Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AN INVESTIGATION INTO BENEFICIATION OF JORDANIAN EL-LAJJUN OIL SHALE BY FROTH FLOATATION

Oil shale is available in Jordan in large quantities with high proportion of minerals. This study presents an investigation in order to enhance oil recovery from Jordanian El-Lajjun oil shale, which represents a major local deposit area. This enhancement was attempted through decreasing the content of minerals by the method of froth floatation using different floatation and frothing agents. The effect of the type of agents, the concentrations of these agents, and the effect of particle size were also investigated. Jordanian El-Lajjun oil shale has shown a poor separation propensity (floatability). Particle size and type of frother did not have any impact on the efficiency of oil shale recovery. A maximum recovery of 3% was achieved when using fuel oil as a collector and methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC) as a frother in the froth floatation process. It is believed that kerogen causes wetability of oil shale particles during preparation of oil shale hindering floatability of oil shale. On the other hand, phosphates and calcite were found to be easily separable from Jordanian oil shale using froth floatation. A degree of separation of more than 99% has been achieved when using kerosene as a collector and MIBC as a frother.
Linking climate and air quality over Europe: effects of meteorology on PM 2.5 concentrations

Abstract. The effects of various meteorological parameters such as temperature, wind speed, absolute humidity, precipitation and mixing height on PM2.5 concentrations over Europe were examined using a three-dimensional chemical transport model, PMCAMx-2008. Our simulations covered three periods, representative of different seasons (summer, winter, and fall). PM2.5 appears to be more sensitive to temperature changes compared to the other meteorological parameters in all seasons. PM2.5 generally decreases as temperature increases, although the predicted changes vary significantly in space and time, ranging from −700 ng m−3 K−1 (−8% K−1) to 300 ng m−3 K−1 (7% K−1). The predicted decreases of PM2.5 are mainly due to evaporation of ammonium nitrate, while the higher biogenic emissions and the accelerated gas-phase reaction rates increase the production of organic aerosol (OA) and sulfate, having the opposite effect on PM2.5. The predicted responses of PM2.5 to absolute humidity are also quite variable, ranging from −130 ng m−3 %−1 (−1.6% %−1) to 160 ng m−3 %−1 (1.6% %−1) dominated mainly by changes in inorganic PM2.5 species. An increase in absolute humidity favors the partitioning of nitrate to the aerosol phase and increases the average PM2.5 during summer and fall. Decreases in sulfate and sea salt levels govern the average PM2.5 response to humidity during winter. A decrease of wind speed (keeping the emissions constant) increases all PM2.5 species (on average 40 ng m−3 %−1) due to changes in dispersion and dry deposition. The wind speed effects on sea salt emissions are significant for PM2.5 concentrations over water and in coastal areas. Increases in precipitation have a negative effect on PM2.5 (decreases up to 110 ng m−3 %−1) in all periods due to increases in wet deposition of PM2.5 species and their gas precursors. Changes in mixing height have the smallest effects (up to 35 ng m−3 %−1) on PM2.5 . Regarding the relative importance of each of the meteorological parameters in a changed future climate, the projected changes in precipitation are expected to have the largest impact on PM2.5 levels during all periods (changes up to 2 μg m−3 in the fall). The expected effects in future PM2.5 levels due to wind speed changes are similar in all seasons and quite close to those resulting from future precipitation changes (up to 1.4 μg m−3). The expected increases in absolute humidity in the future can lead to large changes in PM2.5 levels (increases up to 2 μg m−3) mainly in the fall due to changes in particulate nitrate levels. Despite the high sensitivity of PM2.5 levels to temperature, the small expected increases of temperature in the future will lead to modest PM2.5 changes and will not dominate the overall change.
Effect of Low Ambient Temperature on the Concentration of Free Radicals Related to Ascites in Broiler Chickens

A flock of Arbor Acres chickens were reared in cages and provided with high energy pelleted feed. At 14 d of age, a total of 350 birds were separated into 3 groups randomly as follows: 100 birds were exposed to ambient temperature of 20°C as a control group, 150 birds were exposed to lower ambient temperature of 11°C to induce ascites (group I), and another group of 100 birds were exposed to lower ambient temperature of 11°C and fed diet containing 1% L-arginine for ascitic prophylactic treatment (group II). Blood and tissue samples (lung and liver) were collected from chickens at 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 wk of age subsequently, to analyze the concentration and activities of free radicals, mononaldehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), Nitric Oxide (NO) and Nitric oxide synthase (NOS). The results showed that the prevalence of ascites in the control, group I and group II was 3%, 9.33% and 3% respectively (p 0.05), and also insignificant difference between NOS in group I and the control group (p>0.05). The results of this study indicate that there was a significant decrease in the concentration of MDA in group II. On the other hand, the concentration of free radicals decreased and MDA concentration increased in group I during the 7 wk period. The reduction in concentration of MDA in group II, following arginine supplementation may be associated with the scavenging activity of NO. (Asian- Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2005. Vol 18, No. 8 : 1182-1187)
Evaluation morphologique des spermatozdides

Sperm morphology examination Rim SA'I[DI, Elodie GRUEL, Julie ROSET-BLESSMAN, Nathalie MOUSSET-SlMI~ON, Sandrine MENON, Bertrand MACI~, Nathalie RIVES Semen analysis, as defined by World Health Organisation (WHO), is a fundamental step in the work-up of infertile couples. Spermatozoa morphology has been recognised as the best predictive factor in natural fertility, and in intrauterine insemination and classical in vitro fertilisation. Ultrastructural spermatozoa abnormalities are the only sperm alterations likely to influence the outcome of ICSl. However, these abnormalities cannot be detected by conventional microscopy (u or u Bartoov et al. (2002) developed a real-time spermatozoa observation system using a u magnification called MSOME (Magnification Motile Sperm Morphology Examination). Spermatozoa abnormalities detected with this technique are vacuoles Iocalised on spermatozoa heads with variable number, size and site (nucleus or acrosome). Spermatozoa evaluation using MSOME could be performed to predict the probability of fartilisation by these spermatozoa either spontaneously or after assisted reproductive technology.
Comparative Performance of Hens Fed Diets Containing Korean, Japanese and Chinese Green Tea

This experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of Korean, Japanese and Chinese green tea on laying performance and egg quality in hens. A total of 168 "Tetran Brown" hens aged 40 weeks were assigned to 7 treatments in a completely randomized design. Each treatment had 4 replicates accommodating 6 layers per replication. The seven dietary treatments were: 1) control diet with no green tea added, 2) diet containing 1.0% Korean green tea (1.0% KGT), 3) diet containing 2.0% Korean green tea (2.0% KGT), 4) diet containing 1.0% Japanese green tea (1.0% JGT), 5) diet containing 2.0% Japanese green tea (2.0% JGT), 6) diet containing 1.0% Chinese green tea (1.0% CGT), and 7) diet containing 2.0% Chinese green tea (2.0% CGT). Egg production rate of the layers fed diets containing 1.0 or 2.0% green tea powders were significantly increased compared to that of the control (p 0.05). Green tea feeding to layers tended to reduce the overall cholesterol content of egg yolk. Particularly, 1.0 or 2.0% CGT significantly depressed the total cholesterol content of egg yolk (p<0.05). In conclusion, incorporation of 1.0 or 2.0% Korean, Japanese and Chinese green tea into layer diets regardless of origin had favorable effects on laying performance and egg quality profiles. Among the three green tea sources, the Chinese green tea powder had the highest reducing effect on cholesterol content in egg yolk. (Key Words : Green Tea, Hen, Egg Production, Feed Intake, Egg Shell Thickness, Yolk Cholesterol)
Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in the Arab Region: The Case of Knowledge Spillover Effects

This research aims to focus on how institutional barriers in the Arab region may account for losses in FDI inflows along with their potential technology spillover effects, as well as to show how the deficiency of absorptive capacities serve as an important factor for attracting inflows. The analysis relies on endogenous growth models at an aggregate regional level and a microeconomic firm-level. Findings based on linear OLS regressions, reveal a positive correlation between improved institutional factors and potential FDI spillovers, with significance varying in certain countries. Policy implications involve having targeted FDI policies to enhance absorptive capacities, improving information asymmetry to reduce corruption, and enhancing the labor market regulatory framework to improve human capital development as an incentive for FDI inflows.
Query Concept Interaction over Time

With the ever-increasing amount of data available through various kinds of search engines, the need for better ways of identifying what users are looking for increases as well. In recent years, there have been many attempts at improving search results by trying to identify the true nature of the users' intent. An aspect of this that is often overlooked is that the intent of users is dynamic. One example of this comes from health care. Queries such as flu or fever occur at a regular frequency under normal circumstances. How- ever, a search for bird flu may indicate that an outbreak of the disease is at hand. In this paper we present a novel method for discovering hidden, time-varying interaction patterns in search query relationships. The method revolves around a probabilistic graphical model, capable of inferring interactions between groups of queries. Given sequences of query expressions and a base graph, the model produces sequences of interaction strengths. We perform synthetic experiments confirming the effectiveness of our model in recovering latent interaction dynamics. Furthermore, we compare the performance of our model to existing methods for network dynamics. In an application to search query data, we use our model to perform keyword suggestion and evaluate the results. The results of evaluating our model, shows that it has the potential to benefit a wide variety of applications within web-search including keyword suggestion and suggestion for related queries.
Modelling Social Learning in an Agent-Based New Keynesian Macroeconomic Model

We propose an agent-based macroeconomic model (ABM) inspired by the New Keynesian general equilibrium model (NKM, Woodford 2003). We analyse the aggregate economic dynamics resulting from social learning of agents (households and firms). Households’ labour supply and consumption demand, as well as firms\' labour demand and wage offers evolve through imitation and random experimenting by the agents. We study, in this setting, the aggregate properties of the economy and the ability of those learning agents to coordinate on the intra-temporal equilibrium of the original model. Our approach is quite different from the existing learning literature in the NKM (a la Evans & Honkapohja, that mainly focuses on learning for testing local stability of equilibria), since learning is directly embedded in the behaviour of the individual agents. This original approach opens new perspectives about the NKM, and allows us to ask new questions about the coordination problems that can result from social learning. First, our computational analysis (Monte Carlo simulations) shows that social learning does not allow the agents to correctly learn about the interdependence between markets, because of the emergence of coordination problems that result in insufficient labour supply and depressive dynamics. Second, we shed light on the general properties of social learning that are behind these results in a general (dis)equilibrium setting, and prove that their neutralisation, at least on the one side of the markets, can significantly improve the performance of the economy. Our results point to the importance of carefully modelling learning mechanisms within macroeconomic ABMs.
Does the Length of Fielding Period Matter? Examining Response Scores of Early Versus Late Responders

Abstract This article discusses the potential effects of a shortened fielding period on an employee survey’s item and index scores and respondent demographics. Using data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s 2011 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, we investigate whether early responding employees differ from later responding employees. Specifically, we examine differences in item and index scores related to employee engagement and global satisfaction. Our findings show that early responders tend to be less positive, even after adjusting their weights for nonresponse. Agencies vary in their prevalence of late responders, and score differences become magnified as this proportion increases. We also examine the extent to which early versus late responders differ on demographic characteristics such as grade level, supervisory status, gender, tenure with agency, and intention to leave, noting that nonminorities and females are the two demographic characteristics most associated with responding early.
Common Side Effects and Compliance with Nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure in Korean OSA patients: Short-term Follow Up

Objectives : The aim of this study was to investigate factors affecting compliance and acceptance of nasal CPAP in Korean OSA patients. Methods : Forty patients with OSA who underwent nasal CPAP titration with either full night or split night polysomnogram (PSG) at Dankook University hospital were enrolled. Sleep questionnaire, PSG results and medical records were retrospectively reviewed. The telephone interview was done for questions regarding CPAP side effects. Smart card data from nasal CPAP were reviewed. We compared CPAP trial group to patients who refused CPAP. Patients who kept using CPAP (user) were compared to patients who stopped using CPAP within a month (CPAP failure group). Follow-up duration was 7.8±2.9 months. Results : Twenty-eight patients (26 male, 45.6±8.5years) accepted CPAP trial after titration. The trial group had more prevalent history of drowsy driving, higher respiratory arousal index (RAI), higher apnea index and shorter sleep latency than no trial group. Sixty-four percent of trial group continued using nasal CPAP. The user group had significant higher BMI, higher RAI and higher ratio of supine/lateral respiratory disturbance index (RDI) than the CPAP failure group. The most common complaint in user group was mask leak whereas the CPAP failure group most commonly complained of mask discomfort and difficulty in falling asleep. Conclusions : Our study showed that 70% of OSA patients accept CPAP and among them 64% continued using CPAP. History of drowsy driving can be a good motivation factor encouraging CPAP. CPAP users were more obese and showed non-positional OSA than CPAP failure group.
Comparison of Corn, Grain Sorghum, Soybean, and Sunflower under Limited Irrigation

Agronomy Journa l • Volume 108 , I s sue 2 • 2016 Corn and soybean are important irrigated summer crops in the central Great Plains and together accounted for 50% of the total crop harvested area of the central Great Plains (Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado) in 2014, 45% of which was irrigated (USDA, 2014). Grain sorghum and sunfl ower are commonly grown dryland (non-irrigated) crops and together accounted for 1.3 million ha of harvested area in these states in 2014. Th e total irrigated sorghum and sunfl ower area in the region was low and not quantifi ed. Th e Ogallala aquifer, the main source of irrigation water to crops in the west-central Great Plains region, is declining, so improved effi ciency of irrigation water use is required (Stone et al., 2002; Peterson and Bernardo, 2003; Tolk and Howell, 2012; Frank et al., 2013). In the United States, corn, grain sorghum, soybean, and sunfl ower accounted for 50 to 60% of the annual total fi eld crop planted area in 2000 to 2014 (USDA, 2014). Th e actual total area harvested from these crops (corn, sorghum, soybean, and sunfl ower) in the United States in 2014 was 33.6, 2.5, 33.8 and 0.6 million ha, respectively. Between 1975 and 2014, corn and soybean harvested areas in the United States increased at rates of 0.15 and 0.21 million ha yr-1, respectively, whereas harvested areas for grain sorghum and sunfl ower declined at 0.12 and 0.017 million ha yr-1, respectively. Th e widening yield gap between the crops, the release of new hybrids that are tolerant to water defi cit and heat stress, price diff erences, comparative advantages in pest control options, and other reasons were suggested by researchers for the observed diff erences in harvest area between these crops (Mason et al., 2008; Staggenborg et al., 2008; Masuda and Goldsmith, 2009; Kershner et al., 2012; Assefa et al., 2014). Since these four crops are all grown in the summer, they compete for producers’ resources (time, land, water, and nutrients), which obviously causes challenges for cropping decisions. Cropping decisions are mainly based on profi t, given the available resources (such as land, water, and fertilizer) and environmental conditions (climate, pest, and soil conditions), alongside some environmental considerations such as soil and ground water quality conservation (Chavas and Holt, 1990; Carriker et al., 1993; Duff y et al., 1994; Chouinard et al., 2008). Crop yield is among the components of profi tability and is a function of genetics, environment, management, and their interaction Crop Economics, Production & Management
Variations in the intestinal microflora of Tilapia reared in fresh and sea water.

The composition and characteristics of microflora isolated from the intestine of Tilapia zillii were determined for fishes reared in fresh and sea water. Intestinal microflora of fresh or sea water fishes consisted mainly of Aeromonas or Vibrio and Aeromonas respectively; while the pre dominant bacteria obtained from fresh or sea water samples were Flavobacterium or Pseudomonas, respectively. The intestinal bacteria isolated from sea water fish were slightly halophilic and lower in the percentage of casein hydrolytic strains compared with those from fresh water fish. Chitin hydrolytic bacteria were abundant in the intestines of both fresh and sea water fishes in contrast with water samples. The change of intestinal microflora of Tilapia zillii happened for a fairly short term depending on the change of environment.
Foraging trip time-activity budgets and reproductive success in the black-legged kittiwake

Seabirds are central place foragers during the breeding season and, as marine food resources are often patchily distributed, flexibility in foraging behaviour may be important in maintaining prey delivery rates to chicks. We developed a methodological approach using a com- bination of GPS data loggers and temperature-depth recorders that allowed us to describe the behaviour of surface-feeding seabirds. Specifically, we tested whether differences in foraging behaviour of black-legged kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla could be linked with reproductive success by comparing 2 consecutive years at 2 sites. At Rathlin Island (Northern Ireland) during 2010, for- aging differed markedly from that during 2009 and from that at Lambay Island (Republic of Ire- land) during both years. Birds exhibited foraging trips of greater duration, travelled a greater total distance, spent more time in transit and spent longer recuperating on the surface of the water. This notable shift was associated with a decline in breeding success, with greater loss of eggs to preda- tion and lower prey delivery rates, resulting in the starvation of 15% of chicks. We suggest that food resources were reduced or geographically less accessible during 2010, with suitable foraging areas located further from the colony. Birds did not invest greater amounts of time attempting to catch prey. Thus, our results indicate that kittiwakes at Rathlin modulated their foraging behav- iour not by increasing foraging effort through feeding more intensively within prey patches but by extending their range to increase the probability of encountering more profitable prey patches.
From a reversible code to the quantum one: R-matrix

This research has been carried out in collaboration with D.Melnikov, A.Mironov, A.Morozov and An.Morozov. We study the relation between quantum programming and knot theory. The general idea is that knot theory provides a special basis for unitary matrices. We suggest to use R-matrices of knot theory as universal gates in quantum code. We also examine basic operations in reversible programming.
Constructional Profile of the Verbal Prefix ZA-: A Comparative Study of Russian and Polish

In this paper we investigate the semantic and syntactic properties of the prefix ZA- in Russian and Polish against the background of the Locative Alternation. We provide lists of alternating verbs for Russian and Polish and examine their occurrences with the prefix ZA- as presented in the Russian National Corpus and the Polish National Corpus. While the literature on the prefix ZA- mainly offers semantic analysis, we look at the “constructional profile” of ZA-, i.e. the relative frequency distribution of the two locative constructions for each ZA-verb. Our data suggest that there are both similarities and differences in the syntactic behavior of the corresponding ZA-verbs in Russian and Polish, although in general there is a strong tendency for ZA- to be used in the Goal-Object construction. We provide evidence that both constructions are possible with verbs like ‘hang’ and ‘pour’, which, according to lexical approaches, should not alternate. Our study fortifies the idea that prefixes and constructions correlate and that the Locative Alternation is construction-driven. The data analyzed also indirectly supports the classification of alternating verbs as “manner”, “path” and “hybrid”.
Multi-exponentiations on multi-cores

Modular exponentiation lies at the core of many cryptographic schemes and its efficient implementation is a must for a reasonable practical performance. For various applications, multiple exponentiations with different bases and exponents need to be performed and multiplied. Although this multiexponentiation operation can be implemented by individually exponentiating the bases to their corresponding exponents, as discussed in the literature, a significant performance boost can be obtained when the operation is considered as a whole. However, performing separate exponentiations is pleasingly parallelizable but the latter approach requires a careful implementation on a multi-core processor. In this work, we propose a parallel algorithm and implementation based on an existing multi-exponentiation algorithm with precomputation. The experimental results show that the proposed implementation is significantly faster than the existing parallel multi-exponentiation schemes in the literature.