Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Advanced nanostructured surfaces for the control of marine biofouling: the AMBIO project

Abstract: The AMBIO project (‘Advanced Nanostructured Surfaces for the Control of Biofouling’) is an Integrated Project funded by the European Commission under its 6th Framework Programme. The 5-year project, which started in 2005, is devoted to the knowledge-based development of antifouling coatings that function through their nanoscale properties, without the use of biocides or materials that are released into the environment. The principal knowledge-driven strategy of the project is to achieve structure/property/performance correlations for a wide range of nanostructured coating designs. State-of-the-art analytical methods are used to characterise the coatings in aqueous ‘seawater-like’ environments. A wide range of laboratory-based settlement and adhesion assays are used to explore the antifouling potential of coatings, selected examples of which will enter comprehensive field trials for a range of end-use applications. The project involves 31 partner organisations (industries, universities and research institutes) linking the scientific expertise of polymer chemists and engineers, surface scientists, and marine biologists with the experience and commercial perspectives of coating technologists and raw materials manufacturers, together with a wide range of end-users. The project has a strong stakeholder orientation involving a range of end-user industries and suppliers of raw materials and technologies to ensure relevance and take-up of the results. This chapter outlines scientific progress towards the project goals in the first three years.
The Behaviour of Finely Ground Bottom Ash in Portland Cement

The aim of this project was to assess the effects of finely ground MSWI bottom ash in Portland cement. Mortar mixes were prepared with 10% and 40% replacement of cement by ground IBA and then tested with regards to their material composition and engineering behaviour. IBA was found not to be inert, but showed some degree of reactivity. Replacement of cement with IBA was found to have no detrimental effects at low concentrations. This was not the case for 40% replacement, where cement replacement greatly affected strength, creep and drying shrinkage.
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ENVIRONMENT AND SANITATION OF A RURAL POPULATION IN VILLUPURAM DISTRICT - A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Introduction: Overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions and open-air defecation are still major issues in rural households. This study aimed at assessing the internal, external environment and sanitation among a rural population. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted in Kedar village of Villupuram District from June 2018 to July 2018. Around 379 households were assessed regarding environment and sanitation using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Results: Overcrowding was present in 29.1 houses. Twenty percent of the houses were inadequately ventilated. Separate toilet facilities were absent in 14.9% of houses. Mosquito nuisance was present among 29.9% houses and fly nuisance among 30.7% houses. Open drainage system was present among 21.3% houses. Lower socio-economic status was a significant risk factor of inadequate ventilation, absence of separate latrine and over-crowding. Conclusion: Awareness and health education on the health hazards of poor housing, imparting knowledge on government schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Swacch Bharat are needed for those in the lower socio-economic strata for improving environment and sanitation. Key words: Over-crowding, sanitation, open air defecation, Swacch Bharat
The Characteristics of Domestic Wastewater from Office Buildings in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia

Domestic wastewater generated from various types of buildings has been recognized to be different to some extent. This research aimed to know the quality, quantity, fluctuation of quality, and fluctuation of quantity of domestic wastewater discharged from office buildings. The composite samples were taken from two office buildings. The black water and gray water were taken from Building A with number of people 53 persons, and the mixed wastewater was taken both from Building A and Building B with number of people 900 persons. The fluctuation and quantity of wastewater were measured every hour from 7 am until 4 pm during the working time. The results showed that the quality of wastewater from office building contained 176 to 238 mg/L COD, 73.06 to 106.51 mg/L TN, and 3.66 to 7.70 mg/L TP with the average of C:N:P ratio was 100:42:2.56. Quantity of wastewater discharged from office buildings were from 39.61 to 49.93 liter/person/day. COD concentration changed significantly during the working time with mean ± standard (252.5±89). The quantity of wastewater varied over time and the peak discharge for black water and gray water were 2.85 litter/person/hour and 3.74 liter/person/hour, which occurred during the beginning of working time and the praying time of muslim Indonesian culture. It suggests that the domestic wastewater from office buildings has specific characteristics and it contains high concentration of nutrient that is required appropriate advanced technology for treating this kind of wastewater.
Sediment Provenance Changes in the Western Arctic Ocean in Response to Ice Rafting, Sea Level, and Oceanic Circulation Variations Since the Last Deglaciation

Two sediment piston cores were recovered from the Chukchi‐Alaskan (05JPC) and Canadian Beaufort (02PC) margins to investigate grain‐size, geochemical, and mineralogical compositions. This allowed the reconstruction of changes in detrital sediment provenance and transport related to climate variability since the last deglaciation. The end‐member modeling analyses of grain size indicate that sea ice and nepheloid transport and the Mackenzie River sediment plume are major factors influencing sedimentation in the Chukchi‐Alaskan and Canadian Beaufort margins, respectively. Unmixing of the sediment composition indicates that detrital sediments in core 02PC are derived mainly from the Mackenzie River, whereas sediments from core 05JPC are derived mainly from the Mackenzie River during the deglaciation and include a mixture of Holocene sediments from the Bering Strait, Mackenzie River, and Eurasian margin. The dolomite‐rich ice‐rafted debris recorded in both cores could be related to the different phases of iceberg discharges from the Amundsen Gulf Ice Stream. Quartz and feldspar‐rich ice‐rafted debris dated at 13 and 10.6 ka cal BP (before present) are related to the Lake Agassiz outburst in core 02PC and meltwater discharge from the Brooks Range glaciers in core 05JPC. Detrital proxies in core 02PC support the hypothesis that large meltwater and iceberg discharges from the Lake Agassiz outburst to the Arctic Ocean and Amundsen Gulf ice stream may have triggered the Younger Dryas. Finally, similar trends observed between sea level curves and our detrital proxy suggest that the sea level changes in the western Arctic Ocean have an important influence on the sediment dynamic during the early to middle Holocene.
Advanced Techniques for Enhancing Low-Noise Amplifier Performance: A Review

This paper reviews prior investigations into low noise amplifier (LNA) design. In this work, various modern LNA architectures will be examined, with a focus on five technologies: Cascode Distributed LNA, Coupled-Line Feedback in 0.15-m GaAs pHEMT Technology, Dual-Band CMOS LNA in 65-nm CMOS, CMOS LNA Using Post-distortion technique and 22-nm FD-SOI CMOS. In this review, Low power dissipation rate, input and output synchronization, high gain, and low noise levels are examined. In order to design a new successful LNA, each topology's performance is then examined. Future research will be conducted based on comparisons of these five topologies
Development and evaluation of an R–744 evaporator model

In recent years carbon dioxide (CO2, R-744)has moved to the foreground as an environmentally friendly alternative to commonly used CFCs and HFCs, which are being phased out due to its high ozone depleting and global warming potentials. R-744 is not only environmentally friendly but due to its unique properties, it is also ideally suited for the use in heat pump water heaters. High cycle efficiencies are achievable even at high hot water temperatures. The high cycle efficiency not only leads to energy and cost savings but also ties in with the drive for implementation of energy saving measures in South Africa. It is therefore paramount to continue development and implementation of R-744 in heat pump water heaters. Optimizing the cycle efficiency is only possible if detailed component simulation models, taking these unique properties of R-744 into account, are available. The purpose of this study therefore was to develop a detail simulation model of a concentric tube-in-tube water-to-refrigerant evaporator, as well as a fin-and-tube air-to-refrigerant evaporator model. Data from the North-West University R-744 heat pump test bench were used to verify the tube-in-tube evaporator simulation model. The discrepancies in the cooling capacity between the simulation and test bench can be attributed to the presence of lubricant in the system.The fin-and-tube model was verified by testing it against the NIST program EVAP-COND (NIST 2010). Overall there was good agreement between the results of the two programs, with EVAP-COND predicting a lower cooling capacity(6% to 14%) and and a higher pressure refrigerant pressure drop (30% to 50%). It was found that both the heat transfer correlation of Jung et al. (1989) and the pressure drop correlation of Choi et al. (1999) are able to predict the experimental values accurately and are valid for use in both the evaporator models developed. To demonstrate the use of the detail evaporator fin-and-tube model, an evaluation of the different tube geometries, commercially available in South Africa, for use with R-744 fin-andtube evaporators was done. For a fin-and-tube evaporator it was found that the most cost effective option is to use 3 8” (10.05 mm)copper tubes and the least effective is 1 2” (12.6 mm) stainless steel tubes.
Change detection in forest land cover type using Aster and Landsat data

The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential for monitoring forest change using Landsat ETM data and Aster data for two periods (2000 - 2003 and 2003 - 2006). This was accomplished by performing three widely used vegetation indices: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and Transformed Difference Vegetation Index (TDVI). An RGBNDVI change detection strategy to detect major decreases or increases in forest vegetation was developed as well. These indices were applied to a case study in El Rawashda forest reserve, Gedaref State, Sudan, and their results and accuracy were discussed. Results showed that the vegetation index maps obtained by NDVI and SAVI transformations within each computational group were similar in terms of spatial distribution pattern and statistical characteristics. As far as the degree of greenness of vegetation was concerned, the TDVI appeared to be the most sensitive. For the first period, the highest accuracy was obtained by SAVI (62.5%); however, the poorest accuracy was achieved by TDVI (59.5%). For the second period, TDVI revealed the highest accuracy (60.1%), whereas both NDVI and SAVI counted accuracy of 59.2%. Generally, the study proved that all vegetation indices produced reasonable approaches to map land cover changes over time and help to pinpoint deforestation and regrowth in the study area.
Reply to ‘Comment on “Dependence of shear wave seismoelectrics on soil textures: a numerical study in the vadose zone by F.I. Zyserman, L.B. Monachesi and L. Jouniaux” by Revil, A.’

we describe seismoelectric phenomena in the vadose zone based on the theory of Pride empirically extended for unsaturated conditions. We analyse each one of the enumerated critics, and reafﬁrm the conclusions of our work. In particular, we prove that using the conductivity model suggested by Revil (2017) does not change our predictions signiﬁcantly, contrary to what was argued in the comment. Further, in the light of previous and new theoretical and experimental results existing in the literature, we conﬁrm the reasonability of having tested a non-monotonic saturation
Tornado Environments, Metrics, and Warnings: Lessons from a Ten-Year Climatology

In this study, we highlight the regions of the environmental parameter space having low warning skill during particular times of day and times of year. This work makes use of the tornado warnings issued and tornado reports received across the continental United States between 2003 and 2013, coupled with warning verification data and proximity sounding data from the Rapid Update Cycle model, to create a 10.5-year tornado environment climatology and to evaluate tornado warning performance over this time as a function of tornado environment. We use a kernel density estimation approach to plot and compare distributions of tornado warnings and reports across two parameter spaces known for their ability to discriminate between various types of severe and non-severe weather: the most-unstable convective available potential energy vs. 0–6 km vector shear magnitude, and the height of the mixed-layer lifting condensation level vs. 0–1 km storm-relative helicity. We also group these reports and warnings by time of day, storm morphology, and time of year in order to highlight diurnal and seasonal differences in both warning skill and what characterizes a “typical” tornado environment.
Migraine Duration as a Potential Amplifier of Obesity

Purpose Migraine is a complex neurovascular disorder with obesity as a notable risk factor. This study aimed to investigate an under-researched area of the association between migraine duration and body composition. Patients and Methods Patients with migraine from a neurology outpatient department were enrolled and were categorized into four groups based on illness duration: 1 year, 1–5 years, 5–10 years, and >10 years. Patient demographics, blood biochemistry, and body composition data were collected and analyzed statistically. Results Patients with migraine were predominantly female, with lower education levels, significant work stress, poor sleep, and limited exercise. Longer migraine duration corresponded to increased obesity metrics. Notably, those patients with under 1 year of illness showed elevated blood lipid and liver function levels, whereas those with >10 years showed increased weight, waist circumference, body mass index, and fat content, despite higher physical activity. Significant positive correlation between obesity metrics and migraine duration was seen in patients who had migraine for >1 year. Conclusion Our findings indicate that protracted episodes of migraine could amplify obesity tendencies, underscoring the imperative of weight regulation in migraine intervention to diminish ensuing adiposity-associated hazards.
Nutritional Management of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Insights into Diet and Nutrition Strategies

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is the primary endocrine disorder whose cause remains unidentified but is widely prevalent. This intricate condition affects a significant portion of women of reproductive age, affecting approximately 17.8% of them. While dietary approaches have been explored as the initial method of treatment for individuals with PCOS, there is no definitive consensus on the most effective diet. There is limited evidence to recommend a specific diet composition for PCOS with approaches including modifying protein, carbohydrate or fat quality or quantity generally having similar effects on the presentations of PCOS. It is crucial to recognize that maintaining a proper diet and ensuring sufficient nutritional status are pivotal factors in preventing the development of PCOS. In this comprehensive review, we explored various aspects of PCOS, ranging from its molecular pathogenesis to therapeutic dietary innovations and specific therapeutic interventions. Understanding the molecular pathogenesis of PCOS is vital, and we delve into the intricate mechanisms involved in its development. We examined the interplay between PCOS and metabolic conditions, such as insulin resistance and dyslipidemia, highlighting the interconnectedness of these aspects and their impact on the clinical presentation and management of the syndrome. While the optimal diet remains a subject of ongoing research, we emphasize on the critical role of proper diet and its potential in the avoidance and management of PCOS. Additionally, we reviewed specific dietary components, such as curcumin and green tea, and their potential therapeutic benefits in PCOS management.
Journal of Population Therapeutics & Clinical Pharmacology

: Objective: This essay critically examines the relevance of cerebral plasticity in the therapeutic approach to cognitive decline associated with normal ageing and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. The primary focus is on investigating whether interventions aimed at enhancing brain plasticity can offer therapeutic benefits in mitigating cognitive impairments related to ageing. Methods: Current neuroscientific studies form the foundation of this analysis, with an emphasis on exploring the potential advantages of modifying brain plasticity to address cognitive limitations in elderly individuals. The essay reviews existing literature to discern the effectiveness of interventions targeting the nervous system's plasticity, even in advanced age, as a means to alleviate or prevent cognitive decline.
Diplopia in Movement Disorders: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Introduction: Although the reported frequency of diplopia is between 10 to 40% of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other movement disorders, it remains one of the most undiagnosed non-motor symptoms. Furthermore, it has a major impact on the quality of life of these patients. The aim of this study is to systematically review the literature regarding the frequency, causes, and implications of diplopia in movement disorders. Methodology: An electronic search was conducted in March and June 2023 using the PubMed database in order to identify appropriate studies. Studies that were written in English, that represented observational, analytical studies, and case reports, and that provided information regarding diplopia in movement disorders were included in the systematic review. Results: A total of 686 articles were identified out of which 43 met the inclusion criteria. The studies included in the systematic review ranged from descriptive studies (case reports and case series) to analytical–observational studies (cross-sectional studies, prospective and retrospective cohort studies, and case–control studies). In Parkinson’s disease, the incidence of diplopia ranged from 10 to 38%. In these patients, diplopia was linked to the presence of visual hallucinations and cognitive decline but also to convergence insufficiency and the presence of motor fluctuations. Cases of diplopia secondary to deep brain stimulation were also reported. Diplopia was associated with longer disease duration and worse motor and non-motor scores. Diplopia was also reported in other movement disorders such as multiple system atrophy (frequency as high as 18%) and progressive supranuclear palsy (frequency as high as 39%) and was associated with increased mortality and shorter duration in life span. Conclusions: Diplopia occurs in up to 38% of patients with movement disorders and has a negative impact on their health-related quality of life. Treating physicians should actively ask about diplopia and other ophthalmological symptoms, as many patients do not spontaneously report them. The pathophysiology of diplopia is complex, and it involves heterogeneous peripheral and central mechanisms. The management of these patients should involve a multidisciplinary team of health professionals in order to provide appropriate, tailored management.
Effects of Root–Root Interactions on the Physiological Characteristics of Haloxylon ammodendron Seedlings

The root traits and response strategies of plants play crucial roles in mediating interactions between plant root systems. Current research on the role of root exudates as underground chemical signals mediating these interactions has focused mainly on crops, with less attention given to desert plants in arid regions. In this study, we focused on the typical desert plant Haloxylon ammodendron and conducted a pot experiment using three root isolation methods (plastic film separation, nylon mesh separation, and no separation). We found that (1) as the degree of isolation increased, plant biomass significantly increased (p < 0.05), while root organic carbon content exhibited the opposite trend; (2) soil electrical conductivity (EC), soil total nitrogen (STN), soil total phosphorus (STP), and soil organic carbon (SOC) were significantly greater in the plastic film and nylon mesh separation treatments than in the no separation treatment (p < 0.05), and the abundance of Proteobacteria and Actinobacteriota was significantly greater in the plastic film separation treatment than in the no separation treatment (p < 0.05); (3) both plastic film and nylon mesh separations increased the secretion of alkaloids derived from tryptophan and phenylalanine in the plant root system compared with that in the no separation treatment; and (4) Pseudomonas, Proteobacteria, sesquiterpenes, triterpenes, and coumarins showed positive correlations, while both pseudomonas and proteobacteria were significantly positively correlated with soil EC, STN, STP, and SOC (p < 0.05). Aurachin D was negatively correlated with Gemmatimonadota and Proteobacteria, and both were significantly correlated with soil pH, EC, STN, STP, and SOC. The present study revealed strong negative interactions between the root systems of H. ammodendron seedlings, in which sesquiterpenoids, triterpenoids, coumarins, and alkaloids released by the roots played an important role in the subterranean competitive relationship. This study provides a deeper understanding of intraspecific interactions in the desert plant H. ammodendron and offers some guidance for future cultivation of this species in the northwestern region of China.
Local Entropy Based Remora Optimization and Sparse Autoencoders for Cancer Diagnosis Through Microarray Gene Expression Analysis

Gene expression analysis can be used as a tool to detect cancer and the type of cancer in its early stages. However, the computational complexity for gene expression analysis is quite high due to the large amount of numerical data. Hence, dimensionality reduction techniques are employed to reduce the computational complexity, which in turns reduces the accuracy of cancer diagnosis. This research work focuses on the development of computerized tools with reduced computational complexity and increased accuracy to identify cancer cells in five different regions, namely breast, liver, lung, prostate, and renal. Sparse autoencoder is implemented to reduce feature dimensions, and Remora Optimization is used to increase the performance of cancer diagnosis system through transformation of features. The local entropy-based fitness function is utilized to evaluate the appropriateness of population in Remora Optimization algorithm, and it is considered as the important reason for performance improvement in the proposed cancer diagnosis system. 1027 patients are taken into consideration in this analysis of the microarray datasets, which were gathered from the Curated Microarray Database. Six distinct metrics are used to examine the classification performance, and four different supervised classifiers are investigated. When the suggested sparse autoencoder and local entropy-based Remora Optimization are applied, the average balanced accuracy of the examined classifiers is 93.4%. The average dimensions are decreased from 36045 to 80 dimensions using the suggested method. In the absence of the suggested methodology, the vanilla classifiers yield an average balanced accuracy of 82.7%.