzene Using Activated Carbon from Waste Timber

In this study, experiments on the static adsorption of benzene were carried out using activated carbon made from Pinus koraiensis which is normally discarded waste timber in South Korea. The experiment were performed at 303.15 K, 318.15 K and 333.15 K under the pressure up to 7.999 kPa. Isothermal adsorption curves were obtained using Langmuir isotherm, Freundlich isotherm and Toth isotherm for comparison. Based on the fitting, the adsorption quantity of Benzene (q), the isothermal adsorption curves obtained from Langmuir isotherm and Toth isotherm showed the higher accuracy. Although there was little difference in accuracy between result from Langmuir isotherm and that from Toth isotherm, the adsorption quantity of Benzene (q) was ex- pressed in terms of Langmuir isotherm because less parameters were required for Langmuir isotherm than for Toth isotherm. Moreover SEM images of the activated carbon from Pinus koraiensis and the commercial activated carbon were taken to observe the pore size development. The results showed that the perforation development of activated carbon from Pinus koraiensis (waste timber) was better than that of commercial activated carbon (DARCO A.C., SPG-100 A.C.). Adsorption quantity of benzene on activated carbon from Pinus koraiensis was confirmed to be higher than that on commercial activated carbon. Therefore, we may conclude that it is feasible to commercialize the process to manufacturing activated carbon from waste timber.
Factors Influencing Purchase Intention on Private Label Products

This study aims to develop propositions about the factors that influence the purchase intention of private label products. These factors are: in-store promotion, visual merchandising, store image, and customer value. This study elaborates on some of the results of previous studies that have examined the factors that influence purchase intention of private label products that have been published on Google Scholar and indexed by Scopus between 19912020, to develop a proposition. This paper fills a lack of Studies which discuss purchase intention from a consumer behavior perspective. From the perspective of consumer behavior, purchase intention is influenced by three factors, namely: intrinsic factors including: consumer value, extrinsic factors including: in-store promotions, visual merchandising and store image, and consumer factors. This paper defines purchase intention as the effort and strong urge to buy a particular product in the future, the possibility of considering buying the product, the decision to rebuy the product and the desire to recommend the product. The main findings of this research are several propositions, namely: in-store promotion, visual merchandising and store image directly affect customer value and purchase intention. The following propositions are: In-store promotion, visual merchandising and store image influence purchase intention mediated by customer value.
Plant diversity enhances production and downward transport of biodegradable dissolved organic matter

Plant diversity is an important driver of below‐ground ecosystem functions, such as root growth, soil organic matter (SOM) storage and microbial metabolism, mainly by influencing the interactions between plant roots and soil. Dissolved organic matter (DOM), as the most mobile form of SOM, plays a crucial role for a multitude of soil processes that are central for ecosystem functioning. Thus, DOM is likely to be an important mediator of plant diversity effects on soil processes. However, the relationships between plant diversity and DOM have not been studied so far. We investigated the mechanisms underlying plant diversity effects on concentrations of DOM using continuous soil water sampling across 6 years and 62 plant communities in a long‐term grassland biodiversity experiment in Jena, Germany. Furthermore, we investigated plant diversity effects on the molecular properties of DOM in a subset of the samples. Although DOM concentrations were highly variable over the course of the year with highest concentrations in summer and autumn, we found that DOM concentrations consistently increased with plant diversity across seasons. The positive plant diversity effect on DOM concentrations was mainly mediated by increased microbial activity and newly sequestered carbon in topsoil. However, the effect of soil microbial activity on DOM concentrations differed between seasons, indicating DOM consumption in winter and spring, and DOM production in summer and autumn. Furthermore, we found increased contents of small and easily decomposable DOM molecules reaching deeper soil layers with high plant diversity. Synthesis. Our findings suggest that plant diversity enhances the continuous downward transport of DOM in multiple ways. On the one hand, higher plant diversity results in higher DOM concentrations, on the other hand, this DOM is less degraded. This study indicates, for the first time, that higher plant diversity enhances the downward transport of dissolved molecules that likely stimulate soil development in deeper layers and therefore increase soil fertility.
Aggregation and dissolution of silver nanoparticles in a laboratory-based freshwater microcosm under simulated environmental conditions

Silver nanoparticles (NP) are used in several applications, including their use as antimicrobial agents in textiles, personal care, and other domestic products. As such, there is a high potential for the release of silver nanoparticles (AgNP) in the aquatic environment. In aquatic ecosystems, nanomaterials are affected by abiotic factors, such as temperature, that alter their chemistry and influence their fate in the environment. Preliminary studies indicate that NP tend to form aggregates which are potentially more recalcitrant than unaggregated NP. These and other fate processes are largely dependent on both the characteristics of the NP and that of the environment. In this study, lab experiments were conducted to investigate the physicochemical properties and temperature solubility of AgNP (<100 nm) that may potentially influence the fate and behavior of AgNP in the aqueous environment. Results indicated that, under these tested conditions, AgNP may be transformed in size and thereby affect fate, bioavailability, and toxicity. In this study, a novel method was used to determine whether AgNP would form agglomerates, or behave as isolated particles, or dissolve when in aqueous media and under different environmental conditions. The new aspects evaluated in this study demonstrated that AgNP are transformed in both size and state under variable environmental conditions.
TEC-PRENEUR: Curso-Taller en línea para fortalecer las habilidades de emprendimiento en educación superior

The purpose of this presentation on educational innovation is to present the Tec-preneur online courseworkshop for the identification of entrepreneurship skills in university students. This innovation was developed as a Novus project and seeks to contribute to the development of the entrepreneurial spirit with innovative pedagogies, such as challenge-based learning and mentoring. Its implementation allowed students to identify their entrepreneurship skills and make proposals to social problems through sustainable entrepreneurship. This proposal also contributes to the development of online courses through activities that facilitate the collaboration of actors in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the training of students. It is considered that this course can be used to strengthen the entrepreneurial skills of Referencia: Portuguez Castro, M. , & Gómez Zermeño, M. G. (2020). TEC-PRENEUR: Curso-Taller en línea para fortalecer las habilidades de emprendimiento en educación superior. En 7mo Congreso Internacional de Innovación Educativa, Tecnológico de Monterrey, 14-18 de diciembre, 2020. 7° CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE INNOVACIÓN EDUCATIVAPONENCIA DE INNOVACIÓN university students, as well as to identify their entrepreneurial profile, interests, attitudes and entrepreneurial skills. Palabras clave: habilidades de emprendimiento, innovación educativa, mentoría, educación superior.
New Insights into H2S Adsorption on Graphene and Graphene-Like Structures: A Comparative DFT Study

The efficient removal of pollutants from different environments has been one of the great challenges for scientists in recent years. However, the understanding of the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon is still the subject of passionate debates, mainly due to the lack of experimental tools capable of detecting events at the atomic scale. Herein, a comparative theoretical study was carried out to capture the adsorption of H2S on metal oxide surfaces such as zinc oxide (ZnO) and beryllium oxide (BeO), as well as graphene and Ni-decorated graphene. A simulation based on density-functional theory (DFT) was carried out by adopting General Gradient Approximation (GGA) under the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof (PBE) function. The calculations quantified H2S adsorption on the considered metal oxide sheets as well as on the non-decorated graphene having a physical nature. In contrast, H2S adsorbed on Ni-decorated graphene sheet gave an adsorption energy of −1.64 eV due to the interaction of S and Ni atoms through the formation of a covalent bond, proof of chemisorption. It seems that the graphene sheet decorated with Ni atoms is a more suitable adsorbent for H2S molecules than BeO, ZnO, or non-decorated graphene, providing a theoretical basis for future studies.
Critical Drivers and Barriers of Corporate Social Responsibility in Saudi Arabia Organizations

Several studies demonstrate that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming a dominant issue in both research and companies’ management due to stakeholders’ pressure. The identification of internal and external drivers and barriers is an initial stage of the corporate social responsibility implementation. The study aims to identify and analyze the drivers and barriers of CSR in Saudi Arabia’s private organizations. For this purpose, primary data were collected using a survey questionnaire that was administered to a representative sample of companies from different sectors in Saudi Arabia. The results show that the main drivers behind the adoption of CSR among Saudi companies are improvement of corporate image, ethical/moral commitment, and to some extend customers’ requirements and risk management. The findings of this study also suggest that there are important barriers hindering the adoption of corporate social responsibility. Among these, the lack of management commitment and the lack of investors’ interests together with the lack of economic resources and lack of employees’ competencies are the most prominent. The findings of this study not only contribute to a deeper understanding of CSR drivers and barriers, but could also encourage firms’ managers and stakeholders to improve CSR activities for more effective implementation.
CFD code adaptation to the FPGA architecture

For the last years, we observe the intensive development of accelerated computing platforms. Although current trends indicate a well-established position of GPU devices in the HPC environment, FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) aspires to be an alternative solution to offload the CPU computation. This paper presents a systematic adaptation of four various CFD (Computational Fluids Dynamic) kernels to the Xilinx Alveo U250 FPGA. The goal of this paper is to investigate the potential of the FPGA architecture as the future infrastructure able to provide the most complex numerical simulations in the area of fluid flow modeling. The selected kernels are customized to a real-scientific scenario, compatible with the EULAG (Eulerian/semi-Lagrangian) fluid solver. The solver is used to simulate thermo-fluid flows across a wide range of scales and is extensively used in numerical weather prediction. The proposed adaptation is focused on the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the FPGA accelerator, considering performance and energy efficiency. The proposed adaptation is compared with a CPU implementation that was strongly optimized to provide realistic and objective benchmarks. The performance results are compared with a set of server CPUs containing various Intel generations, including Intel SkyLake-based CPUs as Xeon Gold 6148 and Xeon Platinum 8168, as well as Intel Xeon E5-2695 CPU based on the IvyBridge architecture. Since all the kernels belong to the group of memory-bound algorithms, our main challenge is to saturate global memory bandwidth and provide data locality with the intensive BRAM (Block RAM) reusing. Our adaptation allows us to reduce the performance per watt up to 80% compared to the CPUs.
Don’t Work for Free: Online Discursive Resistance to Precarity in Commercial Photography

While increasing academic attention has been paid to the precariousness of contemporary work, less research has examined how workers organise in response. This article examines how a group of precarious workers – commercial photographers – use an online forum to resist changes to their working conditions. Our findings illustrate how the forum enables photographers to share knowledge, debate rules and organise collectively. We discuss two implications: firstly that the forum performs many of the functions of a professional association, and so gives us a new insight into how traditional forms of worker organisation may be translated in the digital realm; and secondly, that the form of collective resistance produced by the group may constitute a move beyond existing understandings of online resistance as relatively ineffectual. Our work contributes a new perspective on how precarity is reshaping workers’ collective organisation and resistance mechanisms.
Structure of non-graphitising carbons

AbstractDespite many years of research, the detailed atomic structure of many important carbon materials remains poorly understood. In particular, the structure of those carbons which can not be transformed into graphite by high temperature heat treatment has never been clearly established. These non-graphitising carbons are of considerable commercial importance in a variety of fields, and a better understanding of their structure is clearly needed. Recently, it has been suggested that non-graphitising carbons may have a microstructure which is related to that of fullerenes. In the present paper, the evidence for this will be considered in detail and the advantages of the new model over previous models of non-graphitising carbons will be discussed. As well as microporous nongraphitising carbons, other forms of carbon including glassy carbon and carbon fibres will be considered.
Washing Effects on Gelling Properties and Color of Monterey Sardine (Sardinops sagax caerulea) Minced Flesh

Abstract The effects of washing on the chemical composition, gel-forming ability and color of Monterey sardine mince were investigated. Recoveries were 41.5, 46.3 and 52.1% for solids and 49.9, 52.7 and 59.9% for protein using washing ratios of 1:20, 1:15 and 1:10, respectively. No differences were detected among the washing treatments except for gel cohesiveness as measured by texture profile analysis. Large variations in muscle composition were observed at different months of harvesting which could preclude the effect of washing on the characteristics of the mince. Results showed that washed mince possesses an excellent gel-forming ability, suggesting that sardine could be used for surimi processing.
Non-Spiking Laser Controlled by a Delayed Feedback

In 1965, Statz et al. (J. Appl. Phys. 30, 1510 (1965)) investigated theoretically and experimentally the conditions under which spiking in the laser output can be completely suppressed by using a delayed optical feedback. In order to explore its effects, they formulate a delay differential equation model within the framework of laser rate equations. From their numerical simulations, they concluded that the feedback is effective in controlling the intensity laser pulses provided the delay is short enough. Ten years later, Krivoshchekov et al. (Sov. J. Quant. Electron. 5394 (1975)) reconsidered the Statz et al. delay differential equation and analyzed the limit of small delays. The stability conditions for arbitrary delays, however, were not determined. In this paper, we revisit Statz et al.’s delay differential equation model by using modern mathematical tools. We determine an asymptotic approximation of both the domains of stable steady states as well as a sub-domain of purely exponential transients.
Relative abundances of primary ion radicals in .gamma.-irradiated DNA: cytosine vs. thymine anions and guanine vs. adenine cations

An ESR study of the relative distribution of ion radicals formed in DNA equilibrated with D{sub 2}O and {gamma}-irradiated at 77 K is presented. The ESR spectra of irradiated DNA and polynucleotides (poly(dG){center dot}poly(dC) and poly(dAdT){center dot}poly(dAdT)) were obtained and employed in a computer-assisted analysis for the individual ion-radical distribution. Analysis of spectra as a function of power allowed the separation of the spectra of the pyrimidine anions (T{sup {sm bullet}{minus}}, C{sup {sm bullet}{minus}}) from the spectra of the purine cations (G{sup {sm bullet}+}, A{sup {sm bullet}+}). The spectra of the mononucleotide ion radicals, dCMP{sup {sm bullet}{minus}}, dTMP{sup {sm bullet}{minus}}, dGMP{sup {sm bullet}+}, and dAMP{sup {sm bullet}+}, were produced in 8 M LiCl glasses. In addition, the spectra of the ion radicals of all of the mononucleotide ion radicals except dAMP{sup +} were simulated by using hyperfine and g tensors from the literature. Basis spectra derived from (1) power saturation experiments, (2) polynucleotide and mononucleotide spectra, (3) spectra of mononucleotides alone, and (4) anisotropic simulations were used to fit the spectra of DNA by use of a linear least-squares analysis. Each of the four separate analyses confirms that the cytosine anion dominates the spectra of DNA at 100 K. Threemore » analyses included the cationic composition, and they strongly favor the guanine cation over the adenine cation. An average of the authors results gives the DNA ion radicals' relative to abundances as ca. 77% C{sup {sm bullet}{minus}}, 23% T{sup {sm bullet}{minus}} for the anions and >90% G{sup {sm bullet}+} for the cations about equal amounts of anions and cations are present. No difference in results is found for DNA irradiated in frozen D{sub 2}O solutions or simply exchanged at 100% D{sub 2}O humidity. « less
Characterization of Sewage Sludge and Food Waste-Based Biochar for Co-Firing in a Coal-Fired Power Plant: A Case Study in Korea

Biomass co-firing in coal-fired power plants has been widely accepted to reduce the environmental burden. In this study, food waste (FW) and sewage sludge (SS), which are the main types of municipal organic waste, were selected as solid refuse fuel (SRF). To compensate for the limitations of FW and SS, a mixture of FW and SS with varying ratios was processed using pyrolysis and desalination. The fuel properties such as the calorific value, chlorine content, alkali and alkaline earth metallic species (AAEMs) content, and heavy metal content were determined. The calorific values of all biochars were greater than 12.6 MJ/kg, which satisfies the national threshold of Bio-SRF in Korea. Chlorine and AAEMs contents exhibited clear trends for the FW ratio and pyrolysis temperature. Increasing concentrations of heavy metals were observed with increasing SS ratio and pyrolysis temperature. These results provide important insights into the practical application of municipal waste-based biochar in coal-fired plants, as well as the influence of mixing ratio and pyrolysis temperature.