Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of excess enthalpy on dry autothermal reforming from simulated biomass-derived gas with porous media

Title: Characteristics of excess enthalpy on dry autothermal reforming from simulated biogas with porous media Submitting Author*: Ming-Pin Lai, Chen-Yu Chen, Wei-Cheng Chiu, Siou-Sheng Su, You-ming Chang, Rong-Fang Horng, Wei-Hsiang Lai Presenting Author*: Ming-Pin Lai Affiliation: 1.Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, NCKU 2.Research Center for Energy Technology and Strategy, NCKU 3.Department of Mechanical Engineering, KSU 4.Department of Mechanical Engineering, NCKU * Please note that you will be asked to enter all authors in the online form when uploading this abstract. Abstract (maximum 200 words, Times New Roman, 12pt):maximum 200 words, Times New Roman, 12pt): References: [1] X. Hao, H. Yang, G. Zhang. Energy Policy, Vol.36, 3662-3673, (2008). [2] J. Bekkering, A.A. Broekhuis, W.J.T. van Gemert. Bioresource Technology Vol.101, 450-456, (2010). [3] C. Liu, B. Yan, G. Chen, X.S. Bai. International Journal of hydrogen energy, Vol.35, 542-555, (2010). This study investigated the excess enthalpy on dry autothermal reforming from simulated biogas with porous medium. Preheating reactant by internal heat recirculation of a porous medium could enhance the reaction of input mixture, and improve the production of H2-rich syngas. Temperature distribution of catalyst bed and fuel conversion efficiency was studied with various feeding rates of reactant and porous media under high temperature and carbon-rich conditions. Control parameters include methane feeding rate, CO2/CH4 molar ratio, O2/CH4 molar ratio and porous medium material. The experimental results showed that the reformate gas temperature with porous medium assisted dry autothermal reforming could be higher than the equilibrium adiabatic flame temperature. Namely, the results could be helpful to understand the internal heat recirculation and heat transfer under excess enthalpy reaction. In the reforming process, it not only provided the needed thermal energy for self-sustaining reaction, but also enhanced fuel conversion efficiency and syngas production. The methane conversion efficiency was 18%, energy loss percentage 20.7% and reforming efficiency improvement 33.9%, respectively under the excess enthalpy reforming reaction with the best parameter setting (CO2/CH4=1 and O2/CH4=0.75) assisted by OBSiC medium. Proceedings WHEC2012 1 Characteristics of excess enthalpy on dry autothermal reforming from simulated biomass-derived gas with porous media Ming-Pin Lai, Wei-Hsiang Lai, Chen-Yu Chen, Siou-Sheng Su, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Research Center for Energy Technology and Strategy (RCETS), National Cheng Kung University, No.1, University Rd., East District, Tainan City 701, Taiwan (R.O.C.) Rong-Fang Horng, Wei-Chen Chiu, You-Ming Chang, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clean Energy Center, Kun Shan University, No. 949, Da-Wan Rd., Yung-Kang District, Tainan City 710, Taiwan (ROC)
Tweets in Time of Conflict: A Public Dataset Tracking the Twitter Discourse on the War Between Ukraine and Russia

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. In the days that followed, reports kept flooding in from laymen to news anchors of a conflict quickly escalating into war. Russia faced immediate backlash and condemnation from the world at large. While the war continues to contribute to an ongoing humanitarian and refugee crisis in Ukraine, a second battlefield has emerged in the online space, both in the use of social media to garner support for both sides of the conflict and also in the context of information warfare. In this paper, we present a collection of nearly half a billion tweets, from February 22, 2022, through January 8, 2023, that we are publishing for the wider research community to use. This dataset can be found at https://github.com/echen102/ukraine-russia. Our preliminary analysis on a subset of our dataset already shows evidence of public engagement with Russian state-sponsored media and other domains that are known to push unreliable information towards the beginning of the war; the former saw a spike in activity on the day of the Russian invasion, while the other saw spikes in engagement within the first month of the war. Our hope is that this public dataset can help the research community to further understand the ever-evolving role that social media plays in information dissemination, influence campaigns, grassroots mobilization, and much more, during a time of conflict.
The director's cut: The Central Queensland University teaching and learning showcase and studies in learning, evaluation, innovation and development

The institution known currently as Central Queensland University (CQU) has been through a number previous incarnations: the Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education, the University College of Central Queensland and the University of Central Queensland. The ‘look and feel’ of teaching and learning at the institution has changed markedly during those incarnations: face-to-face teaching has spread from Rockhampton to Bundaberg, Emerald, Gladstone and Mackay in Central Queensland. Then it spread to Australian international campuses in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Sydney, and to overseas centres in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. Similarly the largely print-based materials that underpinned the organisation when it was one of eight Australian Distance Education Centres as designated by the Commonwealth Government have been augmented by, and transformed into, teleconferences, videoconferences (particularly among the Central Queensland campuses), videostreaming and online learning.
The Overlooked Tragedy of the Pandemic: How Media Coverage of the COVID-19 Pandemic has Led to an Increase in Anti-Asian Bias and Xenophobia

The media is a vital source of information, especially in times of crisis. Since the 2019 novel coronavirus became a worldwide pandemic, it has become a frequent topic of discussion in the media, and its mysterious origin has caused lots of speculation regarding its roots. Historically, scientists have named novel diseases based on the country or region in which it was thought to have originated; however, in 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) publicly discouraged this practice because of the stigma it tended to attach to people and places. Despite this warning and the WHO’s deliberate name selection for the 2019 novel coronavirus — “COVID-19” — the media and many public figures, including former United States President Donald Trump, have consistently used stigmatizing language, such as “China virus,” associating the virus with China because the first confirmed cases of the virus were discovered in Wuhan, China. Just as the WHO warned, this stigmatizing language has created a wave of violence and discrimination towards Asian Americans and caused considerable damage to U.S.-China relations. This Article explores the correlation between the presence of such stigmatizing rhetoric in the media and the increase in anti-Asian bias as well as the connection between such rhetoric and the damage to U.S.-China relations. It concludes by providing suggestions to combat the crisis of anti-Asian bias and xenophobia and encourages the U.S. and China to set aside their differ-ences and work together to alleviate tensions and end the pandemic.
Morphological and genetic analysis of Vietnamese Sus scrofa bones for evidence of pig domestication

In the present study, we used morphological and genetic analyzes to distinguish bones of domestic boars from those of wild boars. We analyzed 65 Sus bones (cranium, mandible and teeth) stored in three research institutes in Vietnam and in a village in Vietnam. Based on comparison of bucco-lingual measurements of mandibular parts, the 58 specimens were morphologically classified into two size groups: a large bone group and a small bone group. Analysis of 572-bp mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences indicated that the large bones had genetic links to wild boar lineage including Ryukyu, Taiwan and Korean wild boars, and that the small bone group was closely related to East Asian domestic pigs. The phylogenetic analysis and parsimonious networks constructed among mtDNA haplotypes belonging to Ryukyu wild boar lineage showed that the Ryukyu wild boar is closely related to the Vietnamese wild boars, and uniquely miniaturized on their islands after the Ryukyu archipelago became isolated from the Asian continent.
Ultra-low fertility in East Asia: Confucianism and its discontents

This study reviews the institutional factors that have influenced the fertility and family trends in five East Asian societies that experienced a precipitous transition to very low fertility: China, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. The paper begins by outlining the unique family formation patterns of these societies and the existing explanations for their observed ultra-low fertility levels. In particular, it highlights the role of Confucian culture, which emphasises patriarchal values and credentialism, in shaping the current state of low fertility in East Asia. For example, the ways in which Confucianism affects women’s roles at home, the effectiveness of pronatalist policies and the burden of human capital investments among parents are discussed. With these contextual factors and the current very low fertility rates as a backdrop, this study also examines attitudinal changes in marriage and family values that have taken place in these societies after the new millennium. These changes could further erode the traditional family and influence family formation trends in the future. The article concludes by discussing recent policy responses and the possible future of fertility in East Asia.
News Event Prediction using Causality Approach on South China Sea Conflict

South China Sea (SCS) generates huge economic value in fishing and shipping lane as well as a high amount of natural resources. Due to its strategic location and high revenue generated, SCS became a place where several nearby countries competed for its territorial claims. Famous territorial disputes such as Spratly islands, Paracel island, Scarborough Shoal happened due to claim on SCS wealth. Newspapers are the main medium that disseminate the message to the public and update whenever SCS conflict happens. News related to SCS events or conflicts usually contain causal relationships between cause and effect. This causal relationship can be extracted and analyzed to obtain the trends of events and conflicts that have happened. In order to avoid any inevitable conflict among countries in SCS region, event prediction is important as it gives a better insight and foresee future events that might happen. In this paper, phrase similarity is used as important metrics for prediction models. First, it extracts news articles based on causality connectors such as "because", "after", "lead to", etc. into tuple. Then, three different embedding techniques, Doc2vec, InferSent and BERT were evaluated based on their best similarity score. The selected embedding technique is used to construct the prediction model and predict South China Sea conflict related events. A crude prediction is done based on similarity of past causes. The result shows that BERT has the highest average accuracy of 50.85% in getting the most similar phrase. By using the causal prediction model, a future possible event can be predicted and this helps to increase the awareness of national security among SCS nearby countries.
The impact of crises on the relationship between stock market development and macroeconomic variables: evidence from Hong Kong and Singapore

Dynamic linkages between macroeconomic factors and stock market developments in the economies of Hong Kong and Singapore are the subject of investigation in this paper. These city-states belong to the world’s most globalised economies and are two of the world’s four largest financial centres. In the crisis years, both these countries experienced a decline in GDP, faced the threat of deflation, and their foreign trade turnover decreased. The crisis also affected the financial sector. This paper aims to ascertain the impact of structural economic changes, namely the financial crisis, on the prosperity of these advanced economies. The basic characteristics of determinants of economic development and the analysis of the mutual relationships of selected macroeconomic indicators with the financial markets serve to meet the aim of this paper. The macroeconomic variables used in most research are GDP, the interest rate, the inflation rate, money supply and the unemployment rate. To test the dependence of these indicators, a regression model was constructed, and the period from 2005 to 2016 was chosen for observation. From the linear regression equation, it is obvious that the unemployment rate, the exchange rate and the interest rate have a prevailing negative effect on equity returns, in contrast to money supply, which has a prevailing positive effect. The Chow test confirms that the global financial crisis at the end of 2008 had a negative impact on the predictive ability of the chosen linear regression analysis in the long-term time horizon in both countries.
Timing of Sexual Initiation and Relationship Satisfaction in Young Adult Marital and Cohabiting Unions

Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this research examines the association between timing of oral sex initiation and marital and cohabiting relationship satisfaction among young adults. Findings indicate that women who transition to oral sex “late” or who have no oral sex experience report higher levels of relationship satisfaction in their current coresidential unions than do women who transition at a “normative” age. Higher levels of relationship satisfaction among women who transition “late,” however, appear to be explained by their lower likelihood of experiencing forced sexual relations and sexually transmitted infections. We find no evidence of any association between timing of oral sex initiation and relationship satisfaction among men. To best promote healthy relationships, researchers, practitioners, and educators need to better understand the various types of sexual activities in which young people engage.
Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver consensus statements on the diagnosis, management and treatment of hepatitis C virus infection

Co-chairs: GW McCaughan, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia M Omata, Tokyo University Hospital, Tokyo, Japan Faculty Members: D Amarapurkar, Bombay Hospital, Mumbai, India S Bowden, Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratories, Melbourne, Australia WC Chow, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore A Chutaputti, Pramongkutklao Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand G Dore, National Center in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Sydney, Australia E Gane, NZ Liver Transplant Unit, Auckland, New Zealand R Guan, Mount Elizabeth Medical Center, Singapore SS Hamid, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan W Hardikar, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia CK Hui, Queen Mary Hospital, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China W Jafri, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan J-D Jia, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China M-Y Lai, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taiwan L Wei, Peking University Peoples Hospital, Beijing, China N Leung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China T Piratvisuth, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand S Sarin, GB Pant Hospital, Delhi, India J Sollano, University Santo Tomas Hospital, Manilla, Philippines R Tateishi, University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo Japan
Stroke In Asia: An Epidemiological Consideration

Summary: Although the study of the epidemiology of stroke in developed Western countries (as judged from the number of relevant articles published in international medical journals) is extensive, in Asian countries it has been comparatively limited (with the exception of Japan). Many of the studies from Asian countries also appear to be deficient, thus making comparison between the countries difficult. In addition, many of these studies are believed to be published in local journals not usually cited and difficult to retrieve from, and relevant and retrievable data from many developing countries often show considerable time lapse, making a meaningful comparison between countries even more difficult. In Thailand, Public Health Statistics show that stroke has been on the increase. Taken as an example, the death rate from cerebrovascular disease (CVD) was 3.7/100,000 in 1950, rising to 6.7/100,000 in 1970, and to 11.8/100,000 in 1983. In 1984, there were 9,414 cases of CVD admitted to hospitals in Thailand. The incidence (in patients) increased from 12.7/100,000 in 1981 to 18.7/100,000 in 1984. Since 1957, the mortality rate has been steadily increasing, from ˜1/100,000 to ˜6/10,000. In a survey taken in 1983 of a medium‐size community in Bangkok, it was found that the prevalence of CVD was 6.9/1,000. The same Public Health Statistics also showed that the rate of immediate death after stroke (which is defined as death within 4 weeks after the onset) from nonembolic cerebral infarction, cerebral embolism, and cerebral hemorrhage was reported to be 19.5, 37, and 85% respectively. Considerable difference was noted in the death rates from CVD in various Asian countries. In 1970, the number of deaths per 100,000 in Japan was reported to be 174.9, whereas in other countries these figures (per 100,000) were: Malaysia, 15.9 (in 1981); Hong Kong, 45.8 (in 1970); and Singapore, 50.2 (in 1971). The reported data from some countries are considered too low, possibly the result of the method of collection of public health data.
Genetic Structure, Self-identified Race/ethnicity, and Confounding in Case-control Association Studies

We have analyzed genetic data for 326 microsatellite markers that were typed uniformly in a large multiethnic population-based sample of individuals as part of a study of the genetics of hypertension (Family Blood Pressure Program). Subjects identified themselves as belonging to one of four major racial/ethnic groups (white, African American, East Asian, and Hispanic) and were recruited from 15 different geographic locales within the United States and Taiwan. Genetic cluster analysis of the microsatellite markers produced four major clusters, which showed near-perfect correspondence with the four self-reported race/ethnicity categories. Of 3,636 subjects of varying race/ ethnicity, only 5 (0.14%) showed genetic cluster membership different from their self-identified race/ethnicity. On the other hand, we detected only modest genetic differentiation between different current geographic locales within each race/ethnicity group. Thus, ancient geographic ancestry, which is highly correlated with self-identified race/ ethnicity—as opposed to current residence—is the major determinant of genetic structure in the U.S. population. Implications of this genetic structure for case-control association studies are discussed.
Priority-based congestion control in wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), congestion occurs, for example, when nodes are densely distributed, and/or the application produces high flow rate near the sink due to the convergent nature of upstream traffic. Congestion may cause packet loss, which in turn lowers throughput and wastes energy. Therefore congestion in WSNs needs to be controlled for high energy-efficiency, to prolong system lifetime, improve fairness, and improve quality of service (QoS) in terms of throughput (or link utilization) and packet loss ratio along with the packet delay. This paper proposes a node priority-based congestion control protocol (PCCP) for wireless sensor networks. In PCCP, node priority index is introduced to reflect the importance of each node. PCCP uses packet inter-arrival time along with packet service time to measure a parameter defined as congestion degree and furthermore imposes hop-by-hop control based on the measured congestion degree as well as the node priority index. PCCP controls congestion faster and more energy-efficiency than other known techniques
The impact of cultural context on the perception of work/ family balance by professional women in Singapore and Hong Kong

‘Work/family balance’ has recently come to the fore in public policy debate and academic inquiry across the industrialized world. However, this issue has been relatively under-explored in the context of Asian business and society. This paper reports the results of a qualitative, exploratory investigation of the perceptions and experiences of predominantly professional women, aged 25—45 years living in Singapore and Hong Kong. Data from focus groups were used to explore how women in these countries perceive work/family balance and the role of family, government and other support structures in managing this aspect of their lives. This study confirms that cultural context is a significant factor in how women perceive and respond to the issue of work/family balance. L’impact du contexte culturel sur la perception de l’équilibre travail/famille par des femmes exerçant des professions libérales à Singapour et Hong Kong. Hwte Hwte Thein, Siobhan Austen, Janice Currie & Erica Lewin L’équilibre “travail/famille” est depuis quelque temps au cœur du débat politique et de la recherche universitaire dans le monde industrialisé. Cependant, cette question n’a pas fait l’objet de beaucoup de recherche dans le contexte de la société et du monde des affaires asiatiques. Cet article rend compte des conclusions d’une enquête qualitative sur les perceptions et expériences de femmes d’affaires ou exerçant des professions libérales, âgées entre 24 et 45 ans, et vivant à Singapour ou à Hong Kong. Des données émanant de groupes de réflexion ont été utilisées afin d’explorer comment les femmes de ces pays perçoivent l’équilibre travail/famille, ainsi que le rôle de la famille, du gouvernement et autres structures de soutien afin de gérer cet aspect de leurs vies. Cette étude confirme que le contexte culturel est un facteur significatif de la façon dont les femmes perçoivent et répondent à cette question de l’équilibre travail/famille.
Effects of adalimumab treatment on vascular disease associated with early rheumatoid arthritis.

BACKGROUND Increased cardiovascular morbidity has become a leading cause of mortality in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFa) inhibitors may influence flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) of the brachial artery, common carotid intima-media thickness (ccIMT) and arterial stiffness indicated by pulse-wave velocity (PWV) in RA. OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of adalimumab treatment on FMD, ccIMT and PWV in early RA. METHODS Eight RA patients with a disease duration < or =1 year received 40 mg adalimumab subcutaneously every 2 weeks. Ultrasound was used to assess brachial FMD and ccIMT. PWV was determined by arteriograph. These parameters were correlated with C-reactive protein, vonWillebrand factor (vWF), immunoglobulin M (IgM)-rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-CCP levels and 28-joint disease activity score (DAS28). RESULTS Adalimumab therapy successfully ameliorated arthritis as it decreased CRP levels (P = 0.04) and DAS28 (P < 0.0001). Endothelial function (FMD) improved in comparison to baseline (P < 0.05). ccIMT decreased after 24 weeks, indicating a mean 11.9% significant improvement (P = 0.002). Adalimumab relieved arterial stiffness (PWV) after 24 weeks. Although plasma vWF levels decreased only non-significantly after 12 weeks of treatment, an inverse correlation was found between FMD and vWF (R = -0.643, P = 0.007). FMD also inversely correlated with CRP (R = -0.596, P= 0.015). CRP and vWF also correlated with each other (R = 0.598, P = 0.014). PWV and ccIMT showed a positive correlation (R = 0.735, P = 0.038). CONCLUSIONS Treatment with adalimumab exerted favorable effects on disease activity and endothelial dysfunction. It also ameliorated carotid atherosclerosis and arterial stiffness in patients with early RA. Early adalimumab therapy may have an important role in the prevention and management of vascular comorbidity in RA.